We’ve all done things (or not done things) that we may have regretted. I’ve done plenty of stupid things, but who hasn’t? Thankfully the fact you are reading this now means we are both here to tell the tale. Though by the end of the sample I’m leaving to sit, I’m not 100% sure whether this will be my final regret.
I’m not going to give up, as this was one of the more expensive of the Silent Season miniatures, and had a good seal coupled with a decent fill level. The other mini I have wasn’t so good with the fill level so there was no point taking the chance of it being flat and unreviewable. How I came to regret this choice.
I’d love to fill you with a story about this distillery, but there is really not a lot to tell you about it, but this will come with a story after a wee bit of tasting.
Region – Lowland Age – 5 y.oStrength – 40%Colour – Old Gold (0.6) Cask Type – not statedColouring – not statedChill Filtered – not statedNose – needs to sit. Sewage, possibly camomile and liquorice. But mostly sewage. Or maybe tripe. Palate –Petrol. Finish – Down the sink
The only green container this should have been in would have been a fuel jerry can. Maybe it had been.
I’m gutted. I have drunk some awful whiskies in my time, but this one is up there. It was worth quite a bit as a collectible bottle as well and I should have kept it sealed. I don’t think it was actually petrol, as it didn’t smell like it, but it was revolting. Abort! Abort! Abort! It was oily in my mouth and it took a few toffees afterwards to get rid of the highly unpleasant taste in my mouth.
As this was an Italian import bottle, and with a taste very unlike whisky, the possibility of this being a fake entered my head. The seal looked good but a very good fill level which you don’t tend to see on these miniatures. And after only one sip, and after eating sweeties, I can still taste it, something strikes me as odd. Even at bed time when I was cleaning my teeth and despite having a cleansing nip, I still had a taste of the liquid in my mouth, despite only taking a sip. If that doesn’t set off alarm bells, what would?
I would have never really thought of this being a fake, but I’d let my guard down, and for those of you who may be drinking old samples, let this be a warning to you that if you have a perfect mini of an old and rare sample, then proceed with caution. All that glitters isn’t gold. It’s very easy to become complacent after many years purchasing at auction and only having successes. Provided that they haven’t evaporated too much, even the minis with low fill levels have provided an interesting drink, if not the way the bottlers intended it to be.
The seal was good on this bottle, and the cap didn’t look out of place – if it looks new or the seal looks suspicious, walk away. But I never even thought about those things until my experience of the liquid. Doing it retrospectively could have given me very different results, but there were other warning signs that should have stopped me even sipping it. The smell alone should have been the red stop light.
Seal intact.
I often look at tasting notes after I buy a dram to see what I can expect and these are not common for Glen Flagler due to the rarity and the cost of the whisky nowadays. I had expected grassy notes, and while this did definitely smell vegetal in the extreme, the only grassy notes I got would have been similar to those from a lawnmower collection bin after accidentally running over a fresh dog turd. They say you can’t recognise a smell or taste you haven’t had before and this was one experience I wasn’t planning on ever smelling again. Word to the wise – strim long grass before mowing it. If nothing else, strimmers are easier to clean, definitely when you find a dog egg.
Before labelling this as 100% fake, I looked for any other signs and how the bottle had been treated in my ownership. It had always been tightly sealed. It had always been upright. Even in packing my bag to take to Poland, I had orientated the samples so the only time they would in theory have been horizontal is when my bag was being carried on and off the train. So, limited contact with the waxed seal. Of course, before I bought it, the last owner could have kept it on its side, but in my experience this usually gives a cardboard sort of taste to the spirit, sometimes taking away the taste of the whisky, but never making it foul. Even the waxed seal and cap looked in good condition, but maybe too good for its age; it’s something that just can’t be verified, but in whisky I feel that things like this if you suspect, then you are perhaps right.
What’s worrying me was the mouthfeel. Very very oily or syrupy. Almost like oil itself. Or glycerine. because it was in my mouth for so little time I never fully analysed it. When you have a taste like that in your mouth for so little a moment, there has to be something not quite right about it. As one of my social media followers on BlueSky commented “it could have been worse. It could have been a full sized bottle.”
A lesson learnt that not all whisky is good and not all old bottles can be trusted. And you can all know that while I may have done some stupid things in the past, at least I still have a sense of self preservation.
People seem to chase after this dram due to its rarity but to be honest, if this isn’t a fake and that was the real taste, then I don’t give it much more than I did the Passport blended whisky. And that was awful. By clicking on this link you’ll see what I thought of that. Glen Flagler was never meant to be a market leader, it was simply a distillery at the Inver House complex in Airdrie to supply malts for its blends. It had a relatively short existence of 20 years, starting in 1965 and ending in 1985. It was used in Hankey Bannister, a blend that I’ve never seen in the shops. The complex was also home to a second single malt, Killyloch, which is even rarer to find. Garnheath grain distillery completed the trio within the same site.
As for Glen Flagler? Don’t look for it on a map as like Glentauchers it doesn’t exist, although there is a Tauchers Wood. The name Flagler comes from a street in West Palm Beach where the American founder of Inver House had a residence.
The brand has been rejuvenated as a blended whisky and there is a single malt still available but whether this is left over stock or a sourced malt, I don’t know. What I do know is I’d rather drink Bells than try anything with that moniker again.
Taste Review #158 – Inchgower MMD Fruity and Sweet
I’ve had a sedentary fortnight before I wrote this blog. You’ve probably noticed a recent upturn in my output and it’s all tied to the fact that I’ve been on a wee holiday to Poland, where my day-to-day life can be put on hold and time was spent drinking whisky and trying to write about it. I’ve been spoilt rotten by my mother-in-law and this has resulted in me needing to forego any treats when I got back home. Hopefully my wife doesn’t read this and keeps giving me the good stuff, due to me having a resolve with the breaking strain of a blade of grass when it comes to dietary matters.
But it hasn’t all been pierogi, biscuits, bigos and traditional bimber. I’ve been up to something else that I enjoy doing but don’t get a lot of time to do, and that is reading a book. That’s the one thing this age of electronic wonder has stolen from me, as it is so much easier to pick up a phone or tablet for entertainment rather than read a hard copy of some literature. I tend to read non-fiction, and often nowadays there’s a personal preference leaning towards audio books, something I can listen to in the car, which makes wasted time getting to places that little bit more enjoyable and often educational. But nowadays my time in the car for edifying entertainment is further curtailed by my daughter who requests to listen to “angry music”, a carefully curated playlist of rock which includes Slipknot, Rammstein, Tool, System of a Down and the Deftones. Perhaps the Rockabye baby downloads worked more subliminally than I ever imagined.
Coffee and Cake. Polish style. Consumed when writing this. Need to keep my energy up!
Imagination is something crucial to reading a book. Your brain is processing words to construct an image as described on the page, forming a satisfying mental picture that can put you almost inside the story. The better the writing is, the fuller and more immersive that cranium based scene will be. This was the case with my latest book, which was unsurprisingly about a whisky topic. I’m not really into book reviews, given my recent poor track record in whisky reviewing but I feel this one should make a mention.
There are a few books that mention people’s experiences while part of the whisky industry but the book ‘Wort, Worms and Washbacks’ by John Macdougall came onto my radar and the fact it relates to some distilleries I have either visited or pass regularly was enough to hook my attention. Starting in the early 1960’s, it tells the story of John’s introduction into distillery management through a DCL training scheme, rather than rising through the ranks. Starting at Aultmore, John moved around over 30 years being sent to Dailuaine next, with short stints at Imperial, Balmenach, Banff and Knockdhu, then taking the chance at the managers position at Laphroaig. From there he moves to Tormore, down to Glasgow to work in the office for Long John, before finally ending up at Springbank, where the book (but not his career) comes to a conclusion.
I don’t want to say too much about the book, as I don’t want to spoil it for you, but there are plenty of tales such as being surprised at photo shoot at Dailuaine as it turned out to be a shoot for a French girly mag, sacking of thieving warehouse staff at Imperial, the hi-jinks on Islay to the drudge of office life away from the hands on work then back to rejuvenating Springbank. What makes this book for me is the unassuming writing style; for it quickly fills your minds eye that you could be there in another world, one which we are maybe partially familiar with through our own experiences or knowledge of that era and industry. A kaleidoscope of imagination results in going back to the 1960’s even though I wasn’t born yet. Then my own experiences kick in, and that I do remember playing on the old railway trackbed that used to feed Aultmore in the early to mid 80’s, as well as playing around the yard whilst my dad visited colleagues in a house adjacent to the distillery. I’ve visited Dailuaine, I’ve driven through Carron to pass the Imperial distillery. I regularly pass Tormore and know the area well, so the picture John is trying to paint with his words becomes so much more vivid. Also, I grew up in the North East of Scotland, so am very familiar with the nature of people who are incidental to his story. It gels well for this blogger who yearns a bit too much for a bygone era that often belies his actual age.
The old Dailuaine Locomotive Shed, where the Puggie engine used to be kept. The same engine mentioned in the book used as part of a French girlie magazine photoshoot now sits outside Aberfeldy Distillery.
The book was really hard to put down, and I managed to read it over the course of three days. I was totally immersed in an age of whisky days gone by and it was magnificent. The book will be a brilliant source of anecdotes for the future, so it has been a worthwhile read. I’m sure there will be a flurry of activity on Amazon or eBay trying to source this book after they’ve read my piece. It is still available, both new and second hand on both sites.
If there is one final point to make about this book that I feel is relevant to make here, is that in the era John writes about, whisky was an industry but different to how we know it now. Back then it was so much more, when distilleries were actual communities. There would have been a lot more staff employed. Malt men, Brewers, Still men, Coopers, Warehouse men, Customs and Excise officers, as well as management. Many communities grew up around distilleries as before their arrival, there is likely not much was there before. A distillery closure thus would have had catastrophic consequences for these communities. Nowadays, due to automation, a distillery can be ran by one or two people a shift; the only hand crafted part of it will be the blender, usually based in the central belt of Scotland where incidently where much of Scotch whisky is stored. So much for your carefully crafted Speyside which was tankered straight from the distillery, casked, matured and blended near to Alloa. The veneration of a distillery then becomes misplaced as its provenance isn’t what you believe it to be from the label, and we end up falsely romanticising an industrial mass production process.
Mind you, I’ve long said that Speyside is simply a well spaced out and scenic industrial estate. It’s now a highly developed process that now largely has long dispensed of the era similar to that described in John’s book. If you want an entertaining that looks back to days long gone, I thoroughly recommend this book.
Keeping it simple
As much as I like telling a story about a distillery, I’m going to give an in depth overview a miss this time, as there isn’t a lot to tell about Inchgower, having being founded in 1871. By 1936, its then owners fell bankrupt, and fearful of a loss of employment in the area, the Buckie Town council bought it to keep it operating, this keeping all those people listed a couple of paragraphs above in work. This was to become the only distillery in Scotland to be owned by a local authority By 1938, Arthur Bell bought the distillery, then through the various purchases and acquisitions became part of Diageo.
The propriety bottling from this distillery is the 14 year old Flora and Fauna, and to date this is usually easily available at specialist retailers and online. Inchgower appears occasionally in the Diageo special releases line up but that’s as far as official bottlings go. The Flora and Fauna release is not the greatest whisky, and was only released as a way of allowing people to sample from each one of United Distillers distilleries not covered by the Classic Malts. However it is not a bad distillery, but for best results you need to try independent bottlings.
Inchgower 14 Flora & Fauna
I’ve got great respect for Murray McDavid (MMD) as an independent bottler. I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad dram from them. They are based at Coleburn Distillery between Elgin and Rothes, and we’ll be hearing more about them in the future as part of my Silent Season whiskies. I managed to get a sample of Inchgower 5 which MMD bottled as their Spirit Of Speyside bottling in 2022. Despite its young age, it was banging. See my review here. Murray McDavid Inchgower 5These bottles aren’t expensive, around £55-£65 a pop, but decent high strength whisky for the price.
What’s even better value is the NAS Cask Craft range. This totally ignores age statements and is typically bottled around 44%. This only lists the finishing cask type and the general flavour profile. They are on sale in the UK at around £35 and to my mind represents great value for money for the quality given. For this Inchgower, it has been labelled Fruity and Sweet. Let’s have a look and see what it’s all about.
Inchgower Cask Craft, Fruity and Sweet
Region – Speyside Age – NAS Strength – 44.5%Colour – Old Gold (0.6) Cask Type – Madeira Barrique Colouring – NoChill Filtered – Not stated Nose – Cream, malt, grapes, strawberries lemon, green apples, blueberries, raisins, oak. Palate – malt, grapes, apple, heather honey, pecan nut, tannic, pastry notes. Finish – long, sweet, lingering, strawberries, peppery tannins mingle with a creamy afterglow.
Another success in my opinion from the MMD warehouse. Not the most complex but interesting enough and full of enough flavour to make you want more. It shows that whisky doesn’t always need to be at cask strength and annihilating the lining of your throat. It speaks of a time when whisky was bottled at lower a.b.v, typically 40% but every bit as tasty. I suspect that many malts back in the day weren’t chill filtered as that didn’t really take off until the 1970’s, although DCL did start chill filtration in 1930’s. Just as well I enjoy seeking out those older drams of a bygone era!
At the time of writing, the Inchgower Fruity and Sweet was still available at retail, costing around £33. I’d certainly recommend giving it a go if you see it.
Thanks to Mick (Drammstein on BlueSky) for the great dram swap.
Obviously I’m a bit late with this but given how long it’s been since I last wrote a blog, you can see some things won’t have changed, certainly not for the better.
I don’t subscribe to all this rubbish about celebrating the changes you hope will happen on the earth’s next journey around the sun. Yes, the year may well have changed, but I’m still mulling over the potentially pointless whisky questions so that you don’t have to. When many amongst us have made our end of year lists of great things that happened to them, best albums listened to, best whiskies drunk etc. I find myself still thinking over a discussion that I had with Bob around the time of last year’s National Whisky Festival in Aberdeen.
“Does whisky have a class?”
There are some class whiskies, but I’m thinking something more in line with social class. It’s something that is still reveberating around my head over seven months later. It’s a somewhat awkward question to ask, because it all depends on your point of view and other matters. This has been brought to the fore through an uncomfortable experience last year on social media, of which I didn’t come out of it smelling entirely of roses but neither did the other party. I’ll cut the long story short, but basically I was getting a bit cheesed off by constantly seeing someone boasting about high purchase prices and big age statements. While I wasn’t the only one feeling this way, at least the others ignored it. But I often have a misguided socialist streak.
The straw that broke the camels back.
So, in what became perhaps not one of my finest moments, I delivered what I considered a truth bomb. While in my opinion it may have been true, it doesn’t always make it a good idea to share. Never mind, I’ll worry about that later… It’s a pity as I once had a reasonable online chat with the guy who said we all have different budgets. It’s a very well made point and there is no denying it. However, it’s a different matter when you’re showing off bottles of several hundred pounds almost daily, when the majority are only buying whisky sub-£100.
Subtle like bombs.
Yeah, well. You get the picture. I could have unfollowed earlier but subtle hints were getting me nowhere and after all said and done, it’s none of my business what people spend their money on. But it says a lot about the person who is informing others how much a whisky was that they missed out on. Plus, I’m uncomfortably ignoring what my outburst says about me.
I really don’t know why they did it. I don’t care any more and it was probably never that important. But some people want to look like Big Jock at the clubhouse.
This seems vaguely familiar.
While I don’t regret making that point, it awakened an offline discussion about whisky and how we perceive it, amongst fellow social media users and other friends. I have already explored this concept on two other blogs, one of which was a whisky eulogy to my best friend, and the other explored how we feel about brands and relative value. These links are worth reading again to put things into context if you don’t mind me saying so. These issues continually circle around my head as people venerate a drink perhaps a bit more than they should. Therefore it’s natural to ask my friend Bob what he thought.
“Does whisky have a (social) class?”
Bob, for those of you who don’t know him or haven’t heard of him, has a strong socialist streak. This could have been a red(!) rag to a bull if you can pardon the pun, but Bob has come out with some very reasonable responses. Ultimately he said yes, whisky does have a class and I’m of the opinion that I agree with him. I also believe that this situation is wrong and ultimately false. What follows are my thoughts and it would be interesting to find out if any of this strikes a chord with you, or if you can change my mind.
Bob photographed in a thoughtful mood. Actually, it’s not Bob, but full points go to those who know who it is.
How we see whisky and how we would like to see ourselves
Class is all about perception. It just isn’t only about how you see yourself, but how you want other people to see you. This is borne out of the fact that while we believe it is only the rich that may be class-aware, there are many people of means who are completely down to earth and you’d have no idea of their background or the size of their bank account. It would be nice to imagine that the social class system most demonstrably shown by the British empire has to all intents and purposes died, but human nature isn’t like that. There’s always an aspect that somebody wants to be appearing to do a little better than others. Sadly, human nature is never going to change, but that’s a good thing for marketeers, as they want to play on the aspirational aspects of their target market.
Whisky in the media has been and continues to be marketed on aspirations of the target audience. Different cultures may play it slightly differently but Bob reminded me of this clip from the film “Lost In Translation” starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. Bill plays the role of Bob Harris, a fading American movie star who is having a mid life crisis during a trip to Tokyo to film an advert for Suntory whisky. Bob gave me a link to the actual scene. It’s better if you switch on the subtitles for this as you will get the Japanese translation, and will thus make what I will say next have more sense.
You can see how that the producer is trying to set the scene; famous American movie star, dressed in a fine suit, country house background. The scene is designed to radiate success and opulence. The director is trying to get Bob to say something similar to in style to the classic film Casablanca, to encourage potential drinkers that this is a suave drink and you will look cool and successful if you drink it slowly with an air of sophistication similar to Humphrey Bogart who played the bar tender Rick Blaine in the film.
Suave and sophisticated? Or synthetic and suffocating? What does our choices really say? *Macallan optional
Unfortunately when we drink whisky we won’t be teleported to a country house and be the sudden instruments of desire, unless we own one and are. (Chance would be a fine thing!).But many feel they identify with a different class when they are seen to be buying this or that brand, age statement or high cost whisky. I’ve been under no illusion that this is nothing other than a marketing construct to play on our insecurities and aspirations. Why do we need to prove what we have, how old it is or how expensive it was? And while I have discussed prices on my Facebook page or blog, this is solely to pass on information that I’ve been asked from followers and passing information between enthusiasts. And this is important, as the secondary bottle market is constantly moving.
It goes without saying that the whisky market has changed with the end of Covid, and the endless buying of what is marketed as “special whisky” doesn’t resonate the same with many whisky enthusiasts any longer. In my estimation, sometimes showing extravagant bottles or those with extravagant prices shows that perhaps you aren’t in touch with the market or are paying for over priced whisky at retail. Gone are the days when you’d have to compete with flippers for an inaugural release. These are almost ten a penny nowadays. Many special releases are currently selling for well under their release price, or hovering just above it, even Macallan. It’s my opinion that the market has been oversaturated, and the market is full of special whiskies that in my opinion really aren’t that special. Let me explain, it isn’t that hard and is very simple.
Since we’ve mentioned Macallan, let me use them as an example, although this can be levelled at more than one distillery. Macallan has in my opinion become less of a whisky but more a brand. Like it or lump it, the whisky is now more of a lifestyle aspirational brand. I remember the days even before they built their new distillery that you could drive in, visit the shop, make some purchases, look at the display. No more. You need an appointment to get in – everything has been made to be exclusive, to make you feel that you are that little bit better than everybody else. It makes you feel if you buy one of their products, that you have got something better than anybody else can get.
Designed for the über-wealthy? Made by the common person.
And now here comes my point – see that bottle of Macallan that costs several thousand pounds? It was made with exactly the same equipment as the bottles that sit on the shelves of the supermarket. When that new make was produced and put into casks, nobody knew whether or not it was going to be sold for less than £100 some 12 years later, or put into a sherry seasoned cask for 6 years longer and sold for more than three times the price. Does that extra 6 years and a sherry cask really make that much difference to the cost? No, it doesn’t. Whisky can justifiably cost more in my opinion when it is truly rare, not just because a brand tells you it is rare. The Emperor’s new clothes indeed.
And just to put the icing on the cake, if you think that Macallan have the highest standards, then think again. It is all computer controlled. There is absolutely no more mastery in the new make production than there is when your car was built by robot. Indeed an industry insider was telling me that while the operators know how to control the system, if there is a fault, I’d be surprised if they can do any more than point to where a malfunctioning component is on their SCADA screen. They’ve no hope of actually finding it in the maze of pipework that the distillery contains, as that’s left to the maintenance personnel. If you want a genuine hand crafted whisky where people know exactly how things are done, and everything is manual, look to your smaller and newer distilleries.
The other thing that I think is relevant in why whisky shouldn’t have a class is that it is a product where it is solely made by ordinary, down to earth, human beings. To the majority of whisky workers I have spoken to, while they will have pride in their product, to them it’s just whisky. While I have met many who don’t even like the spirit, for the rest it is just a drink. They can appreciate that some whiskies will be more special than others, but as they have created it, I think its right that it is them that take the most kudos from it. Not some twonk who is going to pay over the odds for something that isn’t really that special.
The best quotes for me come from the industry themselves, and all of these people will be well known. When thinking on if older whisky or expensive whisky is better,
Its quite a controversial subject, this whole idea that the older a whisky is, the better it is, and I’m a passionate believer that almost the opposite is the case. From a very personal perspective, whether I’m drinking Ardbeg or Glenmorangie or Balvenie or Mortlach or Springbank or Highland Park or any of these whiskies which I enjoy, I tend to prefer them between the ages of 10 and 18. Because I think most distilleries hit their sweet spot in that range. Now the older a whisky gets, the rarer it is going to be… Firstly most of it will have been bottled at 10, 12 or 18 years old, so there’s simply less of a pool to choose from, and you’ve lost more by evaporative loss… so by its very nature it’s going to be much rarer, and really thats what you’re paying for in a very old whisky, is the scarcity value, the rarity value. But you need to bear in mind a 50 year old whisky is going to have taken up so much flavour from the wood. It might be woody, it might be dry, it might be bitter. So I would say think very, very carefully before you decided to shell out £5000 or £10,000 for a bottle.
Dr Bill Lumsden – Director of Distilling & Whisky Creation, Glenmorangie Company.
Age isn’t everything, I think there is too much emphasis on the age of whisky. Yes, it will tell you how long it has been in the cask, and that will give you an indication of what it’s complexity may be, but it could have been in tired, old casks for 30 years and become over-aged. And you could have an 8 year old which is every bit as good, if not better because its been in better quality casks
Graham Eunson – Distillery Operations Director (Executive) at Tomatin Distillery.
Er, is it worth it? If I had £100,000, would I buy a bottle of whisky? I would not buy a bottle of whisky for £100,000. No, I would by many hundreds of cases of bottles of whiskies for the same amount of money.
Robbie Hughes – Glengoyne Distillery Manager
We’re a nation that can laugh at ourselves. Hey, it’s just a drink, but its a very, very special drink that’s unique to us.
Jim McEwan
I normally drink those with the people I love. I want to hear what they’ve got to say. You know, a celebration, an anniversary… you bring in a whisky. So quite often I will in fact serve a very aged whisky over a special occasion.
Richard Paterson – Whyte & Mackay
These quotes were taken from the film Scotch – The Golden Dram.
This sums up exactly how I feel. Whisky should be classless. It is just a drink. There is nothing wrong with drinking old or expensive whisky, given the caveats listed in the quotes above. Indeed, a Strathmill 33 I had recently was so tannic it was effectively to my mind undrinkable, so there is a verifiable truth in the words of Graham Eunson. We seem to have built a scene which celebrates itself, which distillers aren’t going to argue with as long as we keep buying. On the other hand I suspect they think we are all nuts.
I’ve started to move away from the communities that seem to place this drink up on a pedestal, as I’ve come to believe we’re often over-elevating its importance. And yes, while it is a hobby to many, including myself, we have to keep grounded and see it for what it is. It’s great when fellow enthusiasts get together and swap notes and experiences. It’s even better when we can share in person. I know from my time on Twitter before Elon took over and turned it into an online Der Stürmer, that I have met many very genuine, interesting and caring people. I am interested in what they have to say, to hear their experiences. Similarly on Twitter / X before I quit, I also knew and communicated with people who had experience of
Losing their jobs
Suffered relationship breakdown
Suffered seious and long term illness
Have had financial problems
Have had to become carers to a spouse or very ill child.
So, it’s important to know which way the wind is blowing in your online community. Even the majority of people that I was involved with would think twice about spending more than £100 on a whisky. And why should you? There are plenty of alternatives that are tasty and don’t cost more than £50. Whisky is over priced as it is, but by overpaying for it continuously gives the manufacturers the green light to keep raising the prices.
Of course there’s nothing wrong with buying expensive whisky, if you can afford it. Sometimes the price tag is justified.
Or you just want it.
You deserve it.
Add to cart.
But perhaps being so public about it on social media, when you rarely show open bottles says more about you than it does the whisky. It certainly may form a different perception in others who may well think that it does indeed make you a prick.
Jack Daniels Single Malt
Now that I have got my angst out, I’d be interested to hear what you think. Am I right or am I wrong? Either way, its just a drink, so get drinking. And this moves me nicely on to a drink that isn’t mass marketed as such just yet, but comes from a mass production facility where there are absolutely no class issues. Indeed, this actually may put you at the Jarvis Cocker end of the scale when thinking about the song Common People. This sample was supplied by a former work colleague, Doug Hyem. Doug does like a Jack Daniels on occasion, and generously supplied me with 2 x 50ml samples.
It can’t be a secret that I’m not the most prolific drinker of American whiskey. There’s not that I find anything wrong with it, but I’m surrounded with so many indigenous options I tend to rarely look outside Scotland. But when offered to try something different, it makes sense to try at least once.
Region – American Age – NAS Strength – 45% Colour – Russet (1.4) Cask Type – Highly Charred Virgin American Oak, finished in Oloroso. Colouring – Not Stated Chill Filtered – Not Stated.
Nose – A sweet, corn aroma to begin with, quite Bourbon-esque. Stewed bananas, maple syrup, polished wood, milk chocolate.
Palate – Gentle, sweet, cherry cola, heavy and oily. Pleasant mouthfeel. Malted biscuits, chocolate. Red fruit and a hint of raisin.
Finish – Short and drying. Oily. A burst of black cherries, double cream and strawberries. Banana loaf.
I know there are a lot of whisky snobs out there that would turn their noses up at this, but I found this dram very easy to drink – indeed easier than a normal Jack Daniels. There are some strong notes of the Jack Daniels DNA in there, predominately the cherries. Perhaps they are using heavily charred oak casks as well for their malt whisky.
Regardless, when we assess the whisky that we are drinking , we may try to see how it makes us feel. This didn’t make me feel like trailer trash, or like I wanted to place a few more sofas out on my front lawn, nor shoot a 12 guage at critturs or roadsigns. I didn’t feel elevated to a place of superiority, where my malt whiskey was better than others. It gave me a nice, easy sipper while watching TV without having to think too much about it. While this is not normally my cup of tea, and I certainly won’t be rushing out to buy it, as I believe it is only travel retail at the moment. Of course, MoM probably stock it. But I will probably pick one up if I see it on my regular trips through the airports.
Take care of yourselves and remember. It’s only a drink and meant to be drunk.
There’s a sign on the wall, but she wants to be sure ‘Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings
Led Zeppelin – Stairway to Heaven
You know how it is awful to see Christmas stuff in the shops around August / September time? Well, I know that December is the time for Christmas, but this review is a bit late. A year late. Those of you who read my last blog will have realised that often I can take a bit of time to do things, notably DIY and blog writing. I’m an expert procrastinator at times, but like whisky they often say that it’s best to wait, for the best stuff doesn’t arrive as quickly as it is possible.
As much as my 2023 was sparse of new whiskies to taste, it was also sparse for music. I have finally succumbed to online services, with few CDs being bought but most importantly there were only two gigs attended. Both were at opposite ends of the spectrum, with one being the Pet Shop Boys, the other being the masters of goth – The Sisters of Mercy. Some of you may know of them, some may even still like them, but I’m not going to hold my breath. Needless to say while the Pet Shop Boys was a treat for the wife, The Sisters was a solo run to Newcastle.
What most people won’t know about the Sisters Of Mercy was they had a side project called The Sisterhood. It was in response to the breakup of the band after the first album, and Wayne Hussey with Craig Adams wanted to use the name for their band. Andrew Eldritch rushed an album through under the Sisterhood name called “Gift”, thus preventing Hussey and Adams using the Sisterhood name. They went onto form The Mission and became mildly successful.
The Prince of Darkness, Andrew Eldritch (as he was)
Eldritch went on to give the ultimate two fingers to his former band mates. The first track on the album “Jihad” was an electronic track with a vocalist repeating the words “Two, Five, Zero, Zero, Zero”. Seems a bit odd, but it turns out it was the royalties due to the band members that were in respect of the second Sisters Of Mercy album that was never made. Rather than split the £25000, Eldritch planned to take it all. He failed, the contract was cancelled, nobody got the money, and both groups went on to form their own careers.
The Lord Of Darkness II – Andrew Eldritch – still enigmatic but a lot more bald nowadays
If you think this was bitter and twisted, by this point, Eldritch was based in Germany. The word Gift there actually means “Poison”. Trust me, this was no mistake, and probably went over the heads of the Mission, just like the repeated numerals on Jihad reportedly did until a lot later.
And then we move onto the whisky, in which the distillery name also has two meanings. Many people reading this will be familiar with the Bimber distillery, but I don’t know how many people will know that Bimber is the Polish word for moonshine. Fortunately, this is a legitimate distillery located in London and was founded in 2015 by Dariusz Plazewski, with the first casks being laid down in 2016. Since then the distillery has gone from strength to strength, so much so that a second distillery has been opened in Dunphail, within Speyside, just to the south of Forres.
I have enjoyed every Bimber I have tried thus far, but it’s a distillery that I never connected with too deeply, solely because living where I live and having a cornucopia of whisky available locally, I’ve not paid much attention to the brand. That is until a bottle of whisky turned up unexpectedly just before Christmas. While I have been discussing double meanings, at least I know that this gift wasn’t poisonous. The bottle in question is the 2023 Santa Edition, and it is this bottle I’ll be reviewing later on. But how can I review such a whisky without knowing a lot about the distillery? Fortunately I was able to get time to visit while obtaining a US Visa at the London Embassy.
Bimber distillery is very easy to walk past and it can’t be more unlike a distillery if it tried. The area is occupied by many a garage workshop, and I even was able to walk past Sunbeam Road without seeing it. Retracing my steps soon brought me to the Eagles head sign above the front door. And once you are inside, the smells let you know you are indeed inside a distillery. Entering the front door, there is a reception / tasting area with displays of Bimber bottlings past and present. With a warm greeting from Arnold Harrison, the account and Customer Relationship manager, it was only a matter of time before Matt Mckay, the Bimber Marketing and Communications director arrived and a tour was given of the distillery, with access all areas and unrestricted photo taking. Other distilleries should take note.
Having been to one or two distilleries in the past, it’s helpful to forget how it’s done elsewhere, while although Bimber follow the same principles, they don’t necessarily follow the same process, something that will help create their own unique spirit. You really have to get into the mind of the European bootlegger. Firstly, the barley used comes from a single farm in Hampshire, with Concerto and Laureate being the variant used. The grain is taken to Warminster Maltings, where it is malted in the traditional way using a floor malting. But we now move into the realm of the illicit distiller, where the malted grain isn’t milled, it is merely cracked. This is then mashed in the one ton stainless mash tun .
The mash tun
From mashing, the wort is transferred into one of seven American Oak washbacks for fermentation. Fermentation time is around the 168hr mark, and using lightly charred oak, this allows natural bacteria to form that wouldn’t be present in a stainless vessel. This enhances the fermentation once the yeast has died off by generating a malolactic fermentation which will create even more fruity esters which is ever present in Bimber new make.
The washbacks
Just as in every other distillery, the next process is distillation, where the wash is emptied into the wash still. Matt explained that they had recently upgraded the wash still. Previously, the distillery used two alembic stills, with a capacity of 1000 litres. The wash still has been changed for a more traditional pot still, with double the capacity at 2000 litres. Both stills are direct fired, which creates a Maillaird effect. Now, geeky as I am, I had to look that one up, and its similar to the browning of food, which is almost caramelised. This gives more flavour compounds and an oily mouthfeel to the spirit. Condensing of the spirit vapours is carried out via a shell and tube condenser.
The stills
The stills, with a view through to the tasting area. Have you noticed a traditional piece of distilling equipment missing yet?
It was envisaged at the start to make Bimber in a way that wasn’t too far removed from the traditional methods of making moonshine, so you may notice that there is no spirit safe. Cuts are done not by measuring but by sampling. Spirit runs off into milk churn-like vessels, not some massive spirit receiver. From here, the new make is casked. Matt explained how cask quality is a big thing for the company, using Ex Bourbon, sherry or Virgin casks, or other smaller batch casks such as the one I will review below, which was a Cognac cask.
Bimber was never planned to be a large production facility, and this is what has traditionally limited the amount of spirit available. Demand for Bimber has always outpaced supply, although not in the same way as a whisky like Springbank has. It used to be that to get a Bimber release, you’d have to be quick off the mark as they often sold out instantly, and from an enthusiast point of view it seems to have calmed down a bit, but it still seems like the only way to get some of London Single Malt Whisky is to either be lucky in a ballot or purchase it at auction. Certainly, in the past this is how I’ve managed to obtain Bimber, though it was great to be able to purchase directly from the source during my visit.
The tour ended with 6 generous samples of Bimber bottlings past and present, which since I hadn’t eaten very much due to catching a red-eye flight from Inverness first thing in the morning left me a little bit squiffy. Looking at my notes, there’s nothing there that makes much sense, and much less can I read my own scrawl, but let’s just say each one hit my palate in a different but very pleasant way. I sprung for a bottle of the rum cask, which for me is a bit of a departure of form, as while I enjoy rum, I’m not usually a fan of rum casked whiskies. The pursuit of excellence has certainly helped convert me to a finish I’m not normally prone to drinking.
Selfie. That’s Matt on the right.
This brings me nicely to the tasting of the Santa edition. I received this unexpectedly in Dec 2023, along with a 5cl miniature and a Bimber branded Copita glass. I don’t normally review whiskies that have been supplied to me gratis, as I feel uneasy about it. However, given the fact that this has been released and sold out for some time, I feel that I’m not acting as an influencer, but simply reflecting my thoughts on what was supplied with no real commerical obligation. The fact it was free does not have any bearing on my opinions.
A lovely Bimber care package.
Bimber Santa Edition 2023
Region – England Age – NAS Strength – 52.1% Colour – Burnished (1.1) Cask Type – Ex-Cognac Colouring -No Chill Filtered -No
Nose – Quite fruity and slightly sweet. Red apple, grape juice, plums, vanilla and a hint of milk chocolate.
Palate – Despite its higher abv, this didn’t have an agressive arrival at all. Stone fruit is the order of the day, with plums leading the charge, with a hint of liquorice, treacle, apple sauce. Bit of wood spice there too, but not particularly drying.
Finish – to me this was shorter than expected but on reflection had a nice fruit taste lingering afterwards. Water increased the intensity of the flavours, but further shortened the finish.
First taste. This wasn’t the dram that I reviewed, but I forgot to take photos of the actual dram. D’oh!
Thoughts
A very pleasant whisky, and one certainly suited to evenings by the fire. I was braced for something more aggressive given the ABV and the relatively young age. There is an underlying fruity note with a warming hint of wood spice and the influence of the Cognac, but is well within balance. If you got this as a present, then you would be delighted.
Postscript
I have to thank Matt for taking time out of his very busy schedule to show me around the Bimber distillery. It was great to meet him after a few years of online correspondence. Matt is also responsible for an excellent whisky blog – The Dramble. If you haven’t seen this before, then I recommend that you do – it is certainly insightful and for me inspirational. Like me, he hasn’t been too active on his blog, but if I thought he was busy then the week after my visit, all hell broke loose with the relevations about founder, Dariusz, leading a double life and facing historical charges back home in Poland.
I’ve chosen not to speculate on these, and is somewhat a moot point now, as Dariusz has no legal responsiblity for Bimber distillery, with it passing onto Matt and co-founder Ewelina Chruszczyk for now. Matt has since moved onto the revitalisation of the London Distillery Company. However what is sad is the amount of speculation that some whisky enthusiasts made about the fate of Bimber. However, nearly a year on, the distillery seems to continue to thrive, and so it should. It has started to bottle an age stated whisky (8 years old) and the special editions keep coming – the latest being The Shoulders of Giants. I’ve got some of these and we’ll be looking at these later. And if you know me well, that could be much later!
Thanks to Arthur and Matt for a great visit to Bimber, and I look forward to a return visit at some point.
Lastly, congratulations to Matt – I see your latest blog has a somewhat humble confession that it’s been a while since the last post!!
Few scotch whisky geeks should need an introduction to Lindores Abbey. It’s the first recorded place of whisky production in Scotland, thanks to Friar John Cor asking for 8 bolls of malt to make Aquavitae. Things have come a long way since 1494, yet time hasn’t been kind to Friars, Abbeys and Catholicism in Scotland ever since, thanks to King Henry VIII, Elizabeth the 1st and the odd knuckle draggers who celebrate a 1690 battle every July. For whisky followers it’s puzzling to think why somebody commemorates the Battle of Cromdale, which took place on the lands around and above where Balmenach Distillery now stands. It took place in April. Wrong battle maybe.
A surprise present.
Thankfully the Mackenzie Smiths have saved what remains of the Abbey, as it lies on their farm. They’ve owned that farm since 1913, and by 2017, spirit was running in stills on Lindores land again. It’s a distillery that I’m not going to write much about here, as I’ve not personally been and it’s one of those distilleries that I really want to visit. Why? Well, firstly the Lindores team did something that I thoroughly approve of – their inaugural release was in large numbers and therefore flooded the market. In turn, this has denied the flippers their pound of flesh. Secondly, because so far I have not tasted a bad Lindores sample yet. We’ll revisit this point later, but I’ll apologise for the spoiler now.
It’s always good to have friends in the industry and while I cannot claim to have legions of them, I have one or two – some who have been known to share some very decent drams with me, often the stuff that others can’t get easily. One such sample came my way from a friend in a Speyside distillery who knew somebody who had a private cask. I don’t know the exact details but I’m led to believe it came from a firkin, but I’ve been unaware that Lindores ever offered a firkin size. There was 67 bottles available and this was from bottle 58.
Lindores Private Cask
Region – Lowland Age – not stated but estimated 4 years old. Strength – 54.7% abv Colour – Mahogany (1.6) Cask Type – Sherry Firkin Colouring – No Chill Filtered -No. Nose – Sweet. marshmallows, candy floss, raisins, strawberry, Chocolate caramel Palate – Stewed plums, prunes, muscovado sugar, dark chocolate topped ginger snaps, walnuts, slightly waxy mouthfeel with medium to full body. Spirit fizz on the tongue. Finish – long finish. Accelerating spiciness, ginger and pepper dominate with prunes and dates providing the sweetness. Slightly tannic with a touch of astringency towards the end.
Lindores Private Cask
Summary
It just goes to show you that it is a nonsense to write off a whisky on account of age alone. This was absolutely stunning and punching well above its estimated 4 years of age. I’d have said 10 years at least and I felt it gave me almost as much enjoyment as a Glenallachie 15, which is my current affordable Speyside go-to. It was such a balanced dram, and one could only guess it was the choice of a sherry firkin that has made this whisky. I felt very lucky to try this and even luckier that I got two samples. While the remaining sample was intended for archive, I think that will not survive into the second half of the decade. Or even next year.
I’ve more than one friend…
Another Lindores sample came my way as the result of a friendship with a whisky retailer. This is a shop that I enjoy going to, as the service and selection I’ve always seen to be excellent, and while I can shop online with the big boys and get stuff cheaper, you don’t get the same service, inside knowledge and craic for the lack of a better word. Many will know the Whisky Shop Dufftown, who have been trading for many years just opposite the town clock tower, and have also ran the Whisky Colours Festival in October, though I believe it’s taking a break this year. I sometimes receive a wee take away sample as I cannot make use of the barrel top tastings due to always driving. This time it was a Sherry Cask Lindores. Well, I’ve shopped and chatted long enough there, so Kat knows my weakness for sherry casks. It’s been some time since I received that sample, and a short time has passed since I tasted it, but like the private cask before, it was kind of yummy.
Lindores Sherry Cask
Region – Lowland Age – not stated but estimated 4 years old. Strength – 49.4% abv Colour – Tawny (1.4) Cask Type – Oloroso Sherry Butt Colouring – No Chill Filtered -No. Nose – Sweet. Plum Duff, milk chocolate, Orange rind, dried fruit. Palate – Prunes, muscovado sugar, Milk chocolate, white pepper, raisins, walnuts, slightly waxy mouthfeel with medium body. A lighter Spirit fizz on the tongue. Finish – medium finish. Less tannic, ginger in the finish continuing alongside fruit and nut chocolate bars.
Lindores sherry cask
Conclusions
Kind of nice. That’s my understatement for the week. I would buy a bottle if I had room – or not an already sizeable backlog. I’ll be putting Lindores higher on the shortlist. Yet again the cask has taken the spirit and worked its magic to my taste, dispelling the myth that whisky has to be aged 10-12 years before it is ready. The Lindores Spirit is light enough yet strong enough to take a good bit of active cask influence without overpowering the distillery character.
I have to say I was one of these. young whisky naysayers, although I’ll confess to enjoying young super-peated whisky all along. But these drams have taught me to judge on flavour and experience alone. Despite what others may say, the only person that can travel on your whisky journey is YOU. All you have to do is be open to other experiences.
Based on these two drams, I’m very likely to be dipping back into the Lindores selections again.
The past year has taught me something. Don’t hold something back for special moments; it’s pointless. What you may fail to realise is that special moments are all around us, happening all the time and we just don’t realise it. They slip into the mundane drudgery of the day to day and unless you truly live in the moment and are focused on something else, it’s easy to fail to acknowledge the little bits of joy that flood our lives. We don’t need to celebrate like a Premier League footballer in every little situation where we feel a ray of happiness creep in, yet we need to make sure that we feel a little bit of pleasure in the midst of the ordinary. Recognise that life is a gift and we need to appreciate the special things that define our life. Most importantly we should not hold back too much for the special moments that might not arrive.
A while ago I wrote about how that I had saved a Speyburn 18 sample for a special occasion, which was eventually drunk on the day that Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral took place, although the two weren’t connected, although it provided a perfect moment for reflection. The dram I am having today was also saved for a special occasion that should have been filled with joy, but sadly events took an unexpected turn and had now become more of a memorial. I wanted to share it with somebody who can no longer appreciate it, and while they were not a whisky fan, even if I couldn’t drink a dram with them, it would have been great just to share the experience of having a spirit that was distilled in the year that we were both born.
This dram isn’t what I’d class as unique but it is definitely not a common sight. A proper, bona fide original bottling of Balmenach. Not independently bottled, but a God’s honest release from the distillery owner. I had saved this for a special occasion, and I’m hoping it’s going to be worth it, although the geek in me knows that despite a larger age statement, the length of time it’s been sleeping in glass may mean time has not been kind to the spirit. Disappointment may be lurking around the corner, but you just never know. A spare cork is on standby just in case it suffers from a fatigued cork; after all, one must prepare for special occasions properly. As it happened, it turned out that the spare was required, so yet again remembering the 6 P’s I was taught as an avionics apprentice has come in handy. (Perfect Preparation Prevents P*ss Poor Performance).
Hiding in the midst of a special celebration.
This is not the only Highland Selection whisky released. Inver House Distillers released a few bottlings, but not from all their distilleries. Balmenach also had a 1972 28 year old released, albeit with no bottle numbers revealed. Balblair, An Cnoc and Speyburn also had a Highland Selection release. In common with Balmenach, Speyburn also had a 27y.o from 1973, alongside a 16y.o from 1986. I’ve never seen a Balblair Highland selection yet, but they had a 1974 vintage at 27 year old and a 1969 bottling at 31 years old. An Cnoc’s contributions to the tally were a 26 year old from 1975 and a 18y.o from 1983. The last Inver House distillery, Old Pulteneny doesn’t seem to have had a release in this range, which is strange, but perhaps it was felt Old Pulteney was a brand already well known.
The only other official bottle that Balmenach has released in recent times is relatively easy enough to obtain is the Diageo bottled Flora and Fauna 12 year old, although nowadays you’ll have to have deep pockets and longish arms if you want to be able to afford it, as at auctions these regularly see prices above £150, with a white cap one seeing a peak of around £400. Madness. I’m fortunate that two white cap bottles I have were bought long before the auction fever started and I paid considerably less for them. I remember when the pinnacle of the F&F range was supposed to be the Mortlach 16, but certainly I’ve noticed the Pittyvaich and Balmenach are now often trouncing the Mortlach in prices paid. I guess it may be due to the fact supplies of both will run out quicker with one distillery being demolished and the other never releasing other bottlings, therefore having perhaps more demand or collector appeal.
The decanting bottle on standby.
But why is Balmenach so hard to come by? It’s a long standing distillery, one of Speyside’s oldest having been established in 1824 by James MacGregor, though there is a history of illicit distilling on the site and surrounds. Yet it’s distillate is hard to come by, certainly that in original bottlings and it’s the only to be as such. Apparently it’s style of new make is prized by blenders, both in house and other companies. It’s a heavy, meaty spirit, being produced using small stills, worm tubs and long fermentations varying from 56 to 100 hrs. All the other Balmenach whisky I’ve tried has been very satisfactory, so let’s see if an original bottling is any different.
1973 Balmenach 27 y.o Highland Selection
Region – Speyside Age – 27 y.o Strength – 46% Colour – Amber (0.7) Cask Type – not stated Colouring – not stated Chill Filtered –not stated, but not likely at 46%.
Nose – Honey and raisin dominate to start with. Apricot, orange zest, grapes, hint of strawberry, like a breakfast fruit salad. Waxy apple. Also has a slightly vegetal note of dry grass. Milk chocolate, caramel, vanilla more present after water added. Raisin note deepened after being left in the glass.
Palate – whoa! The palate offers a different experience to that offered by the nose. The fruits become a lot more tropical, with banana, pineapple and apricot. Caramel, raisins, sultanas, spicy oak, but not too spicy. The spirit is there but slightly in the background. Slightly waxy mouthfeel.
Finish – the finish is medium and slightly astringent. Oak spices, ginger and Szechuan peppercorns. Black tea tannic finish, but not overly so.
The dram
I’ve waited years to try this. I’ve a few 1973 whiskies, some from silent distilleries, but I couldn’t justify their opening. I had a second bottle of this Balmenach, and felt that due to a slightly damaged label, this could be the one deserving of opening. Was it worth it? To be honest, I’m not so sure as events of the past month have somewhat coloured my view, and I am reading things into my experience of this dram that aren’t perhaps there. The experienced whisky drinker knows that it isn’t always your palate that affects your judgement of a whisky experience, but so does your location, what’s going on at the time and your mental state. The reason for opening it undoubtedly will cloud my judgement and while I’ve deliberately tried to focus on the liquid, I can’t guarantee that I’m not being biased.
The smell as I was decanted during the recovery from the failed cork was heavenly, and this nose I felt was going to mean I was going to get an immense whisky. It’s funny, as a lot of the aromas didn’t dominate in the palate, having a much more tropical taste with banana and pineapple there. While Balmenach does well in a sherry cask, I really think that this one is made up predominantly of ex Bourbon, with either sherry cask in the blending or finish. The result was that I can honestly say it wasn’t the best ever whisky I have tasted in my life, but it was definitely the best whisky for the moment, hitting the spot. I was delighted not to be disappointed at all in my choice, but was constantly wondering if this deserved the sobriquet of special?
For the other thing that was running through my mind was the use of the word special. Why had I labelled in my mind this bottle as special? It’s so subjective a term and just because something is special to you, doesn’t mean it becomes the same to everyone. And yet our community of producers, marketers, consumers and geeks revel in terms often misused to death when they describe things that often aren’t as described. Rare, Limited and Special are the three words that seem to have become tired tropes due to overuse. I’ll not start on the paradigm of how a whisky has to break the rules, rather I’ll be saving that rant for another day.
It’s in my time away from some corners of social media that I’ve had time to reflect a bit. I’ve dipped in and out and every time I return it’s the same old thing, or worse. Whiskies are championed, yet there doesn’t seem to be any baseline on why this is good or special. They aren’t rare, limited and special is open to opinion. Criticism seems to be non-existent, especially when it’s after a freebie mail drop. A recent one on Bourbon Day saw only positive comments. So, from a bystanders view that may not have a lot of experience, you’d think that this spirit is the best thing since sliced bread, but it won’t be. It’ll be a decent whiskey, but if there is no such thing as a bad whiskey, then it’s swimming in the pool of other “not badwhiskeys”, with nothing truly outstanding about it making it AVERAGE. With the amount of whisky on the market, that’s easily lost in the sea of average, therefore you can understand why there will be marketing campaigns, but all they seem to produce are nodding heads. Do yourself a favour; drop out of the scene for a while then poke a head back in. You’ll get what I mean.
Yeah. Grumpy is back. But given the situation, it’s justifiable.
And this brings me back to my initial comments that special moments are all around us, but in whisky we need to be discerning as to what is special. I hate to say it, but the uncomfortable truth is while many of the whiskies I try are perfectly enjoyable, hardly any are what I’d call special. The problem is that special is hard to quantify, whereas rare is slightly easier but still open to interpretation. After all, isn’t every single cask technically rare, as there won’t be much more than 1000 bottles made depending on final dilution? My Balmenach is only quantifiable as special to me as I pass the distillery regularly, original bottlings are as uncommon as flying pigs, had a decent age statement and was distilled on the year of my birth. At 46% it could have been better with less dilution at bottling, but this single malt is still a solid performer. Was it any better than an independent bottling? So far I have to say yes, but the closest age statement of IB I’ve had is 15 year old, so hard to really compare accurately, but this was my best Balmenach so far.
The last independent bottling of Balmenach I have tried. Not too bad either.
Plus, this is a vintage Balmenach that is only going to get rarer as time goes by. I think I was right to save it for a special occasion and that I chose the right occasion. In the end it turned out to be two never to be repeated special occasions. We’ll all do well to remember that often we have more whisky that is saved for special occasions than there will be special occasions left in our lives. Don’t let time a run out on you before you embrace the special occasions all around us and taste that special whisky.
In memory of my best friend, who died 3 days short of her 50th birthday and was three days older than me. Our mothers were in adjacent beds in the maternity ward where we were born. Rest easy J, and thanks for everything you did for me.
Is there such a thing as a happy accident? I certainly can’t say that up until now that I’ve ever had one (and I’ve had a one or two). My first car that I bought was written off in a rear end accident in Manchester while on the way to Cornwall. When giving the RAC recovery man the postcode for our destination, I think he was disappointed to hear me say the first letters were TR and not PR. Preston would have been an easy run, but Falmouth in Cornwall guaranteed his Saturday night out on the town would be trashed, pretty much like both ends of my car.
The car that shunted me was in a worse shape.
While that car was written off, the next car that followed was an identical copy, only it had a lot of reliability issues. I decided to trade it in and when all that was required was a 3 week trip offshore before I handed it over to the garage and received a Focus in return, 3 days before my departure my rear end took another direct hit. A bit of frantic phone calling saw me deposit the car at a garage before I left for work, and picked it up again on my return. How I kept a straight face when trading it in when asked if it had any serious accident damage I don’t know. Well, it wasn’t that serious…
Next car, next bash. Only damage visible. A new boot floor crumple zone needed. Just a minor bit of damage.
Thankfully it was several cars later before the next accident. Some doddery businessman decided to pull out to overtake without checking his mirrors and didn’t see me overtaking him. Minimum damage, but another insurance claim and a change of underwear. Nowadays I tend to avoid trouble, though the wife has been using our CR-V as a bumper car.
But it’s not just motoring accidents can cause mayhem and expense, this can also be the case in the whisky industry. I’ve heard tales of leaks in systems meaning fermented wash being held in the washback for over 500hrs, valves being opened that caused a loss of precious liquid, and of course we can’t forget the almost obligatory distillery fires that happened in the past. But the story of this whisky reviewed today has another type of accident that I’m not so sure was an accident at all. There is a rumour which I’ve heard from a couple of whisky retailers that the dram in consideration today isn’t really a blend as such, but is as a result of a new make having been put in a cask that previously contained Famous Grouse. Apparently the whisky is Macallan and was matured for 12 years. The story develops that the Grouse had affected the maturing spirit so much it had to be classed as a blend. Furthermore the rules on age statements meant that it had to be given a statement a lot lower than 12, which now gives us an idea how old Grouse is.
Great whisky. Not so great bottle design. Does the 6 years refer to the artist?
Accident or not, we have to find out whether this is an accident which is covered with fully comprehensive insurance or a hit and run by an uninsured driver.
Thompson Bros TB/BSW
Region – Blend Age – 6 y.o Strength – 46% abv Colour – chestnut oloroso Cask Type – Sherry / Blended Whisky Colouring – No Chill Filtered – No Nose – Figs, raisins, golden syrup, sultanas, hobnobs, milky coffee. Palate – Fruit cake, toffee, maple syrup, chocolate. Quite spicy building after the mid palate, with ginger, nutmeg, making an appearance. Medium body. Finish – Spicy on the finish but not too hot not overpowering. Nutmeg, cinnamon, orange zest, chocolate and a hint of more fruit cake.
The dram
Conclusions
I’ve had this article on draft for over a year, as I had attempted to review a new release at the point it was released, but it hasn’t really worked out that way, so quite a few of you who are reading this will have tried this whisky. Certainly most of the people that I keep contact with on Twitter have, so they will know that this is a banger. A complete bargain of a whisky and only £34. Thompson Brothers have knocked this one out out of the park.
I suspect I can taste the Famous Grouse, as it always makes me think of biscuits, whereas normal Macallan doesn’t. Not that I drink a lot of Macallan as I feel there are better things to be investing my time and money in when it comes to dramming . I’d hasten to add not because I think Macallan is a bad whisky, but rather I feel there are better out there and much better value, plus don’t come with the same marketing or aspirational b/s that artificially hikes the price.
Whether or not this was an accident is anybodies guess. The industry is full of stories that get told to visitors at distilleries during their tours, some of which are little more than a marketing hook, nobody liking a ropey story on a release more than Ardbeg. Or anybody who has visited Ben Nevis distillery can’t fail to snigger at the story of Hector McDram, which is a shame, as otherwise it’s a good tour. In summary, I’ve my doubts that in the case of the TB/BSW story was an accident at all, simply due to the amount released. There seems to be a few different batches, so I wonder if only the first cask was a mistake, but the rest were deliberately made, perhaps There was only supposed to be around 1000 bottles initially, but this seems unlikely judging by the number of people I have seen online enjoying it. It would be nice to have some sort of confirmation whether or not this bottling has exceeded that number or if more of the same will be forthcoming. I also doubt that there is a consistent recipe, as I’m sure Thompson Brothers would consistently ruin bottles of Macallan by putting it in a Grouse cask. Personally, I’d be considering coke.
Regardless, if you see this blend, buy it. You won’t get a lot more value for your money out there. It’s a banger.
Some things come out of the blue when you are least expecting it. Like a review from myself when I’ve been silent for so long. It’s mainly because of work and family life, but also there is an aspect of I couldn’t be bothered. For those of you who followed my twitter account, I guess that my disappearance was a bit of a surprise, but it had to happen. I’m ambivalent about Twitter now, whether or not the Scotty’s Drams account re-appears is still in the balance.
I was recently at work in Newcastle during a dry dock period for my ship when I got an e-mail that told me I had a delivery on the way. Confusion triumphed as I thought I had been good, and hadn’t ordered any more whisky. I searched through my inboxes to see if I had any receipt from unknown purchases, yet nothing showed up. I was eventually able to deduce that the delivery was from Whisky Shop Dufftown. Even more curious, as I knew that I hadn’t ordered anything from them, often preferring to call in when passing. Was I to be the recipient of somebody else’s whisky? A quick message exchange revealed I was going to lucky, as I was to receive a sample of a Whisky Shop Dufftown Exclusive bottling.
While this has been provided solely to say thank you for my supporting that shop, and was not intended to be reviewed, (I certainly haven’t been asked to promote this item), I have to be open about its source. Followers of this blog should remember that I don’t like being given samples explicitly to review, and have turned down offers in the past. However, I haven’t ever reviewed a Glen Elgin so have decided to take this one as my first. So in disclosure, this review will count as a promotion under ASA rules.
Whisky Shop Dufftown
Glen Elgin is a whisky that you don’t see a lot of, but there is a good reason for that – it is mostly used for blends, predominately it is used in the White Horse Blend. The distillery is located in the Morayshire hamlet of Fogwatt, just off the A941 on the stretch between Rothes and Elgin. There is a cluster of distilleries in the region, with Benriach, Longmorn, Glenlossie and Mannochmore being close by. Glen Elgin distillery was founded in 1898 by William Simpson and James Carle, producing its first spirit by 1900, but was short lived, closing under 6 months later and had intermittent production until 1906 when purchased by JJ Blanche. I wonder if Glen Elgin was a victim of the Pattison crash? It was next purchased by Scottish Malt Distillers in 1930, and starts producing spirit to be used in the White Horse blended whisky. The distillery continued production, with expansion in 1964 to increase the number of stills. The distillery closed in 1992 for three years so refurbishment could take place. In 2001, Glen Elgin appeared in the Flora and Fauna series to boost the range which had started 10 years previously with 22 original distilleries. Disposal of some of the distileries had depleted the range so 4 other bottlings were added. The others were Glen Spey, Auchroisk and Strathmill, with Glen Elgin leaving the Flora and Fauna with the release of a proprietary bottling, which I believe was released around 2004.
I have a little issue with Diageo Malt whisky. While they do make acceptable whisky, they just don’t seem to go beyond the bare minimum, with many of their bottlings not even making the enthusiast basic minimum of 46%. Sadly 43% is as much as you get in a core range, meaning that it’s probably been chill filtered and takes away some of the tasty goodness. What really galls me is the spirit they have at cask strength is usually pretty good. I’d like to refer this to my visit to Oban distillery, where we were given a sample of a 9 year old straight from the cask – delicious. It was a bit of a let down to be given the bog-standard 14 year old at the end of the tour, along with the obligatory push about the Games Of Thrones whisky on offer.
It wasn’t a one off – last year I made peace with my bank account and paid close to £120 including shipping for an Oban 10 year old Special Release. Yet again, another cracker of a whisky at a cask strength, albeit the price was a bit salty for a 10 year old, even if it was at a higher ABV. Going back further in my blog, I can recall the Allt Dour bought from Robertsons of Pitlochry. Distilled at Blair Athol distillery, its another Diageo release that needs to be bottled by somebody else to make the most of the distillate that is produced.
Independent bottlers are often the source of good whisky, often being a lot cheaper than original bottlings and you are more likely to find the benchmark standards of Non-Chill filtration, no added colour, age or vintage statements and a decent ABV. Having independent bottlers means that you can buy a cask and have it as an exclusive release, without having to rely on the whims of the producer. Such is this that arrived at Scotty’s Drams HQ from the Whisky Shop Dufftown (WSD). Bottled by Berry Brothers and Rudd, a bottler with a good reputation, the latest WSD exclusive is from Glen Elgin, distilled in 2008, making it 14 years old and bottled at a healthy 53.4%, with no added colour or chill filtering This is the sort of whisky that enthusiasts should be demanding.
The note accompanying the delivery read “It may not be to your taste, but it is whisky” was quite amusing, but never a truer word as been said in jest. Let’s see if the independent bottling trumps any original Glen Elgin I’ve had in the past.
Region -Speyside Age -14 y.o Strength -53.5% ABV Colour -Pale Gold (0.3) Cask Type – 1st Fill Bourbon Colouring -No Chill Filtered -NoNose – Honey and citrus. Lemon curd, creamed coconut. Toffee note becomes noticeable after adding water and the floral note also becomes more apparent to me. Palate – Gentle arrival considering strength, as I initially tasted without water. Slightly waxy with citrus dominant. Grapefruit, pineapple and a gentle peppery heat. WIth water, it became more oily, and there was a taste of green grape that was past its best before date. Finish – Medium – long. Slightly astringent – oak spices, honey, pepper heat continues, with the heat being slightly increased with the addition of water.
Thoughts
Quite surprising. I didn’t get many of the notes that the producer gave, but I got quite a few of the notes that were found by the Whisky Shop Dufftown, which for me is unusual. Bourbon maturation isn’t really my jam; I prefer something finished by a fortified wine cask of some description, but as WSD pointed out, it may not be my taste, but it was whisky. While it didn’t grab me immediately, over the course of the evening that I nursed the sample, I warmed to it. The biggest plus point for me was the subtle delivery of a higher abv, which didn’t leave my throat feeling like a towering inferno.
This was a limited bottling of only 227 bottles and is reasonably priced for a Single Cask 14 year old whisky at £83. While I am sure there are some people will moan at the price, lets put it into perspective of a 10 year old Diageo Special Release at £120 including delivery. Diageo charge the earth for their ‘limited’ SR editions, yet here is a rarely seen Glen Elgin that is single cask and gave me equal or more supping pleasure. Of course, you could be one of those who paid €385 for a 10 year old single cask Dingle that had around 271 bottles released, yet never really know the pleasure of drinking it. But thats something for another blog…
Thanks to Mike, Vicky and Kat for the chance to taste this dram.
Have you ever had something so precious or important to you that you won’t share it with anybody else? I’m sure that most of us have that little secret that we don’t want to share. There is always in the background that little pleasure that you know of something that nobody else does and for one moment you have got one up on your contemporaries and peers. These small bits of internally held glories can often be as a result of hard work and perseverance and not something you want to give away too readily, lest that wee advantage you have is lost. It is something that I have experienced in two social groups of people I mix in and in both of them this feeling has been building again.
As I live in the Highlands of Scotland, there are plenty of opportunities to get out into the wide outdoors. Camping and hillwalking are great activities and for those who aren’t aware, there exists a type of remote accommodation called bothies. A bothy for the uninitiated is usually an old farm or estate cottage in a remote area that has been abandoned. These are often restored enough to provide a basic shelter for hill walkers. These can be just four walls and a roof, to well maintained buildings with sleeping platforms and a fire place or stove. Almost none have running water and there is no electricity. The best you can expect is that there maybe a couple of seats and a table to get out of the elements.
Ryvoan Bothy, Cairngorms
Bothies are free to use, many being in the care of the Mountain Bothy Association. Until the dawn of the MBA, knowing the location of bothies was very much down to local knowledge, or just looking at a location on a map and walking in to see if the building there exists or is even habitable. Tents were always advisable and still are just in case the bothy is full. If you were lucky, then you might meet a fellow walker and around the fire exchange stories of experiences which may include the locations of other bothies if your fireside companion has deemed you worthy of the knowledge.
Fast forward to the digital age. Now bothy locations that are in the care of the MBA are now published on their website. One member of the MBA went further and published a book detailing the best bothies and how to get to them. No longer did you need to put any effort into finding a doss when out walking. It’s as though bothies for some had lost their magic, as now everybody could find them. Some people wanted to keep “their special bothy” secret and all to themselves without more hordes descending to spoil the wilderness and peace they thought they would have forever. There were also worries about unsavoury characters using bothies as party houses in the wild or vandalising them.
The book of the devil according to some, surrounded by more wholesome literature
It’s a bit of a double edged sword, as more people interested in bothies also means more people exposed to the MBA and in turn more potential people joining and taking part in the maintenance. Anyway, the misuse of bothies has been going on for years and I don’t believe it is appropriate to blame the Bothy Bible for all this as there is no proof this book did cause a quantifiable rise in problems. I have to say that I was against its publication and still am, although my views have softened somewhat and I’ve allowed myself the slight hypocrisy of buying a copy to see what the fuss was about. Being of a grumpy traditionalist nature, I feel you should earn your stripes and get out there and look for bothies yourself, but prepare to use your tent if you are out of luck. Conceivably that same concept could exist in whisky to a certain degree, as I feel that whisky has many parallels to these issues, generating internal quandaries in people who often have what would be described as misplaced ideals in what whisky represents. I’d even include myself in that potential moral misalignment but experience is telling me I may actually be right this time.
The vast majority of us will have a preference for a distillery or bottling. Even if you don’t, then I do. It is my wee holy grail, my top trump, my little bit of experience that I may have that you don’t and keeps me feeling warm and fuzzy inside. I haven’t ever had a bad bottle or nip from this distillery. It isn’t that well known, yet hides in plain sight. I pass it’s location every now and again, giving me a small bit of anticipation for when I taste it’s golden nectar once more. It was my inquisitive nature that discovered this distillery, not by looking at social media or taking others opinions into account, indeed my first taste was when social media was only physically talking to each other in the pub, well before smart phones and tablets. So let’s just call this distillery Glen Blabbermouth, as I did tell somebody my little secret and advised them to keep quiet about it. Before I knew it, my wee hint was all over the internet circles we share. I see it mentioned more and more, and while this gives me a smug feeling of being ahead of the curve on realising how good it is, I feel worried the name of one of my favourite distilleries is now receiving more exposure in social media.
Is the secret dram in this haul from a recent study reorganisation?
And here is where whisky forms a dichotomy. It’s supposed to be a social drink, it’s supposed to be shared. Don’t we (I) take part in whisky social media to pass on our experiences and learn from others? By holding something back then do we start to remove more from the community than we contribute? I feel that in my attempt to keep the secret I have from the wider community that I’m doing something wrong, yet the need to share experiences of a delicious and consistent performer burns more of a hole in the mental pocket than currency in the hands of a child staring at the shelves of a toy shop.
It’s not the oneupmanship that drives this feeling towards a veil of secrecy. Forget the days of FOMO, there is a new fear lurking in the mind of this whisky enthusiast, probably even more of us if we’re to be completely honest. Fear of Missing Out will become old hat. FOBO is its new companion – Fear Of Being Outed. It’s a fear that once the whisky that you hold dear becomes more in the community consciousness, that it will become more difficult to get and / or will become as expensive as a jar of Unicorn urine. Let’s face it – some of the bottles that have rocketed into the spotlight as flippers and other assorted parasites have decided are now part of the current whisky zeitgeist may as well be unicorn wee-wee as neither will be drunk due to the insane prices paid. This happened to Springbank – remember when it was relatively easy to get a bottle at RRP without queuing or ballot?
While supplies of Glen Blabbermouth are sustainable, it isn’t as common as some, with only a few official bottlings over the years, it’s mostly available from low volume independent bottle sales. It is maybe understandable why some people keep some whisky secrets to themselves. While I might be wrong to express this feeling, I am currently hoping the heat dies down eventually and I can live my life secure in the knowledge that my favoured whisky is not rising in price due to a sudden popularity when my secret gets out.
As for my indiscreet friend – is he in trouble? No, not really. When you hear of others enjoying bottles from your favourite secret distillery, there is a sense of satisfaction that you may have saved somebody from drinking sub-par whisky. I have also taken the precautionary steps of making another malt one of my secret go to drams. Only this one is definitely being kept secret.
One distillery that I am starting to pay a little more attention to is Linkwood. In common with a lot of distilleries in the Diageo portfolio, it’s not a brand with a massive presence due to mostly being used to provide spirits for blends. But it is unique on my blog, for I have already reviewed it twice and as it turns out, the last time wasn’t so long ago. While the only official bottle is the Flora And Fauna, there are plenty of independent bottlers releasing some very good editions. Gordon and MacPhail do a nice bottle in their distillery labels range at 15 years old. But another whisky bottler that has really made me sit up and take notice is Murray McDavid (MMcD). Both their Spirit of Speyside editions of Auchroisk and Inchgower that I tasted from last year were great, so when Aberdeen Whisky Shop advertised the MMcD Cask Craft range, I was standing up like a meerkat. These were marketed by flavour profile, and it was just coincidence that fruity and sweet happened to be a Linkwood. No age statement, only a cask type (Madeira Barrique), but at £32 a pop I felt it stupid not to. And here is what I found.
In front of the most famous toaster on WhiskyTwitter. Need to review some rowies!
Linkwood Fruity & Sweet (MMcD Cask Craft)
Region -Speyside Age – NAS Strength – 44.5% abv Colour – Old Gold, (0.6) with a hint of pink Cask Type – Madeira Barrique Colouring – No Chill Filtered –No
Nose – Raspberry ripple ice cream, hint of vanilla and cereal. Could almost be Cranachan. Sweet white wine. Floral note (rose water) which was similar to Turkish Delight appeared when I rubbed some spirit onto the back of my hand.
Palate – Light oily mouth feel. Quite spirit forward to begin with but not aggressively so, though can be a bit bitter. Raspberries, red currants delivers a small measure of astringency that I find in medium dry white wines. Toasted peanuts and honey. Not very complex at all.
Finish – warming medium finish, sweet with a burst of spices and milk chocolate. Vegetal notes appear, like kale.
The Dram.
Not the best Linkwood I have ever tasted. I quite like a Madeira cask whisky, but this one didn’t light my fire as much as I thought it would. It’s undoubtedly a young whisky, with a spirit forwardness, a lack of depth and also noticeably lacking an age statement. But let’s not get too picky. Here we are easily seeing the distillery character of a light, fruity and slightly grainy spirit, which I got more in the nose than the palate. To be disappointed is a valid point but perhaps the cask craft here is the subtlety in which the finish has been applied. It isn’t a bad dram, despite being a little thin. £32 wasn’t a bad price to pay for this but there are better value drams out there.
As I’ve reviewed this distillery now, it’s not my new secret favourite distillery, though it does have a tenuous link to the one that is. There’s one thing sure and certain – I won’t be telling you what is!
“Times, they are a changing” sang Bob Dylan. Whilst it is true that nothing stands still, as human beings most of us thrive on being surrounded by things that are familiar, that we are comfortable using, things that make us feel happy. People like things, it’s no secret. For me, my first love is music. While I’m not a talented musician in any way, shape or form despite owning a handful of musical instruments, I do love listening to music and have a CD / record collection to back that up. I’m sitting here wondering how many readers have actually noticed that most of my articles or reviews start with some sort of connection to music, usually song titles. The hardest one was my Speyburn 18 review but that nicely tied into thoughts about the life of Queen Elizabeth II.
One thing I miss more than the Queen (and believe me, there are plenty of those) is the passing of my favourite record shop in Aberdeen, One-Up records. I seem to remember them on George Street, as well as a shop in Rosemount Viaduct. Both shops closed to amalgamate to a larger, single shop in Diamond Street, just off of Union Street which was formerly the main shopping area of Aberdeen. Eventually they expanded again and moved to Belmont Street, but events beyond the control of the owners were already in play. The beginning of the end was in motion and I’m not sure if either of the two owners realised this at the time. If I have timed my release of this blog correctly, it will coincide with the 10th anniversary of the demise of One-Up. And I’m still mourning.
Gone… definitely not forgotten.
The passing of this record emporium is pretty traumatic, and while this may sound over dramatic, it isn’t. I used to spend hours there looking for new music when I got home from a work trip. Walking out with less than 5 albums was rare. But with an increase of streaming and a decline in the amount of people buying physical music, coupled with crippling rates, the end was nigh. With one of the owners wanting to retire, the fate of the shop was sealed. Never to return.
About 10 months after One Up closed, I moved to the Highlands and found a new independent record store – Imperial Records in the Inverness Victorian Market. A year later it too was gone, with an all too familiar story of falling physical sales.
Music and whisky do have slight parallels if you care to think of it in a similar way to me. If the wider market rejects it, eventually it is lost. Things we treasure will either change or disappear completely. While we are told that for whisky we’ve never had it so good with choice and variety, the thing is that has been the same with the music industry. It is my curmudgeonly feeling that just because we have more, doesn’t necessarily make it better. That’s an unfair statement to make considering both are just a matter of preference and taste. But while it could be argued that there are no such things as bad whisky or music, I’d argue there is but thankfully these are very much in the minority. Loch Dhu or Fujikai 10 are the ones that spring to mind that got universal disapproval from the enthusiast, becoming the Marilyn Mansons of the whisky world.
The whisky I’m tasting for this article is from a lost distillery, Glenugie. Formerly the most eastern whisky distillery in Scotland, it had a chequered history throughout its life until drawing its last breath in 1983, the first of many to fall in the mass industry cull of the next 2-3 years. I’ve already tasted a whisky from this distillery for this blog, and you can read this here. This sample was a very generous swap from @ayewhisky on Twitter, and I’ve had it for two years while waiting for a suitable occasion. It never came, but if remembering glories of the past such as the best record shop in Northern Scotland, I might as well reminisce about a distillery long gone.
Glenugie 32 y.o (1977) – Signatory Vintage
The original bottling. (@ayewhisky)
Region – Highland Age -32 y.o Strength – 46% abv Colour – Russet Muscat (1.3) Cask Type – finished in Oloroso Sherry butt for 7.5 years. Colouring – No Chill Filtered – No
Nose – Very reserved at first. Sweet. As it was coming to a more normal room temperature sitting beside me on the table, I could swear I could smell apples and honey. Rubbing a bit on my skin, the aroma reminded of of Dark Milk Chocolate with fondant, similar to those Fry’s bars you used to get. Back to the glass and I get the sherry notes appearing. Raisins, figs, dark cherries. A hint of dusty leather and beeswax.
Palate – medium to full body, syrupy but not too sweet. Turns astringent and slightly woody. Plums, figs, expresso, nutmeg. Slightly dusty again. Still no real burn yet, Dark chocolate orange. Gets more spicy on repeated sips, ginger and black pepper. Adding water made the mouthfeel turn buttery, and for me accentuated the sulphur note that I initially got in the finish giving a burnt rubber taste. But left to breathe for another 15 mins, this turned into a sweet drop, with the darker fruit gums getting added into the above mix. The astringency gets minimised; I can’t believe how sweet this turned.
Finish – The whisky develops into more spicy and astringent notes, becoming tannic and reveals a hint of sulphur but not in a too unpleasant way. The fruit is still there, but there is a more prominent sharpness to it, like passion fruit. I have a slight off note similar to a corked wine, leading to a slightly mineral / metallic combination right at the end. After adding the water and waiting, the increased sweetness left me with a long, almost candy sweet finish, reminding me of sugared almonds. The metallic and mineral notes almost vanished, with fruity notes replacing them. A surprise finish for a dram initially that I wasn’t enjoying as much as I thought I should be.
My sample
You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.
There’s another music tie to my blog which any Joni Mitchell fan should recognise. It occurs to me that this is probably the very last dram from that bottle, and could very well be the last Glenugie I will ever taste. I would imagine that there can’t be a lot of stock left, if any. Even if there is, the chances of me being able to afford it are minimal. Who would have thought that one day Glenugie would close never to reopen? I remember childhood trips to Peterhead seeing the old distillery on the way past then bit by bit they knocked it down so that the land could serve another purpose for the offshore industry. In a paraphrase again from the same Joni Mitchell song, ‘paradise was paved’ and now is lost.
The fall of One-Up could be a tale for people in whisky to take notice of. Both have suffered (or could suffer) in part due to events outwith their control. For One-Up it was the loss of their market thanks to online streaming and downloads, negating the need for people to own a physical product. While the whisky industry doesn’t have that same issue while it’s in boom times, I feel that the industry has some serious underlying health issues that could cause problems.
The UK economy is not in the best of health either, but some of this is down to governmental ideology and incompetence, but also one has to look at the cutbacks at Goldman Sachs (here and here), Morgan Stanley (here), Barclays, Morgan Stanley and Citibank (here) as well as the warnings from the World Bank (here and here) that all is far from well in the global economy. If I was a luxury goods manufacturer then I’d be concerned, and let’s face it, whisky is such a thing. And there are signs that alcohol consumption hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels, indicating that globally the consumer markets aren’t going the way the producers may wish – see this link – Alcohol sales lower than pre-pandemic level in Europe
The dram. Going to meet its destiny.
I’ve been speaking of the possibility of recession for a while now, more so since the global economy has been distorted by the COVID pandemic, and Europe has been affected by the Ukraine war, These sort of events aren’t predictable, but this is also a good reason for why unrestricted growth of an industry isn’t always a good idea, yet this is what is happening within the collective whisky industry now. Many distilleries are going flat out to make up stocks, with the past decade of expansion to existing sites such as Macallan, Glenfiddich and Glenlivet just to name three. There are a wealth of new distilleries over the past 10 years with many more yet to start selling a product. If there is to be a recession, have the distilleries yet to start missed the boat? Could be a disaster for those depending on selling 3 year old spirit, especially if nobody has the money to pay some of the adventurous prices some think is an appropriate charge for bare minimum aged spirit.
While I maybe wrong, over the past couple of years I have been mentioning that recession has been inevitable, though I have no idea of the size.
And this is the trouble with unrestricted and untempered growth; nobody is looking to the downsides. So far there is no sign that consumers are slowing down, but these things can happen suddenly, just like the effects of natural disaster. Producers have to be able to predict trends of what will be popular in 10-20 years time when the spirit matures, and that my friends is near on impossible to do. It’s like driving down a dark country lane at full speed, and suddenly switching off your headlights. You have an idea of the way ahead, but realistically you have no true idea of what is coming, and there could be a crash. In the event of that situation, one should have thoughts and prayers for those investing in casks. Should there be a change in customer demand resulting in a downturn in demand for matured whisky, then what about those privately owned casks? Who is going to pay a premium for a cask that there isn’t a demand for? Especially if everybody is trying to sell their “Glen Investment” casks at the same time, when many may mature at the same time? Could be sad times for those who let brokers overcharge them in the first place.
The health of the industry in my opinion is developing another sickness, and that of premiumisation. We’ve seen prices go up with the cost of inflation, but not all increases are so driven in my opinion. Talisker 18 doubled in price, Lagavulin 16 took a price lurch in the wrong direction. Premium whisky is going to place the whisky enthusiast drinker into narrowing price points they don’t want to be in, with more aged whiskies being less affordable. So while we have a booming production rate now, we could still effectively end up with less choice, and falling demand in one sector as many more become reluctant to push past the £100 barrier for a bottle.
Twitter user @whiskyresource has ran a poll for 24 hrs to get an idea of how enthusiasts see the future of whisky and it doesn’t paint that rosy a picture. Judge for yourself. NAS whisky is a backwards step that many enthusiasts reject. We’ve been pushing for years to gain more transparency, as an age statement gives us some sort of quantifiable quality. While it means we aren’t guaranteed of quality, we’ll get an idea that we aren’t paying through the nose for the youngest possible spirit that NAS bottlings can hide.
In the second poll, the next question is whether or not people are reconsidering their comfort zones for buying whisky. And it seems many are. I’ve heard stories that some drinkers are rejecting the primary market and using auctions for purchasing core bottles rather than retailers. Not only can this be a lot cheaper when buying bottles still easily available, producers and retailers should remember that this doesn’t put the money in their pockets.
Make of this what you will. But I agree with the result. Bottles like Glendronach 18 are now off the cards and I’m grateful for the bottles in storage. Both polls aren’t conclusive but show what some of the online community think.
I don’t think things will be as bad as in the 1980’s yet worryingly, many pubs are really struggling at the moment and it’s getting more regular to hear of breweries in the craft beer industry that have fallen victim to economic pressures. I’m hearing rumours that the gin boom is over too. And it’s due to get worse with the Bank Of England telling the BBC that “the UK is still likely to fall into a long, shallow depression.” This, coupled with staffing issues in many industries giving workers a good basis in pushing for higher wages will keep prices high and not necessarily helping inflation fall. But what if a predicted UK and global recession is deeper than predicted? It is not outside the realms of possibility we’ll see distilleries close, even if only temporarily. What if the war in the Ukraine affects the global economy negatively again? This is a risk that may be very real, and out of control of the whisky producers.
While I don’t mean to preach that the end of the world is coming for the whisky industry, which has been cyclic for most of its existence, the truth of what goes up must eventually come down still exists. Will it be the higher the climb the greater the fall? Make the most of what we have. Value the good whiskies. People finding how good the likes of Imperial, Glenugie, Convalmore and others can be are now faced with limited stock or non-existent stock, with what is available already being in bottles. Enjoying quality whisky now could be key to our experiences as affordable aged whisky becomes out of reach for us. Indeed, this Glenugie is already out of my drinking comfort zone, but something more relevant is that Glendronach 18 was under £80 and now, easily £105. Once a staple, now a luxury to many more people.
It’s little wonder I would find concerning when I read this latest article from the Herald Scotland where a Borders Farmer is looking to find funding to the tune of £53 million pounds to fund a brand new grain distillery. The article mentions the fact fianancial recession, the aim of premiumisation, and supplying grain neutral spirit for gin. I read it in disbelief as I somewhat believe he’s missed the boat totally. I hope it works out for him, but the timing doesn’t seem to be on his side in my opinion. The other side of the story though is that speaking to someone with more insight into the industry than I have is that this plant could well be needed if Diageo pull the plug on supplying grain whisky to other blenders. Still, a brave decision to have to make when hedging your bets.
A fitting thought to attach as the conclusions from the tasting could be thus – now that the whisky is gone, the long sweet taste is reminding me of a time gone by as a child. Indeed, I still was one when Glenugie closed. My younger brother was born in the year this dram was distilled. Nobody had an inkling what was to be round the corner for the distillery or the industry. Perhaps this is where we find ourselves again now?
I’d be a fool in failing to acknowledge any potential upsides – the main one being that my opinion maybe completely wrong, and that we’ve really never had it so good and will continue to do so. Should interest rates not continue to climb to control inflation, and energy prices drop significantly, disaster will be averted. In the rhythmic ups and downs of the industry, probability means I’ll be right to some degree eventually, but I suspect it’s closer than many may want to think. If it comes to pass that the whisky enthusiasts have to endure limited choice due to price increases or lack of availability, then perhaps now was a good time to have my Glenugie, while listening to some music bought from One-Up and thinking about how good things used to be.
Scotty’s Drams 