Inver House Tour

Today my brother and I went a tour of Inver House distillers' facilities in Airdrie. As a life long resident of Airdrie and also a massive Balblair fan, I wanted to know more about blended whisky and in particular Inver House's blends in which Balblair is a main component.

This tour was kindly organised by Gillian Gibson, the Global Brand Manager for Balblair and anCnoc single malt whiskies, and I was left in the very capable hands of Mark Williamson, Assistant Blender.

Due to this being a busy and working facility I was not able to take many photographs. Mark us to one of the vast warehouses and we all spoke in depth about whisky, malts, blends, and the industry in general. He showed us round the blending and vatting areas, the bottling plant and finished off with taking us to the blending lab where he had laid out an array of spirits for us to nose and taste.

We got to try new make spirit for Balblair, Knockdhu, Pulteney and Balmenach single malts, as well as new make grain whisky which goes into their core blends. Finally Mark took us through the core blends of Cattos, MacArthurs, Hankey Bannister Original, Hankey Bannister Heritage Blend, and Hankey Bannister 12 year old, and how they are put together with the various components. I urge you to try and seek out a bottle of the Heritage Blend, at 46% it really stands out strong and is pretty tasty. When I get a bottle I will review it.

Again, thanks for Gillian and Mark for facilitating this.

 

26.92 Hard glazed pretzel sticks (Clynelish 28 year old)

Information

Distillery: Clynelish
Bottling: Scotch Malt Whisky Society
Age: 28
Distilled: 1984
Bottled: 2013
Strength: 58.2%
Cask: Refill sherry butt.
Cask Code: 26.92 Hard glazed pretzel sticks

Nose: Very light and delicate. Tangerine is most prominent, but sharper like when you are peeling a tangerine and it squirts out in your eye. Melon and also the a woody earthy note like the melon seeds themselves. Tunnock's Caramel Logs - Chocolate, Caramel, Biscuit with a covering of desicated coconut. Some heather and hay. Marmalade on burnt toast. These are by no means strong notes as this is very closed on the nose and takes a lot of deep digging in the glass. The longer I hold the glass in my hand the more it very gradually opens up and becomes more tropical. More meaty and briny notes appear later on for me here. Salty bacon and sausages.

Palate: Salted fruits. Lemon. Spicy, Peppery with the bite of fresh Ginger. Salt & Vinegar crisps. Dry desicated coconut.

Finish: Fizzy lemonade alongside salty briny flavours. Spicy. More salt. Gentle oak and a little smouldering smoke.

Miltonduff 30 years old - Cask 3714 (Adelphi)

Information

Distillery: Miltonduff
Bottling: Adelphi
Age: 30
Distilled: 1982
Bottled: 2012
Strength: 52.7%
Cask: ex-bourbon, cask 3714

Nose: Lemon butter biscuits, banana foam sweets, tropical fruit punch, marshmallows, coconut, vanilla, green sports mixture sweets, a little herby in the form of thyme and basil.

Palate: As big on the palate as on the nose. Dominated by citrus through Lemonade with a twist of Lime. Very sweet and zesty. Spicy pepper and ginger, with the herby thyme alongside a little light menthol, vanilla, something green like pine needles and also sugar puff cereral.

Finish: The fruit and spices lasting into a long sweet finish, with a bite of wood.

Balblair 1995 (travel retail)

Information

Distillery: Balblair
Bottling: Distillery Bottling
Age: 17
Distilled: 1995
Bottled: 2012
Strength: 46%
Cask: ex-bourbon

As my favourite distillery I am always looking for more Balblair malts, and by collection I mean to drink and enjoy rather than sitting looking pretty on a shelf. While passing through Glasgow Airport on my way to Berlin I was suprised to find they still had some bottles of the 95 vintage, which is a travel retail exclusive so I snapped up a bottle. The icing on the cake is it comes in a lovely full litre size.

Nose

Very estery and fruity as I know and come to expect and love from Balblair. Mangos, Pineapple, Honeydew Melon, passionfruit. Drumstick Lolly sweets. Apple, vanilla and biscuity elements combining to give Hot Apple Pie with Vanilla Ice Cream. Also getting creamy strawberry in something which reminds me of strawberry milkshake, or Campino Sweets. Things geting nuttier with wallnuts and coconut. Creamy again with Nestle Milkybars, and then some fresh hay, and new newspapers.

Taste

Light and refreshing, with a creamy and smooth mouthfeel. Apple punching through and some citrus zest. Melting chocolate on the tongue.

Finish

Sweet and light. Spicy with anise and pepper. Nutty with a touch of oak at the sides.

Comments

A light and refreshing summer dram. Relax in your back garden in the evening sunshine.

Balblair 1986 (cask 12648) (G&M 24yo)

Information

Bottling: Gordon & MacPhail
Age: 24
Distilled: 1986
Bottled: 2010
Strength: 50%
Cask: Refill Sherry Hogshead

Nose
Mint Chocolate, Honey, Fruit Cake. Tobacco, and boot polish.

Palate
Mint Chocolate. Sherry. Jersey Cream.

Finish
Medium Finish. Mint Chocolate yet again. Dairy Fudge and a little Ginger as well.

Comments
One of the few sherried malts which does not offend my nose with sulphur notes. Not too complex a profile with the flavours being quite distinct. Very easy drinking with the 50% ABV but could do with being a bit stronger on the palate for me.

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.

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