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Whisky of the Month

Highland Park Valkyrie

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Highland Park Valkyrie was reviewed by Michael Bridgman:

Valkyrie is the first of the Highland Park viking legend series. A valkyrie is an angel who came down from Valhalla to take a fallen warrior off the field of battle to Odin. Hence the black bottle representing death.

On my initial smell I got a light fruity aroma of a fresh peach, with some vanilla and a slight hint of peat, a very traditional highland park aroma. But i was still a little surprised by this since it was a medium to dark in colour.
My taste palate is always a little different from most people,  but I did get the fruity vanilla taste, the peat was less than i expected, it was not at all overwhelming and I could have used a little more of it. I also got nutty flavours in the aftertaste. It is a very nice flavour that I persoanlly loved, thus my glass was empty far too quickly.
I really like the story and the art work of the bottle. I am also a fan of highland park for many years now. I liked the flavour and aroma of the this scotch it’s a very well rounded and complex, my only complaint is at $100 for the bottle is that with the great flavour and short after taste the bottle could be gone very quickly and I’d be shelling out for another in short order.
Some additonal notes from the HP website.

NATURAL CASK-DRIVEN COLOUR
(NO ADDITIVES)

Fiery amber
Average colour tint 9.6

FLAVOURS

Green apples | Sun-ripened lemons | Oriental spices | Vanilla | Preserved ginger | Dark chocolate | Salty liquorice | Warm aromatic smoke

ABV

45.9%

https://www.highlandparkwhisky.com/product/valkyrie/

Whisky of the Month

Highland Park 12 year Viking Honour

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Review by club member Luke Moffatt

Highland Park 12 year Viking Honour.

The name of this whisky does not refer to the area of Scotland known as The Highlands, but rather to the fact that the distillery was founded on an area called ‘High Park’ distinguished from a lower area nearby. Highland Park is one of the few distilleries to malt some part of the barley it uses, blending locally cut peat from Hobbister Moor with heather before being used as fuel. The malt is peated to a level of 20 parts per million phenol and then mixed with unpeated malt produced on the Scottish mainland. Thank you to Wikipedia for providing this information.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_Park_distillery

             I love a good whiskey with a strong background and lets be real for a minute. The Viking culture is arguably one of the richest and more well known cultures from history. What makes a better tale than a horde of warriors sailing for weeks if not months on end with no real idea of where they were going, only to loot and pillage. Warriors that pleased their gods only with the death of their enemies. No amount of prayer or devotion could sway the gods, only death, conquering, and strength. Highland park is very much like this culture. Strong, unique, bold, and brave. You get this right from the moment you open the bottle.

           The nose is strong. Strong smoke and sweetness wash over your senses, and what I can only describe an a brine smell. I imagine a Viking longship sailing in stormy weather with a salty mist and a fire going to keep the warriors warm on a cold voyage. A strange sort of calm to mask what was coming. I am intrigued, a little nervous, but I want to know more, so I take a sip and sail into the unknown.

            The palate is unique. Just like any conquest, victory is bittersweet and amongst the smoke , I can detect orange, honey, and tropical fruits. I chew for awhile and find that it gets waxy and thick, and for a moment I find myself wondering what side will emerge victorious.

            The finish is bold. Bold with the flavours of wood, spice, and black pepper. To the victor go the spoils of war and it is long lasting. A celebration and a marriage of flavours is what truly describes the finish on this whiskey. I am feasting with the victorious Vikings by a fire, celebrating a glorious victory, while an arranged marriage of tribal leaders is debated, so peace can be obtained.

            A brave connoisseur is needed to appreciate this. Brave in the sense to appreciate strong, unique, and bold flavours. Pair this whiskey with smoked meats. Cherry, apple, or pear smoke would be excellent. I think slow smoked pork back ribs, beef brisket, or smoked pork chops. Better yet, turn this into a BBQ sauce and baste your meats with it. You may be nervous, but when you emerge victorious, you will not be disappointed.

Whisky of the Month

1975 Signatory Vintage Rare Ayrshire Whisky

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1975 Signatory Vintage Rare Ayrshire – Cask Strength Collection

Specs: Lowland Single Malt Scotch Whisky

Aged: 40 years

Distilled on: October 24, 1975

Bottled on: December 2, 2015

Matured in: Bourbon Barrel

Cask No: 3421

Bottle No: 104 of 166

Alcohol: 47.1%

Our purchase price: $1495 CAN

When I was given the opportunity by the Executive Board to select and purchase a very special bottle of whisky for the Club’s 10 Year Anniversary, I was both excited and wary. To spend a budget of $1500 of the Members’ hard earned money on a single bottle was a big responsibility, but also a rare treat. I was afforded this task as I was planning a trip to Scotland, where an entire world of whisky would be available to choose from, versus the maddeningly limited selections consistently put forth by the uninspired LCBO. I took my assignment seriously and put a full-on nerdy amount of time into researching the purchase. I thought this was the hard part. What ended up being much harder was the year that passed while the carefully selected bottle sat on my shelf, sealed and unsullied, waiting for the Big Day of January 27, 2018 to arrive. Paranoia set in: What if something was “off” about the bottle? What if the seal was compromised? What if that beautifully packaged whisky just plain sucked?

It didn’t.

Rare Ayrshire is close to my heart, not only because of the work that went into selecting it over hundreds of other unique and interesting options available in Scotland, but also because of the journey. Procuring it and safely transporting it home was part of my trip to a country that I enjoyed immensely.

The worst moment of my trip sadly was an experience I had that was directly related to my mission to acquire Rare Ayrshire, at a distillery I was dying to see, Edradour, the smallest in the country and distiller of some of my personal favorite and hard-to-find-in-Ontario whiskies. Edradour is home to the bottling processes of Signatory Vintage, a company that has been collecting rare barrels from around Scotland since 1988. Signatory Vintage bottles its carefully curated selection of spirits under its own banner and credits the original distiller on the label. Its bottles are packaged beautifully and fetch significant sums as the company boasts one of the most unique collections of whisky in the world. Most Signatory Vintage bottles are extremely rare.

Signatory Vintage bottled our Rare Ayrshire, which was distilled in 1975 by a now-closed facility called Ladyburn Distillery, an expansion of the still-operating Girvan Distillery owned by Grant and Sons (owners of brands such as Glenfiddich, Balvenie and Tullamore). What an opportunity for our Club!: to taste a rare whisky that is not only 40 years old, but is also a tiny piece of the spirit’s proud history that will never be even close to replicated. Ladyburn was demolished in 1976, after only 2 bottlings of its Ayrshire whisky under its own name and label.

Upon departing for Scotland, I knew that two bottles of Rare Ayrshire were within my reach given the areas I planned to visit. The first of the 2 was housed at Edradour, in an exit-through-the-gift-shop style collection of many, many special bottles. As it turns out, Edradour was the most pretentious and unwelcoming place that I visited in Scotland. It was really the only place in the country I could describe this way. They have crazy cool whisky available, and they know it. 1975 Rare Ayrshire, in the exact same packaging, was priced at $800 USD higher than at the private seller I eventually purchased the bottle from in the central Highlands. The price was mad and the kilt-wearing skinny old (totally not Scottish) man that “helped” me while I was in the Edradour whisky shop was a total prick.

Rare Ayrshire is everything that Edradour was not. There is no pretention to this beautiful, smooth, golden-straw coloured gift from the glens of the coastal lowlands. There is nothing flashy about the whisky itself – no crazy flavours or twists like many of the punch-you-in-face styles the Club has tried. It is just lovely and mellow. You could taste the patience of the 40 years it spent in its bourbon barrel.

Rare Ayrshire boasted no mucky seaweed or mossy birch bark or leathery old shoes. It is not a peated whisky, despite its heritage of being from a region known for its bogs. There is a creaminess to it, with lots of fruit. I am not super-skilled at calling fruit for what it is when tasting, and I can’t lie, I did not get pineapple as suggested by some tasting notes online, but I did get the feeling of an orchard – only a touch more exotic. There was a delicate sweetness to it that turned somehow nutty. Despite its mellow approach, Rare Ayrshire was truly complex – the type of whisky that you could gladly try over and over again and always discover something new.

Alas though, she is a limited gift, with very little more to be found out there, as evidenced by its now-increased price to at least $1800 USD per bottle (our price: $1495 CAN). Note that I also found what I believe was an authentic Ladyburn-labelled bottle of 1975 Rare Ayrshire during my travels in Scotland, which was selling for a whopping $4500 CAN.

Here are a few more of my tasting notes, along with what better-honourary-Scots-than-I have found in my unicorn of whiskies:

EYE Honeyed straw, with the longest and slowest legs possible (Online notes: dark pear juice)

NOSE Fruit, sweet Orchard apple and mild citrus, and a whole-lotta vanilla (Online notes: grassy malt, toasted nuts and a charred sweetness like burned marshmallows and some earthy undertones. Also: creamy and zesty, with red berry fruits and apple peel. Toffee and thick vanilla-laden custard. Also: pineapple)

PALATE Fruit (tropical?), honey, almonds (Online notes: complex fruit, honeyed sweetness, some wood and a nutty overtone. Darker earthier background notes, cumin? Also: cantaloupe melon, rye spice, black forest honey, Madeira cake and citrus)

FINISH Slightly dry finish, with a medium fade, ending with more light notes of almond (Online notes: wood and fruit heavy, notes of nuts and cumin. Also: black pepper, apple strudel).

Thanks to the boys for this awesome opportunity. I’m sure I will hear the wind whispering her name for many years to come.

Tamara Maurer

Whisky of the Month

Aberlour 10-Year-Old Single Malt Whisky

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Preface:  We had the pleasure of having Frank the brand ambassador of Aberlour, Glenlivet, Belvenie and Ballantyne’s in town for a guided tasting.  This is one of the reviews.  I hope you enjoy it as much as we did, as you can see we have some rosey cheeks and huge smiles.

By: Member Chad Nagle

This nicely crafted 10-Year-Old Single Malt by the Aberlour Distillery, which can be found in Strathspey, Scotland (Speyside Region) is what I expect from an Entry Level Single Malt Whisky. It has a simple elegance which is suited to just about every whisky drinkers’ taste. Married in Sherry and Bourbon Casks this would pair well with a Chocolate dessert or with some sharp Cheddar Cheese.

On the Nose: Sweet Honey with Caramel or Toffee aromas, I have a feeling this is going to be a sweet flavour experience……

After the pour, I let this little sweetheart dance around in the glass for a minute or two swirling it to awaken all the flavours.

As I take my first sip the sweetness is very apparent like what my nose was telling me, I get touches of Honey, Caramel and a little bit of spice, maybe nutmeg or pepper.

The finish was short, smooth and didn’t really give me any new surprises, but I wasn’t expecting a Big Grand Finale from this simple Scotch.

Overall: I did enjoy the Aberlour 10 Year, I have somewhat disregarded it on my past shopping experiences since it is always in stock and at an affordable price ($64.95 CDN at the LCBO). This isn’t a bottle I would personally have as my “go-to” but I could confidently recommend it to anyone looking to try an easy to drink Single Malt.

TIP: Try with 2 or 3 drops of water to cut down the sweetness and enhance some of the other features.

Whisky of the Month

JP Wiser’s 35 Year Old Canadian Whisky

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JP Wiser’s 35 Year Old Canadian Whisky

Tasting notes from member Brad Raybould:

J.P. Wiser’s 35 year old Canadian Whisky was a pleasantly complex spirit and was deserving of the award for Canadian Whisky of the Year. The aging process had mellowed out some of the harsher elements that come with younger whiskies.

The oak is evident as your glass passes under your nose. The first sip gives you earthy notes which build as you continue to enjoy your drink. I must mention that a fellow whisky enthusiast remarked they found the earthy tones overpowering and did not care for them.

It finishes on a sweet honey note, I felt that this was maple but that may have just been wishful thinking of a Canadian drinking an award winning Canadian Whisky.

Overall this was an enjoyable spirit I would have again, if I was lucky enough to find one of what has quickly become a rare bottle.

General Info:

This 35-year-old whisky is part of the 2017 Northern Borders Rare Collection drawn from some of the oldest Hiram Walker bonds. It’s a traditional Canadian whisky composed of corn whisky aged in ex-bourbon barrels blended with column and pot still rye aged in virgin oak barrels. Bottled at 50% alcohol. Limited availability in Canada with a very limited allocation in Europe and the US.

 

Whisky of the Month

Canadian Club 40 Year Old

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Tasted January 27,2018

It was on our 10 year anniversary meeting that our club sampled the Canadian Club 40 year old Canadian whisky. After sampling so many bottles over the years, I was excited for this one. There aren’t many new Canadian Whiskies that get launched, especially ones at this age. I always hope that a higher age really showcases a whisky for all it can be (a measure very rarely met).

Distilled in 1977 this is an all corn whiskey distilled in American white oak casks with just 7000 bottles produced at 45%. But you can find all of that on the label if you can get your hands on what’s currently the oldest Canadian whisky available.
I’m generally remain skeptical with old bottles like this because sometimes the distillery has done something radical, or just not very well at all, and you pay more than usual for an experiment that’s gone wrong. Thanks to the presentation of this bottle, I wasn’t too worried about that here. The bottle itself was refined and classy, and the colour of the whiskey is exactly what you would expect from a Canadian whiskey: rich amber.
Nosing the whisky I remained hopeful that this was an evolution of what Canadian Club does well. The aromas from the whisky presented themselves cleanly with a very to the point sweetness. I could easily pinpoint the caramel that comes with just about all Canadian whiskys (especially the corn based ones), along with maybe a bit of honey and citrus. The caramel was front and center on the nose and detecting much else was difficult (I’d rather be honest here than list everything that might possibly be present like other whisky reviewers seem to, but maybe my palate just isn’t as refined as being able to pull 20 flavors out at once).
On the palate, I got a pleasant surprise with a light spice to accompany the sweetness of the caramel. The spice was reminiscent of pepper and clove which did fade to the back. Surprising for a 45% whisky, there was a very gentle numbing with a light but sharp acetone flavor that came with the palate that seemed to help compliment what was going on. Thanks to this, the sweetness was slightly muted and I got a touch of smoke & oak.
The finish was shorter in length and very easy going. The sweetness hung there in my throat for a bit as caramel but also a perhaps vanilla too. The spice that I got on the palate didn’t come along for the finish though.
All in all what I found here was an aged corn based Canadian whisky. There was nothing revolutionary involved in this. I wouldn’t put it on a ‘whiskys to try before you die’ list. But with that said if you like Canadian whiskys and are a bit of a purist that doesn’t want radical – this would be a bottle for you.
I found the extra time focused this whisky rather broadened it which was interesting in that you get to become really familiar with the foundation of what a Canadian whisky – and really Canadian Club in particular – is at its core.
ET Member: Josh Bruce
Whisky of the Month

Glen Garioch – The Renaissance Chapter 1

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Notes and review by member Derek Kursikowski

If you’re looking for a drink that has as many tales as it does flavours, this scotch whiskey is it. The notes on the box offer quite an embellished description of what to expect of the first sip from the glass. This 15 year old is the first in a four ‘chapter’ series originally distilled from the same batch to be released sequentially after 15 through 18 years of maturing.
Part scotch, part experiment this will answer the age old question, “What if this had been matured for just one more year?”

Colour – The distinct red hue indicative of a sherry cask is the most notable characteristic of the overall appearance, but isn’t deep and dominating. As the amber liquid is swirled around the glass it leaves a faint sheen on all it touches, which develops into slender legs as it settles. Like waking up from a slumber only to have the faint recollection of a dream, this scotch leaves a faded memory that only moments before it was dancing upon the side of the rock glass.

Nose – I tend to linger on nosing scotch since it is one area of proper tasting that I’m working to develop. Spice. Heavy, but not overpowering, the first breath is dominated by spice with a softer undertone that is familiar, but hidden within the layers. Multiple slow, and deep breaths are best to fully develop the nose of this scotch to explore the all facets it has to offer. Soon those undertones are unlocked, revealing a hint of underlying creaminess like butterscotch, vanilla or maple.

Taste – First taste is light and smooth on the tongue with a subtle build that quickly brings on a dominate heat as it passes over the palate to the back of the tongue and down the throat. The spice is enough to momentarily take your breath away, almost appearing in an instant to warm your insides.

Finish – In the finish the heat vanishes quickly, but not as sharply as the rise of its coming, leaving vague remnants that it was ever there. With lingering toffee or maple, the finish is crisp and dry, leaving the mouth ready for another taste.

Final thoughts – The aim of a series is to entice you to follow along until the end, some of my fellow Expensive Taste members agreed that the entry price point was a little steep considering the distillery is most-likely attempting to get a multi-bottle commitment from the consumer. Monetary wise, buying all four would put you in the company of some great bottles. Taste wise this was near the spicier end of what I prefer. I struggle to recommend this as a stand-alone bottle partly because of my curiosity towards what the other chapters might offer. That being said any serious connoisseur would be drawn by the allure of being able to follow a single batch as it matures over several years, as am I.

#GlenGarioch #whisky

Whisky of the Month

Poit Dhubh 21 Year Old

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Tasting Notes and review by member Frank Bester.

Poit Dhubh 21 Year Old Skye

Colour: Dark amber

Nose: A balanced, amusing and plush whisky with aromas of sherry, vanilla, cinnamon and a hint of peat.

Palate: I don’t go crazy for heavy peat scotches, so this was a delight at our yearly Halloween meeting. There wasn’t a huge hit of peat and it didn’t burn when taking a deep smell though the nose. I haven’t figured out what it reminds me of, but I love this aftertaste. This, combined with the fact that the peat note is turned down quite a bit makes this whisky far more enjoyable for me.

Finish: It was quite pleasant to sip with mild hints of peaty smoke, very little burn as it coated your throat politely.

Overall: This scotch was a delight, one of the reason I volunteered to write this review. If your looking for a scotch to sip on by the fire after a cold day battling the Canadian winter, this scotch is for you. Also, compared to other 21 years old scotches the price is rather low. If you have an opportunity to add this bottle to your collection, it’s a definite must!

#PoitDhubh #whisky

Poit Dhubh, pronounced ‘potch ghoo’ and literally meaning ‘black pot’ is Gaelic for an ‘illicit still’, the traditional source for some of the most respected whiskies. Poit Dhubh is a fine unchilfiltered blended malt, bottled at 8, 12 and 21 years old.  It is matured in sherry casks and has a soft, graceful flavour with a varying balance of sweetness and peatiness depending on age.

Whisky of the Month

Ardbeg Kelpie Limited Edition

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Background Notes from Ardbeg:

An Ardbeg that’s said to be “as deep as the ocean” thanks to the use of virgin Black Sea oak casks sourced by Dr. Bill Lumsden from the Adyghe Republic in Russia. Whisky from these casks has then been married with regular bourbon cask matured Ardbeg and bottled for Fèis Ìle 2017 at 46%.

Tasting Notes from Ardbeg:

Nose: A wonderful, intense, ‘dancing’ nose, with lots of different, intertwined aromas – powerful, oily peat, dark chocolate, smoked fish, hints of seaweed, and a curious, sharp herbal note. Waves of spicy black pepper.

Palate: A peppery mouthfeel is followed by a crescendo of rich flavours. Toffee, Turkish coffee, smoky bacon and lots of dark, dark chocolate. A curious burst of peachy fruit, hickory wood, clove oil and a suggestion of black olives.

Finish: Seemingly lasting forever, with deep, deep, almost subterranean flavours of clove, tar, and rich toffee.

 

Notes from our member Mark Buchholtz

Absolutely unlike any scotch whisky I have ever had the pleasure of sampling over the almost 10 years of our club’s existence.  Let me preface to say that this may have not been the best bottle to sample in the middle of the summer.  This bottle to me, would best be sampled in a fall or winter setting as it displayed an advanced level of warming as the sips of this dram worked from my lips to the back of mouth and down the hatch like a slow viscous liquid that reminded closely to a light olive oil in a homemade salad dressing. To say it was a little bit thicker that your average whisky is bit of an understatement.

Like the distillers note the nose was powerful, bright, warm, full of fresh seaside whimsy, seas salt, peaty, fresh seaweed all intertwined in some sort of magical distillate.  I have no idea how all those descriptions worked together to produce such an inviting aroma…but let me tell you my words do no justice, it was utterly intoxicating and inviting!

The initial taste on the tongue and mouth was warm as you would expect from a bottling at 46% ABV, but there was no harshness at all that might show itself with a peated expression.  I did get a little spice like the distiller mentioned above but it was not overpowering and it really invited you to return immediately for more sips of my dram. I really do not have the acumen of a professional whisky writer, but these are the things that I thought of in no particular order. Light peat, spice, light pepper, oily like a light olive oil, sea salt, the smell and taste like a fresh breeze when you are on the cost in BC or Nova Scotia, sweetness but not too sweet… all combined together to give me the most unique whisky tasting in recent memory.

The finish did last a fairly long time but I had trouble initially judging that because I went back for additional sips sooner than expected because it was so delightful and interesting.  On my last sip of my taster dram the flavour did last a fairly long time, I have to say it was not offensively long. I kept wanting to go back for more because it was so delicious. Tasting this bottle or sipping on it at home would best be done in a fall or winter setting as it is a warmer comforting type of whisky. A cool night by some type of body of water would also suffice as the overall taste and feel evoked memories of a fresh breeze coming of an ocean with gentle wisps of sea salt tickling your nose. In Ontario here one of the Great Lakes or the many bodies of water in the Muskokas would work just a well especially this past summer where the nights certainly cooled down and required jeans and a sweater.

Would I by this for my personal collection, the answer would be a resounding yes.  Ardbeg Kelpie is available here in Ontario, Canada via the LCBO listed at $210.95.

Thank you all for reading and enjoy!

Mark Buchholtz

Whisky of the Month

Balblair 2005 Highland Single Malt

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In the glass, the spirit is extremely light in color and certainly likes to show off it’s legs. Swirling it in the glass highlights it’s oily consistency.
Bringing it to the nose yields a crisp and sweet aroma that was underscored by a distinct note of alcohol. There were no real standouts in the nose to prepare for what the palate had in store, yet somehow it still made my mouth water with anticipation.
On the palate, things started very mellow with a bit of sweetness, and a twist of citrus. This didn’t evolve much deeper until the finish which presented itself with immediacy. A warming developed along with the oakiness and light smoke. Some spice seemed to shine through as well on sips 2 and 3 which were reminiscent of clove for me.
Paying homage to the nose, the finish left my mouth watering still, eager for the next sip! Trailing the finish was a lingering and comforting warmth that just somehow makes you content.
I really enjoyed this Balblair expression. Its timing for the setting was perfect: poolside on a surprisingly cool summer evening. The whiskey didn’t have a wide flavor profile to my mind, but it didn’t need one to be successful here. It delivered on being a whiskey that wanted to be drank, and leaving you content to do so.
Bottom line: likely not one for the aficionado who likes to analyze their whiskey, but a great social choice since you don’t have to concentrate to much to enjoy it.