The Morgan Library's First Whisky Event: with Gordon & MacPhail

Chris Riesbeck, Gordon & MacPhail Brand Ambassador, presents in The Morgan Dining Room

The Morgan Library is a little gem of a museum and archive - more a jewel box treasure, really. It's not as well known as it deserves to be - in a New York City dominated by gigantic museums. It's financier JP Morgan's private residential library building - a grand beaux-arts masterpiece of turn of the 20th century architecture and a group of related buildings and exhibition halls that house one of the greatest collections of books, manuscripts, and drawings on the planet. The Morgan seems to continually reinvent itself through the ages. I remember the lovely verdant atriumed Garden Court being the venue of choice for work-time lunches with older relatives. The recent Renzo Piano designed incarnation is bigger, more monumental, if a bit colder. One of the cool things about the recent renovation, however, is that the dining room of Jack Morgan (JP Morgan Jr.)'s house has been made into the formal dining room of the The Morgan's concessionaire, Restaurant Associates. The Morgan Dining Room, as it is known, has period details, including JP Morgan family portraits. It's a cool place to eat, atmosphere-wise, and the food is pretty good.

I was very excited to be able to play a small role in RA's decision to begin hosting whisky events. Given JP Morgan's titanic reputation as a lover of fine liquor and cigars it seems particularly apt. I get the feeling that JP Morgan probably chose cognac more often than whisky in venues like The Morgan's fabulous East Room, but David Wondrich stated (in Esquire):

"When properly built, the Manhattan is the only cocktail that can slug it out toe-to-toe with the martini. It's bold and fortifying, yet as relaxing as a deep massage. J.P. Morgan used to have one at the close of each trading day."

The Morgan's fabulous East Room

At the advice of Michael Strohl of Lauber Imports RA got in touch with Chris Riesbeck of Gordon & MacPhail for the first event. Patricia Japngie of RA asked me what I thought. I was able to whole heartedly assent. Gordon & MacPhail is the oldest and most important independent bottler of Scotch. Not only do they have many bottlings of astounding quality, they have played an important role in bringing single malt expressions of distilleries that normally sell their output for blends. They also provide a deep repository of vanished distilleries and important whisky history in their vast Elgin warehouses.

It was originally scheduled for Friday November 2, 2012 - but that ended up being the week that Hurricane Sandy dealt such devastation to the Northeastern part of the US, and the New York metro area in particular. On that date The Morgan was without power - along with the rest of Manhattan from south mid-town down. But life goes on, and the event was rescheduled for Friday, December 7th 2012. Chris Riesbeck, the US Brand Ambassador for Gordon & MacPhail presented six excellent drams. I was privileged to make the introduction. I spoke about how The Morgan Library is a repository of knowledge's past and that Gordon & MacPhail fulfills this role for whisky. I said that I met Ardbeg and Caol Ila during those distillery's hiatuses via G&M issues, and that distilleries such as Glen Moray, Glentauchers, and Interleven were known almost exclusively from their G&M editions.


The selections that night were:

In order, from left to right

Connoisseurs Choice Clynelish 11 1999-2010 43%

Connoisseurs Choice Jura 1997 12 46%
Benromach 10 43%
G&M Old Pulteney 21 46%
G&M Imperial Port Finished 15 46%
G&M Cask Strength Caol Ila 1999 61%

The tasting notes follow. I had some special guests at this event. Dr. Peter Silver, the Jazz Dentist, Malt Maniac and PLOWED member was on hand. This is a guy who seriously knows his whisky. We also had Susannah Skiver Barton, blogger of http://whattastesgood.wordpress.com/ Also in attendance was Kate Massey, who blogs http://thewhiskeydame.com/

Top: Kate Massey, The Whisky Dame (left), and Susanna Skiver Barton of What Tastes Good chat with Malt Maniac Dr. Peter Silver. Bottom: Chris Riesbeck (left), Michael Strohl of distributer Lauber Imports, and Dr. Peter Silver

I also had the opportunity to meet some other lovely people. Highlights include noted Star Trek author and SciFi impresario Keith DeCandido and Belgian whisky enthusiast Jonathan Cornelus.

But the main attractions were Chris Riesbeck, who impressed me with his enthusiasm, knowledge, and polished delivery, and, of course, the Gordon & MacPhail whisky. Part of the G&M story is that they make arrangements to have distilleries use their own casks so their barrel management decisions start at the moment of fill. Ranging across the bottlings we see clear strategic thinking in evidence in barrel management. Some expressions are aged in old tired sherry cask. Others in sugary first fill ex-bourbon. Staves are recoopered from American Standard bourbon barrels (200 liters) into larger hogsheads (225 liters) in another bottling to reduce surface area contact for longer maturation. Benromach is aged in bourbon cask and then finished in cream sherry. This type of variety in barrel management shows a clear conscious attempt to tailor barrel management to achieve desired ends. None of that means a thing if the whisky isn't delicious, of course. My experience, however, is that G&M whisky usually is. This event's selections were no exception:

Connoisseurs Choice Clynelish 11 1999-2010 43%
Color: Very Pale Gold
Nose: Surprisingly rich with paraffin wax, rich estery melon, salt tang, and a slight whiff of peat.

Palate: Honeyed floral sweet entry with a silky mouth feel. Waxy, estery rich with a tang of acid at mid-palate abd wafts if the sea at the turn. Riesbeck reports the casks used as "Very old refill sherry". No sherry flavor was in evidence, which lets the distillate's flavors shine. This is a really nice example of the Brora-like flavor signature that the really good Clynelishes have. There is a freshness and a rich estery quality here much more marked than in the 14 year OP expression.

*****

Connoisseurs Choice Jura 1997 12 46%
Color: Extremely pale jonquil.

Nose: Gently floral with buttery notes and some pear/melon fruits.

The palate is surprisingly potent estery fruit basket with maritime salt, and a marked vegetal aspect which Riesbeck evocatively called "grilled Jalapeno". Of course, once he said that, you couldn't help but taste it. Also refill sherry cask - clearly very old multiply refilled casks. The flavors here are markedly richer than the OP10. The flavor density is close to the excellent OP16, although the signature is younger and fresher. Also interesting is the very pale color. OP expressions of Jura are all caramel colored and run a light amber. I got the feeling that we were privileged to see what Jura "really" looks like here (granted that color is almost always determined by barrel management when coloring isn't used). I found the pale color when combined with the rich flavor beguiling.

****

Old Pulteney 21 - 46%
Color: Gold
Nose, richly floral with a big vanilla component. Honeysuckles, butter, and salty air.

Palate: Huge creamy vanilla floral opening with a big melon estery hit. The mouth feel is silky and rich. At mid palate the floral and fruity sweet shifts into maritime salt tang, firm malt, and a bloom of gentle oak. The turn to the finish dials up the ocean air. Superb - and the consensus here is that this, with its cleaner pure bourbon oak cask aging is superior to the OP. Aged in refill American Hogshead (the standard barrels are resized to hogsheads to optimize the barrel size for long maturation). This was a real highlight.

*****

Benromach 10 43%
Speyside, peated malt aged 80% of the time in bourbon cask, then the last 20% in first fill cream sherry.

Color: old gold, with amber glints.

Nose: peat and herbal iodine meets mossy grassy malt.

Palate: Benromach 10 delivers on the score of mixing the traditional Spey flavor elements of fruit basket and gentle peat. There is some lovely vanilla floral on the opening. Then a gentle expansion with estery Speyside fruits. The peat shows up at the tail end of the mid-palate and drives through the finish. It's wonderful stuff.

****

Imperial Port Finished 15 46%
Color: amber

Nose: sandalwood, cantaloup, and earthy musk.

Palate: Port driven Spanish figs and loamy earth and moss. Sherried sweet opening, with that cocoa thing going on. Musk melon and apricot bark drive the mid palate. There's plenty of musk and loamy must and oak tannin in the turn. Then a long oaky and port wine finish that I found satisfying. Organic, earthy, yet with pretty good amplitude. This is my first Imperial - and it's very compelling. Aged 10 years in refill sherry then the next 5 years port pipe. In the denouement of the evening I wasn't above scavenging an additional dram of this off another table!

****


Cask Strength Caol Ila 1999 61%
Color: pale gold with olive glints.

Nose: Earthy damp tobacco, iodine, musk.

Palate: big and rich with unusually full mouth feel. The opening is sweet with tons of vanilla and intense wood sugars from first fill bourbon cask and a hint of mint. The expansion is classic Caol Ila with iodine, band aids (but in a good way :) and rich maritime sea airs. The finish is long, malty and peaty. Very familiar, but rich and well balanced.

****

Bottom line here: Gordon and MacPhail shows a midas touch in getting excellence out the distillate. These are all whiskies I really enjoyed. Many of them clearly outshine the distillery's own expressions - which is a remarkable feat and a testament to the expertise G&M brings to the table.

A bunch of happy campers.

This event was clearly a success. It was sold out, entertaining, and featured a very nice group of special drams. The folks who attended clearly had a good time. That bodes well for future whisky events at The Morgan. So does the fact that RA purchased the Glencairns rather than rented them. As it is, I am scheduled to lead a whisky-chocolate pairing event there on March 1st, 2013. I hope you can attend.

Miltonduff 15 G&M Exclusive for PAL: Speyside In All The Right Ways

Miltonduff, near Elgin on the Black Burn, is one of those classic storied Speyside distilleries that you don't run into that often because they don't have regular expressions.  Gordon & MacPhail, located less than 3 miles away in Elgin, produces regular 12 and 15 year single malt bottlings and are the closest thing to a house OB that Miltonduff has.  In the familiar tale, Miltonduff, an old traditional distiller, was purchased and expanded into a giant to secure malt for a major blend, in this case Ballentines.  Most of the output goes into Ballentines which is why you don't see it much.  Along the way, there have been some fascinating bits of trivia.  Miltonduff was built on the old site of the Pluscarden Priory in 1824 and supposedly a stone of the ancient structure is kept in the distillery.  Miltonduff formerly practiced triple distillation, but adopted double distillation in the early part of this century.  In 1964 two Lomond stills were added for production of “Mosstowie" (a separate label produced entirely inside Miltonduff). Mosstowie is now one of those lost distilleries in plain sight a la Malt Mill.  The idea of the Lomond stills is that they can be tuned by adjusting the plates and necks to alter the character of the spirit.  The benefit was for Ballantines which could produce more variations for a more complex blend by tuning the Lomonds at Miltonduff.  There were some individual cask bottlings, but Mosstowie is rare.  By all accounts it isn't particularly good.  Lomond stills are still used at Loch Lomond - which isn't considered particularly good either.  Scapa, apparently uses a Lomond as their wash still.  I'm not a huge fan of that one either.  But the most famous Lomond still around is the salvaged "Ugly Betty" which makes The Botanist gin over at Bruichladdich which, by all accounts, is excellent.  In any case, by the 1980s the Lomonds were removed and replaced with additional post stills.   Since 2005 Miltonduff has been owned by Pernod Richard via Chivas Brothers.

Some of the aforefmentioned facts came from
http://www.scotchwhisky.net/distilleries/miltonduff.htm
and
http://www.maltmadness.com/whisky/miltonduff.html


The bottle considered here is part of a special single cask bottling made by Gordon & MacPhail for Park Avenue Liquors as an exclusive.  It was one of the first custom bottling projects put together by the relatively new Gordon & MacPhail US National Brand Ambassador Chris Reisbeck.  It's quite a cask - first fill Bourbon barrel #9461 which produced only 198 bottles.  Distilled on June 24, 1996 and bottled in August 2011.  It is bottled non-chill-filtered (as will become abundantly clear in a moment) uncolored, and at full cask strength.  This is raw - straight from the cask goodness brought to you by an impressive chain of whisky geeks for whisky geeks.

Miltonduff 1996-2011 15yo 56.3% Gordon & MacPhail

A drop of water turns it cloudy like milk

This is bottle 181 of 198.

Color: rich old gold. Even the tiniest drop of water causes this to turn milky with condensed fats.

Nose: densely honeyed, floral, and fruity in the white melon & pear way so classic of the Northern Highlands and Spey. Unctuous and almost incense-like in the sweet filigree of the floral-fruit sweet honey on the nose. Turns to an aching apricot-like acidic almost tangerine citrus note with additional time and deeper nosing. Indeed, this one can be nosed for a long long time.

Palate:  The entry is powerfully sweet up front with pure wildflower honey. There's a lacy filigree of floral esters at the light tiny white end of the floral spectrum. Then paraffin and sweet butter show right before the big expansion. The midpalate bursts with spirit heat and a broader more fruit centered sweetness marked by soft honeyed boiled citrus and melon with honeysuckle and vanilla florals in attendance. The turn to the finish sees a bitter eucalyptus note and then a relatively short finish with a clean cherry malt glow and a hint of oak tannins.

The addition of a few drops of water turns the dram cloudy but amps up the sweetness, richness, and the viscosity of the mouth feel.  In other words, this is a classic "swimmer": it loves water.  All that is good and great about this lovely Speyside honeyed fruit basket gets more honeyed and more "fruit basketier" (tm - by the Coopered Tot) with some water. 

Wow, what a lovely fruit bomb!  I'm in love.  I've been sipping this compulsively so much that I haven't been able to make myself sit down and write this review!

Before water it's clear

Mortlach 22 yo Gordon & MacPhail for Sestante: time traveling to 1971 or before.

Mortlach is one of the oldest distilleries in Speyside, founded in 1823 (the same year as Glenlivet) in Dufftown.  It has a fascinating history (which I recommend you read on the excellent Malt Madness site here).  Mortlach is yet another of those distilleries that you mainly find in independent bottler editions. It rarely appears in its own label.  Most of its output ends up in Johnny Walker Black Label (yes, another whole distillery poured into the vast sea of square black bottles).  Have I mentioned that I really like Johnny Walker Black Label?  The essential feature for me in this history is that floor maltings continued through 1968 and direct fired stills were in operation through 1971.  This means that distillates prior to 1969 should be made in the old traditional Speyside manner - before mechanization and the homogenization that Oliver Klimek describes so elegantly in his though provoking article "Has Whisky Become Better, Worse or Just Different"  That 1971-1968 period feels so close - so in reach.

That's why I stopped when I saw this listing in the Whisky Samples web site:

Mortlach 22yo (40%, Gordon&MacPhail, 75cl, Sestante Import, bottled before 1993)

This should have been bottled pré 1993 as the 75cl bottle is sealed by an Italian tax label in red/orange with 2 stars. 

http://whiskysamples.flyingcart.com/index.php?p=detail&pid=802&cat_id=

"Well," I thought, "that's distilled in 1971 at the latest - the era of direct fired stills.  If it's even a few years older than that, it might be the real deal."  Plus it had the allure of the "Sestante" name.  Allure?  Yes, I'm fascinated by the defunct independent bottler Sestante.  It might be silly to be enamored of obscure Italian independent bottlers, but this one isn't around any more, so it's yet another layer of unobtanium.  I couldn't resist.  What was I hoping for?  A taste of a vanished world, with complexity, sweetness & oak and whiff of smoke and maybe even a distant taste of peat, like the Dylan Thomas poem "A Child's Christmas in Wales" takes you back to a vanished world.  I was looking to time travel with this dram.  But it wasn't a sure thing.

Mortlach 22 yo Gordon & MacPhail Sestante bottled prior to 1993. 40% abv

Color: very dark amber w/coppery tints - like old bourbon.

Nose: A rapid evolution from sweet cherry bubble gum at first pour to, as it opens up, big intense dried figs, honey, dark old rum, cherry preserves, ripe persimmons, old oak drawers, dust, and old parchment. A huge august mature sherry bomb aroma.

The entry is robust sherry, a firm oloroso note with jammy raisin, plum, and maraschino notes giving way to sharp tannic bite.  With extra air time citrus flavors and sharp citric acids emerge through the dark chocolate dank prune. The mid palate is spicy with sandalwood incense resiny oak essence and a hint of distant smoke. There is a big tannic pucker at the finish and some dank oak bitterness to go with it. This is a hyper mature sherry bomb with a dense old time feel - like antique whisky - which in a sense it might really be.  The current dilution to 40% renders mouth feel light & silky, sadly, not honey thick like it should be. I didn't dare add water.

Ultimately it's a big and luscious dram but a tad unbalanced in the direction of dark and tannic.  Yet that somehow suited my fantasy.  The flavor signature reminded me, yet again (as many of these old Spey and Highland drams do) of a formative experience with a whole bottle of 1980s Balvenie coat of arms flagon no age statement back in my early days with Scotch.  It had an over-oaked intensity and a complex and almost noble rot quality that feels like "antique".  Indeed it smells a bit like an antique furniture shop or a visit to an old European palace.  Bottom line, this one took me there and I was reveling in the wild progression of a rainbow of old oak flavors and scents melded to big old sherry.  Not the last word is deliciousness, perhaps, but a fine choice to transport you to another time.

FYI - in looking over where I had been I came across Ruben's notes for an old Sestante labelled bottle of Mortlach 20 from the 1980s that would certainly have been made in the floor malting days.  His tasting notes are an eerie twin to mine.  This helps confirm my impression that this was similar stuff:

"Nose: old-style sherry with a thick liqueur-like character. Lots of old polished oak and leather. Old books and incense. A very soft smokiness too. Raisins, a hint of caramel maybe. Also a sweet beefy note and burnt fruit cake. Mouth: dry, pretty oaky (a tad too much for my taste). There’s still an underlying dark sweetness of sultanas, but it grows resinous and herbal as well, with a slight sourness. Again some smoke in the distance. Feels nicely old but maybe a bit past its prime. Finish: long, dry, still some herbal notes, oak and smoke.
A nice experience but you’ll have to stand some old oak and herbs. It’s closer to a Mortlach 1936 for example than to recent expressions."
http://www.whiskynotes.be/2012/mortlach/mortlach-20-years-sestante/

Gordon & MacPhail tasting at Park Ave Liquors with Chris Riesbeck

One of the nice things about working on Murray Hill in Midtown Manhattan is Park Avenue Liquors (located anti-eponymously on Madison Ave between 42-43rd ). Park Avenue Liquors (PAL) is a relatively small store, but inside is a mad jumble where the greatest spirit treasures can be found - usually jammed amongst a fantastic variety of everything else. For example, what's that just left of the Glendronach 15? It's every release of Octomore - including the first. Just to the right is the OB 9th release of Port Ellen. Behind the counter are most Scotches and Bourbons available anywhere in the City. On the back wall are heaped the world of grape spirits including monstrously priced crystal trophy Cognac bottles and century old Armagnac rarities. One of the things I love most about PAL is that spirits come first. They do sell wine - but it's clearly number two.

Another great thing about PAL is that they regularly offer free spirit tastings usually after 3 on Thursdays or Fridays. The best place to find out about these events is NYCWhisky.com

These events are held at the end of the sales counter - jammed in tight among the narrow aisles and heaped shelves of bottles. It's a totally NY scene.

Chris Riesbeck

Pouring today was Chris Riesbeck, US brand ambassador for Gordon & MacPhail. He's a jovial and spirited whisky geek of high order, full of the loving specifics of G&M's excellent barrel management, the expressions, spirit markets, and lore. He was pouring G&M bottlings of Glenrothes 8, Glenturret 11, Bunnahabhain 8, and the OB 10 expression of the G&M owned Benromach. The common thread here was a period of time in Sherry hogsheads. The Glenrothes had a stunning richly floral vanilla herbal nose and an exuberant, fruity flavor - a winner at the reasonable $37 price. The Glenturret was drier, silky and rich with wooded and brooding aspect. The Bunnahabhain was subtle with dry malt and a kiss of iodine, but seemed a little thin (as Bunnahabhains often do, to me). The Benromach was, as Chris explained, a classic old style Spey in that it was fruity, lightly sherried (kissed with a stint in olorosso hogsheads) and is lightly peated. Benromach 10 comes on sweet and fruity, turns august and vinous at midpalate and the smoky whiff of peat emerges at the end as a drying and sophisticated turn at the finish. The Benromach flavor profile is extraordinary - with its far ranging tour of disparate flavor elements as each sip progresses through the palate. I wanted a bit more depth, so I'll be especially anxious to try the more mature expressions.

What a lovely way to spend 15 minutes in the crushed and frenzied Manhattan hubbub!

Caol Ila 15 Gordon & MacPhail 1981-1997: Iodine, honey, sea salt, flowers and smoke.

Caol Ila was one of the less well known Islay malts back in the late 90s when I bought this bottle. The distillery's own label wasn't distributed in NY at the time. Caol Ila has since had a major Renaissance. This 15 year old bottle of 15 year old whiskey is a look back. I find little has changed.


Color: old gold (deep yellow with rosy orange glints)

Nose: honeyed sherry, malt, iodine, band aids, peat reek (smoke, oil, and damp fen), brine, seaweed, and a bit of old books

Semi sweet entry with immediate iodine brine, pepper and damp wood. After significant air there's a honey sherry glory lurking in the entry but it forms a backdrop for the sea flavors that take center stage. The midpalate expansion is abuzz with pepper, fire smoke, floral sherry honey and a fairly rich viscous mouth feel. Finish is fairly long with fine restrained peat smoke, old dry wood, dank meadow, and distant floral and incense perfume. The finale ends on a slightly bitter and medicinal note that is fitting.

This is a pure expression of the spirit of Islay, but a fairly restrained and deceptively complex one. Lovely, if not a real boomer.

How does it compare to the new Caol Ila 12?  The new one is sweeter and more sunny.  It also has a cleaner and more direct peat note.  However it's less complex and interesting.  Bottom line, however, the new distillery product simply tastes a little bit better in my book.  Maybe that's just its youth.   It's a happy debate; both are very nice to drink.

****

Dallas Dhu - a whisper of a memory of a summer meadow long ago.

Dallas Dhu has been a museum for more than 20 years. Its pagoda roof dates from the 19th century - one of the oldest in Scotland. It closed in 1983 as part of the great closings of the era (probably much to do with the trend for vodka and white spirits in the 70s and 80s). I've had a "dusty" Dallas Dhu 12 - from Gordon and Macphail mid 90s bottlings since 1998. I bought it to remember my bachelor's party at Keens where we had some lovely pours including this one.

Color: Golden yellows
Nose: Heather, flax, honeyed sherry, vanilla oak notes. There's a distant herbal vegetal note like milkweed sap that is bracing. To sum it up I would characterize it as wildflowers in lush grass near some oak woods on a dry hot summer's day. Given the context (that the distillery closed in 1983 and that I bought the bottle in 1998 on the eve of my wedding) this is an echo of summer's day from a time far off, when I was young... when things were different.

Entry is sweet with mild honey and malt. Mid palate has breakfast cereal grains, malt sugars, a broad peppery expansion with peppermint overtones. Oak tannins and floral vanilla notes bloom in the finish which isn't terribly long but longer than expected with an old wood quality at the finish. There's a surprisingly substantial texture for such light floral heathery fare. It's a tasty and easy drinking dram.

Dallas Dhu: Heathery like Royal Lochnagar, but mint scented like an Irish whiskey. Nice.
****