Review #20: Kavalan Solist Sherry, bottled 2012, OB, 58.6%, C# S060710004, 570 bottles

this still isn't imported to the States yet. oh well.

If it ends up costing as much as it does at TWE, I doubt it'll be worth it. Still, it's intriguing -- maybe they've been buying up all the best sherry casks. It's not very old, of course -- there's a bottling date but no fill date -- that and the hot weather in Taiwan makes me think it's pretty young.

It's very dark, and has a nose to match: thick, rich, sweet, with soy sauce and chocolate and some green tobacco and ripe red berries and marzipan and cotton candy and fruit gummies -- lychee above all. It's the berries on top of everything that get to me -- it's like a jar of Bonne Maman thrown into a bottle of brandy de jerez. Really appealing. There's a hint of burnt matchsticks, but not unpleasant at all.

The matchsticks scorch the palate a little bit, but then it's back to candied sweetness mixed with soy and coffee. The finish is long and sweet on vanilla mocha, red fruit, coconut, and, well, matchsticks.

So the nose is just fabulous, the palate is ok, and the finish holds up well. I thought this would be more of a pricey novelty -- sometimes things get buzz because they're new rather than because they're good, but this is definitely good.

score: 89

Review #19: Talisker Distiller's Edition 1991/2005, 45.8%, amoroso cask finish

this is the least consistent whisky I have

"Amoroso" is oloroso that's been sweetened, I think. I don't think I've ever had any. Also in the category of things that I don't feel like looking up: I think this is from back when Diageo used to give the DE's a year or two extra time in the finishing casks, not just a few weeks.

I swear the taste of this changes day by day. (Or at least season by season -- this is a liter bottle, but I've had it a while.)

On a bad day: it's generic sherry prune and cooked banana sweetness on top of peppery peat, with a slightly watery finish. Pleasant, but not exciting.

On a good day: the peat really evolves from ashes to barnyardiness -- it really opens into all kind of organic flavors -- before turning to pepper and bacon. The fruit seems spicy, with armagnac-like raisins and cloves, a bit of oak shavings, and some chalky minerality. It still seems a little light on the palate, but a dry, smoky peat lingers on the finish, occasionally interrupted by candied fruit.

So I've hesitated to drink it all, since I'm never sure what I'm going to get. It's definitely going to stop evolving soon, though, since the bottle's almost empty.

score: between 80 and 89

Review #18: Singtom Estate BPS "In-Between" and Singbulli Estate SFTGFOP1

maybe I'll get some work done tonight

or maybe not. either way, two Darjeelings bought from Upton. These are teas, not whiskies, by the way.

Singtom BPS In-Between, Organic

well, if "In-Between" is for people who can't decide between first flush and second flush, then that's for me. it costs less than either, too, although it's a lower grade. (I guess "BPS" is just the Darjeeling way of saying Broken Pekoe -- strange I had to look that up when SFTGFOP1 makes perfect sense to me.)

dry vegetal nose with some floral fruit -- like quince or apricots, very faintly. palate is much lighter than I expected -- somehow it imparts the taste of green tannins without the bite. so overall it is a little bit of first flush and a little bit of second flush, but not exactly the best of both worlds. still nice for the price.


Singbulli Estate SFTGFOP1

this one was pricey -- almost 10x as much, I think.

ah, the Benriach 1976 of Darjeeling. Not the finest nose ever, but filled with tropical fruit (pineapple, lychee) and the herbaceousness is less stemmy and more herbal (as in fines herbes). it's all very delicate, of course, and on the palate it's already a memory, but some new flavors -- almond paste, buttercups -- come in with the aftertaste.

very nice, but you could miss it all if you weren't paying close attention.

Review #17: Kilchoman 2007/2013 "Loch Gorm", OB, 46%, 10000 bottles

let's do one more

The smoke seems even drier, ashier than in #16, but it has the sherry notes to fall back on. The sherry seems like the tobacco/flinty/mossy kind, with only a little stewed fruit, but maybe that's the smoke influence. Some bacon and wood glue, too. The peat still dominates.

On the palate I get a mouthful of ash, like all that stuff (esp. moss, wool) has been left on a barbecue for a few weeks. Some vanilla fruit sweetness comes in at the finish, but then the cinders take over again. I didn't realize that ash could persist like this.

I like the other one better.

score: 82

Review #16: Kilchoman 4yr 2006/2011, OB for WIN, 60.0%, bourbon hogshead, C#252/2006, 261 bottles

not the oldest release ever

Because this is the oldest release ever -- 6 (or maybe) 5 years old. It makes me wonder about buying Kilchoman now -- since there are plenty of other things to buy -- and the longer you wait, the older the whisky that becomes available. From what I can gather, quality is going up, too ...

I wonder if at some point they'll take bigger heart cuts, too. Apparently if you want something palatable at 3yrs old, you take a tiny cut from the middle of the run. But I imagine (on the basis of pure guessing) that that takes out flavor components that would be nice to have around 10 yrs later, too.

Anyway, Serge says that very young malts are always better as single casks (he might think), because individuality > balance in those cases -- with Kilchoman in particular. So here's one.

It's sweeter and more floral than I expected. I mean, sure, it smells like an incinerator, but on top of all the soot there's a nice floral sweetness -- vanilla toffee, honeysuckle, rose water. Lots of brine and camphor, too. The peat is mostly ashy, but at least it was something medicinal and something earthy that's been smoldering for a while now. A wet and thoroughly bandaged stablehand.

On the palate it's a fistfight between malty sweetness and ashiness, with some lemon trying to break it up. The ashiness wins, taunts everyone, lingers around for while, and says a few earthy things as the others depart.

This one is a lot of fun, though I wish I heard more from the earthy side of the peat.

score: 88

Review #15: Christiana Ultra Premium Vodka, Ketel One Vodka, TIto's Handmade Vodka, Grey Goose Vodka

I'm not sure there's any point to this.

I'm curious about all this, but the whole thing seems a little bit stupid -- who can purify and filter their ethanol the best so that it doesn't taste like anything. But maybe I'm wrong about all that. I guess I'll see.

Day 1 - fridge cool, sipped neat, lowball glass. all 40% abv.

Christiana ($33): pleasantly sweet, not at all hot. palate: nothing. velvety a little heat going down. ethanol sweetness with a bit of oily texture. like a soft vodka-flavored vodka (?)
packaging: Scandinavian modern, plastic stopper

need to find a palate cleanser, I guess. should have planned better. or do I need to bother? here's some bread and almonds, anyway. but who bought dill pickle flavored chips?

Tito's ($19): nose is a little feinty (?), but faintly. palate is both a little sweet and a little rough, but sort of trivially so. somehow rounder than the Christiania. finish is more nothing, but leaves an aftertaste of not much.
packaging: crudely crude -- generic bottle with a coarse paper label with copper foil stamping

Ketel One ($22): "inspired by small batch craftsmanship," ha ha ha. nose is even fainter than the Christiana -- the smell of almost nothing. maybe a little graininess, less sweetness. a little hotter on the palate, but not much. otherwise not much hint of any flavor or texture. maybe a very mildly acidic note, like cucumber water. finish: pronouncedly nothing.
packaging: faux gothic minimalist. 2-color label with some metallic ink.

Grey Goose ($28): nothing on the nose. faintly vodka-like. a little bit of graininess and heat, maybe. sort of pleasant. palate is sweet-ish, soft-ish, hot-ish. squishy that way. it somehow manages not to come together for me. (how?) finish seems somehow empty.
packaging: graphic designer pretty. if you look past the geese, and through the transparent goose, then you can see more geese. none of them are grey, but the bottle is mostly frosted.

Should I explain to my wife what I was doing with all these glasses, or just wash them and put them away before she notices?

Day 2 - 1:1 OJ and vodka.

Ketel One: a little vodka-y. the roughness even stands out more against the OJ.

Tito's: this tasting is stupid. I should have bought a bag of limes.

Christiania: vodka slightly less noticeable until finish. velvety finish again.

Grey Goose: most noticeable on palate of the bunch. otherwise about the same.

**

So this was pretty pointless for me: I like my alcohol with flavor. I'm impressed that the Christiania managed to stand out, but the whole thing still seemed pointless. I can imagine someone being excited by it, and even managing to appreciate the subtle distinctions between the vodka -- for there are differences! -- but I can't: I just don't drink enough vodka, or find enough occasions to drink vodka, to care at all. (I do care about water, oddly enough, but I drink a lot of that!)

bonus analogies: Christiania: Acqua Panna, Tito's: Apollinaris, Ketel One: Vittel, Grey Goose: Evian

Review #14: Dalmore NAS, 49.1%, Asta Morris for The Bonding Dram, Cask #AM 005, 2013

a Dalmore in an attractive bottle -- it must cost a million dollars ...

or maybe EUR 45, VAT inclusive. I've never had an indy Dalmore before -- I think this must the benefits of the Kingfisher Air troubles. I might be totally wrong about this, but Suntory bought the old stocks for the Whyte & Mackay brands, and then Diageo came in and bought a controlling interest in the brands. But whatever -- as often with indy whisky, someone else's misfortune (in this case, Vijay Mallya's) is what makes things available to us. Or maybe this cask just fell off a truck, who knows.

I wish there were a little info on the cask, I guess. Oh well, it's probably young, and let's speculate it's a refill hoggie. (I saw "aged in an oak cask" on a bottle the other day -- thanks for that information, bottle.)

So, the drink:

Nice, unexpected nose. Young grassiness with apples, pears, and parsley mixed with creamy barrel richness (vanilla, toffee, white chocolate and the like). Not really sure how to sort it all out. Citrus, chamomile, and something sweet -- somewhere between Bit o'Honey and Werther's, too, but all with a peppery edge. Did I mention fruit? Is creamsicle a fruit?

Oily and tart on the palate -- underripe orchard fruit and burnt rocks until the sweet fruit and the barrel spices come back. It's a really interesting vanilla -- more like madagascar beans in a custard than like a generic flavoring. Finishes, eventually, with the grassiness and pears.

good stuff for (relatively) cheap! very enjoyable.

score: 86