Inchmoan 14 year old 2004, cask 68 for HolyDram Israel

(Loch Lomond cluster homepage)

What a start to this cluster! I don't remember the last time I had consecutive whiskies that both surpassed my expectations. Wednesday's wine yeast fermented Inchmoan was a particular delight. I'm going back to the official bottlings for the next two Inchmoans. Today's Inchie is a single hoggie selected for the HolyDram crew in Israel. Thanks to those two previous whiskies, I have high hopes for this one.

Distillery: Loch Lomond
Style: Inchmoan
Owner: Loch Lomond Distillery Company
Region: Highlands (Western)

Age: 14 years (March 2004 - August 2018)

Maturation: bourbon hogshead
Cask #: 68

Outturn: 220 bottles

Exclusive to: HolyDram Israel

Alcohol by Volume: 52.4%

Chillfiltered? No
e150a? No
(from a bottle split)

NEAT

Generous dark plumes of smoke (Ballechin / Croftengea levels), infused with pine and moss, cover the nose. New tennis balls, apple peels and fudge linger below. The palate has the same massive piney/mossy smoke as the nose, now with bitter herbs, charred kale and sea salt in the midground, tart apples and mango seed in the background. It finishes peaty, tarry, tangy and tart.

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

The nose becomes more simple, solid, peat-forward, with touches of lemon and eucalyptus. Much closer to a southern Islay style. Salty, mossy smoke remains in the palate, joined by lemons and lemon candy. The bitter herbs return after a few minutes. It finishes with bitter citrus peels and heavy smoke.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

Three Inchmoans, three styles. This one is for all you peat monsters out there. Its enormity reminds me of Ballechin's earliest batches, "The Discovery Series", powerful beyond the abv and a real competitor to more famous peaty brands. The cask was dumped at just the right time, with the spirit sturdy and the oak hushed. I'm not sure how a burly golem such as this cask drinks during Israel's summers, perhaps Gal & Co. should send any remaining bottles to a wintry country such as this one.

Availability - Sold out
Pricing - €100?
Rating - 87

Inchmoan 10 year old 2009 SMWS 135.22

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I partnered yesterday's very decent 12yo American oak Inchmoan with a single 10yo American oak cask Inchmoan. Sounds like a normal side-by-side on the surface, but as I found out after I'd taken part in the bottle split, this 10-year-old was no normal whisky. Per Loch Lomond's Master Blender, "This cask was from a batch of our wine yeast fermentation spirit--"

Y E S

This is the kind of tomfoolery I support. Everyone else can go dry shave their wet casks in the privacy of their cooperages all they want. But yeast is interesting, it's a primal force, man. Its flatulence has bewitched and destroyed the human brain for millennia. I'd love to see more distilleries tool around with fermentation to see what arises from the cauldron. Maybe nothing, maybe everything.

Anyway, here I go...

Distillery: Loch Lomond
Style: Inchmoan
Owner: Loch Lomond Distillery Company
Region: Highlands (Western)
Bottler: Scotch Malt Whisky Society
Age: 10 years (19 July 2009 - 29 April 2020)
Maturation: 1st fill bourbon barrel

Cask: 135.22 - "Beautiful bizarre!"
Outturn: 188 bottles
Alcohol by Volume: 59.9%
(from a bottle split)

NEAT

The nose starts off brothy, fishy and slightly sugary, like I've just raided the snack rack at Lawson's in Kyoto, and half the bags have this...scent. Then those notes slip away, aside from a hint of broiled eel, and a different whisky appears. One full of blossoms, honey, green apples and honeydew. The palate is all yuzu, pineapple gummies, lychee, watermelon Jolly Ranchers and cara cara oranges. Just the essences without the sugar overload. It finishes with tart citrus and tropical fruits, and crisp in-season apples.

DILUTED to ~46%abv, or 1¾ tsp of water per 30mL whisky

Yuzu, kabosu, white peach and honeydew on the nose, with brothy sencha in the background. Mint, mango, roses and Juicy Fruit gum lead the palate, with some good herbal bitterness in the midground. The finish matches the palate, with that herbal bite keeping it from getting too sweet.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

Had I not found out about this whisky's unique fermentation, I would have been very confused about how this style came about. Very confused and very happy. I love this stuff. It is indeed a "beautiful" thing, but not really "bizarre!" Though it's not quite what one first expects to find in a peated Loch Lomond whisky, or a peated whisky, or a whisky, it's fascinating, yet very drinkable. It is the sort of thing for which I would pay a premium. Thank you, Loch Lomond, for giving this a try. Please do so again some time.

Availability - Sold out?
Pricing - £48.99 in 2020

Rating - 90

Inchmoan 12 year old (2019 bottling)

(Loch Lomond cluster homepage)

Inchmoan is the first of the four Loch Lomond styles reviewed during this wee LL whisky survey. Whisky Magazine has an article about the distillery, wherein John Peterson provides a rundown of how the different styles are made. I can't really keep it straight, but to summarize: Inchmoan = Inchmurrin but with 40ppm of phenols in the barley.

I've tried two Inchmoans before today. The first was a remarkably foul effluvium bottled for someone's enemies at Whisky Fair. The second was......Inchmoan 12 year old, and I didn't like that one either, but it was approachable and fascinating.

I am trying the 12 year old again, but this time I'm combining/vatting three 50mL Inchmoan 12yo minis with the same bottling code, rather than sipping a sample from an unknown bottle. And it's getting paired up one of this week's other Inchmoans in order to gain additional perspective.

Distillery: Loch Lomond
Style: Inchmoan
Owner: Loch Lomond Distillery Company
Region: Highlands (Western)

Age: minimum 12 years

Maturation: recharred US oak and refill bourbon casks
Bottling date: 09.08.2019

Alcohol by Volume: 46%

Chillfiltered? No
e150a? Yes
(from a trio of minis)

NOTES

Neither like smoke nor kiln, the nose's unique peated side reads closer to peated wheat and peated yeast, with a hint of diesel. Kale chips, saline and charred marshmallow fill in the corners. The palate is lightly sweet and lightly metallic with hints of citron and nectarine. The peat builds with time, developing its own style, like peated oats and peated newspaper. It finishes very well with guava, nectarines, cigarette ash and a pinch of herbal bitterness.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

This was a lot better than the sample I tried three years ago. The whisky remains quirky, but it's much more of a solid unit now with the odd phenolics merging solidly with the fruit, and the recharred wood staying out of the picture. It's less of a beast than Croftengea sometimes proves to be, and may give Islay fans a different view into peated whisky. A promising start!

Availability - Asia and Europe only (I think)
Pricing - $40-$65 in Europe, cheaper in Japan thanks to the yen's drop

Rating - 84

The Loch Lomond Cluster

Loch Lomond Distillery makes delicious whisky. Mark that down as something I did not see coming. They were producing some pretty foul products as recently as 10 years ago then, as soon as the Exponent investment firm bought the company, Loch Lomond whiskies shifted in quality almost overnight. Thus the quirky stills weren't the problem, nor was the warehouse stock. It's curious what a change in management will do. What the newest owners, Hillhouse Capital Group, another investment firm (this time, from Asia), choose to do still remains to be seen.

Despite the marketing claim that the distillery has been around since 1814, the current distillery was constructed in 1966. It was created by Duncan Thomas and Barton Brands to be an autonomous production facility, producing both malt and grain whiskies for blends. As a result, Loch Lomond has a variety of stills that no other distillery can claim. Pot stills with rectifying plates in their necks can be adjusted to produce different spirit styles, plate-free pot stills offer up classic single malt distillation, and continuous stills produce grain whisky (with all malted barley!). This results in 11 different styles, a number they can increase or decrease depending on the brands' needs. If Hillhouse gets around to aggressively reducing these styles, as has been rumored, that would be a tragic misreading of the distillery’s strengths.

For 2022's first cluster, I will be trying 15 single malts from four of the style types: Inchmoan, Inchmurrin, Croftengea and Loch Lomond. Going into this series, I've enjoyed Croftengea the most of all, but have had good experiences with Inchmurrin and Loch Lomond as well. Inchmoan is the only one that has left me unmoved thus far.

So, four weeks, four styles. (There will be a breather week in the middle to celebrate Mathilda's birthday.) No midpoint post this time around, but there will be a concluding entry, and possibly a Loch Lomond single blended malt (or some goofy SWA term) of my devising at the end.

THE LOCH LOMOND BUNCH:

1. Inchmoan 12 year old (2019 bottling) -- "...it's much more of a solid unit now with the odd phenolics merging solidly with the fruit, and the recharred wood staying out of the picture..."

2. Inchmoan 10 year old 2009 SMWS 135.22 -- "I love this stuff ...... It is the sort of thing for which I would pay a premium."

3. Inchmoan 14 year old 2004, cask 68 for HolyDram Israel -- "This one is for all you peat monsters out there ...... powerful beyond the abv and a real competitor to more famous peaty brands."

4. Inchmoan 25 year old 1992 -- "Another great Inchmoan, this time bottled at the perfect ABV."

5. Inchmurrin 10 year old (1990s bottling) -- "...underbaked but also sort of woody ...... filtered through cardboard boxes."

6. Inchmurrin 12 year old (2019 bottling) -- "...makes one go, "huh, that's different", then, "I'd sure like something else to drink.""

7. Inchmurrin 9 year old 2010, for The Whisky Exchange - "Loaded with bold fruit, pastry and candy notes......my favorite Inchmurrin yet."

8. Inchmurrin 19 year old 2001 SMWS 112.88 - "[The] nose is very satisfying, while the palate is simpler and woodier than the 9's..."

-- breather week --

9. Croftengea 16 year old 2005 The Whisky Trail, cask 272 - "I would gladly choose this style over nearly everything coming from Islay today."

10. Croftengea 15 year old 2002 SMWS 122.21 - "The nose and palate are pristine, and the finish elicits monosyllabic nonsense from the drinker."

11. Croftengea 10 year old 2006 Exclusive Malts, cask 485 (my bottle) - "...young, hardy stuff with plenty of spirit, but it's neither raw nor par-baked."

12. Loch Lomond 12 year old (my bottle) - "Leave [it] neat and it will kick Glenfiddich 12's and Glenlivet 12's asses all around the block."

13. Loch Lomond 18 year old - "...like a fatter version of grain whisky, but it still has a single grain's limitations, thus the flatness and inability to hold back the oak's onrush."

14. Loch Lomond 21 year old 1996 Cadenhead Small Batch - "Everything in this whisky works better at 46%abv."

15. Loch Lomond 30 year old - "As much as I adore fruity whisky, the extra depth brought out by dilution improved the experience."

Conclusion

Glen Scotia 14 year old 2006 Tawny Port Finish for the Campbeltown Malts Festival 2020

This week's reviews included very good to great bourbon cask matured peated Glen Scotias. Now it's time to find out how the spirit holds up to a tawny port finish. Like Wednesday's SMWS cask, this peated Scotia was released in honor of the 2020 Campbeltown Malts Festival, which existed only online and in hearts rather than in-person that year. Unlike the SMWS cask, this 14-year-old official bottling was available everywhere. And by "everywhere", I mean it was even sold in Ohio. Time to find out what the bottles contained...

Distillery: Glen Scotia
Ownership: Loch Lomond Group (via Exponent)
Region: Campbeltown
Age: 14 years (2006-2020)
Maturation: refill American oak hogsheads + medium char American oak casks + 1st-fill bourbon barrels first, then six months in Tawny Port casks
Outturn: 15,000 bottles
Alcohol by Volume: 52.8%
Chillfiltered? No
e150a? No
(from a bottle split)

NEAT

Candy, candy, candy in the nose. Cherry candy, grape candy, cotton candy. A little bit of butterscotch. Some seaweed and ocean in the far back. Just a whiff of kiln appears after 20 minutes. The palate leads with a very strong perfume/cologne note and lot of sweetness. No peat, but plenty of burlap/bung cloth and black pepper. Kool Aid and clementines take over after 10 minutes. It finishes with spiked Kool Aid, ginger candy and a hint of bung cloth.

DILUTED to ~46%abv, or <1 tsp of water per 30mL whisky

The nose becomes slightly farmier, with butterscotch and orange peel on the side. The palate still has that cologne note, and remains candy sweet. There's more pepper now, and a squeeze of tart lime. It finishes with cologne, cotton candy and lime.

DILUTED to ~40%abv, or 2 tsp of water per 30mL whisky

Ocean and parmesan cheese in the nose's fore, cotton candy and orange pixy stix in the aft. Zero peat in the palate, just lots of sugar colored by tart and bitter citrus fruits. And that's how it finishes.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

This feels Lumsden-ized. Some of you will find that idea sexy, some of you won't. You know who you are. I will not judge you, but I will judge the whisky. When sipped alongside the SMWS bottling, this 14yo shows that all unique style and character has been wiped clean away, replaced with sugar sugar sugar and (weirdly) cologne. It's rather generic — aside from the cologne and burlap which give it slight quirk — rather than being crummy, in fact it could work decently as a dessert pour for a sweet tooth. But I'd rather try other single maturation peated Glen Scotias rather than chasing the Bordeaux and PX finishes seen in the 2021 and 2022 festival editions.

Availability - Some bottles are still available in Europe as of today
Pricing - £75
Rating - 76

Glen Scotia 17 year old 2002 SMWS 93.128

This week's Glen Scotia grouping isn't quite what I thought it was because all three whiskies are peated. So much for sussing out Scotia's general style(s). Instead, I'm focusing on just their peated style(s), which isn't actually a letdown. Thanks to Monday's official 10 year old Peated release I'm feeling some optimism about their smoky stuff. Today's SMWS refill hoggie release was released for the virtual 2020 Campbeltown Malts Festival.

Distillery: Glen Scotia
Ownership: Loch Lomond Group (via Exponent)
Region: Campbeltown
Bottler: Scotch Malt Whisky Society
Age: 17 years (6 May 2002 - 2020)
Maturation: refill hogshead

Cask: 93.128
Cutesy SMWS name: Smoke and smugglers
Outturn: 213 bottles
Alcohol by Volume: 54.9%
(from a bottle split)

NEAT

Definitely a bigger, louder cousin to the 10 year old. Palo Santo and sage smokes (hippie whisky!) mix with pears, pecans and toasted marshmallows, with just a touch of sugary rum in the nose's background. The palate reads heavier than the nose, with smoked almonds, smoked turkey, liquid smoke, stones, soil and bark. Moderate sweetness, savoriness and (horseradish) bitterness fill in the edges. It finishes with a solid balance of sweet, smoke, saline, chiles and tanginess.

DILUTED to ~46%abv, or >1 tsp of water per 30mL whisky

The nose shifts quite a bit, now focusing on white peaches and limes, moss and ocean, and a softer wood smoke. The palate reads much fruitier as well. Oranges and nectarines meet well with chile oil and dusty smoke. It finishes with oranges and smoke in unison.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

I dig this style. Though it's not related to Benromach and Ardmore, it would certainly be a friendly neighboring clan, or some other sort of terrible metaphor. The edgier neat palate works for one environment, while the fruitier diluted palate fits another. Like autumn and spring. I wonder if SMWS has any sibling 2002 hoggies they're letting sit for another 5-10 years, because those could be utter gems.

Availability - Sold out
Pricing - £85 in 2020, a price that seems unimaginable now
Rating - 89

Glen Scotia 10 year old Peated

I like Glen Scotia single malt, but it's difficult to pin down what exactly links one Glen Scotia whisky to another. Sometimes they're peaty-ish, sometimes not. Some have industrial funk, while others are fruity and floral. Perhaps these capricious styles are due to four different owners in less than three decades, varying fermentation times, three malt types and a range of cut points. Or not.

A limited edition "heavily peated" 10 year old made an appearance during the distillery's Disco Cow Era (thank you, Jordan!), while a "peated" 14 year old was exclusive to Sweden, a whisky whose bottle design MUST BE SEEN. 🌈🐄💘 Then in 2018, the current ownership bottled a 10 year old, non-chillfiltered, natural color, bourbon cask, 46%abv "Peated" Glen Scotia. And that is what I'm going to be sampling today.

The distillery has unpeated, medium peated and heavily peated malt runs, so I'm not sure how peated this "Peated" is. With my luck, this Peated won't read peated and I will feel mildly defeated.

Distillery: Glen Scotia
Ownership: Loch Lomond Group (via Exponent)
Region: Campbeltown
Type: Single Malt
Age: minimum 10 years
Maturation: first-fill bourbon barrels
Alcohol by Volume: 46%
Chillfiltered? No
e150a? No
(from a bottle split)

NOTES

Pears, saline and Big Red gum are wrapped together by gentle wood smoke in the nose. Smaller notes of band-aids, roses and white rum color in the background. Sweet, heat, salt and smoke merge in equal parts within the palate. The smoke, mesquite. The heat, first ethyl then chile oil. White rum and lime appear after 30 minutes. It finishes with chile oil, lots of salt, lime and a hint of wood smoke.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

A very young but very satisfying pour, this Glen Scotia could serve as a comfy introduction to peated whiskies if only it had wider distribution, as it's certainly more approachable than Islay's heavy hitters. But that may require more on-hand stock than the distillery has. It cannot compete with Springbank 10, but I did enjoy this Campbeltowner's style more than my last bottle of Longrow Peated. Glen Scotia 10's price keeps me from hunting down a US bottle since the superior Loch Lomond 12 (yes, I typed that) sells for half that amount.

Availability - Limited quantities in US and Europe
Pricing - $65-$80 (USA), $40-$60 (Europe)
Rating - 84