Whisky Ladies like variety! Akashi, Spirit of Hven + Linkwood

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Variety is the spice of life! And why not with whiskies too?

This Whisky Ladies session with a few ladies gallivanting around the globe, those remaining in Mumbai decided to merrily abandon the idea of a co-ordinated theme.

Instead we decided to mix up whiskies from three different countries and styles.

Whisky Ladies, Sept 2016

Whisky Ladies, Sept 2016

The Linkwood was a gift from our Bombay Malt & Cigar session, so I had sampled it earlier, however for everyone else joining, it was a 1st for them! Pronounced a rather lovely drinking dram, it kicked off our evening’s tasting session.

The Akashi is one of the few whiskies blended in Japan available at Mumbai duty free. The Akashi is an example of a ‘ji-whisky’ and has an apple cider quality. It works well as a ‘starter’ whisky for those who like something simple, smooth and unchallenging… and was meant to be our ‘appetizer’ except our poor Whisky Lady got stuck in nearly 2 hours of traffic to reach! (that’s dedication!)

The Spirit of Hven was acquired by a new whisky lady on her recent trip to Sweden. Much bolder with fabulous packaging, the Tycho’s Star swaggered into our senses and was much enjoyed. The irony was our Swedish whisky lady happened to be… well… in Sweden so missed the session however this was clearly one she would enjoy!

PS With desert, we decided to share a few drops of the Blair Athol 27 year with it full cask sherry burst – yum!

From time to time, you can also find other whisky related updates and activities on:

Paul John Single Cask Peated

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We’ve had a few brushes with Goa’s answer to the world whisky challenge… The Whisky Ladies were smacking our collective lips with the yummy bacon in the Paul John Peated Select Cask….

However there is a Single Cask avatar of the Paul John Peated too tempting to resist…

Paul John Peated Cask 780

Paul John Single Cask Peated

  • Nose – Sour curd yet also honey caramel like breakfast muesli, peaty bacon, grilled prawns, campfire smoke, then chocolate orange, musty rancio element, as it airs light rose, dry supari
  • Taste – Very smooth, not in the least sharp, lots of body, as much going on in the palate as nose, toasted almonds, green applesauce
  • Finish – Long finish, burnt charcoal that mellows into apple sauce then grapes
  • Water – Fabulous! Adds more to the nose enhancing the supari and boiled rice

Comments:

  • “I feel like frolicking around the campfire!”
  • “Smells like stinky brie but tastes delicious”
  • “It is a voluptuous woman with attitude”

Overall, all that promise and bursting character in the Select Cask? Even better in the Single Cask. Wonderfully balanced, lots of body, it opens beautifully with a small splash of water. More importantly, it has a distinctive ‘Indian’ quality.

What do the folks at Paul John have to say?

Open your taste buds to the burst of a blood orange and kumquat blast, with an undertone of marmalade, framed by the soft, but confident and compelling peat reek. The profound contrast continues: the mouth watering maltiness plays hide and seek with darker, drier, smoky undertones and the myriad shoes and subtleties of smoked cocoa butter… Quite a handful of attitude in one bottle, this is for serious whisky drinkers.

Other Paul John whisky experiences:20151224_Paul John Quintet

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TWE Covent Garden Reserve Edition No 2 – Islay

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After the excellent start with the The Whisky Exchange’s Covent Garden Reserve collection Edition No 1 – Speyside, our miniature exploration turned to the next edition – Islay.

TWE Islay

Edition No 2 – Islay, NAS, Hogshead Cask, Bottle No 288, 55.2%

  • Nose – Clear stamp of Islay character – smoke, dry bark, a tinge bitter, leather, bogs, bitter, sweet smoke, over rite fruit, moss, some cereals, liquorice, cracked black pepper
  • Palate – For such a promising nose, the palate was not so complex, still in character with the nose but in a sharp way, almost harsh and young… however when later revisited seemed like it had settled into its own and much more in harmony with the nose and finish
  • Finish – Sweet long finish with a bitter edge… nice and ‘big’
  • Water – Lost a lot on the nose, became almost too sweet – like cinnamon candy

After a a wonderful range of aromas, bit disappointing palate initially, the finish completely redeemed itself. After airing for some time, all three elements started to play much better together.

Above all – there was absolutely no doubt this was an Islay whisky! If you were randomly asked to pluck something off the shelf that meets the stereotype of a what one associates with the ‘Islay region’ – this would be perfect.

Wanting to know more, I wrote to the gentlemen over at the Whisky Exchange.

Most amusingly, they came back with a teasing clue…

a distillery from the town of Port Askaig

What’s your guess?

The other miniatures sampled in August:

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TWE Covent Garden Reserve Edition No 1 – Speyside

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Next up in our miniatures session was the 1st of The Whisky Exchange‘s Covent Garden Reserve collection…

TWE Edition No 1 Speyside

Edition No 1 – Speyside 10 year, Sherry Butt, Bottle No 240, 51.6%

  • Nose – Lemon zest, wood, malty, complex with a dry spice like allspice and clove, sharp and then kept changing.. crisp pear, fresh tart apple then morphed into stewed fruits, almost wine-like quality, then musty compost, sweet toffee salt
  • Palate – Initially hits the upper palate, very robust, chewy sweet, spice, toffee pudding
  • Finish – Medium dry, sweet cloves… a big finish
  • Water – Brought out a tasty sourness and peppers, with a spice kick, liquorice,

What a treat!! It has been some time since we enjoyed such wonderful shifts in aromas, it has a ‘kick back’ but in a beautifully well-rounded way.

We gave it time and found with the revisit the sherry dimension was even more pronounced full of ripe plums, prunes, dates, mince pie. Delicious!

Wanting to know more, I wrote to the gentlemen over at the Whisky Exchange.

Most amusingly, they came back with a teasing clue…

a famous speyside distillery in Ballindalloch that does everything in sherry casks….

Pretty obvious which distillery…

Other miniatures sampled recently include:

*Tasting notes coming soon!

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MacPhail’s Orkney 8 Year 43% (Highland Park)

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Next up in our miniatures tasting session was a Highland Park…

The MacPhail’s Collection is a small range of single malt whiskies bottled by Gordon & MacPhail.

The focus of this collection is the quest for younger, quality drams at affordable prices. You won’t find a rich mature complex aged marvel here, instead a younger, better than decent dram for a reasonable cost.

Macphail's Orkney 8 year

MacPhail’s Orkney 8 year 43% (Highland Park)

  • Nose – Banana, apricot, lemon zest, butter toast with sugar sprinkles, woodsy, vanilla, citrus soft, wet cloth with a bit of brine
  • Palate – Peat, malty cereal, a little pepper spice, smooth
  • Finish – Enjoyable finish, like a puff of smoke then dry, bitter ending sweet

Overall a drinkable dram… much more so than the Highland Park 1998. Light balance between sweet and smoke, coming together so smoothly.

Here are the official tasting notes:

  • Nose: Soft fruits – peaches/mangos, heather/earthy notes and a touch of saltiness.
    With Water: Fruity (green apples), subtle sherry influence and touch of floral.
  • Palate: Rich, mulled fruits with a touch of smokiness.
    With Water: Sherry wood with smoky notes (charred oak). A vanilla sweetness emerges
  • Finish: Long with a delicate sweetness.

Check out what other’s have to say too:

Other miniatures sampled recently include:

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Tomatin Legacy 43%

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First up in our August miniatures exploration was a no age statement whisky from Tomatin.

The Tomatin Legacy expression is dedicated to the legacy of the distillery’s relationship with its community, as the village became a town when accommodating the workers required to build the distillery… and remains today.

Tomatin Legacy

Tomatin Legacy 43%

  • Nose – Quite a kick with bit of varnish, bananas, sweetness creeping into dry wood, light peat? some resin, sweet sour overripe fruit, a vegetal element
  • Palate – While bold it also is curiously ‘thin’, bitter sour khata then caramel sweet
  • Finish – Initial burn then just sits there with subtle dry ash, bitter

Overall left impression of sticky toffee pudding.

We then compared the Legacy with a sample of Tomatin 12 year.

Here’s what the folks over at Tomatin have to say:

Time in Bourbon barrels and Virgin Oak casks brings a light sweetness to The Tomatin Legacy, which boasts aromas of vanilla, marshmallow, pineapple and lemon. On the palate gentle flavours of candy, pine, lemon sherbet, apples and sponge cake emerge ahead of a light, clean finish. 

Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible 2015 – 94.5/100

BTW… if you are in the US, just substitute “Dualchas” for “Tomatin”

Here’s what others have to say:

Other miniatures sampled recently include:

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Whisky nosing…

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The old sniffer is critical to enjoying a good whisky.

Which means if I’m down with a nasty cold, the last thing I would ever do is waste good whisky. As I know a stuffed up nose = missing 99% of a whisky.

As whisky tasting groups, we’ve experimented with various methods to discover different elements in a particular whisky.

Once, we tried a test with first tasting a vial of an unknown substance with our nose tightly plugged. Then we slowly unplugged our nose to utilize our sense of smell to appreciate how critical smell is to what we perceive as ‘taste’ – it makes a tremendous difference!

This is why it is critical when tasting whisky to not ‘cross contaminate’ scents by having flowers, perfumes, cooking smells in the same room.

PS I won’t tell you the punch line but you can read more here – “Taste Test!”

Mystery vials

Mystery vials

Then we met with an ‘expert’ (whisky tasting session with Jim Murray) who walked us through his ‘technique’ of sniffing by ‘dabbing’:

  1. Lift cover off glass and take the first fresh whiff – dabbing against an imaginary moustache both right then left nostril
  2. Cup glass with both hands to seal the whisky in and warm it against your body for approx. 5 – 10 mins
  3. Hold covered glass away from body, lift hand to let alcohol evaporate while drawing close to then nose again
  4. Take a tiny sip to rinse mouth – the ‘mouth wash’ step – and spit
  5. Then a few seconds later take another whiff right and left nostril followed immediately by a large sip – the 1st taste – roll it around in your mouth, chin up, opening and closing your mouth like a fish, then spit it out
  6. ‘Listen’ to the whisky to ‘hear’ what it tells you about its character
  7. After a few minutes, take a 2nd taste… again whiff, sip, tilt head back, open and close fish style, then spit out or… perhaps… if so inclined… swallow
  8. Again ‘listen’ to what the whisky ‘says’
  9. Repeat steps 2, 3, 7 and 8 as required…
Sample setting

Sample setting

And more recently, a young fellow crafting unique spirits in Michigan, introduced another technique – ‘mouth breathing’.

He shared that while yes… Traditionally one does a careful ’sniff’ for whisky, when it comes to the range of spirits he deals with, nothing beats a good ‘mouth breath’ to help discover elements beyond a civilized ‘sniff’… And at times, this technique works well with certain whiskies.

So… during one of our sessions, the Whisky Ladies of Mumbai experimented with the ‘mouth breathing’ approach to see if it garnered a different range of descriptions! (And anyone watching us would have been in splits laughing!)

Our conclusion? For more powerful whiskies, it can bring a different dimension. But it is quite useless with more nuanced notes that need a more delicate whiff to wind its way into our senses.

Any other nosing revelations you have discovered in your whisky adventures?

Related posts:

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Nordic Explorer #4 – Sweden’s Box The Festival 2015 54.5%

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Our Nordic exploration continued with a special whisky created for The Box Whisky Festival 2015… available ONLY to attendees at the festival! (or those kindly given a sample from one such coveted bottles).

Box Whisky The Festival 2015 54.5%

  • Nose – Quite organic, fresh, sweet caramel, bananas, pear, hint of cinnamon, woodsy
  • Palate – Oily, deeper elements, spice at the back of the throat, while not complex, quite solid like firm planks of wood providing the foundation, chilli chocolate spice, swirling smoke
  • Finish – Long, caramel chocolate
  • Water – Super sweet aroma and spice on the palate, though would not recommend as it dampened the more unique qualities

I had kept aside just a smidge in the wee 20ml bottle and revisited the next day… so glad that I did! Much of what I enjoyed came from the 2nd round which was sublime.

Overall it had an understated quality despite its initial boldness, with a harmony between nose, palate and finish. This is a whisky that requires you to sit, sip and savour. It cannot be ‘speed dated‘… it needs time to get to know you a little before it reveals its nature as quite an interesting dram.

Box Distilleri is very  distillery has to say:

For the Box Whisky Festival in 2014, we presented the world with our first festival whisky. This year’s edition is similar to its predecessor, with a distinct peat flavour and evident character of charred oak. One huge difference, however, is that all the casks are sized between 100 and 130 litres and that the age is somewhat higher – on an average four years. Two out of five casks are made from Swedish oak.

Recipe

61% of the whisky is made from peated malt (31–45ppm).

The bottling consists of whisky from five casks made from new American and Swedish oak.

The Festival 2015 is neither chill-filtered nor coloured.

*** Whiskies courtesy of  from Whisky Saga ***

For more information on BOX distillery whiskies, do read Thomas’ posts on Whisky Saga. Specifically:

More Nordic whisky experiences coming soon!

You can also find Whisky Lady in India on:

Nordic Explorer #3 – Sweden’s Box Whisky Shareholders 2016 52%

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Our Nordic exploration continued our Swedish journey, shifting from Smögen to Box Distilleri.

Box distillery, is located in Ådalen, in buildings that previously housed a power station and sawmill, previously used to make wooden boxes for England. Like Smögen, it was also founded in 2010 and was founded by two brothers – Per and Mats de Wahl.

Their focus is on using Swedish organically grown barley and their whisky takes advantage of the climate range with its range of hot summers and cold winters. As Hasse Nilsson shared in an interview with Dominick Roskrow in Connosr:

“One of our goals is to be the whisky friends’ and connoisseurs’ distillery. Whisky made by experts for experts is something different than whisky made to be ingredients in big brands blending.”

Sweden - Smogen + Box

Box Whisky Shareholder 2016 3 year 52%

  • Nose – Banana, organic sweet, lots of overripe fruits, some stewed fruits and spice, very fruit sweet…
  • Palate – Pepper spice, subtle smoke, some ginger, a bit bitter, fruit, candied lime sweet
  • Finish – Medium dry
  • Water – Brought out a cologne like quality!

Overall quite minimalist in approach, very fruity on the nose and smoky spice on the palate with a dry finish.

As we read up about the whisky post tasting we were most amused to discover the wee kerfuffle over it originally being intended only for shareholders… then details being leaked so that anyone quick on the draw had access!

As for us? We felt indeed rather fortunate to be part of the rare coterie to try such a dram.

*** Whiskies courtesy of  from Whisky Saga ***

For more information on Box whiskies, do read Thomas’ posts on Whisky Saga. Specifically:

More Nordic whisky experiences coming soon!

You can also find Whisky Lady in India on:

Nordic Explorer #2 – Sweden’s Smögen Sherry Project 1:4 57.2%

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Our first session exploring our Nordic whiskies sample set began with a rather terrific 4 year old whisky from Sweden’s Smögen distillery.

The Smögen Sherry Project was intended to explore the increasing influence of a sherry cask on a young whisky.

  • 1:1 had a 4 months sherry finish
  • 1:2 had 8 months sherry finish
  • 1:3 had 14 months sherry finish
  • 1:4 was fully matured in 1st fill sherry quarter casks (cask #25-27, and 29)

Our benefactor shared with us the last instalment in the Smögen Sherry Project… here is what we found…

Photo: Master of Malt

Photo: Master of Malt

Smögen Sherry Project 1:4 57.2%

  • Nose – Clear sherry stamp, spice, in some ways quite direct, in others not… as though there were two distinct layers – a lower one with sherry and an upper note that was fresh, light with hints of pine. After it aired further, became significantly sweeter like an icing sugar drizzle over cake, marzipan, vanilla
  • Palate – For such a layered nuanced nose, the palate initially seemed a bit flat, a bit malty, wood, strong, pepper, nuts… settling into a sherry
  • Finish – Sweet spice

Overall a range of elements – sooooo sweet on the nose, bitter on the palate and a dancing spice finish. In some ways this whisky is a bit ‘hard’ yet not in the least harsh.

Here is what the distillery has to share:

Sherry Project 1: 4 – Fourth and final release in the series “Sherry Project 1”. Bottled day after “1: 3” in August 2015, four years old and 55.7% strong. Matured in sherry casks quarterback (barrel No. 25-27, 29/2011), European oak. Released by Systembolaget in November 2015 with 909 bottles.

This has a very clearly marked character of Sherry and barrels; very powerful whiskey with great depth and tones mainly of crushed peat-smoked malt, nutmeg, black pepper, orange zest and almonds.  

Sweden - Smogen + Box

*** Whiskies courtesy of  from Whisky Saga ***

For more information on Smögen whiskies, do read Thomas’ posts on Whisky Saga. Specifically:

More Nordic whisky experiences coming soon!

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