Port Ellen 23yo (40%,75cl, Distilled in 1982, Connoisseurs Choice)

Appearance:

Very pale gold

Nose:

Peat and smoke.

Palate:

Exceptionally smooth peat slowly merges with an unintrusive smokey flavor.

Finish:
Lingering peat and smoke with hints of biscuit.

Grade: A+
Comment: I'd been on the prowl for a bottle of Port Ellen for some time (relatively speaking). This distillery closed its doors when I was but three years old and stumbling upon a bottle was unexpected to say the least. While this Connoisseurs choice bottling was spectacular, but I'm longing for Diageo to release the next vintage directly from the sealed Port Ellen storehouse on Islay.

Glenrothes 15yo (43%, 75cl, 1991)

Appearance:

Pale gold

Nose:

Earthy, like an un-aged eau-de-vie. Buttery undertones.

Palate:

Biscuit when drunk straight, lots of butterscotch with water added; honey undertones and and just hints of the earthiness from the nose.

Finish:
The earthy fruit linger beyond the other flavors.

Grade: B+

Laphroaig 30yo (43%)

Appearance:

Rich gold

Nose:

Peat, peat, and a little more peat. Faint hints of honey

Palate:

The peat dominates, with a sweet, almost biscuit like flavor and some smoke.

Finish:
The finish lasts for minutes, slowly winding its way through.

Grade: A

Balvenie DoubleWood 12 yo (43%)

Appearance:

Mead yellow

Nose:

Vanilla, honey, & port.

Palate:

Nutty with buttery over tones. Some sherry as well.

Finish:
A long and buttery finish.

Grade: A-

Bowmore 12yo (43%)

Appearance:

Honey yellow

Nose:

Peat with a little butter & toffee.

Palate:

The islay peat does not disappoint in Bowmore's 12yo, but the smokiness is a little subdued.

Finish:
The tail has the faintest hints of citrus mixed in with the peat.

Grade: B+

Lagavulin 16yo (43%)

Appearance:

A rich gold.

Nose:

Smoke and peat with a hint of butter.

Palate:

The smoke and peat from the nose intensifies greatly here with almost none of the buttery hints remaining.

Finish:
The peat lingers on for minutes.

Grade: A

Michel Couvreur 12yo (43%, bottle #52293)

Appearance:
Light honey

Nose:
Strong butter with hints of toffee and honey.

Palate:
The same as the nose.

Finish:
The finish lingers a bit, with the honey intensifying greatly before the taste fades.

Comment:
This one has an interesting story. The single malt scotch is purchased by a Frenchman and then placed in burgundy casks and aged in the same caves as the wines.

Grade: A-

Caol Ila 18yo (43%)

Appearance:

Pale gold.

Nose:

Smoke and peat. Adding a few drops of water dramatically reduces the quality of the nose.

Palate:

The peat and smoke come through clearly in this very smooth scotch with buttery undertones. A few drops of water made this scotch markedly sweater and reduced the smokiness. The buttery undertones also intensified.

Finish:
The peat lingers for several minutes. With water, the buttery taste lingers as well.

Comment:

I've learned one lesson tonight - do not sully this spectacular scotch with even the smallest amount of water.

Grade: A

Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey (Batch #6, 47%, Distilled 10-6-04)

Appearance:

Rich gold.

Nose:

Buttery, almost caramel.

Palate:

The same rich, buttery flavor comes through, in the initial palate, but adding a few drops of water unleashes a burst of sweetness and adds a creamy dimension to the whiskey.

Finish:
The finish lingers pleasantly with hints of vanilla coming through.

Comment:

I wasn't overly enthusiastic with any American whiskey when compared to European counterparts, but Stranahan's has changed my mind. I'm really looking forward to the 2005 bottling and hopefully a visit to the distillery during my next trip to Denver.

Grade: A

The Glenlivet Nadurra 16yr (2006,Batch 0606A,57.2%)

Appearance:

Light gold.

Nose:

Honey & fruits (possibly pear). With water, distinctly more biscuity.

Palate:

Fiercely alcoholic with hints of smoke. With water a more floral flavor with the smoke almost completely dissipated.

Finish:
Only the alcohol induced warmth last initially but with the addition of some water, the mild biscuit flavors linger for almost a minute.

Comment:

While this is only the second cask strength scotch I've tried, I found it more approachable then the Macallen cask strength. Overall a very enjoyable drink on a frigid Minnesota night.

Grade: B+

Talisker 10yo (45.8%)

Appearance: Liquid clings like glue, producing legs which descend at medium pace.

Nose: Divine medley of seaweed, iodine, peat smoke, iron oxide, and stewed peaches. Nutty sherry beneath it all. Light scents of fresh biscuits.

Palate: Slightly grainy and well-rounded but firm. Soft, clean oak profile. Elegant peach fruitiness immediately mirrors that of the rich smokiness. Swift undertow of sharp salt and licorice. Peppery alcohol lends a fiery glow while complementing the campfire smoke and understated tarriness. Deep rooted seaweed struggles upward through the blanket of peat. Deeply smoked, but there's plenty of fruitiness to enhance it. Distinctly peppery. Medicinal characteristics numb the palate.

Finish: Of course the peat smoke lingers for an eternity, as nutty sherry and iodine provide additional complexity.

Comment: There's a stunning assortment of complexity in this dram, and what fun it is to explore the depths each and every time. An exceptional whisky.

Site Changes

I made a few changes to the layout yesterday, mostly to the graphics (or lack thereof) and fonts. Let me know if anything's hideous or if something doesn't appear correctly for you. I also stuck the "Topics" on the sidebar so that we wouldn't have to scroll to the bottom to find a specific post and shortened the number of posts appearing on the page, so that scrolling all the way down wouldn't be such a pain.

Also, I know I've probably missed adding some really good websites to our resource section below. If you have any that aren't on there, go ahead and add them and indicate whether it's a retail or information website.

Old Rip Van Winkle Handmade Bourbon 10yo (53.5%)

Appearance:
Legs are eager to form before slowly drooping. Enticing viscosity.

Nose:
Super concentrated richness of leather, nutmeg, wet paint, cinnamon, custard and char. Bright and polished.

Palate:
Oily and dense; liquefied wax consistency. Brightly leathery with tobacco and spicy char, primarily. Dense layers of sweet honey-glazed tobacco and maple ooze forth as a dried-fruit twang lies buried beneath the richness. Oak never intrudes, but provides support by pillaring substantial weight. Weighty with a deeply satisfying sappiness which soothes the tongue and wedges itself within the spicy char and drying alcohol.

Finish: Char lingers and anchors cinnamon sticks and aniseed. Extremely long.

Comment: A late-at-night bourbon seemingly constructed for late-night pondering. Pure and decadent. Beautiful stuff.

Glassware Comparison

Some of you might remember my musings over glassware not too long ago. Well, I finally got my hands on a glass from Celtic Malts--for free!--and I've been fairly impressed so far. Prior to this acquisition I was using a large (10-12oz?) brandy snifter, which also comes in handy for much of my beer consumption. I will attempt to compare the two glasses over the next few reviews. Rather than writing a boring pros/cons list, here's my muddled thoughts as of this moment...

First, the snifter. The aroma amplification is insanely good, as you might expect with the giant bowl and narrow opening. The bowl is very large, which allows for a good contact area with my hand. If you like your whisky on the cool side, this might not be so good. Sturdy blown-glass construction and quite cheap--I don't think twice about throwing it in the dishwasher. Whiskey aromas come across very bright in the snifter, though I couldn't say if the aromas come across correctly. The major downside is the huge, stingy alcohol-nose that comes with using a glass with a giant bowl (evaporation rate and all that good stuff). Also, the tongue-coverage isn't perfect and a little swishing is required to really hit all the tastebuds.

And then the CM glass. The aroma amplification isn't quite as massive, but it's still forceful. Only when I go straight from the snifter to the CM glass do I initially have a problem with this. The bowl is smaller and I find it a little more difficult to properly warm the dram. Same blown-glass construction and it feels quite solid. This one was free, but at something like $8 retail, I'll be a little more hesitant to put this one in the dishwasher. Aromas are much more earthy in the CM glass: a dram of Talisker that was all about pepper in the snifter now has insane loam and peat aromas. Most notable of all the characteristics, nearly zero alcohol in the nose. Even my bottle of Ardbeg Uigeadail has its alcohol tamed in the CM glass. That's 54.2%, by the way. Tongue-coverage is very nice and aided by the tulip-flare to the lip of the glass.

So, for now, I'm definitely getting more enjoyment out of the drams poured into the CM glass than my standard snifter. Like I said, I'll try to do some comparisons here to further illustrate the differences. I was never able to locate a quick and convenient method for ordering the CM glasses (a phone call seems to be required), but was fortunate enough to find out one of my wholesalers carries them and was given a free one when I brought up the subject.

Ardbeg Uigeadail (2004, 54.2%)

Appearance:
Deep gold hue. Legs form quickly but are slow to descend.
Nose:
Lapsang Suchong and peat reek are identifiable at distance. Closer inspection reveals hazelnuts and butter, with lighter notes of sage and fennel. Peatiness becomes further identifiable with large doses of iodine and hospital scent. Something of a Bakelite element as well.
Palate:
Just a hint of vanilla and sherry to start, soon consumed by a healthy dose of smoke and peat. Oily on the tongue.
Finish:
Tangy oak with a long and clean peat draw. Quite hot.
Comment:
This beast can handle a considerable dose of water and transforms entirely. The peat amps up a little, but other elements are traded for burly salt water taffy, sea salt and kippery tones. Fairly sweet with, or without, water.

Post Away!

Guys, after thinking about trying to keep posts organized in a few locations and only using the comments to do so...well, let's just say I don't think it's a terribly good idea anymore. If you've got a trade request, pricing question, technical question, etc, just make a new post of it.

Let's try to keep the labels sane, though, so that someone looking for reviews isn't going to have a bunch of trade requests pop up when they click on, say, the Talisker label. Use your own judgement, but I'd suggest labels along the following lines:

1) A trade request for Ardbeg Uigeadail could be labeled: trade, ardbeg uigeadail FT/ISO. And that would work fine. (FT=for trade, ISO=in search of.) Just make sure you've got an 'FT' or 'ISO' at the end.

2) A price check Laphroaig 15 could be: price, laphroaig 15 price. Same principles apply.

I realize some of this may seem excessive right now, but by the time we've got a few hundred posts up, this is going to be the only feasible method for searching for older information. And, unlike our common home website, much of the organization will be up to the average user. (But we also get to keep our posts indefinitely!)

Slainte!

edit: If anyone more eloquent than myself would like to take a stab at an 'About Us' post, go for it, by all means. Purpose of the site, different features, etc. Maybe we could all chime in with comments about ourselves, describing our attractions to these beautiful spirits as well.

Pappy Van Winkle's Family Reserve 20 yr. (90.4 proof)

Color: amber/rust orange
Nose: rich with notes of vanilla, past ripe plums, perfume, fresh oak, light caramel, alcohol, subtle char, tobacco
Flavor: caramel, oak, sherry, tobacco and char up front leading to vanilla, perfume, and char in the finish
Palate: soft but hot, light-weighted for the amount of flavor
Notes: if you like your bourbon a little sweeter, add a few drops of water
Grade: A-

Formatting Whisk(e)y Reviews

1) Title it! Try to use the format: Distillery Age/Descriptors (Barrel/batch information, ABV). Here's a good example: Aberlour A'bunadh (Batch No. 9, 60%)

2) Tell us about it in whatever manner suits your style!

3) Pictures are nice...(upload 'em, don't link from anyone else's site)

4) Slap on some labels. Try to use the format: distillery, distillery age/descriptor, "review", whisk(e)y type. For a review of Talisker 10yo, you'd type: talisker, talisker 10, review, single malt scotch. That way people can specifically find the reviews of Talisker 10yo, all Talisker whiskies, all single-malt Scotch reviews or all reviews on this blog. Some other handy labels are: bourbon, rye whiskey, blended scotch, blended irish, single malt irish...use what you think is right for the style.

Oh, and do be sure no one else have reviewed said whisk(e)y before you start a new post. If there's already a review, your thoughts should go in the comments section of the original review. This makes it so there's a moment of fame for whomever gets "first blood" on a new whisk(e)y.

Hirsch 13yo Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey (Lot 97-1, 47.8%)

Appearance:
Russet hue with a body so thick the legs are almost incapable of running.
Nose:
The aroma is immediately massive with chunky sweet and spicy elements. Alcohol is a bit tenacious at first, but a ten minute quarantine in a snifter mostly remedies this. Raisins and dates are quickly obvious, along with a sherry-like nuttiness. Spicy rye is integrated with cocoa and toffee. Vanilla is huge and comes with a wave of menthol.
Palate:
Incredibly sweet and quite nearly sticky. Stewed fruits galore along with plenty of heavily caramelized sugar. Huge rye note at the finish brings it all together.
Finish:
Lengthy, warm and quite dry. Retro-nasal of vanilla and mint for some time.
Comment:
Amazingly rich, a monstrous whiskey. I believe this is a single-barrel offering from the same barrels used to produce Rip Van Winkle's Family Reserve 13yo Rye Whisky.

Michael Jackson's Whiskey

This book has some similarities to his "Complete Guide", but is distinct in a few important ways. First and foremost, it covers Scotland, Ireland, Canada, the United States and Japan. For Scotland, it has both single and blended.

In each country's section, he covers the most well known distillers and a few side charms that you may not see many places. There are fewer tasting notes on a fewer number of expressions, but it's made up for by great details and history on the distilleries themselves along with pictures.

If you're looking for info on some harder to find single malts, the "Complete Guide" is the way to go. For info on the widest variety of whiskies from various countries, this is a gem.