Review #135: Aberlour Single Highland Malt 1989 "Distiller's Selection", 40% abv, OB

and it's not even A'bunadh

I think I missed a number or two in my reviews. Oh well. This is an Aberlour that I just found, and it seems to be the first Aberlour that I've written up. I have no idea what it is. Here is a web page that is sort of about it. It smells nice. I'm guessing it was bottled around 2002 or 2003?

nose: fudge very intense sherry apples. marshmallows, hazelnuts, and a little coffee (light roast), but mostly it's kind of a creamy-toffee sweetness with a tart fruitiness.

palate: wow, it holds up. I didn't think it would. Tart apples at first, and then candied nuts and toasted oak. Ginger candies.

finish: sweet oak and the fruit lingers. slightly drying but pleasantly so.


This doesn't have a lot of intensity, but it has a very mature and well-balanced flavor profile. Extremely enjoyable.

score: 89

Del Maguey Single Village Mezcal, Wild Papalome (San Pedro Teozacoalco), 45% abv, NOM 041x, Lot PAP-131

I don't really deserve this

Since I don't know anything about mezcal, I feel as if I'm intruding into someone else's territory by drinking this. It's a limited edition made from wild papalome agave. But realistically I'm only going to have one bottle of mezcal open at a time, so it might as well be this one. And it costs about as much as a middling bottle of middle-age whisky.

Nose: weird stuff. grass, then gasoline, bacon, crushed leaves, and wood smoke. Then it keeps going: new car smell, mushrooms, banana esters, and cherry cough drops. It's all fairly subtle, but it's all there, and it keeps going. Definitely woodsy and fruity and phenolic and ...

Palate: Slightly sweet, and then like a leather couch roasted over an open fire. Settles down into smoked peppers, barbecue spices, and tomato leaves.

Finish: long, smoky, and a little vegetal.


Hard to make sense of this, but then I don't really have any reference points. I like it a lot.

score: 88

Review #134: Glen Keith 21yr 1992/2014, Archives, 51.5%, C# 120599, 218 bottles

back from the dead

So, I guess Glen Keith is back distilling and bigger than ever. I doubt that any of the original equipment is in use, but whatever. This whisky is from a previous incarnation.

It's hard to believe that I haven't written up Glen Keith yet, either. It's in Speyside, right by Strathisla, consistently good stuff but never found a big audience. Lots of indy bottlings, though.

nose: tart apples, slightly creamy, fresh laundry, wildflower honey, and white chocolate. very clean, straightforward flavors.

palate: soft and then oily and then prickly-oaky, with depths and depths of toffee sweetness. again, this is the least neurotic whisky ever -- it just is what it is.

finish: more of the same -- mixture of soft/oaky/sweet. pleasant.

This is just very good in every respect, without being complicated or difficult or surprising or demanding. Typical and very enjoyable.


score: 87

Review #133: Mortlach 25yr 1987/2013, 59.4%, Adelphi, Cask #3100, 208 bottles

heard this one was good.

Or maybe it was a different 1987 Mortlach. Whatever. This is the one I have and -- I spilled a drop on my finger -- it tastes very bourbonny.

nose: toffee, grass, fruit, and charred oak. the toffee isn't sweet or overpowering; the grassiness veers into herbs, pepper, and cooked vegetable; the fruit is apricots and cooked apples; the oak is dry and smoky. Some malt and toolbox notes. too.

palate: a fight between rich toffee and dry oak. Meaty and sweet in the end.

finish: the wood lingers, and more fruit comes out -- cherries and bananas. More vanilla than before.


I take it there's a lot of barrel influence here, but the spirit holds up nicely to it. It makes me think of this Glen Spey but it's a whole lot better because it keeps a wide range of intense flavors, instead of being dominated by the toffee. Very accessible, too, even at 59.4%.

score: 90

Review #132: Château du Tariquet 1997/2014 15yr, 100% Folle Blanche, 47.2% abv, OB, Bas Armagnac

holiday math problem

I'm not sure how time passes in Bas Armagnac, but this was distilled in 1997, aged in oak barrels, and bottled in 2014, and it's 15 years old. Either somewhere in the process there was some in-between time that doesn't count, or they understated the age. Doesn't really matter -- this is good stuff.

nose: nice very-mature spirits nose -- could be anything old and brown, except for the burst of fruit. Clotted cream with lots of oak spices, tiny amounts of leather and glue, dried flowers, red fruit (esp. cherries), and finally some grapes.

palate: doesn't quite hold up to the nose, but lots of apricots and prunes comes out for the first time. A little oaky after a while (i.e., if you drink a whole bunch), but not drying.

finish: grapey and oaky, maybe a little vanilla.


This is inexpensive, and it manages to have both an old nose and a fresh, fruity palate. Nice combination!

score: 87

Review #131: Lagavulin 12yr Cask Strength, 2013 release, OB, 55.1%

back in the game

Sometimes it's hard to appreciate whisky, which is fine. Other things intervene, and everything somehow starts to taste the same. I haven't written any reviews, or even tried anything new in a while, but I think I can do it again now.

This is, obviously, the annual cask-strength release of Lagavulin. My impression is that it's always worth getting, but never that exciting. This is last year's version, because that's where I'm at.

nose: linseed oil and coal smoke, lots of oyster liqueur, and a little bit of gasoline. Lemonade and crushed rocks and kelp.* There's a nice non-vanilla sweetness. It's sweet and smoky and coastal in a predictable way (but maybe I'm just spoiled).

palate: nicely intense. The peat becomes at once more vegetal and more dieselly, and it really bites; and there's a feeling of sucking on shellfish (shell and all). Oily background. This is where this whisky wins me over a little.

finish: lemon and sweetness fight back for a second, but then the peat reasserts itself, and lasts a remarkably long time.


This isn't the most intense; it isn't the most complex; the flavors aren't the most interesting. But it's very good and straightforward and likeable.

score: 86



* this reminds me: I once sat in a Japanese restaurant next to a table that had ordered oysters (I think). they were served on a bed of rock salt and nori, artistically presented. That table thought they were supposed to eat the plate decoration, and it seemed rude to interrupt them. They found it to be good, but too salty.

Review: Matusalem 30yr VORS (cream) sherry, 20.5% abv, Gonzalez Byass

pre-Thanksgiving preparation

Now that the turkey's soaking in brine and some extra dishes have been dug out, the only thing left to do is to start testing out the sherry, because that's just what the pilgrims would have done.

This is an odd one. It has an age statement. And its classification as a "cream" sherry is nearly microscopic, on the back label: "Cream, Elaborado con Oloroso y P.X." But basically it's an oloroso that's been sweetened up a little.

nose: stunningly dense -- raisins and dates, almonds, lightly roasted coffee. but it's just so dense that everything is in there: apples, molasses, toasted cinnamon bread, clover honey, roasted vegetables. quince paste, tonic.

palate: wow, sweet, then coffee and ginger, then back to raisins and prunes and molasses and cloves. I swear there's some anise in there, and tar. the whole effect is that it's so dense with dried fruit and spices that it's slightly medicinal.

finish: not powerful but lingers forever, a bit of wood comes out, but mostly more of the same.


score: super high!