Recently I’ve get the chance to taste come old Highland Park. Thus, I’ve decided to taste some of the samples in hand to have a better idea about the house style.
Highland Park 12yo (40%, OB, 2004)
Yellow brown. Malty, fruity, chocolate, mint. Balanced well. Robust, lightly peated. Hint of nut, very little heather. Smooth, nutty in mouth. Finished long. Robust. Adding water taste better. Score: 80. 2 points higher than award 2004.
78 Basil Hayden's 8YO, (40%, OB)
84 Marker's Mark NAS (45%, OB)
79 Knob Creek 9yo (50%, OB)
83 Blanton's Original NAS (46.5%, OB, Barrel#199, bottled in 12-14-1998, Warehouse H, Rick 32)
Inchgower 38yo 1968 (46.3%, Duncan Tayler, Cask#5575)
A lovely fruity nose at the first. than start to change into some kind of herb, metal, flowerish, very complex. a little bit later, some grass and malt comes out, even some honey. Very complex and enjoyable. Score: 91.
Highland Park 1980/2005 (55.1%, Duncan Tayler, Cask#9266)
Lot's of mint, peat. Bourbon cask feel. Sea Heather. Palate is comparing simple. short finish. Quite a good HP bourbon cask. Score: 90
Golden brown. Oil and thick. Lots of fruit. A little bit creaming feel at the back. I got some peat? Strange. Score: 86. 2 points lower than last time. Probably I am more conservative as this is the first dram of the tasting.
Miltonduff 38 yo 1966 (41.3%, Duncan Tayler Peerless, Cask#1011)
Golden brown. Vanilla, very fruity. Creaming as well Cake. White chocolate. But it comes from Bourbon cask for sure. Toffee? No. Medium body. Very enjoyable. Some citrus after adding water. Score: 89. Same as last time.
Bruichladdich 1986/2005 (54.9%, OB, 516b. Fresh Sherry Butt) Score: 90
Springbank 1991/2004 (54.2%, MMCD, Cask#430, 300b. Bourbon Cask) Score: 88.
Bowmore 15yo 1989/2004 (50%, OMC, 276b.) Score:82.
Balvenie 12yo (40%, OB,2004)
Very easy, lot's caramel, very strange. Some warm and creaming feel from Sherry influence. a little bit fruit. Not as good as before. Score: 74.
Balvenie 15yo 1989/2004 (47.6%, OB, Cask#7581)
Much better. with lighter fruit nose. Score: 80.
Balvenie 1989 Portwood (40%, OB)
Auchentoshan10yo (40%, OB, plastic screw cap. Bottled before 2000)
Malty, Nutty, very thin, old, dry. Score:75.
Auchentoshan 1990/2004 (46%, Whisky Galore)
This blind tasting was hold in the famous Paris 1930 restaurant.
Morlach 25YO 1975/2000 (58%, Signatory Bottling, Cask#6258, 198b.)
Brown Golden. Honey, Fruity, Flowerish. Deep and pleasant. Citrus. Light Body. Complex. High Alc., palate killer. Score:90. My favorite today.
Benrinnes 23YO 1980/2003 (53.9%, Blackadder Bottling, Raw Cask, Cask#1352)
Golden. Nutty, malty, craming. A little bit tropical fruit. Thin body? Sweetness comes from malt. Score: 82. I think this one need some time to open up.
Rosebank 14yo 1990/2004 (56.3%, Blackadder Raw Cask, Cask#225, 148b, Hogshead)
Golden Color, Malty, some hint of fruit, white chocolate, soft, finish long, salty. This one lost extramly large during within the 14 years. Very strange, Robin noticed that, he has no explanation. But this cask is the best among his Rosebank casks. Score: 85.
Cragganmore 14yo 1989/2004 (56.6%, Blackadder Raw Cask, Cask#1969, 260b. Hogshead)
Golden. According to Robin, this comes from an sherry hogshead. Some hint of craming nose. Tropical fruit. Honey? A little bit peat but not obvious. Some orange feel in the back, but can't tell the house style. Finished short. Adding water improved quite a lot. not only brings out clear fruity nose, alse help taste softer and finished longer. Some bonus point. Score: 86.
Glenury 30yo 1973/2003 (50.7%, Blackadder Raw Cask, Cask#6861, 167b.)
Hold by distillery's new agent.
Glenfarclaus 12yo new label (43%, OB)
Golden Brown, Sherry, a little bit smoke. Tropical fruit. Sweet. Firm body. Strong, robust. Finished long. adding water taste a little bit better. Score: 83.
Ballentine's 12yo Pure Malt 43%
I don't know why they put this one as a comparision. Not at the samle level. Score: 70.
Topic: The five existing and still botting Dufftown distillery
Attendents: Kingfisher, Murder, Rubinstein, Bird(man in the mirror), David, Stephen.
Dufftown 12yo (43%,Chieftain's Choice, Sherry Wood Finish)
There were several Dufftown IB bottles can be found in Taiwan. However, I have never being able to taste any of them. This one was the old Chieftain's bottling. Gold brown color. Quite good nose, fruity with a hint of smoke. Taste quite nice but finished thin. The sherry influence become obvious after adding water. Young and robust. Score: 78. (M:78, R:76, B:C+, D:79, S:80)
Well Well Well!
Somebody can't attend the Bowmore 1968 tasting and deside to treat us with GlenLivet and Blackadder! Thanks to Brian and Richard, we can taste so many malts within one afternoon. Officially, my malt milage break 200 today.Ho!Ho!Ho! Here is the brief record.
Attandents: Brian, Richard, Kingfisher, Stephen, Murder, Perter.
The GlenLivet 12yo Red Cap, cream lable, Red spot in the middle (43%, OB, bottled in the 80s)
To talk about Islay, probably Bowmore is the only distillery I don't like that much. It's really by chance, over the years, I got four bottles of different vintage 1968 Bowmore in hand. Over a private tasting event, I talked about the fact to my friend Stephen, who is a real Bowmore lover. He was very surprise to know I "collect" Bowmore. It's sound a little funny to me, as I don't really want to put them into my collection list. So, without thinking, I said: let's open them all together.
Well, as usual, the result of one-bottle-one-guest soon becomes a vertical Bowmore fest. Five of us got 11 bottles, though some of them are 200ml ones. Total participates including Stephen, Bird, House, Denis, and myself. House brings his girlfriend, but didn't drink too much. We start with the youngest and going up to 1968.
Bowmore Legend NAS (43%, OB, 200ml bottle)
This is a 200ml bottles comes in an experiencing combo pack. I remember spot them in the duty-free shop. It seems not selling well in Taiwan, most of them were sent as promotion gift. It seems a good choice to have a NAS OB bottle as the start of the vertical tasting. This one shows clear Bowmore character, light yellow color, Sea, Peat, Sulfur, a little bit Iodine? Strong, young, robust, finished longer than I thought. I remember I tasted this bottle at around year 2000 but I didn't write down the note. In my memory. This one is a quite average bottle and not easy to drink that time. I wonder if I changed my taste or this one comes from an above average batch. I actually quite like it. I think the major component comes from 10yo. Score: 82 (Stephen: 80, House: 80, Denis: 78, Bird: B-~B+) Though the bottle has been opened for over 6 months, Stephen believe it performs better than just opened.)
Bowmore 12yo (43%, OB, 200ml bottle)
A little bit dispointing! It proofed that you can't put all port wood together. Disgusting!
Glenmorangie NAS Madeira Finish (43, OB) Score: 81
Glenmorangie NAS Port Finish (43%, OB) Score: 74
Cragganmore 13yo 197/2001 (40%, OB, Distellers Edition, Port Cask, Re#CggD-6552) Score: 82
Clenfiddich 21 Havana Reserve (40%, OB) Score: 86
