NAS – drikkelig.no

Amrut Batch No 2 40%

Bottled 25 June 2004. A tasting note for an almost antique bottle to celebrate the arrival of my welcome package from the Amrut Fever Club.

Nose: Lemon and fresh herbs, malt and cardamom. Even more malt and cardamom with water, also some apples and possibly a hint of honey.

Palate: More wood on the palate, but mostly malt, oatmeal porrige that’s a little singed, or something like that. Water doesn’t make a lot of difference, a little more vanilla, perhaps.

Comments: For a three year old (or whatever it is) this is quite impressive. The nose is interesting and well balanced, the taste perhaps a little boring, but it’s “boring, but good” rather than “boring and unpleasant”. A pity the bottle is nearing empty. I may have to pour some into a sample bottle for the archive.

Aberlour a’bunadh batch 53 59.7%

Finally a new batch of Aberlour a’bunadh at under 60% abv, meaning it can be legally sold in Norway. According to the importer, a few bottles were on their way, but it’s possible that they disappeared immediately, at least there are noen available through Vinmonopolet just now.

Nose: Plum jam, plum in Madeira, dark chocolate. A little burnt rubber with water, but also chalk and dry, dark chocolate. After a while I find orange marmalade, too.

Palate: Dried fruits, dark chocolate, burnt rubber. Oak and cocoa powder on the finish. Much the same with water.

Comments: I should really have been paying attention and secured a bottle if it did show up at Vinmonopolet. The a’bunadh is an expression I like to have available at all times, and we’re running low. Batch 53 is a perfectly decent batch. The presence of burnt rubber reveals the heavy sherry cask influene, but it’s nicely balanced and not at all overpowering, and I really like the total. Very drinkable, as usual.

Scapa Skiren 40%

Scapa Skiren was launched last year as an addition to the Scapa standard lineup. As with all Scapas the spirit was distilled in Scapa’s Lomond still, the only one still in operation in Scotland. The whisky is issued without an age statement and has matured in first-fill american oak.

Nose: Apples and pears, dry malt loft. Its youth is apparent the moment you add water.

Palate: Malt, yellow apples, apple peel, some bitterness on the finish.

Comments: A pleasant surprise; a simple, but nice, session dram.

Tasted at Trondheim Whiskyfestival 2016.

Glenmorangie Finealta 46%

Supposedly based on a “recipe” from 1903, the Finealta is “lightly peated” and matured in American and oloroso sherry oak. I purchased it at a reasonable price on the ferry between Larvik and Hirtshals as a travel dram on my way to Billund last November.

Nose: Dry wood, some ashes, fruit; apples and apricots, and fruit trees. The fruit is emphasised with water, approaching dried fruits rather than fresh, and some vanilla makes its appearance.

Palate: Vanilla and heat, dried fruits, black pepper or some other spice. Water brings out oven roasted or grilled fruits, definitely a little scorched. Otherwise much of the same.

Comments: I quite like this. Not a world of complexity and oomph, but a rather nice sipping whisky. It worked well as a travel dram, which needs to be easy drinking and a nice thing to share with others (people who may be newbies in the whisky world), it fullfills those criteria perfectly. I’d happily purchase it again if the price is right.

Lille Gadegaard Bornholmsk Whisky Nr 3 51.5%

Lille Gadegaard is a vineyard, but in 2005 they also started distilling malt whisky. The spirit is matured in french oak casks that have been used for maturing the vineyard’s red wine first.

Nose: Relatively rough, with oaky notes and acetone. With water burnt rubber takes over the nose and blocks any other aromas.

Palate: Tobacco, some acetone, oak and burnt rubber. Raisins or other dried fruits on the finish. Hardly any development with water.

Comments: This is an example of how wrong you can go with “speed maturation”, this is both too young (which the nose proclaims loudly) and at the same time the cask influence is too heavy. I think the spirit in itself is pretty decent, but it’s hard to tell, because it’s not been given the chance to shine. The taste is better than the nose in this one, the tobacco saves it from being totally undrinkable.

Ardbeg Perpetuum 47.4%

Ardbeg celebrates 200 years this year, and naturally there are some new releases involved. The first was called Arbeg Perpetuum at 49.2%, available at the distillery only (Thomas has tasting notes for that one over at Whisky Saga). To celebrate Ardbeg Day, another version, also called Perpetuum, is being released. It was made available from the Ardbeg web shop on the 4th of May to Committee Members only, but the committee is no longer a small, select group, and the web shop crashed. A lot of people decided to wait for world wide release, to happen on Ardbeg Day, 30th May. But in Norway we have the Vinmonopol, and they operate on their own schedule, with no nods to *cough*hyped*cough* Scottish distilleries, so that the Ardbeg Perpetuum that became available to order on the May release last week (8 May) is the Ardbeg Day version at 47.4%. I got mine today, and naturally had to try it at once.

perpetuum-1

Nose: Warm, peaty smoke, grilled banana, grilled apples, vanilla, some dusty malt. The smoke aqcuires a colder note with water, and I get wool dust and wellies. And “pulverpadder” (a sweet very like tyrkisk pepper, but with a dusty coating).

Palate: Concrete dust, peaty smoke, vanilla ice cream and black pepper. The finish is bitter, dark chocolate. With water I get slate and cold smoke, something fruity in the background and still vanilla ice cream.

Comments: Moreish. I am an Ardbeg-fan, still, even if the prices are getting more than somewhat ridiculous (even with this one, almost 1000 NOK for a NAS? That’s stretching it, if you ask me). But even so I am pleasantly surprised. I like Perpetuum better than I have liked most recent new releases from Ardbeg, partly because it’s more complex than the run of the mill “heavily peated NAS” (even Ardbeg’s own). Worth the price? Well, I don’t think I’m going to stock up, but I am pretty pleased with the purchase.

Tullamore Dew Phoenix 55%

Nose: Candied oranges, milk chocolate, oak, slight acetone. With water lightly perfumed wood, cedar, peraps. (Bitter) almonds.

Palate: Orange marmalade, cinnamon, oak. WIth water it turns somewhat sharper and aquires black pepper and a little honey.

Comments: Quite a pleasant thing. Session whisky, really. Not a ten out of ten, but at just under 500 SEK at Systembolaget it’s definitely a winner for cosy evenings at the cabin or sociable evenings with non-whiskynerd friends.

Highland Park Odin 55.8%

Nose: Honey and butterscotch, chocolate covered cherries, slight hint of menthol. Water brings out charred cask notes and lemon curd.

Palate: Leather and burnt rubber. Dark chocolate. More oak with water, and a little honey.

Comments: Too many cask notes on the palate for me. Not undrinkable by any means, but I prefer a “younger” profile. Too bad, but that leaves all the more for the rest of you.

Mackmyra Midvinter 46.1%

Mackmyra Midvinter has been finished in Bordeaux casks, glühwine casks and sherry casks. Which leads me to expect mulled wine, really. We’ll see.

Nose: It definitely smells of herbs, and herb schnaps. Not quite Underberg, rather a sweeter version. Sweetness and Christmas spices, and a hint of toothpaste. There’s this odd (to me) toothpaste variety with cinnamon flavour; that’s what this smells like! More of that with water. With a lot of water some fresh fruit emerges, pears, perhaps?

Palate: Toothpaste with cinnamon flavour is a pretty accurate description of the palate as well. Cloves and other Christmas spices also appear. Bitterness, oak and cloves on the finish. Water makes no noticeable difference.

Comments: This is just plain weird. It’s not unpleasant as such, but it’s not “whisky”, and not quite good enough to convince me not to care.

Penderyn Ayr Cymru NAS Cask 5 to 99 46%

In honour of St. David’s Day, which falls on March 1st every year, I’ve opened a bottle of whisky from Penderyn. It’s from the very first batch that was commercially available, and is no age statement, finished in Madeira casks.

Nose: Tinned peaches, honey, vanilla and spices. The spices turn towards cumin with water, and I find some yellow apples, otherwise the honey is emphasised.

Palate: Heather honey, fruit chutney, vanilla and cinnamon. A little bitterness with water, but otherwise not much difference.

Comments: I’ve sort of lost sight of Penderyn lately, it’s not available in the Nordics, so we don’t hear much about it. But this is a very drinkable “baby” (it’s NAS, but I seem to remember it being not much more than three when it was bottled around ten years ago), a pleasant sipping whisky. I am denitely taking note to try some of the more recent, older bottlings from Penderyn if a chance offers.