Review #91: Highland Park 17yrs 1995/2013, 53.9%, Edition Spirits, refill hogshead, 286 bottles

still looking for that single cask HP

The official bottlings can be so good, one might expect to find some spectacular casks. The parts seem to be much less than the sum of the whole -- and expensive -- but still it's worth looking for that one spectacular cask. Or at least something that shows the one true distillery character, behind all the blending and the sherry influence.

This is from Edition Spirits. Do they still exist, or were they folded into one of the Laings? Doesn't really matter.

nose: subtle, but very nice. lots of cooked apples and earthy smoke (if that made sense), then some peaches and plums, marshmallows, oats with yogurt, mown grass, something slightly medicinal (camphor), and something slightly floral (lily). all good things, but curiously lean.

palate: not as smoky as I expected. slightly oily texture, it's creamy fruit with a smoky burn. I'd swear there's a little rubbery sulfur in there, too, but where did it come from? is that just the peat asserting itself?

the finish finishes unmemorably.


Nice whisky, starting to develop some interesting flavors, probably could have spent more time in cask. The peat was distinctly present but slightly boring. I like it, but I'm still looking for that great cask of HP.

score: 85

Review #90: Miltonduff 30yrs 1982/2013, 49.5%, Maltbarn, sherry cask, 63 bottles

a lot of early 80's Miltonduff has popped up recently

and no one seems particularly excited about it. It's fairly priced and still for sale here and here and here, for example, so it can't be any good. Still, with this one, you never know.

nose: apples, burnt grass, honey, wet log, and then settles on white chocolate and spicy flowers. It's nice, but it's pretty mundane, except for a second there was an interesting note, somewhere between antiseptic and cardamom, that I can't find again. After 10 minutes or so, the fruit gets a little juicier, and the grass a little grassier, but that's about it. Eventually lots of smaller notes come out -- rocks and leaves and coconut and coffee -- maybe a raisin -- but these are really tiny. Mellow apples and grass if you aren't paying attention

palate: this is the hoppiest whisky I've ever had. Overall it's slightly sweet and very drying, but what really sticks out are the hops and tobacco leaves. Ricola, too.

finishes with faint sherry fruit and lots of eucalyptus


This one veers between very conventional and very curious. Interesting but also ponderous.

score: 86

Review #89: Auchentoshan "Valinch", 2012 release, 57.2% abv, OB

is this a summer dram?

Still haven't gotten my Wealth Solutions swag for some reason, so I'll resume my well-neglected quest to find a decent Auchentoshan. This is the "Valinch" limited release from a couple years ago. A "valinch" is the pipe one uses to take whisky out of the barrel. This is NCF, cask strength, and aged in bourbon barrels. I think the "Valinch" has since been replaced by "Virgin Oak," which costs a lot more.

nose: grassy for a second, and then indeed crème brûlée, just like the label says. that is, lots of burnt sugar and lots of creamy sweetness -- this is indeed very bourbonny. then some nice cherry and apricots notes, chamomile, and some weird cooked vegetable notes -- rhubarb, asparagus, vegetable oil. lots of development, I suppose, between dry, sweet/fruity/floral, and vegetal.

palate: oh yes, this is >57%. And NAS. All the same flavors are there, but the alcohol is stunning -- as in causes numbness. this doesn't take water particularly well, either: it's less numbing, but the alcohol and the grassiness move to the front. It's like a bad blend. I prefer to sip it neat.

finishes with lots of vanilla and a little bit of cherry and rhubarb.


Some really nice flavors, but they're mostly simple, candied, bourbon-wood driven. Not a very deep whisky, and not that easy on the palate. Tasty enough, though.

score: 83

Review #88: Arran 17yrs, bottled 2014, 46%, OB, ex-sherry hogsheads, 9000 bottles

where's my Wealth Solutions swag?

I don't seem to be on their distribution list. Anyway, this just hit the U.S. (And it's not even on the web site yet.) It's a warm-up for the 18yr coming out next year, which I think might be a regular release, unlike this one. It should be interesting in its own right, though.

nose: a wave of baked apples and wood spice. then some butter pastry, dried grass and smoke, wildflower honey and toffee. very faint fruits: apricots and a lonely strawberry.

palate is sweet and oily, with a rounder fruitiness than the nose would suggest. a little fudge. but then oak eventually takes over -- somewhere between sawn plank and nutmeg.

finish is nicely long, but mostly on the oak.


Not a whole lot to say about this one -- somehow it seems a little too young and yet a little too woody. The fruit is nice, but a little generic, and the oak is a little astringent. This is good stuff, but not great. I hope the 18 is better.

score: 85

Review #87: Longrow Rundlets and Kilderkins 11yrs, 2001/2013, 51.7%, OB, 9000 bottles

from the Springbank empire

This is, oddly, my first post on Longrow, which I guess you could call double-distilled and heavily-peated Springbank. "Rundlets and Kilderkins" are teeny weeny barrels. From what I've heard, the experiments with these barrels went pretty well. I'm a bit late with this review.

Nice Longrow nose -- rich peat, with lots of machine oil and bits of smoked salmon and inner tubes and vegetal farminess. There's some sweetness to go with it, too: candied chestnuts and stewed fruits with cloves. There's a lot more going on -- maybe some dark chocolate and tobacco -- but it's all mixed up with the peat smoke.

palate: a little bit of oil, a whole lot of prickly, salty peat. Aspirin and grapes.

finish is long and ashy, balanced by some honey/grape sweetness and olive brine. very long finish.


I don't know what the casks had to do with it, but this works very well -- intense Longrow with no flaws and a bit of roundness.

score: 89

Review #86: Château du Tariquet VS Bas-Armagnac, 40% abv

second 40%-er in a row

Must be a summer thing. This is the bottom of the line for Tariquet. They also bottle un-distilled wines, which seems weird to me. I believe they used to be called A. Grassa et fils, or something like that. But maybe dad died, or the marketing people just said that "château" sounds better.

Nose: a very rich, almost foxy grapeyness. bicycle tire and new car mixed with lots of sweet, but slightly charred wood. some nice minerals, and just a little honeysuckle.

Palate feels a little watery, and the bicycle tire + char flavor becomes a little prickly -- a little too much sulfur there, I would guess. Overall still sweet and fruity, though, with estery cherry/berry flavors adding to the grape.

Finish is not powerful, but long. The grape flavors really last.


This isn't what I expect from young Armagnac -- the flavors are (mostly) bright and sweet rather than raisined and drying. But it's tasty, even if a little prickly and underproof. I'll have to get a bottle of one of the older, cask-strength versions.

score: 82

Review #85: Green Spot Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey, OB, NAS, 40%, L405831033

how long do you think the label designer spent on this one?

I believe firmly that Irish whiskies are best consumed in the frigid months, but this one was on the floor in a cardboard box at the local BoozeMart for $45 (or $44.99 plus tax), and it seemed like a nice change of pace.

This is distilled at Midleton, like Redbreast (e.g.). It is a blend of sherry and bourbon casks, like Redbreast. It's triple distilled ... I saw somewhere that the recipe is different from Redbreast -- does that mean the proportion of malted/unmalted barley? According to the reliable wikipedia, it's between 8-9 years old and 25% sherry casks. (other sources say 7-10 years.) No doubt there is a funny story about how it's got its name. I'm calling it OB because the owner of the distillery is the same as the owner of the brand.

nose: cooked cereals, apricots, a little menthol, gooseberries, bourbony vanilla, figs, zesty apples. the label says "aromatic oils" -- I guess so -- there's a little sandalwood in there. sassafras, too. some of the fruitiness is a nice cross between tropical and stewed sherry fruits. coconut. something else -- hazelnut?

palate: nicely round and oily. 40% works well here -- the fruit is a little tangy, and this is about as refreshing as whiskey can get. a little bit of oaky body.

finish: uneventful, but the bourbony-sherry fruit lingers.

For me, there's something weirdly paradigmatic about this whiskey, even though I've never had it before: this is my impression of what the Form of Irish whiskey is supposed to taste like. This is very likeable whisky. Redbreast is deeper, more complex, but this is more fun. I could say it hits the spot, but there are no puns here in the TastingDome. Anyway, extra points for fun.

score: 84

Review #84: Blanton's Single Barrel Bourbon, 46.5%, OB, Barrel #43, dumped 6/18/13, Warehouse H, rick #50

"the original single barrel"

It's not as exciting as it used to be, but still pretty exciting. From Buffalo Trace's rye recipe. It comes with a horse on top. The label has lots of useless information, but doesn't say how old it is (so not very/not consistent). The brand is owned by Age International, so a lot of it (including some other bottlings) probably goes to Japan.

color is a little orangey.

nose: nice rye notes on top of corn and vanilla. (duh.) lots of pumpkin pie spices (esp. cinnamon), some kind of creamy orange liqueur (is there such a thing?), rye bread and a little milk chocolate. sawn oak.

palate: more of the same, but a little minty. a little thin. there's a little plummy fruit, I think, and also a kind of weird generic cola taste.

finish is long, more of the same.


This is good! It's a well-made high-rye bourbon that turns out to be curiously disappointing -- maybe the flavors turn out to be a little weak, or predictable, or maybe there are a couple medicinal notes that don't quite fit in with the generally sweet profile. But it's good!

score: 84

Review #83: Aultmore 6yrs 2007/2014, Kintra Single Cask, 53.7% abv, cask #90026, sherry butt

the future of whisky

So this is all of 6yrs old, from a distillery that usually sends their juice into White Label, and of course sherry-enhanced. At least it's honestly labelled, cask strength, and NCF. But the trend is clearly going in the direction of younger ad more enhanced, from more obscure distilleries. Still, this could be a gem.

nose: wow, really very good. pleasantly chalky at first, then lots of nicely winey baked apples with cinnamon, some fresh tobacco and old wood glue, milk chocolate, a sprig of parsley, peonies, marshmallows. Still and little young and edgy, but I'd probably think it was old and praise its youthfulness if I didn't know better -- nice combination of zesty and sweet.

a lot rougher on the palate. the alcohol shows, and there's some bitterness -- unsweetened cocoa for a moment, then the candied flavors come through -- buttery toffee and almonds. but the fruit and vegetal flavors turn sour.

the finish is long and turns apply again, but it's nothing special. chalk+wood glue+ethanol, with some spicy vanilla to balance things out, but not enough.


I'm not sure how the nose can be so good and the palate so not very good in such a young whisky. Scientists should be working on that! although they'll probably say that the whisky should be aged longer in better casks. In any case, hard to score.

score: 83

Review #82: Glen Ord 15yrs 1997/2012, 54.2%, Archives, ex-hogshead, C#800083, 64 bottles

what is a Glen Ord? 

It's a monster big distillery way up north, sort of by itself. It's the "Singleton" for Japan, and otherwise I guess it must mostly contribute to Johnnie Walker. They have their own in-house monster big maltings. (There's a lot of barley around there.) Otherwise, they are unremarkable.

Archives/Whiskybase is remarkable, though. I just wish they had a payment processor that didn't trip off every credit card company's security warnings. Oh well, the whisky ...

extremely pale! it was a quiet cask.

nose: pleasant and straightforward. fresh-cut hay, gristly malt, and cling peaches in syrup. lots of lesser notes in the background: cherimoya, bee balm, white chocolate, and an old oak stave. a whiff of honeysuckle.

palate is surprising: sweet and oily at first, then some saltiness develops. (I wasn't expecting such a smooth experience at this strength.) more malty cling peaches, but this time with vanilla and a little oaky bitterness.

finish persists nicely, and fruit almost takes on a creamy roundness, but not quite.


Nothing extraordinary is going on here, but it's a nice naked malt with well-defined flavors. Good quality for the price.

score: 85

Review #81: Bowmore 11yr 2001/2013, The Whiskyman, 50.6%, ex-bourbon, 240 bottles

Into the naughts ...

whiskyfun did a Bowmore review today. One of Serge's points was that there's a big difference between the austere, superpeaty early 2000's and the lighter, fruitier mid-2000's, though I'm not sure it really worked out that way. of course, he could have also mentioned the FWP-89's, the fruity and peaty '93's, the various mid-90's vintages ... For me what's remarkable is that in the past year or so it seems like about 10yrs of vintages have been bottled. I hope someone's holding something back, or we'll have to suck Bowmore out of the still with big straws by this time next year.

I don't have any of the ones Serge reviewed, so I'll try this one.

nose: I really like this profile. Wood smoke and pickled plums, with hints of bitter herbs and sweetness (cotton candy, toffee). Smaller notes of rotting hay, motor oil, and spicy licorice. A twist of lemon.

rich, salty palate just like the nose. all the individual flavors come through. the peat smoke is strong but approachable: I feel like I can taste whatever's burning. (what's burning is: oily wood, pickled plums, and rotting hay). finish is suitably long -- phenolic pickled plums.

This is really good. I can live with Bowmore getting younger and younger if they stay like this. I wish I could find the grapefruit and tropical fruit that Serge talked about, but not here. Still, if you don't like this profile, you're dumb.

score: 89