Islay

Laphroaig 25 Cask Strength

Sean Handley Islay
Distillery: Laphroaig
Bottled: 2014
Age: 25 years old
ABV: 45.1%
Cask: Bourbon and Oloroso Barrels
More Info: WhiskyBase

Always fun tasting an older Laphroaig! That peat smoke tends to calm down and let those fruit notes come through…

Nose: Candy floss, minty mouthwash, coal tar soap, bandages, peaches and candied orange peels, all against a faint and far-away wood smoke. Antique wooden furniture, dust and polish.

Palate: Creamy, tangy peat smoke wraps more citrus notes – lime and mandarin, developing a bitter grapefruit quality. Quite chalky and mineral-rich.

Finish: Drying with ashy smoke and burnt coffee beans.

Nowhere near as fruity and summery as the 18. The sherry cask influence gives this a much more savoury edge with heavier fruit and wood notes.

All in all, it’s very elegant. The palate’s quite straightforward, but the nose is very complex with a well-aged Islay feel that conjures up images of refined living in dusty antique studies by open fireplaces.

It reminds me of Port Ellens and Caol Ilas of similar age, which I didn’t expect as they’re both light and delicate distillates compared with the darker, dirtier, punchier peaty power associated with Laphroaig.

Be tempted to get a bottle, if I could afford it!

You can buy the Laphroaig 25 Cask Strength online from a variety of UK-based retailers. I ordered my sample from WhiskySite.nl for €17.99.

Andy’s Pick ‘n’ Mix

Sean Handley Campbeltown, Islay, Lowlands, Speyside , , , ,

Thanks to Andy for these samples. I drained these ages ago but I’ve finally typed up my tasting notes…!

Producer: Hamish Robertson & Co
ABV: 43%
Age: 5 years old
More Info: Master of Malt

These are always fun – a blended whisky from the 1960s. You can find bottles like this on a lot of auction sites and they tend to sell for a lot less than you might imagine, taking a backseat to all the high flying single malts.

Nose: Malty caramel, candle wax,  menthol, and pears. A gentle floral edge develops after a while.

Palate: Syrupy! Very rich and rounded malty flavour with more menthol and a little pepper mint.

Finish: Quite short with black pepper.

This, as with many blends, is all about the core malt flavour. It’s soft and sweet, like nectar with no hard edges or dominating notes. Very drinkable and smooth, much moreso than modern low-end blends where the malt content has dropped dramatically since the 1960s.

 

Royal Culross 8 year old Blended Malt 1972

Distillery: Glen Scotia
ABV: 43%
Distilled: 1972
Age: 8 years old
More Info: WhiskyBase

Don’t know a great deal about what’s in this, besides it being put together by the Glen Scotia distillery in Campbeltown in the seventies…

Nose: Orchard smells of ripe apples and pears, with desserty notes of custard. There’s a dessert-wine character to the aroma too – sweet juicy grapes.

Palate: Very appley. Tart and crisp cider, with cinnamon spice and ripe barley grain. Reminiscent of Irish whiskey, with a gristy, unmalted barley note.

Finish: Toasted nuts and warm oak with a lingering apple edge and a touch of pepper spice.

I wonder if there’s any Macallan in this… Very nice malt, and quite three dimensional for a blend.

 

Longmorn 20 Year Old Single Cask

Distillery: Longmorn
Bottler: Whisky Broker
Bottled: 2012, Distilled: 1992
ABV: 55%
Age: 20 years old
Cask: Sherry Hogshead
More Info: WhiskyBase

Good old Whiskybroker. You can get some very nice whiskies (by the cask, as well as by the bottle) at very reasonable prices indeed. This one’s a sherried Longmorn.

Nose: Orange candy, pine resin, pencils, barley mash, freshly ground hazelnuts and a pinch of ginger.

Palate: Crystalised white grape sugar, malty bread, and toasted oak with rising nutmeg and anise spices. Becomes drying and fruitier with water – a plummy note comes through.

Finish: Tingly and peppery.

Great nose on this, and the palate gets better with water. At 55% ABV it’s a little too fierce but maybe watered down to 45%-50% and it’s perfect.

 

Springbank 19 year old (Master of Malt)

Distillery: Springbank
Bottler: Master of Malt
Bottled: 2012, Distilled: 1993
ABV: 55.2%
Age: 19 years old
More Info: WhiskyBase

I love an indy bottling of Springbank! MoM’s single cask bottlings usually sell out quickly and have a good reputation for quality cask choice.

Nose: Sticking plasters, cough syrup, and leather with smoked caramel and pebble beach.

Palate: Oily, sweet, and salty with rich malt and cinder toffee. Cinnamon in custard, with a slow-rising, lip-tingling chilli oil burn.

Finish: Oak and smoke, with hazelnuts.

Balls to salted caramel latté – if you want an oily, malty, coastal zing then this is the whisky for you. My word, do they know how to do whisky at Springbank. Another cask well chosen, chaps!

 

Caol Ila G&M 2001 Cask Strength

Distillery: Caol Ila
Bottled: 2013, Distilled: 2001
Bottler: Gordon & Macphail
ABV: 59.2%
Age: 12 years old
Cask: Refill sherry butts
More Info: WhiskyBase

Gordon & Macphail have a ridiculously large catalog of whiskies. One of Scotland’s oldest independent bottlers, they’re still owned and managed by the Urquhart Family. Well worth a look at their offerings, and the prices are usually very reasonable.

Nose: Beach bonfire, salty clifftops, sawdust, motor oil, buttery kippers.

Palate: Coal dust, cough drops, with custard creams and sweet milky fudge.

Finish: Salty black liquorice.

Yummy – great coastal peat notes here. No citrus, which is unusual for Caol Ila. Tasting blind I think I’d have pegged this as an Ardbeg – that coal dust flavour’s really full-on, like you’ve actually licked a coal scuttle.

 

All done! Thanks again, Andy – some cracking drams there.

Laphroaig 15 (200th Anniversary)

Sean Handley Islay
Distillery: Laphroaig
Bottled: 2015
Age: 15 years old
ABV: 43%
More Info: WhiskyBase

It’s a big year for Laphroaig this year as the distillery celebrates its 200th anniversary. To commemorate this, one of the limited bottlings they’re releasing is a revival of their much-loved (but discontinued) 15 year old expression.

Being the only distillery on Islay with the royal warrant, I’m sure Prince Charles was miffed at the decision to discontinue the fifteen as he made it well known this was his favourite. I wonder if he was one of the several thousand fans madly hitting refresh in his browser when the bottling was released a few weeks back…

Nose: Coastal notes of seaweed and salt-crusted rocks. There’s a herbal note of sage in there, alongside a bit of fried cabbage. Dry leaves and old tobacco. Some softer, fruitier notes of banana, becoming more pronounced after the whisky’s had time to breathe.

Palate: A gentle earthy peppery peat wrapped up in an oily, creamy mouthfeel – much thicker than the 10 year old, and very smooth. Fresh mint leaves. Lemon and lime cordial. Some soft poached pear and tart red fruit – cranberries and redcurrants.

Finish: Drying with salted nuts and a little more of that peppery peat. No need for water with this one.

This is much cleaner than I expect from Laphroaig. The 10 is a classic sooty, salty, muddy peat fest but this is much more restrained allowing soft fruit flavours through.

It’s nice, and very drinkable, a fruitier and gentler take on the Laphroaig signature style. But at £75 for a 15 year old whisky released at 43%, I’m not exactly wowed. The distillery already produces the stunningly delicious 18 year old around a similar price so why anyone would choose this instead beyond the illusion of exclusivity I’m really not sure.

If it were a limited release of 8,000 bottles then it might have some collectible value as a memorial of the distillery’s 200th birthday. However, I hear there are 72,000 bottles of it globally so it’ll never exactly be hard to find one.

Puzzling. Hopefully retailers will bring the price down over the coming months in the wake of inevitable further releases from the distillery during the Islay Festival later this month. I’m looking forward to a dram that meets the standards of 2014’s excellent (and very yellow) Amontillado Cairdeas release.

You can buy the Laphroaig 15 in a variety of places online. I ordered my sample from WhiskySite.nl for €11.69.

Bunnahabhain 17 (Old Particular)

Sean Handley Islay
Distillery: Bunnahabhain
Bottled: 2014, Distilled: 1997
Age: 17 years old
Cask #: DL10584
Bottler: Douglas Laing
ABV: 48.4%
Cask: Refill Hogshead
More Info: WhiskyBase

Here’s the third in a set of three Old Particular whiskies from one of the great indy distillers, Douglas Laing. Each bottling of the series is from a single cask so number of bottles available are quite limited.

I find Bunnahabhain single casks to be a bit hit and miss. There’s usually some interesting perfumed aromas but they don’t always work for me so I’m hopeful this one’s a hit. Either way, it’ll be interesting!

Nose: Fairy washing up liquid? Quite musky (like a cologne), with a little bit of armpit smell, lemon peel, waxed leather, and coltsfoot rock.

Palate: Sweet, soapy sea-water. Halls Soother throat sweets. Bitter grapefruit and stewed black tea with a dash of muddy peat.

Finish: Salty Marmite and cold ashes.

Really unusual this one. Soapy and perfumed with a little sweet and salt thrown in for flavour. Definitely more a thinker, than a drinker.

Imagine yourself in an airport. You’ve got a cold so you had tea, throat sweets and a citrus-rich breakfast with Marmite on toast. You sneak off to the toilets for a cheeky fag and then wash your hands before checking out the perfume section of duty free.

Wow, you don’t often get whisky like this. I don’t know if I like it, but I like the journey it’s sent my tastebuds on and a good reminder of the adventure of drinking single cask expressions.

Bravo, Douglas Laing.

You can get samples (and bottles) of the Old Particular range from www.MasterOfMalt.com.

Bowmore 16 (Old Particular)

Sean Handley Islay
Distillery: Bowmore
Bottled: 2014, Distilled: 1998
Age: 16 years old
Cask #: DL10448
Bottler: Douglas Laing
ABV: 48.4%
Cask: Refill Hogshead
More Info: WhiskyBase

Here’s the second in a set of three Old Particular whiskies from one of the great indy distillers, Douglas Laing. Each bottling of the series is from a single cask so number of bottles available are quite limited.

16 years old is a good age for Bowmore. Oh heck, any age is a good age for Bowmore! But I’ve generally had good experiences with teenagers from the distillery so I have high expectations here…

Nose: Shoe leather, clean and crisp. Crystalline pear sugar. Ripe juicy plums, tangerine syrup and sliced guava. An edge of chalky, salty minerality.

Palate: Fruity smoke and spice with Signature Bowmore parma violets. Pineapples and pears. Salty chilli chocolate. Seville Marmalade.

Finish: Chalky and perfumed with a tingly smoke tang.

Cracking fruity notes in this one with that gentle salty peat smoke and sweet-shop edge so typical to Islay’s oldest working distillery. At £91 I’d say this a solid cask strength expression. I don’t know if it’s old enough to be branded “Old Particular”, but it’s definitely got maturity and character.

Next time, I’ll be trying the Bunnahabhain 17…

You can get samples (and bottles) of the Old Particular range from www.MasterOfMalt.com.

Ardbeg Batch 5 (TBWC)

Sean Handley Islay , ,
Distillery: Ardbeg
Bottler: Master of Malt
ABV: 47.5%
Bottles: 23
More Info: Master Of Malt

Oh my.

It’s always fun to sample an interesting Ardbeg. This time it’s another batch from the chaps at Master of Malt.

Their Boutique-y whiskies are from mystery casks bottled independently and adorned with clever cartoon labels, usually depicting an in-joke of the whisky world. Sadly they keep the details (including the age) to themselves, but the whisky in the bottle is usually of a high standard and full of character.

Much as I love them, this should be quite a departure from the current core Ardbeg expressions…

Nose: The smell fills the room! There’s that distinctive Ardbeg coal tar (though it’s a fair bit more restrained than in Ardbeg 10), rubber shoe soles, candle wax, lemon cough drops, eucalyptus, pineapple chunks, rock salt, and fresh boot polish. With time, more delicate notes of wild flowers and dry grass.

Palate: Sooty and sweet! Quite creamy, cereal-rich, and malty to start. Then bakery notes of gingerbread, spiced treacle, and malt loaf developing into soft fruit, dark coffee and chocolate fudge, all against a backdrop of gentle sticky peat.

Finish: Salty smoke and hazelnuts with dry liquorice root, damp wood and earthy peat.

This is fucking classy. Like a really excellent dessert course after a posh meal. A fine mix of smoke and dark, rich cake in a glass. Pretty much exactly what I wanted from this dram – all those lovely Ardbeg characteristics but toned down with subtlety and elegance and some fun bonus notes along the way.

I wish MoM would tell us more about this batch but that’s just not the way they roll when it comes to Boutique-y Whisky. It’s certainly tastes like it’s a decent age. I’m guessing it’s at least 18, though that’s pure speculation on my part…

If you’re an Ardbeg lover, I’m afraid all 23 bottles are now gone but there’s still some samples left as I write this. £19.45 isn’t such a bad price for a sample, and I’m sure you’d be asked to pay that for a glass of Haig club on a night out in London anyway.

Kilchoman Oloroso 2009 (Single Cask 422)

Sean Handley Islay
Distillery: Kilchoman
Bottled: 2015, Distilled: 2009
ABV: 59.2%
Cask: Oloroso Sherry Casks
More Info: WhiskyBase

Here’s the sixth and final dram from the Manchester Whisky Club’s tasting with Kilchoman, the Single Cask Oloroso 2009.

Nose: Sesame seed, caramel wafers, coal tar, plasticine, marzipan, plum sauce.

Palate: Sweet and syrupy with tangy cough drops, cola, orange zest, and tingly sour smoke.

Finish: Long and smoky with plenty of earth and tar. Reminiscent of Ardbeg.

Staggeringly good for a 5 year old. This one really made the night for a lot of the club members. Wow!

This cask (422) will be bottled and released in Belgium but we have it on good authority there’s a similar release due for the UK market. Here’s hoping…

Originally posted on Manchester Whisky Club.

NOTE: The info link is for a different (but very similar) single cask bottling.

Kilchoman Port Cask

Sean Handley Islay
Distillery: Kilchoman
Bottled: 2014, Distilled: 2011
ABV: 59%
Bottles: 6000
Cask: Ruby Port Casks
More Info: WhiskyBase

Here’s the fifth dram from the Manchester Whisky Club’s tasting with Kilchoman, the Port Cask. This was released last year and sold out very quickly indeed. The original release was watered to 55%, but we’re very luck to be trying an original cask sample at 59%!

Nose: Smoked cheese with brandied cherries. Musty dunnage warehouse. Barley grain.

Palate: Fizzy sour strawberry laces, with tart raspberry, soft grape, and a Lapsang Souchoung smoke running through.

Finish: Drying with chewy peat and savoury oak.

The distillery started with 20 fresh 1st-fill port casks back in 2011 and filled them with spirit straight away to capture the flavour. At 3 years old they decided to release it because the port was having such a strong influence on the whisky. Any longer and it’d have looked like Ribena!

The colour on this is amazing – you almost never see a whisky of this hue. After time in sherry it darkens but almost never to this pinky/reddish colour.

It’s an interesting dram, for sure, but it’s quite a departure from what you’d expect from a whisky. The port influence has given it a lot of soft-fruit notes which are pleasant and refreshing but they’re kind of fighting against the peatiness of the whisky.

A really interesting one to try, nonetheless.

Originally posted on Manchester Whisky Club.

Kilchoman Original Cask Strength

Sean Handley Islay
Distillery: Kilchoman
Bottled: 2014, Distilled: 2009
ABV: 59.2%
Cask: 1st Fill Bourbon
More Info: WhiskyBase

Here’s the fourth dram from the Manchester Whisky Club’s tasting with Kilchoman, the Original Cask Strength.

Nose: Wood spice, candy, liqourice, hay, farmyard, salty rocks, herby vegetation and dry straw.

Palate: Oily and sweet. Vanilla, peated custard with cinnamon. A little bit of seaweed. Peat rises to become salty and dry.

Finish: Long and warming with savoury smoke, oak, and salt.

This was released October 2014 round about the time of the London Whisky Show. A limited release, this was produced with 35 fresh first fill Bourbon casks and bottled aged five years.

Of all the line-up, this for me is the most typically Islay with that fierce cask strength adding an oily and more-ish quality and some more pronounced coastal notes than the others.

Originally posted on Manchester Whisky Club.

Kilchoman Loch Gorm 2015

Sean Handley Islay
Distillery: Kilchoman
Bottled: 2015, Distilled: 2010
ABV: 46%
Cask: 1st Fill Oloroso Hogsheads & Butts
More Info: Kilchoman

Here’s the third dram from the Manchester Whisky Club’s tasting with Kilchoman, the Loch Gorm 2015. This one’s so new it’s not even on WhiskyBase yet! Released on Monday 23rd, we’re some of the first people to taste it.

Nose: Rubber shoe soles, struck matches, sultanas, glace cherries, custard powder, salted nuts, dry dusty earth.

Palate: Peated salty syrup with sweet barley malt, plums and figs, a little dark chocolate, leading to herbal oregano and peppercorns.

Finish: Spicy clove with lime juice. More delicious dry peat, quite sticky this time.

I really liked this a lot more than I expected to. The other Loch Gorm releases I’ve tried have been a little bit boring. This one’s a different beast altogether, with some great savoury sherry notes coming through.

Using Hogsheads as well as Butts has made a difference to the wood contact during those five years maturing. I think I may have to nab a bottle of this…

Originally posted on Manchester Whisky Club.