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Bunnahabhain 1997 10yo
"Heavily Peated", cask 5366
Signatory Vintage
Islay Single Malt Whisky
60% abv
The peaty spirit being produced at Bunnahabhain (boonahawvin) is called "moines" and the contents of this puppy are of that variety. Some have hypothesised that some of the no-age statement peaty/islay brands on the market with mystery contents are actually some of this peaty Bunnahabhain. Very possible, Watson.
For more distillery info or to see all Bunnahabhains had on the mission, click HERE.
This was a wedding gift from BK. Thank you, you lovely Japanadian, bass-playing goalie.
TASTING NOTES:
Cranberries, plums, soil and salt. Faint eggy notes with gummy bears, sour cherries, and a general fruitiness that is quite appealing.
Cigarette butts and Halls lozenges, brownies, burnt crispy bits of cheese under the broiler, custard, raisins, and a puff of exhaust. Lengthy finish of sweet sherry and tarry smoke.
SUMMARY:
If you have been narrow minded enough to call Bunnahabhain the boring Islay malt, then it is about time you revisit it. Not that this is outstandingly delicious whisky, but it is outstandingly stand-out-ish. And those who like 'em down and dirty will drool over this sold out gem.
Malt Mission #351
Malt Mission #353Malt Mission #354Malt Mission #355
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Linkwood 1989, 15yo
Cask 3177, 561 bottles
Signatory Vintage Cask Strength CollectionSpeyside Single Malt Whisky
57.7% abv
£40
The only other Linkwood I have yet had on the mission (Malt Mission #60) was from an independent bottler and as Linkwood lost out to Cragganmore as the Speyside representative in Diageo's Classic Malts range back in 1989, there has never been a widely available official bottling, Flora & Fauna being the sole standard proprietary release. (Just look at this list!) So Linkwood has been a darling distillery of independent bottlers (especially Gordon and Machpail) and blenders from Johnnie Walker to John Glaser since it was built in 1821.
Time is tight this week. Sorry these recent posts have been so lame.
TASTING NOTES:
Totally breakfast, not full English, but nuts and healthy seed mix, oats, oily and slightly dairy... yogurt. Rotting apples on the grass, full and almost farmy. Potato chips/crisps, apple cider vinegar, stock bone, and a tired sherry sweetness.
Sweet and sour with a HOT impact. Churned butter, late toasty effect like crunchy bits of well roasted potatoes. Ends lactic and creamy with some vanilla and oak.
SUMMARY:
Great body throughout, in the nose and on the palate. Perhaps a bit young (hard and hot) but more time in the cask might have allowed the sourness to dominate and become butyric. A risk the folks at Signatory apparently decided not to take. No idea where you can find this bottle today, but thanks to Tommi for sharing it! Kippis!
Malt Mission #246
Malt Mission #247
Malt Mission #249
Malt Mission #250
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Rare Ayrshire 1975, 31yo
Signatory Vintage
Single Malt Scotch Whisky
47.7% abv
£132.95
Well, I thought I was going to end this week with a Balvenie, an appropriate finish to this William Grant & Sons themed week. But yesterday evening I had the pleasure of sticking my nose into a few glasses with Michael Hopert, manager at Royal Mile Whiskies here in London, and had to share notes on this rare gem.
East Ayrshire was not a distillery, it is just a designation often given to the (limited) releases from this unique and now dismantled distillery. Ladyburn Distillery was a malt distillery experiment of sorts within the Girvan grain distillery.
Girvan was built in 1963 to provide grain whisky for Grant's increasingly popular blends. In 1966, the malt distillery Ladyburn was built on the same site, again, mainly to go into Grant's blends. The distillery was very compact and could be operated by one employee. The site was chosen for these distilleries because of a good water source, good transport via rail and sea(only a mile from the coast), and proximity to the bonding and blending halls of southern Scotland.
Only nine years later, Ladyburn was closed, making it the shortest-lived of the "malt-within-a-grain" distilleries. Ben Wyvis in Invergordon survived just slightly longer, 1965-1977, while Inverleven (1938-1991) and Lomond (1956-1985) malts were produced within Dumbarton grain distillery, Kinclaith (1957-1976) at Strathclyde; Glen Flagler and Killyloch (1965-1985) were distilled within Moffat Distillery. Due to the rarity of these malts, not necessarily their outstanding quality, some of these bottlings had been known to fetch a pretty penny. In this regard, I find this expression from Signatory to be quite reasonable.
TASTING NOTES:
I unsually don't mention colour or viscosity, but because I was tasting this blind, I noted the v e r y SLOW legs in an attempt to guess the age (for the record, I guessed 30, but I was told the abv% and that helped, too)
Bubblegum sweetness, synthetic fruits, watermelon Hubba Bubba. Bourbon cask characteristics, creaminess, cool whip, tropical; lime, strawberries, molasses based Trinidad rum.
Bright, honey and bread, bannock. Pine, spruce, hemlock, a coniferous forest floor. Really develops its flavours as they linger in the tingly finish.
SUMMARY:
No water needed to reduce the abv%, but it did bring out even sweeter, fruitier essences in the nose. For me, it was really enjoyable whisky, fresh, fruity, and well matured.
Malt Mission #76
Malt Mission #77
Malt Mission #78
Malt Mission #79
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Edinburgh University Water of Life Society
Independent Bottlers Meeting
Teviot Dining Room, Bristo Square, Edinburgh
April 16, 2007
Ended our Edinburgh visit appropriately by attending a meeting of the whisky club Kristin and I used to be involved with(first as poet laureate, then president) when we lived in Edinburgh. In fact, it was the society that got us involved with eachother in the first place. Ah, whisky; bringing people together for over 200 years...
The theme of the meeting was Independent Bottlings and we had a few interesting ones to try. Here are impressions of three of them. Notes in quotes are not my own and, where possible, I have attributed them to their sources.
Littlemill 1990, 16yo
Signatory Vintage
Single Malt Whisky
43% abv
£27.95
Littlemill was a lowland whisky, although it sourced its water in the highlands. The distillery closed in 1984, opened briefly 1989-1992, suffered a fire started by youngsters in 2004, and today all but two towers have been demolished. It was the oldest Scottish distillery in production having been founded by George Buchanan in the 1750s, but obviously lost that position when it closed in 1992. The 8yo bottling you can sometimes find is still bottled by Loch Lomond, but the contents are in fact 14-15 years old.
TASTING NOTES:
Soft. Light and sweet with old spice or someone's dad's deodorant. Chinese 5-spice.
"Wet cardboard" -Leo, "Tequila" -Dan, "Cinnamon" -Joe, "Butterscotch" -Nikki
"Old wood in an antique furniture shop" - Lorna
Watery, melony, then mildew flavours, dissonant notes that really sour towards the finish. Like decomposition in the mouth."Damp clothes that were mud-soaked and now have air-dried." -Ran
"Chemical used to treat cow hides" -Jamal
"Rotten pineapple" -Leo
"Honeydew" -Joe
SUMMARY:
"The nose is misleading and the aftertaste is awful." -Judith
"Walking into a house full of mold. Possibly the worst whisky I have ever had" -Kristin
To be fair, I must note here that we warmed up with the smooth Irish Kilbeggan whisky, after which many malts would suffer. This was interesting, but certainly not something I would reach for.
Tormore 1993, 13yo 
Douglas Laing, Old Malt Cask
Single Malt Whisky
50% abv
£30
After the Second World war, the whisky industry saw new growth for the first time in over 30 years; closed distilleries reopened and new ones were built. Three new distilleries were built after the war before Tormore in 1960, and only Tormore still survives intact and in full production. The distillery was built to supply malt for Long John blends. Today it is most commonly found in Ballantine's blends, and quite rare as a single malt.
TASTING NOTES:
Fresh, unripe tree fruit; pears or russet apples. Sweet coconut like Jon, Mark and Robbo's Smooth Sweeter One. Creme brullée.
"Linseed oil" -Dan, "Hot sick and flambéed cherries" -Joe
Firm mouthfeel that tastes bready and slightly seedy or oily, like sesame seed bagels. Mild pickle saltiness beneath.
SUMMARY:
Exciting sip after sip, new flavours abound, constantly developing but not ever blowing anyone away. Solid stuff.
"Weird bourbon cask. Too much woody... um... nutty rich... cinnamony" -Leo
Clynelish 1993, 13yo
Gordon and Macphail Connoisseurs Choice
Single Malt Whisky
43% abv
£30
One of my favourite distilleries, references to Clynelish can be found here and at Malt Mission 23
TASTING NOTES:
Blueberries and apricots, shortbread, salty, and a whiff of peat.
"Sausage" -Leo
"Coconut" -Simeon
"It's making me tipsy" -Lorna
Dark and gloomy. Meaty and clean. Halal butcher. Oranges.
"Pork fat", "tobacco", "dirty old dirty old old dirty."
"Virgin pine palate/skid on the palate" -Simeon
SUMMARY:
Friday night in watching horror movies. Dark and scary, exciting and tense, but no surprises. My favorite of the night, but the Kilbeggan warm-up dram was the overall winner with the group. I regret not taking notes on that one. Oh well. A good night was had. Thanks, guys.
Malt Mission #61
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Edradour 10yo
Highland Single Malt Whisky
40% abv
£30
$78.15(CAD)
$56(USD)
Edradour was founded in 1837 and is the last of the farm distilleries that once covered the area of Perthshire through the 19th century. Families would work together sharing the land, the water wheels, and the sweet spirit that would come of the excess barley. In 1925, the distillery was bought by Willam Whiteley to supply malt for his House of Lords and King's Ransom blends.He renames the distillery Glenforres-Glenlivet. Today it is owned by Andrew Symington and Signatory Vintage Scotch Whisky.
I have visited it several times because Pitlochry is so easily accessible from Edinburgh and/or Glasgow, and after a hike through the woods, past a waterfall where deer are often sighted, coming upon the distillery straddling a 'wee burn' is like stepping back in time, making it an ideal Scottish whisky distillery day trip.
The distillery is said to have done a busy trade with American customers during prohibition and there are unsubstantiated stories that the distillery was was indirectly owned by the mafia.
Of interest, to me at least, are the facts that only 3 men are responsible for making the whisky, the stills are as small as are legally allowed for commercial scale and the distillery owns and uses the last working Morton refrigerator in the industry.
TASTING NOTES:
Odd array of aromas that is quite big and heavy. Sherry, bags of dried fruit, and smells like the taste of stomach bile. Wood and unscented body soap. Some smokiness that could just be the oaky sherriness.
Mouth-coating sherry that tightens up like the effect tootpaste on the tongue. Golden syrup and honey, but not sweet. In fact bitter and challenging. Some smoke appears with a distinct soapiness.Finish is not too long and consists of some sherry, oak and orange peel.
SUMMARY:
This is what I gather whisky tasted like in the 19th century and in some ways exemplifies why it offended the palates of the English middle classes and therefore benefited from blending. Their new Ballechin is supposed to really taste like whisky of centuries past, but if you arent willing to drop the coin, this gives a pretty good idea of what small stills hidden on Bens and in Glens would spit out. With the help of some choice sherry casks for maturation.
Malt Mission #41
Malt Mission #42
Malt Mission #44
Malt Mission #45
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