Tag: review | Page 12 | MaltKlaus' Daily Drams

May 13, 2016October 7, 2016

Tasting: Wolfburn 3 yo First Release

Dram data:
Distillery: Wolfburn
Bottler: Original Bottling
Distilled: 2013
Bottled: March 2016
Age: 3 years
Limitation: 16000
Casks: refill quarter casks
Alcohol: 46%
unchillfiltered and uncoloured
Whiskybase link

Tasting notes:
It seems just like yesterday that the Wolfburn distillery way up in Thurso, in the north of Scotland, was constructed and started production. It doesn’t feel like it’s already a year ago that I paid them a visit. And yet here it is: Their first general release of a three-year-old Single Malt Scotch Whisky. Well, let’s get cracking and see how it turned out!
Colour: pale white wine
The nose opens on a waft of alcohol – it is bottled at 46% – with a hint of peat smoke from the maturation in quarter casks which previously held peated whisky. There are also notes of shortbread with sweet icing, vanilla pods, freshly ground malt, sweet grape juice and a slight grapefruit rind and juice tingle. The quarter casks did a great job on the clean distillate – no harsh youthfulness anymore. Continue reading “Tasting: Wolfburn 3 yo First Release”

May 10, 2016October 7, 2016

Tasting: Johnnie Walker Green Label 15 years (2016 re-release)

Dram data:
Distillery: –
Bottler: Original Bottling
Distilled: –
Bottled: -2016
Age: 15 years
Limitation: –
Casks: –
Alcohol: 43%
chill filtered and coloured
Whiskybase link

Tasting notes:
Colour: light amber (E150a…)
Many people lamented the loss of the old Johnnie Walker Green Label and now, after about two years of absence, it is back – worldwide. Johnnie Walker Green Label is a 15-year old blended malt, thus a vatting of only single malt whiskies – Cragganmore at the core, with Talisker, Caol Ila, Linkwood and others blended in. I have never tasted the old version, so let’s try the new one without expectations to live up to…
The nose is aromatic, medium-intense and, this might be my mind playing tricks here, “green” – meaning a grassy (but pleasantly so) top note. This fresh note is underpinned by vanilla-scented honey, honey melon, orange oil, shortbread, caramelized ginger, a dense mixture of spices, a pinch of white pepper and a smidgen of peat smoke. Continue reading “Tasting: Johnnie Walker Green Label 15 years (2016 re-release)”

May 7, 2016October 7, 2016

Tasting: Benrinnes 15 years Flora & Fauna

Dram data:
Distillery: Benrinnes
Bottler: Original Bottling
Distilled: –
Bottled: ca. 2015-2016
Age: 15 years
Limitation: –
Casks: –
Alcohol: 43%
chill filtered and coloured
Whiskybase link

Tasting notes:
Colour: amber (E150a…)
The nose is true to the beefy, meaty spirit style of Benrinnes – not at all unlike Mortlach, rich and oily with a dash of engine grease on top! Ex-sherry casks dominate, with rich, creamy, fruity-sweet notes of cherry juice, dried plums and raisins and milk chocolate.
Continue reading “Tasting: Benrinnes 15 years Flora & Fauna”

May 2, 2016October 7, 2016

Tasting: Gems of Scotland Caol Ila 7 yo 2008 – 2016 cask 311050

Dram data:
Distillery: Caol Ila
Bottler: Morrison & Mackay
Distilled: 05.06.2008
Bottled: 15.01.2016
Age: 7 years
Limitation: 414 bottles
Casks: Hogshead 311050
Alcohol: 46%
unchillfiltered and uncoloured

Tasting notes:
Colour: new make with a slight copper sheen
The nose is dominated by slightly mellowed-down heavily peated new make. In a good way! A pinch of alcohol with dried orange peel and fresh ginger, raw fire, still warm peaty ash, brown sugar and a spent old vanilla pod rubbed on a slate platter. The cask managed to take away the roughness of the new make and add just a smidgen of flavours – at least third-fill wood in my opinion. Continue reading “Tasting: Gems of Scotland Caol Ila 7 yo 2008 – 2016 cask 311050”

April 28, 2016October 7, 2016

Tasting: Glen Albyn 1976 – 2012 by Gordon & Macphail

Glen Albyn 1976 - 2012 by Gordon & Macphail's

Dram data:
Distillery: Glen Albyn
Bottler: Gordon & MacPhail
Distilled: 1976
Bottled: 2012
Age: ca. 36 years
Limitation: –
Casks: Ex-sherry
Alcohol: 43%
chill filtered, uncoloured
Whiskybase link

Tasting notes:
Colour: apple juice
My first Glen Albyn – a lost Inverness distillery, founded in 1846 and closed during the miserable 80s whisky downturn in 1983. Bottlings of this distillery are getting very scarce these days…
The nose opens with notes of dusty apple strudel with sugar (no raisins!), old mashed banana, icing sugar with a drop of lemon, rich, creamy old oak and dried orange zest. Very, very mellow and well-aged! The palate has notes of white and red apples – very light, actually, light spices and a lot of creaminess. Old, dried oranges, a hint of cardboard and an old banana with peel with a fragrant oak and a whiff of dusty old cellar (yep!) in the background. Continue reading “Tasting: Glen Albyn 1976 – 2012 by Gordon & Macphail”

April 24, 2016December 5, 2016

Tasting: Bruichladdich Port Charlotte 2007 CC:01 8 yo

Bruichladdich Port Charlotte 2007 CC:01 7 yo

Dram data:
Distillery: Bruichladdich
Bottler: original bottling
Distilled: 03.10.2007
Bottled: 21.01.2016
Age: 8 years
Limitation: –
Casks: French oak ex-cognac casks
Alcohol: 57,7%
unchillfiltered and uncoloured
Whiskybase link

Tasting notes:
Colour: gold
The nose immediately met by a fragrant spicy-peaty mixture with a slight alcoholic note on top. Peaty bonfire smoke meets salted herrings, green apples, lemon and grapefruit peel, lemon and tangerine juice, with cinnamon, allspice and one clove on top. Quite fresh yet with loads going on thanks to the spicy French oak – and perhaps a hint of what was in the cask before… Continue reading “Tasting: Bruichladdich Port Charlotte 2007 CC:01 8 yo”

April 18, 2016October 7, 2016

Tasting: Bruichladdich Laddie Eight

Dram data:
Distillery: Bruichladdich
Bottler: original bottling
Distilled: 10.03.2008
Bottled: 15.03.2016
Age: 8 years
Limitation: –
Casks: American and European oak
Alcohol: 50%
unchillfiltered and uncoloured
Whiskybase link

Tasting notes:
Colour: white wine
The nose opens on the fresh, light, almost “springtime” side. Honest fresh, young 8-year-old whisky. An initial hit of alcohol after pouring the dram, but it mellows down quickly. Citrus peel, sherbet lemon, green and white apples, pears, green Kiwi (but not sour), sour apple drops with a pinch of salt. And then there’s something else – Freshly sprung herbs, possibly and hint of vanilla but there are traces of other spices not found in American oak – a whiff of cinnamon stick and allspice. Continue reading “Tasting: Bruichladdich Laddie Eight”

April 15, 2016October 7, 2016

Tasting: Glenglassaugh 45 years 1968 – 2014 cask 1601

Dram data:
Distillery: Glenglassaugh
Bottler: original bottling
Distilled: 1968
Bottled: 2014
Age: 45 years
Limitation: 349 bottles
Casks: Sherry hogshead finish in cask 1601
Alcohol: 44,3%
unchillfiltered and uncoloured
Whiskybase link

Tasting notes:
Colour: amber
The nose opens on dark dried cherries with kernels and a load of PX sherry underneath. There’s also the distinct smell of freshly unpacked leather shoes, a hint of cask smoke, a pipe tobacco mixture of Latakia and Black Cavendish paired with a whiff of burnt oak. No distillery character whatsoever remains – this is completely taken over by oak and then a fresh sherry finish added on top to get other than oaky flavours in. Continue reading “Tasting: Glenglassaugh 45 years 1968 – 2014 cask 1601”

April 11, 2016October 7, 2016

Tasting: Kininvie 17 + 23 years

Last weekend I got the chance to taste the Kininvie 17 + 23-year-old releases while visiting malt mate Keith Wood for a dramming session (or two). Oliver Klimek also popped over and we had a great chat about both malts (and possibly a few more). You’ll find my tasting notes below – a tad shorter than usual due to the handwritten notes.

Dram data Kinivie 17 batch 001:
Distillery: Kininvie
Bottler: original bottling
Distilled: 1996
Bottled: 2014
Age: 17 years
Limitation: –
Casks: American Oak and Sherry Casks
Alcohol: 42.6%
chillfiltered and coloured
Whiskybase link

Tasting notes:
The nose has baked apples with walnuts and hints of vanilla pods, slightly sour apples, milk toffee, a hint of fruit cake with spices – rich and sweet, a tight christmas-cake mix, with bitter Kiwi kernels in the background. The palate is quite different. green apples with peel, Kiwi, gooseberries, quite mouth-coating. A hint of acetone emerges upon adding water (disappears soon afterwards). More bitter apple peel and dried oranges. Continue reading “Tasting: Kininvie 17 + 23 years”

April 4, 2016October 7, 2016

Tasting: Invergordon 27 years 1988-2015 by Maltbarn

Dram data:
Distillery: Invergordon
Bottler: Maltbarn
Distilled: 1988
Bottled: 2015
Age: 27 years
Limitation: 132 bottles
Casks: Ex-Bourbon
Alcohol: 51.3%
unchillfiltered and uncoloured
Whiskybase link

Tasting notes:
Colour: light gold
The nose opens on a surprisingly light note for the age of the whisky, but then again spirit intended for blending (as this Invergordon probably was destined for) is sometimes even matured in 5th-fill casks. Let’s delve deeper. A slight spirity note, fresh wheat, citrus, breakfast cereals, lemon rind, fresh ginger, ginger in syrup, white pepper, a hint of cloves, cake icing with lemon juice, unripe gooseberries. Continue reading “Tasting: Invergordon 27 years 1988-2015 by Maltbarn”