Port Charlotte Valinch MAC01 Whisky Review!

A distillery-exclusive, hand-filled Port Charlotte at cask strength. But what is an MAC, you may ask? Well that would be a Madeira cask, and a full maturation single cask no less!

Thanks to the continuing global pandemic, many of the special bottlings that were previously exclusive to distillery visitors have been made available to a wider audience. Bruichladdich were one of the first to do this when they began selling some of their hand-filled Valinch bottlings on their website - but only by ballot, which is really the only fair way to do it when these are often less than 300-400 bottle releases. Larger distilleries have started doing the same with their Feis Ile bottlings - Lagavulin and Caol Ila, for example - but they're open to everyone to purchase, provided you or at least your shipping address is located in Great Britain. I noticed too that Bowmore Distillery's Feis Ile bottle being sold online in 2021 is still labelled as a 2020 bottling, which is fair, and just goes to show how unpredictable the world has been over the last 18 months or so. But I also hope that once things are closer to normal the distilleries and their owners will also return to keeping these special bottlings as distillery exclusives. Having these Feis Ile and distillery exclusive bottlings more widely accessible only makes it easier for the dreaded & inevitable flippers and scalpers that were already trying to hunt them into extinction. It's only fair that visitors to these often remote and sometimes rugged places are rewarded for their efforts in making the pilgrimage, particularly when they've come from further afield - like, say, Australia, for a completely random example - and normally have an almost zero chance of accessing bottles like these. They're often the icing on the cake, the cherry on top of the sundae, when you've made the pilgrimage to your favourite distillery/distilleries and can buy yourself a souvenir to take home. 

The Valinch bottling that I'm looking at here pre-dates these issues. It's from a time when travel was unrestricted, and holidays, vacations and whisky pilgrimages were still being planned, anticipated and enjoyed. Although that's difficult to imagine at the moment! As with all of Bruichladdich's Valinch bottlings, both in unpeated Bruichladdich form and heavily peated (40 ppm) Port Charlotte form, these are 500ml bottles of cask strength, hand-filled single cask whisky that are specifically selected to be sold from the distillery shop. There are plenty of people who baulk at the idea of a 500ml bottle of whisky, particularly here in Australia where it's a very common thing, but they're often missing the point - 500ml bottles mean the price is generally a little lower than it would be at 700ml, and more importantly it means that there is an extra 30-40% more bottles available than would have been otherwise. So it helps to "share the love" a little more - helping to lower the likelihood of experiencing the crushing disappointment that comes from visiting your favourite distillery and finding that they've sold out of their distillery exclusive or limited release bottling. For that reason alone I wish more distilleries would move to 500ml bottles with single cask bottlings, although I suppose that's the advantage Bruichladdich enjoy by having their own bottling line, they have more flexibility than the larger distilleries who need to ship their whisky to the Scottish mainland for bottling. There are only two bottling lines on Islay, remember, one at Bruichladdich and one at Kilchoman, while almost everyone else sends the vast majority of their whisky to their parent company's bottling plant/s on the mainland. 

This hand-filled Port Charlotte Valinch has been fully-matured in a single Madeira cask, cask #3836, yielding 411 x 500ml bottles - so that cask was probably a 225-250 litre hogshead. MAC:01 was distilled in December 2008 and bottled in mid-late 2019 at a hefty cask strength of 62.6%. Naturally it's non-chill filtered and naturally coloured. There have only been a handful of Madeira cask-matured Bruichladdich/Port Charlotte/Octomore whiskies to date, and most were single cask releases or independent bottlings that are few & far between - but with one exception. The legendary, brilliant cask strength PC6, bottled way back in 2007, was partly-matured in Madeira casks, with bourbon casks making up the rest of the vatting. I reviewed PC6 here along with the equally-legendary PC5, but in summary PC6 is still my favourite Port Charlotte to date. So this fully-matured single cask, despite being bottled 12 years later when the distillery's styles have evolved, and when it has a different Head Distiller and a different owner under Remy Cointreau, was impossible to resist. Madeira is a fortified wine produced on the island of Madeira off the coast of Portugal, although it's actually closer to Morocco. Traditionally the wine was matured in oak casks that were cooked or baked by the heat of the sun, known as the Canteiro method, which is still in use today, albeit only for the higher quality wines. Cheaper wines are heated in stainless steel or concrete tanks to mimic the process and generally don't spend any time in wooden casks. The heating of the wine causes it to oxidise, and also stabilise, giving it a different flavour profile and also a longer shelf life than most other fortified wines. Much like sherry there is a wide variety of different styles of Madeira, from dry to sweet with a few stops in between, although the acidity that is found in all Madeira wines prevents the sweeter varieties from becoming overly sweet or cloying. We don't know which type of Madeira this cask held previously, but I would assume it was headed towards the richer & sweeter variety - known as Malmsey. Whatever it was, it's certainly worked! 

Port Charlotte Valinch MAC01, 10-year old, 62.6%. Islay, Scotland.

Distillery exclusive hand-filled single cask. Distilled 12/2008, fully matured in a single madeira cask, bottled mid-late 2019. 411 x 500ml bottles, cask #3836. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 

Colour: Bright copper. 

Nose: Sweet, fruity, smoky, and lightly acidic. touch of 'laddie lactic "funk" - think creamy & sour natural yoghurt. Port Charlotte's trademark BBQ smoke and sweetness. In other words, brilliant. Char-grilled & caramelised stone fruit, buttery date sauce, salty burnt bacon with a lemon wedge, and a tin of old boot polish. Touch of balsamic vinegar and dry, spicy wood smoke. Roasted salted nuts and chunky, earthy peat further on. What a nose!

Texture: Medium-heavy weight, rich, syrupy and lightly acidic. Touch of heat but it fades very quickly - and this is a 10-year old whisky at 62.6%, remember!

Taste: Powerful & gentle at the same time. Very well balanced and layered between floral & fruity sweetness, warming peat smoke, and light acidity. Touch of under-ripe strawberry, fresh lemon wedges, and more caramelised stone fruit. Date syrup and a touch of warm ginger. 

Finish: Long length. Dry, ashy smoke and a touch of astringency to start with, then that grilled sweet stone fruit & fresh lemon, and a flash of the balsamic vinegar and burnt salty bacon again. Chunky, earthy, muddy peat with warm spicy BBQ smoke, lactic & citrus-y acidity and bright sweet fruitiness. 

Score: 4.5 out of 5. 

Notes: What a whisky! And in particular, what a nose! There's so much depth, so many layers, and it's constantly shifting and changing with each pass. Certainly one of those whiskies that I'd be happy to nose for hours on end before tasting. On the palate it's beautifully rich & balanced, with sweetness, smokiness and acidity all getting along beautifully. It's not as peaty or dirty or farmyard-y, nor as overtly coastal as the earlier Port Charlottes, but they were all younger as well, and this 10-year old isn't as aggressive as they tended to be - despite being higher in strength. It's also from a different era of Bruichladdich distillation, of course. I'd argue there's more consistency these days, although the 'laddie character is still here in spades. That beautiful sweet, smoky Port Charlotte spirit is still showing itself, and the balance between the fresh, bright youthfulness and carefully monitored cask influence is spot on. The peat & smoke influence itself does seem slightly more subdued - only slightly, though - in comparison to most of the younger cask strength bottlings of Port Charlotte, but after ten years of maturation in a first-fill madeira cask this Valinch MAC01 is on a different playing field. And it's winning!

Each & every one of these Bruichladdich & Port Charlotte Valinch bottlings is very special, since they're single casks that are hand-picked as a special souvenir for distillery visitors - and they're a great reward to those who have made the pilgrimage. But as with all single cask whiskies, some are more special than others. If the stars aligned and you got yourself an MAC01, you're well ahead of the curve. In fact, I hope you bought two!!

Cheers!

Sheep Dip 1990 Old Hebridean Whisky Review!

A legendary old blend, or rather blended / vatted malt, bottled over a decade ago. And it's quite the special whisky!

Sheep Dip is a brand of blended Scotch whisky that was formerly owned and produced by the Spencerfield Spirits Company, a whisky blender & gin producer that was based in Inverkeithing, Fife. The company purchased both the Sheep Dip blended malt whisky brand and the Pig's Nose blended whisky brand from Jura & Dalmore owners Whyte & Mackay circa 2005, but the Spencerfield company itself was purchased by Ian McLeod Distillers, owners of Glengoyne, Tamdhu and the resurrection-in-progress Rosebank, in 2016. Despite the ownership changes by all reports the whisky itself continues to be overseen by Whyte & Mackay's larger than life Master Distiller, the venerable Richard Paterson, a.k.a. 'The Nose'. How this activity blends (see what I did there?) with his work with the company's other brands and his infamous antics - most famously throwing whisky on the floor during a tasting - I can't say, but I'd assume that he is only responsible for selecting the blend's original recipe. In the agricultural world, sheep sip is the liquid containing concentrated pesticide and fungicide that sheep are regularly dunked in to protect them from fungal infections and pest infestations - I can't imagine that liquid smells or tastes particularly pleasant, and it doesn't invoke the most romantic image of a flavoursome Scotch whisky! Apparently the naming choice harks back to the illicit distilling / bootlegging days in England when distillers & bottlers would label their casks as sheep dip for transport - all to avoid closer inspection by the exciseman, naturally! 

Sheep Dip blended malt is still around today, and is a lower-priced NAS whisky that sits roughly at the level as Monkey Shoulder or Naked Grouse, albeit with far less popularity & presence. And by all reports there is a reason for that lack of popularity & presence! But there have been a couple of different iterations of Sheep Dip over the years, with the shining star being the blended malt that we're looking at today: 1990 Old Hebridean. This bottling actually pre-dates the term blended malt, and also didn't carry the previous term 'vatted malt'; it was simply labelled as a "Vatting of Aged Highland & Island Single Malt Whiskies". Both 'blended malt' and 'vatted malt' signify the same thing: a blended whisky made from different malt whiskies, with no grain whisky involved. For a hypothetic example, if you were to blend a Lagavulin single malt with a Bruichladdich single malt, you'd be creating a blended malt. Most blended malts contain more than two component whiskies of course, but the same term applies regardless of how many distilleries have contributed to the blend. It is however quite rare for these blended malts to name the regions that their component whiskies came from, and even rarer for them to name the distilleries themselves - particularly where one or some of those distilleries is not owned by the producer of said blended malt whisky. Which is where Sheep Dip 1990 Old Hebridean becomes very interesting - this is a blend of three different single malt whiskies, sourced from Fettercairn Distillery, located south of Aberdeen in the Highlands, and Dalmore Distillery, located north of Inverness across the Moray and Cromarty Firths. Now both of those distilleries make sense, because they are owned by Whyte & Mackay. But the third component malt whisky in this blend is quite the surprise - it's none other than one of Islay's most famous peaty powerhouses, Ardbeg! Didn't see that coming, did you? Particularly in a blend with two widely unloved - for good reason - Highland distilleries. 

While we don't know the ages of each whisky, the Ardbeg inclusion makes more sense if we assume it was distilled in 1990, since Ardbeg was owned by Allied Distillers at the time who were very keen to sell off casks of Ardbeg to both independent bottlers and blenders for cash flow reasons, so it would make sense that the Ardbeg component of this blend was distilled in 1990 (see here and here for more information on that era in Ardbeg's history). That 1990 vintage obviously refers to the youngest component of this blend, and it was bottled circa 2009, so this is effectively an 18-year old whisky. As for the name 'Old Hebridean', we'll have to allow the producers some artistic license there - obviously the Ardbeg component is the only Hebridean whisky in the blend! Another interesting point here, the label also states that these three component single malts were allowed to 'marry' in first-fill casks for "at least ten years" prior to bottling. Marrying refers to letting whiskies sit in casks or vats for a period of time to allow the flavours to marry together, and in general this practice does seem to give a cohesive and balanced whisky. So, a blended malt whisky consisting of well-aged malt whiskies from Ardbeg, Dalmore and Fettercairn, with the youngest component distilled in 1990, and bottled in 2009. Only 12,000 bottles were produced, and it was bottled at 40% ABV. Yes, that's the minimum alcoholic strength for a Scotch whisky, but this is a blended whisky that also consists of substantially aged malts, and it was bottled back in 2009 when such things weren't as unpopular as they - thankfully - are now. so we'll have to forgive them! As for chill filtration and added artificial colouring, I can't say definitively since neither are mentioned on the packaging or labelling, but again this is a blended whisky from over a decade ago, and both practices are mainstays of the Whyte & Mackay portfolio, so I would assume that both have taken place here. The sample for this review came from a very generous fellow-whisky nerd who recently pulled this whisky from the depths of his personal archive and cracked it open. Personally I was extremely excited to see it, because this whisky just happened to feature in the first Ralfy whisky review that I ever watched, quite a few years ago now. Let's see how it goes!

Sheep Dip 1990 Old Hebridean, Blended Malt, NAS. 40%, Highlands & Islay, Scotland.

A blend of single malts from Ardbeg, Dalmore and Fettercairn, with the youngest component distilled in 1990. All were married together "for at least ten years" in first-fill casks prior to bottling. Bottled 2009. Unknown chill filtration or artificial colouring but most likely both. 

Colour: Amber. I would say it's E150 boosted, but that's only a guess. 

Nose: A little muted, with toffee, leather and fresh stone fruit. Opens up with a little lemon juice and a touch of rubber. Soft earthy, chunky peat and a little cigar ash & warm smoke. Caramel, a hint of tar, dark chocolate and orange peel with more time, but it still feels (or smells) a little flat. 

Texture: Light weight, but well-balanced and quite "clean" in feel. No heat whatsoever. 

Taste: Very gentle, and verging on thin. But the earthy peat & ashy warm smoke come to the fore and save the day. Leather and dried stone fruit follow behind. Slight drying saltiness and tarriness with some black pepper and more orange. 

Finish: Short length. Peat to the fore again, but it's a little more assertive here. Once the peat and coastal influences fade the whole show does fall over a bit and becomes a little flat again, with some caramel, leather and dried stone fruit. 

Score: 3 out of 5. 

Notes: It's an interesting old blend, no question, and the sherry influence is quite overt - that would be those first-fill "marrying" casks showing themselves. But it's the Ardbeg component of this blend that saves the day and makes this dram much, much more than it would have been otherwise. The subtle coastal influence, tar and ashy smoke all point towards the legendary Islay distillery, and while there probably wasn't a large amount of Ardbeg in the mix, whatever amount there was certainly carries the entire dram on its shoulders. In fact I'd say that the reputation that this Sheep Dip Old Hebridean has rests entirely with the Hebridean part of the recipe. They did well naming it "Old Hebridean" as well, since neither Dalmore nor Fettercairn are particularly appealing, or eye-catching, or Hebridean! 

This is certainly an "old school" whisky, and it's extremely easy-drinking. I don't doubt that the malts involved were quite well aged. Naturally it would have been all the more enjoyable at a higher ABV and without the chill filtration and added colouring, but that's not really how things were done back then. Especially with blended whiskies. At the original pricing it was an absolute bargain, of course, and it's a great time capsule of a whisky which harkens back to a very different time in the whisky world. 

Cheers!

Black Gate Apera Vatting Whisky Review!

A recent bottling from one of mainland Australia's smallest distilleries, Black Gate. Don't let their small stature fool you though, this tiny operation is a force to be reckoned with. 

Black Gate Apera Vatting. Not the most romantic name for a whisky release, perhaps, although it still tells us everything we need to know! This is a vatting of three different 100-litre Apera (Australian sherry-style fortified wine) casks. This single malt whisky is not to be confused with the defunct term 'vatted malt', now known as a blended malt, or a blend of malt whiskies from multiple distilleries. The three casks in this vatting were all distilled at Black Gate Distillery, so this is a single malt, as is proudly stated on the label. The casks were sourced from South Australia's McWilliams Winery, and were then re-coopered down to 100-litres capacity, which is becoming a more common cask size in Australia - thankfully many distilleries are moving away from the tiny 20-litre casks that have been a fixture in our nation's whisky for many years. Those tiny casks tend to give too much wood and cask influence in a very short period of time, and that generally happens before the whisky is actually mature. To give some perspective they're smaller than what the Scotch whisky industry calls a "blood tub", which are 30-40 litres, that are hardly ever used for that exact reason - and that's without the added aggression of Australia's more temperate and wildly variable climate. Another factor is the Australian whisky industry's propensity for first-fill fortified wine casks, typically Tawny (Australian port-style wine), meaning that a small cask that is thoroughly soaked with wine and is then filled "wet" without re-charring can easily result in a 'whisky' that is really just a mix of fortified wine and immature malted barley spirit. That's not always the case of course, there are exceptions, but it can and does happen on a regular basis. So a 100-litre cask is a much more balanced proposition that lets the spirit age for longer than the two-year minimum age for Australian whisky without becoming too wood-heavy, so it can actually mature while still receiving a large dose of cask influence compared to a full-size barrel (200L) or hogshead (225-250L) for example. 

Black Gate Distillery is a tiny husband & wife operation, owned & run by Brian & Genise Hollingworth, two of the nicest and most modest people in the Australian whisky industry. Founded in 2009, the distillery is located in the regional town of Mendooran, roughly four hour's drive north-west of Newcastle in central New South Wales. We're talking about massive temperature variances here, both between seasons - from over 40 degrees C in summer to below zero in winter, and also from day to night. Now you may have noticed that I've used the word "tiny" a couple of times here - and this really is a tiny operation. Black Gate has a capacity of around 4,000 litres of spirit per year, and that includes a 75/25 split of both malt whisky and aged rum. To put that capacity into perspective, if they were to use full-size 200-litre ex-bourbon casks, that would mean they were filling just 20 casks per year. For some more perspective, let's look at Islay's largest distillery, Diageo's Caol Ila - which is not actually all that large in comparison with some mainland distilleries - that has a capacity of around 6,000,000 litres of spirit per year. If we average that capacity out that's around 16,500 litres per day - meaning they could produce Black Gate's annual production in less than six hours! Even the smallest distillery in Scotland, Strathearn in Perthshire, produces around 10,000 litres per year. And that operation is often referred to as a micro-distillery. So at less than half of that amount, Black Gate definitely qualifies as one of those! I realise that I'm harping on about this one point, but there's one more fact to consider: the bottling that I'm reviewing today is the largest release that Black Gate have ever bottled. How large? A total of 634 bottles, and they're 500ml bottles to boot. I think you've gotten the point by now, so let's move on!

Another point about Black Gate that doesn't get enough attention is the fact that they use direct-fired stills. There are now two copper pot stills at the distillery, although the second is a more recent addition and its product hasn't hit the market yet, and both are heated by gas flame from directly underneath. To my knowledge there are only two Australian whisky brands available today that were distilled in direct-fired stills, being Black Gate and Tasmania's Belgrove Distillery. There are only a handful of direct-fired whisky distilleries in the world, and even in Scotland there are now only four distilleries left using direct-fire stills; Glenfarclas, Glenfiddich, Macallan and Springbank. Although in the latter two cases only the wash stills are direct-fired, with the spirit stills being heated by internal steam coils. Direct-firing necessitates a thicker base of the still to withstand the flame and also the much higher temperatures that can reach over 600 degrees Celsius. The belief is that direct heating produces a more flavoursome new make spirit, and the theory is that this is due to those higher temperatures and direct flame heating toasting or even lightly burning particles in the wash, giving a different flavour. If you ask me it's great to see some Australian distillers doing things differently to the norm (which is still the same basic distillery plan as set out by Bill & Lyn Lark decades ago), and major production differences like this need to be encouraged and embraced!

So, as mentioned, Black Gate Apera Vatting is a vatting or mix of three 100-litre apera casks, that were distilled between December 2015 and April 2016, cask numbers BG040, BG048 and BG049 which were then vatted together and allowed to marry before being bottled in August 2020. That puts it at a minimum age of four years, which is practically teenaged in Australian whisky terms. The three casks yielded a total of 634 x 500ml bottles, which is a little odd - 3 x 100-litre casks should yield a maximum of 600 x 500ml bottles without even a drop of evaporation or angel's share, so there must have been a serious amount of water added to bring it down to bottling strength from the cask strength. It was reduced to a bottling strength of 47% ABV and is non-chill filtered without any added colouring. The sample for this review came from Brisbane bottle shop Malt Traders, who featured this whisky in a recent Australian whisky tasting hosted by yours truly, so I couldn't resist asking for a take-home sample to review myself. This single malt is still available in Australia at the time of writing, both from Malt Traders and from Black Gate's own website, and it's quite reasonably priced to boot, even with the 500ml bottle taken into account. Let's see how it goes, shall we?

Black Gate Distillery Apera Vatting, 4-years old, 47% ABV. Mendooran, NSW, Australia.

Vatting of 3 x 100-litre Apera (Australian sherry) casks, filled between 12/2015 and 4/2016, bottled 8/2020. 634 x 500ml bottles. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 

Colour: Copper. 

Nose: Buttery dark caramel, demerara sugar & rich, ripe stone fruit. Apricot, peach, plum and rum-soaked raisins. Verging on fruit jam in fact but it's not overly sweet or cloying. Some soft wood spice and a touch of unflavoured / natural bubble gum. 

Texture: Medium-heavy weight, oily & buttery. Balanced sweetness. No heat at all. 

Taste: Buttered burnt toast, with stone fruit jam and black pepper. Warm stewed stone fruit with a touch of burnt oats - probably the direct-fired still showing itself - and demerara sugar. Slight burnt coffee ground bitterness with a touch of black pepper. 

Finish: Medium length. More dark caramel and stewed stone fruit, melted butter and black pepper. Slightly astringent with rum-soaked raisins, roasted nuts and buttered burnt (lightly bitter) toast. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5. 

Notes: Very nice! This is a little lighter in character than most of the other Black Gate single malts that I've tasted, and that works in this whisky's favour without sacrificing any flavour. This Apera Vatting is almost middle-aged for an Australian whisky - although thankfully that situation is slowly changing - and the extra maturity shows in comparison with most of the competition. The combination of relatively large (for an Australian whisky) 100-litre casks, plus the longer ageing and a lower bottling strength than some - and it's perfectly chosen in this case - combined with Black Gate's assertive maturation thanks to the local climate have given us an excellent, flavoursome but easy drinking single malt. And unlike many hotter-climate whiskies this does not need water or extended breathing time to relax and show itself. But this Black Gate also doesn't suffer from the lack of texture & weight and/or lesser volume of flavour that often applies to most of the lighter Australian whiskies - i.e. those bottled at young ages and at 40-43% ABV. That burnt grain & buttered toast note from the direct-firing, plus the subtle rum-like influence (which could be suggestive, I suppose!) certainly add to that weight, and also give extra complexity by keeping the sweetness and wood influence in check. 

It's also good to see Apera casks getting a workout rather than the more commonly used Tawny (Port) casks that tend to be more dry and tannic, and also more aggressive and hard to manage. It had been a while since I last tasted a current release from Black Gate, and this whisky only shows that I need to do so more often. Well done to Brian & Genise, you guys are kicking plenty of goals and it's great to see!

Cheers!

Dailuaine 22 Year Old Rare Malts Selection Whisky Review!

Rare is definitely the right name for this one! This is a cask strength Dailuaine that was distilled in 1973 and bottled way back in 1996 at 22 years of age - when I was in the early years of high school!

No, Rare Malts Selection isn't some new independent bottler - this is an official bottling from what is now Diageo, and it was bottled before Diageo existed! The Rare Malts Selection series of bottlings was essentially United Distillers' precursor to what is now the Diageo Special Releases. The former began in 1995, with Diageo forming in 1997 and starting their annual Special Releases program in 2001, while the Rare Malts Selection releases continued until 2005. All had stated distillation years and age statements and were at least 18-years of age, most were matured in refill casks, and all were bottled at cask strength. Many of these bottlings are now legendary, and of course command ridiculous prices at auction where they've become a commodity that is traded for profit rather than bottles of whisky - particularly those from closed distilleries like Brora, Rosebank and St. Magdalene. For example one of the most valuable is the 1972 Brora 22-year old, which goes for around 6,000 GBP in the British auctions, or close to $11,000 AUD. Which would be enough to get three-to-four bottles of the recent crop of 35-ish year old Brora official bottlings, with change. And that $11K is not including the auction buyer's premium and insurance, which make quite the difference when we're talking about this amount of money. And let's not forget about customs charges if you're shopping from overseas - I'd hate to see the bill from Australian customs for something like that! It would likely be cheaper to fly to Scotland, pick up the bottle yourself and fly back again. Provided you were still under our 2.25L duty free limit! Other bottlings are more reasonably valued of course, but as expected for bottlings of this age you'd hardly call any of them cheap. 

This particular bottling is from one of Diageo's unsung workhorses, Dailuaine - pronounced "Dell-u-in" and Gaelic for "Green Vale (valley)" - which is located in the middle of Speyside, a few miles south of Aberlour. The distillery was originally founded in 1852, but was completely rebuilt and expanded just over thirty years later, and in 1889 it was the first distillery to receive a Charles Doig Ventilator, more commonly incorrectly referred to as a 'pagoda'. The distillery was purchased by Dewars and John Walker & Sons in 1917 and subsequently DCL in 1925, and has stayed within the DCL/United Distillers/Diageo empire ever since. These days Dailuaine has an annual capacity of over 3.5-million litres of spirit through ten washbacks (eight wooden & two stainless) and six squat-shaped pot stills, and like many of it's workhorse brethren that are quietly pumping out millions of litres of whisky for their parent company's blended whiskies, it is not open to visitors and official bottlings are few & far between. The only interesting part of Dailuaine's production is the contrast between a long fermentation and quick distillation, coupled with stainless steel shell & tube condensers rather than the usual copper - meaning a meatier, heavier spirit thanks to less copper interaction. The distillery site is also home to one of Diageo's two 'dark grain' plants, which process hundreds of thousands of tonnes of draff (spent grain) and millions of litres of pot ale (leftover liquid from distillation) collected from many of the company's distilleries, and processes it into cattle feed, and the by-product of this process is then sold as fertiliser. It may not be the most glossy & glamorous side of distillation, but effluent & waste (which is basically only water & spent grain with some dead yeast) handling & disposal is an important part of the process and can also be a decent source of income for the distillery owner/s, offsetting some of their production costs. 

Cask strength bottlings of Dailuaine are hard to come by, since as usual the only regularly available official bottling is the Flora & Fauna bottling - in this case a 16-year old that is not particularly inspiring and is bottled at the usual 43% ABV. There has only been one cask strength bottling as part of the Special Releases program in recent years, a 34-year old that was bottled back in 2015. Also as usual, independent bottlings of Dailuaine are far easier to find from the usual suspects such as Cadenheads, Gordon & MacPhail & Signatory Vintage. This Rare Malts Selection bottling is an official bottling, though, albeit from a different era - it was distilled in 1973 and bottled in 1996. Interestingly, the distillery's malting floor was discontinued in the early 1960s, but used mechanical Saladin box malting on-site until 1983, before switching to external sources from commercial maltings. Which means that this single malt, distilled in 1973, was made from barley malted in the distillery's own Saladin box! As with all Rare Malts Selection bottlings this Dailuaine is non-chill filtered and natural colour, was bottled at a cask strength of 60.92% ABV after its 22-years of maturation - cask type/s are not specified, but can safely be assumed to be refill hogsheads of some description. I'm lucky enough to be reviewing a sample of this Rare Malts bottling thanks to a generous fellow whisky nerd - I've only ever seen these Rare Malts bottlings through the glass at The Whisky Exchange in London, and didn't think I'd ever actually taste any of them. Obviously I wasn't going to miss the chance to review it! 

Rare Malts Dailuaine 22-year old, 60.92%. Speyside, Scotland.

Distilled 1973, bottled 1996. Presumably matured in refill hogsheads. Non-chill filtered, natural colour.

Colour: Pale gold. 

Nose: Floral, peppery & grassy. Dry grassy malt with a little runny honey, a good pinch of white pepper and a light chalky minerality that grows with more breathing time. Touch of liquorice straps (unsweetened). Lemon drops, butter toffee and a touch of pencil shavings. Pear juice around the edges as well. 

Texture: Medium weight, but syrupy texture and quite peppery. There's definitely heat here, (61% ABV), but it fades quickly. 

Taste: Runny honey, grassy malt and a big pinch of white pepper. More lemon drops and a touch of waxy sweet fruit - white melon, apricot & pear. Definitely sweeter than the nose led on but not overly so, still verging on the drier side. More liquorice straps and that drying chalky minerality again. 

Finish: Long length. Starts off rich with that butter toffee and waxy sweet fruit, then a pinch of dried leafy herbs before the white pepper and grassy malt returns. Burnt orange peel and drying wood spices, plus a touch of pencil shavings winding things up. 

Score: 4 out of 5. 

Notes: Very interesting! Having only tried a couple of Dailuaines so far I don't have much of a frame of reference for this one, but compared to the 16-year old Flora & Fauna you'd struggle to pick the two whiskies as being even remotely related, let alone from the same distillery. This Rare Malts Selection is a big, feisty, malty dram with plenty of power and a good amount of complexity that sticks to the drier, grassier side of Speyside without straying too much further afield. That chalky minerality is a surpsie, plus a good balance of spice vs. malt vs. oak. The cask influence is quite subtle, with almost no sign of the cask's previous contents, and only the oak itself asserting itself as pencil shavings. This dram has quite an "old school" feel to it as a result - no surprise since being bottled a quarter of a century ago definitely makes this is an old school whisky!

I imagine some water would calm things down a tad with this Dailuaine - to weigh in at 60.92% after 22 years of maturation means there probably hasn't been much angel's share, or at least not in the way of ethanol - but that's not how I do things in these reviews, mainly for consistency's sake so every whisky has an even playing field. And this dram certainly doesn't feel uptight or closed at all after the usual breathing time in the glass, despite being bottled roughly 25 years ago. What a great 'blast from the past'!

Cheers!

Dallas Dhu 1979 (G&M) Whisky Review!

An old Gordon & MacPhail bottling from 2013, from a distillery that closed in the Scotch whisky dark times of 1983. And it's my first taste of Dallas Dhu!

Unlike almost all closed distilleries in Scotland, Dallas Dhu (pronounced "Dellus-doo") can still be visited and toured, but only as a museum. The distillery was founded in 1898 in the town of Forres in Speyside, 40 minutes' drive east of Inverness. The site is only two miles from Benromach Distillery which was also founded in the same year by the same man, Alexander Edward, who was also responsible for Craigellachie and Aultmore distilleries, although he sold Dallas Dhu after less than a year before it had even produced spirit. Both Benromach and Dallas Dhu were closed in 1983 by then-owners DCL, which would became United Distillers, now Diageo, alongside other more legendary distilleries like Port Ellen and Brora. Thankfully Benromach was rescued and reopened by Gordon & MacPhail in 1993, while Dallas Dhu has served as a museum since 1988. The site is still owned by Diageo, but is under the control of Historic Environment Scotland. Interestingly there have been calls to re-open Dallas Dhu, and thanks to its historic status much of the original buildings and decommissioned equipment are still in place, but nothing seems to have been decided on just yet. As far as the distillery itself goes, the only really remarkable feature was the worm tub condensers, which are still in place as part of the museum along with the malting floors and kiln (both decommissioned in 1968), the single pair of pot stills and the dunnage warehouses which were actually in use until 1992 when the distillery's license was cancelled. Despite owning the site Diageo were apparently not part of these calls to recommission the distillery, but to be fair they're busy rebuilding and reopening Port Ellen and Brora, so despite it's solid reputation amongst whisky geeks the little-known are much rarer Dallas Dhu would have to be far further down on the company's list of investment options. 

While originally named Dallasmore, named after the nearby village of Dallas, the distillery was renamed as Dallas Dhu in 1899 under new owners, and the name roughly translates to 'black valley'. The distillery closed a number of times, from 1930-1936 and from 1939-1947 following a major fire and then World War Two, before meeting its end - so far - in 1983. There have been a couple of official bottlings from the owners, under their defunct 'Rare Malts Selection' brand which was the equivalent of Diageo's current Special Releases range, but most Dallas Dhu single malts are independent bottlings. Unsurprisingly given their location twenty minute's away in Elgin, most of these have come from Gordon & MacPhail, and the early examples were bottled under license of the distillery owners, along with the likes of Linkwood and Mortlach. Casks of Dallas Dhu are much rarer of course, although G&M actually bottled a 50-year old Dallas Dhu in 2019 as part of their 'Private Collection' range that was drawn from a single refill sherry butt and sold for around 6,500 GBP. G&M are actually in the process of building a new distillery near Grantown on Spey, one hour southwest of Elgin, named The Cairn Distillery, and Benromach has been and is very successful under their ownership. I wonder if they entered a bid on reopening Dallas Dhu? It would certainly be more cost effective than designing and constructing a new distillery from scratch, and they'd have the distillery's heritage to build on - although it's very possible that the owners wouldn't be willing to relinquish the brand name itself which would deter many possible investors. But I'm only speculating there!

This particular bottling of Dallas Dhu is from Gordon & MacPhail, and was distilled in 1979 and bottled in 2013 at 43%. But unfortunately that's about all we know, there is no mention of cask type or size, and I suspect it will have been chill filtered, but I'm unsure on colouring. If there has been E150a added it's certainly been minimal, there's no orange glow to this single malt. But there shouldn't be either, this is a 32-33 year old whisky after all! Being bottled around eight years ago this isn't a bottle you're likely to see on the shelves of your average retailer, but then that applies to basically all of the closed distilleries' whiskies these days. When it was more readily available it could be had for around $600 AUD, which is very reasonable considering the rarity of Dallas Dhu. The sample for this review came from a generous fellow whisky nerd who understandably couldn't resist a birth-year (yes, he's quite old) bottling from a closed distillery. Let's get into it! 

Dallas Dhu 1979-2013, Gordon & MacPhail, 43%. Speyside, Scotland.

Distilled 1979, bottled 2013, so 32 years of age. Unknown cask type, suspected chill filtered, unknown colouring. 

Colour: Amber gold. 

Nose: Fresh & surprisingly lively for a 32-year old whisky. And quite sour! Lots of sour green apples with a couple of sweeter red apples thrown in, all doused in fresh lime juice. Quite grassy and herbal with a touch of honey in the background. With more time some lime sherbet lollies, savoury gravy powder, caramel syrup and white pepper. 

Texture: Light-medium weight. Slightly oily, savoury and peppery. No alcohol heat at all. 

Taste: Oily & earthy entry, with some sharp black pepper and dunnage warehouse notes - dank old wood and damp earth. Could even be a touch of peat in there for good measure! Gentle wood spices coming out with warm cinnamon and drying sandalwood, maybe a touch of ginger powder. Leathery and a little dusty, like old books. Gravy powder and more white pepper.   

Finish: Short length. Old pencil shavings, a little dried lime. Nutty caramel syrup but not overly sweet. Browned apples and white pepper. Turns a little sour and lightly astringent towards the end. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5. 

Notes: What an interesting dram! Unexpected flavours, but more unexpected aromas! The nose is totally, completely different to the palate and finish. It's fresh, sour, fruity and almost fizzy / effervescent, while the palate is more savoury, oily & peppery, and there's a lovely earthy, dank dunnage warehouse note in there - not to the extent of something like a Brora or a Springbank, and it doesn't hang around, but it's in there. This whisky does fall a little short on the finish - pun intended - and the oak seems to show itself most here. Some oak influence is to be expected after 32 years in casks, but the oak does seem quite fresh on the finish. A higher bottling strength could possibly have helped lengthen the finish, but that wasn't G&M's way back then - and still isn't in many cases, although that does seem to be changing lately. Albeit very, very slowly! 

It's always a very special thing when you get the chance to try a closed distillery's whisky, especially for the first time! These old bottlings are a great way to travel back in time to when the whisky world was a quite a different place - and I'm talking about both 1979 and 2013! It'll be interesting to see if anything comes of the proposed repurposing / resurrection of the Dallas Dhu site. There's no time like the present, and it's certainly a shame to see it live out it's days as a museum. Although that's also helped keep it in good order, and should make it easier to bring it back to life, so it might turn out to be a good thing in the end!

Cheers!

Glendronach 12yo Single Cask (Plus a Bonus) Whisky Review!

Yes, this is a two-for-one deal. A young single cask Glendronach from the latest batch, and an old single cask Glendronach from two batches prior. Two ends of the Glendronach spectrum. You're welcome!

"Sherry bomb". It's an interesting term! Some interpret a 'sherry bomb' to simply mean a whisky that is matured in a first-fill sherry cask, while others take it to mean a whisky that has been dominated or even overwhelmed by sherry casks. Either interpretation can then be a positive or a negative, depending on the drinker's tastes. But the term has also come to mean high-strength, sherry-forward whiskies where the spirit and distillery character has been dampened or completely overwhelmed by active sherry casks. Some distilleries and independent bottlers manage these casks very well and still produce a relatively balanced & characterful whisky, while others let the casks run wild and cash in on the dark colour that usually results. In the past, many whiskies of this style had spent some time in sherry casks that had been treated with paxarette - a mix of grape must and sweet fortified wines that was used to rejuvenate / re-season sherry casks, in some cases by being blasted / injected into tired or under-performing casks using compressed air. The use of paxarette was banned by the Scotch Whisky Association in 1990, but that only applies to Scotland remember - it's use is allowed and is certainly practised in many of the "new world" whisky-producing countries around the world. These days, the closest we get to that sort of effect is the modern "sherry seasoned" cask, where casks are tailor-made for the whisky industry, rather than being used for traditional sherry maturation, and they're generally made from new / virgin oak and only hold wine for anywhere from 3-24 months. In many cases the wine is low quality enough to only become cooking sherry or vinegar, or is even dumped and disposed of. Often made from new (virgin) oak, many of these sherry seasoned casks are also filled "wet", where the freshly emptied casks are quickly filled with new make spirit, rather than being re-charred or toasted beforehand. As you might expect, that results in a high level of influence from the wine itself as it leeches out of the oak and into the spirit. This is also far more prevalent with smaller cask sizes thanks to the increased surface area that is in contact with the spirit - yes, I'm looking at you, Australia! 

Distilleries like Glenfarclas, Aberlour, Macallan, and Glengoyne are known for their sherry cask whiskies, although the quality of those whiskies varies massively between expressions. But there is one distillery that, in my opinion, consistently produces enjoyable sherry cask whiskies that retain their character and some semblance of spirit & distillery character - Glendronach. From the core range 12-, 15-, and particularly the 18- and 21-year old bottlings to the non-age statement Cask Strength batches, while the level of sherry influence and overall quality still varies by batch, the general level of quality is consistently good between these bottlings, and has been for quite some time. But there's a next level of Glendronach appreciation: their single cask program. Unfortunately the prices have increased drastically in the most recent batches, particularly with the older bottlings, while on the other hand the younger bottlings in each batch of releases have remained relatively stable, or have even decreased in price. These younger single cask releases tend to be quite a different experience to the older bottlings, for a number of reasons. While the main difference is obviously going to be the level of sherry cask influence and the maturation, there are also some fundamental differences in the spirit itself. Glendronach Distillery was mothballed in 1996, and didn't re-open again until 2002. Much has been written about their tumultuous history and subsequent rescue by Billy Walker & Co. in 2008, and the pressure that the closure put on their maturing stocks, but two things happened before that rescue that fundamentally changed Glendronach. Firstly, prior to 1996 a small portion of their barley requirements were floor-malted at the distillery, which also included a small amount of peat being added to the kiln during the drying process. And secondly, prior to 2005 the distillery's four pot stills were all direct-fired using coal (not gas), meaning they were heated by flame from underneath. In 2005 they were converted to the common method of indirect-heating using steam. So in reference to the single cask bottlings, anything distilled in 1995 or earlier includes some floor-malted barley, and anything distilled in 2004 or earlier came through the direct-fired stills. So these two single cask bottlings, one from 1993 and one from 2008, are from opposite ends of the changes to, and closure of, the distillery.

Whisky number one is from Batch 18 (2020) of the single cask releases, distilled in 2008 and was fully-matured in a PX sherry puncheon (600-litre cask), cask #8558, for 12 years prior to bottling at a cask strength of 59.4%. And it is not a cask-heavy "sherry bomb". Instead it's a sweet, fruity whisky that has a great balance between cask influence and spirit / distillery character. Whisky number two is from Batch 16 (2018) of the single cask releases, distilled in 1993 and fully-matured in an unspecified sherry butt (500-litre cask), cask #55, for 24 years prior to bottling at a cask strength of 56.7%. But it also is not a cask-heavy "sherry bomb"! It's also a sweet, fruity whisky that has a great balance between cask influence and distillery character. But there are obviously distinct differences here. Cask #55 distilled in 1993 is the sort of whisky that made Glendronach famous, while cask #8558 distilled in 2008 is from the "new breed", distilled in the Billy Walker era on indirectly-steam-heated stills and matured in a modern sherry-seasoned cask - and a substantially larger cask to boot. Neither of these bottlings are chill filtered or artificially coloured, and I'm not going to weigh-in on the recent news that Glendronach is removing the "non-chill filtered" statement from the packaging on their core range whiskies. Glendronach should certainly be weighing-in on the issue though, rather than just ignoring it until it goes away - that's not the best strategy when it comes to us whisky geeks! On to pricing, then. The 2008 12-year old, bottled in 2020, sold for the relative bargain price (for a single cask, cask strength sherry cask Glendronach) of $220-240 AUD when it was released in Australia earlier this year. The 1993 24-year old, bottled in 2018, sold for $550-580 AUD when it was released in 2019, which is an expensive whisky of course, but not unreasonable for the age. Unfortunately the pre-closure casks in Batch 18 have incurred a substantial price increase, but this bottling pre-dates that so we can ignore that for this review. It's tasting time!

Glendronach 2008 12yo, #8558 59.4%. Highlands, Scotland.

Distilled 2008, matured in a single PX sherry puncheon, bottled 2020. Batch 18 of the single cask releases. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 710 bottles. 

Colour: Amber. 

Nose: Sweet date syrup with walnuts, almonds and furniture polish. Light floral sweetness too, I'd say vanilla icing sugar. Oranges - both sweet & bitter, touch of ginger, plus fresh plum and nectarine in syrup. Touch of spicy fresh oak shavings and green chilli pepper - with most of the seeds removed. 

Texture: Medium weight. Rich & syrupy, wood-forward & sweet. A touch of heat but that's to be expected at nearly 60% ABV and 12-years of age. 

Taste: More plum & nectarine in syrup, followed by orange again. Dates & black pepper building before spicy fresh oak and a touch of new leather. Brown sugar in the background. 

Finish: Medium length. Melted butter makes an appearance, then the spicy fresh oak and black pepper. Walnuts and almonds again, touch of that green chilli pepper before the orange & leather poke back through. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5. 

Notes: Tasty, sweet, flavoursome whisky but with plenty of fresh wood & spice to balance that out. Yes, it's young and relatively fresh, but there's good balance between cask & spirit, and at times it shows an interesting "green-ness" that is almost refreshing! This bottling is more in-line with the NAS Cask Strength Glendronachs in that way, where there's distillery & spirit character on show along with plenty of sherry influence, rather than being entirely cask-led "sherry bombs". And there's a time & place for both!

Glendronach 1993 24yo, #55. 56.7%. Highlands, Scotland.

Distilled 1993, matured in an unspecified sherry butt, bottled 2018. Batch 16 of the single cask releases. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 567 bottles. 

Colour: Very dark bronze with tinges of red. 

Nose: Richer, sweeter, deeper and more condensed. Orange zest and furniture polish, cola syrup and dark chocolate. Lovely dry sherry (nutty, spicy, almost meaty) with a little good quality balsamic vinegar. Dark tea leaves and blackberry jam. 

Texture: Medium weight, richer & deeper as expected, and no heat whatsoever. 

Taste: Rich, more tea leaves, cola syrup and blackberry jam. Hint of sour cherry and raisin in the background. Dark chocolate and a touch of leather. Furniture polish and a couple of black jellybeans thrown in for good measure. 

Finish: Long length. Balsamic vinegar again, with more cola syrup and blackberry jam. Sour cherry and raisin showing themselves again too. Touch of coffee grounds and drying tannins to round things out. 

Score: 4 out of 5. 

Notes: Delicious. Much softer, more integrated and more developed of course, and the depth of flavour is there without it being completely overwhelmed by the sherry cask as some younger examples from other distilleries - and different countries - often are. This whisky is precisely why these Glendronach single casks earned the reputation that they now enjoy, and with the "master vintage" and "Grandeur" bottlings and all the rest, there can't be much stock from this era left lying around. 

Overall notes: Which brings me to my next point. Yes, the latest batch has seen a massive jump in price on the older releases. But we whisky geeks, a.k.a. "the market", only have ourselves to blame. The secondary prices on these older single cask releases have exploded over the last few years, and with the older stock dwindling and the entire whisky industry enjoying a huge boom in sales over the last year or so, it was only a matter of time until the distillery owners asked for their fair share rather than just sit back and watch the private & licensed resellers reap the rewards. A few years ago these older single cask Glendronachs were great value for money - I won't say they were cheap, but they were fairly priced and offered great value for money. But they're now beyond the budgets of a good chunk of their previous audience. They now attract a different type of buyer, and that situation won't change as the stock levels get lower & lower with each year that rolls by. The older casks in this latest batch certainly seem to be hanging around for much longer than they ever used to, which is telling at the moment when almost nothing sits on the shelves for very long. Time will tell!

So where does the Glendronach lover turn, when these older single casks are now beyond the limits of their justifiable spending? They turn to the distillery's core range, the 18-year old Allardice, and the NAS Cask Strength bottlings (except batch 7). Or they turn to the younger single cask releases. The 2008 12-year old that I've reviewed above still offers great value for money, and comparing it to a 24-year old from a different time in the distillery's past was never going to be worthwhile when it came time to discuss pricing or value. These younger single casks are going to be the way forward if you ask me, thanks to that pesky distillery closure where the large gap in stock is going to mean an even larger gap in pricing. Some of the younger releases have been excellent in the past, and I'm sure they will be in the future. 

Cheers!

Teeling Revival 12 Year Old Whiskey Review!

It's been a while since I reviewed anything from Ireland. Or almost anything with the extra "e"! But this example is a great gateway into something different. And it's finished in cognac and brandy casks!

I don't often reach for an Irish whiskey. In fact off the top of my head you'll only find two bottles of Irish whiskey in my house, one of which being Connemara Turf Mor, the heavily peated double-distilled whiskey that is about as far away from a typical Irish whiskey as you can get without leaving Ireland. And the second bottle was a gift! That's not to say that some Irish whiskeys aren't great quality, they just don't generally do it for me - particularly those that are triple distilled, which tends to strip character and flavour while resulting in a lighter and more refined spirit. Even among triple-distilled Scotch whiskies, I only really go for those that have significant distillery character, Springbank's triple-distilled Hazelburn spirit and also Benromach's triple-distilled limited release, for example, release some excellent triple distilled single malts. But I find most examples of Irish whiskey to be too light and/or too sweet for my tastes, with one main exception that comes straight to mind: Teeling. While the majority of easily-accessible Irish whiskeys are bottled at 40% ABV and are chill filtered and artificially coloured, Teeling was one of the first to go against the grain (pun intended) across the board with their full range. From their entry-level 'Small Batch' blend through to the age statement limited releases, all are bottled at 46% and above without chill filtration or added E150a. Which is just the way it should be! Teeling are also a little more adventurous than most Irish producers when it comes to cask finishing, with the likes of rum, madeira, red wine, port, sauternes, PX sherry & stout cask finishes being on offer at various price points across their extensive range of different bottlings. Not to mention cognac and brandy casks, which is where the example that we're looking at today comes in. 

Before we get into that though, let's look at Teeling itself. The Teeling Distillery opened in 2015 in Newmarket in the centre of Dublin, with three copper pot stills and an annual capacity of around 500,000 litres of spirit. At the time it was the first new whiskey distillery to open in Dublin in 125 years, while Ireland has gone from having just two whiskey distilleries in the early 1980s to now having over forty, with many more in the planning stages. But the majority of Teeling's whiskeys were not distilled at Teeling Distillery. This family-owned company was actually founded in 2012 by brothers Jack & Stephen Teeling, whose father John had founded Cooley Distillery in 1987. A formerly government-owned potato alcohol plant, Cooley is located an hour's drive north of Dublin, and John Teeling converted it into a whiskey distillery before selling to Jim Beam (now Beam Suntory) in 2011. The sale price included 16,000 casks of maturing whiskey staying with the Teeling family, which they used to found the Teeling Whiskey Company - so the majority of Teeling products, so far, are actually independent bottlings, mostly distilled at Cooley. Cooley's main point of difference is the use of double distillation rather than the triple distillation which is more common in Irish whiskey, and the use of both column stills and pot stills. The single malt whiskeys are produced in the latter, while the blends are generally produced in the former. Brands such as Kilbeggan, Tyrconnel and the aforementioned Connemara are all made at Cooley, as well as a large number of other Irish whiskey brands that are (often undisclosed) independent bottlings. So far there has only been one product released that was actually distilled at the Teeling Distillery in Dublin, a 'Single Pot Still Whiskey', which is a 50/50 mix of malted and unmalted barley that is triple-distilled in pot stills and matured in a combination of virgin oak, ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks. Why they've chosen to use triple-distillation I can't say, and I'm yet to try that particular bottling, but it's safe to say that it'll be very different to the double-distilled single malts that the brand has been built on and that have been very successful. I'm sure there'll be single malt whiskeys from Teeling Distillery coming in future, but I'm yet to see or hear anything about their release. Maybe they're already blending some of their own spirit in to the NAS releases? Either way, let's hope that at least some of them are only double distilled!

The Teeling whiskey that we're looking at today is a single malt, double-distilled at Cooley - although you won't find that written or acknowledged anywhere. This bottling is part of the company's Revival series, referring to the revival of Irish whiskey and the Teeling Distillery, and this 12-year old single malt was the fifth and final 'volume' in the series, and also the youngest. All five whiskeys in the series were single malts, all bottled at 46%, with the first being a 15-year old finished in rum casks, the second being a 13-year old finished in Calvados (apple brandy) casks, the third a 14-year old finished in French fortified wine casks, the fourth being a 15-year old finished in sweet Muscat barrels, and finally a cognac & brandy cask finish in this 12-year old fifth 'volume' that was initially released in 2018. Both cognac and brandy are usually distilled from grapes, with the main difference being geographical - cognac can only be made in the Cognac region of France, but it also must be distilled from white wine grapes and aged in French oak for a minimum of two years, while brandy is the general term that applies to any fruit-derived spirit and can be produced anywhere. There were 15,000 bottles released at a reasonable price of around $160 AUD, with the vast majority of the Australian allocation going to one large retailer which still has a small amount of stock in some stores. As mentioned above all Teeling whiskeys are non-chill filtered and naturally coloured. I also have to add that Teeling really know how to package a whiskey - the bottles and outer boxes in this series were all very well done. The sample for this review came from a generous fellow whiskey nerd, who keeps this bottle in his office, although it's lasted him quite a while! Let's get to it. 

Teeling Revival Vol. 5, 12-year old Single Malt, 46%. Ireland. 

Single malt, double-distilled at Cooley Distillery, initially matured in ex-bourbon casks, finished in Cognac & Brandy casks. Fifth and final 'volume' in the Revival series. 15,000 bottles released 2018. 

Colour: Yellow gold. 

Nose: Fresh, malty & floral sweet. Loads of dusty malted barley, bright & sweet lemon and toasted oak with some dried coconut & buttery, nutty caramel. Fresh sweet apple, aniseed and vanilla syrup with a touch of sweet fruit - dried pear and green banana. 

Texture: Lovely. Medium weight, quite oily. Sweet & creamy. No heat at all. 

Taste: Toasted nutty oak, vanilla, buttery caramel and burnt orange. Touch of dried pear and banana in the background, along with some sweet red apple and dry grassy barley. More caramel & sharp aniseed, black pepper and lemon. 

Finish: Medium length. Touch of raw spirit, but not hot or harsh. Quite floral. Then more gristy, dusty barley and more nutty toasted oak. Dried coconut again too. Touch of bitter aniseed, burnt orange and more buttery caramel. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5. 

Notes: There's plenty of flavour, and plenty of grassy, dry barley on show, but the cask influence is certainly there - the toasted oak, caramel and burnt orange is all very cognac in my book. The cask finish hasn't overwhelmed the grain, spirit and distillery characters though, but each seems to show itself at different times rather than being cohesive. This is a sweet whiskey overall, but with plenty of that oak, grassy barley and citrus helping to calm it down a little. And it's also helped massively by the 46% ABV and double-distillation, if you ask me. This is a young whiskey of course, and I'm guessing it needed a cask finish to give it a little character boost, but it's also more mature than I usually find the Teeling core range which can be a little undercooked. Then again, this 12-year old Revival was almost twice the price of the core range Single Malt expression, so you'd hope that was the case! 

Plenty of character and flavour, and a clear but not overwhelming influence from the exotic cask finishing. Not bad at all. Unfortunately it's going to be hard to find at a reasonable price, and personally I wouldn't go hunting for it at secondary prices. But if you're looking for a flavourful Irish whiskey with a little more character than some, Teeling is certainly worth a closer look. 

Cheers!