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

Four age-stated Hakata whiskies

What exactly is Hakata Whisky? I sent emails to a couple official folks last year, but never received a response, so it's time to source second-to-thirdhand answers from the internets. Please keep that in mind.

The spirit is distilled in Japan, specifically the Fukuoka region, by Hikari-Shuzo Co. Ltd, a shōchū producer. It's a single-distilled spirit made from barley, a portion of which is fermented with the wonderful Koji mold, the happy critter than helps make shōchū and sake. The remaining portion may be unmalted barley, which may or may not make up two-thirds of the mashbill. Despite what the official site says, today's whiskies were not distilled at Hikari Distillery, a facility that opened only 4 or 5 years ago.

So is Hakata aged shōchū? I don't know. In the past, Japan has resisted applying the "Whisky" label to aged spirits distilled like shōchū. But America has not hesitated to do so.

Hakata's standard range includes today's 10yo, 12yo, 16yo, and 18yo, all bottled at 42%abv and aged in sherry casks. By the looks of the liquid, those were some very wet casks.

The Fukuoka Four

Hakata 10 year old 42%abv	Hakata 12 year old 42%abv	Hakata 16 year old 42%abv	Hakata 18 year old 42%abv
The nose is an utter sherry blast, fruitier than Oloroso, but drier than PX. There are some stewed berries in mulled wine, followed by honey, Andes candies, and paper pulp in up front. Hints of vanilla and mustiness stay behind.	This nose is mustier and earthier than the 10's. It's a mix of semi-sweet chocolate, nocino, simple brandy, shoe polish and molasses. WINNER	This is the grapiest nose of the four, with does of PX and balsamic vinegar. Brazil nuts and milk chocolate fill the middle, while mint and Luxardo syrup remain in the back.	Gunpowder and soy sauce make up most of the nose. Other notes include cornbread topped with blueberry jam, brine, and urea. This is one dirty bird.
The mellow, minty palate also dishes out Irish soda bread, almonds, black raisins, and a hint of dunnage.	Equal parts salt, sweet, and tannin fill the palate with notes like walnuts, raw almonds, raspberries, and old wood.	After the 12yo, this palate is less bitter and tannic than I expected. Jelly rings and nocino give it a mellow nutty/fruity sweetness. Lots of salted roasted almonds rest atop a quiet savory note. WINNER	The palate is savory in a lightly sulfuric but not unpleasant fashion. Very salty hard cheese meets balsamic vinegar, dried cherries, and a hint of urea.
The finish is sweeter than the palate, but also quite salty, with raw almonds and tannins in the background.	It finishes bitterer and earthier than the palate, while the raspberries turn tangy and tart.	Less tannic than the 10 and 12! Longer finish too, mostly of tart berries and toasty oak spices. WINNER	Luckily, the finish's sulfur character isn't the kind that turns the tongue furry. It's mostly gunpowder, aged hard cheese, and stones.
Comments: Much like its siblings, there's not a lot of whisky here, with the cask doing all the talking, quite loudly, in fact, for a 10 year old. Still, it's better than many low-ABV sherried scotches at its age.	Comments: Love that nose! Though it does setup expectations that the palate cannot match. The earth and raw nuts push it past the 10yo, despite the tannins.	Comments: This had the lightest color of the three. Judging by that, and the palate, I'm guessing there are some refill casks in the mix. It's the pour that I finished first, and I was left wanting more. It's the champ of the group.	Comments: Some online reviews opine that the koji mold delivers the whisky's savoriness. Not in my book, or my face. This is straight up sulfur. But it does not wreck the whisky. It just makes it dirtier than the other four. The 16yo's subtler touches and complexity win out.
Rating: 81	Rating: 83	Rating: 85	Rating: 83

WORDS WORDS WORDS

It's easier for my brain and stomach to process four low-ABV whiskies than three high-ABV whiskies, so I was able to focus better with this quartet. I still can't tell you whether this is aged shōchū or not because the spirit was so extractive, pulling everything from its casks. It often reads like 42%abv sherry from heavily-charred casks. While there's certainly a market for that style in the whisky world (including Japan), that's not exactly my style. The 16 year old was the gentlest of the four, and also the closest to finding balance. I hope Hikari/Hakata tries its hand at more refill cask whisky because I'd love to try that some day.

Bea's Birthday Booze: Inchgower 37 year old 1982 Old & Rare Platinum Selection

Yes, I've just run off three 90-point reviews in a row, as if this were Whisky Advocate or something. Now I'm risking blowing even more sunshine out of my ass with today's 37 year old Inchgower. Now, Inchgowers can be weird, and I like weird, but a tragic 1982 Inchgower once found its way into my glass. Today's cask has a reasonable outturn and ABV, so no potential negative indicators there. And whiskybase's lone written review is by a reliable fellow. So I'm ready for this!

Distillery: Inchgower

Distilled by: Arthur Bell & Sons

Current owner: Diageo

Region: Speyside (Banffshire)

Independent Bottler: Hunter Laing
Range: Old & Rare
Sub-Range: Platinum Selection

Age: 37 years (1982 - 2019)

Maturation: probably a bourbon cask

Outturn: 178 bottles

Alcohol by Volume: 50.1%
(from a bottle split)

NOTES

The nose is......like nothing I've smelled before. I'll try to do it justice. Stale milk chocolate + Cheerios + hay + Underberg. Sour milk + agave nectar + mint toothpaste. Apple cider and metal? Not much changes once the whisky is diluted to 46%abv, maybe more flowers, orchard fruits, and metals. Maybe?

The palate is slightly easier to describe. Bouquets of flowers encircled by a minty glow. Flower Kiss candy, white peaches, and fresh cherries. Cashews and raw wheat. Never too sweet. Diluting the whisky to 46%abv, makes it sweeter and bitterer. The florals and mint still dominate, while a comfy apple cider note expands beneath.

It finishes cheerfully, with flowers, sunflower seeds, lemons, and mint leaf. At 46%abv, there's apple cider, mint, and a rooty bitterness.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

Okay, maybe I wasn't ready for this. Is it UnWhisky or ÜberWhisky? Or both? It's strange, fascinating stuff, as Inchgower can be as it gets older. Not sure if I'd make a habit of drinking this whisky, but it's truly a singular spirit. It's the mintiest single malt I've ever had, and also one of the most floral (though never perfume-y). It's also the third straight whisky that left me preferring the palate over the nose, which probably has never happened before on this site. This Inchgower is remarkably unique, not unlike Beatrice (all flowers, lemons, mint, and rooty bitterness herself) who turns six years old today.

Availability - Might still be available in Europe?
Pricing - ???
Rating - 87 (a pointless (LOL) score)

The "I'm Very Sorry" sample and the resulting cocktail

Within a recent parcel from the gentleman who runs the My Annoying Opinions website, I found a mystery sample labelled, "I'm Very Sorry".

I accept his apology and now I'm going drink the bottle's contents. As a disclaimer, I'm pretty danged certain I know what this "whiskey" is thanks to a hint Mr. Opinions provided. More on that product in a moment.

All that follows was typed live (with some edits)......

NEAT NOTES:

Nose - Allspice, cardamom, ginger beer, a hint of yellow nectarine and LOTS of fresh cilantro. It's starting to go Full Hippie with notes of holy basil, ashwagandha and a dash of manure.

Palate - Um......It is strongly flavored. This is going to stain my glass and my taste buds. Okay, so there be lots of holy basil, cassia, pepper, mustard seed and tree bark here. Fresh ginger, lots of bitterness, hints of cocoa, white rum and juniper. It's like some sort of zany gin.

Finish - Bitter (wormwoodish?). Cilantro, holy basil, fresh ginger and white JM Rhum by turns.

This unique, fragrant, but not entirely palatable creation is most likely Masala Chai Flavored Whiskey from St. Paul's Studio Distilling. Per the official site, "The Masala Chai Whiskey begins with a rye malt whiskey base to which we add a curated mix of Assam tea and whole spices. The blend is distilled and then aged in oak barrels."

As much as I enjoy rye and Assam and whole spices, I don't understand why they all had to meet this way. I never thought anything could fully obliterate rye notes, but alas this collection of "whole spices" have done so. The bitterness reads like extremely over-steeped black tea, so perhaps that's where the Assam lives.

There's something very entertaining about the nose's herbal bundle. And there must be some gin cocktail that this could electrify. But I'm electing to create a whiskey-based cocktail. In honor of the caucasians who leaned on masala chai for their product, I shall also take part in some cultural appropriation for the cocktail's name. I present...

NAMASTE AWAY

a bazaar Old-Fashioned

The Ingredients:

1.5 oz of Masala Chai Flavored Whiskey

2 tsp of Demerara simple syrup

3 dashes of Angostura orange bitters

5 dashes of Strongwater Golden cocktail bitters

¼ of an orange peel

Ice cubes

The Process:

Muddle the peel, syrup and bitterses together at the bottom of a hefty tumbler. Stir in the flavored whiskey. Give it 5-10 minutes to mingle, then add plenty of ice cubes.

The Why:

I adore Strongwater's Golden bitters and thought its generous aromatics would mingle well with those of the whiskey. There's a good batch of Demerara syrup in my fridge, and it ups the cocktail's imperialist core. Finally, just in case the above doesn't work, I'm orange-ing the shit out of this.

The Results:

Jeezus Franciscan Cripes this is terrible. Every element was a mistake. The herbs and spices overwhelm everything (even the orange-ing!) more, and now it's so awfully cloying that I just powered down the quarter-naked orange just to introduce something else to my mouth. The "whiskey" was better neat.

I'm very sorry about this cocktail. Happy Sunday!

Availability - around the Twin Cities and the official online store
Pricing - $24.99 for a 375mL
Rating - 66 (maybe? I don't know.)

Expectation versus Reality: Burnside 24 year old 1988 AD Rattray, cask 1739

Burnside (aka "teaspooned" Balvenie) distilled in the late 1980s can be a gorgeous thing. During my last trip to Japan (sigh), I had a chance to try several of such malts in bourbon cask form, and they were all flawless Speysiders. So when my buddy, Secret Agent Man, gave me a generous pour from his bottle of this particular 1988 single cask, I was very excited. Then he said, "Try it and tell me what you think," which sent me from thrilled to curious. Sipping the whisky, I winced out a "What the hell?" He nodded in agreement, then gave me a pour to take home so that I could attempt to put "What the hell?" into more words. Here it goes.

My fabulous sample label.
I don't think this was actually selected by Binny's.

Distillery: Balvenie (plus a teaspoon of Glenfiddich)
Owner: William Grant & Sons
Region: Speyside (Dufftown)

Bottler: AD Rattray
Age: 24 years (29 Nov 1988 - 7 Dec 2012)
Maturation: hogshead
Cask #: 1739
Outturn: 212 bottles
Alcohol by Volume: 52.1%
Chillfiltered? No
e150a? No
(thank you to Secret Agent Man for the sample!)

NEAT

The nose begins with strawberry candy and red pixy stix, then takes a turn for bubblegum and perfume. Then paint VOCs. Barrel char and tar. Cottage cheese and chalk. The palate's woodiness is outrageous. Perhaps there are some oranges, yuzus and hazelnuts in there, but they are fucking trampled by bitterness and tannins. There's some cloying stuff happening around the edges as well. It finishes with split lumber, barrel char, mothballs, limes and agave nectar.

Dare I water it?

DILUTED to ~46%abv, or ¾ tsp of water per 30mL whisky

Berry candy, peach candy, copper and chalk make up most of the nose. Some VOCs in the background. Perfume joins late. The palate remains full of bitter oak, but now burnt things and acidity join the carnival. Lots of sweetness too. Limes and menthol add some interest in the background. The tannins back off of the finish now, but the burnt stuff and acid remain. Some strawberry gum and lime candy hints linger in the back.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

There are too many sensible-chuckle-inducing Expectation versus Reality memes for me to choose from, so I'm afraid I'll have to refrain from memes this time. Sorry, not sorry. Either someone (Rattray) sat on this cask for way too long, or its contents were never right. I'm not going to give it a failing rating because the nose has plenty of entertainment value, but the palate is a wreck.

I've had a few too many weird casks from Rattray, so I've stopped trying to source samples of their stuff. This may be my last review of their single casks.

(For what it's worth, Whiskey Jug (2.5/5) and especially Whisky Musings (76/100) found this cask problematic as well.)

Availability - Sold out
Pricing - ???
Rating - 70 (saved by the nose)

Lefty Gomez, a dead hamster, and Fujikai 10 year old

Lefty Gomez, the always quotable ace of the Yankees pitching staff across the late Babe Ruth era, Lou Gehrig era and early Joe DiMaggio era, passed away on February 17, 1989.

A week later, my family bought our first pet, the most adorable of domesticated rodents, a hamster. I named him Lefty. I don't know if he was really a southpaw (zing!), but I was a baseball history geek who'd just turned 10½, so it didn't matter. Lefty was fuzzy and fast, didn't mind being held, and had a great time making nests in his wood shavings. He also had virulent case of wet tail, and had to take medicine every day.

Seven months later I found my hamster on top of his bedding, expired from dehydration, having shit himself to death. It was summer, we wrapped him in a sock and buried him in the backyard. My mom and I cried.

This is a bottle of whisky someone abandoned at a Columbus Scotch Night event this year:

Distilled at Japan's Monde Shuzou distillery, Fujikai 10 year old single malt is loathed by the whisky world. Of course I had to try it.

Fujikai 10 year old, 43%abv, aged in bourbon casks, 8088 (lucky?) bottle-outturn

Well, it smells of garbage. Rubber garbage, cardboard garbage. Someone tossed new sneakers into the bin, doused them in armagnac eau de vie, and lit them on fire with dry peat.

There's a lot of bitter wood and soy sauce on the palate, along with menthol, raw wheat, oversteeped pu-erh tea, and hamster piss.

It has a WOWEE level of bitter oak in the finish, along with burnt wheat, burnt hair and tar.

That was Fujikai 10 neat. I thought perhaps a proper mizuwari would salvage the whisky.

A proper mizuwari did not salvage the whisky, but did change it.

Into my dead hamster in liquid form.

I can't rate this. The remaining liquid will be buried.

Loch Dhu, part deux

Speaking of questionable whisky ideas, Loch Dhu everyone!

Yes, I previously reviewed this, one of the world's most reviled whiskies, but I had another sample from possibly the same bottle. And we've all gotten a little older in the five years since. I'd also tried another regrettable whisky this week so I thought, "What the hell."

For those who have never see Loch Dhu, it is black like crude oil. It's similarly, terrifyingly viscous, as it still sticks to the sides of the sample bottle four days later. I don't know why this product was created, with its Coca-Cola (or higher) levels of e150a. Mannochmore distillery produces some very good single malt. Why did United Distillers choose to do it wrong?

LOCH DHU

Distillery: Mannochmore
Ownership: United Distillers (proto-Diageo)
Region: Speyside (Lossie)

Age: minimum 10 years

Maturation: ???

Alcohol by Volume: 40%
Chillfiltered? Yes
Caramel Colored? Dhu

(Thank you to Andy, again)

NOTES
It has a bold nose for its low strength, made up of coffee grounds, caramel candy, prune juice, Worcestershire sauce, mold and burnt garlic. There are burnt raisins, burnt celery, burnt cardboard on the palate. And all those burnt bitter things float in a sour vinegar puddle. The finish is very bitter and very sour, but also has mellow chocolatey side to it.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
This is nowhere near as horrifying as its reputation, and better than I'd remembered it to be. I'm not saying it's good whisky. It's shit. But there are foul strata, and Loch Dhu does not rest on the bottom layer. Its nose is plenty strange, and not exactly what one would describe as alluring. But it's sniffable, and sort of interesting. The palate is bad, approaching one's lowest expectations, yet the finish's chocolate note approaches appealing.

While the whisky isn't the worst, it's still among the most regrettable of whisky ideas. I wish it had served as a lesson to the SWA that e150a should be banned with the rest of the additives. But no one learned anything. So enjoy all your orange Diageo whiskies!

Availability - Secondary market
Pricing - ???
Rating - 55

The deeply problematic St. George Baller Whiskey

BALLER?

In the middle of the socializing segment of last month's Columbus Scotch Night, Doctor Springbank handed me his bottle of St. George Baller Single Malt Whiskey and said, pokerfaced, "You have to try this."

At first glance the bottle label's Ukiyo-e-style art was gorgeous. Also, my wife and I love St. George's gins and I've found their absinthe to be a fun take on a beloved spirit. When it comes to whiskey, aside from Charbay and Westland, no other American distillery is doing anything that consistently appeals to me at this point, so I was quite excited by this new thing.

And then I drank the whiskey. And it was awful. As in "wait this cannot be that bad oh my fuck it is that bad ahh gah nooooo this finish" bad.

Perhaps it was my momentary vom face, but Dr. Springbank knew immediately. "Yes! I thought it was just me." We handed it out as a blind taster to at least six other people, and everyone hated it and was kinda mad we pushed it on them. And then I said "Please sir may I have another," and I took a sample home.

PROBLEMS

After I completed my home tasting (see NOTES below), I read Baller's official page and more issues became apparent.

The first words are, “A California take on the Japanese spin on Scotch whisky.” That phrase is problematic and possibly meaningless. The current "Japanese spin on Scotch whisky" is to mix together Canadian, Irish and Scotch whisky, bottle it with kanji on the label and call it Japanese whisky, or to bottle ultra-young NAS single malts. And the producers who are doing the latter each have different styles. So there is no current single Japanese spin on Scotch whisky. Even if one was to look at the Japanese whisky market in its heyday (quality-wise) Yamazaki, Hakushu, Yoichi, Miyagikyo and the dozens of upmarket blends each had its own character.

And what exactly is "A California take"? If you think the process is specifically Californian or Japanese, you are incorrect. This "single malt" uses both malted and unmalted barley (is that technically a single malt?), is aged in bourbon and French oak wine casks, then is charcoal filtered and then is finished in plum liqueur casks. They refer to the liqueur as umeshu, though it was made using California ume.

So, the plums are from California. And I guess the French oak wine casks are sort of Napa-ish. Charcoal filtration is very far from a born-in-Cali thing. And the mixed barley mashbill is kinda Irish.

Regarding umeshu casks, some portion of the late Hibiki 12 year old Japanese blend was finished in plum liqueur barrels, but was done with a very gentle hand.

Reading on, I learned the label "reimagined" St. George as a samurai slaying a dragon. And then there was the Japanese flag. This was becoming a plague of cultural expropriation. And since nothing surrounding this whiskey is actually Japanese, one begins to wonder if this entire farce was motivated by the hope someone would mistake it for actual "Japanese" whisky and pay through the nose for it.

AND THEN THERE WAS ME, OF COURSE

Writing about this whisky forced me to think about my own choices. I love Japan. My two trips there were among the highlights of my life. I continue to study its culture, religions and history. I've repeatedly and unsuccessfully tried to learn the basics of its language. I have filled my daily visual space (that I can control) with Japanese art and products. But I do this in my private time, and I do it with humility knowing I am an outsider looking in at a proud, profound and unique culture. Seeing a company market a product using nothing but cultural appropriation — even if it's a joke, exploitation is the whole show — empties me of any compassion for the producer, whether or not said company says their $200 whiskey was made for highballs.

Distillery: St. George Spirits

Type: Single Malt?
Region: Alameda, CA, USA

Mashbill: Part malted barley, part toasted unmalted barley?
Age: 3 years old
Maturation: First maturation in a Mix of bourbon and French oak wine casks, then a finish in California plum liqueur casks

Alcohol by Volume: 47%
(Thank you to Doctor Springbank)

NOTES
Is there a mosquito infestation? Because my nose smells citronella candles and OFF spray. And Bounce fabric softener sheets. A violet liqueur note buries hints of grapefruit and toasted oak. The palate is watery but hot. It's also VERY floral (flowers, soap and perfume). Ginger liqueur and dried oregano. Burnt paper and eggy sulfur. After 20 minutes a strong note of Grand Marnier laced with Nutrasweet pushes forward. It finishes with hot floral soap, bitter orange zest and a chemical sweetness.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
This is comparable to the height of the '80s Bowmore terrors, with perfumes and soaps and sulfur and chemicals and burnt things. As I am not a distiller, I can only guess at what went awry, but the level of tinkering involved in this whisky's production leaves a lot of potential for cockups. The liqueur casks are very aggressive, and makes one fear the actual liqueur. Charcoal filtration why? And what about the original distillate. Perhaps it started off in a good place? Or was the soap and perfume always present?

As I enjoy their gins and absinthe, I will certainly continue to purchase those St. George products. But Baller was wrong on so many levels that I'm going to forgo their whiskey products altogether.

Availability - UK, Singapore and 13 US states
Pricing - $150-$300, though a few stores now have it for less than $100
Rating - 57

Inchgower 30 year old 1982 AD Rattray, cask 6964

I've decided to start mining the sample stash for the oldies more frequently. And by "oldies" I mean long-aged whiskies and/or samples I've had for a long time. Since I turn 91 years old on Saturday, I'm going try some nice roundly numbered single malts this week, all from Speyside.

Today's sample is an Inchgower — I like Inchgower — bottled by A. Dewar Rattray — I like A. Dewar Rattray — and was distilled in 1982. I love 1982. Two of my favorite humans were produced in 1982. This Inchgower is 30 years old, yet is still humming in at 56.3%abv. Perhaps this was a stubborn cask, or it sat in a warm corner of the warehouse. Or both. Or neither. I don't know, I'm just here for the whisky.

Distillery: Inchgower
Independent Bottler: A. Dewar Rattray
Region: Speyside (Banffshire)

Age: 30 years (30 June 1982 - 29 October 2012)

Maturation: bourbon hogshead
Cask number: 6964
Outturn: 208 bottles

Alcohol by Volume: 56.3%
(from a purchased sample)

NEAT
The nose begins with fudge and raspberry candy. Small notes of mothballs, chlorine and moldy dunnage. Some peaches and apricots in the background. It gets more chocolatey with time. No alcohol prickle or burn. The palate is......unusual. Bitter fruit rinds, red pepper flakes, yellow mustard and Worcestershire sauce. Very tart, very tannic, very sweet. The finish is bitter, tannic and moldy with cocoa and burnt plastic. The heat lasts the longest.

I can't say that was pleasant. A little bit of water...

DILUTED TO ~48%abv, or 1 tsp of water per 30mL whisky
Lots of sugary candy shop notes in the nose. Some honeydew. There are also hints of plastic, metal and dunnage mold. While the palate has gotten more savory and gained a tangy lime, there's also plenty of burnt hair, burnt plastic and burnt peppers. There's a worrisome poisonous edge to it. The finish has gotten sweeter, but the bitter, tannic and peppery notes remain. Burnt plastic, burnt cocoa.

That did not help matters. More water.

DILUTED TO ~43%abc, or 1¾ tsp of water per 30mL whisky
Gone are the nose's funky elements. Now there are roasted nuts, orange oil, caramel sauce and anise. The palate is less harsh, but it's still very tannic, moldy and plasticky. Peppercorns and sugar. The finish is bitter and tannic.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
I like Inchgower a lot, and I'm aware that its single malt gets a bit divisive and weird with extended maturations. That's part of why I like it. And this whisky's low online scores actually inspired me to buy this sample.

But there are problems with this particular whisky, and it's a cask issue, not an Inchgower issue. The tannic assault is likely due to the whisky being left in the hoggie for too long, but the other palate problems may have been present years or decades earlier. I'm not sure if this could have been salvageable.

These are the bottler's official tasting notes, to wit:

Palate - Burnt Cajun spices and ginger.
Finish - An exceptionally different aged malt - curious.

Firstly, it's never a great sign when the official notes say "different", and even less great when they say "exceptionally different", and even more exceptionally less great when they say "curious". Secondly, the palate notes. "Burnt"? Certainly, but that's not always something to brag about. And, have they actually eaten Cajun food? Or, to be more American about it, do you even Cajun, bro?

The whisky's nose is very good, which makes grading this thing even goofier than usual. The real concern here is that five out of the last six Rattray products I've tried have been disappointing or worse. And I have another Rattray sample in the queue that is also not great. It's time for me to give up on this bottler.

Availability - ???
Pricing - ???
Rating - 74 (a generous grade which drops 3-5 when the whisky is diluted)

Island of Orkney 12 year old 2006 Exclusive Malts, cask 342

Hey, how about it: A review of a bottle, and not a sample. Yay!

Firstly, I'm just going to call this a Highland Park because The Creative Whisky Company was likely contractually forced to jump through hoops and I'm not. It's Highland Park in French Oak. Sounds cool, right? It did (and still kinda does) to me, which is why I bought it blindly.

And now I'm going to give you my conclusions up front. I've struggled to get my brain around this whisky. There are times when I just don't like it. There are times when I just nose it for an hour, finding all new odd facets. For instance, sometimes this HP just smells like danishes and nothing else. Heavily-glazed cheese danishes. I shared the whisky with the Columbus Scotch Night crew and they all seemed to like it a lot. Now I'm past the bottle's midpoint and I just don't know.

Distillery: Highland Park
Ownership: The Edrington Group
Region: Isle of Orkney
Independent Bottler: The Creative Whisky Company
Range: Exclusive Malts
Age: 12 years (21 June 2006 - 2018?)
Maturation: French oak (maybe a hoggie)
Cask #: 342
Alcohol by Volume: 56.3%
Chillfiltered? No
Caramel Colorant? No

NEAT
Its nose starts with an almost-Clynelish is-it/isn't-it-peated phenolic note, which floats away within 20 minutes. That scent is coated in a sugary orange peel / madeira candy shell. Drifting around that is salty ocean air, honeydew, toffee and — stay with me here — Slim Jims. Though I'm not getting the entire danish note this time, there's a lot of pastry glaze and buttery sour cream. A hint of maple syrup, too.

A new paragraph for the rest. The palate has some of the nose's notes, specifically oranges and salt. A burnt hay-like peat note. There's lots of dried oregano and ginger beer. Even more vanilla and whipped cream. It remains hot even after a half hour in the glass. It finishes with a ginger beer, cream soda, carob and oak spice.

DILUTED TO ~46%abv, or 1⅓ tsp of water per 30mL whisky
Brought into slightly sharper focus, the nose leads with orange peel and pine sap. Hay, cinnamon and nutmeg. Kinda of a Dead Sea-like salty mud bath. And something milky. The whisky is at its most familiar in the diluted palate. Sweet, with gentle citrus and fresh cherry notes. Hints of dried herbs. Lots of vanilla and oak spice. It finishes very sweet and tannic. Vanilla and butterscotch are the main notes.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
Hopefully my scattered notes give you an idea of my scrambled thoughts on this thing. I like French oak much more than American oak — Randy Brandy is going to give me hell for that — but I have that preference because I like toasted French oak. This cask almost seems like newly charred French oak. There's genuine aggression here. The Gaspar Noé of casks, perhaps?

It's certainly not boring. Nor can I call it flawed. I don't have an existential struggle with it, unlike my bottle of rum cask Ardmore 1991, but I'm never in a hurry to pour a glass for a casual sip. I'm going to give it the same rating as that Ardmore, just to assign a number to it. I'm pretty sure the whisky is laughing at me.

Availability - may still be available at some European retailers
Pricing - obtained it for ~$80 (w/shipping, w/o VAT) in a moderate order last October
Rating - 84 (but who knows, really)

Ardmore 13 year old 1998 SMWS 66.32

And then there was this thing.

Those comedians at SMWS named this concoction 'Roly-Poly Pudding'. More thoughts about this after the tasting notes including...NAME THAT WHISKY!

Distillery: Ardmore
Region: Highlands (Eastern)
Independent bottler: Scotch Malt Whisky Society

Age: 13 years (March 1998 to January 2012)

Maturation: refill sherry gorda
"Poetic" name: ← nope
Cask number: 66.32
Outturn: 752

Alcohol by Volume: 58.6%
(from a purchased sample)

NEAT
The nose has no coherence. Element 1: Salted caramels and hot ghee. Element 2: Urine. Element 3: Car exhaust and smoked fish. Element 4: Grape juice and cheap plastic toys. Element 5: Urine. Lather, rinse, repeat. The palate is a little more focused? Grape candy, grape juice, Manischewitz Concord, black raisins, peppercorns, lemons, gunpowder and an unceasing sourness. Grape candy, raisins, pepper, caramel candy and lots of heat in the finish.

Shall we?

DILUTED to ~46%abv, or 1⅔ tsp of water per 30mL whisky
Butter, urine, soot, gunpowder, grape juice and peat on the nose. I likes me some bitterness, but the palate is almost unpalatably bitter at first. Beneath the violence is some chocolate, grape jelly and ash. The bitterness backs off as a similarly aggressive sweetness takes over. Lemon candy, grape candy, peppercorns and ash in the finish.

Um, more?

DILUTED to ~40%abv, or 2¾ tsp of water per 30mL whisky
The nose: gunpowder and hot urine in a peat kiln. The palate: Sugar water with ash and woody bitterness. The finish: Grape bubblegum, ash and lemon juice.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
Recently I've been enjoying sherry cask whisky more than I used to but this stuff is no sherry bomb. This is

GUNPOWDER AND PISS IN GRAPE CANDYLAND.

I felt kinda sad experiencing Ardless so directly. And everything about this whisky got worse as I added water. It's close to gross. But I guess it gets points for insanity. And it wasn't horrible when it was neat, I suppose.

Seriously, I'm talking myself out of failing an Ardmore. But it's not the distillery's fault here.

Perhaps there's no way to salvage a cask like this. You just dump it ASAP, slap a £125 price tag on each of the 752 bottles, and then hope that once everyone who vomits money for anything sherried clears out the outturn you walk away with more than $125,000 in revenue.

Enough. Go enjoy something better. This week is over.

Availability - mercifully gone
Pricing - £125
Rating - 68

Bourbon and Rye Day Friday: Charbay Amador Hop Flavored Whiskey

I 💚 Charbay. Their infamous "Whiskey Release" series is, like, intergalactic, man. Their distillers, Marko and Miles, are madmen, so I'm happy to try anything they design. Unfortunately the whiskey world discovered that those Releases are superlative, so I can't afford any of them. But recently Karakasevics did some batches of cheaper whiskey experiments. There's Whiskey S, a distillation of Bear Republic Big Bear Stout. There's Whiskey R5, a distillation of Racer 5 IPA. Then there's today's piece of craziness.

Amador Hop Flavored Whiskey is, as per the official site:

A blend of 60% straight malt whiskey and 40% hop-flavored whiskey distilled from a craft IPA beer, the components were aged separately for over 2 years in French oak wine barrels and then “married” in our family Chardonnay barrels for another 2 years before being bottled.

So, no, this is neither bourbon nor rye. But it's American, so there.

Companies: Charbay and Amador Whiskey Co.
Distillery: Charbay
Location: St. Helena, California
What the hell is this made out of? See description above
Age: at least 4 years old
Batch: 1
Barrel: 2
ABV: 48% ABV
(Thank you to Sku for this sample!)

The nose has an intensely fruity side: lemonade, mango and grapefruit. It also has a rich sugary side: vanilla fudge, circus peanuts and a hint of maple syrup. Lots of hops that haven't gone Full Weed yet. The palate is wonderfully, violently tart. More lemon than lemon. Pine sap and grapefruit. Roasted grains, lots of hops. A bit of a sweaty, musty note. Its loooooooong finish is full of hops, pine, grapefruit and lime juice. A little bit of sweetness reins the tartness in.

Odd but joyous. There's no other way I can find to describe it. The IPA element is unmistakable and has run right over the malt. Everything is big and crazy and it's probably a good idea the thing wasn't bottled at full strength because it may have caused a tear in the space-time continuum. As intense as it is, I can see it as being a great spring or summer sipper because of its IPAness (don't say that word out loud). Great work, Miles and Marko!

Availability - At a few dozen American whiskey specialists
Pricing - anywhere between $75-$115
Rating - 87

Single Malt Report: Serendipity (Ardbeg + Glen Moray) 12 year old Blended Malt

Okay, I have a week full of Ardbeg "special" edition things to review. In order to have the time to complete it all, I'm going to try to keep the posts shorter. That never works.

If you thought Wild Turkey Forgiven was the first of the "Oops, look at what we did. We're so stupid, we shouldn't be responsible for making widely sold commodities. But here, you should buy it for more than our purposely made products" type of whiskies, then you'd be wrong. Back in 2005, Ardbeg released Serendipity, their "Oops, you got your mayonnaise in my peanut butter" whisky.

Apparently they accidentally mixed old Ardbeg (stories range from 17yrs to 24yrs old) with 12 year old Glen Moray. 80% Ardbeg and 20% Glen Moray, is their story. And there was enough Oops for 16,000 bottles. Bottled at 40%abv.

Of course the same company accidentally did something similar with the exact same accidental ratio of 80:20, a few years earlier. Wondering why the hell they'd make Serendipity on purpose and thus dispose of so much old Ardbeg? It's not impossible that Ardbeg had a lot of underproof casks which needed to find a home. At its original price, the full Serendipity release grossed nearly one million dollars. So I'd say those Oops casks found a financially viable residence.

Crap. I said I'd keep it short.

Great picture, bro.

Thing: Serendipity
Company: Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy

Type: Blended Malt Whisky

Distilleries: 80% Ardbeg, 20% Glen Moray

Age: 17-24 year old Ardbeg and 12 year old Glen Moray, thus it's a 12 year old whisky
Maturation: ???
Limited bottling: 16,000

Alcohol by Volume: 40%
Chillfiltered? Yes
Color added? ???
(Thanks to Whisky Brett P. for most of the samples this week!!!)

The color is light gold. The nose is somehow both wood pulpy and grainy. Citrus bathroom cleaner, burned sneakers and pears. Acidic oatmeal (not a thing). The weakness of the peat is fascinating, and not in a good way. There's a milky buttery thing in there. A wee wee wee hint of tropical fruit. More than a wee wee wee bit farty. VERY grassy. Smells like one of my own terrible blends. The palate starts of chocolatey and malty. Pipe tobacco and toffee, with a dark berry element underneath. Not bad, but it's thin and watery. Grows more one-dimensionally acidic with time. It finishes both creamy and acidic. Burnt stuff. Some pears. It has a decent length, but an icky chemical citrus aftertaste.

COMMENTARY
or rather
QUESTIONS?
--If this is a mix of 20-something year old whisky and 12 year old whisky, then why is it grassy like a single digit whisky?
--If it's 80% Ardbeg and 20% Glen Moray, then why isn't the Moray absolutely buried in this blend? Even if it was 80% Glen Moray and 20% Ardbeg, it wouldn't read as Moray-heavy as this. Is there something else in the mix here?
--If not, then how awful were those Ardbeg casks? Couldn't they have been sold to Murray McDavid to be salvaged with a nice Mogen David Blackberry finish?
--And where the hell was the SWA during this release? Ardbeg was leaking spraying out this recipe like an incontinent duck after his third espresso. If the SWA threatened to send John Glaser through the spanking machine for revealing less than this about his blends, then why didn't they take away all 38 of Bill Lumsden's cats?
--If Serendipity tasted like it smelled, would I have barfed?
--What the hell is going on here?

Availability - the secondary marketplace, and maybe a dozen European retailers
Pricing - $150-$250, though Winesearcher shows the average price is now where it was five years ago. I can't imagine that's a super sign in this market.
Rating - 72 (dat nose tho)

WTF Is This? Corti Brothers Exquisite Whiskey

Yeah, I know Friday is bourbon and rye day, but WTF is this "Exquisite" stuff? It's neither fish nor fowl, Shinola nor santorum. Okay it technically started out as bourbon, but the result is. The result is. I'll come back to the result in a moment...

The Players

The Corti Brothers have a history of releasing exclusive single malt whiskies, stretching back several decades. Whiskyfun has a bunch of reviews of old Corti stuff we'll never be able to try, so feel free to porn out to that. Though they bottled this Exquisite Thing under their own label in 2014, Corti Bros neither distilled it nor matured it...

In 2013, Amador—a Sierra foothills distillery founded in 2012—obtained 13 barrels of Kentucky bourbon and finished for eight months it in casks that held batches of a sweet wine called Mission del Sol for 40 years. So Amador neither distilled the whiskey nor produced the wine...

Mission del Sol was made at Harbor Winery in Sacramento, from the Mission grape. Their last batch of Mission del Sol was produced in 1986 and bottled in 2014. They no longer make the sweet wine.

And finally, the bourbon was distilled by a mystery Kentucky distiller from a 70/25/5 mashbill in 2006. In 2013 they sold 13 of the barrels to Amador Distillery who finished the stuff in wine casks from Harbor Winery and then bottled the stuff under Corti Brothers' label. And we're back at the beginning again.

The Review

Thank you to Florin for this nice big sample. He and I also drank some of this together (what seems like) a million years ago. For the long and winding data on this whisky see the section above.

Its color is a very red brown. The nose starts with bubblegum, raspberry jam and corn syrup. Cherry-flavored children's medicine, eucalyptus and a hint of vanilla. Lots of oak: sawdust and bark. The palate is almost all Port, for a while. Then black grapes and Schweppes raspberry ginger ale (circa 1980s). Not much whiskey in this whiskey. Maybe some rye spice. Dark cherries and tart blackberries. A liqueur's sweetness. It finishes like high strength Port. Very sweet. Cheap maraschino cherries. Maybe some jammy PX.

This is a Port + Chambord barrel-aged liqueur. Is that a good thing? That depends on one's preferences. This stuff is beloved by Sku, be-not-loved by The Whiskey Jug, generates contrasting responses from LAWS, and somehow garners a positive review from Serge who always HATES this level of imbalanced wine bomb. I think this stuff would be great poured over rich vanilla ice cream, or matched with bitter dark chocolate. Drinking it straight didn't gross me out because I like port and berry candy. It's not terrible; in fact, I liked it more than the first two batches of Bruichladdich Black Art. But I've sipped this whisky on three occasions now and I am happy to say that's all the Exquisite Whiskey I need. I'll have some crap rye now, thanks.

Availability - Sold out
Pricing - $30 (375mL), $50 (750mL)
Rating - 79

WTF is This? Benriach 26 year old 1987 Exclusive Casks

Though I have criticized his whiskies before (and will now again), I like David Stirk.  When I met him in person three years ago, he was friendly, very funny, and a great presenter.  He also jumps head first into discussions with whisky geeks online, more so than most (or any other?) independent bottler.  I just tend to find cask-related problems with many of the Exclusive Casks/Malts releases.

There were the Bowmore and Aberlour bottlings for K&L (both of which I probably scored too highly), which had odd goopy buttery layers of oak sitting on top of immature spirit.  And then found the same problem with two whiskies (Glen Spey and again Bowmore) from the first round of US Exclusive Casks.  The first Ardmore he brought to The States is one of the only indie Ardmores I don't like.  But when the Exclusives DO work well, it's usually because the cask stays in the background, like with the K&L Fettercairn, K&L "Island Distillery", and the very first Bowmore he brought to The States.  But I will say I did like the cask influence (whatever sort of cask it was) on an Exclusive Casks Ben Nevis.

But then there's this Benriach.

photo courtesy of Steve H.

I split the bottle with whisky buddy Steve H., and I think we're both glad neither of us were stuck with a whole bottle.  There appears to be a 26yo Benriach sold as a single cask by Exclusive Casks in Texas.  That cask sounds good.  This is not that cask.

Distillery: Benriach

Independent Bottler: The Creative Whisky Co.
Exclusive to: Total Wine & More

Age: 26 years old (1987 - ???)

Maturation: Oak, lots of oak
Limited bottling: 629

Region: Speyside (Lossie)

Alcohol by Volume: 48.7%

NEAT

Nose -- Bitter wood, burnt bark, coal, and lots of burnt peanuts.  Ammonia, walnuts, soap.  Peach, perfume, peach perfume, and caramel.  The soap note grows with time.

Palate -- Burnt peanuts, burnt hair, and loads of sugar.  Underneath there's some malt, toffee, roots, and pepper spice.  With time an acidic citrus note develops and, along with the sweetness, takes over the entire palate.

Finish -- Very sweet and very burnt.  There's some malt and toffee.  Citrus, no, diet orange soda.  It pics up the soap and woody bitterness after some time.

Um......water?

WITH WATER (~40%abv)

Nose -- The burnt stuff turns into lead.  Orange Pixy Stix and vanilla perfume.  Hint of white vinegar.  Smaller note of burnt wood.  Nope, here comes the burnt peanuts.  And "orange chicken" glaze with a savory stock.

The palate is less burnt, but insanely aspartame sweet.  Burnt peanuts.  Maybe a hint of apricots.

Finish -- Peppery and cloying a.f. (as the kids say).  Lots of acid and caramel.  The burnt stuff gradually drifts back in.

COMMENTS:

Rarely have I found a whisky that's off-putting on so many levels.  The wood smells totally wrong, worse than an over-oaked old bourbon.  Then I'm not sure what's worse: the burnt peanuts or the overwhelming Nutrasweet.  Or the ammonia.  Or the soap.  Or the perfume.  Or the lead.

Time for conjecture!  What happened here?  Because there are 629 bottles, a lowish abv, and no cask number listed, I'm going to guess this was a batch of 3 or 4 casks.  Maybe even one that was underproof, thus the abv.  Perhaps the casks weren't larger than 200L due to so much apparent wood contact, specifically American oak contact.  Was this an attempt to bury (or blend out) a problem cask?  Possibly even that hypothetical underproof one?  Or because so many things are going haywire, were there multiple weak casks?

This whisky left me wondering "How?" and "Why?"  I've had only half of my bottle split and I don't foresee any reason to consume more of it.  As this is sold exclusively through Total Wine & Spirits (except in Minnesota), I truly hope unknowing customers aren't shilling out $150+ for this as a special occasion whisky.  And I hope this won't be someone's first experience with Benriach, because it would likely also be their last.  And I'm sure The Benriach Distillery Company Ltd would care for that about as much as I cared for this whisky.

Availability - Total Wine & Spirits exclusively (except in MN)
Pricing - $160
Rating - 56  (with water, high-40s without water)

A week of wut? Teemu's Mystery Spirit sample

Earlier this year I had the distinct pleasure of completing a sample swap with Finland's own Mr. Whisky Science himself: Teemu S.  If you haven't gone to Whisky Science yet, you should leave this post right now and go there.  You will learn something there.  Comparatively, this blog don't learn you nothing good.

Anyway, when I received my parcel I discovered what I thought was an error......there were too many bottles.  Oh shoot, had I accidentally requested a higher number than I had thought?  And the extra one had no label.  Turns out, the extra sample was purposeful.

MK's email: What is the 7th mystery dram???
Teemu's email: For me to know and for you to find out.. I'll tell after you have tasted it.

Of course, just then Southern California was hit with a 90-95ºF heat wave.  But I couldn't wait, a week later I tried it and send him my notes.

MK's email: The nose is full of bourbony goodness. Vanilla and butterscotch. Minty menthol, anise, and ripe banana. Hints of charred meat, butter, and buttermilk pancakes. My empty glass has a maple syrup thing going on. The palate is less sweet than the nose leads on. A little woody and salty, but still some corn syrup and creamed corn. A little bit of spice, menthol, and (maybe?) sweet basil. Pretty lengthy finish. Sea salt, caramel, and slightly dusty.  I'm going to go with my nose and say it's bourbon. The nose reminds me of my favorite old-style bourbon by the defunct National Distillers. If it's a current bourbon, I'd be pretty excited.

Yes, sadly, I email my notes in a similar fashion to the way I post them on this site.  But how close was I?  This was good stuff, especially the nose!  Teemu responded quickly:

Teemu's email: Your notes are spot on, very much a "sugarfree heavyhitting spicy bourbon"
It is actually a great old rum.
Albion Velier 1994/2011 casks 7100-7103, distilled in a wooden coffey still in Demerara.
Very much a whisky drinker's rum.
This is "a light young version" of Albion ;)

Well, shoot.  When I drank the second half of the sample, four months later, I found a little more molasses in the nose and palate, but it was never a sugar bomb.  Judge me as you'd like, but I liked this Albion better than the majority of whiskies (and definitely better than any bourbon) I've tried this calendar year.

There's a good reason why a number of prominent whisky bloggers are now reviewing non-whisky aged spirits (or malternatives).  Okay, two good reasons.  Firstly, whisky prices have ascended quickly while the quality has at best remained the same.  Secondly, the universe of hedonistic pleasure gleaned from spirits doesn't end at whisk(e)y.  In fact, there's a lot of sensory overlap between aged rums, brandies, mezcals, and whiskies.  Many of us have been ruined by the goopy sweet bestseller rums, the Korbels and Martels of the brandy shelves, and J. Cuervo.  Had we written off whisky after only drinking Dewar's White and Johnnie Red, then we wouldn't currently be in the middle of our personal whisky voyages.

That's just something I'll ponder for now.  While I doubt there will be any non-whisky reviews this year, I cannot say I'll never go that route...

A week of wut? A GlenDronach single cask goes fakakta

Three months ago, I reviewed my bottle of GlenDronach 10yo 2002 Virgin Oak Hogshead #4530.  I gave it an 83 rating, declared it Scottish Bourbon, and noted that the cask influence was pleasant.

At that time (early June), the bottle which had been open for two months was at its halfway point.  But ever since I got to its bottom third (early August), it's become less and less enjoyable.  I'm reminded of a quote from a wise whisky friend from Irvine who once said of an open bottle that lingered and lingered in the cabinet, "It's just so much fucking work."  My bottle of GlenDronach has become just so much fucking work to drink.  So I thought it best to review it a second time.

The final four ounces of oak...

Distillery: GlenDronach
Ownership: BenRiach Distillery Company Ltd
Age: 10 years (June 2002- October 2012)
Maturation: Virgin Oak Hogshead
Region: Eastern Highlands (on the edge of Speyside)
Alcohol by Volume: 57.1%
Cask: 4530 (selected by The Nectar Belgium)
Limited bottling: 298

NEAT
Color -- Dark gold.  That hasn't changed.
Nose -- All bourbon. Or should I say, all oak.  More sawdust than vanilla.  Wood varnish.  Imitation mint extract.  A slight nuttiness, like hazelnuts or Nutella or praline.
Palate -- A slab of bitter oak is the first guest to the party and the last to leave.  Some aromatic wood notes as well.  Vanilla.  Lots of salt and sour lemon.
Finish -- Vanilla and caramel.  Sawdust and heat.  The sour lemon shifts to vinegar.

WITH WATER (~46%abv)
Nose -- This trims off the rougher oak parts, but is otherwise a load of vanilla, caramel, and barrel char.  Smaller notes of nuts and brine.
Palate -- Very bitter, salty, and oddly sweet.  It's like the many off-kilter craft bourbons that have been bottled too young after being aged in tiny barrels.  Like liking a stave.
Finish -- Sour, salty, and bitter.  Also vanilla.

And, may I add, it's even bitterer on the rocks.  As you can see from my notes, adding water isn't a good idea, so I still prefer it neat.  If "prefer" is the right word.  The nose is still somewhat recommendable for those who are bourbon fans.  Meanwhile, the difficult palate is all I can think of right now.

For my fellow completists, I'll also add that I never applied any Private Preserve, but I did decant the whisky into an 8 ounce bottle, and then later into a 4 ounce bottle, hoping the decanting would help it out.  It did not.  Perhaps oxidation is responsible for the degradation?  The bottle was opened five months ago and was best at the start and still good at the midpoint.  So, I suppose I'd recommend that the bottle be consumed within three months or less before things start to fall apart.  Or maybe there's something to these single Glendronach VO casks that doesn't work for me, since I also did not care for cask #4525.  In any case, I have no interest in trying any more of these VO single casks, ever.

And one final note for those who obtained a sample of this from me, please know that yours did not come from this last third of the bottle.

Availability - Auctions?

Pricing - I bought it for €59 (€49 w/o VAT)

Rating - 73

A week of wut? Michael's Solid Number Two, the review

After three months, WTF Is This? has come to a (temporary?) close.  But it's a stylish close!  This week I'll be honoring that series with three unique(ish) reviews you won't find anywhere else, hopefully.  First up, my whiskey.

I am a terrible whisk(e)y blender.  The blending failures not published to this site are vast, vast, vast in number.  Vast.  But even a poor blender is entitled to some half-assed success.  Enter Michael's Solid Number Two.  One year and one week ago, I wrote a post about three whiskey blends made from the cask strength version of Balcones's True Blue Corn Whiskey and Rittenhouse Bottled-in-Bond Rye.  Out of the three blends the second one turned out to be very good, thus the subtle literary post title, Michael makes a solid number two.

It was an ultra high (is that name my invention too?) rye bourbon, with a mashbill of approximately 51/40/9 and an ABV of about 51.4%.  For the experiment I made a 30mL sample and let it rest for 18 days.  After discovering the resulting success, I scaled it up to 650mL in the bottle above.  Would've done the full 750mL but I was out of ingredients.  Anyway, I drank it all.  Except for one sample...

Color -- Dark gold
Nose -- Big rye, just like the old label Ritt I had used (and used to love).  Meaty/savory but also highlighted by flower blossoms.  Lots of mint and caramel sauce.  Some saline.  A vanilla bean note grows with time.  It sometimes seems like it's getting younger with time, too, picking up some yeast and new make notes.
Palate -- Hotter than the nose.  And (woo!) really peppery too.  Very thick texture.  A medium sweetness level, mostly fueled by corn syrup.  There's a nuttiness that leans towards roasted peanuts.  A slight burnt note.  Bitter coffee.  Gets drier with time.
Finish -- Extensive and sweet.  Brown sugar and cayenne.  Lemon and lime candies.  Black cherry soda and vanilla.  The bitter note from the palate does an upswing into tangy.

Yep, hits the spots.  Similar to the lower rye mashbill versions of rye (like Rittenhouse) with some more youth and sweets.  It works very well on the rocks, keeping much of its flavor.  Man, I miss this stuff.  I can't tell you how many days this summer I sat praying for another number two.

Availability - All gone, unless you make your own

Pricing - You'd have to buy a bottle of a sold out cask strength corn whiskey and the old label version of Rittenhouse BIB

Rating - 85

WTF Is This? Michter's Toasted Barrel Finish Bourbon

I've been struggling to figure out how to write this post's introduction.  This is my fourth and final attempt.  Here it goes...

I don't understand the lengths to which some new whiskey companies go and the resources they commit to deceiving customers and distorting their brand.  For instance, Michter's.

There once was a distillery near Schaefferstown, Pennsylvania, that was briefly called Michter's in the 1970s and '80s.  Distilling had been going on at the site for almost 240 years when it shut down in 1990, and had gone by other names throughout that time.  Several years after the distillery was closed and abandoned a company named Chatham Imports bought the brand, and have been a Non-Distilling Producer (NDP) ever since -- releasing whiskies distilled (and occasionally bottled) by other companies.  (As of last month, they finally do have their own Michter's distillery up and running, in Kentucky.)  But several years before they distilled anything they had given an employee the title of Master Distiller, parading him around at as many events and distillers' conferences as they could.  And from the sound of it he was out of his league as he shared stages with men who had been actually distilling for decades.  In their advertising they used images of photoshopped barrels and CGI'ed stills that didn't exist.  They created revisionist history about their distillery, keeping things blurry about what distillery they were actually referencing: the non-existent one or the closed one that didn't distill their whiskey.  No, it (whatever it was) wasn't the oldest distillery in the country nor did George Washington's army slake its thirst there.  Chatham Imports seem to be distancing their "Michter's" history as far from the original distillery's history, even suing its surviving Master Distiller into silence.

While some of this depends on the veracity of independent reports, what is clear is that a lot of effort has been spent on distortion.  And I don't understand it.  How many more bottles of bourbon is Michter's really going to sell by committing to this approach?  Why burn so many bridges so early in the game?  And (to Michter's, as well as Templeton and Whistle Pig), why hide or lie about the source of one's whiskey -- especially when it's a good source -- rather than focusing on showing pride in being a successful American small business with big dreams on the rise?

Unlike Bourbon Truth, I do not have unbridled rage over this.  But Chatham's actions do make me uncomfortable enough to avoid buying their products.  There is SO MUCH whisk(e)y on the market right now, so I'll stick to the stuff with less of the creep factor.

I'm going to end this section here and provide you with links below if you want to wade further into this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bomberger%27s_Distillery
http://chuckcowdery.blogspot.com/2012/11/how-can-non-distiller-be-distiller-of.html
http://chuckcowdery.blogspot.com/2014/03/where-is-michters-distillery.html
http://www.cooperedtot.com/2014/03/considering-michters.html
http://thebourbontruth.tumblr.com/post/79568476215/deceit-vs-deception-the-heroes-and-hobos-of
http://thebourbontruth.tumblr.com/post/101297586796/the-battle-for-bombergers-david-vs-whiskey
http://whiskycast.com/battle-over-bombergers-whiskey-brand-heading-to-court/
http://thebourbontruth.tumblr.com/post/125014187151/some-times-the-bully-wins-bomberger-vs-chatham
http://www.fredminnick.com/2015/08/10/the-new-stoll-wolfe/

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Okay, so after all of that, what the hell is this whiskey and why the hell am I reviewing it?  Well, we don't know who distilled the stuff, though it was distilled in KY.  And it is bourbon.  In this case, Michter's takes their sourced straight bourbon (which is at least 4 years old) and finishes it for "an additional period".  They don't state the length of the finish, but do share that the barrel's staves were air-dried for 18 months.  That's a curious random detail which almost led me to think that the finish was 18 months long at first glance.  But the finish was likely not 18 months long.  I'm reviewing this whiskey because I'm curious to see how a toasted oak finish would affect a bourbon.  And I'm kind of expecting a disaster.

Brand: Michter's
Owner: Chatham Imports
Region: Kentucky
Type: Bourbon Whiskey
Age: at least 4 years old
Finish/Length: Toasted Barrels for "an additional period"
Alcohol by volume: 45.7%
Thank you to Smokypeat for the sample!

NEAT
The color is dark rosy gold, almost the same shade as the 9yo Knob Creek Single Barrel.  The nose is curiously fruity.  Fresh grapefruit, lemon candy, and gummi worms.  Lots of caramel too.  After 10 minutes the oak rolls in.  More vanilla, but also some mint.  At first, there's not much going on in the palate.  Just non-descript sweets and sawdust.  But gradually some savory bits and salty cheese appear.  Then corn syrup and mint.  A mild peppery spice and a slight plasticky note.  The finish is slightly perfumy.  Then black pepper, barrel char, and distant cardboard note.

AS A HIGHBALL (1:1 ratio of whisky and club soda)
Caramel, orange candy, black pepper, and barrel char.

While I wouldn't call this great whiskey, it was much better than I had expected.  The early nose was good and the resulting highball was pleasant.  When neat, the palate doesn't do anything for me, though at least it wasn't hot.  Perhaps that's where the toasted oak came in, tempering some sharper edges, because otherwise I don't see much in the way of new stuff happening.  Usually when I find fruit notes (like those in the nose), it's related back to the original spirit.  And I don't find any spice or nuttiness that I often find in toasted oak whiskies.

But it's okay stuff.  If it were half its price, like $20-$25, and it came from a cleaner parent company then I'd consider buying it.  But it's $40-$60 and from Michter's, so no thanks.

Availability - Some US specialty retailers

Pricing - $40-$60

Rating - 78