Tag Archives: Loch Lomond

Whisky Show 2023 – Show Bottles Loch Lomond, Clynelish, Orkney

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This year, I decided in advance to purchase a “festival pick” at London’s Whisky Show 2023. I set myself a maximum budget and even put together a shortlist. This is exactly why I made a “beeline” to the Whisky Show “Festival” Bottles early Sunday morning and zeroed into the Clynelish immediately. 

However, as always, I enjoy being guided through explorations. So when they recommended we start with the Loch Lomond, we were happy to oblige!

Loch Lomond 14 year Cask no. 22/709-1 55.6% (2023 Whisky Show Bottle)

What an intriguing bottle! It was initially quite shy and a bit funky on the nose, gradually easing into yogurt, it then burst open with dried fruits and cream, and generous dollops of dark honey. On the palate, it was dangerously drinkable and delicious. All those lovely fruity flavours coming together, well balanced and most enjoyable.

Whilst Loch Lomond (under many labels) has a huge range of styles, I personally prefer ones like this – un-peated, uncomplicated, and friendly (once you get to know each other a bit!). This one needs a wee bit of time in the glass, then absolutely rewards you with a treat!

What more do they say?

One of Scotland’s most versatile distilleries, Loch Lomond produces an astonishing range of different styles and flavour profiles. This cask of un-peated single malt showed such a perfect balance of fruity spirit character and oak influence that we knew we had to have it for Whisky Show.

  • Nose: Runny honey, golden syrup, wine gums, buttercream, orange flower water, sultanas, vanilla.
  • Palate: Thick-cut marmalade, apple juice, chewy flapjacks, digestive biscuits, fresh baguettes, rice pudding, more wine gums, and yellow fruit pastilles. There’s a leafy peppermint note that keeps the sweeter elements from getting out of balance.
  • Finish: Fruity and creamy with oak spices and a touch of pencil shavings.

From curious to most enjoyable, I then turned my attention to my potential festival pick…

Clynelish 12 year (2011/2023) 1st Fill Barrel #880297 56.4% (2023 Whisky Show Bottle) GBP 120 / EUR 142

I will admit it, just reading about this bottle put it in the front-runner position. I was not at all disappointed! It was full of gorgeous fruity aromas, chased by warm lemon, sponge cake, a hint of floral honey, and enough beeswax elements to make it interesting. On the palate it rewarded with more fruit – I definitely found the pineapple, elegant and well-rounded. There really is something distinctive about Clynelish – the more I explore, the more I want to explore further.  

What do the Whisky Show folks have to say?

A real whisky drinker’s whisky distillery, Clynelish has made single malt on Sutherland’s east coast for more than 200 years. Its characteristic waxy, fruity, mineral profile is quite unlike anything else being produced today. We’ve found these 2011 casks to be of excellent quality overall, but we thought this one was particularly good and a fitting addition to our Whisky Show lineup this year.

  • Nose: Gummy bears, nectarine, yellow plum, and lemon oil. There’s also a floral side with irises, blossoms and wildflower honey.
  • Palate: All the Clynelish hallmarks are present and correct: candlewax, beeswax, olive oil. Then more stone fruit and candied pineapple with seashells, chalky white wines and Yellow Chartreuse. The influence of that first-fill bourbon barrel grows over time with toffee, crème anglaise and honey granola.
  • Finish: Sweet anise, gentian, vanilla.

An excellent example of 2010s’ Clynelish from a particularly good first-fill barrel. I happily snapped it up for Eur 139 / GBP 120 and sent it home to India with my hubby for a future-future-future tasting session!

We were then steered towards the Orkney…

Orkney 22 year (2000/2023) Refill Hogshead #41 52.7% (2023 Whisky Show Bottle)

Obviously, this was Highland Park… and for 22 years, it greeted us with a fresh (though slightly shy) nose, light sea breeze, fresh leaves, and just the slightest hint of peat. On the palate, the peat was unmistakable – that lovely non-Islay peat that warms gently without overpowering the fruits and cinnamon sweet. The finish continued in the lightly sweet peat vein, lingering. Really rather nice!

Again, it is worth checking the further details about this Show Bottle here:

The first of our three bottlings for Whisky Show 2023 comes from a venerable distillery in the Orkney islands. We can’t say which one, but the keen-nosed will be able to make an educated guess. Full maturation in a refill hogshead means that the oak influence is nicely restrained, allowing the quality of the underlying lightly smoky spirit to really shine.

  • Nose: Heathery peat, beeswax furniture polish, linseed oil, white pepper and sackcloth. Brilliantly old-fashioned and probably a great example of whatever Orkney distillery this happens to be.
  • Palate: Nicely mineral at first, with oil lamps, polished brass, copper coins, peat kilns and brick dust. Then green apples, pears, lime juice, wood sorrel, brown butter, dandelion leaves and roasted green peppers.
  • Finish: That grassy, floral smokiness lingers along with a sense of earth and stones.

Our journey then continued with an amusing and educational exploration with Dave Worthington and fellow Canadian Sam Simmonds at That Boutique-y Whisky Co!

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Chorlton – Croftengea 13 year 53.9%

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So there we were, one fine evening in Paris with two beautiful bottles from Chorlton‘s  La Nouvelle Vague series…  We began with the superb Orkney that surprised us with its lush complex character. We then turned to the Croftnegea…

If you aren’t immediately familiar with Croftnegea, perhaps you have heard for Loch Lomond? Just in this case it is the brand for their heavily peated version… much like Glenturret is also known as Ruadh Maor…

It was with this heavy peat expectation that I had thought to try this after the Highland Park “Orkney”. However what we discovered was quite the opposite!

As for the whisky…. read on…

Croftengea 13 years 53.9% 231 bottles

  • Colour – Bright gold
  • Nose – Pear, ripe bananas, caramel, a bit of spice, cough syrup, malty, after the 1st sip, the aromas shifted to a delightful lemon meringue pie, strawberries, subtle spice and honey
  • Palate – Buttery sweet brioche, then citrusy with light peat at the end
  • Finish – Lingers, wonderful
  • Water – Made it even more accessible and very yummy, more fresh sweet bread, lemon curd

There was such a contrast between the aromas and palate, quite dynamic on the nose and subtle yet lovely on the palate.

We set it aside and revisited comparing the glass without water which had become perfumed and sweet, citrus and sugar. The one with the water was fruitier with the peat a bit more pronounced, cinnamon mini donut, Christmas market!

What did David have to say?

Peated single malt from Captain Haddock’s favourite distillery! This one starts on a sweet note, with banana milkshake, Milky Bars and a funky sort of fruitiness on the nose. The palate starts with fudgy chocolate, soft ginger and mango, before the peat makes itself felt with light smoke and a hit of black olive saltiness. This is a hugely fun whisky, and enjoyably weird around the edges.

I purchased this in December 2020 for £62.50 plus tax and courier charges. And I am sooooooo glad I managed to grab this while it was still available!

Here is are two more from La Nouvelle Vague series:

Here is the full set of Chorlton‘s sampled til date from the L’Ancien Régime series:

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The Whisky Warehouse No. 8 – Inchfad (Loch Lomond) 14 year 55.5%

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Loch Lomond goes by many names… From Loch Lomond to Inchmurrin to Inchmoan to Croftnegea – including Inchfad like this one. We speculated that this is all a marketing ploy – different brand names for slightly different expressions to tease the curious to select. Do we fall for it? Of course!

However above all, what matters is what we discover when explore… so for the last in our The Warehouse Collection quartet, we dove into this cask strength Loch Lomond dram!

Inchfad (Loch Lomond) 14 year (Feb 2005 – April 2019) Bourbon Hogshead Cask W8 438 55.5%, 300 Bottles

  • Nose – Oh my! Is that Pringles BBQ chips? However a curious thing happened, we went from hello peat to huh? Was there peat? Porridge, wet leaves, a bit metallic
  • Palate – Light peat was back, a bit spicy, coppery, a herbal medicinal quality
  • Finish – Limited
  • Water – To be honest, don’t think we even tried!

Our first thought was – better than the Glenturret (this was before the revisit) – has some “oomph!” and character, however… was it something that really stood out for us? Not really.

However like all the whiskies we sampled that evening, we set it aside and revisited. Interesting! After some time there was fruit, a dash of ginger, a bit of honey spice. It certainly improved after some time to open up… becoming an enjoyable drinking dram.

Curious about other Loch Lomond experiences?

What else did I try in the Whisky Warehouse No. 8 “Last Chance” set?

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Peat Unusual – Loch Lomond Peat 46%

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Sometimes a whisky is picked up not for marketing schpeels, glowing reviews or word of mouth enthusiasm… Sometimes a whisky is acquired for more whimsical reasons… like a nod to pure childhood sentiment. Yes Tin Tin comics and their Loch Lomond whisky.

This is exactly the motivation for adding the Loch Lomond Peat to an evening of Peat Unusual – all peated whiskies but ones that did not necessarily follow the standard peaty Islay style.

So what did we think?

Loch Lomond Peated 46%

  • Nose – Honey sweet, organic, some caramel custard, floral grasses, tube roses and white flowers and more honey… after tasting there was even a hint of ginger… after sitting for much longer took on an almost sour mash quality
  • Palate – Sweet ginger and a quality that was almost tequila like, some spice
  • Finish – There but… quite shy

Overall this had us scratching our heads wondered where was the peat? Was there any peat? Wasn’t there supposed to be some peat?

Another joked it somehow reminded him of left-over pub tequila. Hmmm…

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t bad it just wasn’t stellar either, just something to pass away some time, sipping while you engaged in activities… an easy accompaniment

And what do the folks over at Loch Lomond have to say?

Not much as you can’t even find this particular expression on their website!

However the TWE folks have this to say instead:

The peated release of Loch Lomond was launched in 2008 by popular demand. Home to a cooperage, malt distillery and a grain distillery (which produces the best selling Glen’s Vodka), Loch Lomond is a multi functioning site. This has notes of soft fruit and is hugely peated.

Um… hugely peated? That certainly wasn’t our impression.

We opened this bottle in November 2017 and I strongly suspect this was picked up at The Whisky Exchange where it can be purchased for approx £14. And at that price? You can afford to indulge in a bit of pure Tintin nostalgia.

Our “peat unusual” whiskies featured:

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BMC Peat Unusual – Alisa Bay, Ledaig “Very Cloudy”, Loch Lomond Peated, BenRiach 25 Peated

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It is finally slipping into “winter” (by Indian standards), with the pollution smog haze rarely lifting, and somehow the weather and climatic conditions seem to be influencing whisky preferences… to peat.

And no ordinary peat… an exploration of a few whiskies one would not normally have on the top peat picks list from regions not immediately associated with peat. Because why should our familiar friends over in Islay corner the market when other options exist?

As this was a BMC session, we had no pretence of hiding the bottles… instead merrily dove in to our discoveries eyes wide-open!

Our “peat unusual” whiskies….

Our host shared that it began with acquiring the BenRiach 25 year peated… and morphed from there… each selected to be peat with a twist.

For example, you don’t typically find BenRiach whiskies peated…

Then it continued with Loch Lomond – again not normally peated….

So why Ledaig you may ask? By their “nature” Ledaig is Tobermoray’s peaty whiskies. Yes indeed. However the “Very Cloudy” Vintage 2008 is known to have a lighter dusting of peat rather than full force peat one normally associates with a Ledaig….

And Alisa Bay? Not only is it newer to market as a single malt, it breaks with typical Lowland convention to combine peat with sweet…

Then our evening closed with cigars. How perfect!

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