Single Malt Report: Auchroisk 20 year old Limited Edition (2010)

MORE AUCHROISK!

Okay, okay. Stop shouting. I'll review more Auchroisk this week, damn it.

First up, is Diageo's limited edition release from 2010. Not too long ago, a number of retailers couldn't seem to give this one away, dishing out massive price cuts to clear this from their shelves, but finding limited success. In 2012, Diageo dropped another limited edition Auchroisk (a 30-year old) which is also still easily available throughout Europe. Not to be outdone, they released another Auchroisk limited edition this year, 25 years old but priced higher than the 30 year old. Um, if you're a retailer, are you really picking that one up too?

But what if the original, 20 year old, limited release was actually great? I'd like to find out. Many thanks to Brett, certified whisky fan from Riverside, for this opportunity to find out.

AUCHROISK REVIEW!

Distillery: Auchroisk
Ownership: Diageo
Range: Special Releases / Limited Editions
Region: Speyside (Central)
Age: at least 20 years
Maturation: American and European oak casks
Limited Bottling: 5856
Bottling year: 2010
Alcohol by Volume: 58.1%
Chillfiltered? No
Caramel Colorant? Not much, if any

NEAT
The color is thankfully short on DiageoGold™. The nose leads with mangoes, canned pears, vanilla and cocoa. With 10-15 minutes of air, seashore and berry candy notes appear. Then York peppermint patties, toffee and pencil shavings. The palate has a lot of toasted oak and roasted malt. A citric tang, tobacco, toffee and a ginger beer buzz. It's both peppery and sweet. Slight notes of sherry cask and smoke after a while. Ah, plenty of nutty sherry in the finish. Malt, salt, cocoa, grilled meat. Lengthy sweetness meets subtle wood smoke.

WITH WATER (~46%abv)
The nose is much different, but remains high quality. Lemon, peach and apple skins, toasted malt. The palate now has more of the nose's fruit and a pleasant sweetness. Malty and gingery. Some dried fruit from the sherry casks. The finish is shorter and lighter, but more acidic. Mint, sugar, lemon candy and a hint of wood smoke.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
This Auchroisk 20 year old was such a nice surprise. It has high quality ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks in the mix, lending a hand while letting the fruity maltiness sing through. Water turns up the fruit notes, but I think I prefer the neatness's complexity. It also drinks easily, considering its ABV. If you were smart and grabbed this when it was on sale, then enjoy! And if you're still looking for it, it's easily found.

Availability - a couple dozen retailers in the US and Europe
Pricing - $130-$160 Europe (w/o VAT, w/o shipping), $140-$225 US
Rating - 88

Bourbon and Rye Day Friday: Wild Turkey Kentucky Spirit, barrel 176 for Cleveland Bourbon Club

Are you still full from Thanksgiving or are you chewing on a cold drumstick as you read this? Well, how about a serving of Wild Turkey, the most relevant whiskey for Turkey Day? Though there's also that viski Tekel distills in Ankara...which is the capital of Turkey. Man, this intro is crap.

I had the pleasure of obtaining a bottle from a Wild Turkey Kentucky Spirit single barrel purchase by the Cleveland Barrel Club. My bottle was promptly opened but has not been drained terribly quickly. At the time of typing, I'm still not at the midpoint of the bottle. But it's time for a review!

I only realized yesterday that the bottle's frilly ribbing
was meant to depict a turkey's tail feathers. I'm slow.

Brand: Wild Turkey
Owner: Gruppo Campari
Distillery: Wild Turkey Distillery
Location: Lawrenceburg, Kentucky
Mash Bill: 75% corn, 13% rye, 12% barley
Age: 8 years 8 months
Bottling date: September 8, 2016
Barrel #: 176
For: Cleveland Bourbon Club
Alcohol by volume: 50.5%

NEAT
The nose starts out very woody, with ashy wood smoke, sawdust and tree bark. Slight vegetal note, with soy sauce underneath. LOTS of corn chips. Fryer oil meets dijon mustard. The palate is also woody, but less so than the nose. It's very minty with lemon and a slight medicinal tinge. Some low rumbling rye. Hints of raspberries, almonds and hazelnuts. The finish is very tannic and drying. But it also has substantial notes of raspberries and cherries. Some more lemon and a peppery tingle. Long and sweet.

WITH WATER (~40.5%abv, from 101 proof to 81 proof)
The nose has softened considerably. Some barrel char. A little bit of rye and mint. Slight manure note. Not much else. The palate has also gotten milder, but has a good herbal bitterness to it, meeting up with the corn sweetness. Still has some of that berry fruitiness. It finishes with barrel char, cherry-flavored cough syrup and cracked black pepper.

AS A HIGHBALL (1:1 ratio and few shakes of Angostura bitters)
It performs best here. The spices from the bitters meets well with brown sugar and fruit from the bourbon. A good drink. I've enjoyed it two nights in a row.

I struggle a little bit with Wild Turkey's products. I do not like their 81 proof bourbon and rye, nor their regular 101 bourbon. But I like Rare Breed and all the Russell's Reserve whiskies. This one sits somewhere in the middle. Its strange nose might be kind of cool if not for the aggressive wood. The palate is pretty decent, especially when the fruit appears. As with the rest of their whiskies, I don't recommend proofing it down to 40.5%. But BUT it works very well as a highball, which I'll probably be using it for going forward.

Availability - Exclusive to the Cleveland Bourbon Club
Pricing - sold out
Rating - 80 (bonus points for the good highball)

Single Malt Report: The Singleton of Auchroisk 10 year old 1985 (US release)

The Tale

Auchroisk distillery is younger than many of my readers. In 1972, Justerini & Brooks (aka J&B) started building Auchroisk in Banffshire, but before the year was over the company was bought by Watney Mann which in turn merged with Grand Metropolitan. Construction completed in 1974, and Auchroisk has been used primarily, often entirely, for blends (including J&B) ever since. Today the distillery is surrounded by "ten, huge racked warehouses with the capacity of storing 250,000 casks and further planning application for another four has been approved," as per The Malt Whisky Yearbook. Either Diageo thinks this spot has prime maturation climate for its many distilleries' casks, or it's some cheap open land.

The Bottle

Like Monday's Singleton, this Singleton of Auchroisk also has a quirky age statement.

You can't really see it from the above photo, but the bottom label tells a similar story as the 1981's. (Whiskybase has this info as well.) I'll just repeat what I wrote yesterday because it's the same tale:

Distilled in 1985, bottled in 1997.......10 years old? One of four things is happening here:
1. Bad Math
2. Casks were dumped into steel in 1995 or early 1996, thus the whisky had only aged for 10 years.
3. There is some 10 year old whisky in the mix, that was not distilled in 1985
4. The brand wanted to keep the 10 year old age statement on The Singleton range. So they called it 10 years old, which doesn't actually break any rules because the whisky is in fact at least the age stated on the label. If they had said it was a 15 year old, then it would have been a violation of SWA laws.

Got it? Cool. I obtained a sample of this from an SCWC event two years ago. Time to drink.

The Review

Distillery: Auchroisk

Brand: The Singleton

Ownership: Diageo (Grand Metropolitan, at the time)

Region: Speyside (Central)

Age: at least 10 years old (1985-1997, see above)

Maturation: ex-sherry casks

Bottling year: 1997
Alcohol by Volume: 43%

Chillfiltered: Maybe

Colorant Added: Maybe, but not much

Note: I tasted this side by side with the 1981 Singleton to gain some perspective.

The nose has a lot of bright dried fruit notes from the sherry cask, especially golden raisins and dried apricots. There's also some celery and musty funky barrel notes in there. And just a thin floor of vanilla bean. The palate begins with mellow milk chocolate, black tea and prunes. Very little sweetness to it. With time it sharpens up. Black peppercorns, tart cherries and a hint of bitter coffee. It finishes with a nice sherry cask feel, reminiscent of recent GlenDronach 12. Some cherries in dark chocolate. Black grapes and a peach. More spicy than sweet.

I think this could be compared favorably to GlenDronach 12yo overall. The sherry/European oak cask notes are rich and focused. It doesn't have the subtle peat note that the 1981 had, but the '85 does have a bit of funky old whisky character to it. I liked it a lot. It's not smooth nor is it sweet, so I can imagine it wasn't a crowd pleaser 19 years ago. Sadly this was the last vintage they put on the 10 year old before it became vintage-less, and then was plucked off the market soon after. I recommend this vintage over the 1981 and it's probably equivalent, in my irrelevant estimation, to a $40-$50 whisky if you ever see this gathering dust on a shelf.

Availability - Secondary / auction market
Pricing - ???
Rating - 85

Single Malt Report: The Singleton of Auchroisk 10 year old 1981 (US release)

The Tale

A decade before Diageo unleased The Singleton Trio of Glen Ord, Glendullan and Dufftown to the world, they had kept things simple with one Singleton, The Singleton of Auchroisk.  This Auchroisk series had actual disclosed vintages—ranging from 1974 to 1985—until those were removed for the final batch bottled in 2000. Many of the Auchroisk Singletons had a listed 10 year age statement but some did not. And at least two versions' age statements were a little quirky, as you'll see in today's and tomorrow's posts. Yes, I have samples of TWO The Singleton of Auchroisks. What a lucky boy am I!

The Bottle

Here's the bottle from today's review:

Okay, now lemme take a look at that label on the bottom:

Distilled in 1981, bottled in 1993.......10 years old? One of four things is happening here:
1. Bad Math
2. Casks were dumped into steel in 1991 or early 1992, thus the whisky had only aged for 10 years.
3. There is some 10 year old whisky in the mix, that was not distilled in 1981
4. The brand wanted to keep the 10 year old age statement on The Singleton range. So they called it 10 years old, which doesn't actually break any rules because the whisky is in fact at least the age stated on the label. If they had said it was a 15 year old, then it would have been a violation of SWA laws.

Riveting stuff. I got my hands on this bottle when someone reached out to the Orange County Scotch Club looking to sell or swap for this bottle. So we took him up on it. And I made it part of our February 2016 event. It had some things going for it. The whisky was matured in ex-sherry casks, it was bottled at 43%abv rather than 40, it's an extinct brand and it had 20+ years of bottle aging (if you believe in that sort of thing). Now to taste it.

The Review

Distillery: Auchroisk

Brand: The Singleton

Ownership: Diageo (Grand Metropolitan, at the time)

Region: Speyside (Central)

Age: at least 10 years old (1981-1993, see above)

Maturation: ex-sherry casks

Bottling year: 1993
Alcohol by Volume: 43%

Chillfiltered: Maybe

Colorant Added: Maybe, but not much

The nose starts off with malt, caramel, fennel seed and nutty Oloroso. Some hints of tar and sulphur in the midground. Moderate notes of mint leaves, tobacco and a funky honey (my nickname). The palate has some peat-like notes, even though Auchroisk's spirit might not be peated. But it's quite organic. There are also plums, apricots and leather. Dry sherry and spicy heat. Floral esters and vanilla. A nice oily texture to it all. The finish is short-ish and slightly drying. Soft fruity sweetness, peach candy and a slight grain note.

This is better than the current three 12yo Singletons. It has a MUCH better mouthfeel and the sherry cask influence is impressive. It's not a super duper secret find—the finish is short and a bit bland, while the nose fades out after 15+ minutes—but it is a good starter whisky and would fit in comfortably with "The Classic Malts". I don't recommend splashing out on a bottle if you see one at auctions or a dusty on the shelf. This Singleton of Auchroisk is a good $30-$40 anytime drink. While it's kind of a bummer Diageo retired this one, I think the current price of sherry casks wouldn't let them turn this out at a starter price. So that was the 1981. We'll try another vintage in the next review.

Availability - Secondary / auction market
Pricing - ???
Rating - 83

WTF Is This? Corti Brothers Exquisite Whiskey

Yeah, I know Friday is bourbon and rye day, but WTF is this "Exquisite" stuff? It's neither fish nor fowl, Shinola nor santorum. Okay it technically started out as bourbon, but the result is. The result is. I'll come back to the result in a moment...

The Players

The Corti Brothers have a history of releasing exclusive single malt whiskies, stretching back several decades. Whiskyfun has a bunch of reviews of old Corti stuff we'll never be able to try, so feel free to porn out to that. Though they bottled this Exquisite Thing under their own label in 2014, Corti Bros neither distilled it nor matured it...

In 2013, Amador—a Sierra foothills distillery founded in 2012—obtained 13 barrels of Kentucky bourbon and finished for eight months it in casks that held batches of a sweet wine called Mission del Sol for 40 years. So Amador neither distilled the whiskey nor produced the wine...

Mission del Sol was made at Harbor Winery in Sacramento, from the Mission grape. Their last batch of Mission del Sol was produced in 1986 and bottled in 2014. They no longer make the sweet wine.

And finally, the bourbon was distilled by a mystery Kentucky distiller from a 70/25/5 mashbill in 2006. In 2013 they sold 13 of the barrels to Amador Distillery who finished the stuff in wine casks from Harbor Winery and then bottled the stuff under Corti Brothers' label. And we're back at the beginning again.

The Review

Thank you to Florin for this nice big sample. He and I also drank some of this together (what seems like) a million years ago. For the long and winding data on this whisky see the section above.

Its color is a very red brown. The nose starts with bubblegum, raspberry jam and corn syrup. Cherry-flavored children's medicine, eucalyptus and a hint of vanilla. Lots of oak: sawdust and bark. The palate is almost all Port, for a while. Then black grapes and Schweppes raspberry ginger ale (circa 1980s). Not much whiskey in this whiskey. Maybe some rye spice. Dark cherries and tart blackberries. A liqueur's sweetness. It finishes like high strength Port. Very sweet. Cheap maraschino cherries. Maybe some jammy PX.

This is a Port + Chambord barrel-aged liqueur. Is that a good thing? That depends on one's preferences. This stuff is beloved by Sku, be-not-loved by The Whiskey Jug, generates contrasting responses from LAWS, and somehow garners a positive review from Serge who always HATES this level of imbalanced wine bomb. I think this stuff would be great poured over rich vanilla ice cream, or matched with bitter dark chocolate. Drinking it straight didn't gross me out because I like port and berry candy. It's not terrible; in fact, I liked it more than the first two batches of Bruichladdich Black Art. But I've sipped this whisky on three occasions now and I am happy to say that's all the Exquisite Whiskey I need. I'll have some crap rye now, thanks.

Availability - Sold out
Pricing - $30 (375mL), $50 (750mL)
Rating - 79

WTF Bruichladdich: X4+3

The Story

One thing is true about the Reynier / McEwan Era, Bruichladdich was not afraid to experiment. These enterprises paid off in the birth of two excellent brands, Port Charlotte and Octomore. Their trials also resulted in the X4+3, the failed espionage droid designed to monitor English aggression.

Unfortunately it affixed itself to some schnook's head, became mayor of London and then totally upended the national economy. So perhaps it didn't entirely fail in its mission--

Sorry, X4+3 is a whisky. I was thinking of something else.

Having already created a triple-distilled single malt, known as Trestarig, Bruichladdich tried out a quadruple-distilled whisky in 2006. It came off the still at a heartwarming 90%abv. A year later they endangered Feis Ile attendees with X4+1 Deliverance, a spirit drink aged one year and bottled at 65.4%abv. Two years later, X4+3 Uisquebaugh Baul left the hangar, now a legal whisky, bottled at 63.5%abv. It was aged in a combo of ex-bourbon and virgin American oak casks. People experienced it and lived to tell the tale. Now it's my turn.

I had to steel myself with some recent Glenfarclas 105 (what is it, a 5yo now?) for this task.

Blogger won't let me display this content. Too many Xs.

The Review

Distillery: Bruichladdich
Ownership: Remy Cointreau
Age: 3 years
Bottling year: 2009
First Maturation: 50/50 mix of ex-bourbon and virgin American oak casks
Product full name: Bruichladdich X4+3 Uisquebaugh Baul
Alcohol by Volume: 63.5%
Limited Bottling: 15,000
Chillfiltered? No
Caramel Colorant? No
(Thanks to Brett, Patron Saint of Happy Pups, for the sample!)

The nose starts off with some creamy barley, salty butter and hay. Imitation vanilla extract. With time, some fruit notes roll in. Offseason apples and tinned pineapple. Reducing it to ~50%abv brings out some cinnamon and florals. More sugars. When reduced further to ~43%abv the nose is nearly gone. Light grainy notes, vanilla and caramel.

The palate is a much different creature. Medicinal and metallic with burnt barley and burnt herbs. Plenty of heat, of course. Some caramel, but more wool. And a mineral sparkle. When reduced to ~50%abv it loses some of those unique phenols, but picks up more sweetness. Peppery. Maybe some ham. Dropped to ~43%abv it gets sweeter still. The edge is gone. All that's left is caramel and brown sugar.

Not a lot going on in the finish. Mostly spicy ethyl, grass and a grain eau de vie. Some hints of ham and bitter burnt bread. When dropped to ~50%abv, it's hot, burnt and peppery, with tart lemon and a hint of florals. At ~43%abv, it's tangy and peppery.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
Like yesterday's whisky, the nose and palate are totally different, but flipped around. The palate is kinda wacko, and I like it. Reminds me of the weirder refill cask Auchentoshan (triple-distilled) indies I've had. But the nose is almost grain whisky...with new oak. I have no idea if this linked to the very high alcohol content the X4 and grain whisky both have when they're fresh off the still. But the similarity is striking. The finish doesn't have much going on, but that's probably because it's young. I do like the eau de vie characteristic though. If the finish and the nose matched the palate, I'd be shouting "Get Some X4" right now. But they don't.

It's still worth a try if you can find a single pour somewhere, just for the palate's rude glory. I wish I could say that the X4 will blossom with additional aging, but there's a lot of new oak in there. Serge may have been on to something 10 years ago; the X4's peak might have been when it was born.

Availability - Scarce, you may have to search the auctions
Pricing - ???
Rating - 83 (just for the palate, don't add water please!)

Winey Bruichladdich: 21 year old Cuvee 382 La Berenice

HEY! I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY ABOUT THIS WHISKY! Read below.

Distillery: Bruichladdich
Ownership: Remy Cointreau
Age: minimum 21 years
Bottling year: 2012
First Maturation: ex-bourbon casks
Finish: Limousin oak ex-Sauternes and ex-Barsac sweet wine casks
Product full name: Bruichladdich 21 year old Cuvée 382 La Berenice MG41 L'Age D'Or
Alcohol by Volume: 46%
Chillfiltered? No
Caramel Colorant? No
(Bottle was from an OCSC event, sample poured from mid-bottle two days after opening)

NEAT
The color is medium gold, much darker than Monday's 19yo Signatory. The nose starts off pretty quirky, with burnt oak, grass and cucumber skin. But after five minutes it changes completely. Lots of toffee, bright white fruit notes and a creamy crème fraîche thing. It's a little on the perfumy side. But there's also a salty beach air note and green grapes. The palate is, er, odder than the nose. It's very sweet and very perfumed. Also bitter, fizzy and acidic. Soapy. A whirlwind of weird. There are some oranges and fresh ginger mixed in. After 20 minutes, it becomes violently sweet. The finish has the acid and the perfume, too. Also golden raisins and bitter almonds.

WITH WATER (~40%abv)
The nose is rich and candied now. Full of toffee pudding and nutty sherry-like notes. It's still grassy in the background. The palate has mellowed out. Still too sweet. Soft and creamy, a little floral and bitter. And soapy. The finish is sweet, soapy, drying and creamy, with orange peel.

THE IMPORTANT PART!

Remember when soap didn't smell like anything. When it was just, you know, Soap. White and awful—kind of like Trump, though he's sorta salmon-colored. Soap was just there to strip the world of several layers and not to make it smell like honeydew lavender rosemary.

When I was a kid we had an industrial-sized vat of Soap tucked under the rusty lawnmower blades and spider nests. When it was cleaning time, we'd grab Soap and the dented black iron cabbage-picking bucket that sat behind the broken chainsaw. All you'd need was a small squirt of that white spunk and you'd suddenly have a bucketful of fluffy Soap foam once the hose spray hit it. We needed that nuclear saponification when it was time to scrub the rotten egg crust and horse blood off the west side of my uncle's garbage truck using only the discarded shih tzu heads from the taxidermy dumpster next door.

And that, my dear Mathilda, is why soapy whisky makes Papa Bear sad.

This whisky's nose and palate are from two different dimensions. The nose can almost be called lovely, which more or less screws the fakakta palate because one's expectations are set so high. But the nose is a bit heavy on the perfume, which makes me wonder—between the soap and perfume—if the whisky isn't trying to warn us of something. Like, perhaps a certain Bruichladdich taxidermist was too busy trying to apply Rogue Dior to a stuffed Highland grice to recognize the whole thing belonged in the dumpster.

But it smells nice.

Availability - Many specialty retailers in the US and Europe, four years after its release
Pricing - $130-$180 (w/o VAT & shipping) in Europe, $180-$200 in the US
Rating - 71