Tasting Note: Glenfarclas 40 Year Old

Glenfarclas are one of Scotland's few family owned distilleries, with the Grant family having been in charge since 1870. It's perhaps because of this family ownership that the distillery has some practices which I believe are unique in Scotch, and also offers a range of aged expressions which no other distillery can equal.

The Family Casks range of bottlings, for example, include vintage whisky for every year back to about 1954. The interesting thing about this range is that the casks on offer run through first, second, third and even fourth fill to what are described as plain casks (Fifth fill? Sixth fill?!)

Now, if you are planning on keeping whisky on the wood well into its fifth or sixth decade, fresh oak is most decidedly your enemy. Whilst it's true that whisky will take most of what it extracts from the cask in the early years of maturation, that extractive process will continue for the entire time that the malt is in the barrel. So for liquid which one intends to bottle after forty years, a fourth-fill cask will produce a much better result than a fresh, first-fill cask. After forty years a first fill cask would most likely be undrinkably tannic. On the other hand, and as is the case with tonight's fine dram, forty years is a useful span of time if you plan on using plain casks.

(I should note that as far as I know, Glenfarclas don't specify the casks used for this vatting as precisely as with the Family Casks range. So I'm speculating, mainly on the basis of how the whisky tastes.)

Appearance: a deep, deep nut brown, much darker than most drams.  Is that natural? I hope so.

Nose: old mellow and woody. There's a very restrained sherry note, but what dominates is the kind of elegant oak perfume I associate with Armagnac, something which reminds of old varnished wood warming in the sun, or of lavender furniture polish.

Palate: Supremely smooth. Sweet and gently sherried, with dried vine fruits, treacle toffee, and the other kind of toffee that has raisins and brazil nuts in it. Again, I'm strongly reminded of old Armagnac - there's not a lot of malt character.

Conclusion: the parallel with Armagnac is very interesting. It's the practice there to age brandy for many many decades in wood, and fifty year old spirits are not uncommon.

This is a very fine dram indeed, and in comparison with more or less everything else on the market at that age, the price tag of £300 seems like something of a bargain.

Macallan 1946 52 Year Old

1946. My dad was still a wee boy. Rationing was still in place. Scottish distilleries were in a bit of a state - in 1943-44 no whisky at all was made, and by 1946-47 output was barely a third what it had been before the war.

1998, the year this whisky was bottled. I was still a Laphroaig bore. Labour were still sticking to the previous government's spending plans. Scotch whisky was flourishing.

2012, at The Macallan distillery for the opening dinner of the Spirit of Speyside festival. The mashman, George, sitting beside me, declared that he didn't like smoky whiskies, so I got an extra measure of this rare gem.

Our table was sending out recce parties to bring back bottles of whisky, and Eddi Reader was giein it laldy in the background, but, nothing daunted, I stuck to my guns and took thorough notes. So how does a £5000 whisky taste?

The nose is smoky, sherried, and powerful. It's a bit spirity, which is surprising in such an old dram. Dried fruits, digestive biscuits. Angelica? Icing sugar. Sweet toffee like a young dram. Lacy smoke like a very old Islay. Sweet cereal notes like a young whisky.

To taste, it is smooth but also has grippy tannins. There is an oily texture, it's sherried, and the smoke comes in at the end.

Retasting, I find maltiness, great finesse, and fresh—zingy—berry fruits; something like raspberry and strawberry fruit ice cream. Then the finish is grippy and woody.

I tasted it alongside the modern 10 Year Old Sherrywood Macallan, and while the older whisky is certainly more complex and has greater finesse, I also found it more powerful. How does that work?

Tasting Note: Arran 12 Year Old Cask Strength

I first tried the Arran 12 Year Old Cask Strength last month when it was released, and was not excited by it. I like the standard 10 year old - a great session dram, satisfying without being challenging, like a battered old sofa with dogs on it, rather than a Louis Quinze armchair - and several Arran releases have been truly excellent, but this expression seemed rather quiet.

Whisky drinkers will often find the time to disagree with each other at length, but I think it's fair to say that most of them would agree a freshly opened bottle tastes different to one that's had a few days or weeks to air. And many would say that an open whisky improves with time. Tasting the Arran 12 again tonight rather confirms that view. Tonight's dram is from a 10cl sample bottle which has been left half full for a month or so, and I like it much better now.

Confirming my earlier thoughts, it's not a blockbuster. But arguably, that's a good thing; it hides its 54%ABV well, and is extremely drinkable neat.

It takes quite a while to show its colours, and I find myself making a comparison to Lochnagar, another malt which doesn't really do fireworks, but is a great comfort whisky. It's very sweet, with the baked apples and spice I associate with Arran, and there's no dryness anywhere to be found. The sherry flavours are subtle, and only come along slowly.

In conclusion, I'd call this a beginner's Cask Strength whisky, just as I'd say that the Arran 10 is a beginner's malt. There's plenty of interest, it does what it ought to, but few people will find it challenging.

Distillers Editions Worth Their Weight

Diageo don't have a great reputation here in Scotland. The brutal self-interest which has led them to announce the closure of their Kilmarnock operation is a case in point. But it cannot be denied that they produce some superb whiskies.

It was the 1986/2002 Lagavulin Distillers Edition which made me sit up, pay attention, and start tasting whisky seriously. (A more accurate description would be to say that I fell into the whisky for a minute or so, becoming completely oblivious to the crowd of 1000 jolly, drunk people around me)

At a whisky dinner I hosted at The Bothy back in February the dram of the night was the Clynelish Distillers Edition. It outshone even the Highland Park 18 Year Old, a whisky which has more than once been called the best in the world.

Tonight's example, the Caol Ila Distillers Edition, maintains that standard. It is a profound dram, the nose an intense swirl of sweet bacon wood smoke, with a briney tang like the saltiness when you are swimming in the sea and accidentally swallow some seawater.

The palate is at once sweet and oily and salty and smoky, long lasting, with a hit of pepper in the finish. The flavours persist for more than a minute, and the smokiness for nearly three.

Compared to the twelve year old expression , the Distillers Edition is more intense, longer lasting, bigger, more complex; still the same whisky, but with the intensity turned up to eleven.

I haven't tasted any of the Manager's Choice whiskies, but it is hard to see, at the price being asked, that they can be anything but an exercise in separating collectors from their money, when such gems as the DEs are available for a fifth of the price

Abhainn Dearg Spirit of Lewis

The newest and most remote distillery in Britain, Abhainn Dearg on the Isle of Lewis, has released its first batch of New Make Spirit – as yet it is too young to be legally called whisky.

Around 100 people gathered at McSorley’s Bar in central Glasgow on March 16th to watch Mark Tayburn, founder of Abhainn Dearg, and Bill MacIntosh, chair of Glasgow’s Whisky Club, officially launch the Spirit of Lewis. Although I couldn’t make that evening, I ventured along the next night to taste the liquid and see what all the fuss was about.

Abhainn Dearg Spirit of Lewis is certainly worth trying, for it is lovely. Light and delicate – no oiliness – honey sweet, with a back-and-forth swirl of cigar, milk chocolate – and something briney. And since it’s cask strength, you’ll have a warming glow about you all day long.

The malt proper won’t be available until late 2011 so until then you can take yourself along to McSorley’s, enjoy the original Victorian decor, listen to live music and sample the whisky-to-be straight from the cask it’s maturing in. Or you can watch the launch via the internet, courtesy of that whisky bon viveur, Ralfy.

Tasting Note: Longrow CV

nose: very smoky, peaty, and mealy (like porridge, I suppose). Sweet like treacle toffee. There are tangy or sharp undertones. Over time, a popcorn note emerges.
palate: there is an oily, thick texture, with loads of smoked salt. But there's also a strong fruitiness - melon and banana, plus fudge. It's a full bodied dram for sure.

Conclusion

I like this very much indeed, and it looks like very good value for money too, at about £30. Excellent.

About Longrow

Springbank distillery, one of three in Campbeltown, makes three different malt whiskies, Hazelburn, Springbank, and Longrow. It gives them different names, perhaps to help consumers, perhaps as an aide memoire for the distillers, perhaps to keep alive the memory of long-lost Campeltown distilleries. Longrow is distinguished by its heavy peating level and the fact that it is straightforwardly double distilled. "CV" is generally explained as either "Chairman's Vatting" or "Curriculum Vitae", depending on who you ask.