So here it is – my first whisky review for The Whisky Lounge – wow, exciting!
Being paid to taste and write about whisky could be considered by most to be a dream job, however it’s full of many difficulties like wandering to the kitchen sink and having to wash nosing glasses regularly and also trying to explain to friends on an evening that this is work, and no I can’t come for a pint! They don’t understand the hardship…
We thought it would make sense to do a test run on our latest batch of single cask whiskies before the tasting room fills up with other stuff. Please note, these are all 20cl bottles.
Anyway, I hope you find this interesting and maybe even entertaining! Please leave your comments below on what you think.
Longmorn 1997, Ex Bourbon Hogshead, 56.7%, TWL Bottling
£27.50 inc. Delivery – click here
The name of this distillery once inspired the name of a band I used to play with – “The Long Mornings”. Good name for a band I always thought.
Longmorn is a great Speysider and anyone who has had the old 15yr distillery bottling will know just how good this whisky can be. Aside from the official 16 yo bottling, Longmorn is light in style but full of flavour – all too often I try light styles (and being a massive Islay fan) they don’t seem to deliver the depth of flavour that I’m so fond of. This isn’t just peat I’m talking about, it’s the guts and backbone of a whisky that that keep it interesting in your glass.
The first Longmorn I tried was a Douglas Laing ‘Provenance’ bottling – think it was a 10yr – anyway it imprinted in my mind of this buttery, cakey, sweet style that for some reason now I always expect but don’t always find. This bottling is full cask strength, and got some guts!
The nose on this Longmorn screams out vanilla custard, butterscotch honey and lemon and a hint of green fruit. There is even a slight fresh-cut, moist grassy thing – very clean and fresh. Like a vanilla slice and an apple turnover on a freshly milled oak skewer.
On the palate it coats and tingles its way to the back of your tongue, leaving citrusy toffee like lemon bonbons and hints of ripe mandarin. This is when the benefits of that extra strength really come into play. The lemon toffee and vanillas are carried and intensify, as the whisky begins to dissipate across your tongue the vanilla slice with custard and lemon icing begins to emerge.
The finish is clean and mouth puckeringly (if that’s a word) crisp with a very subtle trail of Jamaican ginger cake.
Light whisky with guts, a backbone and depth of flavour, though would still make a great aperitif whisky and perfect for sunny day dramming.
Macduff 2000, Ex-Sherry Butt, 60%, TWL bottling
£25 inc. delivery – click here
Never been a fan I have to admit. I’ve tried had a handful of independent bottlings in the past, all from refill hogs heads – a drinkable whisky for sure, but it never made the ground move for me. A whisky owned by Dewars and on the most part used in blending for a blend called William Lawson. Never tried the official bottling myself so if anyone has tell us about it or better still, send us some to try! This Macduff has been aged for 11yrs in Oloroso sherry casks so should be quite different to what I have previously tried.
Big fruit nose like hot apple and blackberry strudel. Conjuring images of the dish in the restaurant scene in ‘Inglourious Basterds’, and yes a big dollop of clotted cream. And yes, I do have a keen eye for a quality strudel…
Soft and creamy on the palate even at cask strength, with plenty of jumbled up macerated fruits all happily mingling away, cherries and the little glazed sugared bits of orange peel, rich golden syrup cake with little flutters of coco.
Finishes up well in the famous big sherry cask way with fruit cake in spades, moving all across your tongue and creeping into every part of your very being…
This has totally removed all my preconceptions of Macduff (just one of many reasons malt whisky is amazing – the surprises and variations from cask to cask) an excellent sherried speysider – nice choice Eddie.
Bunnahabhain 1990, Ex-Sherry Butt, 54.1%, TWL bottling
£32.50 inc. delivery – click here
21yr old Bunnahabhain from a sherry cask! Nice. Every sherry casked Bunna I seem to try, across official and independent bottlings, the old and the young – they have all been awesome. If you’ve ever had a bad one let me know. Maybe their spirit just reacts really well with European oak or maybe whoever was or is in charge of wood management there is very good at his or her job – maybe it’s both. Who knows – whatever it is it works for me, so keep it up!
Something deep, dark and ultimately delicious is lurking in this glass – it’s almost sticking to the glass! Turkish delight in dark chocolate, the intense sweet, slightly sharp blackcurrant syrup/jam/sauce that you find on the top of cheesecake with the signature earthy Bunnahbhain undertones just fighting through all that sweet fruit.
The palate is an intense burst of sherried sweetness. Good clean sherry casking, very full bodied, mouth coating and incredibly rich. Big fruit pudding flavours slowly moving into darker dirtier tones of black jacks which start to work at balancing out all that sherry sweetness.
The finish is big just like everything else about this whisky. Reminds me of really over the top, massively indulgent tiffin – full of biscuit, raisins and slightly burnt.
A real heavyweight fighting in the unpeated corner of Islay, and going the full 12 rounds. If you like your whisky well-aged, big, rich and intense then this is right up your street.
Caol Ila 2000, Ex-Bourbon Hogshead, 56.9%, TWL bottling
£25 inc. delivery – click here
A long term favourite of mine, and of most of my whisky-drinking brethren. If you’ve never tried a Caol Ila, whether it’s a distillery bottling or independent (doesn’t matter, most are good) you are seriously missing out in a big way. Providing you like peaty whisky that is. Those in the know will be aware that this distilleries main job is making vast amounts of peated whisky for Diageo’s famous Johnnie Walker blends. Its spirit quality in my opinion is top draw, which I guess is why so many bottlings are consistently tasty and satisfying. I wish I had a fiver for every Laphroaig and Lagavulin drinker I convinced to try this whisky and loved it – although lighter in style, and not so in your face, it’s a peaty delight – I’d be able to buy a cask of the incredible stuff!
The second you raise the glass to your nose the unmistakable Islay peat is waiting there to greet you, inviting you to delve your nose deeper into the glass. Not to attack you with some kind of peaty ambush, but to gently fill your senses with soft ripples of sweet peat intermingled with creamy vanilla ice cream and those little pink wafer biscuits you find in selection boxes at Christmas.
As expected the signature light delivery of Caol Ila on the palate with the peat working with the vanillas and oaky notes, salty butter on smoky kippers with a touch of lemon sorbet.
The finish is where the smoke really comes into play with loads of smoke and salt and real BBQ on the beach kind of a finish.
Yet another on a very long list of thoroughly enjoyable Caol Ilas.
Laphroaig 1998, Ex-Bourbon Hogshead, 56.2%, TWL bottling
£30 inc. delivery – click here
Big, massively peaty Laphroaig – love it or hate it, there’s no denying that this is one of the most loved whiskies in the world and possibly the most iconic of all Islay’s distilleries. Famous for the peat, iodine, tar, salt – the kind of tasting notes that lesser mortals have nightmares about. If you’ve never been and you’re a fan go to Islay, get there, drink some of their fantastic cask strength and just watch the sea lapping up against the distillery walls – amazing. Think I received the warmest welcome at Laphroaig at all distilleries I’ve visited.
In this bottling the peat on the nose appears to have mellowed, unlike that in younger, official expressions when it smacks you straight in the face. It’s backed off here, allowing some of the caramels, toffees and vanillas from the American oak to really shine through.
At first its deceptively light. The peat and vanillas in a well paired harmony, then spice, Kellogg’s Fruit and Fibre, then a tingling as the cask strength gets to work on peppering your tongue with more peat, more spice, more caramel and plenty of smoke. The longer you hold it on your palate, the more that smoke starts to dominate, then the saltiness kicks in and you know your drinking Laphroaig!
The finish is a real medley of signature Laphroaig – the salty seaweed, the medicinal edge of some Germolene spread over a Hob-Nob biscuit and of course plenty of peat.
Love it! If you hadn’t already guessed I am most definitely of a peaty persuasion (at the moment! – ed) and suffer greatly from an Islay disposition. However even with this in mind I think between old Laphroaig and Caol Ila, eventually any whisky drinker could learn to love this style. If you disagree then we’ll track you down and post a video of you being hosed down with Quarter-Cask. Only kidding. None of these whiskies will give any whisky drinker anything other than enjoyment. I tasted all these without water – I’m sure if you play around all kinds of flavours would be revealed. Hope to see you all at some festivals throughout the year.
Cheers,
Joe
