Coldorak's whisky blog.
We’re back to That Boutique-y Whisky Company with another whisky from their 10th anniversary lineup. But this time it is something quite different from the previous one (a Chouchen-cask finished Armorik). This time, we’re going to Tennessee, and not for that good ol’ N°7. We’re going to an unnamed distillery, for some rye and some sherry! So we should I think expect something quite different from that Tennessee Rye Batch 4 TBWC!
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I realize it’s the first Benromach I’ll be covering here on More Drams. And that I don’t even own a bottle of Benromach even though they produce some very good whisky. I visited the Gordon & Macphail-owned distillery back in 2019 during Spirit of Speyside festival. It was the closest distillery from where I was staying, as I had rented a house with friends in Forres for our stay for Spirit of Speyside. I remember having a very good time at the distillery. I regret we were not allowed to take pictures inside for safety reasons. I remember they did everything by hand, at the opposite of some other distilleries I’ve visited where everything was computer-controlled. And that even though our days were filled with whisky already, the bottle of Benromach 10 at our disposal in the rented house took quite a hit during our stay! We’ll come back at some point for a core range review, but not today. Today, we introduce this distillery with this Benromach 2011 Single Cask selected and bottled for LMDW.
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Don’t judge a book by its cover. This famous adage is so often verified, in the normal life as well as in whisky. This metaphorical phrase means one should not judge the worth or value of something by its outward appearance alone. For a bottle of whisky, because well, that’s the only thing that matters in this humble blog, the outward appearance can be many things. The colour of the liquid, the packaging, the label, the shape of the bottle, its embossing, or the label’s embossing. And in a way, even the name and the price. All these elements can influence your opinion about a whisky before having even nosed it and had any drop pass your lips. Whisky makers, be it distilleries, bottlers, blenders, all know that, and for many of them, the marketing departments run full steam in order to find the perfect combination. They hope that the untrained whisky drinker might judge positively a bottle he or she is yet to try, and then loosens the purse strings in order to acquire this bottle. If the bottle is beautiful, or its label, it might be good whisky, right? And that deep dark colour must mean it’s old or heavily sherried, right? Or a nice looking bottle, with a wooden box or any other expensive looking packaging might lead you to expect something as premium inside the bottle as it looks on the outside. Why am I talking about this? Well, read my review of this Glenfarclas 1971 All Malt Unblended and you’ll know.
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Ardbeg introduced in September 2019 a new expression to its core range, featuring an age statement: Traigh Bhan. Aged 19, Traigh Bhan (pronounced try van), is a yearly batch expression, where Ardbeg does not seek regularity. Each year, they clearly show the batch number on the label, with a code showing when it was distilled, as well as short tasting notes giving the profile of this batch. Whilst Ardbeg’s marketing is running full steam with its Ardbeg Day (both Committee and Regular releases) expressions, with each expression’s backstory more over the top than the previous one, the marketing for the 19yo is here quite soft, and I must admit I like that they don’t invent crazy stories to justify the difference of each Ardbeg Day release, be it a fermentation length or a cask char or what the cask held before or whatever. Here, it’s just new Traigh Bhan batch, slightly different profile, and that’s it. Since the release of this expression, we’ve had now four batches, so let’s compare all four of those Ardbeg Traigh Bhan 19-year-old whiskies.
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Chouchen (or in Breton, Chouchenn) is a kind of mead (‘hydromel’ in French). It is made using honey and water, with either apple juice, apple must or cider added (for the latter, it is then called chufere). What distinguishes chouchen from hydromel is that yeast from apples is used to speed fermentation, whilst for hydromel it’s only honey, wine or beer yeast that do the fermentation. Chouchen is aged in wood casks for several months, before being filtered then bottled, with an ABV between 12 and 15%. Depending on the residual amount of sugar in it, it can be called from dry to sweet, dry being for the one having the less sugar remaining. As chouchenn is a traditional alcohol from Brittany, it is not unexpected that its casks would be used to finish whisky coming from Brittany as well, and that’s what Warenghem distillery has done for some of its Armorik single malt. So let’s try two chouchen-finished Armorik whiskies, an official single cask and one bottled by That Boutique-y Whisky Company for its 10th birthday range.
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Yesterday 30th of September was the Scotch Malt Whisky Society Global Gathering 2022 event. It’s virtual tasting with John McCheyne, SMWS’s global brand ambassador, and he was joined by five people who were part of the selection of the five drams of the night. Each dram was selected by a tasting panel from a specific country, and chose a name for it in their own language. Then, each dram’s tasting was led by the local brand ambassador, starting… in his or her native language. As it started with the whisky selected by the French panel, some people who joined a bit late were quite surprised to hear the tasting in French, before realising it would switch back in English a few minutes later. Obviously, I had ordered a tasting pack in order to join, so let’s go review those five whiskies chosen for the SMWS Global Gathering 2022.
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Two Brewers started in 1997 when Bob Baxter and Al Hansen founded the brewery in 1997, after a canoe trip in Yukon, Canada. A dozen years later, then decided to take the next step and start making whisky. Using their experience as brewers and knowing the importance of the malt and the fermentation, they pay special attention to those steps as from the start they have a great influence on the final product. Those final products are numbered and unique, without a search for homogeneity, and classified in one of their ‘collections’: Classic, Innovation and their Special Finishes single casks. What we’re trying today is not one of their very latest batches but let’s try it anyway: the release N°26: a Two Brewers Classic.
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In 1998, Aberlour launched its first A’Bunadh, a sherry matured single malt, delivered at cask strength. Then, they regularly released new batches, clearly stating the batch number, each batch being slightly different from the others, with a different ABV, and always delivered without colouring. At the time, the price was quite low, and it was a success. And it still is, seeing that the last batch released seems to be the #74 already. Unfortunately, as with everything, especially when successful, the low price became a way higher price, and a recent A’Bunadh batch will cost you about £80 when it was less than £60 a few years ago. But Aberlour didn’t stop at that and in 2018, they launched a new expression, matured in ex-bourbon casks. We’re trying its fifth batch today: the Aberlour A’Bunadh Alba Batch #05.
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The Lost Distillery Company is a… company with the ambition to revive whisky from several long gone distilleries. During the 20th century, many Scotch distilleries shut down, because of wars, prohibition, or because they went bankrupt. They released blends trying to reproduce the production of seven lost distilleries, five out of those being still available. Each of those seven blends was then available in three different editions. The Classic edition is bottled at 43% and is the ‘youngest’ of the editions. The Archivist ones seem to be made from older component as their profile is said as being ‘extra mature’ (the classic is just ‘mature’) and is bottled at 46%. Finally, the Vintage Selection ones are the oldest and are also bottled at 46% ABV. No Vintage on our menu today, but we’ll review today either a Classic or an Archivist batch of all the Lost Distillery Company blends.
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We’re going to compare today two Glen Grant whiskies, that couldn’t be more different on paper. The first one is an official bottling, reduced to 40% ABV, and has been bottled in the 1970s. The second one is from an independent bottler, Cadenhead’s, at cask strength and bottled in 2022. What is the point of that comparison you will ask? Well, first, I like to do comparisons. Here, I hope to see if I can find similarities despite the huge time frame between the two, but also find what differences will be there. I also want to have comparison points. It’s harder than you’d think to rate a whisky without any reference point. By itself, is this whisky worth 80, 84, more? Now compared to another one, you can already ascertain which one you prefer. Now I must admit, in order to have a more reliable rating system, I should have a common reference point in all my reviews. And unfortunately… I do not. I know some famous whisky reviewers always start their tasting session with a dram of always the same whisky. First it allows them to see if their palate and nose are working correctly as they’ll have that usual reference point. And secondly, this reference point will help them rate correctly the whiskies they’re reviewing. It’s not something I do for now, but I guess I should really consider starting doing that. More whisky spendings incoming I guess… Anyway, for now, no reference point, and anyway, it’s my own objective but still a bit subjective rating system, so you’ll have to bear with it! So let’s do an Old vs New Glen Grant review!
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