Tawny Port from Loch Lomond?

This last couple of weeks has felt like Christmas - first was the Tawny Port release from Glen Scotia and now their sister distillery Loch Lomond brings one out too!

This was  single cask exclusive from The Whisky Shop.

Loch Lomond is a distillery that's a little under the radar, it's really two distilleries - a malt one and a grain one sitting side by side in Alexandria on the southern shore of Loch Lomond.

Malt on the left, grain on the right

As can be seen from their logo they have 4 different shaped still types - two pot and two continuous. from these the distil a wide range of different spirits which can be confusing to the new-comer but are fairly easy to understand if you take the time! Honestly it's not that difficult!

They have 6 copper straight neck pot stills with rectifying plates (1 in a wash still and 17 in a spirit still) - the straight necks are up to 4 meters high, this allows collecting a wider separation of flavours. Unlike column stills these have a head cooling system. These are not Lomond Stills!

Wash Still on the left, Spirit Still on the right.

There are 2 traditional copper pot stills with swan necks.

There is one continuous (Coffey) still for malted barley (A continuous still consists of a pair of columns - an analyser column and a rectifier column. They are made of copper but covered in protective stainless steel.

Take away the stainless steel cover and you'll see the Copper Stills:

The grain distillery has a two sets of stainless steel continuous stills for wheat (look through the window!). The original set, from 1993, producing 2,000 litres alcohol per hour and a new set, from 2010, producing 1,000 litres per hour.

The spirit comes off of a pot still at around 70% ABV, spirit can be collected from the straight-necked stills at between 65% and 85% ABV offering a low and high strength spirit. The use of three levels of peated malt and unpeated malt and these still types gives a huge range of spirit styles. Each is matured separately then married together before botting as explained in the diagram below:

The 'Loch Lomond' range is the distillery’s perfectly balanced expression utilising whisky made from unpeated barley in both traditional pot stills and straight-necked pot stills (at different ABV cuts) and with medium peated malt from the straight necked still. The whisky is available in NAS, a range of age statements and special editions; it's perfectly balanced with fruity and a light smokiness. Also under the 'Loch Lomond' banner are a Peated an Unpeated Single Grain which are made from 100% malted barley but in a continuous copper still - this is a fruity whisky.

'Inchmurrin' is named after one of the island in the loch, produced exclusively in the straight-necked pot stills using unpeated malt and taken at a high strength of c85% ABV. The whisky is available in aged and a finished edition; it's fruity and sweet.

'Inchmoan' also takes it name from a nearby island, like Loch Lomond is includes whisky from both swan and straight neck stills using medium and highly peated barley. The whisky is available in an aged and vintage edition it's smoky and spicy.

There are a number of branded blends which use malted spirit from the pot stills, straight neck stills, continuous copper stills and grain spirit from the steel continuous stills. Not all of these are available in the UK.

For Loch Lomond the key to their whiskies is to let the quality of their spirit shine through so in the main they use ex-bourbon casks, both 1st fill and refill. Thanks to this policy and the availability of an on-site cooperage a single cask could be used up to 9 time - 1st fill, refill, refill, recharred, refill, refill, recharred, refill and refill - there is a nominal 5 years between uses giving a cask a life of around 45 years!

The three 12yo's in the range - Loch Lomond, Inchmurrin and Inchmoan all share the same maturation marriage : 10% 1st fill, 10% 1st fill recharred and 80% refill. You can see that the wood isn't going to do too much to mask the flavours of the spirit. Trying all three alongside each other will allow you to experience this. I've done that here!

All clear now?

Nearly - there are also a lot of independently bottled Loch Lomond which often go under strange names - Inchfad, Old Rhosdhu or Croftengea - where to they fit into the picture?

Inchfad is distilled in the Swan Neck Stills and can be unpeated, medium peated or heavy peated. Inchfad is unpeated, Inchfad MP is medium and Inchfad HP is heavy peated, unfortunately independent bottlers don't always include the peat designation in the name. Croftengea is distilled in the Straight Neck Stills using a wide spirit cut (low collection strength) from heavy peated malt.

As well the core range there are also a number of single cask bottlings released under the three range names, these are sometimes sold by third parties rather than the distillery itself, this is where most of the unusual wood experimentation takes place. It's this experimentation that produced the subject of this post - a finish in a Tawny Port Hogshead.

Bottler's info:

Loch Lomond Cask #18/550-12 was distilled in March 2003 in a straight neck still with a wide cut (low collection strength) from 50ppm peated barley. 

Matured in refill American oak for just over 11 years and then a second maturation (or finish? there's a subject for a future blog!) for 18mths in a 1st Fill Tawny Port Hogshead. 

Bottled in February 2020 at a natural cask strength of 53.1% abv, just 315 bottles were filled.

Tasting notes: Sweet peat and salted caramel to the fore, with cinnamon and baked apple emerging amongst raisins and golden syrup. A hint of nutmeg and clove-studded orange mellow to reveal melted brown sugar and vanilla oak spice in the finish.

So enough chat, let's find out what it's like:

Appearance: Burnished gold with a hint of pink in the glass, swirls cling forming beads which fall as quick thick legs.

Nose: Light peat smoke, orchard and berry fruit notes with a little sweet citrus. Maybe a small hint of orange zest? A little time in the glass dissipates the smoke a little and the berries shine through.

Palate: Thick syrupy arrival, very sweet with a huge ginger spice note. The smoke arrives blanketing everything then rolls away to leave notes of dark berries - blackberries, blackcurrants & black cherries. As the liquid disappears there's a sweet citrus fizz on the tongue and a huge drying note in the mouth. Again a little time in the glass, with some air, allows some of the smoke to dissipate and the fruit to come to the fore - don't rush this dram.

Finish: Long lingering sweet and sour citrus with smoke and oaky dryness. 

Overall: A lovely dram, but to be honest it's not as good as the Glen Scotia Tawny Port I tried last week. The ABV seems a lot higher and is noticeable, this is a sipper rather than the drinker that the GS was. This is much drier than the GS, I'm guessing due to having been in the port cask for more than twice as long. There is much more in the way of dark berry fruit notes rather than the red ones from the GS - again probably from being in the port cask for longer.

So which do I prefer? Single casks may have individual character and one or two stand out attributes, multiple cask bottlings allow several casks to be brought together to give more depth; so in this case it's fairly easy actually - the Glen Scotia 14yo is better than the Loch Lomond. Strong smoke, tropical fruit and a little salt v medium smoke, berry fruit and a huge dryness. I'd recommend buying either of them - it depends on your flavour preferences! 

Loch Lomond are getting the message that their range is a little difficult to get your head around and I understand a rebranding of the whole range is planned for later in the year! Some old expressions will be retired and some new ones will be introduced including a Limousin wood finish and a limited release 12yo Chardonnay wine yeast fermented whisky!

Geeky stuff

I understand the different brandings in the Loch Lomond range but am slightly confused about the cask numbering policy! Talking to the distillery and understanding the re-use following re-charring of casks I am now a little clearer! This bottle was labelled as

#18/550-12

So what does that mean?

#18 refers to year that the whisky was last re-casked

550 refers to the operation number of the recasking (operations include new make cask filling, mature spirit vatting and recasking operations)

12 refers to the cask number of that operation (for the recasking operations several casks could be vatted together and filled into finishing casks)

No reference is made to the previous cask which the liquid was matured in, it allows Loch Lomond to differentiate between original casks and recasked casks.

Geeky stuff #2

Just to confuse things a little more there are a number of Loch Lomond brand names that you may see used especially by indie bottlers:

Inchfad is a heavily peated spirit made mainly for use in Loch Lomond blending operations. It gets its name from an island in the south-east of Loch Lomond, which is home to a ruined distillery. It enjoyed a short-lived release as one of a number of single cask bottlings released by the Loch Lomond distillery in the mid-2000s.

Croftengea is a heavily peated spirit made mainly for use in Loch Lomond blending operations. It enjoyed a brief time in the spotlight during the mid-2000s as part of the Loch Lomond Distillery Select range of single cask releases.

Craiglodge is a medium peated spirit used to add complexity to Loch Lomond’s blends, but enjoyed a limited and temporary release as a four-year-old single cask offering from 2005.

Glen Douglas was made on the stills used to distil Inchmurrin single malt, but uses wider cut points and different yeasts in its fermentation. Mainly used for the company’s blends, but was released briefly in the mid-2000s as a youthful single cask single malt as part of Loch Lomond’s Distillery Select collection.

 

Geeky stuff #3

The SMWS use 4 different codes for their Loch Lomond bottlings related to the distillation style not the amount of peat.

112 : Straight neck pot still, spirit cut from 90-80% giving a high spirit collection strength, still head cooling on. Can be distilled from unpeated malt (Inchmurrin spirit style) or 50ppm heavy peated malt (Inchmoan spirit style).

122 : Straight neck pot still, spirit cut from 90-55% giving a low spirit collection strength, still head cooling off. Can be distilled from unpeated malt (Glen Douglas spirit style), 25 ppm medium peated malt (Craiglodge spirit style) or 50ppm heavy peated malt (Croftengea spirit style).

135 : Swan neck pot still, 73-68% spirit cut. Can be distilled from unpeated malt (Inchfad spirit style), 25ppm medium peated malt (Inchfad MP spirit style) or 50ppm heavy peated malt (Inchfad HP spirit style).