New Chief(s) in Town! Ian Macleod's Chieftain's Bottling Run #9

March 1, 2016

New Chief(s) in Town! Ian Macleod's Chieftain's Bottling Run #9

Ian Macleod's Chieftain's independent bottlings of rare whiskies have put out some serious malts over the years.  We're talking about a thirty year Port Ellen, a 1969 Springbank, stuff like that. They've certainly set the bar pretty high with the declaration, "The Chieftain's collection's hallmark is that each bottling must be fit for a King, a Leader or in the Celtic world, a Chieftain." Guess today that's us! 

The Chieftain's Run #9, 2016

Looking at the selections we were intrigued. Mortlach has recently come on to our radar and we've been pleasantly surprised. There is a 100% bourbon cask Glen Grant, which we've never tasted before (they're famous for their "sherry bomb" casks). Not to mention all these bottlings are 15+ years, unfiltered, and mostly served up at higher proofs. We invited our frequent guest reviewer @jakecahill to sit down and taste the whole line. Here's what we came up with.

Mortlach 18-Year PX Cask 46% 

Steve's Tasting Notes

Nose: Pineapple Jelly Beans, jammy fruity syrup, stone fruits (apricots).

Palate: Jake says “stewy” just as I take a sip and yes, it’s like chewing on a nice fruity stew of prunes and plums and raisins.

Finish: Smooth and short, with punchy berry fruitiness, a little white chocolate and a touch of tannin from the oak. Overall a very nice dram. This is not a flavor bomb, but very subtle and well crafted. A great pick for someone in the Macallan / Speyside fanfare category.

Jake's Tasting Notes

Nose: Beautiful golden color (bourbon cask before PX?) opens up with a dried pruney fruit. Dried pineapple and mango. Some slight vegetation that I cant quite pinpoint. Almost like compost while all the materials are still fresh. Slight hint of petroleum.

Palate: More of the dried fruit. leaning more toward the prune and date here. That soft vegetation comes back with a little earth and spice toward the back end. 

Finish: It sounds like an awful combination of ingredients (dried fruit, vegetation and petroleum??), but like a great chef can pull a dish together with complimentary flavors from opposing ingredients, this Mortlach comes together as a wonderful whisky with an inviting nose and interesting flavor wheel that delivers a new component every time you revisit it. 

Glen Grant 20-Year Bourbon Finish 55.1%

Steve's Tasting Notes

Nose: Heavy, big vanilla extract. Maybe this is from the bourbon cask? But it's way more vanilla than you'd typically get from barrel influence. More vanilla than in many bourbons! There has to be some very sweet vanilla influence coming through from the distillate, can't just be the barrel. There's a little light oak and some green grapes and figs.  It's a very mellow nose for over 110 proof.

Palate: Interesting palate. I was expecting mild flavor based on the smoothness of the nose, but it opens up with some pretty bold spirit warmth, fresh cream, an “almond milk smoothie” comes to mind, getting a lot more of the barley and wood on the tongue.

Finish: Being a fan of big flavors like Islay smoke and American whiskey, it’s usually tough to impress me with a Speyside bourbon cask, but this one at cask strength has some

power that separates it from the pack. Really sweet but in a nice flavorful way without being cloying. Surprisingly this was my favorite of the bunch, and definitely the one I found myself thinking about the next day.

Jake's Tasting Notes

Nose: Strong bourbon influence on the nose. Soft and light but an array of inviting aromas. You can really dig your nose into this one and get quite personal with it for a 110.2 proof. For me I got a lot of Vanilla malt shake, Dark Cherries, Dried Figs, Toasted oak and slight burnt out campfire. "Soda!" I said. "What kind of soda??"   "CREAM SODA," says Steve, "Dr. Brown's Cream Soda!" "YEEESSSSS! That's it exactly!"

Palate: Boom! Theres the Proof! It wasn't in the Pudding! It was in this Glen Grant. Creamy and spicy come crashing together here. Crème brûlée and apple cobbler. with 

Finish: A long nice finish with subtle malty and earthy elements dominating as the fruit and spice slowly taper off. This was my personal favorite.

Braeval 19-Year "The Red Beaune"

Steve's Tasting Notes

Nose: Not blowing me away on the nose. Kind of a jammy sickly sweetness bumping into the spirit in not such a good way.

Palate: Maybe like red licorice. Again this one’s not doing it for me. The wine finish feels a bit ham-fisted into what was not a very flavorful malt.

Finish: Honestly this was my least favorite of the bunch. Like I said I'm generally not a Speymalt guy, and I'm almost always underwhelmed by fancy wine finishes. Jake is much more knowledgeable about wine than I so I asked him what "Red Beaune" meant. "Probably Côte de Beaune" says Jake, which Google reveals is usually a combination of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes - neither of which being my favorite wine. So maybe this just isn't my cup of tea.

Jake's Tasting Notes

Nose: Kind of 'fumbly' and really out of whack. Overly fruity and medicinal in an unpleasant way.

Palate: I imagine the first experimental batches of Robitussin and Dimetapp tasted something like this. I just really don't have anything nice to say about this malt other than its... Interesting and unique I guess.

Finish: Thank goodness its finished. NEXT!

(Even though we were drinking together, Jake and I wrote our notes separately so I guess we were pretty much on the same page!)


Linkwood 17 Year Oloroso Finish 55%

Steve's Tasting Notes

Nose: Hard apple cider for me on the nose.

Palate: Still in super green apple territory here. Sort of over the top sweet green Granny Smith apples. Was hoping for a little smoke on this one but apart from maybe a little barrel char there’s hardly any smoke here.

Finish: Comes together nicely between the fruit, sweetness, and a good amount of wood. This one’s
nice, would be very good standing up next to a stinky cheese! Taleggio anyone? Mmmm talegio!

Jake's Tasting Notes

Nose: Very fresh and lively. A good hit of vanilla bean and apple skin. Honeycomb.

Palate: That honey comes back but my apple has now turned mealy/slightly oxidized. Nutty almost. A bit of damp earth. A little bit of red fruit here like strawberry or cherry too. 

Finish: This has a little bit of heat to it. Which is interesting seeing as its lower proof. It isn't enough to distract it from its character and flavors though. A really lovely and enjoyable whisky.

Fettercairn 19-Year Oloroso 57.4%

Steve's Tasting Notes

Nose: Immediately digging this one. Medicinal nose. Not peaty but very herbal. The sweetness from the sherry is coalescing nicely with all this crazy menthol stuff. tart cherries, lemon meringue.

Palate: Holy black pepper. This is a punchy ballsy malt. Still mixing together nicely between the dry herbal stuff and the sweet grapes. Definitely the most interesting of the bunch so far. Really didn’t know what to expect from this one but really like it.

Finish: Wow it’s really strong but super drinkable for 114.8 proof! Not reaching for water. Really lovely strong mix of bitter, sweet, and warm wood.

Jake's Tasting Notes

Nose: This one wins most interesting in my mind. Really fun and exciting. Pronounced herbal and medicinal nose with a wonderful background of dried fruits, rosemary, and cornbread.

Palate: Super spicy with a waft of cough syrup (the good tasting cherry kind). A fresh sprinkle of dried herbs de provance into the pot and just a tad grapey.

Finish: Great playfulness between sweetness and Earth. Really fun to keep going back to again and again. 

Overall

This was a really fun line. The Grant and the Fettercairn were truly surprising and memorable, vanilla-bomb and pepper-bomb respectively. The Grant is a little pricey, coming in around $140-$160, but I find myself definitely contemplating picking up a bottle. Same with the Fettercairn which is on the shelves around $120-$130. but would be such a strong conversation starter. Particularly for real malt whisky fans, either of these would be a total stumper tasted blind, and a really interesting addition to any tasting. 

Cheers/SB

Review: Berry Brothers' Glen Grant 1974 - A Dead Body in a Whisky Barrel! Disco Dram #3

June 26, 2013

Review: Berry Brothers' Glen Grant 1974 - A Dead Body in a Whisky Barrel! Disco Dram #3

A Barrel That Is A Coffin!

abridged from The Vanishing Smuggler by Stephen Chalmers

    Giles Serymegeour looked long and stupidly at the barrel.  What kind of joke was this?  Then slowly, into his eyes there dawned a look of horror and dread.  He suddenly remembered that which Smuggle-Erie had said - about bringing home Grant in "a barrel - that is a coffin!"  The perspiration stood in big beads on the miser's face, although the morning was quite fresh.  The whispering and knocking at his cowardly conscience became a thundering and shrieking of certainty.  He laid his hot, trembling hands upon it.  The cold iron rings stung him like serpents.  He flung open the shop door, seized the barrel and began hurdling it inside.  It was heavy.  And strangely balanced!  He could not feel even the weight of liquid, but his frenzied imagination seemed to hear the sullen rolling and rumbling.    

   Then the barrel was opened.  

   There are some things in life which are better left undescribed.  The scene that immediately ensued is one of them.  Whether Captain John Grant, master of the Thistle Down, may or may not have been the infamous smuggler Heather Bloom, concerned us little in the face of the tragedy.  A murder had been done!

1975 Birthday Bonanza Finale - Well Almost!

First the bad news: We were lining up a string of malts from hubby's year of birth - 1975.  We had a final dram in mind, a disco king so to speak, but it got held up in transit.  Alas the "hubby's getting old" celebration was in jeopardy.  Now the good news: we found a badass 1974 malt to make up for it.  Sure, whisky that's as old as you has that certain something, that shared history, that magical year of birth, yada yada.  But whisky that's actually older than you, now we're talking about a big brother'ish veneration, a new level of respect for one's elders.  Enter our stately sherried senior-classman: The Berry Brother's & Rudd Glen Grant Distillery 1974 vintage, 37 year-old single cask.

In Heaven

Berry Brother's & Rudd was founded on St James Street in London in 1698, so yeah they know a thing or two about whisky.  They offer a line of their own bottlings, as well as a cellar of hand-picked stock.  Berry Brother's is one of the top wine merchants in the world, specializing in the cream of the crop - Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Rhone.  If you are a hifalutin English gentlemen, you may choose to have Berry Bro's cellar some of your vast wine collection.  They will care for your millions of pounds in rare reds and add choice selections twice per year for future imbibing or sale.  Basically we just want to set up cots in Berrys' and sleep there in the cellar surrounded by wine and scotch forever.

Now Back To That Infamous Barrel!

Glen Grant is our kind of story.  It's not known whether the fictional account above is based on real events.  Was John Grant captain of the notorious Thistle Down?  Did he go by the pseudonym Heather Bloom and command shipmates with names like Smuggle-Erie and The Red Mole?  Did he end up being delivered dead in a whisky barrel to the miser Serymegeour?  Unclear.  It is a known fact that both John and James Grant were acknowledged smugglers and bootleggers before they founded Glen Grant in 1840.  It is also well known that James led seven hundred Grant clansmen in the 'Raid on Elgin' - the last clan revolt in Scottish history.

The Grant's stomping grounds in Rothes were bordered to the north by The Port of Garmouth and to the south by the River Spey.  Easily accessible by sea and river, and surrounded by vast plains of barley, it was a whisky smuggler's paradise.  Since whisky distilling wasn't officially legal until the middle of the eighteen-hundreds, all whisky makers were officially smugglers, but these two evidently took it to new heights.  After the brothers' passing, young James "The Major" Grant took over the distillery.   The Major was purportedly the first man in the Highlands to own car, and Glen Grant was the first distillery to have electric lights.

Today Glen Grant is one of the biggest selling single malt whiskies in the world.  Their bottles range from "The Major's Reserve," a low-end No Age Statement malt, to a mid-range 10 Year, and quickly jump into an amazing range of vintages and bottlings dating back to the 1930's and covering every decade in between.

Tasting Notes

Appearance:  Unchillfiltered - Uncoloured - Oh yeah!  The color is flat-out gorgeous.  No color correction in that centerfold above.  This is a dark and lovely shade.  Almost a combination of Jack Daniels and Welches Grape Juice.

Nose:  Lots of amazing fruit going on here.  Watermelon, cherries, lemon, a medley of berries.  A hefty undercut of oak.  And wonderful fresh herbals - just-cut mint, fresh thyme, rosemary.  On a second pass more citrus, but getting denser into an orange rind, and some of the nice leather polish that we get with old whisky.

Body:  There's a distinct creaminess.  Like Dr. Brown's Cream Soda.  Intense vanilla.  Some root beer flavors coming through.  Really lovely desert-like body, very delicate and immensely enjoyable.

Finish: A medium length finish where the vanilla and sweet cream fade into a nice belly warmth and sweetness on the tongue.  Fading into hints of oak and leather, twist of lemon and lingering honey/molasses.

Review

The Berry Brother's Glen Grant is available from our friends at RoyalMileWhiskies for £120.79 (around $185).  So this is a real splurge, or if you're feeling euphemistic (read: drunk), it's an investment.  And hey if you had enough self-control to let this bad boy sit on your shelf for twenty years, it might well be an investment.  But who's kidding who?  You'd sooner end up dead in a barrel than let this stuff sit on your shelf.  Of course you're going to drink it!  Anyway, at this price we wouldn't recommend anything that wasn't truly special.  This one is.  It's something that anyone and everyone would appreciate, from a first date to a veteran whisky hound.  What it's not:  a smoky beast.  If you're looking for a peaty, Islay gem, this is not your pony.  But for something that comes out on a special occasion, after a beautiful meal, and doesn't wipe the palate with smoke and peat, this is pretty close to ideal.  It was a perfect way to cap off birthday month, thanks for celebrating with us!  /smokybeast

Click here for the next installment of Disco Drams, a whopper of 1970's vintage scotch: Signatory 1973 Craigduff, & Samaroli Glenlivet 1977