Recently I was lucky enough to be invited up to visit The Glenrothes distillery. There’s a few things I want to quickly clear up before I continue… Firstly, The Glenrothes distillery is in Rothes, Speyside…. Not Glenrothes, Fife. Secondly, it’s a brand owned by Berry Brothers & Rudd (BBR)… but the distillery itself is owned and run by the Edrington Group, who produce the spirit for and on behalf of BBR. There’s not many arrangements like that in the whisky industry!
New core range expression marks a significant milestone for the Elgin distillery
This release is a momentous high point for the award-winning Elgin distillery as the whisky is the first core range expression to be produced predominantly from spirit distilled under The BenRiach Distillery Company’s eleven-year ownership.
Managing Director Billy Walker and his South African partners Wayne Kieswetter and Geoff Bell acquired BenRiach from Chivas Brothers in April 2004.
Bottled at 43% vol, the BenRiach 10 Years Old is Classic Speyside in character. The cask formula focuses on ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks – exactly the types of wood we favour at BenRiach. This fresh, lively, fruit-laden single malt captures warm oak spices, green apple, dried apricots, peach and banana with subtle touches of aniseed, lemon zest and barley.
Cù Bòcan – Virgin Oak Limited Edition – NAS – 46% abvInfo: Limited edition fully matured in First Fill Virgin Oak casks. More info on SWB here.
Colour: Full, bright and clear gold.
Nose: Vanilla and fresh oak intermingling with gentle smoke and sweet malt.
Palate: A nice thick mouthfeel which quickly makes the fresh woody oak apparent to you; it’s sweet, malty and oaky behind which it’s gently fruity with a touch of spice. The smoke is there, but quite tamed by the variety of other tastes that are going on. There’s a slight BBQy thing going on, something I’ve found in the past from Texan whiskies, good stuff!
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Tomatin Cask Strength Edition – NAS – 57.5% abvInfo: Matured in a combination of Bourbon and Oloroso Sherry Casks, this is a permanent edition to Tomatin’s range. More info on SWB here.
Colour: Fully ripened straw to light gold.
Nose: Toffee pennies (toffee sweets) with light malt notes and a puff of cask char. Slightly spicy with a bit of a bite from the high alcohol. Some classic Tomatin notes, but all turned up a notch.
Palate: Toffee malt hits your palate straight away, followed by slightly hot spirit because of the high abv, it’s spicy but sweet with some good oak notes and some sherry fruits and nuts. You soon become fairly accustomed to the strength which leaves you with fairly thick oils on your tongue.
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Highland Park Odin – 55.8% abvInfo: 16yo, created from a combination of Spanish oak sherry casks and re-fill hogsheads.
Colour: Rich autumnal gold, touch of rust.
Nose: A light smokiness leads you in to gentle citrus fruits, tangerines and then back to peaty smokiness again, a light floral peat smoke, not your heavy Islay smoke. In the background there’s touches of fairly old oak soon superseded by milk chocolate notes, then back to citrus.
Palate: Really thick, gently oaky, very oily and peaty; peat almost going to the coal side of things, in a good way… Similar to the nose it’s a very light floral peat, no TCP, the more it opens up a BBQy type peat flavour comes out.
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As luck would have it, I’ve been invited along to a Twitter Tasting to try out some lovely drams from the Knockdhu distillery, otherwise known as anCnoc on the shelves (so as to not get confused with Knockando).
We’re going to take a look at the 12yo, the 2000 vintage, and the newish 18yo. So without further ado, let’s get cracking… Continue reading
The Arran Malt 18yo – 46% abvInfo: Arran finally comes of age with its release of their 18yo, the third and final release in a trilogy that started with a 16yo which was released two years ago. More info on the 18yo here.
Colour: Light golden with great legs.
Nose: Malty, oily & full. Spicy but sweet, touches of ozone.
Palate: Thick and buttery, and easier on your palate than you would imagine from the slightly spicy nose. There’s malt, but really well balanced with autumn stewed fruits, red berries, gooseberries, blackcurrants and stewed apple, with a small dollop of vanilla custard. Very pleasant.
Finish: Long with a gentle freshness, slightly herbal, smoothly sweet with those late summer fruits lingering for a good while.
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Bruichladdich Classic Laddie Scottish Barley – 50% abvInfo: “Made from 100% Scottish barley, trickle distilled, then matured for its entire life by the shores of Lochindaal in premium American oak, it is a testament to the quality our ingredients.”. NAS.
Colour: Light straw to gold, classic and natural.
Nose: A slightly more easily accessed nose to the Islay Barley 2007, it’s light, fruity, yet strong and oily. There’s ripe melon and cask char.
Palate: Easy, classic unpeated Bruichladdich, yet the higher abv and cask aging has given it quite some bite and spices. It’s fresh but also with a touch of a coastal nature to it, it’s sweet, with some vanilla and gentle oaks.
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Bruichladdich Islay Barley 2007 – 50% abvInfo: Harvested in 2006 and distilled in 2007, the grain for this whisky was grown for Bruichladdich in the Minister’s Field at Rockside Farm by Mark and Rohaise French.
Colour: Light straw golden, nice and natural.
Nose: It’s got those deep punchy Bruichladdich oil tones all the way through, along with layers of light malt. There’s floral honey tones. Something funky.
Palate: Lovely, thick and warming. Considering it’s 50% it’s really gentle and velvety, very easy to drink and enjoy. It’s beautifully sweet and balanced with those ever present deep Bruichladdich oils there.
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Monkey Shoulder – Blended Malt Scotch Whisky – 40% abvInfo: Monkey Shoulder, launched in 2005, is a no age statement blend of three different single malts from William Grant, i.e. it’s a mix of Glenfiddich, Balvenie and Kininvie; it’s not a blend in the usual way as there’s no grain whisky in it, it’s all single malt. Why’s it got it’s name? The men who used to use shovels to turn the barley on the malting floors would develop large muscles and droopy arms which attracted the nickname of ‘Monkey Shoulder’.
Colour: Golden.
Nose: Surprisingly malty, woody and nutty; a fairly classic, quality speyside profile… gently sweet and fruity.
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