Singapore sipping – Miyagikyo 15 year 45%

Posted on by
Reply

The wonderful thing about Singapore is that even places that are primarily for post-work beers such as The Bank Bar + Bistro near Asia Square stock a decent collections of whiskies.

Interestingly the server shared how they are pushing patrons towards the Glenfarclas and away from the Japanese whiskies they earlier promoted. Perhaps due to the rising prices and scarcity of the Japanese whiskies they are simply working through the remaining stock and trying to encourage a return to old faithfuls from Scotland?

20151203_The Bank

Naturally of the whiskies on offer, my eye was drawn to the Miyagikyo… particularly the 15 year. Yet  horror of all horrors, they serve in standard glasses. Oh… my inner whisky snob is definitely surfacing!

What did I find with the whisky?

  • Nose – Very sweet! Lots of toffee, fudge, mild spice…. apples… stewed apples to be precise
  • Palate – Can I just say – yum? Malty, bit of spice, a little bitter cinnamon bark, dry, has a good mouthfeel… a toffee sweetness
  • Finish – Definitely malty, quite pleasant with a splash of spice. Nice that it doesn’t just dash off but instead settles in for a friendly visit

No tropical fruits or other citrus elements, no perfume or sea salt. Why mention what its not? Well… normally I expect something more from the nose for a Japanese whisky. This one didn’t seem to have such layers of complexity on the nose… It also didn’t have the decidedly ‘feminine’ quality I was anticipating from a Miyagikyo. However in fairness… take one look at the picture and you know it wasn’t exactly sampled using optimal tasting glassware!

Overall the yumminess of the whisky and quite lovely finish more than compensated. In short – delightful.

20151203_Miyagikyo

Curious to see what others think, before publishing this post I looked up what the “Chaps at Master of Malt” have to say… OK this is scary… I swear I did not look at their notes before writing mine. I pinky swear it! But it does seem to back-up the impression of lovely but not so complex on the nose…

Tasting Notes by the chaps at Master of Malt

  • Nose: Very sweet with vanilla fudge, toffee apple and spice. A straightforward nose, without heaps of complexity, but very charming nonetheless.
  • Palate: Malty, toffeyed, and generically fruity, this is a great session dram – not too heavy, and very pleasing.
  • Finish: Spices, hints of granary toast. Malty.

Related posts about Nikka whiskies:

You can also find Whisky Lady in India on:

The ‘Downton Abbey’ of whiskies – Glenburgie 15 year 43% (Gordon + MacPhail)

Posted on by
Reply
Glenburgie is another one of those Speyside distilleries that you’ve likely had before in a blend, just didn’t know it! Ever had Ballantine’s? If so, you’ve had plenty of Glenburgie whisky!
20151119_Glenburgie 15
As usual, we sampled blind then revealed the whisky.
Glenburgie 15 year 43% (Gordon & MacPhail)
  • Colour – Pale honey
  • Nose – Lots of honey, overripe fruit, dry
  • Palate – Very smooth, well-rounded, buttery, sweet spice… did we mention smooth??
  • Finish – Quite peculiar and tough to pin down initially, bitter dark chocolate, a bit like a dry chardonnay, dusky
  • Water – Um… I think we forgot to try….
  • Speculation – Sense of being a whisky that may typically be used in a blend
  • Comments – A perfect example of a whisky that is light yet complex, like the ‘Downton Abbey’ of whisky, there is a certain elegance and style

The hit of the evening? The Glenburgie though the Aultmore was also both interesting and enjoyable. Absolutely nothing wrong with the Hibiki however nothing exceptional either – just a rather pleasant dram.

However it once again reminded us – Yup – blindly just buy Gordon & MacPhail. Period. And just to re-inforce, our host pulled out the Mortlach 15 year to revisit.

Another member noted that the bottle indicates this Glenburgie was ’selected, produced & bottled’ by Gordon & MacPhail with the ‘produced’ element not standard statement in Gordon & MacPhail bottlings. Hmm…

Naturally, this prompted interest in comparing the Gordon & MacPhail Aultmore 14 year (2000) with the Aultmore 18 year we just sampled.
The other whiskies sampled in our November session included:

You can also find Whisky Lady in India on:

Aultmore ‘Foggie Moss’ 18 year 46%

Posted on by
2

Once upon a time you hardly heard of Aultmore… Capitalising on this, the folks over at Bacardi aka John Dewar & Sons created a marketing campaign positioning Aultmore as one of the “Last great malts of Scotland“ known as a “secret dram of locals and Buckie fishermen.”

Late 2014 they began to release three different expressions:

Aultmore is a rare Speyside malt known locally as “a nip of the Buckie Road.” The distillery’s water filters down through the misty, mysterious area called the Foggie Moss. Aultmore is rated top-class and is a dram sought after for its gentle grassy notes. Aultmore will be available from November with a 12- year-old, a 21-year-old in Travel Retail, and a 25-year-old in limited quantities.

By July 2015, this was joined by the 18 year which I picked up for another member at the “World of Whiskies” shop at Heathrow Airport after sampling a nip of the 12 and 21 year… At that time our tasting group had never tried anything from Aultmore so thought – why not?

20151119_Aultmore 18
Here is what we found… naturally tasted blind!
Aultmore ‘Foggie Moss’ 18 year 46%
  • Colour – Straw
  • Nose – Blue cheese, very fruity – particularly sweet lemon, seems quite effervescent, “Very nice!” Some jasmine flowers, a little licorice, herbs, mellows into a clean, light, crisp note
  • Palate – “Nice taste!” Considered more in the laal mirch (red pepper) kind of spice rather than the prick of black peppercorns, a burst of lemon, a bit chewy, a little leather, subtle but very much there…
  • Finish –  A little haldi (turmeric), more of the faint leather… the finish is light but stays, understated but impressive
  • Water – Much better without water
  • Speculation – Distinct, didn’t feel like we’ve had it before
  • Comments – “A bit difficult to grasp initially, yet once you’ve cracked it, beautiful to be with!”

The unveiling – surprise! We actually HAD tried an Aultmore just the previous month – the Aultmore 2000 bottled by Gordon & MacPhail to be precise.

Once we knew the age, we started to speculate that perhaps they use 2nd fill bourbon casks given the light colour. Overall, we were pleasantly pleased and while ‘nice’ may seem a bit tame as a description, it really was quite… well… ‘nice’ in an enjoyable way!

The other whiskies sampled in our November session included:

Hibiki Japanese Harmony “Master’s Select” 43%

Posted on by
Reply

My early introduction to Hibiki was with its enjoyable 12 year blend years ago and then its even more delightful 17 year sibling. However the craze for Japanese whiskies in recent years has meant pressures on stock and, like many other companies, Suntory is no exception to embracing the NAS trend rather than be restricted to have a year statement linked to the youngest whisky found in the bottle.

Japanese Harmony “Master’s Select” is a recent Hibiki offering found in most Duty Free shops around the world… and just so happens to be the whisky that kicked-off our regular group‘s November tasting trio!

Hibiki Japanese Harmony

As our normal practice, we sampled blind then revealed the whisky…

Hibiki Japanese Harmony NAS 43%

  • Colour – Amber
  • Nose – That new bottle ‘bang!’ with jackfruit, over-ripe fruit, then a little sour, slightly medicinal, morphing into sweet basil, a little Vicks vapour rub, very sweet, fresh, even a whiff of orange marmalade and eucalyptus
  • Palate – Dry, bitter, a bit ‘hard’ with light leather, quite ‘wintery’, a bit oaky, nutty – more along the lines of a betel nut with that astringent after taste, with a larger sip becomes quite spicy
  • Finish – There but relatively non-descript, nothing exceptional
  • Water – Without even adding, it feels like was already opened with a few drops of water, those that did found it spicier but didn’t add anything specific
  • Speculation – Sense that it is between 40 – 43%, feel of being a bit ‘junior’, could the colour have a little caramel?

The unveiling – the new Hibiki NAS blend with Yamazaki sherry cask, Hakushu and Chita.

And our overall thoughts? Quite straight, linear, no complexity, yet equally a ’no complaints’ kind of whisky! An entirely pleasant dram and when in the mood to simply sip, enjoy while listening to say.. classical music… this would do the trick!

Here’s what the Masters of Malt folks have to say about the whisky:

Hibiki Japanese Harmony is made with malt whiskies from the Yamazaki and Hakushu distilleries, as well as grain whisky from the Chita distillery. The whiskies are drawn from 5 different types of cask, including American white oak casks, Sherry casks and Mizunara oak casks. The blend itself was crafted by the Suntory Whisky blending team, led by Master Blender Shingo Torii. An elegant expression, with wafts of honey, orange, a herbaceous touch or two and light oak.
The other whiskies sampled in our November session included:

You can also find Whisky Lady in India on:

Whisky double trouble

Posted on by
Reply

A funny thing is starting to happen… as our original whisky tasting group looks forward to our 5th year together, we are beginning to do a little inadvertent duplication.

As our practice is to rotate hosts with each host responsible for curating the evening, not disclosing the whiskies procured for our sampling pleasure until after we have tasted blind, it means we do not coordinate with each other to ensure we aren’t buying the same or similar thing.

At the time of the reveal, we are now occasionally hearing ‘Oh’ in a different tone as the whisky just tried was already acquired for a forthcoming session by another member. That happened in August with the Bruichladdich The Organic Scottish Barley 50%.

However for those that are similar, rather than exactly the same, it means we can play around with interesting comparisons… and in the coming months we will have opportunities to do just that!

Hibiki Harmony, Aultmore 18, Glenburgie 15

Hibiki Harmony, Aultmore 18, Glenburgie 15

For example, November’s three whiskies included:

Why is that remarkable?

We had just sampled the Aultmore 15 year bottled by Gordon & MacPhail the previous month… and here was another Aultmore. Naturally we have asked the hosts from both sessions to bring along both bottles to our next tasting in January!

And now that I have the delightful Whisky Ladies group too, that provides scope for even more such comparisons! Between the two whisky tasting groups, I was able to put side-by-side the distillery release of Caol Ila 12 year next to a Gordon & MacPhail Caol Ila 12 year.

For those of you part of a whisky tasting group, how do you acquire whiskies and organise your sessions?

And do you sometimes get that ‘Oh!’ of duplication or ‘Oooh!’ for another opportunity to do a different kind of comparison?

Related posts:

You can also find Whisky Lady in India on:

Laphroaig 1987 16 year 46% from Silver Seal

Posted on by
Reply

As shared, my last trip to Singapore featured a remarkable whisky sampling evening at The Auld Alliance with eight different drams!

One of the more surprising whisky was a very uncharacteristic yet rather interesting Laphroaig. I’ve never associated ‘flowery’ with this distillery!

20150604_Laphroaig 16 yr

Laphroaig 16 years ‘Silver Seal‘ 1987/2004  46% (No 229 of 770)

  • Nose – Softer, easier, sweet, a sterile pharmaceutical quality like a sweet medicinal capsule
  • Taste – Initially sweet and flowery, a distinctly ‘meetha‘ (sweet) all the way down with mint, basil and honey, so light and yet grew into the faintest wisp of smoke? Sip further and it the smoke begins to uncurl itself revealing there is indeed a deeper element, growing and expanding into a more robust and rounded whisky than it seemed in the first few sips. Still retained a fresh, sweet quality yet with depth
  • Finish – Smooth, nice and easy, sweet peat
  • Overall – A sense of SILK, well balanced with more going on than first appeared

In fairness to this whisky, it was difficult to get back into the saddle after the utterly remarkable Lochside 1981. What was fascinating to us was this did not have the current bold Laphroaig whisky character – something much more nuanced and subtle.

Laphroaig 1987

You can find The Auld Alliance at:

  • 9 Bras Basah Road, RendezVous Hotel, Gallery #02-02A, SINGAPORE 189559 
  • info@theauldalliance.sg Tel: +65 6337 2201

Related posts:

You can also find Whisky Lady in India on:

Lochside 1981 51.2% (Gordon + MacPhail)

Posted on by
Reply

The next up in our The Auld Alliance Singapore sampling suite simply stays with you! Lochside 1981 remains one of my all time favourites til date.

20150604_Lochside 1981

Lochside 1981 / bottled 2010 51.2% (Gordon & MacPhail)

  • Nose – Peat, meadow, grassy, fresh, hint below of spirit, from the nose alone a sense of some age, tropical fruits
  • Taste – Unbelievably smooth, silky with the nicest peat, absolutely no harshness, bursting with raisins, berries, a big swell of delicious spice, juicy
  • Finish – A gorgeous gift. The kind of finish that simply keeps on giving, shifting from berries to smoke to a savoury sweetness.
  • Overall – Had a sense of maturity, very well-balanced with the kind of finish that simply commands RESPECT!

In short, this one made us stop. We turned to each other and realised our evening could just end on this whisky – a true show stopper. One sip would last 15 minutes. This is the kind of whisky you wish you had in your cabinet. The kind you want to share with special folks who truly appreciate a quality dram. Without fanfare, it slipped into the class of one of the most memorable whiskies sampled til date.

From the discontinued Lochside distillery – known to be one of the ‘ugliest’ distilleries – Arun from The Auld Alliance shared it also used to produce beer. Bottled by Gordon & MacPhail, the label noted the whisky is matured in refill sherry hogshead.

Their notes indicate:

From the closed, and now demolished distillery, this Single Malt has hints of subtle spices and is laced with ripe, tropical fruits.

All I can say is, if you can try this whisky – just do it! It was last seen on WhiskyBase.com for € 350 however is no longer available. For more information about the distillery, you may find this post from WhiskyIntelligence of interest.

Other whiskies sampled as part of our Scottish quartet included:

If in Singapore, check out The Auld Alliance at:

  • 9 Bras Basah Road, RendezVous Hotel, Gallery #02-02A, SINGAPORE 189559 
  • info@theauldalliance.sg Tel: +65 6337 2201

Related posts:

You can also find Whisky Lady in India on:

BenRiach 21 year 1988 Cask No 4423 54.8%

Posted on by
Reply

Next up in our Scottish sample at The Auld Alliance was a BenRiach limited release exclusive to Singapore.

20150604_The BenRiach 1988

BenRiach 21 years 1988 Cask No 4423 54.8% (bottle 19 of 269) 

  • Nose – Sweet honey suckle, soft, romantic, a symphony of scents with figs, dates, treacle. A ‘nice’ whisky…
  • Taste – Swung from sweet to spice, bursting with cinnamon and cardamoms, then fennel. Full of such a distinctively spicy character.
  • Finish – Remained on the spicy side
  • Overall – Clearly without peat, the final feeling was more of delicious spice rather than the sweet nose

What we appreciated most was the deceptively soft sweet nose which then made us stand up and pay attention with the spice. All in all a rather ‘nice’ dram!

Other whiskies sampled as part of our Scottish quartet included:

If in Singapore, check out The Auld Alliance at:

  • 9 Bras Basah Road, RendezVous Hotel, Gallery #02-02A, SINGAPORE 189559 
  • info@theauldalliance.sg Tel: +65 6337 2201

Related posts:

You can also find Whisky Lady in India on:

Little Mill 25 year 1989/2014 50.9%

Posted on by
Reply

First up in our remarkable Scottish quartet in Singapore at The Auld Alliance was a whisky from a now discontinued distillery – Little Mill.

20150604_Little Mill

Little Mill 25 year 1989/2014 50.9% (282 bottles)

  • Nose – Berry, smooth, fruity, vanilla, well-rounded and not peated
  • Taste – Here was where the surprises began – peat! Definitely had stuff going on, oily, straight spice, had body and a ‘thick’ quality
  • Finish – Nice, smooth, stays
  • Overall – Had a nice ‘curve’ to the tasting experience which began fruity, then peaty and finally mellowed into smooth sweetness.

Both of us shared how we prefer whiskies that tell a ‘story arc’ – this one gave the impression of being hard-working, warm, generous. It invited you to play with it a bit more…

Bottled specifically for The Auld Alliance, the label also noted  ‘Three Rivers Tokyo.’

A rather interesting whisky and one I felt privileged to try!

You can find The Auld Alliance at:

  • 9 Bras Basah Road, RendezVous Hotel, Gallery #02-02A, SINGAPORE 189559 
  • info@theauldalliance.sg Tel: +65 6337 2201

Related posts:

You can also find Whisky Lady in India on:

Whisky Lady – November Novelties

Posted on by
Reply

A very busy whisky November!

Carissa Hickling's avatarEveryday Asia

As quiet as this blog Everyday Asia’s been lately, my other blog Whisky Lady has been quintuply busy!

November brought incredible ‘novelty’ with a grand total of five (yup! That’s 1, 2, 3, 4.. 5!!) whisky sampling occasions exploring a wide range from the affordable and accessible to the impossibly rare with insane prices!

It was such a busy whisky tasting month that most reviews are currently in the status of *Notes forthcoming!

Hibiki Harmony, Aultmore 18, Glenburgie Hibiki Harmony, Aultmore 18, Glenburgie

Our regular monthly tasting session brought three very different whiskies:

  • Hibiki Harmony NAS 43 – Latest Suntory response to the craze for Japanese whisky!*
  • Aultmore 18 year 46% – Interesting… sense we hadn’t tried before*
  • Glenburgie 15 year 43% – Gordon & MacPhail do it again!*

20151112_105chichibu2009abunadh Glenfarclas 105, Chichibu 2009, A’bunadh

Our Whisky Ladies proved their mettle with two sessions….

View original post 344 more words