After completing my summer college course, Meat Loaf’s guide to subtlety and understatement, it was time to head to Dufftown again for the autumn festival. (Ozzy Osbourne and Alice Cooper helped me pass the course with flying colours.) After several days of great whisky, great food and frenzied scribbling, here is my account of it.
Once again, each festival event was done in ‘Brucie style’, which means not one drop was to be found in my slops bucket. Because of this, I apologise in advance for any factual errors in my report as my approach is not calculated to improve the memory.
All of the views expressed on the whiskies available are a reflection of my own ability to nose and taste. My famously dodgy notes have improved slightly this time, with some accurate and eloquent descriptions from me and, if I keep up this rate of improvement, I need only to live to be 1800 to be able to write a book on the subject. More seriously, I would add that, to keep this report from being even longer than it already is, I refer the reader to previous reports and tastings if a whisky has made a reappearance.
The Clock Tower Restaurant
Beginning the festival early, I headed to the Clock Tower in Tomintoul where our meal was to be accompanied by drams provided by Mike Drury of the Whisky Castle and songs by writer and singer Robin Laing.
Robin Laing at Glenfarclas
Mike is one of life’s naturally gifted and flamboyant orators and makes Stuart Hall, of ‘It’s a Knockout’ fame, sound like an Open University lecturer on garden moss. Of the whiskies tasted, I particularly enjoyed Old Ballantruan, heavily peated Tomintoul, and Aberlour A’Bunadh (batch 20). The first is a charming, warming dram which is best drunk on a day of the week with a ‘y’ in it’s name and the second is marvellously sweet and rich, bringing to mind chocolate and maple syrup. I would also like to say that A'Bunadh is always bottled at nearly 60%abv but is never prickly because Aberlour take great pains to ensure that hedgehogs don’t get in the casks during maturation. (They take this problem so seriously that they employ a wee guy called Colin specially for this purpose.
Robin treated us to some hilarious songs, from his latest album called ‘One for the Road’, about Bruichladdich Distillery, Uisquebaugh Baul, pilfering from the Caperdonich distillery and, also, to a thought-provoking tune about Heaven Hill bourbon. He also noted that his favourite whisky is his next one, warned us about the dreaded ‘distillers’ dangle’ affliction and read a little from his current book ‘The Whisky River’ before closing with an eye-watering song about the ‘Kirk Douglas Ghoulie’ and another about Bowmore distillery which he jokingly said he was going to call ‘Smoke on the Water’.
Glen Garioch Distillery
Friday brought a bus trip to Glen Garioch distillery, in Aberdeenshire, with Charlie being our bus driver for the day. At the distillery, owned by Morrison Bowmore, we started with a glass of the 8-year-old bottling while we watched a well put together DVD detailing the distillation process. The whisky was light and slightly sharp with a smoky finish and has apparently proved highly popular with the female palate.
Heading out, Master Brewer Kenny Grant took us around the distillery, which produces 1600 litres of spirit per day, up from 1100 last year. Departing from the standard tour format, Kenny showed us the maltings, which have been discontinued for some years and talked of the economics involved in such a process. Kenny also described the steeping process of the barley, which is highly labour intensive and the end result is that competing with professional maltsters is simply not viable.
Heading back in, we were given a glass of the 12-year-old bottling which tastes of liquorice and spice, with a light smokiness to taste. It also improves if you eat shortbread with it. (How brilliant is that? What more excuse do you need to drink whisky and eat shortbread?) Rounding off, the 15-year-old, is sweet and smoky with a crisp refreshing character and is the pick of a very pleasing bunch.
Bidding farewell to Glen Garioch, we headed west to the Ardmore Distillery, at Kennethmont, which is now owned by Jim Beam Brands and is historically linked with the Teacher’s Highland Cream blended whisky. Before being ably guided round by George Forsyth and Gordon Grant, we looked the Teacher family’s collection in the office.
Ardmore Distillery
2006 was a vintage year for Ardmore, which produced 4.3 million litres that year and 2007 could be even better. The whisky is highly prized by blenders and the distillery uses both unpeated and peated malts. The peat is 12-14 ppm, which is very high for a Speysider, until the recent trend for some of Ardmore’s neighbours to release heavier expressions. A heavily peated expression is something to look forward to, should it be made available.
The distillery uses 12.5 million tonnes of malt per batch and uses a Boby mill as opposed to the more common Porteus mill. Until 2001, coal furnaces were used to heat the stills but now steam is used and this change is reckoned to have had no effect on the spirit produced. On a more practical and pleasant note, Ardmore is a much healthier place to work without coal dust to deal with.
A trip through the warehouse proved intriguing as several ‘Quarter Casks’ were there, exactly like those used by sister distillery Laphroaig, and some experimental batches, including a Courvoisier Cognac finish. Ardmore is very rarely matured in sherry casks and has a plentiful supply of casks from Jim Beam Bourbon for maturation and the new management has taken much more care of wood selection than has previously been the case so we can look forward to an improvement in an already high quality whisky.
Closing the tour, we tasted the 1998 centenary bottling, at 12 years old, which was stylish, sweet and smoky and went very nicely with some Deeside shortbread. Also, an non-age-statement bottling, to be launched in November, was spicier and smooth is bottled at a reassuring 46%abv.
Thanking George and Gordon, who rounded off the visit with the lovely touch of giving us some Teacher’s miniatures, we headed back to Dufftown in time for lunch and a vertical tasting of Springbank whisky from Campbeltown, in south-west Scotland.
Springbank Vertical Tasting
Making her Dufftown debut was Campbeltown girl Kate Wright, who took us through a series of un-chillfiltered bottlings, all, bar two, at 46% abv.
We opened the session with the triple-distilled and unpeated Hazelburn 8-year-old. Hazelburn has only been distilled since 1997 and this was light on the nose with bourbon and syrup on the taste and water revealed a sparkling, zesty finish.
Almost immediately after the tasting began, Campbeltown man and festival regular Danny Maguire struck up a conversation with Kate. (Danny and I became firm friends after I helped him finish a two-piece jigsaw puzzle).
The Springbank 100 proof (57.2% abv) is surprisingly delicate and, in Kate’s view, a stunning example of the benefits not chill-filtering whisky. The toffee-cream taste gave way to a pepper and vanilla finish. The 15-year-old sherry cask matured version is one which Kate describes as being like Christmas cake in a glass and it is exceptionally rich.
As we tasted, Kate and Danny, who has amassed a very impressive whisky collection since he retired from water polo after his horse drowned, talked of how much the town had changed since he lived there. Kate describes it as the end of the middle of nowhere and it has 20 pubs, not all of which you should go into.
Springbank’s 1997 vintage, at 55.2%abv, was my pick from the talk. It has been matured in re-charred sherry casks and is part of what will be a run of small batch vintage bottlings to be released every 6 months or so. These will not be single cask as that is the policy of sister bottling company Cadenhead’s. I found this to be smooth, despite the high strength, and sweet with a vibrant spicy character.
Two samples of the heavily peated Longrow range finished off the tasting. Despite having the same level of peat as Ardbeg, this whisky cannot be mistaken for a classic Islay peat monster. The 10-year-old is soft with sweet fruits on the taste and a subtly smoky finish. When nosing the 14-year-old, I detected smoked fish and, so pleased was I to have composed an accurate tasting note, I got Kate to sign a sworn affidavit to that effect. By this time, convulsed with barely controlled laughter, Kate reckoned that this also gives you smoked cheese and other foods on the palate as well and closed by telling us to expect an 18-year-old version in the spring.
Whether it was because he was off to colour in the books he had just bought or because he had snorted coke and had the fizzy bubbles go right up his nose, Danny missed the next session which was a shame as Duncan Taylor’s Mark Watt had brought a stellar and varied selection of un-chillfiltered whiskies with him. (As a young man, Mark discovered that his liver is evil and he has sworn to destroy it.)
A 1994 Mortlach from the NC2 range (46% abv as standard) had vanilla and syrupy flavours with a fresh, lively and crisp character and a creamy, peppery finish. Mark cautions that this is so easy going, you can easily drink a lot unwittingly. By contrast, A 1972 Lonach range Caperdonich, Mark’s favourite distillery, was rather flat and tired at 41.9%abv. Moist wood was the dominant flavour and it rather disappeared with the addition of water.
At this point, Mark invited those who don’t like Caperdonich to leave but I took the philosophical view that if people don’t like that one then it leaves all the more for him. Mark also notes that it is a tough job to try casks and he often has to take his work home with him. On a more serious note, there will be a shortage of Lonach whiskies in the near future as DTC have used their stock of old, low strength casks.
A 1979 Carsebridge, from the long-closed lowland grain distillery, was a real find. DTC have a large stock of well-aged grain and this sherry-matured dram had a liquorice nose and was very sweet with a prickly finish. (A job for Colin, methinks). Mark joked that he has this on his cornflakes and I’d have laughed even harder if I hadn’t seen him do this.
A 1968 Glenlivet, at 50.9%abv and matured in a sherry butt, kicked sand in the weedy face of rival, official bottlings with a soothingly sweet nose and a warm syrupy taste. Despite it’s advanced age and strength, it was marvellously easy to drink. The only cautionary note is that it doesn’t take a lot of water. In total contrast to this, a 1992 NC2 Caol Ila was pale and had a fresh, coastal nose. In the glass, lay a very pleasant surprise. The expected classic Islay taste did not materialize and a light, zesty sweetness appeared on both the middle and finish and made this a great whisky for both those who love Islay whiskies and those who think they don’t.
As the tasting drew to a close, Mark told us of his encounter with Octomore, very heavily peated Bruichladdich, which he compared to drinking dirty bread from an ashtray and he received a thunderous round of applause. Shortly afterwards, I filed this entire day under ‘how on earth am I still alive after all this’ and headed home.
Cask Strength Speysides
Come Saturday, the world had stopped melting, and Norwegian expert Per Lovlie took us through his choice of cask-strength Speysides.
A 10-year-old Tormore, from the Exclusive Malts range at 50.1%abv, was sharp and bitter and ideal for sitting in the river Forth on a grey November day while eating lard sandwiches. (Yes, that’s how exciting it was, no, I’ve never done this and, if this is your idea of fun, you should be ashamed.) The finish was shorter than the lifespan of someone who tries to steal my lunch (I like lunch, it’s one of my three favourite meals of the day) but, in fairness, if diluted to 40%abv would have improved a production run of Ballantines’, Stewart’s or Teacher’s and was probably intended for that purpose rather than to be bottled as a single. Next, a 1989 Cadenhead’s Inchgower, at 61%, tasted mostly of bourbon and was pleasantly smooth requiring little water and it had a long, peppery aftertaste and a charmingly warming character.
Shifting regional goalposts, we moved on to Adelphi’s 1990 Glen Garioch, at 55.8%abv. (Since when is this a Speyside?). This was a whisky I wrote about in my May report and I’ll add only that it was just as delicious this time around. In stiff competition to this excellent whisky was a 1990 Douglas Laing Old Malt Cask Benrinnes, 50%abv as standard for the range. As Per demonstrated his in-depth knowledge of sherry types, I found this to be extremely rich, dark, full bodied and extremely beautiful which makes it the Serena Williams of whisky. (Mmmmmmmmmm! Serena Williams).
Making a mental note to grab a bottle of Benrinnes, we finished with another taste of the excellent Aberlour A’Bunadh batch 20 which I had tasted on the Thursday. Per commented that it has an exceptionally beautiful nose and I was going to ask if that made it the Scarlett Johannsson of whisky but that was probably taking a joke too far.
Tannochbrae Restaurant
That evening, I headed to the Tannochbrae restaurant, having gone a few minutes without eating. (They were the longest of my life, I thought they’d never end.) Our guest speaker was to be Glenlivet’s David Purdie and Robin reappeared to liven up the tremendous meal still further. The meal was sumptuous, as usual, with the crème brulee being to die for and those who don’t like Susie’s cooking just don’t like food, end of story.
Glenlivet is not one of my favourite distilleries but I would like to mention that I particularly enjoyed the 12-year-old, which has improved tremendously to give a really fresh and clean taste, ideal, in my mind, for an aperitif or for the female palate. David gave us a cautionary tale of Vikings and whisky and stories of Canadian weddings as well as a tutorial on toasting in Gaelic while telling us a little of the whiskies we were washing each course down with. The limited edition Nadurra (pronounced Nattura) is a revelation, being spectacularly vibrant and punchy and a speck of water to this whisky, at 59.7%abv, revealed a lovely crispness. The 21-year-old had a crisp, winy taste and a gentle, long finish making it a fine digestif.
