KWM 2023 Whisky Calendar Blog Day 24 - SMWS 36.209 - WILL YOU JOIN THE WORM TUB CLUB?
Posted on January 6, 2024
By EvanWe are going to do things a little differently for this blog post. We are going to start with the bottle and my tasting notes. Then, I will give you more information on the distillery, and the company behind the bottling we are tasting. Here we go!
Scotch Malt Whisky Society 36.209 - WILL YOU JOIN THE WORM TUB CLUB?
SMWS Tasting Note
“The scent immediately put a smile on our faces with aromas of tobacco, prunes, cinnamon, nutmeg, cherry pie and sticky toffee pudding – do we need to go on? The palate reminded one Panellist of roasted duck with red wine cabbage and potato dumplings while others detected burnt wood, mixed nuts and cooked amarena cherries. After dilution, the list of aromas carried on – beeswax, toffee, mulled wine, stewed fresh porcini mushrooms, boysenberry chutney and orange pomander. To taste, we found that typical glycerine flavour of old sherry, slightly sweet and responsible for roundness and smoothness. Will you join the worm tub club? Following 11 years in an ex-bourbon hogshead, we transferred this whisky into a 1st fill Spanish oak oloroso hogshead.”
Evan’s Tasting Note
Nose: Dates, plums, dried blueberries, Beef bouillon cubes, battered and deep-fried onion rings, Dutch Licorice, celery salt and celery root, a touch of miso broth, and a hint of hickory.
Palate: Sweet and savoury clash with notes of pralines, salty and oily Marcona almonds, walnut liqueur, Hoisin sauce, more Dutch licorice, Werther's Original candies, and milk chocolate coated raisins.
Finish: Richly sherried and slightly drying with plenty of nuts, chocolate and dried fruit notes sticking around.
Comment: Some people get scared away when they see savoury notes mentioned in a sherried whisky. You need to taste this one, though, because there is nothing to be afraid of here! This is decadent and rich and wonderfully put together; a Benrinnes that shows big sherry yet still has the distillery character in there as well.
If you are reading this on or around December 25th, 2023 – then here is the bad news with this whisky:
You do have to be an SMWS Member to purchase it.
The full-sized bottles won’t be released until the first SMWS Outturn of next year, in January 2024.
That is a whole year from now! Or, about a week and a half from December 25th, 2023. So, it's not that bad.
Are you a Scotch Malt Whisky Society Member? If not, and you need information on them, read on!
About the Scotch Malt Whisky Society
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society is the world's largest whisky club, and also an independent bottler. As a club, it has close to 30,000 members all over the world, and branches in close to 20 different countries. It bottles as broad a range of single cas...
Kensington Wine Market's 2023 Whisky Calendar UBER EDITION Day 23 - G&M Bladnoch 1988 KWM Cask
Posted on December 23, 2023
by EvanWell, now. Here is another distillery I don’t believe I have written about yet. Bladnoch!
Bladnoch is a distillery in the Lowlands, nearly as far south in Scotland as you can get. It resides in the village of Bladnoch in Wigtownshire, on the north side of the River Bladnoch. It is just across the B7005 road, west of the Bladnoch Inn, and just north of the Bladnoch Bridge. Bladnoch. Bladnoch. Bladnoch. Its nearest distillery neighbour is likely Crafty Distillery, which does not yet have a whisky but does make Hills & Harbour Gin. Crafty is about a 10 minute drive to north along the A714.
If you continue north on the A714 for another 45 minutes or so, you will come across the town of Girvan, which is home the Ailsa Bay Single Malt and Girvan Single Grain Distilleries, which are part of Wiliam Grant & Sons. If you head east from Bladnoch along the A75 for about an hour and a half, you will get to Annandale Distillery, which started up in its current iteration in 2014.
Bladnoch was founded in 1817 by John and Thomas McClelland on what was at that time their farm. It remained in the hands of the McClelland family until 1905, then production ceased for 6 years until it was purchased by Irish Whisky company Dunville & Co, which did not spell whisky with an ‘e’ on their labels like most other Irish Whiskey brands did. That company operated Bladnoch sporadically for the following 25 or so years until 1937, when Dunville & Co. was shut down and liquidated.
It was then purchased by another Irish company called Ross & Coulter, who eagerly leaned into the liquidation concept by dismantling and selling off Bladnoch’s distilling equipment and all of its mature whisky stock. Bladnoch “distillery” was tossed around to various owners like a hot potato after this fire sale before finally reopening in 1956. Things were looking good for a decade and in 1966 production was increased thanks to new stills being added. Ownership of Bladnoch continued to change hands about every decade or so until 1993, when the then-owners United Distillers mothballed the distillery. 1993 is the year another Lowland Distillery was shut down; that was Rosebank Distillery in Falkirk.
In 1994, Two Northern Irish brothers with the last name of Armstrong purchased the Bladnoch Distillery and the land it was on; but the purchase came with the stipulation that the site could not be used to make whisky. This curious term of sale stood for six years until the brothers finally convinced Diageo (the new name for United Distillers) to let them distill up to 100,000 litres of spirit annually. Limited production commenced near the end of the year 2000 and continued sporadically until around 2010 when Bladnoch was once more mothballed.
In 2015 the Bladnoch Distillery was purchased by David Prior, a businessman from Austr...
KWM 2023 Whisky Calendar Blog Day 23 - Bowmore 18 Year
Posted on December 23, 2023
by EvanBowmore Distillery is one of the oldest distilleries in Scotland and is the oldest on Islay that still exists, having been founded in 1779. Bowmore’s famous Warehouse No.1, which sits right next to the distillery, is Scotland’s oldest warehouse for aging whisky still in use.
The Distillery itself lies within the town which shares its name and is right against the shoreline of Loch Indaal. Even though the distillery is on the coast, it can still be considered closest to the centre of Islay. The town of Bowmore only predates the distillery by less than two decades, and it was the first planned settlement in Scotland.
The town's grid like layout and construction were initiated in 1768 by Daniel Campbell the Younger, who was the owner of the Islay and part of Jura. He resided in the famous Islay House and planned the town of Bowmore to resettle residents from the village of Kilarrow. Kilarrow was situated close to Islay House, near what is now called Bridgend. It is said that Daniel the Younger felt that Kilarrow spoiled the view between Islay House and Loch Indaal. All that remains of the old village is a cemetery on Islay House property.
On the upside, Daniel the Younger also built the now-famous Kilarrow Parish that is atop the hill in Bowmore. The church is famous for being entirely round so that it gives to corner for the devil to hide in. Bowmore and the Kilarrow Parish lay a little over 4km south of Bridgend and where the previous village existed. Currently, the town of Bowmore is populated by around 800 residents.
As for the distillery, Bowmore's nearest neighbour is Bruichladdich, which is a 15-minute drive West along the coastal road A847 to the other side of Loch Indaal. Caol Ila Distillery is about a 20-minute drive to the East along the A846. If you head South from Bowmore, the Port Ellen Maltings newly revived Port Ellen Distillery are about a 20-minute drive as well. From there you can get to Laphroaig Distillery, Lagavulin and Ardbeg; which all lie within 10 minutes drive from there.
Like Laphroaig, the Bowmore distillery is owned by parent company Beam Suntory. Also like Laphroaig, Bowmore is one of three distilleries on Islay to have its own on-site floor maltings and peat kilns, which are able to produce around one-quarter of Bowmore's needs for mashing and distillation. This is an important factor now that Port Ellen Maltings is apparently being exclusively to support Diageo’s - owner’s - own malting needs. This means that any the resto of Bowmore's (and Laphroaig’s) malt has to be sourced from the Scottish Mainland. Whether the malt is sourced from Simpsons on the mainland or made in-house, the phenol content of the malt is around 25 to 30 ppm.
Insert Peat Here: One of the Kil...
Kensington Wine Market's 2023 Whisky Calendar UBER EDITION Day 22 - Boutique-y Japanese Whisky Batch 5 - 21 Year Old
Posted on December 20, 2024
by EvanThis is a tough bottle to write something about, because all we know is that it is a Blended Japanese Whisky… No idea what distilleries went into it at all. Hmm…
What we can talk about is how Japanese Whisky first started, and that seems appropriate to do since Japanese Whisky as we know it is just about to turn 100 years old.
That’s right. Japan has now been making whisky in the Scottish style for nearly a century, and that history all starts with Masataka Taketsuru. In 1918, Masataka was sent to Scotland from Japan to study Japanese whisky production. He already had a background in Chemistry and fermented food production and hailed from a family of sake brewers, so the thing he was missing was the distillation portion of making alcohol. During his two years in Scotland, he attended the University of Glasgow as a chemistry major and apprenticed at three distilleries; learning to us both pot stills and Coffey stills in whisky production. Longmorn distillery was the site of his first apprenticeship, which played a role in his development of Japanese whisky making later on.
When Masataka travelled back to Japan in 1920, he brought with him a great deal of knowledge and ideas on whisky making. He also brought his Scottish wife Rita Cowan with him.
Mastataka and Rita Taketsuru
Japan’s first whisky was founded in 1924. Named Yamazaki, it resides near Kyoto. The distillery still operates and is owned by Beam Suntory. The distillery released the first completely Japanese Whisky in 1929.
After Masataka’s 10 Year contract with Suntory finished, he went on to found the Yoichi Distillery in Hokkaido, and the company that would eventually become Nikka. Yoichi distillery released its first whisky in 1940. Today, Suntory and Nikka are the two largest whisky-making companies in Japan, and both own distilleries in Scotland as well. Nikka owns Ben Nevis Distillery. Under the Beam Suntory arm of their company, Suntory owns the Ardmore, Auchentoshan, Bowmore, Glen Garioch, and Laphroaig Distilleries as well as being part owner in the North British Grain Distillery. Another Japanese Company – Takara Shuzo – owns Tomatin Distillery.
Within Japan, Nikka owns Yoichi Distillery and The Miyagikyo Disitillery. Suntory owns the Yamazaki and Hakushu Distilleries as well as the Chita Grain Distillery.
So, that is that. Now onto this!
Boutique-y Japanese Whisky Batch 5 - 21 Year Old
From The Producer
“Japanese whisky. Maybe you've heard of it. Maybe you've heard that it's pretty bloomin' marvellous. Maybe you're excited tha...
KWM 2023 Whisky Calendar Blog Day 22 - Berry's Dailuaine 2010 KWM Cask
Posted on December 22, 2023
by EvanIt has been a long while since Dailuaine was featured in one of our KWM Whisky Calendars. I had to look it up, and the last time was I believe in 2017. The bottle of Dailuaine featured in that edition was also a KWM Cask – a 12-year-old from Cadenhead.
This current Dailuaine KWM cask that we selected from Berry Bros. & Rudd is also a 12-year-old, but the casks it was matured in were a touch different. Both of these KWM picks started their life in what was likely ex-Bourbon or refill casks, but the Berry’s KWM Cask of Dailuaine we are tasting today was finished in something a little bit different: and ex-Vin Santo cask.
To be honest, I don’t recall ever having a whisky finished in a Vin Santo cask previously. I may have tasted one or two long ago, but so far back my memory is fuzzy on it. That might not mean much since my recollections of my past have never been sharp enough even cut through melting butter, so take that for what it is. Anyhow! What is Vin Santo is the question I believe we were all collectively asking, right?
Vin Santo is an Italian fortified dessert wine. The name Vin Santo translates to ‘holy wine’ so apparently that means Italians like the stuff. The Italian dessert wine is most often made in the region of Tuscany, and can be made using red or white grape varieties. The wine usually exhibits fruity, nutty and perfumed aromas with plenty of dried fruit notes ranging from orchard to tropical to red in variety on the palate, depending on the grape used to make it.
It is a sticky, viscous wine with an alcohol content typically reaching between 14% and 19%. The method for making Vin Santo is typical to making Italian red wine from the Veneto region called Amarone, if you are familiar with that. After the grapes are harvested, they are left dry out, either hanging from wires in bunches or laid out on mats for months, allowing them to shrivel and rasinate; losing much of their water content but maintaining and concentrating the sugar levels. This drying method is usually referred to as ‘appasimento’ or ‘passito’.
After the grapes are well and thoroughly dried/rasinated, the juice from them is pressed out and put in special barrels called Caratelli, where the contents are left to ferment. Fermentation itself is also a long and slow process, often taking multiple years to complete. The resulting Vin Santo wine that is bottled can range from dry to very sweet in style.
Why did the folks at Berry Bros. & Rudd select this style of cask to finish this whisky in? We have not been told, and we have not asked, but my guess is that the grassy, waxy, and fruity style that Dailuaine typically shows was thought to be enhanced and built upon with the nutty, fruity and floral complexity an ex-Vin Santo cask offered. The democratic collective of whisky lovers at Kensington Wine ...
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