Clynelish 1974 Signatory Dumpy [Review #1000!]

Hi everyone,

Here we are, the big four digits at last!

It has been a long road but I can’t say it’s been a hard one. I still love tasting whisky, making notes and sharing my thoughts. What is there more to say than that?

 

This was the other whisky I tasted in Feathers Pub in Toronto. I knew to taste this because u/TOModera had done notes on this one and said that he thought it was a Brora. I planned to taste the Lord of the Isles Ardbeg after this but decided not to. I’d found what I was looking for.

Clynelish 1974 Signatory Dumpy 55.7%

Colour: Gold

Body: Full

Nose: Immediately stunning. A shit tonne of amazing complexity, balance and power! Oils for days, waxy with pine smoke, Lapsang Souchong, burnt wood, lemon sherbet, a little BBQ pit. Liquorice and an incredibly good medicinal edge that cuts through, white pepper, bandages, nice chilli heat, some white florals coming in now with minerality. More calpol and earthy notes coming through after a bit. Could literally just sit here and smell it for hours.

Water: Darker, brooding and more earthy, burnt florals, singed heather, leather and dark chocolate.

Taste: Clean arrival, pure lemon, some oak, white pepper then kicks up several notches into transendant territory with big medicinal peat perfectly balanced by the clean lemon and minerals. So damn good. Ridiculously oily and satisfying. Super drinkable.

Water: Softer and rounder and darker. More malty, more oily and waxy, so balanced it almost hurts!, incredible mouthfeel, not as dry, heather. Still powerful. Pine smoke.

Finish: Long length. Arrrgh! Fucking hell its amazing! Really makes the dram. Quite dry with white pepper and minerality, late earthy note but clean finish. Earthy leather and some malt.

Bottled 2001 at 27yo. No WAY this was distilled at Clynelish! A freight train of a whisky with everything I look for. Really sings!

My scoring has been brought up again and again by folks that don’t quite understand my harsher lower scores. But when you come across really, really good whisky you just know it, you can’t help it. Truly exceptional whisky hits you in the face and goes to something right at the core of you.

93/100

A big thank you to everyone that reads these reviews! I started on Reddit and I still love the amazing community that we’ve created here. Being in the whisky industry has allowed my to try some amazing stuff and, though it sometimes comes with complications, I wouldn’t change it for the world. I still remember a time, not long ago at all, when I was little more than tour guide that enjoyed whisky and wanted to try more. I would never have dreamed that I would taste 1000 whiskies, let alone the ones that I have. I feel extremely lucky every single day.

Cheers!

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Review #835

Whisky Network Review #1000

Network Average: 75.2

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as the Global Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Bowmore Bicentenary (A very special) Review

Hi everyone,

I was tempted to just open with: ’There’s whisky, and then there’s whisky.’ But that’s oversimplifying an issue that I’ve raised before, Dave Broom raised recently and the honourable Whisky Sponge made his yearly serious post about.

Whisky has changed, is changing and is going to change. There are some fantastic modern whiskies, and, equally, I’m sure there are some atrocious older ones. And the war of words over ‘whisky’s golden age’ and ‘rose-tinted glasses’ continues, with perhaps no better example than Bowmore.

So here’s a modern, and brand new example to warm us up before the big event:

 

Bowmore 1991 Carn Mor Chairman's Legacy 42.9%

Colour: Light Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Tropical, ashy old Bowmore, pineapple, mango, could be an old Laphroaig! Complex candied lemon, burnt down building. Lovely nose!

Taste: Soft, ashy, very delicate then builds wonderfully! So tropical! So awesome! So complex! Balance is SPOT ON! Smoke still hanging in, perfect oak.

Finish: Medium/Long length. Tropical flavours continue then more ash with very good quality oak.

Bottled 2017 at 26 (the perfect age for Bowmore of course). Bloody good, oh so close to 90. In fact the best Bowmore I’ve had since the famous 1987 Wemyss. I wasn't expecting huge things from this (partly because of the low strength), so it was a great surprise. Rewards large sips. High price of course, at just under £300.

89/100

Bowmore, Bowmore, Bowmore… Oh what happened to you?

What did they do so that your tropical fruit never shined again?

What distillation regime did they afflict you with so that your oils fell away at the drop of a hat?

Was the yeast strain the final arrow to your Achilles’ Heel?

Or was it the barley type that struck you unawares?

Oh Bowmore, you shall never be the same again!

Bowmore Bicentenary 1779-1979 43%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Intoxicating and heady. Compelling is the word. Really very complex, old tropical fruit, this firm old oak and cold damp dunnage like the vaults at Bowmore, ashy, orange and lemon. Balance and complexity with layers. Homemade old limoncello. Old oils, old cupboards, old leather.

Taste: Intense! Smoke, ash, fruity, Seville orange marmalade and candied lemon, pineapple and mango, complex and oily, car motor oil?, so soft and yet powerful, keeps going and going, developing endlessly in the mouth.

Finish: Medium length. Some juicy red apple and then the emotions build. Hits you right in the feels. Old homemade limoncello. Beautiful finish. Goosebumps.

Actually I don’t know if it’s the longest finish ever, or just Medium length. Because even as the flavours ebb away, the Goosebumps stay and stay.

What the hell happened Bowmore? You were making the best whisky in the world!! 94.14 on whiskybase version, with the big black box (for your reference as there are several versions). This was distilled between 1950 and 1966, probably all floor malted too. Originally I wrote 93, but realised that the other whiskies I’d given 93 I hesitated. No hesitation here. This stuff is legendary.

94/100

Distillery: Bowmore

Average Score: 78.6

Distillery Ranking: 16th/64 places

Up/Down: 22>16 (Up 6)

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Reviews #600-#601

Whisky Network Reviews #712-#713

Network Average: 74.6

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Ardbeg 1972 OMC Sherry Finish (2001) Review

Hi everyone,

Today I’ve got more special whiskies from a special event. Yes, the Whiskybase Gathering in Rotterdam was pretty epic. And fresh off finding a whisky that finally scored 93, I was looking for something else to blow my mind.

Step in 1972 Ardbeg. Something I’ve been searching for for quite a while. Both the 1976’s I’ve tried have been awesome. Big, big expectations for this.

Remember, back then Ardbeg had its own maltings and the peating levels dropped throughout the 70’s, to the point that the early 80’s were almost completely unpeated. Meaning this should have been a pretty heavily peated one.

 

Ardbeg 1972 Old Malt Cask Sherry Finish 50%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Clean and dirty. Lime juice, complex grapefruit with juice, peel and rind, sooty and a little floral, something frying in the next room, oils, scorched wood, quite light actually. Big medicinal notes too.

Water: Better balance with a drop of water. A bit more smoke and a little more intensity.

Taste: Great very soft arrival, long development, very oily, lime, lots of soot, grapefruit, lemon, sharp sour citrus juice (really good!), white pepper, a little fizzy-esque-ness.

Water: Better here too, more complex, more spicy and dry, more mineral. Chalk, slate and sea salt.

Finish: Long length. Not too complex but oily and sooty.

Bottled 2001. Not nearly as complex as I was expecting, and didn’t meet those big expectations I’m afraid. I think perhaps the Sherry finish just took a little of that complexity off this one. Still bloody good and very drinkable. A step up from the 1976's I've had so it deserves...

90/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #552

Whisky Network Review #647

Network Average: 74.7

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Karuizawa 1983: TWE Show Report

Hi everyone,

I knew I wanted to try this at the show. 

Karuizawa. A name some will never have heard of, others start to drool at it's mention.

Karuizawa. A distillery built by a volcano. Some say the Macallan of Japan. 

Karuizawa. Men have lost themselves in it's Sherried depths, others have gone mad searching for those Noh bottlings. 

Karuizawa. A name I won't soon forget.

This cost me 4 dream drams (£40) but that's pretty cheap for an early 80's Sherry Karuizawa. This was a private bottling by Number 1 Drinks Co. (who own the Karuizawa stocks). I got this at the scotchwhiskyauctions.com table.

Karuizawa 1983 Private Bottling 59.1%

Colour: Dark Amber

Body: Full

Nose: Dark and brooding. Earthy Sherry, some vanilla, sweet figs, dates, a little meaty, complex spice. Really complex.

Water: More complex (if that is possible!), wood and spice integration, more earthy, forest floor, autumnal, a beautiful black cherry note.

Taste: Mega. Sweet and complex, figs, raisin, spices, huge Sherry, really rich, mouth watering, cinnamon, ginger, wood spice.

Water: Softer but huge still, more paced out and longer development, long Sherry and stewed fruit, earthy, goes on and on. Chewy.

Finish: Long length. Sherry, spice, little oak, dunnage. Water softens with more soft spices and dunnage wood, oak.

92/100

Hugely complex, integrated, balanced and powerful.

Maybe not worth the huge prices these are fetching, but at least I know why now.

Review #213

Network Average: 75.5

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 44

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Lagavulin 25 200th Anniversary: TWE Show Report

Hello again everyone,

A big one today and another pre/new release.

It’s Lagavulin 25.

This cost me a dream dram on the second day but good thing I went over to get it as my 3rd dram of the day, because they’d almost run out already.

I didn’t particularly want to like this; its unreasonably priced, its Lagavulin, its Diageo. BUT unfortunately it’s also gorgeous.

Did I mention the bottle looks fantastic too?

Lagavulin 25 200th Anniversary 50.9%

Colour: Amber

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: BEAUTIFUL! Imagine that you are at Lagavulin and taken a huge handful of peaty grist from the mill, rubbed it into your hands and then smelt them. Really takes you straight to Islay. Islay malting floor, smells like standing near the Port Ellen maltings, peaty grist. Behind that there’s complex spices including nutmeg, some fruit too from the Sherry.

Taste: Incredible Sherry to start, then chewing peaty malt straight from the malting floor, amazing peaty grist and malt, coal, malting floor, ashy with an awesome mouthfeel. A unique texture to this too.

Finish: Long length. Gristy still, peaty with sweetness coming through as well. Incredible balance.

Well… damnit.

91/100

One of the best, the stuff of whisky porn.

I would buy a bottle of this at £200, even £300 I would be tempted but it retails at £800 and that is a bit too much. Highly recommended to try though.

Review #198

Network Average: 75.0

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 44

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent