Malt Mission 2008 #320

Rosebank 25yo (1981)
Lowland Single Malt Whisky
61.4% abv
£130

First, I would ask you to draw your attention to is the abv of this puppy. Yowza.

Second thing is that I appreciate the emails of encouragement in spite of the fact that my posting rate has been irregular at best. THANK YOU. And thanks to those who continue to send samples. Dr. Whisky has no intention of stopping this mission, and goodness knows he hasn't; he just struggles to find time to write about it.

Third, YES, I will be doing a Christmas Picks post again where I list Dr. Whisky's choices of the best whisky to give (or receive) this Christmas, including whisky books and other stuff for the malt lover in your life.

Fourth, let's taste this gem from the closed Rosebank distillery. Hey! This is the first Rosebank had on the mission... Amazing. Well, sorry it has taken so long. It is a wide wide world of whisky out there.

Originally converted from the maltings at Camelon Distillery in Falkirk, Rosebank distillery was situatied on the banks of the Forth and Clyde Canal and, many believe, was "murdered" when in the late 1980s, DIAGEO decided to include Glenkinchie as one of its classic malts for the lowland region. Too little too late, but the world has since learned what fine spirit was being produced at this distillery, one of the last to practice triple distillation. It is said that there might still be some Rosebank contributing to Johnnie Walker Swing. Who knows?

This is one of 4,170 bottles produced. Today, notes are by TF, with a few additions by yours truly.

TASTING NOTES:

Waxy, sweet; plenty of forward oak, sweet orange, some butterscotch, fudge, spices, cloves. Big, powerful alcoholic prickle. It is over 120 proof! Rye bread, and some wine-like characteristics. Floral notes eventually fight their way through, along with ginger and melon. With water, becomes more biscuity and develops honey notes.

Big oak surge, then the alcohol, zoink! Oily with immense hot pepper and spice, clove and chilli seeds. Very full and oily. As the initial alcohol burn dies away, amazing polished malt comes through to spar with the spices. Delicious. Through the finish, lovely unctuous malt continues to envelop the tastebuds. The length is phenomenal. The clove and cracked black peppercorns have the last word.

COMMENTS:

Oof! This is a monster (in a good way). The official literature refers to this as 'ripe and mellow'. You're having a laugh, mate - ripe, perhaps; mellow? er, I think not. Clearly aged Rosebank has a different profile to the old 8yo people raved about. Hats off to whoever selected the casks for this - it emphatically gives the lie to the received wisdom that Rosebank had to be bottled young.

Thanks, Tim.

Malt Mission #316
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Malt Mission 2008 #319

Highland Park 16
Island Single Malt Whisky
40% abv
£35

Twenty (20!) days since my last Dr. Whisky post and it is not for lack of dramming. Been crazy busy with work and the whiskevangelism has taken me west to Chicago, further to San Francisco and LA, south to Tampa and Miami with roadtrips to Boston, Washington and Philadelphia in between. And yes, a few drams have been had. Have been very fortunate to meet many amazing folks and to see the best and worst bits of this disparate and expansive land. Stories to come in my published chronicles, "Dr. Whisky's Casebook"... heheh.

I recently met Martin Daraz, Highland Park's Ambassador here in the USA. Martin is infected with a sharp wit and the only remedy is, you guessed it, uisge. He insisted on calling me DOCTOR so I insist on featuring some HP sauce on my return to the mission. This expression is only available at Duty Free in the UK (elsewhere?)

Tasted with PK. His notes appear in quotes. For all Highland Parks had on the mission, click HERE.

TASTING NOTES:

Cocktail orange. "Bright notes, a lot of candy, fresh, open feeling as well. Candy floss" Slightly winey, honeyed. Woody, "yeah, like fresh construction." This oaky element develops over time, with malty sweetness, opening up to melon and green strawberries. "A light hint of darkness, not ebony, but mahogany. Goes towards the dark."

Dry at first with a candied plum, and a flambéed sugar toastiness. "It's got a bite. Definitely." Floral and sweet like white port ("yeah, vin santo"), some sherry spiciness, but dry and quite oaky. Grapefruit. Lavender candies. And again, oak.

SUMMARY:

Patience is this dram's friend. With time and air "it suits a spring-feel, bright notes and playfulness. Warm sunlight in cool air, blossoms and, I don't want to go over the top here, but sort of free (hand genstures), you know what I mean?" It must be said, Paul is expressive in art and music as well as whisky-soaked verbiage.

I loved taking my time with this and each nosing or tasting brought new impressions. Distinctly different from the 12 or 18 year olds, and endlessly fascinating. Just enough dry edge to to be puckering and encourage another sip. Might match very well with creamy sweetness like creme brulée or certain cheeses. And the Scotch Chix dug it.

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Malt Mission 2008 #318

Macallan 15yo
Speyside Single Malt Whisky
43% abv
£40
$124.95 (CAD)
$78(USD)

This is from the Fine Oak range of Macallans that are matured in refill, ex-bourbon, and some ex-sherry casks. Is that enough to justify the utterly obscene price at the LCBO (see above)? Wow. For a standard bottling? Seems nuts, but I guess those crazy Canucks buy it. I can think of a few other drops I might prefer for 125 bucks.

Reminds me of something I saw in an email from my friend Doug Stone at FORSCOTCHLOVERS.COM. He has partnered with Carol Iselin and Dave Sugar, the creative minds behind Inner Light Crystal Studios in New York, to create only 21 hand-carved bottles of Macallan Fine Oak 21yo. Now there is something that might be worth the spend. Take a look HERE.

Macallan, one of Speyside's most legendary distilleries is undergoing a bit of renovation. I was able to visit the Macallan distillery in August and see some of the construction they were doing to increase production, storage, and tour-ability of the site. A whole new process house is being created and, I imagine, will be the showroom of production so the tours needed walk so far into the plant (or so near the steel washbacks).

For more distillery info and to see all Macallans had on the Malt Mission, click HERE.

TASTING NOTES:

Oaky and spicy, waxy and woody. A carpentry shop with hard honeydew, white rind of watermelon, cinnamon, and quite lush with vanilla.

Buttered white toast, nutty oiliness, with toffee and bitter chocolate. Oak throughout, even a bit cardboardy. Great movement in the finish where the vanilla-ed oak blossoms and lingers for some time.

SUMMARY:

The nose is pleasant, oaky, and sweet but the alcohol is quite aggressive causing strong prickles with even shallow nosings. Square on the palate with distinct regions of flavour that give an overall rounded impression. But again, the alcohol tingles and this will be a challenging feature for many. Certainly improves with time in the glass and a few drops of water.

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Malt Mission 2008 #317

Scapa 14yo
Single Malt Scotch Whisky
40% abv
£30
$56.96 (CAD)
$45(USD)

NOMINATED in the 2008 DRAMMIES
*Most Under-rated whisky
Vote HERE (before Mar 6, 2009)

Based on the northern Orkney islands, Scapa is somewhat of a neglected jewel in the Pernod Ricard (Chivas, Glenlivet, Aberlour) portfolio. The distillery is only producing spirit 3 days a week. It is unsual in still using a lomond still, although it is operated as a normal still today (the parallel plates have been removed), and Scapa practices the longest fermentation time of any distillery: 160 hours.

This Scapa 14 expression replaced the Scapa 12 (Malt Mission #67) expression in 2004 and the rumours are that a Scapa 16 may be soon replacing this 14yo. To be fair, this sort of thing makes sense as their stocks from a period of when the distillery was mothalled (1994-2004) must be very limited as the only spirit produced during these years was when staff from the nearby Highland Park distillery would come by for a couple months per year to fire up the stills. So most the stock to be used to make a well-rounded spirit may actually be quite a bit older than 12, 14, or 16 (hence the age jumps, and justifiable price jumps).

For more distillery info or to see all Scapas had on the Malt Mission, click HERE.

TASTING NOTES:

Powdered candied sweets. Earth, soil and salt, oak and fruits. Little jojoba. FunDip. Really quite appetising.

Soft and juicy, like actual juice... and booze. Toffee sweet, drying with time. Dirtier and drier with time. Feels good in the mouth.

SUMMARY:

Extremely enjoyable. Light nose, heavier body, sweet and salty dram with few comparisons.

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Malt Mission 2008 #316

Compass Box Asyla
Blended Scotch Whisky
40% abv
£24.99
$40 (USD)

This is the first and only blended whisky from whisky creator and all-round admirable guy John Glaser and Compass Box. It also marks the last marque in his range that has not yet been on the mission (if we include the Cantos as a single "expression"). Oh damn... execpt for Orangerie... which I see has just been re-released!!! Woo hoo!

The name Asyla is beautiful and evokes the problematic notion of finding refuge in a bottle, perhaps inappropriate to some, but for others an idea that resonates with the definition of institutions "for the protection or relief of some class of destitute, unfortunate, or afflicted persons." Anyone feel a little unfortunate these days? Smile! Life is wonderful SO FIND THE WONDER!!! I promise it is there in the company of your friends and family, the smiles of the children around you, in your own resourcefulness and creativity, and, yes, in delicious and beautifully crafted scotch whisky, in spite of what some haphazardly composed "satircal prose" might tell you.

This whisky is made up of single malts (Linkwood, Glen Elgin, Teaninich) and grain whisky (Cameron Bridge) 100% matured in first fill (ex-bourbon) American oak barrels. Awards have been draped upon this whisky since its inception.

For all Compass Box had on the Malt Mission, click HERE.

with Ran and Matt.

TASTING NOTES:

Baked goods, light and clean, wood treatment/laquer, orange furniture polish thing that mums use. "A little bit grassy"-MH, "yeah, hay"-Ran.

Much fuller on palate than nose, but soft. Malty with some citrus. Hazelnuts, All-Bran. "Quite a nice, smooth aftertaste."-RM

SUMMARY:

Grows on you, "more than it ever seems it will be." Tight bordering on flat, but quite full and smooth, rich and sweet. Good hillwalking summer dram and the front line redeemer of a whole category of scotch whisky.

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Malt Mission 2008 #315

Glenfiddich Vintage Cask 1977

Cask #4414
Speyside Single Malt Whisky
54.1% abv
£375
$750 (USD)

While Glenfiddich fast approaches becoming the first single malt to sell 1million cases in a single year we begin to see signs of a possible downturn for the booming decade that Scotch whisky has enjoyed. And no, it is not because interest in waning or scotch is losing out some competition with bourbon/vodka/rum, but it is because the planet is producing insufficent food for demand, it is because the poorest people in the world cannot afford to feed themselves or their families, it is because people cannot afford homes they cannot afford, it is because the richest people in the world have invisible money that is vanishing (paradox?). Good times!

So here is a luxury good perfectly suited to be enjoyed as the ship sinks. May all this hardship rekindle a sense of community that has been eroded for so long in western culture and bring us back to the fundamental importance of taking care of one another. So let's share this proverbial bottle and come together.

This year's Vintage Cask release from Glenfiddich was selected from a shortlist chosen by David Stewart and Brian Kinsman of six european oak casks from 1975 and 1977. Both David and warehouseman Don Ramsay were around when this cask was filled (in fact, Don had been at Glenfiddich nearly twenty years at that point!). The other selection panelists this year were authors Gavin D Smith and Walter Schobert, restauranteur Jimmy Bradley, and Russian whisky expert Erkin Touzmohamedov. The cask yielded 450 bottles. Check out the Glenfiddich Channel on YouTube to see the selection process.

For all Glenfiddich had on the Malt Mission and distillery info, click HERE.

TASTING NOTES:

Incredibly clean, a well-dressed gentleman. Raisins, sour plums, cranberries, and honey. Dried fruits with big, sherried french kisses. Water unleashes vanilla ice cream.

Powerful and bready, gorgeous chocolate croissant flavour. Reminiscent of very fine cognac. Big, soul-seducing oak, grapes and cinnamon.

SUMMARY:

An absolute treat. My tasting notes do not do this justice as I simply found it too much of a distraction to type impressions while in its grip. And to put those impressions into words somehow diminished their significance. Silent, contemplative sipping that can assure the battered spirit that the it will persevere. Could be worse.

Malt Mission #311
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Malt Mission 2008 #314

Aberfeldy 21 yo
Speyside Single Malt Whisky
40% abv
£89
$150 (USD)

Winner of the Best Mainland Whisky award at the 2007 World Whisky Awards, this 21 year old expression from Aberfeldy distillery was introduced in 2005, 7 years after Bacardi acquired the distillery (along with Dewar's blends and 4 other malt distilleries) from Diageo. The award winning vistors' centre Dewar's World of Whisky opened in 2000 and has been visited by almost a million people.

Although Dewar's dominance in the USA market has slipped a little in recent years, the brands diversification into 12, 18 and ultra premium while raising the blend's association with this fine distillery has helped it's appreciation among malt enthusiasts and widened its consumer base beyond the scotch and soda crowd, if those old fogies even still exist.

For all Dewar's whiskies had on the mission, click HERE. Thanks to SM for sending along the drop and sorry for taking about a year to feature it.

TASTING NOTES:

Sweet, rich and beautiful. Creamy with incredible aroma integration. Nothing out of place or prickly. Toasty, woody, and full of honey and heather, even a gorse-y coconut aroma among a luscious creaminess.

Gorgeous first impressions, flavours so well bound. Macadamia nutes, marzipan, chocolate and buttermilk pancakes then a toasted nut effect, almond butter, with honey, oranges, and malty malty goodness.

SUMMARY:

A great balance of European and American oak influences after 21 years in casks make this excellent drop worth every penny. One for everyday dramming if you could afford it.

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Malt Mission 2008 #313

The Balvenie 17yo Rum Cask

Speyside Single Malt Whisky
43% abv
£65
$130(USD)

The creative baby of the folks at Balvenie, the 17 yo expression has seen incarnations as Islay Cask, New Wood, New Oak, Sherry Oak, and now the 17yo Rum Cask. This year The Balvenie Malt Master David Stewart and his 9-year apprentice Brian Kinsman have gone for a Jamaican Rum Cask finished Balvenie to be their 17yo release.

Folks in the USA will notice that the Balvenie Rum Cask 17yo is about 45 bucks more expensive than its predecessor, the 17yo Sherry Cask (tasted on Malt Mission #312). This has spawned a bit of a discussion on John Hansell's WHAT DOES JOHN KNOW regarding price increases across the Scotch whisky world. I have not yet weighed in on the issue on John's site, but I will add my two cents now.

All of the top 10 single malt distilleries in the world are working at full capacity for the first time since the 1970s if ever. The technical advances and increases in labour hours have therefore increased and if we want, say, Dalmore 15yo in 15 years we have to help pay for that investment today, with the current prices of grain, energy, manpower, etc.

When every bottle a distiller can produce can be sold, the demand exceeds the supply. This seems terribly obvious, but we who have increased interest, passion and SALES of Scotch whisky must recognise that it is a finite product. Scottish distilleries are not enormous operations and that is why we love them. The time and patience that it takes to make, say, a BenRiach 20yo is what has so charmed us about the world of malt whisky. And yes, it makes us feel good and tastes great but if we were to put a price tag on time we would find that we have been paying far too little for far too long. When a Patron Silver (completely unaged tequila) can be sold for $40 and an Aberlour that has matured for 12 years and then gets a second maturation in a sherry cask can be sold for $41, something ain't adding up and we'd be idiots to think that this could last forever.

The instability of the American dollar demands that if a whisky company remains determined to keep the USA as a priority market then prices must be adjusted accordingly as the industry losses last year based on currency alone were VERY significant.

And finally, just look around; movies, bread, rent, WhiskyFEST tickets, etc. have ALL seen increases of well over 100%. Over the past ten years, the price of new Scotch whisky has NOT gone up at the same rate as this wider trend while resale and collector sales of whiskies have seen incredible increases. The eBAy phenomenon has definitely made distillers ask "if PC5 can be sold one month after we released it for 60% more on the auction market, why the hell didn't we charge that from the beginning?" A good, and fair, if annoying, question. (Die pirates, DIE!)

The market can certianly bear it and we, as whisky lovers, must support it for the tens of thousands who work in the industry and for our 30th wedding anniversaries where we want to be able to have the best whisky bar the world has ever seen.

Enough for today. On to the whisky at hand. Have your say at John's excellent site or leave me a comment.

DISCLAIMER: Please let it be known that I currently work for William Grant and Sons, the family-owned Scottish distilling company that owns The Balvenie distillery. If you choose to take my tasting notes as bullshit and Dr. Whisky has not, after 311 Malt Missions, earned your trust as a source of honest presentations of whiskies good and less good, then so be it. But I do vow to maintain objectivity and am under no constraints from my current employers with regards to how to present their whiskies. As a result are the listed impressions are my own, as always. In light of my editorialising above, I should also add that nothing I say reflects the opinion WGS and those opinions expressed are the sole expression of one SS, Dr. Whisky.

TASTING NOTES:

Multi-layered with sweet themes of fruit and spice. Candied and inviting with banana chips, dates, and anise flavoured liqueur. Loads of brown sugar sweetness with grapes and hazelnuts. Toffeed, some tamarind and synthetic orange, growing gently minty with time.

Coconut and creme with sweet oaky grip. Continues with berry fruits and spices (fennel, mint, cloves) with a luscious vanilla backbone of American oak influence. Sweet, lengthy finish with soft impressions of stewed fruits.

SUMMARY:

A luscious and sweet dram that, naturally, will not appeal to everyone. All the complexity comes in the key of sweet: peaches and nectaries, candies, apples, honey, syrup, brown sugar, rum, berries, grapes (perfect Rosh Hashana whisky?) but remains incredibly drinkable and neither cloying nor saccrine-sweet due to the gentle but permeating oaky core of this spirit. To a sweet new year!

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Malt Mission 2008 #312

The Balvenie 17yo Sherry Oak
Speyside Single Malt Whisky
43% abv
£60
$85(USD)

A few years ago Balvenie introduced a limited release 17yo that had been finished in casks that had previously held peaty Islay whisky called The Balvenie 17yo Islay Cask. Today, that bottling is highly collectible and it spawned a series of annually released 17yo expressions from malt master David Stewart and his long-serving apprentice Brian Kinsman. We have seen Islay Cask, New Wood, New Oak, Sherry Oak, and this year, The Balvenie Rum Cask 17yo (to be tasted on the next post).

This release spent all of its 17 years maturation in European oak casks that used to hold oloroso, the dark, glycerine-rich "scented" Spanish sherry. This presents a rare opportunity as most Balvenies contain significant percentages of American oak and only rare single casks like Cask 191 (50 year old and £6000 per bottle) show The Balvenie under full sherry influence.

DISCLAIMER: Please let it be known that I currently work for William Grant and Sons family-owned Scottish distilling company that owns The Balvenie distillery. If you choose to take my tasting notes as bullshit and Dr. Whisky has not, after 311 Malt Missions, earned your trust as a source of honest presentations of whiskies good and less good, then so be it. But I do vow to maintain objectivity and am under no constraints from my current employers with regards to how to present their whiskies. As a result are the listed impressions are my own, as always.

For distillery info and to see all Balvenies had on the mission, click HERE.

TASTING NOTES:

Rich and sweet with heavy sherry influence. Peppery like shiraz. Spicy like coffee. Some oysert sauce and wax. Very fruity, jammy, and brilliantly oaky.

Less sherried than expected, more honey and vanilla creme at first, then explodes with toasted nuttiness, rich fruit and an array of spice including aniseed and cloves. Mmm, dark chocolate and candied cherries. Espresso. Flavours linger without much development beyond their initial statements, but fortunately that complex array is deep and rich from the beginning.

SUMMARY:

A very unique Balvenie and as close to Macallan or Glenfarclas' sherried style that the distillery gets. Although it is not a drop I personally reach for regularly, those who like it (ie. sherry cask lovers) will like it a lot. It sold out rapidly in certain countries and is highly sought after by many, a phenomenon that will only increase in time as the few remaining cases get snatched up. It has all the sherry you could want while maintaining a balance of the Balvenie's core flavours and the rich oakiness one would expect from 100% maturation in sherry casks. Kristin points out that the flavour profile suggests evening consumption rather than breakfast dramming. Absolutely, but don't let me stop you!

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Malt Mission 2008 #311

Gibson's Finest 12yo
Canadian Whisky
40% abv
$26(CAD)

Selling about 300,000 cases per year, Gibson's is a popular whisky in Canada and available almost exclusively in its home market where it is number 3 premium Canadian whisky nationally. We had the Finest Rare 18yo in my last post so I thought I would follow it up with its younger brother.

Now, people often refer to Canadian whisky as 'rye', and while it is true that at one time or another almost all of the whisky produced in Canada was made with a mash bill (mix of grains) of predominantly rye, many spirits we use this description for today are not regulated by any legal directive as the term is in the USA, for example. The law does dictate that, like with Scotch whisky, the Canadian whisky must be produced in Canada, and matured in oak casks IN Canada for at least 3 years.

Other big Canadian whiskies are Crown Royal and Canadian Club. For all Canadian whiskies had on the Malt Mission, click HERE.

TASTING NOTES:

Intensely sweet, toffeed with firm graininess keeping that sweetness in check. Maple syrup, honey, coca-cola, vanilla and a touch of envelope glue.

Waxy with a strong grain presence, slighly piney, rye kick. Buttery. Very gentle with a big vanilla-ed oak finish. Caramelly and soft throughout.

SUMMARY:

Really nice stuff that goes down easy. Lots of pleasant flavours, not overly complex, but very moreish and fairly priced.

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