WTF Is This? Shieldaig Highland Peaty Single Malt

WTF Is This? is back.  Today......to the cheap stuff!

Shieldaig Highland Malt (I added 'Peaty' above because that's what Total Wine's website calls it) is one of Total Wine & More's "Spirits Direct" brands, which means that it is a generic-style product sold exclusively at Total Wine.  Except it's also sold at Ace Spirits in Minnesota, which is something I cannot explain.  (It can be explained!  See the comment section below.)  Anyway, there are a number of Shieldaig whiskies -- NAS 'The Classic' blend ($14), a 12yo blend ($17), NAS Speyside single malt ($18), 12yo Speyside single malt ($30), 18yo Speyside single malt ($43), and this NAS Highlander ($18).

A new Total Wine branch just opened up in Long Beach and they've been sending us coupons every other week for their Spirits Direct and Winery Direct stuff attempting to lure me into buying one of these things I'd otherwise not consider.  So I took the bait, a 10%(!) off coupon, and moseyed over to the store.  I was tempted for a moment by the 18yo malt which was $38+ with the coupon.  But I realized that 18 years or not, that whisky would have me out 38 bucks (plus CA sales tax) if it was crap.  More intriguing, and much cheaper, was the peated whisky.  The "Highland".  Yes, quotes.

While in the store, I tried to figure out which Highland distillery provided the whisky.  The town of Shieldaig is in fact in the Highlands, in the Northwest.  What was nearby?  Ben Nevis made peated stuff for blends.  Out East was Glen Ord which used a little bit of peated malt.  But then again, the brand Shieldaig also made an unpeated Speyside so the Highland distillery didn't necessarily need to be near the town, a town name that was probably just used for branding purposes.

When I got home from the store, I did something I almost never do: immediately open the bottle.  Yes indeed, the whisky was peated.  But I couldn't find a specific distillery style.  And then while admiring the bottle I noticed this:

A classic Highland Malt from the Islands...

So.  If we're really going to use the now outdated Scotch Geography (because the brand uses it for its products), the Islands are not part of the Highlands.  "The Islands" is its own region.  So Highland, is really "Highland".  Another imaginary branding device, "Highland" conjures up images of tougher stuff than a Speyside.  But if it's from "the Islands", which distillery could it be?  Is Highland Park trading away their duff barrels?  Peated Jura?  It's doubtful that Diageo is handing over any Talisker at this point, especially since they're already using their crap casks in their own products (OOOOOOHHHH BURN!!!).  Maybe it's peated whisky from Mull; baby Ledaig is that you?  I don't know.  But here are my notes.

Label: Shieldaig
Owner: William Maxwell & Co. Ltd.
Retailer: Total Wine & More

Distillery: ???
Type: Single Malt
Region: Highlands Islands

Age: no statement

Maturation: probably ex-bourbons of multiple types

Alcohol by Volume: 40%
Chillfiltered? It is likely so.
Artificially Colored? Probs.

Its color is very gold.  Since the whisky is probably younger than this blog, e150a was likely deployed generously.  The nose is very peat forward, which is a surprise.  There are notes of rainsoaked sheep and dry dogs.  It is sugary, with plenty of caramel.  Slightly floral.  Caramel sauce with cinnamon.  Something like cinnamon peat.  Cassia cinnamon bark.  Some ethyl.  Less peat in the palate.  Very sweet.  Thin watery texture.  Barley, vanilla, and more cinnamon here.  The occasional weird sour and bitter notes vanish quickly.  The finish made up of peat, heat, vanilla, and touch of tartness.

I was about to write this off as a low C- whisky, slightly better than Grangestone's NAS Double Cask and Finlaggan Old Reserve, but then, as I usually do for reviews of cheaper whisky, I fixed myself a highball.  And it wasn't bad.  In fact, it didn't even need any bitters.  It delivered peat, grain, vanilla, and caramel in a straightforward flaw-free way.  And that's how I'm going to recommend it: 1 part whisky, 1.5 parts soda water, no bitters, ice optional.  I'm not saying it's orgasmic, but it'll do.

As for the whisky's source?  I don't know.  It's in a simple peaty state wherein they could probably change up the source when needed without much fuss.  I would be interested in this as a 12 or 18 year old (and a 43%abv wouldn't hurt) and would pay the Speyside prices for it.  But I doubt there's much 12 or 18 year old peated whisky being tossed aside right now.  In the meantime, this is what Shieldaig is slinging.  It's not incredible, but it is peaty, it is a single malt, it is better than Finlaggan Old Reserve, and it is $18 (or $16 if you have the current coupon!).

(Another great reader came through with some info about Shieldaig and the possibility of the malt being Talisker.  See the comment section below.)

Availability - Total Wine & More
Pricing - $17.99
Rating - 77 (best as a highball!)

Single Malt Report: Bunnahabhain 33 year old 1980 Whisky Doris

When I saw that this post would be of the 450th whisky I've rated, I decided to bust out something fancy.  Searching through the samples, I reflected on life and then pondered what whisky defines me as a person, ultimately finding--

Actually, I already had this whisky scheduled and then just noticed the mini-milestone while updating the Big Whisky List yesterday.

Anyway, I had the opportunity to try this Bunnahabhain last week and thought it would be a fun change of pace from the previous two whiskies.  It is not peated and it is old and it is sherried.  A mere two years ago, 30-40 year old Bunnas could be had at reasonable prices.  Now they can't...

...except for this one.

At the current exchange rate, this 33 year old single cask can be had for $150ish (minus VAT, before shipping).  There are other distilleries' single casks half its age that are going for that price, and the official 25yo (multiple cask) Bunnahabhain is $400 in California.

Before trying this whisky, I'd had a small but positive experience with this Whisky Doris, going 2 for 2 with their bottlings.  But those WDs were A-level whiskies.  So, though I don't blindly buy bottles at that price, I was flirting with this whisky online.  And then, magically!, I was asked to lead a tasting event that had this as part of the lineup.  From that event, I departed with my own sample and now I'm going to give it an official review.

Distillery: Bunnahabhain

Independent Bottler: Whisky Doris

Age: 33 years (May 1980 - November 2013)

Maturation: Sherry Butt
Cask number: 92
Limited bottling: 236 of 460

Region: Islay

Alcohol by Volume: 45.6%
Chillfiltered? No
mit Farbstoff? Nein

This one gets the paragraph treatment today:

Its color is dark gold, though lighter than a young bourbon.  The nose has some oak up front but it's mellow and toasted.  The sherry is very laid back.  So, at first there's honey and roasted nuts.  Then suddenly there's a burst of blackberry syrup.  Then raspberries simmering on the stove.  Toffee, almond extract, pipe tobacco, a hint of cantaloupe.  Toasty sandalwood (like a mizunara cask, but not).  Some roasted malt in the background.  There's no mustiness and no sulphur to be found.  The palate leads with mandarin oranges, or are they blood oranges?  Roses.  Lots of dried berries.  Maybe some raspberry candy.  Whispers of nutmeg and pepper.  Later on there's a silky creamy note and more exotic fruits linger in the distance.  It finishes with fresh berries (raspberries and strawberries) in sugar.  Dark chocolate with berry filling.  Hints of tobacco and lime.  But it's not too sweet, just gentle, graceful, and drifting along.

Gentle, graceful, and drifting along.  I adore this whisky.  Kristen liked it too, which is a hell of a thing to type.  This isn't a sherry bomb.  It's very delicate.  It's what the angels left behind after taking a mighty share.  Perhaps it was a second-fill sherry butt?  Or good warehouse placement?  Or maybe it was just Time.  In any case, it's another excellent cask by Whisky Doris, so excellent that it just became my birthday gift to myself.

Availability - A few European specialty retailers

Pricing - €140ish (minus VAT, without shipping)

Rating - 92

Single Malt Report: Bunnahabhain 13 year old 1997 Murray McDavid, Chateau Lafite ACEing

Yes, another 1997 Bunnahabhain!  But this one's a different creature than yesterday's.  Today's was bottled by Murray McDavid -- yes, the one indie bottler whose name alone inspires a physical response in many a drinker.  This particular Bunnahabhain spent the better part of its life in ex-bourbon casks, then was ACEd finished in Bordeaux casks (courtesy of Chateau Lafite Rothschild).

Often Murray McDavid's whiskies come across as unbalanced who-knows-what'll-happen experiments to salvage crap casks. While that's not necessarily a bad thing -- strange whisky often equals fun whisky -- only once was I convinced that anyone should pay money for a MMcD's tootling product.

But because this was a '97 Bunnahabhain and because Jordan (Mr. Cocktailchem) had a sample to swap, I figured what the hell.

Distillery: Bunnahabhain

Independent Bottler: Murray McDavid

Age: 13 years (1997-2011)

Maturation: ex-bourbon casks
Finish: Bourdeaux casks from Chateau Lafite Rothschild
Limited bottling: 1200

Region: Islay

Alcohol by Volume: 46%
Chillfiltered: No
Colored: No

NEAT
Color - Sazerac cocktail.  Think orange, peach, pink, and gold. At least it's not maroon like the $300 McEwan wine spit bucket known as Black Art (Parts 1 through 4).

Nose - The peat reek stands tall above the wine.  Smaller, well-incorporated notes like brown sugar, cinnamon, coconut, and creme brûlée appear.  With time, the peat element peels back, revealing a big vanilla buttercream frosting note.  Then there's peach candy and something PX sherry-ish.

Palate - Aggressively dirty peat with an underpinning of something sweet.  But then they flip-flop as something (the wine?) gets very sweet very quickly.  A big peppery spiciness, like white and green peppercorns, rumbles beneath.  Some overripe stone fruits here and there.  A bit of salt.

Finish - Ashes and char.  Cigarettes and cracked pepper.  Hint of sweet wine, sort of like Madeira.

WITH WATER (~40%abv)
Nose - Wine gets stronger, peat weakens.  More frosting.  Some peachy stuff.  Lots of lemons.

Palate - Peat and sweet.  An herbal bitterness now appears.  The peat is up front.  The sugar and overripe stone fruits are in the exhale.

Finish - Peat smoke, sweet wine, sugar, and salt water.

The nose was a surprise, working even better when I had the second half of the sample the day after the tasting.  Wine element is not only pleasant, but also plays very well with the malt, in the nose.  I'm less convinced about their interplay in the palate.  I'm not sure where the palate's aggressive sweetness is coming from as it feels more like a dessert/fortified wine rather than a Bordeaux.  If the sweetness is due to the malt, as Jordan mentions in his review, this would be the first time I've seen this level of sweets in a '97 Bunna.  Or perhaps it was due to some booming first-fill bourbon casks.

While I'm in no way panning this whisky, Jordan is a bigger fan of it than I.  He had a whole bottle of it to ponder, so I recommend giving his review a read.  I wish I'd discovered the dry and savory notes he found!

As mentioned, the nose is very good and the palate shows better (for me) with some water.  It's also the second best Murray McDavid bottling I've had and the best of their wine finishes I've tried so far.  It's an MMcD experiment that is worth paying for, though I'm not sure how much retailers are charging for it as it has become scarce.

Availability - Scarce

Pricing - $??.??

Rating - 83

Single Malt Report: Bunnahabhain 16 year old 1997 Chieftain's hogshead #3181 (K&L exclusive)

Adult voices speaking in babytalk tones shriek out from Mathilda's toys over and over and over and over and over as I write this post.  I'm going fugging (per Norman Mailer) crazy.

Last week I reviewed a pair of 2015 K&L exclusive single casks (here and here) from friends' samples.  Today, I'm reviewing a single cask K&L found in 2014, and it's from my own bottle!  Bottles of this one are still on the shelves, and have an Insider's Advantage price, so I wanted to make sure I got a review out before they're all gone.  I'm straining to be relevant here, people.

In 1997, Bunnahabhain experimented with distilling some highly peated (50ppm? 38ppm, thanks Jordan!) spirit and then promptly discontinued the exercise for more than decade.  It seems as if they traded most of those peated results away to independent bottlers.  And I've really liked the results.  '97 Bunnahabhain is kinda punk.  It's scuzzy and imperfect and tends to play only power chords.  So when I read that the K&L Davids were bringing back a cask I was very excited.

And then it arrived with a $130/bottle price tag and I was a lot less excited.  My hope was that someday it would wind up on clearance and drop below $100 dollars.  Four months ago, that very thing happened.  $97 is still on the high side (though I guess mathematically appropriate), but luckily my fellow '97 Bunnahabhain geek Jordan (of Chemistry of the Cocktail fame) was willing to split a bottle with me.

So with the final two ounces of my half bottle, I did an actual tasting last week.

Distillery: Bunnahabhain

Independent Bottler: Ian MacLeod
Brand: Chieftain's

Age: 16 years (August 1997 - May 2014)

Maturation: Hogshead
Cask number: 3181
Limited bottling: 259

Region: Islay

Alcohol by Volume: 56.1%
Chillfiltered: No
Colored: No

NEAT
Color - Dark gold.  In the bottle it looks almost as if it's a first fill sherry cask.

Nose - In my first pour from the bottle, all I got was bus exhaust.  Which was great.  But, onto the official nosing...  It's deep and dingy.  Charred, burnt pine.  Sometimes a little sugary (confectioners') and candied.  Orange blossoms, dark chocolate, and salty ocean air.  Big peat, but also graceful peat.

Palate - More smoke than moss.  More honed and refined than any other '97 Bunny I've had before.  Dark chocolate and mellow vanilla sweetness, but also some peppery charred beef around the edges.  There's a richness that almost seems sherried, like a sweet nutty praline thing.

Finish - Extensive vibrant peatin'.  Pleasantly subtle vanilla, sugar, and salt.  Pipe tobacco.

WITH WATER (~46%abv)
Nose - The burnt piney note remains in the forefront.  Burnt pan scrapings.  Pencils.  Hints of oranges and limes.

Palate - Sweeter and more aromatic.  An almost floral peat (NOT Bowmorian).  Still quite strong, a little rougher young spirit shows up.

Finish - Shorter.  Salt, slightly bitter, and peat residue.

This makes me wish more indie '97 Bunnahabhains would make their way to The States, but since this clearly did not fly off the shelves I don't know how many more of these we Yanks will ever see here.  For some reason even the peated '89 Juras sell out faster than the '97 Bunnas.  Is that due to the allure of larger age statements?

I'd recommend this bottling to those former fans of Ardbeg who have lost confidence in the single malts coming from LVMH.  I'd also recommend it to geeks who like indie Caol Ilas and Bowmores.  As mentioned in the notes, there's something sherry-ish to it.  Whatever it is, it works.  If anyone else finds this characteristic let me know in the comments.

As Mathilda's toy threatens "I SEE YOU, MONKEY" for the fourth straight time, I'm getting creeped out and will end this post thusly.

Availability - K&L Wines only

Pricing - $96.99 via Insider's Advantage

Rating - 88

WTF Is This? will return next week

Hi folks.  Due to personal circumstances, I will be unable to post a WTF Is This? this week.  But the series will indeed return next week.

The WTFs have been really fun to do and I hope you've enjoyed them too!  I have added another three weeks' (Fridays') worth of them to my schedule.  I'll try to keep it going as long as possible, as long as I have WTF-type whiskies at hand.  I haven't really been soliciting samples since I cleared out the last Dram Quest list, but if you have whiskies that are the weirdest, worstest, mysteriously magnificent, or just generally unknown and you want to send one over for a WTF post then drop me a line.  Thank you much.  Back to more reviews next week.

Here is a water buffalo eating a watermelon.

Single Malt Report: Bowmore 12 year old 2001 Signatory (K&L exclusive)

(source)

After my second year of posting whisky reviews, I took a tally of my posts and realized that Bowmores made up one out of every eight of my reviews.  Since then I've reviewed a grand total of two.  This week, I'm reviewing another two.  Both are twelve years olds, distilled in 2001, matured in hogsheads, bottled by independent companies, and sold exclusively through K&L Wine Merchants.  But there the similarities end.

Monday's Bowmore was aged in a refill ex-bourbon hogshead.  Today's was aged in a refill ex-sherry hogshead butt.  While the hoggie was shy in Monday's Bowmore, today's Bowmore highlights a very active (and excellent) cask.  While both bring plenty of power, Monday's was young and wild, today's shows its age as well as its strength.

Distillery: Bowmore

Independent Bottler: Signatory
Retailer: K&L Wines

Age: at least 12 years (September 2001 - July 2014)

Maturation: refill ex-sherry butt
Cask number: 1371
Bottle count: 565
Region: Islay, Scotland

Alcohol by Volume: 59.1%
Chillfiltered? No
Colored? No
(Thanks to Florin for the sample!)

NEAT
Its color is gold.  The nose begins with a mild plum wine-like sherry note that dovetails with a strong mineral (lots of rocks) character.  A campfire the following morning.  Clover honey, oranges, and again more plums than prunes.  After some time in the glass, there's a little note of struck matches but it's just a hint, a seasoning.  Lots of charred meat with a honey glaze in the palate.  Honey pepper sauce.  It's a sweet sherry but not cloyingly so.  A vibrant sugar→peat smoke→sugar→cayenne pepper progression.  Great thick mouthfeel.  The moderate length finish is a little ocean-y.  Then there's the honey, pepper, and peat.

WITH WATER (~46%abv)
The nose seems peatier now, almost hotter too.  Still a very well integrated peat + sherry combo.  Maybe some more nuts now, hazelnuts and walnuts.  Orange zest and cinnamon.  That hint of sulphur.  Moss and char in the palate.  Salt, pepper, and honey.  Some peppery bitter lettuces.  Less sweet now, still well balanced.  The sweetness also calms down in the finish.  The smoke note builds with time, as does the black pepper note.

Richer and more complex than Monday's Bowmore, this might have a better peat and sherry combo than the current iteration of Ardbeg's Uigeadail.  Of course Oogy is engineered using hundreds of casks while this is just a single cask, so they're very different whiskies.

Unless my sherry receptors were hyperactive during this tasting, this refill sherry cask feels like a first fill.  Perhaps that's due to how much smaller a hogshead is than a sherry butt [Ed. note: this was actually a sherry butt].  Yet the sherry hasn't smothered the spirit; and the spirit hasn't overwhelmed the cask.  The parts work very well together.  And now I wonder what they did with the cask after the whisky was dumped.  Fill it with Bowmore spirit?  Or another Islay?  Or maybe toss a fruity Speyside in there to create something fun?

In any case, another great cask from Signatory, one of my favorite bottlers.  This whisky is on sale at K&L via their Insider's Advantage program.  As of mid-July there are a number of cases of this stuff left.  I might just pick up a bottle.

Availability - K&L Wines only

Pricing - $79.99 if you're signed up for their Insider's Advantage

Rating - 89

Single Malt Report: Bowmore 12 year old 2001 Hepburn's Choice (K&L exclusive)

Today's generalization: With two exceptions, every independently bottled non-FWP Bowmore I've had has been very good.  Now, let me clear away all of the qualifiers in the previous sentence: Independently bottled Bowmores are very reliable.

(Those two mentioned exceptions were reviewed here and here.  Though they were both by David Stirk's Exclusive Malts/Casks, that same company also released an excellent Bowmore when Stirk first brought his whiskies to The States.)

Over the past few years, K&L Wine Merchants have gotten into the indie Bowmore game by picking five or six single casks to sell exclusively through their stores.  Though my previous run-in with one of those exclusive Bowmores wasn't entirely positive, I was still willing to give the others a try.  Luckily two of my whisky pals gave me samples from their bottles of current K&L exclusive Bowmores.

Despite having the same age, vintage, cask size, and price, these two Bowmores are very different from each other.  I'll be reviewing the first one today, the second one tomorrow.

Distillery: Bowmore

Independent Bottler: Hunter Laing
Retailer: K&L Wines

Age: at least 12 years (2001-2014)

Maturation: ex-bourbon refill hogshead
Cask number: ?
Bottle #:  ??? of 266

Region: Islay, Scotland

Alcohol by Volume: 58.4%
Chillfiltered? No
Colored? No
(Thanks to SmokyPeat for the sample!)

Hepburn's Choice is one of Hunter Laing's smaller brands, one that they don't tout on their site.  Their releases are often bottled at 46%abv, uncolored and unchillfiltered.  But the single casks that K&L picked up are bottled at full strength.

NEAT
Its color is Five Beer Piss, my favorite whisky color!  The nose begins with young, though buttery, malt.  There's vinyl, peat (bog as opposed to smoke), lemons, and fruity Ceylon cinnamon.  Give it some time and find some VapoRub-style menthol.  Then comes an herbal note somewhere between rosemary and thyme.  Perhaps a hint of elephant cage.  The palate is hot and raw, but in a good way.  Lots of smoldering peat; the PPMs feel much larger here than in the nose.  Vanilla, cinnamon, brown sugar, salt, and peppercorns.  It finishes with burnt leaves, burnt pages, and the nose's menthol note.  It gradually picks up some sweetness, salt, very green grassiness, and hint of bitterness.

WITH WATER (~46%abv)
This pretties the nose up a little.  More lemons, some orange blossoms and mint.  Less menthol, though the peat bog stays strong.  The palate is softer though saltier.  Still smoky, still sweet.  Gets sweeter with time.  A nice wormwood bitterness floats below.  The finish gets sugarier.  The bitterness and smoke mellow a bit.

More Katherine than Audrey Hepburn, this one.  Though K&L says this was a second-fill hogshead, it feels like a fourth or fifth-fill hoggie.  It seems half its age.  I mean we're almost in Talisker "Speakeasy" territory here.  But like the Speakeasy, it's really solid strong spirit.  One could reasonably argue that it's one-note, but a good note it is.  I'm going to score it a couple points higher than the Speakeasy because it's less of a novelty and more of a whisky one would want to consume on multiple occasions.

I'd say this was a brave pick by the Davids because it isn't exactly a crowd pleaser.  But peatheads should find that it delivers.  As is the case with many indie Bowmores, this one's peat levels feel far larger than those of the official bottlings.  In fact this one's peat strength is reminiscent of the Islay distilleries to the south.  This could be due, again, to the cask's restraint.  The whisky swims very well, so if you find it too booming at full strength, watering it down will help.  But it'll read as a young bold Bowmore no matter what.

Availability - K&L Wines only

Pricing - $79.99

Rating - 86