Category Archives: Scotland

That Boutique-y Whisky Company Glentauchers 20 year for LMdW

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That Boutique-y Whisky Company has crafted trade-mark labels and fine contents. One of our Mumbai Whisky Ladies picked this particularly bottle up some time ago and we’ve been patiently waiting for th right opportunity.

On the label you can see Thierry Bénitah (La Maison du Whisky CEO and son of its founder, Georges Bénitah) in the 1980s, surrounded by classic whisky bottlings and wearing a particularly snappy turtleneck…

Glentauchers 20 year (Boutique-y Whisky Company) Batch 4, 46.9% bottled for La Maison du Whisky with 327 bottles

  • Nose – Hazelnut cream, wood, almond, also some ripe fruits, maple syrup, oodles and oodles of butterscotch, a bit of menthol, green almond
  • Palate – A real tingle and oomph! A bit bitter, some sweet spice, caramel fudge and nougut, with a bit of tart sour sauce, berries
  • Finish – Spice like white pepper

Some loved this one. Others found the blend so approachable that following with this single malt was a bit of a jolt.

As this whisky came out some time ago, you won’t find it on the “That Boutique-Y Whisky Company” website, however can track down some tasting notes at The Master of Malt:

  • Nose: Fresh and floral with hints of violet and honey. Stewed berries with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Butterscotch.
  • Palate: Roasted chestnuts and black pepper. Apricot jam, quince and a whisper of cinnamon.
  • Finish: Sodabread with salted butter, floral malt once again, cumin and dried raspberries.

Our core focus was a trio with a wee ‘appetizer’ blend:

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The Appetizer – Ballantine’s 17 year Glentauchers 40%

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When one of our Whisky Ladies mentioned she would be bringing a special 20 year old Glentauchers bottled by that Boutique-y Whisky Company for La Maison du Whisky, I suddenly remembered I had an old small bottle of a series presented by Ballentine’s to show off the respective character of key elements in their blend.

So pulled it out, dusted it off and hoped it wouldn’t be completely oxidized and terrible… we were in luck! It had stood the test of Mumbai storage conditions rather well!

Ballantine’s Glentauchers

Ballantine’s 17 year Glentauchers 40%

  • Nose – Fruity, nutty, lemon, butterscotch, ice cream
  • Palate – Lemon cherry, very smooth, buttery, light and balanced, a bit of chilli, slightly bitter
  • Finish – Bitter burnt caramel

Overall this whisky was pronounced “Yum!” Simply an exceedingly easy “appetizer” of a whisky. Far from being a disaster, it was actually quite delicious. Clearly this blend had stood the test of time.

What followed was a trio of single malts:

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Royal Brackla 21 year 40%

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Royal favour has its benefits… including in the world of whisky.

The distillery was founded in 1812 by Captain William Fraser of Brackla House on the estate of Cawdor Castle and by 1833 was selected by King William the IV to be the royal court whisky. The distillery changed hands, had its ups and downs – including closing for some time in 1943-45 and 1964-66 then 1985-91.

And yet the “Royal” title remained, even as it changed hands eventually ending up as part of the Dewar & Sons portfolio.

We sampled this 21 year old whisky blind, with a reveal at the end. Here is what we thought…

Royal Brackla 21 year 40%

  • Nose – We were greeted with varnish, lime, sharp and direct, link control, medicinal soap, started to shift and become very sweet, cinnamon spice candy, bananas, hallowe’en corn candy, marshmallows, wood sap, toffee, burnt caramel, a puff of smoke, resin, white pear, leafy basil, curry leaf
  • Palate – Soft, a nice coating and well balanced, raisins and resin, a bit of chocolate, loads of wood, honey, with the 2nd sip was much spicier
  • Finish – Cinnamon spice – delicious!
  • Water – I never would have thought to try but others prompted – the whisky takes water quite well, opening up a complete fruit basket of aromas, butterscotch, rounds it out even more, with a lovely sweetness, revealing a nice fresh grassy element on the palate, surprisingly it also improved the mouthfeel

It was a rather nice way to finish up our Scottish traditional trio. Again it had the sense of being a combination of ex-bourbon with some ex-sherry too.

And the reveal?

A recognition this is a distillery we rarely encountered. Yet were pleased to do so that evening.

So what do the folks at Dewar (aka Barcardi) have to say? They have quite succinct tasting notes:

Richly fragrant with summer berries, dark chocolate, star anise, and a sherried sweetness.

Our original tasting group explored two other whiskies in our classic Scottish trio evening:

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Old Pulteney 17 year 46% revisited

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Sometimes it is nice to be reminded of how much you enjoy a particular distillery and its whiskies. We had just such an opportunity with our Scottish “classic” evening…

Naturally half the fun was tasting completely blind with the reveal only at the end. Here is what we found…

Old Pulteney 17 year 46%

  • Colour – Copper
  • Nose – Sweet perfume, floral, vanilla, a touch of salty brine, chocolate, butterscotch, so familiar and inviting, toffee, some gentle sherry influence. After the 1st sip we found marzipan, almonds, light sweet citrus like a lemon cake. As it opened even more, there was a hint of smoke. As we let it sit even longer, the citrus shifted into a lively orange peel oil.
  • Palate – Soft sweet spice with some salt. A lovely complexity, sweet lime, lightly bitter with a subtle touch of tobacco leaf, a wisp or puff of smoke, so beautifully balance
  • Finish – Ends on a sweet note, gentle spice, really quite beautiful, a bit of liquorice
  • Water – Mellows it out… some preferred with and some without

We all really enjoyed this whisky and found it quite lovely, with a “feel good” character. While exceedingly easy to drink, it also had complexity and kept evolving. We all were confident that it must be Scottish and clearly well crafted. It also had all the hallmarks of an ex-Bourbon cask with a bit of ex-Sherry too.

A few of us kept remarking how there was something so completely familiar about it. We settled on Highland, one even mentioned Old Pulteney, another an old style Balvenie.

And our reaction to the reveal that it was an Old Pulteney 17 year?

Delight! An excellent reminder of how this whisky is simply one good dram.

Naturally this was one of many enjoyable evenings with Old Pulteney of which a few included:

Our original tasting group took an evening with a classic Scottish trio:

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Tragedy Struck! Gordon + MacPhail’s Linkwood 1998 46%

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Once upon a time there was a Linkwood that was poured into a bottle in 2012… to make its way from Scotland to a World of Whisky store to a home in Mumbai, India. And then find its way into our glasses in October 2018…

We sampled it blind and here is what we found…

Linkwood 13 year (8 Dec1998 / Jan 2010) Cask No 5014 Refill Sherry Hogshead 46% for World of Whiskies

  • Colour – Very yellow
  • Nose – When first opened it was so fruity – particularly jackfruit, cashew fruit then red fruits… then as strong as it came on, the basket of fruits slipped away… Particularly after the first sip. Instead there was biscuits, cereal notes with hay, grass… more and more it became dusty, musty, woody… after even more time there was a light coconut and even some marshmallow but… something wasn’t quite right….
  • Palate – Sharp, initially fruity, then musty, sour, earthy, bitter, very woody, some spice, quite thin with little body, wet fallen leaves
  • Finish – Very short finish
  • Water – Some found it horrible, bitter vs others finding it became tart with lemons then sweet, the fruit came back with some spice yet was still very musty with dry coconut husks

We struggled with this one… it seemed oddly incomplete or off… something or other wasn’t quite right. Over and over we kept remarking on the peculiar musty element.

With the reveal we were all surprised.

Linkwood.

Gordon & Macphail.

Really?? The character wasn’t in keeping with our past experience with Linkwood whiskies and certainly not Gordon & Macphail bottles.

And that is when our host revealed that the reason he served this single malt from a lovely decanter was the cork had crumbled completely. He further shared he had purchased this years ago – likely not long after it was released in 2012.

It seemed that tragedy had struck. What could have once been a fine dram was given no favours by being stored in a Mumbai cupboard for years. There actually have been studies on the impact of storage conditions on whisky bottles. Mumbai’s heat isn’t kind to bottles… and this seems to have happened in this case. Sigh….

What about other Linkwood experiences?

Our original tasting group continued in our “classic” evening with two other Scottish single malts:

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Scottish Trio – Linkwood, Old Pulteney, Royal Brackla

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Sometimes you just want to enjoy classic styled whiskies… with a flight that has a straight forward age progression from younger to older… no experimentation, just a standard combination of ex-bourbon cask and ex-sherry maturation.

That is exactly what we did this month, sampling each malt blind… And yet it wasn’t entirely as “traditional” an experience as one would think…

Our original tasting group went “traditional” with a Scottish trio:

Curious to know more about what we found? Just click on the whisky links above and get all the juicy details!

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Whisky Ladies Contributor’s Choice – Glentauchers, Balvenie, Talisker

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When doing whisky tastings, themes are great but sometimes going a bit random is even better! And that’s exactly what we did this month with the Whisky Ladies…. we invited contributions and then discovered what they brought!

What did we explore in our Ladies Choice evening?

Our core focus was a trio with a wee ‘appetizer’ blend thrown in at the last minute:

Curious to know more? Just click on the whisky links to read what we thought!

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The Glenrothes 21 year Minister’s Reserve 43%

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The Glenrothes is one of those distilleries that you know what you are likely to get – strong sherry influence, robust and full.

It is what one of our samplers called a “Ronseal” after a well-known UK ad for varnish that came out over 21 years ago… The brand was known for its simple ad line “Does Exactly What it Says on the Tin” which soon became synonymous with anything that is what it says it is.

And what did we think?

The Glenrothes 21 year Minister’s Reserve 43%

  • Nose – Spice, sherry, fruity, sweet cinnamon, cloves, chocolate, plus fruit cake and icing, old raisons, tinned fruit, nutty, some berries, more vanilla cake, dash of mocha chocolate
  • Palate – Desert in a glass! Dangerously easy to drink, soft and smooth with some Christmas spice, a very classic sherry on all accounts, enjoyable and full
  • Finish – Fab long finish with tobacco

Nice and classic, and so sweet it was almost like sipping rum. In short, it was exactly what you expect from a quality sherry matured whisky.

While I preferred the Highland Park solo without a cigar, The Glenrothes was a perfect cigar partner!

What do The Glenrothes folks have to say on the box?

Distillation is unusually slow and takes place in unusually tall stills which deliver a sweet, clear, fruity spirit. Maturation is in American oak and Spanish oak casks, a combination designed to deliver a perfect balance of flavours associated with our award-winning Speyside single malt; ripe fruits, juicy citrus, creamy vanilla and complex spices.

Would we agree? Yup!

And what would this set you back? These days, it would be about £155.46 online at Master of Malt. We opened our bottle in September 2018.

In our latest greatest adult evening, what all did we try?

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Highland Park Vintages – The 1991 21 year 40% Official Bottling

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Once upon a time, Highland Park was a ‘gateway’ whisky for me… more specifically the 18 year which opened my palate and senses to the character and complexity of a decent dram.

Shift ahead a few years to a period where Highland Park made to the switch to vintages and no age statement “Heroes”, “Warriors” and “Legends”… with the 1998 and Einar disappointing while the Thor surprising and pleasing.

Enter the 21 year old that is known by its vintage 1991. Introduced to travel retail in 2012, the thinking was as each vintage ran out, it would be replaced by the equivalent next vintage i.e. this one replaced the 1990 vintage and the expectation was by 2013 the 1992 would be released and so forth.

Except a funny thing happened along the way… for Highland Park, after a few years the vintage approach didn’t “stick”… quietly without fanfare the duty free shelves holding vintage whiskies were slowly replaced by age statements.

Which means our patient whisky host had managed to keep one of the few 21 year olds from the vintage marketing “experiment”.

As we opened this bottle that had sat patiently waiting its turn for nearly 6 years, talk turned to our varied experiences with Highland Park – good, bad, brilliant and much in between.

And this bottle? Read on to see what we thought…

Highland Park 1991 40%

  • Nose – Grassy, pine, spruce, sea grass or a seaweed salad, light citrus coming from behind, lemon flower bouquet, light fruity, inviting comforting nose, short bread, butter biscuits, vanilla and a hint of cloves
  • Palate – Islands, light leathery peat, very smooth and round, had some substance, chewy mouthfeel, creamy and buttery, yet a slight citrus twist in there too which added a refreshing element
  • Finish – Subtle nuanced finished, cinnamon spice

We really enjoyed it – very yum! And more importantly, had all those elements many of us once enjoyed in a Highland Park – character, complexity and just a darn good dram.

Even more remarkable is that it was full flavoured at only 40%. While none of us were tempted to add a splash of water, these days anything lower than 46% tends to come across as a bit “watery” – not so with this Highland Park.

We set it aside for some time and the revisit just confirmed it is a lovely whisky and a clear winner for most.

However when it came time to pair with cigars, this would not be my pick… I’d prefer to simply enjoy it on its own.

What would this set you back? It was last seen for about £120 on auction.

In our latest greatest adult evening, what all did we try?

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Dewar’s Aberfeldy 21 year 40%

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Ah Dewar’s… a blend that has gone beyond the mold by being involved with such initiatives like the Dewarists – an MTV series of musical travelogues around India. This show blended musicians from different genres and places living the motto: “Some things are just worth doing.”

I will openly admit to having a soft spot for any brand that gets behind independent musicians and contributes to the cultural fabric of their target market.

And what does that have to do with this whisky review? Naturally Aberfeldy distillery is part of the Dewars stable… and its 21 year old the high-end of their travel retail offerings.

What did we think? Read on…

Aberfeldy 21 year No 28750 40%

  • Nose – Sherry, vanilla, light hazelnut or bitter almond, dried orange peel, cloves, fruity, like pear or white apricot, very sweet and honeyed
  • Palate – Different than the nose indicated… some leather, bitter and then became fruity. As it settled in became nice and enjoyable with a decent mouth feel
  • Finish – Long yet initially quite bitter, nutty like walnut skin

Never had a whisky that greeted us with such a wet warm whisky welcome… It was quite ‘friendly’ in a sloppy moist puppy dog kisses kind of way. Yet amusing and sweet too.

We set it aside for some time and returned to see how it had become sweaty in the covered glass. A few whiffs and sips, we decided it was worth the wait. The sweetness and initial drizzle of honey became more and more pronounced. The fruit also lightly mingled with a soft peat on the palate.

Overall we found it simple, easy to drink, uncomplicated yet eminently enjoyable.

And what would a bottle of this Aberfeldy would set you back? One can find it online at Master of Malt for approx £130.

PS If you are curious about the Dewarists… here is an ad film that provides insights into this series that ran from 2011 to 2016…

Dewar’s Scotch and The Dewarists

In our latest greatest adult evening, what all did we try?

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