single cask – Page 3 – drikkelig.no

Mortlach 1992 21 years Director’s Cut 56.7%

From a sherry butt.

Nose: A lot of oak, clear sherry note, but dry sherry and oak rather than dried fruits, very little sweetness. With water I get dried cranberries, candied orange peel and milk chocolate, but it’s still on the dry side.

Palate: Dried cranberries and raisins, but also a lot of oaky dryness. Vanilla. With water I get both oaky bitterness and sherry sweetness, vanilla and oak chips, floor varnish.

Comments: Even though there’s not even a whiff of burnt rubber, my main impression is “over oaked”. It tastes of oak chips. The nose is beautiful, but can’t make up for the taste. It’s not a bad dram, but it’s no where near worth the asking price (2495 NOK at Vinmonopolet, I paid 200-something NOK for 2 cl at The Whisky Bar in Oslo).

Bunnahabhain 24 years 1988 Signatory Cask Strength 55.9%

From an ex-sherry butt #2800. Tasted at Casc in Aberdeen.

Nose: A lot of alchohol, chocolate covered cherries. With water it turns more towards orange marmelade.

Palate: A lot of alchohol, oak and dark chocolate. Water brings out orange marmelade spiced with ginger.

Comments: There is something vaguely smoky both on the nose and palate – dry and ashy – I’m wondering whether it comes from the oak or whether the spirit is actually smoky. A very good dram, but worth the money (GBP 13.10 for one dram)? Well, considering what Bunna is doing with NAS bottlings at the moment… probably not.

Dailuaine 1973 30 years First Cask 46%

Distilled 14 Desember 1973, cask number 15933. First Cask is a series of bottling from Direct Wines Ltd.

Nose: Lemon and lemongrass, goosberries and oak. With water my mind turns to jasmin and incence, but there is still quite a bit of lemon.

Palate: Oak, heather and mildly rotting fruit. More bitter with water, but also more vanilla and fresher fruit.

Comments: This must be ex bourbon, and not a very active cask, either. Not bad, but not so good that I will mourn its passing, bottle kill will happen this evening, there are only about two drams left in the bottle.

Arran Bourbon Cask 1996 Cask # 1038 56.1%

Distilled 21 August 1996, bottled 26 April 2005, bottle number 158 of 240.

Nose: Malt, a hint of menthol and juniper berries. After a while in the glass tart raspberries appear. Water opens for black pepper and tart pears and a hint of fruity chewing gum.

Palate: Malt, Vademecum, oaky bitterness. Water lessens the impression of Vademcum and develops into something vegetal.

Comments: I can’t remember the herby and spicy character being so strong before, but this is another bottle that has been left less than half full for a while. In this case, though, it’s a beneficial development. Very nice – and intriguing – nose, somewhat less interesting taste.

Highland Park 1989 22 years van Wees 46 %

Distilled 4 Desember 1989, bottled 1 August 2012, matured in a sherry butt with cask number 11854, giving 660 bottles.

Nose: Cherries and oak. With water: Honey, lemon and heather. Overlying smoke.

Palate: A hint of smoke. Sweet oak and liquorice.

Comments: Now we’re talking. A good cask which demonstrates nicely how well Highland Park’s spirit does in a sherry cask.

Thanks to Daniel for the sample.

Springbank Vintage 2000 for Jon Bertelsen 58.5%

Bottled in 2008, cask number 401 gave 322 bottles.

Nose: Potato crisps with paprika. Malt and vanilla with a touch of smoke. With water I get balck pepper and a dose of barbequed chicken.

Palate: Smoke, ashes and malt. With water, much of the same. Not that this is a peat monster, the smoke is contained, but very clear. Salt bisquits and on the finish something vegetational.

Comments: Bottle-kill. The last few cl have been hanging around the bottle for a while, so that might have affected the taste. Takes a lot of water. This was the first Springbank I liked well enough to buy a bottle of, and it’s therefore a sort of milestone in my personal whisky history.

Arran 1997-2013 Sherry Cask #937 55.8%

Nose: Dried apricots, milk chocolate and thyme. Witn water I get honey, some lemon and malt. There’s also something flowery on the nose, tending towards lilacs without feeling too perfumy.

Palate: Orange marmalade and then bitter oak which softens substantially on its way through the mouth and becomes cream and milk chocolate on the finish. Fascinating. Water does not change that, but adds a floral note, and reveals malt on the finish.

Comments: This is the shit. The bee’s knees. I recently tried one of this year’s casks, presumably on its way to Vinmonopolet, and it was lovely as well. Quite simply one of the best buys at Vinmonopolet right now, at less than a thousand NOK. And since the importer is nice enough to list each cask separately (and believe me, that adds expense and work) you know exactly what you get when you order it.

Arran Sherrycask 1998-2014 cask #43 54.2%

Distilled 19 January 1998, bottled 10 February 2014.

Nose: Vanilla, citrus and flowery notes. Cinnamon and nutmeg with water, after a while green apples.

Palate: Vanilla and sap. A little more bitter with water, but also more depth. A hint of cigar smoke and spice.

Comments: A fantastic nose, and a nice taste. A little bitterness on the finish detracts, but overall a very, very nice dram and pretty much perfect on a warm spring evening in Trondheim. A good candidate for this year’s summer whisky.

Tasted half-blind. I knew the importer, but not the whisky. I’d never have guessed that this was from a sherry cask, but with hindsight I see that the spices and the cigar smoke are clues I should have picked up.

Gjoleid bourbon matured 47%

The label is almost too informative, but here are all the details: First fill, American oak, 200 liter casks. Matured for 3.5 years. Malt: Pale barley, pale wheat, beach wood smoked barley. Cask number 9359.

And it contains wheat malt. Interesting.

Nose: It smells like whisky, and much less of congeners than a three year old can be expected to. A bit of lemon, a bit of malt, but a rather closed nose. With water it develops a somewhat surprising note of eucalyptus, with a persistent grain (as in dried barley and wheat, not as in “grain whisky”) character underneath.

Palate: My brain may be stuck on the ingredients list, but I actually think it tastes of driftwood and wheat husks. Water turns it sharper and brings out the eucalyptus from the nose, as well as some dry wood and a little newmakey roughness.

Comments: This is not bad at all. Arcus are not just playing at making whisky, that much is obvious. It would probably not stand up to a really good single malt, but then, at three, it can hardly be expected to. I’m looking forward to the next chapter.

Mackmyra 5 years from a private cask

This is a note for a Mackmyra private cask. Friends of ours had a share in a cask, and had just received some bottles when we visited them.

Mackmyra has offered private casks since day one. Several Scottish distilleries have been doing the same thing for years, but as far as I know Mackmyra were the first to offer small casks, of around 30 litres. This means the maturation period is much shorter. A private cask, at Mackmyra anyway, does not come cheap, but then part of the point is to help fund the running of the distillery in the period where they are spending rather than earning money. You are also buying not just the spirit, but a whole package: You can be present when your cask is filled, you get yearly samples – and you can visit the cask to receive them if you like – and when the spirit is ready to be bottled you can pay for a package of hotel, whisky dinner and tasting. All in all it is possible to spend quite a lot of money this way, but you’re bound to have fun doing it.

The whisky our frinds had was of the smoky variety, and had been matured in a 30 litre ex-sherry cask for five years.

Nose: Clear smoke, some sherry notes, spices – coriander seeds and cardamum – dark chocolate and a sweet tarry note.

Palate: Nice smokiness, some driend fruits. A rather sharp side-note.

Comments: A lovely nose, and a nice enough palate. No reason to be disappointed in this. Worth the money? Well, perhaps not. But subtrackt the expenses for the experience in itself and you’re left with a decent whisky and a good story to serve alongside.

If you’re tempted to spend some of your hard-earned cash in this way, visit mackmyrareserv.de and play around with spirit and cask types