Three peated Bruichladdichs

Recently I sat with a few very similar drams from Bruichladdich to do a casual comparison of them. These were 127.33 "Mouth-numbing mountaineering dram", a 11 year old Port Charlotte from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society; PL2, a no age statement Port Charlotte from the Elements of Islay range; and Octomore 6.1 Scottish Barley, a 5 year old heavily peated Bruichladdich.



Distillery: Port Charlotte (Bruichladdich)
Bottling: Elements of Islay
Age: NAS
Strength: 63.4%.

Nose: Light and mildly fruity, with citrus and lemon but lemon bathroom cleaner. Some unripe banana which hints are some fairly young malt in this. Light vanilla sponge cake. The carbolic notes are less than I have seen in other expressions, with the peat being exposed in more earthy farm notes which are again not uncommon in various laddie releases. There is also that sweaty sock element, which although sounds bad, is more like a good cheese. Leather couches in a freshly polished room. This has a maybe too raw and young feel which is slightly out of balance, and is the most spirity of them all.

Palate: Sharp with some sour fruit. Young malty elements and a rugged earthiness. Water drowns this a little and doesn't seem to add much to it.

Finish: Sharp oak, and some dry apple. Finish itself in general is pretty dry, and although it is fairly long the flavour dissipates before the spirit burn leaving the end of the finish unsatisfactory.

Notes: This was a little unbalanced and a little too raw.



Distillery: Port Charlotte (Bruichladdich)
Bottling: Scotch Malt Whisky Society
Age: 11
Distilled: 2002
Bottled: 2013
Strength: 63.5%.
Cask Code: 127.33 Mouth-numbing mountaineering dram
Cask Type: Refill Barrel, ex-bourbon.

Nose: A lot sweeter than the PL2 with banana, pear but also some richer red fruits such as strawberry. Boot polish, and getting a little savoury with Cajun spiced meat. Lots of vanilla and coconut and the wood isn't as sharp as the PL2 and in general the nose is a lot more rounded. That cheesy note is still prominent. Honey, crunchie bars (honeycomb) and a touch feinty.

Palate: Creamy, totally carbolic, very fizzy with sherbet. White coffee and citrus fruits. Water brings out more of the earthiness and some wax.

Finish: Long and leathery. Coal tar and liquorice.

Notes: Better than the PL2 but maybe a touch unbalanced still. While I love these SMWS Port Charlottes, the best and more balanced ones to me are the ones which are coming from sherry butt maturation which lends just that little extra sweetness and richness to the raw earthiness which is dominant in these.




Distillery: Octomore (Bruichladdich)
Bottling: Distillery Bottling
Age: 5
Distilled: 2008
Bottled: 2013
Strength: 57.0%.

Nose: Raspberries, elderflower. Pineapple and grapefruit tartness. coal sheds, vanilla, bounty bars, fishing nets, menthol cigarettes, medicated shampoo, sweet marzipan, sugar coated almonds, woody notes but like fresh timber rather than old oak. A little of that rawness which was in the PL2 but missing in the 127.33 is back again. Less creamy the 127.33 but also much more malty.

Palate: Sweet and creamy. Malted milk biscuits. Trifle and tinned fruit in syrup.

Finish: Long and malty, young and raw but no overpowering spirit. The pineapple and grapefruit again, topped with vanilla ice cream.

Notes: A lot more complex than the other two and you can tell it has been put together well. Surprisingly it doesn't seem that peated though given the pre-distillation phenol level.

127.39 Intensely Tasty (Port Charlotte 11 year old)

Distillery: Port Charlotte (Bruichladdich)
Bottling: Scotch Malt Whisky Society
Age: 11
Distilled: 2002
Bottled: 2013
Strength: 66.7%.
Cask Code: 127.39 Intensely Tasty
Cask Type: Refill sherry butt.


These Bruichladdich Port Chalottes grow fond on me as a no frills, no nonsense young peated punch in the face sort of experience.  If you are an Octomore fan you will enjoy these, and the Port Chalottes from the SMWS are no exception if you read my post from last year on cask 127.37 - Dinosaurs dancing to Stravinsky which has already developed an almost cult following after its success as such an amazing drop of spirit among some of my fellow bloggers and twittersphere malt maniacs. Will cask 127.39 live up to the bench mark?

Nose: Initially freshly squeezed lime with cola - Almost like a Cuba Libre rum cocktail. Lemons which seem to be a common trait in this spirit both as lemon sherbet sweets and also slightly bleachy as Lemon floor cleaner. Some bitter red apple, a little sharp pineapple but a sweetness from ripe banana. Some solvent like notes of Hubba Bubba bubble gum. The oak gives up its vanilla and dry coconut along side new wood and some pencil shavings. The sherry influence is lovely here and sadly was missing from cask ex-bourbon cask 127.33 (review coming soon) with creamy chocolate, ground almonds, glazed cherries and raspberries. Those wood notes combined with the peaty, earthy punch remind me of an old garden shed and everything you would expect it to contain, with perhaps tins of oil, diesel, oils, and paint but also old gardening gloves and wellies as well. There are also pots of soil and compost lying around. The smell of spring is in the air with greshly cut grass and farmers burning their fields.

Palate: The sweetness hits first with a real juicy fruit tang like biting into a grapefruit. Then comes the smoke, tar and oil.

Finish: Very long, syrupy and tooth coating with dessert fruits, being overtaken by TCP and tar and fading off into espresso coffee and dark bitter chocolate.

Comments: We have a winner. Is this as good as 127.37? I will need to do a side by side with the very little of .37 I have kept aside in my archive. I will be buying two bottles of this anyway and it will be available in the new outturn available on Friday 2nd May.

9.80 A rocking chair dram

Information

Distillery: Glen Grant
Bottling: Scotch Malt Whisky Society
Age: 20
Distilled: 1992
Bottled: 2012
Strength: 49.5%.
Cask Code: 9.80 A rocking chair dram
Cask Type: Refill ex-bourbon barrel

A bunch of like minded whisky bloggers decided to do a bottle share for the Scotch Malt Whisky Society's "Whisky for a year" which involves getting sent out a new bottle every month for the full year, and by sharing the cost among us we were all able to get a share of each bottle to try at a relatively low cost. This allows to experience even more whisky from the society than before.

The fellow bloggers and tweeters are:

Gal (@galg) from Whisky Israel
Yoav (@yoavgel) from Whisky Gospel
Ben (@ben_cops) from Bens Whisky Blog
Tom (@TomsWhisky) from Tom's Whisky Reviews
Jon (@dvdbloke) from Scotch and Sci-fi
Matt (@mattveira) from Guildford Whisky Blog
Adrian (@mynameisgone) from Whisky Chronicle
Ansgar Speller (@ansgarspeller) from Loving Whisky
Thomas Speller (@thomas_speller) from Whisky Speller

Nose: Tinned peaches and creamy strawberry milkshake. Lots of sour apple coming through, like the the Apple Sourz shot drink you get. Apple Jack sweets. Strawberry Jam on toast. The oak is prominent as well with oodles of coconut and vanilla as you might expect. Some more chewy chocolatey caramel elements like Twix Bars and topped off with pecan nuts. A little wood char smoke is there as well.

Palate: Less fruity than I expected in the mouth but where it is lacking in fruit it makes up in wood spice. Coconut Snowballs with a jammy middle. That tangy sour apple is there as well.

Finish: Long and lingering turning a little dry with spiced apples and a touch of lime.

121.64 Maggie Thatcher at the funfair

Information
Distillery: Arran
Bottling: Scotch Malt Whisky Society
Age: 14
Distilled: 1998
Bottled: 2012
Strength: 54.5%.
Cask Code: 121.64 Maggie Thatcher at the funfair
Cask Type: Refill ex-bourbon barrel

Nose: Very fresh and malty with home cooked barley broth soup. The fruit coming through here are banana, raspberry, some tangerine but that orangey note continuing with some vanilla into some summery orange sorbet ice cream. There is a young woody note of pencils, but strangely more the smell you get when you chew a new pencil. There is a yeasty element that is like new beer fermenting.

Palate: Sweet fruits, malty with that orange sorbet.

Finish:  Long with the sorbet again, finished with liquorice and aniseed.

Balblair 1950s / 1960s

Information

Distillery: Balblair
Bottling: Official
Age: NAS
Distilled: 1950s/1960s
Bottled: 1960s
Strength: 88 proof (50%)

Wow. What a surprise I had when several old bottles of Balblair appeared at auction, and one in particular which took my fancy was a bottle at the unusual strength of 88 degrees proof which is about 50% ABV. One thing which I have learned is higher strength bottles fair well over a long time in a bottle than the lower strength ones and this has been sitting in the bottle for 50 odd years. The immediate thing I noticed with this was that the fill level was high in the neck which tells me that it has been well looked after and protected from the elements of heat and light which tend to cause evaporation to the angels, and negatively affect the juicy whisky inside. After some frantic and probably out of control bidding at auction I came into the possession of this lovely bottle and I can't wait to enjoy it.

On investigation it was definitely bottled in the 1960s, but without knowing the exact age of the whisky it is hard to pin point the distillation date. I reckon the malt is between 5 and 10 years old which at the older side of the guess would put this as 1950s distillate, and it is something very special indeed to think that this was getting made in post-war Britain.

Back when this was made the production methods would have been a lot different from now with old fashioned floor maltings, cast iron mash tuns, and direct firing of the stills all which help result in a completely different type of spirit as produced today.

Nose: Very bright and fruity and the glass is overflowing with estery notes.  I am getting lots of tropical notes but pineapple stands out and it reminds me of the Lilt soft drink with an almost sharp and tart bite around the edges. Apple juice and the fruit turning more sweet like Banana foam sweets, and that soft, sweet foamy note turning into marshmallows. The sweet fruit notes are turning into  hard boiled sweets like the travel sweets you get at the airport and the candy element finishes with some soft bubblegum. There is something more savoury happening that reminds me of green olives which have been salted and covered in more olive oil. Briny and coastal! Some smoke seems to be lingering about which is a mixture of light peat smoke but also cask char smoke. Soft dairy fudge just rounds everything off nicely.

Palate: This is heavy and oily with way more than you would expect from such a young malt. It is sweet and rich, and like chewing on fruit salad sweets, and the sharpness from the fruit is enough to give a little kick alongside the higher alcoholic strength. It is waxy and honeyed and toffee.

Finish: Mouth coating with a medium length finish. There is a little young solvent spirit notes coming through, but this is big and fruity and oily and satisfying.

Comments: What can I say? Maybe not the most complex spirit in the world as it has clearly not spent the bulk its life in wood, but the spirit itself is magical and captivating and dreaming to a time when this was made is a truly special experience.

Hankey Bannister Heritage Blend

Information

Hankey Bannister Heritage Blend
Inver House Distillers
No Age Statement
Strength: 46%.

A few months ago I wrote a review of the regular Hankey Bannister and this time I am reviewing the new Heritage Blend. Inver House recently came into an old bottle of Hankey Bannister from the 20s and the master blender Stuart Harvey set out to recreate it. It has been marketed in the old style black glass which was popular with several bottles (see Black Bottle blend) at the time but stopped during the war as it was made in Germany. The black glass is really slick and aristocratic and I am a big fan of it as it kinda takes away the need to use as much caramel colourings in the whisky as well. While the regular blend is made up of 20 odd malts the heritage blend is only made up of malt coming from Inver Houses own distilleries of: Balblair, Old Pulteney, Knockdhu, Speyburn and Belmenach.

Nose: The grain dominates straight out of the bottle, and my nose is telling me Invergordon as when I was having a tour of Inver House's blending room I got to try Invergordon new make and the blender told me to look for notes of dolly mixtures in it - and this I get here. After a while the malt emerges so it is worth letting it breathe in the glass a while. Smoky notes of insence  and coal fires. Fruity elements of blood oranges, cooked apples, peach, mango and melon. Marmalade on burnt toast. Some savoury notes of bacon and brown sauce. Some birthday cake with maybe a strawberry jam and marizpan icing, werther's originals sweets and after 8 mints chocolates.

Palate: The extra abv of 46% makes itself known and is fairly weighty and rich in the mouth. Smoky and creamy butterscotch and white chocolate.

Finish: Sweet and savoury smoke with some young malty and spirity notes.

Comments: I like this mostly because of the 46% as with most common blends, the 40% can be too watery on the palate. The extra kick helps boost the drink where the younger stuff can be detected and pulls it together a bit more. It is also pretty cheap at £30 a pop, and I would say better than many entry level malts at the same price.

Black Bottle (new style)

Black Bottle Blend (new style)
Burns Stewart Distillers
No Age Statement
Strength: 40%.

Nose: Richer and more sherried than the old style. This seems more like a peated speysider than an Islay, which by all accounts is the direction they are going with it. The simple savoury notes of the new style are deeper and almost more caramelised with BBQ pulled pork, or honey glazed ham, and there is also a note that is like roast beef and mustard - but in particular the brannigan's crisps. The richness is coming through as spiced ginger cake - the sherry influence here for me. There is also a touch of deep heat muscle rub, and of those firy cinnamon jawbreaker gobstobbers they sold when I was a child. Raisins and dates, christmas trifle and dessert fruits. Butterkist popcorn.

Palate: Sweet and sherried with chocolate, nuts and some spice.

Finish: Sweet but the savoury meaty smokiness again. BBQ pork again. Longer finish and thicker lasting in the throat than the old style.

Comments: I like this but this is a different dram from the old style recipe. I don't think the two are comparable in such a way other than the name. It is really a shame they are losing the old style, but maybe with this new style are they looking to break out into the foreign market now? I think they could have taken the opportunity to bump up the ABV a little, preferably to 46%, but at least to 43% - it is going to be a long time until they get a chance again now.