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 Things Come In T's... Tullibardine 1992

Bad things by all accounts come in threes, or so I am reliably informed. Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini were knocking around at the same time. There's the evil green threesome that is broccoli, courgettes and Brussels sprouts (forgive my childishness); and there were three members of the band Busted. Not that I'm implying that Busted were in any way as bad as the aforementioned dictators - the vegetables, however, definitely are. I contest superstitious sayings such as bad things come in threes and the toast always lands butter side down as conjecture and a willingness to substantiate superstition with coincidence and ignorance of all conflicting evidence. Despite my dislike of such sayings I am as much a victim of their baseless assumptions as anyone else. I don't like the number 13, I will dive towards anything that remotely resembles wood the moment someone screams, 'touch wood' and I have some time for the archaic view in the whisky world that whiskies beginning with the letter T (with the exception of Talisker) tend to be pretty awful. I have tried to steer clear of negative reviews as I don't find them constructive and as a rule I detest pessimism. However, when I sampled a Tullibardine recently, I had to pass some comment, although I will remain open to other bottlings.

Tullibardine 1992
53.8% - 18 Years Old - Cask 15022 - John Black 5 Bottling - Sherry Cask
Nose: A heady nose with fresh orange, vanilla and light red fruits with a very distinct and pungent smell of Bourbon that I would not associate with an aged sherried whisky.
Palate: A creamy sour mash palate that was sickly and a little too bitter, with no overall complexity.
Finish: Caramel, that's it, thankfully short.
Overall: I could have sworn I was drinking Bourbon, this was not what I was expecting from a sherried whisky at all, not a pleasant surprise. I'd have been better off opening a bottle of Four Roses, at least I wouldn't have poured the glass down the sink. Woefully inadequate.

Short But Sweet: Glenkinchie Distiller's Edition

The other day I tried a whisky I didn't expect to enjoy, that left me pleasantly surprised. The whisky was the Glenkinchie Distiller's Edition. The reason I didn't have high hopes was that although I can appreciate Lowland whiskies, my tastes are certainly for the more intense flavours of the Northern distilleries. However the Amontillado sherry cask finish gave the Glenkinchie Distiller's Edition another level of flavour without making the whisky clumsy. In essence this is a whisky where the cask finish compliments and supports the spirit without dominating or cloaking it. Slainte!

Glenkinchie Distiller's Edition
43% - 14 Years Old - Amontillado Cask Finish
Nose: Rosé and rose bouquet with parma violet and Skittles sweets in an elegant and charming aroma.
Palate: Light mouthfeel, floral with delicate fruitcake notes and a touch of sherry.
Finish: Stewed fruits galore with the sherry finish closing the show.
Overall: Lovely balance with clearly defined flavours, I particularly enjoyed the rosé and rose combo on the nose.

Let The Battle Commence... Aberlour 12 Year & Cadenhead’s Aberlour 21 Year

Well it was inevitably going to happen; this blog-post is my first bourbon versus sherry wood comparison. For the uninitiated, whisky is matured in oak casks for a minimum of three years. The majority of a whisky’s flavour and its entire colour come from the time in the cask. The more you immerse yourself in the world of whisky the more different types of cask you will hear about; from Madeira to Amarone, from hogsheads to puncheons – there are a lot. However two types of cask are most widely used to apply flavour to a whisky. The first are ex-bourbon barrels from the United States, these give vanilla flavours to a whisky and the other are sherry barrels from Spain that can give an array of flavours but dried fruits and spices are classic examples. Originally sherry casks were the dominant cask type as they were more accessible than bourbon casks, but with better transport links bourbon has overtaken sherry in the race to supply the Scottish whisky industry. I have been told that a bourbon cask is about the fifth of the price of a sherry cask, hence why they now dominate the industry (although a revival of the sherry cask is well underway). In fact, George Grant of Glenfarclas told an audience of a tasting I was at that the sherry industry now exists solely to provide barrels for the whisky industry, as in this day-and-age fewer people are drinking sherry. Commonly a combination of each cask is used to get the right balance of flavour. Today I will be reviewing a sherry cask and a bourbon cask and comparing the two.

Aberlour 12 Year Old
48% - Predominately Sherry Cask – Exclusive French Bottling
Nose: Toffee and red apple (toffee apple?) with rich spices tingling.
Palate: Rich and dry with raisins, cinnamon and that recurring toffee flavour.
Finish: Slight off-wood I sometimes get with sherry cask whiskies, but rescued with ample amounts of wood spice.
Overall: A good whisky, classic sherry flavours, a little uncomplex but would be a good whisky to have if you don’t want to consider it too deeply.

Cadenhead’s Aberlour 21 Year Old
57.5% - Bottled by Cadenhead’s – Bourbon Hogshead – 282 Bottles Produced
Nose: A buttery’s worth of butter, spiced with nutmeg and vanilla, with hints of that classic Aberlour red apple.
Palate: Creamy with all that butter from the nose, heavy on the vanilla and spice.
Finish: Long but hot thanks to the high ABV, tobacco concludes this boisterous dram.
Overall: The rich butter and vanilla qualities offset with the spice lead to an intriguing and questioning whisky. The 12 year old was pleasant but this whisky is the winner. Probably the biggest unpeated bourbon cask whisky I’ve tried.

New Directions... Laphroaig Triple Wood

Not long ago I visited the whisky shop at Gatwick Airport on a trip out to the island of Guernsey in the English Channel. This was the first time I had visited a duty-free and paid close attention to the whisky sold. Of the various export-only whiskies one alone caught my eye, the Laphroaig Triple Wood. At the time I wrote it off as one to buy in the future when I didn't have a holiday budget to cling to. Little did I know that shortly afterwards the Laphroaig Triple Wood would be made available to the UK market and this was an opportunity I couldn't miss.

This dram is another triumph for this Islay distillery. It builds on the fantastic groundwork laid by the Laphroaig Quarter Cask. Like the Quarter Cask it undergoes aging in both Bourbon and nineteenth-century style quarter casks but then it benefits from additional ageing in sherry casks. The result is profound, what you get is a whisky undeniably Laphroaig but with an uncharacteristic fruitiness that lends this whisky a new direction that fails to disappoint. I may have to get another bottle of this bizarre malt.

Laphroaig Triple Wood
48% - No Age Statement
Nose: There is that clear Laphroaig medicinality that reminds me in this case of Karvol, the decongestant. This is followed by tropical fruits and a touch of cinnamon that I was not suspecting.
Palate: The palate was more remarkably Laphroaig although softer and more rounded with medium-body and that fruit presence recurring again.
Finish: Peaty, maritime and strong. Everything I could want from a Laphroaig.
Overall: Very impressive, this builds on the already fantastic Quarter Cask, the use of sherry casks just adds another dimension of complexity. Oh and I forgot to mention, great value too!

The Subjectivity of Tasting… Glendronach Revival

Do you see faces or a glass?

Subjectivity is something that makes the world a more vivid and vibrant place. It is a force that drives discussion and debate and forms the context of the world we live in. A concept both flawed and personal, we wouldn't be human if we didn't form our own opinion of the world around us. For me, the most interesting facet of subjectivity is our perception of what we sense. Green Blob Theory is something that sums this up quite nicely: How do we know what you see as a dog and we both call a dog, doesn't look like a green blob if you looked through my eyes. Or put more simply, is what we both call orange the same colour?

I think this is very interesting and after some thought I came to the realisation that I could test this. Writing tasting notes for alcohol demonstrates it quite nicely. The reason for this is because what we taste in whisky and wine are esters and acids that form the flavour profile. For example, if you taste lemon in a dram then it is probably the citric acid content of the drink that is giving you that flavour. Of course tasting high alcohol beverages isn't as clean cut as that. There are so many chemicals knocking around in a glass of whisky that it is quite difficult to differentiate between them. This is the reason why tasting notes can differ so much. Some flavours are obvious; an Ardbeg tastes smoky to everyone, except those with the most warped palates, because of its high phenol content. So in essence, tasting notes become buzzwords that remind us of a particular flavour. Some aren't particularly pleasant, cat's piss is a common one for some sauvignon blancs, and it isn't even a critical tasting note. Conventions do occur, this is why you'll see similarities across tasting notes until you get occasions such as a conversation I had recently when one person got a complex leathery quality and the other (me) got car tyre.

So back to my test…

On hearing that the irrepressible Robert Manning who judged my tasting competition a few blogs back (see here), had tried the Glendronach 15 year old a couple of nights back, I went out to get a sample for myself. We then both wrote our tasting notes down ready for comparison. The idea being to see what similarities and differences there would be. Clearly there isn't much experimental control going on here but for the sake of whimsy we persevered. Here are our notes, starting with my own:

Glendronach Revival
46% - 15 Years Old - Sherry Cask 
Nose: A fruit driven nose of raisins and sultanas with raspberry and blackcurrants. Cabernet sauvignon is also present giving this woody whisky a stern backdrop.
Palate: The sherry wood is very apparent with dark fruits, dry leaves and a hint of ash adding to the Revival's rich intensity.
Finish: Port is the flavour that jumps to mind with that cabernet sauvignon appearing again with a dose of red currants.
Overall: Richer and more overpowering than the 'Dronach 12 year old. Maybe a touch too much wood for my liking although I'd say that is personal preference only. A masterclass in whisky making.

Rob's:
Nose: Dry sherry, and the bitter sweet aroma of cherries and summer fruits complimented by a biscuit-like maltiness.
Palate: Fruit cake, dried fruits with fresh citrus undertones and sweet toffee abide alongside a small hint of oak.
Finish: Fresh summer fruits and chewy toffee accompanied by a crescendo of malty liveliness.
Overall: Unlike any other whiskey in my tasting arsenal to date. Probably the smoothest dram I've had in a long while. Very fruity and sweet with a nice malty flavour. Christmas cake is the analogy of choice when describing this particularly morish dram.

Us camping above Dalwhinnie
with a cigar (midgie repellent!)

So in conclusion you can see some obvious differences: I got dry fruits whereas Rob got summer fruits on the nose; and on the palate I got that very dry woody quality whereas Rob was gathering citrus undertones and lots of toffee. Despite this there are some clear similarities; the dried fruits I got on the nose appear on Rob’s palate. Also, those summer fruits that keep recurring for Rob do pop up in mine in the form of raspberries and red currants. The unambiguous sherry presence was identified by the pair of us. What is most interesting is that Rob got a much sweeter flavour profile than mine. For me there are a few interesting factors that can be deduced from this. Firstly, the similarities didn’t necessarily occur to us at the same time, where one of us got a note on the nose the other would get it on the palate. Secondly, the sweet to dry ratio of the tasting notes clearly is subject to individual perception. Although I would say I was comparing quite to the 12 year old, which is sweeter still, so maybe this explains part of the difference. Finally, what is most interesting for me is the different language we both use to describe the whisky. Rob and I discovered whisky together so I assumed we would have picked up the same buzzwords for the same flavours, this clearly wasn’t the case. Then again perhaps all that is important is that we both enjoyed it. The Glendronach 15 year old is a fantastic whisky as indeed all the Glendronachs are. So, where to go from here? Clearly one whisky isn’t enough to draw absolute conclusions from so in the interests of science I have posted Rob a Glendronach 18 year old, so watch this space for the next chapter of this experiment! I would also be interested if anyone has any conflicting tasting notes and welcome them to comment below.