Waterford Week begins with Waterford Ballykilcavan 1.1 Irish Single Malt

I love Ireland and I love Irish whiskey, so I'm rooting for one of the scores of new Irish distilleries to legitimately challenge the old guard. Waterford Distillery seemed like it was best dressed for success. Mark Reynier had a dozen years of experience resurrecting Bruichladdich Distillery on Islay. With Waterford his team has put a lot of emphasis on Ireland's terroir (or tēireoir per the website), and the official site is loaded with geeky details about every bottled batch. So I decided to start sourcing Waterford samples.

Then I attended a tasting of six Waterford whiskies. And I enjoyed approximately 0 of them.

Two elements troubled the whiskies. Firstly, they're three-year-old whiskies that tasted like three-year-old whiskies, hot, yeasty, and too unformed to get a sense of the barley. Secondly, not only can Reynier not quit his love of wine + whisk(e)y, but (per his interviews) he's committing to it 100%. I have a difficult time discerning how French wine casks promote Irish terroir, both in theory and the reality of the liquid.

So I stopped amassing Waterford samples with those I'd obtained via bottle splits before that tasting. I'm going to try each of the five this week.

First up:

Waterford Ballykilcavan 1.1

Distillery: Waterford
Owner: Renegade Spirits
Region: Waterford, Ireland

Type: Single Malt

Age: 3 years (2016-2020)
Maturation: 45% American oak, 37% French oak, 18% Vin Doux Naturel casks
Outturn: 8640 bottles
Alcohol by Volume: 50%
Chillfiltered? No
e150a? No
(from a bottle split)

NEAT

The nose starts with wort and white grape juice. Then...is that peat? No. No, that's sulfur. With time, smaller notes of grape candy, apple cider and nectarines appear. The palate, more manageable than the nose led on. It's very doughy with an undercurrent of stout. Some hairy sulfur mixes with a moderate honeyed sweetness. The finish has a good length to it, with tart apples, sultanas and yeast. A little bit of element S, as well.

DILUTED to ~43%abv, or 1 tsp of water per 30mL whiskey

Less sulfur, more apple and grape juices on the nose. Some florals on top, walnuts underneath. The palate becomes more acidic, less sweet. Some lemons, salt and sultanas. Kinda flat overall. It finishes with salt, honey and vague citrus.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

Sadly, this fits right into my struggles with the 6 others I'd tried a year and a half ago. Many distilleries produce gin and vodka to scare up revenue while their whiskies age. Others release barely legal whisk(e)y. Waterford has chosen to do the latter. All the pretty packaging and nerd-heaven website data can't make up for this really young product that has the same theme of the world's capital "C" Craft whiskey: immature spirit and aggressive cask influence. All the grapes, sultanas and S point to the Vin Doux Naturel vessels, and perhaps those French oak casks as well. The sulfur-sensitive population may want to stay away, as there's enough S to trigger a feces-filled fedora.

At least with Bruichladdich's early Local Barley products, the distillery waited 6-8 years, and though the spirit was upfront and young, it wasn't raw. Tomorrow I'll review the 4 year old Ballykilcavan 1.2.

Availability - close to selling through in Europe and USA
Pricing - all over the place
Rating - 76

The "I'm Very Sorry" sample and the resulting cocktail

Within a recent parcel from the gentleman who runs the My Annoying Opinions website, I found a mystery sample labelled, "I'm Very Sorry".

I accept his apology and now I'm going drink the bottle's contents. As a disclaimer, I'm pretty danged certain I know what this "whiskey" is thanks to a hint Mr. Opinions provided. More on that product in a moment.

All that follows was typed live (with some edits)......

NEAT NOTES:

Nose - Allspice, cardamom, ginger beer, a hint of yellow nectarine and LOTS of fresh cilantro. It's starting to go Full Hippie with notes of holy basil, ashwagandha and a dash of manure.

Palate - Um......It is strongly flavored. This is going to stain my glass and my taste buds. Okay, so there be lots of holy basil, cassia, pepper, mustard seed and tree bark here. Fresh ginger, lots of bitterness, hints of cocoa, white rum and juniper. It's like some sort of zany gin.

Finish - Bitter (wormwoodish?). Cilantro, holy basil, fresh ginger and white JM Rhum by turns.

This unique, fragrant, but not entirely palatable creation is most likely Masala Chai Flavored Whiskey from St. Paul's Studio Distilling. Per the official site, "The Masala Chai Whiskey begins with a rye malt whiskey base to which we add a curated mix of Assam tea and whole spices. The blend is distilled and then aged in oak barrels."

As much as I enjoy rye and Assam and whole spices, I don't understand why they all had to meet this way. I never thought anything could fully obliterate rye notes, but alas this collection of "whole spices" have done so. The bitterness reads like extremely over-steeped black tea, so perhaps that's where the Assam lives.

There's something very entertaining about the nose's herbal bundle. And there must be some gin cocktail that this could electrify. But I'm electing to create a whiskey-based cocktail. In honor of the caucasians who leaned on masala chai for their product, I shall also take part in some cultural appropriation for the cocktail's name. I present...

NAMASTE AWAY

a bazaar Old-Fashioned

The Ingredients:

1.5 oz of Masala Chai Flavored Whiskey

2 tsp of Demerara simple syrup

3 dashes of Angostura orange bitters

5 dashes of Strongwater Golden cocktail bitters

¼ of an orange peel

Ice cubes

The Process:

Muddle the peel, syrup and bitterses together at the bottom of a hefty tumbler. Stir in the flavored whiskey. Give it 5-10 minutes to mingle, then add plenty of ice cubes.

The Why:

I adore Strongwater's Golden bitters and thought its generous aromatics would mingle well with those of the whiskey. There's a good batch of Demerara syrup in my fridge, and it ups the cocktail's imperialist core. Finally, just in case the above doesn't work, I'm orange-ing the shit out of this.

The Results:

Jeezus Franciscan Cripes this is terrible. Every element was a mistake. The herbs and spices overwhelm everything (even the orange-ing!) more, and now it's so awfully cloying that I just powered down the quarter-naked orange just to introduce something else to my mouth. The "whiskey" was better neat.

I'm very sorry about this cocktail. Happy Sunday!

Availability - around the Twin Cities and the official online store
Pricing - $24.99 for a 375mL
Rating - 66 (maybe? I don't know.)

Expectation versus Reality: Burnside 24 year old 1988 AD Rattray, cask 1739

Burnside (aka "teaspooned" Balvenie) distilled in the late 1980s can be a gorgeous thing. During my last trip to Japan (sigh), I had a chance to try several of such malts in bourbon cask form, and they were all flawless Speysiders. So when my buddy, Secret Agent Man, gave me a generous pour from his bottle of this particular 1988 single cask, I was very excited. Then he said, "Try it and tell me what you think," which sent me from thrilled to curious. Sipping the whisky, I winced out a "What the hell?" He nodded in agreement, then gave me a pour to take home so that I could attempt to put "What the hell?" into more words. Here it goes.

My fabulous sample label.
I don't think this was actually selected by Binny's.

Distillery: Balvenie (plus a teaspoon of Glenfiddich)
Owner: William Grant & Sons
Region: Speyside (Dufftown)

Bottler: AD Rattray
Age: 24 years (29 Nov 1988 - 7 Dec 2012)
Maturation: hogshead
Cask #: 1739
Outturn: 212 bottles
Alcohol by Volume: 52.1%
Chillfiltered? No
e150a? No
(thank you to Secret Agent Man for the sample!)

NEAT

The nose begins with strawberry candy and red pixy stix, then takes a turn for bubblegum and perfume. Then paint VOCs. Barrel char and tar. Cottage cheese and chalk. The palate's woodiness is outrageous. Perhaps there are some oranges, yuzus and hazelnuts in there, but they are fucking trampled by bitterness and tannins. There's some cloying stuff happening around the edges as well. It finishes with split lumber, barrel char, mothballs, limes and agave nectar.

Dare I water it?

DILUTED to ~46%abv, or ¾ tsp of water per 30mL whisky

Berry candy, peach candy, copper and chalk make up most of the nose. Some VOCs in the background. Perfume joins late. The palate remains full of bitter oak, but now burnt things and acidity join the carnival. Lots of sweetness too. Limes and menthol add some interest in the background. The tannins back off of the finish now, but the burnt stuff and acid remain. Some strawberry gum and lime candy hints linger in the back.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

There are too many sensible-chuckle-inducing Expectation versus Reality memes for me to choose from, so I'm afraid I'll have to refrain from memes this time. Sorry, not sorry. Either someone (Rattray) sat on this cask for way too long, or its contents were never right. I'm not going to give it a failing rating because the nose has plenty of entertainment value, but the palate is a wreck.

I've had a few too many weird casks from Rattray, so I've stopped trying to source samples of their stuff. This may be my last review of their single casks.

(For what it's worth, Whiskey Jug (2.5/5) and especially Whisky Musings (76/100) found this cask problematic as well.)

Availability - Sold out
Pricing - ???
Rating - 70 (saved by the nose)

Lefty Gomez, a dead hamster, and Fujikai 10 year old

Lefty Gomez, the always quotable ace of the Yankees pitching staff across the late Babe Ruth era, Lou Gehrig era and early Joe DiMaggio era, passed away on February 17, 1989.

A week later, my family bought our first pet, the most adorable of domesticated rodents, a hamster. I named him Lefty. I don't know if he was really a southpaw (zing!), but I was a baseball history geek who'd just turned 10½, so it didn't matter. Lefty was fuzzy and fast, didn't mind being held, and had a great time making nests in his wood shavings. He also had virulent case of wet tail, and had to take medicine every day.

Seven months later I found my hamster on top of his bedding, expired from dehydration, having shit himself to death. It was summer, we wrapped him in a sock and buried him in the backyard. My mom and I cried.

This is a bottle of whisky someone abandoned at a Columbus Scotch Night event this year:

Distilled at Japan's Monde Shuzou distillery, Fujikai 10 year old single malt is loathed by the whisky world. Of course I had to try it.

Fujikai 10 year old, 43%abv, aged in bourbon casks, 8088 (lucky?) bottle-outturn

Well, it smells of garbage. Rubber garbage, cardboard garbage. Someone tossed new sneakers into the bin, doused them in armagnac eau de vie, and lit them on fire with dry peat.

There's a lot of bitter wood and soy sauce on the palate, along with menthol, raw wheat, oversteeped pu-erh tea, and hamster piss.

It has a WOWEE level of bitter oak in the finish, along with burnt wheat, burnt hair and tar.

That was Fujikai 10 neat. I thought perhaps a proper mizuwari would salvage the whisky.

A proper mizuwari did not salvage the whisky, but did change it.

Into my dead hamster in liquid form.

I can't rate this. The remaining liquid will be buried.

Concluding the Loch Lomond cluster

(Loch Lomond cluster homepage)

I'm wrapping up this cluster a few days late due to some rare travel last week, thus this conclusion awkwardly drops on a Monday.

Speaking of awkward, I used to think Loch Lomond Distillery produced the most awkward whisky in Scotland. (Seamless transition!) Something changed abruptly once Exponent bought Loch Lomond Distillers. That "Something" was the magical disappearance of the rancid Taco-Bell-garbage-dumpster note I used to identify as Distillery Character. That "Something" was also the distillery's sudden focus on single malt promotion. That "Something" was also the constant rebooting of package design.

The last two somethings are corporate decisions, but the first is more mysterious. Was former owner, Glen Catrine, that bad at selecting casks for official bottlings? And very consistently so? That doesn't explain where that unsettling garbage note went. I found it a grand total of 0 times during this cluster, with the '90s bottling of Inchmurrin 10yo coming the closest to that style of murky fluid. You will rarely rarely rarely hear me speak well of investment groups and VCs, but Exponent built something new upon takeover, something that works. And maybe fished the dead rats out of the stills.

All four of Loch Lomond's single malt styles shown brightly during this cluster:

Inchmoan was the biggest surprise, since I didn't even enjoy that malt after the takeover. But here it averaged the best scores of the four types (tied, actually). Each of the four Inchmoans read differently, so the only constant was quality. But what quality!

Inchmurrin was probably the weakest of the four styles, possibly because it didn't have peat to hide behind, but at least the aforementioned '90s Inchmurrin highlighted how much has changed for the better.

Croftengea, a remedy for those of us tired of the same-old-same-old peated stuff, remains my favorite non-Islay peated whisky. And I wonder if we've even seen the best of it.

Like Inchmurrin, the Loch Lomond type doesn't have the luxury of peat to cover up spirit flaws but, aside from the 18yo, it can be a solid, fruity whisky. The older stuff improved with water, and the 12yo was the closest thing I've had to a "daily drinker" for years.

The cluster's 14 modern Loch Lomond malts averaged 86 points! A decade ago a Loch Lomond cluster would have peaked at 68 points and I would have quit whisky blogging. (Don't everybody sigh at once.) 88- to 90-point scores made up 40% of the reviews in this cluster, which I admit sounds like some dreamy, Whisky Advocate stuff. But it's real. Loch Lomond makes good whisky.

Loch Lomond 30 year old

(Loch Lomond cluster homepage)

It's time to bring the Loch Lomond cluster reviews to a close with the eldest of the siblings, the 30 year old bottling the distillery rolled out in 2020. I'm not sure what the outturn was for this batch, but the official site does say that it's made from unpeated spirit that was first aged in "American oak casks" (again), then finished in first fill Oloroso casks. Though I'm not a fan of finished brown spirits, there are many types of finishes, fashioned by different producers for varying amounts of time. Let's see what Monsieur Henry's team has created here.

Distillery: Loch Lomond
Style: Loch Lomond
Owner: Loch Lomond Distillery Company
Region: Highlands (Western)
Age: at least 30 years (??? - 2020)
Maturation: first "American oak casks", then 1st-fill Oloroso casks
Outturn: ???
Alcohol by Volume: 47.0%
Chillfiltered? No
e150a? Not much if any
(from a bottle split)

NEAT

Many things going on in the nose: eucalyptus, milk chocolate, tangerine, saline, cardamom and newspaper print. Some warm hay in the background. The milk chocolate note expands with time. The peachy palate has lots of peaches, sweet peaches, tart peaches and floral peaches. But there's also a squirt of lime juice, some fresh parsley and a hint of metal. More nectarine than peach in the finish, with touches of brine and amaro bitterness.

Normally I don't add water to a 30 year old single malt, but this one is telling me it needs a few drops. Or at least I think that's what it's saying. I don't speak Gaelic.

DILUTED to ~43%abv, or ½ tsp of water per 30mL whisky

Nothing was lost in translation. Figs, dried apricots, dried cherries, aromatic toasted oak and newspaper print highlight the nose. The peaches mellow out in the palate, and are met by bitter citrus, a hint of savoriness and an almost-peat earthy note. The finish's length expands, mixing amaro, newspaper print, sweet citrus and sea salt.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

It swims! As much as I adore fruity whisky, the extra depth brought out by dilution improved the experience. Though older Loch Lomond exists, 30 years may be this whisky's peak; after that the oak can start stomping around. The Oloroso finish worked well, to the point that I wonder if this was more of a secondary maturation, or a gentle warehouse? No matter what the secret is, this was a good malt to bring the cluster to a close.

Availability - Europe
Pricing - $500-$700, depending on the conversion rate
Rating - 88

Loch Lomond 21 year old 1996 Cadenhead Small Batch

(Loch Lomond cluster homepage)

When buying a single cask of Loch Lomond, make sure to note whether it's a single malt or single grain, since I've seen both out there. I am not reviewing any of their single grains in this cluster (though the official 18 was pretty darn close), not because I have anything against LL's single grains, but because I have everything against single grain whisky in general.

Today's Loch Lomond is a double cask (two hoggies) of 21 year old whisky bottled by Cadenhead. It was well received by the Whiskybase community, especially for a Loch Lomond. I wonder if I'll be able to detect if it's really "Loch Lomond" or another one of the distillery's styles. Probably not, but it's worth a try!

Distillery: Loch Lomond
Style: Loch Lomond
Owner: Loch Lomond Distillery Company
Region: Highlands (Western)
Independent Bottler: Cadenhead
Range: Small Batch
Age: 21 years (1996 - 3 Dec 2018)
Maturation: two bourbon hogsheads
Outturn: 450 bottles
Alcohol by Volume: 51.5%
(from a bottle split)

NEAT

Lots of citrus fruits, mint leaf, raspberry jam and cardboard arise from the early nose. Hard toffee gradually morphs into buttery caramel. Hints of dried leaves, balloons and peach skin appear after 30+ minutes. It has a toasty palate. Toasted barley, toasted mixed nuts, toasted nutty bread. Some tangy, tart oranges fill the middle, with white peaches in the back. The finish reads sweeter than the palate, mostly on the oranges. Salt and wood smoke linger in the background.

DILUTED to ~46%abv, or ¾ tsp of water per 30mL whisky

Oooh. I like this better. Honey, grapefruit, blossoms and shortbread biscuits on the nose. Malt and bolder fruit (limes, grapefruits and tart apples) in the palate. It finishes less sweet, but plenty fruity and malty.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

I was on the fence about this one when trying it neatly, as I'm really not a cardboard (plus balloons!) fan on the nose or palate, and the finish was just so-so. Though I did like the palate's toasted notes. Dilution lifts it up. Everything in this whisky works better at 46%abv. Perhaps with a full bottle and a steady hand, one can find the perfect strength. It tops the official 18yo with ease, but can't quite top the OB 12. Good stuff though. And no, I can't tell if this is Inchmurrin or regular Loch Lomond.

Availability - Central Europe, though possibly sold out by now
Pricing - ???
Rating - 85 (diluted only)