NOT Single Malt Report: Knob Creek 9 year old Single Barrel Reserve Small Batch Bourbon (barrel 106, exclusive to The Party Source)

To celebrate the official end of summer (and the beginning of the Southern California heat) I'm reviewing four bourbons this week.  Bourbon highballs feel much better than any drink, besides beer and (probably) water, during this heat.  If the nights actually cool down then a good bourbon neat isn't the worst idea, either.

I'm starting off with the bourbon that's the hardest to find of the four.  And I'm not sure if the specific barrel is still available.  You're welcome!

Knob Creek is a Beam Suntory brand, sort of a sub-brand of Jim Beam bourbon.  There's the regular "Small Batch" 100 proof 9 year old bourbon, an NAS or "patiently aged" straight rye (of which I am not fond), another "small batch" bourbon that is "patiently crafted" with "natural" Smoked Maple flavoring, and finally there's a 9yo Single Barrel Reserve Small Batch(?!) bourbon which punches in at 120 proof.  Wording complaints aside, I've been most interested in the single barrel but didn't want to put down $40 in return for a bottle of hot burning.  Luckily, Friend Florin saved a sample of this bourbon for me.

There's a subset within the Single Barrel Small Batch Reserve bourbons, known as the Private Barrels.  These are barrels selected by specialty retailers (from amongst a number of barrel samples) to sell exclusively in their store.  The Party Source, being Kentucky's darling retailer, sold this barrel #106 at their store.  I don't know if this is the barrel they're currently selling, but I can tell you with quite some confidence that The Party Source no longer ships alcohol.  So the relevance of this barrel may be limited if you, the reader, don't live in TPS's neighborhood.

Owner: Beam Suntory
Brand: Knob Creek
Distillery: Jim Beam Distillery
Location: Clermont, Kentucky
Mash Bill: Standard 15% rye (probably)
Age: minimum 9 years old
Barrel#: 106
Exclusive to: The Party Source
ABV: 60% ABV
(Thanks to Florin for the sample!)

NEAT
Its color is very red very dark gold.  The nose starts out *whew* WOOD and paint fumes.  After airing it out for a few minutes, I find some cinnamon and caramel candies.  Maraschino cherry fruitiness and cherry lollipops.  Soft on the vanilla bean, yet not so soft on freshly cut lumber.  Hints of mint and rye here and there.  Ah, the vanilla does get louder with time and the fresh lumber turns to dusty wood beams (pun unintended).  Wood, cherry juice, and cinnamon red hots take up dominate the palate at first, though it's not as sweet as those notes suggest.  On the second sip, I find some nice MGP-like rye notes to go with the fruit.  Ginger beer.  It does get sweeter with time.  The finish begins mildly sweet with cherry candy things. Toasted and charred oak alternating.  Some salt, some orange peel.  Like the palate it gets sweeter with time, but also oakier.  Lots of heat.

WITH WATER (~45-50%abv)
Nuts in caramel in the nose.  Sawdust and salty vanilla (if that's a thing).  The palate is sweet and spicy.  Woody around the edges.  Very Beam.  The palate gets aggressively sweet and woody.

Firstly, it was much better at 60%abv than at the lower ABV of its stable mates.  Secondly, it needs to breathe because it's hot and closed when it first hits the glass.  After that, nothing really offends.  I like the fruity notes and the rye moments.  Otherwise the oak takes front stage.  So if you're oak phobic then this isn't for you.  But then again, if you're oak phobic you probably want to stay away from bourbon in general, especially older ones at high strength.

I like this much more than the Knob Creek rye because that one felt half-baked.  If anything, this one might be over-baked.  But again, this isn't bad at the $30-$35 range, if it's priced above that then it's out of its league.  If you're looking for something cheaper, less oaky, and milder then I recommend its cousin Jim Beam Black in 8yo form.

Availability - This barrel was only sold at The Party Source, other non-private selection Knob Creek single barrels are sold at probably all specialty liquor retailers in the US

Pricing - $30-$60

Rating - 80

WTF Is This? Macgavin's Highland Single Malt

Speyside Distillery makes some exceptionally poor whisky.  Their 12 year old is probably the worst official age-stated single malt on the market.  Drumguish is drum-gross-ish.  And Cu Dubh is loose poop in a cup.

So when Oliver Klimek tweeted out that Speyside Distillery was releasing another e150a-flooded thingy, Jordan from Chemistry of the Cocktail had the only appropriate response.

@Dramming_Com Barf

— Jordan (@cocktailchem) August 30, 2015

The Speyside Distillery's ownership used to also own Scott's Selection, one of the first indie bottlers to bring cask strength whiskies to The States.  Good stuff (courtesy of other distilleries' casks of course) and at good prices.  When I heard that the company had divested themselves of Scott's Selection, I realized that their (both old and new) management's bad choices extended beyond the confines of what's inside the bottle.

This is unfortunate because they (Harvey's of Edinburgh) are one of the few small businesses remaining in the Scotch industry -- though on the SWA's site, Harvey's lists a Grand Cayman address. The company's former owners specialized in a number of bottom shelf blends, such as Old Monarch, Blackburn, and King Henry VIII, thus malt quality was probably not their first priority.  This new Harvey's ownership seems to have banked on a new "Spey" brand in China and Serge V. seems to like the 18 year old.  Perhaps this means they're attempting to improve things.  Or they're just betting the house on China, which, if economic trends continue, would prove to be another bad decision.

One of the products produced by the previous owners was the Macgavin's series of single malts.  There's little to nothing official about the range online, but I do know that there is or was a "Highland" and a "Speyside" (apparently there's an Islay and Lowland too).  I attended a tasting three years ago (an experience that really deserves its own post) at which I tried both of the "Speyside" and "Highland" whiskies.  According to my notes, both whiskies use single malts from The Speyside Distillery, the difference between the two being "Highland" contains a bit of peated malt.  Way back then I liked the NAS "Highland" more than both the NAS "Speyside" and the official 12 year old.  My whisky buddy JLR (and his wife) were at that very tasting and he bought a bottle of the Highland.  We both eventually departed with much more expensive whisky, but that's another story.  Many thanks to JLR for this sample.

Distillery: The Speyside Distillery
Range: Macgavin's
Ownership (current): Harvey's of Edinburgh

Region: Speyside (but almost not)
Age: ???

Maturation: probably ex-bourbon barrels

Alcohol by Volume: 40%
Chillfiltered? Likely so
Colorant added? Likely so

Color - Brass
Nose - A light but ever-present grungy peat coated with vanilla simple syrup and white flour.  A little bit of Ethyl (in my life. A little bit of Monica in---oh shit, I'm sorry).  It's quite cheery and candied.  At first.  After 10 minutes, a sour milk note announces itself.  After 20 minutes, it becomes stinky cheese.  After 30 minutes, it starts to pick up some baking spice and caramel.  It sort of redeems itself as the expired dairy floats away.
Palate - Pencil lead, vanilla, sugar, and light smoke.  Watery texture, though not surprising at this ABV.  A slight peppery zip.  Malt first, then oak.  At first.  After 15 minutes, the sour milk note arrives, but then so does an oaky bitterness.  Then some oak spice, sand, and salt.
Finish - A little citrusy, then peaty.  Some of that milky residue comes and goes.  The citrus builds with time, but so does the oaky bitterness.  A hint of cardboard appears after 30 minutes.

First off, this is better than Cu Dubh, Drumguish, and Speyside 12yo.  I'm not saying it's great.  I'm saying it's drinkable.  And its price point doesn't suck.  It wouldn't be the worst idea for the distillery to bottle something like this at 12 years old and put their name on it, discarding the current "Speyside 12" recipe.

It starts off as a C+ whisky and then goes weird after 10 minutes.  It does pick itself back up after more than a half hour, but never gets back to where it was at first.  It's much too thin and light for water, if you're drinking to taste.  But if you're just plopping it on the rocks, go for it.

Availability - Some specialty retailers in the US
Pricing - $20-$25
Rating - 72

Single Malt Report: Laphroaig An Cuan Mor

Yes, another current Laphroaig!  How about that?!  This one I always remember as "the Duty Free one" since it has a Gaelic name I always forget and never learn how to pronounce.  I was a serious geek about all things Scottish long before I discovered scotch whisky.  Hell, during my long Alba (Gaelic for Scotland!) stay in 2002 I drank only beer.  Despite my love for that country, I find it difficult to take these whiskies with Gaelic names seriously.  The names are designed by parent companies that are not even remotely Scottish but are trying to make their whiskies sound Scottisher to your ears and distract you from the fact that you're drinking very young whisky at an inflated price.  But you've heard this all before.

The Travel Retail-only An Cuan Mor (or Big Ocean) spent the majority of its maturation time in ex-bourbon barrels, then was finished, or "slept", in "the finest European oak", as per the official site.  Thems some nice marketing words, but how long did it "sleep" and why does Laphroaig keep using artificial colorant in its products?  I have a dozens of additional pissy questions, but I'm surly today so maybe I should just review the whisky.

Distillery: Laphroaig

Owner: Beam Suntory
Type: Single Malt
Region: Islay

Age: older than 3 years
Maturation: finished in ex-sherry European oak for an unspecified amount of time after having been aged for an unspecified amount of time in "first-fill-only ex-American white oak bourbon barrels", as per the site. That's a weird place to put the "ex-".  The barrels aren't former American white oak.  They still are American white oak.  Just call them first-fill ex-bourbon barrels, dudes.

Chill-filtration? No
Caramel colored? Probably

Alcohol by Volume: 48%
(Thanks to Dirty Uncle Mike for the sample!)

Its color is orange gold.  The nose is very pretty, gooey rich, for a Laphroaig. Laphroaig candy. 'Phroaig Phlowers. Fresh apricots with Ceylon cinnamon. Pecan pie and milk chocolate at the beach.  Seaweed.  The sherry/European oak character grows with time and starts to feel more like a second maturation than a quick finish.  It picks up a bit of a barnyard note after awhile which brings more character to the package.  It all fades away after 45 minutes, so don't wait so damn long.  There's a deep, almost Ardbeg level of cinders in the palate, which is much drier and phenolic than the nose lets on.  While there are notes of milk chocolate and confectioner's sugar, there's plenty of smoke and a good herbal bitterness to balance it out.  Some bacon in there too, or maybe that's how my taste buds interpreted all of the salt and smoke.  It gets sweeter with time and begins to pick up a big anise note.  It gradually loses some peat but gets spicier and almost gingery.  Big smoke on the finish, and an even more substantial sea salt note.  A bit of charred meat, a little drying.  It feels like the 10yo with more pepper, more sugar, and a longer finale.

This was a lot better than I had expected.  While the nose is richer than the palate, the palate is darker and peatier than the nose.  But it's more of a drinker than a thinker since, as I mentioned, it fades out after 45 minutes in the glass.  I like it better than the Triple Wood, perhaps because there's less woodwork futzing.  In fact, if they just swapped this out for the Triple Wood (NAS for NAS), it wouldn't be a total tragedy.  In the meantime, I'm happy to report that there's a decent NAS Duty Free whisky out there.  I'm less happy to reveal the regrettable and odd $100-$150 price tag.

Availability - Originally just travel retail shops, but is now being sold at some European retailers

Pricing - generally between $100-$150 at duty free shops (though possibly cheaper in Australia and New Zealand airports), European retailers are selling it for $80-$140

Rating - 86

Single Malt Report: Laphroaig Càirdeas 2015 (200th Anniversary)

Bitch session initiated.

So, there seems to be something weird going on with the distribution of Laphroaig's special releases this year.  While every state east of California received the new 15 year old in July and early August, the Golden State has yet to receive a single bottle.  Meanwhile, the new Càirdeas hit all those states east of us more than a month before California received it.  And while those bottles appeared to have been in decent supply elsewhere (with some Midwestern retailers still selling it), it seems as if barely a handful retailers in California received one case or less each.  Meanwhile (in California) the 2014 Càirdeas is still sitting on the shelves of a much higher count of retailers than those who received any of the 2015.  The 2013 edition took almost a year to sell out here as well.  So has the distributor redirected bottles elsewhere because they thought Càirdeas didn't sell well in California?  Or is there some sort of supply mixup?  I guess I'd lean towards the latter since the 15yo still hasn't arrived.

I have had the opportunity to try the new Càirdeas, though via bottles shipped to CA from two other states.  That seems weird.  I'd like to purchase a bottle of this whisky, but I guess I'll have to wait until Laphroaig gets their logistics issues straightened out.  Or I will never get to buy bottle and life will go on.

Bitch session concluded.

And now for the whisky...

Stolen from my Cairdeas 2012 post:

Since 2008, Laphroaig has been releasing a limited edition bottling in honor of their Friends of Laphroaig group (730,000 and growing), thus the "friendship" Càirdeas name.  The release has coincided with the annual swingin' Feis Ile, the Islay whisky and jazz festival.

This year's Càirdeas coincided with the distillery's 200th birthday.  The whisky is (unofficially) 11 years old, matured only in ex-bourbon barrels, and distilled in their older smaller stills.  What drew my interest in it, other than the ex-bourbon-barrel-only maturation, was that the spirit distilled entirely from Laphroaig's floor maltings.  The Laphroaig we're all used to drinking contains some malt from their floors, but because the distillery's needs easily outpace what they can malt onsite, they have to outsource most of their malted barley.  But this whisky only uses their own stuff and that sounded kind of cool to me.

Thanks to the OC Scotch Club and Florin for the samples!

Distillery: Laphroaig
Product line: Càirdeas
Release Year: 2015

Owner: Beam Suntory
Type: Single Malt
Region: Islay

Age: 11+ years
Maturation: ex-bourbon barrels

Chill-filtration? No
Caramel colored? Possibly

Alcohol by Volume: 51.5%
Limited Release: probably around 25,000 bottles

Its color is a yellow amber, lighter than the 10 year old.  The nose starts out grassy and herbal (especially anise).  It has a little bit of vanilla, but that doesn't stand a chance against the push of oysters/seashells and a dusty earthy peating.  It has an aromatic medicinality.  Okay that's a bullshit shorthand term.  More specifically, there are band-aids and brown sugar syrup, along with hints of lemon, cinnamon, and honeydew.  After a 30 minutes in the glass, it reveals doused bonfires (much like my beloved '90s Ardmores) and fruit scented Mr. Sketch markers.  The palate has some of the modern Laphroaig sweets and vanilla, but again that's overtaken by the biggest dirtiest peat blast of the current Laphroaig lineup.  It's a multi-layered peat; so beyond the big and dirty, there's some farm and green moss wrapped up in it.  And it makes me think of chimney bricks.  There's also a nice sharp slice of salt and bitter around the edges.  With time (30+ mins?) in the glass, the palate picks up some bold fresh ginger and cinnamon bark notes.  The finish has some sweets, but much more salt and smoke and moss and the aforementioned chimney bricks.  And suddenly when I think it's done, the whisky reveals the rare boomerang finish, coming back with a big Talisker-like pepper bite.

For the past two years, I had been losing confidence in the current Laphroaig releases, but this.  This.  This has restored some of my faith.  While the 15yo was very good, this is better than very good.  I like it better than anything else Laphroaig has bottled recently, and it's my favorite of the last four Càirdeases.

So how come?  Is it the barley or the stills?  Or maybe ~50%abv is a great spot for Laphroaig right now, as I noted in my attempts to rescue the lackluster Cask Strength Batch 005.  Or sometimes when enough barrels (allegedly 100 of 'em in this instance) are mixed together something excellent happens.

So what did I just go and do?  I bought a bottle from Minnesota.

Availability - Midwest US is your best shot (as of September 2015)

Pricing - $75-$90

Rating - 90

WTF Is This? Glenforres 12 year old All Highland Malt (1980s bottling)

WTF is this?  It's Edradour!  Mostly.  Or entirely.  Probably.  Edradour, the smallest distillery in the Highlands, was called Glenforres a couple times during its existence.  I've seen this particular whisky listed as both a Vatted Malt and a Single Malt online.  At first I thought it was the former, now I'm leaning towards the latter.  Note the back label:

Okay, that's not really legible.  To summarize, it says that Glenforres is the "smallest" distillery in Scotland -- as Edradour was for decades.  It says that it was built in Pitlochry -- as Edradour was.  And at the bottom, the label says "Established 1825" -- again Edradour.  And according to Dominic Roskrow's Whisky Opus, former owner William Whiteley renamed Edradour as Glenforres-Glenlivet during his ownership.  Thus, Edradour.  But why list "All Highland Malt" on the front label rather than "Single Malt"?  If anyone knows the answer, please share in the comments!

I think this is a pic of the bottle
my sample came from.

Distillery: Edradour
Ownership at the time: probably William Whiteley & Co. Inc.

Region: Highlands (Central)
Age: minimum 12 years old

Bottling year: Probably in the early 1980s

Maturation: Plastic dispensers?

Alcohol by Volume: 43%
Chillfiltered? Unknown
Colorant added? Not much if any
(From a sample purchased from LA Scotch Club)

The color is amber.  The nose starts with malt and lots of limes.  Then out-of-season cherries, a little bit of wood polish, and a subtle moss note.  Some lychee candies and fresh grapefruit as well.  The whisky hits the palate sweetly in the first moment, but then soap soap soap soap soap soap soap soap soap.  Grapefruit soap.  Dove liquid soap.  Some of the fruits from the nose linger behind.  The finish keeps the grapefruits, but sheds all of the soap, at first.  In later sips, the soap returns.  There are also lemon candies and white gummi bears.  It's pretty salty and bitter throughout.

Well, that was an experience.  This must be the first time I've had a whisky with a nose that would score in the high-80s and palate that would score in the low-50s.  Had I looked at its whiskybase page, I wouldn't have gotten such a surprise, as the community lists it as the 73rd worst whisky of all time (out of nearly 66,000 competitors).  The fruity nose does pull it up out of Failure Land, but I cannot recommend this whisky to anyone outside of malt masochists or people who recreationally drink hand soap.

Availability - Why? You really don't want this anyway.
Pricing - ???
Rating - 67

Single Malt Report: Edradour 9 year old 2003 Ruby Port Cask, batch 2

As mentioned on Monday, my Edradour experience is minimal.  I have had four unpeated Edradours made by the current ownership, two whiskies that were decent and two that were not.  The better ones were from emphatic sherry casks, the lesser ones were from shy bourbon casks.  Let's see where this one fits...

Distillery: Edradour
Ownership: Signatory Vintage Scotch Whisky Co., Ltd.

Region: Highlands (Central)
Age: minimum 9 years old

Bottling year: 2013

Maturation: Ruby Port Hogsheads
Limited Bottling: 3100

Alcohol by Volume: 46%
Chillfiltered? No
Colorant added? No
(Thanks to Tetris who donated this MoM sample!)

The color is a rosy dark gold.  There is A LOT of sulphur in the nose, the most I've ever experienced from port cask maturation.  Just a wall of struck matches for the first ten minutes.  Behind the wall awaits some grapey port.  Eventually all of the other notes sneak through one by one.  Hay, marzipan, chocolate, and strawberry candy.  Smaller notes of agave nectar, violets, and honey.  The palate is sulphur free at first.  The port feels dry rather than sweet.  Almonds, salt, pepper, oats, and black raisins.  About 20 minutes in, things go a little weird with a sulphur & soap note.  But that vanishes 5 minutes later.  Then the raisins come back in with a salty pepper sauce and bitter chocolate.  A hot ethyl note runs throughout.  The finish has no weird notes.  Raisins, dry red wine, apple juice, the pepper sauce thing, and bitter coffee.

I didn't add water to this whisky because I became fascinated tracking the way it changed in the glass.  Thank goodness the sulphur faded out of the nose because there were good things trapped behind it.  The palate was free of sweets, but it was a bit bland (aside from its gross hiccup midway through).  The finish was the least flawed element.  While it's far from the worst Edradour I've had and is totally drinkable, it is crap compared to yesterday's Ballechin (peated Edradour) that was also aged in Port hogsheads.

Though there aren't many other online reviews of this whisky, I seem to be the only one who was hit by the sulphur note.  That's sort of weird because it's so freaking huge.  Sulphur aside, I'm still not crazy about this one by any means.  I'm not sure why it was bottled at this age, other than to satisfy a need for revenue.  Batch 1 has much lower ratings than Batch 2 in whiskybase, so I won't be too disappointed if I never try that one.  If you've tried either of these batches, let me know in the comments below.  I'd be curious to hear your thoughts.  I'm still not really sold on unpeated Edradour, though their ownership continues to be one of the industry's most reliable bottlers of other distilleries' malts.

Availability - Some specialty retailers in Europe
Pricing - €50-€60 (with VAT)
Rating - 77

Single Malt Report: Ballechin Batch 3, Port Cask Matured

Before the 10 year old, Ballechin was released as "The Discovery Series", without age statements and in a different sort of cask each year.  They were as follows:

Ballechin batch 1 - First-fill Burgundy Wine Casks (2006)
Ballechin batch 2 - Madeira Puncheons (2007)
Ballechin batch 3 - Port Hogsheads (2008)
Ballechin batch 4 - Oloroso Sherry Butts (2009)
Ballechin batch 5 - Marsala Hogsheads (2010)
Ballechin batch 6 - Bourbon Barrels (2011)
Ballechin batch 7 - Bordeaux Hogsheads (2012)
Ballechin batch 8 - Sauternes Hogsheads (2013)

Thanks to Florin (the local Ballechin fan), I have a sample of batch 3 to report on...

Distillery: Edradour
Malt: Ballechin
Ownership: Signatory Vintage Scotch Whisky Co., Ltd.

Region: Highlands (Central)

Bottling year: 2008

Maturation: Port Hogsheads
Limited Bottling: 6000
Peat level at time of malting: ~50ppm

Alcohol by Volume: 46%
Chillfiltered? No
Colorant added? No
(Thanks to Florin for the sample!)

NEAT
Its color is light gold with a slight pink-orange hue.  The first big note in the nose is chocolate tangerine peat.  The port level is mild at first but strengthens with time.  Blackberry popsicle.  Hint of menthol.  The peat gets greener with time.  Then suddenly, its a whole pan of raspberry bars!  The palate is much ashier than that of the 10 year old.  Thickly textured, it feels much larger than 46%abv.  Chocolate, toffee, and sweet grapes at first.  Then the 10's chili oil note leaps forth.  And lots of dark berries in peat syrup (or vice versa?).  A little more wine in the finish.  Limeade, salt, and dry peat smoke.  Medium levels of sugar and (peppery) spice.

WITH WATER (~40%abv)
The nose becomes milder and softer.  The port and peat become floral.  Lemon zest, vanilla, and maybe a hint of honey develop.  The palate becomes ashier and bitterer.  Less fruit, more straight up sugar.  Acidic, too.   The finish is sweet and ashy.  Floral and acidic.  Maybe some bitter chocolate?  Decent length.

For an non-Islay wine-cask-aged NAS peated whisky, this is hard to top -- though I'm not sure how much competition it actually has.  I'd even say it's better than many age statemented Islay peaters.  The nose, palate, and finish are equally solid, though I don't recommend adding water.  The peat and port not only play well together but also compliment each other.  Good stuff this porty peaty Edradour.

Though this has become difficult to find, I still think its current US prices (floating around $100) are goofy.  Its original US price of $80ish is little more reasonable and, unlike the Ballechin 10, I'd be willing to pay $70-$80 for this Batch 3 because the quality is present in the bottle.

Availability - Scarce in the US and Europe
Pricing - $100 or so in the US; $85-110 in Europe
Rating - 88