29.232 - Seaside sweet shop on fire

Submitted by Philip Storry on Sun, 29/10/2017 - 19:54

18 years old, distilled 11th November 1998, 59.1% abv, Refill Ex-Bourbon Hogshead, 240 bottles, dram price F

10.134 - Cleaner than a ship's whistle

Submitted by Philip Storry on Sun, 29/10/2017 - 19:51

9 years old, distilled 7th February 2008, 60.0% abv, Refill Ex-Bourbon Barrel, 240 bottles, dram price C

4.237 - Essence of Orkney

Submitted by Philip Storry on Sun, 29/10/2017 - 19:48

26 years old, distilled 31st May 1991, 51.9% abv, First Fill American Oak Pedro Ximinez Hogshead, 233 bottles, dram price I

1.204 - Blackberry lemon pavlova

Submitted by Philip Storry on Sun, 29/10/2017 - 19:45

20 years old, distilled 5th March 1997, 53.5% abv, First Fill American Oak Pedro Ximinez Hogshead, 233 bottles, dram price E

36.138 - Fruit baskets in a painted room

Submitted by Philip Storry on Sun, 29/10/2017 - 19:41

19 years old, distilled 15th August 1997, 56.1% abv, Refill Ex-Bourbon Barrel, 174 bottles, dram price D

SMWS Outturn 258 - Rich Realm

Submitted by Philip Storry on Sun, 29/10/2017 - 19:30

It's that time of year again - the slog through the SMWS glut of whiskies before Christmas!

This list is small - just twelve whiskies - but has a surprisingly high average score. In fact, nothing got below 3.5. Not even the spicy whiskies!

Conversely, nothing got a 5 either. If we were hoping for the giddy heights of Outturn 257's Bladnoch, we're a little out of luck. But the Glen Grant, the Benrinnes and the Bunnahabhain all got a score of 4.5. If I had to pick between them, I'd plump for the Glen Grant - its floral, fruity sweetness is very much my kind of dram. But the fruit and ginger of the Benrinnes is charmingly disarming, and the Bunnahabhain has a curious combination of citrus, ginger, smoke and pickled onion that can be filed under "shouldn't work but does".

I can also recommend the Dailuaine, Aberlour, Linkwood, Laphroaig and Highland Park, as each scored 4. The Dailuaine and Aberlour are classic young refill bourbon casks, which will please many. The Linkwood is a fruity sherried bomb of flavour, and I suspect will be much in demand. The Laphroaig was nowhere near as TCP dominated as I'd feared, delivering a clean coastal hit of sweetness. And the Highland Park is very peated - not what I'm looking for really, but it holds it all together very well to produce a fruit and smoke mix that will drive some people crazy.

When looking to summarise this list I recalled reading recently that some Port producers have started returning a portion of their production to older, less efficient methods. The changes made over the years had created consistently high quality Port but there were fewer of the truly stellar, mind blowing casks. Someone finally realised that by removing the variance that created poorer casks, they'd also removed the possibility of the brilliant ones.

This list feels like that. It's an excellent list - of very high quality. But there were fewer highs and lows than usual.

It's not bad. It's just different. And unexpected! I'm sure we'll be back to the rollercoaster of scores soon enough...

134.2 - Lip-smacking and cockle-warming

Submitted by Philip Storry on Sun, 22/10/2017 - 21:04

6 years old, distilled 31 March 2010, 58.0% abv, Refill Ex-Bourbon Barrel, 168 bottles, dram price G

134.1 - Exotic rainforest fruits

Submitted by Philip Storry on Sun, 22/10/2017 - 21:01

6 years old, distilled 28th February 2010, 57.9% abv, Refill Ex-Bourbon Barrel, 174 bottles, dram price G

SMWS Paul John Releases

Submitted by Philip Storry on Sun, 22/10/2017 - 20:58

A new distillery is a big event at the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. There's usually a mad scramble to get hold of bottles of the first release (.1), and much guessing at what the distillery is.

This time is a little different. The release isn't part of a normal outturn, but was done mid-October by email and website. It seems an open secret that the distillery is Paul John, making this the SMWS's first Indian whisky. Bottles of the .1 release are available only by a ballot, which you enter by email. They've also put out a 134.2 release at the same time, and for the same price - so if you just want to try a bottling from the distillery and aren't fussed about nabbing the first one, you have a chance to do so.

I can't see what more the SMWS could have done to try and make this fair - I like this way of working, and I hope it works well for them.

But what about the whiskies?

Well, they're both good. That's no surprise - Paul John is an excellent distillery. Personally I think I preferred the 134.2, but it's a close run thing. Both score a very solid 4, and I was nudging up against a 4.5 score for each - but they lacked that certain something that's hard to define. They were very spirituous, rewarding the patient drinker who's willing to let the whisky sit. And let's be clear - a 4 is not a bad score.

Get to the rooms and try these bottles before they're gone!

24.129 - Meeting an old master

Submitted by Philip Storry on Sun, 08/10/2017 - 21:43

27 years old, distilled 7th May 1990, 53.6% abv, First-Fill Pedro Ximinex Butt, 414 bottles

SMWS