Change Is In The Air: The Last Vatted Malt

Drink fuelled fun with friends at Uni...
one of the hardest things to let go of!

All good things come to an end, or so they say. Maybe it's because if we have too much of a good thing it loses its edge and fades into the dismal grey background of the dreaded norm. Or maybe they seem better in the utopia of nostalgia. Either way, what has gone before, or that which is no more, has a habit of seeming greater in hindsight than maybe it was in reality. I am a big advocate of change. If it ain't broke, break it and change it. The world would be a hideously boring and flaccid place otherwise.

Language changes too, old words leave and new words join our vocabulary each year. Who uses 'fallociloquence' (a deceitful speech) these days except in reference to the mutterings of News International executives before Parliamentary Committees; or 'schismarch' (a founder of a schism)? Language changes - and this brings me on to vatted/blended malt whisky. As of the 23rd November 2011, whisky that is a blend of two or more single malt whiskies can no longer be called 'vatted whisky' and must be called 'blended malt whisky'. The Scotch Malt Whisky Association argue that 'vatted' is too archaic a word to be understood by the public. Others argue that 'blended malt' and 'blended grain' sound too similar to 'blended scotch whisky'. I have to say in this instance I agree with SWA's decision, if not for the same reasons. I think there should be a catch-all term for blended malt/vatted malt/pure malt, and I think it does the public a disservice to imply that the difference between blended malt/blended grain/blended is too confusing to be understood, as suggesting the word 'vatted' is beyond them also. What I will say is that I spend as much time explaining what a single malt is as I do explaining blends and blended malt. Things change and 'blended malt' will one day be a term as part and parcel of whisky as 'vatted malt' was. Still, it's an excuse for those rebels at Compass Box to release another excellent bottling!

The Last Vatted Malt
53.7% - Bottled by Compass Box
Nose: Smoke with seabreeze and fishing port scents of menthol, iodine and, with time, toffee.
Palate: Soft smoke giving way to golden syrup and medicinal quality.
Finish: Peppery with sweet phenolic smoke and a hint of stewed strawberries, a little short perhaps.
Overall: A great marriage of peat and sherry cask. Those gutsy Caol Ila flavours rampage about followed by the stroke of sherry. Farewell vatted malt whisky.

Bad Reputation: Blended Malts... Compass Box Eleuthera and Wemyss Peat Chimney

Scandalous

Myth’s and fabrications can make or break reputations. Many a celebrity has been thrown into the lion’s pit of paparazzi exposure and tabloid conjecture that has quashed their careers like the Resistance on Alderaan. It only takes a slight turn of phrase to turn an innocent comment into an insult that strikes the very core of human morality and creates a reputation feeding frenzy that keeps the tabloid beast sated for several months. As soon as a reputation is tarnished it becomes very difficult to scrub it clean - no amount of Brasso is going to help Matthew Kelly reclaim his former fame. The other approach of course is to revel in it, as the indomitable Russell Brand does, so that any misbehaviour can be turned into a ladder to the stars.

Reputation is central to the perception of a whisky; it can win a whisky great favour and allow them to charge increasingly high prices off the back of it. Or, conversely, it can lead to a long hard crawl back to recognition and acceptance. Beyond brand awareness reputation also affects the perception of types of whisky. No other type of whisky has received such a panning as Scottish blends and blended malt. Consistently, and I argue - wrongly, blends (and blended malts) are seen as an inferior product to the more expensive and purer single malts. This myth that blends are somehow a cop-out version of the ‘better’ single malts is in urgent need of reversal. Thankfully a small number of blending companies are trying to overturn the wash of apathy and demonstrate to the world that blended can be better.

When talking about modern blends and blended malts, one company always jumps to mind. That company is of course Compass Box, who I jump at any chance to review. Compass Box are beginning an enlightenment in the world of blended whisky. Their Spice Tree and Hedonism bottlings in particular are testament to the work they have done to show blended can mean better. Alongside Compass Box there is another company doing superb work. This company is that of Wemyss Malts. Their philosophy is that the world’s best wines are all blends so why shouldn’t this apply to whisky? It wasn’t until the other weekend when I finally got to try one of the Wemyss range (and I was very impressed, as you will see) that I have to agree with them. Why shouldn’t a whisky be better than the sum of its parts? The same weekend my dad and I visited a small beer and whisky shop in Ludlow (Shropshire) and, to our luck, we found a Compass Box bottling that as far as I am aware is no longer available. After purchasing a bottle and a fair few beers, we went home to try this elusive blended malt, as well as the Wemyss Malt my dad had purchased previously.

Compass Box Eleuthera
46% - Scotch Blended Malt
Nose: At first peppery reminding me instantly of Talisker. This leads to a soft blend of wood smoke and peat complimented with gooseberry and brine, with time pleasant banana notes introduce themselves subtlety.
Palate: There is a grainy texture I associate with the Glenfiddich Snow Phoenix with honey and red fruits (notably strawberry and raspberry) served on a smoky palette.
Finish: Peaty with salt and fennel concluding with a shot of coffee.
Overall: Why is this whisky no longer made? This for me was an instant go to whisky which unfortunately it can never be. There is peat present without being excessive, pepper without being hot, and green fruit balanced with red. Just excellent.

Wemyss Peat Chimney
40% - 8 Years Old – Scotch Blended Malt
Nose: A fantastic combination of iodine peat smoke and Christmas pudding, or maritime sherry if I can coin the term. This combination that often doesn’t work melds excellently in this blended malt.
Palate: Peat and pepper hold the ground here; the palate is beautifully light and is completely un-cloying.
Finish: A burst of spice topped with clean peat, fresh and to the point.
Overall: Exceptionally pleasant, clear but not overpowering peat, this dram has a bite but doesn’t shake. I have to try Wemyss’ Spice King and Hive soon!

Limited and Glorious: Hedonism Maximus

There is something charming about limited editions. They represent that which is low yield, excellent and desirable. Limited releases and editions offer a peek into an exclusive world inhabited by the privileged and fortunate. What I like about whisky is that limited editions and releases are not always priced excessively highly. Some like the Lagavulin 12 year old and the stunner that is Aberlour's A'bunadh are not only good value for money but thanks to being batch released not too difficult to source. Other bottlings such as the drinkable Snow Phoenix from Speyside distillers Glenfiddich was very limited but not overly expensive. This isn't to say all limited release whiskies are inexpensive and available or what would be the point? But whisky unlike many other luxury products is one where at any price bracket you can experience some exclusivity if you look hard enough.

The joy of limited editions is knowing that you are a member of a clique who have tried the whisky and that in years to come the whisky will be mostly extinct. The icing on the cake is that limited editions are often of a higher quality, although this is arguable. Recently, I got to try a limited release I thought I had missed the chance to try. Better still I had only just become re-acquainted with its standard release brother the Compass Box Hedonism. The whisky I was lucky enough to be offered was the limited release Hedonism Maximus. A blended grain whisky of superb quality and old age (I was told minimum of 37 years). Here is what I thought of both the standard and the limited release:

Hedonism
43% - Blended Grain Whisky - Bottled by Compass Box
Nose: Coconut and a slight almondy character complimented with vanilla and a medicinality.
Palate: Light but very rich with toffee and syrupy vanilla sweetness.
Finish: Fairly hot with a clear spiciness.
Overall: An example in how grain whisky can excel, perfect dessert whisky or digestif.

Hedonism Maximus
46% - 37 Year Old - Blended Grain Whisky - Bottled by Compass Box
Nose: Roses arrive first tailed by a sweet sugary syrup with raspberry colis.
Palate: Light with that sweet richness of the standard release enhanced with summer fruits cutting through the swirling sweetness.
Finish: Intense vanilla holding its own for a good time to come.
Overall: I really enjoy the standard release Hedonism, but the Maximus leaps ahead with its rose, raspberry and summer fruits combination that lend it a complexity that makes this syrupy dram stand out from its peers.

The Whisky Wire's Compass Box Twasting

A little while back I received a message from Steve Rush of The Whisky Wire asking if I would be at all interested in participating in a Twitter tasting or more concisely put, a ‘Twasting’. For me this was a no-brainer. All the more so because the whiskies that would be tantalizing our taste-buds would be the ever excellent Compass Box whiskies that I have enthused about before. I eagerly replied to accept my invitation and a few weeks later I received my three precious samples. The first, Compass Boxes new offering - the Great King Street Artist’s Blend, then the stylistic Spice Tree and finally the effervescent Peat Monster. I stored them away carefully for their grand opening on Wednesday 21st September. On Wednesday evening a minor disaster struck. My girlfriend’s laptop that I had been borrowing spectacularly crashed and left me without the internet access I required to participate. Thankfully not deterred I found a solution. With cunning, I strapped two Blackberry’s together, each with Twitter access and with these and my samples I was ready to roll. On one screen I had a feed running for the evening’s hashtag: #CBtwasting, and on the other my own live feed that I could update. As 8pm approached Steve began the countdown, I had my drams poured and my fingers itching to type. Then the clock struck eight and the tweets began to roll. At first I was worried that the sheer number of tweets would cause confusion and make it difficult to keep up, but my fears were quickly put to rest. It became a great game of tasting, writing a note, commenting on fellow Twasters’ own notes and retweeting everything I agreed with. The hour and a half it took passed quickly. Each whisky receiving what seemed short at the time thanks to my immersion in the Twitterverse approximately thirty minutes. So what can I say about them? Well, firstly it was hard to choose a favourite. I am a huge fan of all three, the GKS for me is an excellent aperitif whisky, the history of the original Spice Tree being banned appeals to me greatly, and the Peat Monster is a fantastic smoky blended malt. The second thing I would say is that all of them demonstrate brilliantly the potential of blended whisky. I would happily exchange a Compass Box offering for a single malt whisky any day, here’s to hoping other blenders catch the zeitgeist. As my fingers are still tired from bashing Blackberry buttons let’s jump to my notes, and do keep an eye on The Whisky Wire for any future events he runs, I can promise fun and dram related shenanigans will make for a very fun evening.

Great King Street Artist’s Blend
43% - No Age Statement – Blended Whisky
Nose: For me marshmallows and banana dominate or foam banana as was kindly suggested to me during the Twasting. I also got lemon and syrupy fruit.
Palate: Quite light but with substantial mouth-feel, bananas and cream and citrus fruits.
Finish: Butter icing lasting a surprisingly long time.
Overall: As mentioned a great aperitif and a great go to whisky if you want to settle back and relax with a dram.

Spice Tree
46% - No Age Statement – Blended Malt
Nose: Apples and mulling spices in a mulled cider kind of style with icing sugar on a second sniff.
Palate: SPICE! Is the active word here: Cardamon, cloves, cinnamon, cumin with a vanilla sweetness lurking behind.
Finish: Chewy and spicy clinging on for a long while after. Utterly satisfying.
Overall: Spice and sweetness complimenting each other perfectly, does what it says on the tin.

Peat Monster
46% - No Age Statement – Blended Malt
Nose: Warm embers, soft seaweed notes, gammon and grassy ashes.
Palate: A meaty maritime palate thanks to the presence of Laphroaig. Raspberry and tropical fruits in amidst a creamy quality swiftly follow.
Finish: Salty with a seaweed character but not at all overpowering, allowing the flavours to hold and intermingle pleasantly.
Overall: Excellent, smoky whisky, not harsh or abrupt a whisky to savour and a suitable end to my first Twasting!

Thanks to Steve at The Whisky Wire, Compass Box and all involved for a fantastic evening. See my 'blogs I like' page to follow Steve.

Down the rabbit hole... Orangerie

I’ve had some weird meals in my time, including, and this is by no means an exhaustive list: undercooked student fare, ostrich, camel, crocodile, by way of fire ants, scorpions and pig’s small intestine. However a trip to the Sanderson Hotel provided another meal to my gag inducing collection. For a modest £25, I got to sample their bizarre Mad Hatter’s Afternoon Tea, which would seem to be inspired by Mr Heston Blumenthal for its ingenuity and kaleidoscopic weirdness. Starting on ice cream lollies with popping candy surprise, I sipped at the ‘Drink Me’ bottle, which changes flavour from apple pie, to lemon curd to toffee. I had a lollypop of which one side was cold the other hot, and I observed a spectacular Jasmine tea that looked like an alien sea plant rather than tea. So I thought, has there ever been a whisky that has ever truly shocked me. Then one burst into my mind like a hare with a stopwatch out of a hole to Wonderland.

Orangerie:
40% - No Age Statement - Compass Box
Nose: Mulled oranges, tangerine and Satsuma, with a sweet liqueur essence.
Palate: Dry! On the nose I was expecting a sweet orange juice whisky liqueur. But what I got was a light whisky flavoured like orange peel and spice.
Finish: Almost tannic, puckering the mouth, with the orange becoming a fine mist.
Overall: Absolutely surprising. The syrupy sweetness associated with whisky liqueurs was nowhere to be found. An enjoyable drink but weird, very weird!

Out with the old, in with the new? Glenfarclas 1961 Family Cask and Great King Street: Artist’s Blend

My monoprint of my
ever suffering girlfriend.

Last weekend I braved the caterpillar slow trawl along the Southbank in the Thameside heat, dressed in shirt and tie, to experience the extravaganza that is the Vintage Show at the Royal Festival Hall; a hotpot of style, fashion and bad hair. After braving a queue for my determined girlfriend to get made up 1950s stylee (we managed two hours before she gave up), we experienced a myriad of decades under one roof. From 40s Lindy Hop to a 80s warehouse rave with dry ice and strobe lighting in ecstatic abundance. From Emin inspired monoprinting to ration-era upcycling. However amongst this fashion show come jumble sale, ‘we’re in a recession lets turn this jacket into a bag’ excitement, I began to question myself. Is there too much concentration on the retro, the old school and the past, and does this apply to whisky?

We all find comfort in the certainty of the past and revel in nostalgia. That’s what makes old whisky great. It isn’t just the depth of flavour that a 30, 40 year whisky can have, it’s the knowledge that it has sat slowly minding its own business whilst the world has changed and rocketed about it. One such whisky I had the pleasure of tasting, courtesy of the ever entertaining and interesting George Grant of Glenfarclas, is the 1961 Glenfarclas Family Cask. Bottled in 2010 this 49 year old whisky was immense, and all the better for knowing it had seen out the Cold War, the Winter of Discontent and 90s breakdown rap. Here’s what I thought:

Glenfarclas 1961 Family Cask:
46% - Bottled 2010
Nose: Rich dried fruit notes balanced with the presence of sherry wood with overtones of varnish and a cherry/oak hybrid.
Palate: Full and oaky, but perhaps a tad tired from the time spent in the barrel.
Finish: Long with that classic sherry presence emerging again, but also a little shorter than I expected for such an aged whisky.
Overall: Despite being ever so slightly over oaked, this is an incredible whisky. Big in flavour, beautiful mahogany in colour and steeped in history, this is a whisky that deserves respect for its age alone if not for it massive punchy flavour.

However. This is not to say that there isn’t too much emphasis placed on highly aged whisky, and too much on the old and pure. Compass Box have released their inaugural blend of their new Artisan Range: Great King Street, named after the location of their Edinburgh premises. It aims to provide something that will attract new people to whisky and having tried it I can see why.

Great King Street: Artist’s Blend:
43% - No Age Statement - Bottled by Compass Box
Nose: Banana and marshmallows create a soft aroma that is borne upwards with a citric twang of lemon that insures that this whisky has plenty to offer.
Palate: Very light with bananas doused in single cream with a touch of lemon zest.
Finish: Unsurprisingly with its soft attributes and lightness on the tongue it has a fairly short but not abrupt finish but in no way is this a criticism.
Overall: Light remaining the word here, this is a whisky that has potential to entice new people into the haven of whiskydom, but regardless of this I may still get a bottle as it has something pleasantly enjoyable about it that is unpretentious and new. A whisky that looks forward can only be a good thing for fans of the spirit, and Compass Box, as always, are blazing a trail for us all to follow.