Single Malt Report: Old Pulteney 17 year old

Oh, how I missed you all.  The work day is unkind, to put it mildly.  To further my New Year's intent to explore the good stuff, today's post is about some good stuff.

I love Old Pulteney 17yr.  But you know what I love more than the Old Pulteney 17yr?

This:

PEOPLE!  Buy this.

Because if you don't I will.  I will buy all every last twin pack and my wife will be sad.

Seriously, if you find it at $40, you must consider the screaming deal at hand.

This OP twin killing is how I had the opportunity try both of these malts.  The OP12 is a great step up from 'Fiddich and 'Livet.  It has some curious sour and briny notes that I really enjoy.  The 17 year is an entirely different creature.

Distillery: Pulteney

Ownership: Inver House

Region: Northern Highlands (Wick)

Type: Single Malt Whisky

Maturation: Primarily 2nd-fill ex-bourbon American oak casks, along with former Pedro Ximenez and oloroso sherry Spanish oak casks 

Age: minimum 17 years

Alcohol by Volume: 46%

NEAT --
The color is a bright light gold.  The welcoming nose flexes both the malt and oak.  Mostly American white oak, but also a tiny bit of the ex-sherry oak.  The fruits are more fresh than dried.  There's a lot of honey butter and coconut cream.  A little seaside too, along with some orange and lemon zests.  The palate moves from milk chocolate to dark chocolate.  Lemon, flower blossoms, caramel sauce, and confectioner's sugar.  It's creamy with a brief peppery zing.  I'd be remiss if I didn't mention a lively bold sour citrus note too.  It finishes with toffee and sugar first.  Then a little salt sneaks in along with a mossy moment.  As it gradually fades away, a trail of mint remains.

W/WATER --
The nose gets younger and spirity.  Lots of vanilla and malt.  Apples.  A little citrus, strawberries, and bubblegum.  Caramel sauce leads in the palate, then some cereal grains and sweet fruit juice.  Both grassy and floral.  A pleasant sourness remains.  A little sherry in the finish.  Some milk chocolate and toffee too.  Salts & sweets & sours.

It took a while for the hydrated version to grow on me, but (as usual) I prefer this one neat.

My notes say, "What if there was a Glenfiddich 105?"  Maybe the OP17 inspired that thought.  I really don't know what I was referring to, but I thought I'd just share that.

Back to the OP17.  As Jordan from Chemistry of the Cocktail noted, this one's pretty light for a 46% ABV.  According to Serge's reviews this whisky keeps changing character over the years.  He may be onto something, as everyone who's reviewed it online seems to find his or her own unique notes within the glass.  Perhaps this is due to different proportions of the sherried-vs-American oak; a little more PX one year, more bourbon in another.  There wasn't a lot of sherry oak in this batch, unless it was from 2nd or 3rd fill casks.  Also, according to Dominic Roskrow's 1001 Whiskies, while Old Pulteney 12 year's American oak casks are first-refill, the 17 year's are 2nd refill.

I do enjoy the whiskys that test the permutations of blending American and European oak matured malt.  Big ups/props/credit to the distilleries that bottle their whisky (especially those on the pricier end of the range) at 46%, too.

I cannot guarantee that you'll like OP17 as much as I.  So rather than shelling out $80+ for a bottle, you may want to keep an eye out for that Twin Pack.  If I haven't scooped them all up first...

Availability - Many liquor specialists
Pricing - for the 750mL bottle - at $70  :) , but at $100  :(
Rating - 90

2012 and 2013, My whisky year that was and is

2012 was a damned good year in whisky exploration.  Though as the year wore on, I became busier and busier.  Drinking less and less.  As a result of decreased consumption, my sample (and bottle) collection grew.  Woo hoo!

Life doesn't change abruptly when the calendar year increases.  The seeds of one's joys and troubles in one year were planted earlier.  2012 is 2013 and 2013 is 2012.  Some things I hope will continue.  Some things I hope will end.

The Splendid

I attended some tremendous, expansive tastings last year.  From the educational whisk(e)y voyage at the Freakin' Frog in February, to Peatin' Meetin' in July, to the Laphroaig Vertical in December, to around a dozen official or unofficial group tastings, my whisky horizons have expanded exponentially.

Plus I've had a chance to talk to some of you all.  Before this year, much of my whisky education happened alone.  That was fun, but it cannot compare to how important and lovely it has been to share and discuss with other whisky nuts.  It feels like a little community and we've been doing great work expanding the social whisky universe.  Thank you all!

There have been a number of whiskies I've tried but haven't reviewed, largely because I was just enjoying the stuff and not analyzing it further.  Some examples:

Balvenie Tun 1401 Batch 6 -- This one left me speechless twice.  All I kept doing was mumbling to strangers, "The nose on this. The nose on this."  Yeah.  The nose on this.  A lot of folks in the know have been saying Batch 3 is the best.  But as Batch 6 has fewer sherry casks and more bourbon casks, I would be happy to go with a bottle of this first.  The nose on this.
Laphroaig 21yr Cask Strength -- From that grandiose Laphroaig vertical, this limited edition official casker from Laphroaig was by leaps and bounds better than most already-great Laphroaigs.  It was somehow both silky and powerful.  I kept thinking "peated-cognac" but, again, I get silly when enthralled.
Abraham Bowman Pioneer Spirit Virginia Rye -- Big, bold, and beautiful, this is likely the best American whiskey I've yet tried.  I believe (and someone please correct me if I'm wrong) this is a 10 year old triple-distilled rye made from the Thomas H. Handy recipe/mash.  Sour Mash and SKU have reviewed it.  I look forward to the next batch!
Ardmore 19yr 1992 (Whisky Doris) -- A surprising favorite from the Peatin' Meetin'.  And it wasn't just me.  Two bottles were on hand at the start; they were empty long before the Meetin' was over.  I may or may not have had something to do with that.  This was a whisky that left me with such a vivid sense memory that it haunted me as I desperately tried to track down a bottle of my own...

There will be an official review of some of these this year.  :-)

Then there were my favorite new discoveries that were reported:

The Ardbegs Uigeadail and Corryvreckan - I've already spoken volumes about these shadowy siblings, these marvels of modern whisky creation.  So, I'll keep this short.  These are awesome.  I've tried a couple Octomores and Port Charlottes; I've tried the Supernova; I've had a couple cask strength Lagavulins.  They may all pack massive cask strength peat punches, but none of them have the complexity (oh that word) or provide such a joyous drinking experience as Oog and Corry.

The Willet Ryes -- My first barrel-strength rye and still my favorite by some distance.  Having now tried the three, four, five, and six year olds (yeah, I'm kinda sold on it), I'm trying to sort through which I like best.  Part of me likes the three year best since the spirit is enormous.  The oak is great but beginning to get a bit large on the six year.  Perhaps the four and five are the best of both worlds?  Further research is currently being conducted.

Yamazaki 18yr -- Remarkably gorgeous whisky #1.  Silky, rich, luxurious.  One of the few whiskys I'd be happy to pay $100+ for.  Though it's been absent from the major LA stores since August, I heard fourth-hand that it may make a return in a couple months.  I sincerely hope that's true.

Glen Spey 21yr 1989 -- Remarkably gorgeous whisky #2.  I was/am quite in love with this one.  All sorts of lovely fruit, rye, custard and cake batter, and floral notes.  It ain't cheap, but there are one or two good deals to be found on the webs.

And then the old favorite, Macallan 17yr Fine Oak.  Likely soon to vanish once Macallan brings their NAS bottlings to The States, this is one reliable whisky that I treasure.  I will buy one more bottle before it's gone.

Then there's...

The Not-So-Splendid

I drank some sh***y whisky this year too.  I had hoped that I could find some surprising delicious bargains.  Though I tried and tried and tried, it was mostly not to be.  In fact there were a number of crummy drams that I couldn't even review.

This came to a head during last month's JW Red Label / Dewars White Label tasting.  Something was left scarred after the experience.  I have since found a number of cheapie whisky minis that I would have previously scooped up and reviewed.  But instead, now, each time I see a 99 cent plastic mini of whisk(e)y, I feel an awful weight pulling down inside of me, physically turning me away, reminding me to seek out good whisky or drink nothing at all.  So in 2013, there will be fewer reviews of the swampy dregs sitting within plastic bottles.

The two worst whiskies I'd reported on in 2012 actually come in glass bottles:

Cutty Sark blended whisky -- That was terrible.  By the time I was done, I felt bad for the brand, wondering what had happened that would have forced them to bottle this liquid.  The good news is that Cutty has gotten a new Master Blender, Kirsteen Campbell.  I wish her all the best and look forward to a revival of a classic.

Dewar's White Label blended whisky -- For many years the DWL and I have not gotten along.  My mind and liver equates it with Popov Vodka, on many levels.  I sort of regret making the attempt to taste it in a controlled setting and dissecting its palate.  I only learned what I already knew, to stay away from this stuff.

A final thought on Connoisseurship

Recently, I've been meditating a bit on what it means to be a connoisseur.

It's one thing to be able to identify and savor the beauty of the pinnacle examples of a craft or art form.  But, perhaps, it's even more profound to be able to enjoy the failures as well.  Finding the magic within a mess and being able to embrace it, un-ironically, is something worth aspiring to.

I'm nowhere near that point.  I thought I was, but I'm still a beginner.  There's a long journey ahead of me.  There are so many beautiful drams to be spoken of this year.  So for now, for 2013, perhaps I'll stay away from Duggan's Dew.

Best wishes to you all.  May you be blessed with happy surprises on every journey.

Single Malt Revision: Eating crow and drinking The Hakushu 12 year old

Happy 2013 to all!  I hope everyone had a pleasant extended well-earned break from the normal work week.  I am starting this year with a complete recant of a report from last year.

Last April, I panned The Hakushu 12 year old.  The whisky I'd sampled was shockingly ugly, full of notes of cheesy-beefy-flatulence and a kitchen gas leak.  I say "shockingly" because The Hakushu 12 had received raves from a number of folks I respect.  In fact the word on the whisky street was so positive that I going to buy a whole bottle of it blindly; I even price-shopped it for two months.  But the Master of Malt sample of Hakushu that I tried convinced me of the opposite, the whisky was disappointing.

But, as I ended my report, I wrote:  "I wouldn't mind giving it another spin someday......just in case."

In the late fall, I tried it again at a OC Scotch Club event.  And it was......really good.  This round of whisky came not from a sample bottle but directly from a newly opened 750mL.  President Bob of the OC Scotch Club awesomely allowed me to steal away with a 1 ounce sample of my own.

On New Year's Eve, the sampled was consumed.

Distillery: Hakushu
Producer: Suntory Whisky
Age: 12 years
Maturation: mainly Bourbon Hogsheads
Country: Japan
Alcohol by Volume: 43%

NEAT --
The color is a bright light gold.  The nose leads with doused kindling, soil, dried apricots, and light sweet wine.  There's a cleaning solvent note in there, but in a good way!  After a few minutes, a subtle green leafy note arises, possibly spinach.  The palate is a peated confection: vanillins, brown sugar, and sweet cherries.  It's very creamy, vanilla ice creamy in fact.  There are some ashes and a touch of salt.  It finishes first sweet, then peat.  Peat ashes again.  Sugared fruit, a little salt.  It's extensive and warm considering its low-ish ABV.

WITH WATER --
The nose loses its prettiness, gaining weight and malt spirit.  Some cocoa, tree bark, and vegetal peat too.  Some of the infamous gassy edge starts to peek through.  The palate becomes simpler.  Vanilla, malt, mild peat, notebook paper, and fruit cocktail juice.  It finishes briefly, with that fruit cocktail juice character, a little peat and vanilla following.

I recommend this neat.  Period.  Keep the water out, please.

This is the quality I had hoped for, originally.  The odd sample probably kept me from buying a bottle.  The Hakushu has gotten much more difficult to find since then.  My scathing review likely resulted in a worldwide recall by Suntory.  ;-)

Anyway, Hakushu, my apologies.  I was led astray.  Thou art good.

May this new year bring many more happy discoveries, especially in places we'd never expect to find them.

Availability - Some liquor specialists

Pricing - $50-$60

Rating - 86

Dusty Whisky Report: Windsor Canadian Whisky, bottled in...

Producer: Fortune Brands, with Beam Inc.
Brand: Windsor Canadian
Region: Alberta, Canada
Age: minimum 3 years
Blend: corn, barley, and grain whiskies
Alcohol by Volume: 40%

Don't tell, show, bro.

I previously reported on Windsor Canadian here, last year, finding that it had a pleasant little palate but a harsher nose.  Windsor still has no online presence, aside from its single Beam Inc page.  Beam also bottles Canadian Club and seems to run with that more famous whisky in their marketing choices.

You can find Windsor down towards the bottom shelf in most liquor stores' Canadian selections, in black plastic bottles (whether 750ml or 1.75L).  As I highlighted in an earlier Canadian Club post, whisky doesn't hold up so well in plastic bottles.  And as Jordan (of Chemistry of the Cocktail) commented: "Alcohol should leech plastic much faster than water, being a comparatively non-polar solvent."  Yum.

Happily the handle of Windsor found in the Perry's liquor cabinet was made of the classic dark thick brown glass.  Had the whisky sat in plastic over these ages, I would not have risked a sip.  As I did with the previous two dusty discoveries, I attempted to get a bottling date on this thing.

This broken pink tax stamp affixed to the top of the bottle had the notations "TAX PAID" and "DISTILLED SPIRITS", so it was pre-'82.

I like these dark bottles since they allow for the best bottle pics.  Here, we can see the "79" on the bottom.  I don't know if the "55" means the 55th day of the year, but I'm relatively comfortable in saying that this Windsor was bottled in 1979......and has likely been open ever since. 

(The sources of my dating info are here, here, and here.  If anyone has any corrections to my assumptions/conclusions, please let me know!) 

The Notes:

The color is the classic Canadian blend shade of amber-tinted urine.  The nose leads with vanilla and molasses.  Then there's something vegetal going on, along with a dose of balsamic vinegar.  A big charge of grain spirit trails along at the end.  Then it gets a little farty (or pharty, per my notes) after a while.  Nillas(!) are big on the palate, along with some brown sugar.  Otherwise it's pretty rough, with some coarse ethyl and a light bitterness.  The finish is spirity too and drying.  But there's a vanilla note that lasts for a long time.

When comparing to my notes on the contemporary Windsor, this oldie has a softer nose but a tougher mouth, while holding fast to the Nilla note.  I was already getting a bit queasy from the Mr. Boston piddle sampled earlier, so I don't think that the resulting stomach troubles were related to the Windsor.  On the other hand, just to be safe, the sink should drink the rest of this bottle.

To conclude:
J.T.S. Brown Bourbon (bottled in 1969) = Yummy!
Mr. Boston's American Whiskey (bottled in 1980) = Vile
Windsor Canadian Whisky (bottled in 1979) = Similar to current version, but getting strong on ethyl

The JTS Brown Bourbon (and also not getting poisoned) made it all worthwhile.  Who knows what treasures hide in old liquor closets everywhere??????

Dusty Whiskey Report: Mr. Boston's Blended American Whiskey, bottled in...

Brand: Mr. Boston's

Current Owner: Sazerac Company (via Barton Brands via Mr. Boston's)

Type: Blended American Whiskey

Distillery: Old Mister Boston Distillery (amongst others)

Location: Boston, MA; Owensboro, KY; Albany, GA

Age: Zygotic

ABV: 40% ABV

There's Mr. Boston, looking every bit like a young Mr. Potter from It's a Wonderful Life.  If you've seen the movie, you know I'm not complimenting the man.

But who was Mr. Boston?  Per Modern Drunkard Magazine:

The Old Mr. Boston distillery sprang to life in 1933, founded by Boston natives Irwin Benjamin and Hyman C. Berkowitz. There was no real Mr. Boston, the icon is merely an artist’s conception of what a genteel 19th century Bostonian who liked a bit of liquor might look like. He was formally introduced to the drinking community in the inaugural 1935 edition of the Old Mr. Boston Deluxe Official Bartender’s Guide...

I really encourage you to read the whole MDM article on Alcohol Icons.  Hell, I really encourage you to read Modern Drunkard Magazine.  Bless their soggy hearts, livers, and minds.

The Mr. Boston company released very cheap flavored gins, brandies, and schnappses over 50 years or so.  At first the man was Old Mr. Boston, but then in the 1970s they dropped the "Old" (as if respect was what they sought with their Pineapple Gin).  In 1995, fake Mr. Boston and his regrettably real liquors were purchased by Barton Brands, who were in turn bought by Sazerac.

Yes, the company that releases George T. Stagg, also owns the rights to make this:

But they don't make it anymore.  THANK YE GODS.

Let's get to this bottle in particular.  Like I did with the scrumptious JTS Brown, yesterday, I did some snooping around to get a date for the bottle.

This broken pink tax stamp affixed to the top of the bottle meant it was from 1985 or earlier.  It was pre-1982 due to the strip having the notations "TAX PAID" and "DISTILLED SPIRITS".  And then there was the "80" on the bottom of the bottle.

My guess is that it was bottled in 1980.

(The sources of my dating info are here, here, and here.  If anyone has any corrections to my assumptions/conclusions, please let me know!)

I also noticed that Mr. Boston was determined to tell his buyers how grand his products are:

The "Finest" liquors of "Unequalled Excellence".  Right.

Let's go back to that last picture and zoom in a bit, shall we?

I admire the honesty.  I wish contemporary blenders were forced to show how much grain spirit fills out their blends.  Yet, I think there was considerably more than 70% grain neutral spirit remaining in this particular dusty bottle bottle of American Whiskey.

And when I say "Grain Neutral Spirit", I want you to think: "Cheap Vodka".  And when I say "Cheap Vodka", I want you to think watered-down ethanol.

No quotation marks on that last word.

The Notes:

The color is copper, with considerable floating debris.  The nose holds a little milk chocolate, a hint of sugar cookies, lots of imitation vanilla extract.  But mostly cheap vodka.  Vaguely nauseating.  The palate is ethanol heavy.  Maybe some corn syrup, light vanilla, sweat cream.  Starts sweet then ends (not vaguely) nauseatingly.  The actual finish is all ethanol/grain spirits/cheap vodka/whatever.  Perhaps the ghost of sweet cream and vanilla.

I couldn't finish 0.5oz of it, though I valiantly tried and nearly became ill.  The wallop of grain spirit was anything but neutral after a while.  The whiskey part was probably once made from corn and malted barley, barely.

Was this any better in the '80s?  Because, Jesus.

Dusty Whiskey Report: J.T.S Brown 7 year old Straight Bourbon, bottled in...

Brand: J.T.S. Brown
Current Owner: Heaven Hill Distillers
Type: Straight Bourbon Whisky
Distillery: J.T.S Brown Distillery (possibly now Four Roses Distillery?)
Location: Lawrenceburg, Kentucky
Age: minimum 7 years
ABV: 43% ABV

Enjoyed by great real and fictional gentlemen like Chuck Cowdery and Fast Eddie Felson, J.T.S. Brown bourbon is one of those bottom shelf bottles you've sorta seen but generally disregarded because your better angels tell you to ignore $8 bottles of whiskey.

Fast Eddie, not Chuck Cowdery.
Or is it??????
(pic source)

Chuck writes in his great blog:

J.T.S. Brown was an early distiller and the half-brother of George Garvin Brown, who founded Brown-Forman, the parent company of Jack Daniel's. The J.T.S. Brown Distillery was established by his four sons and later continued by one of his grandsons. The last distillery to bear that name is the one in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, known today as Four Roses. J.T.S. Brown Bourbon is still made, by Heaven Hill Distilleries...

I'll be honest, I'd never tried J.T.S Brown before and only knew about it from The Hustler.  But there it was sitting in the back of my father in-law's liquor cabinet, with no more than 100mL of liquid remaining.

I knew it was on the older side, due to the broken pink tax stamp affixed to the top of the bottle.

That tax stamp meant it was from 1985 or earlier.  It was pre-1982 due to the strip having the notations "TAX PAID" and "DISTILLED SPIRITS".

Measurement-wise it only said 4/5 Quart, so they weren't using metric liquid measurements at the time of bottling, so it was bottled before the '70s.

Finally, and it's difficult to see in the picture, but there's a "69" on the bottom of the bottle:

So, I'm guessing this was bottled in 1969.

(The sources of my dating info are here, here, and here.  If anyone has any corrections to my assumptions/conclusions, please let me know!)

Though no one knows how long the bottle has been opened (probably around 40 years), my father in-law, Steve, has been using three tablespoons of the bourbon in each of his awesome Chocolate Walnut Bourbon pie over the last several years.

What remained in the bottle was a very thick and cloudy orange fluid.  Of course I had to taste it.

Officially:

The color is a thick cloudy orange molasses.  Doesn't look anything like a drink anymore.  The nose leads with tons of milk chocolate, brown sugar simple syrup, orange zest, and vanilla ice cream.  Seems mostly corn and wheat whiskey.  The palate:  YUMMY!  Bourbon candy!  Corn syrup, brown sugar, a hint of rye spices, a little peppery zing.  Corn and rye reign high here.  It finishes on one enormous note of caramel sauce on vanilla ice cream.

WOW!  This the tastiest bourbon I've yet tried.  But is it still bourbon?

It was 43% ABV at the moment of its bottling.  Any hint of alcohol in the nose and palate has been oxidized into silence.  So I wonder if it's still over 40%?

In its current state, it's more like bourbon concentrate.  A bourbon liqueur.  All the edges and angles have been sanded down leaving the all the best parts in an dense syrup.  I'm bringing the last 2 ounces home with me.  Perhaps it could be poured on ice cream, drizzled on apple pie, or maybe just sipped neat, for breakfast.

What a lovely discovery!  Thank you, Steve!

Unexpected dusty treasures?

Every year Kristen and I spend the holidays with her family.  First we fly to Oneonta, NY, to spend a few snowy days at her parents' place, then we do (or her dad does) a 10 hour drive to Ohio, where we spend some time with her grandparents in Westerville and Canton.

We received a number of surprises during our trip this year.  One of them has been a VERY White Christmas.

Then there were these:

Up in my in-laws liquor cabinet sat three very used very dusty bottles of whiskey, all of which were bottled (and probably opened) before my wife was born.  I sampled them all.  And, having lived to tell the tale, I will report back on the discoveries this week...