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| Hello, that is considered one of our (nearly) each day tastings. Santé! |
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July 27, 2024
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Whiskyfun turns 22 this weekend
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We’ll admit, we have been a bit caught off guard by our anniversary this yr, particularly since my amusing nation had determined to organise the opening of the Olympic Video games on the very same weekend, and I did not discover the time to jot down the normal private editorial. We’ll do this on the finish of the yr, okay? However in the intervening time we may even see one another on the Edinburgh Fringe this yr, then on the Whisky Present in London (we’ll do a enjoyable ‘blind masterclass’ with Daybreak D., Dave B., and Sukhinder S.), then in fact at Whisky Reside Paris (we’ll see what we provide you with) and probably in Mitteleuropa. Que sera sera, qui vivra verra .
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In any case, there’ll solely be two classes to rejoice our twenty second anniversary: as we speak, some terrific Port Ellens and Ardbegs by Angus, and tomorrow, just a few rums by yours actually, since it is going to be Sunday, the official day for malternatives. -Serge
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Angus’s Nook
From our correspondent and
expert taster Angus MacRaild in Scotland
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Port Ellen & Ardbeg
for Whiskyfun’s
twenty second Birthday
I had already been eyeing this wee stash of Port Ellen samples accumulating on my cabinets when Serge prodded me and talked about that this weekend (tomorrow exactly) is Whiskyfun’s twenty second birthday. So, it looks like a serendipitous quirk that I used to be already planning on doing battle with these Port Ellens as we speak – and offers good motive so as to add into the discount a modest pile of Ardbegs as properly. |
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Twenty-two is just not a milestone yr usually, however within the case of a passion whisky weblog, I might say every year from right here on out counts as some form of milestone.
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I believe it’s vital to re-iterate that this weblog is a tasting diary and a passion. We don’t monetise it in any manner and we each proceed to report and publish notes right here as a result of it’s a pleasurable and enjoyable previous time. For me, personally, and talking as somebody who can be professionally concerned in whisky in varied methods, it’s additionally an especially helpful option to maintain myself tasting, pondering and writing about whisky for the sake of enjoyment and enjoyable. Even when that’s solely a handful of notes right here and there, it’s a joyful option to train that means of tasting a whisky and making an attempt to pin down and talk what you consider it.
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It’s comprehensible that generally individuals get labored up about any variety of issues on Whiskyfun: from particular person scores; to scoring methodology; whether or not or not or to what diploma to remark upon pricing. These are all comprehensible areas that trigger intermittent ripples of disagreement or debate in our neighborhood. I might say that over the 19 years I’ve been working in whisky (on and off admittedly) and even longer when it comes to participation within the wider tradition, I might merely provide one vital statement: as whisky has grow to be rather more costly, so issues like opinions, scores and even tasting notes themselves can grow to be political and extra profoundly divisive as a result of we really feel like extra is at stake.
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I perceive why issues written on Whiskyfun may not at all times be agreed with, however I do assume the good energy of Whiskyfun stays the consistency of style that Serge and I share. The readability of said opinion, in that we’re each self-confessed lovers of distillate-driven whiskies, and fewer so followers of overtly oak-influenced, or wine handled whiskies. That place has been a relentless on Whiskyfun and, primarily based on the broad suggestions I hear from our wonderful readership, it’s a place that has allowed many individuals to make sense of our notes in accordance with their very own private preferences. Which, I hope, makes our typically foolish and completely non-professional wee writings, not less than of some use and curiosity inside our neighborhood. And most of all, I hope it nonetheless makes these notes, and Whiskyfun itself, of some relevance.
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As Whiskyfun enter its twenty third yr, I really feel broadly optimistic about whisky and its outlook on the smaller-scale, single malt stage. There are fascinating individuals striving to do fascinating issues in every single place, a phenomenon which is able to, in time, I’m positive, ship higher and extra fascinating whiskies. Past that, I really feel just a few extra strands of pessimism encroaching in relation to the fortunes of the broader, mainstream business. Relentless pursuit of upper costs for what are primarily mass produced, comparatively easy and unhealthy merchandise is just not one thing that feels sustainable within the face of many powerful headwinds, each financial and cultural.
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What I’m sure of nevertheless, is that there’ll proceed to be a tradition and neighborhood that revolves round this humorous, often scrumptious, generally bizarre, curiously enthralling drink we name whisky. The fortunes of the broader business might sway in some way, however the neighborhood of authentically motivated and passionately individuals stays broad sufficient and huge sufficient to maintain itself into the long run I believe.
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What I’m regularly reminded of, is that whisky is social, it’s about pleasure, about enjoyable, about expertise and, above all, about individuals. If it isn’t these issues, then it’s deader than a Kamikaze Dodo – and no quantity of 5 determine trinkets for ultra-high web value tax avoiders will resuscitate it in the long term.
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Port Ellen 13 yo 1983/1996 (43%, Instituto Ecologico Italiano) 
Color: white wine. Nostril: pure seawater and sheep wool with these wee grubby undertones which can be very typical PE. Fisherman’s rubber wellies, tarred rope, smoked sea salt and bitumen. Will get more and more petrolic and gently ashy as properly. Mouth: simply excellent at 43%! Very pure and briny peat smoke, ashiness, tarred rope once more, extra somewhat punchy and fats coastal qualities, grapefruit rind, almond oil, camphor and pickling brine. Very good peaty and briny mixture growing. End: lengthy, tarry, stuffed with smoked olive oils, tinned sardines, lemon juice and capers. Feedback: simply excellent younger Port Ellen.
SGP: 466 – 91 factors
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Port Ellen 1971/1989 (40%, Jas Gordon & Co. Auxil Import France)
Color: gold. Nostril: beautiful old style Islay peat that manages to be each in some way drying and coastal but additionally sweetish and incorporating emotions of smoked honey, dried unique fruits and pure tar liqueurs. Easy in some methods, however completely lovely. I discover it a bit harking back to some Sixties Caol Ila. Mouth: feels little drained at first, however these deeper, bass-like notes of dry, earth peat smoke, coal embers and medical tinctures corresponding to iodine are there and start to develop in presence with a bit time. Pretty drying, peppery and tarry high quality. As ever, that is simply made a bit problematic by G&M’s bottling follow of chill filtration + 40% + caramel (most likely). Will get surprisingly salty and earthy with time, exhibiting some great notes of dried seaweed and tar. End: surprisingly lengthy on condition that preliminary softness of arrival within the mouth. Glowing peat embers, tar, iodine and this somewhat sooty / camphor observe within the aftertaste. Feedback: a wobble on the preliminary palate, however I believe it recovers very finely. Port Ellen had some actual glory years within the these first 5 years of manufacturing post-reconstruction. The nostril alone is 94-point materials however taken altogether I believe we’ll go along with…
SGP: 566 – 91 factors.
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Port Ellen 1978/1992 (43%, Dun Eideann, Auxil Import France, casks #70-77, 3,500 bottles)
An outdated sub-series of Signatory’s, one which sheltered many unbelievable bottlings throughout its lifetime. Color: white wine. Nostril: very completely different, and at first feels a lot lighter on the peat smoke, rather more dominated by lemon rinds, seawater, moist seaside pebbles and delicate medicinal notes of bandages and mercurochrome. Maybe additionally just a few notes of capers and inexperienced peppercorns in brine. An attractive, lighter tackle Port Ellen that also manages to retain a few of these extra typical ‘soiled’ points. Mouth: terrific arrival! Sooty, drying and peppery peat smoke, balanced by seawater, extra lemon zest and notes of coal smoke and oysters. Recent, however firmly on the lighter aspect of this distillery. Pretty light saltiness that works properly with these citrus vibes and lighter peat smoke notes. End: good size, on a somewhat crystalline, brittle peat smoke, anchovy paste, pepper and tar. There’s additionally a enjoyable farmy observe that seems within the aftertaste. Feedback: the late 70s have been barely much less ‘quick’ vintages at Port Ellen I might say, however this one has a freshness and a readability of distillate character that’s simply chic, even at this humble 43%.
SGP: 455 – 92 factors.
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Port Ellen 21 yo 1979/2001 (50%, Douglas Laing ‘Outdated Malt Cask’, 636 bottles) 
Color: straw. Nostril: cleaner than the 80s vintages of PE I might say, rather more on crystalline peat and shoreline ‘stuff’. Numerous crushed seashells, seawater, seaside pebbles and in addition bandages and gauze. Some mineral salts and hints of dried seaweed too. With water: very properly on crab sticks, seashells, mussels in broth, sandalwood and coastal herbs. Mouth: wonderful and emphatic Port Ellen oiliness with mushy embrocations, white pepper and wee traces of camphor and hessian. A bit tar too. With water: pure, coastal, salty and pin sharp with lemon juice, peat ashes and coal smoke. End: good size, somewhat briny, ashy, smoky and on lanolin and kelp. Feedback: not a stellar Port Ellen, however somewhat a brilliant, clear, barely lighter and excellent one.
SGP: 456 – 89 factors.
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Port Ellen 27 yo 1978/2006 (54.8%, Douglas Laing, Platinum Choice, Outdated & Uncommon, sherry, 396 bottles)
Color: pale amber. Nostril: stupendous tarriness, blended with salted liquorice, varnish, cheng pi, dried kelp and umami seasonings corresponding to Maggi. Very good earthiness and dryness with wee cured meats and a few preserved darkish fruits. Plum sauce, beef inventory and salted almonds. Sensible and tense fusion of peat and sherry. With water: some very outdated balsamic, pork scratchings, iodine and pure tar. Mouth: sensible, highly effective arrival that additionally carries clear complexity with it. Many salty, gamey and umami notes, with beautiful drying peat smoke too, however by no means dominating these great, mushy and plummy darkish fruit notes which can be clearly current too. With water: pristinely salty and earthy and splendidly drying. Stays beautifully tense, highly effective and rigorously on smoked meats, sea salt, tar and soy sauce. Additionally natural bitters and artichoke liqueur. End: very lengthy, packing extra of the identical relentless salinity, earthy dryness, peppery and gamey meat notes and extra bitter natural qualities. Feedback: excellent sherried Port Ellen. Looks as if Douglas Laing had many nice sherry cask PEs. A profile that’s extraordinarily arduous to come across in whiskies as we speak.
SGP: 567 – 93 factors.
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Port Ellen 10 yo 1981/1992 (64%, Cadenhead ‘Genuine Assortment’ one hundred and fiftieth Anniversary, for Preiss Import, California) 
Color: pale white wine. Nostril: extra closed and compact, which is to be anticipated, these tremendous excessive energy variations are hardly ever as expressive the older ones. This one shows a somewhat austere salinity, with hints of ink, wool, lemon juice and concrete. Water is required… With water: getting a bit bizarre now, on inks, graphite, plastic, burning newspaper and a barely farmy contact. Mouth: very powerful! Some sense of peaty purity as hoped for, but additionally a somewhat brutal austerity that once more brings to thoughts concrete, chalk, clay and seaside pebbles. Additionally a bit plasticine and vinyl. With water: carbolic acid, lemonade, chalk, paraffin, ointments, tar – excessive within the excessive! End: lengthy, hyper-drying, ashy, aggressively salty and once more this sense of brutalist austerity. Feedback: not too positive about this one. It’s a bit everywhere in the store, inside this very slim and hard profile. If that makes any sense.
SGP: 268 – 84 factors.
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Port Ellen 12 yo 1983/1995 (57.1%, Cadenhead ‘Genuine Assortment’)
Color: white wine. Nostril: again to the rather more acquainted and comforting purity that these manufacturing years show when at their finest. Beautiful freshness at first, stuffed with citrus fruits, coastal air, seaside sand, pebbles, coastal flowers and mineral salts. The peat is extra elegant and complicated too, a barely extra fragrant and brittle model of peat smoke that I’m used to in younger, early 80s Port Ellen. With time it’s getting a bit saltier and little extra petrolic and exact. With water: is it attainable to have such a factor as ‘advanced saltiness’? Actually, saline and citric, however stuffed with tiny mineral notes, medical tinctures, cooking oils, samphire, gentian, clay. A somewhat hypnotic fragrant profile that retains on growing… Mouth: gloriously pure, oily, peaty and coastal. Retaining this impression of energy and freshness from the nostril, including in just a few drops of lemon liqueur, eucalyptus oil and black olive tapenade. Additionally preserved lemons. I nearly don’t need to add water, it’s simply excellent. However we should do our responsibility for Whiskyfun! With water: holy moly! Opens up in beautiful style! Getting broader, fatter in texture, stuffed with smoked olive oil, ointments, medicinal herbs, seawater, grapefruit and lemon once more, citrus liqueurs, paraffin and TCP. End: very, very lengthy. Tar, peat soot, dried anchovies, capers and extra preserved lemons clinging to your enamel for expensive life! Feedback: A whisky that begins out sensible, then appears to simply enhance leaps and bounds with every step. Wonderful growth and regularly fascinating.
SGP: 566 – 93 factors.
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Port Ellen 15 yo 1981/1996 (62.6%, The Whisky Connoisseur, Cask Grasp Choice No.3, cask #1391)
Color: pale straw. Nostril: Pure tar, pickling brine, soiled martini, seaside bonfire, gherkins, capers, anchovy paste and inexperienced olives. Additionally an nearly solvent-tinged peat profile which is simply nice. With water: splendidly deep and fats, stuffed with hessian and camphor impressions, smoked olive oil, grapefruit peel and cough medication. Mouth: very good arrival, with wonderful fatness of texture, which carries the alcohol very effortlessly. Many extra tarry, camphor and thick peaty impressions. Aniseed, salted liquorice, soy sauce and pure seawater with lemon juice. With water: much more exact, hones in on this very recent, mineral and coastal profile, riddled with thick peat smoke, tar, medicinal embrocations and seawater. End: very lengthy, as soon as once more! Brilliantly peaty, pure, oily, tarry, medicinal and but nonetheless with some vigorous citrus notes within the combine. Feedback: sensible younger(ish) Port Ellen. It manages to juggled fatness and rigidity in an incredible and compelling manner. Younger Islay whiskies as we speak are inclined to lack this depth and fatness I discover.
SGP: 567 – 92 factors.
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Port Ellen 18 yo 1980/1998 (62.2%, Cadenhead ‘Genuine Assortment’, 312 bottles)
Color: white wine. Nostril: magnificent! An identical profile however on the cusp of better age and maturity, and with that comes better complexity on this case. Stunning notes of recent citrus fruits with the anticipated, and actually emphatic, notes of seawater, tar, petrol, iodine and moist kelp. Boiler smoke, aniseed distillate, fennel and chilli sausage, waxed canvas and tarred rope. Completely sensible! With water: a pure coastal profile now, with waxed lemons, recent oysters, dried herbs, delicate briny qualities. Fantastic growth and complexity. Mouth: once more, this sense of purity married with fatness. Pure, vivid and sharp peaty flavours, with coastal and mineral purity, but additionally an oiliness and thickness of texture within the mouth which is unbelievable. Once more lemons, limes and grapefruit with even one or two tropical glimmers as properly. With water: again to extra tarry and peaty energy and precision. Nonetheless this sense of fatness with extra petrol, impressions of smoked olive oil, camphor, iodine and oily sheep wool. End: very lengthy! Actually dense peat smoke coating the palate. Additionally lemon and natural notes, verbena, menthol touches and gentian. Feedback: I don’t know 1980 Port Ellens too properly, however this one is sensational. What I more and more realise about these teenage Port Ellens is the mix of purity of flavour and fatness of texture is what actually stands them aside.
SGP: 467 – 93 factors.
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You already know what we want in spite of everything these intense and intensely highly effective Port Ellens? Some good, refreshing Ardbegs…
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Ardbeg 1974/1992 (43%, Dun Eideann, Auxil Import France, casks #2026-2030, 3,800 bottles)
A superb instance of the sort of somewhat easy bottling that was made comparatively affordably out there by early independents and helped slowly however certainly shift common consideration onto single malts. Additionally, very a lot an artefact from the ‘age of innocence’ when individuals thought nothing of placing out a sherry matured 1974 Ardbeg in a side-series like this at 43%. How instances have modified… Color: amber. Nostril: even at 43%, this immense energy of 70s Ardbeg comes by means of. A shocking mixture of fusel oils, pure tar extracts, hessian and a deep, somewhat sweetish and extremely medicinal-tinged peat smoke. Splendidly dense and fragrant with iodine, dunnage warehouse and heavy camphor all rising. That is all with out even mentioning the sherry, which is actually superbly built-in to the purpose that you just nearly don’t discover it, though it’s definitely there including great salty and earthy notes beneath all that beautiful peat smoke. Mouth: large whisky for 43%! Stunningly dry, earthy and tarry peat, stuffed with textural, barely grubby smoky qualities, black pepper, iodine drops, outdated rope and oily hessian material impressions. I additionally discover many medicinal roots and herbs corresponding to gentian, wormwood and verbena. Additionally deeply earthy aged black teas. A deceptively advanced and hypnotic whisky, despite the fact that the dominant impression is of a extremely singular, excellent fusion of sherry and peat into one profile. End: stunningly lengthy, pristinely salty, natural, bitter, drying, earthy and immensely wealthy with thick peat smoke, black pepper and but extra of those splendidly tarry rope and camphor notes. Feedback: the space between making an attempt outdated Ardbegs corresponding to this grows better every year, but nearly every event is a sledgehammer reminder of simply what an astonishing and endlessly idiosyncratic whisky this distillery created throughout these years. This humble little bottling is up there with among the finest.
SGP: 567 – 93 factors.
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Ardbeg 1975/2002 (46.2%, OB for Clan des Grandes Malts, cask #4701, sherry hogshead, 252 bottles)
A really uncommon official single cask for France! Let’s see the way it handles after that sensible wee 1974. Color: orangey amber. Nostril: wonderful how there are such apparent similarities, however that is altogether extra about precision and focus, whereas the 1974 was broader and extra open in its quick profile, maybe resulting from being a multi-cask vatting and bottled at 43%. That is very narrowly on a shocking mixture of iodine and tarry Ardbeg peat smoke. As soon as once more you could have the sensation that the sherry cask affect is there, but it surely’s so deeply entwined and certain up with the distillate that it’s arduous to even discover them as separate forces. This one additionally shows a better impression of sweetness and focus, a sense of natural cough syrups liqueurs fabricated from gentian and tar. There’s a worldwide contact of fragility to this nostril, but it surely stays hypnotic and undeniably beautiful. Mouth: a bit gradual however the development within the mouth builds and builds to a stunningly thick, peaty crescendo. Syrupy candy, whereas additionally drying natural and peppery on the identical time; a kind of whiskies that feels prefer it mustn’t make sense on paper, the issues it is ready to obtain concurrently. Deeply oily, tarry and with an nearly fatty, glistening peat presence on the palate. End: splendidly lengthy, stunningly natural and peaty, completely bitter, and showcasing all of the anticipated medicines, tars, wee earthy and meaty notes and this gorgeously tarry aftertaste. Feedback: I’m going forwards and backwards between these two Ardbegs and they’re each subtly completely different but additionally so shut of their brilliance. I am keen on the breadth of character within the Dun Eideann, however this one carries and little additional precision and energy with it. Each are distinctive reminders of simply what a novel and world class spirit 70s Ardbeg was.
SGP: 577 – 94 factors.
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Ardbeg 19 yo 1975/1995 (47.3%, Cadenhead, Genuine Assortment)
Color: pale gold. Nostril: underneath the bonnet of the identical distillate with none sherry, and even any apparent wooden actually. Pure medicinal embrocations with many cough syrups, natural inclusions, tarred rope, complete warehouses of hessian and issues like tiger balm, vapour rubs and Bonjella mouth antiseptic. It additionally has this very good aspect of varnish, resinous fir wooden and salt cured fish. And all that earlier than we even point out this completely wonderful old style Ardbeg peatiness. Mouth: this naturally decrease cask energy reveals wonderful complexity on this spirit, emphatically tarry and peaty as anticipated, but additionally many tiny tertiary flavours. Outdated pressed flowers, dried out outdated honey, face cream, olive oil, broiled shellfish, crystallised orange, cocktail bitters, aniseed… the record goes on. It’s only a disgrace the pattern I’ve is somewhat tiny since you actually really feel that is the form of dram that you would sip and analyse within the small hours. End: medium, fatty, tarry, stuffed with drying peppery peat, natural liqueurs and plenty of refined medicinal embrocations. Feedback: the softer aspect Seventies Ardbeg, however a little bit of a revelation when it comes to all that complexity on show. An irrepressible and sensible distillate.
SGP: 466 – 92 factors.
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Ardbeg 20 yo 1975/1995 (51.8%, Cadenhead, Genuine Assortment)
Color: pale gold. Nostril: wonderful similarity, and but, clear distinction. The peat is sort of gelatinous and dominating right here. Coal tar cleaning soap, animal fat, hessian, TCP, iodine drops, pure camphor, tarred rope and richly smoked olive oil. There’s additionally lemon oil, white mushroom and even wee tropical touches starting to emerge, which we don’t typically discover in Ardbeg. With water: a tiny little bit of Port Ellen cosplay happening with some barely ‘soiled’ notes of creel nets and boiler smoke. However in any other case, it’s tarry rope and dry, peppery peat galore! Mouth: surprisingly, it’s the salinity which takes quick centre stage. Stunningly exact, coastal, salty and stuffed with shellfish broth, Maggi, soy sauce, horseradish and salt-baked cod. Then the peat and medicinal elements actually start to emerge in drive, additionally extra lemon oil, extra tiny wee unique fruits and issues like crystallised honey and classical waxes. With water: magnificent, all the above however solely extra so. Beautiful and fairly breath-taking. End: one other one which’s extraordinarily lengthy, actually getting within the quantum realm of tar, peat, medication, herbs and shoreline ‘vibes’. Feedback: you are inclined to run out of descriptors and superlatives a bit when tasting Seventies Ardbeg of this calibre. Seventies Ardbeg: 1 English language: Nil.
SGP: 577 – 94 factors.
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Ardbeg 27 yo 1972/2000 (50%, Douglas Laing ‘Outdated Malt Cask’, 238 bottles)
Color: gold. Nostril: older and extra concentrated. These 1972s are inclined to contain one thing of the softer and extra enigmatic traits of 60s Ardbeg for my part (alas, no recognized examples of Ardbeg from 1970 or 1971 have been ever bottled, to my information). So, we’ve a very beautiful fusion of thick, wealthy peat smoke, crystallised honey that verges on aged mead, pure tar extracts, very outdated natural liqueurs and plenty of layers of camphor, antiseptic, aniseed, iodine and the sensible medley of mentholated notes and dried herbs. With water: camphor and natural medicines and liqueurs galore. A long time outdated Drambuie diluted with cask energy Nineteen Fifties Talisker! Mouth: fairly merely, the nostril in molten, sippable type! Solely I’d add there’s a chic umami and salty savoury streak that runs by means of the whole lot. The peat is drier and much more highly effective. There’s an entire slurry of bandages, antiseptic, TCP, cough syrups and ointments. Then that formidable, relentless tarriness that simply retains on asserting itself time and again at every stage. With water: it brings again these honeyed tones and concepts of mead, liqueurs, outdated Chartreuse, copper cash, Bakelite, clay, camphor, fennel seed and turmeric. End: deep, extraordinarily lengthy and profoundly wealthy, thick and peaty. Feedback: If you happen to put STR staves underneath my fingernails, I’d simply admit that 1972 is my favorite Ardbeg classic. The analysis continues although…
SGP: 467 – 94 factors.
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Heartfelt bear hugs to KC, Aaron and the oldsters on the Golden Promise!
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Blissful birthday Whiskyfun!
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