Most of the cabal assembled last night to taste more drams, down one doctor, we knew our chances of coming through the tasting were slim, but bravely ploughed on.
First up was a trinity of
Mortlach drams. Known for being massive sherry speyside monsters ...
Mortlach 21yo 40%
N: hay, grassy, salt, and most memorably : drying nicely cut grass, not festering grass. (remember, this was the first of the night...)
P: light, toffee, pepper, and salt
F: medium length and salty.
As you can see, not your usual speyside sherry monster. And the salt is quite prevalent. However it is a very very drinkable dram, and so scored 7/10. I just flicked through my tasting notes when I bought it, and I'd given it a 7.5/10 so good consistency there.
SMWS 76.71 20yo 60.1% "Tasty pastry and mellow morello" 1/606 bottles
N: manly, sherry, christmas cake, toffee
P: christmas cake, very sweet finish, marzipan
F: very long, more sweetness, coffee and chocolate
+water: more mellow, more cherry and leather.
Ahhh there's the Mortlach. I think it's fair to say this dram was popular. Complex, full bodied, and ideal for those cold winter nights. 8.5/10
SMWS 76.77 "Hansel and Gretel" 16yo 58.6% 1/604 bottles, 1st fill sherry butt
N: sherry, christmas cake (but less than 76.71), vanilla (hint of), marmalade
P: prickly, sweet, orange, strawberries, cloves,
F: medium length
+water: opens up, loses the prickliness, cinnamon/raisin toast came through.
This one certainly struck you more than the 76.71, which seemed to creep up with its promises of christmas in a bottle. But we all agreed this was still a damn fine bottle, and one of those whiskies which needed the water to open it properly, as such we gave it two scores: 8/10 (neat); 8.5/10 (water)
Aberfeldy "Rich's mystery malt" 43% Connoisseurs Choice d1990 b2010 20yo
N: grassy, fresh, sweet
P: light, smooth, apples, smokey, lemon meringue pie
F: med-short
A very drinkable dram for Rich's mystery malt, we were impressed with how it cut through two cask strength whiskies as well.
Aberfeldy distillery usually gets ignored, given its vistor centre is the Dewar's World of Whisky themepark bollox.
General impression was very drinkable, and good quaffing, and so: 7/10
SMWS 64.29 "White chocolate coated lemons and limes" 9yo 58.8% 1st fill barrel, ex-bourbon, 1/225
N: chlorine, sweet, recently cut grass, love hearts (that's from the English tasters)
P: salty, sweet, watermelon, white chocolate, citrus, dry
F: bitterness (limes), and long
addition of water made the dram smoother, but didn't change the flavour.
The whisky hails from
Mannochmore, another Speyside, I don't think we've had a Mannochmore before, but on the strength of this one, I won't say no to another. It impressed us for complexity for such a young speyside.
8/10
SMWS 73.41 "Sweet and citric counterpoints" 1/286 bottles, 2nd fille hogshead ex-bourbon 13yo 58.8%
N: hint of salt, fresh cut pine, bitter lime, subtle nose
P: spiky, huge, bitter citrus, hot and spicy jalapeno, very fighty!, WTF?!
F: big finish
addition of water made it quite quaffable, less interesting but more drinkable, certainly less acidic but more subtlety to the lime. Another Speyside too, this time
Aultmore, which we'd tasted another SMWS of (73.34) back in our inaugural cabal meeting.
This one divided us, mainly as it is a huge whisky, without water our scoring ranged from 6.5-7.5/10, with water we agreed on 7.5/10. I think we may need to revisit this one.
SMWS 9.55 "Gourmet icecream at the movies" 25yo 52.6% 1/249 bottles, refill hogshead, ex-bourbon
N: PVA glue, cheap new car smell, sweet, nuts
P: complex, sweet, honey (?manuka), lime (bitter citrus), thick
F: hot, pepper - but very short, more manuka honey after a bit
Addition of water brought out more fudge and caramel flavours.
We liked this one a lot, we'd had it before - around Christmas, when Alec got a bottle - although I don't think we made notes. It's a Glen Grant, which we've had a few of in the past, but this one was a wee bit good: 8.5-9/10
And at that point we closed business for the fourth cabal meeting. We are still looking at a field trip (SMWS in London is most likely), and there is radical talk of branching out to beer and cheese.
I haven't heard from the other two this morning, but then again, there's been no messages sent saying XX won't be in, as they've died. So I guess that's another win for the cabal.
B
