Cooper's Choice Loch Lomond Grain 1995

Tasting Notes

Producer Tasting Note

Nose: Cocoa butter, vanilla and bourbon notes. 

Palate: Coconut oil and pencil shavings. Cedar spice with sweet pastries and marshmallows. Bourbon flavours come again. 

Finish: Good length. The bourbon remains with extra spices.

Distillery

Originally written by Evan in blog posts for our 2019 and 2020 KWM Whisky Calendars.

Founded in 1965, Loch Lomond is a bizarre operation that is capable of making multiple different styles of spirit all under one roof. It is capable of producing Single Malt, Single Grain, and Blended Whisky entirely at one site. It can and does do this, and it also makes Single Malt in and a wide variety of styles, including both peated and unpeated types.

There are a total of thirteen stills within the Loch Lomond Distillery; however, they are definitely not all the same. Included in this number are your typical swan-neck style pot stills: the type you see at most Scottish distilleries that make single malt whisky. Beyond that though, things get weird. There are also three pairs of straight-neck pot stills, which are sometimes called Lomond stills. One of these pairs has a water cooling system installed on the top of the still that the heated vapour hits before going through the narrowing neck/pipe for collection. This results in much more reflux and leads to a lighter, softer, fruitier spirit being produced.

Finally, there is a six-story Coffey/column still that is actually split in two to accommodate the three-story building it resides in. This still is used to distill malted barley, but due to SWA regulations it still must be called Single Grain spirit in style

With this unusual combination, Loch Lomond Distillery is capable of producing its own blended whisky entirely on-site, without having to source whisky from other distilleries. It is one of the very few (possibly only) active distilleries to be able to do this.

In all, Loch Lomond makes ELEVEN different styles of spirit on a regular basis. For official bottlings, it currently focuses on three styles for regular releases. We are going to taste one of them today.  Another point worth mentioning that goes along with this: Loch Lomond also uses a total of three different types of yeast in fermenting the malt. The yeast used is selected based on the style they are looking to create. They of course use a Distiller’s Yeast, which does have different strains but is typically meant to be high yield when it comes to converting sugars to alcohol in the mash. The other two yeasts used are actually meant for wine fermentation though, including one typically used for Chardonnay grapes. The bottom line for all of this is that no matter how strange you think Loch Lomond might be, they have found even more ways to be confounding that we probably don’t even know about yet.

Above: A picture cribbed from Loch Lomond Distillery's website showing a distiller peering into the spirit safe and trying to remember exactly which style of whisky they were producing that day.

The Inchmurrin style made by the distillery is named after the largest island within the Loch itself. At 120 hectares in size, it is the largest freshwater island in the British Isles. The Isle of Inchmurrin – or Mirin’s Island – is named after St Mirin. A monastery built on the island in the seventh century held a chapel dedicated to the Saint, though only ruins now remain.

Inchmurrin bottlings are typically created from whisky produced using straight-necked Lomond stills. They are typified by a light and fruit-forward style in comparison to the fuller-bodied, spicy and lightly peated Loch Lomond and heavily peated Inchmoan releases. 

The Inchmurrin style is named after the largest island within the Loch itself. At 120 hectares in size, it is the largest freshwater island in the British Isles. The Isle of Inchmurrin – or Mirin’s Island – is named after St Mirin. A monastery built on the island in the seventh century held a chapel dedicated to the Saint, though only ruins now remain.

The name Inchmoan comes from an Island in the freshwater Loch Lomond. It is low-lying and contains marsh areas, woods, and grassland. It was once a source of peat fuel for the nearby village of Luss. It is currently privately owned, but parts of the small island are used by campers and as a picnic area.

Independent Bottler

The Vintage Malt Whisky Co. is an Independent Bottler, that owns the Cooper's Choice, Finlaggan & Ileach brands, to name just a few. We have always been impressed with not only the quality of liquid from the Vintage Malt Whisky Co., but also the value their brands offer. Their price to age and quality ration is almost second to none. The Ileach Cask Strength has been our best selling Islay whisky for nearly a decade! 

Producer Self Description Follows

Vintage Malt was founded in 1992 by Brian Crook, after many years in the whisky industry as Export Director for one of Scotland’s best known distillers. His aim was to produce a range of malt whiskies from his country’s finest distilleries and make them available to independent wine and spirit importers throughout the world.

Brian’s approach proved so popular with customers that, 25 years on, the company has exported more than 10 million bottles of malt whisky to more than 30 countries across the world, and is now recognised as one of Scotland’s leading independent bottlers.

The brands owned by Highlands & Islands Scotch Whisky Co joined the group in 1997, and in 2005 the company acquired CS James & Sons, producers of Islay Storm.

The group’s award winning brands include Finlaggan, The Ileach, and Islay Storm, all  single malts from the island of Islay on the west coast of Scotland and The Cooper’s Choice, a superb range of single cask bottlings.