Single Malt Report: Longmorn 29 year old 1985 Hunter Laing "Old & Rare" for K&L Wine Merchants

Hey, about a whisky you can (as of the writing of this post) still purchase in the United States?  This one is a single cask sold only through K&L Wine Merchants, who seem to have a heck of an exclusive deal with indie bottler Hunter Laing.  In this instance they have a 1980s Longmorn, something one doesn't see much of anymore.  I absolutely adore good old Longmorns, so I was looking forward to this.

I came by a sample of this long-aged Speysider thanks to my installation as the substitute LA Scotch Club host for the K&L Strikes Back event at Lost Property in Hollywood on April 10th.  Andy, Mr. LA Scotch Club, was out of town that night, so it was David OG and I who held court.  Actually, it was 99% David OG.  I was just there to take care of money stuff, check people in, and be the keeper of the bottles.  I grabbed a sample for myself that evening and now here's my review seven weeks later:

Distillery: Longmorn
Ownership: Pernod Ricard (via Chivas Bros.)
Independent Bottler: Hunter Laing
Range: Old & Rare
Age: 29 years (October 1985 - July 2015)
Maturation: refill hogshead
Bottle count: 251
Alcohol by Volume: 51.9%
Chillfiltered? No
Caramel Colorant? No
Exclusive to: K&L Wine Merchants

Its color is yellow amber, a good sign the oak levels are moderate.

The neat nose starts off with a great fruit basket: limes, lemons, grapefruit, mangos, and clementines.  The vanilla note here is subtle, thanks to the refill-ness of the cask.  There are also roses, cherry lollipops, lime jello, and citronella candles.  With water (~46%abv), the limes and lemons grow louder.  Toffee pudding, butterscotch hard candies, and peach gummy candy notes arrive.  With water (~40%abv), it's still very pretty.  Fresh flowers, peach candy, and toffee lead the way.

The neat palate reads hot and tight at the start.  Tart citrus proves to be the biggest note throughout.  There's salt, some maltiness, a little bit of sweetness, vanilla, and a floral note.  Seems to need water to open up.  With water (~46%abv), it still has that tart bite, though it does become somewhat fruitier and floral.  Hints of malt, sugar, vanilla, and tangy lime candy.  With water (~40%abv), there's more malt, some baking spice, vanilla, and a peach hint.

The neat finish is tart, sharp, minerally, with hints of malt and vanilla custard.  With water (~46%abv), it's still mostly tart and tangy citrus.  Some quiet notes of vanilla and toffee pudding.  With water (~40%abv), it continues to get quieter.  Hints of canned peaches, vanilla extract, and chocolate malt.

COMMENTS:
The nose is the winner here, as it delivers all those fruit notes I so adore.  It has depth and dimension, as well as stamina as it stands up to well to water.  Had the palate matched the dynamic nose, I would have broken my rule about >$200 bottles and bought one of these for myself.  But the palate and the finish never really open up nor switch into another gear.  Time and water help the palate a little but shuts down the finish.  Thus this goes from an A- grade nose to a B palate to a B- finish, for those keeping score.

What I will say is that the current price of $199.99 is, in the current market (the usual qualifier), a great price for an almost-three-decade-old single cask Speyside.  The original $349.99 sticker is closer to what the market would call for, but it doesn't seem like this whisky flew off the shelves as fast as needed so K&L dropped their price, something we all wish other retailers did.

Availability - Exclusively through K&L Wine Merchants
Pricing - $200, was $350
Rating - 85

Whisky 600: Box Whisky Advanced Masterclass Number One

The Box Whisky Distillery is located way up at the 63rd parallel in Sweden.  To give you another idea of how north it is -- the most Northern distillery in the world, they claim -- the 63ºN runs through the center of Alaska, the top of Hudson Bay, the bottom of Greenland, and the center of Siberia.  Whisky drinking climate indeed.

They do not control the temperatures in their Norrland warehouse, which must allow for some interesting maturation being that the temperatures outside can have up to a 100ºF span (-20ºF to 80ºF) during the year.  They use two types of casks, first-fill American oak and ex-Oloroso sherry from Spain.  After importing both cask types, they re-cooper them all down to 39.25 liters.  They use Pilsner Malt, the unsmoked stuff from Sweden, and the smoked from Scotland (wherever the hell that is).  They use French distiller's yeast and ferment for "unusually long periods".  I know that "" part sounds vague and questionable, but if you've drunk any Swedish drink or eaten any Swedish food (no, IKEA's Äppelkaka doesn't f***ing count) then you know they really like to ferment stuff. Filmjölk in da house!

You knew this was coming.

In 2013, Box released a boxed set of five 200mL bottles called Advanced Masterclass Number One - Toasting.  Along with the set is the class text, a website which actually anyone can view.  It's very informative (data heavy!) and I recommend anyone interested in whisky to give it a read.  Google Translate does a good job with the Svenska, though I do like the part when "the spirits are walking in and out of the oak". Spooky!

The distillate is the same in all five bottles, having been from one distillation run.  It was all barreled (the site even has data on the trees that were felled for the barrels) on April 26, 2011 and then bottled on November 1, 2013.  From the site, here's the meat of the set/class:

The contents of this box is stored for 30 months in 100-liter barrels of new Swedish oak with five different roasting degrees. It is not old enough to be called whiskey, but it does not matter in this case since the purpose is merely to understand how different roasts affect the odor and taste.

Five whiskies.  Five levels of cask toasting/firing/charring: Light, Medium, Medium+, Heavy, and Charred.  (Yes, they share the data behind these levels too.)  The student is to read the text, then nose and taste the whiskies and guess which one (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) was from which toast level.

Six of us split the cost of the Masterclass bottles (thank you, Andy, for initiating this opportunity).  Everyone else took the test almost a year ago, I think.  I just got around to doing it last week.

COLOR
Visually, one can begin to sort the whiskies out.  Whiskies 2 and 4 have the lightest color.  Whiskies 1, 3, and 5 are noticeably darker.  Since they all spent the same time in the casks, the darker the tint, the heavier the toast.  And this proved correct on the nose and palate.

THE WHISKY:

WHISKY 1
NOSE - Neat (56%abv) - Golden raisins, yeast, cocoa powder, twigs and leaves. With time, some more caramel arises along with a hint of orange peel, and big chocolate croissant note. With water (~44%abv) - Caramel, milk chocolate, and grassy, with a hint of new make.
PALATE - Neat (56%abv) - Salted caramels, barrel char, malt, cigar tobacco, and a nice peppery zing to lift it all up. With water (~44%abv) - Curiously hotter.  Peppery, lightly sweet, lightly bitter. Some toffee.
FINISH - Neat (56%abv) - Sweet, caramelly, with toasted grains. With water (~44%abv) - Grass and herbal

WHISKY 2
NOSE - Neat (56%abv) - Lemons, mangoes, leaves, and spicy basil leaves.  With time, notes of underripe peaches and pine sap show up. With water (~44%abv) - Loses the fruits except for a little bit of lemon.  Cardamom, curry powder, burnt butter, and grains.
PALATE - Neat (56%abv) - New make.  Confectioner's sugar, heat, slight floral note.  Some caramel and almond paste to give it a little depth. With water (~44%abv) - Sugar, vanilla, sourness, raw spirit.
FINISH - Neat (56%abv) - Not much other than sharp new make and caramel. Maybe some salt and pepper. Plenty of heat. With water (~44%abv) - Drying, bitter, with some vanilla.

WHISKY 3
NOSE - Neat (56%abv) - Caramel, vanilla, nougat, mint and marzipan.  Then vanilla fudge and cherry lollipops. With water (~44%abv) - Caramel, vanilla, fresh wheat bread, lemon, and malt.
PALATE - Neat (56%abv) - Very nutty.  Cashews, almonds, pecan pie.  Caramel and a hint of prunes. With water (~44%abv) - Caramel, vanilla, creme brulee.  Very desserty.
FINISH -  Neat (56%abv) - Caramel, almonds, and toasted oak. With water (~44%abv) - Sweet and creamy.

WHISKY 4
NOSE - Neat (56%abv) - Burnt grains, burnt paper, black raisins, and agave nectar.  The rawest of the bunch. With water (~44%abv) - Burnt, vegetal, and yeasty with cilantro and saltines.
PALATE - Neat (56%abv) - All grain at first.  Hay, mild tartness, very drying, a hint of vanilla. With water (~44%abv) - Toasty, mildly nutty, light on the vanilla.  A decent bitter bite.
FINISH - Neat (56%abv) - Drying with hints of sweetness and barley. With water (~44%abv) - Tart, bitter, and sweet. All of which barely show up.

WHISKY 5
NOSE - Neat (56%abv) - Milk chocolate, menthol, and tree bark.  Then big note of Three Mustketeers candy bars. With water (~44%abv) - Very rich, almost sherryish. Toffee, malt, pepper, and milk chocolate.
PALATE - Neat (56%abv) - Marzipan, sugar, rosewater syrup, and caramel sauce. With water (~44%abv) - More complex. Milder sweets, nice toasty oak.  Hints of vanilla and nuts.  Malty and peppery.
FINISH - Neat (56%abv) - Mellow sweetness and caramel, with a cooling zip at the end. With water (~44%abv) - Vanilla, nuts, chocolate malt, and mint. Very aromatic.

FINAL THOUGHTS AND GUESSES:

Whisky 2 and 4 do prove to smell and taste the least oaky; while 1, 3, and 5 feel more oaky...
WHISKY 1 - My second favorite of the bunch.  With all this wood spice and caramel, I'm guessing this is Charred.
WHISKY 2 - Excellent fruity nose, but that's all from the spirit.  It's not the roughest of the bunch so I'm going with the second lightest toasting, Medium.
WHISKY 3 - My favorite of the bunch.  A nutty dessert.  I'll go with the second heaviest toasting, Heavy.
WHISKY 4 - Too sharp and unformed for me.  Raw.  Thus, Light.
WHISKY 5 - This one swam the best.  I'd say it even improved with added water.  Some oak on the nose, but much less in the palate, so I'll go with the middle setting, Medium+.

Before I show my test results and spoil the whole thing, I'll conclude here with my final comments and rating.

photo source

This was an excellent whisky experience.  Not only was it informative and often delicious, but these were legitimately five different whiskies.  I wish more whisky companies (especially those who claim to be committed to their fanbase and experimentation) would offer something like this.  Buffalo Trace does stuff like their Single Oak project and Experimental collection, but no one's doing this in Scotland.  Maybe one of the legion of new distilleries could try this, thus setting themselves apart from the rest of the pack.  I highly recommend this set, though I also recommend you split the cost with friends because it's very expensive.

Availability - Europe only
Pricing - $200 and up
Rating - 92

***SPOILER ALERT***

***I AM NOW GOING TO SHOW THE TEST ANSWERS.  SO STEER AWAY IF YOU WANT TO BUY THIS THING AND TAKE THE TEST.***

Well, I got them all wrong.  But!  At least I was only one-off with all of them, save one.

Whisky 1 - Medium+
Whisky 2 - Light
Whisky 3 - Charred
Whisky 4 - Medium
Whisky 5 - Heavy

In hindsight I should have known #3 was Charred since it was all gooey and chewy rich with non-spirit notes.  Should have gone with my gut there instead of studying the text's charts.  Meanwhile, the difference between the Medium and the Medium+ was drastic.  While their toasting levels were relatively close, the resulting whiskies were completely different.  Curiously, Medium+ is the one toasting level that the website doesn't give specifics, but the results are much closer to Heavy than Medium.  In fact, Whisky 4 (the "Medium" one) smelled and tasted almost unaged.  Perhaps their actual unaged spirit is pretty good on its own (the "light" one smelled great) and needs more than a Medium toast to come into its own.  In any case, I'd be happy to purchase a full bottle of 1, 3, or 5 if it were at a reasonable price.

NOT Single Malt Report: Noah's Mill Bourbon, batch 15-18

Upon the recommendation of one Bourbon Truth, I purchased a bottle of Noah's Mill, batch 15-18.  I'd drunk Noah's at bars before but never my own bottle.  Mr. Truth was so very ecstatic about this particular batch, and I found a bottle for such a good price while in Arizona, that I risked a blind buy.  After I bought the bottle, I found an emphatic negative review of this same batch by Reddit user XenonBloom, then a moderately positive one by user ShooterFlatch.  I handed out some samples from my bottle to get some feedback.  My friend Linda, who knows bourbon probably better than I, liked the whiskey a lot.  My Annoying Opinions has a sample and once his sniffer is back to 100% functioning power, you may see his review of this bottle.  (And I'll try to remember to post a link of his review when it's up.)

Though bottled by the Willett folks, Noah's Mill was distilled by the Midwest Grain Products WonderFactory™ another undisclosed Kentucky distillery.  It used to have a 15 year old age statement, but now it's NAS.  I've read online that it's now a mix of bourbons between 4 and 20 years old, but I don't know if that's just rumor.  What is curious about Noah's Mill is that nowhere on the bottle is the word "Straight".  As in "Straight Bourbon Whiskey".  Does this mean there are additives in the mix?  Or are they using whiskies younger than 4 years, and thus by not stating the <4yo age, they then can't call it "Straight"?  I know they're not required to use the Straight designation, but it just seems a little odd to me.  Anyway, on to the review!

Brand: Noah's Mill

Owner: Kentucky Bourbon Distillers Ltd, (aka Willett Distillery)
Distillery: unknown, other than that it's in Kentucky
Type: Bourbon

Mashbill: ???
Age: ??? (maybe 4 to 20 years, thus maybe 4 years)
Batch: 15-18
Alcohol by Volume: 57.15%

NEAT
Right up front, the nose shows furniture polish, lumberyard, roasted corn, and honey.  It opens up considerably with air, picking up flower blossoms and an orange meringue thing.  Burnt vanilla beans (if that's a thing).  A hint of mango juice and confectioner's sugar.  On the palate the heat reads as chili oil.  It's not too sweet, but rather leafy with some bitter chocolate and halvah.  With some breathing time it picks up some white fruit juices and almonds.  It has a BIG tannic finish.  Very spicy, almost rye-ish.  Lots of black pepper and burnt toast.  Caramel, vanilla, and barrel char.

WITH WATER (~50%abv)
The nose gets fruitier and reveals some nice green herbal notes.  Less oak, more old school Robotussin.  Melting sugar and rock candy.  Not much change in the palate.  Less heat, more sweet.  More black pepper than chili oil now.  A slight tart and bitter bite.  The finish is also sweeter.  Still drying and tannic with bitter wood notes.

COMMENTS:
I love the nose on this one, though it needs a lot of time to open up and adding some water won't hurt it either.  Two things I like about the palate: A.) it's not super sweet; and B.) the oak is the quietest here.  The palate doesn't take to water as well, so overall I'd recommend it neat, even with the high ABV.  Like the nose, the palate works best with a lot of breathing time.  The oak does roar back into the finish, so be prepared for that.  When it comes to big American oak, I think it works much better in American whiskies (appropriately) than in Scottish ones.  But here the finish's wood attack is a bit above my tolerances.  I will naively guess there's quite some old whiskey in this batch or else the barrels were extra active.  It still makes its way into the "B" range because the nose is so good.

If you can find this batch for less than $50 and you have a high oak tolerance, then I recommend it.  But if your retailer is selling it for $60+ and you're more of a Scotch fan, my recommendation would be much less emphatic.

Availability - Noah's is widely available at US specialty liquor retailers, look for the brown sticker on the side of the bottle (see above photo) for the batch number
Pricing - $45-$65
Rating - 84

Balmenach Trio: Balmenach 26 year old 1988 Signatory for Binny's, cask 2805

As referenced on Tuesday, I did a blind tasting of three 1988 Signatory single cask Balmenach samples.  I did so in order to not let any sort of bias slip into my tasting experience.  In each instance, I graded each whisky and guessed which one was released by whom.  You'll be relieved to know that I got all three guesses wrong.  I mean, what does K&L taste like?  (*insert your own personalized joke here*)

I obtained today's sample via a group bottle split, courtesy of My Annoying Opinions.  As I mentioned in the two previous reviews, these 1988 Balmenachs have been getting good reviews and word of mouth.  In his review of this cask, MAO references the suspect Magical Vintage theory (see 1998 Laphroaig, 1972 Caperdonich, 1997 Clynelish, etc.).  As 1997 is for Clynelish, 1988 is the "vintage" which has the most indie releases for the Balmenach distillery.  Does the prevalence of these casks have some psychological influence that leads to the "Magical Vintage" idea?  I don't know.  Perhaps it's possible that well matured Balmenach is in fact good whisky, no matter what year it was distilled.  Hopefully there are more casks sitting warehouses in Scotland that will someday let us know if this is true.

On one final note, MAO was not a big fan of this particular Balmenach.  I am a big fan of this particular Balmenach.

Distillery: Balmenach
Ownership: Thai Beverages plc (via Inver House Distillers)
Independent Bottler: Signatory
Age: 26 years (October 18, 1988 - September 1, 2015)
Maturation: Hogshead
Cask#: 2805
Alcohol by Volume: 51.6%
Chillfiltered? No
Caramel Colorant? No
Exclusive to: Binny's

NEAT
The nose starts with a big ol' barley note, along with papaya and loquats.  Some lovely bright oak, sometimes piney, sometimes a little old school musty.  A small medicinal note is followed by a smaller metallic one.  The pine gets a little bigger with time and is lifted up by a solid fresh ginger note.  Toffee, barley, peach and apricot pie (with some cinnamon in the filling) start off the palate.  It's plenty sweet, but that's balanced by a moderate bitter note and a spicy zing.  Some vanilla shows up later on, along with a rye-like baking spice note.  Its nice long finish goes a little tropical, picking up bananas, rum, applesauce, and barley.

WITH WATER (~43%abv)
The medicinal note goes towards band-aids in the nose.  Then some dusty barley, citronella candles, and funky fermenting tropical fruit.  The palate gets milder.  It's peppery, salty, and tangy.  Some caramel sauce and dried apricots.  The finish is mostly the same as the palate, though less fruity.

COMMENTS:
While the European cask (2819) had a bigger brighter perkier nose, this one's nose was more complex.  This cask's palate and finish are the best of the three.  The fruit and spice and bitters play very well together and the long exotic finish really hits the spot.  It's close to getting itself a 90+ rating, but the whisky doesn't swim particularly well, especially when it comes to the palate where it flattens out.  As I mentioned above, MAO had a different take on this whisky.  Since our reviews came from the same bottle, take a look at his post in order to calm the great optimism I've now instilled in you.

Availability - Binny's
Pricing - $130-$150 depending on their sales
Rating - 89

Balmenach Trio: Balmenach 25 year old 1988 Signatory for K&L Wine Merchants, cask 2900

Inver House Distillers owns a number of respectable malt distilleries.  There are the more familiar stars from the North Highlands: Old Pulteney and Balblair.  There's the rising star, AnCnoc.  And there's Speyburn, a distillery which produces the best value 10 year old single malt in Speyside.

But then there's Balmenach, a distillery whose malt is used almost entirely for blends, including Hankey Bannister (*frowny emoji*).  Originally owned by DCL (proto-Diageo), it had a pair of Flora & Fauna releases about twenty years ago.  Inver House purchased the mothballed distillery in 1997, and an official single malt under the Balmenach name hasn't been seen since.  Curiously Inver House does sell some casks to a company called Aberko who then uses it for their 18 year old "Deerstalker" brand......except of course for the times they use Allt-a-Bhainne.  And, just to confuse things further, Aberko uses Braeval's single malt for their 10 year old Deerstalkers.  So, still, there isn't very much Balmenach to be found.

Thus we go to the independent bottlers once again to find out what Balmenach tastes like.  As I mentioned yesterday, Signatory's 1988 single casks of Balmenach have been receiving very positive word of mouth.  I was able to obtain samples of three of these single casks and did a blind tasting of the bunch.  Yesterday, I reviewed cask 2819 (sold in Europe).  Today it's a cask that was sold exclusively through K&L Wine Merchants in the US.  Thank you to Brett for the sample!

Distillery: Balmenach
Ownership: Thai Beverages plc (via Inver House Distillers)
Independent Bottler: Signatory
Age: 25 years (October 25, 1988 - April 25, 2014)
Maturation: Hogshead
Cask#: 2819
Bottle count: 148
Alcohol by Volume: 56%
Chillfiltered? No
Caramel Colorant? No
Exclusive to: K&L Wine Merchants

NEAT
The nose is more floral (jasmine and roses) than cask 2819's candy blitzkrieg, though there is a slight sugary candy shop note.  There's the lemon bar note and some lemon juice, but also some lemon bathroom cleaner.  Salty beach meets dusty dry soil.  A little bit of green grass.  The only time the oak shows up is in a small caramel note.  White peaches, caramel, and slight tart bite start off the palate.  Those are followed by cayenne pepper, rosewater syrup, and limes.  A bit of a Grand Marnier thing appears after 30 minutes.  The light finish is lightly floral and creamy.  Some vanilla, limes, and lemons show up as well.

WITH WATER (~47%abv)
Lemons, limes, roses, cherry candy, and roasted barley in the nose.  The palate is still quite aromatic, though also tangier and bitterer.  There are lemons and limes and very little sweetness.  Still a decent oomph to it.  It finishes with salt and sour lemon candy.

COMMENTS:
No big flaws to this one.  It had my second favorite palate of the three, but the finish was on the short simple side.  Its nose is good, but the sniffers on the other two casks were damn good so regular "good" equals third place.  Even though it finishes third out of three overall, it's still an impressive whisky for a distillery that has historically gotten no love from anoraks.  I'm glad K&L took a chance with this cask.  The risk paid off for them as it sold out pretty quickly.

Availability - Sold out
Pricing - $150
Rating - 86

Balmenach Trio: Balmenach 25 year old 1988 Signatory, cask 2819

It started innocently.  A number of 1988 Balmenach single casks by Signatory started showing up on European retailer websites.  The prices weren't terrible.  And I thought, Balmenach?  Balmenach.  So, I started snooping around for reviews and discovered that people really liked these single casks.  Had we all been missing out on a nearly unheard of distillery all these years?  I'm all for unsexy brands, so I kept an eye on the progress.  More of these '88 Signatory single casks kept appearing, and soon a few made their way to The States.  I was intrigued, but I wanted to try a few of them in order to challenge my skepticism.  So I added it to my new Dram Quest, and sure enough I lined up samples from three of these casks:  One cask sold in Europe, one cask sold exclusively through K&L Wine Merchants, and one sold exclusively through Binny's.  I lined them up and tasted them blindly, so as to not let any biases slip in.

First up, cask #2819, sold in Europe.  I purchased this sample from Whiskybase Shop in The Netherlands.

Distillery: Balmenach
Ownership: Thai Beverages plc (via Inver House Distillers)
Independent Bottler: Signatory
Age: 25 years (October 18, 1988 - August 12, 2014)
Maturation: Hogshead
Cask#: 2819
Bottle count: 245
Alcohol by Volume: 54.3%
Chillfiltered? No
Caramel Colorant? No

NEAT
The nose is full of citrus and candy.  Lemon bars, lemon creme filling, creamsicles, orange juice, and orange hard candies.  Vanilla, Cool Whip, and sugar cookies.  After 40+ minutes, some moderate notes of leaves and softly toasted oak appear.  The palate is more peppery than the nose and less fruity.  It's mildly sweet with limes and tart raspberries.  Slight musty basement note mingles with peppercorns and the growing tartness.  It finishes peppery, tart, tangy, and musty.  Small sugar and lime notes show occasionally.  A good length to it.

WITH WATER (~45%abv)
There's a little more vanilla and a lot more caramel in the nose now.  More flower blossoms, too.  The fruit reads as apricots rather than lemons.  The palate becomes much quieter, though also sweeter.  There's a slight creak of oak, but a better bitter note develops simultaneously.  No more mustiness.  A little bit of tart citrus.  The finish keeps its good length, getting sweeter and more tannic.

COMMENTS:
Of the three Balmenachs this week, this one had the best nose.  It's a sheer delight to sniff, both with and without water (though, without is preferred).  Meanwhile the palate, while perfectly okay, is very different than the nose.  It's neither a fruit basket nor a bag of candy.  I'm glad it wasn't tooth rottingly sweet, but it's a bit tight and water doesn't open it up at all, though it may require more hydration than I gave it.  But, goodness, that nose is awesome and that's what keeps the score up.  Perhaps the palate plays better at the midpoint of a 700mL bottle.  If you're working on a bottle of this, please let me know your thoughts in the comment section below.

Availability - It might still be found at some specialty retailers in Europe
Pricing - $120-$130 (w/o VAT, w/o shipping)
Rating - 87

OC Scotch Club Event: Michael's Last Stand

This is me workin' the hard sell for my LA/OC/SD readership.  Reviews shall return tomorrow...

As mentioned in a post two months ago, I help Andy Smith run the Orange County Scotch Club.  For the past ten months, I've been leading the tastings, talking a little bit about the history and processes behind Scotch whisky and its distilleries, and pouring the goodies.  It's been a great honor and a lot of fun.  I've met some excellent people and consumed some very good malt whisky.  But next week will be my final event because my family and I are moving out of the area.  More on that another time.

Michael's Last Stand

at Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club
on May 26th

As it's my last go around leading an OCSC event, I elected to go with whiskys from my own recent purchases and my own secret cabinet of oddities.

Here are the scheduled whiskies:

Caol Ila 18 year old -- It's sadly no longer available in the US -- probably because they don't set aside enough casks, using most 18yo CI for Johnnie Walker Platinum -- but I was able to grab a bottle from the UK.  I adored this stuff the first time I tried it 2+ years ago, so I'm looking forward to sharing this one with all!

Ben Nevis 16 year old 1998 Càrn Mor from a Fino Sherry butt -- Ben Nevis + Fino cask.  Couldn't pass it up.  This should be a real trip.

Springbank 17 year old 1997 Sherry Wood -- I reviewed it, loved it, and bought it.  There's a nagging feeling inside of me saying this will be the last time we'll ever see a fully sherried cask strength teenage Springbank for under $200.

Benromach 10 year old 100 (UK) Proof, 57%abv -- I'm FINALLY getting around to this one.  I'm a fan of Benromach's regular 10yo, and that one's only 43%abv.  The plaudits are numerous for this big baby so let's try it out and compare it to...

Benromach 19 year old 1978 Scott's Selection -- Distilled by DCL (neo-Diageo) before the distillery was mothballed and sold to G&M, this is this indeed my birthday whisky for 2016.  I'm opening it a few months early this year in order to share with whomever shows up to this event.  And yes, I snuck a sniff already after I salvaged the bottle's shattered cork.  If the palate matches the nose, holy moley.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE?!?!?!?
As soon as we sell 20 tickets, I'm going to start pulling more bottles from my cabinet.  The more bodies, the more bottles.  I clearly need help drinking my whisky and here's your opportunity to assist.  We're only two tickets away now...

With dinner served on the pool patio of a fancy yacht club and optional post-tasting cigar smoking, this shindig will send my ass out in style.  For more information on this May 26th event, please see the official site.