Minis – Edradour 17 year (1999) Bordeaux Cask Finish 55.2%

Posted on June 5, 2019 by Carissa Hickling

I gotta admit, I’ve had hit and miss experiences with wine finishes but generally like most Edradour whiskies so was very curious to see what they did with a Bordeaux finish.

Edradour 17 year (1999) Bordeaux Cask Finish 55.2%

Nose – Started with a peculiar rubber, plastic… then citrus, sour, tannins, ripe dark plum, a sharpness, spice at the back, grapes. After the 1st sip, big nose, bursting with fruits, oats, wet hay, porridge, brown sugar and raisins, stewed apple peels
Palate – Dry wood, lots of flavour, prunes and plums, dark cherries, solid body, touch of leather
Finish – Stays, a subtle spice that holds… extremely long with a fruity tale
Water – Explosion of sweet, much more round, white peach… fabulous

The danger of storing things in hot humid Mumbai is it isn’t kind on plastic or rubber. We speculated if a bit of the initial queer aromas on opening was linked to a terrible storage mishap.

But after some time, we got past the that to – Wow! Power packed. After time, the nose settled down yet also took on a musty quality, the flavours remained big and bold.

So we set it aside to continue our explorations of the other minis. We returned and found again that slightly peculiar plastic then got past it to again wow! Compelling… it was like a completely different whisky…

Nose – A potpourri of aromas, rose petals, perfumes, soaped, changed again to plastic then back to fruits and berries
Palate – Lemon pie, eve a sweet and tart key lime pie… nope… maybe kumkuat? Mangosteens? Custard apple? Starfruit? Jackfruit?! You get it – a kaleidoscope of fruits!
Finish – Spice, sweet and just yum!

So what do the folks over at Master of Malts have to say?

The Edradour distillery is well known for finishing their Highland single malts in wine casks – and they get wonderfully specific with it sometimes. For example, this is a 17 year old expression, distilled in October 1999 and finished in a trio of Bordeaux hogsheads for 46 months before being bottled at cask strength in May 2017! A release of 911 bottles.

Tasting Note by The Chaps at Master of Malt

Nose: Rich notes of stewed red berries and dark chocolate, with underlying menthol and parsley.
Palate: Oak-y spiciness begins to take shape on the palate with plenty of cinnamon, pink pepeprcorn and fresh cedar. Remains deliciously jammy with raspberries and cranberries.
Finish: Lasting sweetness of red liquorice.

As for what it would set you back? Approx $180.

So what did we try in our minis evening?

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Irish Whiskies – Green Spot Bordeaux 46%

Posted on May 22, 2019 by Carissa Hickling

The “Spot” whiskies come from Mitchell & Son with the Bordeaux finish a new variation of Green Spot.

Now I will admit upfront I’ve had some mixed experiences lately with wine finishes… and while I’m happy to settle down with a Green Spot in sociable evening, I feared this friendly green orchard fruits and honeyed dram may not take well to being finished up to two years in Bordeaux barriques from Château Léoville Barton.

I’m exceedingly pleased to share my fears were groundless and, if anything, this was a favourite of our Irish evening!

So what did we discover?

Green Spot Chateau Leoville Barton Bordeaux Finish 46%

Nose – From the bourbon we found vanilla and banana… then the sherry elements of dried fruits, nuts and prunes came to the fore… followed by the tannins, tart black cherries from the Bordeaux all with a lovely spice, pungent and almost a bit astringent… a few even caught a whiff of sulfur? As it settled in, a nice vanilla cake and custard with berries and a dash of sweet spices predominated
Taste – Dry, yet with sweetness. The 2nd sip revealed a clear influence of the wine, fruity, more of the sweet spices, overall pronounced most enjoyable
Finish – A lovely spice, juniper, sour cherries, long and easy

We found it was a mix of of the casks in which the pot still whiskey matured – bourbon, sherry and Bordeaux – and truly felt all three elements influenced the result, particularly in the aromas.

There was no doubt this was an easy one to return too, eminently friendly with enough going on to not get bored. The nose especially was delightful and kept its sweet honey and other elements quite nicely even after setting aside for some time.

What do the folks at Mitchell have to say?

Green Spot Château Léoville Barton has initially been matured in traditional sherry and bourbon casks, then finished in French oak wine casks from the renowned Château Léoville Barton, Bordeaux.

Nose – The French oak drives the initial aroma with crisp woodland notes added to the spicy Pot Still character. The wine seasoning brings a floral perfume and ripe berries to the archetypal orchard fruits.
Taste – The familiar mouth coating is a very satisfying balance of oak and spices. Some vanilla sweetness works in harmony with the dry orchard fruits and French oak, combining effortlessly with barley grains to complete the complexity.
Finish – For the finish, the rich French oak slowly fades leaving the wine & the spices of France & Ireland with the last word.

As for the price? We’d say for this quality, it is exceedingly reasonable at £58 if you find it, as this was, at The Whisky Exchange in London.

Here is what else we explored during our latest greatest Irish whiskey evening:

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Port Charlotte MP5 10 year Bourbon/Bordeaux Cask #0013 59.9%

Posted on August 22, 2018 by Carissa Hickling

One of the ‘traditions’ of our original whisky group is to taste blind… In this case, I gave a bit of a twist by openly sharing we were sampling whiskies from the same distillery, peated at the same level and nearly the same age with the only difference the cask.

My goal was to eliminate wild speculations to instead focus on the narrow range of variable – cask. With the reveal made only after we tasted each whisky separately and then compared them to each other, sharing thoughts on the possible cask(s) used.

We began with the Cognac cask – while not part of the MP5 series – I chose it to calibrate the palate. We then moved on to the Bourbon cask, then this one… which added a Bordeaux finish.

What did we think?

Port Charlotte MP5 10 year (2005/2016) Bourbon/Bordeaux Cask #0013 59.9%

Colour – A clear touch of red – which we later found clearly came from the Bordeaux cask finish
Nose – Initially greeted with curd and tobacco, quite strongly spirit driven, some sulfur – like we just set off some crackers ‘patakar!’, then settled down with less peat, revealing chocolate, and a range of aromas that went from wine to sweet and salty dried fruits, pistachios and raisins
Palate – Very spicy at first, with an interesting over brewed tea quality, like tannins from red wine, sweet with an interesting spice, shifting into raspberries and walnuts
Finish – A long finish with a strong peppery close
Water – Initially made it spicier then really opened up with many finding it quite fabulous once opened up with a splash of water

While we found this one a bit thin on the palate, lacking the body of the MP5 Bourbon, it had quite a distinctive and appealing quality. We also found it less salty than the 1st with almost negligible peat.

For one, he confessed that if he wasn’t already told this was a peaty Islay whisky, he never would have guessed. We wanted to know how that could possibly be the case – given similar ppm from other distilleries retain a much more pronounced peat.

The answer in part can be found in the Laddie MP5 broadcast in which the head distiller Adam Hannett speaks with Allen Logan, distillery manager.

Around the 20 min mark, they shared how their PC style is to always start at 40 phenolic parts per million (PPM). However the phenol content changes as it is mashed, malted and further softened through the slow distilling process. The shape of the still is another factor, which enables lighter flavours to come through. Then, as the spirit ages, it loses more phenols…

The result? You end up with considerably less ppm than you started with… And for Port Charlotte (PC) specifically, it means the whisky is surprisingly versatile with different cask types, particularly if it is aged for a longer period.

Yet without this insight or knowledge of the re-casting, what did our merry malters think?

After much speculation, most votes veered to sherry with one clear it could not be sherry as it had a wine quality. Clearly this taster was exceedingly close!

What Adam shared in the broadcast is this whisky began in an ex-Bourbon cask for 10 years then was finished for 9 months in the fresh Bordeaux cask from the town of Margeaux.

When asked why they recast the spirit, the answer was:

“We wanted to see what else we could explore, do and try new things.”

In part this was motivated by a recognition the whisky needed an extra ‘boost’ from re-casking.

And when the topic of the wine cask finish arose, Allen spoke of their early experiments with finishing 15 and 20 year stock using ex-Bordeaux casks, which turned the whisky pink after only a short period of time! What to do? Jim McEwan suggested releasing the whisky as a special edition for Valentine’s Day, what else?

As for this whisky? I revisited it the next evening and found the wine element unmistakable… and think we underestimated it in our first foray. Or perhaps with just a little oxidation, it revealed its balanced complex character. Superb!

What more do we know?