#BTC59 #BlindDrams Tasting Notes

These are my tasting notes and results from the Blind Tasting Consortium's 59th #BlindDrams evening.

These drams were picked by Ben @WhiskyWithMolly

Cù Bòcan @TweetTastings

@cubocanwhisky chose a @TweetTastings to launch their Creation #6, we got to try some others from their range too!

Here's my thoughts and those of a few friends!

DrivenByDrams Speyside Tour - Tomatin

The DrivenByDrams gang's Speyside Tour was over and it was time to go home, but first a detour - further up the A9 to @Tomatin1897 

We didn't have time for a tour but had planned a quick visit to the Distillery Shop and a look at their Bottle Your Owns!

#BTC23 #BlindDrams Tasting Notes

These are my tasting notes from the Blind Tasting Consortium's 23rd #BlindDrams evening.

These drams were picked by Duncan @socialdrammer

Sauternes - too sweet?

There are loads of different wine cask now used to mature whisky, red ones seem to be more prominent as they add a darker colour.

Rayne Vigneau Barrel Room

Here I try Sauternes, a very sweet white desert wine, matured whiskies.

Side by side : Oloroso and PX from Tomatin

Following on from my Oloroso & PX review of Paul John bottles here is a comparison of two Tomatin versions.

Like a number of distilleries, the Tomatin Visitor's Centre allow you Bottle Your Own whisky - these are nearly always single cask, cask strength drams, here I've got two to try!

Douglas Laing @TweetTasting

@DLaingWhisky Old Particular range features single cask malts and grains at a minimum of 6yo and 48.4%. 

A recent @TweetTastings took us through 4 of their latest releases.

#BTC06 #BlindDrams Tasting Notes

These are my tasting notes from the Blind Tasting Consortium's 6th #BlindDrams evening.

These drams were picked by Chris @chris_f74

Southport Whisky Festival

How do you organise a Whisky Festival during Lockdown? People aren't allowed to meet in large numbers, suppliers can't or won't get onboard...

You find an enthusiastic team... maybe an existing whisky club... with a leader with strong industry links.... and put a plan together!

Side by side : Three TBWC Highlanders

Heading up into the Highlands for this side by side, the biggest 'whisky region' in Scotland, three drams bottled by That Boutique-y Whisky Company.

These three all featured in the TBWC 12 Days of Christmas Advent Calendar - lets see how they compare:

Side by side: Tomatin & GlenDronach Highland BYOs

Rather than review drams by themselves I'm doing a little series comparing some 'side by side'.

There may be two or more, they may be from the same or different distilleries, similar ages, ABVs and types or not as I decide!

This time we are reviewing two Highland 'Bottle Your Own' drams an Oloroso cask Tomatin and a PX cask GlenDronach - let's compare and contrast!

Review of my whisky year - 2017

First of all thank you to all the people who have read my blog (c16,500) and followed me on Twitter (c900) since I started back in January with my first whisky post.

Any Port in a storm?

One of the great things about the internet is the opportunity to 'meet' people you wouldn't ordinarily have met or even come across! Twitter, in particular, is great for this and I have met and 'spoken to' loads of people on Twitter especially about whisky! Friendships have developed including drinking whisky 'together' and swapping samples. Over the last few months I've amassed quite a collection of samples and decided the time has come to try and get some tasted!

The sample box

I wanted to try and be a little creative so have grouped some of them together, as the title suggests all these samples have been finished in Port casks.

First up colour - they all look beautiful in the glass!

L-R Tomatin, Talisker, Glenmorangie, Edradour

I also tried to find out how long each had actually spent in a port cask but Talisker wouldn't tell me.

So on to the tasting notes!

Distillery : Tomatin
Whisky : 14 year old Port Cask
Sample from : @WhiskyWings
Characteristics : 700ml, 46% ABV. Not coloured, NCF.
Distillery's info : "Soft, smooth and sweet, benefiting from its time spent in Tawny Port casks which previously held port for around 50 years. Rich but balanced aromas of red berries, sweet honey and rich toffee develop into aspects of light fruits and nuts on the palate and an abiding finish of smooth fruit salad"
Price : £54
Colour : Pale Gold
Nose : Raspberries and Apricots with sweet red berries developing over time, the port was there but only just.
Palate : Oily, salted butter, more of the red berries
Finish : Chewy vanilla
Overall : This one had spent the shortest in a Port Pipe and it showed, not much of a Port influence.

Link : 14yo

Distillery : Talisker

Whisky : Port Ruighe NAS

Sample from : @The_Cask_Blog
Characteristics : 700ml, 45.8% ABV. Coloured, Chill-filtered.

Distillery's info : "Double matured in port casks, this malt is a toast to the Scottish traders who braved the high seas and were instrumental in the foundation of the port wine trade. Port Ruighe, pronounced ‘Portree’ is the Gaelic spelling of the once-bustling trading port on Skye. The port finish combines Talisker’ s powerful maritime character with succulent sweet notes of rich berry fruits for a superb taste experience."

Price : £50

Colour : Pale Gold (Coloured)

Nose : Sea salt, a little smoke, and some winey aromas, completely different from the Tomatin.

Palate : Continuing from the nose - sea salt but a bit of yin and yang with a sweetness - slightly confusing! there is some oakiness and some honey there too but over quite quickly.

Finish : Smokey with a spicy pepper finish.

Overall : I just didn't like this one, the nose was very strange and on the palate I just couldn't make my mind up about the salt and sweet thing.

Link : Port Ruighe

Distillery : Glenmorangie

Whisky : Quinta Ruban 12yo

Sample from : @SpikeyDog120
Characteristics : 700ml, 45.8% ABV. Coloured, NCF.

Distillery's info : "The darkest and most intense whisky in the extra-matured range, Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban has spent 10 years maturing in American white oak casks, before being transferred into specially selected ruby port pipes from the Quintas or wine estates of Portugal. Extra maturation in these port pipes develops Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban into a voluptuous spirit with a complex balance of sweet and dry flavours and an intriguing contrast of smooth and crisp, cooling textures. Non chill-filtered for additional aroma and mouthfeel."

Price : £50

Colour : Pale Gold (Coloured)

Nose : Sweet honey developing into dark chocolate with a hint of orange - yummy! The Port was there as a foundation.

Palate : Some sweetness, more of the honey and chocolate but with some underlying vanilla.

Finish : Warming and spicy with lots of maple syrup.

Overall : This was a lovely dram, the nose was delightful and the finish was superb.

Link : Quinta Ruban

Distillery : Edradour

Whisky : 2001 SV Port (13yo)

Sample from : @The_Cask_Blog
Characteristics : 500ml, 56.3% ABV. Not coloured, NCF.

Distillery's info : "Nose: Red berries, oak and fruity port richness. Palate: Velvet texture. Smooth but lively on the palate with heather and oak, maple syrup, orange and spice. Finish: Warm spices with lingering red fruits."

Price : Discontinued

Colour : Pale Gold

Nose : WOW - this is liquid walnuts! As soon as I poured it out of the bottle it filled the room, nosing just intensified the aroma. It did fade over time and revealed a hint of butterscotch and the port.

Palate : Really nutty! More of the walnuts and a little almond - much like a Dundee cake but this cake was full of chilli too!

Finish : Drying, due to the higher strength, again more of the nuts and that lingering spicy chilli!

Overall : I really enjoyed this one, but nearly lost it - when I mentioned Edradour to my wife and let her smell the dram she disappeared with the glass! This is the dram which had spent the longest in a Port Pipe and it showed - on the nose and palate.

Link : Discontinued but newer version available

Summary : It was a close thing between the Glenmorangie and the Edradour for first place! I think the Glenmorangie just took it on the finish. The Tomatin was third but the Talisker was a distant fourth. I normally love smoke in a whisky but the combination with the port just didn't tick my boxes.

#GBMM2017 Cooper King Distillery & Tomatin Whisky

On Saturday 12th August Maltman Mike organised and ran a little whisky tasting shindig at the House Of Malt in Carlisle #GBMM2017! You can read the introduction here!

This is also my third in an occasional series about newer distilleries, this entry is about the Cooper King Distillery.

Abbie and Chris from Cooper King came over from Yorkshire to tell us all about the new distillery they are building! Obviously they didn't have anything for us to sample so Tomatin stood in with a bottle of their delicious Cask Strength!

Location

Cooper King Distillery is located in Sutton-on-the-Forest near York in North Yorkshire.

The distillery is being self-build on the site of an old stable block. When complete the distillery will house a production area and cask maturation warehouse, together with a rustic tasting room and well-stocked shop.

Photo : CooperKing

Photo : CooperKing

History

In 2014, a desire to leave the rat race Abbie and Chris crossed the globe to Australia, in search of sun, sand and adventure.

While living and working in Tasmania, a nearby distillery won World’s Best Single Malt Whisky, a feat never accomplished outside of Scotland or Japan. They began researching for a whisky blog for friends back home and visited a number of operational whisky distilleries. They had an incredible three months leading a bizarre double life. One day apple picking, sleeping in the boot of an estate car, eating cup-a-soup for dinner and living the true back-packer lifestyle. The next, staying in nice hotels, learning about all things whisky and meeting up with distillery owners and head distillers.

Eventually they were inspired to come home and build their own distillery! They took advice from Bill Lark, the godfather of Tasmanian whisky, and others they met on their travels.

The distillery name Cooper King comes from Chris’ great-great-grandfather Charles Cooper King, a Lieutenant Colonel of the Royal Marine Artillery. They thought his adventurous spirit fitted the business perfectly. But there was a problem – they had to seek permission from the Cabinet Office to use the word ‘King’ in their company name!

Production Process

Cooper King have sourced their the custom-made 900 litre copper pot still from Tasmania and plan to use 100% Yorkshire barley combined with pure Yorkshire water in a 5-6 day fermentation period to produce a "distinctive malt spirit unlike any other in the UK".

The whisky will be matured, on site, in small 100 litre casks from "England's last Master Cooper" Alastair Simms of White Rose Cooperage locally in North Yorkshire.

Photo: YorkMix

They plan to distil their first spirit around Christmas 2017 producing around 3,500 bottles per year. Interestingly as they aren't in Scotland they are not bound by Scottish Oak maturation rules - they'll be able experiment with other woods!

Cooper King Distillery is striving to be a green distillery running on 100% green energy, they will also plant a tree for every membership sold to offset carbon emissions. There are a four levels of membership through their Founder's Club offering a number of rewards to investors!

It was great to meet Abbie and Chris at the #GBMM2017 at The House of Malt and I'm really looking forward to visiting their distillery and trying their whisky when it has becomes available!

Website

Link to the distillery website

Visit

Not open yet but planning to being the new year!

Contact

email : info@cooperkingdistillery.co.uk

phone : +44 (0)1347 808232 

Now obviously they didn't have any whisky for us to try, so a slightly older distillery stepped in to help! Tomatin donated a bottle of their cask Strength for us to enjoy whilst we listened to Abbie and Chris' presentation.

Whisky : Tomatin Cask Strength (NAS)
Characteristics : 57.5% ABV, NCF, Non-coloured
Price : £50 widely available
Colour : Dark Gold
Nose : Honey and red fruit - strawberries and raspberries, the strength comes through in the nose and there is a background of sherry.
Palate : Mouth filling, oily, more honey and fruit. Quite spicy - a hint of ginger?
Finish : Drying and very spicy.
Overall : A wonderful sipping dram, would be great in front of a roaring fire but all I had was a gang of bloggers! I think we all enjoyed this one!
Link : Cask Strength

Back to the #GBMM2017 introduction!

#GBMM2017 Introduction

On Saturday 12th August Maltman Mike organised and ran a little whisky tasting shindig at the House Of Malt in Carlisle #GBMM2017!

As you can see from the logo there was going to be a good turn out from some of the newer distilleries as well as the more established and of course a great bottler.

Twenty free tickets were made available and all were snapped up quite quickly - as well as the usual band of dodgy bloggers and vloggers there were some locals visiting the House of Malt shop in Carlisle for some free drams.

This blog gives an overview of the evening and I'll do more in-depth blogs of each of the dram providers!

The Great Big Malted Meetup 2017 took place at The House Of Malt in Carlisle

The shop is owned by Ben, Mike works there! They sell a large range of whiskies, gins and vodkas and an ever growing range of craft beers. They also sell online from www.houseofmalt.co.uk

Photo @JWBassman_

It's a great venue to hold a whisky tasting..

Inside The House of Malt

...but we actually started off with some Temu Gin, House of Malt have a UK exclusive on this Monk distilled gin all the way from Finland!

Crafted from rare wild forest ingredients
deep in the Finnish Taïga—the last
primitive, untamed forest
wilderness of the North

The meet up was due to start at 7pm but all those thirst bloggers turned up early to swap samples, meet face-to-face for the first time and share stories. It was really great to meet people for the first time when your only previous contact had been over twitter!

All the bloggers sat at the back of the room leaving the front for the locals!

Blogger's Corner! Photo @JWBassman_

It was great to meet Grimm @GentlemanGrimm, Vin @NNWhisky, John @JWBassman_, Daniel  @Whisky_Viking and Sarah @iheartwhisky for the first time 'in the flesh'.

A few samples were exchanged, some from secret suitcases!

Sample Suitcase!

As each of the distillery / bottler reps arrived introductions were made, more samples were tried and stories swapped (we hadn't even started for real!).

The drams to be tasted were lined up, unfortunately the Lakes Distillery were a little late so I didn't get them included in the line-up:

Part of the line up!

The plan for the night was:

• Abbie and Chris from Cooper King, but drinking a dram from Tomatin (Read more here!)

• Jan from Douglas Laing (Read more here!)

• Chris from The Lakes Distillery (Read more here!)

• Maltman Mike and me presenting Wolfburn (Read more here!)

I'll add links to the individual blog entries above over the next few days!

Lots of whisky was drunk, some cake was eaten (some people ate a lot more than some others!) and real as opposed to on-line friendships made!

Me, John, Vin & Grimm

It was a fantastic evening, many thanks to Maltman Mike for organising, House Of Malt for use of their beautiful premises, the dram suppliers Tomatin, Douglas Laing, Lakes Distillery & Wolfburn, Cooper King for driving all the way over from Yorkshire to tell us about their plans and all my fellow tasters for making it great!