Whisky Tasting - Benriach

Regional Wines Benriach tasting. No surprises I went along...mmm sherry. 8 whiskies ranging in value $140-800 (NZ).

Benriach virgin oak Cask #7858 1997 51.9% 21yo
N: sweet, bourbon, golden syrup, orange, banana
P: apples, very dry, strong pepper, bourbon
F: med-long

The mystery malt this one, enjoyed it but not stunning 7/10  [came third in the tasting]

Benriach 2008 10yo Batch16 South African Wine Cask 7865 59%
N: leather on old chair, sweet, old wood, caramel, honey
P: honey, bourbon, warm, flat, dry, burnt orange
F: long, hot

not so keen on this, no real interest 6/10

Benriach 2009 10yo Batch 16 Madeira Cask 1657 59%
N: peat, vigorous, paint stripper, sweet, bacon, medicinal
P: sweet, smooth, peat, lovely, rubber
F: warming, long

8/10 I liked this. it's no solstice, but hey, what is.

Benriach 2005 13yo Batch16 Port Cask 6704 57.5%
N: vinegar, peat, tobacco, raisin, currents, brandy
P: sour, weird, red wine, salty, dry, coffee
F: short-med

7/10 nose promised much, but the rest of it was a disappointment

Benriach 1997 21yo Batch16 Marsala Cask 4438 54.1%
N: oak, orange choc dip, petrol, peat
P: honey, citrus, salt, dry, sulphur
F: med

7.5/10 I liked it, but nothing really stood out for me.

Benriach 2006 12yo Batch16 Sauternes Cask 1853 55.2%
N: apple, honey, light, young, apricots
P: strong, pomegranates, walnuts, spicy
F: med-long
8.5/10 now this one I liked a lot, interesting spicyness from the Sauternes cask

Benriach 1988 30yo Batch16 Tokaji Wine Cask 4422 46.5%
N: sweet, burnt sugar, berries, raspberry, lemonade,
P: too sweet, no complexity, marmalade
F: short, boring

5.5/10. So this was the expensive $800NZ bottle. Not good. Reminded me of the expensive Tokaji finish from Edradour which was also rubbish (don't worry, I went with their sherry).

Benriach 2005 13yo Batch16 Pedro ximenez Cask 6924 56.2%
N: chocolate, sherry px, fruity apple
P: chocolate, sherry, warm
F: med

9/10. Whisky of the night for me. Sometimes odd casks work well, but sometimes stick to whatyou're good at. Although in Benriach's case, also go for peated and port :)

As usual, big thanks to Blair and Rich for thoroughly appropriate conversations...

B.

Last FM listening report 2019

I'm thinking I might try and write a bit more this year, I realise blogging is largely a dying format, but hey, I'm ok with that. Might do more work on creating new recipes for me and recording, vaguely, what I put into them...

But, music. Last year's music in particular. I scrobble all my tunes to last.fm so I get pretty accurate listening reports. And yes, I am sad enough that i'll scrobble from spotify or my mp3 collection if I'm spinning an LP. Don't judge me, I'm more than capable of judging myself.

Down a bit from last year, which reflects a few months of no Thurs Night Music night while I was living in Wellington and the music was in Dunedin. But we're back to normal now, so I'd hope for an increase on this for 2020. 

Fewer artists, albums and tracks this year, possibly reflecting the reduction in overall music. Also I don't have spotify in my new role, so I'm not randomly finding things as much. Being back with the music collection now, there's likely to be more YouTube holes I go down, finding new artists.

Unsurprising with TNMN.

No huge surprise there. A number of those artists released new albums this year 

Oddly I would have thought Dimmu Borgirs new album, Eonian might have popped up as I thought I'd spun it quite a few times. Oh well.

So there you go.

Whisky: Best of the Best

Regional Wines Best of the Best tasting, seven of the years best whiskies - or at least those Regional could get. Links, as ever, to Regional.
Blair was kind enough to have a spare ticket, and so we emphasised this to Richard who was aware on holiday. Because we care.

Glenfarclas Family Cask 2002-3.7.2018 Cask #3773 57.8% - Cask #3769 58%.
N: chocolate, dry, prunes, almond, sherry, complex
P: tasty, wood, cinnamon, mace, pepper,
F: long hot pepper

This had a 9.66 rating at the March tasting, I gave it an 8. Very much a Glenfarclas, which I like.

Amrut Portonova Single Malt 62.1% finished port pipes
N: chocolate, mint, smoke, marshmallow, sherry, sweet/dry, mahogany polish
P: warm, complex, cake, bitter chocolate, woody
F: long and builds, chocolate

This I really liked, which may be a first for an Amrut... it scored 8.77 in July, and I gave it a 9.5.

Tamdhu 58.3% #3
N: peat, fruity, parma violets, salty
P: apples, sweet perfum
F: medium

Interesting, I'm still not sure a mystery belongs in the BotB, but hey I won't complain. I gave this an 8/10

Ardnamurchan 2018AD NC2 R#3 55.3% 1st PX and Oloroso (some casks peated)
N: peat, medicinal, bandages, iodine
P: ash, oily, smoke
F: short, not great

In April this scored 8.98, and it's good, I gave it an 8/10

Glendronach 25.4.1990-2017 (27yo) PX Punch #7902 52.1%
N: sweet, sherry, old, almonds, leather polish
P: nothing, sweet
F: short

I really like Glendronach, and apparently this scored the highest of any whisky in 2018 and the highest of any tasting at Regional.
However, I found it bland and dull (not like all the other Glendronachs I've got), and gave it a 6.5-7. Look, it's not bad, it's just a bit boring. I accepted my lynching.

Benromach 2010 Peat Smoke Sherry Cask Matured 59.9%
N: medicinal, bandages, burnt sugar, golden syrup, sweet, smoke
P: warm, manuka, salt, ash
F: ash, medium

In September it was given a 9.04, I felt it was a bit one dimensional and gave it a 7/10. More lynching.

Benriach 2005 12yo #2565 Batch 14 58.8% 1st fill oloroso butt
N: fruit salad, light floral donuts
P: tasty, peaty, apples, butterscotch
F: long, very very long

In June, awarded 9.07, which (gaining back some cred with the group) I agreed with 9/10 for me.

Overall winner on the night? Glendronach.

Whisky: Mystery Tasting

Next up from the Regional Wines tasting, Mystery Whisky. Where we get eight (yes, 8) whiskies with no info and have to taste them.

Because it'd be stupid to write it up that way, I'm naming them.

Old Particular Craigellachie The Elements 2006 12yo 54.3%
N: fruit salad, apples, light, floral, grass, vanilla, creme brulee
P: rough, apples, lemonade
F: long, hot

9/10  I liked this, reminded me of the Glengoyne cask finish (12yo).

Signatory Clynelish 1995 22yo 56.3%
N: astringent, hint of smoke, complex
P: light, sweet, tasty, fruity, bourbon, lemon, date bar
F: long, chewy

8.5/10 Have I mentioned I like Clynelish....

Benromach 2008 Batch#1 Cask Strength 57.9%
N: peat, sherry, asphalt, bacon, ozone, complex, aged
P: bacon spicy paprika, peat
F: long, hot, oily

9/10 my notes say 'great balance'. This is ridiculously good value (NZD $127.99).

Glen Garioch 17yo Renaissance 3rd Chapter 50.8%
N: apple, tangy fruits, light, cut grass, burnt sugar
P: fruit, quite bland
F: short

5/10. Nothing there, bland / boring. (and definitely not worth the NZD $240!)

Dalmore King Alexander III 46%
N: fruits/apples, complex, pavlova, light, phenols?
P: apples, simple, soapy
F: light, short
5/10 notes again say boring (this one was NZD $400)

Benromach 2010 Peat Smoke Sherry Cask Matured 59.9%
N: lipstick, artificial flower (that comment has all the hallmarks of a Richard comment...), not great, sweet, dirty boots
P: phenol, salt, long throat clearer, ashtray
F: big long, tangy

8/10 I thought this was quite bunnabhain like. In a good way.

Ballechin Straight from the Cask ex Sherry 61%
N: phenol, salt, bacon, cauterised washed, lovely,
P: smoke, bacon,
F: dry, long

9.5/10 comments of 'fuck yeah', this was great. to this point the Ballechin's I've had (they're the peated version of Edradour) have been very crap. This wasn't.

Blend: Glenfarclas 105 + Pedro Ximenez Lausto 1:9
N: sweet, figs, sherry, PX, dark choc, sulphur
P: sweet, massive, very strong, syrupy, dates, orange, cognac?
F: long, hot

6.5/10 Basically, the bastards made their own blend. Some loved it, me, not so much. But adding a bit of water gave it 7.5/10 and released a far creamy flavour.

We had a bunch of questions, I got 8/16 (top was 12/16).

Fun !!

me x

Whisky Tasting : Sherry Casks

So, I'm back. And went to my first Regional Wines whisky tasting in about 12 years. Many of the usual suspects were there, and still run by the lovely Daniel. Met up with Blair and Rich, again reuniting the old crew, to taste a number of sherry malts.

Kurayoshi Japanese Sherry Cask Pure Malt Whisky 43%
N: aniseed, apple, grain, marzipan
P: boring, sour, salty gose, apple
F: short, warm

6/10. Not good, acceptable at best. I'm not a big fan of Japanese whisky, but this was just dull. Nose was the best aspect.

Glenburgie 21yo Old Particular 1997 51.5% sherry butt
N: Dry, PVA glue, supporating wound (not my suggestion!), balsamic vinegar, maple
P: low alc? nothing really, honey, boring
F: short, warm

5/10 Again, disappointing. Seems like it had been left too long and the flavour had run off. Shame really as the OP bottles tend to be quite good. Saved me $210 NZ there :D

Glenlivet 11yo Signatory 2007 UCF 46% 1st Fill Sherry butt, Cask #900267 d.10/04/2007
N: light, melon, fruit salad, pina colada, banana lollies
P: smooth, coconut, salty, soap, grapefruit
F: short, peppery

6/10 Quite light, as you'd expect from Glenlivet, not a lot of sherry rocking along there. But, by far, my favourite nose of the evening.

Bladnoch Adela 15yo 46.7% oloroso cask
N: varnish, apples, hint of sulphur
P: very smooth, sounded, sulphur, salty
F: short

7.5/10 I liked this one more, don't know much about Bladnoch, but would hunt them out based on this.

Glendronach Revival 15yo oloroso cask 46%
N: PVA, cedar wood, jockstraps, malty, aged?
P: oddly effervescent, low alc
F: long, warm
7.5/10 pretty sure I've had this before, always a good choice. Thrown in as the mystery whisky.

Bunnahabhain 10yo Adelphi 2009 #90021 58.8% 1st fill sherry European oak
N: sherry, wood, cigarette ash
P: warm honey, inky, chewy, sherry, fudge
F: long, lovely
9/10 Adelphi are the best. Bunnahabhain are also good. This seems a good mix to me :D

Kavalan Solist oloroso sherry cask 57.1%
N: PVA glue, woody, polished wood, black tea
P: woody, sherry, no complexity
F: nothing short, dry
6.5/10 I've had this before, I don't like them. Nothing here to change my view on Kavalan. Technically good, but boring.

So there we go, unpopular rating by me for the Kavalan (everyone else loved it). But Adelphi won the night for all of us.

More soon...

B x

Whisky cabal: mini meet

During my recent trip to the UK, it was pointed out there hadn't been a lot of whisky posts recently. So Alec and I decided to fix that and actually made some notes as we headed to SMWS for the evening.

I realise it's taken three months to actually copy them up from Google Notes, but hey, deal with it. It has been a bit eventful here, what with job hunting and sorting that crap out :)

On the plus side, there's likely to be another whisky review in the next fortnight as I try a few new ones I've got lying around.

9.161 - Cream Tea at the Patisserie
N- fruity, vigorous, fruit salad, icing sugar, lemon, Chardonnay
P-fruity, tangy,
F- long, spicy, dry

7/10. A
W water
N- much cream n nose, vanilla,
P- pepper, banana, Victoria sponge is cooked
F- very long, very dry

Much more complex
Lost fruitiness
7.5/10

It's an interesting whisky, very sweet, and completely get why they called it the patisserie. Oddly both of us agreed on the ratings (7 and 7.5). Good, without being great. And for those playing at home, it's a Glen Grant. 2nd fill ex-bourbon, 11 years, 60.9%


30.106 Succulent, scintillating, substantialN- old leather, Sherry, Xmas cake, very complex, aniseed, sugary Demerara
P- spicy, leather, old cars, very dark sugar, make fruit loaf
F- spicy, long
9/10

This was a lovely Sherry whisky. Complex, interesting, and very dry. 2nd refill PX.
This was excellent, very very excellent. Glenrothes 57.2%, 21yo, definitely dram of the evening.

52.25 A morning at the beachN- salt, coastal winds, delicate, honey cured bacon
P- but of a throat clearer, phenol on finish, hides then smacks ya, oily coastal
F- nougat, medium, spicy, pepper, dry, oily

7.5/10
We felt we needed to end with a vigorous bacon, salty beast. This is an Old Pulteney, which is a distillery I haven't had many from. I liked this, very dry, 60.3% 11yo. but not stunning. Admittedly I think we were still a bit dazzled by the Glenrothes.

Of more concern was Alec and I agreeing on ratings. Apparently he's less argumentative if I don't see him for a year or so...

So yes, there ya go. I have a couple more from my time in the UK which may go up this week. And a tasting of four, maybe six, whiskies in the cupboard.

Also think the recipes may start up again.

me x

Last FM and my listening

Following on from the booze blog, here's the tunes blog.
All of my devices scrobble to Lastfm so this is pretty accurate as I'm a little bit OCD.

Apparently I listened to more music in 2018 than I have in the many other years of Last.FM-ing.

Of these here's the artist/album/track breakdown, which seems a little odd unless it's only counting unique named tracks, otherwise where did the missing 5000 go?
the CSNY album is a little unfair as it's 41 tracks (3CD) so playing it twice gives the 82 scrobbles. And most played artist? yeah I'm as shocked as you...

Listening time seems right, as I tend to read email and do work to music first thing in the morning. And Thurs Night Music night explains the listening week.
Tags are Last.FM ones, not mine.

So what's new pussycat? apparently fewer new artists this year, but Colosseum are brilliant.
New Albums, apparently a good/expensive year for new albums. And of those new albums, apparently the tracks were new. shocking stuff that.

Next? I may get around to writing my Top10 albums for 2018. Or I may go to the pub.

me x

What have I been drinking? 2018

Yes, it's been awhile. No, I have no excuses.

First up, what have I been drinking? Untappd helpfully sent me this....(user = sphenodon if anyone wants to stalk me)

This first one is a bit misleading as it counts all beer, so if I had a flight of four beers (150ml), that's four beers. So it's not quite as bad/good as it looks...

I like that around 75% of the beers I drink are different. Which is reflected in the very limited number of multiple checkins, but I do rather like Bird Dog :)

No surprises here.

This is a little unfair with Emersons 4m30s walk from the office door.

The Portsider is about 100m from home. Commodore is where I stayed when I arrived back in NZ.

Next? Music listening review, then possibly by 2018 Top10 albums.

I am, possibly, going to do a monthly opera blog. Although I'm running out of January. Sigh.

me x

Cooking with Bruce: Smoked chilli Chicken with Tamarillo

Hmmm it's been a few months. But you never know, this might become regular like.

Today, a recipe for smoked chilli chicken with tamarillo, originally it was described as 'Chipotle-roasted chicken with plum and tarragon salad', but really, that's a bit boring.

300gm of chicken boobies
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
dried, smoked, chilli (I used adobo and poblano ,to give heat and a fruity flavour)
30ml olive oil
lemon zest
2T worcester sauce
3 tamarillos
2t tarragon leaves
1 stick celery, chopped
2 spring onions
red-wine vinegar or balsamic
salt and pepper for taste

The day before:
Chop chicken up into smallish bits.
Mix garlic, chopped chilli, olive oil, lemon zest, salt and paper together, mix chicken through.
Leave overnight.

Fry chicken, and while it's cooking mix:
tamarillos, tarragon, celery, spring onions, vinegar, salt and paper.

Combine all. Eat.

It improves for lunch the next day.

WhiskyLive : the last in a recurring cabal expedition

And so we come to the final cabal write-up, which happened before final cabal tastings (Bruichladdich), but due to vagaries of the notes (slightly lost) they've only just become available.
We've learnt that note taking is not our strong suit when drinking, so it's name and rating only - sorry kids!

WhiskyLive has grown, significantly, since we first went - there's now a lot of non-scotch drinks, including for the first time an optimistically titled 'craft beer' area.

First up we went for something we'd never heard of before, the Islay Boys Flatnose whisky.
Blended Scotch 7.5/10
Blended Scotch 6/10 [top tip, the other one is cheaper]
Islay 8/10 [we enjoyed this one]
An excellent start to the day, and worth having a punt on them as they're very reasonably priced.

Glenglassaugh Peated, nose was brilliant, palate a bit weak. 5/10

Glendronach, ahhh hello our old friend....
Peated Port finish - oh yess :D 9/10

Benriach, another distillery we like.  A lot.
Curiositas 10 yo peated. 5/10
Authenticus 10yo 8.5-9/10
22yo rum peated 8/10
Pedro Ximenez peated 21yo? 9-9.5/10
Glendronach 21yo 8.5/10 [yeah we like this one, we've had quite a bit of it]

Cotswolds Whisky, fruity, young 6/10

Glen Moray
Sherry cask, very dry 8/10

Glenrothes
92  8/10
94 oak 6/10

Berry Brothers Rudd
GlenMoray 8.5/10 [I think it's this one]
Teaninich 33yo 7/10
Islay Blend 8/10