Killing Whisky History, Episode 24: Ballantine's 12 year old, bottled in the 1970s (w/guest whiskies!)

It's here (albeit a week late)! Episode 24!

(What is this look on my face? Is it pleasure? Is it pain? Is it gas? It's probably gas.)

In this episode, I pop/peel/screw open my bottle of Ballantine's 12 year old from the 1970s and try it alongside two guest whiskies. The starring Speyside-heavy blend, from its Hiram Walker-era, is given a nice boost from some sherry casks and high (possibly older than 12yo) malt content. It's good stuff, especially compared to the guest whiskies.

Constellation Brands blows up High West Rendezvous Rye, so let's try the original stuff: 2012 versus 2016

High West Rendezvous Rye was a long time favorite in this house. If we couldn't get MGP Willett or MGP Smooth Ambler rye then I would buy a bottle of Rendezvous.

Note the past tense in that paragraph. The Rendezvous recipe has changed. What was once 16 year old 80/10/10 (Barton) + 6 year old 95/5 (MGP) rye, is (as of 2018) "A blend of older Straight Rye whiskeys ranging in age from 4 to 7 years", 95/5 from MGP and 80/20 rye/malted rye from High West itself. Now MGP is the older sibling. It is much much younger than the Barton rye was, and, yes, the oldest whiskies in the current batches are almost the same age as the youngest whiskies in the original batches. And per Winesearcher, Rendezvous 20% more expensive than it was in 2015.

Let's all chillfilter the bitterness out of our feelings about those facts for a moment. Inflation has gone up 7-8% since 2015, so the price was going to rise at least a little bit over the past four years. Though the ingredients changed, it was infeasible for High West to use 16 year old rye indefinitely. And at some point actual High West rye was going to have make an appearance in a bottle somewhere in the range.

Okay, now bring the bitter back. It takes some serious chutzpah to blow up a recipe so drastically while keeping the same name on the bottle. What do they think this is, Johnnie Walker Black? Why no "Son of Rendezvous"? Why no limited release "Last Rendezvous in Park City" to fluff the secondary marketeers? David Perkins was a stellar blender who created a successful brand via quality products. But I'm not motivated to drop $65 on 4 year old rye, especially when it's produced by the $40B market cap Constellation Brands rather than a family business.

In honor of the OG Rendezvous Rye, I'm going to compare my first saved Rendezvous sample with my last. 2012 versus 2016. One may imagine the recipe was already shifting far away from the Barton by 2016. None the less, I commence.

Product: Rendezvous Rye
Distillery: Barton and MGP distilleries

Producer: High West
Type: Blended Straight Rye Whiskeys
Region: Kentucky and Indiana

Age / Mashbill: 16 years, 80% rye 10% corn 10% malted barley (Barton) + 6 years, 95% rye 5% malted barley (MGP)

Maturation: charred white oak barrels

Alcohol by Volume: 46%
Batches: 12E03 (from 2012) and 16K29 (from 2016)

Noses:
Batch 12E03 - Pickles! Dried cherries, lemon peel and brown sugar. Not much vanilla. More of a toasted oak feel than charred oak. Cloves and dried grass. Okay, I'll say it: pickles in toffee pudding.
Batch 16K29 - Slightly flatter at first. Less fruit. The pickles have been replaced with mint leaves and earth. More toasted grains and toasted nuts. Cinnamon bread and halvah. Hints of rye bread, cherries and salty pork.

Palates:
Batch 12E03 - I'm happy to report one well-sealed sample bottle because this stuff is still brisk as hell after more than six years. Heat, mint and tart citrus at the start. Then apricots and cayenne pepper. Bit O' Pickle. Mild sweetness and vanilla. It gets increasingly spicy and fruity, then picks up a brothy salt note.
Batch 16K29 - Calmer and sweeter than the 2012, with a slight medicinal note. Luxardo cherries, mint and milk chocolate. Dustings of clove and cayenne. A mix of tart lemons and orange candy arise after a while.

Finishes:
Batch 12E03 - A straightforward mix of stone fruits, rye seeds, salt and pepper. Very long. It gets sweeter with time.
Batch 16K29 - Cherries, cloves, rye seeds and mint. Good 'n simple 'n sweet. Also has some length to it.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
Do I have to choose which one I like better? Even worse, do I have to assign them grades? This is my fault.

There's a definite through line from Willett to Smooth Ambler to the 2012 Rendezvous. Pickles, spices and fruits; that LDI spirit distilled in the mid-aughts. Great rye, all around. This old sample reminds me how much I enjoyed that bottle.

The 2016 batch held up better than I'd expected. It's sweeter and more immediate than the 2012, and finishes very well, which makes it a pleasure to drink. It's short on fruit which keeps it from meeting its elder head-to-head. It does make a great manhattan, when required, though.

I've had to bury Willett's and Smooth Ambler's single barrel MGP ryes on this blog. Now I bury the original batches of Rendezvous Rye.

Good night, sweet pickles. May flights of cowboy angels sing thee to thy sleep.

Batch 12E03
Rating - 88

Batch 16K29
Rating - 86

1792 Full Proof bourbon (2016 bottling)

Rarely do I get a thrill from obtaining a bottle of bourbon, but I'll admit there was some excitement when I got today's whiskey. It had gotten boisterous reviews from industry and independent reviewers, and as a result was difficult to find. It took some hijinks on my part to get this 1792 Full Proof bourbon, which (I think) is from its rookie year of 2016.

I opened the bottled exactly two months ago. And HATED it. Yes, hate is a strong word. Even stronger when it's in ALL CAPS. But all I could taste was burning bitter ash. I fought with the stuff and brought it to two events to see if anyone else liked it, yet two months later it was still two-thirds full and had caused no one to say "Wow!", or even "Mmmmm".

Before this tasting, I hadn't touched this bottle in a month. But I knew the bourbon was going to require a multistep tasting procedure.

Distillery: Barton 1792 Distillery

Ownership: Sazerac Company
Region: Bardstown, Kentucky
Type: Straight Bourbon

Age: minimum 2 years (no matter what the company says, there's no age statement on the bottle)
Mashbill: I've seen 75/10/15 and 75/15/10 Corn/Rye/Barley. Could be either, could be neither.

Maturation: charred white oak barrels
Bottle code: K16 123

Alcohol by Volume: 62.5%

BIG NOTE HERE. I let this whiskey sit in the glass 30 minutes before approaching. I also let the dilution mingle for over an hour.

NEAT
Nose - Burning. Then Barbasol shaving cream, dried apricots, lemons, generic vanilla, cinnamon and Bit o' Honey candy. Yet it's all very quiet. After 45 minutes some louder orange candy and citronella notes appear.
Palate - Yes, burning, though not as violent as it was at the top of the bottle. Black pepper, barrel char, Red Hot candies, sweetened hot sauce and simple syrup. After 45 minutes that orange candy note shows up here too.
Finish - Heat, sugar, bitter oak and orange peel.

DILUTED to 46.8%abv (1792 Small Batch strength)
Nose - Louder and more expressive than the neat nose. There's sawdust, ash, raisins, dried cranberries, cherry jam, clementines and a richer vanilla note.
Palate - Hot barrel char, even at this strength. Very sweet. Cherry syrup, dried cherries, brown roasted corn and cracked black peppercorns. Even though there's a subtle orange juice note, the tanginess reads more like vinegar than citrus.
Finish - Hot sweet tangy barrel char. Ash-infused cherry syrup.

OLD FASHIONED
Almost like mulled wine, loaded with baking spices and fruit.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
While it's better at full strength than I'd remembered, it had a long time to open up, longer than any casual drinker would give it. And it's still not far from mediocre even then. Improvements materialize once the whiskey is diluted to Small Batch strength. It's not great bourbon, but it has texture, character and the occasional pleasant fruit note. The relentless generic barrel char note is reminiscent of present-day Ancient Age. Which is bad. Once the whisky mingles with Angostura bitters, a slice of cara cara orange and a Luxardo cherry, everything looks brighter.

I can tell you from experience, this stuff will get you tipsy, but so will plastic bottle vodka (also from experience). This is better than plastic bottle vodka, and its kissing cousin, Ancient Age. But 1792 Full Proof was not worth the hunt.

Availability - well, NOW it's everywhere
Pricing - $40-$80

Rating - 76 (and it takes a lot to get there)

BenRiach Authenticus 25 year old

Killing Whisky History will return next week, probably. In its place is a review of......a whisky!

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Last week I wrote about my desire to drink something remarkable, as well as the reasonable realization that I didn't need to buy another beautiful whisky because of the unopened gems in my whisky cabinet.

Then I bought a whisky. As much as I critique how deeply this spirits community has become addicted to consumption, I am often bitten by the bug as well. Usually, I don't follow through with the desire. This time I did.

I fully trust Billy Walker's work with peated BenRiach. Not only did he have high quality stock on hand, but he did a great job putting a unique (and tasty) range together via blending, finishing or both. Those great single malts with the silly names also feed my disappointment over his later Glendronach choices and the new Glenallachie range. But I already wrote about what doesn't work.

This whisky works.

NOTE: This review is from a purchased sample. The above bottle just came in yesterday.

Distillery: BenRiach
Ownership at time of distillation: Seagrams Distillers
Ownership at time of bottling: The Benriach Distillery Company
Ownership at time of review: Brown-Forman
Region: Speyside (Lossie)
Age: at least 25 years
Maturation: bourbon casks and oloroso casks
Alcohol by Volume: 46%

Chillfiltered? No
Caramel Colorant? No

Lovely notes of mango, orange creamsicle, honeydew, brown sugar, toffee pudding and new blossoms harmonize with smoked meats, pipe tobacco, fresh hay and baking spices in the nose. The palate is bolder, smokier. A joint at the beach. Green peppercorns, herbal bitter liqueur, cocoa powder and piles of earth. Delicate notes of kiwi and citrons survive throughout. The smoked meat note returns in the finish, mingling with bitters and dried herbs. It's also radiantly tangy, with moments of pineapple, lemon peel and roses.

Adverbs and asides threaten to swallow my handwritten notes: "Can a smell be luminous?", "Kilkerran @ 25?", etc. That tends to happen when a whisky leaves me giddy. This is the best noser I've come across in a long time. The palate flexes a graceful power reminiscent of earlier versions of Laphroaig 25yo CS, though much different in style. "Age with vigor." ← another note.

Quality is what makes BenRiach Authenticus 25 year old luxurious, not its age nor price. (It would clobber the unpeated BenRiach 35.) I thought Authenticus 21 was great. This is a step above.

Availability - A few American retailers, dozens of European retailers
Pricing - Europe: $200-$300; USA: $500
Rating - 92

Island of Orkney 12 year old 2006 Exclusive Malts, cask 342

Hey, how about it: A review of a bottle, and not a sample. Yay!

Firstly, I'm just going to call this a Highland Park because The Creative Whisky Company was likely contractually forced to jump through hoops and I'm not. It's Highland Park in French Oak. Sounds cool, right? It did (and still kinda does) to me, which is why I bought it blindly.

And now I'm going to give you my conclusions up front. I've struggled to get my brain around this whisky. There are times when I just don't like it. There are times when I just nose it for an hour, finding all new odd facets. For instance, sometimes this HP just smells like danishes and nothing else. Heavily-glazed cheese danishes. I shared the whisky with the Columbus Scotch Night crew and they all seemed to like it a lot. Now I'm past the bottle's midpoint and I just don't know.

Distillery: Highland Park
Ownership: The Edrington Group
Region: Isle of Orkney
Independent Bottler: The Creative Whisky Company
Range: Exclusive Malts
Age: 12 years (21 June 2006 - 2018?)
Maturation: French oak (maybe a hoggie)
Cask #: 342
Alcohol by Volume: 56.3%
Chillfiltered? No
Caramel Colorant? No

NEAT
Its nose starts with an almost-Clynelish is-it/isn't-it-peated phenolic note, which floats away within 20 minutes. That scent is coated in a sugary orange peel / madeira candy shell. Drifting around that is salty ocean air, honeydew, toffee and — stay with me here — Slim Jims. Though I'm not getting the entire danish note this time, there's a lot of pastry glaze and buttery sour cream. A hint of maple syrup, too.

A new paragraph for the rest. The palate has some of the nose's notes, specifically oranges and salt. A burnt hay-like peat note. There's lots of dried oregano and ginger beer. Even more vanilla and whipped cream. It remains hot even after a half hour in the glass. It finishes with a ginger beer, cream soda, carob and oak spice.

DILUTED TO ~46%abv, or 1⅓ tsp of water per 30mL whisky
Brought into slightly sharper focus, the nose leads with orange peel and pine sap. Hay, cinnamon and nutmeg. Kinda of a Dead Sea-like salty mud bath. And something milky. The whisky is at its most familiar in the diluted palate. Sweet, with gentle citrus and fresh cherry notes. Hints of dried herbs. Lots of vanilla and oak spice. It finishes very sweet and tannic. Vanilla and butterscotch are the main notes.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
Hopefully my scattered notes give you an idea of my scrambled thoughts on this thing. I like French oak much more than American oak — Randy Brandy is going to give me hell for that — but I have that preference because I like toasted French oak. This cask almost seems like newly charred French oak. There's genuine aggression here. The Gaspar Noé of casks, perhaps?

It's certainly not boring. Nor can I call it flawed. I don't have an existential struggle with it, unlike my bottle of rum cask Ardmore 1991, but I'm never in a hurry to pour a glass for a casual sip. I'm going to give it the same rating as that Ardmore, just to assign a number to it. I'm pretty sure the whisky is laughing at me.

Availability - may still be available at some European retailers
Pricing - obtained it for ~$80 (w/shipping, w/o VAT) in a moderate order last October
Rating - 84 (but who knows, really)

I woke up at 4:45am this morning in order to nab my flight home and have now just completed bedtime for two little girls. My exhaustion is complete, and will spare you from longer introductions. If I rate one of these whiskies a 347 or Ol' Dirty Bastard you'll have to pardon me.

Here are three Arrans from a recent Taste Off:

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Arran 8 year old 100º Proof, 57%abv, bottled in 2006
(from a purchased mini)

Though I'm an Arran enthusiast, I've never been able to keep up with their zillions of early releases. When I'd bid on this mini at an auction, I hadn't previously heard of the 100º Proof bottling. Apparently no one else did either. I wound up paying an embarrassingly tiny sum for it, something I can't say for any other auction win ever. From the notes below, my guess is this whisky was all from refill bourbon casks.

NEAT
The nose starts with malt, apples, oranges, earth and umeboshi. Small notes of clay and oats drift underneath. With time it gets prettier, more floral. The palate is loaded with white fruits: apples, pears and green grapes. Then there's barley, citrus candy and a curious mustiness. The finish has as a good length considering the whisky's age. There's citrus candy, barley and a slight pepperiness.

DILUTED TO ~46%abv, or ½ tbl of water per 30mL whisky
The nose of a good floral, fruity newmake. No heat, lots of lemon peel. The palate gets very tart, and picks up the neat nose's musty note. It gradually gets viciously sweet while a wonky bitterness comes crashing in from a different direction. A tooth-rottingly sweet finish with hints of cayenne pepper and tart lemons.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
This feels very close to newmake, and I sort of wish Arran still bottled this because it's BS-free. They'd sell like 5 bottles of the thing, but I'd get one if the price was right. I do not recommend adding water to it, though, which is fine because the neat version does not burn the mouth. Here are the usual disclaimers: it's not complex, there's little depth, etc. But — the usual claimer — it's very educational and barley-forward.

Availability - Auctions / secondary market
Pricing - ???, though the minis can be had for single digits

Rating - 86 (neat only)

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Arran 12 year old Cask Strength batch 3, 53.9%abv, bottled in 2013
(thank you to Florin for the sample!)

Several years after the short-lived 100º Proof experiment, Arran started its Cask Strength series. Batch 3 is made up of 5 first-fill sherry butts, 13 second-fill sherry hogsheads and 31 bourbon barrels resulting in an outturn of 15,000 bottles.

NEAT
The nose seems very closed when neat. There are grains, yeast, flowers and (again) umeboshi. Quiet sherry cask-ish notes of roasted meat and nuts show up occasionally. It picks up more sugary notes with time. A mix of stone and citrus fruits highlight the more expressive palate. The malt note rings louder the toasted oak note. There's a good sweetness to it. There's a surprising amount of heat to it, which continues on into the finish. Otherwise it's sugar, barley, nuts and black pepper.

DILUTED TO ~46%abv, or 1 tsp of water per 30mL whisky
Yeast, cocoa powder, almond cookies and a lighter floral note on the nose. The palate is very simple but approachable and drinkable. There's more oak and less spirit, yet notes of lemons, limes and red plums remain. The shorter finish is less sweet, and much more tart.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
Another simple but decent Arran malt. I was surprised by the lack of sherry cask notes, as well as the considerable burn which registers much hotter than one anticipates from the ABV. The high quality Arran spirit ensures a good drink, even if better casks were saved for single cask releases. Still, I like the 10yo and 14yo better.

Availability - Auctions / secondary market (for this batch)
Pricing - ???

Rating - 85

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Arran 12 year old Cask Strength batch 6, 52.4%abv, bottled in 2016

(from a purchased sample)

From what I've seen online, this was the last batch of the 12 year old Cask Strength series. If anyone knows more info or why they ended these batches, please share in the comment section. Batch 6, fashioned from first fill sherry butts, refill sherry hoggies and first fill bourbon barrels, had an outturn of 13,800 bottles and is still being sold by some European and American retailers.

NOSE
Another closed nose. I'm getting grapefruit, brine, yeast and lemon. A hint of plum wine. With time, there are notes of apples, cocoa powder and watermelon candy. The palate has a hell of a citric bite, and is very very sweet. A little bit of grapefruit. A little bit of barley. A big bit of toasted oak. Oranges, grapefruit and toasted oak in rush of sweetness in the finish.

DILUTED TO ~46%abv, or ¾ tsp of water per 30mL whisky
Flowers, earth and grass on the nose. Some more grapefruit. Not much oak. But the palate does have plenty of oak spice to go with the grapefruit and lemons. A little bit of grassiness here too. Lots of caramel sweetness. It's very drinkable, but feels hotter than the neat version. The finish has an easier sweetness than the neat version. More fruit essences, and just a whiff of oak spice.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
I enjoyed the palate better than then nose, which a rare thing. And to cloud things further, I liked the palate better when diluted, and the nose better when neat. Perhaps it requires more experimentation with water? This seems to have even less sherry cask influence than batch 3, and it could have used a honey butt or two to give it more dimension(s). But for a 12 year old cask strength whisky, it's priced pretty well in the current market conditions. Still the 10 and the 14...

Availability - Many European whisky specialist retailers, fewer retailers in the US
Pricing - $70ish in the USA; €45-€65 in Europe (w/VAT)

Rating - 83

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The discontinued — well, these are all discontinued — 100º Proof wins the day, though they're very close in quality, enough so that their ratings could switch around depending on the setting and/or further dilution. I'm glad I was able to try them all, but I'm in no rush to buy a full 700/750mL bottle of any of them.

Bunnahabhain 20 year old 1997 Palo Cortado Finish

I'm a fan of the Bunnahabhain's 1997 experimental peated distillations. It's big and dirty whisky. Or at least it was when it was younger. I'm more used to the 13-15 year old range of the stuff. But suddenly...it's over 20 years old?! That's terrifying. What happened? What are all these gray hairs in my beard?

above the boat captain...in the reflection...there's a crooked old man...

I had thought all that spirit was sold off to blenders and independent companies. Or maybe it had and now the distillery has bought some back? I think this is the first official release of that distillate. There was a 2017 Feis Ile bottling (finished in virgin oak, WTF) but the tasting notes I've read show no peat.

The distillery opted to give this small batch a finish, or secondary maturation, of "almost" two years in Palo Cortado casks. Palo Cortado is an unusual and interesting sort of sherry, and I'm going to direct you to SherryNotes for a deeper dive. Style-wise it sits between Amontillado and Oloroso, and should not be very sweet.

Distillery: Bunnahabhain
Distilled by: Highland Distilleries Company Ltd.
Current Ownership: Distell Group Ltd.
Region: Islay, but not the Sexy South





Age: 20 years (22 Nov 1997 - 26 Apr 2018)
Maturation: 19 years in "traditional oak whisky casks", then less than two years in Palo Cortado casks (size not specified)
Alcohol by Volume: 54.9%
Outturn: 1620 bottles
Chillfiltered? No
Caramel Colorant? No
(Thank you to Matt W for the sample! Additional note: after being a bit quirky upon opening, this bottle was left to sit for three months before this sample was poured)

NEAT
No smoke on the nose, instead it's more organic, like moss and seaweed. Delicate sherry notes. Walnuts, brine and a hint of prunes. Orange blossoms. The expressive palate starts with smoked meats and little bit of red curry. Then lime juice and very dry cheese. Marijuana and marzipan in the background. Dried berries show up later on. Smoked meat and smoked nuts in the finish. Ginger, chile oil and limes.

Going to take this down to regular Bunny strength.

DILUTED TO ~46.3%abv, or about 1 tsp of water per 30mL whisky
The nose starts with moss, earth and flowers. Then sticky candy and ground mustard seed. Hints of wood smoke and gunpowder. The palate has become much sweeter with a hint savoriness. Think brown sugar and bacon. Lemon candy, salt and a little bit of moss. The finish is sweeter too. A little tangy and salty and mossy.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
It's almost two whiskies for the YOOOOGE price of one. The diluted version is simpler but a real joy to drink. The neat version would be a thinker more than a drinker were it not so thunderous. But it's not really peat that causes the (entertaining) ruckus. Instead it's the bold spirit and a reserved parcel of casks causing mischief. In fact my notes have me doubting how many of these casks held the 50ppm-peated-malt spirit. (Or 30ppm, as per Jordan, who is probably right.) This reads less phenolic than many similarly aged Springbanks and Ardmores. Could they have blended a couple unpeated casks into the vatting? No matter what's in the mix, this is another great official Bunnahabhain. If it were one-third the price, I'd buy a bottle!

Availability - A couple dozen retailers worldwide
Pricing - Europe: €350-€550 w/VAT; USA: $500-$600

Rating - 89