Category Archives: 84 Points

Kilchoman 3yo 2006/2010 “Spring 2010” (46%, OB, Oloroso Butt Finish, Circa 8.500 bottles)

Kilchoman then. The newest addition to the immensely popular Islay Whisky family. This new small farm distillery was built in 2004 near Kilchoman in the west of Islay, and therefore named Kilchoman. Operations started in 2005 and their first disaster struck in 2005 also. No distillery can call themselves a real Scottish distillery without a big fire. Well history was in the making so let’s do the fire thing quickly, they might have thought. Not hinting at any foul play of course. In 2005 the kiln burned down. Rebuild in 2006 and operations recommenced. As of 2009 but foremost 2010, Whisky started to be released. In 2009 the first release in the new core range was the “Inaugural Release”. Next up was “Autumn 2009” Let’s try our “Spring 2010” that was the third release.

Color: Light Gold

Nose: Spicy butter and fatty. Peat and the smoke is distant. Soapy. Very nice wood. Meaty (steak) and full-bodied smell.

Taste: Licorice, black and white powder. Chewy, Sherried yet clean. Half sweet. Strange enough it also has something “thin”, maybe the ABV seems low (although it is 46% ABV). Again a little hint of soap, but nothing disturbing. Having tasted Bourbon only Kilchoman’s, the soapy element is probably from the Oloroso Butt.

Fair is fair. The Oloroso finish does add some character to the whole. I know the Barrels they source from Buffalo Trace are very good. I don’t know where Kilchoman sources the Sherry Butts and if they are American or European oak. Good spirit and good casks and look at this 3yo Whisky, reduced to 46% and already very nice. Can’t wait to see Kilchoman age!

Points: 84

Ramón Allones Small Club Corona

Finally some weather for me to sit outside with a cigar. I tried it yesterday, with this very cigar in hand, but I even didn’t get to the part where I could cut it, and it already started to rain. So I had better luck today. Even though I had some time on my hands, I went for this rather small cigar, maybe not small but definitively short. As with most of my cigars, this is a well aged specimen that has some years under its belt. As I’m writing this afterwards it is already raining with lightning and rolling thunder.

Ramón Allones Small Club Corona (42 x 110mm, Minuto, Petit Corona, Box code unknown)

Ramón Allones today is a local brand, so not something you’ll encounter very often. No large selection, only three cigars make up the core range. Besides this Small Club Corona, there are also the Gigantes (49 x 194mm) a Double Corona and the Specially Selected (50 x 124mm) a Robusto. Just like with other local brands a lot more are being issued as an Editión Regional or as an Editión Limitada. These are made in countless numbers. 24 versions since 2005. Local brand they call that, with countless Editión Regionales all over the world!

Color & Looks: Colorado. Some veins and some small specs. Looks decent, firm in the hand.

A cru: Creamy. Nicotine, this may turn out to be a strong one. Dry and musty. Worn out leather. After the cut, whiffs of paper and a vegetal, farmy smell. Lots of aroma.

Taste: Draw is without problems. First whiffs remind me of old cigarettes. Spicy and prickly on the palate. Bonfire and smoke. A bit sour and oaky. After the first centimetre it seems mid strength and the cigar seems to me to be a good aperitif. Just started but this could very well be a favorite short smoke. This little one has a lot of character. Cedar wood and altogether nice balance. It’s a quiet stick. I enjoy it as watching a movie without sound, just reading the subs. Its soothing. Hints of mint and petrol. Half way through, the cigar changes. The smoke is thicker and the cigar shows its strength, you already thought was there. Still a very calming cigar. Appetizing. Second half is built around cedar and pine with menthol.

Ash is grey and white and quite firm. Stays on a long time, burns well, sometimes a little crooked but a small correction with the laser torch suffices. Good build. Smokes well with water and medium strength coffee. Even though it’s no weak cigar, don’t do espresso with this, or maybe you should. I didn’t. Great short smoke. Second half could be a tad better but still this is nice stuff. Recommended.

Points: 84

Ladyburn ‘Rare Ayrshire’ 34yo 1975/2009 (45.2%, Signatory Vintage, Cask Strength Collection, Bourbon Barrel #558, 166 bottles)

Yes! Another example from the distillery that took its water from the Penwapple Reservoir, yes say it again, the Penwapple Reservoir. This time one of the many sister casks from the last year of operation, bottled by Signatory. Yesterdays cask was nice, but I couldn’t say it was worth your money (when you plan to drink it, rather than just mere collecting it), so will this be any better? This will be nice to compare to yesterdays one. Are they all the same? What does happen, when the same spirit is put into ‘supposedly the same casks’? In effect we can see a little bit here, what maturation in wood can do.

Color: Gold (slightly lighter than barrel #562)

Nose: Spicy wood. Clean and citrussy. Fresh sea air. Mocha and Cappuccino. Fresh cut grass. It’s different from cask #562, with a more typical Lowlander style. Fruitier, lemons and apples. Slightly woody with grass and hay. Lovely.

Taste: Sweetish, more estery sweet. This seems a bit  young too. Not very complex but a good body with apples. It has a different kind of sweetness, thicker and more tiresome if you have a lot of it. Nuttier too. Yes more hazelnuts. The finish has more woody influence and is a bit more bitter, but nothing to be afraid of. This has more balance and body. The other cask seems thinner.

No two casks are alike. whats the influence of cask, wood etc. Of the two, this is the better one. Nice full body and a great Lowlander. I enjoyed this one more. Good finish and nice aftertaste too. Because of the different sweetness this has, (corn-sugar), this seems to me less drinkable than cask #562. Still, who would try to drink the whole bottle at once, of this museum piece, so drinkability is not an issue here. Nice Ladyburn. Recommended.

Points: 84

Balmenach 26yo 1983/2010 (52.8%, Bladnoch Forum, Hogshead #2410, 201 bottles)

After an Inchgower I reviewed earlier, here’s another example from the likes of Raymond Armstrong. If he isn’t distilling his Bladnoch, he’s on the look-out for casks of sometimes unusual distilleries. Worth a look, since he isn’t charging a lot of money for these forum bottlings. By the way, his son, Martin, has even more cask strength single cask whiskies on offer.

Balmenach was licensed in 1824, but existed much longer as an illicit farm distillery called Balminoch. Not earlier than 1992 the first official bottling is released, a 12yo Flora and Fauna. Not long after this United Distillers (now: Diageo) sold Balmenach to Inver House Distillers, with wich came an end to the Flora and Fauna bottling.

The new owners released between 2000 and 2002 only three rare bottles. A 27yo from 1973, a 28yo from 1972 and a 25yo from 1977 celebrating the queens jubilee (still shaped bottle). No more official bottlings have emerged yet. Today Balmenach is owned by Thai Beverages.

Color: Gold

Nose: Sweet and malty. Citrus, oranges with creamy wood and custard. Very powdery and paper like. Clean, what you smell is what you get. Creamy wood is the main part, but nothing overpowering. Candied apricots. Hints of cigarette smoke.

Taste: Spicy wood, sweet and sour. The sweet and sour is fruity. Again candied apricots and bitter lemon peel. Lemon with vanilla. Quite sweet and a lot of wood and bitterness in this one. Warming beer with its hoppy finish.

Actually a quite nice whisky. Fruity, overall likeable, with just one ‘flaw’. It’s quite woody and bitter. Although not overpowering.

Points: 84

Thanx to Erik L. for bringing the bottle!

Pulteney 8yo 1990/1998 (63.1%, Cadenhead, 222 bottles, 750 ml)

My good friend Christoph asked me to have a look at a clean bourbon cask whisky and look for mint. As it happens, I have just such a thing on my lectern, so let’s have an adventurous search for mint in this whisky. This whisky was opened on November, 27 2010 at a tasting session with my Whisky club “Het Genietschap” where the theme was “Whiskies younger than 10yo”. This was one of my entries (together with the Kilkerran). I remember I found it very closed when freshly opened. Just have a look at the picture from june 5, 2012. How full it still is.

Color: White wine, light gold.

Nose: Very clean bourbon nose, clean ethanol, some chocolaty wood and musty. Fresh sea air and powdery. Very typical for high cask strength young Cadenhead bourbon barrel whiskies. I’ve smelled everything there is now, no evolution, so we can move on to the taste. Beware it’s 63.1% ABV.

Taste: Strong and spicy, but not woody (just a bit). There’s also some smoke ánd a freshness resembling menthol a bit, but not mint. Everything is in the details. It’s great to taste something that’s spicy, not from the wood. It’s obviously sweet at this high strength, maybe a tad too sweet for my tastes. High alcohol with a lot of sugar can be a bit nauseating. This one’s on the precipice, but didn’t fall in.

As I said this is very typical for those high strength Cadenhead bottlings. They are very clean and reveal quite some information about how the cleanly distilled spirit from a distillery is. This is as honest as it can get, so it’s quite interesting to taste a few head to head. I guess this is a connoisseurs whisky. Not made for your gulping pleasure at a card game. And it can only be ‘enjoyed’ with caution. If you don’t give it enough attention, it will give you very little. The fun is maybe more in analyzing and discovery. The fun is also for those people (like me) who occasionally like their whiskies strong and utterly clean.

I once had a similar bottle of Tormore that was even stronger and older (13yo, 63.9%, 85 Points). There were many things wrong with it, like a very metallic taste, but still I had a lot of fun with it, when ‘enjoyed’ at the right moment. I found myself another bottle before it completely vanished of the face of the earth.

Sorry C. No mint, I’ll have to look further, or you have to taste this for yourself this summer 😉

Points: 84

Petrus Aged Pale (7.3%, 11.2 fl.oz.)

Still nice weather and too hot for writing blogs, so hereby I apologize to my readers that it took a few days for a new review. This time a review of beer brewed by Bavik in Belgium called Petrus Aged Pale. This beer was initially intended only for the US market, hence the typical warnings on the label, even though I bought this bottle in Belgium. This Aged Pale is considered by many to be Bavik’s best beer (and thus compared with Rodenbach Grand Cru). It is made with pale malt only and lagered for two to two and a half years in oak casks. Funnily enough its style is the same as with the Rodenbach. So this can be considered to be a “white” red beer.

Color: Gold

Nose: Announces acidity, yellow fruits, apricots and pear (not the skin).

Taste: Sour and woody. Refreshing. Citrussy and is almost a white beer (but it isn’t). Herbal and grassy, and a woody finish.

Initially you might say that it’s simple, sour and very refreshing, so it fits the summer day profile. But when given some attention and your ability to work on it for a while, this simple beer let’s you know it has a lot more going for it. It awards you with a lot more complexity than you would say at first. It is close to a Rodenbach but in my opinion, better balanced and way more complex. You just have to work it a bit. For me this is better than the classic Rodenbach, but I’ll have to give the Rodenbach Grand Cru a go. This Petrus could be an acquired taste, but one I like a lot.

Points: 84

Short Stories: Harald Konrad Fehres Riesling Classic 2002

Weingut Harald Konrad Fehres Riesling Classic 2002, ABV 12%, Mosel-Saar-Ruwer

Color: Full White Wine.

Nose: Fresh, apricots, buttery, classic Riesling, boiled potatoes, flinty, peach.

Taste: Perfect balance, slightly lemony acidic ánd slightly sweet, light but not simple, very drinkable.

Highly recommended!

If it were still available I would buy this by the box. Maybe not too complex, but absolutely without flaws. I tried some other Fehres whites and all were pretty good.

Just have a look at: http://www.weingut-fehres.de/

Points: 84

Strathisla 15yo (70° Proof, Gordon & MacPhail, 26⅔ fl. ozs., Pinerolo Import Torino, Circa 1982)

I’m a big fan of old Strathisla’s. When I taste some from the 60’s or 70’s, I’m in heaven. With some old sherry cask bottles around, you can’t go wrong with Strathisla (and Longmorn, and Macallan, and…). Even 60’s bourbon casks are fantastic. So for this one, I certainly had high hopes and I paid some good money to get one. When I bought it at an auction, I thought it would be older than it turned out to be. Just look at that label with its 70° Proof and 26⅔ FL. OZS. The glass code on the bottom of the bottle (SD133) makes it from circa 1990.

I brought this with me on a ‘Genietschap’ Strathisla tasting. After I opened it, and we all tasted it, we initially thought is was a fake. We expected some old bottle effect but there was none, we may have been spoiled with our experiences with those old Strathisla’s but one thing was for sure, this was a disappointment then. Let’s try it again now and see what happens.

Color: Full Gold (Caramel?).

Nose: This smells to me like something that has been coloured with caramel. It smells very rounded out and smooth like toffee. A bit like a blend without the grain. Malty and musty. Dusty and elegant. Fresh, sweet, creamy and fruity and some fresh air from the sea. Candied apricots. Cream Sherry with a smoky and sweaty touch to it. Well it almost smells…old now, maybe even meaty for a brief moment.

Taste: Sweet with bitter wood. Fruit, apricots on vodka. Almonds. It’s a lemonade with some iron in the mix. The bitter component transfers from wood to something more waxy, earwax maybe. At times it tastes thin and easy and can be quite nice, but somehow the top of the taste doesn’t gel with the finish, hence its unbalanced, and that’s a shame for such an old bottle. Definitively some E150a in here.

The nose is balanced but alas the same cannot be said for the taste and the finish. It all breaks down in the mouth.Luckily it leaves you with a warm feeling, so I would say that it’s a whisky for a book at bedtime. Also I have to say that a big gulp tasted better than a sip. If you come across this, don’t but it at a premium price. There are also older bottles around. With a white cap and bottle code SC999. that should be a better bet than this one. Still it’s not bad at all. It’s very interesting and will reward you if you’d only want to work at it. Recommended for connoisseurs I guess. It’s an experience. Still, get one of the older versions!

Points: 84

Miltonduff 30yo 1980/2010 (46%, Mo Òr, Bourbon Hogshead #12431, 321 bottles, 500 ml)

So now the blog thing has even started for me, let’s do that starting with a bottle of Miltonduff, bottled by fellow Dutchman Michel Kappen of the Whisky Talker (among others). This is a new range of single cask whiskies aimed at high-end hotels, restaurants and golf resorts. The bottles (500 ml) ánd little tubes (25 ml) come in nicely painted matt black boxes. The bottles look like Tequila bottles to me, still all’s looking very nice…

Miltonduff 30yo 1980/2010 (46%, Mo Or, Bourbon Hogshead #12431, 321 bottles, 500ml)Color: Light Gold

Nose: Hazelnuts, milk chocolate, becomes fresher later on. Very mellow, laid back, dusty. Hints of lily, but not very floral overall. Not the clean nose you`ve come to expect of Miltonduff from bourbon hogsheads, or barrels for that matter. It`s more creamy, nuttier and warmer. No wood in the nose even after 30 years.

Taste: Some wood, walnut skin without the bitterness, dry. Easily drinkable. Creamy, sweeter later on, again nutty and warming. The nose fits the palate. Grassy and definitely more vegetal than floral. A winter aperitif. The whisky seems younger than it`s 30 years, so the cask wasn`t too active. Let`s have this @ the fireplace, but drinker beware, it drinks dangerously easy, your half liter will be gone quickly. Nice finish, toffee, slight bitterness from the wood.

Sells for 145 Euro’s (500 ml bottle)

Points: 84