Ahhh…… home sweet home!!! After a series of European adventures, it was such a delight to be home in India for month! Which yes… also included a tasting or two or three!
With our Bombay Malt & Cigar gents, we took a more ‘traditional’ Scottish bent with:
- Glentauchers 8 year (2005 / 2013) 48.2% (Sansibar) – Sweet aromas contrast with a spicier palate and tasty finish… young but most enjoyable!
- Balblair 18 year 46% (OB) – Honeyed orchard fruits, elegant and well-rounded with a long finish, a classic whisky that fully satisfies
- Glenrothes 18 year Elders’ Reserve 43% (OB) – A rich, robust, heavy whisky which reminded us more of port than sherry!
- Speyside Blended 45 year (1973/2019) Sherry Cask 45.1% (TWE) – Complex, unusual, shifting and evolving… one to slow down and experience
Keeping the Glentauchers and Balblair aside for the Whisky Ladies of Mumbai, it was joined by:
What to say about a GBP 400 dram? No doubt well crafted, but is it really worth the hype? Check out our tasting notes and decide…
Shifting gears completely, back in July, our Euro Whisky Ladies explored the Welsh Penderyn distillery‘s Dragon Range with notes published in August:
- Myth (ex-Bourbon) 41% – A happy, lively summery dram, engaging on the nose, lovely on the palate… an easy enjoyable sipper
- Legend (ex-Madeira) 41% – Surprisingly our least favourite of the trio… whereas we’ve enjoyed the Madeira cask Penderyn in the past… pity
- Celt (Peat) 43% – Apples and vanilla aromas, buttery, smokey, well rounded whisky
As we reflected on this horizontal flight, we appreciated that each had apples and vanilla on the nose and a nice bitterness on the palate which gave character. It was interesting to taste a trio like this together and we loved that they came in 200ml bottles (given our limited quantity consumption!). That shared, Penderyn remains quite affordable in the whisky world and worth picking up.
We also appreciate this is a distillery with a trio of women core to their success – with an all women distilling team – Laura Davies (Distillery Manager), Aista Jukneviciute (blender), Bethan Morgans (apprentice distiller)! We have kept a bit aside to revisit once the other set makes its way to Mumbai with plans to have a call with the distillery to learn more!
I’m still catching up on all my various travel notes, however shared our first distillery visit in Sweden – to the lovely isle of Hven / Veen – home to Spirit of Hven. One of these days I will get around to sharing further details of the distillery tour experience however in the interim, here is what we tasted from Spirit of Hven:
- MerCurious Corn Whisky 45.6% – Whilst not a whisky nor bourbon in a traditional sense, not such a bad experiment
- Seven Stars 6.2 Alcor 45% – An intense coffee peaty dram
- Seven Angels St Raphael 40.9% – Our favourite and a promising start to a new series
By contrast with Penderyn, the most memorable aspect of the distillery tour was being “mansplained” throughout! Sad but true, women as whisky appreciators remain perceived as a minority or oddity despite significant evidence of highly capable women in the industry, as consumers and commentators around the world.
Next we headed to Gavle, to visit Mackmyra Distillery. Again, I will share more insights about our tour experience later, however immediately posted thoughts about our fascinating two-part tasting starting with a trio from their “Elegant” style aka without peat:
- Mackmyra Reserve Bourbon Förlagrad Cask 41155 (2018-10-29 to 2019-05-14) 55%
- Mackmyra Moments – Brukswhisky DLX Nr 659/1999 46.6%
- Macmyra Reserve Oloroso Elegant Cask 39502 (2016-11-22/ 2020-09-21) 49.6%
Before you get too excited about the whiskies…. be forewarned that “Reserve” means you need to own the cask! Using smaller casks, Mackmyra seems to be doing a brisk business in Sweden selling casks to consumers.
Our journey through their “Elegant” expressions was followed by their “Smoky” trio with peat aka Rök:
- Mackmyra Reserve Bourbon Rök 3.5 year 50.3%
- Mackmyra Reserve New Oloroso Rök 57.3%
- Mackmyra Svensk Rök 46.1%
Whilst the expressions clearly reflected the depth and range, we overall continue to find the clean “Scandi” character using mostly Swedish oak, only local peat and a ‘freshness’ influenced by juniper… our experience reconfirmed our enjoyment of what this distillery produces.
August was a prodigious month of malty posts! Joining my Swedish travels was insights into my Parisian June jaunt where we met up with Maison Benjamin Kuentz and sampled together:
- Aux Particules Vines (1st Edition) 46%
- Aux Particules Vines (4th Edition) 46%
- Aux Particules Vines (5th Edition) 46%
I’ve updated the notes for Aux Particles Vines as I just received further details on the 1st Edition casks – really appreciate the craft and curiosity in bringing out creative fully “French” experiences and expressions.
Not such a bad range of whisky tastings and travels! With a couple weeks leave home in India, I finally had time to catch up on writing posts too!
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