Distilling Rob: Manly Lies and Whisky Truths by Rob Gard

After being dumped by the woman he thought he would marry, Rob Gard left the glamor and glitz of his LA media consulting job and the Hollywood nightlife for the frigid ruggedness of Isaly and a sort of work-study program at the Bruichladdich Distillery.  He went to Islay searching for himself as much as running from his past, and what he finds in the isolation of winter on Scotch Whisky's most famous island is that the whisky making process is a metaphor for both his own journey and the universal journey on which boys become men.  Distilling Rob: Manly Lies and Whisky Truths is his story.

Despite its use as primarily a literary device, the whisky making process is lovingly described and the distillery workers come alive.  One of the workers says little more than "aye" for days on end, while another mumbles nearly constantly.  Almost none of them actually drink whisky.

Gard's own persona is the lovable loser with a mix of self-loathing, part Woody Allen, part Jeff Portnoy transplanted to a distillery in Scotland.  At the end, he has his expected realization, but you're never sure if this will change his life or if he will again sink into neurosis when he returns to the U.S.

A few of the literary devices are overdone.  Sometimes Gard hits you over the head with the metaphor, and sometimes the connections between the distilling process and his memories of life in LA or his troubled childhood in Wisconsin seem forced, as if every grain of barley has a direct connection to a particularly awkward moment from his past.

Overall though, Gard is an engaging writer and, as can be expected from a journalist, excels at the art of description.  I've never been to Islay, but after reading Distilling Rob, I feel like I could walk into the Bruichladdich Distillery or one of the local pubs and know exactly what they would look like, smell like and how the locals would react to me.


Distilling Rob: Manly Lies and Whisky Truths is available in paperback for $12 or a mere $4 on Kindle.  It's definitely worth a read!

Bruichladdich's Peat Comes of Age: Three 10 Year Old Peated Bruichladdichs

Peat Pastoral

Arguably no one made more waves in the Scotch Whisky industry during the first decade of the twenty-first century than Bruichladdich.  The distillery was the comeback kid of the 2000s, rising from the dead as a pugnacious independent with an endless pipeline of new releases.

They probably made their biggest splash of that decade with two peated releases:  Port Charlotte PC5 and Octomore.  Bruichaladdich had traditionally been made at a very low peat level, but master distiller Jim McEwan quickly showed he wasn't going to be bound by tradition and turned the peat level up to 11.

The PC 5 came first, a five year old, heavily peated whiskey released in 2007 with a bold price point of $120 (for a five year old?!? - we cried back then).  It got almost universally rave reviews and there was a new PC6 the next year and so on up to the new PC10.

Octomore came out a few years later in 2009.  It was another five year old at an even higher price that boasted one of the highest peating levels ever used.  Octomore was a bit less popular than the PC5, though I liked it more. (I actually think much of the less than enthusiastic reception was due to the distillery's release of a low proof Octomore "futures" bottling prior to the release of the cask strength official bottling; initial reports on the futures bottle were negative and impacted perceptions of the official release).

Now, five years later, we have our first ten year old peated Bruichladdichs. A PC 10 from the Port Charlotte series, a ten year old Octomore and a lower proof Port Charlotte 10 that will become a regular release.  Given this sudden plethora of 10 year old peated 'Laddies, I thought it was a good time to taste them.  Keep in mind that the ppm level, measuring peat phenols in parts per million, is based on the original count in the malted barley.  Peat tends to fade with age and two of these are also diluted with water.


Bruichladdich Port Charlotte 10, 40 ppm, 46% abv ($60)

The nose is quite peaty with a sweet, ocean breeze.  The palate is a bit flatter than I'd expected, with a soapy note along with the peat.   The finish returns to the nice peaty, coastal notes of the nose.  The nose and finish are spot on, but the palate lets you down on this one, and hey, that's the important part.  It's fine, but doesn't distinguish itself among the other peated mainstays of Islay.

Bruichladdich PC 10, 40 ppm, 59.8% abv ($150)

The nose on the PC 10 is the least peaty of these three.  It has more of a motor oil nose with some very light fruit notes in the background.  The palate has malt and some fruit, maybe even a touch of sherry.  Only later in the palate do you get with that sharp, less aromatic peat that is the mainstay of the PC series and harkens back to the oily, peat of old Ardbegs.  It drinks surprisingly easily for the proof.  The finish is mostly peat on the nose and some sweet cereal grains and maybe a trace of sherry on the palate. 

Bruichladdich Octomore 10, 80.5 ppm, 2012 First Release, 50% abv ($275)

This expression of Octomore, while still double the peating level of the other two, is quite a bit less than the earlier Octomore releases which were peated into the hundreds of ppms.  It's also lower proof than the other general release Octomore expressions, all of which have been cask strength.

The nose has an herbaceous quality along with the strong dose of peat; there's some juniper in there.  The notes follow into the palate with some sweet notes early on, but then it becomes all peat and herbs, like a peaty pesto.  The finish, as expected, is just a big dose of peat.  I really wish they had bottled a cask strength, because I think it would have been fantastic.  As it stands, it's good, but nowhere near what I would expect for the price. If you're going to put out a ten year old for nearly $300, it better be something amazing, and this isn't. What I really would have liked to see as the ten year old Octomore is the ten year old, cask strength version of the original Octomore which was peated to 131 ppm and was excellent at five years old.  Hopefully, we'll see that in the future sometime, and maybe even it will even be worth the price.


All three of these were good peated malts.  The PC10 was my favorite, with a lot more complexity than the other two.  The Port Charlotte was the least impressive, and while the Octomore was good, the price to quality ratio is way off. 

A Tale of Two Mortlachs: Binnys vs. K&L

Mortlach is one of the few single malts that seems to be more available now than it was five years ago.  A Diageo owned Speyside distillery, Mortlach has always had somewhat of a cult following.  There is only one official bottling, but there are numerous independents.   Today I'll compare two retailer specialty bottlings of 22 year old 1990 Mortlach aged in sherry cask:  a Chieftain's from K&L and a Signatory from Binny's.


Mortlach 1990, (Signatory for Binny's), 21 yo, Distilled 1990, Cask 6073, 52.8% abv ($100)

While it's officially 21 years old, the dates indicate that this Mortlach is only nine days short of 22 years.

The nose is malty without much trace of sherry at all.  Malt also dominates the palate, which starts with very nice sweet malty notes and then moves into fruit, floral notes, some bubble gum and a touch of white wine. 

This tastes much more like a bourbon cask offering.  If it didn't list it on the label, I would never have guessed that it was sherry cask matured.  I would assume that this was a cask that had already had a number of fills such that the sherry had all been sucked out of it.  Regardless, this is a very nice whiskey; just don't approach it thinking you're getting a sherried malt.


Mortlach 22 (Chieftain's for K&L), Distilled 1990, Cask 5160, 58.1% abv ($170)

The first thing I notice in contrast to the Binny's is how much darker the K&L Mortlach is; it has a dark red hue, while the Binny's is yellow (or as whisky companies call it, "golden").  Both indicate on the label that they have natural color so any difference is likely due to the particular casks or other factors such as temperature and warehouse placement. 

The nose has lightly sulfured sherry with some sweet fruit notes. The palate is a very dry sherry with a hint of sulfur and some spice.  On the finish, it's prunes and dry sherry.  This is a very nice, dry sherried malt.


This was a fascinating match up.  Two malts from the same distillery, distilled in the same year, of a comparable age and both aged in sherry butts, yet they are completely different in character.  Both of these malts are quite good and definitely worth trying, but if I had to pick just one, I'd say I slightly preferred the Binny's.

 

George Dickel 14 for Park Avenue Liquor

I've always been a fan of George Dickel, the "other" Tennessee Whiskey overshadowed by it's more popular neighbor Jack Daniel's.  While Dickel 12 remains one of the best deals around, I've often wondered why we never see any special releases from Diageo's only American whiskey distillery.  It would be great to taste older or higher proof expressions.

Well, we finally have one.  Dickel apparently has a new barrel selection program, and Park Avenue Liquor is offering a 14 year old Dickel exclusive selection at 53% abv.

George Dickel 14 year old, Park Avenue Liquor Exclusive, 53% abv ($90)

This stuff smells exactly as you would expect.  It's got all those mineral and lumber notes that are typical in Dickel along with some extra wood.   The palate starts in with chocolate, then gets some of those mineral notes, some nice wood and a touch of maple syrup at the end.  The finish is probably the weakest part of the tasting; it's a bit hot with oak and a vague mineral note along with some citrus.

This is exactly what I've been waiting for, a high proof, more aged Dickel that hits all the right notes.  I can honestly say this is the first new bourbon release I've been excited about in quite a while.  It's a bit pricey, but it's still available, and you know how the market is these days, so I would buy now if you're interested.

The Age Old Question: How Important is Age?

It's a question that has generated debate among whiskey enthusiasts for years.  How important is the age of your whiskey?  The default enthusiast answer, one that I've given many times myself, is that older isn't necessarily better, just more expensive.  We can all ring off examples of whiskeys that we like better at a younger age as well as examples of older whiskeys that were caustic and over-oaked. But is this really a rationale or are these examples just our own confirmation bias, anecdotes that stick with us because they support our preexisting beliefs?

The whiskey industry is predictably unhelpful in this matter.  They want us to believe that their super-aged bottlings are worth the high prices, but they also claim age really isn't that important whenever they drop an age statement.

But how important is age really?  I thought I would dive deeper into the question by looking at how important it is to me, statistically speaking.  When I look at my own ratings on the LA Whiskey Society site, I've given 92 A or A- grades out of 740 whiskies I've rated.  I'm pretty stingy with my A range, reserving it for the whiskeys that truly blow me away.  I broke down those top grades by age to determine the percentage of A/A- grades for different age statements (I didn't count NAS whiskeys). Here are my results:

• Age 0-5 years:  3% A/A-
• Age 6-10 years: 5% A/A- 
• Age 11-19 years: 13% A/A- 
• Age 20-29 years: 22% A/A- 
• Age 30-39 years: 25% A/A- 
• Age 40 and over: 60% A/A-

I was quite surprised at how consistent this result was.  I expected some correlation to age and the very best whiskeys I'd tasted, but I didn't expect the correlation to be so direct.  The older the whiskey gets, the more likely it would be to be something I really loved (and remember, only 12% of the 740 whiskeys I've rated on the site received an A range grade).

Now, this doesn't mean that there aren't very good young whiskeys.  Even among the zero to five year olds, I gave 3% A range grades, and of course it doesn't mean their aren't some well aged stinkers.  There is a 39 year old that I awarded a C+.

And this little chart is far from a scientifically controlled study.  Some of these tastings were blind and some weren't.  The sample probably has some bias as well; I'm more likely to make the much more considerable investment in a very old whiskey if I hear something positive about it, whereas I don't mind taking a chance on a cheaper, younger whiskey, even if I have no idea what it's like, which may mean that I'm sampling a better crop of whiskeys at the higher price points (which tend to be older).  And of course, I tend to like old whiskey and probably have a higher tolerance for the woodiness that comes with age than some other whiskey fans.

Even with these caveats, when I look at these numbers, it's hard for me to deny the importance of age at least for my own palate.  While older may not always be better, the older a whiskey is, the more likely it is to be truly outstanding.

Blog of the Month: My Annoying Opinions

My Complete List of Whiskey Blogs now numbers over 400...yes there are more than 400 people who are writing (or have written in case of the dormant blogs) about whiskey on-line.  And I seem to find more on almost a daily basis.

As I've mentioned before, these blogs run from the brilliant to the bizarre.  Since I've got this list, I figured I'd dedicate one post a month to highlighting a whiskey blog that I find interesting or amusing or bizarre or all three.

I'll kick off this month with a new but high quality blog:  My Annoying Opinions.  MAO is written by an anonymous, Minnesota teacher who goes only by "Snookums" on the blog, but he's been known to post frequently on Scotch forums under a different moniker.

The blog mostly consists of Scotch reviews with occasional posts about food or other things.  The writing is pithy and occasionally sarcastic...and not really that annoying, and the ratings are refreshingly uninflated.  It's a refreshing read from someone who knows his (or her) stuff.  Check it out!

Jefferson Presidential 21 Bourbon

Jefferson Presidential Select 21 year old is the newest bourbon in the Jeffeson's line, a non-distiller produced bourbon owned by Castle Brands.  The original Jefferson Presidential Select line of 17 and 18 year old bourbons were wheated bourbons, the first stocks of which came from Stitzel-Weller.  The 21 year old, however, is a rye recipe bourbon from an undisclosed distillery.

Jefferson Presidential Select 21 year old, 47% abv, Batch 3 ($125)

The nose is very nice with lots of polished wood notes showing some serious age.  The palate is very dry with oak, mint, pine and a chewy mouthfeel, though it is a little flat by late palate.  The finish has menthol and pepper.

This is good stuff, though it feels a bit diluted.  At cask strength, I bet it would be great. As with almost everything these days, it's hard for me to recommend this based on the price to quality ratio, but I suppose that high prices for good but not great bourbon are the new normal, and we just have to get used to that.