December 2021 - More Drams, Less Drama

Isle of Jura 1998 Hidden Spirits

23rd December 2021Coldorak

Isle of Jura is a distillery that I don’t understand. Their official bottlings, at least the ones I’ve tried, are a mess, especially the Seven Wood. But thanks to The Whisky Cellar, I’ve been able to try a good indy one recently, and I tried another one, more than okay, bottled by SMWS at the absolutely marvellous Dornoch Castle Whisky bar in 2019, a 1983 called Islands Hopping. But apart from those two indies, nope, no good one. However, I often hear good things from friends about other indy Juras. So let’s keep an open mind and see if the Italian independent bottler that never disappointed me until now got it right with this Isle of Jura 1998 Hidden Spirits.

Auchentoshan 2000 Signatory Vintage

20th December 202120th December 2021Coldorak

After a short break for the daily articles about drams from the advent calendar, we’re back today with another distillery there was nothing written about on those pages: Auchentoshan. I must admit Auchentoshan it a distillery that was quite under my radar, even though I have a couple bottles from them at home. I haven’t tried many drams coming from them, the only ones that come to mind are the American Oak, an entry-level NAS, and the 21-years-old, a bottle my parents brought back from the distillery with a handfill I have yet to open. Now while, in my opinion, Auchentoshan flies a bit under the radar of many whisky drinkers, it has something setting them apart in Scotland (with just a very few other distilleries doing – partially – the same thing): they use triple distillation. While this is quite often seen at Irish distilleries, this stays an exception in Scotland and other countries, as I’ve told you in my Armut Triparva review a few days ago. So today, we’re having (well, I am) an Auchentoshan 2000 Signatory Vintage 20 rue d’Anjou.

Glen Moray 27-year-old Chorlton Whisky

17th December 202117th December 2021Coldorak

Right. Many people know me to be a massive Glen Moray fan. But strangely, though, more than two years in this blog, I still haven’t reviewed any on those pages. My love for this distillery is to be honest quite recent. It wasn’t really on my radar before Spirit of Speyside 2019, when with my friends we booked three events over a week there, the first one being a tour of the distillery with their brand ambassador, Iain Allan, and a handful bottle at the end of the tour, after a tasting. The second event was for may the 4th, a Star Wars-themed event, but Iain again in his element (a Stormtrooper costume), where we had a face-off between official and SMWS Glen Morays. The third event was a bit different, as it was the Closing Ceilid’h of the Spirit of Speyside Festival and quite a great party. There, I discovered great and affordable whiskies, with three handfill casks always available with a great selection and fantastic price range, and people absolutely lovely. I made friends, people I still talk to quite often, two years later. They even talk to me back and not just ignore me! I’ve been wanting to write some articles about Glen Moray bottling for a long time but never took the time to do so. It’ll come. The Cask Projects (or curiosities), with their infamous Cider cask finish. The Warehouse 1 releases. Lots of bottle-your-own. Old distillery exclusives… But that will have to wait. Tonight, I’m reviewing a Glen Moray 27yo bottled by Chorlton Whisky.

Chichibu On The Way

17th December 202117th December 2021Coldorak

We’re back to Japan for another Chichibu tonight, we’re racking up hundreds of miles of travel from one country to another with this Advent Calendar! Not sure our CO₂ emissions are very high, though, since all this travel has been purely virtual and in my Glencairn glasses! Anyway. Though Chichibu is a very young distillery, its owner Ichiro Akuto comes from a very long tradition of alcohol making, since the family produced sake then shochu since 1625 in Chichibu. The family founded Hanyu distillery in the 1980s, bringing water from Chichibu by truck, before the whisky market collapsed and Hanyu closed down in 2000. Then as I said in my Chichibu The Peated review, Ichiro Akuto founded Chichibu in 2007, and tonight we’re trying a Chichibu On The Way bottled in 2019.

Amrut Triparva

15th December 202115th December 2021Coldorak

We’re back to India today, to try something quite new from Amrut: a triple-distilled single malt. Triple distillation is mostly associated with Irish whiskey, as most Irish distilleries use this process to distil their whiskey. If you want to learn a bit more about that process, I talked about it here. Ireland is not the only country where triple distillation is used however, as some Scottish distilleries, Auchentoshan or Springbank – for its Hazelburn brand – for example, also distil thrice their spirit before filling it into casks. But today, it’s Indian triple distillation, so let’s taste and review the recently released Amrut Triparva.

Tomatin 2009 Le Gus’t

14th December 202114th December 2021Coldorak

Today we’re on something special, something I wasn’t part of here, but an experience I had the chance to have elsewhere. Several times. A community’s bottling. Back in May 2020 I think, I joined my first “close” whisky community. The Whisky Circus. I’ve already told you about this group founded by Sorren “ocdwhisky” Krebs. This is a group with a bit more than 30 members right now. Some joined later after its creation, some left, some took a pause. And with this group, we had several whiskies bottled for us for several distilleries. And having your own bottling, for your group, feels special. Way more recently, I was invited by a friend into another whisky group, a French one this time. Not a Twitter one, but one on Facebook one. It’s called “La Confrérie du Whisky”. We’re just (as far as I know) French (or French speaking) people, and as the Circus, it’s very dangerous for your credit card. And they did their own bottling too, with the help of the liquor shop and French indy bottler, Le Gus’t. So tonight, I try a Tomatin 2009 Le Gus’t bottled for La Confrérie du Whisky.

Mortlach 2002 Hidden Spirits

13th December 202113th December 2021Coldorak

We’re back to a Hidden Spirits bottling, this time with the Beast of Dufftown: Mortlach. Founded in 1823 by James Findlater, Donald Mackintosh and Alex Gordon, probably on the site of an older illicit distillation, it is the oldest of the several distilleries located at Dufftown. They use a complicated distillation process that they advertise as 2.81 distillations, but I’ll explain that on a future article about Mortlach, and maybe after I’ve written a post about distillation for the All about whisky section. For now, let’s just say that it’s owned, like many other distilleries, by Diageo. You cannot visit it except usually during the Spirit of Speyside Festival, and it’s known for its heavy and meaty character. But I’m still, for now, on my almost everyday reviews from my advent calendar (I know, I missed a couple ones). So it’ll be a short article, let’s go directly to review the 13th dram for the calendar: a Mortlach 2002 bottled by Hidden Spirits.

Amrut 10yo Greedy Angels Peated Rum Finish

Amrut 10-year-old Greedy Angels Peated Rum Finish

12th December 202112th December 2021Coldorak

Two years ago, the Amrut 10yo Greedy Angels I tried was a fantastic demonstration about the difference about maturation and evaporation, the Angels’ Share, between countries and regions of the world. So I did some research to better understand how the Angels’ Share was working. How the type of warehouse, the oak the cask is made from and the climate all have an influence on the evaporation of the content of the cask. How some volume disappears over the years. Why usually the alcohol by volume drops in the whisky, but sometimes it’s rising. But I won’t write it again about the Angels’ Share, just go read what I wrote early last year, when I reviewed another Amrut 10yo Greedy Angels. Then in February when I kept the Angels’ Share part of the article to have a dedicated one in the ‘All about whisky’ category. But tonight, I’ll just review another victim of the angels, the Amrut 10yo Greedy Angels Peated Rum Finish.

Croftengea 2009 Les Grands Alambics

10th December 202110th December 2021Coldorak

We stay today in Scotland as we try a Croftengea single malt. No relation with Lara Croft (she’s English anyway). Croftengea is one of the brands used by independent bottlers when they’re bottling some Loch Lomond whisky, depending on which type of whisky they got their hands on, as Loch Lomond has quite a number of different styles… Let’s introduce them then we’ll review this Croftengea 2009 bottled by the French indy bottler Les Grands Alambics.

Glendronach 12yo Original Previ Import

9th December 202110th December 2021Coldorak

A little late as I was on a business trip, the 8th dram from the whisky calendar was coming from Scotland, and more specifically from the Highland. But as many of the drams since the beginning of this calendar made us travel around the world, this time we’re time travelling. And not back to the future, but errr. to back to the future. Wait what? Well, read on and you’ll understand. Then I’ll review this Glendronach 12yo Original Previ Import.