My Handcrafted Opinions on Whiskies, Distilleries and Other Related Stuff
Wild Turkey Rare Breed was one of the best bourbons I discovered while trying all the 101 Whiskies to Try Before You Die so iIwas very interested when I saw this 112 proof (or 56% ABV) expression in a Texas liquor store. The nose was dominated by alcohol with sweet grainy notes of corn and rye and some butter. The taste was oaky at first with caramel, vanilla and sweet brown sugar. The finish was a little hot and spicy with grassy rye notes. With a little water it became sweeter and mellow with some black pepper notes.
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The table at the bottom of this entry reflects all the changes from the first edition of 101 Whiskies to Try Before You Die and the second edition released in 2013. There are thirteen changes in total and in this blog I will focus on the departures which I will categorize accordingly:
“The Marketing Department’s Revenge”: Three victims here. Some were simply a straight swap of one expression to an updated expression. That accounts for Cutty Sark 18 for 25 and the Bruichladdich 10 for 12. I am pretty sure even their own Marketing department agreed that continuing to sell Glenglassaugh’s new make spirit was not a good idea now that they had real whisky.
“TTTTTThat’s All Folks!”: Phrases you don’t often hear include “Justin Bieber is a wise young man” and “Of course I have a bottle Glen Grant 25 year old, doesn’t everyone?” Adios Gordon and MacPhail Glen Grant 25 year old and Glenglassaugh 26 year old. If you still have a bottle of one of these enjoy it, because they are rarer than a Scottish World Cup victory
“Compass Box: Your 15 Minutes of Fame is Up”: I think even John Glaser’s mother would agree Compass Box get a pretty good shake of the whisky publicity tree and had a more than fair representation in the original edition. However they have been culled like a Canadian seal pup in this version. Their redaction (it’s a word – look it up) accounts for three more victims.
“Three for one”: Macallan have recently revamped their well-established line up for a new “no age statement” offering based on colors (I still giggle when I read the “official” explanation). Their fully deserved punishment is three out with just one of the newbies, Macallan Gold, making the second edition cut. They are getting off lightly.
“The Conspiracy Theory”: At face value the final two British badgers in Buxton’s gun sights may seem unconnected, Berry Bros and Rudd’s Blue Hanger and Glen Rothes Select Reserve. Except that as every whisky anorak worth his tattered copy of Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible knows they are in fact very closely related with BBR jointly developing the concept of whisky vintages with Glen Rothes single malts. As these are both great products and still available, I have to assume a Christmas card got lost in the post in 2012 and a score had to be settled.
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OUT |
IN |
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Compass Box Aysla |
Balcones Baby Blue |
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Blue Hanger |
Bruichladdich The Laddie 10 |
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Bruichladdich 12 year old |
Cutty Sark 18 year old |
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Cutty Sark 25 year old |
Glenglassaugh Evolution |
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Glenglassaugh spirit |
Johnnie Walker The Spice Road |
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Glenglassaugh 26 year old |
Kavalan Concertmaster |
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Gordon and Macphail Glen Grant 25 year old |
Lord Elcho 15 year old |
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Compass Box Hedonism |
Mackinlay’s Rare Old |
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Macallan 10 year old Sherry Oak |
Balvenie Tun 1401 |
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Macallan 18 year old Sherry Oak |
Dalmore Cigar Malt Reserve |
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Macallan 30 year old Fine Oak |
Macallan Gold |
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Glen Rothes Select Reserve |
Naked Grouse |
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Compass Box The Spice Tree |
Tweeddale 12 year old |
Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away Ian Buxton wrote a book called 101 Whiskies to Try Before You Die. By long ago I mean 2011 and by far away I mean Perthshire. Stretching the Star Wars analogy further, from time to time I like to think of myself as Luke Sky-Johnnie-Walker to Ian’s Obi Wan Whisky. Just a few months ago Ian released the “revised and updated” second edition of this book in to the whisky and literary world. A second edition was not a surprise considering how popular the first book was (and not just with me, but with actual normal people too) but what I didn’t expect was the thirteen changes to the original 101 list so soon. That was thirteen changes to the list of whiskies that I spent eighteen months hunting down with the tenacity of a Kardashian searching for a photo opportunity. Upon reflection of course I realize the list will have to change with time. After all whisky marketers change expressions and packaging like Roman Abramovich changes mangers at Chelsea; that is very frequently and with slightly less success each time. Some other whisky stocks will simply run out, but unfortunately that does not appear to be the case with Johnnie Walker Black just yet.
At first I tried to be casual about it. I found and tasted all of the original list and as any true Star Wars fan will tell you the original is all that matters. No director’s cuts or CGI re-mastered versions are acceptable. I call my first edition list the Canonical 101, all other lists are heresy and besides I already had a new adventure finding all 101 World Whiskies to Try Before You Die from Ian’s second book (97 and counting at time of writing this blog). But as time went by I knew I would have to investigate and so after waiting for an online review which would explain the differences (none were forthcoming until now) I purchased the second edition of the book and found the thirteen changes for myself.
The good news was that I had already tasted seven of the thirteen. This left me the tantalizingly small number of just six new whiskies to try and then I could claim completion of the second edition list. I felt I was already in limited company with formal completion of the first 101, but to complete both editions? Perhaps even the first to claim both editions? Then my whisky geek status would be assured. When you stop to consider that “achievement” alongside a reference to the sanctity of the original versions of Star Wars in my blog it is wonder I even know a girl yet alone have been happily married for over fifteen years. Imagine my joy when I discovered that all six of the newbies were available on Master of Malt’s excellent website in their affordable sample size. In just one night of tasting I could complete the second edition. How could I not do it? And so the order was been placed and as I write is en route to me. What are they? Well you can try to use the force to determine for yourself, buy your own copy (Ian will be pleased) or wait and I will reveal all in 114 Whiskies to Try Before You Die Part 2: The Blogger Strikes Back.
If recent media activity is any indicator (which it probably isn’t) then the merger of Japanese Suntory and Beam is the biggest international whisky based crisis since Makers Mark reduced their ABV for about the same length of time that the Houston Texans were a dominant force in the NFL. For those interested, in both cases, the time was less than 1 month. There are actually images of American consumers pouring bourbon down the sink as a protest at the Japanese ownership of Jim Beam. Caught up in all the hype and excitement I personally poured a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black down the sink, but that had nothing to do with patriotism; I just don’t like it that much.
As with many things in life I think it is all about how you sell something and the marketing department missed a trick with this one. Personally I think “Suntory and Beam” would be a great cop / buddy story and suggest that if they had promoted the merger in the form of an internet movie trailer everyone would have been thrilled. I propose it would go something like this (imagine caps = deep gravelly voice):
SUNTORY IS JAPANESE COP AND A STRANGER IN THE USA. HE WAS SENT HERE TO DEFEND HIS HONOR AGAINST THE MYSTERIOUS DIAGEO CRIME EMPIRE AND FORCED TO WORK WITH THE ONLY PERSON WHO CAN HELP HIM, THE SMALL TOWN SHERIFF, JIM BEAM. TOGETHER THEY ARE SUNTORY AND BEAM.
SUNTORY: We aim to be good corporate citizens not only by delivering top quality products and services to meet the needs of our customers, but also by striving to protect the global environment and undertaking various social initiatives to help realize a truly prosperous society.
BEAM: Well you are in my country now, and we have a culture and a passion for making some really great spirits and creating innovative spirits brands. Now excuse me, I am going to kick this Diageo’s ass.
SUNTORY: As we like to say: Yatte Minahare. Go for it
SUNTORY AND BEAM. COMING TO A LIQUOR STORE NEAR YOU.
I am afraid can’t take all the credit for the screenwriting. Most of Suntory and Beam’s dialogue was taken from corporate websites. Except the bit about kicking Diageo’s ass. I found that on the back of a Beam Global Ambassador’s business card.
Internet tip: when searching for images for your blog on the internet with a work PC do not UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES type in the words “Japanese Western partners images”.
If I ever had an opportunity to break a real whisky story on my website this was probably it... and I blew my chance so badly I have made the ObamaCare website look organised and efficient. As I mentioned in an earlier blog I am a very minor shareholder in The London Distillery Company ( http://www.somanywhiskies.com/blog/item/390-living-the-dream ). I took my first tour of the facility in September 2012 before construction had really begun and have since visited Darren and Andrew at the TLDC on at least 3 occasions. Considering this and the fact that Darren and the team started the historic malt spirit production on December 12th 2013, an event I had prior notice of and also access to exclusive "behind the scenes" photos like I have used in this blog, you would think as a whisky blogger trying to make his bones I would have got around to writing something about this before now. Well the truth is many people covered the story much better than I could (with very notable exception of @whiskycast ... what gives?). Being a businessman first and blogger second I am rather glad that the BBC and Reuters were breaking this event rather than a second rate blogger living in Texas. If you are interested (I really hope you are) I have attached some of the way better, and much more timely, coverage at the time. Happy new year.
As I rapidly approach 500 tasting notes I took the time to reflect on some of the more interesting and colorful notes that I have written. My first reaction when I reread many of them was to ask myself if I was drinking at the time I wrote that? My second reaction was to remember that I was most definitely drinking at the time and there is no doubt some of the better notes (better in the sense of memorable at least) came later in the “longer” tasting sessions. As I have discussed before my approach to tasting whisky is quite loose and unstructured (which makes whisky to whisky comparisons totally unfair so I no longer “score” whiskies) but I think that randomness helps me create an expression, or to be honest to recreate or borrow an expression from elsewhere. Anyway here are some of my favorites from last 18 months or so along with the whisky I was tasting at the time I was inspired:
Weymss The Hive 12 year old: “more honey than Winnie the Pooh’s poos.”
Longmorn 16 year old: “tastes like a curlywurly had a baby with pencil”
Blaue Maus Single Cask: “Smelled like the alleyway between a bakery and greengrocers shop”
GlenDronach PX Puncheon: “a Spanish bar fight … after drinking you feel like you have been smashed in the face with a sherry bottle”
Crown Royal Maple: “It smells like the inside of Mrs Butterworth's laundry basket”
Buck Bourbon: “Like Toy Story 3 this one is a little predictable and woody”
Colonel EH Taylor Rye: “indian food and cucumbers”
Adnams Spirit of Broadside: “reminded me of the menswear section in a department store”
Knockando Master Reserve 21 year old: “like eating a Rolo while sniffing sherry”
Drambuie: “chewing a pencil that had been dipped in sugar and cough syrup”
The more astute readers may have noticed that while I am still posting regular reviews my blog entries are now rarer that a Scotsman drinking English whisky on Burns Night or perhaps Edward Snowden at an NSA employees reunion picnic. I could make excuses around work and family but the truth is I simply have less to say. Rest assured I have not lost any interest in, or my passion for, whisky. However in a recent online discussion in a Whisky Bloggers forum I made the analogy between blog entries and the “difficult second album”. When I set my website up I had lots to say and couldn’t wait to share my passion and release all the thoughts that I had accumulated on my whisky journey. I had several years of ideas and beliefs and I now had a forum to express. Just like a newly signed band has all their life experiences to date to draw on and an entire catalog of songs to use when they record their first album I had oodles of blog matter ready to go. However when the demand for a second album of new material comes along often what is left to draw on is the stuff that wasn’t good enough for the first album and the life experiences of just the last 6 months. In short a much shallower pool of material. So I have a choice; to use the ideas that were either half-baked or not good enough for the first couple of years that my website has existed or be patient and wait for inspiration as and when (or indeed if) it comes. I choose the second option (for your sake). In the meantime I promise will keep drinking, tasting and exploring whisky.
This decision created a bit of an issue (in my mind) with the current web site structure as the home page only shows the most recent blog entry. The lack of new blog entries therefore creates the impression that nothing has changed and this site is deader than the Houston Texans season and about as lively as Matt Schaub’s throwing arm. In reality I may have posted lots of new tasting notes but how would you know? As I mentioned above I don’t want to post something for the sake of posting something so I have decided to restructure the website so that every time I write a new review and tasting notes it will update the home page. A simple change (we shall see exactly how “simple” in coming week or so) but it will keep site refreshed and then I will only feel the need to post blog entries when I am inspired and actually have something to say and you might actually want to read.
Some readers (yes I still cling, despite all evidence to contrary, to the illusion that I have some regular readers like a shipwrecked sailor clings to the wreckage of his boat) may remember that a few months ago after a trip to Tennessee I poured the best part of a bottle of Jack Daniel’s Unaged Rye whiskey into my miniature cask to see how a little aging would impact it.
http://www.somanywhiskies.com/blog/item/562-the-jack-daniels-unaged-tennesee-rye-experiment
To be completely honest I had forgotten about it. Then I attended a recent tasting event at Reserve 101 (#houstonsbestbar) with Dan Garrison of Garrison Bros (#texasbestbourbon) and he mentioned that in Texas they enjoy up to 13% “angels share” per year. That reminded me of my little rye aging experiment and when I got home that night I opened the tap on my cask with my empty Glencairn ready and waited. Nothing. Nada. The whisky was harder to find than Edward Snowden at a NSA reunion. Bloody angels or to give them more accurate title....thieving little gits. Using my University of Wales maths, I calculate the angel’s share was 100% in 4 months, so approximately 300% per year!
I wish I could explain better why this story has burrowed under my skin and makes me so angry that I am still seething weeks later.
http://www.thespiritsbusiness.com/2013/07/the-dalmore-paterson-collection-goes-on-sale-at-987500/
I do like Richard Paterson, he has always been charming and friendly to me on the few occasions we have met at various whisky events and shared a few of his "special drams" as well. Anyone who had read my reviews (is there anyone?) also knows I like Dalmore whisky. Perhaps that is in part why I got so worked up… these ridiculous marketing gimmicks destroy the credibility of a great product in my eyes at least. I have ranted before about whisky as an investment (the words “utter” and “bollocks” inexplicably spring to mind) and suspect anyone stupid enough willing to plonk down the best part of one million pounds for this “collection” will be someone making an “investment” and possibly never drinking it. Surely I am not alone in thinking it would better to see this liquid use sparingly in some blended products where more true whisky lovers could appreciate it than seeing it hoarded by someone just trying to make a profit, grab some publicity or prove to some girl who rejected him in College how fabulous and successful he is now?
I could feel the bile in my stomach as I typed this blog. It is “anti everything” I feel about whisky. Whisky for me is about companionship, small pleasures, shared experiences and relaxation. It is about sharing a dram (or a bottle) and taking time to smell the roses (or the lemon or the malt or whatever I find in the nose or palate). It is not about nursing a glass whose contents cost more than most people would spend on a car. I recently shared a bottle of Jameson out of plastic cups on the deck of friend’s cabin after a fishing trip. I suspect it was better tasting, at that moment in that location, than drinking some million pound collection of whisky. Perhaps on reflection I am the richer man after all.
By the way, if anyone reading this blog happens to have 987,500 pounds to invest I have fantastic bridge in Sydney harbor I can let you have cheap. Email me.
Forget the ridiculous recent diamond studded offerings of Dalmore, ignore old Macallans or the recent Glenfiddich releases and completely dismiss the seemingly endless supply of very rare Bowmore (If it so so rare where does it all come from? My theory is that the same bottle is being auctioned over and over again). The most expensive bottle whisky I have ever heard came from Norway and I estimate it cost, very conservatively, about $200,000,000. Yes… two hundred million dollars. I can imagine the Dalmore marketing department now keeling over with sudden heart failure and I am quite enjoying the image.
This story begins with the Ekofisk oil field in Norway. This massive offshore oil field produced on average 200,000 barrels of oil per year since its discovery in 1969 until 2005, and it is expected to continue production, albeit at lower levels, until 2050. Using a low price of $25 / barrel of oil you quickly get to a value that is eye wateringly large. Despite hours and hours of diligent efforts (OK… a couple of Google searches) I have been unable to verify this story but it was repeated in recent energy magazine blog so I am not the only one who has heard it. In short it goes like this;
A few years prior to any North Sea oil discovery in 1969 the Danish and Norwegians were negotiating over the other great maritime resource… fish. At this time countries all negotiated their borders and boundaries for their fishing fleets. It was these same maritime boundaries that become the basis for defining offshore North Sea oil and gas access and ownership in the 1970’s. The story goes that the Norwegian and Danes were in deadlock over the last area and the deadlock was finally broken when the Norwegian delegate offered the Danish delegate a bottle of scotch and the deal was struck. Within a few years the Ekofisk field was discovered in that area. If you look at the attached map you will how closely it just fits within the Norwegian boundary and how it could have been easily defined as a Danish (or at least shared) possession with a small nudge of the line. That Danish official paid a tremendous price for his bottle of whisky, I can’t help wondering what it was? I hope he enjoyed it at least!
I thought I would use the milestone of over 440 whisk(e)y reviews to analyse exactly what it is I have been drinking over last 18 months since I started www.somanywhiskies.com. The results I have to say are not particularly surprising given my tastes and location. 440 whiskies sounds a lot (and is some ways it is.... especially when try finding a whisky I have not yet tried in a "typical" store or bar) but when you consider most conservative estimates (and I don't mean that in a Fox News sort of way) suggest the number of world whiskies is comfortably over 10,000 I still have quite some way to go. Assuming that I could find them at same rate as I currently acquire whiskies it would take me about 32 years to get to 10,000 reviews. To paraphrase the movie Jaws..... I'm going to need a bigger server. And an internal digestive tract made of titanium or perhaps the same stuff they make airplane back boxes out of. Anyway, I digress, below is a very high level breakdown of the first 440....
255 Scotch whiskies
89 American whiskies
31 Irish whiskies
19 Canadians
14 Japanese
Which by my University of Wales maths means 32 fall into the category of "Others”
222 single malts
175 of 202 Whiskies to Try Before I Die (just 26 to go.... then what?)
90 blends
52 bourbons
15 Rye whiskies
15 blended malts
As I mentioned in a recent blog entry “Tennessee; The Perfect Birthday Gift” (http://www.somanywhiskies.com/blog/item/538-tennessee-the-perfect-birthday-gift) I recently picked up a bottle of Jack Daniels Unaged Tennessee rye. As I tried it and made some tasting notes I realized this was a bottle I was not going to dipping into frequently and while interesting there was high likelihood of it gathering a lot of dust in my already overcrowded whisky cabinet. As problems go, not having enough room for whisky, is very much a first world problem and not something any one reading this is likely to get concerned about, but nonetheless I found myself pondering what to do with it.
One answer is of course mixing it and making cocktails. Afterall that is the main market for this product. Except that I don’t drink cocktails and it woudl require buying more bottles of sweet vermouth and angostura bitters that would take up similar amounts of whisky storage real estate and besides who can be bothered to make simple syrups and squeeze limes. One reason I enjoy whisky is its simplicity… open, pour, drink, repeat. No faffing. I am not big on faffing. However I do have a small oak cask I bought for home blending and it occurred to me to “age the unaged”. So I updated my tasting notes (link below) to include reference to clear color (and took picture above which is perfectly dreadful I know but this is a whisky blog not a photo blog) and then on March 18th I poured a little of the unaged rye to “rinse” out any residue from previous blending experiment as best I could and then emptied it. Then I poured the rest of the crystal clear fluid into the cask. It filled about two thirds of the cask. I now have an alarm in my calendar for June17th (approximately 90 days) and at that time I will pour a sample and take a picture and compare tasting notes and color. Perhaps I will drink it then or decide to age it for a further 90 days. I will keep you posted.
http://www.somanywhiskies.com/reviews/item/545-jack-daniels-unaged-tennessee-rye