“The Whisky Guessing Game” at The Single Cask, Singapore

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Having an opportunity to ‘try something different‘ seems to be the hallmark of most whisky aficionados journey. What better way than through bottlers not disclosing the distillery… here follows the tasting notes and speculation from an anonymous Islay whisky flight experienced at The Single Cask in Singapore.

Cask Islay 46%

  • Nose – Citrus smoke, sweet brine
  • Palate – Ash, peat, oily, sense of being a bit sticky, doesn’t travel well
  • Finish – Bitter… makes you want water!

Cask Islay is a small batch release from A.D. Rattray and you can read what they have to say here.

Islay Storm 40%

  • Nose – Softer than the Cask Islay, fresh grass, fruity apples, cereals, barley oat porridge, followed by a nice sweetness
  • Palate – While it didn’t have much body, there was a fresh green dimension and actually quite interesting, warming into vanilla custard with smoke, sweet peat, sea salt, eminently enjoyable
  • Finish – Very nice finish, surprisingly long

The folks behind this bottle is The Vantage Malt Whisky Company and you can read what they have to say about Islay Storm here.

Dun Bheagan Islay 43%

  • Nose – Briney citrus, tannins
  • Palate – Bit of spice, some body, the peat was actually quite balanced
  • Finish – Sweet spice with cinnamon

IanMacLeod Distillers created the Dun Bheagan collection to feature a range of single casks.

Finlaggan Cask Strength 58%

  • Nose – Tar, asphalt, leather, grass, flowers, quite sweet yet also oddly quite shy and mute
  • Palate – Sharp leather, warm balanced evolution
  • Finish – Sweet spice liquor

It may sounds like a contradiction but it was oddly muted and shy – can’t help but suspect the bottle was open too long with oxidation taking its toll.

Again, the folks behind this marvellous dram are The Vantage Malt Whisky Company, with more details about their Finlaggan range available here.

All were interesting. All would be quite affordable in the UK and not pocket destroying in Singapore. I kept coming back to the Islay Storm, whereas my companion was particularly partial to the Finlaggan.

And our guesses?

  • Cask Islay 46% Our guess? Caol Ila
  • Islay Storm 40%? Zero doubt it was Kilchoman… by a mile! And interesting to try at 40%. Sipping it also sparked my companion’s memories of his 1st visit to the distillery
  • Dun Bheagan Islay 43% Most likely a Lagavulin
  • Finlaggan Cask Strength 58% Probably a Laphroaig

If anyone can prove or disprove any of our speculations – would love to hear!

So there we have it… a wee whisky flight and a most enjoyable evening in Singapore.

The Single Cask is located at 01-25 Chijmes Caldwell House, 30 Victoria Street, Singapore 187996 / info@thesinglecask.sg / +65 6837 0953.

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The Single Cask, Singapore

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Let’s face it – whisky in Singapore is expensive. However the range of spirits available vs  my other usual haunts like Jakarta and Mumbai, makes it a favourite spot to try something new and typically pick up an overpriced bottle or two.

So I’m also always seeking out another “watering hole” to whet my whistle and expand my tasting horizons…

Enter The Single Cask at Chjimes…

My whisky tasting companion and I were considering a few different whisky flights, veering towards something lighter and more nuanced. We riffled through page after page of suggested flights and whisky options. Our eyes wandered over the shelves displaying whiskies from near and far.

Then our friendly neighbourhood fellow whisky blogger cum bartender (Brendan Pillai of WhiskyMate) brought out a Bruichladdich Port Charlotte trio for a sniff! Immediately our mood shifted to a peatier predilection…

Our attention was captured by a particular Islay flight that contained names new to us. Now, lest you think any of these are distilleries, these are independent bottlers selecting casks from Islay distilleries, keeping the original whisky unspoken.

This seems to be a growing trend to keep promiscuous single malt drinkers engaged! Tease them without telling the distillery so they are tempted to try and the guess! Yeah… we fell for it too… I like to call it it the “Whisky Guessing Game!”

What did we try? Check out what ultimately caught our fancy…

The Single Cask is located at 01-25 Chijmes Caldwell House, 30 Victoria Street, Singapore 187996 / info@thesinglecask.sg / +65 6837 0953

PS – They also have an online store and no, this was NOT a sponsored post! 🙂

Other Singapore whisky joints:

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Undisclosed Distillery – Wilson + Morgan “Highland Heart” Sherry Cask 43%

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Our 6th anniversary session had a twist – rather than our usual blind tasting approach, I opted for bottles that do not disclose the distillery. My last choice was Wilson & Morgan, an independent whisky bottler out of Italy – “The Italian way to Scotland’s finest whiskies.”

“Here’s to women’s kisses, and to whiskey, amber clear;
not as sweet as a woman’s kiss, but a damn sight more sincere!”

wm-sherry-cask

Wilson & Morgan “Highland Heart” Sherry Cask 9 year (2006/2015) 43%

Here is what our original underground tasting group had to say:

  • Nose – Immediate sherry, then old leather chair, dusty bookshelves, incredibly rich, marmalade, coffee, chocolate, toffee, slightly nutty, yet with that sweet stewed prunes sherry underlying it all
  • Palate – Sooooo soft! Cotton ball soft. More of the rich orange, incredibly rounded, simply so tasty you wanted to settle down with it for an entire evening
  • Finish – Red pepper, mile long finish, left you salivating for more

As one taster put it “Such a tasty whisky!” And another dubbed it “very royal.” It indeed had quite a regal quality – a classy classic whisky. The interplay of a hint of peat with royal sherry reminded us of an aged GlenDronach, yet softer and exceedingly well-rounded.

Some of us re-sampled it with a nutella cheesecake or salty sweet cookies dipped in warm chocolate milk… a delightful combination! (from One Street Over).

What does the bottle tell us? It was distilled April 2006, bottle January 2015 as a room sample Cask No 2004/2011.

The William & Morgan’s Sherry cask is known to be from the Macallan distillery. When I first sampled it at La Maison du Whisky, I simply fell in love. The nutty quality, the clear stamp of sherry with flirtatious peat… All I could think was – if this is what Macallan can still produce, where has it all gone? Truly a superb whisky.

Here is what the William & Morgan folks have to say about their whisky:

Returning to sherry intensity after the more delicate 2014 release, our young Speysider tries to evoke memories of a beloved legendary whisky from this region that was sold as a 7 years old in Italy and of which we have fond memories. 

  • The nose is very winey, almost spicy and slightly astringent, with the fragrance of walnuts. 
  • On the palate it retains this lively spiciness, for a pungently peppery character, but it’s well matched by the resinous sweetness of dried fruits (peaches, apricots, plums, sultana raisins) and at the same time it’s kept lean and fresh by a clean mineralogy. It tastes already fully mature thanks to the very active oak casks. 
  • In the end it adds a note of liquorice, to complement the interplay of spice and sweetness

Purchased at La Maison du Whisky as part of a whisky ‘speed dating‘ session.

We loved it!!

The trio of whiskies sampled in our undisclosed distillery evening included:

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Undisclosed Distillery – Port Askaig 19 year 50.4%

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I first sampled this Port Askaig as a sniff, swish and spit “speed date” at Whisky Live Singapore.

I was both impressed and intrigued, knowing it was impossible to get a full feel for this whisky, the Port Askaig 19 year made the cut to come home to Bombay for collective sampling pleasure!

port-askaig-19

Port Askaig 19 year 50.4%

Here is what our original underground group had to say:

  • Nose – Jasmin, then a whole array of flowers, perfumes, hay, lightly toasted sesame seeds, quite restrained overall
  • Palate – Delicious! Balance, nice warm spice, light peat, mellowed, nuanced musk
  • Finish – Long beautiful finish – quite refined
  • Water – Brought out honey and cumin spice
  • Revisit – A huge bouquet of flowers on the nose – one said “like what you give your spouse for a special anniversary.” Followed by lots of hay, that beautifully balanced mellow delicious whisky and long enjoyable finish…

One put it perfectly “This is why we love Scottish whisky!” A fine example of what whisky can and should be! One to sip and savour, sufficiently complex to keep it interesting, quite elegant in its way.

For those who are curious, it is a well known industry secret that Caol Ila is the distillery of this TWE bottling!

port-askaig-19-year

Here is what they have to say about Port Askaig 19 year:

This 19 year old cask-strength edition bursts with fabulously flinty, lemony, seashells-on-the-seashore flavours. This is a truly elemental whisky, perfect for sipping from hip flasks during cold winter walks.

And here is what Billy A over at The Whisky Exchange have to say:

  • Nose: Crisp, stony smoke hides a layer of muddy peat. There are hints of flowers and a thick and spicy middle, reminding me of sponge-cake batter.
  • Palate: A syrupy sweet start is quickly overtaken by flinty smoke and charcoal dust, sherbert fountains, lemons and a hint of violet.
  • Finish: Long and lingering, with sappy wood and sherbet lemons giving way to wood ash in a cast iron stove. After that there’s a lingering green leafiness – fruit leaves?
  • Water: Dirties up the nose with heavily smoked bacon and adds more sweet and sour fruit to the body – lemons, limes and berries galore. The finish loses some of its its ashy bitterness, becoming softer and sweeter.

The trio of whiskies sampled in our undisclosed distillery evening included:

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Undisclosed Distilleries – Sansibar Islay Malt 8 year 52.2%

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Trips to Singapore since discovering the world of whisky nearly always include a stop at La Maison du Whisky.

Sure there has been a change in staff however when I shared my idea of doing a twist on our usual ‘blind tasting’ approach, Priscilla did a great job…

Sansibar is a new independent whisky bottler out of Germany, on the isle of Sylt, Bad Nenndorf, near the Danish border. They carefully select their Scottish casks, have them bottled then brought over for their (and now our) enjoyment.

It kicked off our underground original Mumbai tasting group’s 6th anniversary. My original plan was to then contrast and compare with the Bombay Cigar & Malt gents  a week later! Except that session kept getting delayed… from Feb.. to March… to April to… eventually May

At the first since of a delay, I decided without further ado to share notes from our 1st tasting experience separately and then did a short synopsis when eventually the 2nd session finally occurred with “Undisclosed Distilleries… Again!”

sansibar-islay-8-year

Sansibar Islay Malt Whisky 8 year (2007/2015) 52.2%

Here is what the original underground group found:

  • Nose – A salty lemon citrus twist entangled with muted peat, initially quite fresh, one found it quite ‘pungent’, another was reminded of peppermint drops, then it began to shift into paan, ‘bazooka‘ chewing gum, basil and pine needles. As it continued to open, took on a nutty quality yet overall sweet citrus with a light touch
  • Palate – Nice and chewy – starts with sweet citrus then shifts into cinnamon spice and rounds out with peat
  • Finish – A lovely long finish
  • Water – Unbelievable – water rounds it out even more!

Though we knew it was only 8 years and a steep starter for the evening at 52.2%, found no rough edges and instead a remarkably well rounded whisky. One member speculated it must be matured in re-fill bourbon barrels.

We returned to the Sansibar Islay after sampling the other whiskies and found it took on a much more nutty quality like almond marzipan, lots of cereals, rice milk and concluded, in short, it is simply a wonderful whisky.

While not disclosed on the bottle, I came to know the distillery is Lagavulin. The Lagavulin 16 year was once a familiar friend and I had an opportunity to try the 8 year side by side with this one in Singapore – absolutely no comparison!

The Sansibar Islay comes from a single cask with 330 bottles. If you are lucky enough to stumble across one, grab it!

Standard Lagavulin 8 year:

  • The palate is light in texture, with a magnificently full-on Lagavulin taste that’s even bigger than you may expect; sweet, smoky and warming, with a growing, smoky pungency, then dry, with more smoke.
  • The finish is lovely: clean, very long and smoky. This is a polished and exquisitely crafted celebration of Lagavulin with smoky-clean aromas and a mighty taste.

Whisky Lady – March 2017

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Carissa Hickling's avatarEveryday Asia

Once upon a time, March 31st used to mean year-end sales push with everyone running around, heaps of energy, effort and much more!

While I no longer have such direct business pressures, I do still need to do the accounting books so did a little whisky cabinet spring cleaning to pull out a few older oxidation bottles to have on hand for a late evening post numbers wind down. Great plan… til a cold happened. And I never waste good whisky on a stuffed up nose!!

So instead, my March round-up will not feature my hidden gems, instead share that it did bring some merriment and mischief with a trip to Jakarta and Singapore – including a nip into The Single Cask and La Maison du Whisky.

Alas March missed two of our usual tasting group sessions – both the BMC and our underground original club. However nothing was going to stop our Whisky Ladies…

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Of all the gin joints… Native Brews early experiments

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Whisky Lady in India is all about exploring the world of whisky, one dram at a time, with friends and solo adventures too.

However there are reasons rules should be broken every once and a while to spice things up.

And that’s exactly what the Whisky Ladies of Mumbai decided to do one February Sunday.

The venue was perfect… a desultory sunset overlooking the Arabian sea.

The slight chill that comes with a Bombay winter replaced by the growing heat… not quite scorching by day but inching upwards… enough to appreciate the wind off the waters and something a little cool to whet your whistle…

We began with a quick lesson on gin’s standard botanicals with an opportunity to take a whiff of the core ones, neatly packaged by our host and master alchemist – Susan Dias of Native Brews:

  • Juniper berries (Juniperus communis)
  • Coriander seeds
  • Angelica root and/or angelica seed
  • Lemon and/or orange peel
  • Coriander
  • Orris root
  • Cassia
  • Nutmeg
  • Black peppercorn
  • Cinnamon

Then came the real fun! An opportunity to try her new gin experiments…

#1 Gin “Sweet Delight” 42% 

  • Classic nose
  • Citrus on the palate with lemon peel, very sweet, coriander and pepper
  • After taste had spice, slightly bitter

Pairs well with guava, green mango

#2 Gin “Pushing the peppers” 42.8%

  • Lots of spices on the nose, particularly pepper
  • More coriander
  • Finishes with lots of wet peppery fennel

Reminds of Indian salami or… don’t laugh one even said  Axe body spray!

#3 Gin “Classic Style” 47%

  • All the elements pop out – distinct yet married well together
  • Just a hint more bitter than the others with a punchy finish spice

We closed our tasting with a chilled shot of “Mahua” a desi flower native to Maharashtra used to make a country liquor popular with the tribal community. Alas the restrictions and complications of India’s archaic liquor laws means you won’t see it on your shelves anytime soon…

Naturally our evening progressed from sampling to a sociable rather tasty Gin & Tonic made with the 3rd gin which worked perfectly!

Other gin explorations include:

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When an International Scotch Day celebration is NOT about the whisky

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From time to time, our Whisky Clubs are invited to events… Let’s just say it is convenient to extend an invite to one and get a bunch of whisky aficionados – particularly if it is a rollicking group of “Whisky Ladies.”

And that is how we found ourselves at Diageo’s International Scotch Day… Yet given what we assumed would be the whiskies on offer, our interest was more the multimedia artist’s ‘odes’ to the water of life, live music and good company.

In short, it is known as the evening the “Whisky Ladies” became the “Bitchy Ladies!”

Why?

Just peruse some of our Tasting Sessions or Ladies Corner and it easy to see we are an adventuresome bunch, exploring a wide range of whiskies sharing frank, fun and sometimes brutally honest opinions about what we sample.

Which means the bar is set pretty high to impress these ladies. We strolled in, traipsing after actress Freida Pinto and headed straight for the bar.

We knew the stuff on offer would not make our normal “cut” yet we still gamely did a tasting round of the whiskies available – Johnie Walker, Black and White, Black Dog and Vat 69. I’m too polite to reproduce what was said. 🙂

1st you.. then you.. like this not that!

Cocktails was clearly the way to go! However the “Old Fashioned” approach also didn’t make the “cut” either so one Whisky Lady took charge telling the poor beleaguered bartender how to go about it!

Getting an Old Fashioned right?

The food? From a fabulous chef yet with pairings that seemed a tad random and mostly got quizzical curious reactions.

And the Art? “Not so finely disguised advertising” was one comment, however it was fun playing around with the “Black & White” exhibit.

Black + White Whisky Lady?

Lest we seem like complete ingrates, what finely pleased these picky ladies? Oh the music, merriment and mischief we caused!! In the end, we had a mighty fine evening!

PS – It was interesting to read the somewhat “random” quality we found was echoed in other cities..

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Tasting tip for Asia – How to cool your whisky…

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There are times when we sip, dissect our impressions, discuss and then look at the official whisky tasting notes and simply scratch our heads in puzzlement.

Now before you think this is only because of overly creative marketing speak, there is another element in the equation that needs to be considered.

Temperature.

Let’s face it… Scotland’s average temperature is 15°C… And Mumbai? 30°C…

Which does indeed have an impact on your whisky tasting experience.

Hence why the standard way of serving in India is “on the rocks” with generous number of ice cubes. But that can “shock” a whisky and for some, it is a complete sacrilege!

As an alternative to killing a whisky’s nuance with chunks of ice, we’ve tried:

  • Those “rocks” that you freeze and then are supposed to cool your whisky… trust me, they warm up so quickly there is nearly no impact! Useless in a place like Bombay…
  • Cooling the whisky by keeping it in the fridge before serving… this actually works for a few minutes however soon enough the ambient temperature takes its toll. What we haven’t tried is storing our whisky bottle in a bucket of ice as we continue our evening…
  • Norlan glass is supposed to help keep the whisky from warming in your hands… yet when your starting point is hot? We have also found there is quite a different tasting experience between Norlan and Glencairn glasses overall with some whiskies much better suited to one or the other type of glass

Any other options?

Enter a ‘tip’ from Murray Campbell, Bruichladdich’s Brand Ambassador for Asia…

Here is his ‘recipe’ for dealing with the warmer climes of Asia:

  • Take two glasses
  • Fill one to the top with ice then water
  • In the other glass, pour your preferred whisky – neat!
  • Take a “shot” of the ice cold water, hold it in your mouth for a few seconds then swallow
  • Then enjoy your whisky
  • Alternate between cooling your mouth with the ice water and quaffing your whisky

In other words, “If the mountain will not come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain!”

What a clever idea Sir-ji!

Related posts when:

Other tasting tips:

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Whisky Live Singapore – Amrut

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Whisky Live Singapore had many wonderful highlights! Some terrific discoveries, great opportunities to revisit familiar whiskies in a distillery progression, chance to meet some wonderful new folks part of the whisky fabric, passionate about the art and craft of producing quality whiskies for our enjoyment.

However there were some disappointments. Alas Amrut was one.

Let me be clear – I’m delighted Amrut have grabbed global attention and put India on the whisky map. Heck this blogs all time top ‘hits’ whisky post is about – believe it or not – Amrut’s MaQintosh whisky!

However my direct personal experiences have largely been wanting.

The evening with Jim Murray was rather mixed.

The lack of access in India to their niche releases garnering international attention is frustrating.

Only in Singapore did I have a chance to try the Fusion 50% and admit – yes it is better than what we’ve tried in India. Even the unique Spectrum which, while very interesting, isn’t my kind of whisky.

Only recently courtesy of Malt Maniac Krishna Nakula did I finally meet an Amrut whisky that I genuinely was impressed with… and it was a sample from a limited edition, only for the Taiwan market whisky.

Seeing Amrut was part of Whisky Live Singapore, I hoped for something special to make its way to the event. A chance to finally properly see more of what is getting the whisky world excited.

Nope.

The standards.

And worse?

2016-11-13-amrut

The entire two days of the event their booth was mostly empty, the people staffing it seemed completely bored and totally disinterested in being there.

One had to wonder – really – what a missed opportunity!

Let me re-iterate, I want to be a well wisher. Yet not with this experience…

Other Amrut experiences:

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