Hazelburn 12 year old (bottled 2009, 09/335 code)

On Monday I reviewed the very good OB bourbon cask 10 year old Hazelburn. Today it's the sherry cask-driven 12 year old Hazelburn, which actually preceded the 10 year old on the market, time-wise. This particular batch was from the first year that Hazelburn 12 hit the shelves. I tasted it alongside the current 10 year old. They are two very different whiskies.

Distillery: Springbank

Brand: Hazelburn
Region: Campbeltown

Age: minimum 12 years

Maturation: all, or mostly, ex-sherry casks
Bottle code: 09/335
Outturn: 3900 bottles

Alcohol by Volume: 46%
Chillfiltered? No
Colorant Added? No
(from a sample swap with Jordan of Chemistry of the Cocktail. Thank you, Jordan!)

NEAT
Its color is almost maroon-brown. The nose is cloaked in big rubbery sherry. Some musty dunnage and definite dosage of peat. Dark cherries and milk chocolate meet a heavy green leafy note (parsley?). The palate is woody rather than winey. In fact, it's very woody. Beneath the tree bark and bitter pulp, there are hints of anise, soil and dried herbs. Hot and sweet. On the finish it's wood-run spice, char and bitterness. Lime candy. Sweet. Long but flat.

DILUTED TO ~40%abv, or <1tbsp water per 30mL whisky
The nose improves a little. There's dried herbs, honey, golden raisins, dried berries. The sherry is quieter and nuttier. Bits of earth and peat. At first the palate feels better, but then the violent tannins kick in, stomping down the herbs and lemon candy sweetness. It finishes tannic, sour, bitter and peppery.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
I was going to say this feels like a denser, greener, uglier version of GlenDronach 12, but the spirit is so hidden that this could be any single malt abused by questionable sherry casks. The smothered distillate was from the first Hazelburn runs, but who knows what that would've, could've, should've tasted like. What does show is a significant quantity of peat. But the peat doesn't even feel like it fits in this odd soup.

Dropping this expression and tuning up the bourbon cask 10 year old were wise decisions by the Springbank folks. Of course, that's not the popular opinion. Serge liked this whisky, and 98.6% of whiskybase voters gave it higher scores than I did. But Jordan's take is similar to mine. And we're right.

Availability - a few dozen specialty whisky retailers
Pricing - $90-$105 US, $55-$85 (ex-VAT)
Rating - 73

Hazelburn 10 year old (current edition)

Good news everyone, it's HAZELBURN WEEK!

*boards up the windows as the riots begin*

I've been waiting to do a week of unfutzed-with Hazelburn for almost three years. Really. And now the time has come. I'm starting this week's Hazel trio with the current 10 year old. Its sparring partner is the whisky I'll be reviewing on Wednesday. The 10 year old is a bourbon cask Hazelburn, while Wednesday's is sherry cask Hazelburn.

Distillery: Springbank

Brand: Hazelburn
Region: Campbeltown

Age: minimum 10 years

Maturation: ex-bourbon casks

Alcohol by Volume: 46%
Chillfiltered? No
Colorant Added? No

NEAT
It has my favorite whisky color: five beer piss. The nose leads with barley, lemon and milk chocolate. Notes of apple peel progress into apple cider vinegar. Wet dog, sand and clay. Hint of rosewater. Faint peat notes. Yeasty. Reminiscent of Tobermory 10. There's also something old school about it, perhaps it's the utter unsexiness. The palate starts off with fuji apples, barley, bran flakes and almond cookies. Very thick mouthfeel. A little bit of heat to it, but not bad. Anise, peppercorns and a mild sweetness. A lime note appears after 15 minutes and keeps expanding. The simple but lively finish has tart apples and lots of barley. Mild sweetness and mild pepperiness.

DILUTED TO ~40%abv, or <1tbsp water per 30mL whisky

The nose becomes more herbal and mossy. Sweeter too. Lemon zest, green apples, white nectarines and a toasty grain undertow. The palate is lean but not mean. Light herbal bitterness, honey and bran flakes. A sprinkling of yeast, drops of lime juice. Kinda beer-y at times. Its finish is sweet and tart. Lots of barley.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

This is the best Hazelburn I've ever had. The casks, probably refills, get out of the way and let the (very good) spirit do its thing. At the same time, it's not under-matured. There's just a lot of whisky in this whisky. You'll have to take a look at the notes above to see if this suits your palate. It does well for mine.

It's too bad that a decent 10 year old single malt like this now costs $60+ (whether one buys it in The States or has it shipped from Europe). That's all that keeps me from buying a bottle.

Availability - many specialty whisky retailers
Pricing - $60-$75 US, $45-$65 (ex-VAT) Europe
Rating - 86

Killing Whisky History, Episode 13 - Glenlivet 12 year old, botttled 1986-1988

How about that? Thirteen episodes in and I finally get to a single malt. Bottled in the '80s, this famous Speyside whisky bears little resemblance to the current version. In a very good way.

Now it's time to cuddle up with your loved ones, or coworkers, and watch me drink.

Ledaig 17 year old 1993 G&M Connoisseurs Choice (bought in Japan)

I had two whisky retailing surprises during my first trip to Japan. First, there was no age stated Japanese whisky to be found (and this was more than three years ago). Secondly, there was SO MUCH scotch whisky on the shelves, especially from independent bottlers. The former was a bummer, the latter floored me especially because the prices were often really good. Port Charlotte PC8 was $60. And today's 17yo G&M Ledaig was, I kid you not, $46.

I say this with some confidence: We will never see prices like that again. Ever. And that's probably why so much of that scotch and bourbon was cleared out when I returned to Japan two years later.

The intro is over. Long live the intro.

The G&M Connoisseurs Choice range has a several 43%abv Ledaigs from right around the mid '90s time period. This one was from refill sherry butts and may have just been a Japanese release. While Ledaigs from the mid-'00s are hot stuff right now, '80s and '90s are still not considered sexy. So I can't even make the hipster claim, "I loved this stuff before it was cool." It's still terribly uncool. That's why we're homies.

Distillery: Tobermory
Brand: Ledaig
Current Ownership: Distell International Ltd.
Ownership at time of distillation: either Burn Stewart Distillers or Tobermory Distillers Ltd.
Region: Isle of Mull

Independent Bottler: Gordon & MacPhail
Range: Connoisseurs Choice
Age: 17 years old (May 1993 - December 2010)

Maturation: refill sherry butts

Alcohol by Volume: 43%
(review sample taken from the bottom half of my bottle)

For its sparring partner, I poured a glass of my enjoyable 15yo OB 2001 bottling.

NOSE:
The refill-est of butts. Very spirity. Toast, wet sand, leaves, yeast and grist. Momentary whiffs of vanilla ice cream and raw cocoa. Totally lacking the fruity, medicine and peat of the 15yo. Okay, there's a little bit of fermenting apples. Molasses. Tofu. Heck, it's more savory than peaty. It fades out after 20 minutes, even when covered.

PALATE:
Butter and lemons take the place of the nose's yeast and apples. A big hit of horseradish. Some sugary bits, with a hint of dried berries. More marshmallow than vanilla. Burnt toast. Slight floral estery things. The butter note grows with time and the lemons get sweeter.

FINISH:
Toasted grains, horseradish and lemons. Kinda sweet. Kinda short. Something burnt.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
This felt half its age, which could be a good thing. But wasn't. The '90s Ledaig Strange Degree (LSD) was low, which also a bummer. It's, essentially, a sleepy Tobermory. Just a little bit of fruit or moss or fish or gravel or gravy or something would have made a big difference.

Despite the preceding paragraph, this isn't terrible whisky. In fact, I almost gave it a low 80s grade for being as fine and friendly as this era of Ledaig can get. But it sorta bumped its ass on the landing — that's not a thing, but it's late here — and leaves behind a fading burnt shrug in the mouth.

But I must say, I'm happy with the price I paid.

Availability - Happy Hunting?
Pricing - ???
Rating - 78

Glenmorangie Astar, 2017 Release

For those of us who enjoyed the original Astar release, let us remember that it was a very oaky thing. And NAS. And thus it was proof that not all NAS oaky whiskies are crap. Its creamy richness highlighted good qualities of the oak and the spirit. Still it remains an exception to the rule for Glenmorangie's limited releases.

Astar's official site references my main issue with Glenmorangie's special edition when it notes that the Ozark oak casks are designed to "impart their maximum flavour to our delicate Highland spirit". Or......Lumsden and his team use sledgehammers to play a piano.

This new Astar supposedly uses the same type of casks, from "slow-growing" trees in the Ozarks that are air dried for years before they're coopered into Jack Daniel's casks for their first life. Next the delicate Highland spirit is applied for at least three years. And then marketing noises like "hewn", "harbour" and "bespoke" are applied liberally to lure the usual suspects into paying $100+ for the product.

Still, it could be good whisky.

Distillery: Glenmorangie
Ownership: Louis Vuitton Moet-Hennessy
Region: Highlands (Northern)
Age: minimum 3 years
Maturation: Missouri Ozark Oak (ex-Jack Daniel's)
Alcohol by Volume: 52.5%
Chill-filtered: ???
Colored: ???
(From a purchased sample)

Sadly, I had neither old Astar, nor Glenmoragie 10yo to compare with this whisky. Instead, I lined up the bottle-strength version with its 43%abv diluted form.

NOSE
43%abv - Bourbon. Barrel char and notebook paper. Burnt notes. Perfume, vanilla, lemon and ginger beer. A bit flat at times, like a blend.
Full Strength - Pine needles, sap and bark. Limes and cotton candy. Caramel sauce and vanilla bean. Toasted oak spices. Cinnamon and nutmeg. A hint of Old Spice cologne.

PALATE
43% abv - Actual wood. A bit grassy, with dandelions. Bitter, burnt and gingery. Vanilla and green peppercorns.
Full Strength - It has a dense fudge/citrus/grass combo that reminds me of Irish pot still. Slight burnt and bitter note. Lemons and oregano.

FINISH
43%abv - Green and pink peppercorns. Fresh ginger. Very bitter.
Full Strength - A better bitterness and very little sweetness. Thyme and oregano. Lemon and pepper.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
This is a curious lively whisky at 52.5%abv. It is pretty bad at 43%.

It is indeed oak-driven with the citrus and herbal notes being the only spirit characteristics that escaped the Mozarks' clutches. The good news is that the oak notes are never boring and there's some depth to this fluid. But only at full strength. It falls apart so abruptly when diluted (even at about 48%abv), that the random-seeming bottling strength now seems less random.

It's a different animal than the original Astar, and with fewer thrills. But for a whisky that's 90% oak-driven, the 2017 Astar still impresses at times and makes for an entertaining addition to Glenmorangie's range. Pricing it higher than the far superior 18yo is also entertaining.

Availability - Many specialty whisky retailers
Pricing - $70-$100 (Europe, ex-VAT), $85-120 (US)
Rating - 83 (neat only, plummets 10-20 points once diluted)

The Rum Dummy drinks Hampden 18 year old 1998 Kill Devil

I like three things. Rum, not reading rum reviews and not writing rum reviews. But Mr. Diving for Pearls gave me free rum (which is better than rum) so I'll write this. But I won't read it.

I've been told to thank "MAO" for this rum because "MAO" finances this entire site. Thank you, "MAO"?

Hampden distillery makes good rums. Their old rum is usually not cheap. Their old rum is usually not in America. The old rum is in Europe because Europe is so much closer to Jamaica than America is.

You can keep shipping costs down by piggybacking off your sad friend who buys at least 14 whiskies a month from Europe and then brags about it. The more he buys, the less you pay. Everyone wins, except for him.

I had nothing to do with this picture.

A review:

Nose - Olives, black licorice, honey. Banana nut loaf. Hot tar, dead leaves. Lots of brine. Ping pong paddle.

Palate - Charred pizza crust, black olives, honey, leather, soil and black sesame seeds. Blackberry jam, with salt.

Finish - Charred pizza crust, sesame seeds and red pepper flakes. WD-40. Banana pudding. Salt. Good.

Three interesting things about this rum. It has no grain, but there's bread to it. I can't stop drinking it. I can't stop drinking it.

I'm naming my next dog Hampden. Or Kill Devil.

NOT WHISKY RATING: A-

Edradour and Ballechin twins! Same bottler, same year, same cask type.

First, Hazelburn and Longrow. Now, Edradour and Ballechin. My original intro was five paragraphs long, let me just outlineify it here:

1. Edradour distillery produces unpeated single malt (Edradour) and heavily peated malt (Ballechin)
2. Edradour distillery is owned by the independent bottling company, Signatory.
3. van Wees, a Dutch indie bottler (allegedly) draws its single barrels from Signatory's warehouses.
4. van Wees releases a few Edradour and Ballechin single casks each year.
1. Usually ex-sherry casks for Edradours
2. Usually ex-bourbon casks for Ballechins

As soon as I spied a sherry cask Ballechin, I swooped in and got semi-matching samples: Ballechin and Edradour, both distilled in 2008, matured in sherry butts and released by van Wees in their The Ultimate series.

Check the photo for the stats. Note the very similar ABV. Also the butts had very similar outturns: 696 and 694.

To the tasting!

NEAT

--NOSES
Edradour (8yrs 1day) - It starts off with oranges, cinnamon and dried apricots. Then raspberry jam, fudge, cardamom, nutmeg and a whiff of butterscotch. And, yes, plenty of alcohol.
Ballechin (9yrs 178days) - Smoked fish, eucalyptus and clementines. Dried cranberries, ocean air, ham and charred peat. With time in the glass it picks up baked pears with cinnamon and sugar.

--PALATES
Edradour - Dried fruit, especially cherries and golden raisins. Very salty. Tart lemons and raspberry jam. Sweet and heat. Thick mouthfeel.
Ballechin - Massive mossy peat. Charred veg and not-charred dried fruit. Lightly sweet, lots o' heat. Cinnamon and Tabasco sauce. Develops some bitterness with time.

--FINISHES
Edradour - Sweet. Berries, fresh and dried. Tart lemons and a hint of woody bitterness. But its the ethyl heat that lingers longest.
Ballechin - More of that huge peat. Chili oil. Very little sweetness. Similar heat and bitterness to the Edradour.

DILUTED TO ~46%abv, or <2tsp water per 30mL whisky

--NOSES
Edradour - Fudge and flower blossoms. Lime peel, prunes and raisins. Very big even at this ABV.
Ballechin - Ledaig, is that you? Seaside, peaches, cinnamon, peat and citronella.

--PALATES
Edradour - Plum wine, tart berries, ginger ale and cream soda. It's very peppery and drags along some woody bitterness.

Ballechin - Somehow the peat feels even bigger and darker. Quite a tar note. Well beneath the peat is a balance of sweetness (brown sugar), salt, savory and moderate bitterness.

--FINISHES

Edradour - A mix of cayenne pepper, grape jam, bananas and bitterness.

Ballechin - Char, dark chocolate and salty ham.

DILUTED TO ~40%abv, or ~1Tbsp water per 30mL whisky

--NOSES

Edradour - Very manageable. Mint leaves, ginger, anise, blackberry jam and Macallan 12.

Ballechin - Just char, mint and brine.

--PALATES
Edradour - It has become creamier, with fresher fruits (think plums and pears). Ginger powder.

Ballechin - Still plenty of punch to it. Peat and pepper and salt. Tart citrus and oak spices.

--FINISHES

Edradour - Pepper, berries and bitterness.

Ballechin - Identical to the palate.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

You may read quotes from "experts" that the cask is 2/3s or 3/4s or 70% responsible for a whisky's final character. Well, the Edradour is 100% cask. It is at times a very good cask. At other times it's too aggressive, held only in check by the high alcohol content. It seems to be doing its best Orphan Barrel Bourbon imitation with all that woody bitterness. But it gets better the more it's diluted.

The Ballechin is all Andrew WK. With peat levels that would embarrass southern Islay, heat levels that rival Stagg Jr and sherry levels comparable to, well, the Edradour, this 9 year old Ballechin is a whole lot of too much. Which works. If you're into that sort of thing. If it could shed the bitterness, I'd love to see it arm wrestle one the many murderous SMWS Port Charlottes.

At full strength, Ballechin's outrageousness wins. Yet as the whiskies are diluted, the Edradour reveals more stamina and complexity......even though it's all cask. But, in the end, it's all combustion.

EDRADOUR 8yo 2008 van Wees, cask 118
Availability - continental Europe
Pricing - €50-€60 w/o VAT
Rating - 85 (with water)

BALLECHIN 9yo 2008 van Wees, cask 189
Availability - continental Europe
Pricing - €50-€60 w/o VAT
Rating - 84 (neat)