BenRiach The Original Ten, 10yo

Rating25.8/40
OriginScotland, Speyside, Lossie
DistilleryBenRiach
OwnerBrown–Forman Corporation
StyleSingle Malt
CaskBourbon, sherry, virgin oak
Strength43% (86 Proof)
WhiskybaseWhiskybase

The Original Ten is one of the 4 base-line expressions of BenRiach recently revamped by their master blender, Dr. Rachel Barrie. I had the opportunity to taste all of them side-by-side which always makes for a very interesting experience.

Nose: The League of Generic Citrus Fruits has at long last made peace with their ancient enemy, the Alliance of Various Pears. All of them have gathered in the designated neutral zone located somewhere on the Gentle Oak Plains in order to talk things over and hash out the details of the peace accord. Currently Mr. Average J Grapefruit, a rather mild-mannered fellow, is addressing the crowd in long-winded sentences but nobody is really listening. This thing has been going on for a while and everybody is a bit sleepy and half dozing off. The future looks peaceful albeit a bit boring. This nose has all the non-thrilling pleasantness of the inoffensively decorated lobby of a hopeful, new small business. (6.1/10)

Palate: A little more excitement here. Like a conservative middle-aged office party with generic supermarket cake. The initial hit of flavor in the front is quite nice and delivers some caramel and orange cake notes but it fizzles out quickly as the whisky travels to the back of the tongue  and diminishes to a shapeless… sensation. Hard to call it tasting something. It’s sort of a neutral, mildly buzzy wooden board that was washed with the same water someone must have used earlier to rinse off a bunch of citrus fruit. (5.6/10)

Finish: Ah, finally, something is making an effort here! As soon as the whisky goes down a nice puff of oaky breath rolls up the back of my throat. All it’s olfactory elements quickly convert into a pleasant but flavorless heat that mostly lives at the back and top of the throat and mouth. It even manages to, very hesitantly, reach down into the top of the chest. Though it appears to be scared by its own courage like a cat that climbed up to the lowest branch of a tree. Still this part is not bad and has a surprising amount of staying power.(7.2/10)

Balance: Honestly, this is not bad at all. A perfectly reasonable dram to start with or have at bar with a limited selection. Is it great? No. The palate definitely puts a dent in the experience. But the afterglow does manage to make up for it. I’m surprised by just how much I enjoy sitting here with the warmth and residual flavors of the finish and for how long I’m able to do so. (6.9/10)

Lagavulin Offerman Edition, 11yo, 2019

Rating27.7/40
OriginScotland, Islay, South Shore
DistilleryLagavulin
OwnerDiageo
EditionOfferman Edition
StyleSingle Malt
PeatedYes
CaskRe-filled and re-juvenated American Oak Barrels
BottledAugust 2019
Strength46% (92 Proof)
WhiskybaseWhiskybase

According to the marketing blurb this whisky was created in partnership with Parks & Recreations’ Nick Offerman. What exactly that partnership involved is not entirely clear to me. Nor does it matter much. I’m always up for trying a new Lag when one pops up. Which, unfortunately, does not happen all that often.

Nose: Fresh peat brightly leaps out of a box of thin mints. This is one of the rare noses with what I can only describe as horizontal geometry. That’s how my brain experiences it anyways. It seems to be wide rather than tall and slices into my head right through my sinuses. I like peat a lot but this feels almost a little… green? Is there such a thing as unripe peat? (6.9/10)

Palate: Again with this green quality of the peat. I like the sparkly brightness of it, but it lacks the depth and heaviness I most appreciate in my favorite peaty malts. And this one wears itself out quickly on my tongue. It sort of shrinks and vanishes there towards the center leaving next to nothing behind other than a mild burn. (5.9/10)

Finish: The very moment the whisky goes down it releases a voluminous cloud of peat smoke that finally no longer contains that green unripe element of itself. However, that cloud is also really just an overblown puff of bright smoke and quickly fades into seeming emptiness. After a few more moments, when things have calmed down, I suddenly discover a much quieter and richer, dark peat smoke that’s quietly accumulated deep down in my chest, accompanied by a little bit of mellow heat. Hey, that’s actually rather nice! (8.0/10)

Balance: The reward here is in the very distant last part of the finish. I really could do without those bright, young, unripe and green elements up front. And I’m not sure the finish of the finish is truly worth the effort given that I could just drink some Lag 16 or 12 cask strength or one of the Distiller’s Editions which I think are much, much more rewarding overall. (6.9/10)

Ardbeg K&L Excl. Chieftain’s, 15yo, 2004/2019

Rating35.1/40
OriginScotland, Islay, South Shore
DistilleryArdbeg
OwnerLVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton SE via Glenmorangie
DistilledMarch 2004
BottlerIan Macleod Distillers
SeriesChieftain’s
StyleSingle Malt
PeatedYes
CaskEx-Bourbon Barrel 700177
BottledAugust 2019
Bottles162
Strength58.8% (117.6 Proof)
RetailerK&L Wine Merchants
WhiskybaseWhiskybase

The mere 162 bottles of Ardbeg yielded by this particular ex-Bourbon cask turned out to be a very unique expression of a fuzzed out, warm blanket of peaty comfort. Come on in from the biting cold, kick back and relax. A forceful Islay take on what the Germans refer to as Gemütlichkeit. Almost as much of a meal as it is a drink.

Nose: Wait, is my backyard burning down? No. It’s probably just this nose right here. Meaty chunks of sweet peat drizzled with Bordelaise sauce, roasting in a cast iron frying pan over an open fire. Just what the doctor ordered after getting a vigorous back rub with heavily charred wood blocks wrapped in plum skins. I should really check on the backyard though. But that would mean getting up and walking away from this whisky. And that’s just crazy-talk. Over time the nose diminishes just a little. Or maybe it’s simply numbing my sensory apparatus.(8.6/10)

Palate: Prickly chocolate-peat cactus. Spikey bursts of peat bob around in a sea of chocolate milk. The chocolate milk has a thick, almost oily and rather coarse texture to it and leaves a similar coating on my tongue. Clearly whole, perhaps even raw milk was used, and the chocolate wasn’t ground too finely. You can almost eat this with a fork. Later bursts of smoke rise up, nearly a little bitter, as if the whisky has smoldered its way through all of it’s wood and peat resources.(8.9/10)

Finish: A vigorous burn develops on the sides of my tongue and the very back of my throat. Chocolate smoke rises from the depths and fills my head like a balloon. Breathing out is fun with this one. Everything alights and all the embers bloom. I wish it showed more presence deep in my chest but that’s really the only complaint I have. (8.8/10)

Balance: This is quite something. Beautiful. It has a much broader, deeper, warmer and fuzzier structure of peat than I’d usually associate with Ardbeg. I tend to perceive Ardbeg peat as a powerful, sharp blade slicing through my skull like a masterfully crafted Katana. This, however, is big, satisfying and comforting. I love it. A lot. (8.8/10)

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)

Glenlivet, 12yo

Rating26.6/40
OriginScotland, Speyside, Livet
DistilleryGlenlivet
OwnerPernod Ricard via Chivas Brothers
StyleSingle Malt
CaskEuropean & American Oak
Strength40% (80 Proof)
WhiskybaseWhiskybase

The bog standardiest of bog standard single malts. But that shouldn’t stop anybody from occasionally enjoying a basic pleasant dram to ground themselves again after diving deep into high end stuff. No need to turn your nose up at this stuff. It’s cheap, it’s decent and you can find it just about anywhere.

Nose:  Apples. Apple pie, in fact, permeated by soft cinnamon and vanilla notes that, on occasion, shift gears into a more perfumy type mode. The apples are of one of the more tart varieties. Some faint acerbic notes of dry wood float about. Mild but pleasant. (6.5/10)

Palate: The autumn winds must have ripped some dry, old wooden shingles off the roof. The shingles didn’t get very far and quickly plopped into a nearby, small, inflatable pool next to a bare apple tree. Some apples had fallen into the stagnant water where they’re now listlessly bobbing up and down. (5.5/10)

Finish: The standing water has evaporated and all that’s left are memories of using those dried up, crumbly old shingles to grate a batch of sweet and wrinkly winter apples. (7.5/10)

Balance: The somewhat forgettable mid section is bookended by quite enjoyable notes on either side, which makes up for the sad dip and ultimately adds up to a pleasant experience. A perfectly fine daily drinker or a pleasant starter and warm-up dram for a serious evening of tasting whiskies. (7.1/10)

Caol Ila K&L Excl. Sovereign, 7yo, 2010/2018

Rating34.7/40
OriginScotland, Islay, North Shore
DistilleryCaol Ila
OwnerDiageo
DistilledAugust 2010
BottlerHunter Laing & Company
SeriesSovereign
StyleSingle Barrel Single Malt Whisky
Peatedyes
CaskSherry Finished Butt HL15300
BottledJuly 2018
Bottles556
Strength59.9% (119 Proof)
RetailerK&L Wine Merchants

What is a “sherry finished butt” you ask? In this case the bottler has taken a used sherry butt, re-filled it with sherry for a year for a bit of a boost, and then used it to further age some young Caol Ila. This results in a stronger sherry influence than a traditional sherry finish. Basically a fancy form of double maturation in a refreshed sherry cask. Either way, the result is rather convincing and I hope they’ll be doing this a lot more often!

Nose: Big, bite-y, beautiful beat, uh, peat. Velvety, too. Can velvet bite? I guess it can. Faint hints of chocolate flit about playing hard-to-get. This nose is not uber-complex but it is great regardless. (8.1/10)

Palate: Big and expansive right out of the gate. Even the chocolate gets a slight boost but mostly it’s that same thick peat smoke from the nose. A bright and shiny layer that’s almost acidic floats above it all. It’s not exactly citrus though. More like a cask aged vinegar perhaps that’s had a chance to mellow out over time. That vinegar, it seems, may have been used to marinate a few blood oranges. The more velvety aspects of the nose do not present themselves here. (8.5/10)

Finish: Now, this is one of those whiskies that can light a beautiful, warming fire all the way from your mouth down into your belly.  The smoke stays up top and fills the skull, held in place by convections rising from the deep heat far below. Just like the nose the finish is not particularly complex, but, honestly, it really doesn’t have to be. It is so big, smoky, expansive and warm, and it comes alive with vigor on every single breath… what more could I possibly need? (9.1/10)

Balance: What a wonderful dram for those of us who love big, powerful, peated single malts! It starts out great and then keeps on getting better. And it was ridiculously cheap too. Under fifty bucks if I recall correctly. This can easily compete with (and beat) a ton of whiskies that would cost significantly more. The only sad thing about it is, that it was a single barrel bottling and is, by now, long gone. And that’s a serious bummer. (9.0/10)

Caol Ila K&L Excl. SVUC, 8yo, 2009/2018

Rating33.0/40
OriginScotland, Islay, North Shore
DistilleryCaol Ila
OwnerDiageo
DistilledOct 22nd, 2009
BottlerSignatory Vintage
SeriesThe Un-Chillfiltered Collection
StyleSingle Barrel Single Malt Whisky
Peatedyes
CaskHogshead 319401
BottledJul 16th, 2018
Bottles287
Strength56.9% (113.8 Proof)
RetailerK&L Wine Merchants
WhiskybaseWhiskybase

A youthful, energetic and aggressive single barrel bottling from a cask hand-picked by the folks at K&L Wine Merchants back in 2018. Balance is not what this one is about but it has plenty to offer in other areas.

Nose: Sharp, bright peat jumps right out of the glass snapping excitedly at your nose with the sharp and pointy teeth of a young pupper that’s been cooped up inside all day and desperately needs to burn off a good amount of pent up energy. Apparently it tore into a bucket of powdered vanilla cream at some point, which is now caught in its fur. (8.0/10)

Palate: The same sharp, bright peat cuts through the oral cavity like a bright but narrow beam of sunlight that found its way into a dark room through the crack of a door left slightly ajar. While it indirectly lights up everything, it doesn’t itself spread out and you can clearly see the crisp  geometry of the shaft where it lights up countless peaty dust motes in its path. (7.5/10)

Finish: Hoo boy! At first that beam of light illuminates some very young, freshly cut wood, but luckily that somewhat unpleasant, unripe smell burns away quickly. With the distraction of the bright beam gone the peat finally expands into a massive cloud filling the entire mouth and top of the throat. Heat is crawling down into my chest but I keep losing track of it as I’m too busy chewing on that billowing smoke, which intensifies and thickens with every breath. Wait, did I eat chocolate earlier? Where did that suddenly come from? (9.1/10)

Balance: A bit rough in parts and volatile and bouncy as one might expect from a younger whisky. In fact this one feels considerably younger than it actually is. If I had tasted this blind, I would have guessed it might be 5 or 6 years old at best. Water doesn’t really help it calm down or integrate more… it just… lessens it. That big smokey finish though… damn. It makes up for a lot. (8.4/10)

Tamnavulin Tempranillo Cask Edition Batch #576, 2018

Rating23.4/40
OriginScotland, Speyside, Livet
DistilleryTamnavulin
OwnerAlliance Global Group via Emperador via Whyte & Mackay
EditionTempranillo Cask Edition
Batch576
StyleSingle Malt
CaskAmerican Oak Maturation, Tempranillo Cask Finish
Bottled2018
Strength40% (80 Proof)
RetailerDuty Free Exclusive
WhiskybaseWhiskybase

A duty-free exclusive from one of the lesser-known Speyside distilleries that was finished in Tempranillo whine casks.

Nose: Aged cola gummies served on top of old berry stained shoe leather, which somehow distracted me long enough for someone to lock me into a tight, freshly polished, darkly stained cherry wood cabinet. Later a school of sparkly lemons arrives and amuses itself by flitting hither and to right above the surface of the whisky. This is all rather more entertaining than I had expected. (7.5/10)

Palate: A soft and, honestly, rather dull hit on the palate. It’s like the whisky is struggling to break through its own viscosity. Most of the bits from the nose are there but subdued and muffled, as if you had dived into a vat of mineral oil. Holding on to the whisky it just never manages to do anything at the top of the palate. It does, however, ooze out from underneath itself after a short while and shows some signs of making an effort. However, all it manages to pull off is a dark and listless buzzing across the tongue. Let’s make that a… B minus for effort. (4.5/10)

Finish: More interesting stuff here, thank god. Not that hard to pull off after that flat tire of a palate. The buzz from the palate amps up a bit in the throat and manages to puff itself up on each breath. Not much of a glow but that’s not surprising at this low strength. The finish hangs into the chest a listlessly like an old slack hammock that’s lost all tension, but, still, there’s some joy here. (6.5/10)

Balance: This is like that one track on an album that you don’t mind but never choose to play. I don’t exactly like it. But I also don’t dislike it. If it was a little more even it’d make for a fine pay-no-attention social drinker. But the sad droopy dip in the middle is just… disappointing. It makes me forget the fun stuff on the nose and prevents me from enjoying the palate or the finish. Oh well, can’t all be champions. An extra dose of disappointment is due to me being a fan of Spanish Tempranillo wines and the influence of those casks has, sadly, completely failed to save this one. (4.8/10)

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)

Trader Joe’s Premium Rum Cask Finish

Rating19.7/40
OriginScotland, Highlands
DistilleryNot Specified
BottlerWilliam Grant & Sons via Quality Spirits International
StyleSingle Malt
CaskPremium Rum Cask Finish
Strength40% (80 Proof)
RetailerTrader Joe’s
WhiskybaseWhiskybase

Trader Joe’s describes it as having been matured in traditional oak casks until it had achieved the perfect balance and flavor, upon which it was transferred into first-fill premium rum casks to increase the depth of flavor. Sadly I must report that I have discovered neither perfection nor premium anything in this whisky. I wish this one had turned out to be one of those hidden treasures in the twenty to thirty US dollar range, in part because I generally like the influence of rum casks on whisky, but, alas, it did not. William Grant & Sons bottled this through a subsidiary of theirs. Since WG&S currently own only Speyside single malt distilleries in Scotland (Balvenie, Glenfiddich and Kininvie) the Highland label is either somewhat inaccurate by SWA standards, though sometimes Speysiders are labeled as Highlanders, or they bottled juice from a distillery not their own for this. Balvenie does play around with rum casks, e.g. for their 14yo Carribbean Cask releases, so perhaps this is something made there that wasn’t deemed fit for use in a proper, labeled Balvenie.

Nose: The rum finish isn’t completely obvious here though there is a presence of it. It’s less like nosing rum-finished whisky than it is like nosing somewhat plain whisky sloshing over a framed photo of brown sugar. Eventually more rummy molasses begins to seep through pushing a few classic whisky citrus sparkles into the background. Neither element is particularly prominent and both are somewhat… simple. Decent enough, I guess, though the sugar gives it a decidedly non-premium, one might even say cheap, feel. (4.9/10)

Palate: The entrance is rather goopy but it does deliver a considerably more detailed report on the sugars and citrus fruit involved. That report has been printed on a thin sheet of wood. Not at all bad, actually. It’s really surprisingly entertaining after the less than thrilling nose. That is until you swallow it, anyways. (5.9/10)

Finish: Bah! All the nice, interesting and shiny bits that popped out on the palate quickly sink into a dull, sugary swamp that sucks the life right out of everything. Just a bored, plain, sweet coating is all that’s left behind. A few desperate lemons struggle valiantly for a few moments, trying to stay afloat, but they too are quickly sucked down into the sludge. The best thing about the finish is a soft hint of warmth in the chest. (4.1/10)

Balance: I’m always happy to find pearls on the bottom shelf. But this ain’t one. It’s more like a small, boring but not totally ugly picture of a pearl that someone put into an oversized and rather lame picture frame. Unfortunately they mounted the picture with lots of sugary glue so there is nothing you can do about it. I am disappoint. Anything one might even remotely consider “premium” is crammed into the brief but enjoyable palate. If you must drink this whisky I recommend holding onto the whisky in your mouth for as long as humanly possible for that is where all of the limited joy is. (4.8/10)