Whisky Advent Calendar Part 4 (Dec. 21st to 24th)

Okay, I have something to confess: I cheated! In last week's article I told you I'm going to reveal the last part of my Whisky Advent Calendar Summary on December 25th because of the whole "To drink or not to drink (because I have to drive)" story. The article was published on December 24th and I didn't have to "drink and drive". I tasted the last Whisky in the evening of December 23rd after I wrapped all my gifts for Christmas. Then I wrote these lines and prepared everything in the blog to launch this article on December 24th at noon. Here's my fourth and last part of the "Whisky Advent Calendar Summary 2015"!

The last four Whiskies of the Whisky Advent Calendar

December 21st - Scotch Lowland Single Grain Whisky Port Dundas Distillery

Nice, a Grain Whisky! A Single Malt has to be made from - as the name suggest - malted barley. A Whisky made from any other grain is referred to as a "Grain Whisky". Typically Grain Whisky is used for Blends as this kind of alcohol can be made quite fast an cheap. It's the "filling stuff" as a Blend made from just Single Malts would be quite expensive. Therefore Grain Whisky is used. As I wrote it is quite cheap and the influence on the taste of the finished product is very manageable. It has to be matured in cask just like the Malt Whisky but usually the duration is much shorter than the duration of the Malt Whiskies. Another reason for the many "n.a.s." (no age statement) Whiskies. As the youngest Whisky dictates the age - and this is mostly a Grain Whisky - the companies often decide to not tell the age on Blends. Well most of them don't. They are allowed to do so but it's much easier for widely sold products like the "Johnny Walter Red Label" or the "Ballentines" to keep the same taste without the need to look at the ages of the Whiskies used (on the other hand the Johnny Walker Platinum Label is a 18yo Blend). This particular Grain Whisky was matured for 24 years which is quite old for a Malt Whisky but for a Grain Whisky it's quite a "Methuselah". Just some words about the distillery. The distillery used three Coffey Stilly - as it is typically for Irish distilleries but also for Grain distilleries - to produce 39m(!) litres alcohol per annum. Yes that's 39 million litres a year! They produced Grain Whisky for the blending industry (owned by Diageo). The distillery never bottled a Whisky under their name just independent bottlings are available but will become less and less as this distillery was closed in 2010.

My Tastingnotes

Age: 24yo

ABV: 41%

Distillery: Port Dundas

Colour: golden

Nose: Quite fresh and fruity but also some citric notes from freshly squeezed lemons and freshly cut oak wood.

Body: quite flat

Palate: Manly oak wood but there are some - faint - notes from toffee and some fresh fruits.

Finish: warming but not very long

My score: 64

This Grain Whisky reminds me of my experiment I did a year ago. I got a very tiny oak cask from a friend (appr. one litre) for Christmas last year. I first seasoned it with a Sherry for about three months. During these three months I decided to go the easy way and bought some alcohol at my local pharmacy. I diluted it to 62,5% abv and filled the cask with it after the three months. After five months I took out the "Whisky" and tasted it. Well, it was quite drinkable but far from what I would call a Whisk(e)y. The reason I got remembered of this is this heavy oak wood taste at the palate from this Whisky. Mine had this taste too. Technically mine was a Grain "Whisky" too because I was too lazy to distil my own Whisky from malted barley. Now that I'm thinking about, maybe I buy some beer (which is - aside from the added hops - the basis for distilling at the Whisky production) and distil it and fill up my cask again! If I do so, I'm sure writing another article about it!

December 22nd - Scotch Speyside Single Malt Whisky Auchroisk Distillery

From yesterday's Lowland Grain Whisky back to the Speyside, the Heart of Whisky as there are nearly half of all producing Whisky distilleries in Scotland. This time it's a 19 year old Whisky from the Auchroisk distillery. The distillery is located near Mulben, Banffshire. Jupp, that's the same county as last week's Macduff distillery is located. The last one is often referred to as a Highland distillery but have a look back on the article about the Whisky from December 17th if you are interested. There are only a few bottlings from this distillery owned by Diageo although this distillery is capable of producing 3.1m litres alcohol per annum. Let's have a look what this 19 years old Whisky has to offer.

My Tastingnotes

Age: 19yo

ABV: 41%

Distillery: Auchroisk

Colour: gold-yellowish

Nose: Very intense, fruity with some oak wood, there are even some spices (pepper?) and dried fruits.

Body: intense but smooth

Palate: Lots of vanilla and toffee in the beginning. Later on there is some oak wood with the faint hints of some spices.

Finish: long and warming

My score: 75

December 23rd - Scotch Highland Single Malt Whisky Glen Garioch Distillery

This distillery is quite old (founded in 1797) and had quite a lot of different owners. The current owner is Suntory - a Japanese company which also produces Japanese Whisky. The distillery was closed soon after Suntory bought it but just a few years later it was reopened. There is not much to say about Glen Garioch, it's a typical Highland distillery with roughly 1m litres alcohol output per annum. They use two Wash (or Wine) Sills but only one of the two Spirit Stills for producing. Due to water shortages around 1968 they had to stop the production but in 1972 they found a new water source nearby. They release from time to time some special "Vintage" releases. But aside from these quite special and quite rare releases there are some other easier available Whiskies from Glen Garioch not only from the distillery itself but also by independent bottlers. Just head over to the website of "Potstill" (www.potstill.org) if you're interested in picking one up!

My Tastingnotes

Age: 21yo

ABV: 43%

Distillery: Glen Garioch

Colour: light golden

Nose: There is lots of honey, apple and lemon. But there are also some distant hints of spices, maybe ginger and pepper.

Body: mild and smooth

Palate: Smooth, there are some spices, defiantly pepper maybe ginger, some oak wood and some - very little though - smoked meat.

Finish: long and warming

My score: 74

December 24th - Scotch Islay Single Malt Whisky Bunnahabhain Distillery

Last day of the Whisky Advent Calendar! What a finish! A 24yo Bunnahabhain as the last Whisky. Let's see, the distillery is located on Islay, to be specific near Port Askaig but it does not produces the typically Islay Whisky. But fist the history. Founded in 1881 they started making Whisky two years later. The town of "Bunnahabhain" was built for the people working in the distillery. Till 2003 the distillery belonged to the Highland Distillers but was closed for seven years between 1930 and 1937. In 2003 the distillery was bought by Burn Steward Distillers after the distillery produced between 1999 and 2003 only from time to time and was intended for closure. In 2014 the distillery was bought by Distell. The distillery produces around 2.5m litres alcohol per annum and uses the biggest Wash Stills in Scotland. There are some bottlings from the distillery itself (like the 12yo, the 18yo and the 15yo) but there are some independent bottlings available too. The typically Islay Whisky cannot be found here. If you are in search for a (heavily) peated Whisky you are in the wrong place. Well kind of. You may find a peated Whisky from them but their main profile is more oily, nutty and herbal. Because they use pipes to get their water it can't pick up some peat on the way to the distillery.

My Tastingnotes

Age: 24yo

ABV: 41%

Distillery: Bunnahabhain

Colour: golden

Nose: Apple and lemon, some toffee and vanilla and even hints of oak wood.

Body: mild and round

Palate: Fresh, little bit nutty with some toffee but also herbal and maybe a hint of salt and meat.

Finish: long and warming

My score: 78

Well, that was a finish. There were quite some interesting Whiskies in the past 24 days. So what's my resume for this Whisky Advent Calendar? It's a little bit two folded. On one hand I liked the different Whiskies very much on the other hand I'm a little bit sad, that there were only two cask strength Whiskies. Most of the Whiskies had 40% to 43% abv but I can understand that this product was designed to please the "normal" customer. More than the two cask strength Whiskies would have been too much for the casual Whisky drinker I guess. Nevertheless they could have used Whiskies with 43% to 46% abv but I guess this is not the style of that franchise. Last time I visited the store, most of the Whiskies they had were bottled with less than 43% abv. Don't get me wrong it's perfectly fine to do so but I think just a few more percent of alcohol could have improved the Whiskies. On the other hand the less alcohol the more Whisky. I get that. I probably buy the Calendar next year again. It's quite convenient for me to get and not that expensive. Also it's a great gift for the occasionally Whisky drinker or even for someone who wants to get into Whisky but doesn't know where to start. 24 Whiskies to choose from for around 70€ is quite a good deal. You just have to wait for Christmas to come around next year.

That's it for this week. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas! I will be offline for a few days so enjoy the holidays maybe with a nice dram of Whisky with some of your loved ones as I will surely do!

Slàinte,
Lukas