Randy Brandy drinks.....Delord Bas Armagnac 33 year old 1978

What's all this jilted lover crap? Pearly Coward is outsourcing his brandy reviews now? At least he picked me. I know my 'gnac. Because that's what the cool people call it. 'Gnac. How about I pour a wee dram of 'gnac and have a #TwitterTasting with the #brandyfabric? Assholes.

I do like brandy, though. Here's Krab's birthday bottle:

He told me he bought it for $90 in 2013. But that's probably a lie, because he just wants everyone to feel bad about brandy prices now.

Here are my notes. I don't do sentences. Much.

Color - Rich mahogany
Nose - Good & Plenty (my nickname with the ladies, nudge nudge wink wink, etc.). Madeira, dried cherries, black raisins, orange peel, flowers and grape juice.
Palate - Shoe polish, no, shoe leather, no, shoe polish. Very tangy. Black licorice and black pepper. There's ginger ale, plum and raisins but they're really faint.
Finish - Tangy and sharp. Pepper, prunes, black licorice and shoe polish.

There were my notes.

Wikipedia says the average infant is 73% water. Just like this brandy. But how much of the infant is boisé?

BRANDY JOKE!

Also, this:

Everyone involved should embarrassed.

Look, this armagnac doesn't suck. It's just hidden in water. This reminds me of what Angus the Acceptable recently said about Connoisseurs Choice. It took G&M 40 years of drowning excellent scotch before they bottled it at a "proper" strength. Just because one can bottle an old brandy at 40%abv, doesn't mean one should. This armagnac was probably brittle at full power. Why drown it then? You figure if someone is buying brandy, he's going to want to taste some brandy and not just smell it.

Krab wants me to give it a letter grade. Good. Numbers are a performance.

NOT WHISKY RATING: C+

Jilted Lovers on the Rebound?

Has our lover, Whisky, ditched us for the stupid coked-up rich kids? Then should we not chase prim and proper Cognac? Or maybe Armagnac, the Frenchie who doesn't shave? How about Rum, the one with the piercings and a more exotic background than our former lover?

Did Whisky free us to explore other relationships, knowing full well we'll always come back because no matter how exciting these new experiences are, nothing compares 2 U, Whisky?

I enjoy brandy. I've liked Calvados for a long time. But having once spent over $40 for a bottle of it, I shan't do that again. And though I've had some good armagnacs, I prefer cognac. With few exceptions, long-aged armagnac reads (to me) like "Wow, this is almost as good as single malt scotch!" Actually, unaged brandies from around the world appeal to me more than most brown brandies.

Same thing with rum. A good clear rum spirit registers so much brighter and enjoyable than its aged siblings. That's not to say I don't like brown rums. I've had a number of very good ones (Hampden and Caroni!). But the new pricing of decent rum makes me think, "I can just buy whisky."

Some whisky bloggers publicly shit on gin. Not I. Gin is cool, in general. There's another unaged spirit I adore even more, and I've hinted about it plenty during this blog's life.

I waste your time with this subject matter right now because I've been playing tourist at some aged-spirits social media groups. Some of these groups spawned like Athena, violently and fully formed. Others existed long before my fellow Whisky Rejected joined up. Though I like (and occasionally love) the booze they discuss, I feel no interest in engaging or arguing about the nerdy stuff. I've also noticed the gradual creep of Here's More Shit I Just Bought And Must Show The World posts beloved by the whisk(e)y world.

To get back to the starting metaphor...... As your pal from the Whisky Relationship era of your life, I must ask about your new partners:

"Are you happy?"

"Is this progress?"

"Yeah, I know whisky is a trollop (you can thank his/her parents for that), but did you really have to dip your wick that quick just because everyone else was?"

"Whisky is never coming back. It's not your fault. Actually, it is your fault, but that's another story. I forgot, what was I going to ask you?"

---

This subject came to mind on Thursday as I was pouring a few birthday beverages. I was enjoying a blended whisky, a highly hyped rum and an old armagnac. And I liked the whisky blend the best. It was thicker, more complex and (most importantly!) a better drinking experience than the other two spirits. (Here's my old review of the stuff, I'm sticking to it after three years.)

Before opening the armagnac, I knew there could be some issues with it, but I was prepared to engage fully with it even if problems arose. The rum was monolithic, but good. Yet it made me think of a cheaper rum that's of at least equal quality.

I realized this moderate cognitive dissonance wasn't because Whisky is inherently better than Brandy or Rum. And my three drinks were not perfect examples of their genres, as if there could be a good single stand-in for any of these three broad categories.

But still, I can't bring myself to review the rum and brandy. So I have decided to bring in two guest reviewers to report on their experiences with these spirits, this week. Stay tuned...

Birthday Booze will continue next week

From last night:

For my #birthday I had 11yo CS Foursquare rum, 1978 Armagnac and Nikka from the Barrel. Nikka blew them both away. #HotTake

— Michael Kravitz (@kravitz_hubris) August 25, 2017

This enlightening tasting experience has me thinking about a lot of things. That trio requires further study. To be continued next week...

Birthday Booze: Glendronach 32 year old 1978 Oloroso Puncheon, cask 1067

I'm running low on 1978 samples. This is not a tragedy. The only '78 samples that are affordable in the whisky world are single grains. I've had two 1978 single grains and they only reinforced my opinion that the Grain Emperor has no clothes.

To celebrate my final 30s birthday, I'm busting out the Glendronach single Oloroso cask sample.

The once beloved Glendronach single casks have fallen out of favor with many whisky geeks ever since their integrity was questioned by the Ralfy-MAO 1-2 punch three years ago. (I highly, HIGHLY recommend both of MAO's posts, here and here, on this subject.) Nonetheless, the prices of these casks continue to rise because addicts must get their precious.

Many of us watch for any sign of dropping single cask prices like we watch for any sign of the GOP taking action against the president they wag their finger at. I've seen the future. Neither is going to happen.

That has nothing to do with this review.

I've never had a Glendronach single cask whisky that was distilled before 1990. From what I gather, their 1970s stuff is of quality. Lemme see.

Distillery: GlenDronach
Ownership: BenRiach Distillery Company Ltd (now Brown-Forman)
Region: Eastern Highlands (on the edge of Speyside)
Age: 32 years (December 29, 1978 - October 2011)
Maturation: Oloroso Puncheon
Cask: 1067
Limited bottling: 419
Single Cask series: batch 5
Alcohol by Volume: 53.3%
Chillfiltered? No
Caramel Colorant? No
(Purchased sample)

NEAT
The color is red, like red dessert wine red.  Its nose is enormous. Dark chocolate, figs, old books, clay and coffee. Then dates, old bourbon and a pinch of prickly heat. Waves of toffee pudding. The palate shares the nose's magnitude. Black coffee, figs, dried cherries and bitter chocolate. All this with a layer of roasted nuts on top. After 30+ minutes, a tiramisu note arises from beneath. The roasted note continues into the looooooong finish where it's joined by black cherries, raspberries in dark chocolate and Carpano Antica.

WITH WATER (~46%abv)
It seems to settle into a tamer, more classic sherry cask character. The nose has raisins and prunes. Milk chocolate and vanilla bean. Baked blueberries and a hint of earth. The bitterness cools down in the palate and gets tingly. A soft smoke note. A sticky sweetness. Limes and earth. The finish gets sweeter and saltier. Less bitterness, more citrus. It lingers and lingers.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
This show is all about the cask. After 30+ years in a fresh sherry cask, a whisky is likely to get thunderous. Here, the nose is fabulous from start to finish. The neat palate was missing something until that tiramisu note arrived. And one doesn't want to drink or eat anything else until the finish finishes. Water really does domesticate this animal, but whether that's a good thing or not depends on one's palate.

There's no subtlety in this whisky, especially when neat. Aside from the tiramisu thing, there isn't a lot of development either. And were it not for the Teacher's Glendronach 8yo I tried in June, I'd have no idea what '70s Glendronach malt actually tastes like. These are the sorts of quibbles that keep its score from sailing higher into the 90s, because otherwise this Glendronach is awesome.

Availability - Secondary market
Pricing - whatever one is willing to pay, I suppose
Rating - 90

Birthday Booze: Glen Esk 31 year old 1984 Cooper's Choice for Limburg Whisky Fair

It's that time of the year! Again. It snuck up and caught me unprepared. But I recovered quickly. There will be three birthday booze posts. The first two will be special samples from the stash, then Friday's post will be the birthday bottle.

Glen Esk (or Glenesk or Highland Esk or Montrose or North Esk or Hillside) whiskies are few and far between, and this is my only sample of this Eastern Highlands producer. The distillery opened in 1897 and closed in 1985. It spent 25 of those years as a grain distillery, and for another 25 (or more) years it was silent. It was a major ingredient in VAT 69 in the '70s and '80s before it was mothballed.

Most importantly, its second owner was the one and only Septimus Parsonage, who was named after the groundskeeper from the Transformers / Downton Abbey spin-off series.

Distillery: Glen Esk (amongst its many names)
Region: East Coast Highlands
Owner: Scottish Malt Distillers Ltd. (SMD)

Independent Bottler: Cooper's Choice

Age: 30 years (December 1984 to 2016)

Maturation: "a bourbon cask"
Cask number: 4677
Bottles: 240
Bottled for: Limburg Whisky Fair

Alcohol by Volume: 49.5%
(Purchased sample. Thanks to Sjoerd for making it happen!)

Its color is remarkably light, as if it's actually 13 rather than 31. I'll say......unoaked French Chardonnay, to be ridiculous about it. The nose starts with lemon cake, peach skin, a hint of mango and lots of barley wash. With time in the glass, it picks up raspberries, peonies, red Pixy Stix and lawn. Keeps kicking long after an hour. So much barley in the palate! Very little sweetness or fruit, other than a tart citrus strike. Toasty with gentle bitterness. Marizpan with hints of toffee, metal and minerals. The delicate but long finish has barley, flowers, tart notes and a metallic hint.

The nose is damn near perfect. You nosing it for an hour may look funny to outsiders, but that's why we drink by ourselves, no? As pretty and demonstrative as its sniffer may be, the palate is restrained and unromantic, but very appealing to those looking for low-oak whisky.

It walks an interesting balance between fragile and powerful. I didn't add water because it felt like it would immediately fall apart, but then the palate would hammer its character through.

This is a rare case wherein I agree with both Serge and Ruben in their assessments of a whisky. And though it is indeed expensive stuff, I don't know how many more Glen Esks we'll see after this.

Availability - A dozen or so retailers in Europe and Japan
Pricing - $300-$450 (w/VAT)
Rating - 89

Speyside Region (Glenfarclas) 20 year old 1994 Whisky-Fässle

Our house has fleas. And we have no pets. Those bloodsuckers hitched their way inside on our clothing and now have taken up residence on both floors. Three people live in this house, but the fleas are only aware of one. Me. Because I am one delicious piece of foot.

In order to combat the fleas, I did some scientific research and came to a conclusion. I'm going to drink so much that the alcohol content of my blood will poison every jumping bastard that bites me. It's science. It's got to work.

Here's a sample of another Glenfarclas that couldn't be called "Glenfarclas".

This time it's from a sherry butt. And the bottle had a duck on it. At least Whisky-Fässle didn't say it was from Speyside's finest distillery, because enough with that silliness.

Distillery: Glenfarclas
Region: Speyside (Central)

Independent Bottler: Whisky-Fässle
Series: Ducks?

Age: 20 years old (1994-2015)

Maturation: Sherry butt

Alcohol by Volume: 53.2%
Chillfiltered? No
Colored? No

(Sample arrived via swap with My Annoying Opinions.)

NEAT
The nose starts of nice, but blurry. Some shoe leather, cherry candy and mint. But a lot of air opens it up. Earthy and herbal up front, prunes second. Fresh pear. A good whiff of gunpowder. Small floral note. The palate is bracingly bitter, like a grapefruit and Campari combo. Walnuts, salt, lawn, a slight tarry woof. A quirky aquatic note meets caramel sauce. It finishes with sour cranberries and mochi with bitter chocolate. Peaches, lawn, herbal liqueur and salt. Quite long.

WITH WATER (~46%abv)
The nose reads more like a classic sherried malt. More dried fruit, canned peaches and toffee. The palate still has that bitter belt to it. Some fresh stone fruits, tart citrus and a hint of grains. It finishes bitter, fruity and salty.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
That bitterness is fascinating. MAO reads it as oak. And though I don't disagree, it doesn't taste like American oak. Perhaps they used actual European oak for this cask? It's a great bitterness though, if that's one's style. Add that to the salt and gunpowder and we have an entertaining whisky here. But it's the fruit that lifts it up and provides dimension, ultimately. Water tames the beast, but not entirely. I might even prefer it diluted. Good fruits.

Happy Friday. We made it.

Availability - Only to be found at Shinanoya, oddly, two years later
Pricing - was around €110 (w/VAT), costs almost twice that now
Rating - 87

"Probably Speyside's Finest Distillery" (Glenfarclas) 22 year old 1991 Old Malt Cask for Binny's

Somehow I've reviewed only one "Glenfarclas" that was not allowed to be called "Glenfarclas". As is usually the case, independent bottlers aren't given permission to use the Glenfarclas name on their Glenfarclas single casks, especially when they're ex-bourbon casks as that is not part of the Glenfarclas house style. But we can call it Glenfarclas, and I've called it Glenfarclas, so that's seven counts of the Glenfarclas (eight!) name in this paragraph. So there, Glenfarclas.

This Glenfarclas is a Hunter Laing's single cask released under their popular Old Malt Cask brand. The statement in its name, "Probably Speyside's Finest Distillery", is highly debatable, and I'm not sure why Laing felt the need to kiss their arse, unless it wins them more casks.

Glenfarclas

Distillery: Glenfarclas
Region: Speyside (Central)

Independent Bottler: Hunter Laing
Series: Old Malt Cask

Age: 22 years old (June 1991 - November 2013)

Maturation: refill hogshead
Cask #: 10008
Limited bottling: 258

Alcohol by Volume: 52.4%
Exclusively sold by: Binny's
Chillfiltered? No
Colored? No
(Sample saved from an OC Scotch Club event)

Its light gold color perhaps bespeaks of minimal oak, perhaps? The nose is big on barley, apples and honey, at first. Whipped cream and vanilla in the background. Later it's all apple cider, nutmeg and orange peel. The palate is quite malty at first, and a little phenolic and funky. Lemons and a hint of vanilla. Slight sweet. A bit prickly from ethyl heat. Gets a little drying after a while. The finish is sweeter and oakier. Salt and pepper. Some funky barrel notes in there.

Nothing changed when I dropped it to ~46%abv. But at ~40%abv, it went awry. Though the nose still had the apple cider and barley, more barrel action crept in. The palate went tart and tannic, with a hint of earth. The palate was tart and bitter and soapy. So DON'T add water.

When I tried this at the event two years ago, I was underwhelmed by this Glenfarclas. Yet my first 15 minutes with it here were very pleasant. I was ready to heap some serious praise on this thing. Then the finish couldn't match the rest. Next, the oak started showing in the palate. And adding water destroyed it. The nose is the best part throughout, by far.

I haven't seen any reviews of this Glenfarclas online, nor is it in Whiskybase. Binny's might still have it in stock, which means it's been on the shelf for three years. Definitely some popular stuff right here.

Availability - Binny's
Pricing - $119.99
Rating - 84 (neat only)

Glenfarclas.