Reuven Weinstein's Warm House... And The Killer Blind.

Hanging out on the Internet Bourbon forums you meet and befriend a lot of interesting people.  I love meeting these people in real life.  I've met Reuven Weinstein - a master dusty hunter out of New York - a number of times, but recently I had the great pleasure of spending the whole afternoon with him and his lovely wife Ilana (who was his public face of Facebook for a long time) at his home in Rockaway Park / Belle Harbor.   Ostensibly a house warming - the house has a real story of destruction and rebuilding.  The Weinsteins just recently moved into it.  There was a ton of delicious home made salads, hot wings, and world class smoked BBQ brisket.  Just delicious.  And there was also whiskey - lots of it.  The very best stuff.  Because Reuven is a master whiskey hunter.  The pictures and tasting notes below speak for themselves - but they aren't the reason for the post.  Not at all - but that will come later.

FYI - a different take on this smorgasbord was written up by my friend (and partner in crime) Steven Zeller, The Smoky Beast here:
http://smokybeast.blogspot.com/2014/07/rock-rock-rockaway-beach-tasting.html

Reuven is well known in the American whiskey world.  He is a prodigy - a talent at entering neighborhoods that others wouldn't bother with and somehow coming out with a trunk full of absolute treasures from the liquor stores there.  As Reuven toured us through a small portion of the fabulous whiskies he has collected I was amazed time and again by both the fabulous range - from dusty bourbons and the rarest issues to fabulous single malt - with a focus on spectacular and hard to find silent distilleries - and also by our hosts tremendous generosity.  What we tasted that day is not to be forgotten.  And it was but a peek into his fantastic collection.  Which only underscores a curious and oft remarked on fact: Reuven doesn't drink whiskey.  Nope.  He enjoys nosing it.  He produced a 1984 vintage single cask Yamazaki which he particularly enjoyed nosing.  I must concur - it had the most remarkable nose:  a complex and evolving aroma that started with dark cocoa with a hint of anthracite coal combustion (just a hint) and then moving into rich fig pudding baking in rum, and then on to a rich earthiness made farmy by a bit of animal skins.  I could nose that thing all day too.  But ultimately I want to take a sip.  I suspect Reuven will too, someday soon.  I can see the curiosity burning in him.  Meanwhile, his personal code and clean habits keeps him holding back. After Reuven and Ilana served a killer spread of sweet smoky BBQ brisket and lovely home-made sauced hot wings, with homemade slaw, potato salad, green salad and all the fixings,  I made the fatal error of pouring an award-winning Cotswald village Sloe Gin as an after dinner apertif.  Wrong stuff for that crowd!
But, before that happened a lot of whisky got tasted

When I encountered the spread of whiskey on the table my eyes lit on two things right away.  One The Parker Heritage 27 year old legendary PHC2 which I had never tried before.  And right next to it was a 1980s vintage octagonal Wild Turkey 8 year old age statement 1.75 Liter handle.  NOW WE'RE TALKING!  Parker Heritage 2nd edition 27 year old is a legendary statement product from Heaven Hill.  2008 Malt Advocate Magazine's American Whiskey of the Year.  I had tried and enjoyed a Wild Turkey 101 8 yo octagonal handle from the early 90s with Mike Jasinski a little while back.   Lately I've been going deeper with Wild Turkey, and there's a strong argument for the 8 year old WT101 of the 70s-90s as being one my favorite primary expression (i.e. not barrel proof) bourbons.

Parker Heritage 27 48%

Color:  Dark amber
Nose:  Rich rancio malt, sweet sherry nutty rancio, mead honey, deep iterated bourbon vanilla pods: sweetness.  Then tempered by buttery notes and oak incense.
Palate:  Sweet honey malt opening. Waxing into acetone-citrus with ripe cantaloupe, salted caramel with tannin spiciness on the finish.
Light texture on the mouth feel but big spicy finish.  This stuff is a lot like really old cognac with its darkly vinously sugared and oake loaded luxury.  Among the darkest, richest, most indulgent Bourbons I've ever tasted.  A really memorable pour (tasted both at the event and with a 1oz sample tasted at time of writing).

*****

Wild Turkey 101 8 1987 - Octagonal handle 50.5%

This is excellent Bourbon that I've been tasting in a number of contexts.  Here, it's a clear object lesson in the dangers of drinking something you really like immediately after an epic, world class whiskey.  Let's just say, the right time to enjoy a WT101 8yo age statement dusty is NOT immediately after tasting PHC2 27 yo.  Sweet and spicy as decently complex as WT101 was back in the day, it can't hold a candle to the glory cask selected wonder of that PCH2.  It's an unfair juxtaposition.

Color: medium coppery amber
Sweet and comparatively gentle stuff.   Nose:  warm and malty with herbal wafts and a oak sandalwood essence undercurrent.
Palate:  malty juicyfruit opening with both magic marker and candy dish notes.  The mid palate expands into brown sugar, herbal rye spice, warm honey, and sweet alfalfa turning into rye herbal spiciness and then a gentle oak tannin grip with a moderately long finish. Decent density in the mouth.  A perennial favorite, but completely shown the door in that head to head.

****

Lombard Jewels of Scotland Brora 22 50%

Distilled 1982, Bottled 2004, 22 years old.

Color: Gold
Nose:  Heather, honey, waxy
Palate:  Intense honey, turkish delight (powdered sugar, fruity, nutty)., paraffin, heather florals, meadow grass.  Not peaty or farmy.  Lightly tannin spicy finish is the only hint of age.  A heathery honey highland beauty.  With the waxy floral notes this came off like a Clynelish.  Light and beautiful - but oddly not complex considering it's age and method of manufacture.   I could sip and enjoy this one all day.  A true "session Scotch".  This bottling is all about the sunny, floral, honeyed beautiful side of Brora.  Missing is the earthy farmy animal manure aspects, the peat, smoke, and darkness you often see with that distillery.  I greatly enjoyed it.

****
(borderline *****)

Highland Park 25 48.1% abv.

Color: light medium amber with coppery glints.

Nose: Heathery wild meadow florals open up for rich malty rancio riding on dusky animal farmy warmth and some underlying peat and sea coast.  Fig cake and old sherry and leather notes play in the middle where the rancio lives.  As it opens, safflower oil and then marigold yellow florals join the heather, sherry, coastal light peat aroma show.

Palate: Sweet and rich on opening with black raisins, stewed black figs and malt sugars tempered by a whiff of brine.  The expansion brings vinous dark sherry notes of purple fruits and leather and tobacco.  It waxes into rich dark oak a satisfying warmth of gentle well integrated coastal peat and tails into a long, sweet, spicy finish with wood and smoke wrapped around the herbal tail of the malt and the lingering sweet of sherry rancio.  This is a full bore beauty of significant complexity and fills your mouth with a tour of the wide gamut of Scotch Whisky flavors - all of them.  Floral, honeyed, sherried, peated, and coastal all combine to make this beautiful spirit.  Like the 12 and the 18 - but with the darkness and intensity cranked up with maturity.  What a beauty.  Impressively, this stood up to the competition on the table with aplomb.

*****

Hirsch Single Cask Canadian 12 53.1%

The rear label only says Candian Whiskey * Single Cask * 12 years old * Lot 98-1 Bottled by Hirsch Distilleries Lawrenceburg, KY for Priess Imports, Ramona CA and bears a sticker in Japanese for sale in the Japanese market.  Rare and interesting as the odd-man-out bottling in the brief but now legendary association of Julian Van Winkle III's bottling operation with Priess Imports which had taken over the A.H. Hirsch lot of 1974 Bourbon from Michters and had started picking up odd lots and bottling those without the "A.H.".

Steve Zeller toasts w PHC2. Anthony Colasacco, right.

Color: light gold.
Nose: honey, herbal cedar with pencil shavings and mineral flint.
Palate, sweet and lean and honey-floral on entry.  Light and clean on the expansion where herbal spice, light clean mineral, and  a bit of grapefruit fruit and also pith astringency take over.  It tastes like a good Canadian blend of a corn base and rye flavoring whiskey.  I wonder what it actually is and which of Canada's distilleries it came from.  My guess would be Alberta distillery.  It has some of those Alberta Premium whiskey flavors.  Very refined for what it is.  Nicely balanced.

****

This somewhat legendary odd-ball bottling was a housewarming gift of Anthony Colosacco who is best known for his utterly fantastic whiskey bar in Mt, Kisco:  Pour Mt. Kisco.  It's the kind of bar where you can get a flight of Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve - or all 3 Rittenhouse 21, 23, and 25.
http://www.pourmtkisco.com/


Pappy was well represented on the table with a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve 15 from 2006 and also a 2006 or prior (pre-laser stamped) bottle of Van Winkle 12 Lot B that Ari Susskind had been involved in locating.  Great guys and a great whiskey.  Soft and gentle Stitzel-Weller wheater flavors: mellow cherry root beer sandalwood incensed oaky loveliness.

Ari Susskind (left) Reuven Weinstein (right)

As the party was winding down, our host brought out nicely full glencairns with a mystery blind.  The aroma and flavor were clearly in the lightly sherried highland Scottish malt category.  Steve and I bothed initially guessed a  Macallan dusty.  I had to pull a chair aside and really focus.  My quick notes read:

Color:  amber
Nose, floral incense, hard candy, fig cake, sherry, leather

Palate. Intense (50+% abv) Honeyed, minted fig melon candy black plum with some apple skin waxes into big oak and spicy heat.  Hint of clean highland peat or just big oak tannins.  Maybe some active Spanish or French oak going on?  Inchgower?

That intense perfumed floral candy aspect of front, combined with a some of that unripe apple tartness put me in the mind of Inchgower - but also An Cnoc, Balblair, and Tomatin.  Yet this particular whisky clearly wasn't any of those.  I was purely stumped.  Later that evening Reuven texted the reveal:  It was

Convalmore 36 - 1977 Diageo office 2013 realease 58% abv.

(notes above) *****
A retail listing of this whisky at TWE (where the picture is linked from):
http://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/P-22036.aspx

Convalmore is one of the legendary silent stills of Scotland, founded in 1893 and closed in the glut days of 1985.  The story is well told on Malt Madness:
http://www.maltmadness.com/whisky/convalmore.html

When I got home I had to put it up against  this 10 cl sample of Connoisseur's Choice Convalmore 17 40% Gordon & MacPhail 1981-1998 (bottled by Van Der Boog, Holland - and brought to a recent tasting by my friend Bram Hoogendijk - thanks Bram!)

Convalmore 17 40% Gordon & MacPhail Connoisseur's Choice 1981-1998

Color: Gold

Nose:  Honey and floral heather with a hint of white white tartness, chalk mineral, and yellow grass in the Sun.

Palate: Sweet and gently honeyed on the opening with an immediate tart crisp apple skin quality.  Floral and tart fruit on the expansion with a dry perfume aspect on top of a rich barley-malt chassis.  The turn is all perfume and young sawn dried oak planks.  Beautiful - and very much in the Inchgower/AnCnoc wheelhouse - yet totally unique.  (Serge Valentin noted a touch of peat on the way to giving it a 76).

****

An amazing opportunity to taste a rare and special bottling of the rare Convalmore distillate in its very mature state.  In conversations on-line I speculated about the spicy heat on the back end of the 36 year old 1977 Diageo bottling.  Was it peat or spicy oak?  Rubin Luyten of Whiskynotes.be thought it might be a bit of peat (his excellent review is here):

http://www.whiskynotes.be/2014/convalmore/convalmore-36-years-1977-2013/

Angus MacRaild (Angus MacWhisky) - expert on ancient Scotch par excellence e.g.:
http://www.whisky-online.com/blog/ - thought it was the wood:

" I'd say it is most likely from the wood given that it's a mix of european and american oak aged for over 36 years. At that sort of age you can definitely get a certain amount of phenolic extraction from the wood which can come through as medicinal/spicy/smoky/menthol in varying degrees. I doubt that Convalmore had any regular or meaningful peating level during the mid-late 70s. The ones I've tried from that time reveal it to have a spicy/herbaceous quality which I feel is very much part of the house style and derives more from the distillate. Anyway, I'm very much in agreement about the 36yo, it's an absolutely stonking dram!"

Stonking dram indeed.  I can't believe it was just handed out as a blind tasting as the post dessert apertif.  That's class.  Thanks, Reuven, for a wonderful time and a fabulous education!

Single Cask Nation: It's About Cask Selection

Single Cask Nation (http://singlecasknation.com/)  is a private members-only independent bottling business which is part of the Jewish Whisky Company founded by Joshua Hatton and his partners Jason Johnstone-Yellin and Seth Klaskin about 3 years ago.  Hatton is also a whisky blogger at http://www.jewmalt.com/ - a very impressive whisky blog.  Johnstone-Yellin is also a whisky blogger at the perhaps even more impressive  http://www.guidscotchdrink.com/

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of tasting the Single Cask Nation line with Josh Hatton (@jewmalt) and a group of very welcoming Jewish gentlemen in New Rochelle, NY.  This wasn't my first time tasting Single Cask Nation's line.  I had had parts of it at Whisky Live last year and at Single Cask Nation's second Whisky Jewbilee last autumn - their phenomenally impressive fledgling whisky show.  This time, however, with a smaller room and more intense focus I finally got it.  I had always wondered about single cask clubs like this.  "Why bother"?  You can buy single cask bottlings from independent bottlers like Gordon & MacPhail, Cadenhead, Wymiss, and a host of others.  Why do I need to join a club?  But with Josh Hatton walking us through the selections I finally understood.  It's not just that each selection is bottled at cask strength in a minimally fussed with way.  (Although this is real difference from a lot of single cask bottlings you find from IBs.)  It's that the selections each have a story - a particular angle on the flavors of that distillery.  This has to do with the palate of the people doing the cask section.  When you join a club like this you are putting a bet down on the palate of the people doing the cask selection.  The idea is that the payoff will be interesting whiskies worth drinking with the risk involved in making selections substantially reduced by the pre-selection going in.  This isn't just marketing talk.  It involves people you can meet, talk to, drink with, and come to trust;  a palate you respect.  It's not, as is the cask of, say, Gordon and MacPhail, a series of contractual relationships that give them access to rare distilleries you cannot get via an OB bottling.  Rather it's that only special casks that really impress the bottlers are chosen at all.  It's a curatorial thing.  You're joining someone on their whisky journey.  Obviously this only works if the selections speak to you.  Here I found each selection a cat and mouse game where there was a twist on some aspect of what you'd expect.

Joshua Hatton is a compelling presenter.

Arran 12 54.8% - Spanish oak pinot noir cask.

Color: pale amber
Nose:  Lush sweet floral rose, vanilla, and turkish delight (fruity with powdered sugar on it).  Rancio, figs, and sherry lurk beneath and some earthy loam and mineral dust beneath that.  Layers and layers in this nose.
Palate:  Sweet honeyed malt on the opening, with a rich beautiful expansion that brings out dense layers of nectarine fruit, fig jam, lemon candy, green apple, sherry, estery floral melon and yellow fruits, vidalia onion, sweet oak and sandalwood perfume.  The finish is long and gently spicy with tannin heat.  Layers and layers of fruit, wax, flowers, malt, tannins, heat, spice and oak.  This is a 12 year old?  This is an Arran?  And extraordinary cask.  It's more complex than any other Arran I've yet tasted.

With a drop of water things get more meaty on the nose, with animals and minerals more in evidence.  But things open up with more richness on the palate.  The mouth feel becomes more silky and the spice is enhanced.  This is a rich mouth filling experience balanced between unctuous fruity florals and black pepper spices and dark toothy oak.  This shows Arran squarely hitting mainstream Highland Scotch flavors (while, granted Arran is an Island malt), and achieving flavor density and balance in the process.

*****

Glen Moray 7 58.8%  Full maturation in a Fino sherry cask

Color: medium amber with coppery glints

Nose: Iodine, vanilla, oak.  The lingering note of iodine speaks to the youth of this dram.  If you let it air out a lot, it retreats and more mature aromas of figs and bourbony charred oak come to dominate.

Palate: sweet vanilla opening, sherry rancio fig expansion, turn has smoke and earth and rising oak.  The finish brings back the young note of the nose with a touch of iodine, lingering oak tannins with some sandalwood oak perfume.  Tartness and fruity sweetness vie.  With a drop of water there are white grapes and strawberries on the opening.  But the expansion is darker with complex spice, caramel, fig cake, and brown betty flavors in the mid-palate but the same drying finish.  Big - nay, hugely flavored with elements of wine cask, old oak, and some of the iodiney flavors of youth too.  This very young Speyside whisky turns most everything I thought I knew about maturation on its head.  Normally only peated drams are bottled this young in carefully selected single cask bottlings.  But this is not a young hot peat monster.  It's a young complex, sweet wine drenched dram that alternately tastes young but then very mature indeed.  Fino was an interesting choice here.  Fino is dry.  Indeed, this doesn't come off as sherried.  It comes off as fruited and regal.  Tasted blind I would be hopelessly confused.  It doesn't really taste like any recognizable genre of Scotch.

****

BenRiach 17 53.2% abv. 2nd fill ex-Bourbon barrel

Color: pale gold

Nose:  Putty, clay, peat, medicinal bandages, honey heathery meadow.  Deeper there are herbal vegetal notes.

Palate - opens sweet and lemony and then glows in to rich earthy peat.  This is superficially Caol Ila or even Port Ellen territory, but the lemony here waxes into a more fruity profile with air and time.  There are layers of tart apple,  pineapple, and quince  and white melon underneath.  The expansion shows a smooth, clean, earthy and warming peat.  This is a mature Highland malt whisky that drinks like a good Islay malt of decades past.  Tasted blind this would fool a lot of people.  BenRiach is known for its peated expressions.  Somehow this doesn't taste quite like any of them.  It's hard to say what this tastes like.  It's pretty unique.

****

Dalmore 12 46.1% 12 years in refill bourbon barrel then 10 months finish in PX Spanish oak cask.

Color:  Medium amber with gold tints

Nose:  A dry nose of sun baked earth, dried flowers, bresaola, alfalfa, and fragrant sawed yard aged oak belies the explosion that awaits.

Palate: a titanic blast of treacle sweet honeyed figs, fig cake, fig newtons and fig compote leap out a the opening and just get bigger through the expansion where notes of rancio, more black fruits and baked figs with port add up.  At the turn the oak asserts - lovely old oak.  The finish is long and sherried and oaken.  Wonderful.  This is 46%?  This is a true cask strength experience.  Why aren't all Dalmores this big?

A drop of water ups the air cured meats in the nose and adds an herbal undercurrent.  But the palate is sweetened and enriched further.  This is a lush, succulent, over-ripe candy-sweet dessert dram of high order.  This is a 12 year old?  An inspired cask selection.

*****

Laphroaig 6 57.8% 

Color: straw

Nose: Lemon, fresh grass (hay), putty, some fresh ocean air.  With more air, some goats in the distance.

Palate: big soft gentle lemon-cream chiffon opening, with some pointed grassy sugars and fruity acid that adds zing and salivation. After the soft creamy opening there is a strong expansion with heat and peat that shows you this is cask strength.  The peat is a clean earthy peat reminiscent of Bruichladdich's Port Charlotte.  Earthy, and burning, but not the usual cigarette note encountered on young Laphroaigs.  The turn is marked by the creamy lemony quality driving through the peat's gradual turn to ash.  The finish is long and gentle, alternately malty, ashy, and slightly herbal.  

Josh challenged us to some blinds later on.

Tasted blind I would guess Port Charlotte, Kilchoman, or perhaps a young Port Ellen.  I would never guess Laphroaig.  Unusually clean and pure and lemony for Laphroaig.  A really special cask.

Water amps up the animal and clay and putty of the peat in the nose.  But it adds a richness to the mouth feel and a honeyed aspect to the palate opening that are vital.  With water it's more herbal and creamy on the opening, bigger and spicier on the expansion with a peat that has become more polite, but also richer, with more spice less burn, enriched by a delicate chamois animal skin flavor.  Rich and ashy on the turn with a finish that lingers even longer on road tar, blowing ash and soft herbal bitters.  A grand slam.  With water this is drinking almost like a mid 1970s example of a young Port Ellen.  Powerful, yet poignant.

*****

Kilchoman 4 58.2% - Buffalo Trace ex-Bourbon barrel

Color: straw

Nose:  coal tar, road dust, sweet cream, a hint of mint.  Underneath there is some broth and some oregano.

Palate: explosive, sweet and instantly herbal with effusive licorice, verbena, and lemons.  The lemons wax towards the end of the opening, becoming creamy and sweet with white chocolate and buttery graham cracker smores.  The expansion to the mid-palate is big and prickly, with plenty of lemon acid, sweet cream, and a growing surge of peat heat that smolders with earth and clean anthracite.  At the turn the peat is turning to clean ash and herbal bitters with lingering black licorice, lemon pith and rind and a soft creamy aspect still carrying through.  This is classic Kilchoman - but with the intensity of cask strength.

Water brings up animal skins in the nose, like the Laphroaig before it.  But here it's more about the herbals and licorice and coal tar on the nose.  Water amps up the sweetness of the opening and adds viscosity to the mouth feel.  This is rich, creamy, lemony, and aggressively peated stuff with real Port Charlotte PC7-like anthracite coal notes in the peat.  This is high praise coming from me.  Rich, cerial sweet and creamy on opening it rapidly transitions to peat monster burn and then turns to ash, lemons, and burning earth at the turn.  The finish is long with ash, tar, licorice root and wormwood.  Sophisticated and rather august.  This drinks like one of the cask strength monsters of Islay - which, indeed, it is.

*****

Conclusions:  Impressive.  Each selection epitomizes something and also plays a twist on the expectations you'd have for each distillery.  A host of things jump out at me.  Most of these whiskies drink way older than their chronological ages.  Some, like the Glen Moray play with your head, exploding your notions about maturation.  They also tend to belie the usual flavor profiles for their distilleries or even their regions.  But the bottom line for me is that they are all good - really good.  I'm sold.  Indeed, I was sold.  I became a Single Cask Nation member that night.

Part of the excitement with the Jewish Whisky Company are the special bottlings associated with Jewbilee.   http://whiskyjewbilee.com/  Last year there was a 15 year old Heaven Hill single barrel bourbon that is extraordinary.  You can see the bottle to the right in the image just above and in the image at top.  We tasted it (and I have a bottle I bought at the Jewbilee last year).  It's very special.  Rather like you might expect an Elijah Craig 18 or 20 might be at full cask strength if they offered such a thing.  There were 87 bottles and they sold out instantly.  This year there is a special unique blend from High West that features rye whiskey vatted with an oddly flavorful oddity called "Light Whiskey".  We got to taste it too (blind).  I guessed it was a mature 6-8 year old rye finished in Sauternes cask.  I was wrong.  New society-only bottlings include a 2 year old single barrel rye from Cacoctin Creek in Virginia, as well as a 20 year old single barrel Scotch.  There is an effusive creativity and an American perspective going on with Single Cask Nation, beyond just some good Scotch whisky palates.
Disclosure:  Josh Hatton generously gave me samples of each whisky so that I could leisurely write formal tasting notes at home.  However I purchased a membership on the spot with my own money.

Glenmorangie Companta. The Master Comes Back To Red Wine.

Glenmorangie just came out with its fifth annual limited release.  This year it is titled "Companta" which means "Friendship", which Bill Lumsden, master blender at Glenmorangie, said refers to the ancient (1295-1560) Scottish historic alliance with France against England usually referred to as "The Auld Alliance".  The relationship with France is the central narrative with Companta as this is a red wine finishing barrel management story with wines from the Côtes du Rhône region.  Red wine finishes on single malt whiskies are tricky.  They can impart sour flavors, can overwhelm, and are hard to balance.  "I don't like red wine finishes" is an almost automatic response for some whisky enthusiasts.  But we should all keep an open mind.  This is a red wine finish with a twist - as executed by someone who really knows what they are doing.  I won't withhold the surprise, this one is yet another success.  It can't be as easy as it looks, but Lumsden's annual limited editions have all been interesting and worth drinking in one way or another and this is no exception.  I suspect this one will go over even better than last year's more purist Ealanta.

Lumsden introduces Companta

at The Brandy Library

Red wine finishes are familiar terrain for Lumsden and Glenmorangie.  In the mid-90s he started the mania for wine barrel finishing with Madeira, Port, and Sherry finished expressions. This led directly to the Sauternes finished Nectar D'Or and famous special wine finished editions from Chateaux Margeaux (a Bordeaux) and the legendary 1975 & 1978 vintage Tain L'Hermitage finished bottling made with casks from the Côtes du Rhône region. Later there was a regular OP Burgundy cask finished version and a more focused Burgundy edition that specified Côtes de Beaune cask finishing. That's a lot of history with using casks, or "Barriques", Lumsden specifies with characteristic precision and excellent brogue.

This fascination with red wine hasn't always been well received by everyone and, at a launch event for Companta at New York's Brandy Library, Lumsden alluded to the risks of tartness and possibility of the wine overpowering the delicate stone fruit and floral nature of Glenmorangie's distillate. With Companta, Lumsden has taken two dramatically contrasting wines from them same Côtes du Rhône Burgundy region.
60% of Companta is from a big tart pinot noir "Clos du Tart".  Lumsden took 1999 vinage ex-bourbon barrel aged Glenmo which was 9 years old in 2008 and then aged it for an addition 5 years in Clos du Tart for a total age of 14 years.

Clos du Tart 2004 Burgundy

Then he tempered it by using an older sweeter 1995 vintage Glenmo and finishing it in barriques that held a sweet fortified grenache graped Côtes du Rhône called "Rasteau" for an additional 8 years, totaling 18 years. At the Glenmorangie launch event we were poured each of these.  It was fascinating to taste the wine flavors that contributed to the cask finished flavors.  And the combination of these two contrasting flavors with mature Glenmorangie distillate has produced something greater than the sum of its parts.  It's hard to taste and discuss this without considering the larger issues swirling around lately: NAS bottings, and the use of fancy barrel finishes to hide younger whisky.  Obviously, in this case where the youngest whisky is 14 years old and the rest is 18 that isn't a pressing issue.  This one feels like a real exploration of the flavors for the flavor's own sake: an artisinal effort and not an exercise in covering things up.  I suspect people who don't like red wine finishes will find aspects to the tartness to the object to.  Others who decry the loss of hyper-mature extremely estery glut stock single casks might grouse about the wild showy flavors of Companta as wood management pyrotechnics in the place of the complexities of extremely mature whisky and maybe that's true.  But the wine finish game is Lumsden's innovation and it's a defining aspect of Glenmorangie so if anyone is going to be playing the wine cask finishing game it's going to be Lumsden - and he shows a deft touch here.  If anything he seems to be upping his game year over year.

Glenmorangie Companta 46% abv.

Color:  russet medium amber, with pink, copper, and gold tints.  It's brick red and pink and honey caramel color.  One of the more appetizing colors in the bottle and the glass that you'll ever see.

Companta's color is extraordinary

Nose: Creamy berry tart with darker notes of chocolate dipped raspberry on rich honey malt.  Undertones of forest floor loam, strawberry jam, and earthy sweet and elegant oak.  It's an interesting an involving nose.

Palate:  This isn't a whisky where the nose outshines the palate.  The opposite is true. At 46% there is enough intensity for sweetness and fruity acids to pop brightly on entry.  The entry is full of  milk chocolate, tart raspberry acid-sweet with notes of currant and malted milk with floral vanilla and creamy fudge.  The raspberry tartness deftly evokes the rich acid fruit of the Clos De Tart. There's a good balance between sweet and dry going on.  The creamy vanilla floral raspberry tart fruited entry opens into a taut and elegant mid palate expansion full of darker malt, dark chocolate, cocoa, and black currant fruit notes.  Thanks to the wine tasting portion of the launch event I can recognize the black currant herbal sweetness as coming from the rich port-like Rasteau (which really comes off as a Port that tastes more of currants than of grapes).  In the mid-palate expansion you can clearly taste the nectarine stone fruit flavors of the Glenmorange distillate itself.  Plus undefined additional notes of herbal brush and animal musk.  The finish is medium long with lingering fruit skin tartness, pepper heat, cocoa dust, and tannin that reads both of oak and wine.

Companta needs air to open, and takes water well.  Water increases the estery, sweet, and fruity aspects, and the milk chocolate covered raspberry note even while upping the spicy finish.

Companta is a Valentine.  A red fruit covered in chocolate - a kiss of sweet from a taut lithe body.  This might be the best one yet.  Bottom line - as soon as I saw a bottle I bought it and cracked it.

*****

(Sample provenance disclosure:  The bottle tasted for this review was purchased at Bottle King, Bloomfield, NJ with my own funds.  I had previously attended the launch event as the guest of the BA.)

FYI - the prior 4 limited Glenmorangie editions:

• Sonnalta PX (Pedro Ximinez, 2009), 
• Finealta (kiss of sherry and of peat 2010), 
• Artein (Italian "Sassicaia" Super Tuscan cask finish, 15 years old, 2012), 
• Ealanta (virgin toasted oak - 2013)

Master of Malt Glenturret 1977 34 Year Old: Tangello Cream and a Puzzling Lack of Rarity.

There were at least six casks of Glenturret distilled in 1977 bottled in 2012 at 34 years old by four different independent bottlers.  I find that remarkable.  The consensus was that there was a "pallet" - whatever that is.  I've noticed this kind of thing before.  For example all of a sudden there are 3 different meteorite apocalypse movies in one year.  The next year there are multiple volcano apocalypse movies - in the same year.  Zeitgeist?  More likely competition or cooperation among rivals.  That doesn't explain a whole bunch of whisky of identical vintage - somehow being bottled at the same time.  The story we are told is that casks are aged and periodically tasted until someone very knowledgeable about whisky determines that it's ready.  It sounds like a pretty approximate decision: is it getting over oaked?  Can it be pushed further?  What are the odds that 34 years in, at least 4 different whisky professionals spontaneously decide to bottle their separate independent casks at the same time?  Yet that's supposedly what happened.

Four separate bottlings alone were reviewed by Reuben of Whiskynotes: Maltbarn (48.4%), Malts of Scotland (47.4%), Whisky Agency (46.7%), as well as the Master of Malt bottling (47.9%):http://www.whiskynotes.be/category/glenturret/
(spoiler alert - he likes them all and gives them all 90s and 91s).

There were also two casks of 1977 Glenturret bottled in the same years by Berry Brother's Rudd (Cask #1 at 46% and cask #2 at 47.6%):

http://www.masterofmalt.com/whiskies/glenturret/glenturret-34-year-old-cask-1-berry-bros-and-rudd-whisky/

Cask #2 of the BBR version was reviewed by Oliver Klimek:
 http://www.dramming.com/2013/05/29/glenturret-34-yo-berry-bros/
(he gave it an 86 - but he's notoriously tough).

Berry Brothers also bottled another cask of 1977 Glenturret the following year as a 35 year old at 46%:
http://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/P-20981.aspx

I presume that "pallet" means that a single independent bottler owns and ages a bunch of barrels of the same vintage and then, rather than produce 6 different single barrel offerings, chooses to sell a number of them to other independent bottlers.  If you have any specific information about this practice, please let me know.

Glenturret, by the way, is the distillery expression at the heart of The Famous Grouse.  Because of this, the Edrington Group runs The Grouse Experience there.  Glenturret is well known as a sweet and lively Highland dram with some acid bite that typically reads of peaches, apricots, or oranges combined with a creamy quality.  Single malt expressions are offered by Gordon and MacPhail - particularly a MacPhail's brown label 11 year old which I've had the good fortune to pour and taste many times (review to follow).

Glenturret is particularly famous for its distillery cat Towser.  I'll let the epitaph on her monument do the talking:

TOWSER
Glenturret Distillery, Crieff, Scotland 21 April 1963 - 20 March 1987
"Towser the famous cat who lived in the still house Glenturret Distillery for almost 24 years. She caught 28,899 mice in her lifetime. World Mousing Champion. Guinness Book of Records"

That's a very good kitty!  As for the 1977 vintage Glenturret whisky: after 34 years in oak, a lot of maturation effects should be in evidence.  The one that really excites me in very mature whisky is esterification.  Acids and alcohols combine to form chemical compounds called esters which give additional fruity notes.  Consumption of acids lowers the pH of maturing whisky as well.  Angel's share evaporation further concentrates the sugars and flavor compounds that remain.  Oak influence and chemicals from the oak, including flavorful lactones, tannins and lignans infuse the whisky.  With hyper mature whisky you get all these maturation effects in greater abundance.  The question - as always - is balance.  Is this Master of Malt bottling a good kitty?  It's hardly news that it is.

Glenturret 34 year old 47.9% abv.

Master of Malt Single Cask bottle #3 of 247.  Distilled 28 October, 1977.  Bottled May 2012.  Refill Sherry Hogshead.  Non chill filtered.

Color:  Full Gold

Nose:  Rich estery malt: honey comb, ripe melon, paraffin wax, ambergris, tangerine, bourbon-like peach compote, mineral dust, and, deep within, some musky sex smells.  Basically - an orgy in a candle shop.

Palate:  Intensely sweet and fruity opening with honey drenched over-ripe apricots, tangellos and mangosteen.  Then a big broad mouth filling expansion with malt cakes in cream, tart citrus rind, overripe melon, paraffin, ambergris, and roobios tea.  The turn to the finish brings old oak tannic bitterness - but just a hint.  It's surprisingly light on oak for such as old dram.  The finish is malty and gentle and of moderate length - perhaps surprising it isn't longer given how intense the earlier phases were.

Whiskies like this tend to be swimmers.  A half a teaspoon of water enhances the spiciness - but but doesn't take the sweetness higher until substantial time is allowed for integration.  When it happens it integrates the added spiciness with the creamy citrus estery wax honey show.  It's pretty stunning. But, the achilles heel is the tartness can trend into bitterness in the finish.  You must experiment with water with this whisky - but it's not a grand slam winner over neat.  It's a bit deceptive in this regard.

It's a magnificent whisky overall - although you could nitpick that it's a little bit tart, the finish is a tad short, and it doesn't fully open with water.  But that doesn't detract enough from its considerable strengths to make me take any stars away.

*****
     
Enjoy these old glut whiskies while you can.  The hot market is sucking them down quickly.  This is the topic of a rare diversion from tasting notes on Reuben's whiskynotes - a very thought provoking article you should check out concerning the end of the era of affordable hyper mature glut whisky:
http://www.whiskynotes.be/2013/whisky-news/whisky-is-dying/

Glenmorangie Ealanta delves the heart of American White Oak

Glenmorangie just launched the latest in their limited "Private Edition" line, Ealanta, following up on such issues as Sonnalta PX, Finealta and Artein. Bill Lumsden was in town at the Flat Iron for it. No doubt he told the joke that starts: "What's the difference between a bonus and the male organ?" (read to the end to get the punchline - unless you've ever caught Dr. Lumsden's act, in which case you already know). There are "only" 1,500 cases for the US market.

Ealanta is aged for a long time (19 years) in virgin bespoke American white oak casks. As the PR line says:

Scots Gaelic for "skilled and ingenious," Ealanta is a 19 Years Old Glenmorangie, matured exclusively in virgin American white oak casks from the Mark Twain National Forest in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri.
PR Newswire (http://s.tt/1ytn0)

Now Dr. Lumsden and Glenmorangie are famous in the modern era (since Lumsden arrived at Glenmorangie in 1995) for innovating the craze for exotic wine finishes that is the fashion across the whole whisky world. Glenmorangie continues to push those boundaries (their Nectar D'Or expression, for example is the one of the few standard editions to feature sauternes cask finishing). Yet, admirably, Glenmorangie has continued to pursue the flavor potentials of the naked oak itself. The base OB 10 expression and excellent 18 year old expressions are aged in ex-bourbon oak. And a few years back they added a cask strength NAS expression that featured special bespoke white oak casks from wood taken from the northern facing Ozark hills: Astar. Of Astar I wrote:

"Glenmorangie's Bill Lumsden is famous for introducing secondary wood finishing to the Scotch whiskey marketplace. With Astar, however, the focus is purely on first fill American ex-bourbon oak casks and the base whiskey distillate - there are no other sources of flavor going on. But like a great artist who can express much with a single line, Lumsden coaxes an incredible complexity of delightful flavors from these two ingredients."

http://www.cooperedtot.com/2012/02/glenmorange-astar-cask-strength.html


With Ealanta things are taken a step farther. The casks are new charred oak, not ex-bourbon. New oak casks are seldom used for ageing Scotch because new oak adds a spicy note which isn't usually considered desirable. New charred oak is a legal requirement for bourbon - which sits well with bourbon's powerful corn distillate. It's a particular reach with Glenmorangie's extremely delicate juice. But just as Bill Lumsden has been fearless in experimenting with wine casks for finishing, he has been fearless in pushing this experiment in the flavors of pure yard age bespoke oak casks. Now, Ealanta isn't the first Scotch whisky to do prolonged ageing in virgin oak casks. BenRiach has had a number of limited expressions aged for as long as 32 years in virgin oak: http://www.benriachdistillery.co.uk/Limited-Releases.html Deanston also makes a virgin oak 12 year expression (and there others out there - slipping my mind). But there is something special about Glenmorangie's performing such an experiment. Partly it has to do with Glenmorangie's extremely high stills - which yield a very delicate spirit - but it's more about Glenmorangie's legacy of wine finishing under Dr. Lumsden.

I'm tempted to make an an analogy with Clint Eastwood. Clint did spaghetti westerns where minor characters were disposable victims of casual ubiquitous violence. In later years Eastwood has made spectacular amends by crafting films that show the devastating effects of violence - even a single violent act - down through generations.

In Ealanta, it's tempting to say that Lumsden has thrown off the frills of secondary flavors and gets to the heart of his distillate and the naked oak itself. However, the fact is that this spirit was laid down in these bespoke casks in 1993 and Bill Lumsden didn't start with Glenmorangie until 1995. However the decision to rest these for 19 long years was his - certainly. Between Astar and now Ealanta, no one can accuse Lumsden of hiding behind fancy wine flavors. Glenmo's distillate flavors are front and center in these expressions where unadorned oak is the frilly negligee. Indeed, I had heard good things about Ealanta. The first review out of the gate was Tim Twe and Billy Abbot's in The Whisky Exchange Blog:
http://blog.thewhiskyexchange.com/2013/02/glenmorangie-ealanta/
But the one that really grabbed me was Josh Hatton's in JewMalt: http://www.jewmalt.com/glenmorangies-ealanta-a-19yo-scotch-whisky-matured-in-heavily-charred-missouri-oak/

Glenmorangie Ealanta 46% 1993-2012

Color: Dark Gold to Light Amber

Nose: Ripe bananas sauteed in butter and vanilla floral oak in prolific rich abundance, with honeycomb and bees wax. Underneath lurk tangy notes peach/nectarine stone fruit, ambergris, and fresh sawn oak. It's sweet and bright, yet lush in it's own way.

The palate entry is delicate in mouth feel but potently floral sweet on the tip of the tongue, like a young whisky. But unlike a young whisky the sweetness breathes honey, florals, banana and peach fruit essences, and darker hints of mature rancio and chamois rather than grass. Then it tingles the sides of the tongue with stone fruit tang. The mid palate expansion is gentle, more a migration of tongue impact as gentle but rich tannins move back grip the back of the tongue. The finish is fairly long, juicyfruit sweet and tinged with grapefruit tannins and fragrant fruitwood sawdust. With repeated sips the spiciness that starts as a tingle builds up into spicy cinnamon-clove heat. It's new oak, after all, and plenty of it. Would more time have pushed it too far? Probably. I'll take Dr. Lumsden's advice and treasure this dram.

Water doesn't add much to this dram, btw. Repeated tastings have only underscored my impressions: it's not a paragon of complexity - but it is a beguiling play on sweet and spicy oak and sweet Glenmo distillate. I'm smitten.

*****
A word on value. This one is going for $110-$120 in the US. This is just about the same price as the excellent OB 18. Given that this is a limited edition and is aged for 19 years - this is clearly in line with Glenmorangie pricing. It's not a value priced dram - but it's a notable success as an experiment and an unusual and appreciated flavor signature.

Oh, and the punchline of Dr. Lumsden's joke? "She certainly knows how to blow a bonus!".

Highland Queen 1964: An Antique Failure Fails Interestingly

In my quest to taste older whiskies with the complexity that Oliver Klimek discussed in his thought provoking article: "Has Whisky Become Better, Worse or Just Different" I came across the following listing on whiskysamples for an interesting blend bottled in January of 1964:

Thanks to the Belgian customs (never thought I would have to say this) we know this blended whisky was bottled on 20/1/1964 by Macdonald&Muir Ltd., Leith, Scotland.
What the label says: "the basis of this whisky is the matured product of two of the finest malt distilleries in the Scottish Highlands, Glen Moray-Glenlivet and Glenmorangie of which we are the proprietors."

http://whiskysamples.flyingcart.com/index.php?p=detail&pid=618&cat_id=15 

This sounded like a potentially worthy specimen which might display some of the complexity that old whiskies made with in pre-automation days are supposed to display.  Old fashioned "Golden Promise" barley would have been used instead of modern varieties. Wooden washbacks, floor maltings, oven kilns rather than drum, direct fired stills - all those sources of micro variations within a batch that may have resulted in more complex flavors.

A fly in the ointment is that Highland Queen seems limited to this single issue.  (There are plenty of references on the web to this issue - and none to any other).  Why?  Was it a dog product that just didn't taste good, so no further batches were produced?

Update: I'm wrong.  Highland Queen is an old traditional blended Scotch that is still produced.  

"First produced by Roderick MacDonald around 1893 while with Alexander Muir of Lieth. / Highland Queen Blended Scotch Whisky was named in honor of Lieth's connection with Mary Queen of Scots.  Highland Queen consists of 30 - 35 percent malt prodominantly Glen Moray."
http://www.scotchwhisky.net/blended/highland_queen.htm

I see a NAS 40% abv. version of Highland Queen available for sale in Australia ($35) right now.   I also see some 1930s Highland Queen ads on Ebay.

Highland Queen 1964 43%

Color: light gold
Nose: Honey, hay, distant sherry with citrus apricot jam and musk noted, talcum dust and a slight musty mineral note that I'm coming to associate with old whiskies - perhaps a flavor signature of bottle maturation.

Initially sweet with malt and grain sugars, the entry and expansion are disappointingly thin after the nice nose. You can taste some young grain whisky burn. However, tasting beyond the young grain there are some august notes of old style sherried malts with a bit of peat. The finish is medium short with little tannin but some wisps of oak, smoke, and malt. There is some excellent malt here, but buried beneath a young and undistinguished grain whisky.

A few drops of water adds a faint floral note and a bit more apricot on the nose. However it does more on the palate, raising some sweetness and fruity notes that fill in the flat flavor profile. It's no world beater - but the flavors that are present are interesting as old Spey malt flavors - but in diluted form. That degree of flavor dilution may be why this brand only lasted a year.  (Or, as it actually turns out - lasted over a century and still going - as is the actual case).

I can recommend this for a person who wants a whiff of the antique flavor profile - but only in that context.

***

More background to Highland Queen on Gavin Smith & Tom Cannavan's Whisky-Pages blog:

Highland Queen, 12 Year Old (Scotland)
The old-established blended Scotch whisky of Highland Queen, once a staple of the Glenmorangie business, is now part of the Bordeaux-based concern of Picard family (Terroir Distillers), which also owns Tullibardine distillery. A 12-year-old variant of the blend has recently been released to augment the ‘standard’ expression with no age statement. The nose is full and rich, with icing sugar sprinkled on pineapple, spice and black pepper. Relatively full-bodied, with spice, malt and hazelnuts on the palate. The medium-length finish features ginger and fruit and nut milk chocolate. Tullibardine Distillery Visitor Centre, Pharlanne Delicatessen, 13 Bridge Street, Kelso TD5 7HT and at www.pharlanne.co.uk 40.0% ABV, 70cl, £25.00, Pharlanne, distillery website.
 http://www.whisky-pages.com/notes/distillery.php?id=queen

Personal notes on an evening of tasting

Glen Spey 21 - 2010 edition OB cask strength - potent wood spice &
highland fruit basket

Clynelish 29 Caledonia Selection 1972-2002 59.3% Incredible roses,
paraffin, complex fruits & sea air and salty pickle. The highlight of
the night - but there were many others

Bruichladdich 1970 OB 44.2% CS - Fruity & maritime, almost a twin to
the Clynelish - but slightly less floral & without the acid pickle
note.

Ben Nevis 34 1966 Black Adder Raw Cask 49.7% Unbelievable Chocolate
coffee & violets flavor signature with odd exotic incense perfume
notes. Another highlight

Bowmore 12 OB 43% bottled in 1960s or 70s w/ tax stamp for US. -
Unbelievably complex. Clams, hemp, honey, earth, old bottle mineral
notes, huge wet vinyl iodine sweet rich.. Wow! A highlight

Port Ellen 22 1982-2004 single Cask for PLOWED Douglas Liang 61.6%
Sweet dense lemons, and lemon drop candy,sea iodine, honey, road tar
turning to ash. Huge. Another highlight

Glen Grant 31 1971-2003 Black Adder Raw Cask 55.7% sherried. Black
walnuts, dark chocolate, bubble gum floral fruity sweetness, big
orchid dark floral. A stunning highlight!

Ended with a Balmonach 1961-1980 46% Cadenhead dumpy. Intense floral
incense fruit bomb. Palate was already blitzed. Should have had this
before the peat bombs.