Peatin' Meetin' 2014!

It's Peatin' Meetin' time!  

This Saturday (August 9th) at 5:30pm, Peatin' Meetin' VI fires up at the Brookside Golf Course in Pasadena (next to the Rose Bowl).  Yep, it's at a different location this year, a bigger one.  Brookside provides more room to spread out, and more room for whisky.  Plus there's free parking this time.

Here are some more of the highlights:

Three big LA bars will be mixing up whisky-based cocktails
Two Celtic folk rock groups providing live music
T-shirts and whisky glasses
Peated barebcue
A full cigar lounge on site
Peated beer
And also whisky

Yes, there will be whisky.  LOTS of whisky.  Some being poured by reps and sponsors.  And even more goodies being supplied by the LA Scotch Club.  The whiskies coming from LASC are great.  I've literally seen all of them.  Okay, not literally.  Figuratively.  I helped enter whisky info into the database for the event's whisky app (for iPhones and Androids).

Plus I'll be there, always a highlight.  I'll be at the LASC members info table and then pouring stuff at the tables.  They might even entrust me with a walkie talkie this year.

So that's where I'll be this Saturday.  I always recommend it, the whisky is great and the people are awesome.  (Plus, somehow the Huff Post got word of the event.)

Also...

This year for high rollers, whisky ballers, and people in search of wild adventure, there's the Peat Monster's Ball on Friday night (here's the link).  It's prime rib dinner and five whiskies:

Black Bowmore.
Lagavulin 21yo, 2007 release.
Port Ellen, 2nd official release.
Brora 30yo, 2007 release.
Ardbeg 1975.

Yes, those are whiskies.

Not Technically Whisky Report: Balcones Rumble, batch R12-3

All of the recent discussion about NDPs (non-distiller producers, companies that buy barrels from a distiller then sell the whiskey via their own brand) has spilled out from whiskey geek circles to The Daily Beast and NPR.  While I fully support all efforts to get the TTB to do its job better and help us see more disclosure and honesty on labels, I also want to make sure that the distillers who are actually distilling get some notice on my site.  I'm going to try to sprinkle a few reviews of these around.  Two this week, two next week, and two or four next month.  BUT, I cannot promise the results will be pretty.  Just because someone distills their own stuff, doesn't mean it's automatically awesome.

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First up: Chip Tate's Balcones, run out of Waco, Texas.  For a whole bunch of info on Chip & Co, please see this post by The Coopered Tot.  Balcones has a number of products on the market.  There's a Texas Single Malt, which I like.  There's Brimstone, beloved by MAO.  They have the True Blue and Baby Blue corn whiskies.  And then there are the Rumbles.  Today I'll be reviewing Balcones Rumble, batch R12-3.

Sample courtesy of Whisky Joe, via a sample swap.  Thanks, Whisky Joe!

Rumble isn't actually a whisky.  It's a liquor (or liqueur?) distilled from Texas wildflower honey, mission figs, and turbinado sugar, then aged in "small oak barrels".  It sounds quirky, let's see if it works for me.

Distillery: Balcones
Region: Waco, TX, USA
Type: Not Whisky
Batch: R12-3
Age: ???
Distilled from: Texas wildflower honey, mission figs, and turbinado sugar
Maturation: "small oak barrels"
Alcohol by volume: 47%



NEAT
The color is light gold.  The nose holds a lot of slivovitz (Eastern European damson plum brandy) and honey cake.  Then some roast pork, rose buds, and Milk Dud caramel.  With some air, the nose develops fruit cake and vanilla bean notes.  The palate is immediately more pleasant and less sugary than expected, and the texture is quite thick.  There are bold honey notes and lots of spice (cinnamon, nutmeg, and red peppercorns).  Subtler notes of honey butter and a cross between Sprite and tonic water.  With air, the palate shows some of the slivovitz and toasty oak.  Some molassy rum arrives in the finish, along with vanilla, honey, caramel, and some dry tannins.

WITH WATER
The nose gets saltier and rummier.  Honey and orange peel.  Much less eau-de-vie.  The palate mellows out.  Soft bitterness and soft vanilla.  Slivovitz and fresh figs.  A little peppery.  The texture gets outrageously creamy.  The finish gets more of a bitter bite.  Then in comes the figs and plum brandy.

This was much better than I expected.  I'd anticipated a mess of aggressive sweetness matched with too much fresh oak.  But the fig brandy element pulls the Rumble away from getting too rummy.  The oak is present, and gives it sort of a whiskey feel, but the tannins and pulp are much less pushy than that of many rejuvenated-cask-matured single malts.

I don't think this will blow away a single malt-only fan, but I know I liked it A LOT more than the extra sweet cheap rums on liquor store shelves.  The Rumble might also be an alternative of interest for rum fans.  In any case, I strongly recommend you find a way to try this before buying it.  The price is on the steep side, considering that it's for a very young spirit.  The one positive spin I can put on the cost is that it supports a small business, a company that has probably 1/10000th the capital of Diageo.

Availability - Most specialty retailers
Pricing - $50-$60
Rating - 83

Recapping three weeks of Japanese whisky reviews

To new and future whisk(e)y bloggers if you get obsessed with pageviews (which you shouldn't), then post about bourbon.  If you want to drive folks away, post about Japanese whisky.  If you mention bourbon, it'll be as if you typed Scarlet Johanssen Nude.  Every time I've posted about bourbon, especially when I don't know what I'm taking about, those writeups find eyeballs.  Thank you Google SEO logarithms.  When I post about Japanese whisky, it's just you, me, spambots, and my wife (though probably not) reading the review.  Also, bourbon bourbon bourbon.

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The results of the six Japanese reviews hold some surprises.  To recap in posting order:

Nikka Whisky From the Barrel - blended whisky - 51.4%abv -- score: 88
Nikka Taketsuru 12 year old - blended malt - 40%abv -- score: 79
Suntory Hibiki 12 year old - blended whisky - 43%abv -- score: 82
Yamazaki Bourbon Barrel - single malt - 48%abv -- score: 86
Karuizawa Spirit of Asama - single malt - 48%abv -- score: 83
Karuizawa Spirit of Asama - single malt - 55%abv -- score: 86

The highest scoring whiskies were without age statements.  Those with stated ages scored lowest.  But those with stated ages also had the lowest ABVs.  I'm thinking that the low ABVs had more to do with the lower scores.  In the Taketsuru and Hibiki whiskies one can feel that they've been watered down significantly.  Very little was going on in the palates.  That could suit a starter $30 blend, but these cost more than twice that.

Because of my very positive experience with Japanese whisky, I was worried about getting to these tastings, in fact I postponed them almost four months, because I thought their quality would result in my desire to buy bottles of all of them.  That's $500-$600, which I don't have.  And the whisky cabinet is already full.  So my own optimism caused dread.

But hey, good news.  I'm a schmuck for being optimistic!  While none of them were terrible, I'd only recommend one without reservations.  And it's the cheapest.  All hail, Whisky From the Barrel.  It's a blend, has no age statement, is in a smaller bottle, and is very tasty.

Most of us who grouse about the prevalence of NAS whisky are not industry-trolling Luddites.  We admit when something is good.  And we can be easily won over.  Keeping the price down, the flair content low, the ABV high, and the quality higher is the key to our hearts.  Congrats to Nikka.  Now if you could do something about Taketsuru...

Single Malt Report: Karuizawa Spirit of Asama 55%

Yesterday, I gave a brief recap of the Karuizawa distillery and its highly valued whiskies.  Perhaps the lowest priced of all the Karuizawa bottlings are the Spirit of Asamas.

These two were originally exclusives for The Whisky Exchange, though other European retailers also sold them.  The 48%abv and 55%abv bottlings are part of a seventy-seven sherry cask vatting -- or so the marketing materials say.  The birthyears of the distillate within those casks are 1999 and 2000, just before the distillery's closure.

Yesterday, I reviewed the 48% edition.  Today, I'll review the 55%er.

Distillery: Karuizawa
Bottler: Number One Drinks Company

Distilled: 1999 and 2000
Bottled: 2012

Maturation: former sherry casks, 77 of them

Country: Japan

Alcohol by Volume: 55%

NEAT
The color is a gold similar to the 48% version.  Maybe it's seven-hundredths darker but that's likely my imagination.  The nose starts out with Cinnamon Toast Crunch and hot sneaker rubber.  Again, there's not much sherry here.  The pine element is quieter than it was in the 48%.  Definitely some moss now, followed by rye-whiskey-like herbs (think anise and fennel seed).  Again, the sherry hits louder in the palate.  Here it's quite sweet.  Fruits stewing in mulled wine.  Herbs show up, but now it's more like rosemary and thyme (nope, no parsley or sage).  There's a strong mineral note that meets up with lime zest and a hot pepper bite.  Rocky minerality meets silky sherry in the finish, with smoke lingering in the background.

WITH WATER (at approx. 48%abv)
Yep, here's the pine and the farmy stuff in the nose.  Sherry in the back.  Very close to the 48, but without the very young mezcal-like note.  Some maple, bread, and floral powder too.  Creamy sherry in the palate but with Talisker-like peppery heat giving it an edge.  Some herbal bitterness perks up.  The limes and minerals recede, replaced by flower blossoms.  In the finish it's Macallan sherried malt with cracked black peppercorns in the back.

This is better than the 48% version on a number of levels.  Firstly, the nose and palate aren't on two different planets.  The nose feels more fully baked, meanwhile the herbs and minerals give the palate a more muscular delivery.  Plus, by adding water I turned the 55 into a similar but better version of the 48.  That's my kind of two-whiskies-in-one.

While the 55 is better, I still wouldn't go as far as saying it's excellent whisky.  While it could probably knock over many current Macallans, it can't compete with similar strength GlenDronach, nor GD's 15yo Revival, nor Glenfarclas 105.  And, I shouldn't have to say this but, it doesn't hold a whisky candle to Yamazaki 18.

But as I mentioned in yesterday's comment section, it would be fun if Number One Drinks released a new batch of Asama in the US and kept the price below $100.  That would silence the hubbub surrounding the overhyped overpriced underaged Kavalans for a moment or two by delivering a decent sherried Asian malt for less than the price of two weeks of groceries.

Availability - Europe and Asia
Pricing - was $85ish pre-shipping when it came out, probably twice that price now
Rating - 86 (with or without water)

Single Malt Report: Karuizawa Spirit of Asama 48%

Karuizawa was a little distillery at the base of Mount Asama, an active volcano.  Built by The Mercian Wine Company (or Daikoku-budoshu, I've now seen both referenced) to get in on the growing Japanese whisky industry in 1956, it had a small production (around 150,000 liters/year) and used Scottish Golden Promise barley.  It was mothballed in 2001, then officially closed in 2011.

Its often massively sherried whiskies are now very expensive, with many of their cask strength releases selling for four figures.  For instance, when K&L Wines got their hands on a pair of the dead distillery's single casks, the non-pre-sale prices of $250 (for a 14yo) and $800 (for a 32yo) were on the very low side of Karuizawa pricing.  [Ed. note: The pre-sale prices were even better, but I am loath to shill out that sort of money on a blind purchase.  I'd also had an opportunity for a wee sip of a pair of imported Karuizawas two years ago and was not entirely impressed -- but then again that was back in my sherry-hating days.]

In 2012, the bottler and distributor of the remaining Karuizawa casks, Number One Drinks Company, released a pair of Karuizawa bottlings (via The Whisky Exchange) that were comparatively cheap.  They're called "Spirit of Asama", one was released at 48%abv, the other at 55%abv.  According to the marketing story (and there always has to be a story), the whisky comes from 77 sherry casks that were filled in 1999 and 2000.  But here's the quirk.  There are another two releases called "Asama", bottled at 46%abv and 50.5%abv, that are also said to be from the same 77 sherry casks (and were married for an additional 12 months).  77 sherry casks should result in a lot of bottles; if they're sherry butts that could be almost 50,000 bottles.  So there was/is actually a considerable amount of Karuizawa left to be had.  I wonder how many more times they're going to go to that 77 barrel well, or has it run dry?  If anyone knows more about this Asama situation (facts please!) let me know and I'll update this info.

Despite the fact that The Whisky Exchange said the 48% and 55% bottlings were theirs exclusively, other retailers have been selling them since the release.  Master of Malt was one of those retailers.  I bought a MoM sample of the 55% and my friend Daniel contributed his sample (thank you!) of the 48% for the sake of scientific research.

Today, it's the 48%abv edition, the one on the right.  Tomorrow, the 55%.

Distillery: Karuizawa
Bottler: Number One Drinks Company

Distilled: 1999 and 2000
Bottled: 2012

Maturation: former sherry casks, 77 of them

Country: Japan

Alcohol by Volume: 48%

NEAT
The color is a medium gold.  The nose is surprisingly light on sherry at first.  Lots of pine sap & needles, then grape jam and a hint of tar.  There's also a noticeable new-make-like mezcal note that I've found in peated whiskies half its age.  That's then met with a combination of pharty sulphur and farmy hot dirty hay.  The harsher notes fade back with time and are replaced with lots of sugar.  Perky creamy sherry shows up in the palate.  Lots of sugary prunes, light toffee.  It's reminiscent of Macallan 18yo but with more oranges and limes, and a thicker texture.  Lots of sugar and sherry in the finish.  Both candied and sour citrus lingers longest.

WITH WATER (at approx. 40%abv)
On the nose there's more farm, less pine.  More sugar, maybe orange candy?  The mezcal note is still there, as is the sulphur.  Citrus notes build with time.  Sherry on the palate again.  But now there's some dry tobacco and a nice bitterness slipping in.  The lightly bitter, tangy, sherried finish runs briefly.

There are two whiskies in one here.  The nose seems like a baby whisky from a refill sherry cask, while the palate feels like it's a first fill cask and acts more its age.  I haven't seen much mention about whether Karuizawa peated its malt but there's something in the nose that says peat moss.  Serge gives it a 2 on his 0-9 P meter, I'd up it to a 4 in the sniffer.

In my notes from the "With Water" section, I wrote "palate could be mistaken for a good Macallan".  In fact, I'd say the whisky improves with water.  Gasp!  When neat, the nose feels oddly half-baked and the palate has the sherry overwhelming the malt.  Hydrating the whisky helps even those things out.  Overall, there's nothing groundbreaking in this stuff but I would recommend it to Macallan fans (to drink, not to collect, damn it.)

Availability - Europe and Asia
Pricing - was $75ish pre-shipping when it came out, probably twice that price now
Rating - 83 (with water, a couple of points less without)

Single Malt Report: Yamazaki Bourbon Barrel 2012

Today's post comes to you one day late and 50% shorter due to Exhausted Parent Syndrome.  There will probably be a half-dozen typos two.

When Suntory produces Yamazaki's regular range, they use a number of different new makes distilled from the different shaped stills in the distillery.  Those different new makes go into three types of casks: ex-bourbon barrels, ex-sherry casks, and toasted Japanese Mizunara oak casks.  The three casks are in all of their regular range, though the Mizunara whiskys are used sparingly since the number of those casks are very limited.

In 2010, Yamazaki began releasing annual no-age statement versions of each cask "Bourbon Barrel", "Sherry Cask", and "Mizunara".  They also added a larger sized cask "Puncheon" to the NAS series.  In 2013, they added a "Heavily Peated" one to the group.

Though its price keeps rising, Yamazaki 12 year old is a whisky I recommend often, especially if one can find it for $50 or less (and good luck with that).  Outrageously rich considering its low ABV, Yamazaki 18 is one of my top ten favorite single malts.  To me the 12yo feels like there's more ex-bourbon in the mix, while my bottle of the 18yo seemed to be mostly sherry casks.  The new individual cask-type releases give drinkers -- with considerable funds at hand -- a chance to try the parts that make up the whole.  I would do obscene things for a bottle of the Mizunara, but I have a purchased sample of 2012's Bourbon Barrel for review here and that will do for now.  We'll save the conversation about obscene things for another day.

Distillery: Yamazaki
Ownership: Suntory Whisky

Age: ???, my guess is that it's younger than 10 years

Maturation: 180-liter former bourbon barrels

Country: Japan

Alcohol by Volume: 48%

The color is light gold.  The nose is oaky and fruity.  To expand: Toasted almonds in caramel sauce, then fresh apricots and white nectarines.  After a bit of an ethyl nip there's whole grain bread crust, rose blossoms, and a hint of sour milk.  Coming back to the oak again, it smells very fresh rather than charred.  Vanilla shows up in the palate, but it's more towards the back than the front.  Sometimes it reads more like frosting.  Then some white cake (or shortbread?) to go with the frosting.  Black peppercorns, bitter tea, honey, and the apricots make up the much of the rest.  It has a medium-sized finish.  Aside from the vanilla frosting, tree bark, and some citrus around the edges, there's still quite some yeast and grain.

Even though the nose reveals that this is some young stuff, it's actually very pleasant.  Even the sour milk moment, which may be interpreted as butyric, is okay (to me) because it's slightly reminiscent of the current Tobermory 10.  The palate is graceful considering the youth and the oak isn't too forceful.  I wouldn't say it's that challenging of a malt, but it's sturdy (the ABV helps) and a nice all-around drink.  I'd buy it at half its current price. ← Legally required price complaint

For two other opinions:
MAO reviews his bottle here.  We have similar notes regarding the oak, though overall he found more salt and spice than I.  (88 pts)
Serge reviews the 2011 version here and he finds it to be "fully oak driven".  (82 pts)

Availability - Europe and Asia
Pricing - $110-$150 before shipping
Rating - 86

NOT Single Malt Report: Hibiki 12 year old meets The Bearded Lady

Once upon a time, four months ago, I bought a bottle of a now-defunct Japanese blended whisky, Suntory Royal SR, bottled in the early '80s.  At the liquor store I was excited by the $25.99 price tag, but once I got home I was less excited by the fact that the cork had been nearly vaporized and the seal was long gone.  It was a very strange whisky as a result, oxidized and possibly corked, and it -- dubbed The Bearded Lady -- joined a crew of other freaks in my cabinet.  It also seemed to be bottomless, despite losing plenty of liquid to the Bastard's Share.

Here's how I had to store the poor thing, champagne cork and all:

And now the bottle has found a better purpose in its next life:

Where was I going with this?

Oh, in the comments section of my review of The Bearded Lady, reader Eric asked how it compared with Hibiki 12 year old (the current big Suntory blended whisky).  I had a sample of Hibiki 12 in the cabinet but hadn't even considered matching the two blends up.  Thanks for the idea, Eric!  Here it goes.

Hibiki 12 year old
Brand: Hibiki
Ownership: Suntory Whisky
Distilleries: Yamazaki and Hakushu for malt, Chita for grain

Age: minimum 12 years
Bottled: Early 2010s

Maturation: "a variety of cask types", including Mizunara casks (also see comments below)

Country: Japan

Alcohol by Volume: 43%

source

Suntory Royal SR (aka The Bearded Lady)
Brand: Suntory Royal
Ownership: Suntory Whisky
Distilleries: Yamazaki, maybe Chita?

Age: ???
Bottled: Early 1980s

Maturation: maybe a blend of ex-bourbon, ex-sherry, and Mizunara casks?

Country: Japan

Alcohol by Volume: 43.4%

So, it's the current (conceived, brand-wise, in 2009) and very popular 12 year old blend from Suntory versus a discontinued NAS blend from Suntory.  The SR's label specifically names the Yamazaki distillery.  Hibiki has both Yamazaki and Hakushu malts in it.  The two ABVs are very similar.  The Hibiki has been in a Master of Malt sample bottle for a brief but unknown period of time.  The SR sat in its 750mL bottle for at least 30 years and had a noticeably low neck (or shoulder) fill before I opened it (and maybe some dissolved cork too); plus this sample comes from the bottom third of the bottle.

And......go.

Hibiki 12 year old
Color -- Medium gold
Nose -- There are moments of toasted oak at the start, but then there's a blast of berry syrup and berry candy, maraschino cherries (the cheap kind), lychee, and raspberries. There's plum wine and lots of it, followed by paint fumes.
Palate -- Here's some toasty malt.  Then American oak but toasted rather than charred.  A nice tartness somewhere between an orange and a lemon, then a hint of nuttiness, and ground cayenne pepper.  There's slight bitterness after the whisky has been aired out. Overall it's somewhat drying, probably due to the tannins. 
Finish -- Sweetness grows here, think sugar and marshmallows. Then some acidic citrus. The toasty part remains and is joined by overripe bananas.

[Okay, I had to do some searching midway through because there was way too much berry action going on in the nose.  Normally I don't research cask types until after a tasting, but I had to know what was going on. Master of Malt and The Whisky Exchange say that some of the blend's elements are matured in plum liqueur barrels, other sources say parts were only finished in these (umeshu) barrels.  The official website says nothing about it.  Anyway, once I read that, the subtle plum wine notes suddenly got much bigger.  Coincidence, of course.]

Suntory Royal SR (also see here for original review)
Color -- Medium gold, too, but rosier
Nose -- Watermelon candy, mothballs, and Purple.  Strawberry bubble gum and lime zest.  Tonic (the corn syrup kind) and caramel.  Less potent than at the top of the bottle but still not shy.  Something's rotting in the background, something once alive, and it's not necessarily fruit.
Palate -- Wet and muddy notebook paper, vanilla, caramel, Purple.  Lime-ish.  A synthetic note for which I still can't define after a full bottle.  Lots of body to it though.
Finish -- An odd rotten whipped cream thing.  Some herbal bitters and vanilla.

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Hibiki 12
Positives -- The nose is a lot of fun.  This is an instance when an unusual maturation works in the whisky's favor.  Though the palate rides all the way through on its oak, it's not off-putting, and it finishes well.

Negatives -- But there's not a whole lot going on in the palate, especially after the bright and zippy nose.  For a whisky at half its price tag, that's not dealbreaker.  But at $60?  No matter how pretty the bottle looks, the stuff inside is for drinking.

Suntory Royal SR
Positives -- It's not shy.  The nose almost works, it has a good mouthfeel, and the bitterness in the finish is decent.  It leaves me wondering what a normal bottle of this was like in 1981.

Negatives -- I don't think I've ever finished a glass of it.  Whether it's the oxidation or Old Bottle Effect or cork or the whisky itself, there's something off-putting on every level.  Additional oxidation in a mostly empty bottle and in the glass can't kill it off.

Hibiki 12 wins, and not just because SR loses.  Hibiki 12 gets almost all of its character from the oak and the plum liqueur that once sat in some of its barrels, and while I'd rather have more whisky in my whisky, the blend often works.  But it works as a beginner's blend and not much more.  It's very possible you'll like it better than I, but I recommend trying it at a bar or via a sample before laying out $55-$75 for it.

Hibiki 12 year old
Availability - Most specialty retailers

Pricing - $55-$75 (US)

Rating - 82

Suntory Royal SR (oxidized and possibly corked)
Availability - Happy hunting

Pricing - I found mine for $25.99 but who knows what it sells for elsewhere?

Rating - 71 (down from 75 in its original review)