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This was the selection at the September meeting of NMWL Trondheim. All are Diageo Rare Malts series, and hence OB.
Glen Albyn 1975, 26 yo, 54.8%
Nose: Chemical, pine needle detergent, resin, new wood.
Palate: Resin, malt, sweetness.
Comments: Very leggy. Tastes better than it smells, but overall a great whisky. Nice and smooth on the palate but with a (pleasant) “sting”.
Score: 8 out of 10
Linkwood 1975, 26 yo, 56.1%
Nose: A little unpleasant just at first, needs to breathe. A bit sharp. Malt and something berry and floral.
Palate: Black currants and black currant bush on the finish. Malt and vanilla.
Comments: Needs to breathe in the glass for a while. Nice, but boring. Not a particularly good Linkwood.
Score: 7.5 out of 10
Blair Athol 1975, 27 yo, 54.8%
Nose: Spice, toffee, red berries.
Palate: Spice cake.
Comments: Very, very pleasant.
Score: 9 out of 10
Dufftown 1975, 21 yo, 54.8%
Nose: Butterscotch, acetone.
Palate: Malt, acetone, then some christmas cake, with ginger (a bit soapy) and cloves rather than cinnamon.
Score: 4.5 out of 10
First an OB(!)
Caperdonich 16 years old, Chivas Brothers Cask Strength Edition, distilled 1988, bottled 2008, batch no. CD 16 001, 55.8%
Nose: Heather and heath. With water: Lemon sherbet, candied orange, malt, hay.
Palate: Spice. Dry, warm wood. Orange marmelade. Dark chocolate. Black pepper.
Comments: Really needs water. Very nice indeed, there’s a bit of a contrast between the fruit sherbety nose and the more spicy, “adult” palate, but they are by no means strangers. I like it.
Score: 8 out of 10
Caperdonich 10 years old heavily peated, The Single Malts of Scotland, distilled 04.05.1998, bottled 01.10.2008, cask ref 1277, 58.5%
Nose: Warm peat smoke, hay and malt. Oatmeal, flour, glue. Water brings out lemony notes and something evergreen, spruce possibly. It also lessens the impact of the peat.
Palate: Peat and banana. Malt, dry wood.With water, a little marmelade and a rich, tangy sort of spice.
Comments: A warm, rich and complex nose which could keep me occupied for a while. A dry, woody finish with a hint of evergreens. Very, very nice.
Score: 9 out of 10
Nose: Quite closed without water, but with something meaty, vaguely barbequeish. Butter or perhaps butterscotch. And some sort of flower, if I could only think of the specific variety… I think I’m thinking of oxeye daisies. With added water I get something more malty, and perhaps a bit of dry grass.
Palate: Warm and mellow. Muffled sherry. Shortbread and brown sugar notes. Bitter orange on the finish.
Conclusion: Quite a pleasant Mortlach, not oversherried like I often find them. I’m not quite sure about the bitterness on the finish, though, it’s a little too strong for my taste, and therefore detracts a bit from the overall score.
Score: 7.5 out of 10
Tasting the tail end of the bottle. We picked this up when we visited the distillery in 2005, so it’s been open for a while.
Nose: Varnished oak. Spice and chocolate.
Palate: Port. Now there’s a surprise. Woody, but pleasantly so. Spice and dust, like an old spice chest. Dark chocolate.
Conclusion: One of the best wine finishes I’ve tasted. It doesn’t wow me, though, but it’s “eminently quaffable”, just like it says on the label (fact).
Score: 6.5 out of 10
Nose: Pears, vegetation. I’m also getting something like grilled meat, but it may be the husband’s dinner (though that shouldn’t appear more forcefully the further I stick my nose down the glass, surely?). Liquorice. Road dust.
With water the vegetation becomes more apparent, with a sweet, flowery note.
Palate: Pleasantly woody, reminscent of a timberyard. A sweet, baked goods kind of note, vanilla and custard. Somewhat grassy, too. Quite complex, but well-rounded.
Conclusion: One I want to drink again. And again. How nice to get a whisky out of Campbeltown that I can wholeheartedly approve of. Massively impressive for being only five years old. It will be interesting to see if age will improve it or if I will want them to keep bottling it young.
Score: 7 out of 10.
And it just goes to show that I really need to do more blind tastings… I requested that we do a blind tasting where I was “blind” myself when the committee planned the spring meetings of NMWL Trondheim, and Thursday evening I showed up prepared to make a fool of myself. Which I proceeded to do. Mind you, no one else did much better at the guessing, so I was in good company.
Bjørn and Stein had picked six whiskies for us. We were told all six were available in Norway, between 10 and 13 years of age and 40-46%. Those who wanted one were given a “cheat-sheet” with 15 distillery names, but I opted to try without.
Whisky number one:
Nose: Vannilin, wood, congeners, grass, flowers
Palate: Wood, malt, bitter notes
Score: 4.5 out of 10
I suspected it might be Glenmorangie 10 years, which was way off. We established “Speyside” quite quickly, but went through pretty much every likely Speyside distillery before Bjørn said it was “favoured by collectors” and I shouted “Macallan”. And it was. Macallan 12 years old fine oak. And I suspect the reason it didn’t enter my mind earlier is that I still think of Macallan as a sherry-whisky, which is partly because I still drink Macallan as a sherry-whisky, I’ve only tried the fine oak range once, at the first Oslo Whisky Festival, shortly after its launch. Still and all.
Whisky number two:
Nose: Strange, sweet, oak, sweet white wine, something a little pert, citrus, gooseberries
Palate: Citrus, flowers, gooseberries
Score: 7 out of 10
I was sure this had to be something finished in a sweet white wine cask of some sort, but it turned out to be a Duncan Taylor NC2 Imperial 13 years old, which no one managed to guess until an embarrassing amount of hints (including IB, Speyside, not a Glen and closed) had been dropped.
Whisky number three:
Nose: Sweet, sherry, a bit nauseating, rubber
Palate: Too much sherry and rubbery notes, but at the same time the whisky seems too young.
Score: 2 out of 10
I had no ideas whatsoever. The answer was Arran 12 years old. Contrasting it with the notes for the 10 year old we had on Sunday is interesting to say the least.
Whisky number four:
Nose: Peat, banana, sweetness, seaweed?
Palate: Peat, mostly. At the moment you swallow you get a burst of fresh fruityness which comes as a bit of a shock the first time, but is quite pleasant.
Score: 6.5 out of 10
I drew a blank. I was kind of sure it was coastal, but probably not Islay. It was Longrow 10 years old 46%.
Whisky number five:
Nose: Closed, vague sherry notes, hint of peat, sour grassy notes (cattle feed?)
Palate: Bitter, cloying sweetness, glue and wood
Score: 3 out of 10
I didn’t like it at all, and hence suggested a Springbank-destillate, partly based on that unpleasant bitterness. However, it turned out to be Bruichladdich 12 years old.
Whisky number six:
Nose: Peat, heat
Palate: Peat, ashes
Score: 7 out of 10
I guessed at Laphroaig 10 or Bowmore 12, but it was Talisker 10, which was perhaps the greatest suprise of the evening. We could not find any pepper at all, and there was much more peat than I would have expected, though I suppose that might mainly have been in contrast with the rest. It appeared pleasant, if a little one dimensional.
NMWL Trondheim had a visit from Jon Bertelsen on Sunday, and we made our way through eight malts. Needless to say, my notes for the first four or five are rather more extensive than for the last few, so I’ll just include the reasonably sensible ones…
Glen Scotia 45% OB
Distilled 31 May 1999, bottled 24 April 2007, cask no. 78.
Nose: Apples and pears, malt, hint of lemon, more obvious lemon but less of everything else with water, I’d drink it without.
Palate: My first impression is of pepper. Also it’s very heavy on the grain, chewy maltiness. Bitterness and wood (not the rubbery notes of old casks but the dry smell/taste of weathered planking).
Comments: Quite nice as a “light” whisky, but the bitterness detracts.
Score: 5 out of 10
Arran 10 years old OB 46%
(L26 09 07 3 14:15 BB)
Nose: Closed, barely opens with water. It might just be my nose, though…
Palate: Wood, sweet, dare I say sherry? No raisiny notes, though, just the sherry-sweetness.
Comments: I was pleasantly surprise and noted the batch number because I wonder if there might be differences. A good, though not terribly exciting, dram.
Score: 6 out of 10
Springbank Vintage 2000 OB, bottled for Jon Bertelsen, 58.5%
Nose: Some smoke, though cigar rather than peat.
Palate: More peaty smoke, ashes, coldness
Comments: Quite definitely the best whisky from (spirit distilled at) Springbank I’ve ever had. I tried it very quickly at OFW and decided to buy a bottle just because I actually liked it, but a “proper” taste has left me changing “like” to “love”.
Score: 8.5 out of 10
Bladnoch 15 years old OB, sherry matured, 55%
Nose: Sherry, malt, vaguely floral/grassy
Palate: A lot of sherry, a little wood, some malt.
Comments: In this company this is just boring, too much sherry, not enough whisky. Not bad, at all, just too one-dimensional. I must try it again in a different setting, though.
Score: 5 out of 10
Longrow CV 46% (batch 08/330)
Nose: metallic, vague peat, liquorice
Palate: coldness, ashes, rock, peat smoke
Comment: With water, that familiar Springbank bitterness appears and it becomes undrinkable. Note to self: Do not add water.
Score: 7 out of 10 (without water)
And then we had Bruichladdich 2001 for Jon Bertelsen, Bruichladdich Waves and Longrow 10 years old CS, which were all fine, but nothing to write home about.
A sample which has been waiting for a spare hour, and now I can’t for the life of me remember where I got it from. It will come back to me, I’m sure.
Nose: Apples and peaches. Fruit salad with whipped cream. Sponge cake. A little spice.
Palate: A rather startling impression of bitter orange and lemon, and I feel a little like I need to taste Blue Curaçao again to check whether that’s the memory it evokes.I like this, however, something which can’t be said for BC, though it’s been a while. Perhaps a really tart, well-made orange marmelade would be more the mark. There’s something else there, too, but I can’t put my finger on it.
Comments: I’m left wondering if this is really whisky, but I like it. I’ll note it as yet another proof of why single malts are such an interesting study – compared to the Ileachs I had last week, this should rightly be classified as a whole other species of spirit.
Score: 8.5 out of 10
#1: Bunnahabhain 1994 Dun Bheagan, Manzanilla finish 43%
Nose: Rubber, sugar, sweets. Mostly rubber, though.
Palate: Dry, rubbery and vaguely spicy. Bitterness, sawdust and salt.
Comments: Not a success.
Score: 2 out of 10
#2: Bruichladdich 1998 Oloroso sherry matured, OB, 46%
Nose: A bit closed, sweetness and sherry mostly, barbequed meat, a vague flowery smell, quite pleasant, on the whole.
Palate: Bitterness, varnish, red apples, madeira punch-flavoured marzipan, bitter chocolate on the finish.
Comments: At least the palate is complex, but that’s the best that can be said for it. I’m dissapointed in this one, I had high hopes for it. I had hoped the sherry would mellow the slightly off-noteish bitterness I tend to find in Laddies, but instead it seems to have accentuated it. Can you have a cloying bitterness? If so, that is what we have here.
Score: 2.5 out of 10
#3: Port Ellen 7th annual release, OB, 53.8%
Nose: Peat, coldness, ashes, juniper wood, spices.
Palate: Ashes, peat, fridge-ice.
Comments: Nice, but somewhat disappointing. Too one-dimensional and insubsantial to be very interesting, and I’ve had much better Port Ellens.
Score: 7 out of 10 (and I’m not entirely convinced it shouldn’t be 6 instead, and at that price that really isn’t enough)
#4: Port Charlotte – PC7 61% OB
Nose: Warm peat smoke, warm wheat buns, timber, spruce, sweetness.
Palate: Peat, fire, ashes, coal, firewood and spruce. Much more which I can’t put words to.
Comments: Nice. Very nice. The peat disguises much, but there is enough underlying complexity to keep you nipping to put words to that elusive taste. Makes me very happy about owning shares in Port Charlotte casks.
Score: 8 out of 10
Distilled 6 April 1990, bottled September 2008, hogshead 2695.
Nose without water: First impression: Cardamom and toffee. My thoughts also tend towards black pepper and perhaps pine needles. Smells like Christmas to me, though I may just be in the mood.
Palate without water: Oak and malt. Vanilla and toffee, and some spice. The palate and nose agree nicely.
Nose with water: The impression of spice is strengthened and the oak becomes more apparent. I seem to find some orange (peel), but I may be fooled by the Christmassy associations.
Palate with water: Much the same as without water. The bitterness of the vannilin becomes more apparent, and I think I might just prefer it undiluted.
Conclusion: A dram to linger over, may be this year’s Christmas whisky.
Points: 8 out of 10.
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