Suntory Blender's Choice, Ladies Open 2016

The Suntory Ladies Open has been part of the LPGA tour annually since 1990, with cancellations in 1995 (earthquake) and 2020 (coronavirus). The whiskymaker has released bottlings for event. How often, I don't know. In fact, I don't know much about this bottling. The fellow who split up his bottle noted that there's some Hakushu malt in it, and the Dekanta site says it was bottled at a bold 48%abv. As with Monday's Expo '70 blend, I'll try this neat and within a mizuwari.

Brand: Suntory
Ownership: Beam Suntory
Type: Blended whisky
Country: Japan
Age: NAS
Maturation: ???
Exclusive to: Suntory Ladies Open LPGA Tournament, 2016
Alcohol by Volume: 48%
(from a bottle split)

NOSE

There's chalk, raw grains, caramel and brine in the nose. Smaller notes of metal and flowers show up after some time.

The palate is loaded with honey and heat. It seems to get hotter with time, but also picks up oranges and toasted grain notes. It has a decent mouthfeel as well.

It finishes warm, toasty and tangy, with oranges and barley.

The mizuwari has malt in the middle and oranges on the sides. It's lightly sweet and phenolic.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

Lighter in color than the Expo '70, it also reads much younger. The palate's honey note is nice, but I really prefer this as a mizuwari, which may have been the whisky's purpose since the Open is held in June. It's very similar to Hibiki Japanese Harmony with a bigger wallop, which make sense ABV-wise, but that's not really a hot endorsement from me. It really could not match the Expo 1970's delivery.

Availability - Secondary market?
Pricing - ???
Rating - 79

Suntory Very Rare Old Whisky, Expo 1970

Per my daughters, I can't call Jason my little brother anymore. So my younger brother turns an age ending in "0" this week. In honor of this event, I am reviewing a trio of scarce Suntory blends.

Japan's biggest whisky company has released blends in honor of a number of world expos over the years. Today's blend, which is "Very Rare Old", was bottled to commemorate the World's Fair held in Osaka in 1970. Per this auction, there were two such bottlings of two different styles. The whisky under review comes from this bottle shape:

source

Brand: Suntory
Ownership: Beam Suntory
Type: Blended whisky
Country: Japan
Age: NAS
Maturation: ???
Exclusive to: Osaka World's Fair, 1970
Alcohol by Volume: 43%
(from a bottle split)

NOTES

It smells lovely. Peaches and nectarines meet tar, coal and burlap. With time in the glass, it picks up some dried currants, fermenting apples and a whiff of OBE dustiness.

Toffee and butterscotch lead the palate, followed by lemon, menthol, charred chiles and a minor bitter bite.

It finishes more peppery and bitter than the palate, but also has a simple sweetness that lifts it up.

It also makes for one of the most vibrant mizuwaris I've ever had, full of malt, lemon, salt and vanilla.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

This is great! Though "Very Rare Old" is usually a bunch of marketing baloney, this whisky feels like it had some actual extended maturation time. It's malty and thick, can stand up to air and club soda, and is just a swell drink. The hushed finish is all that keeps it from escalating to one of the superlative blends. Beware the varying fill levels seen on the secondary market.

Availability - Auctions
Pricing - ???
Rating - 87

Aberlour 12 year old Non Chill-Filtered

I prefer independent bottlers' bourbon cask Aberlours over the official sherry cask releases. Even the a'bunadhs haven't wowed me. But when Pernod Ricard chose to add a non-chillfiltered age-stated 48% whisky to the official Aberlour range in 2013, that did pique my interest. Yet not so much that almost a decade didn't squirm away until I actually tried it. And now it appears as if they've phased it out. It's become scarce the US, and there's not much of it to be found via online European retailers.

This was the third whisky in last Saturday's Taste Off. How did it compare to the mediocre 10yo and 40%abv 12yo?

Distillery: Aberlour
Ownership: Pernod Ricard
Region: Speyside (Banffshire)

Age: at least 12 years

Maturation: bourbon casks and sherry casks (I think)

Alcohol by Volume: 48%
Bottling year: ~2018
Chillfiltered? No
Color added? No
(from a purchased sample)

NOTES

Right up front, I find almond extract and Walker's shortbread biscuits (a note that reader Florin put in my brain many years back) on the nose. Some of the pear notes remain, but they're overwhelmed by lime candy and white nectarines. Little bits of malt and milk chocolate linger in the background.

The palate has less sweetness and more oomph than the other two Aberlours. One may find dried apricots and dried sweet potatoes on top; toasted barley and toasted oak in the middle; good bitterness, salt and lemon way in the back.

It has a decent-length finish, that's most heat but still has some salt, bitterness, citrus and the dried sweet potatoes.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

The grownup 48/NCF/NC presentation certainly gave this whisky a boost over its siblings. It reads thicker and fuller, with a nice nose and fair finish. But it's also not a home run, more like a single, as opposed to the regular 12 and 10's groundouts. I'm afraid I'm still unsold on the official Aberlours. If I can source the older bottlings, I'll report back.

Availability - Probably discontinued
Pricing - uncertain, searches and databases mix this up with the regular 12
Rating - 83

Aberlour 12 year old Double Cask (40%abv version)

In Monday's review I said the Aberlours 10 & 12 were among the first single malts I did not take to ~14 years ago. But Aberlour 10 & 12 never grossed me out the way Lismore did. The 12 year old Aberlour was just strongly *meh*, and that's what I anticipated during this past Saturday's Taste Off between three Aberlours.

Distillery: Aberlour
Ownership: Pernod Ricard
Region: Speyside (Banffshire)

Age: at least 12 years

Maturation: "traditional oak and seasoned sherry butts" per the marketing material

Alcohol by Volume: 40%
Bottling year: ~2019-2020
Chillfiltered? Yes
Color added? Yes
(from a purchased sample)

NOTES

The nose is very similar to the 10yo's, with the pears and VOCs and bland(er) nut notes. But with time it picks up anise, pumpernickel, a little bit of clove and seaweed.

The simple palate leads with nuts and malt, with hints of cotton and lemon. It gets much sweeter as it gains anise liqueur and raisins. Like the 10, this one also has a very thin mouthfeel.

Another quick finish here. It's nutty and sweet, with a peep of anise.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

It's harmless, kinda like a better version of contemporary Chivas Regal. But not much better. The interesting nose and the palate's anise push it ahead of the 10 year old. But still, I can only assume the French are using up a lot of ice cubes to consume the 100,000s of litres of Aberlour that disappear into their country annually. 

Availability - Europe and North America
Pricing - mid $40s in Europe, upper $50s in the US
Rating - 78 (oh gross, this matches my score from 6 years ago)

Aberlour 10 year old (2016 bottling)

The Official Aberlour Review Week has been rescheduled repeatedly for nearly 18 months, so I made an executive decision to just do it this week. I tried three standard Aberlour releases side by side on Saturday night. First up, the 10 year old.

Aberlour 10yo and 12yo were among the first single malts that I just didn't like. Around 14 years ago, I remember being unable to finish my very-reasonably-priced-at-the-time bottles and donating them to my first tiny whisky group. I found the 10 year old particularly unpalatable. And, until this Taste Off, I hadn't tried in all that time.

Here's how it played out.

Distillery: Aberlour
Ownership: Pernod Ricard
Region: Speyside (Banffshire)

Age: at least 10 years

Maturation: "traditional and sherry oak casks" per the bottle

Alcohol by Volume: 40%
Bottling code: 2016/11/02
Chillfiltered? Yes
Color added? Yes
(sample pilfered from a whisky event)

NOTES

The nose starts off VERY young, all Bartlett pears and paint VOCs. Then hazelnuts appear, and orange gummy bears and some slight cheesy funk (brie).

The palate is bready and sweet, with black pepper, a generic dried fruit note, and some sourness on the side. Very thin mouthfeel.

The brief finish is all pepper, black raisins and sourness,

WORDS WORDS WORDS

I had thought this was going to be D-grade stuff, but (surprise!) it's C-grade. It's very blendy, perhaps a better version of Chivas 12, but not terrible. One could even add this to some Chivas on the rocks and bulk it up a tiny bit. This is certainly not an endorsement, but I did indeed consume this entire sample.

Availability - not in The States anymore (tragedy), but very available in Europe
Pricing - around $40
Rating - 75

Things I Really Drink: Dewar's 27 year old Double Double

Hey, I hope everyone enjoyed those last six American whisky reviews! The next bourbon review is scheduled for 2026.

Let us return to the Scot Land with a fresh TIRD post. My first TIRD (or Things I Really Drink, if you're not into the whole brevity thing) was Dewar's 21 year old Double Double. I liked that blend quite a bit, which shocked me because I find their standard blends to be substandard by even today's low standards. This inspired me to chase down Ohio's (possibly) last bottle of the 27 year old Double Double, which I then split with Dr. Springbank, the man who introduced me to the 21.

From the 21's TIRD post:

The whole "Double Double" thing is certainly a shtick. But it does seem sort of like a shtick devised by a blender.

Step 1: Age the grain whisky and malt whisky. (The most subversive step!)

Step 2: Blend and vat the grain whiskies with the grain whiskies, and the malts with the malts. Age some more.

Step 3: Blend the vatted grain whiskies with the vatted malt whiskies. More aging.

Step 4: Finish the blend in _____ casks.

Oloroso casks were the 21's Step 4. The 27 year old was finished in Palo Cortado casks, which were nowhere to be seen in the whisky industry one year and then suddenly everywhere the next.

Today's review comes from a Taste Off between the 21 and 27. They are indeed different whiskies. And of course I did not take a photo at the time. So here's a pic of the empty washed bottle:

Brand: Dewar's
Ownership: Bacardi Limited
Range: Double Double

Type: Blended Whisky

Age: minimum 27 years

Maturation: see notes above

Alcohol by Volume: 46%
Chill-filtered? No

Added colorant? No
(from a 50/50 bottle split)

NEAT

Quieter than that of the 21yo, the 27's nose does have its sibling's brine and nuts. It adds red plum flesh and hints of blackberry jam and flower blossoms. Notes of apple cider and cloves appear 30+ minutes later. It's all very hushed, though.

The palate is a bit narrow. Brown sugar, limes and apple juice tiptoe in, followed by black pepper and mineral moments.

Its finish is shorter than the 21's, showing only apples, honey and citrus somewhat briefly.

ON ICE

Much more interesting here, with herbs, stone fruits and baking spices.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

While it feels sacrilegious to put 27 year old whisky on the rocks, this blend almost demands it. When neat, it's kind of a *shrug* with limited development. It smells nice but drinks flat despite the 46abv/NCF/NC presentation. The good news is that the woodwork shows limited influence. The bad news is that the malt whisky shows limited influence. As a result it fell short of its 21 year old teammate's performance.

Availability - It's around, though not in Ohio anymore (my bad?)
Pricing - $100ish for a 375mL bottle
Rating - 80 (with some tinkering)

Russell's Reserve 1998

The Russell's Reserve brand produces some very reliable American whiskey, so I was very thankful when my friend, Secret Agent Man, offered up a pour of his bottle of the extra-limited 1998 vintage release. According to The Whiskey Jug and Breaking Bourbon, the bourbon spent 15 years in oak, then was put into steel for two years when the Eddie Russell saw that the 23 barrels' contents were evaporating faster than expected. More time in the barrels would have risked “less desirable flavors [taking] over.” Kudos to the Russells for opting against the larger age statement! I knew none of these things when bottled up my sample ten months ago, nor did I realize how desired this whiskey had become.

Brand: Wild Turkey

Owner: Gruppo Campari
Range: Russell's Reserve
Distillery: Wild Turkey Distillery
Location: Lawrenceburg, Kentucky
Mash Bill: 75% Corn, 13% Rye, 12% Malted Barley
Age: around 15 years old (1998-2014 in oak)

Outturn: 2,070 bottles
Alcohol by Volume: 51.1%

 (thank you to Secret Agent Man for the sample!)

NOTES

The nose is very almondy: roasted almonds, almond extract and amaretto liqueur. There's also raspberry fruit leather and cherries in milk chocolate right in the middle, and a teeny bit of old rye in the background.

The palate has less of a woody bite than yesterday's 9 year old Evan Williams. The almond notes are gentler here than in the nose. Lots of toasty notes. Pinches of salt and tartness. It develops cherry and blackberry notes with time.

Like the palate, the finish shows more toastiness than barrel char. Some salt and savory notes. A little bit of rye and a few tart berries in the back.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

This a very nice bourbon that I wouldn't mind sipping in any season, under any circumstances. Despite the aggressive evaporation, the oak and the alcohol are very well incorporated. Is it luxurious? Yeah, probably a little bit. It's certainly better than the majority of the BTAC and Pappies I've tried. As far as the original $250 price tag? I guess if this was going to be Wild Turkey's fancy bottle, at least the quality is there.

But then this:

This is why I've lost interest in bourbon. Sometimes we can choose what we let in and what we don't. The world offers me plenty of hues and tones of Batshit Crazy on a daily basis. This one ain't worth it.

Availability - If you want it, you can find it.
Pricing - potato
Rating - 88