Yet another Sam’s Spirit Night whisky brother Bluff and I chose to sample was Bruichladdich 20. Bruichladdich 15 got average scores from KOTQ so I wanted to see how the 20 yo stood up, particularly after the disappointing 3D experience. We learned that the 20 yo is a Second Release–they are not perpetually cranking out 20 yos so this is a limited offering. They gave it another stupid nickname “Flirtation”–but let’s look beyond that. The first thing you notice is that the color is atypically (or is that typically) rose color–distinctively red-brown. The whisky is aged in bourbon casks and then “finished” for 5 weeks in Mourvèdre casks. Mourvèdre is a red grape native of Spain and also grown in France and California. It is known for making rich, intense, inky, leathery wines. So clearly this is where Bruichladdich 20 picks up some of its color. The whisky has an earthy nose, floral with a hint of mint. The pallette is soapy and sweet with a little bit of wood–no discernable peat. The finish is clean and easy. Oddly, none of the experience says “Islay”. This is nice mid-afternoon scotch. Good, not too challenging but still flavourful. It retails for $169 at Sam’s. This is the tipping point for me. While I like the drink, $169 buys a lot of HP18 or a really nice bottle of Glenfarclas 35 yo. I’m finding with all the Bruichladdies, the price/value relationship is a little out of whack–they’re overpriced.
You want a great way to learn about anything over the Internet in a relatively short period of time? Then, participate in forums. I regularly read (and subscribe to) forums for Heroclix and Board Games. I have learned immense amounts of useful information just by reading and participating in these forums.
I’m starting to get excited about Whisky Magazine’s forums as well. There is an opportunity to gain access to a hugely valuable resource on what is happening in the Single Malt Scotch world, not from the industry perspective, but from the single malt enthusiast’s perspective, by reading (you don’t even have to contribute) the forums at Whisky On-Line.
I have set up direct links to the open-ended Whisky Q&A forum and the Whisky Tasting Notes forum in our sidebar area under Whisky Magazine On-Line. I highly recommend both, but, note that Whisky Magazine On-Line also has many, many, other forums for you to use.
The Q&A forum covers the full gamut of single malt enthusiasm and experience from what to do when you visit Scotland, to the FWP (French Whore Perfume) problem with current Bowmores, to what gift to give a friend with a $300 budget. The topics are wide ranging and relevant all at once.
As a teaser I invite you to go straight to this thread on single malts and music. Read through the whole thread, and you’ll see that many, if not all, of us are in good company when it comes to opinion on this!
The Tasting forum is an excellent supplement and extension to our own tasting notes area. I recommend it as well.
Another dram Brother Bluff and I had the opportunity to sample at Sam’s Spirit Night was the new Bruichladdich 3D “The Peat Proposal”. As you all know, Bruichladdich, like it’s mid-Islay neighbor Bowmore, is regarded as having a medium peat profile. Well, as we learned from the heavy-accented distiller, Bruichladdich hasn’t always been that way. For eighty years, up until the early 60’s Bruichladdich was heavy peat. Then following a trend it toned down it’s peat from 40 PPM phenols to 5-10 PPM phenols that it has today. (The amount of peating is measured by the concentration of acidic organic compounds called phenols that are found in the peat smoke. The higher the phenols the peatier). Lagavulin has 40 PPM, Laphroaig 35 PPM for comparison. The new entry is made from the 3 separate maturing stocks, each distilled from a different degree of peated barley: 5 PPM, 25 PPM and 40 PPM. Ages 2001, 1998 and 1989 respectively and in three contrasting types of oak casks (refill sherry, refill bourbon, fresh bourbon). Each comes from a different era of distillery ownership and matured in 3 very different warehouses.
So, enough of the background. This 4 yo whisky is (not surprisingly) over-the-top peat. It’s in your face peat that is strong and unrestrained. It has notes of coffee and caramel. The Peat Proposal name is a little too gimmicky for my liking and the “3D” double-entendre is short on follow through. It’s 1D: peat. And it doesn’t come close to the southern Islay malts in terms of flavour. Buy a dram if you can but not a bottle.
I had the pleasure of sharing with Brother Ville a dram of a scotch that will make its way into my Top 10 malts, Glenfarclas 35. We shared such a wonderful malt experience in celebrating the acquisition of Brother Ville’s & Mrs. Ville’s (and the rest of the family’s) lake house in Wisconsin. Given that we tasted it nearly a month ago and I couldn’t post until the surprise announcement was made, I don’t remember all of the sweet sherry-like details. I do remember that the finish relates somewhat to how Brother Irving described HP 30. Given that Glenfarclas 35 is part of my collection, I look forward to sharing it with each and every one of you, maybe even at the lake house…. 🙂
Caol Ila 25 was another hit at Sam’s Spirits night. It was one of those, off the radar, member’s only samplings at $200/bottle. It’s a distillery bottled at cask strength 59.4% alcohol. Now for all of you cask-strength-leary, don’t hit the back button (yet). I learned from the distiller that you really should cut it with water-it’s not meant to be drunk at full strength. Too much alcohol masks the flavours, overwhelming the experience. Once cut to ~40% it was a nice dram. Light grass in the nose. Pallette was light smoke, syrupy and a finish that lets you down gently. AFTER, I tried it full strength–just a wee bit. It was a very different experience–hot, intense, rich.
