At last it is time to get down to the Aberlour.
My younger daughter is studying to be a vet at London University. During the five year course the students are expected to spend a lot of time in between their time at college on work experience placements. Kathryn arranged to spend several weeks on Coll helping Sheila and Martin with their Eriskay ponies a couple of summers ago. As a thank you they presented her with this bottle of whisky. Kathryn doesn't drink whisky but she made me wait until the following Christmas before presenting the bottle to me.
It is from a single cask bottling. This has been made at 40% so this is bottle number 144 out of a batch of 360. It was distilled in 1989 and bottled at either 12 or 14 years; it is not obvious from the label. It is clear at 40% so was probably chill filtered. The colour is a mid brown so it is difficult to say whether or not caramel has been added.
The nose is sweet and sherry like with a distinct hint of wood, so the colour may be natural if it was a sherry cask. The first sip carries a mellow marzipan butteriness. It is easy drinking but lacking in complexity. Most single malts are actually a blend of several casks enabling a consistentcy of the expression. The lack of fullness in this single cask bottling is apparent. Never the less it is a lovely smooth malt, which would be a wonderful introduction for a whisky neophile.
Saturday 24 February 2007
Sunday 18 February 2007
Something to look forward to
One of the disadvantages of being a biomedical scientist is on-call. I work in the Microbiology Department at the Conquest Hospital, Hastings and this is my weekend on. As a result the Aberlour will have to wait a few days as I have to be ready to drive into the hospital at a moment's notice. Never mind, I can while away some time recording a good thing that happened last week related to my whisky travels.
I mentioned the Isle of Coll in my introduction. My in laws bought a ruined cottage there about 50 years ago and the family have been doing it up ever since. You can read the story of its resurrection in "House in the Hebrides" by John Ogg (ISBN 0-954-80630-1). It was an ideal place for family holidays while the children were growing up. My eldest daughter decided she would like to take her boyfriend there during the May half term week. This all fixed up now and we are going to be there with them.
While we are up there we thought a few days on Islay would be fun too. We have an interest in a barrel of Bruichladdich so like to be able to pay our respects from time to time. Last time we went it was all a bit rushed as we accidentally went during the week of the Islay Show, but I will write more on that later. We decided it would be good to try and have a more leisurely visit during the week after we are in Coll. I looked up suitable accomodation on the internet and started phoning up to make a booking. I thought surely February is early enough to secure something in June. But no, place after place that I called was fully booked. What was going on? To my amazement I discovered that we had plumped on the very week of the Islay Whisky Festival! Well the good news is that we have managed to book ourselves a bed, so we will be there. Now that's something to look forward to on a grey February Sunday afternoon.
I mentioned the Isle of Coll in my introduction. My in laws bought a ruined cottage there about 50 years ago and the family have been doing it up ever since. You can read the story of its resurrection in "House in the Hebrides" by John Ogg (ISBN 0-954-80630-1). It was an ideal place for family holidays while the children were growing up. My eldest daughter decided she would like to take her boyfriend there during the May half term week. This all fixed up now and we are going to be there with them.
While we are up there we thought a few days on Islay would be fun too. We have an interest in a barrel of Bruichladdich so like to be able to pay our respects from time to time. Last time we went it was all a bit rushed as we accidentally went during the week of the Islay Show, but I will write more on that later. We decided it would be good to try and have a more leisurely visit during the week after we are in Coll. I looked up suitable accomodation on the internet and started phoning up to make a booking. I thought surely February is early enough to secure something in June. But no, place after place that I called was fully booked. What was going on? To my amazement I discovered that we had plumped on the very week of the Islay Whisky Festival! Well the good news is that we have managed to book ourselves a bed, so we will be there. Now that's something to look forward to on a grey February Sunday afternoon.
Thursday 15 February 2007
Bruichladdich 10 year old
Taste is a subjective thing so it is unlikely that others will like what I like and agree with my descriptions of taste. However I am keeping this record so that I will be able to look back on my travels, seeing how my perceptions change with time. I have seen tasting notes talking about citrus notes. I have a grapefruit for breakfast every day and I don't think I have ever experienced a whisky that tastes anything similar. When people describe a whisky as chocolatey, what sort of chocolate are they talking about?
Ever out for a bargain Dot, my wife, bought a box of fine chocolate bars at quarter price in the post Christmas sales. It really is lovely stuff and comes with a leaflet of tasting notes. Would you believe it? One of them is described as "complex notes of tobacco, whisky and smoke". It's bad enough being told that whisky tastes like chocolate, but the other way round, no way.
Now I must get on with the matter in hand and the first whisky that I really enjoyed, Bruichladdich 10 year old in its squat bottle, blue label, and posh tin. It's bottled at 46% alcohol so no chill filtering has removed those subtle flavour enhancing components that precipitate out with further dilution of the cask strength liquid. Judging from the pale yellow colour, it is all the natural result of putting clear spirit into ex bourbon oak barrels for a few years.
It's easy on the eye and easy on the nose too. There is nothing powerful here, just an almost imperceptable floral scent on top of the spirit. Moving on to the taste there is a straightforward oakiness in the strong spirit. It is approachable and enjoyable in its simplicity. A couple more sips and the alcohol begins to warm the spirit and calm the nerves. When the family assembled the day after my father in law died, we all started to pick up after emptying a bottle of this. It was a healing dram indeed.
The next instalment on my journey concerns a single barrel bottling of Aberlour, but that is for another day.
Ever out for a bargain Dot, my wife, bought a box of fine chocolate bars at quarter price in the post Christmas sales. It really is lovely stuff and comes with a leaflet of tasting notes. Would you believe it? One of them is described as "complex notes of tobacco, whisky and smoke". It's bad enough being told that whisky tastes like chocolate, but the other way round, no way.
Now I must get on with the matter in hand and the first whisky that I really enjoyed, Bruichladdich 10 year old in its squat bottle, blue label, and posh tin. It's bottled at 46% alcohol so no chill filtering has removed those subtle flavour enhancing components that precipitate out with further dilution of the cask strength liquid. Judging from the pale yellow colour, it is all the natural result of putting clear spirit into ex bourbon oak barrels for a few years.
It's easy on the eye and easy on the nose too. There is nothing powerful here, just an almost imperceptable floral scent on top of the spirit. Moving on to the taste there is a straightforward oakiness in the strong spirit. It is approachable and enjoyable in its simplicity. A couple more sips and the alcohol begins to warm the spirit and calm the nerves. When the family assembled the day after my father in law died, we all started to pick up after emptying a bottle of this. It was a healing dram indeed.
The next instalment on my journey concerns a single barrel bottling of Aberlour, but that is for another day.
The Beginning
My father in law was of Scottish extraction and was quite partial to a wee dram. In fact it was sometimes a good bit more than a wee dram. I can recall him downing three quarters of a bottle of scotch on his own of an evening. Now, if I drank that much I would at the very least be waking up in ITU if not six feet under. However, John would just stand up out of his arm chair at the end of the evening, wish us all a good night's sleep, and walk steadily across the room on his way to retiring. The next day there wouldn't be the slightest hint of a hang over. Sadly, we lost John a couple of years' ago at the well preserved age of 83.
John's tipple was a good blend. He never really appreciated all this single malt stuff. Over the years his favourites varied. I recall Bells and The Famous Grouse on the table beside his chair. Another was a special blend available only through the Wine Society. I have to be honest and say that at I have yet to find a widely available blend that I enjoy. On one of our visits to the Hebridean island of Coll we were visiting Alec and Flora, God rest their souls, when the offer of drinks was made. I owned up to Alec about my not appreciating whisky so he said he would fix a dram that I would enjoy. You may consider it sacrilege, but he mixed it with lemonade and I did enjoy it.
My downfall was whiskey rather than whisky. A few years ago I won a bottle of Jamieson's as second prize in a competition. I immediately fell in love with the mellow smoothness of it. The slippery slope continued due to Harvey's brewery shop in Lewes, East Sussex. Now Harvey's is where I obtained my management qualification as I organised a tour of the brewery for the local branch of my professional association. I am now the proud owner of a certificate which attests to the fact that I can organise a piss up in a brewery, so no one can say I can't. On one of my visits to the brewery shop to top up my crate, I saw a fascinating looking tin containing a dumpy little bottle with the name Bruichladdich on it. I had never seen anything so unpronouncable so I bought a bottle of the ten year old. This must have been about the time that the distillery reopened so I am grateful to the marketing guys at the time for getting it right to attract my attention.
This is the end of the beginning because next I must go to the trouble of charging a glass with a drop of said ten year old Bruichladdich and let you know my thoughts on it. In case you a wondering, I gather the pronounciation is "brookladdy" or thereabouts.
John's tipple was a good blend. He never really appreciated all this single malt stuff. Over the years his favourites varied. I recall Bells and The Famous Grouse on the table beside his chair. Another was a special blend available only through the Wine Society. I have to be honest and say that at I have yet to find a widely available blend that I enjoy. On one of our visits to the Hebridean island of Coll we were visiting Alec and Flora, God rest their souls, when the offer of drinks was made. I owned up to Alec about my not appreciating whisky so he said he would fix a dram that I would enjoy. You may consider it sacrilege, but he mixed it with lemonade and I did enjoy it.
My downfall was whiskey rather than whisky. A few years ago I won a bottle of Jamieson's as second prize in a competition. I immediately fell in love with the mellow smoothness of it. The slippery slope continued due to Harvey's brewery shop in Lewes, East Sussex. Now Harvey's is where I obtained my management qualification as I organised a tour of the brewery for the local branch of my professional association. I am now the proud owner of a certificate which attests to the fact that I can organise a piss up in a brewery, so no one can say I can't. On one of my visits to the brewery shop to top up my crate, I saw a fascinating looking tin containing a dumpy little bottle with the name Bruichladdich on it. I had never seen anything so unpronouncable so I bought a bottle of the ten year old. This must have been about the time that the distillery reopened so I am grateful to the marketing guys at the time for getting it right to attract my attention.
This is the end of the beginning because next I must go to the trouble of charging a glass with a drop of said ten year old Bruichladdich and let you know my thoughts on it. In case you a wondering, I gather the pronounciation is "brookladdy" or thereabouts.
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