Balblair 1990 22yo (Cadenhead's)

Information

Distillery: Balblair
Bottling: Cadenhead's
Age: 22
Distilled: 1990
Bottled: 2012
Strength: 57.4%
Cask: Bourbon Barrell

Nose

Fruit salad sweets big up front. Very bright and fruity with orange vanilla ice cream and mango sorbet.

Palate

Oily and full bodied with Mango Sorbet and Ice Cream again. Irn Bru and baking spices.

Finish

Mango on the finish again, a little bourbon along with some oak.

Old Pulteney 1990 22yo (Cadenhead's)

Information

Bottling: Cadenhead's
Age: 22
Distilled: 1990
Bottled: 2012
Strength: 55.2%
Cask: Bourbon Barrel

Nose

Orange Marmalade, Sea Salt, Cloves, Toffee, Ginger & Praline

Palate

Fruit, orange again. Salty Brine, Fizzy Cola Bottles,

Finish

Exceedinly long, salty, spicy.

Comments

This is exceedingly good. Well balanced and knows what it is trying to say.

Port Dundas 20yo (Cadenhead's)

Information

Type: Single grain
Bottling: Cadenhead's
Age: 20
Distilled: 1989
Bottled: 2009
Strength: 55.4%
Cask: Bourbon Hogshead

Having recently tried a delicious Girvan single grain from the SMWS I thought I would try a single grain for myself.

Nose

Sweet ripe banana flavoured nail polisher. Pineapple & Coconut flavoured Turpentine. Rubbing alcohol.

Palate

Sweet, Wheat Beer

Finish

Cereal. Paint.

Comments

Might be the most expensive paint stripper I have ever bought. Tastes too much of raw spirit which I assume is the distillation to a much higher ABV before maturation. Little flavour impacted from the 20 long years maturation. Maybe I just know nothing about single grain whisky but this is not for me.

Balblair 1989 (First Release)

InformationBottling: Distillery Bottling (First Release)
Age: 18
Distilled: 1989
Bottled: 2007
Strength: 43%
Cask: ex-Bourbon Barrel

Nose

Milk chocolate, hazelnut & raisins in a Cadbury's Fruit & Nut bar. A zing of lemon sponge cake.

Palate

Oaky, Nutty, round but a little watery with the low alcohol of 43%.

Finish

Medium length finish. Coats the mouth like Dairy Cream, a touch of chocolate & vanilla and some malted cereal notes.

Comments

The first edition of the 1989 was unfortunately bottled at only 43% so this requires a little time in the glass to allow the nose to open up fully. I have  never tasted the second edition, and has been a while since I tried the third edition. I will get a hold of and try and third again some time soon.

Cadenhead's Rum

Information

Age: 12
Distilled: 2000
Bottled: 2012
Strength: 62%

Nose

Takes some time for the alcohol vapour to burn off and for it to open up in the glass. Chocolate Caramels, Vanilla Ice Cream with Cinnamon. Crisp red apple. Black forest gateau.

Palate

The high alcohol content giving the mouth a coating of Fizzy sherbet and Pepsi Cola.

Finish

Long but dry and numbing finish. Tobacco and Cigars, dry apple cider.

Comments

I like my drinks at cask strength but 62% might be just a touch too high to enjoy straight out the barrel for this particular rum. Maybe just a tiny dash of water to open up the palate here. I will add to these notes once tried with water.

El Dorado 15 year old

El Dorado 12 year old.

Information

Age: 12
Distilled: 2000
Bottled: 2012
Strength: 40%

Guana only has one distillery now; The Diamond Distillery, and all the stills from the other distilleries were moved here. El Dorado 12 is a blend of rums distilled from a selection of the different original stills..

Appearance

A deep glossy mahogany. Very slow legs indicate a thick spirit

Nose

Demerara brown sugar. Orange flavoured boiled sweets. An explosion of vanilla, oak and dairy fudge.

Palate

Oak at the front here. Tangy spice of Sliced orange dipped in cinnamon surrounded followed by Cigars and a chewy nuttiness like marizpan both in the flavour and the texture.

Finish

A medium finish with sweet orange Cough medicine.

Glengoyne - The Distillery Cask (cask 2717)

Information

Bottling: Distillery Bottling (Distillery Only)
Age: 15
Distilled: 1997
Bottled: 2012
Strength: 54.2%
Cask: 1st fill Bourbon Barrel

Nose

Bright fresh fruit with cream. Pear drop and fruit salad sweets. A little red wine. Digging deeper some very distant wood, Pencil shavings.

Palate

Green Apple, Liquorice and Fennel Spice.

Finish

Long and teeth coating. Aniseed and Fennel.

Comments

Picked this up while driving past the distillery. Within the shop they always have a hand picked barrel to directly fill your own bottle. A little on the steep side for the age, but for the distillery it is relatively rare in the sense that they do not often release much outwith their core range to the general public.

GlenDronach 1993 19yo (cask 487)

Information

Bottling: Distillery Bottling
Age: 19
Distilled: 1993
Bottled: 2012
Strength: 54.2%
Cask: Oloroso Sherry Butt
Water: No

Having tried some of the previous GlenDronach expressions this is the first time I have

Nose

Sulphur straight unfortunately away but blending into stewed fruits. Salt & Vinegar crisps made with cider vinegar. Raspberry Jam on Brown Toast.

Palate

Melting bitter dark chocolate on the tongue, oily mouthfeel with a touch of ginger.

Finish

Oily coating, nutty.

Comments

This is a bottle I have approached a few times with varying results. One of the main changes is the perceived sulpher aromas. Sometimes these I can only just pick up on, but other times it is overwhelming and not unlike rotten eggs, but tonight is the former as I write these notes. This definately deserved some time in the glass before approaching and some of the sulphur seems to die away.

Glen Garioch 1995 Vintage

Information

Bottling: Distillery Bottling
Age: 17
Distilled: 1995
Bottled: 2012
Strength: 55.3%
Cask: 1st fill Bourbon Barrel

This is one of my favourite malts just now, and I am infact about to move onto my third bottle of it. Cask strength and from 1st fill bourbon barrells.

Nose

An initial floral wave of the typical heathery notes which are almost standard in a Glen Garioch to me. Some orange citrus, but sweet in something more like Terry's Chocolate Orange. Freshly sliced pears with vanilla ice cream. Waves of Coconut and tropical fruit coming through.

Palate

Heather and floral up front. Buttery and Honeyed. Coconut again but dryer an less sweet like desiccated coconut.

Finish

Long and satisfying finish. Spicy, Coconut and Chocolate lingers on with just a tiny touch of smoke.

Comments
Glen Garioch is unique in its style but these vintage bottlings have all sorts of unique character between them. This is in my opinion a really great dram at a really great price but limited they are, and they won't last forever.

Glen Garioch 18yo (Cadenhead 1991/2010)

Information

Bottling: Cadenhead
Age: 18
Distilled: 1991
Bottled: 2010
Strength: 50.3%
Cask: Bourbon Hogshead

Nose

Glazed Cherries, tinned fruit salad and cream. A faint whiff of smoke giving to a little liquorice.

Palate

Slightly thin and underwhelming body. Tart citric fruit with a little oak and heather.

Finish

Medium dry finish with a heathery note that lingers on.

Comments

Not one of the best Glen Garioch's I have tried but definately in the Glen Garioch style. One of the lesser peated expressions. Only a touch of smoke detected.

Balblair 1990 (cask 1463)

Information

Bottling: Distillery Bottling
Age: 22
Distilled: 1990
Bottled: 2012
Strength: 54.1%
Cask: American oak (Previously containing Islay malt)

This is a limited 1990 vintage single cask Balblair released to members of "The Gathering Place" community on the Balblair website. The whisky was matured in an ex-Islay cask; by all account an Ardbeg no less. Bottled at cask strength of 54.1% which is a rare thing from Balblair so I had to snap this up.

 

Nose

 

Buttery Toast with fruit jam. Pineapple Cube sweets, syrupy sweet like Irn Bru or Red Kola drinks. Something like acrylic paint, or a vinyl music record. Some Vanilla cream fudge. Some spice element like Cinnamon and Clove.
 

Taste

 

The fruit dominating here, but with the Pinapple Cubes turning into something more earthy, more like unripe banana and leaves. Dryer than the nose lets on.

 

Finish

 

Long, dry and oaky. Strong stewed black tea. Slightly Earthy. Not detecting any smoke or peat at any point. Certainly an earthiness but not any peaty notes as suggested
 

Comments

Balblair Single Cask and Cask Strength. Enough said. Heaven