So on June 1st, it’s once again Ardbeg Day known as “Ardbog Day” this year, when the world prepares itself for some shooglin and dramming (that’s dancing and drinking) with “Embassies” across the world springing up to host the Ardbog Day release. Last years offering was reviewed by me here, this year it’s called Ardbog and I’ve already dug it.
Ardbog Day is best experienced at the distillery itself where they really throw quite a party (as well as some peat). There are numerous additional tastings and tours to join but for the more active among you, why not try one of the many other shenanigans on offer- such as The Peat and Spade Race, The Ardbeg Wheelbarrow Race, The Peat Sack Race, Boggy Welly Tossing, Dribbling Ardbog style, Bog of WarNot to name just a few. If Islay is just a bit too far from home, check out where your nearest Embassy is and join them for a dram or two. If you are in London, then sign up for the Ardbog Day March and get your hands dirty with whatever they have planned. I’ve heard sheep walking over a Thames bridge, but my source is unreliable at best.
Anyway, enough about the party, what about the whisky?
Ardbog is a 10 year old single malt which is a combination of spirit matured in both Ex-Bourbon American oak and Ex-Manzanilla Sherry butt.
Dr Bill Lumsden, Director of Distillation and Whisky Creation said about Ardbog “At its heart our hallmark smoky yet fruity and floral spirit has been matured in Spanish ex-Manzanilla sherry casks for ten years, which has then been wrapped with traditional Ardbeg of the same age that is matured in American ex-bourbon oak casks. The Manzanilla maturation weaves salty flavours through the whisky which is then balanced with the maple syrup creaminess of the first-fill ex-bourbon casks.”
Ardbeg Ardbog Single Malt Whisky
10 year old
52.1% ABV
Non-Chill Filtered
Release date: 1 June 2013
RRP £79.99
Appearance: Rose gold with polished bronze
Nose: An inviting nose, rich and complex with both soft floral and deep earthy notes. Honeycomb with dark chocolate deepens to liquorice root dipped in caramel. Freshly dug peat combines with gentle smoke and a hint of carbolic soap creating an earthy tone with a savory edge like pata negra ham. To the end, and with a splash of water, its cider apples rolled in ash.
Palate: Creamy and full, the rich palate delivers much of the notes from the nose, swirling and drifting between sweet flowers into earthy herbaceous tones. Mid palate is hit with a salty, brine like twist wrapped in gentle peat smoke and prickly spice. Cinder toffee, clove, salted almonds and a side of grilled artichoke in peppered olive oil. Quite a mouthful!
Finish: An oily finish, lingering peat smoke and a constant sweet/savory battle in the mouth
Summary: I was quite taken aback by this one, softer than expected and a fabulous mixture of twisting sensations. Nothing really takes over, everything seems to harmonize so well. This is nothing like the standard 10 year old Ardbeg, it’s much more refined, rounded and complex.
Last summer I spent a rather pleasant couple of days in the village of Old Meldrum, not far from Aberdeen airpoirt where the Glen Garioch distillery is situated. In fact, if you read that review you will discover that Old Meldum IS the ditillery, such is the design of the village. And it was at this visit that I was fortunate enough to sample some of the last vintages to be made using the original floor maltings before closing them down (and the distillery itself for a short while) at the end of 1995. When the distillery did eventually re-open, sadly the decision had been made to not used the malting floor again and hence a change in style was born. The vintages made available to me whislt on my visit were the 1994, 1991 and 1986 and all wondeful indeed. I knew there was one last release to come though, the final bottling of whisky which had been malted at the distillery, the 1995 vintage and it was this weekend past,at Londons Whisky Live , that I had the chance to sample this little bit of history having missed out on the press release samples last year for some reason.
Glen Garioch 1995 vintage Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Nose: Vanilla sugar, varm wine gums and a malt backbone. some good wood structure hidden in there also. With water, a warm cereal note emerges with aple blossom and a hint of carbolic soap under sliced fresh pear.
Palate: Chunky vanilla laden malt with cooked apple and a hint of peat smoke in the background which calms to allow a slightly menthol note.
Finish: Clean and fresh, a good amount of grip and spice with lingering soft peat smoke barley detectable and sweet fruity barley.
Summary: A very different style of Glen Garioch and if you are familair with the more redily available 12 year old and Founders Reserve, this may come as a shock. Gone are the rich red apple skins so prevenlant in those two expmples and in comes some well structured oak and light fruit. I’d struggle to identify this as a Garioch in a blind tasting, but then thats whats great about these releases, they are just different enough to warrant taking the time to seek them out and taste a little bit of the old style of distillery.
Having just returned from the recent “Warrior Release” of Highland Park, I wasn’t quite expecting another release to follow so soon, nor was I prepared for the intriguing manner in which this latest HP expression has made its way out into the world.
My postie is a very nice lady but she does have a habit of arriving at an ungodly hour and on this occasion remarked with her usual cheerfulness “Oh you are dressed!” which nicely set the discombobulated tone of the day as I struggled to wake up and remember if I had been inadvertently naked when I last saw her! The mystery continued when I opened the delivery to find an intriguing unmarked black box and the black envelope within holding a disc of paper on which were printed strange symbols and letters. It took a while for me to work out that it was actually a flexagon which when refolded in certain ways would deliver different messages. Three in fact. The crossed legged man wrapped in a serpent, and the lines “All is not what it seems” and ” A serpent stirs in the smoky shadows”. Had I upset someone so much they had sent some kind of death threat to me? Friends in the industry were also sent the same package and as we “tweeted” our thoughts, we tried to work out who it was from and what it was all about. The image did seem familiar and after a little more searching we found out it was to do with the second in The Valhalla Series from Highland Park- “Loki”
Got to love Google.
So this morning, a second parcel arrived. Similar black box, similarly plain looking package and yes I was dressed. Inside was a tube, with an origami serpent guarding a small bottle. Fortunately this time, the mystery was solved – the bottle had a label on it.
So who is Loki? From Norse mythology, he was a helper to the gods, but also a shape shifter and trickster seemingly causing them more problems than helping. I always thought, taking the word of the great Stan Lee, that he was the brother of Thor and the son of Odin , but apparently not and his name is set deep into ancient writings far beyond the modern portrayal of him. Anyway, with glass in hand it was easy to see why this slithery character was chosen as this whiskies name sake as the nose, palate and finish seems to shift and change at every approach. stirring stuff indeed.
Gerry Tosh, Global Marketing Manager says, “Thor was the first of its kind, a true quality malt built around an individual’s personality. This proved massively successful and it sold out globally. Loki will continue to take Highland Park and The Valhalla Collection into new territory.
While everyone will recognize the definite ‘Highland Park-ness’ of this 15 Years Old Single Malt, it will be the unexpected and surprisingly smoky dynamics that will really get palates excited and mouths talking. This is unlike any expression that has come before and will beguile and fascinate with its complexity and trickery. Remember, all is not as it seems.”
Highland Park “Loki” 15year old
The Valhalla Series
47.8% ABV
European cask and peated cask.
Limited to 21,000 bottles
RRP £170
Appearance: Rose gold with like honey.
Nose: Artist oil paint, fresh squeezed orange juice, hessian cloth, fresh hay, linseed oil, warm honey blossom, rich malt, licorice root and a note of perished vulcanized rubber. Smoke never really appears, taking the form of the rubber note instead. Well developed but very complex.
Palate: A syrupy and rich beginning with burnt butter, walnut oil, busts of peat smoke and charred meat making up the start of the palate. Vanilla sauce over dried tropical peels of grapefruit and papaya, woody birch sap honey follows with ginger spice and ends with molasses licorice and lime preserve coated with peat smoke.
Finish: Dried peel, chunks of charred wood and earthy spices all fight for palate possession as the smokey finish grips in.
Summary: From first nosing this whisky, to the initial taste, then going back to it after a few minutes it had become three very different drams. Unmistakably Highland Park, yet at the same time layered with citrus and a level of peat smoke far greater than normally expected. But give it a minute and it switches round, the smoke dies, the warm spices emerge and the citrus calms. Then try again. Nothing is as it seems.
I’m not one for the normal marketing bullshit as you may well know. Marketing, in the most part is needed in this fast-moving world of information but of course this sometimes leads to an added spin to try to lift a brand image higher out of the pool of competition. With this in mind, I was delighted to receive a bottle of Deanston 12 year old single malt at the Dramatic Whisky offices.
The story is simple,clear and the product speaks for itself. This whisky does not have its roots in the by-gone eras of whisky history, no tales of bootlegging and illegal stills hidden amongst glen and atop Munros, but is born from a passion (and business mind) to produce a good product from the off.
The Deanston distillery was, unlike many others in Scotland, not built to distill whisky. In 1781, a cotton mill was built on the river Teith which is about 8 miles from Stirling in the central belt of Scotland. The location at the time was key as shipping along the busy canal that ran from Glasgow to Edinburgh would no doubt aid distribution at the time. Continuing as a cotton mill until the mid 1900′s and the decline in the cotton trade the decision was taken to switch the mill over to a distillery in 1965 to capture the ever increasing demand for whisky. However, like most good things, it didn’t all run so smoothly and in 1983, as the sales in whisky dropped, the distillery was mothballed until its acquisition by Burns Stewart Distillers in 1990 and production begins again. The demand for whisky was on the increase once more and Deanston was a soughtafter by many leading blends, as well as Burns Stewart’s own Scottish Leader blend.
Powered by its own hydro-electric plant using water from the Tieth, Denston actually produce enough power to give back a proportion to the National Grid, making its production very green indeed. Couple this with the fact that Deanston only use Scottish products and its barley is certified organic, this low impact whisky is unique amongst other whisky producers. And it does not stop there as thankfully, the non-chill filtered, non coloured whisky found inside its attractive yet simple packaging is at a chewy 46.3% ABV helping retain as much of the natural feel of the dram.
The 12 year old is the first in the range of whiskies produced, again showing that time and patience, along with some canny knowledge and the best ingredients is all you really need to produce something great.
Nose: Light lemon curd, peeled granny smith apple and malty richness followed by soft vanilla and buttery rich cream. and honeysuckle.
Palate: The strength is well masked with generous white fleshed fruits and rich vanilla turning to caramel. Chewy malt and light oaky-wood spice help maintain a well-rounded and complex taste for its age.
Finish: A touch drying, but still plenty of character with malt lasting all the way through the thick buttery fruit palate.
Summary: A very easy drinking dram indeed. Just enough of all the right component parts to satisfy most palates and certainly one to always have to hand.
A new arrival through my door this week was a bottle of Speyburn “Brandan Orach” (Golden Salmon for those not familiar with the Gaelic tongue). I’m often confused by the choice of name for whisky, and this one joins those ranks- Golden Salmon? Is it to be considered as an indicator of the whisky’s quality or taste as surely this is what the drinker is looking for? Will this bottle burst forth with fishy freshness or perhaps a whiff of fisherman’s friend?
Charbonnel’s amazing Banoffee Truffles.
Either way, It was destined to be used at a forthcoming tasting I was holding and would be paired with a selected Charbonnel et Walker chocolate. But which one was the question now posed. Stopping off at the Liverpool Street branch of this rather fine chocolatier, I obviously had to let the staff try a little before helping me select the right accompaniment and they seems to have little hesitation. With the main character of the whisky seemingly light and fruity we played around with some citrus lead chocolates before finally, as the caramel notes became apparent, I pointed at the Banoffee truffle chocolate saying “let’s try this one!”
Surprisingly, or perhaps not, it was an amazing combination. The bursting freshness of the whisky tamed somewhat by the sweet, buttery chocolate but at the same time the banana element of the truffle amplified the caramel and tropical fruit note that wasn’t immediately apparent upon first tasting the whisky on its own.
Safe to say, the gathered 25 guests were more than happy to be guinea-pigs at the tasting an hour later and all agreed that the combination was surprising and a perfect partnership.
Speyburn Bradan Orach
Single malt whisky
No age statement
40% Alcohol
Appearance: Clear bright yellow gold.
Nose: rich note of malt new make and warm caramel, a high spirited start softened by toffee apple and lighter notes of unripe banana served on an oak stave.
Palate: Lively to begin with grippy tannic spice and assertive spirit before the slightly buttery apple and caramel strudel with banana parfait pops in.
Finish: Light and lively turns smooth and creamy with lingering buttery vanilla and toffee.
It’s not often I think about chilling whisky, but I reckon I might give this one a try. Popping it in the fridge for a few hours and getting it nice and cold might just be the perfect accompaniment to a summers day picnic in the park. With some banana loaf on the side of course – hey wait, maybe thats whats meant by the “golden salmon”? If you fancy trying some for yourself then you can buy it here.
