'A SPEYSIDE DISTILLERY' 2001 18YO - CADENHEAD VIRTUAL OPEN DAY 2020

In September 2019, independent bottler Wm. Cadenhead did their first dedicated Open Day event - just for them called Cadenhead in the Courtyard.
This was a new type of event to make up for them having to share the Kilkerran Open Day during the Campbeltown Malts Festival in May. This day also gave Cadenheads the opportunity to feature only their bottlings and tastings and also release some bottlings only for this day, also. It was great fun and an event to look out for in the future.

This year the Campbeltown Malt Festival was, of course, canceled due to Covid - and so was the planned Cadenhead in the Courtyard even for September 2020.

Instead, a virtual festival was arranged, which each brand having its own virtual Open Day and a release of a virtual festival bottle.

The one offered on the Cadenhead Virtual Open Day was the bottle featured in the review below... it's only named 'A Speyside Distillery' which, with Cadenhead, usually means the family-owned distillery in the Valley of the Green Grass - and I'll go out on a limb here and go along with that.

It's not that Cadenheads never bottle anything with this particular distillery name on - but due to legal reasons, they can only bottle 2 or 3 a year if I remember correctly. I'll shortly be reviewing one that carries the GF name.

It's also not only Cadenhead that is limited to this and this distillery that imposes restrictions on names. Its widely seen across the whisky industry.
Other examples are names like Williamson & Leapfrog for Laphroaig and when the label says 'An Orkney Malt', you have a Highland Park.

On to the review...

Glenfarclas Distillery Visitors Center, September 23rd 2016 © The Malt Desk

'A Speyside Distillery' 2001 18yo 52,3% (dist. xx.10.2001 - bott xx.10.2020) 1 ex-bourbon + 1 ex-sherry cask, 552 bottles, Cadenhead Virtual Open Day 2020

Nose:

OK, I'm guessing that if you get this straight out of a newly open bottle you'll wrinkle your nose...
My bottle has now been open for a couple of weeks and the nose has certainly come to life with notes of malt barns, damp slightly bitter/sweet wood notes, brown sugar, cracked peppercorns and a slight sour note.
Various wood spices start to dominate a bit along with more dry and sweet sherry influence and a hint of milk chocolate bars.

All quite well - even though it doesn't seem to swim well

Taste:
Much better (without water, that is)

The sherry notes are coming through very clearly - though, I'm having a hard time determining if the wood spices that follow are from the bourbon or the sherry cask used.

I'm getting quite an active bourbon cask in the background (I might be wrong) then sweet and spicy, nutmeg, caramel, dark honey, a hint of dark chili-infused chocolate, drying cinnamon, powdered ginger, and hint of orange peel.

It's all very pleasant, but it's like it wants to allow both the bourbon and sherry cask to have their say but it's not allowing either or both to shine - it's like it has not had time to marry properly before being bottled.

This is not -by any account- a bad whisky scoring an 85/100
I just expected a bit more of this - especially given the circumstances surrounding this release.

85/100!

IMAGES OF DUFFTOWN (CLOCKTOWER) - MALTS OF SCOTLAND

German bottler 'Malts of Scotland' has made quite a name for themselves in the past few years. They've managed to bottle quite a few delicious casks, both young and old... They've also released some undisclosed malts, some of them bearing names and images from Speyside and the one I'm about to review is one such...

There are 3 bottling in the 'Images of Dufftown' series and rumours say they're all produced by William Grant Ltd. There's the Dufftown Whiskyshop-release, a Balvenie Castle-release and finally a Dufftown Clocktower-release.

Rumours say that the Clocktower-release, which I'm about to review is a Glenfiddich, but we'll never know for sure - but for let's say it is as there's not many indie Glenfiddichs around. Speculations around the other expression goes towards, The Balvenie and finally Kininvie if what they say is true that the casks are all from William Grant Ltd.

Anyway, on to the review...

Entrance to Glenfiddich Distillery, Dufftown, October 18th 2014 © The Malt Desk

Images of Dufftown (Clocktower) 1988/2013 24yo 53,2%, 254 bottles, Malt of Scotland

Colour is straw

Nose:
Faint, toasted oak, vanilla, freshly baked shortbread, sweet fresh pineapple, ginger and brans

Taste:
More fruit, apple and pear mostly, lots of malt, honey, icing sugar and vanilla and ginger again. The finish turns more towards a citrus theme making the finish a long and drying one.

This may not be the most complex Speysider you'll come across, but what its does it does extremely well - I'll take a bottle of this any day! especially to show this off as an example to people who tends to write off Glenfiddich as that mass produced stuff with no soul... and its also at cask strength and almost 25 years of age...

Finally, thanks to MBO for the sample!

87/100!

SPEYSIDE REGION 1995 17YO - ARCHIVES

Phew, what can this be? As you all probably know, Speyside is the single largest whisky producing region on Scotland making it almost impossible to guess the distillery behind this whisky.

When tasting this I of course had my suspicion about where in Speyside to venture, but since its a single cask it can come across as something not even close to a distillery's normal style.

Where this one originates from, I can only guess... which I will do after the review...

Thomas Telford Bridge across the Spey River (wideangle & HDR), 26th September 2010 © The Malt Desk

Speyside Region 1995 17yo (xx.09.1995/xx.11.2012) 48,2%, Butt#56, 54 bottles, Archives 'The Fishes of Samoa'

Colour is straw

Nose:
Vanilla, then very fruity on apples, tuning more tropical as we go along with peach and mango. I'm thinking alot like those tropical fruit juices you buy in large cartons in the supermarket. Also a faint dairy note, so the whole thing to me is like nosing a mellow smoothie in dram-form

Taste:
This is lovely, Initially fruit of the tropical kind, also melon, honey and a hint of something floral. Very nice integration of the malt and oak here. Finishes on oranges marmalade and slight peppery edge.

Anyway, this is also a very more-ish dram... and I do see some similarities between the fruitiness in this one and the Bunnahabhain I just reviewed.

My guess is... Benriach? Why? Because I had a very similar, although older (1975) expression straight from the cask at Benriach distillery during the Speyside festival in May this year...

But apparently its not - sources tell me (and also a post on whiskybase.com) that this is a Glenfarclas... but a Glenfarclas very far from their usual style, IMO...

This doesn't change the fact that this is very good whisky!

88/100! ...and still available here

LAUDALE 12YO - ADELPHI

Following up the Macallan from the other day with another bottling by Adelphi.
This particular bottling was fairly cheap when it first came out, but apparently its flavour profile has made people silly or maybe people just want to try an -what has been revealed to be- independent bottling of Glenfarclas. Anyway, this bottling that was around £40/€48 euro when it came out is now fetching up and around £115/€140!! in auctions. Pretty steep for a 12yo undisclosed (well, almost) whisky.

What are the mechanisms around this?
Does people really drink with their eyesn and just dont want to admit it? Whisky preachers and bottlers advocate that the colour of a whisky isn't important and that almost colourless whiskies are just as good as darker ones?... Still the first ones of the shelves at the retailers are the dark sherried expressions.

I too indulge myself in sherry matured bottlings, even heavily sherried ones - but that's because I like the taste, but I just refuse to believe that there are that many people out there crazy for sherry matured whisky...
Are investors picking up these bottlings or are people just hoarding them for other reasons... but then again... are there any other reasons for picking up a bottle than either drinking or investing?

Before I get a huge rant started I'd better review the Laudale...

Laudale 12yo 46%, batch 1, 3458 bottles, Adelphi

Colour is dark mahogany

Nose:
Thick rich dried grapes, very bitter/sweet, balsamico, strong coffee and blackcurrant

Taste:
Creamy rich chocolate, cinnamon, high quality raisins, more coffee (espresso style). cherry and blackberry. Also like chewing a coffee bean.

Not overly complex, the sherry has taken over completely, what I tend to call 'sherry broken' but what it does, it does very well. Sherry heads won't be disappointed!

86/100! for its extreme sherry style...

THE WHISKY AGENCY - SPEYSIDE SINGLE MALT 1995

German cult bottler 'The Whisky Agency' is one of the highest rated smaller indie bottlers around. They're know for their sometimes very pretty label featuring everything from sharks to insects and their pretty consistant high quality of their bottlings.

This time, though, I'll be trying an undisclosed malt from them. The distillery name from which this malt comes from, ends on 'clas' - won't take up much of your malt mind capacity to find its origins from that, will it? ;-)

Speyside Single Malt 1995/2012 17yo 46%, refill sherry, 409 bottles, The Whisky Agency in joint bottling with Bresser & Timmer, NL

White wine in colour

Nose:
Oils, green apples, heavy citrus and flowery notes and sweet white wine


Taste:
Loads of fruit, freshly cut melon, some spices - then turning heavier into a more boiled fruit style. Finish is drying like a fino sherry and the comes out on top with a bit cereal and malt on the end.

86/100! ... incredible nose on this one!

SPEYSIDE REGION NO. 3 1967 - DUNCAN TAYLOR

This is an undisclosed Glenfarclas bottled by Huntly bottler, Duncan Taylor, which generally puts out some good stuff, though I'm guess stocks are getting low by now.

Lets try and dissect this one:

Speyside Region No. 3 1967 37yo 40,7%, cask#5810, 334 bottles by Duncan Taylor

Nose:
First nosing after a generous pour hits your nose with heavy toffee, then settles strawberries, aniseed, gentle honey, a little leather, hints of apples and marzipan and oak as in fresh wood shavings. Very nice!

Taste:
Dry then sweet, then dry again, bitter almonds, burnt sugar, leather, spices, dried fruits - figs and raisins. Then hints of red berries again (but not strawberries this time) and oak then hits on the finale.

A very delicious dessert style dram that would have hit the 90-mark had it not been for the oak influence on the finish.

89/100!

7 WHISKIES BOTTLED BY ADELPHI - PART V

Fascadale 10yo 46%, batch 2, 3746 bottles, Adelphi

An undisclosed Talisker

Nose:
Pale straw in colour with salty oaky tang, peat comes in a short wave after that, then briny and few sweet notes in the background.

Taste:
Light peat comes through along with salt and oak on a citric background, but the whole think seems a bit aneamic to me. Some oils does give this one an impressive aftertaste of salt and peat. I cant help to wonder what this would be like at 50%?

Anyways, a good lightly peated everyday dram! 82/100!


Finally, I'd should mention that batch 3 of the Fascadale will see its content switched from Talisker to Highland Park.

For my Danish readers, I should add that the Fascadale batch 3 will sadly not hit the Danish shelves, though it can be sourced in Denmark but under a different (custom) label. If interested, drop me an email and I'll point you in the right direction.

7 WHISKIES BOTTLED BY ADELPHI - PART IV

Liddesdale 18yo 46% - batch 1, 2962 bottles, Adelphi

An undisclosed Bunnahabhain

Nose:
Dark oloroso colour, hints of struck matches turning to rubber and back. Not my favorite style at all, but it seems to settle down after a short while... or maybe its just my nose adjusting. The sherry now comes through with nuts and raisins, but the struck match is still dominant - though not to a unpleasant level.

Taste:
Though heavily sherried, its a lighter style of Bunnahabhain (Does that makes sense at all?) Maybe because of the 46% abv.? I'm not particular fond of the sulphury notes I'm picking up from this one as they seem to overpower the nutty and malty notes I'm also getting. Bitter oak and maybe some coffee also to be found on the finish.

Not my favorite for sure - though I do like batch 2 better, its not so heavy on the sulphury notes! Drinkable... but I kinda feel like its back to the drawing board with this one, sadly...

76/100!

UNDISCLOSED MALTS

Speyside's Finest (Glenfarclas) 1966 43yo, xx.06.1966/xx.10.2009, 48,2% sherry butt#5525, 197 bottles by Douglas Laing Old Malt Cask for The Whisky Show, London

Nose:
Oloroso, Amaretto, Coffee, slightly burnt suger notes

Taste:
Clean cut sherry delivery with chocolate raisins and X-mas Cake, cloves?
Goes on and on and on, 3 drops of water takes away the few bitter oak notes that was found -
A stunner!

91/100! (tasted 16-11-2010)

UNDISCLOSED MALTS

Glen Avon (Glenfarclas) 1958/2007 49yo Gordon & MacPhail 40%
Nose:
Some furniture polish/vinegar on the nose before the sherry emerges, Heavy tea notes like bag left in too long, extremely vinous

Taste:
Dry sherry, but lighter style than the nose suggests, slightly bitter and drying, then gets very dry´with some cocoa/amaretto style to the finish - almost rum-like at times.

A great one for an vanilla ice cream dessert!

89/100! (tasted 05-11-2011)

UNDISCLOSED MALTS

Speyside’s Finest (Glenfarclas) 1965/xx.03.2011, 45yo, 54,2%, Douglas Laing Old & Rare, 182 bottles

Nose:
Struck matches

Taste:
Eggy sulphury in style, water helps a little bit but no!... dissapointment of the day

70/100! (tasted 23-02-2012)