BALLINDALLOCH DISTILLERY VISIT - MAY 2014

I'll be continuing the theme from my last post with a look at another new distillery, this time in the heart of distilling country, Speyside. This time its the Ballindalloch Estate situated around the Macpherson-Grant's Ballindalloch Castle, that's starting up production on the estate again for the first time in over 100 years. Read more about the estate by following the above link.

Built next to the Ballindalloch Golf Club & Course the distillery is right off the A95 main road running through central Speyside, so this is certainly accessible if you're in Speyside and well worth a visit.

The distillery have been 3 years in the planning and although, still a building site and a hard hat had to be worn during the tour, its planned to go into production late this summer. The original buildings are early 19th Century with modern amenities added to comply with todays standards, but still you can see the old 2ft. thick walls in some places - incl. an old fireplace in the wall next to the stairs leading up to the 1st floor. This link will give you an idea of what it looked like before the conversion of the old steading began

The Ballindalloch Distillery will be a small scale operation. No 24h production cycle, no weekends and its also about having full control over every step of production from barley to bottle and also about traceability of every ingredient used. More details later...

The Estate has persuaded former Diageo manager Charlie Smith to come out of retirement to help get the distillery going. Charlie has 32 years of experience from the business so knowledgeable forces will be at work here...

But, as I mentioned earlier this was a hard hat tour and the picture below will show you why...

View from the 1st floor on to the inner yard of the distillery, May 4th 2014 © The Malt Desk

As you can well imagine from the building style its going to be 'old style' through and through. This has been the plan all along as the distillery won't be a driving force in the Ballindalloch Estate business but rather a side project to compliment the already wide range of business forms run by the estate. If you haven't already, do click the link in the 3rd line from above on what the Estate offers and is all about.

The distillery will have a small visitors area -  an area that will be designed by Mrs. Russel of the Estate and will, when finished, carry what can only be described as 'homely feel' with fireplace, wood panellings, booking shelves etc. This however, is what it looked like on May 4th, but I'm sure they'll succeed in creating what they set out to do...

The wing that will eventually become the visitors area, May 4th 2014 © The Malt Desk

So what will the production site and and whisky be like, I hear you ask...

Well, the goal is to set out to make a heavier style Speysider or what some would call an 'After Dinner dram'. The exact style will be experimented with and fine tuned before regular production starts, of course, but a heavier style is already decided upon.

Lay out/plans for the distillery, May 4th 2014 © The Malt Desk

Now for a few details for the whisky anoraks out there:

• Water will be drawn from 5-7 springs in the hills behind the distillery, depending on how much is needed
• The barley for the distillery will all be Ballindalloch Estate barley and of the Concerto variety 
• The barley is malted off-site at the Baird's Maltings in Inverness.
• The distillery have been equipped with a 1 ton copper top mash tun
• 4 x 10.000 liter wooden washbacks of Oregon Pine.
• The distillery will use a dried yeast strain in production.
• The wash still has a 5000 liter capacity and the spirit still a 3600 liter capacity
• Production is anticipated to be around 100.000 liters of spirit per annum

The 1 ton capacity mash tun, May 4th 2014 © The Malt Desk

4 x 10.000 liter wooden washbacks are in place, May 4th 2014 © The Malt Desk

Tradition has it that a piece of equipment from another distillery is installed too and at Ballindalloch, it'll be an old spirit safe from nearby Cragganmore Distillery donated by owners, Diageo.

The stills had not yet been delivered when I visited. But as I write this piece they've gone in and Brian Robinson from the distillery have generously provided pictures of them for this piece.

Lifting the head - picture courtesy of Brian Robinson, Ballindalloch Distillery

The stills in place - picture courtesy of Brian Robinson, Ballindalloch Distillery

Also, the distillery is to be equipped with a pair of wormtub condensers which will probably add some of that heavier spirit character the distillery is looking for. These will, of course, be on the outside the building to the right of the still in the above picture along with an old water wheel, currently being restored.

When restored, the water wheel will go here and the wormtubs will be just beyond the fence, May 4th 2014 © The Malt Desk

The Ballindalloch spirit will go into ex-bourbon and sherry casks - no experimentation with other cask types are currently planned, so pretty much very basic stuff. There will be some on site warehousing and with an output of app. 100.000 liters per year ( 350-400 casks depending on size) it will fill the on-site warehouse fast, which is why there will be a warehousing facility in the nearby village of Marypark.

A look at what will be the on-site warehouse, May 4th 2014 © The Malt Desk

This is another place, I'll be stopping by next time in Speyside. You can already see its going to be a charming place and I think it'll be another new distillery worth following. Good luck to all involved there and thanks to Brian Robinson and Guy Macpherson-Grant for sharing their enthusiasm with us.

Finally, you can follow the progress of the Ballindalloch Distillery on their website http://www.ballindallochdistillery.com/
and also on their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BallindallochDistillery.

ARDNAMURCHAN DISTILLERY VISIT - MAY 2014

New distilleries are popping up in Scotland like daffodils at springtime... well, actually not just in Scotland, but all around the world at the moment - everyone seems to want go get in to distilled spirits at the moment - and not just whisky...

Its no secret that distillers of scotch whisky these days are having golden days - so golden that they're able to sell all of their stock themselves and make the future for independent bottlers look a bit bleak. This is probably also why several independent bottlers have chose to buy or build distilleries themselves.

One of those bottlers that have done so and will go into production this summer is Ardnamurchan Distillery - owned by the indie bottler Adelphi.

We had an appointment on Tuesday May 6th to see the distillery, being aware its still a building site and not in production, but its always great to have a look behind the scenes.

Here's a look at the place and some data associated with it:

First of all, the distillery is located far from almost everything. It's only accessible by single track road (B8007) from either east or west. Coming from the east, you'll probably have come from Ft. William via the small Corran Ferry or from the west via ferry from Tobermory on the Isle of Mull across to Kilchoan on the Ardnamurchan peninsula.

The place you're looking for is called Glenbeg (link to Google Maps).
Please note that the satellite photo will not show the distillery buildings.


Ardnamurchan Distillery - Coming soon, May 6th 2014 © The Malt Desk 

Before I show you the site through some snapshots, lets have some details about the distillery.

These days there's always the talk about leaving a carbon footprint. This will be kept at a minimum at Ardnamurchan Distillery thanks to the main part of their energy coming from firing with wood chips - the first in Scotland to do so. This will reduce the need for transport of fuels on the narrow single track roads on the Ardnamurchan peninsula as the wood will be sourced locally from the estate on which the distillery is located. The distillery also has a small bio mass plant in place to clean all waste fluids and the output from that can be lead straight back into the wild without any impact.



Far left, the 2 floor warehouse, left pagoda/building has a malt floor and right pagoda/building the visitors centre
May 6th 2014 © The Malt Desk

The distillery will take its water from the hills behind it. It will come from 2 sources, one supplying the cooling water and the other the water for production. A small dam has been built up in the hills to ensure a constant flow, even in drier periods.

Around 50% of the malt will come from Fife and the other sourced as needed. The distillery has 4x15 tons malt bins on site and will also be doing some malting on site. Its been equipped with a 3 ton steep tank and 2x3 tons malting floor, which -quite unusual- has floor heating (also a first). The kiln will be able to dry the green malt with both warm air and peat.



The malt floor which has build-in floor heating, May 6th 2014 © The Malt Desk

In the distillery mash house you'll find a 2 ton semi-lauter mash tun and next to that 7 x 10.000 liter fermentation vessels - 4 wooden washbacks made from a Portuguese producer and 3 steel ones opposite those. The reason to put in 3 steel washbacks was simply a matter of lack of space.

The tun room, furthest the copper top mash tun, left and right the washbacks (not all shown) May 6th 2014 © The Malt Desk

Fermentation times, clear or cloudy wash, still charges etc.  (1 set of stills) and further the production details is not yet in final place. Trial runs will be done in early summer through the entire production process until the output is satisfactory. The annual production has previously been announced to be anywhere from 100.000-300.000 liters of spirit annually.



1 set of stills at Ardnamurchan Distillery, left the wash still, right the spirit still May 6th 2014 © The Malt Desk

The spirit safe, May 6th 2014 © The Malt Desk

The Ardnamurchan spirit will go into mainly ex-bourbon casks and will be stored on site in a 2 floor warehouse. To make space for the warehouse, the a layer of rocks behind the buildings had to be removed, which was very hard work for the diggers in spite of heavy machinery, but now its almost ready to have the first casks rolled into it.

What really struck me when visiting, was the very noticeable difference in climate inside the warehouse from the ground floor which has a traditional dunnage style earthen floor to the upper floor which was much warmer and seemed a lot more damp than downstairs. I wonder what this will do to the maturation of the casks stored up there...

2nd floor of the warehouse, May 6th 2014 © The Malt Desk

It was mentioned that, unlike whats been mentioned in the previously released distillery brochure, some spirit will actually be sold off to others. IMO, this makes perfectly good sense as Adelphi can probably trade off casks of their own spirit and get mature casks from other distilleries in return which they then can bottle and create a cash flow.

Then there's the visitors centre...
Upstairs will be offices and a conference room available to book and downstairs the general visitors entrance with a small sitting area. Its nice that the distillery will attract more visitors to the remote beautiful area Ardnamurchan is (its should not be missed) and also, of course, provide a boost to the local economy and bringing work places to the area as well.

Personally, I look forward to coming back when everything is up and running.

Upstairs in the visitors area where the future tours will end, centre door leads to the still room, May 6th 2014 © The Malt Desk

I hope you've enjoyed this small online tour of the Ardnamurchan Distillery and I hope it has also maybe inspired some of you to go there sometime. It's a lovely little distillery, built very much in modern style and it certainly has it charms. While you're there, be sure to also enjoy the fabulous settings on the peninsula - why not venture all the way out to Ardnamurchan Point - the most westerly mainland point in the UK...

Finally thanks to Mark Giesler for taking us around and Alex for setting it up. And best of luck with your Ardnamurchan adventure :-)

TASTING LAPHROAIG CÀIRDEAS 2008-2013

Saturday the 11th January 2014 saw 32 people enjoying 6x2cls of different Laphroaigs - specifically, the 6 Càirdeas bottlings released so far for the Feis Ile from 2008-2013...
32 people also gave the opportunity to take home some dregs for later tasting and re-evaluation. Oh, we also had an extra, but more on that later... ;-)

The venue was The Irish House in my home town of Aalborg, an old merchant's house from 1616 with a nice cosy basement perfect for tastings this size. The same place as the local whisky club, in which I'm deeply involved, does most tastings as well. This day, though, it's bottles from my private collection we'll be tasting.

The Càirdeas tasting lineup, left to right 2008-2013 Editions - a fantastic afternoon out, January 11th 2014 © The Malt Desk

I decided to do the tasting in 2 flights... and chronologically too of course, first 2008 - 2010 and a break and then on to 2011 - 2013.

Let's break them down in detail:

• Càirdeas Feis Ile 2008, 55%
• Càirdeas Feis Ile 2009 12yo, 57,5%
• Càirdeas Feis Ile 2010, 57,3 Master Edition
• Càirdeas Feis Ile 2011, 50,5% Ileach Edition
• Càirdeas Feis Ile 2012, 51,2% Origin
• Càirdeas Feis Ile 2013, 51,3% Port Wood Edition

Right, now that we got the bottlings sorted, let's have a look at a few personal observations of mine and also how they rated on the day through the eyes of the rest of the participants. More detailed personal tasting notes will feature on the blog at a later time.

• Càirdeas Feis Ile 2008, 55%

This one is really close to the 10yo Cask Strength, IMO - great stuff, especially if left for a while to breathe. Somehow I feel the 2 older casks tipped into this vatting provides a significant part of the backbone of this dram.

• Càirdeas Feis Ile 2009 12yo, 57,5%

A much more mellow and sweet experience, this one. Lots of vanilla and burning twigs as opposed to the traditional heavier peat style. Certainly a clear influence from more time in the cask as well as influence from the 1st fill ex-bourbon casks used in this vatting.

• Càirdeas Feis Ile 2010, 57,3 Master Edition

This one takes us, IMO, more back towards the traditional expression of Laphroaig. It gives carries a lot of vanilla and peat sweetness and lemon, but still closer in style to the 2009 expression than the 2008.

The verdict of flight no. 1?

Many really liked the 2009 12yo and asking around 2/3's of those asked favoured that expression, incl. myself. - the rest was split between the 2008 and 2010. Retasted a few days later, the my own verdict changed to have the 2008 come out on top!



Comparing the first 3 of the Càirdeas expressions, January 11th 2014 © The Malt Desk

• Càirdeas Feis Ile 2011, 50,5% Ileach Edition

A fresh and vibrant expression, this one. Lots of cigar ash on the nose along with delicate vanilla and an almost floral peat. This was probably the expression that on the day got least likes, but this has also opened up quite a bit. Supposedly all 1st fill ex-bourbon casks from Makers Mark distillery went into this vatting.

•  Càirdeas Feis Ile 2012, 51,2% Origin

An expression that carries a destinct mark of the quarter cask, IMO, with noticeably more powerful wood infused notes. Of course it also gives you the sweet peat and some seashore notes, but although its good, it'll never be my favourite of the lot.

• Càirdeas Feis Ile 2013, 51,3% Port Wood Edition

Personal impression runs with another very vibrant expression, not at all dulled by the port maturation. Loads of farmyard notes of both the bio dynamic and organic kind (dung, barley and hay). The wine showing it self as a sweet layer on top of the peat, but in no way overpowering. This expression has on online fora really divided people into lovers and haters. Personally I'm in the first group.

The verdict of flight no. 2?

This was about a split hair descision between the 2012 Origin and the 2013 Port Wood Edition. At the time, I really liked the 2013 Port Wood, but later, after revisiting the 2011, I've come to really like its ashy side alot. So for me its now a split between the 2011 and 2013.

Laphroaig Spirit Stills, May 5th 2011 © The Malt Desk

All in all a very nice experience to taste all -at the moment- released versions of the Feis Ile Laphroaig Càirdeas. I'm already wondering what 2014 has in store for us...

Looking at this range it goes fits the current trend of No Age Statement whiskies, except for the 2009 release, but these pack the extra punch for 2 reasons:

1. They're peated
2. (and most important) - they're cask strength!

Imagine other high profile distilleries releasing their NAS whiskies at cask strength?
Will we be bashing them as hard if they did?

So a big pad on the back to Laphroaig for making these bottlings available at cask strength.

Rounding the day off I put on an extra - a more mature Laphroaig at 21yo...



Laphroaig 1987 (xx.11.1987/xx.01.2009) 21yo 50%, refill cask#4855, Old Malt Cask © The Malt Desk

A more laid back version from Laphroaig, age showing itself clearly by producing a very mellow dram but still carries a more than moderate peating level and a very dark style of peat it is too, more burnt and sooty. An Islay giant this one... Again -as with the others- it went down very well with the audience, this was not rated on the day by the audience.

After about 2½ hours of tasting and enjoy 7 Laphroaigs, people went on their merry ways with a smile on their faces and leaving me with dregs for a private session...

Dregs for a small private session later on, January 11th 2014 © The Malt Desk

This concludes the short report from the tasting. Hope you enjoyed the it.

Thanks for reading...

/claus

TASTING BALVENIE TUN 1401 BATCH 1 - 8

This has never been done before...

A tasting with all the currently released 8 batches of Balvenie TUN 1401s.
Until now - September 21st 2013 in Aarhus, Denmark.

It all started out with the Danish Balvenie anorak Peter Lading playing with the thought of tasting a few of the batches head-to-head but it soon evolved into all batches except batch 1... and after consulting a couple of fellow anoraks, a decision to include the very exclusive, and now very expensive, batch 1 was taken.



Stylish TUN 1401 shot by Peter Lading

So I'll start by thanking Peter Lading, Benny Uldall and the organisational elf Al Jones for this amazing opportunity to try all 8 batches. To top things off, Balvenie's Global Brand Ambassador Sam Simmons had agreed to fly in from London to host the tasting as well.

So whats the story behind these bottlings to begin with... and why is it called TUN 1401?


Sam Simmons © The Malt Desk

The TUN 1401-series was originally done as a malt blending job by the Balvenie Master Blender David Stewart to help the distillery to use maturing single casks that may not usually fit the normal Balvenie character or to allow the use of casks that do have the Balvenie character but have gone underproof (less than 40% abv).

TUN 1401 is the 2000 liter vessel in which this series undergoes its marrying of spirit - usually 3-4 months as with all other Balvenie as well. This allows for the whisky settle and interact with each other before finally being bottled.

So is this it? 8 batches and we're done? No, Sir! More are to come... Batch 9 is on its way to the stores shortly and Batch 10 will soon be marrying in the tun.

Balvenie was surprised as to the popularity of these bottlings and will, to try and satisfy demand in the future, see if its possible to style of these bottling, but doing them with 70's-90's vintages and in larger batches, maybe adding in some 60's and 80's underproof casks.

...but down to the whisky... I only too a few notes on each one, as this IMO was very much about enjoying this rare opportunity, but I'll try relay my experience as best I can and of course, tell you about my favourite(s).

Warm up dram:

The Balvenie Portwood 1989 40%

• The Balvenie TUN 1401 48,1% - Batch 1, Distillery only, 336 bottles:

A vatting of 6 casks - 4 American oak cask and 2 European oak sherry casks

Orange, honey, old mellow oak, barley juice, vanilla just lovely and incredibly well balanced

• The Balvenie TUN 1401 50,6% - Batch 2, 2226 bottles (Europe, Asia & South Africa):

A vatting of 10 casks - 7 American oak casks and 3 European oak sherry casks

Alot more sherry influence, varnish notes, orange chocolate, nutmeg, deeper and more spicy, nutty and dried fruit, very drying

• The Balvenie TUN 1401 50,3% - Batch 3, 1800 bottles (US only):

A vatting of 10 casks - 7 American oak casks and 3 European oak sherry casks

Carries some of the notes of batch 1, but with just a little more sherry, strong cinnamon, nutmeg - very oak spicy but never going over the top - delicious!

• The Balvenie TUN 1401 50,4% - Batch 4, 2500 bottles (Travel Retail):

A vatting of 10 casks - 7 American oak casks and 3 European oak sherry casks

Lighter and initially less expressive, getting massively honeyed and vanilla'ed, along with some lemony notes - good, but not the best so far...




The Balvenie TUN 1401, batches 1-4, September 21st 2013 © The Malt Desk

 

• The Balvenie TUN 1401 50,1% - Batch 5, 2862 bottles (Europe only)

A vatting of 9 casks - 5 American oak casks and 4 European oak sherry casks

 

Incredible sherry mellow, sherry style as clean as they come, IMO, this could be any old sherried Speyside whisky and it certainly tastes like something I've tried before. Very good though, no doubt about that - just not very distinct!

• The Balvenie TUN 1401 49,8% - Batch 6, 2500 bottles (US only)

A vatting of 9 casks - 7 American oak casks and 2 European oak sherry casks

 

Orange peel, vanilla, honey, ginger and nutmeg, caramel, oak spices - lots of wood in this one

• The Balvenie TUN 1401 49,2% - Batch 7 (Travel retail)

A vatting of 9 casks - 7 American oak casks and 2 European oak sherry casks

 

Spicy European oak notes in this one despite it only being 2 cask in this vatting. Dried fruits, cinnamon, a little clove, chocolate, coffee, sweet wood sap (resinous)

• The Balvenie TUN 1401 50,2% - Batch 8 2700 bottles (UK only)

A vatting of 12 casks - 9 American oak casks and 3 European oak sherry casks

 

Again lovely clean sherry and honey, spicy edge, floral hints, almost Highland Park style sherry here, wood polish and fruit.  Orange peel too as in batch 6 along with cinnamon and creamy toffee - great stuff!

  



The Balvenie TUN 1401, batches 5-8, September 21st 2013 © The Malt Desk

 

What a lineup! But we weren't done yet - 3 cask samples were yet to come :-O

 

• 1992 cask#4380 53,4%

Heavy sherry style Balvenie, seems not to deliver more than some heavy sherry notes at this point, but my tastebuds are getting pretty tired by now...

 

• 1973 cask#8556 47,2%

Pleasant style older whisky, very much on the freshly baked Danish spice cake - very nice!

 

• 1964 cask#10379 33,2% (underproof)

A sample brought along to show how underproof whisky can be and this also carried a style of what I'd call oriental spices and something I'd certainly not associate with The Balvenie - fun to try!

Balvenie Cask Samples, 1992, 1973 and 1964, September 21st 2013 © The Malt Desk

Finally, a conclusion to sensory overload afternoon of September 21st 2013...

 

I'll not be scoring these whiskies, but I will tell you that this is all very, very good whisky!!

 

Instead, I'll just tell you which batches I had 1, 2 and 3...

1. Batch 1
2. batch 3
3. batch 8

What a privilege it was to participate - Thanks again to Peter, Benny, Al and Sam Simmons!

 

(oh, if only all NAS whisky tasted like this) ;-)

SPECIAL: VATTING AND BLENDING AT HOME

Over a period of time, I've accumulated some (more) open bottles and samples from which I'll be doing this fun little home experiment. I've been wanting to do this for a while, but have been busy with non-whisky stuff lately, but now its time to get busy... at the same time I'd like to excuse for a boring text-only post. ;-)

Some resources says that the optimal blending proportion of ex-bourbon and sherry cask is 70% bourbon/30% sherry - so I'll be using this as a starting point. Also the fact that older and heavier style + peated whiskies can be used to create more 'body' in the final result is significant knowledge... besides that, glasses and pipettes are also ready for this experiment...

I've poured 3 glasses of the 70/30 ratio mix for comparison. I will have a 4th glass on the side with a similar pours to use as a taste reference. The experiment will be done at full strength i.e. no water will be added.

Please also read the individual reviews and tasting notes of each whisky elsewhere on the blog to get the most out of my experiment.

Here's a list of the whiskies I'll be using:

Aberlour 1996 (04.03.1996) 16yo 54,4% 1st fill bourbon cask#6837, Distillery - Bottle your own (reviewed on its own here)

Aberlour 1996 (04.03.1996) 16yo 58,3% 1st fill sherry cask#2987, Distillery - Bottle your own (reviewed on its own here)

Dailuaine 1983 27yo 55,9% sherry hogshead#4318, 189 bottles, Adelphi
(reviewed on its own here)

Ardbeg 1993 14yo 46%, bottled 02.2008, ex-bourbon cask, 288 bottles, Cadenhead Original Collection (reviewed on its own here)

North British 1997 15yo 14.05.1997/06/10.2012 54,5%, Ex-bourbon barrel#246282, 175 bottles, Signatory Vintage Denmark Exclusive (reviewed on its own here)

Starting by mixing the 2 Aberlours (bourbon and sherry) at a 70/30 ratio...

20mls of bourbon Aberlour + 6mls of sherry Aberlour

Observation upon mixing - part 1:

Colour goes from straw to gold

The 30% of sherry matured Aberlour mixed with the 70% bourbon matured at first seems to overpower the bourbon at first... I'll leave it to settle for a few mins...

Much better now - the mainly bourbon backbone is still in front, but much more laid back now it has gotten proportion of sherry mixed in. Getting some sherry notes, agreed, but the 1st fill bourbon cask is still very loud and I think I need to up the sherry content.

Taste is more balanced than on the nose, though the wood from the bourbon cask still shows itself on the finish. Time to try and add some depth to this... since the bourbon cask is still dominant I'll add some older whisky - the Dailuaine mentioned above.

2mls of the Dailuaine is now added and left to settle for 5mins. The addition of the Dailuaine at the same time, turned this experiment into a blended (vatted) malt. I'm now also using one of the other initial pours as reference.

Observation upon mixing - part 2:

Colour is gold+
2mls of Dailuaine certainly help to quiet down the bourbon cask, but I feel its still not enough.
I'm adding 1ml more of the Dailuaine...

Observation upon mixing - part 3:

Colour is still gold+
The extra added 1ml of Dailuaine has brought down the backbone of the bourbon cask down to vanilla and oak on an acceptable level, where as before both were very loud, bordering on varnish - again see original tasting notes on the Aberlour Bourbon Cask here.

Here is also when it becomes interesting as I now compare with the original pour of just 70/30 Aberlour. Without taking exact tasting notes, I notice that the nose has clearly become much more heavy and deep and more xmas cake and dark fruits coming through, where as the starting point sample is still very loud and somewhat unbalanced to me.

After a good while more I now find the Ref#2 a tad bitter and drying on the finish...

At the same time I'm now taking initial Ref#3 and adding 3mls of Dailuaine to it for reference before the next step.

Next step - This mix into a blend!

Lets sum up what reference drams I have here:

Ref#1 - Initial pour 70/30 mix (20mls/6mls) of the 2 Aberlours
Ref#2 - 70/30 pour of Aberlour + 3mls of Dailuaine
Ref#3 - 70/30 pour of Aberlour + 3mls of Dailuaine

Now, I'm taking North British 15yo grain and adding 15mls it to the mix of Ref#2 and again, its time to let it settle for a short while... Now, I'm aiming to reach a ratio of about 50% malt and 50% grain, which I think succeeded - so now its time to nose from Ref#2

Now to take a reference here again I've decided to split the now app. 45mls in the mix into app. 2 x 22mls - one go experiment further with and one to taste...

Adding the North British grain is easily detectable on the nose - a much more vanilla, coconut and spicy sweetness shows up immediately, though you can still clearly detect the underlying malt as the ratio is still 50/50 malt/grain. The Ref#3 is still carrying the heavier malt notes and especially the sherry notes.

The taste confirms the nose here (a no. 5 glass). I'm getting the grain on first arrival, but the malt and especially the sherried malt has added an edge here - a decent blend - for a home made kind :-)

Islay in the mix?

I just have to try and add a few drops of peated whisky to this mix - just to see what happens and how much will make the dram go OTT rather than add to the experience...

For that purpose I have an Ardbeg from Cadenhead.
I'll start by adding just 5 drops-  which has no significant effect on the app. 20ml mix, same amount is added to the tasting glass.. on the nose it just show tiny, tiny whiffs of peat, if any... maybe its just a peat imprint in my mind? On the palate its like the mix now has a firmer body.

Now adding 1ml to about a 20ml mix gives it a clearer profile and detectable peat for sure, which goes to show how a little peated malt goes a long way - at least for me here... adding a few more drops bring it to maybe about the level of Johnny Walker Green label (best comparison - I think). The other 22ml mix is clearly unpeated when nosing/tasting.

This has been a fun experiment to do and I hope you've enjoyed reading it.
I'd like to encourage you all to get blending at home... though you should reserve much of an evening for it as its very time consuming and and potentially tiring as your senses are working overtime.

HIGHLAND PARK DISTILLERY SPECIAL

It's time to do a Distillery special and why not start with a distillery located in a place historically linked to us Danes - The Orkney Islands just north of Scotland.

You need about an hour on the ferry from Gill's Bay just west of John O'Groats on the north mainland coast to get to St. Margaret's Hope - the 3rd largest town on the islands. There's also a ferry from Scrabster further west going into Stromness on Orkney Mainland. That's the sailing that will take you past the famous 'Old Man of Hoy' rock formation which -in good weather- makes for an fantastic photo opportunity...

However, Highland Park Distillery is the centre of attention for this post, so let's go inside :

Entrance to the distillery - August 2009 © The Malt Desk

Founded in 1798 on the site of High Park Farm where the owner Magnus Eunson used to distill illegally, its location provides for a beautiful entrance into the town of Kirkwall when driving up from St. Margaret's Hope.

With facilities on both sides of the road, Highland Park is a larger facility than I expected when you include the warehouses. Being this remote, up north of Scotland makes this distillery very unique along with the Scapa Distillery. Especially when it comes to evaporation or 'The Angel's Share' as we like to call it. More on that when we come to the cask maturation part.


Barley and Malting

Inside the courtyard, you can head right towards the floor maltings.
Highland Park is one of the few distilleries that still does a part of their maltings themselves.

Highland Park does between 20-25% of their own malting. The rest are bought from commercial maltings like Simpsons or Bairds on the Scottish mainland.

The Malt floor - August 2009 © The Malt Desk

Up until 2012 Highland Park has used barley of the 'Optic'-variety, but to achieve and higher spirit yield, they have now switched to a variety called 'Concerto'. The 'Concerto'-variety is now one of the most widely used barley sorts in Scotland with distillers using 31,7% in their production.

Highland Park have also done experiments with a barley sort grown on the Orkney Islands called 'Tartan'...

Now, as a distiller you're always looking for the highest spirit yield from your malt and for comparison, here are the yield of the sorts listed above:

• Optic Barley 400-420 liters of spirit per tonne of malt
• Concerto Barley 415-420 liters of spirit per tonne of malt
• Tartan Orkney Grown Barley (experimental) app. 375 liters per tonne of malt 

The barley at Highland Park is steeped for 2 days before being spread out on the malt floor to germinate.

Imagine this floor filled with barley all the way down to the end of the room...
Now also imagine turning this barley having to be turned over 4-5 times a day...manually !! with the rake and shovel !! It was back breaking work back in the day using traditional tools!
As mentioned above it 'only' about 1/4 of Highland Park's barley that gets malted on site, and luckily, motorised machinery looking like a large lawn mover, is there to help you do your work...

All this work turning the barley (read: typing) has made me thirsty - time for a dram...and since we're still in the early stages of production lets have some Highland Park New Make Spirit from the stills:

Highland Park New Make Spirit 69,8% (drawn 18/5-2010)

Nose:
Creamy chocolaty notes, fruity, grains (wash), hint of a flowery note (I often find in soaps) and some citric notes in the background, BBQ notes?

Taste:
Incredibly sweet, barley sugars, citrus fruits, creamy mouth feel, not at all unpleasant and very drinkable even at full strength.  A big malty finish too...

Not scored!

Let's have another dram while we're at it:

Highland Park 'Leif Eriksson' 40%

This was originally only for Travel Retail but some bottles has made its way to normal retailers as well. Its a dram in the viking-series, which celebrates the great travels the vikings did over 1000 years ago and a dram to honor the Norse ties with the Orkney Isles.

Its a whisky made from 50% American oak and 50% refill American oak sherry casks. 10% of the content is made up of 21yo American oak, though the average age of this one is around 10 years.

Nose:
Light, vanillas, some sherry sweetness, some malt presence, hints of vinegar?

Taste:
Spicy, Fruits, molecules of peat smoke, again vanillas and a short malty aftertaste

82/100!

Highland Park 'Sword' 43%

A 1997 vintage (not stated, though) of a 3500 bottle release for the Taiwanese market.

Nose:
Sweet, weak, mashy note, vanillas and candy

Taste:
Feels tame, mashy/grainy notes - the American oak shows its presence.

Though easily drinkable, I'm not that impressed with this one, sadly! something just feels... 'off'

80/100!



Drying the Malt

Let's get back to work!

Now, as we all know you have to dry your 'green malt' to stop the germination and for that you use hot air. The traditional drying method uses peat for fuel, but at Highland Park they don't want their malt be too heavily peated, so they also use hot air to dry out the last moisture in the malt.

The peat used to dry the green malt at Highland Park is cut on Hobbister Moor, up behind the distillery. They cut around 250-280 tonnes of peat per year on a 2000 acre lot, and this is not your typical island peat like e.g. Islay peat or other peat sources found on the west coast of Scotland.

Islay e.g. is a raised seabed, which means the peat you dig there consists of old seabed contents, usually heavy on seaweed etc. This gives the peat from there a different phenolic content when burned and is said to be what gives Islay whiskies its medicinal qualities.

The Orkney peat is made up of more common surface growths like grass, moss and heather, that have never been a part of the sea and therefore gives off entirely different flavours in its smoke.

Highland Park dries its green malt 16-18 hours over an (Orkney) peat fire.
The process is then finished by drying the malt another 18 hours over a coke fire.

After the malt is is dried its put into storage for a resting period of 21 days before used in production.

The kiln - August 2009 © The Malt Desk

Now where does all this smoke and hot air go? Well, it goes up through the kiln, of course...and because of that you can see smoke coming out of Highland Park's pagodas now and again, unlike many other distilleries in Scotland where the beautiful pagoda roofs are for show, only.

One of the 2 pagodas at the distillery - August 2009 © The Malt Desk

...and the view from up next to the pagodas towards the town of Kirkwall is fantastic...

Notice the large church in the middle/right of the picture - The beautiful St. Magnus Cathedral

View from the roof of the distillery towards Kirkwall - August 2009 © The Malt Desk

St. Magnus Cathedral - August 2009 © The Malt Desk

Speaking of the St. Magnus Cathedral - Lets have some more drams with a bit of history involved.

Orcadians are proud of their Norse heritage - and I can't argue with that :-)

So much that Highland Park has done a 3 part series about a Norse Earl called Magnus - the one they named the cathedral after...

Orkney back in the day when it was under Viking rule saw the days of the pious Earl Magnus and his not so pious cousin, Haakon. Now, Magnus was the very well liked ruler his part of the islands, where as Haakon was the more power hungry man. Basically it all ended up with Haakon luring the good Magnus into an ambush killing him and his men. After that, Magnus was canonised to Saint and the next 3 bottlings will tell the tale of these unfortunate events...

These bottles were all done in an old style, with imperfections and a fancy wooden display box.

Highland Park 'Earl Magnus' 15yo 52,6% (1994/2009) Mainly Refill American oak sherry casks, 5976 bottles

Nose:
Sweet, spices, flowery, honeyed, a tad of oak

Taste:
Sweet oak, vanillas and tropical fruits, heather honey, salty, really delicious with a couple of drops of water

A very nice dram, indeed!


88/100!

Highland Park 'Saint Magnus' 12yo 55% (1998/2010) 25% 1st fill European oak, 75% mix of refill Spanish/American oak sherry casks, 11994 bottles

Nose:

Medium heavy, quite some struck match, orange liqueur, High end American Bourbon notes

Taste:
Bitter sweet spicy oak, heavy sherry, super spicy with some coffee notes, liquorice and clear and present struck match, upsetting things somewhat

Not the best of the Magnus series, but still ok though I had expected a little more from this one...

83/100!

Highland Park 'Earl Haakon' 18yo 54,9% (1993/2011) 100% Spanish Oak, 3300 bottles

Nose:
Clean cut sherry, honey, creamy oloroso, yet powerful

Taste:
A slight dunnage warehouse style, maybe? light layer of smoke, Oranges, chocolates, peppery and hint of licorice - Dessert style for sure!

This is a style I really like, clean cut sherry style without a single off-note!
Wish they would do a standard 18yo at CS and bring some of these characteristic over into a bottling like that! Top class, this one!

90/100!



Milling, Mashing and Brewing

Before being milled the malted barley from the distillery itself is mixed with mainly unpeated barley from the industrial maltings.

This is then milled into what we know as 'grist'.
At Highland Park the mashing is done in a large stainless steel mashtun.
Its a careful process as the starches/sugars in the malt what is really used for alcohol production... and to prevent that the water used to make to sugary solution is added at 3 different temperatures

• 1st water goes in at 63,5°
• 2nd water goes in at 79,0°
• 3rd water goes in at 88,0°

The 1st and 2nd water is enough to separate the enough sugars to go into the washbacks as what we know as 'wort'.

The 3rd water is pumped over to the sparge tank and is then cooled and used as a part of the next 1st water.

The stainless steel mashtun - picture by Highland Park

Each washback at Highland Park can hold 29200 liters of wort, and to get fermentation going about 100kgs of yeast is added. It's a cultured yeast consisting of 2 strains, 1 fast working, usually to get the fermentation going and another to maintain it for a longer period of time.

A standard fermentation at Highland Park is about 60 hours, though over the weekend, you have fermentations as long as 72 hours. This process has now created a beer at about 8% alcohol that needs to be distilled 2 times.

The washbacks, each vessel holding 29200 liters - picture by Highland Park

The Distillation Process

The stillhouse at Highland Park is to the left when you enter the courtyard. Outside you can see the spirit condensers.

The Still House - August 2009 © The Malt Desk

Inside the stillhouse you find 4 stills - 2 x Wash Stills and 2 x Spirit Stills.

The 8% beer is pumped from the wash room to the still house across the yard where the wash stills are charged with 14600 liters of wash. The wash distillation gives off a low wine at app. 22% abv which is collected and pumped into the spirit stills at a charge of 9000 liters.

The Wash stills - August 2009 © The Malt Desk

The distillation now runs and the first part of it, the foreshots contains all the unpleasantries and lead off to a holding tank.

Next comes what a distiller aims for - the heart of the run or the middle cut - which at Highland Park starts at 70% abv and runs until it hits 64,5% abv.

Then the runs is considered to be feints and is again lead off to the holding tank to go into the next distillation run.



One of the Spirit stills - August 2009 © The Malt Desk

The final strength of the middle cut will be 69,8% and will go into casks at that strength too.
Although the new make spirit is very nice and drinkable its in the casks the magic really happens... up to 60-70% of it comes from the cask.

Cask Maturation

Highland Park cask filling station - August 2009 © The Malt Desk

Now, the casks at Highland Park are a chapter of its own. The Edrington Group who owns Highland Park along with Glenturret, Glenrothes and Macallan has a very strict wood policy - some say the the strictest in the industry.

Last year and this year the Edrington Group spends app. £12 million annually on casks.
They get their European oak sherry casks from 3 different regions in Spain and and their American oak from 2 different areas in the USA.

When a tree is cut down it takes 6-7 years for it to reach the production line and filled with new make spirit at Highland Park. Why this long? First the wood has to dry out for up to 36-48 months. Then the wood goes to the cooperage and after that it goes away to get seasoned with sherry for a minimum of 24 months.

Highland Park has 23 warehouses on site. 19 of them are traditional dunnage style warehouse with earthen floors and the casks there are stacked max. 3 high. The last 4 warehouses are rack warehouses where casks are stacked usually at least 6 high and at any one time you will find more than 40.000+ casks of Highland Park maturing in Scotland.

Being located this far north means that the outside temperature never goes much above 12-14° celcius in the summer and 2-5° celcius in the winter. This gives the spirit at Highland Park a much slower maturation rate that e.g. the distilleries on the Scottish mainland. Because of this, cask evaporation at Highland Park is only about 0,5-1% annually as opposed to around 2-3% on the mainland.

Using both Spanish and American oak for maturation of its spirit gives Highland Park a wide range of possibilities in putting together expressions - a practise probably adopted from the Glenrothes distillery (also owned by The Edrington Group), who has been doing this for many years. I reviewed a couple of these variations at the start of this special writeup. A couple of  Highland Park bottlings that uses a large proportion of American oak sherry casks, are the Vintage 97' & 98' for Global Travel Retail.

Casks, casks, casks.... © The Malt Desk

As the very aware reader probably already knows, Highland Park has several standard expressions, ranging from 12yo to 50yo.

Lets have a look at the percent of 1st fill sherry that goes into the standard bottlings, then afterwards, I'll review some older stuff, incl. a couple of the 70's vintages.

A nice overview of how much % first fill sherry cask that goes into the different bottlings - August 2009 © The Malt Desk

Highland Park 25yo (b. 2004) 50,7%

Nose:
Medium oloroso, hint of smoke, dark fruits, heather character is very much alive in this one, coffee too

Taste:
Heather honey, smoky orange notes, sweet dark fruits, dates, more coffee and a dark creamy chocolates

A nice one for sure!

90/100!



Highland Park 25yo (b. 2000) 51,5% (58% 1st fill oloroso casks)


Nose:
Medium heavy oloroso nose, again a heather/honey theme, smoky butter caramels, malt and citric notes (the fabled HP oranges?)

Taste:
An oaky fruits arrival, drying and sweet dessert style, Aniseed? Long finish on nuts, oil and an undisclosed organic note. Everything ends with a thin veil of smoke. Delicious!

91/100!





Highland Park 1977 (1998) Bicentennary 40%

Nose:
Old school clean sherry, peat and chocolate, spicy and orangy.

Taste:
Much of the nose carries over. Arrives in the back of the mouth which is a surprise, lingers... very chewy. What an old musty dunnage warehouse smells like, this has hints of in the taste (in a good way!).

Slightly bitter oak creeps in with more spice, mint and liquorice. A good one too, but no all the way up there IMO.
Maybe the low abv% has something to say here?

88/100!

The 2 vintages below were re-tasted for the purpose of this Highland Park special... and this humble taster must admit that the first time around he had them scored the other way around.

Highland Park Vintage 1978 (2011) 47,8% for Global Travel Retail


Nose:
Citrus and honey, hints of mint, lightweight sherry notes without a blemish, an oaky nip too.

Taste:
Honey, oak, spices, nuts, peppery, vanilla toffee, again hints of mint, liquorice and Kangotcho Kenyan Estate Coffee.

I like this, but did expect a little more, considering the 3 bottlings reviews above are from somewhat the same distilling regime. The price has also crept up where it begins to to hurt for most people.

89/100!




Highland Park Vintage 1973 (2010) 50,6% for Global Travel Retail

Nose:
Very light in style, flowery, hardwood section at the building market, also the HP classics of honey and citrus notes are present.

Taste:
Cake icing, tropical fruits - mango, peach, melons. More citrus notes, honey again on a spicy oaky layer. Smoky edge and a hint of warm apple pie? Remarkably fresh for a 37yo whisky

Good stuff!! but again very pricey!

90/100!





I hope you enjoyed reading this Highland Park Special.
I must admit that I've always held this distillery in high regard and its certainly one I like to recommend to people when they as me what to get as an all-rounder. The HP-style seems to agree with many peoples palates and the consistency of the spirit is very high.

I can also wholeheartedly recommend that if you want an experience out of the ordinary, do take the long trip to the Orkney Islands. It's breathtakingly beautiful up there, with lots of scenery, history, wildlife and of course - whisky! :-)

Happy Dramming out there!