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Auchroisk 12yo Port Wood Finish
Murray McDavid
Speyside Single Malt Whisky
46% abv
£26.50
The polls of the Drammies 2008 are closed but Kevin Erskine has posted the picks of yours truly at The Scotch Blog in the run-up to the official announcement of the winners next week. Hope you all voted and many many thanks if you happened to vote for Dr. Whisky as best new product(non-whisky... though I am certainly full of the stuff).
Here is another whisky that my friend Tommi brought over for Dr. Whisky in little sample bottles from his collection at home in Finland (had another yesterday). Thanks, buddy.
Murray McDavid is an independent bottling company that is now tied to Bruichladdich distillery on Islay. For over a hundred years independent bottlers were the only people bottling whisky from single distilleries as most distillers output went nearly exculsively to blends. It seems hard to believe today but proprietary releases of 'single malt whisky' is actually a pretty recent 'invention', popularised by Glenfiddich who marketed their single malt in1963. By no means was this a new concept, but it had never been done on a large scale. Glenfiddich now outsells its nearest competitor by double. By double? That sentence sounds wrong. Whatever. You can edit it in your mind. I have to get to work.
Quick few points about Auchroisk (pronounced "awe-thrusk"):
-young distillery built in 1974 to contribute to J&B blended whisky
-the site was chosen because of the water source "Dorie's Well"
-they store well over 250,000 casks on site and the stills pump out 3million litres per year... and you probably still have never heard of it
-the first official bottling was in 1986 as a part of the Singleton of ______(distillery name here) range, a series that has been reintroduced in recent years.
-Auchroisk has been a part of the Flora & Fauna range since 2001.
-I am going now.
TASTING NOTES:
Roboust nose of clotted cream and raspberry jam, milk chocolate. Rice vinegar. Some spice like pine, fennel, or the white bulbs of green/spring onions.
Chinese hot and sour soup. Butterscotch with ginger and hot peppers. Brioche and a thin layer of marmite. White pepper. Creme brullée. A very winey finish with some vegetal notes as well.
SUMMARY:
A rich nose that has few comparisons at this price point. While many criticise finishing, this extra time in port pipes has added a wonderful depth of flavour that adds incredible value to this drop. Nice work.
Malt Mission #246
Malt Mission #247
Malt Mission #248
Malt Mission #250
Malt Mission HOME
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
Malt Mission HOME
Glengoyne Burnfoot
Highland Single Malt Whisky
40% abv
£32
$50 (USD)
Burnfoot was the original name of Glengoyne distillery. This new travel-retail-exclusive release was launched in October 2007 and while it uses the 1833 name of the distillery it also boasts some very modern elements in its packaging (fluorescent GPS inspired box design) sharing a conceptual approach with another whisky in Ian Macleod Distillers range, Smokehead.
Glengoyne Burnfoot has no age statement but contains whiskies up to 34 years old. It was created to "represent a cross section of the Glengoyne character," offering a slightly fresher and sweeter taste than some of the other variants in the Glengoyne range. "Glengoyne Burnfoot is a whisky that has gone back to the future," says Iain Weir of Ian Macleod. "Burnfoot combines almost 200 years of whisky-making expertise with a twist of 21st century creativity. The result is a subtle and complex whisky." Let's see.
For more distillery info and to see all Glengoynes has on the mission click HERE.
TASTING NOTES:
A very consonant and chordal nose of a flour-dusted wood counter tops, some juniper, lemon, pears, green gummy bears and black tea.
Interesting and divergent. Tight and crisp but also quite rounded in the flavour impact. Some older casks in here, I think, there is some mustiness and a great intermingling of fruit, some gin, almonds, honey and oats.
SUMMARY:
Tasty, but not exceptional, and not exceptionally Glengoyne. It is light but also shows great depth. There is something very familiar about it, it is as clean as I remember the Glengoyne 10 (which we will have on the mission in the coming weeks) but there is more sherry, and the finish is long, dense, and oaky. It is an easy drinking mouthful that isn't obvious or boasting about its quality. So subtle and complex is a fair description, Iain. Worth getting your hands on.
Malt Mission #246
Malt Mission #248
Malt Mission #249
Malt Mission #250
Malt Mission HOME
Arran First 1995
Island Single Malt Whisky
46%* abv
£32**
Specially selected casks from the first distillations at Isle of Arran distillery (b.1995) make up this limited release of 2784 bottles that was released in 2004 and is hard to find today.
Gordon Mitchell, distillery manager from the beginning, retired this past summer (2007) and was commemorated with the limited release Gordon's Dram. He has been replaced by James MacTaggart, formerly of Bowmore. We all hope that success continues to come to Arran, that the spirit remains as tasty as it has been throughout its young life, and that the peated version(12ppm) of Arran that has been produced for the past three years will continue long enough for all of us to try some when it is ready.
For all bottles from Arran had on the mission and for more distillery info click HERE.
* - at the LCBO there was a sticker amendment on the box reading 45.2%
** - price likely to be higher if you can find this bottle.
TASTING NOTES:
Apples, pears, some green chillies and butterscotch. Malt, oat cakes, and spice. Hard to describe the pepperiness, but it is crisp and vegetal.
Sweet and light, with the tree fruits above now cooked. Some nuttiness, too... hazelnut paste, Nutella. Salt, earth and cinnamon. Fresh and creamy with some woodiness like a sauna (cedar).
SUMMARY:
Light but pungent. Quite an invigorating nose.The Arran bottle reads, "the result has surpassed out expectations." Indeed, this drop is well-balanced and wonderfully promising. We continue to be charmed by the young Arran Distillery.
Malt Mission #245
Malt Mission #247
Malt Mission #248
Malt Mission #249
Malt Mission #250
Malt Mission HOME
Lonach Caperdonich 1969, 37yo
Duncan Taylor & Co.
Speyside Single Malt Cask Whisky
40.6% abv
£60
Caperdonich is one of those distilleries that was built in the boom of the 1890s and mothballed just over a century later. The distillery was christened with the uninspiring name "Glen Grant #2" and was originally built with a pipeline connection to neighbour Glen Grant. Within five years after opening in 1897, the site fell silent, a fate shared with many distilleries in the wake of the Pattison crash(1898), and would not operate for over SIXTY(60) years!!! It was at this point the the name Caperdonich was assigned. The distillery operated as a part of Seagrams' Chivas and Glenlivet Group and just one year after Pernod Ricard took over the Chivas Group in 2001, Caperdonich was motballed (2002).
This is a cask-strength whisky, but you will note that it comes in at just 0.6% over 40% abv. By law, Scotch whisky MUST be bottled at a minimum of 40% abv. The Lonach collection from independent bottlers Duncan Taylor & Co. are bottlings made up of matured same-distllery vattings of casks that have fallen under-proof(ie. below 40% abv) with casks that have not. Whiskies falling under-proof is more common than many of us realise and most of these casks become constituent parts of deluxe blended whiskies, mixing with casks that are 50-60% abv, thus bringing the median up above the legal minimum. Euan Shand and the folks at Duncan Taylor use the single-distillery vatting method with these under-proof casks and thus create bottlings that, by law, remain Scottish Single Malt Whiskies. Clever.
TASTING NOTES:
Freshly cut pineapples in a wood salad bowl. Oak that comes off like disposable diapers/nappies (yes, clean ones). Some jam. Quite fruity and sweet and not a note out of place.
Warming and buttery eruption in the mouth, some baby powder, gets touch musty at points and even sour before getting incredibly nutty and toasted, roasted hazelnuts. Some raspberry, too. There is a very late flavour of green olives among a very dry oakiness.
SUMMARY:
Fruity sweet and incredibly oaky. Seems to have gone a bit beyond the "sweet spot" in terms of maturation, especially noticeable on the palate, but with a wonderfully constructed nose and such good value for the age, I can't really knock it.
Malt Mission #241
Malt Mission #242
Malt Mission #243
Malt Mission #244
Malt Mission HOME
Balvenie New Oak 17 "First Bottling"
Speyside Single Malt Whisky
43% abv
£55
Now don't get confused, even if the folks at Balvenie appear to be trying to confuse you. Yes, there was a "limited release" Balvenie New Wood back in mid-2006. This Balvenie New Oak is not the same. And although it apparently replaces the "Limited Release", it is called "First Bottling". And you will also note the abv is 43% rather than 40%. Beyond that I suppose it is completely different. Right?
Retailers' websites don't seem to help the matter much where "New Wood" and "New Oak" seem to be used interchangeably. Gets worse: the Balvenie official website (U.S. one, too)doesn't even make mention of this product, "New Wood", "New Oak", or "Who Knew?"
So I'll just drink it. Besides, it's what's inside that counts. For distillery info and to see all Balvenies had on the mission, click HERE.
TASTING NOTES:
Apples and honey, cinnamon, pie spices. Bubble gum, warm honey, vanilla ice cream.
Cashews, chestnuts, melba toast, cloves, lemon zest, light and heavy at the same time. More vanilla ice cream, cinnamon, lemon meringue. Eager to have more.
SUMMARY:
Very Balvenie honeyed tones with slightly oak-amplified vanillins. Malty core. Creamy finish. Perfectly balanced or perfectly plain, depending on perspective and/or mood. Clean and tidy whisky from the creative mind of malt master legend, David Stewart.
Malt Mission #241
Malt Mission #242
Malt Mission #243
Malt Mission #245
Malt Mission HOME
Imperial 1994 13yo
Duncan Taylor, NC2
Speyside Single Malt Whisky
46% abv
£27
First whisky from the mothballed Imperial distillery so far on the mission ... and the people rejoiced ... hooray!!!
This is just one of the 21 distilleries built in Speyside during the whisky boom of the 1890s (b.1897), it is one of four mothballed distilleries in owner Pernod Ricard's stable (we'll have the product of another later this week), and it was the first to be commissioned for sale (subsequently cancelled) to a real estate agency. Although located right on the Speyside Way (by Carron), Imperial never had a visitor's centre partly because it was in operation for just 7 years between 1985 and 1998.
Hard times befell most distilleries built in this boom period, as it was followed by a bust in the aftershocks of the Pattison crash in 1898, but Imperial remained of use to many. Robin Laing tells us that "The distillery dam provided recreation in the 1930s for summer galas of The Caledonian Swimming Club of Aberdeen, and for soldiers during the Second World War, when the distillery was requisitioned by the army to provide accomodation for troops and act as a military store." Today, the site managers make accommodations for toads who, every spring, migrate through the still house. "They seem incapable of going round the building and if the door is not open, they get stuck."(The Whisky River, p. 143)
The NC2 range from independent bottler Duncan Taylor and Co. are single cask bottlings that are Not Chill-filtered and Not coloured (hence N.C. x 2).
In the first edition of his Malt Whisky Companion, Michael Jackson described this whisky as "perfect for bedtime." Let's see if it's perfect for breakfast.
TASTING NOTES:
Incredibly fruity, estery with a creamy bourbon core. Candied, but not too sweet. Ginger. Pineapple. Warm, sweaty pencil after an exam.
Sweeter than the nose with a charred oakiness that keeps it in control. Creamy and toasted with caramel, a bit of tobacco, and a nice long oaky finish. Oat cakes. OaK cakes.
SUMMARY:
Really nice drop that has absorbed lots of oak character in just 13 years. Creamy and fruity without being too sweet. Friendly price, too. Always happy/sad to find a good expression from a mothballed distillery, isn't it?
Malt Mission #241
Malt Mission #242
Malt Mission #244
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Malt Mission HOME
Benromach Organic
Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky
43% abv
£30
Organic this and that, off-setting carbon footprints, recycling in Hackney borough... the world is changing and we are starting to realise that we are causing some of that change. But is this awareness just a fad? a trend? will it, as a concept, be commodified like everything else in this consumer culture? I remember back in 1989 when the world (at least my little 13-year-old world in one corner of Canada) went GREEN, every product was PHOSPHATE FREE, was BIODEGRADABLE, etc. The term GREEN sold well; Green Shampoo, Green Cereal, Green green vegetables. By 1994 the selling power of the GREEN "brand" had faded. Wasting no time to get in on the Organic game so vogue these days, Gordon & Macphail, owners of Benromach Distillery, have introduced an Organic whisky. (I am sure if there could be 'free range' whisky, someone would try to manufacture it)
As far as manufactring goes, Scotch whisky production is already way ahead of other industries in terms of re-use and recycling of materials and energy efficiciency/recycling. And as if the ingredients of Scotch whisky weren't natural enough, this whisky, the first certified Organic single malt whisky, uses pure spring water, 100% organic Scottish barley, organic yeast, and filled to organic virgin American oak casks from carefully managed forests. I think even the two men who work at the distillery had organic yogurt and porridge oats for breakfast each day of production after doing their yoga and reading chapters from Naomi Klein's new book.
Just east along the devil-horned bit of the Moray coast from Burghead, 4th-7th century Pictish capital and home of the maltings, is Findhorn, an appropriate neighbour to makers of the first organic single malt whisky. The Findhorn Ecovillage is a pioneering village of sustainable living that began back in 1962 with a bunch of optimistic hippies (teachers, scientists, musicians, artists), is one of the largest holistic communities in the world, has a eco-footprint HALF that of the UK average, and my friend HB was born there. Whisky casks, already a re-used product, are usually used to hold new spirit 3 to 5 (or more) times. The pic to the right shows a house at Findhorn made from ex-whisky cask staves when they were of no more use to the spirits industry.
For more distillery info and to see all Benromachs had on the mission click HERE.
TASTING NOTES:
Woody and warm, like a freshly electric-sharpener-sharpened pencil, with a whole fruit basket of aromas: hard pears, pineapples, green grapes, green bananas. Some instant coffee, very sugary tea, and Hershey's Kisses amid yet more oak, honey and nougat, and the smell of soil on your clothes.
Sweet like toffee that builds up becoming more oaky and toasty but is brought back down to earth with honey and the most robust barley taste of any whisky I have every had. Finish gets very grippy with oak, like bourbon, and dries with flavours of dehydrated apple and apricots, a bit of a lemony zest, and even more wood workshop.
SUMMARY:
Dave Broom has described this whisky as "edgy and plain with hard malt and freshly planed wood," (WhiskyMag Iss.58) and while I can understand where his desciptors are coming from, I don't see them as negatives in the least. I totally dig the nose with its distinctively barley-spirit tone just amped up with sanded wood and fruits, love the chewy mouthfeel and the flavour development from butterscotch syrup to hard oak and the richest and spiciest barley can get back to waxy American chocolate (box of Pot of Gold) and museli breakfast cereals to the finish which gets a bit too gripping with oak for my tastes (at least today) to make this a perfect drop. This latter point is a minor criticism, however, demanding that rather than not drinking Benromach Organic at all (which would be a major loss), we just drink it faster or alongside a refreshing lager or a pint of water. It is this drying effect that keeps control of the sweet chocolaty flavours creating a really wonderful balance. Absolutely delicious, in my mind, and without a doubt one of the best whiskies I have yet had on the Malt Mission.
Malt Mission #241
Malt Mission #243
Malt Mission #244
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Malt Mission HOME
Clan MacGregor
Blended Scotch Whisky
40% abv
$15 (USD)*
It has been exactly a year since I installed a tracker that records visits to Dr. Whisky. Looking at traffic graphs of the past 12 months blows my little malt-soaked mind. I never thought this whisky blog would last as long as it has or attract as much interest from so many corners of the globe. I want to thank every whisky nerd new and old for reading and sharing with others, and to the retailers and distillers who have helped keep this site going from strength to strength, week to week, dram to dram. Thanks to you, this remains an AD-free blog, and I am very proud of that. Now, down to business...
In a way, Clan MacGregor is the younger sibling of The Gordon Highlanders blend as both are progeny of William Grant and Sons but only relatives of Grant's line of blended whisky. They have much lower malt content and are not sold globally. Clan MacGregor is rarely found outside of the USA but remains a HUGE seller as the highest selling US-bottled scotch (ie. it is tankered over to the states for bottling) and number 2 of all blended whisky in the US, behind Dewar's. The other major market for Clan MacGregor is Thailand where the brand has been introduced with a promotional push in recent years. A great thing about being bottled in the US of A is that you can find it in those huge-ass bottles with handles. Love it.
There is also some irony in the fact that at the value-end of the whisky range of two competing companies, Wm Grant and Sons and Pernod Ricard have brands named Clan MacGregor and Clan Campbell. "Such was the hatred between these two clans at the turn of the 17th century that the Campbells succeeded in having the MacGregor name outlawed," writes Jim Murray in Classic Blended Scotch (p.126), "to the extent that anyone bearing the name would be removed of it at pain of death." It took over 150 years for this savage law to be repealed but today the battle lives on in sales wars between French company Pernod Ricard's Clan Campbell (13th highest selling blended whisky worldwide) and Scottish company Wm Grant&Sons' Clan MacGregor (14th highest selling blended whisky worldwide).
Bottle text is always entertaining, especially with low end blends. The best part of this bottle text? "It is an achievement of perfection, distilled by skilled craftsmen, aged for thirty-six months, and blended by experts whose many years of experience in their art create a character of smoothness and taste that is unmatched." Unmatched taste is not necessarily a positive and although I like the poetic sonority of "distilled by skilled craftsmen", aged for 36 months is barely legal (whisky MUST be matured at least 3 years, 36 months, to be called "scotch whisky"). Brilliant. Excited to taste this puppy.
* - chances are you will find it cheaper.
TASTING NOTES:
Fresh, new-make element about it (which I quite like), with a bit of white pepper, Wonderbread, and not as much sweetness as I expected. In fact, not really sweet at all. In fact, not really ANYTHING at all.
Palate shows a touch of grain sweetness and the liquid has a pretty good body, not watery or oily, some elasti cresistance, if you know what I mean.
SUMMARY:
Totally surprised. Not hard to swallow or hot, actually quite chewy texture-wise and remarkably easy to drink, but really does lack any character. An absolute challenge to make tasting notes or to note any tastes. This is to be consumed by volume, ie. it is not a whisky to mull over on a late winter's evening, and for use as a budget mixing Scotch whisky. Ice, soda, red Noilly Prat, Crabbies, Coca-Cola, whatever.
Still shocked it wasn't horrid. 19 million Americans can't be wrong.
Malt Mission #240
Malt Mission #242
Malt Mission #243
Malt Mission #244
Malt Mission #245
Malt Mission HOME
Mackmyra Preludium 06
Svensk Whisky
50.5% abv
£40
We have had the Preludium 03 and 05 so far on the mission (Malt Mission #104 and Malt Mission #239) and today we will be having the newest release, not yet available in the UK, Mackmyra Preludium 06. The style of this release is "frisk svensk rök", fresh Swedish smoke. This is made from barley that has been dried over a juniper and peat fire, matured for 4 years in first fill bourbon casks and then mixed with spirit that has matured in small, 100-litre American oak casks. It is made up of spirit from the pilot distillery (1999-2002) and the contemporary one (2002-now). See their site for more.
This was released at Systembolaget in Sweden at the beginning of December and by all accounts it sold out in about two minutes. See this man's VIDEO of his attempt to find a bottle. All you need to understand is that 'slut' ("SLOOT") means finished/the end/sold out. When I have worked retail, all but one bottle of Mackmyra I sold was to Swedes. Seems Sweden is almost single handedly supporting Mackmyra. Amazing. 12,000 bottles, this release. (Was it all in Sweden?) That is national pride. And an obsessive enjoyment of barley spirit.
Big thanks to Lars for the samples (today and yesterday). Not sure what Mackmyra Preludium 06 will retail for in Britain so will change price once it hits shelves.
TASTING NOTES:
The now signature array of pine, gin/juniper, and dough comes off first with a cloud of Tube dust or stale smoke following. Perfumy like nailpolish, but some nice banana and ice cream sweetness all with a aura of smoke.
Lots of caramel and vanilla initially but upon swallowing the abv explodes with flavours of burnt wood, taste of the smell of (does one even need to say that?) pan toasted pepper and mustard seeds, and a really unexpected tinned fishiness. A bit of hummus earthiness, too. Salt. Finish brings us back into oaky territory with candied sweetness and vanilla tea, with a final breath of smoke.
SUMMARY:
Complex nose matched by a complex palate, though I think either age or marrying would allow the flavours to bind a bit better. Metallic taste surprised me but was kept in line with banana and vanilla. Like a teenager just figuring herself out, the attitude is erratic at best, the clothes don't necessarily match, and they don't necessarily match the individual. But still, she's a good kid and her family loves her. All in all I think it is the best Mackmyra I have yet had. The 02 (not tasted for mission) is probably second favourite. But this stuff needs to grow up and after letting us experience the adolescence of this promising new distillery, that maturity is something to be excited for.
Malt Mission #236
Malt Mission #237
Malt Mission #238
Malt Mission #239
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