Auchentoshan 11y.o. SMWS 5.27, 1999, second-fill Bourbon Hoshead, 58,3%

Comment: Malt, lemon zest, hay, heather, licorice, vanilla, altogether not a very convincing dram.

Score: 77

Glen Moray 39 y.o. SMWS 35.55, 1971, Refill Hogshead, 50,3%

Comment: A whole lotta Bourbon wood influence, which is ok for an old whisky of this kind. All I miss is originality.

Score: 89+

Macallan 20 y.o. SMWS 24.117, 1990, first-fill Sherry Hogshead, 55,4%

Comment: This is a great Christmas Dram (yes, these notes are late ) and quite typical of a Macallan. Wonderful cigar smoke, orange peel, sweet malt, sherry, apple, raisins and cinnamon are its key elements.

Score: 89-

Scotch Grain Whisky 21 y.o. SMWS G-8.1, 1989, 51,2%

Comment: Very rum-like (which is not a bad thing) and loaded with vanilla, citrus aromas and marshmallows. I couldn’t find the exact grain distillery – soon to be revealed.

Score: 86

(Isle of) Jura 21 y.o. SMWS 31.22, 1988, second-fill Bourbon Hogshead, 56,5%

Comment: A very complex and creamy dram with beautiful spice-combo. It also offers sweet malt, ginger bread, licorice and Bourbon-Cask oak  character.

Score: 89+

Laphroaig 10 y.o. SMWS 29.101, 2000, refill-Sherry Butt, 587 btl., 52,8%

Comment: A weird Laph somehow, you have to like it extremely herbal (weeds) and dirty. Aside from the typical notes of peat, seaweed, rusty fishing-boats in the harbour and all that stuff you get sour and lemony aromas, quite some acidity, sherry and flinty sulphur in the nice finish. However, it lacks power in the middle. Not bad, but there are better ones out there.

Score: 86

Ardbeg 7 y,o, SMWS 33.101, 2003, first-fill Bourbon Cask, 245 btl., 59,6%

Comment: Typical Ardbeg, but not as interesting as other releases. A nice whisky anyway.

Score: 88+

Port Charlotte 8 y.o. SMWS 127.12, 2002, Bourbon Barrel, 160 btl., 66,3%

Comment: Funny, this one also heads towards ‚Ardbeginess‘ in some moments but it is saltier and more on camphor, rooty peat, flints and iodine. A great whisky at a young age – again. Look out for Port Charlotte.

Score: 89

Appearance: Incredible viscosity, like used oil it streams slowly out of the bottle – in the darkest brown with a tiny ruby edge.

Nose: Amazingly alive after such a time, this can age even longer. First there is dark chocolate and dried plum, figs, raisins and sultanas accompanied by the most noble smell of dark wood, American oak and roasted dark coffee. Altogether it delivers slight reminiscences of a good Nocino, but better, like a high class Balsamico Extra Vecchio, but less acidic, like a Maraschino cherry, but much richer. Then there are compounds of Panettone and Christmas cakes, treacle, red grapes‘ skins, muscovado sugar, chicory, burnt creme brulee top and a hint of licorice.

All that is interwoven and balanced perfectly. The grapes are talking as well now (these actually are Mataro, Shiraz and Grenache) and believe me, you can sniff a fine Australian red within the amazing complexity. Pepper, rosemary, quite some cloves and an intriguing arabic spice combo (cinnamon, anisseed, cumin, nutmeg, kurkuma and what not) keep the nose far from being overly sweet, although this might be as sweet as wine can get – and some bitterness of the wonderful kind. It also needs time to open up, so please don’t rush it – it is over 100 years old!

Palate: The Burj-Dubai builds up on my mid palate, what a fat and creamy structure! The ridiculous concentration with immense sweetness is countered with enough acidity and the bitter notes. As good as it gets. Molasses! All the notes identified in the aroma are there with fine precision. I rest my case.

Finish: Don’t eat or drink in the next 4 hours, it is worth it! Like a Wagner opera, but with less pain.

Score: 100 points (2011)

Comment: This is the first wine, actually the first liquid, which I score at 100. And it is the oldest drink concerning maturation that I ever had. My score has no infliction with the mind-boggling age or the awe I feel drinking it. This is just a perfect nectar with nothing to criticize and it made my Christmas 2011! James Halliday scored it equally. Thanks to Michael for discovering this gem.

Today I am clearing my whisky cabinet from those bottles that are almost history – you know, those bottles with 2-8 cl left in them but that still never seem to get empty although they are quite good. Of course I could refill them in samples … but I really have enough samples to wait, too. So, let’s kill them off, two old and two new ones. No huge tasting notes this time, just comments:

Glenberry 5 y.o., Straight Malt Scotch Whisky ‚de luxe‘, pear-shaped bottle, Premier Scotch Whisky Co., Italian Import by S.E.I.B.A. for Supermercati Pam-Spinea-Venezia, 75cl, 40 Gradi

Comment: Complex! Big wonderful OBF (Old Bottle Flavour), well-balanced between peachy fruit, dusty malt sweetness and peppery spice plus vanilla, toffee and whiffs of smoke from the oak. Later almonds, white chocolate, licorice, sawdust, orange zests and tangerines chime in. How can it be so complex with only five years of age? Good ole‘ times… . It even doesn’t fade away in the finish like other old blends and has traces that remind me of old Macallan and Tomatin 5 y.o. from the 1970ies. This Glenberry, bottled for a supermarket and priced below 10 Euros back then, can keep up with any standard Single Malt of today.

Score: 90-

Balblair 5 y.o. OB Pure Malt, Italian Import by Spirit S.p.A. Genova, 75cl, 40%

Comment: I have seen this in auctions for a very reasonable price and went for it – and never looked back. Well-made whisky that contributed to the world-renowned Ballantine’s blends. It is very flowery and light, again no offnote, but less impressive than the Glenberry. Hay, malt, honey, licorice, ginger, pepper, Marshmallows, apples, peaches and a little white oak can be found. A light ‚quaffer‘ that does no harm.

Score: 84

Glendullan 14 y.o. Murray McDavid for Malts and More, 5.5.1993 – 23.08.2007, Bourbon / Rioja Cask, 493 btl., 46%

Comment: It is rare that we get rather young Glendullan from the Speyside. Our friend Thomas Mansen from Malts and More recommended this one to me and it was enjoyed by most people who have tried it at our stands at fairs. Jim McEwan selected it for Thomas who made it an exclusive Malts and More bottling. Of course, this is modern whisky now, finished in a wine cask – a totally different ball game from what I had before in this tasting session. This is much more on primary notes. The wine is right there with the malt, herbs, blood orange and assorted (Asian) spices leaving a rather dry impression altogether. The nose is not overly complex at first, but after a while it becomes alive with melon, tangerine skin, berries and vanilla pod. On the palate I am getting grapes, raisins and sweet malt with whiffs of spice and smoke, really pleasant as a combo and quite sweet in the finish. Juicy! At 45 Euro, this is not a bad choice. If you mention ‚www.slowdrink.de‘ at your purchase, Thomas might give you a discount on it.

Score: 87

Bunnahabhain 13 y.o. ‚the Octave‘ by Duncan Taylor, 1997 – 2010, Cask No. 383244, 73 btl., 51,2%

Comment: These peated Bunnahabhains from 1997 were always nice, but a bit simple. Now, as they gain greater age, they convince more and more people and show Bunnahabhain’s diversity. This one is a textbook example for that. And it is another bottle from Thomas Mansen. This Bunna with atttitude has rooty peat like a Port Charlotte but counters it with a bigger body to balance the phenolic load more evenly. Ashes and powerful spiciness meet maraschino cherries, lime, latte macchiato, leather, herbs, tar, diesel, kola nut, salt, chalk and traces of Nocino (green walnut liqueur). The palate reveals the three months in a small Sherry cask because of sweet wood-rancio-sulphur-mix that often comes with drams from such Octaves – unusual and more Bunnahabhain now, but you have to like sweet Islay Malts with gunpowder. This is a real alternative to the South Coast whiskies and screams for its use in blind tastings. Priced around 55 Euro. Same deal as with the Glendullan from above: mention us to Thomas for a discount.

Score: 88+

Photo: L. Langer (link) - Thanks! His shop is worth a visit!

It was a hard day, so I need a bit of a treat. Mmmmh, let’s go for Islay power, an Ardbeg. But a special one: How about a bottling from the good old days, complex, but bottled at young age…the choices get narrower – maybe even at cask strength … and sherried … extremely hard to find. As I go through my samples I suddenly hold this nice specimen in my hand:

Ardbeg 13 y.o. Gordon & Macphail for Intertrade, 26 June 1975 – 13 July 1988, 543 btl., 75cl, 54,2%

This might save my day. I remember it as very powerful and pleasantly sulphury – in its very own style. As I am pouring the reddish-ambered liquid there is an astonishing viscosity visible. The aroma quicky fills the room, wow, the peaty cavalry comes through. Let’s see if it turns out well (the day and the Ardbeg) …

Nose: Close to perfection, I could smell this forever. Islay freshness at first. The elegance of Sherry traces (dark fruits, dark European oak) meets the raw peat-iodine-sulphur-combo (gunpowder-cavalry again), but all that in great complexity and depth, not only on primary in-your-face notes. Whatever you look for in an Islay Whisky is there! And more: fine tobacco, high-end chocolate, pepper and spice and roasted coffee as well, but nothing is disjointed or bitter – all aromas blow into the same horn, so to speak. OBF (Old bottle flavour)  rounds off this killer.

Palate: Oh my God. It is as good as I feared it to be. Full on, but also elegant and round – this malt builds a bridge between these opposites. Maybe it is the ‚in-between-age‘. All is there again with a slightly dry entry. Flints, peat, sulphur, iodine, gunpowder, Sherry, dark fruit, spicy chocolate, tires, malt, Culatello ham and fine wood build a tower on the mid-palate. No water!

Finish: Let’s play ’spot the weakness‘. It might not have the longest and most sustaining of all finishes, but it still is quite long and really impressive. It is a simplified copy of the nose that comes in waves like at the Southern coast of its natural mother. Jolly good.

Score: 94-

Comment: Great great Ardbeg, and I love the medium-age effect in this one. It has made my day! Thank God it was a 4cl-sample: 2 cl left for me to savour without taking stupid notes .

World's Greatest Whisky, Mr. Murray?

Before we will talk about the World’s Greatest Whisky made at Old Pulteney 21 years ago – according to whisky-writer Jim Murray in the new Whisky Bible – soon (with tasting notes) we stay modest and humble today and try a blend for a change … which comes from the same owner’s company:

„Blended Whisky is Crap“

A Great Blend

This quote from the Hollywood movie Malice might be shared by some Gung Ho Single Malt Hardheads. These guys shouldn’t forget that soaring Blended Whisky Sales in the past brought us many cherished distilleries in the first place and kept the exotic product Single Malt alive inhard times – although blending demands were also responsible for the closing of distilleries later on.

In terms of taste, there are great blends and vats out there, no question about it. I think of Cutty Sark 25, the old Campbeltown Loch 25 (dumpy bottle), the Compass Box series and many others – not necessarily very old. Young vintage blends from the past can be a special treat and kick some Single Malt’s butt easily because they show surprising maturity at an early age and maybe some OBF (old bottle flavour). But can modern blends do the trick as well? Some can – we are just not willing to try them!

Today’s article wants to give you such an example of a well-done blend that wouldn’t negatively stand out within a decent line-up of Single Malts.

Hankey Bannister 12 y.o. ‚Regency‘, 40%

Recently, I could revisit Inver House’s moderately priced blend Hankey Bannister 12 y.o. – a name with a long history. Honestly, I didn’t expect much from it – but it really surprised me and tickled my fancy:

Nose: Very well-balanced with some heat at first – dried flowers, heather and hay, powerful spice combo (white pepper, ginger, coriander), licorice, raisins, apricots, grapefruits and sweet malt.

Palate: Round and very drinkable, slightly dry, becoming sweeter with notes of botrytis-infested grapes, raisins, almonds and the sweet malt again, accompanied by a mix of the mentioned aromas of the nose.

Finish: Long and satisfying without any off-note, a real ‚quaffer‘!

Score: 87+

Comment: Try it for yourself, it is affordable. Try blends in general from time to time. With this bottle I would invite some friends (not necessarily Maltsters) and just savour it during a nice poker night or a football match. Perfect.