Old Master Spirits 55-Year Old Cognac Review!

Another single cask brandy with a serious age statement from Melbourne-based duo Old Master Spirits! These guys really are spoiling us...

Old spirits are often taken for granted, so let's get some perspective here. 1968. Well over five decades ago. The Vietnam war is at its peak, Martin Luther King has been assassinated, we're still a year away from landing on the moon, and I'm still sixteen years away from being born. Meanwhile in south-western France, this cognac was being distilled and filled into a cask, where it would stay for the next 55-years. Longer than many readers or their parents, or even grandparents, will have been alive. Absolutely crazy to think about. Even more so when you see the price - $299 AUD in a 500ml bottle. Yes, a 55-year old single cask cognac, naturally presented and cask strength, at a similar price to many Australian whiskies, many of which are also 500ml bottles and are only 2-3 years of age. That's just as crazy to think about as the 55-year age statement. Sure, you could point to our ridiculous tax system as the culprit, but all brandies still attract an excise of $93.44 AUD per litre of alcohol - $7 lower than other spirits, because the Australian government loves the wine industry and hates everyone else. Don't get me wrong, many of those Australian whiskies are delicious, and I don't intend to entirely turn to the dark side anytime soon. But this 55-year old cognac is a totally different proposition to whisky in terms of value for money, and spirits geeks always love an underdog. Frankly, this cognac too cheap - in fact it's $65 cheaper than this 51-year old cognac that Old Master released 18-months ago. I don't see how they're still doing this when the rest of the spirits world has gone mad with price increases! That's what happens when two drinks geeks take on a passion project and decide to show us what we've been missing.

As a quick refresher, cognac is essentially a brandy that is made in the Cognac region of south-western France. It can only be distilled from a few legally permitted varieties of white grapes that are generally fermented for 2-3 weeks and produce a dry, highly acidic white wine that was never intended for consumption as-is. The wine must then be distilled twice in copper pot stills, and it must be aged in French oak casks for a minimum of two years before bottling at a minimum of 40% ABV. One murky area here is the inclusion of ageing in glass vessels in your age statement, where the spirit is taken out of cask and filled into inert glass demijohns / demijeannes to stop further wood impact, and to stop further evaporation. In this case though, just as with all Old Master bottlings to date, the entirety of those 55-years was spent in an oak cask. The vast majority of cognac is blended, particularly the big name brands, and just like whisky it will often have added e150 spirit caramel colouring. Another legally permitted additive in cognac that is thankfully not found in whisky is 'boise'. This is essentially wood flavour essence or wood syrup, made from boiling wood chips in sugar syrup, that is added to many cognacs for flavour purposes. Just like the all too common practice of adding sugar to rum, this process is artificially flavouring the spirit. Really, if your spirit needs additives for flavour, you're either cutting corners or doing something wrong. Mostly making a rough & nasty spirit, using tired old casks, and not letting it age properly. A quality cognac doesn't need such rubbish, especially when presented properly - i.e. at a decent strength above the minimum 40%, and without chill filtration or added colouring or flavouring. The independent bottling that we're looking at here is a prime example, albeit an extreme one since it's 55-years of age! But this is a single cask, single vineyard cognac, unblended and unadulterated. Just what the doctor ordered. 

This Old Master Spirits single cask cognac was distilled at Cognac Peyrot Francois, a small privately-owned producer five hours south-west of Paris in the heart of Cognac's Grande Champagne Cru appellation, the "crème de le crème" of the six cognac production regions. This single 25ha vineyard, known as "Les Bergeronnettes" (The Wagtails), was founded in 1893 and is currently in its fourth generation of family ownership. This 1968-vintage cognac was distilled by Mathilde Peyrot-Barret, grandmother of the current owners and daughter of vineyard founder Jean-Baptiste Peyrot. The vineyard began producing its own cognac in 1956, with the current alembic brandy stills being installed in 1967 - yes, the same stills that produced this 55-year old cognac are still in use today! This 1968 vintage cognac was distilled from Ugni Blanc grapes grown on vines dating back to 1928, and then spent its entire 55-years in Peyrot's cellar maturing in a single French oak cask before being bottled at a natural cask strength of 44.3% ABV. The cask was sourced from the famous Limousin Forest in central France, and yielded just 141 x 500ml bottles after its 55-years in oak - so just over 70-litres of cognac, i.e. not a lot, but that's to be expected after more than half a century in cask. Unlike most of the name brand cognacs and brandies, this independent bottling from Old Master Spirits ticks all the boxes that spirit geeks want - cask strength, natural colour, non-chill filtered, and no additives - no 'boise' wood flavouring, no sugar, no e150, no shenanigans. Single vineyard, unblended, and straight from the cask to the bottle, au natural. This 55-year old cognac is being released on Thursday the 26th of October 2023 - sign up to the Old Master mailing list here, or see here for more info. Happy hunting!

Old Master Spirits 55-year old Peyrot Cognac, 44.3%. Cognac, France. 

Distilled 1968, fully matured in single Limousin oak cask, bottled at cask strength. Non-chill filtered, natural colour, no additives. 

Colour: Rich mahogany.

Nose: Rich, sweet & fruity. Stewed stone fruit - apricot, plum, touch of yellow peach. Juicy sultanas, old leather armchair, dark chocolate mousse. Warm baking spices, touch of bitter orange peel, roasted chestnuts. 

Texture: Medium weight. Rich, sweet, and juicy. No heat whatsoever. 

Taste: Sweet stone fruit, both dried & stewed here. Apricot & plum again, with more raisins, and dark chocolate mousse. Sweetened espresso, rum & raisin fudge, and a touch of acetone-like floral sweetness. 

Finish: Long length. Dark chocolate, baking spices, orange peel. Sweet raisins in syrup and oily furniture polish take over, with a little vanilla essence. Warm nutty oak, plum pudding, and woody cologne. 

Score: 4.5 out of 5. 

Notes: Extremely moreish, and absolutely delicious. Great balance of fruit, sweetness, and oak. This would have to be my favourite cognac to date, and also my favourite brandy to date. I can see why the Old Master Spirits team had to jump on this one as soon as they'd tried it. What a find, and what a buy! I've said it before and I'll say it again; any 55-year old single cask spirit for $299 AUD is an absolute steal, and deserves to be more widely appreciated. An equivalent whisky would easily be 20-times that amount, if not more. The same goes for the big cognac brands - which are all blended, and bottled at 40% ABV, and most are artificially coloured and have added flavouring. Natural cognacs like this one need no such rubbish. They're still hidden gems, but they can't stay that way forever. The more they increase in popularity, the more the pricing will start to creep. Am I helping by writing about it, then? Probably not... Don't miss this one if you're a brandy fan. And if you're unsure, split a bottle with a few friends to share the cost. You won't regret it! 

Thanks to Deni from Old Master Spirits for the sample for this review. Once again my horizons have been broadened! 

Cheers!

SMWS 29.285 (23 Year Old Laphroaig) Whisky Review!

A 23-year old single cask Laphroaig from the SMWS' prestigious "Vaults Collection", titled "Fabulous Fusion". It spent 20-years in an ex-bourbon cask, then was secondary matured / finished in an STR ex-sherry cask for a further 3-years. That's something different, especially for a whisky of this age!

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, a.k.a. the SMWS or "The Society", have never been afraid to play around with different cask types, whether for cask finishing or for full maturation. There aren't many independent bottlers who'd be game to play around with a 23-year old single cask Laphroaig, most just wouldn't take the risk of it going backwards or letting the cask influence go too far. But cask strength Laphroaig tends to hold up well to assertive casks, possibly better than any other Scotch whisky. Their spirit seems to easily withstand full-term maturation in Oloroso or even PX sherry, which is not something I'd say about any other Islay make. With these cask-heavy Laphroaigs the results can still be excellent. In this particular case, the Society have done something a little unusual. Rather than the usual refill bourbon maturation or oloroso sherry finish, this 23-year old single cask Laphroaig has been finished in an STR cask that was seasoned with Oloroso sherry. The STR (shaved, toasted, and re-charred) cask treatment was pioneered by the late Dr. Jim Swan, but is usually carried out on ex-red wine casks rather than sherry seasoned ones. What isn't made clear is whether this was an ex-sherry  cask that was given the STR treatment or an STR cask that was then seasoned / re-seasoned with sherry, but given the wording on the front label below, "first-fill ex-Oloroso barrique", I'm going to assume it was an ex-sherry cask that was then given the STR treatment. The STR part of the equation is only mentioned at the end of their official tasting notes. "Barrique" by the way is a generic French word for "barrel", so it doesn't tell us anything specific about cask size, but the term is most often used in the wine industry to refer to 220-250-litre casks, so broadly similar to a hogshead. What we do know is that this whisky spent 20-years maturing in a single ex-bourbon hogshead (250-litre) cask before being transferred into that STR ex-sherry cask for a further 3-years. 

Older Laphroaigs can be absolutely fantastic, both in official and independent bottlings. Rather than the assertive peaty & medicinal flavours found in the younger examples, when it hits roughly 20 years of age it can take on a more fruity, citrusy (particularly grapefruit in the good ones) and sometimes tropical profile, and in 25 > year old examples that's often joined by sweet & soft floral notes that are worlds apart from the standard 10-year old official bottling. However, just like every distillery in the whisky world, age alone is no guarantee of either quality or maturity. Some of the "old guard" may look down their noses at a significantly aged single malt that has been finished or secondary matured in an additional cask, but that's a very narrow view. Sure, sometimes a cask finish is done to give a lazy or under-par whisky a kick in the pants, to get it up to scratch and thus get it out the door. But this practice is also done to add complexity and/or additional flavours to that aged whisky to help set it apart. Often when done well the result is more than the sum of its parts, particularly when it's allowed to evolve over a decent period of time, rather than being thrown into a wet cask for a few months prior to bottling. 

Aged whiskies like this one are inevitably going to become harder & harder to find for the independent bottlers, particularly from the desirable distilleries and even more so the desirable Islay distilleries. Which of course means they'll become more & more expensive for both the bottler and thus for the customer. And they're already far from cheap, of course. You'll struggle to get a 20+ year old Laphroaig for less than $700 AUD from most independent sources let alone an official bottling, and another decade of age could easily double that figure. One exception is the recent run of 28-30 year old "unnamed" or "mystery" Islay bottlings that have popped up lately, from the likes of The Whisky Jury, Port Askaig and Thompson Bros, many of which seem to be anonymous Laphroaig. These can be had for sub-$1,000 AUD, which is still a big chunk of money for a bottle of whisky, but is unfortunately quite reasonable in the ongoing madness of 2023. As a comparison for those playing overseas, the 30-year old Laphroaig "Ian Hunter Series" official bottling is priced at $2,500-3,000 here. As for this SMWS single cask example, I can't find any Australian references to a retail SMWS members price for 29.285, but I'd assume it was similar to todays pricing for these 'Vaults Collection' bottlings which ranges anywhere from $900-3,500. As we've talked about before, the SMWS bottling code 29.285 means it's a Laphroaig, distillery code 29, and the 285 means it was the 285th cask of Laphroaig that the SMWS has bottled. The sample for this review came from a generous fellow whisky nerd who opened this bottle to celebrate his 40th birthday, and it went down a treat. Let's see how it goes this time around!

SMWS 29.285, 23-year old Laphroaig, 55.2%. Islay, Scotland.

Distilled 13/5/98, matured in ex-bourbon hogshead for 20-years, secondary matured in single first-fill STR Oloroso sherry cask for 3-years. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 194 bottles, released mid-2022. 

Colour: Bronze.

Nose: Rich, dense, earthy, sweet & spicy. Thick chai & cinnamon spiced caramel, cigar box, old leather, earthy mushroom. Bitter orange around the edges. Getting quite meaty with more time - Chinese BBQ pork? With sweet dark soy sauce. 

Texture: Medium-heavy weight. Rich, thick, spicy, meaty, lightly peaty. Slight heat. 

Taste: Big, rich & powerful entry. Thick spiced caramel, BBQ pork with sweet dark soy sauce. Touches of that earthy mushroom & bitter orange. Furniture polish, cigars, Chinese five-spice mix. Touch of dried red chilli. 

Finish: Long length. Soft old leather, more mushroom, spicy charred wood, hint of sweet lemon. Thick sweet soy, maybe even hoisin sauce but not as sweet. More dried red chilli. Finally the peat gets through, dry, earthy & spicy peat, with a big dose of sea salt. 

Score: 4 out of 5. 

Notes: Big, big whisky! Mega-rich, dense, and powerful. Simultaneously sweet, earthy, meaty, and spicy, and certainly not shy. There's something very "Asian BBQ" about it, which is intriguing. There are still some shades of sherry cask as well, but with a much bigger wood impact - which is exactly what you'd expect from this cask treatment. Totally different to any Laphroaig that I've had before, particularly at this sort of age. Is this too much cask influence though? It's probably close to the line, but hasn't quite gone over it. At least to my tastes. Like I said above, Laphroaig can seemingly stand up to just about any cask treatment without losing its identity, probably better than any other Scotch whisky. And this 23-year old is just another example of that. If you'd put a Caol Ila or Bowmore etc. through this treatment, chances are there'd be no distillery character left at all.

They say Guinness is "a meal in a glass", right? Well this SMWS Laphroaig is a Chinese BBQ banquet in a Glencairn. 

Cheers!

Ardbeg Anthology 13 Year Old Whisky Review!

"A sauternes cask influenced Ardbeg! One please! Oh wait, what? It's $240? And 46%? OK, let me call you back..."

Despite the Ardbeg limited releases coming thick & fast in the last couple of years, the excitement surrounding this Ardbeg Anthology "The Harpy's Tale" was significant. Not only does it have an age statement of 13-years, it is the first in a new series of bottlings, and it is influenced by - but not 100% matured in - a cask that Ardbeg have never used before. We all knew it was going to be expensive, and to be fair it could've been worse. The sticking point for many came with the ABV, which is "only" 46%. I have no issue with 46% ABV myself, that's often the sweet spot for many single malts, and of course is also the official threshold that negates the need for chill filtration. But ABV does have to be taken into account when a large chunk of the competition at this price point (e.g. Lagavulin 12, Octomore 13.1, among others) weighs in significantly higher. Even in Ardbeg's own current line-up of semi-limited releases you have the 8-year old 'For Discussion' at 50.8% and the more recent 'BizarreBQ' at 50.9%, both of which are roughly 40-50% cheaper ($115 and $145 respectively) than this 13-year old. They're also very tasty, and arguably offer better value than even the regular core range Uigeadail and Corryvreckan do at their current prices. Let's be realistic, it's 2023 and this new 13-year old is a limited release Ardbeg, it was always going to sell regardless of price or ABV. They could have priced it at $300 or upwards - if it had been bottled at 50% they probably would have - and it still would've sold. Aside from attracting less tax/excise, bottling at the (relatively) lower strength also means there are more bottles to go around. The interesting thing is that despite being released last month, at the time of writing this whisky is still available on the Ardbeg Committee website, and probably in local retailers as well. The same applies to Heavy Vapours, the 2023 Feis Ile/Ardbeg Day bottling which was released back in May, even in the higher strength Committee Release version. Not long ago that would certainly not have been the case, these releases would be be long gone. Perhaps the number of bottles in these releases and/or the local allocations are larger than they used to be. Or maybe it's a sign of the times. Or maybe Ardbeg have alienated some of their fan base with all of these special releases...

Slight digression here; that 8-year old 'For Discussion' at $115 AUD from ardbegcommittee.com.au is an absolute bargain, and if you haven't bought one already then you really should. If memory serves it was $130 when it was first released a couple of years ago, which was already a great buy, but at $115 it's currently less than the local RRP for the core range 10-year old bottling. I wouldn't necessarily say that the 8-year old is a better whisky than the 10, but unlike many of the releases in the last few years it's certainly on par with it, and is nicely differentiated from it - being a higher ABV and being matured solely in sherry casks. I've reviewed it here if you'd like more details. Let's get back on topic!

This 13-year old is the first release in Ardbeg's new 'Anthology' series. They haven't said how many releases there'll be in the series or how often they'll be released, and "anthology" is just a fancy term for collection/compilation, so there aren't any clues there. They have told us that these releases will all be influenced by unusual cask types, meaning unusual for Ardbeg. In this case they've used sauternes wine casks, which can work brilliantly with peated whisky if you ask me, and is certainly something new for an official bottling of Ardbeg. Sauternes is a sweet white wine from the Sauternes region of southern France where the grapes have been affected by the botrytis fungus, which is also known as "noble rot". In basic terms this concentrates the sugars in the fruit, with the resulting sweet wine generally having flavours of sweet white & yellow fruit, balanced with some acidity. Some of these wines can also be quite "funky", particularly with age, and can also get very expensive. The interesting thing with this new Ardbeg is that it hasn't been 100% matured in the sauternes casks, nor has it been finished in them. This whisky is a combination of both ex-bourbon casks and ex-sauternes casks, both matured separately and vatted / blended together for bottling. That's significant to us Ardbeg nerds because it's what they used to do with most of their special / limited releases, up until Ardbeg Drum hit the shelves in 2019 which is when cask finishing became more prominent. In theory the separate maturation method should give us more distillery character and more balance, which does seem to be the case with some of those pre-2019 examples. We don't know the proportions of each cask type that went in to this bottling, nor the number of casks or bottles that were released, but based on smell & taste they haven't been shy with the sauternes influence. 

Oh, and what about the name "The Harpy's Tale"? Well, as we've come to expect from Ardbeg, it's a piece of mythology that has nothing to do with the distillery, or the island, or the whisky. A harpy is a half-bird, half-man creature from Greek or Roman mythology, basically a giant bird with a human torso and head. Supposedly Ardbeg have named this whisky after the harpy because it has a combination of sweet and smoky flavours, and a harpy is a combination of bird and person. Moving right along... Actually no. Dear Ardbeg, why couldn't you just give the marketing department the day off and call this "Ardbeg Sauternes Cask"? Or "Ardbeg Sweet Wine Cask"? Or even "Ardbeg Noble Cask"? I get it, it's supposed to add a bit of fun, but the extra fluff & flannel is totally unnecessary with something like this that actually has a genuine unique selling point. OK, now let's move along...

Ardbeg Anthology 13-Year Old "The Harpy's Tale", 46%. Islay, Scotland.

Fully matured in both ex-bourbon and ex-sauternes sweet wine casks, proportions unknown. Non-chill filtered, natural colour.

Colour: Gold. 

Nose: Sweet, spicy, and a little nippy. Touches of white wine vinegar acidity, sweet honey, and dried woody herbs. Sweet fruit - pineapple, lychee, white peach, touch of sweet banana. Green grapes and white pepper. Tar, hessian (sack cloth), and ashy smoke underneath. 

Texture: Medium weight. Oily, sweet, herbal. Slight heat but pleasant. 

Taste: Sweet fruit again, white peach nectar / juice. Touches of spearmint and white pepper around the edges. Bitter lemon peel, olive oil, more white wine vinegar, and dried woody herbs. Tarry smoke, hessian cloth again, and some fresh cut wood. 

Finish: Medium-long length. Still a little nippy here. Juicy sweet fruit again with that peach nectar, pineapple, and lychees in syrup. Olive oil and lemon peel again, touch of aniseed & powdered ginger. Tarry smoke, more fresh oak, and fruit syrup to finish. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5. 

Notes: Certainly does what it says on the tin (box)! The extra sweetness from the sauternes is immediately obvious, with that "white" fruit in syrup. Nicely oily in texture and taste as well. Seems a little rough though, that nippy heat is unexpected at a decent age and (relatively) lower ABV. Almost like the alcohol isn't fully integrated despite the use of active casks. And the texture isn't quite enough to cover it up. Still, I'd say this was a successful experiment! It's hard to resist comparisons with the two reigning masters of sauternes casks; Bruichladdich - e.g. Port Charlotte SC01, Octomore 4.2/10.2/12.2, and some of the Micro Provenance single casks - and Kilchoman - e.g. the Sauternes Matured from 2016 and the Sauternes Finish from 2018, and countless single cask releases. All of those listed were higher in ABV and are/were similarly priced to this Ardbeg when they were launched, albeit years ago now.

Still, this 13-year old is pleasantly fruity, very sweet but not cloying or overwhelming, and softly peaty & smoky with the distillery signature still intact. Which is what we're all looking for in a sauternes cask peated whisky. I have no doubt that being married with ex-bourbon casks has helped keep the cask influence in check, and if you ask me, it would've become overly sweet had they gone with 100% ex-sauternes. So, recommended, yes. But not entirely sure it's worth $240...

Cheers!