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Archive for 2009

Nightly dram – Talisker 18

Posted in review, Talisker, tagged , , on April 26, 2009| 10 Comments »

Talisker 18

Talisker 18

Ahh…that’s the stuff.  If you’re looking for a fair and balanced Talisker 18 review, look elsewhere (perhaps some of the links at the bottom of this post).  I have nothing negative to say about this wonderful scotch whisky.  In fact, the first time I tasted it, I immediately declared it better than all of the other scotches I’d tasted.  Although, at the time (just four months ago), that count stood at around 8.  I’ve tried a lot more whiskies since then, scotch and others, and I’ve since given up trying to declare a single “best” one.  I’ve gone with more of a tier system, and Talisker 18 remains in the top tier along with Lagavulin 16 and DE, Highland Park 18, and perhaps The Glenlivet 18.

On the nose, I get an earthy peat and light smoke, something slightly medicinal, and finally just a bit of toffee sweetness.  Once in the mouth, the sweetness becomes more fruity, and then a slight peppery sensation grows stronger in the back of the mouth as the drink goes down.  Finally, coming up through the back of the nose at the end is that earthy peat and smoke again.  I can’t believe how balanced this scotch is.  Those main elements of peat, smoke, iodine, sweetness and pepper come and go in waves, dancing together in harmony like…  Oh crap.  I’m starting to wax poetic over my freaking drink.  Ok…climbing back down to earth here:  This scotch whisky rocks!

Apparently, I’m not the only one that puts the Talisker 18 way up there relative to other whiskies.  It won the “Worlds Best Single Malt Whisky” award in the 2007 World Whiskies Awards, for whatever that’s worth.  This whisky is bottled at 45.8%, and I’ve purchased it in two configurations:  200ml as part of a gift pack containing the 10, 18 and DE Taliskers (highly recommended, and I’ll talk about this in another post) – $65; 750ml bottle – $70 to $80.  Currently, the Talisker 18 has gotten very difficult to find locally in AZ.  No new stock appears to be coming in.  Luckily I have a couple of additional bottles stocked up for future use.

Check out these additional tasting notes and resources for Talisker 18:

  • Whisky Magazine – Notes and ratings by Martine Nouet and Dave Broom, as well as links to WM Forum threads, including comparisons of the 10 year to the 18.
  • The Whisky Exchange – In addition to being able to buy it here, you can see the stats and additional tasting notes.
  • K&L Wine Merchants – Located in CA, selling it for $76.  The reason I’m posting the link here is so you can check out their description.  They’re saying that the 18 is “almost out of existance”.  I emailed them about it and they replied that this is what their sales rep said.  It seems to be readily available overseas, and the distillery web site doesn’t say anything about it going away, so I’m not sure what to make of that.
  • Malts.com – Tasting notes on the 18 and other Talisker varieties from the Diageo Classic Malts web site.  [This doesn’t seem to be the most reliable web server in the world].
  • Distillery location [Carbost, Isle of Skye, UK] in Google Maps:

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Storing whisky – sample containers

Posted in whisky accessories, whisky samples, tagged , , , , , on April 25, 2009| 5 Comments »

How do the various batches of Aberlour A’bunadh compare?  What about the annual releases of Port Ellen or Brora?  How will my current (and discontinued) bottle of Laphroaig 15 year compare to the new 18 year?  I’m having trouble warming up to Ledaig 10 year because of the nose.  I wonder if that will change over time (but I won’t necessarily want to buy another 75oml bottle later to find out).

Boston Round sample bottles

Boston Round sample bottles

There are plenty of reasons to store whisk(e)y samples for use/enjoyment at a later time.  Maybe you have a large basement and plenty of space to store full size bottles.  I don’t, and I’m not sure how much more kitchen cabinet space I can take up before my very understanding wife finally pushes back.  Additionally, some would argue that it’s not a good idea to store whisky for an extended period in a bottle with lots of air in it (I’m curious to see what comes of this guy’s aging experiment).

I wanted to start setting aside some scotch for later use, and ended up placing an order from Specialty Bottle in Seattle for 15 Clear Boston Round 4 oz bottles at $0.56 each, plus another $0.04 each for an upgrade to polyseal caps.  The polyseal caps contain a cone-shaped insert that supposedly provides an extremely tight seal.  They also have 2 oz bottles for $0.44 cents each($0.48 with polyseal caps).

If you’re bottling samples to share with others, they also have shrink bands that you can cover the lid with (you shrink them with a hair dryer).  The shrink bands are only sold in 250 count packs for $5 each.  The 2 and 4 oz bottles use different size bands as well.  If you know somebody that you intend to trade samples with, you could go in with them and split the cost.

I used the first bottle to save 10cl of my Port Ellen 7th release (from a 20cl original bottle).  I suppose I could have just kept it in the 20cl bottle, but I wanted to play it safe and cut down on the amount of air in the bottle (and seal it up tight).  For the label, I used the original from the 20cl bottle.  I put about an inch of water in a pot and brought it to a boil, stuck a screwdriver in the empty bottle and held onto the handle, and dangled the bottle over the steam for about 2 minutes.  The label peeled right off, and had enough of the glue on it still to just stick it right on the boston round bottle.

[Update 6/9/09] These bottles are great!  I just bottled up some samples to exchange with another whisky fan here in town.  We’re exchanging a combination of 2 and 3 oz samples.  2 oz (60ml) seems like a natural amount to exchange for a true “sample”, so I’m getting ready to place another order for some 2 oz bottles.  I’m also going to order some shrink bands, as I’ll feel better about driving the samples around in a sealed bottle, should I happen to get pulled over or get in a fender-bender.

If you have your own tips for storing whisky, I’d love to hear about it in the comments.  Would you go with Amber or Blue bottles instead of clear?  I like to be able to see the color of the whisky in the clear bottles, and any samples I’m storing will be in a dark place.

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Nightly dram – Old Pulteney 12 year old

Posted in review, tagged , on April 24, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Old Pulteney 12

Old Pulteney 12

Tonight I’m sipping Old Pulteney [PULT’nee] 12 year old from the northern-most distillery on mainland Scotland.  According to the distillery web site, OP 12 is matured “wholly in air dried, hand selected ex-bourbon casks”.  The web site says 40% ABV, but my bottle says 43%.  A recent change?  A difference between the 700ml and 750ml bottlings?  I don’t know, but please leave a comment if you know what’s going on with that.  Local cost in AZ ranges from $33-$40/750ml.

On the nose and palate, OP 12 reminds me more of North American whiskey than any other scotch I’ve tasted.  It doesn’t have some of the qualities unique to a whiskey with distilled corn, but it does share a similar honey sweetness.  There’s also a spiciness that reminds me of a rye contribution.  On the whole, I’d say the similarity is closer to Canadian whisky (Crown Royal) than bourbon.  Not quite as sweet, and with an added saltiness.  I also get a pleasant pepper sensation on the finish, while it goes down very smoothly with no burn.

There’s a lot going on here for an “entry level” product, and this would make a good regular dram at the right price.  To me, that price is closer to $30 than $40.  I won’t have any problem moving through this bottle, and I’ll certainly consider buying another in the future.

Update: Being relatively new to  whisky, and having a current bias towards peaty malts, I recommend checking out these links to other people’s takes on this scotch:

  • Whiskey Magazine – Notes and ratings by Michael Jackson and Jim Murray, as well as links to related threads in the WM forums.
  • Blog (Darin Bradley) – This guy LOVES OP12 and rates it 5 of 5.  His journal entry makes for an interesting read.
  • YouTube (Peatluvr) – I really enjoy this guy’s video reviews, and have subscribed to his YouTube video feed.

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Singlemalt.tv crushed my 11 year old child’s dreams with their awesomeness

Posted in whisky resources, tagged , , , on April 24, 2009| Leave a Comment »

No nightly dram today (I take one or two days off each week).  I am, however, watching some great whisky-related videos on Singlemalt.tv.  I discovered them through Twitter, and have just watched three very interesting interviews (click interviewee name links below to watch).

First, I watched interviews with the owners of two of the most popular whisky mail order stores in the UK.  Richard Joynson of Loch Fyne Whiskies (LFW) seems like a lot of fun and has a great sense of humor.  Sukhinder Singh of The Whisky Exchange (TWE) was very down to earth and seems extremely knowledgeable about whisky, especially older bottlings.  Next, I watched an interview with Anthony Wills, managing director of the Kilchoman distillery.  Definitely check this out if you’re a whisky geek and want to know all of the interesting stats like cask types, phenol ppm, etc.  I’ll probably talk about this a little more when my Kilchoman spirit samples arrive.

I’m definitely looking forward to watching more of Singlemalt.tv, and it sounds like they have a number of additional interesting distillery tours lined up.  One thing I’d like to see on their site is better searching capability for videos by key word.  I found it a little awkward at times browsing through the different channels trying to find a particular video.  The search on their main web page, outside of the flash player, doesn’t seem to index into the videos themselves.  Overall, though, it’s a great resource for scotch hobbyists.

The Whisky Channel

The Whisky Channel

Oh yeah…what does this have to do with the crushing of childhood dreams?  A couple of weeks ago, my neighbor came over with his Macallan CS, and I pulled out my Aberlour A’bunadh (Batch 15) and George T. Stagg bourbon.  We sampled these cask strength whiskies and talked about them while our wives and our kids hung out and did…i don’t know…something not related to whisky.  Well, at some point, my neighbor and I became aware that our better halves were mocking us and our fascination with the water of life.  We bantered back and forth a bit, and somebody mentioned that a whisky channel on TV would be perfect for us.  My daughter heard this, disappeared into the computer room for a bit, and came back out with a marketing teaser for a 24 hour whisky channel.  I thought this was great, and the poster now resides on the inside door of my whisky cupboard.

Tonight, I had to break it to her that somebody beat us to our idea (she’s actually completely unphased, but I thought it made for an interesting blog post title).

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Nightly dram – Johnnie Walker Green Label

Posted in review, tagged , , on April 23, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Observant person that I am, I failed to notice that it was Earth Day today until 8:40pm.  That’s when my wife pointed out the “countdown” on the TV and explained to me that the kids were staying up an extra half hour so that we could shut off all of the lights for 1 minute at 9pm.  All of the lights, that is, except for the massively bright lamp in the TV that would allow us to share this special Earth Day minute with the folks on Nickelodeon.

Earth Day daily dram

Earth Day nightly dram

Given that it was bed time for the kids, I was ready to pick out my nightly dram of whisky, and decided to get into the moment with the family and go green…Johnnie Walker Green.

I got this bottle for Christmas from my wife.  My previous whiskey experience consisted of JW Red, Black and Swing, as well as The Glenlivet 18 and Maker’s Mark bourbon.  There was something in this bottle of JW Green that was different…a slightly medicinal scent, as well as something earthy.  I finally associated this “earthy” scent (and aftertaste) with the block of peat they handed us to smell during The Scotch Whisky Experience tour in Edinburgh the previous summer.  I was fascinated with this new, peaty experience, and it was this bottle that led me first to Talisker, and then to the Islay single malts.

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