
Mars 28, 2022

Excellent New Scottish cats special

We haven't got enough of each to warrant come proper 'solo' sessions, but that time will come. In the meantime…
A blue Scottish fold. Just couldn't resist ->

Dalmunach 6 yo 2015/2021 (50%, Claxton's Exploration Series, red wine barrique)

Right, a red wine finish, so I doubt we'll manage to get to the core of Chivas's Dalmunach today. Colour: salmon/blush wine. Thighs of a moved nymph, as 18th century painters would have said. Nose: fun. Burnt strawberry cake, natural rubber, Lambrusco and stewed peaches. Whiffs of peonies. With water: a little smoke, hints of bay leaves, Timut pepper, leaven, baker's yeast…Mouth (neat): but-this-is-good. Strawberry cake, touch of rubber once more, vine peaches and now wham-bam raspberries and cassis. Phew. With water: pretty good! No deviant berries, rather more malt, kriek, maraschino and just one goji berry. For glory. Finish: medium, perhaps more on blood oranges, with some terry pepper and some discreet cloves. Comments: this has been done with restraint. Extremely far from the disaster I was expecting, even more so after I had checked the colour.
SGP:651 - 84 points.

Ardnamurchan 6 yo 2015/2022 (57.1%, WhiskySponge, 48A, refill barrel, 163 bottles)

Colour: white wine. Nose: perhaps the best within the new wave of peaters. Very precise, chiselled, with subtle tar (Pirelli – ha) and coal, then olive oil. When olive oil comes through, I am happy. With water: burnt butter, olives, cigar ashes, smoked sausage. Mouth (neat): even better on the palate. A feeling of coal-smoked olives, which they would have then let marinate in a blend of Jamaican rum and mezcal. Something like that. With water: we need to see the papers, where it says 'Scotland'. Finish: long, olive-y, almost bacterial. Big smoky ashes in the aftertaste. Comments: straight from a Scottish muck pit. I was ready to go to 88, until I noticed that it was only 6. I do what I want.
SGP:367 - 88 points.

Ardnamurchan 6 yo (53%, WhiskySponge, 48B, refill and 1st fill barrel, 163 bottles)

The Sponge may have done some blending here, which collectors always… fear. Colour: white wine. Nose: this is much gentler than 48A, more on grist, pancake, banana skin and, indeed, a tarry smokiness which, this time, behaved. Rather sadly, the olives and the mezcal are gone. With water: a bit in the middle. Mouth (neat): peatier on the palate, more tropical as well. Smoked bananas and maracuja cream. I mean, smoked maracuja cream. Then more saltiness, brine, lemons, oysters and… some Jamaicanness! With water: water almost puts it back into the same cluster as that of 48A, even if it remains 'lighter'. Finish: same. Comments: some Talisker-level smoke here. To be honest and after careful thinking, I like it the same as cask #48A. It just needs a little more of your time.
SGP:454 – 88 points.

Ardnamurchan 7 yo 2014/2022 (57.1%, WhiskySponge, 48C, 1st fill bourbon barrel, 163 bottles)

All right, I think I can see the plot now. Colour: golden straw. Nose: crushed bananas and croissants, white Bordeaux (Pessac – do you say white claret in English?) plus jelly babies, marshmallows, fermenting pineapples and pancake dough. With water: sameish. Nice doughy and fermentary tropicalness. Mouth (neat): sweet vanilla, mangos, passion fruits and bananas. Typical good malt distillate in fresh American oak, well taken care of. With water: more on sweet barley, grenadine, even cranberry. Finish: long, leafier. Hops and pomegranates. Comments: I'm thinking of ex-BB Bimber, I don't know why. Perhaps my Boris side.
SGP:641 - 88 points.

All right, I would suppose the equation was 48A + 48C = 48B. Good one! (I swear to Vishnu that I was not in the know). What's dead sure is that in my book, all three were equally very good. But let's move on…

Nc'Nean 2017/2021 'AON' (59.6%, OB for Kirsch Import, sherry hogshead, cask #17-257, 208 bottles)

AON? Wasn't that a rather dreadful movie with Charlize Theron? The price is insane here (169€), but you never know, platinum is expensive too… Colour: red amber. Nose: feels American. Westland and stuff. Wood oils, marmalade, pinewood, gingerbread. With water: gingerbread glazed with marc de gewurz mixed with orange blossom water and icing sugar, plus a metallic touch. Copper tones. It is about wood. Mouth (neat): good thick spicy gingerbread and ten tons of liquorice allsorts. With water: same plus a huge pecan pie and Trappist sauce. I mean, you take one litre of Westmalle or a Rochefort and you let it simmer in a copper pan for about half a day. Finish: and it goes on. The entire world's production of Jaffa cakes. Comments: welcome to the year 2023. I mean, 2022. I cannot not agree that this Tesla of malt whisky is well made, but it sure isn't a Miura. Make sense of that if you can. Seriously, I cannot not like it a lot (why all those double negatives, S.?)
SGP:661 - 85 points.

A last new cat, possibly just the opposite…

Daftmill 2009/2021 (60.7%, OB for Kirsch Import, 1st fill oloroso butt, cask #024/2009, 627 bottles)

Aren't those people at Kirsch's firing on all (twelve) cylinders these days? Always at the cutting edge… And did you notice that this was 11 or 12, already? Colour: gold. Nose: luminous banana and mango cakes covered with manuka honey, with a little tar liqueur and probably a drop of spent engine oil. A drop of miso soup as well. First fill oloroso or not first fill oloroso, at 11+ Daftmill seems to be going fractal… With water: pinewood, brake pad (after a good race, as we use to say) and various tiny fermentary elements. Especially Japanese, Chinese and Vietnamese sauces. Mouth (neat): my my my my… You've just met Tyson in some back street and shouldn't have started joking about Holyfield's right ear. Massive whisky. With water: calms down but remains thick, spicy, sweet and salty, and to be honest, not that far from the extravagant and slightly tiring Nc'Nean. Finish: eternal and glorious, full of oils and peppers. Comments: soupy and very impressive but to be honest, it is not impossible that I would prefer gentler and slightly leaner ex-HHD or ASB Daftmills. We remain ready and welcoming…
SGP:562 - 88 points.

Maybe one more…

Annandale 6 yo 2015/2021 (61%, The Whisky Chamber, bourbon barrel, cask #449, 343 bottles)

I believe it's the first time we're formally trying Annandale, from the Lowlands, where they started 'burning' in 2014 although an older Annandale Distillery had been working until the year 1924. The new Distillery is famous for having put a price tag of £1,000,000 on their first cask, which, I have to add, did pull a lot of healthy guffaws. Not sure the Veblen effect works like that. Colour: white wine. Nose: the room is full of pears and grist, whilst some fruity beers are coming out too, but the strength is high and may block it a wee bit, let's see… With water: fatter, creamier, with rather a lot of sunflower oil and marzipan, even some suntan lotion, with whiffs of coconut, karite butter and all that, then crystallised citrons and oranges. Very fine now that H2O did its job, but water is totally mandatory here. Quinces coming out after a minute or two, which just always works. Mouth (neat): raw and brutal, which is perfectly normal, mind you. Big rubbery pepper, bay leaves and leather. With water: perhaps a little pepper in excess, otherwise just finely citrusy and almondy. Would anyone accept to try to make peppered marzipan, not just marzipan using bitter almonds? Finish: long, on pepper and lemon foam, with some paraffin in the aftertaste. A tiny touch of iron too, or silver spoon, and even a hint of camphor, as well as a peatiness. Comments: very fine, if not 1Mio-fine.
SGP:453 - 84 points.

Another first on WF…

Strathearn 4 yo 2014/2018 (57.4%, A Few Barrels Company, Uniqueness Of The Cask Collection, New charred American oak octave, cask #081, 57 bottles)

Strathearn 4 yo 2014/2018 (57.4%, A Few Barrels Company, Uniqueness Of The Cask Collection, New charred American oak octave, cask #081, 57 bottles)
Strathearn, lovely place! I believe the Thompson Bros. have got some new Strathearn too, including one that we even helped making (well we were doing the talking and joking). Colour: gold. Nose: creamy, with this feeling of nosing a whole assortment pack of banana foams, strawberry marshmallows and just jellybean allsorts. Some vanilla too, naturally. With water: sweet sawdust, polenta, houmous, chickpea, maize bread… Mouth (neat): geared towards melon cake or something like that. The sweet oak is a little loud I have to say, with a lot of coconut, also ginger and white pepper. Tricky octaves… With water: and there, success, all you needed was a good water and a proper pipette. Pink grapefruits, touches of turmeric, perhaps ginseng… That's all nice and finely spicy, without getting over the top. Finish: medium, sweet and creamy. Citron liqueur with some pepper and indeed, turmeric. Or gin. Some cocktail! Comments: some ups and some down but it clearly ended on the upside. Another one to watch, the whole mission is getting complicated, is it not.
SGP:551 – 85 points

Good one, we went straight from complaining about the +/-20 or 25 distilleries that were shut down in the early 1980s and 1990s to moaning about the fact that there are too many new distilleries in Scotland. Are we ever happy?

Good, truly a last one…

Isle of Raasay 'Release no.2' (46.4%, OB, batch #R-02, 7500 bottles, 2021)

This baby from the 2016 and 2017 vintages. They've used quite some 'cask bill', basically ex-rye whiskey, fresh Chinkapin oak, and first fill Bordeaux red wine. It seems that it is also a self-blend of unpeated and peated Raasay. Colour: straw. Nose: this feeling of pinewood-smoked bananas, plus porridge, cream cheese (hey Suzy! Sorry, Zappa fans only) and craft weissbeer. It is very fermentary and I would say the smoke only makes that feeling even bigger. I cannot find any Médoc, St Emilion or Pomerol, having said that, but I'm not sure I'm going to lodge a complaint. Mouth: I think this is nicer than batch 1. Much fruitier than on the nose, although still rather singular (pink pepper, cream cheese, pomegranates, pears, soot, cider, turmeric this time again…) Finish: medium, on some kind of sour smokiness and rather chenin blanc than cabernet, if you ask me. No, last time I checked they were not growing any chenin blanc in Bordeaux and with global warming, I doubt they'll ever do it. Spanish varietals might be next… (oloroso Pomerol, that would have style, no?) But I'm babbling… Comments: up 3 points in my book since general release #1.
SGP:653 - 83 points.