Single Movie Single Malt: Horror Express (1972) + Banff 17 year old 1976 Cadenhead

Since I missed running out my Mathilda Malt series back in May, now's a good time as any to review the whiskies that I'd selected to celebrate her 11th birthday. Also, I've been watching some grown-up movies. Time to lob all sorts of stuff your direction, like last year.

Horror Express (1972)

pic source

Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, and Telly Savalas fighting evil on a train? Yes. Please.

Though this wasn't a Hammer Horror production, Chris and Pete still deliver LOL-level dialogue with unmatched elegance in Horror Express. It's a period piece too, so the fellas can dress up, and Cushing even gets to handle a comically large shotgun.

Using a set borrowed from Nicholas and Alexandra, the production hides its low budget well whenever the baddie isn't on screen. The train cars look great, as do the costumes. The editing waffles between awkward, competent, and (unintentionally?) comic, while the direction is......present.

In 1906, scientician Sir Saxton (played by Lee) finds a two-million-year-old ape man frozen somewhere in China, then boxes it up and hauls it onto a Trans-Siberian train. Then the dumbest characters immediately start dying. Saxton's frenemy Dr. Wells (played by Cushing), tries to find out WHAT'S IN THE BOX and then teams up with the scientist and an inspector (Julio Peña) to solve the crime and stop the evilness. About an hour into the story, Telly Savalas appears, all dick-swanging and cigar-chomping, portraying a Cossack general without even attempting an accent. (He and his troops only serve to stretch the film out to its 88-minute length.) Will Dracula, Dr. Frankenstein, and Kojak outwit the evil not-just-an-ape-man on the train? Or will they all say screw it, hop off at Kharkiv, and do vodka shots until the snow melts?

Eyes are the key to the film. Violence happens through the eyes and to the eyes. And the mystery of the evil thing is solved via a disembodied eyeball in a scene that I had to watch thrice to ascertain it was intended to be funny. (Answer: Probably not.) And though brains are revealed, the zombies near the film's conclusion have nothing to do with said brains.

As much as I may jest about the film overall, most of the WTF questions I wrote down during the film were actually answered by the script. I would absolutely watch it again, though the tale itself would be even better as a sci-fi short story or novella, one with a skeptical tone and more trepanning.

Verdict - Who loves ya baby? Me, kinda.

---

Now the whisky part!

Distillery: Banff

Ownership: DCL (proto-Diageo)

Independent Bottler: Cadenhead

Range: Authentic Collection

Region: Speyside (Deveron)

Age: 17 years old (August 1976 - June 1994)

Maturation: ???

Outturn: ??? bottles

Alcohol by Volume: 60.5%

(sample from a bottle split)

Like the sibling cask I reviewed 10½(!) years ago, this Banff comes from Cadenhead's green glass era, which means nothing is really known about the maturation vessel and outturn. But I do love me some Banff, and this is my last Banff sample. Of course, four years ago I said I was on my last Banff sample then, so let's all make a wish on the morning star for another reasonable Banff bottle split to come my way. That's five Banffs (or six) in this paragraph, so I should be able to remember which distillery this whisky comes from.

NEAT

Malt, toffee, and dark chocolate appear first in the nose, followed by apricots and brine. And it works! There's a little bit of toasted oak and soap somewhere in the middle. After 45 minutes, notes of baklava and dusty books sneak out. The palate is loud but approachable, and quite creamy in texture. Tart nectarines, salt, burlap, and white chocolate dominate, with the soapy hint staying far in the background. It finishes very salty, with milder notes of metal, nectarines, and coal smoke.

DILUTED to ~46%abv, or nearly 2 tsp of water per 30mL whisky

The sunnier nose offers lemon peels, lime juice, moss, and barley grist, with musty oak and root beer hard candies in the back. The lightly sweet palate shows toasty oak with a hint of malt, Sugar Daddy candy and the tart stone fruit. It gets a bit minerally after a while. It finishes with salt and metal, tart fruit and bitter herbs, and the quiet coal smoke note.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

Many of these green glass bottle Cadenhead releases can be nearly undrinkable at full strength, so I appreciate that this Banff isn't rocket fuel. The nose, neat and diluted, is a complete treat, with a great balance of oak and spirit. The palate might require extensive dilution experiments to find its best spot, though I'm not sure how that would play out on a whisky that's occupied a sealed bottle for 30+ years. At 46%abv, the soap notes completely vanish and the flavors may be more balanced. Had the coal smoke appeared in the palate itself, and if the finish were longer, I'd give this whisky a bigger rave. Still, if this is my last Banff, I feel very lucky to have had this opportunity to taste it.

Availability - Secondary market
Pricing - ???

Rating - 87

WTF is this? Airem 14 year old, PX casks, Spanish single malt

I know I went halfsies on a bottle of this stuff, but right now I have only one ounce left, and I have no memory of having more than two glasses of this whiskey since the bottle split. So it's not going to be a TIRD, rather a WTF is this?

Really, WTF is Airem? I went through nearly 100 Google search results with no information about who made this stuff. Even the official Airem site doesn't mention a distillery. Everyone just has a lot of marketing blather about the snows of the Spanish Sierra Madre and Granada. I've been so used to innumerable American whiskey brands bragging about their local water and "production" when all the while they were just bottling diluted MGP bourbon and rye. So for a while, I suspected Airem was actually sourced from Scotland and watered down with Granada's tap water. But I think I figured out who made this whiskey.

As of 2024, Spain had 2 distilleries. One was Distilerio Molino del Arco, the folks who made the DYC blend, and then a few malts of their own. The other is a much newer Destilerias Liber founded in 2001 in......Granada. And they use former solera system PX casks. They sling a 5yo and 13yo en España, and have recently started limited batches that are around 14 years old. (Thank you, Ingvar Ronde and the stellar Malt Whisky Yearbook!)

Destilerias Liber if this is you, then flaunt it! Otherwise, some of your markets are going to doubt that this whisky was actually distilled in Spain.

If it isn't you then.....yay DYC?

Distillery: Destilerias Liber, posiblemente?
Brand: Airem
Region: Spain
Age: at least 14 years
Maturation: PX casks

Alcohol by Volume: 43%
Chillfiltered? I think so
Caramel Colorant? ???
(from a bottle split)

NOTES

A big whiff of hot fudge immediately hits the nose, followed by white grape juice. Old wet tree bark floats through the middle, while applesauce and prunes stay behind. The palate rumbles in rougher. Green wood, stale black raisins, bitter tannins, and semisweet chocolate register first. With time, floral and earthy notes offer some dimensions, until a massive burnt note takes over. It finishes vegetal and bitter, with a jammy PX lifting it up a little.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

It's whiskey, indeed. Contemporary stuff. Aging the whiskey in the Granada heat for 14 years has pushed the (actual solera?) PX casks all the way to the front, and I do mean both the PX and the oak. This must be a splintery beast at full strength. At 43%abv, it still fills one's mouth with tannins and dried grapes, which isn't a complete tragedy, though the burnt note is a bit odd. But the nose is very good, full of chocolate and fruit, thanks to all the extraction. This is another one of the rare instances wherein I'd be interested in trying a younger version from a distillery, something in the single digits, before the distillate has been clobbered by too many Spanish summers.

Availability - a few dozen US retailers
Pricing - $120 to $180
Rating - 79

Oban 21 year old 1996, Special Release 2018

Folks from my whisky generation are used to only seeing Oban's 14yo, Distillers Edition, and (occasionally) the 18yo on retailers' shelves. (Nowadays you whisky kids have an NAS and a host of young "Special Releases" to choose from.) So I always enjoy seeing older cask strength versions of Oban hit the market, even though they're usually priced well above any level I deem reasonable. Sometimes I'm able to join a bottle split, like I did with Diageo's other 21yo Oban release, which turned out to be a great whisky, and the 21yo SR that I'm reviewing today. A pour of a 2017 bottling of the 14 year old served as a warmup for this post.

Distillery: Oban
Ownership: Diageo
Range: Special Releases
Region: Western Highlands
Age: at least 21 years (1996-2018)
Maturation: Refill European Oak Butts
Alcohol by Volume: 57.9%
Limited Bottling: ???? bottles
Chillfiltered? No
e150a? Probably not
(from a bottle split)

NEAT

The nose starts off like a similarly-aged Glenburgie, full of fresh stone fruit. With this Oban, it's apricots! Pears, lemongrass, and damp moss fill the middle ground, while saline and crème brûlée linger in the background. Apricots, oranges, and tart cherry compote appear first in the palate, followed by roses and a whiff of wood smoke. It's slightly tannic and drying, though not too much so. It finishes with tart cherries, tart limes, and a tannic touch.

DILUTED to 46%abv, or 1½ tsp of water per 30mL whisky

More minerals and saline in the nose now. White peaches, golden raisins, and flower blossoms keep it bright. Cinnamon, nutmeg, and molasses move to the palate's fore, with minerals and tart berries in the aft. Oak spices, lemons, and salt finish it up.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

Lovely nose, decent palate. The oak doesn't ruin the palate, but something does seem to keep the whisky flavors from merging and ascending, keeping it from besting aforementioned similar Glenburgies. Experimenting with dilution might help. As always, my score arrives independent of the whisky's price, though the QPR here could be disappointing to those who buy a bottle.

Availability - Secondary market
Pricing - originally priced around $450, it's now $500-$700
Rating - 86

Things I Really Drink: Compass Box Artist Blend Single Marrying Cask, cask 4 for Binny's (with guest review!)

Generations (11 years?) ago, when Compass Box first released their Great King Street Artist's Blend, it received raves aplenty. But not from me. I thought it was unremarkable, though very drinkable. The 43%abv hurt it, as did the grain component.

Years later, Compass Box started offering exclusive retailer single casks of the blend at 49%abv. (Due to some sort of rebranding the Great King Street and 's were removed, making it "Artist Blend".) The prices tended to be pretty reasonable at $50-$60, so I picked up a bottle from Binny's last year.

This particular cask was an ex-Palo Cortado butt that had previously held Linkwood's single malt:

Though that cask sounds sort of random, there's actual method to it. One of the Doctors Springbank did some digging around, finding out that Linkwood Palo casks were part of Compass Box's Nectarosity blend. It had been a first-fill for Nectarosity, so CB found additional uses for it.

Linkwood is good stuff, and I do like me some Palo Cortado matured whisky, so the $50 sale price made it a given for me.

Unfortunately, I never really "got" the whisky. By the bottle's midpoint, I realized I appreciated it but didn't actually like it. With the looming possibility that I was missing something, I retained the services of both Doctors Springbank, requesting their tasting notes for this bottle. So first, I present ye with their review.

From the Doctors Springbank

Nose: Waxy, overnight oats with honey and orange marmalade. Pear and ginger. Pineapple upside down cake with orange zest 

Palate: Fresh milled barley, hay, walnuts, orange peel, Honey, apricot, white pepper.

Finish: Long lingering dry wood tannins

After sitting in the glass for 40 minutes

Nose: Vanilla tootsie roll, lemon poppyseed pancakes, hay

Palate: Muscovado sugar, poached pear, unripe banana, lemon zest, white pepper, 

Finish: Long dry bittersweet chocolate, walnuts.

Notes: Overall decent dram. It had overwhelmingly bourbon barrel characteristics. We had trouble finding the palo cortado influence.

Thank you both for your notes!

---

I did two separate tasting sessions. First, I compared it's highball side-by-side with that of Johnnie Walker Double Black and Hibiki Japanese Harmony. TIRDs aplenty! Then, on a different night, I consumed plenty of Artist Blend neatly. Here's what I found:

HIGHBALL

Lots of baking spice and caramel right up front. Butterscotch appears in later sips. Mostly vanilla at the bottom of the glass.

This follows the bourbon barrel reference from the Doctors. For what it's worth, I like this highball the least of the three.

NEAT

The nose starts with a curious mix of oranges, nectarines, steel wool, and almond extract. Some cherry bubblegum appears around the edges, with vanilla bean in the background. It gets more floral with time, picking up lemon cake notes. More oranges in the palate, now joined by Granny Smith apples and whole wheat bread. It's tart and acidic at first, then gets much sweeter with time, gaining ginger beer and rose notes. Its decent-length finish offers mostly tart and tangy citrus, dusty spices, vanilla, and ginger candy, also growing sweeter with time.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

I'm relieved to see we found similar notes, like oranges and lemon (pan)cakes on the nose; oranges, grain, and sugar in the palate; and woody stuff in the finish. I also can't find the Palo Cortado cask in this, just lots of bourbon barrel action and sweet grain whisky. Could this have been a third-fill, with Nectarosity being #1, the Linkwood Artist Blend element as #2, and the marrying cask as #3? Or did that first blend soak up all the good stuff?

The now-archived Artist Blend was only 45% 11yo first-fill bourbon barrel Cameronbridge grain whisky, yet that ingredient shouts the loudest, with young Linkwood and young Balmenach offering secondary notes.

Having now focused on the whisky in a tasting, I do like it more that I had before. Still, I'm in no hurry to pour another glass of this. When I do, it'll be served neat or with a few drops of water.

Availability - Binny's Beverage Depot
Pricing - $60, or $50 on sale
Rating - 80 (neat only)

Things I Really Drink: Hibiki Japanese Harmony

Speaking of Japan, Hibiki Japanese Harmony blended whisky graces my glass today. I had tried this before and found it uninspiring. Its fancier cousin (the Master's Select) left me feeling the same. So why on earth did I buy a full bottle of the stuff at Binny's last year? Well...

• I'm smitten by highballs during these Midwest summers.
• Fond remembrances of age-stated Hibiki.
• Friends encouraged me to give it another try.
• I adore the bottle shape, those lovely 24 facets.
• It was on sale for $79.99. Yeah, a real frickin' bargain. 😐

Since I've almost finished the bottle, I can start to drop spoilers. Am I sorry I bought the whisky? No. Am I going to buy it again? Not unless I find for clearance prices someday.

Hibiki Japanese Harmony blended whisky has a 🙂 side and a 🙁 side. Before I use any more emojis, I should just begin the review.

Ownership: Beam Suntory
Brand: Hibiki
Type: Blended whisky
Country: Japan
Distilleries: Yamazaki and Hakushu for malt, Chita for grain
Age: ???
Maturation: "The spirit ages in five types of casks, including rare Japanese oak Mizunara, as well as sherry and bourbon casks."
Alcohol by Volume: 43%

NEAT

There's a lot of moderately-aged grain whisky in the nose. It's bready and floral, with touches of toasted oak, lychee candy, banana, and vanilla. That toasted oak registers louder in the palate, with lots of baking spices to go with mild tannins. Wheat and flowers, oranges and maple. Gently sweet. It finishes sweeter with more oranges and straightforwards oak.

HIGHBALL

Dangerously refreshing. The sweetness remains mild, yet the citrus reads more varied and complex than when the whisky is sipped neatly, while the wheat shifts towards barley.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

The contents of this bottle of Hibiki Japanese Harmony have disappeared very quickly via spring and summer highballs. Yes, using an $80 whisky for highballs is obnoxious, but if one is to do so, the bubbly results had better be damned good. And they are. At the same time, I like Suntory Toki's highballs too, and that blend is one-third the price of Harmony here in Ohio. And I'm not going to say a word about Suntory's magical $15 blend in Japan. Circling back to Harmony, I wouldn't suggest drinking it neatly, it wasn't engineered for that purpose. The right balance of bubbles though...

Availability - Wide
Pricing - $70-$120 in the US, $90-$160 in Europe
Rating - 82 (highballs only, when neat it's 5-10 points lower)

Things I Really Drink: Johnnie Walker Double Black (2023)

One night, towards the end of my 2024 Japan trip, my friend who lives in Ikebukuro took me to a neighborhood bar near his home. A sign behind the bar listed their monthly special, a Johnnie Walker Double Black highball for 500 yen. I will repeat that: 500 yen. That was $3.50 at the time. So I ordered one, then another, and maybe a third.

Before that night, I had not been a fan of Johnnie Walker Double Black. That's 13 years. And that all changed when the first highball hit my lips. Yes, I'll happily accept any highball fashioned by a professional in Japan. But these JWDB highballs eclipsed my expectations immediately.

Several months later, back in Ohio, I purchased a bottle of Double Black (for $45, yikes!) and opened it as soon as I returned home from the OHLQ store. A highball was assembled posthaste. And it was good. So, yes, a Johnnie Walker product is a Thing I Really Drink.

Theoretically it shouldn't work. Double Black is louder — heavier char on the cask and more peated malt — and younger than standard Black Label, yet costs 25-35% more. I should be doing my Old Man Yells at Cloud shtick about this whisky. But screw it. The whisky works.

Ownership: Diageo

Brand: Johnnie Walker

Type: Blended Whisky

Region: Emphasis on Islay and West Coast malts

Age: ???

Maturation: Heavily charred casks

Bottle code: L3309

Alcohol by Volume: 40%

Chillfitered? Yep

e150? Indeed

NEAT

The nose arrives in layers. First, a mix of peppery smoke and woody smoke, with sea salt caramels and metal. Then: nectarines, apple skins, and seashells. After some time in the glass, the whisky releases quiet notes of mercurochrome, maple, and flowers. The palate has a creamy dessert-y side, like its sibling 12yo, but it has plenty of smoke and bitterness — more Caol Ila than Talisker — to balance it out. Oysters and iron follow, as does a wee bit of vanilla in the background. It finishes sweeter, saltier, and tangier that the palate, with less smoke. Its length is impressive for heavily filtered and diluted whisky.

HIGHBALL

It offers the saltier side of peat, along with considerable earthiness. Though there are hints of Werther's candies in the background, the sweetness remains mild throughout.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

Highballs can be crisp, refreshing, and sweet, but rarely (if ever) does one made from a 40%abv blend generate actual tasting notes. But Johnnie Walker Double Black does it. I like its saltiness a lot, and should probably try to pair up some snacks with the drink. The blend is also enjoyable when neat, which has caught me offguard as well. So, yes, it is better than the standard 12yo Black, neat or bubbled, according to my palate. Keep in mind, it doesn't top some of its ingredients' older siblings, like Caol Ila 12yo or Talisker 10yo, but for a mass-produced blend watered down to the max by its producer, it is very good, especially when enjoyed with bubbly water (at your preferred ratio) and ice on a summer's evening. Bottle emptied.

Availability - Wide
Pricing - $35-$65 in the US and Europe
Rating - 85

A Highland Distillery 37 year old 1985 Cadenhead's Club

Though none of these three whiskies were world beaters (oops, SPOILER ALERT), it's still a tremendous pleasure to drink these old Glenmos after consuming American whiskies 1/5 to 1/10 their age for the past few weeks. As a an added plus, none of these three malts (SPOILER ALERT) were tannic oaky beasts.

It's time for me to switch verb tenses and move on to the last of the trio.

Distillery: Glenmorangie

Ownership: LVMH

Region: Highlands

Independent Bottler: Cadenhead

Range: Cadenhead's Club

Age: 37 years old (1985 - 2022)

Maturation: "Bourbon"

Outturn: 318 bottles (not a single cask)

Alcohol by Volume: 46.1%
(from a bottle split)

NOTES

Ah, the most complex nose of the group. Crème brûlée w/ orange zest, talcum powder, and dried apricots up top; a mix of apples and pears, like a Calvados Domfrontais in the middle; dusty and floral with a pinch of baking spices in the back.

On the palate, picture limoncello but with much less sugar. Apricots, peaches, and a squeeze of lime. Toasty oak spice and a little bit of good bitterness. Never too sweet...

...though the finish is sweeter. Mint candy and lemon candy. Oak spice and some of the palate's bitterness.

WORDS WORDS WODRS

The two Cadenhead bottlings fought it out for my favorite from this group. This one has more angles, but also shows more oak, while the other one offers more drinking pleasures, so I'll give Thursday's 37yo "A Highland Distillery" the slight edge. I'd be happy to own a bottle of either......if 30+ year old whiskies were anywhere near my budget. If your budget is broader, and you want a birthday (or child's birthday) bottle of good drinkin', these secret Glenmorangies might be for you.

Availability - Secondary market, maybe
Pricing - probably around the same price as its kin
Rating - 88