(For my reviews, please read on…)
For those of you that follow Wemyss Malts you’ll know that they release various bottlings a few times a year, and the most recent summer releases include some real beauties including a single grain single cask whisky for the first time and the most valuable whisky Wemyss has ever released – a 31 year old single cask from Bowmore distillery.
Jim Beam is brand of bourbon whiskey produced in Clermont, Kentucky by Beam Suntory. It was one of the best selling brands of bourbon in the world in 2008. Originally started by a group of German immigrants who moved to America during the eighteenth century who changed their name from Böhm to the more Anglo-American ‘Beam’.
I check out four of the whiskeys from their range…
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Maker’s Mark – 70cl / 45% ABVInfo: Maker’s Mark is a ‘small-batch’ bourbon whisky that is distilled in Loretto, Kentucky, by Beam Suntory. It’s aged for around six years and is unusual in that no rye is used as part of the recipe. Instead red winter wheat is used, along with corn and malted barley.
Colour: Golden orange. Unknown if colouring is used.
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(Quick reviews below…)
The Tomatin Cuatro Series presents four unique limited edition expressions of Tomatin Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky.
All distilled on the same day, the whisky was matured for nine years in traditional American Oak casks and was then transferred to four different types of Sherry butts for a period of over three years. As a result each of the four expressions have developed their own unique characteristics. The range includes: Fino, Manzanilla, Oloroso and Pedro Ximenez.
Cardhu Amber Rock – OB – 40% – NASInfo: Cardhu’s newest expression has been double matured in toasted oak to develop flavours of vanilla and spice.
Colour: Full golden. Caramel? Fairly minimal if so.
Nose: Very fruity and sweet, vanilla caramel and slight new make notes. Buttery after a small time.
Palate: Smooth and easy, the low abv ensures that, it’s sweet, but not as much as the nose would lead you to think, in fact the sweetness turns nearly to sourness towards the end, due to the wood tannins. Definitely a little young, masked well enough but allowing some distillery character to come through. Very wee pinch of spices.
The Glenrothes Sherry Cask Reserve – 40%Info: Berry Bros & Rudd, the owners of The Glenrothes have used sherry casks to mature The Glenrothes Sherry Cask Reserve which are made to specification in Jerez, southern Spain. There is no age statement on this whisky.
Colour: Burnt gold.
Nose: Light, sweet, malty and nutty with a gentle sherry fruit background.
Palate: Gentle and sweet arrival, a little thin on the oils with a tiny pinch of spice muddling along with the late summer stewed fruit flavours. It’s a nice light sherry influence, like sweets (candies).
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Octomore 2.2 – OrpheusColour: Golden with red tints.
Nose: Thick, buttery, creamy and fruity all mashed together with elegant peat and smoke. Red berries mashed up, jelly like.
Palate: Thick, oily and smoky with elegant peat (no tcp), sweet berries and somewhat of a fizzyness on your tongue, like a refresher. Quite powerful with it’s alcohol strength.
Finish: Loooong, sweet with smoke, peat and some red wine and dark berries coming through and lasting for ages, some red apples there too.
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Arran’s Devil’s Punchbowl III “The Fiendish Finale” – 53.4% ABVInfo: This final bottling rounds off the trilogy in great style. It’s a multi-age blend matured in Oloroso Sherry Butts and French Oak Barrique casks which gives the spirit a devilishly unique, deep flavour. 6,660 bottles available worldwide, 840 in the UK.
Colour: Light bright clear gold.
Nose: Abundant with malt, light, ozoney, almost a drop of coastal air / slight saltiness. There’s a faint nuttyness from the sherry, and a creaminess from the French Oak… overall the nose is just very slightly closed, I think a drop of water would help open it up.
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Let’s talk Kininvie…. Certainly a less well known name, but a single malt scotch whisky I’ve been keen to try for quite some time; I’m chuffed to finally get the opportunity to taste it.
Kininvie is owned by William Grant & Sons, the same folk that own Glenfiddich and Balvenie. All three distilleries are located on the same site in Dufftown, and Kininvie and Balvenie are in fact so close they share quite a bit of production equipment, shared mostly all the way until the stillrooms which are separate. It started producing in 1990, and ended production in 2010. Some of it’s product is used in the blended malt Monkey Shoulder.
William Grant & Sons have now released two bottlings, Batch 1 is a Travel Retail only bottling, and Batch 2 is now available in the UK market, both of which I review below…
Ardbeg 10 Year Old – 46%It’s been a while since my last post, summer has kept my whisky drinking to a minimum in favour of cold beers and ciders. However, continuing my wee series on affordable, mainstream, ‘standard’ distillery offerings that I’ve purchased myself, let’s take a look at Ardbeg’s 10 Year Old, a perfectly good dram for late on a summers eve.
Gossip (which I’ve heard direct from the horses mouth as it were – i.e. it’s true) is that back when stocks were low whisky up to 17 years old was used to keep this 10 year old in the shops. I guess those good old days are now far behind us and we’re now back to whisky that’s much more of the 10 year old mark, as you’d rightly expect!
SWB | Somerset Whisky Blog 