Duncan Taylor Glengarioch 1988 17yo

Tonights wee dram a DTC Glengarioch 1988 - 17 year old at a nice 54.6% ABV - I had heard that this was from a sherry cask but doesnt state it on the label. This is from cask number 1555 have tried some of these when they were at 16yo so lets see.

Nose: Initially sweet, bannanas and a touch of spice, cardammon. background hint of mint!
Taste: Warming, mmm, drying lots of spiciness again at cask strength, can take a wee splash helps it along. More rummy flavours come through with water.
Finish: Slight hint of parma violets quickly fades to leave a rummy finish.
Comment: A nice spicy wee dram, that takes a splash just to let the rich spicy flavours out. A nice dram but perhaps more one for a winter night than a hot stuff summer night!
Score: 87/100 If it didn't have such a hot spiciness it would perhaps score higher - or if i taste it in December.

Glenfiddich 12yo

Glenfiddich 12yo

I came across a mini of Glenfiddich 12yo that I have had lying around on my desk for several months now and thought hang on I'll give it a try tonight. Generally speaking Glenfiddich doesnt get much recognition as a single malt amongst "Connoisseur " - God I hate that word, but I will give it a go very open mindedly, I am one of those people who actually have a lot of time for Glenfiddich if it weren't for them would we have all of the great single malts we have today.

Here goes:

Nose: Light, grassy and a little bit malty, definate dry grassy with perhaps a faint hint of peppermint.
Taste: Dryness comes through, along with sweet grassy malty notes. Hint of citrus but in a slightly sour way.
Finish: Slightly sour, but not unpleasant, fairly short length nothing too complex.
Comment: Overall a descent malt, can see why it sells so well, easy enough to drink but with very little complexities to it. A decent session malt I think that this is a lot better than the old non-age statement malt - an everyday drinker but not for me everyday but for those with less access a good entry level malt.

It is when writing this that it made me laugh just how different this site is to the site that inspired me www.whiskyfun.com where as I am tasting Glenfiddich 12yo and the likes Serge is on Bruichladdich 1970, Bunnahabhain 1977 and Longmorn 1964. Fair play to him I can only live in hope.
Score: 80/100

Whisky Jobs

It would appear that there is several jobs in the whisky industry currently up for grabs! Fancy a job on Islay then how about joining Bowmore as their operations manager - http://www.s1jobs.com/job/73919420.html Or a brand managers position at Dalwhinnie - (Ok a head tour guide!) And then there is always the job at RMW london up for grabs. Maybe I will try and get myself one of them?

Glen Grant for Sale

For Sale

Just heard that Glen Grant distillery has been put up for sale, well it will be put up for sale oonce the Allied sale goes through. The workers at the distillery were told on Friday that the distillery would be put up for sale. Glen Grant is one of the best selling malts in the world so it seems like a strange decision for it to be sold! Just wonder who would buy it, who would be able to buy it?

Fancy A Shag! Not in Australia

Fancy a shag

Amazingly the Australians have taken offence to this Dutch lager called Shag, and have moved to ban it. The beer brewed as Alpha beer is distributed in Australia by a british euntreprenuer as Shag. A spokes person for the company could not see the problem stating that it was named after the bird that appears on the label - a member of the cormorant family and a comon site even on cold scottish beaches.

However the ozzies were up in arms against there marketing campaign which showed a bottle in the back seat of a car with the slogan "Fancy a shag".

I can't imagine why they would have a problem with this at all!!!!

JMRketing Bollocks

Had to laugh to day when I saw the most recent marketing bollocks from John Mark and Robbo - amazing how he was never know as Robbo when he worked at Macallan!!! Anyway fair play to them they are taking on America and the company that was started by three pals will no doubt do very well. http://http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=88737

I mean come on surely no one believes this tripe - the only reason Remy Amerique is looking at them is because they are the American distributors for the Edrington group in the USA. Oh and if you think JMR is just three boys that started a whisky company then you really have been sucked in. Fair play to them I really like there whiskies especially the smooth sweet one (or what ever its called) although have only tried the straight Irish one and not the Irish / Scotish mix. That was another heap of marketing bollocks that they fed us that they were the first people to mix whgisky from two countries - come on most people have been doing it for years - how much Macallan was shipped to Japan to be added to many Japanese blends - maybe Robbo missed that when he was working there!!!! Now that he is a free agent (yeah right) I am sure he doesnt have time to remember all these thinks.

But to hell with it for what there whiskies are - easy drinking whiskies I think that there pretty bloody good and thats what is all about after all.

Stills at Kininvie 

Kininvie Tasting Notes

After several requests for my "proper" tasting notes for Kininvie I thought I had best find them so here goes.

Kininvie 1990 - Cask Sample 62%- Tasted in September 2003.

Nose: Light, floral and sweet, quite spirity straight. With water sweeter and more grassy.
Taste: Creamy, grassy perfume, with water creamier, a little bit metallic just at the end.
Finish: smooth and short.
Comment: Rosebankish in style, a lot easier to drink with water buy not really fully mature.

Score 76/100

It was reported that this sample came from the first ever cask that had been filled from Kininvie, I think that it is a decent dram with a lot of potential to be a very easy drinking lowlandish style whisky. However I think that the cask management needs to be improved this was obviously a second or third fill bourbon cask. I have tried about three or four other samples and they all seemed to be from very tired casks!!! Very dissapointing would make you believe that they don't intend bottle this as a single in its own right for some time. Give it a good cask and I think it could be a good dram.

Green Spot 12 

Mitchells & Sons Green Spot

Green Spot was one of those whiskies that I kind of had to have a bottle of in my coollection a bit like Johnnie Walker blue Label - a classic of its kind something that in a way is a real cult classic. I had a bottle of the standard Green Spot for about a year - I had managed to source it from Mitchells in Dublin and was pretty pleased with myself for finding the bottle. This was in a time before www.royalmilewhiskies.com and www.potstill.com made it readily available. Anyway I bought another bottle and opened one of them with a bit of hesitation. Green Spot has got a great reputation and therefore my expectations had been raised quite high. Something that I was worried about as if your expectations are too high it can make a very good whisky decidedly average if it doesnt live up to scratch. Anyway I was far from disappointed by Green Spot and would now rate it as one of my favourite whiskiesof all time. Lovely and fresh and zesty with lots peppermint on the nose simply stunning - I need to get me another bottle soon.

What brought me to this point was that i descovered the Mitchells www.mitchellandson.com had brought out two limited edition Green Spots to mark there 200th anniversarry. Great news I though especially when i heard that it would be a 10 and a 12year old bottling - something I could afford. Think again. The 10 year old has came out at 250 Euros and the 12 year old at a staggering 850 euros per bottle. Taking the piss or what. When you consider that the non - age statement bottle (believed to be about an 8 year old) retails for £24.99 then it really does make you laugh. Sorry Mitchells Love your Green Spot but these Limited Editions are beyond a joke.

Expensive Bloody Whisky

Bloody Expensive Whisky Some punter from Surrey paid £32,000 for a bottle of the 62 year old Dalmore - Good news though he drunk it! Imagine having that kind of money to through away on one bottle!! Can you imagine the whisky collection you could build with 32 grand

It would be one of the best collections you could imagine!

http://http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/southern_counties/4095758.stm

Have to say that I do love whisky but I would imagine that you would have to be very very rich to afford this. Fair play that he opened it though just hope that he appreciated it!

Brora Old Malt Cask 1981 - 21 year Old

Enough of this foriegn malarky thought that I had best bring us back to Scotland with a wee dram of Brora This is an Old Malt Cask bottling from 1981 that was bottled in 2002. Bottled at the usual Douglas Laing 50% and the label states that it is from a sherry cask. This bottle was bottled for the American market.

Here goes:

Nose: Very sweet, a little perfumed chlorine, perhaps some chocolate.

Taste: Again very sweet but a light sweetness, some orangey notes and dry smokiness and a little bit spicy.

Finish: Decent length - strangely of smoky plasticene - the waxiness is the only real hint that this has seen a sherry cask - i would imagine that it is from at best a second fill sherry cask.

Comment: Pretty decent but nothing to go wild about, has a good smokiness to it but somehow appears a little flat as if something is missing - would say that selling this as a sherry cask is misleading perhaps - I have no problem with people putting refill sherry on the bottles. Overall a good dram but nothing majorly exciting, they have done better Broras.

Score: 85/100

Glann ar Mor - New Celtic Distillery

Yesterday It was the turn of the Pakastanis and today its the turn of the French. It turns out that the first spirit ran from Glann ar Mor distillery in Brittany on Sunday at 17:05. The distillery is the theresult of a lot of hard work from Jean Donnay who has given us some cracking whiskies through his Celtic Whisky Compagnie - several sauternes finished whiskies and I remember a particularly good vatted Islay. There website http://www.celtic-whisky.com is worth a look. This just shows how the whisky boom is taking off with whisky being produced in a variety of places such as in Belgium where they have the Whisky Pur.e which is just new make spirit with a some caramel in it at the moment but a whisky that may be of some worth in say 5 - 15 years time.
Worm Tub at Glann ar Mor

Hobgoblin

A great beer from wychwood brewery, one of my favourite breweries. Apart from the great taste of this strong ale - I love their advertising - "What's the matter Lagerboy, affraid you might taste something?" Sums things up nicely I think.

Anyway would reccomend that you try this, a beer with a hell of a lot of flavour. www.wychwood.co.uk
Whats the matter lager boy

Bushmills

Diageo have anounced that they are to go into cahoots with Pernod in the Allied purchase in a deal which would see Diageo get Bushmills off of Pernod. The whole slicing and dicing of Allied is begining to look very convienent for all involved. Although obviously they wouldn't really all be wanting to work together a lot of it does make sense. Diageo get Bushmills completing there set as they currently do not have any Irish influence and Pernod complete there whisky category buy getting an Islay in Laphroaig. Pernod will still be by far the biggest player in the Irish market with Jamesons accounting for three quarters of all Irish Whiskey Sales.

To be honest once the slicing and dicing is finished I wouldn't be suprised if Fortune brands get back into whisky by picking up the odd distillery that Diageo and Pernod can't be bothered with.


http://http://www.diageo.com/pageengine.asp?menu_id=0&site_id=1§ion_id=2&page_id=1220

Pakistani Whisky

http://http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=644642005

Staff at Muree distillery - Pakistan are trying to find a name for there new 18 year old Malt whisky - a task that shouldnt really be too challenging when you consider that their two existing malt whisky brands are called Vintage and Classic - hardly the most difficult names to come up with.

Sorry I've not been on for a while.

Pete