Tag: Speyside
Glen Elgin 10-Year SMWS Cask 85.20
This bottle highlights my favorite thing about being a member of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. Having access to single-cask, cask-strength bottlings of rare and unusual whiskies, or rare and unusual expressions of not-so-rare whiskies, is a real treat. The fact that all of the bottles are so uniformly good, and some simply outstanding, is just the icing on the cake.
The bottle in question tonight is a 10-year old Glen Elgin aged in a refill sherry butt. This is a distillery whose inauspicious start and the many bumps along the road that it has experienced during its history perfectly illustrate the very ups and downs of the Scotch whisky industry as a whole. That today it appears in the guise of a special bottling from one of the most reputed Scotch whisky bottlers is a testament to both its tenacity and the wrinkles that good fortune can bring.
This Speyside distillery was founded in 1898 at the height of the late 19th-century whisky boom. It was designed by noted distillery architect Charles Chree Doig, famed for the pagoda-style roofs he built atop several distilleries at this time, including Aberlour, Dufftown, Balblair, and of course Glen Elgin. After two years of work, the distillery began operating in early May 1900, only to close 6 months later when the whisky bubble burst and worldwide demand plummeted.
In 1930 the distillery was purchased by the major conglomerate Scottish Malt Distillers, and became a principal component of the White Horse Blend. As a result, the distillery experienced sustained success for several decades (barring a brief closure during World War II). It was thoroughly rebuilt in 1964 when the number of stills was increased from two to six, and has been in continuous operation ever since.
Until recently it’s rarely been found in single-malt bottlings. Instead, the vast majority of the whisky goes into various blends, most notably White Horse. Overall production amounts to 1.8 million liters a year, which is certainly a respectable figure. It’s owned by United Distillers who market the Classic Malts series that includes distilleries such as Oban and Talisker. Word is that they’ve chosen Glen Elgin as one of the next whiskies to begin including in this series. Their website does indeed include Glen Elgin, but I don’t recall having seen it in shops as of yet.
As most distilleries do who produce whisky largely for blending purposes, Glen Elgin uses both bourbon and sherry casks for aging their whiskies. Their four dunnage style warehouses are all onsite.
Tasting Notes
This is bottle number 85.20 from the Society, and has been named “Woweee!” by the tasting committee. It’s been bottled at 60.2% and is 1 of 650 bottles from a refill sherry butt that was filled in September 1999.
In the glass the whisky is the color of polished gold, with alluring amber highlights. The nose has inviting notes of fresh forest air, followed by light citrus notes that lead to vanilla custard, grade A maple syrup, and lastly some dry, oaky notes. The dram takes time to open up in the glass and reveal all of its nuances, but it’s worth the wait. Don’t rush this one! The palate is velvety, warm, and viscous. The flavors are rich and warming, and include caramel custard, candied orange peels, warm brown sugar cookies, and an undercurrent of citrus and maltiness. The finish is medium length, tantalizingly lingering, fruity, and sweet.
Another impressive bottling from the Society. The whiskies I’ve loved most from them have been their single sherry casks, most notably a 24-year old first-fill Inchgower named “A Farmer’s Friend”. What a whisky it was! Deep, deep sherried whisky flavors – caramelized brown sugars, glazed spiral ham, red raspberries and rum-soaked strawberries. Wow, I still remember it vividly.
One note on the Society’s new bottles – I’m not sure I’m sold. The shape is not really to my liking, a bit too eccentric to me. Reminds me a lot of the Bowmore bottles that also turn me off a bit. But, what I do like is the design of the labels and the info they’ve included. Now is included the type of cask, the name and number of the whisky, the Committee’s tasting notes, the bottle count, and on the back, a pithy little statement that reads,
We, the Tasting Panel, verify that the Scotch Malt Whisky inside this bottle has been passed under some of the most scrupulous noses in the world and approved for release as a Society bottling. Only single cask whiskies that promise to intrigue, entertain, and delight our members are selected, true to our motto: ‘To Leave No Nose Upturned’
I’ve always loved the tasting notes the Society includes in their newsletters and bottling lists, and this statement sums up quite aptly the Society’s tongue-in-cheek style.
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Gordon & MacPhail Longmorn 30 Year
This Gordon & MacPhail Longmorn was one of the whiskies that we featured at last weekend’s tasting at Amherst Coffee. The event came off really well, full of great whiskies and great people. I definitely think fun was had by all. In the end, each whisky showed very, very well – even the “palate warmer” that we threw in to start things off. But then, a Murray McDavid 11-year Isle of Arran is no slouch!
I was very excited to include an old Longmorn in the tasting. All of the older specimens of Longmorn that I’ve been lucky enough to try have been outstanding. It’s undoubtedly a whisky that ages very gracefully, which is no surprise given its pedigree as a top-class malt.* And so it was with no lack of excitement that we placed this whisky next-to-last in the tasting, in order to give it some room to shine. (Our last whisky was a cask-strength, 25-year Strathisla. But more on that later…)
This whisky was distilled in 1979, and bottled in 2009. It was bottled at 40%, which I can’t help but feel is really a shame. It’s the one downside to Gordon & MacPhail’s otherwise excellent lineup of single malts, most of which are wonderful bargains given their great quality. But their tendency to bottle at such low percentages, 40-43%, is a disappointment. They also chill filter many of their whiskies, this one included. You can’t help but wonder how the whisky would have tasted otherwise, how much flavor and character was lost.
But, that being said. What we’ve got here is a very fine whisky nonetheless.
Tasting Notes
The whisky is the color of light gold. The nose has lemon drops and pears alongside sweet, grainy, floral notes. The palate is soft and delicate, with a buttery, mouth-coating roundness. Lightly sweet, oaky flavors of resin, honey, and vanilla are balanced alongside warm, malty notes of beeswax and brioche. Subtle citrus notes float around in this mix of flavors. The finish is dry and only lightly sweet, with prominent flavors of beeswax and bread. The finish is quite long and smoothyl transitions from initially subtly sweet to very malty and mellow.
All in all, this is a very balanced whisky, with it’s age showing in the combination of oaky dryness, balanced sweet and malty flavors, and buttery, mouth-coating texture. Actually, the thing I liked best was how dry it was. The flavors of brioche, bread dough, and beeswax were wonderful, and those were the ones that really lingered on your palate.
I would love to see this whisky bottled at a few points higher, and not chill-filtered, but in the meantime have to say that this is another good bargain from Gordon & MacPhail.
*In his Miscellany of Whisky, Charles MacLean cites a small group of top-class malts, whiskies that were highly regarded by blenders for their ability to add that last little bit of something to their blends. The full list included: Aultmore, Benrinnes, Cragganmore, Glen Elgin, Glen Grant, Glenlivet, Glenlossie, Glenrothes, Linkwood, Longmorn, Macallan, and Mortlach.
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Aberlour A’Bunadh Batch #21
When it comes right down to it, I’m not sure that I’m much for subtlety. Smoky, heavily-peated whiskies were my starting point in the world of scotch. The smokier the better, and it took me a year or two to get ‘off the island’, as it were. Slowly my palate adapted and I was able to discern the nuances in a wider range of whiskies, from peaty-beasts to delicate, unpeated whiskies. And so next I turned my eyes toward heavily-sherried whiskies. Nuance be damned.
Whereas smoky whiskies are relatively common, heavily sherried whiskies are relatively more rare. Many are one-off single cask bottlings, such as the 25-year single-cask G&M Strathisla or the 24-year single-cask, cask-strength SMWS Inchgower that I tried recently. Whiskies such as these, great though they are, are both hard to find and expensive. And this is where the beauty of the A’Bunadh comes in.
Yet here is a massively sherried whisky, up there with some of the most heavily sherried ones that you can find. But instead of being scarce it is one of Aberlour’s regular bottlings, nearly always available. And what’s more, it is very affordable. For a whisky of this impact and quality, that’s a tough combination to beat.
Aberlour was originally established in 1826, and since then has been rebuilt a couple of times following massive fires. Today, it remains one of the few whisky distilleries using a very high proportion of sherry casks, ranging anywhere from 25-50% of their casks in use at any one time. Today their regular bottlings are a 12-year and a 16-year, alongside the A’Bunadh. The 12 and 16-year both use a process that Aberlour calls “double-matured”, whereby the whisky from two separate casks, one sherry one bourbon, are blended together and then left to age for an additional period of time for the flavors to marry. Both of these are also quite nice whiskies, and also great values.
A’Bunadh translates as “the origin” in Gaelic, and this whisky definitely gives the impression of coming practically straight from the cask. A’Bunadh was first released in 1997, and since then Aberlour has released 25 different batches. Each batch is drawn from a single sherry cask (sherry casks, known as “butts”, can hold up to 500 liters, or 132 gallons, or somewhere in the realm of 600+ bottles), and bottled at cask-strength. As a result, each batch is slightly different from others, due to the nuances of single-cask aging. The A’Bunadh has no age statement on the bottle, but indications are that it is generally around 8 years.
This bottling, from batch #21 was bottled at 59.5%.
The whisky pours with a wonderful viscosity, and is a dark, amber red, the color of polished mahogany. The nose is rich with classic sherried whisky notes of almonds, red wine, raspberries, and melted brown sugar. This is a whisky that I could thoroughly enjoy just nosing all day long. The palate is velvety and unctuous, heavily textured with mouth-coating oils and flavors. The flavor profile is similar to that of the nose, with brown sugar, candied almonds, creme caramel, and unfiltered honey. The palate is just teeming with flavor, and the high percentage really makes it buzz with activity. A little water mellows things out, but you really have to start at full-throttle, to experience all of the whisky-goodness of the A’Bunadh. The finish is very long-lasting with flavors of marzipan, honey, and red fruit. Very lingering and enticing.
Wow. The A’Bunadh is just a fabulous whisky. If you enjoy sherried whiskies, or just whisky in general, you simply must grab a dram of this. Even better, make sure that you have some time and good company to sit with this whisky and really enjoy it to its fullest.
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Glenallachie 13 Year SMWS Cask 107.6
It’s a rare treat when you have a chance to sample a bottle of Glenallachie whisky. This is because, of the roughly 3-million liters of whisky that they produce each year, almost none of it is bottled as a single malt. I’ve definitely never seen it bottled on its own before, and so was pretty excited at the prospect of trying this offering from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society.
Glenallachie is a Speyside distillery that was built in 1967 by Mackinlay Macpherson Ltd., one of the big scotch whisky conglomerates of the time. According to Robin Laing they were looking for “a fine, subtle, delicate, complex malt for blending purposes.”* It later passed into the hands of Invergordon Distillers Group, and is now part of Pernod Ricard’s portfolio of distilleries. Today it serves the same purpose that it did back in 1967, producing millions of liters of whisky that is used almost entirely for blending purposes. Specifically, it is a part of the following blends: MacKinlay’s, King’s Ransom, Clan Campbell, Legendary, White Horse, and House of Lords. Phew!
The SMWS has named this bottling “A Summer Meadow”. It spent 13 years aging in a refill bourbon hogshead, and was bottled at a whopping 59%.
The color is very light gold, reminiscent of sauvignon blanc. The nose has elements of vanilla saltwater taffy, sugar cookies, and citrus, underscored by warm, malty notes. The palate kicks off with zinging, tart citrus flavors, prickling above an undercurrent of creamy lemon pudding. There is a slightly smoky note kicking around as well. The body has a plush, soft texture, and a nice, mouth-coating oiliness while not being too heavy. The finish is lithe but rich, with citrus, taffy, and mineral flavors.
This is a wholly satisfying and easy drinking whisky. I was particularly taken with the surprising amount of body that it had considering its very light color. As well, the flavors that it presented were intriguingly contrasting and eye-opening. It really is a “subtle, delicate, and complex malt”!
*Laing, Robin. The Whisky River, p. 116
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Signatory Linkwood 9 Year
Linkwood is a whisky that you rarely find in single malt bottlings, and for the vast majority of those you do find (and I believe all that you’ll find in the U.S.) we have the independent bottlers to thank. I wrote a bit a couple of weeks back about independent bottlers when I was talking about a Blackadder Longmorn bottling. At the time, I mentioned that there were only a few independent bottlers that I found to be reliable sources of bottles, and among those was Signatory.
Signatory is, along with Gordon & MacPhail, one of the two most common independent bottlers you’re likely to find in shops in the U.S. They produce a wide range of bottlings, including lots of distilleries, many of whom are no longer with us. They also have a couple of different series of bottlings, including a cask-strength series, and an un-chill-filtered series. This last has been a source of some very surprising bottles that I’ve tried, including heavily peated versions of Bunnahabhain and Benriach (both malts whose distillery bottlings have historically been unpeated).
They’re also the source of perhaps the single most amazing scotch I’ve ever had the remarkable good fortune to try. It was a single-cask bottling of Ardbeg, distilled in 1967 and aged in oloroso sherry casks for 30 years. I don’t know how it was that I was lucky enough to try this whisky, but I’m so glad I did. Now that I’ve tasted scotch-perfection, I know just how amazing whisky can be.
And so I was intrigued and excited when a friend came to town with a Signatory bottling of Linkwood. Surprisingly, I’d never tried a Linkwood whisky before (I even went back and checked my records to be sure), and since it came from a sherry cask I figured it was a great place to start. But it was also a 375ml bottle, a size I had never seen whisky in before. It seemed the perfect combination for a night of dramming.
Linkwood is located in northern part of the Speyside region. It was founded in 1824 and has been rebuilt/refurbished three times since then, in 1873, 1963, and 1971 when it was expanded from 2 to 6 stills. One of the infamous stories about Linkwood concerns Roderick MacKenzie, the distillery manager in the 1940′s and 50′s. He was so superstitious about maintaining the quality and characteristics of Linkwood’s whisky that he “strove to avoid any change that might impact adversely on the whisky quality, even issuing an edict to not remove cobwebs in the still-house.”*
Today it’s a large distillery, turning out 2.6 million liters per year, but only 1-2% of this goes for single malt bottling. Of that 1-2%, the majority goes into bottles for the Flora & Fauna series, an excellent series of whiskies put out by United Malt & Grain Distilleries (only available in the UK). The whiskies in this series tend to be somewhat rare in single malt bottlings, owing to the fact that the majority of these distilleries’ products go into UMD’s various blends. The list below is slightly dated (from 2006), but gives a good picture of what is included in the series:
- Aberfeldy 15 Years
- Aultmore 12 Years
- Balmenach 12 Years
- Benrinnes 15 Years
- Bladnoch 10 Years
- Blair Athol 12 Years
- Caol Ila 15 Years
- Clynelish 14 Years
- Craigellachie 14 Years
- Dailuaine 16 Years
- Dufftown 15 Years
- Glendullan 12 Years
- Glenlossie 10 Years
- Inchgower 14 Years
- Linkwood 12 Years
- Mannochmore 12 Years
- Mortlach 16 Years
- Pittyvaich 12 Years
- Rosebank 12 Years
- Royal Brackla 10 Years
- Speyburn 12 Years
- Teaninich 10 Years
So many great distilleries in there that are so hard to find in single malt bottlings!
This bottle from Signatory is quite unique. It was distilled on May 31, 1988 and bottled in June 1997, at the tender age of 9 years. It comes from two sherry butts, numbers 2757 and 2758, and was bottled at 43%.
The whisky has the appearance of lightly burnished gold. Despite the low 43%, it looks like it has some good body to it, with some decent legs. The nose has scents of ripe red berries, hints of cinnamon, pepper, and nutmeg, all of which are underscored by pleasantly warming sweet lightly sherried notes. The palate has a wonderfully soft and velvety texture. Sweet flavors of caramel, dessert wine, ripe grapes, a wisp of smoke, are layered together with a surprising amount of depth. Warming alcohol catches a bit of fire at the back of the palate, and this is really the only place that the scotch’s youthfulness shows. Following on this the finish kicks off with citrus and apple flavors, giving way to a brightening acidity, mixed with a tingling alcohol.
A very fine whisky indeed, and perfect as a bridge between winter and summer (whiskies). While I firmly believe that scotch plays well in any season, you definitely need to pick the right scotch for the occasion. In this case, I could actually see this whisky fitting in well in any season, but it seems to work most perfectly somewhere in-between the heavy, smoky whiskies that are so satisfying in the winter and the lighter bodied whiskies that hit the spot in the summer.
What is more, Linkwood clearly makes some nice whisky. They’re one of the several distilleries whose bottles I have looked at on many an occasion, considered, but passed on for one reason or another. After tasting this bottle I realize what I’ve been missing. Time to begin keeping an eye out for others, perhaps a slightly older version, maybe even something from the Society…
*Quote from The Whisky River, Robin Laing, p. 48
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