I wanted to get in the record my Haley Cognata hosted tasting notes. It was a memorable night and eye-opening. I was very impressed with Deanston 12 –minty, yeasty, light and approachable. Reminded me a bit of Littlemill 7. Definitely on my “buy” list. Tobermory 10 “from Mary’s well” was licorice, honey and fennel. Ledaig 9 “safe harbour” was iodine amd medicinal nose–not particularly enjoyable. Bunnahabain 12 was light and sweet with a cereal nose and lots of energy. Not particularly complex, it finishes clean with a slight burn on the back of the tongue. Bunnahabain 18 was caramel nad rubber with a suprisingly quick finish for its age and heaviness. We drank Bunnahabain 25 too but my notes are thin (it was getting late). I don’t recall it spectacular. It was fun drinking Black Bottle again. Haney informed us it’s 45% malt, 55% grain. The nose is an ashtray and the pallette peaty–but that’s it–not much going on here. Overall it was exciting discovering Deanston and Haley added a lot of color to the International Beverage Company evening.
Most age expressions from distilleries are a vatting of casks, the youngest of which is the designated age expression. So Ardbeg 10 is comprised of a mixture of Argbeg casks aged 10 years and longer. This enables the producer to create a consistent taste profile from bottle to bottle, year to year, accounting for such variables as barley variety, climate, peating, etc.
Indy bottlers generally do not vat as described above. They release single cask or single year expressions. They are not trying to create a consistent taste profile. In fact the advantages of drinking indy bottlings is that it’s inconsistent (sometimes in a good way) with the distillery bottling—even of the same age expression. Indy bottlers may take possession of casks, storing them in a different type of climate than the distillery casks. With scotch being comprised of primarily water, the water used to dilute the cask at bottling is often different. And bottled alcohol levels can also vary between distillery bottled and indy bottling. All of these variables play a significant role in effecting the whisky’s profile.
Scotch Malt Whisky is made from malted barley, water and yeast. The first stage of production is the malting of the barley. The barley is first steeped in tanks of water for 2 to 3 days before being spread out on the floors of the malting house to germinate. To arrest germination, the malted barley is dried in a kiln, identifiable by the distinct pagoda-shaped chimneys, characteristic of every distillery.
Peat, a natural fuel cut from the moors of Scotland, is used to fire kilns in the drying process, along with more modern fuels. Smoke from the fire drifts gently upwards through a wire mesh floor to dry out the barley, and the “peat reek” imparts a distinctive aroma which contributes to the character of the final spirit. When dried, the malt is as crisp as toast.
The malted barley is then ground to a rough-hewn grist and mixed with hot water in a vessel known as a mash tun. This process converts the starch in the barley into a sugary liquid known as wort. The wort is transferred to a fermenting vat, or washback, where yeast is added and the fermentation process converts the sugary wort into crude alcohol, similar in aroma and taste to sour beer. This is known as wash.
I was actually surprised to find little information about Signatory available on the Internet. While I know that they are an independent bottler, I could find little ‘official’ history about Signatory. However, the following are some details that I was able to pull together, and I think we should consider speaking with the Signatory rep, Ed Kohl, possibly for future tastings.
Signatory was founded in 1988, and originally wasn’t a fully independent bottler. By April 1992, they had received the approval to bottle casks they owned, and now along with Wm. Cadenhead and Gordon & McPhail, are supposedly the only fully independent bottlers of scotch whisky.
By being able to bottle their own product, they keep greater control over what is output. Whatever they choose not to bottle is given (sold, I presume) back to the blends. They also tend to bottle single casks, and consequently, they get to claim that their bottlings capture more of the unique flavor of each cask. While the bottling process is semi-automated, each bottle is hand-numbered and hand-labeled, containing cask details such as date of distillation and date of bottling. Consequently, their labeling practice gives a bit of exclusivity to their offerings.
Additionally, there is only light filtration to enusre 86 proof malts that maintain their natural flavors. In fact, Signatory had recently released un-chilfiltered bottlings in the past few years.
It’s important to note that a common practice for Signatory is to get their older casks through batering. Signatory will buy casks from distillers, and occasionally, master blenders find themselves short in casks for their blend. They call Signatory, and arrange a barter for some rarer whiskies. They also will buy parcels (25-50 casks) and choose the best for independent bottling, and later sell the rest back to blenders.
Incidentally, Signatory originally was supposed to carry signatures of famous people on their labels…hence the name “Signatory”. But, by the time their first cask was purchased and bottled, they had sold all their product before they obtained the signature.
Signatory has also purchased ownership of the Edradour distillery, and has run the operation since July 2002. From what I recall when talking with Ed Kohl at Whiskyfest, Edradour is kept fairly separate from Signatory’s independent bottling business.
Murray McDavid was formed by Gordon Wright, Mark Reynier, and Simon Coughlin in1996. Gordon’s family own Springbank Distillery and Cadenhead’s (another independent bottler). Gordon was the sales and marketing director for nine years before starting Murray McDavid. Mark and Simon own four fine wine stores in London and specialise in Burgundy. Nine generations in the whisky business between them. Murray McDavid is now owned by the Bruichladdich Distillery.
“Murray McDavid are Independent Bottlers with a difference. The tradition of independent bottling goes back 150 years and was, until fairly recently, the only source for many of Scotland’s finest malts. The practice of distilleries bottling their own malts started in the 60s, but only became a major event in the last few years. Independent bottlers offer the consumer many things. They offer the opportunity to taste some of the more esoteric malts not bottled by their owners. They offer the chance to try well known and widely available brands at a different age, a different strength, possibly even a different type of barrel than the distillery bottled product. ”
Murray McDavid prides itself with its cask selection. “The selection of casks is of prime importance and great care is taken to find the finest available. Murray McDavid only selects for bottling those casks that they feel represent the best the distillery can produce. All the Single Malt Scotches are bottled without chill filtering, which removes many of the oils that carry the flavour and complexity of the malt. They are not coloured with caramel like many other bottlings which gives the drinker the chance to sample the Scotch in its most natural form. The bottling strength is 46% Alc/Vol (92 proof) which is an ideal drinking strength, no complicated mathematical calculations to work out how much water to add! ”
The philosophy is largely inspired by the traditions from the top-of-the-range wine world. Mark Reynier a third generation wine merchant, uses several aspects from the wine world in the preparation of their bottlings, for example always tasting each cask, creating an assemblage of several casks from the same distillation for maximal complexity.
Murray McDavid represents a particular trend in the world of independent bottlers, due to the wine traditions inherited by its managers. Great respect for tradition and a constant search for quality. Unlike many others, they never bottle a “single cask”, arguing that these kind of bottlings never guarantee a constant quality, are unrepresentative, and often out of balance. There are many factors influencing the quality of a cask (poor quality wood, nails, poorly coopered casks, the proximity of the windows or ceilings, the humidity and temperature in the maturing warehouse, etc…)
Murray McDavid also does not alter the color of the whisky and all of the whiskys are chill filtered.
