Review #122: Longrow Peated Campbeltown Single Malt Scotch Whiskey, NAS, 46%, OB

Halloween blogging

So this is the basic Longrow, which is the double-stilled and heavily peated Springbank. Probably a mix of ages (from young to very young) and probably not a mix of casks (refill bourbon).

Nose: crazy stuff. Well, maybe not, but there's lots of paraffin and plastic, greasy varnish, smoky pears, toasted oats, tonic, and, eventually, some sweet, creamy notes and citrus comes through. Lots of peat and rather youngish, but no monster.

Palate: rather dull, actually. ginger tonic plus some phenols.

Finish: lots of smoky, vegetal peat and then a burst of sweetness -- banana creme pie, I think -- plus herbal tonic.


This is good, dependable stuff. If there are any eccentricities, they are interesting ones. It falls apart on the palate for me, but otherwise very enjoyable.

score: 84

Review #121: Brora 30yr, 2009 release (8th edition), 53.2%, OB, 2652 bottles

birthday blogging

Seems like a good time to open this. From the dead distillery across the way from Clynelish.

nose: peaches, honey, a bucket of seawater, an almond, some rocks, roses, salted caramels, baked apples with oak spice, creamy beeswax, and muted but biting peat. More sherry fruit comes out over time. Tiny hints of loam and ricola and bacon. Nothing seems particularly profound or intense, but it's like a greatest hits album. Everything is sedate, balanced: it moves nicely between fruit and peat and wax.

palate: smoky wax, lemony apples. Really very waxy, and the peat coats everything. Some sauvignon blanc flavors, old oak, and some nice herbs (tarragon, lemon balm).

finish: the peat tingles and settles into smoke, lots of fruity sweetness with vanilla, and a little menthol. really lingers.


This doesn't rock my world, but it comes pretty close. It's basically a peaty Clynelish with some extra depth and richness. But that's pretty good!

score: 91

Review #120: Glen Spey 25 yr 1988/2014, Archives, 47.3% abv, bourbon hogshead, C#356079, 163 bottles

found another one!

I happened to have another Glen Spey sample lying around (just like #119), so let's get to it. It's from the Fish of Samoa series from Whiskybase. Very cheap for 25yr whisky these days.

Nose: wow, really minimal barrel effect, unlike the last one. Very, very pale and straightforward: malt, pear, vanilla cream, hay. After a while it opens up to some very soft fruit: peaches, currants, lemon, maybe even some blueberries. Marzipan. There's some charred oak in there, too. It's all very mellow.

Palate: Soft and creamy. The fruit comes out more, and there's a nice herbal sting that's not quite bitter and not quite minty.

Finish: well, pretty short.


This is very subtle stuff, but develops nicely and shows maturity without relying on any big barrel effects. It requires some attention, but I like this a lot.

score: 87

Unnumbered review: some Barbera

not from the wine lake

Here's some Barbera. It's hard not to think of Barbera as supermarket wine at best, when it's grown in somebody's uncle's vineyard in Piemonte that can't ripen nebbiolo, and wine-lake-wine at worst, when the grape is grown for high yields and no particular reason somewhere else. But then someone thought that it was possible to make excellent wine from barbera, and they were right.

These are all Barbera DOC (but not DOCG) from Piemonte. They're all good -- call them B/B+ -- and they go well with food.

Querciola Barbera D’Alba 2005, 14% abv

intense black cherry and berry nose, with some interesting pitchy/woody and acetic notes.

deeply flavored palate with smooth tannins and a little acidity, but finishes a little thin.

Giulin Barbera del Monferrato 2008, 14.5%

densely colored. smells like the inside of an old barrel, in a nice way, and then some very dark and dry fruits open up. chewy and slightly sour entry, but then it becomes light and fruity. it feels very old-fashioned – like it was vinified (although I have no idea) in a big wooden vat with lots of stems and wild yeast – which I like. But nothing about it really stands out otherwise.

Boroli Quattro Fratelli Barbera D’Alba 2007, 14% abv

softer and more brightly acidic than the others, with some simple red fruit and minerals coming out on the palate. wood spices and minty herbs come out next, and the finish is the best part: the fruit becomes deeper and more tarry.

The Boroli is probably a little too simple and thinly-flavored to stand up on its own, but holds up well with food. The Querciola is the most concentrated of the bunch, but the Guilin is definitely worth trying, especially if you prefer a woodier, less fruit-forward style.

Review #119: Glen Spey 21yr 1989/2010, 50.4%, OB, first fill American oak, 5844 bottles

is this for real?

I don't know much about Glen Spey, but the name seems like a joke, as if someone named a French wine "Mas de Domaine Château," or something like that. But this makes more sense than that -- it's just a little plain, as far as names go. This one is still pretty widely available, oddly enough. I'm looking forward to it.

Nose: grassy -- more than I expected -- with a lot of chewy, meaty bourbon funkiness. What is bourbon funkiness, you ask? It's leather and corn and crème caramel and extracted oak spices, mostly, with some savory herbs and a distinctive sour note. Underneath all that there's a toasty malt core, and some fruit come out after a while, but you could almost mistake it for an unusually dry, oaky, savory bourbon.

Palate: Oak in your face. There are lots of soft, candied flavors, too, and some bananas and coconut, but the oak really grabs you (me).

Finish: lots of spices (clove, cinnamon, coriander) and toffee appear for the finish. I think it might be the best part.


Although this is enjoyable whisky, I'm a little disappointed: I was hoping to learn something about Glen Spey distillate, and instead I feel as if I learned more about distillate that sits in American oak for a long time. Still, I like American oak, and I like the departures from bourbon (the dry, savory herbaceousness) that this stuff does make.

score: 87

Review #118: Kavalan King Car "Conductor" Taiwanese Malt Whisky, NAS, 46%, OB

What is this, anyway?

It's single malt whisky from Taiwan, obviously, but I don't understand the range. The single-cask bottlings, that may or may not be called "Solist," are easy enough to understand; the others are more confusing. But I think it goes like this: the one called either nothing or "Classic" is mostly ex-bourbon barrels with a few sherry barrels; the one called "Concertmaster" is all ex-bourbon, and then finished in port barrels (definitely either barriques or pipes); and this one is a vatting of eight different barrel types, including a lots of different wine casks, but is mostly just Classic with a higher proportion of sherry barrels.

nose: soft sherry fruit with a little banana and coconut. It's a little young and grassy, but there's are some nice almonds and marshmallows, too. Some oak and that's about it. Very clean gentle nose.

palate: still very soft and maybe a little prickly, but the flavor is nicely rounded. the profile adds some toast and a lot of buttery toffee, but otherwise stays the same.

finish: the sherry fruit becomes juicier for a second and lingers nicely.


This is nice whisky -- very pleasant drinking and nothing objectionable. It's hard to see how it's worth the $110 or so that it costs, but I guess that's the way of the world.

score: 83

Review #117: Benromach Peat Smoke 2005/2013, 46% abv, OB, 67 PPM, aged in first-fill bourbon barrels

more Benromach

67 ppm is really a lot of peat -- it's higher by a fair measure than any of of the Kildalton distilleries. Of course, the phenols in the malt might not make it through the still ...

nose: well, yes, there's peat, but no, not twice as much as Lagavulin. It's an oily and sooty peat, with some funky vegetal notes in back, and then something like the inside of an angry vacuum cleaner (I imagine). There's not a whole lot else going on, but there are lots of nice sweet lemon drops, some furniture polish, and a cracker.

palate: sweet and then peat. gumdrops for an instant, and then the peat: inky and phenolic at first, opening up into weird humusy notes.

finish: sweet, oily, prickly, long. it really is very sweet -- maybe they should put ppm of sugar on the bottle, too.


I find it a little strange that (almost) all the peat monsters (that's lower case) have taken to sweetening up their distillate so much. But it works well in this case -- everything is well integrated and comfortable, even if not super-exciting.

score: 85