...where distraction is the main attraction.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Three whisky events in four days: Part Two

(Part One here)

And then there was...

SUNDAY -- GLEN GARIOCH & BOWMORE

If you are on the western coast of the United States and Johnnie Mundell is holding a whisky event in your town, be there.  He is and has been a rep for Morrison Bowmore and Campari America.  Like Martin Daraz, he's a hardy Scotsman who can handle a room, weave a tale, educate the mind, and pour whisky all at the same time.  I've been to three of his Bowmore events, one Glenrothes event, and now this Glen Garioch + Bowmore event.  I'm such a fan of this guy that I'm going to stop gushing before this gets awkward.

Too late!

On this particular evening, Johnnie climbed on tables...

...read Burns's "John Barleycorn"...

...and poured the following:

Glen Garioch 1797 Founder's Reserve
Glen Garioch 12 year
Glen Garioch 1994 Vintage
Glen Garioch 1991 Vintage

Auchentoshan Three Wood

Bowmore Legend
Bowmore 12 year
Bowmore 15 year Darkest
Bowmore 18 year
Bowmore Dorus Mor

He had these paired side by side as such:
GG Founders Reserve and Bowmore Legend
GG 12 year and Bowmore 12 year
GG 1994 and Bowmore 18 year
Auchie Three Wood and Bowmore 15 year Darkest
GG 1991 and Bowmore Dorus Mor

I've reviewed a number of these already, in fact I think I've reported on most of the Bowmores multiple times.  The only Garioch that I'd reported on before was the 12 year and I still find it bloody fantastic (maple syrup, vanilla beans, and dried apricots this time).  I'll try to focus on stuff newer to me.

Bowmore Legend ($25, 40%) and Glen Garioch Founder's Reserve ($35, 48%) are both in the 8 year range and carry their youth well.  Legend is a lot better than I thought it would be: some light peat, light on the sweet, and very drinkable neat.  The Founder's carries more oomph, due to its ABV and no filtration.  It's bready and full of cereal notes, some white fruits on the nose and a touch savory in the palate.

Likely my second favorite of the night, the Glen Garioch 1994 ($120, 53.9%) has a gorgeous nose:  a massive hit of salted taffy and butterscotch.  The malty palate has a touch of peat and salt.  The Glen Garioch 1991 (54.7%) isn't available in the states (yet) but was the softest and most graceful of the bunch.  Also lightly peated, there was a similar butterscotch character as well as some citrus juice notes.

The Bowmore Dorus Mor was the biggie, for me.  The limited release Bowmore Tempest bottlings are my favorite official Bowmore bottlings.  They are 10-year-old cask-strength first-fill ex-bourbon-barrel bruisers.  A year ago, a California winery named "Tempest" threatened suit if Bowmore was to release another Tempest whisky in The States.  So Bowmore responded by changing the name of Tempest Batch 4 to "Dorus Mor" on the US bottles.  The Dorus release will be even smaller than the previous Tempests and it's the first by the great Rachel Barrie since she moved over to Morrison Bowmore.  It's going to be released here very soon and it's not going to be cheap.  But it's very good.  I will have an official report on Dorus within the next week or so.

Many many thanks to Johnnie for all these great things!

For part three, we head West...

6 comments:

  1. I really want to like Bowmore Tempest/Dorus Mor, but ye gods the price point here in the US is just insane. $120 for a 10 YO CS whisky? What are they smoking? The BS about 'limited edition' is the same crap Diageo throws out about Lagavulin 12 CS. They make it every damn year, at which pointed the 'limited edition' part tends to wear pretty thin.

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    1. Yeah, I'm trying to figure out the logic behind the pricing. It's a shame since I'm priced out of it. Tempest Batch 4 is half the $$$ on mainland Europe.

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    2. Well, at least shipping from Master of Malt is back on the table, so we can bypass that particular variety of silliness.

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    3. Say what?!!!??! Oh my goodness, I'm so behind news-wise.

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    4. It was announced on the MoM twitter feed last week.

      https://twitter.com/MasterOfMalt/status/297033973819912192

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    5. And their shipping prices don't appear to have changed. Stellar.

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