Whisky: Campbeltown tasting

 Our band of intrepid boozehounds skipped the previous whisky tasting at Regional (fiscally responsible sherry finishes), but there was no way I'd miss a Campbeltown tasting. It's a region that seems to divide whisky drinkers, but I'm a fan.

Springbank 10yo 46%

Nose: apple, bourbon, dry, apricot, hint of mint?

Palate: apple, warm, custard, liquorice, earthy, 

Finish: hot, med-long

8/10 an excellent opening evening dram, it came 4th over all with 8.0 

Glen Scotia 46% 16yo (mystery whisky)

N: dry, lemonade, heavier nose, chocolate, salt, earthy, vinegar crisps, 

P: light, nicely balanced, apples, sulphur

F: med, but grows, dry

7/10 quite quaffable without being over the top or amazing. It came 5th with 7.64

Springbank Local Barley 10yo 51.6% (Belgravia barley)

N: salt, straw, ash, green apples, dry, sponge cake, ozone

P: ash, not much else

F: dry, long sulphur

5/10 yeah not a fan, I wasn't that blown away by the local barley tasting we did last year either. Over rated, and very over priced. It came 7th with 6.85, although it polarised the group with some very high scores and some very low ones.

Springbank 15yo 46%

N: sweet, sherry., chocolate, cough syrup, ash, liquorice

P: warm, apple, hint of peat, ash, creamy, cake, sherry

F: med, peppery

7.5/10 again nice enough, and a good drop. Came 3rd with 8.31

Longrow Red 15yo 51.4% (11 bourbon casks, 4 pinot noir)

N: rubber, sweet, vigorous, sour, burnt toffee, ash, sulphur, demerara sugar

P: long, sour, complex, pinot, chocolate, creamy

F: long, and interesting

9/10 loved this, again one that divided the audience. some almost failed it, which is why it came 6th with 7.06. 

Kilkerran Port Cask Matured 8yo 57.9%

N: age complex, sherry, tobacco, malt vinegar and salt, dettol, medicinal

P: medium sulphur, bacon, blue cheese, musty, meths

F: medium, medicinal

8/10 a nice vigorous dram this, interesting and complex, and appeared older than it was. It came 2nd with 8.73

Kilkerran Sherry Cask Matured 8yo 58.1%

N: Sweet, caramel, rich creamy, pencil shavings, complex

P: oaky, dark tea, old, chocolate

F: hot x buns, long

9/10 another really good dram, complex and again not reflective of its age. Came 1st with 8.81

Whisky: Dramfest GlenAllachie tasting

 

Dramfest (I think 2021? 22?, it'd been delayed ... a bit) happened 4-5th March. I had some whisky. Possibly a reasonable amount. 

Have no faith in my ratings, outside of the two official tastings. Of course, if you agree, then they were the product of deep and insightful tastings.

GlenAllachie Tasting

I might be a little in love with this distillery, so given all the other options for tastings I could have gone to, it was always going to be this. 

Hosted by Andrew Mustard...

GlenAllachie 'Scottish Virgin Oak' 9 yo 48.5%

First fill Scottish Oak and was in there for 12-15 months. 

• Nose: citrus, custard, smooth, vanilla, toffee
• Palate: citrus, oaky, vanilla, ginger
• Finish: long, smooth leading to pepper, butterscotch (initially)

This was amazing. the complexity, the depth, it couldn't have been better balanced. 

9.5 or 10 /10 for me. Which did mean it set a rather high bar for the next two drams.

 GlenAllachie 'Champagne Cask Finish' 8 yo, 50.5%

• Nose: wine notes, spritzic, ginger, lemon,
  
• Palate: ginger, butterscotch, creamy, ?limes
  
• Finish: relatively short

I did give it a 9, but this was the disappointing one (!). I liked how the ginger and butterscotch continues to show through as a house style (?) no matter what they're finishing the whisky in. Again, beautifully balanced, but lacking some of the depth of the other two. Would definitely drink again. 

GlenAllachie 'Mizunara Cask Finish' 17 yo 50.56%

• Nose: custard,spicy, chestnuts, chocolate, orange, hint of ginger
  
• Palate: honey, sugar, berries, hazelnuts, ginger
  
• Finish:chewy, very long, complex, spices (?ginger),
  

 Before you ask, Mizunara is Japanese oak (thanks Andrew, and Wiki), it is, apparently a prick to make barrels from. 

If the whisky it produces is this good, I'm ok with that. This was perfection in a glass. 

10/10

Look, my love for GlenAllachie (well ok, anything BW makes) is pretty clear, but these were exceptional whiskies. None are available, yet, as they haven't decided when to bottle (I helpfully suggested 'nows good'). 

-B

 

 

Whisky: Dramfest Arran tasting

Dramfest (I think 2021? 22?, it'd been delayed ... a bit) happened 4-5th March. I had some whisky. Possibly a reasonable amount. 

Have no faith in my ratings, outside of the two official tastings. Of course, if you agree, then they were the product of deep and insightful tastings.

Arran Tasting

hosted by Mariella Romano, exploring two drams from Arran. A distillery we haven't had much of in NZ for a few years. 

 

Arran 17yo Rare Batch Calvados Single Malt 52.5%

• Nose: salt, spiky, apple (lots!), pears
• Palate: apples, complex, smooth, 
• Finish: long apple, very complex

an experiment that worked very well. I haven't seen many (well ok, any) calvados finishes for scotch, but this worked really well with lots and lots of apples (and pears) everywhere.

9 or 10 /10

Lagg 'Release One' ex Bourbon single malt 50%

• Nose: dry, smoke, ash, complex, [and some word even I can't read]
• Palate: crisp apple, complex, salty, smooth, bacon, massive, spicy
• Finish: long, smooth, salt/dry on finish

9/10, the Lagg distillery is at the other end of Arran, and replaced the Lochranza label.