Notes from a tasting: Peatin' Meetin' Whiskies at Home, Part 4

The Peatin' Meetin' sample journey continues.  This is technically Part Four.  If you're looking for Part Three it was the Schlenkerla post.

Anyway, here's the intro again.  Though I attended Peatin' Meetin' this year, I did not drink during the event.  Instead I picked up a baker's dozen samples, all of which I will be (and have been) tasting in the controlled environment of my home.

The stash, at the start

Since the samples tend to be smaller than my usual reviewed samples, I probably won't be providing numerical grades.  Instead, I'll be giving each one a letter grade range.

This week, I chose two samples that are well known but dissimilar in style.  The Port Askaig 19 year old and Ardbeg SUPERNOVA SN2010.

Yes, SUPERNOVA.  Relevant!  If you've made the mistake of regularly reading whisky news (pronounced: ad-ver-tahy-zing) as I sometimes do, you've been getting socked in the ear with the trumpets preceding this (or next?) week's release of the new Supernova.  My review is not of the new 2014 version.  It is of the 2010 version.  I'm classic like that.

I actually do hope the new version kicks ass.  And if it does, I hope to get a wee sippy of it because I won't be hauling out the $150-$250 it'll probably cost.  The 2010 version is bracing, but more on that below.

Here's the Peatin' Meetin' Scorecard so far...
-- Balvenie 17 year old Islay Cask (OB, 43% ABV) - Grade Range: B-/B
-- Loch Lomond Peated, green label (OB, 46% ABV) - Grade Range: D+/C-
-- Bowmore 16 year old 1990 Sherry Cask (OB, 53.8% ABV) - Grade Range: B-
-- Laphroaig 13 year old 1994 (Cadenhead, 54.7% ABV) - Grade Range: B-/B
-- Bladnoch Lightly Peated 11 year old 2002 K&L exclusive (OB, 51.5%) - Grade Range: B
-- Longrow 10 year old Sherrywood (OB, 46% ABV) - Grade Range: B+/A-
-- Laphroaig 15 year old 1998 K&L exclusive (Signatory, 61% ABV) - Grade Range B/B+
-- Schlenkera Rauchbier Spirit (40% ABV) - Grade Range: B-/B
-- Port Askaig 19 year old (Specialty Drinks, 50.4% ABV)
-- Ardbeg Supernova SN2010 (OB, 60.1% ABV)
-- ???
-- ???
-- ???

Normally the younger whisky goes first in a tasting, but Supernova is a scorcher and I'd like to have my taste buds present to try the Port Askaig.

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Port Askaig 19 year old (Specialty Drinks, 50.4% ABV)
Unofficially, this is Caol Ila. It isn't sold in the US, so I'm glad I was able to sneak a 20mL pour.
Color -- Pinot grigio
Nose -- Very beachy and sandy.  A candy shop in the summer heat.  Lots of lemons and honeydew, maybe some subtle mango.  Smaller notes of mustard and peppercorns.
Palate -- The peat rolls in here, mostly as smoke and embers.  Vanilla cupcakes and roses.  Sea air and sea salt.
Finish -- A snuffed bonfire that lingers and lingers.  Rose petals.

Grade Range: A-
Terrific.  Lovely.  Now I want my own bottle.  It's too bad that UK shipping costs as much as an additional single malt bottle.  Anyway, enough bitching.  This graceful whisky topped my expectations.

Ardbeg Supernova SN2010 (OB, 60.1% ABV)
Distilled from barley that was peated to 100pm at its malting, this whisky was bottled in 2010, back when Bill Lumsden had the confidence in his malt to release an all non-rejuvinated bourbon cask whisky. Look at me with the sassy talk.
Color -- Very light amber
Nose -- Dingy stinky peat.  Baked fruit breads.  Sprite and black licorice.  Yeasty and slightly cheesy.  This is really young.  Makes Kilchoman Machir Bay look like Dalmore Sirius (agewise).
Palate -- Massive inky mossy dirty peat.  Toasty malt and cinnamon buns.  Salty and bitter.
Finish -- Peat.  Maybe some cinnamon candy.  Peat.  Slight bitterness.  Peat.  Ashtray.  Peat.

Grade Range: B/B+
In the graphic-novel-sounding Octomore versus Supernova battle, Octo is more complex and has more depth.  Supernova has more raw power.  It does one thing and does it completely.  This is my second time trying Supernova 2010 and this new tasting has clarified how I see it.  Imagine Ardbeg Ten infused with peat moss, parched dirt, and Marlboro** ashes at its inception, but then bottled the moment it reaches the legal 3 years.  Octomore wins the war, but Supernova is good if you want to char your tongue with peat concentrate.

** - the man, not the cigarettes

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This was an entertaining duo.  Port Askaig was a layered late-night indulgence, while Supernova punched me in the mouth.  The not-so-secretly-Caol-Ila Askaig tops the group so far, becoming the second of the ten samples that I would consider tracking down if I could.

In Part Five: The Final Chapter, I'll be tasting the last three samples, none of which are actually from Islay...

Ancient Age Straight Bourbon Whiskey (current bottling)

Last Thursday, I reviewed my bottle of an odd but enjoyable early '80s bottling of Ancient Age.  Three days later, I spied some bottles of the current version of Ancient Age.  So I bought a 200mL.  For $2.99.  That price could have had me setting my expectations low, but I bought the dusty version in 750mL form for $9.69 and that one was fun.  So I lined up one Ancient next to the other for a tasting last night.

I'm not sure if my dusty version of Ancient Age was bottled before or after Schenley sold the brand to Age International, but it was definitely distilled before the changeover so I don't know what its mashbill was.  The current version of Ancient Age uses Sazerac / Buffalo Trace's high(er) rye mashbill.  The dusty bottle was 86 proof.  The new one is 80 proof.

They are definitely not the same whiskey.  Not too long ago, I thought Buffalo Trace could do no wrong.  I was wrong.

First, the dusty...

Owner: Ancient Age Distillers (either Schenley Industries or Age International)
Brand: Ancient Age
Distillery: Leestown Distillery
Location: Frankfort, Kentucky, USA
Type: Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Mash Bill: damfino
Age: Ancient
Bottle year: early 1980s

Alcohol by Volume: 43%

(For more detailed notes, see last week's post)
Color -- Dark bronze
Nose -- Vibrant.  TONS of caramel.  Maple, corn syrup, earthy molasses, anise, a bit of a green herbal kick, and a definite malty note.
Palate -- Salt and caramel, met with plenty of rye spices.  SunMaid raisins.  Kinda painty.  The chemical and medicinal notes are still present but in the background.
Finish -- Caramel and salt water meet up with the medicinal note and some herbal bitterness.

Not bad.  Still a little zany.  The caramel notes keep growing as oxidation settles in more and more.

Then there was...

Owner: Sazerac and Age International
Brand: Ancient Age
Distillery: Buffalo Trace Distillery (technically the same distillery)
Location: Frankfort, Kentucky, USA
Type: Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Mash Bill: Buffalo Trace #2 (higher-rye; about 15%)
Age: at least two years, but probably not more than that
Bottle code: CA131831559B (perhaps 2013?)

Alcohol by Volume: 40%

Color -- Light gold
Nose -- Vague.  Woody: pulp, bark, and pine sap.  Hazelnuts and marzipan.  Pretzels, cheap plastic toys, and "plastic banana" (that sorta makes sense, right?).
Palate -- Again, not much.  Sweet to bitter.  Very corny, maybe some vanilla and caramel and black pepper.  Uh oh, going downhill quickly...  Grows bitterer.  Tastes like burning.  Burning perfume and burning bubblegum.
Finish -- Woody bitterness.  Bland barrel char.  Also begins to grow off-putting with an ever expanding acrid aftertaste.

At first, I wondered if I'd accidentally bought Ancient Age Preferred, their blended whiskey, because there seemed to be so little whiskey in the whiskey.  But, nope, it was their straight bourbon.  Slowly, the scent and flavor arrived.  Then slowly, things went sour.

The two are distinctly dissimilar.  The new version has a lower ABV, but it's only a three point difference.  So the gap comes from a marked disparity between the quality of the barrels going into each bottling.  The dense Age bottled in the early '80s shouts out, announcing its presence, whether one likes it or not.  The Age bottled in 2013 barely ekes out a whimper before soiling itself.  I'm pretty certain they have different mashbills, but that doesn't matter if Sazerac is scraping bottom to pull together the current Ancient Age.

I'm going to bring this to a quick close because the whiskey isn't worth many additional words.  This is unquestionably the worst whisk(e)y I've reviewed this year.  Will a challenger arise?

ANCIENT AGE 86 PROOF (bottled early '80s)

Availability - Happy hunting!

Pricing - $9.69 is how I found it

Rating - 81

ANCIENT AGE (current bottling)

Availability - On a lower shelf at a retailer near you

Pricing - $10-$14 (Buffalo Trace is only twice the price but eleventy times better)

Rating - 63

A Pair of Dickels, Classic No. 8 and Rye Whisky

When it comes to Tennessee Whisk(e)y many of you know more about it than I.  This I blame on Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey, one of America's worst exports, worse than nuclear weapons and Jerry Lewis.  I've never understood why people choose to get drunk off of Jack.  Yes, they want the rock star cliché but, goddamn it, rock stars have gotten drunk off of everything.  Go huff gasoline fumes rather than drinking Jack from the bottle; the lights will be brighter and you'll pass out quicker.  Mmmmm, gasoline.

I first heard of George Dickel in the film Wonder Boys, in which a double Dickel on the rocks was Grady Tripp's drink of choice.  The Dickel didn't hit my lips until last year, when Florin (a prince) donated most of a 375mL bottle of Dickel's No. 8 to the Diving for Pearls Laboratories.

Dickel's bourbon-esque mashbill is very high in corn, around 84%.  They use the Lincoln County Process, which is now legally required in order to label a booze "Tennessee Whiskey" (except for Prichard's).  In a small shriveled nutshell, the Lincoln County Process is a method wherein the spirit is filtered through or soaked in charcoal chips, chunks, or slabs before being poured into barrels.  The benefit of this filtration is something forever debated between Kentucky and Tennessee whiskey fans. (For more and better info see The Chuck Cowdery Blog.)

In 2012, Dickel released a rye.  Using MGP spirit (95% rye), they give it a pass through charcoal before barreling it in order to Tennessee-up its Indiananess.

While Dickel has other products -- such as the No. 12, No. 1, and Barrel Select -- today I'm reporting on the "Classic No. 8" and the rye.

Brand: George Dickel
Product: Classic No. 8
Owner: Diageo :(
Distillery: Cascade Hollow
Location: Normandy, Tennessee, USA
Type: Tennessee Whiskey
Mash Bill: 84% corn, 8% rye, 8% malted barley
Barrel Char: #4 on the barrel, #2 on the heads
Age: used to be 4 to 6 years, probably closer to 4 years now
Bottle code: L00192P00109:48 (2000 or 2010?)

Alcohol by Volume: 40%
(Thank you to Florin for the sample!)

The color is light gold.  The nose is bright and brown sugary.  Something smoky lingers, whether from the barrel or the charcoal.  There are notes of oatmeal and baby spit-up, along with peppery rye.  The butyric note grows with time.  The palate is full of yeast, barley, and burnt corn.  Smaller notes of fennel seeds and tree bark float around.  There's also a strong vegetal note throughout, sometimes it's asparagus, sometimes black kale, sometimes brussels sprouts.  The vegetal thing continues into the very drying finish, joined by oak pulp and bark, burnt corn, and (perhaps) urine.

More on this below.  Onto the rye.

Brand: George Dickel
Product: Rye
Owner: Diageo :(
Distillery: Midwest Grain Products
Location: Lawrenceburg, Indiana, USA
Type: Rye Whiskey
Mash Bill: 95% rye, 5% malted barley
Barrel Char: #4 on the barrel, #2 on the heads
Age: ???

Alcohol by Volume: 45%
(Thank you to Florin for the sample!)

The color is a much redder gold than the No. 8.  In the nose there's a load of the MGP-style rye herbal spices, trending peppery.  It's also floral and very sugary (lollipops, caramel, and cotton candy).  I'm also finding some papaya and raspberry jam amongst a bit of charred oak.  The palate is the mildest MGP rye I've had: a heavily watered down Willett mixed with simple syrup.  There's cherry lollipops, rosewater, lots of peppercorns, and a hint of berry syrup.  It gets drier in the finish.  More oak rumbles in.  Sweet caramel and black pepper.

---

The rye is rounder and bolder than the No. 8.  But keep in mind, I'm biased towards MGP's rye.  The noses are the best parts of both whiskies.  The veggie note in the No. 8 isn't as big as my notes may make it seem, but it is definitely present.  When I drank the No. 8 last summer, I usually did it on the rocks and found it pleasant enough.  So, I recommend doing it Grady Tripp-style.  Hitting it with ice cuts the veggie notes out completely.  The rye doesn't need ice.  I also think it didn't deserve any charcoal filtering, as that was likely responsible for domesticating the MGP beast.

While the No. 8 is the weaker whisky, it is still a step or two above Jack Daniel's Old No. 7.  But then again, so are hemorrhoids.

GEORGE DICKEL CLASSIC NO. 8 WHISKY

Availability - At most major retailers

Pricing - $15-$20

Rating - 75

GEORGE DICKEL RYE WHISKY

Availability - At most major retailers

Pricing - $20-$26

Rating - 82

Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier and Spirit (Peatin' Meetin' Pt. 3)

The last time anyone had heard from me on Twitter, I was ears deep in Schlenkerla:

Very bad day at home. Time for a tasting that will probably ruin me. pic.twitter.com/mfJCxAX2zD
— Michael Kravitz (@kravitz_hubris) September 5, 2014

I'm here to say I survived, free from ruin.  It's no longer my habit to consume a liter of beer unless I'm in Ireland.  So I consumed probably 80% of those beers over two hours, along with the sample of spirit I'd obtained from Peatin' Meetin' 2014.

Okay, let me take a step back.  Schlenkerla is a pub in Bamberg, Germany that has become well known for the rauchbier (or Smoked Beer) that they brew onsite.  Rauchbiers get their smoky character from malted barley dried over open flames.  The damp barleycorns absorb some of the characteristics from the resulting smoke......which may sound a little familiar to peated whisky fans.  And the good news is, Schlenkerla has started to experiment with distilling their smoky beers.

After escaping with a sample of the Rauchbier spirit last month, I wasn't sure what to expect from the stuff, nor what should accompany it.  With some quick research I discovered that a few of Schlenkerla's rauchbiers have made their way to the US.  So I bought the two that I found at a local store so that I could match them up with the spirit.

Here's the Twitter pic again, cleaned up.

In the back are the beers, Urbock (6.5%abv) and Marzen (5.1%abv).  Up front is the spirit (40%abv).  I'm not a beer connoisseur, but I do like beer a lot.  The fact that these two aren't pushing 9% or 10% abv (as many American craft beers have been doing lately) is also much appreciated.  The Urbock and Marzen do not need a higher alcohol content since their flavors are quite potent already.

Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbeir URBOCK (6.5% ABV)
Color -- Cassis juice. Almost black with hints of red.
Nose -- Massively bacony and hammy. Lots of barley. Coffee brewing and dark chocolate melting.  Old sweaty gym clothes.
Palate -- Caol Ila of beers.  Actually Caol Ila with some extra charred bacon thrown in.  Moderate sweetness and bitterness.  A bit ashy and savory.
Finish -- Huge (pronounced: yooooooge).  Ashy, charred things; very similar to peat smoke.  Pre-lit matchsticks and manure.

Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchier MARZEN (5.1% ABV)
Color -- Similar to the Urbock.
Nose -- Mesquite chips, pre- and post-barbecue. Stout-ish. Some coffee and dirty hay notes. After some time there's a full note of vegetable oil burning in the fryer.
Palate -- Grainier than the Urbock. Very refreshing actually, with a mild sweetness, roasted coffee, and honey. Occasionally feels like a very low ABV bourbon cask Ardbeg.
Finish -- Here's the bacon, alongside a little bit of coffee and hops.

Verdict: Winners, both.  Urbock is darker in nature, perhaps a bit too much of a wallop for a summertime beverage, but probably a killer on a rainy night.  Marzen is lighter and could work during all seasons.  They each run about $5-$6 per half liter bottle.  I will be buying them again.

Next up is the spirit distilled from the smoked beer.  There's not a lot of info about it online and Schlenkerla's site doesn't reference it at all.  Some sites say that it is aged in Michel Couvreur casks for a few to several months.  Their distributor in New Jersey says it is "matured in M. Couvreur whiskey barrels for 24 months. They then add freshly smoked barley malt to the barrels, and age for an additional 12 months."  So now you know as much as I do.

Aecht Schlenkerla Smokemalt Rauchbier Spirit (40% ABV)
Color -- Medium gold, with quite a bit of unfiltered schmutz floating around.
Nose -- Very big and bright considering its alcohol content.  Black licorice, cinnamon candy, oatmeal, and baked raisins.
Palate -- Intensely herbal, like a hoppy eau-de-vie. That's followed by apple and cinnamon with lots of pepper and clove. Sweet anise candy. Sometimes seems like a second cousin to a good rye spirit.
Finish -- Caramel apples with cloves. A hint of smoke and bacon.

Grade Range: B-/B
I really liked this, but I'm not comfortable grading it higher until I have a larger sample to reference.  It's mostly a raw eau-de-vie style spirit.  The refill whisky barrels give it some color but rarely interject.  There's much less smoke here than in the beers, but the palate and nose are just as aggressive in their own way.

The price on the Smokemalt Spirit will scare away most customers; $110 for a 750mL bottle.  Most of us are not in the habit of paying that sort of money for a three-year-old whisky.  But it's not whisky.  This is a different creature, one not frequently available in this part of the world.  As always, I recommend you try before you buy it, if that is humanly possible with this thing.  And, perhaps, if you do some googling you may find half bottles for $55...

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The Peatin' Meetin' Scorecard so far...
-- Balvenie 17 year old Islay Cask (OB, 43% ABV) - Grade Range: B-/B
-- Loch Lomond Peated, green label (OB, 46% ABV) - Grade Range: D+/C-
-- Bowmore 16 year old 1990 Sherry Cask (OB, 53.8% ABV) - Grade Range: B-
-- Laphroaig 13 year old 1994 (Cadenhead, 54.7% ABV) - Grade Range: B-/B
-- Bladnoch Lightly Peated 11 year old 2002 K&L exclusive (OB, 51.5%) - Grade Range: B
-- Longrow 10 year old Sherrywood (OB, 46% ABV) - Grade Range: B+/A-
-- Laphroaig 15 year old 1998 K&L exclusive (Signatory, 61% ABV) - Grade Range B/B+
-- Schlenkera Rauchbier Spirit (40% ABV) - Grade Range: B-/B
-- ???
-- ???
-- ???
-- ???
-- ???

Something Weird: Ancient Age 86 Proof Bourbon (bottled early '80s)

Welcome back to Kravitz's Cabinet of Curiosities.  Today's sideshow is...

...Ancient Age 86 Proof Straight Bourbon Whiskey, bottled in the early 1980s; or better known in these circles as The Dog-Faced Man.

(source)

Since the start of the Ancient Age brand in 1946, there have been a whole slew of similarly named Ancient Age bourbons.  There's the regular Ancient Age (with one "Ancient"), which has had ages of 3 and 6 years, as well as at least one without an age statement.  These bottlings were released at 80, 86, 90, 100, and 107 proof at different points in time.  Then there was the Ancient Ancient Age 10 year old (hella ancient), which was recently sneakily replaced by the Ancient Ancient Age 10 Star (no age statement, not hella ancient?).  The version I found while scouting curios was the Ancient Age 86 proof, which had no age statement.  Since it was bottled in the early '80s it may or may not have some old glut whiskey in there; about that I have no idea.

Ancient Age has been made in the same distillery over the past 68 years, though it has undergone name and ownership changes.  The location was often known as the Leestown Distillery, sometimes as the OFC Distillery, sometimes as the George T. Stagg Distillery, sometimes as Albert B. Blanton Distillery.  It was run by Blanton, Stagg, and E.H. Taylor at various times.  Around the time of Prohibition, Schenley Industries bought it.  Some folks say that it was called Ancient Age Distillery for a while, some folks say that was never its official name, rather AA(A) was just its best-selling brand.  The Ancient Age brand itself was sold to Age International in 1983.  Age still owns the brand and produces the whiskey at the same distillery, now known as......Buffalo Trace Distillery.  (Here are a couple of my sources: this and this.)

Today, Ancient Age is a 3 year old 80 proof bottom shelf bourbon made from BT's higher rye mashbill.  The bottling I have was obtained for all of $9.69, but I have no idea what its mashbill was.

Upon opening this bourbon six months ago, I was immediately struck by its massively astringent, salty, and medicinal palate.  It was odd, but I kinda liked it.  With time and a little oxygen, the bourbon in the bottle mellowed slightly but remained unusual.  The notes below are from samples I took at two different parts of the bottle.

Also, posting simultaneously with this review, My Annoying Opinions will be reviewing a sample from this very bottle as well!  Here's the link to his review!

So much going on here: Ancient Age just opened, Peatin'
Meetin' notes, a mystery man in the shadows, and
yes an empty bottle of Finlaggan.

Owner: Ancient Age Distillers (either Schenley Industries or Age International)
Brand: Ancient Age
Distillery: Leestown Distillery
Location: Frankfort, Kentucky, USA
Type: Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Mash Bill: damfino
Age: Ancient
Bottle year: early 1980s

Alcohol by Volume: 43%

MID-BOTTLE
The color is dark woody brown.  The first thing that strikes me about the nose is how malty it is, a good ex-bourbon cask malt.  But then in rumbles some oloroso sherry.  Then Old Spice aftershave.  After that, it's all bourbon.  Corn syrup, caramel, and honey with some peppery rye hints around the edges.  It smells like it's going to be a sweetie.  But on the palate, it's not.  It's still somewhat astringent and medicinal.  Some toffee thrown in.  Then it picks up its case of the weirds.  Shaving cream smell (as a flavor), hairspray, and a hint of soap.  So there's this chemical angle, yet it's still fully palatable (for me).  The chemicals don't stick around in the sweeter finish.  Some salt and caramel.  Spices like black pepper, nutmeg, and cardamom.  Maybe a little of the soap sticks around.

BOTTOM THIRD
Most of that malt note is gone now from the nose, though a nutty sherry remains.  It's much more vegetal and corny now.  Savory herbs, corn chips, paint fumes.  Then some rye seeds to go with a lot of caramel and vanilla.  Vanilla and caramel also lead off a palate which seems to be cured of the chemicals. Though that soap hint remains.  Much more corn whiskey now.  It's sweeter, spicier, savorier, and saltier.  The chemical thing peeks in at the finish, along with ripe banana, black pepper, and granulated sugar.

So, this bottle gave me three whiskies for the price of a bottom-shelfer.  Pretty swell deal, I'd say.  As mentioned above, the top of the bottle was a raw sharp medicinal stinger.  The middle of the bottle smelled great and tasted strangely.  The bottom third was more like a contemporary bourbon of better than acceptable quality for a $10 bottle.  One thing was consistent though: It does not work in a mixed drink, highball, mint julep, etc.  It just doesn't play well with others.

I'm sort of mystified as how to grade it.  So I'll have to provide a disclaimer to whatever number I make up.  I like it A LOT more than the previous two Curiosities, and would even consider getting another bottle if I found one for $10 again.  If you wind up discovering a bottle of this (with the faux tax stamp), and want to get in on the weird, I don't recommend letting too much oxygen get to it.  Split it up amongst your friends peers and watch everyone make faces.

Availability - Happy hunting!

Pricing - $9.69 is how I found it

Rating - 81 (Disclaimers: 1. Rating only covers this era of this bourbon, not the current version. 2. The whiskey changes often in the bottle.  3. It can be a little weird. 4. You should probably disregard this rating altogether.)

Koval's Lion's Pride Organic Dark Millet and Organic Dark Rye Whiskies

If you've been wondering where the "R" in Whiskyfun's "Stanahan's" review went, I stole it.

Florin gave me substantial samples of two whiskies (thank you!!!), both of which I labelled and referred to as "Korval" for almost four months.  It was when I started googling Korval that I realized there is no Korval distillery.  There's a Koval distillery, located in Chicago -- in the actual city, near Ravenswood and Lincoln Square -- and run by the Birnbeckers, an Austrian family with distillers in their lineage.  Koval has made a number of whiskies using grains that are often grown in America but are rarely distilled.

Until recently their main range was called Lion's Pride (named after their son, Lion) and it contained a number of organic whiskies. Very recently, the "Lion's Pride" title was discarded and the entire line's bottling design redone.  The "organic" designation is no longer on the front label though the company says they use only organic grains.

The two whiskies I'm reviewing here are the Lion's Pride editions of the Organic Dark Millet and Organic Dark rye.

---

Distillery: Koval
Region: Chicago, IL, USA
Grain: Millet (100%)
Age: less than two years old
Maturation: 30 gallon new American oak barrels with level-four char
Alcohol by volume: 40%

The color is very light gold.  Not much on the nose at the start.  First, some turpentine (a la Cutty Sark) floats up.  Then notebook paper, grain grist, paint, rice wine vinegar, and yeast.  Hints of vanilla, sugar, and white pasta follow.  The palate is reminiscent of very young low-oak Scotch grain whisky. It's, er, grainy. Some vanilla and sugar. A hint of vinegar. Lots of notebook paper (again), but this time it's covered in Nutrasweet.  A peppery nip gives it some character.  That pepperish peep continues into the finish, followed by paper and a slight sweetness. And not a lack of what I'd guess is acetate.

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Distillery: Koval
Region: Chicago, IL, USA
Grain: Rye (100%)
Age: less than two years old
Maturation: 30 gallon new American oak barrels with level-four char
Barrel #: 198
Alcohol by volume: 40%

The color is also a very light gold.  The nose is bigger than the millet's, though it starts on varnish.  Then there's some raw green herbs and old shoe leather.  Peppercorns and caulk.  A hint of brown sugar.  Eventually it opens up and smells like a deli pickle plate.  And, per my wife, it smells like whiteboard markers. The palate has a case of The Turps with some pepper and tartness mixed in. A little pickle brine, maybe some fennel and horseradish.  Some sweetness builds at the end.  It's all very quiet, like a watered-down white rye.  The finish has the pepper and brine, too, along with pencil eraser.  There's a cloying note that I've found in very young proto-whisk(e)y.

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If those reviews aren't loud enough raves for you, let me just add that the filtered water from my fridge has a denser texture than these unfiltered whiskies.

Just to clarify, I do not know how to distill a spirit.  I've only flubbed around with trying to age stuff in tiny barrels.  I am aware that distillation is very difficult, especially without bringing any malted barley into the mix.  If making good spirit was easy, then entire whisky empires would never have been built.  And I want to cheer on the small businesses, as opposed to the empires.  But I can find very little that appeals to the nose or palate in these two whiskies.

They both feel significantly watered down and I wonder (as usual) how these would swing at much higher ABVs.  The millet whiskey is as light as a feather, which can sometimes be a good thing, but there's not much spirit character to it.  The rye is larger, but it's still the shyest rye I've ever tried.  It tastes and smells so young that even Corsair's unaged Wry Moon feels like its senior.  But even if it is young, where is all of its rye power?

As I mentioned, Koval's bottle and label design have been reworked, so perhaps the whisky has as well?  I don't know.

Here are other folks' reviews:
--Sour Mash Manifesto has positive things to say about these whiskies, but commenter "Sherman Owen" at the end of the comment section says much of what I think about the whiskies.
--Not many votes on whiskybase, but the small sample size loves the millet and hates the rye.
--My Annoying Opinions reviewed a sample of my sample and had an experience similar to mine.
--And Whisky Advocate, which rarely prints grades under 80, gave all of Koval's whiskies grades under 80.  (And Lew Bryson has sorta tried more American whiskies than most of us combined.)

Koval Lion's Pride Organic Dark Millet
Availability - The newer addition is much easier to find at specialty retailers
Pricing - $40-$50
Rating - 70

Koval Lion's Pride Organic Dark Rye
Availability - The newer addition is much easier to find at specialty retailers
Pricing - $40-$50
Rating - 72

Birthday Booze! Inchgower 36 year old 1974 Master of Malt

Third review of the week!  You know what that means...  Super short introduction!

As I had for the previous two birthdays, this year I opened and consumed a sample of a whisky that was as old as I.  This time it was this Inchgower that Master of Malt bottled back in 2011.

I actually bought the sample in 2011 too, back when UK shipping was half of what it is now.  Oh, the days.

Before this sample, I'd tried a grand total of two Inchgowers; both 29 years old.  I liked them both, but now that I've downing a 36 year old Inchgower, I'm pretty sure I have no idea what their regular teenage or Flora & Fauna versions taste like.  This is a situation I normally don't find myself in since I'm unable to make a habit of drinking old whisky.

Distillery: Inchgower
Owner: Diageo

Independent Bottler: Master of Malt

Age: 36 years (September 16, 1974 - June 9, 2011)

Maturation: refill bourbon hogshead

Type: Single Malt
Region: Speyside (Banffshire)

Alcohol by Volume: 53.4%**
Limited Release: 177 bottles

** - One bit of weirdness.  The sample says it's 53.4% ABV.  The website says it's 53.4%.  But there was an identical cask distilled and bottled on the same exact days which produced same number of bottles and was labelled 41.5% ABV.  And the official photo on the website shows an ABV in the 40s, when zoomed in.  Whiskybase and whiskywhiskywhisky say it's 41.5, while Ruben from whiskynotes says his was 53.4 and Bonhams shows a bottle with the 53.4.  It could be that there were two very identical casks, but I doubt it.  Master of Malt split the cask with whiskybroker, and whiskybroker's bottles were 53.4% ABV.  So I'm going with 53.4% ABV.  Whew, that paragraph took longer to research and write than the rest of the entire post.

On to the stuff!

The color sits between light gold and amber.  The nose is a blast of fruits, candies, and creams.  Orange-mango juice, limes, fresh bananas, lemon peel meets peppercorns.  Cherry Blow Pops.  Vanilla and tapioca custard.  Hints of barrel char, but much less oaky than current "rejuvenated cask" whiskies.  Some anise and mothballs give it another boost.  On the palate, a big fruitiness at the start is reined in by a soft bitter close.  It's very zesty and spicy (yes, I know Ruben used those words in his review too, but he's a copycat with a time machine).  More creamy than buttery.  To be more specific about the fruit-to-bitter development: it goes from tropical fruit juice to lemon candies to tropical fruit Skittles to flower blossoms to dark chocolate to coffee.  A very effervescent finish, mint leaves and menthol.  Crème fraîche and mocha.  Fruity candies too.

A very pleasant nose leads to a zippy palate which leads to an enormous finish.  40+ minutes of that effervescent glow.  I like this a lot.  And now I'm 3 for 3 with old Inchgowers, with this being the best of the three.  And yes, this 36 year old single cask whisky was 75GBP (62GBP, ex-VAT) three years ago.  Seriously.  The 15 year old Balvenie is more expensive than that now.  It's unnecessary for me to say that this single cask sold out a long time ago, so my condolences if, like me, you wish you had a bottle.

Availability - Not
Pricing - £74.95 with VAT, sigh
Rating - 91