Auchroisk Old Malt Cask K&L Excl., 24yo (1994/2019)

Rating28.3/40
OriginScotland, Central Speyside
DistilleryAuchroisk
OwnerDiageo
DistilledFebruary 1994
BottlerDouglas Laing
SeriesOld Malt Cask
StyleSingle Barrel Single Malt
CaskRefill Hogshead HL15186
BottledJune 2019
Bottles239
Strength54.5% (106.8 Proof)
RetailerK&L Wine Merchants

Auchroisk is not exactly a well known distillery with a significant presence on store shelves. And so it’s always a pleasure and interesting to find some expression, especially an older one like this. Let’s see how it stacks up!

Nose: Purple flowers. Why purple? I don’t know. But it does smell like purple flowers. Not lavender though. Some other purple flower. It’s not easy getting past that floweriness and diving deeper into the nose because it’s quite snappy like a tense cat. Approach at an angle it doesn’t like and you get bit. Quite pretty but flowery noses aren’t generally my thing. (6.7/10)

Palate: The flowery notes don’t go away but they cease to be flowery. Probably because someone has set the bouquet on fire and then tried (and failed) to put it out with honey water. (7.3/10)

Finish: A quite wonderful heat spreads down the back of the throat toeing but not crossing the line to discomfort. The flavors however do not keep up with the heat leaving little but prickly sparkles of mild bitterness along the roof of the mouth. (7.1/10)

Balance:  I think some folks would like this a lot more than I do but it’s just not well aligned with my preferences. For me it’s a decent dram that doesn’t quite manage to deliver on its innate potential. (7.2/10)

Longrow (Springbank) Red Pinot Noir, 11yo (2019)

Rating24.4/40
OriginScotland, Campbeltown,
DistilleryLongrow (Springbank)
OwnerJ&A Mitchell & Company
SeriesRed
EditionPinot Noir
StyleSingle Malt
PeatedYes
CaskPinot Noir
BottledJanuary 7th, 2019
Bottles9,000
Strength53.1% (106.2 Proof)

Another one in the long running series of red wine aged small batch releases of Springbank’s peated single malt, the Longrow. Always unique, often tasty and always highly anticipated, at least by yours truly, I’m glad to try another one of these peated pearls.

Nose: The nose is definitely “red”, whatever that descriptor means. Knowing there is wine involved makes those notes apparent but I’m curious if I would have detected them in a blind tasting. If I try to dismiss any preconceived notions from my mind, I end up with Haribo fruit gummy candies hanging out in a cigar lounge. Except nobody is actually smoking because they’re all busy eating cherry pies at the moment. There’s stuff I like and stuff I don’t like. This one’s a bit hard to nail down points-wise. (6.8/10)

Palate: Thick, goopy cherry-pie effluent and splinters of dark wood. And I wish all of it would come to life more. Not sure why this stuff is refusing to blow up. There’s a sizzling heat emerging after each sip that seems to burn off all of those rather nice flavors too quickly until the last of them evaporates the moment it goes down. It’s kind of a shame really. This palate is its own worst enemy. This is what it must feel like to have a child of great promise which proceeds to turn into a petty thief. (6.1/10)

Finish: A lonesome ghost of slightly bitter flavor and some residual warmth in the upper chest is all that’s left after everything else quickly evaporates. That and a mild sugary coating on the back of the tongue. Definitely a bit of a let down this one. I really expected more. (5.6/10)

Balance: I dunno… I usually really like the Longrow Red releases but this one is subpar on all fronts. Somehow, despite its relative strength, it seems to lack the substance to assert and maintain the nice flavors it hints at. You open a cage at the zoo but instead of a roaring lion you get a disinterested shabby looking racoon. A bit of a bummer. But luckily also a bit of an exception in the series. At least I hope it’s not a harbinger of future doom. (5.9/10)

Auchroisk Hepburn’s Choice K&L Excl., 21yo (1996/2018)

Rating32.8/40
OriginScotland, Central Speyside
DistilleryAuchroisk
OwnerDiageo
Distilled1996
BottlerHunter Laing & Co.
SeriesHepburn’s Choice
StyleSingle Barrel Single Malt
CaskRefill Hogshead
Bottled2018
Bottles283
Strength52.6% (105.2 Proof)
RetailerK&L Wine Merchant

This cask strength Speysider came out of a refill hogshead hotheaded and with a temper even after 21 years of ageing. Auchroisk doesn’t do a lot of official releases and most of it seems to go straight into J&B so it’s usually only available in this form of an independent bottling. I find them to generally be on the brighter and sharper side but, of course, it’s hard to tell if that’s the real distiller profile with such limited exposure.

Nose: Hothothot! Ok, phew, that was just the first hit fresh out of the glass. Now I can actually smell something… lemon batter mixed with straw? Hard to get much out of this… after that initial violent burst of alcohol it settles into a somewhat restrained state. (7.8/10)

Palate: A small, fiery, angry black hole centered on the middle of my tongue seems to draw everything around it inwards while refusing to give anything up. There’s a compact, spatially contained fierceness to it. Then some bright flavors. But everything seems to want to stay low following a flat profile across my tongue. I would have expected this one to expand upwards but it’s simply not wanting to do anything like that until much later. Some chewing and swishing finally unleashes this beasty and releases it to freedom. It still doesn’t want to expand upwards but rather drives a heated cloud of flavor straight into the back of my throat.  I can’t pinpoint the notes but it’s good and still vaguely related to the batter from the nose. Perhaps we’re baking the lemon-straw tart now? (8.6/10)

Finish: A few sips in I become aware of a burgeoning heat in the back of my throat that later fills up with flavor as well. The heat manages to push and plow its way down behind my sternum until it reaches almost all the way to my solar plexus. (8.2/10)

Balance: There’s a bit of a struggle involved in coaxing this one out of its fiery, angry shell. But it’s worth it. If only the nose gave up a little more of the treasures and secrets hidden deep inside its tense and fiery little heart. (8.2/10)

Springbank K&L Excl. Sovereign, 22yo, 1995/2018

Rating37.5/40
OriginScotland, Campbeltown
DistillerySpringbank
OwnerMitchell Family
DistilledDecember 1995
BottlerHunter Laing & Company
SeriesThe Sovereign
StyleSingle Barrel Single Malt Whisky
CaskRefill Hogshead HL15295
BottledMay 2018
Bottles108
Strength52.5% (105 Proof)
RetailerK&L Wine Merchants

I have not acquired this one for myself but thanks to a generous friend (thanks IFLS!) I’ve been lucky enough to get to try this amazing whisky. There was a reason I had not purchased it myself. It’s just not what I usually go for. And, while being right about that evaluation, I was also utterly wrong about not getting any of it. File this one under R for regret. What a stunning expression of Springbank!

Nose: Linen sheets, still warm, fresh out of the dryer after having been washed with meadow flower scented detergent. The pages of old, heavily used books that haven’t pulled out of a tightly packed shelf in a long time. Lemon zest arches far above a slow river of mild honey. My only complaint is that I desperately want to turn up the volume. (8.5/10)

Palate: Can you extract liquid from the pages of an old book? It’s very dry, almost dusty, but underneath all of it there is that quiet slow river of honey again, which at the end, subsumes all the other stuff, except the bright flurry of dust above it all, sparkling in the light of a reading lamp. This is not at all in my general ballpark. But, holy crap, it is amazing! A whisky to stay with, pay attention to, sink into like when one is getting lost in the stories found inside an old, well-read book. (9.5/10)

Finish: At first, after coming back up from the mysterious depths of this book, there is just this coating of honey, left behind by that river. My tongue is rough from all the dry, ancient paper. There is gentle yet deep and rich, dusty smoke permeating my throat and chest. And then, for a time, the lemon zest shows up again, albeit in a rehydrated form of blended lemon zest and juice. Just wonderful. After a long time a single fruit emerges under the roof of my palate and it is… a plum! (10/10)

Balance: This is… so unexpected. None of this is what I typically look for. It is not loud but it is powerful.  Best enjoyed alone. Let this envelope you and permeate you undisturbed and in silence. I suspect one might miss most or all it has to offer if surrounded by a crowd. Wow. (9.5 /10)

Ardbeg Scorch Ardbeg Day 2021 Committee Release

Rating35.8/40
OriginScotland, Islay, South Shore
DistilleryArdbeg
OwnerLVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton SE via Glenmorangie
SeriesArdbeg Day Committee Release
EditionScorch
StyleSingle Malt
PeatedYes
CaskHeavily Charred Ex-Bourbon
BottledJanuary 2021
Strength51.7% (103.4 Proof)
WhiskybaseWhiskybase

Matured in heavily charred Ex-Bourbon casks and bottled for Ardbeg Day 2021 this is Ardbeg’s latest Committee Release and it is one hell of a unique and interesting experience. Every year these bottles are gone in seconds and by day 2 what’s left in stores fetches double or triple the MSRP. But they’re almost always worth the trouble. Looking forward to comparing it to the bottle strength version soon to be released more widely during the time of Feis Ile 2021.

Nose: When you burn food until there’s splintery bits so charred you can’t tell if they once were food or just wood. Something acidic… like a lemon and vanilla glaze underneath. Almost metallic eventually. Later sweeter notes emerge that ever so slowly evolve into bulging, fuzzy, warm, peaty… blood orange juice poured over a mix of slices from ripe and not so ripe bananas. Does this thing ever stop changing? Between the experience of nosing this whisky straight out of a freshly opened bottle and the experience of nosing it out of one that had a chance to breathe lies a vast and inexplicable chasm. And yet the two are closely related. (9.0/10)

Palate: A large piece of sheet metal, coated with lacquer made from charred wood and ashes, slices horizontally through the palate, leaving nothing alive in its path, heading straight for the back of the throat. Deliberate chewing of subsequent sips awakens flavor in the front but this whisky is not one willing to expand vertically. All moisture has disappeared from my mouth. Lost I wander across the bitter ashes of the tortured plains leading up to the Morannon. (8.3/10)

Finish: The finish lives almost entirely on the air flowing in and out of my lungs. On each breath out, charred embers light up brightly, emitting sharp, acidic smoke. Breathe carefully… this one will make you cough. A drop of water proves to be the magic key. Suddenly the missing dimension of expansion appears and the finish begins to fill the skull. Countless additional notes and flavors appear to create a much more dense, complex and deep experience than one would have expected from first impressions. And, mind you, a much more lasting one too. The staying power of this finish is astonishing. (9.7/10)

Balance: Without water this is the mystical experience of a lifeless, burnt desert covered with the charred traces of a terrible wildfire. With water this becomes an intense, smoldering, smoke-laden alcoholic tea extracted from those very remnants. This is a difficult one to grasp. It’s both very Ardbeg and not Ardbeg at all. Fresh out of an unopened bottle it is almost a bit unfriendly and unwilling to explain itself. Give this a good amount of time and one tiny drop of water. It will turn into a great friend to have a long conversation with. If you don’t make the effort, I’m afraid, you’ll soon forget almost all about this one and move on to lesser drams. The greatest weakness of this whisky, such as it has one, is most certainly its palate. But since the finish almost serves as a palate-like experience this imperfection can be forgiven. (8.8/10)

Glengyle Kilkerran Cask Strength, 8yo 2017

Rating28.3/40
OriginScotland, Campbeltown
DistilleryGlengyle
OwnerMitchell Family
SeriesKilkerran
EditionCask Strength
StyleSingle Malt
PeatedYes
CaskEx-Bourbon
Bottled2017
Bottles6,000
Strength55.7% (111.4 Proof)
WhiskybaseWhiskybase
Wine SearcherWine Searcher

This one-off small batch release of a younger and more aggressive expression adds another facet to Glengyle’s Kilkerran line of peated single malts, which already includes a number of “Work In Progress” as well as some heavily peated batch releases. Though the most commonly available bottling is probably the basic bottle strength 12 year old.

Nose:  A soft perfume-y smoke, more bubble bath than peat really. It jumps out and up at you but then, ultimately, it doesn’t amount to much more than a thin bubble pushing some perceptible notes with not a whole lot of substance behind it. Not unpleasant, but also not really a whole lot of… anything. (6.1/10)

Palate: Aha! Stuff! Finally! Pretty aggressive and bouncy in its youthfulness. A sharp hit of smoke, a bunch of loose staves of unripe wood clatter about noisily, but all of that dies down quickly and what’s left can’t quite make itself be heard after the ruckus of the initial impact. Later sips are very candy… probably why the kids were bouncing off the walls like that. (6.5/10)

Finish: The kids have tired out and settled down. Finally it’s a quiet and peaceful around here. Mouth and throat are left feeling empty from the sudden silence. There’s a few wooden toys left scattered about the floor that need tidying up. But someone’s got the fireplace going on the other side of the living room and there’s a welcoming heat beckoning us to come on over from deep inside in the chest, just above the diaphragm. This is nice. (8.5/10)

Balance: The finish makes me want to forgive the whisky for the underdeveloped nose and the irritating palate, but this is a review and I’ve got to be honest. Still that finish is nice to settle into. Don’t bother sniffing. Just sip, swish and swallow, then sit back and let out a deep breath. (7.2/10)

Longmorn, Old Malt Cask K&L Exclusive, 14yo, 2003/2018

Rating34.5/40
OriginScotland, Speyside, Lossie
DistilleryLongmorn
OwnerPernod Ricard via Chivas Brothers
DistilledNovember 2003
BottlerDouglas Laing & Co.
SeriesOld Malt Cask
StyleSingle Barrel Single Malt
CaskRefill Barrel HL15146
BottledJune 2018
Bottles243
Strength54.9% (109.8 Proof)
RetailerK&L Wine Merchants

A K&L exclusive single barrel cask strength bottling of a delicious single malt distilled at one of the lesser known hidden treasures among the numerous Speyside distilleries.

Nose: Every so often I encounter a whisky where I have an absurdly hard time identifying specific notes. There’s stuff. And also a few things. Mostly stuff though. Both are good. Hah! Finally! A faint note I can put a name on that seems to permeate both the stuff and also the things. It’s cola. Oh and then some old furniture that was rubbed with cola. Anyway, it’s somewhat static but I like it. A drop of water flattens the nose beyond recovery. (8/10)

Palate: Ah, much more going on here. A big bold hit, at first spatially contained but continuously inflated with each subsequent sip. I still can’t really name specific notes here. Very, very nice though. Oddly enough a drop of water converts this from water of life to oil slick of life. I like that. Too bad adding water ruins the nose. (8.5/10)

Finish: Deep and warm. I just love a whisky that fills my chest cavity with flavor and heat. Apparently I have olfactory receptors buried in my lungs. I still can’t name notes though. Maybe my brain has finally short-circuited. Luckily I’m still capable of immensely enjoying this. Water dials back the warmth which makes me sad. (9/10)

Balance: Somehow this whisky defeated my ability to name flavors. But it is great. Seriously. I really liked the palate with water but the cost in terms of losing the nose and the warmth of the finish is just too high as far as I’m concerned. Don’t put water into this. Unless you want to know sadness and regret. (9/10)

Tomintoul Old Ballantruan – The Peated Malt

Rating31/40
OriginScotland, Speyside, Livet
DistilleryTomintoul
OwnerAngus Dundee Distillers
EditionOld Ballantruan
StyleSingle Malt
PeatedYes
Strength50% (100 Proof)
WhiskybaseWhiskybase
Wine SearcherWine Searcher

The “Old Ballantruan” is a peated expression of the single malt distilled at Tomintoul in Speyside. Tomintoul bottles only about 2% of their total output as single malts while the rest is mostly destined for the eight or so brands of blended Scotch produced by owner Angus Dundee.

Nose: Peated sour milk chocolate registers first followed by a mix of some good bits and some strange notes. It remains oddly confusing until it eventually settles into a brighter, grassy peat smoke. But it doesn’t stay there for too long and shifts to fruit… peated bananas and vanilla infused pears perhaps? What IS going on here? The fruits turn mildly perfume-y, eventually. (6.5/10)

Palate: A bright fruity hit descends quickly into scented candles made from shoe polish. The polished shoes must have been stored in my chest cavity because I smell them every time I exhale. Light machine oil and old wood eventually comes through as if I’ve walked into an old office full of old but well maintained typewriters sitting on vintage oak desks. This is actually rather nice! Later it opens up big in the back with a cloud of smoke and crushed blackberries and residual blackberry candy in the front. (8.5/10)

Finish: Warm and smokey on the breath but it does ride rather high before disappearing down the hatch only to reappear near my solar plexus. Oddly quiet in the middle of the chest where it doesn’t really register at all. (8/10)

Balance: This one’s kinda (unexpectedly) wild and kinda (unexpectedly) good. A bumpy ride for sure but not unpleasant at all. It certainly exceeded my expectations for a Tomintoul. That said, the nose does knock some points off of the top here unfortunately. (8/10)

Bowmore Old Malt Cask K&L Excl., 21yo, 1996/2018

Rating33.5/40
OriginScotland, Islay, Loch Indaal
DistilleryBowmore
OwnerSuntory Holdings via Beam Suntory via Morrison Bowmore Distillers
DistilledDecember 1996
BottlerDouglas Laing & Co.
SeriesOld Malt Cask
StyleSingle Barrel Single Malt Whisky
PeatedYes
CaskRefill Hogshead #HL15197
BottledJune 2018
Bottles120
Strength52.8% (105.6 Proof)
RetailerK&L Wine Merchants

This bottle came and went quickly at K&L and I had missed my opportunity. Luckily a great friend brought his personal bottle to one of our gatherings and let us try this absolutely wonderful Bowmore. Thanks so much, Andrew! This one made me think deep thoughts.

Nose: A freshly showered mildly bite-y fish, perhaps a low-odor salmon that is resting on a bed of steamed parsley root and other sweet root vegetables. The fish in questions likely swam past Bowmore distillery last year, probably a sightseeing detour through Loch Indaal on the way to the spawning grounds, because there is only the very faintest echoes from far, far away and barely perceptible of that old lavender perfume so typical of the distillery. (7.5/10)

Palate: A sanded unfinished wooden board upon which the fish is going to be served, in anticipation of that happening to it. Perhaps some smoke is rolling in through the windows from one of the other Islay distilleries… it’s hard to tell for sure. Some thin high quality chocolate splinters around the edges. The realization of all the things the wooden board has seen. It has a functional and utilitarian perspective on life. It just does what it does. And I like it. Old school palate. Unapologetic. No frills. (8.5/10)

Finish: Layers in quietly. This wooden board has an unassuming manner that only initially succeeds in hiding its real power and solid structure. I like hanging out with this wooden board. Sitting next to each other on deck chairs, quietly watching the waves roll in under a darkening sky. I want this wooden board to be my friend. I think it likes me. I’m happy. (9/10)

Balance: This just keeps getting better and better and better as it goes though there is a price to pay because eventually the lavender does being to appear on the nose. Not as annoying as usual luckily. The rest is glorious. But not obvious. Who knew stoic, sanded, unfinished wooden boards could be such good friends and companions. (8.5/10)

Mortlach Faultline K&L Exclusive, 22yo, 1995/2017

Mortlach Faultline 1995/2017, 22yo, close-up
Rating30/40
OriginScotland, Speyside, Dufftown
DistilleryMortlach
OwnerDiageo
Distilled1995
BottlerAlexander Murray & Co
SeriesFaultline
StyleSingle Barrel Single Malt Whisky
CaskFirst Fill Sherry Butt #7301
BottledDecember 4th, 2017
Strength53.3% (106.6 proof)
RetailerK&L Wine Merchants
Price$120 (Sold Out)

Nose: Oranges, flowers mingle in minty heat. Water drops it to faint notes of a wet leaf-covered ground. (8/10)

Palate: Hot orange-flavored hard candy. Water dials fruitiness up to 11 and spreads everything out wide. (7/10)

Finish: Astringent wood and unripe, acidic oranges. (8/10)

Balance: Somewhat unbalanced. Adding water, while nicely boosting the palate, messes with the bookends in rather disappointing ways. The heat on this one definitely requires warming up ones palate with something else first. (7/10)