scotchodysseyblog.com
scotchodysseyblog

When the online retailers Master of Malt announced last year that they were to launch a constantly expanding and varied range of whisky samples alongside their regular operations, I and many others sat up and took note.

'Drinks By The Dram' from Master of Malt.

‘Drinks By The Dram’ is a dedicated service on the part of Master of Malt to allow whisky fans to try before they buy. For folk such as myself, single cask, cask strength independent bottlings which would normally retail at around £75 can now be experienced for a fraction of the cost. However, with tasteful and considered little touches with regards to the packaging with their red wax-dipped tops and faded old-effect paper labels, these 3cl samples powerfully exude the ’boutique’.

In order that word of these products could be more widely circulated, who better to approach than whisky bloggers already familiar with the sample-style trappings of pre-release whiskies. I have to thank Natalie from Master of Malt for my sample: one from a range of single cask vintage releases produced by one of the few truly independent Scottish distilleries that put Diageo’s Managers’ Choice to shame.

To my delight and relief, my 3cl sample of the Glenfarclas Family Cask 1990 made it through the snow to my door and so becoming a object was it to behold and to contemplate that I abstained from breaking the wax-covered seal until I sensed my olfactory faculties were firing on all cylinders. It was worth the wait.

This particular bottling of Glenfarclas from 1990 is sold out, but a sample from the Fifth Release of the Family Casks is available here.

Master of Malt on Facebook.

Master of Malt on Twitter.

Read my tour review for Glenfarclas here.

Look at the colour! So full and buxom is the body that a translucent residue was left on the rim of the glass - as if I had been wearing lipstick. Which of course I hadn't been.

Glenfarclas Family Cask 1990 Sherry Butt 9246 58.9% ABV

Colour - Blood red. Very striking.

Nose - Careful nosing from a distance reveals velvety soft Sherry influence: darkly nutty with stewed fruits. The biting claws of the high proof are withdrawn and it is possible to enjoy the heavy, spicy-rich vanilla reminiscent of some Bourbons I have had recently (Buffalo Trace comes to mind). It is so sweet with orange, cinnamon, tropical flowers, marzipan, redcurrant and cherries.

      Water lightens the experience with raw malted barley sweetness. Rich, soft toffee and oak notes which reminded me of the heat and woody spice notes which pervaded the Speyside Cooperage. The European oak is medium-dry and intense. More vanilla appears, in addition to dried fruits and fruitcake. There is an impeccable balance between the rich and the sweet, with the heavy juiciness and malt notes of Glenfarclas standing up to the wood.

Palate – This was a first for me. Despite the strength there was ne’er a prickle. The whole thing was delightfully rich and smooth with oak and malt. Mouth-coating and heavily-sherried, it was plain that not much had been done to this from leaving the cask. The texture was astonishing, as it felt as if raw sugar or red liquorice was being sprinkled on my lips.

      Water enhanced the smoothness slightly, and the Sherry, oak and caramel notes remained. Orange appeared, however, as did added dryness. Biscuity with tablet notes, this was unmistakeably Scotch, and Glenfarclas.

Finish – Jam-like and syrupy with such softness and smoothness. Superbly complex and evocative. Rich fruit skins and creamy almond. Orange and mango. Book binding.

      Water revealed more of the nutty sweetness, as well as rich toffee. Dark and smooth maltiness melded into a toasty, rich spiciness. As things began to simmer down, heather, thick clear honey and latterly beeswax appeared. An extremely glossy and sophisticated malt.

So…? I will unquestionably be using the ‘Drinks By The Dram’ option again, and sampling more of the Family Casks. This was one of the most involving and exciting whiskies I have tasted for a long while. Unusually, I left a malt feeling grateful for the wonderful diversity within Scotch: how I can savour the fruity sweetness of Balblair one moment, the fragrance of Linkwood and Longmorn the next, the island power of Lagavulin and Ardbeg afterwards, and the rich complexity of The Dalmore and Glenfarclas at the next convenient opportunity.

This 1990 release had the presence, the depth and the authenticity at cask strength to transport me back to my forays around the Ballindalloch/Aberlour area last year. Especially undiluted, the finish acted like a well-serviced and rapid cable car: tugging me between the rough russet grass and heather of Glenfarclas at the foot of Ben Rinnes, and the rich, leafy mystery and delight of Warehouse No. 1 and the banks of the Spey itself in Aberlour. The wild and the sensuous were epically combined and evoked a particularly auspicious time on the Scotch Odyssey as I began my assault on Speyside. I had the remote and beautiful Glenfarclas all to myself on the Wednesday while I witnessed the wonder of excellent Sherry casks at Aberlour on the Thursday morning. With water the semi-dry spicy and dark leafiness recalled the mellow, fragrant bowers of the Speyside Way. Riverside and heathland in one glass, with the presence of deciduous lichen-clad forest a common quality. I have yet to be disappointed with Glenfarclas, and this is the fourth encounter.

      Bitter disappointment does not come close to describing my feelings having phoned up The Balvenie Distillery from my room in the Huntly Hotel to be told that their tours for the forthcoming week – and indeed most of the next month – were fully booked. Having been assured by a fellow tourist at Macallan that it was a most singular single malt experience (and at £25 for a three hour tour, I should think it would be) I saw what a gaping hole its loss left in the fabric of my Odyssey. At the time, I cycled round the buildings, reflecting on the plumes of steam, metropoli of warehouses and wraiths of blue-brown smoke coughing out of the pagoda vent. It was set to achieve four stars for the production process alone – providing as they do a chance to view the coopers at work in addition to the floor maltings. I also happen to be very fond of the drams they make. Next time… 

*      *      *      *      *

The eclectic Balvenie site, as viewed from the Spirit of Speyside carriage on the Keith-Dufftown Railway.

Dufftown, Keith, Banffshire, AB55 4DH, 01340 820373. William Grant & Sons. www.thebalvenie.com

TOURS PROVIDED:

‘The Tour’: £25. A three hour experience at the home of ‘the handcrafted malt’. A coffee and a summary of the distillery’s history begins the tour in the Distillery Office before a thorough investigation of the plant occurs. Maltings, mashing, fermenting, distillation and coopering are all included, as is a trip to the warehouse. I’m not promising anything, but the chap I met outside The Macallan boasted of having sampled malts straight from the cask – two, in fact, and both from his birth year: in the 1960s. There is a tutored tasting of The Balvenie range, ascending from new make to the highly prized 30yo back in the visitor centre. BOOK EARLY, I CANNOT STRESS THAT ENOUGH.

DISTILLERY-EXCLUSIVE BOTTLINGS:      Whilst on the tour there is the opportunity to bottle your own 20cl measure of single cask Balvenie from a choice of three casks. The visitor may nose each of the samples from the three and make their selection – or alternatively they can bottle one of each! At present this trio are all from 1996: a first-fill Bourbon, refill Bourbon, and a first-fill Sherry. £20 each. Also, once back at the visitor centre the shop will be opened for you and then there are two exclusives to choose from: Rose, £100, and Tun 1401, £150. The shop is only accessible to those who participate on the tour.

Whether this is just the suggestibility of memory, or whether I’m correct in my suspicion that Rabbie’s buses were just some of the many vehicles to overtake me last year, the Scottish luxury tour company has announced new route packages for 2011.

The Whisky Coast Explorer Tour promises eight days of superlative scenery and delightful dramming. Representing the former are Islay, Mull, Iona, and Skye, and the doors of Bruichladdich, Kilchoman and Oban are open for you to facilitate the latter. Tours depart from Glasgow and Edinburgh from April 29, costing between £448-478 per person.

Take in still more of stunning Scotland with the Islay, Edinburgh and Speyside Tour, encompassing the West Coast, Edinburgh and such worthy Speyside visits as the outstanding Glenlivet (7/10 *s on my scale) and Benromach. Leaving Glasgow and Edinburgh on Fridays from the April 29th, costing between £328-348.

These prices are exclusive of accommodation, with your nightly stays very much dependent on that which you wish to spend; a tailor-made approach. Both of these luxury coach tours provide the opportunity to stay at the Bowmore Cottages, which are just charming.

Visit www.rabbies.com or call 0131 226 3133 for more information.

If there is any advice you would like about a forthcoming adventure into the whisky-drizzled landscapes of Scotland, whether it be a route, an accommodation recommendation or anything whisky-related, just drop me an email at scotchodysseyblog@hotmail.co.uk .

      No tours were running when I visited in April, and no tours are running at present, either. The poor folk at the Distillery have been frozen up since the end of November! Blair Athol is Diageo’s blend centre (like Aberfeldy for Dewar’s and Glenturret for the Famous Grouse) and boldly states its fundamental contribution to the phenomenally successful blended Scotch. It is a very pretty Distillery, though, and Pitlochry is well worth a visit. The St Andrews Celtic Society is due to visit Pitlochry and Blair Athol at the start of next week so let’s hope everything warms up for them! I’m sure an energetic ceilidh in the stillhouse would do the job.

*      *      *      *      *

Perth Road, Pitlochry, Perthshire, PH16 5LY. 01796 482003. Diageo. http://www.discovering-distilleries.com/blairathol/

TOURS PROVIDED:

‘Blair Athol Tour’: £5. A tour of the distillery with a viewing window into one of the warehouses. A dram of the 12yo to finish.

‘Flora and Fauna Tour’: £10. Referring to the label design of many of Diageo’s less well-known distilleries, this promises a ‘private’ tour of the distillery, with a dram of the 12yo and two others from the series to savour.

‘Allt Dour Deluxe Tour’: £22. The same ‘private’ tour as mentioned in the Flora and Fauna Tour, with a tutored tasting to conclude starring the 12yo, the distillery-exclusive cask strength and an additional four drams from their ‘Treasure Trove’.

DISTILLERY-EXCLUSIVE BOTTLINGS:      No age statement, cask strength malt whisky (I have been told that it has an ‘age profile’ of about 14 years), matured in first-fill European oak Sherry butts, £55.

Time: 12:04

Place: 1, Golf Place, St Andrews

Dram: Laphroaig 10-year-old

Result: Bliss

I’m delighted to announce that my first diet of examinations for university has terminated, and I shall be revising solidly for the next two and a half weeks on the subject of single malt Scotch whisky. Infinitely preferable to Bakhtin, Byzantium and Barrett-Browning – as great as they are.

I have a Glenfarclas Family Cask due for review from Master of Malt and I have been blessed with a number of obscure distilleries appearing in miniature form as part of the Connoisseur’s Choice range, so expect something on my experiences with Seldom-Seen Speysiders. A fun fortnight is in prospect.

Four weeks spent staring at books has had the curious consequence of inciting very powerful cravings for distilleries. It has been more than two months since I greedily inhaled the aromas of mashing, fermenting and distilling and I badly want to be back in one of Scotland’s finest whisky-making establishments. I don’t have a car, so the likes of the Northern Highlands and the remoter Speysiders are out of the question and I have minimal funds. Dufftown and Glenfiddich sound like a good bet to me – their Connoisseur Tour, on the strength of the standard tour, must be something very special indeed.

Also, this little blog has been featured on Foodista, the food and drink online encyclopedia, as their Drinks Blog of the Day. It is very flattering to see Scotch Odyssey tucked away amongst old favourites Guid Scotch Drink and Cask Strength. Many thanks, guys!

      Awaiting an official visit by me, this is the first of the other nine distilleries throughout Scotland offering tours for whom I haven’t any official details but shall be amending in time for the distillery-touring season. This Highland distillery has experienced quite a ‘Revival’ in recent years since it was taken over by the folk behind BenRiach. Their range of single casks and special releases are impressive and their 15-year-old was one of the most sensuous drams I tasted in 2010.

*      *      *      *      *

A handsome distillery producing some handsome malts under some very dynamic ownership.

Forgue, Aberdeenshire, AB54 6DB, 01466 730202. The BenRiach – GlenDronach Distillers Co. Ltd. www.glendronachdistillery.co.uk

TOURS PROVIDED:

‘Standard Tour’: £3. A tour of the distillery, excluding warehouse visit, although there is a viewing window in the VC. A dram of the 12yo is included.

‘Connoisseur Tour’: £20. An in-depth tour of the distillery, followed by a tutored tasting of the GlenDronach range in the company of Frank Massie. Mondays and Wednesdays only, booking essential.

DISTILLERY-EXCLUSIVE BOTTLINGS:      The Distillery Manager’s Cask: a bottle-your-own facility from a single cask chosen by distillery manager, Alan McConnachie. The particular cask on offer will change as each is emptied, but to gain an insight into the calibre of whisky on offer, current as of October 2010 was an Oloroso sherry cask from 1993 at 58.4% abv. £54. There is also a 1996 single cask (no. 197) priced at £52.

A distillery and the outside world: neither we nor whisky are made in isolation.

Dave Broom said that ‘we smell our way through our lives’. I for one get rather excited when someone meditates on the role our senses play in how we interact with the world around us and how those encounters shape who we are. For now, let me just say that I agree with Mr Broom (the beard commands respect) and I shall endeavour to explain why.

Our olfactory senses trump our eyes and ears, hands down. By this I am not inviting blindness and deafness; I am immensely appreciative of my ability to see and hear: the beauty of Scarlett Johanson would be lost on me without the former and the same applies to the melodies of countless rock groups minus the latter. What I mean to say, however, is that sight and sound are absorbed and compartmentalised with very little conscious input from ourselves. It is as if the vision of the desk in front of me and the sound of my flatmate rummaging through the kitchen cupboards is jealously contained within the neural pathways connecting receptor and processor. They are signals alone, and do not illuminate any other regions of my self.

My Pears soap, on the other hand, is a very different story, because it attaches me to a much earlier personal narrative edited and arranged by my brain into a neat, startling order. When soap vanished from the shower tray and appeared on my shopping list, I was intrigued to see Pears in the local supermarket. Once home, I extracted the bar and was hooked bodily back to the shower room of the Port Askaig Hotel. Those sweet, nutty/grainy and herbal fragrances wiped away in a fraction of a second the five intervening months since my time on Islay. It was quite uncanny.

So many young-ish crisp Speysiders have taken me back to this perfect moment.

The smell of the green tea and blackcurrant infusion of the London Fruit and Herb Company, freshly-brewed, has the capacity to transport me back years to a summer holiday where I drank little but. Aroma create 3D postcards from life’s archive. Unlike images and noises (except perhaps in the cases of those with seriously powerful emotion attached), the brain lodges away sniffs and snufflings, and when one encounters a scent that resembles it (entirely, or only in one sharp respect) it is as if an electric current has been conducted through your head. Engaging with flavour and aroma immerses us in the tangible world much more immediately and rewardingly.

A smell can speak of the recent past, too, preserving a moment in time, when perhaps the principal actor has since departed. Have you ever wandered along a corridor and been hopelessly beguiled by an abiding suggestion of perfume? One can speculate endlessly as to the wearer – it might even have been Scarlett Johanson (provided it was Dolce & Gabbana): one’s imagination was been piqued. Whilst we humans are not bloodhounds, certain fragrances do persist: the bottle of Lagavulin may have disappeared from the minibus in November, but the traces of peat and crisp malt in the atmosphere and upholstery spoke of its lingering presence the next day.

Every time you nose and taste a single malt, Irish whiskey, Bourbon, whatever, you are unconsciously challenging your brain to surprise you, to excavate something you may have experienced and then forgotten about decades ago. I shan’t apologise for mentioning him yet again, but Keith Wood enjoyed just this breed of revelatory moment recently. Little did he know when he poured out his test sample of Port Ellen that he would relive a holiday he had had on the Yorkshire coast as a very young boy.

In the 2009 Malt Whisky Yearbook, David Stirk tackled the tricky issue of whisky tasting notes and ratings. A salient point for this discussion is precisely how personal a response any whisky tasting is, unique to the individual. The better one appreciates this, setting out on an exploration of whisky undaunted by the terms they have to use or the flavours they ‘ought’ to find but motivated by the possibility of discovering a compendium of sensory memories contained within them, the more fulfilling our drams become.

A whisky’s maturation can, as Gordon & MacPhail have shown, extend to and encompass 70 years of quiet interactions. People are formed over a similar time scale. I would contend that a whisky’s complexity is so closely tied up with our own arcane recollections and aroma archives that the line between those qualities which we extrapolate from a whisky and those which a whisky unlocks within us is very difficult to draw indeed, and uncovers a fascinating subtext to those personal tasting notes of yours.

Whilst not wishing to put words in anyone’s mouth, I suspect that the reason Keith is considering inducting the Port Ellen into his personal Top Ten whiskies is not just because it is a brilliant whisky (I’m sure it is), but mostly because it could penetrate deep into the subconscious, and earth his intangible memories into a very real, experienced sensory world. Our nose and mouth have the power to convinve us that we are not creatures isolated, alone, in the present moment. One taste, one fragrance, can illuminate our personal timelines, retrieve and reanimate what we had never thought we had remembered.

Use your senses, I urge you: they just might take you somewhere amazing.

A singular moment in Time, revived by a single malt: in this case Highland Park 12yo.

The first release is on the left and the second on the right. These are two very engaging and distinct drams.

No sooner had we bloggers disembarked from the tiny plane and clambered onto the minibus in November than Lucas was pressing goodie bags into our hands full of coveted items from Inver House. In addition to the Old Pulteney polo shirt which I wear on a very regular basis, I have recently had the opportunity to acquaint myself with the Balblair 1989 Second Release which was stashed away, too. As luck would have it, I had half of the contents of a miniature of the first release sitting on my desk. A comparison was called for, and the intriguing results are below.

The people with the keys to the warehouses must have been sure in their convictions that, for the mid-range Balblair expression, they had a truly vintage year on their hands in the shape of 1989. Whereas the entry-level 1997 was replaced by the delightful and fey 2000, we now have another batch of ’89 malt to savour on this occasion.

NB: The bold text is intended to highlight those flavours which I feel are both intrinsically part of the distillery’s character, and also those which I interpret as evidence of ‘a sense of place’.  The technique is partially inspired by Keith’s presentation of his tasting notes, and I think it also makes them more easily-read.

Balblair 1989 (Bottled 2008) 43% abv.

Colour - Lemony gold.

Nose - Very delicate at first with immediate sweetness and some spicy dryness. Honey, vanilla and milk chocolate come next with syrupy sweet citrus flavours in the mix. Toffee, dried cherries and golden raisins present a gorgeous variety of aromas. Clean, sweet and fresh with raw barley.

      Water realises the full potential of the malt, with rich fruit slices and beautiful vanilla, caramel and malty sweetness. Rich oak is extracted which lends a slight grip, with some blackcurrant leaf. Toffee and date pudding, in addition to more citrus, maintains the complexity. Overall, though, this is a lively and delicate malt, and the best way to describe it would be ‘fun’. Its sweet American oak DNA reminds me a lot of the post-tour drams on offer throughout Scotland, an encounter made all the more hedonsitic if your visit has been of sufficient quality to provoke excitement about the whole process and environment.

Palate - Very smooth, rounded and sweet with a delicious malty richness culminating in earthy hay.

      Water does this malt few favours in this department. Fruity, oaky and spicy with some vanilla, light creamy cereals and green fruits. It loses a lot of its assertiveness and becomes just too ethereal for me.

Finish -  There is a great burst of orchard fruit juices at first, and then things settle down with sweet green apple. Malt and oak create a hot chocolate flavour and the dried fruits from the nose return. Heathery earthiness and orange round off a very pleasant experience.

      Water, as occurred with the palate, weakens things. Vanilla and puff pastry appear, some tart green fruits sprinkled with sugar, some milk chocolate, hazelnut and banana are there, too.

Balblair 1989 (2nd Release, bottled 2010) 43%

Colour – Essentially the same, although maybe a fraction older golden tones, with a pale grassy tinge.

Nose – There is a very firm presence of oak in this one, with a richer spiciness than the first release but overall much darker, tighter and closed. There is citrus here, too, although it takes the form of bonbon-like sweetness. Heavy Bourbon wood and a dusty earthiness  are other flavours, in addition to orange peel, rich vanilla and tablet. Dried fruits appear, as with the first release, and there is a rock candy flavour which leads into creamy coconut – gorse bushes.

      Water improves procedings, as it did for the first release, becoming creamier and spicier. I am privileged to as accurate a presentation of a blackened hogshead with its rusted hoops sitting in a cool dunnage warehouse as I have enjoyed with any malt. Toffee cake, dry rich maltiness. Heather honey. Zesty sweet fruits, burnt fruitcake. Cardamom and star anise: very spicy and earthy.

Palate – Rich and mouthcoating, chocolatey with some synthetic fruitiness (jelly sweets).

      Water lightens everything, but not to the extent of the first release. It becomes incredibly smooth but focused with green fruits, spice, richness, more malt and chocolatey toffeed oak. Earthy.

Finish – Rich, with plenty of vanilla. Barley sugar with blackcurrant and apple juice. Toffeed. Fresh fruitiness and ever-evolving dark oakiness. Over-ripe banana. Nutty, chocolatey and spicy.

      Water renders this still more satisfying with vanilla again and caramel. There is fantastic texture to the American oak influence: the cask is very much a three-dimensional suggestion. The sweet spice of a gingerbread latte abides for quite a while.

So…?:      Direct comparison always throws up surprises and these are, despite the identical nature of the included tasting notes on the packaging, two very different malts. The first release is 18/19 years old, the second 20/21 and those two years have done much to influence the development of that stock from 1989. I would rate the second release as a more rewarding and fulfilling malt for the age range it has placed itself in, but I am utterly seduced by the nose of the first: so exuberant and charming with endless sweetness.

The character of Balblair is said to lend itself to more mature, spicy and fruity whiskies, courtesy of the clear wort and the plain stills and that is certainly what is on show here. I can’t quite stretch to a bottle of the ’89 (and I would if I could) but the 2000 is a gem of a dram, and on the list.

Many thanks to Lucas, Cathy and Inver House for the sample. Also, a very happy new year, one and all.

On the nose, after dilution, this was where the second release transported me back to.