Single Malt Report: Ballechin 10 year old

I will be reviewing a few Edradour products this week.  I know, you're leaping from your windows (with excitement).  My experience with the Highlands' tiniest distillery's single malts is limited but mixed.  The three I've tried that were distilled prior to Andrew Symington's (Mr. Signatory!) 2002 takeover were aggressively soapy.  In fact the old 30 year old is in the running for the single worst whisky I've ever tried.  It was horrifying and worrisome.  To get an idea of the experience see Andy's review from the LAWS site.  My luck with the whiskies distilled since 2002 has been more positive.  And my experience with their peated brand, Ballechin, has been even better.

The malt used for Ballechin is peated at Ardbeg/Kilchoman levels, near 50ppm.  Symington and his distillery manager, Ian Henderson (formerly of Laphroaig fame) began distilling this peated spirit almost as soon as they moved in.  Starting 2006 and ending in 2013, a limited batch of Ballechin was released annually.  Each batch of "The Discovery Series" was aged in a different cask type, from Port to Sauternes to Oloroso sherry and more.  And then in 2014 the first age-stated release came out...

Distillery: Edradour
Malt: Ballechin
Ownership: Signatory Vintage Scotch Whisky Co., Ltd.

Region: Highlands (Central)
Age: minimum 10 years old

Bottling year: 2014

Maturation: from the back label: "predominantly ex Bourbon casks with a generous top dressing of ex Oloroso Sherry casks"
Peat level at time of malting: ~50ppm

Alcohol by Volume: 46%
Chillfiltered? No
Colorant added? No
(Thanks to Florin for the sample!)

NEAT
Its color appears to be apple juice gold.  The nose has big rich peat, though it's not ashy.  A plate of pork with honey-citrus glaze and grilled corn on the cob.  Serious grilled corn on the cob.  Then there are red (not red delicious which smell like emptiness) apples, orange peel, and ginger powder.  It gets nuttier with time, sort of pistachio-ish.  After about 20 minutes, it gets a little more coastal/beachy.  The palate feels more charred, with dirtier peat.  Slightly vegetal peat notes as well.  Quite sweet, with plenty of vanilla and sugar.  A chili oil bite and some roasted malt.  After 20 minutes, a good rich oak note appears, perhaps from the "generous top dressing of ex Oloroso Sherry casks".  Some sweet baking spices as well.  The finish, though not complex, is extensive.  Sweet and peat.  More Kilchoman than Ardbeg.  The malty element picks up after a few sips, as does a hint of salt.

WITH WATER (~40%abv)
The nose is milder and delivers more hay notes.  The peat reads more mossy than smoky now.  Salty/briney.  Something sugared in the far back.  The palate is nearly neutered.  Hints of sweet, salt, and bitter.  Smokier than the nose.  Almost a wood smoke.  The finish is much lighter too.  Briney, smoky, malty.

This is a solid whisky that could easily play in the Islay League.  It can't be accused of complexity and it doesn't swim well, but it smells great and tastes good.  The finish is impressive as well.  I used the Kilchoman and Ardbeg reference in the tasting notes because of their similar peating levels (or possibly the same Port Ellen maltings specs?), and also due to the fact that the Ballechin 10 would be a respectable alternative to the Ardbeg 10 and Kilchoman Machir Bay.  I'd still go with those two first, especially since they're cheaper (it is about $20 cheaper in Europe than in the US, though that's before shipping) and a half step better.  But again this is good stuff if you're looking for a new peated whisky (with an age statement) and don't mind paying the price.

Availability - Many specialty retailers in US and Europe
Pricing - $70-$80 in US; $55-70 in Europe
Rating - 84 86 (apologies for the score change, I was supposed update it before posting in the AM but didn't due to fatherhood forgetfulness)

WTF Is This? Birthday Edition: Old Ren B.I.B. Bourbon 1936-1944

A deep cut for the Birthday Edition..

If you're a frequenter of whisky blogs, you may have heard of this bourbon.  If so then that is due to one Joshua Feldman, a certain Coopered Tot.

Josh posted twice about Old Ren.  The first post was an extensive historical tour of the whiskey, the distillery, and Ren Clark.  It's a hell of an article and I highly recommend it.  Four months later, Josh posted a followup piece about a certain aspect of the whiskey's style.  Let's see if I can recap 3000 words in about 300...

The Bourbon!
Distilled in Fall 1936, Bottled in 1944 at 100 Proof (50%abv). 4/5 quart bottle. It was bottled by W.P. Squibb Distilling Co. Inc. of Vincennes, Indiana, as a one-time order for Ren Clark, the man with the hat and rabbit on the front label.  Brought to the twenty-first century via the always reliable The Coopered Time Machine™.

The Distillery!
Graham Distillery Company, Illinois Distillery No. 6.  No, not a NDP.  Yes, a real bourbon distillery in Illinois.  Located in Rockford, it seems to have operated before and after Prohibition, but is now in Bourbon Distillery Heaven.  The Graham family had a spiffy house, the distillery, and a cotton mill all in the same part of town.  (Here's a link to a Straight Bourbon discussion about Graham.)

The Bottler!
W.P. Squibb Distilling Co. Inc. had its own distillery in Indiana, for a while.  They named it Old Quaker Distillery and ran it until Schenley bought it during Prohibition.  Old Quaker's motto: "You don't have to be rich to enjoy rich whiskey." Yeah, that's nice. Tell that to the Scots. Anyway, Old Ren was bottled at their planet (formerly Eagle Brewery) in Vincennes, Indiana.

The Magician?!
A. Renerick Clark was indeed a magician, president of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, and co-founder of the Texas Association of Magicians.  He also was a banker and an executive for multiple oil companies, which is how he obtained the big bucks to leisurely peddle the magic arts.  He also opened a tiki bar, Polynesian Village, in Forth Worth, Texas, with his business partner Desi Arnaz.  (Yes, Mr. Lucy.)  He also thought it would be great to buy a large parcel of well-aged bourbon and have it bottled in bond.

For more information, I recommend Josh's post and all of the great links he provides.  Now, about the whiskey.  Is it any good?

The Review!
It has a cherry wood color with some maroon highlights.  In the nose a pretty floral layer lingers beneath dusty old sturdy furniture in the attic (old oak, lacquer, must, and dust).  Rock candy.  Dense caramel sauce and vanilla beans.  Hints of dried oregano and thyme in the background.  After 20 minutes it's lime→cream soda→vanilla→caramel.  After 30 minutes it's white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies and maple syrup.  The palate is whisky candy.  Loads of rich vanilla.  Mint gelato and oranges at the edges.  Chocolatey rye.  A malty sweetness.  Its spiciness increases with time.  And it still has a heck of a bite to it after all these years.  Intensely aromatic vanilla leads in the finish.  Vanilla extract.  Also vanilla beans.  Vanilla.  Gentle oak spice.  Has that malty sweetness again, but a peep of bitterness keeps it from going overboard.  Maybe some black pepper.

¡The Vanilla! 
Vanilla was the first note Kristen found as well.  And wouldn't ya know it, that was what Josh's second Old Ren post was about.  In it, he and two lawyer/geeks delve into the laws behind the "Straight" designation for American whiskies.  Why the "Straight" issue?  Because of this:

The bottle labels were originally produced with the "Straight" designation.  And then it was covered up by those printed red boxes.  One could ponder, "Was this because a vanilla flavoring was added, thus challenging the Straight nomenclature?"  But because the bourbon was designated Bottled-In-Bond by the government, it legally couldn't have any flavor additives anyway.  Or did Ol' Ren pull a fast one in order to make sure...

...there's magic in its taste?

Or was it a super vanilla-y batch of bourbon that developed more vanilla notes after 70 years in the bottle?  This is the option we're left with because as of now no one has been able to prove otherwise.

I'm giving this a high score because I loved the intensity of that vanilla character.  The finish went on for twenty minutes.  Overall, it wasn't massively nuanced or sophisticated.  Instead it was a whiskey that puts a smile on a face and that was needed the night before my birthday.  Thank you, Josh!

Availability - In a magical place
Price of admission - Whatever is asked
Rating - Vanilla, er, 90

Birthday Booze! Glen Grant 37 year old 1974 Berry Brothers & Rudd (cask 7643)

For my birthday this year, I thought it best that as a stay-at-home father I should celebrate by remaining completely sober all night.

HA HA! HA HA! Ha Ha! Ha. ha. ha. ha.

BOOOOOO!

I'll move on.

So, I drank some things on my birthday, including a 1978 Calvados (reviewed here) and a 1978 Benriach single cask (reviewed here).  I ended the night with a 37 year old whisky.  A single sherry cask of Glen Grant, bottled by Berry Brothers & Rudd.  Old Glen Grant tends to be reliably excellent, which makes one wonder why new Glen Grant isn't reliably excellent.  But then again, none of us are as good as we used to be while the mind, the body, and humanity at large decays into the fetid garbage heap that is the future.

I've been reading too many Nihilist Arby's tweets.

So much to say about this whisky in this introduc--

Distillery: Glen Grant
Ownership: Campari
Bottler: Berry Brothers & Rudd
Range: Berrys'
Age: 37 years (1974 - 2012)
Maturation: some sort of ex-sherry cask
Region: Speyside (Rothes)
Alcohol by Volume: 47.8%
Chill filtered? No
Caramel Coloring? No

NEAT
Its color is very dark gold, maybe some maroon highlights.  In the nose, the sherry starts out dry almost smoky.  More nuts than dried fruits.  There are small notes of dried herbs and menthol.  With time, the fruits do come out to play.  Then dark chocolate and mint leaves.  On the palate, dry nutty sherry splashes up against a wall of malt.  Again, with time, the grapes emerge.  Unlike yesterday's Benriach, the bitterness is more herbal/wormwood than oak-related.  Then bits of cigar and toffee.  Pretty rich without being very sweet.  Orange peel and dark cherries meet roasted malt in the finish.  Then lime, toffee, a soft bitterness, and a hint of smoke.

WITH WATER (~46%abv, just a few drops)
The nose becomes maltier.  A little bit of toffee.  More dried berries than grapes.  Never a hint of sulphur.  Meanwhile, there's less malt in the palate.  It's sweeter, with raisins and dried blueberries.  No more smoke or bitterness in the finish.  But there are more berries and overall sweetness.

A couple years ago, someone was nice enough to share with me an official Macallan 18yo that had been distilled in 1984.  Not being a fan of the current version of Mac 18, I tried the '84 with doubts.  But, thanks to more malt, drier sherry, and a touch of smoke, I declared, "Now, this is good."  This Glen Grant reminds me of that particular Macallan.

Nothing about the whisky propels it into the Excellent realm.  Instead, it's a very solid, very full, graceful sherried whisky without major flaws.  Serge V. came to a similar conclusion, though with a few different notes.  Meanwhile, one of the other Maniacs found it sweeter than I did.  In any case, good stuff.

Availability - Secondary market?
Pricing - Used to be around $170!?!? (Sheesh, Berrys' has a 23yo non-sherried Bunna going for $220 nowadays.)
Rating - 88

Birthday Booze! BenRiach 32 year old 1978 cask 4387 Virgin Oak Finish

BenRiach Distillery Company acquired a large quantity of casks when they purchased the actual BenRiach distillery.  There are/were casks from The Glenlivet Distillers Ltd. containing whisky distilled between 1965 and 1978.  And there were even more casks from Seagram Distillers with whisky from 1978 to 2002.  Thus because Billy Walker & Co. bought the place in 2004, the vast majority of their bottled whisky was distilled by another company.  That includes both their regular range (outside of Heart of Speyside and the new 10 year old) and their nearly 400 individual single casks.

Some of these single casks include peated spirit that Seagrams started distilling in 1983 (according to the Malt Whisky Yearbook).  Many of them contained unpeated spirit.  Some casks were released as is.  Some were recasked or finished in new or different casks.  The sample I purchased from whiskysamples.eu almost two years ago was of an unpeated single malt distilled in 1978, originally casked in what was likely a former bourbon barrel-turned-hogshead, then finished in a Virgin Oak hogshead.  I bought the sample because it was from 1978 and also because I was curious as to the impact a new oak cask would have on long-aged whisky...

Distillery: Benriach
Ownership: BenRiach Distillery Company Ltd
Age: 32 years old (late 1978 - July 2011)
Maturation: Primary - refill ex-bourbon cask (a guess). Secondary - virgin oak hogshead (listed). Length of time for each unknown.
Region: Speyside (Lossie)
Alcohol by Volume: 50.9%
Cask #: 4387
Bottle count: 354
Chillfiltered? No
Caramel Coloring? No
(Sample purchased from the old whiskysamples.eu)

NEAT
The color is dark gold, like a young bourbon.  The nose begins with mild notes of white peaches and yellow nectarines, creamy vanilla, milk chocolate, and shredded wheat cereal.  But with time, the oak takes over.  Lots of worn out wood and tree bark.  The palate starts with tobacco, caramel, orange zest, and black pepper.  There's a medium level of bitterness.  A little bit of ethyl.  A small note of papery cardboard shows up late, along with a lot more oranges.  It finishes with the tobacco, pepper, and mild bitter notes.  Some more pleasant things then show up, like dried fruit (apricot and pineapple), wheat bread, and a curious hint of smoke.

WITH WATER (~43%ABV)
Strangely, the nose gets tighter.  More of that tree bark note.  Green leaves and tomato plants.  Caramel and maybe some pears.  Lots of wood spice and wood bitterness in the palate.  Vanilla beans and caramel.  More oddness, in that the finale is now the most complex part.  White fruits, caramel, sugar, butter, black pepper, and wood bitters.

What an odd duck.  If I'd tasted this blindly, I would have no idea what its age was.  I'd certainly never guess it was 20+, let alone 30+.  Part of the reason is due to the original cask and the new cask being in conflict with each other.  There's both bland oak and big oak happening at the same time.  It's better neat and best before it breathes too much.  If it could just drop the woody bitterness, the finish would be very good.

I'm going to guess the obvious: the new ownership came upon a limp cask and decided to spruce it up with fresh new oak.  To me, that didn't work.  In fact, the whisky might have been better before it was futzed with.  Normally I'm a big fan of BenRiach's official products (and they tend to be one of the better exotic cask finishers), but I'm not sure why they didn't bury this whisky in the 25yo or 30yo (or even the 20yo) or sell it to a blender rather than releasing it as a single cask.  While it has its issues, it is drinkable, but I expect more from a 32 year old single cask from a good distillery.

If you're looking for another take, whiskybase voters totally disagree with me.

Availability - A few European retailers
Pricing - it was about €200 three years ago, now it's around €330-€500
Rating - 81

Birthday Booze! Lemorton 35 year old 1978 Calvados Domfrontais, the final chapter

This year's birthday booze started out with a huge pour of the 1978 I'd opened last year.  Back in 2012 I began the ritual of opening up a special (and expensive) 1978 whisky that I'd only drink on my birthday.  That precedent-setter was a Balblair 1978, and it was good for three birthdays' worth of posts.  Since 2012, a funny thing happened.  Or not so funny, I guess.  The price of 1978 whiskies has risen exponentially.  Hell, 1988 whiskies are now more expensive than 1978s were three years ago.  So while I do have a pair of '78 single malts in the stash, those will be the last.  Vintage be damned, I'll just open something fun on my birthdays.

Meanwhile, last year, I decided I would open up a 1978 that I'd found for a fraction of the price of a single malt.  It was a calvados, a calvados brandy from the Domfrontais region of Calvados, Lower Normandy, France.  While calvados brandy is usually made primarily from apples, there is an exception.  Pear trees flourish in the Domfrontais region's soil, so local brandy makers have added these fruits to their calvados mash.  To get the "Domfrontais" appellation on the label, the calvados distillate needs to be made up of at least 30% pear.  The Lemorton family's calvados distillate content is 70% pear.

For more words, see last year's post.  And for even better info see Charles Neal's site.

To the booze!

Type: Brandy
Country: France
Region: Calvados (in Lower Normandy)
Subregion/commune: Domfront, Orne
Family: Lemorton
Distillate: approximately 30% apple / 70% pear
Distillation: once through a column still
Year distilled: 1978
Year bottled: 2013
Alcohol by Volume: 40%
(from just above mid-bottle)

The color is bourbon brown, pretty dark for a calvados.  The nose starts out all apples and honey, and though other notes appear, the apples and honey always remain up front.  There are some roses, lemon peels, oaty granola or maybe oats & brown sugar, and a hint of sweat.  But in the palate, the pears take over.  Small notes of salt, pepper, and clover honey.  A mild sugariness, never cloying.  After 20-30 minutes, tart apples come rolling in.  Honey is the biggest note in the finish.  Then, Macintosh apple skins.  Yes, I know that's the wrong apple for this juice.  A mild dryness lingers.  Hints of baked apples and pears show up late.

So any changes since last year?  Yep, much less wood spice now.  Less pepper too, though that may have come from the wood as well.  That has made the liquid an even easier drink now.  Perhaps slightly less complex though.  The pear notes have receded and the apples have largely taken over.

You readers will not see this getting reviewed next year.  I'll open something else then.  While this is still an enjoyable drink, there's nothing to keep it from being anything other than a nice everyday comfortable spirit for the warmer days.  Okay, nothing other than the price and age statement.  But it's open now and it's meant to be enjoyed and, frankly, it's not a world beater.

If you're looking for a calvados brandy distilled in 1978, there aren't many (or any?) others being sold in the US, so this would fit your needs.  But you need to ask yourself, is the age or year of distillation really that important?  The Camut 6 year old can stand toe-to-toe with this one any day, and at less than half the price.

Availability - A dozen or two retailers in the US and Europe
Pricing - $150-$180 (US), $120-$140 (Europe)
Rating - 84

WTF Is This? Mosstowie 1975-1994 G&M Connoisseur's Choice

No, Mosstowie is not a distillery.  It is a fungal disorder quickly contracted by the body when walking barefoot through the Highlands.

.

..

...

....

.....

That "joke" doesn't even work.  Mosstowie usually pronounced with a hard 'ow', like "Ow, that was painfully poor", rather than 'oh', like "Oh, what wonderful wit."

Look, this is what passes for original content when the writer is an insomniac stay-at-home father.

Soooooooo, Mosstowie was the single malt produced from two Lomond stills (rather than pot stills) at Miltonduff distillery between 1964 and 1981.  Back in the '50s and '60s, Hiram Walker installed Lomond stills at their Miltonduff, Glenburgie, Scapa, and Interleven/Dumbarton distilleries as a way to create a wider variety of whiskies for blenders from one single setup.  Their fates were brief: Glenburgie's Glencraig Lomond stills (like Miltonduff/Mosstowie's) were scrapped in 1981, Interleven distillery was closed in 1991, and Scapa's Lomond has been heavily modified.  So Hiram Walker's Lomond stills weren't what one would call a full success.

Today's review is of a 1975 Mosstowie that was released amongst Gordon & MacPhail's expansive (but originally not expensive) Connoisseur's Choice range in 1994.  Many many thanks go out to Teemu of Whisky Science with whom I did some sample swappin'.

Distillery: Miltonduff
Malt: Mosstowie
Ownership at the time: Hiram Walker

Independent Bottler: Gordon & MacPhail (Connoisseurs Choice)
Region: Speyside (Lossie)

Distillation year: 1975
Bottling year: 1994

Maturation: probably not first fill casks

Alcohol by Volume: 40%

(pic source)

Its color is a medium-to-dark gold.  At first, the nose is almost all spirit-driven.  Hay, seaside, barley, and a hint of white fruits.  Then there's carob, caramel, and buttery shortbread cookies.  After 15-20 minutes in the glass, a maple syrup note appears and quickly expands. A little sawdust and furniture polish.  At the start, the palate has a nice slight funky musty thing going on (OBE, is that you?) which quickly dissipates. Hints of coffee beans and dark chocolate.  Barley, caramel, and those shortbread cookies.  Maybe a peep of orange zest. It's never too sweet. Texture's a little thin. About 15 minutes in, vanilla and wood spice notes begin to show.  After 25 minutes, a big wood bitterness takes over.  The finish begins with a sugary vanilla breakfast cereal (specifically Trader Joe's Vanilla Almond Clusters). Then a roasted note, reminiscent of the palate's coffee and dark chocolate.  A little peppery tingle on the roof of the mouth.  There's a peep of bitterness at first, that then expands along with the bitterness in the palate.

The LAWS guys liked this whisky and mentioned no particular oddities.  Meanwhile both Johannes (of Malt Madness lore) and Serge (of Whiskyfun Gone Wild) both make point to reference that the palate gets really woody after a while.

I agree with the Europeans on this one.  To me, the oak even grows loud in the nose.  But before that happens, this is an acceptable middle of the road single malt.  The low ABV likely keeps much of its potential richness at bay, but the whisky is simple and pleasant, and would likely appeal to many blend drinkers.  And then the oak rumbles in and zaps it.  I don't know what causes this sort of thing to happen.  Spirit issues from the stills?  An imbalance from too much added water?  Caramel colorant?  Or maybe just some weird casks.  So, to somewhat echo Johannes, I'd have to say this one's a drinker not a thinker.  And make haste!

Availability - Auctions

Pricing - $$$ !!! ???

Rating - 82 until the fifteen minute mark, at which point it loses 5 points; at the half hour mark it loses another 5 points.  This is all very exacting and scientitious.

Single Malt Report: Talisker 18 year old 1979 Cadenhead's Authentic Collection

Today I'm reviewing a 18 year old Talisker, distilled in 1979, bottled by Cadenhead in their old tall green bottle "Authentic Collection".  It comes to this blog courtesy of the most generous Cobo.

My experience with the Authentic Collection is about 50/50.  Half of the time I find these very high ABV whiskies to be intensely hot and tight.  Water tames the heat, but does little to open up the whisky.  The other half of the time, these whiskies prove to be excellent.  Let's see how this one -- which I've been waiting to find an excuse to open -- fares.

Distillery: Talisker
Ownership: Diageo

Independent Bottler: Cadenhead's
Range: Authentic Collection

Age: 18 years old (July 1979 - April 1998)

Maturation: "Oak Cask", yup
Region: Isle of Skye

Alcohol by Volume: 61.1%
(Thanks to Cobo!)

NEAT
The color is of pale straw, which is often the color of the whiskies in this range.  The nose starts off with just ocean, burnt wood, and a seaweed-peat combo.  Then suddenly there are peated cinnamon buns, shortbread, lemon, and smoked toffee.  The palate leads with peat cinders and a generous helping of chili oil.  Behind that, there are smaller notes of smoked almonds, fruity shisha, and cherry candy.  Lots of smoked salt in the finish.  Then lemon juice, shortbread, and barley.

Okay, this whisky feels closed.  Adding water...

WITH WATER (~50%abv)
Out come the lemons in the nose, and some faint limes and tart peaches. Then paste, seaweed, and white frosting.  The palate has cinnamon, salt, cigars, and black peppercorns.  In the finish the pepper goes more cayenne.  Still the salt, cinnamon, and tobacco.

Trying a little more water to see what happens...

WITH WATER (~43%abv)
In the nose, the peat gets slightly farmier.  Still lots of ocean air.  Now some brown sugar and a hint of jasmine flowers.  A better bitter peat smoke shows up in the palate.  Gentle notes of brown sugar and vanilla get somewhat corrupted by a cardboard note.  The finish is fading, now tingly, sweet, and salty.

I can't believe I'm writing this, but I'd take the new Laphroaig 15yo (reviewed on Tuesday) over this 1979 Talisker without a second thought.  Thanks to previous experiences, my expectations for older Taliskers are set pretty high.  So while this is not a bad whisky, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed.  As referenced earlier, like many of the green bottle Authentic Collection whiskies, this Talisker bottled at a high ABV and shows very little oak.  The latter is a good thing.  The former, not always a good thing.

At full strength it felt tight, but the nose was decent and I enjoyed the big chili oil heat in the palate.  The nose picks up some new complexity at 50%abv, though the palate gets simpler.  At 43% the nose remains nice though simple, while the palate and finish seem to be falling apart.

Had I not known what this was a '70s Talisker perhaps I'd be less critical.  But still, I don't think I'd find it any more expressive or complex.  It's still a peppery barnburner, full of ocean and barley.  And that's about where it stops.

Availability - Auctions?

Pricing - ???

Rating - 83