Lot number L9 344 16125.
Nose: Smoke, dried apricots and banana.
Palate: Cold smoke and malt. With water more malt, banana and light smoke.
Comments: Very, very nice.
Tag: single malt
Ardbeg 1998 11 years Dun Bheagan 56.2%
From a barrel with cask number 1782, June 1998-2010.
Nose: Clementine peel, especially the white part, quite sweet malt, grist (a lot of flour), leather sofas. With water the grist solidifies into whole barley and I get some lemon as well.
Palate: Asphalt dust, cold smoke and coal.
Comments: Yummy. Very nice mix of grains/grist and smoke.
Ardbeg Newmake 67.5%
Nose: Lightly sulfury, dried apricots, dried apples, a lot of malt, a little cardboard and some smoke.
Palate: Light smoke, sulfur and farmyard.
Comments: Though mostly a curiosity, I am left with my usual impression when it comes to newmake: They could bottle this and I’d gladly buy it.
Glenglassaugh Torfa 50%
Nose: Smoked fudge. With water it develops into smoked cardboard box.
Palate: Foam banana sweets dusted with sugar that have spent som time in the smoke oven (or perhaps the kiln).
Comments: As a peatfreak I naturally like this. However it’s not complex enough, neither is it THAT good, so I wouldn’t consider buying a bottle. But if you’re offering I’ll have another dram.
Benromach 1978 19 years Rare Malts 63.8%
Nose: Whiskysoaked raisins. With water it develops sauna notes, a hint of smoke and after a while toffee.
Palate: Sherry cask and wood chip. With water orange marmelade.
Comments: Nice, but not exactly overwhelming.
Glen Ord 1973 23 years Rare Malts 59.8%
Nose: Malt and tobacco. With water I get more smoke, as well as lemon curd and digestive bisquits.
Palate: Bonfire and malt. With water the tobacco shows up on the palate, but also lemon.
Comments: Yummy. It’s funny how the smoke and tobacco exchange places nose/tastewise with water. Not complex enough to be worth several hundred pounds at auction, perhaps, but certainly moreish.
Inchgower 1974 22 years Rare Malts 55.7%
Nose: Orange, melon and malt. With water green leaves and after a while in the glass suddenly intense butterscotch, then later again goat willow and lemon sherbet.
Palate: Malt, wood, herbs, Bitter finish. With water it develops fruitiness with underlying moss.
Comments: Very intriguing, a lot happens in the glass and I was told even more happened when the bottle was newly opened (I had one of a bout three drams left in the bottle for a month). One of those Rare Malts I’d really like more of, because it’s interesting, but also very, very nice.
Springbank Rum Wood 12 years 54.6%
Distilled 1989, bottled April 2002 (newly opened bottle).
Nose: Rum, apple, butterdough. Chalk and ashes. More ashes with water, but also fresher fruit, green grapes and spruce shoot tips.
Palate: Butterscotch first, malt and cedar wood. The finish is dry, bitter and somewhat ashy, but the buttery taste stays. Water brings out oatcakes with butter, with green grapes, but no cheese.
Comments: Original, but is it good? Unfortunately I have to settle for “No”. It’s the bitterness on the palate again, and there is not enough sweetness to balance it. And this weird buttery character. Is it because of the rum cask? Rum hardly tastes of butter, so I don’t know. Could it be the fattiness of the spirit that reacts this way with the rum cask? In any case, I’m underwhelmed, again.
Springbank Sherry Wood 13 years 53.2%
Distilled 1989, bottled 2003 (newly opened bottle).
Nose: Plums, apples and a hint of cinnamon. Vague whiff of a lit fireplace and ashes. With water it develops sweathy leather and a lightly bitter note, green tree, tobacco and herbs.
Palate: Dusty malt floors, apple compote with cinnamon, red berries, lightly bitter. The bitterness grows with water, it develops tobacco on the palate as well and gets an obvious saltiness (especially on the tip of the tongue). It’s the bitterness, salt and lightly ashy notes that stick around as a finish.
Comments: The nose is lovely and complex, but the palate reminds me of why I’m never completely sold on Springbank. There is too much bitterness for it to work for me.
Springbank Port Wood 13 years 54.2%
Distilled 1989, bottled 2003 (newly opened bottle).
Nose: Red, sweet plums, vanilla and oak, strawberry jam. With water it develops marzipan. Only once I’ve added quite a lot of water does a faint smokiness appear, and at the same time it smells like a boiled sweets factory.
Palate: Sweet wood, a hint of smoke, sweet liquorice. Water gives it a bitter, oaky bite, which for once is a good thing as it balances the sweetness a bit. There is also a whiff of burnt rubber.
Comments: Well. Too sweet by far to be a winner, but a decent session dram.