Glen Scotia 1969 Old Malt Cask [Road to #1000, Review #995]

Hi everyone,

More whisky from the 60’s today. This time Campbeltown’s turn!

I was lucky enough to be in Toronto for my birthday earlier this year and I knew about Feather’s Pub from some of the Toronto Whisky Society guys. In particular, I knew that u/TOModera used to go there for some birthday drams and those posts would always make me jealous.

I had planned to have a few whiskies there but only ended up trying two, but both were well worth it.

Glen Scotia 1969 Old Malt Cask 50%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Bourbon levels of oak to start, musty fruit, red apple and black pepper, a little wild strawberry, a delicious toasted marshmallow thing as it opens up, complex florals and candy shop notes now too. Milk chocolate and milky coffee too. Its a little bit tired but in a really interesting way. Big black liquorice coming in now, and continues to develop.

Water: Freshens but brings out some soapy lavender and parma violets.

Taste: Tingly sweetness first, amazingly zingy for this age, incredible fresh strawberry, strawberry fruit pastilles, oily mouthfeel, complex honey and honeycomb too, the oak is in the background with a very soft spice underlying things, black liquorice, some white pepper, a little chilli dark chocolate. Big chewy whisky.

Water: More spice and dry oak bringing it further out of balance. Loads of white pepper. Very dry now.

Finish: Medium length. Very soft and actually quite subtle here, some spicy oak, oils continue to coat the mouth, all about the oils really. More oily and malty chocolate as it opens up.

Bottled 1999, at 30yo. Difficult to score. Super interesting and complex but just a touch tired. The spice bringing it a bit out of balance on the taste too. Water did not help things and I definitely preferred this neat. Anyway, amazing to try.

86/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Review #832

Whisky Network Review #995

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?

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?

Mortlach 1973 OMC (2004) Review [FIRST 93!!]

Hi everyone,

Very occasionally you find something that makes you question everything you knew about something.

When you start in that particular thing, it can be quite common to find something that wreaks havoc on your understanding and takes you to a new level. But as you go on, it happens less and less. Sometimes to the point where you think it might never get it again.

You may have noticed that I’ve been trying some pretty epic whiskies lately. The reason behind that was mainly because I wanted to explore the upper end of my grading scale.

My 100th whisky was perhaps the best I had tried and I had found nothing to surpass it almost 700 whiskies later. Either I got lucky or there was something I was missing.

Having already made a list of my highest scored whiskies, a breakthrough came when I had a calculate of the average age and strength. Apart from a few outliers, many were around 30 years old and at a strength of just over 50%abv. This almost gave me a formula for finding high scores. Just find something fitting that criteria seemed to really help exploring the upper limit.

Grading is a funny thing and personally I would never feel comfortable giving a 100/100 score. Mainly because I could never be sure there wasn’t something better out there. But only getting to 92? Was there something wrong with my grading scale because I wasn’t getting to a higher score? Was I being too harsh?

But exploring the upper limit has helped me solidify my grading I feel. More than that, it has helped me question it and myself and then solidify my understanding of what (in my mind) makes a truly magnificent whisky stand out from something that is fantastic but not quite there. It’s a thin line sometimes, but tasting some of these outstanding whiskies has restored my faith that there are higher scoring whiskies out there, its just a case of finding them (and being able to afford them).

SO, with that out the way. I went over to the collector’s stand at The Haig and had a look. Something around 30 years and around 50%. Hmmm. How about an old Mortlach? It fit the bill, but I also had a good feeling about it.

 

Mortlach 1973 Old Malt Cask (Bottled 2004) 50%

Colour: Light Amber

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Great balance of Sherried fruit, some tropical too, some soot, old school oak, deep, complex but quite an enigma, hard to unravel but opens up slowly. Dried raspberry, some chocolate, floral- Dried flowers, tobacco, old leather, red apple, musty, dusty furniture, orange oil. Develops these amazing medicinal notes! Which actually remind me a little of that Laphroaig 30 I had recently.

Taste: Deep, intense, great balance of soft red apple, some spicy European-esque oak, gingerbread, black pepper. Develops in waves, keeps going and going. Floral, musky cologne, leather and tobacco, AMAZING zingy dried raspberry, dark chocolate. Complex spices, ginger beer, nutmeg, a little cinnamon, orange oil. Sherried-like notes too.

Finish: Long/Very Long length. Fucking great! Really long. Leathery, dark chocolate, lovely coffee and a little of that dried raspberry. AND that elusive emotional hit I long for. Bloody good stuff.

The system works! 30 years old and 50%. A massively impressive whisky. Balance, complexity and power spot on. All over, it’s just fantastic from beginning to end but the finish separates this from the 1987 Bowmore and 1983 Karuizawa that I’ve scored 92’s. After 700 whiskies, I thought maybe that 92 might be the limit. The highest score attainable, but tasting this really has opened up my understanding and given me that motivation to keep trying.

93/100

Epilogue: Not even a week later I was back in The Netherlands for the Whiskybase Gathering and tasted my second 93 (review coming up). Furthering my hope for a 94 and maybe even 95 at some point.

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #541

Whisky Network Review #636

Network Average: 74.6

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?

Caol Ila 1996 Hunter Laing x2 Reviews

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, I have never accepted free samples from anyone in the whisky industry, but have bought bottles or samples with my money, bringing a different set of biases. Also, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. -1st Edition of this so feel free to suggest things to add/change.

Phew, now that’s out the way.

Today I’ve got two Hunter Laing Caol Ila’s from 1996. Caol Ila is the biggest of the Islay distilleries and you can find my visit to the distillery here. Hunter Laing is an independent bottler, separate now from Douglas Laing who have their own thing. Their Old malt Cask range is pretty famous for bottling some epic 1970’s Ardbeg back in the day but is still bringing out some gems. Like these.

Standing in The Whisky Shop in Guildford, England, I always want to buy stuff and support it but it’s just a bit overpriced. So I was looking for something unique. An amber coloured Caol Ila caught my eye, butit was expensive. A £125 I wasn’t willing to gamble. Asking to try it, the (very nice) lady told me she didn’t have a sample of that one but a previous bottling from a Bourbon hogshead.

Caol Ila 1996 Old Malt Cask 50%

Colour: Pale Gold

Body: Full

Nose: A very peaty Caol Ila. Peat smoke, bonfire smoke, a medicinal edge with cough sweets, creamy vanilla, sea salt.

Taste: Earthy and a little oily, very creamy and chewy with vanilla and salted toffee. Peat smoke, bonfire smoke, medicinal cough sweets again. Great mouthfeel and balance.

Finish: Medium/Long length. Creamy and peaty.

Distilled Sept 1996, bottled March 2014. 17 year old from a Bourbon Hogshead 10387. Very impressed with this, enough to buy the Sherry hogshead version.

82/100

Caol Ila 1996 Old Malt Cask (refill Sherry Hogshead) 50%

Colour: Amber

Body: Medium

Nose: A little closed at first. Tasting notes are bang on. Vanilla custard! A lot of it, behind there is fruitiness, fresh and dried, peach, apricot, raisin, prune, date, biscuity malt. Oily smoke coming through, Ardbeggian.

Water: More expressive. More of the fresh fruity side, peach, dried peach, Ambrosia custard. More obviously Islay after a bit with more smoke, soot, earth, rubber and malt. Smoked kippers!

Taste: Soft arrival, vanilla custard again, biscuity malt, oily peat coming in, lifting citrus, orange, lovely!, lemon juice, sooty, oily, engine oil, going more dirty, god it's great, damp peat, peaty malt, a little oak throughout. Really sings into the finish!

Water: Softer, lime zest, candied lime, candied orange peel, a little spiciness building from the oak, light white pepper, creamy custard, growing more oily then lovely olive oil and lime juice into the finish.

Finish: Long length. Very oily, mouth coating, engine oil and peaty malt. Lovely.

September 1996-October 2015. 19 year old Sherried Ardbeg? Laphroaig? It's believable. A lovely Caol Ila from an incredible barrel.

87/100

Thanks for reading!

Reviews #317-#318

Network Average: 74.4

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

Tamnavulin 1993 Old Malt Cask Review

Hello all,

On my quest to taste a whisky from every distillery in Scotland, I did taste a lot of rubbish. Speyside distilleries that all tasted the same, cheap indie bottlings from re-re-re-re-re-refill casks, but this was the biggest surprise.

I had a hard time tracking down a sample of Tamnavulin. They haven’t released an official bottling until very recently and the indies that had samples were much older expressions. Not really surprising given that it’s made for blends and was closed 1995-2007.

In the end, I managed to convince myself to get this while I was buying other samples.

What a mistake.

Photo courtesy of Master of Malt

Tamnavulin 1993 Old Malt Cask 50%

Colour: Light Gold

Body: Light

Nose: Weird. Soap, cheap perfume, flowers, pollen, freshly cut grass, plastic, melon, lemon, some yeast.

Water: MUCH more yeasty, rising dough, gin, angelica root.

Taste: Follows the nose. Starts with soap, then more floral, flower shop, honeysuckle, honey, chlorophyll, some clean alcohol.

Water: Softly floral, perfume, building soap, ugh! Yeast and cheap Pu-Erh tea (swamp water).

Finish: Medium length. Weird soapy oak and some perfumed chocolate.

From Cask 11150 a refill butt, bottled 2014 at 21yo.

Independent bottlers sometimes buy cask from distilleries that don’t fit with the profile or style that the distillery is looking for. That can mean that they are a bit weird, or unexpected and this is really the perfect example. It’s just unfortunate that ‘weird’ means ‘soapy swamp water’ weird. Also, a great example of older not equalling better.

49/100

Thanks for reading!

Review #278

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

Bunnahabhain 25 + 1989 First Editions: TWE Show Report

Hi everyone,

I’m back today with two more Bunnahabhain’s. I’m not ashamed to say it’s not my favourite distillery really, there tends to be a harsh oiliness that just doesn’t sing in tune.

So why did I go seek it out at the whisky show?

Well, because I want to be proved wrong. I really loved the 12yo actually, but not the 18yo. What is great is that older expressions are relatively available in official or independent variants. So, these two are older ones, 25 years plus actually.

First let’s have the official:

Bunnahabhain 25 46.3% 

Colour: Amber

Body: Medium

Nose: Sweet, Sherry maturation is apparent from the off. Syrupy Sherry, like PX, slight pepper spice, sea salt fudge.

Taste: Very sweet Sherry, complex spices, it is lovely actually. Builds with time in the mouth.

Finish: Medium/Long length. Lots of Sherry with peppery spice.

Colour me impressed, this takes the flavours of the 12yo and amps them up with complexity and balance. Same greatness as Glengoyne 25 and Glenfarclas 25, same mark.

81/100

Now an indie bottling to compare against. This one is a 26 year old newish one from Hunter Laing for their First Editions range. The Laphroaig was brilliant, so I hoped this would follow the same path.

Bunnahabhain 1989 First Editions 49.8%

Colour: Straw

Body: Medium

Nose: Oh, a natural fruity one. Very tropical fruit based with pineapple and sea salt.

Taste: Again, more of the same. Salty pineapple, tropical.

Finish: Medium length. Fruit.

I didn’t spend much time with this but managed to scribble some notes. This lacked the oiliness or the peppery-ness that I have come to expect from Bunna, but it detracted from the experience. Paled in comparison to the 25OB really.

76/100

Thanks for reading! More to come of course.

Reviews #232-#233

Network Average: 75.9

Worst Score: 44

Best Score: 92

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