Malt Madness Blog

Quick Update: I'm still alive

2011-09-26T10:06:00.000+02:00

Ehm.... Loyal followers of my new blog may remember that I intended to publish my 400th log entry as soon as my body weight had dropped below 100 kilo's. Well, as you may have guessed from the fact that I haven't posted a fresh entry in a few months: I'm still heavier than 100 kilo's, so I haven't achieved my goal yet. I'm still busy trying though - and I even gave up my seat on the Malt Maniacs Awards jury this year... :-/

Furthermore, when I went on-line just now, I noticed a completely new Blogger interface as well. The fact that organisations like Facebook and Google keep changing their interface so often annoys me greatly, but I guess that's the price we have to pay for all this free stuff in the cloud. It made me re-consider my original plan to publish my 400th log entry here, though - it might be better if I published that special entry on the Malt Madness site after all. It may be another while before I get around to that, but in the mean time I'm still active on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Oh, and my purely personal website; www.johannesvandenheuvel.com of course.

http://twitter.com/#!/MaltMadness

http://twitter.com/#!/MaltManiacs

http://www.facebook.com/johannes.vandenheuvel

http://www.facebook.com/groups/7425231196/

http://plus.google.com/106637615262994568098/

That's it for now...

As soon as log entry #400 or the Advanced Beginner's Guide are published I'll put up a notification here. Until then, please check out Malt Madness and Malt Maniacs websites, as well as the aforementioned social media.

Sweet drams,

#399 - "Skalking" The Black Bull

2011-03-21T09:57:00.006+01:00

Wow... As I start writing this at 05:55 in the morning, a glorious full moon is beaming over Amsterdam and the birds are already chirping their little hearts out. Spring is obviously in the air, and that's about time if you ask me...

It seems that I've suffered from even more "bad nose days" than usual, which means that a massive pile of samples has been growing on my shelves. Now that my nose has opened up on the first day of Spring, I want to take the opportunity so have a look at the most overdue samples on my shelves. Quite a few professional tasters have informed me that the morning is the best time for tasting, and since I don't have to work today I might as well start drinking early. Not just because I CAN, but because those will be my last drams in a while...

I've written about my struggle to achieve a healthier lifestyle. Since January 1, I've managed to reduce my weight from 112 to 106 kilo's, but now I've been stuck around that level for almost three weeks. So, it seems I'll have to intensify my efforts to get below 100 kilo's. And now I've figured out that I could try to use my "malt madness" as a motivational tool to help me get to that point. I'm not always very comfortable with grey area's, so the concept of "drinking less" is sometimes hard to translate into the real world for me - partly because there's lots of wiggle room for those of us that are smart enough to outsmart ourselves.

However, there's very little wiggle room in the rule "I won't drinking any more whisky at all until my scale shows a number below 100.0 kilo's". That means that I'll probably be dry for at least a few weeks - and more probably until the end of May at least. The first few kilo's are relatively easy to lose, but further weight loss often requires more effort. So, I'd better make these few last drams memorable ones...

And I guess they don't come a lot more memorable than a whisky that dropped in my mailbox two weeks ago; the Black Bull 40yo Batch #2 (41.9%, Duncan Taylor, Blended Scotch, 957 Bts., 2011). Indeed, it's a blend - but one thing that makes it more interesting than most other blends is the fact that Duncan Taylor is candid about the ingredients. The Black Bull is said to contain Invergordon grain whisky and Tamdhu, Bunnahabhain and Glenlivet malt whisky. Serge sampled it for Whiskyfun a few weeks ago and gave it 90 points. Let's see if I like it just as much... The nose is full and sweet with plenty of coconut. Nicely polished with subtle fruits. Unusually expressive for a blend. On the palate it starts off sweet and smooth - that's probably the Invergordon again - with again the coconut. The nose develops very nicely over time with whiffs of glue and spices. A fruity element remains present as well - more pineapple and perhaps even sweet tangerine. Quite delicate, but utterly lovely.

It's very pleasant on the palate as well, although the slightly gritty mouth feel keeps it just outside the 90 points range for me, despite the glorious de velopment over time. On my own rating scale I'd go for 89 points - but if you take into consideration that I often score whiskies two or three points below Serge these days, one could argue that I actually liked this Black Bull #2 even more than Serge did... ;-)

Well, that was a very nice way to start the morning - and the Spring of 2011.
I had actually planned to proceed the tasting with 10 whiskies from the Tomatin distillery, but I'm already feeling the effects of the Black Bull. So, I decided to limit myself to just one of the most recent samples that Tomatin's Graham Nicolson was kind enough to send me some time ago; the Tomatin 36yo 1973/2010 (44%, OB, refill American oak, decanter). And I won't bother you with the tasting notes here either - please check out the Malt Maniacs Monitor for my notes in case you're interested... All I have to say right now is that it's another bloody great dram that scored 89 points, just like the Black Bull.

Further tasting reports, as well as details about THE SAMPLE-PALOOZA EVENT will follow in log entry #400 and beyond - which will be published shortly after I've managed to lose six additional kilo's of superfluous body weight. You won't have to wait very long for other updates on Malt Madness though - I hope to publish a brand new mAlmanac around April 1.

Sweet drams,

#398 - Tweet! Tweet!

2011-02-28T12:15:00.000+01:00

It has been a while since my last entry - but that's just because I've been working very hard on the Malt Madness site itself. One recent enhancement is the inclusion of a Twitter feed on the home page, which will enable me to refresh the site more frequently from anywhere in the world. And there's even a special page with more tweets. (And some clandestine music you might be able to enjoy if you can find the hidden buttons that will reveal it...)

I imagine that things might be getting a little confusing for the people that have been following Malt Madness and the "spin-off" Malt Maniacs for a few years. First, there was the separate Malt Maniacs site (and Serge's "Whiskyfun" sister site, of course). And then the maniacs appeared with their own "group" on Facebook... And then some more maniacs started their own sites... And then Malt Maniacs appeared on Twitter... And then Facebook sort of abanded their "groups" idea... And then even more certified malt maniacs launched their own web sites... And then Malt Madness appeared on Twitter... Indeed, very confusing...

The root of all this evil is NetObjects Fusion. When I built the very first pages of the Malt Madness site in 1995, I did so by writing HTML code directly. I moved to Netscape Composer not long after that - and finally to the antique WYSIWYG editor "NetObjects Fusion" in 1998. At the time, it was a fairly brilliant program that was a serious competitor for Macromedia's Dreamweaver. Well, somewhere along the way something went horribly wrong. The result is that, in practical terms, the software is not supported any more. There is no meaningful development, so there is simply no way to develop the current web site(s) much further in technological terms. So, any further evolution will have to use other platforms and technologies as well - like social media, mobile phones, etc.

Anyway, with entry #400 coming up, I suddenly noticed that I haven't posted any fresh tasting notes on this blog recently. There actually has been more than enough fresh material in the profiles in the distillery data section and on the malt maniacs monitor, but I haven't been able to posting anything here yet. Well, as luck would have it, I've just received an interesting sample from Duncan Taylor. However, I'm still struggling with the after-effects of a nasty cold. So, look for that in my next entry.

In fact, you might as well stop reading right now if you'd like to read about whisky any time soon. I'll be abusing this blog to keep those who want to know about my life informed - until I've reached a healthy weight again and can enjoy more whiskies than the two or three drams a week I'm allowing myself right now. Check out Malt Madness (or follow me on Twitter) if you'd like to get back to whisky...

Thanks to the aforementioned cold (and the very crappy weather we've had over the past three weeks), I haven't been able to do much exercise over the past few weeks. As a result, my weight is still bouncing between 105 and 106 kilo's. So, I've only lost some six kilo's since January 1 - the next six will probably be quite a bit harder. Still, I have some high hopes to get under 100 kilo's again by June 1.

Further updates on my life: Remember my post about my smart phone? Well, I decided to upgrade to a Blackberry to be able to check my e-mail - with a Vodafone account so I could keep the same mobile number. And then it turned out that I couldn't actually keep my own number. Or check my e-mail for that matter, at least without paying some extra wads of cash to Vodafone AND Blackberry each month. FUKNUGGETS! To cut a long story short: I now have YET ANOTHER mobile phone. It's probably less smart than the previous two, but at least it can't be used as a conduit for commercial arse-raping by "the system".

OK, that's it for now - more later...

Sweet drams,

#397 - The Thrashing of The Bottles

2011-01-19T21:23:00.000+01:00

Do you recall me bragging about my smart phone in my previous post? Well, actually I was indirectly bragging about myself - because I wanted to prove that I'm smarter than my phone. Well, as it turns out now, I'm a bit more durable as well... That LG GW300 piece of crap lasted just a few days past 6 months - which is probably also the warranty period.

Anyway - that's not the point...
As part of my journey towards a slightly healthier lifestyle, I've invested in a home trainer and a stepping machine - which I've installed in front of a TV so I can train my body AND my soul... Those machines allow me to get some exercise on the many rainy days we have in Holland. However, I need some room...

That means that, at long last, I will be getting rid of the last remains of my collection of empty whisky bottles. I've already managed to say goodbye to a lot of bottles a few years ago, but now it's time to bring the last few hundred whisky bottles to the glass bin. I'll be sad to see some bottles go (the design of some bottles and labels is quite beautiful - at least I think so), but at least I won't have to dust them off on a regular basis any more.

(Once every two years before Christmas - that's regular, right?)

However, before I throw them out, I want to make sure that I record every tiny little detail in the Distillery Data section of Malt Maniacs - on the profile of the distillery where that whisky was distilled. This will be the last chance I have to record small details that might distinguish that particular batch from an earlier or later version. So, you'll be seeing some very detailed "bottle profiles" appearing in the DD section in the weeks to come. Hopefully, we'll find a way to include the information in the MMMonitor as well.

Sweet drams,

#396 - My Smart Phone

2011-01-14T13:59:00.000+01:00

Now, free with a bottle of GlenWonka

One of the biggest problems of being as smart as me is that it's surprisingly easy to outsmart yourself. For example, on the way home from work around 15:00 PM (yeah, I only work part time - because I have only my own lard ass to support) I always pass a "Kentucky Fried Chicken" fast food restaurant. That's right, we have those in Holland as well. Once every two or three weeks I used to pass the restaurant in an unusually hungry mood - and then I would buy a burger or wrap, convincing myself that that would be my meal INSTEAD of my regular evening meal. Needless to say, around 19:00 or 20:00 my stomach usually had little trouble convincing my brain that I REALLY should eat something. So, Over the last decade and a half I've outsmarted myself to the tune of 32 additional and pretty useless kilo's (reasoning that I used to weigh around 80 kilo's and I was in tip-top shape at the time).

But how do I know that I'm smart, you ask? Well, thanks to logical reasoning - and the dozens of IQ tests I took as a confused teenager. I won't go into the details of my teenage years right now (that's a treasure trove of material for a website on its own) and why I took all those IQ tests, but in the end it took surprisingly little cheating to arrive at the desired end result: that I have an IQ of at least 400. [Legal notice: actual numbers may appear larger in the rear view mirror of one's mind than what is actually supported by historical evidence.]

Anyway - back to how I know I'm smart... Well, since a while, I'm the proud owner of a smart phone. It says so, right there on the box - and I'm sure they wouldn't dare putting it on the packaging if the fact wasn't scientifically established, right? So, I'd like to present the fact that my phone is smart as the first half of my case. Now, although my smart phone has many features, it can't get on the internet yet - for example to access the Malt Maniacs Monitor. I, on the other hand, can. Therefor, I'm even smarter than my smart phone.

Beat that, Nietzsche!

Alas, as I mentioned my uncanny smartness has lead to the current overweight - and I'm still resolved to work off a sizeable chunk this year. (Which is REALLY smart, my doctor tells me...) So, thanks to the "distance measuring" web site that I mentioned in my last post, I'm now taking long and brisk walks through the park or along the beach. (Amsterdam is only 25 kilometres from the beach and easily reached by bike or train. And while I'm told that "taking long walks on the beach" is supposedly a favourite hobby of romantically inclined women of the female persuasion, I can assure you that there is little less romantic than the sight of me dragging my excess lard across the beach. Fortunately, with the weather conditions we're having right now, the beach is usually mostly deserted - AND I have to drag around 3,6 less kilo's of fat. The scale now says 108,4 kilo's, two weeks into the new year. I'm on course so far...

Sweet drams,

#395 - The Best of Intentions

2011-01-02T12:59:00.002+01:00

First of all, the very best wishes for 2011 to all!*

(* = these wishes apply to everybody, but only remain valid until somebody does something that pisses me off, in which individual case these wishes are revoked automatically. No further action is required on the part of the piss-offer.)

So, one of my good intentions for this year was to buy me one of those fancy Giant Power Heidelberg Electric Belts I had seen in an advert some time ago, but when I visited the local electric belt store they told me they had just ran out. Anyway, I did not let that deter me, so I decided to start with the next best thing: walking. You might think that that's hardly a very impressive way to start a healthier regime, but I'm afraid that the amount of excess weight on my bones has grown so much out of control that those bones would have to process fairly big impacts with each step if I started running on pavement right away. So, I'm going to start nice and easy...

And as luck would have it, I recently found the Dutch site www.afstandmeten.nl.

The concept is utterly simple - but brilliant. With the help of Google Maps / Earth you can easily plot several different walking / running / cycling routes in your area and the site tells you the exact length / distance of the route. So, I've now set out several routes in the area through nearby parks, varying in length between 2 and 10 kilometres. I plan to take two stiff daily walks from now on, and I can now easily choose a route based on the weather conditions and the amount of available time.

It's a shame the web site only has a Dutch interface, but the idea is so simple that I'm sure there must be sites in other languages as well that provide this information / service in your language. Nevertheless, the site is just a shell around Google Maps, so as long as you remember to choose the "hybrid" view the Dutch site might work for you as well. Just in case you have good intentions for the new year as well, here's how it works;

1) Go to www.afstandmeten.nl,

2) find the entry field below "Ga naar" (4th line from the top in the upper left corner),

3) enter your address and hit the magnifying glass (or drag the map there),

4) choose the "hybrid" view from the options in the upper right corner (OSM, OCM, etc.),

5) zoom in to the required detail view,

6) click once on the point where your route is supposed to start (front door, office, etc.),

7) add points to the route by clicking on the map where-ever you change direction,

8) remove points by clicking on a point (your cursor changes to a hand when you hover)

9) The overall distance is indicated at the upper left; "Afstand: 3620.30m (12 punten) ".

That value means that the route is over 3,5 kilometres long and leads you along 12 points. Simple enough, eh? I know from experience is that I need some feedback to stay motivated, so knowing that a certain detour adds exactly 600 meters to my walk helps.

I'll be doing much more than just revising my diet and taking long walks, but I'll get back to that in future reports. I know I'll have to take small steps and change my routines and schedule after every few kilo's of weight loss, so for now I'm aiming for a first goal of 105 kilo's. When I weighed myself yesterday morning, the scale said 112 kilo's, so I'll have to lose 7 kilo's in the weeks that lie ahead. If at all possible, I'll try to make at least 10,000 steps every day - which should equal some 8 kilometres a day for somebody with my short stubby legs...

I'll also be spending some time on the home trainer and stepping machine each day, so I hope to reach my goal of 105 kilo's by the end of February... If that works, I'll open a very special bottle of whisky from my reserve stock before I start working towards the next goal; getting under 100 kilo's. (The ultimate goal is 75 kilo's, but that's long term planning...)

Sweet drams,

#394 - 10 Most Wanted Whiskies (?)

2010-12-31T22:16:00.001+01:00

Bugger! When I read Whiskyfun a few days ago, I saw Serge's top 10 of tasted malt whiskies. That reminded me of an ad I saw for the site www.minibottles.eu - and that in turn reminded me of the log entry about the "10 most wanted malt whiskies" (well, at least according to Google) that I had promised to write.

When I tried to make the Malt Madness site even more Google-friendly a few weeks ago, I noticed that Google provides rough indications of the number of search queries for any given topic. The numbers Google provides are notoriosly unreliable, but perhaps the relation between the numbers in itself could be interesting. Or it cold be complete bollocks - we'll see...

Anyway, I'll gather the raw data first, and will leave the actual thinking about those results for next year. So, according to the information on the Google AdWords dashboard, most searches (world wide) were done for these single malt whisky brands...

1) Lagavulin (my "amazing discovery" of single malt Scotch whisky in 1991.)
2) Talisker (although Google indicates even more hits for Jameson - which is Irish.)
3) Cardhu (which surprised me, but perhaps it's because these are worldwide results.)
4) Macallan (which sounds about right - although J&B scores even higher than Big Mac.)
5) Glenfiddich (I expected the world's biggest brand to score higher than Crown Royal.)
6) Oban (but I have my doubts - Grant's, Dimple and Black & White score higher.)
7) Glenlivet (which came right after Canadian Club, so that's another question mark.)
8) Highland Park (which scored a little higher than the Teacher's blend.)
9) Laphroaig (which is a little surprising, considering it's difficult to spell.)
10) Bowmore (which scored higher than "Cutty Sark" and "whisky fun" to name a few.)

I should point out that the basic search query I used for this list was "malt whisky" - and I've only included the brand names of Scotch whiskies. If I had used the broader search query "whiskey" (and if I had included all whisky and whiskey brands), the list would have looked fairly differently. I'll get into that research on the Malt Madness site itself - for the upcoming year I'm going to devote this liquid blog to a very specific topic.

That topic will be my struggle in finding a new balance between my passion for and consumption of malt whisky on one end and a healthy lifestyle on the other. Because I can fully understand how that would be utterly boring for some, I've confined my rants on that particular topic to this blog for now. If you are one of those young and/or lucky bastards than are still able to combine whisky and health without any sort of compromise, I reluctantly congratulate and salute you - and point you to the main Malt Madness site...

And that's it for now. More later, HAPPY OLD YEAR!

Sweet drams,

#393 - Age Doesn't Improve Everything

2010-12-14T22:00:00.001+01:00

The contents of my top shelf, circa 2003

I was pleasantly surprised when I received an unexpected present this morning: The inaugural edition of the official Malt Maniacs whisky calendar for 2010. As it turns out, Krishna takes his official title of "Trinket Master" more seriously than we had anticipated. He had a bunch of calendars with "maniacal" pictures made and sent a few to every team member.

What a great initiative! Thanks very much, Krishna!

And to my surprise I saw a picture that Krishna had taken during his first visit to Amsterdam: my very own top shelf and the cautionary remark that hangs on the wall above it. (Indian tourists are just as bad as the archetypical Japanese tourists with their camera's ;-) I was surprised by the fact that so many official bottlings were on there - in recent years the number of independent bottlings in my drinking collection has increased considerably. I was also surprised by the poignancy of the phrase "age doesn't improve everything" above the bottles. When I hung it over there, I meant it as a sardonic reference to some overpriced older single malts - but my doctor has recently informed me that I should start acting my age now as well.

I'm very good at sitting behind my PC - I can do it for hours without getting tired. However, this superpower has caused my weight to increase from less than 80 kilo's in 1995 (when I stopped playing rugby every week and started Malt Madness) to a whopping 112 kilo's right now. So, with my dwarf-like build (I'm only 1,73 meters small) I'll need to lose some 30 kilo's to reach a somewhat healthy weight again. I've had a few days to get used to the idea, and I now actually look forward to the challenge. And I'm also looking forward to trying to write some interesting words about the experience as well. From quite a few personal messages I received after my previous post I've learned that I'm not the only one struggling with the transfer of a relatively wild, hard drinking lifestyle to a more moderate consumption pattern and a slightly healthier lifestyle.

Don't worry, I can still enjoy the occasional dram or two, but tasting a dozen drams per day is off the menu in the foreseeable future.So, instead of tasting notes you'll find opinions and information on a wide variety of other whisky related topics here. You'll need to wait a little longer for that piece on the most popular whisky brands - but I'll leave you with a link to a web page that can be very useful for people who are beginning to write tasting notes; http://flavornet.org/flavornet.html.

Sweet drams,

#392 - Facing an Angry Doctor

2010-12-08T20:23:00.000+01:00

Well, it has been a week since we've published the final results of the Malt Maniacs Awards 2010 - and by matter of coincidence I had a meeting with my doctor this morning. As you may remember, I was diagnosed with a mild case of diabetes two years ago, so I already had to reduce the intensity of my dramming quite significantly.

So, I had already curtailed my whisky consumption from roughly a bottle of whisky per week to 3 or 4 drams a week. However, the parsimony ended 6 weeks ago when 262 samples arrived from France.

The Malt Maniacs Awards 2010 may have been our biggest competition yet - but it also was the heaviest test, physically and mentally speaking. The fact that three jurors had to drop out of the race somewhere along the way is a testament to that. Last year's awards effort already showed up as a sizeable dent in the gradually rising trend on the graph with some of my health indicators - but as it turns out that was negligible compared to the shock to my system that I received this year. Apparently, my blood pressure is through the roof now as well...

That means that I'm now on extra medication - which means that the number of fresh tasting notes in this Liquid Blog will be limited further in the foreseeable future. But with Serge still publishing fresh tasting notes on Whiskyfun almost every day (not to mention dozens of other whisky bloggers sharing their opinions), I think my often sketchy notes won't be dearly missed anyway. Don't worry, I'm still mad about malts (and I can still sniff as many of them as I want), but the focus of the Malt Madness site will shift away from tasting notes towards stuff like liquid links and the Advanced Beginner's Guide.

And that's just the stuff on Malt Madness. Meanwhile, the maniacs are almost ready to launch version 1.0 the interactive whisky monitor. If all goes according to plan, a vast number of tasting notes by almost 20 maniacs will be unlocked in the coming weeks. Coming up next:
A look into the "brand pressure" of some of the most famous single malt whisky brands.

Sweet drams,

#391 - The World's Best Whiskies

2010-11-24T16:11:00.000+01:00

Surprise! This is the third book review within little more than a month - it would almost seem like this whisky blog has turned in a whisky book blog. But while I've been dramming heavily for the upcoming Malt Maniacs Awards 2010 whisky competition, I didn't have the stomach (or liver) for any additional whisky tastings for my blog at the moment.

So, it's just a coincidence that three very different whisky books happened to be published this autumn; the expected fresh issue of the Malt Whisky Yearbook (see entry #390 for a small review), Dave Broom's World Atlas of Whisky (entry # 388) and now Dominic Roskrow's "The World's Best Whiskies". Just like with Dave Broom's Atlas, the price is 30.- GBP.

I'll be the first to admit that I've only read (or browsed through) four or five other new whisky books this year, but as far as I'm concerned these three books are the best choices amongst the material that was recently released. Ingvar Ronde's Malt Whisky Yearbook is the odd one out in this trio; the relatively small (168x236mm) soft cover guide costs less than half of the price of the bigger, hard cover books from Dave and Dominic. The yearbook provides plenty of interesting trivia about the malt whisky world and the distilleries in the main whisky countries. That makes it an excellent choice for experienced malt whisky aficionados - but it's not the most practical whisky guide for novices. Because a big chunk of the information doesn't change from year to year, they certainly wouldn't have to replace their copy each year.

The two larger books feel more like investments - and very wise investments too.
Both Dave's World Atlas of Whisky and Dominic's "The World's Best Whiskies" are comparable in price, format and size - much wider, taller and thicker than the yearbook. In fact, both could be described as "tomes"... Both books are very well written and both feature beautiful photography - although the atlas features a lot more more of it than Dominic's book. Both books should provide useful for many years to come as well, because they both offer so much more than their titles suggest...

In fact, in both cases, dozens of pages at the start of the book are dedicated to an in depth treatment of various aspects around the topic of whisky - although the focus is different at times. In Dave's whisky atlas, the focus is arguably a little more on the theory and a structured approach, with particular attention for flavours and the differences in production technique in various countries. Dominic's book leans in a slightly more practical direction with attention for one topic in particular that rarely gets some much deserved attention: the glassware that is used to enjoy the whisky.

On the other hand: I have one very big beef with Dominic's book; the title suggests that the book features the 750 BEST whiskies. It doesn't - unless you agree that Cutty Sark, Johnnie Walker Red Label, Jack Daniels and Slyrs are amongst the best whiskies in the world. Not a single independent bottling is mentioned in the book - which immediately makes it far less useful for the serious malt afficionado IMHO. Also, you can find so many tasting notes on-line these days that I fear that that aspect of the book might lose its sparkle relatively soon. Also, from what I've read so far, Dominic has tried to cram as much different topics, types of whisky and brands into the book as possible. Combined with the mismatched title, I imagine that this could be confusing for some readers.

Both books are most definitely worth the money.
Considering that you can get BOTH books together for the price of a bottle of Laphroaig 15yo or Macallan 15yo Fine Oak, my advice to serious maltsters out there would be to invest in both whisky books. There is some overlap of the content, but there's often value in comparing different perspectives on the same topic. However, if you HAVE to chose (and you're a fairly experienced whisky afficionado), I'd go with Dave's atlas. It goes a little deeper into a lot of the topics and I imagine it won't age as quickly.

However, if you are a relative beginner (or if you want to give it as a gift to a potential whisky lover), I'd go with Dominic's book. For one thing, it's the finest looking check list you've ever seen if you're planning a voyage of discovery through whisky land. And here's the best part: I've just checked on the Amazon.co.uk site to add a link where you can buy the book and now I see that the book is already discounted to a friendly £17.25. That's almost half price! And apparently you can even get free delivery in the UK. I'd say that's an excellent opportunity to get a nice gift for Christmas.

As for suggestions for "liquid" gifts: only six more nights until the results of the Malt Maniacs Awards 2010 whisky competition are published...

Sweet drams,

#390 - Malt Whisky Yearbook 2011

2010-11-08T23:30:00.000+01:00

A few hours after I had published my glowing review of Dave Broom's "World Atlas of Whisky", I received another eagerly awaited book in my mail box; the 2011 edition of the Malt Whisky Yearbook. If you have read my reviews of previous editions you know that I used to like the handy format and the friendly price of this small but useful whisky compendium a lot.

This year, there are some small changes (for example, the height of the book is 2 millimeters less than previous editions) but the concept has remained mostly unchanged. And that's just as well, because the current format works quite well for me. The Malt Whisky Yearbook 2011 provides most of the essential details on the distilleries, and it seems that most of the relevant developments of the past year (new bottlings, etc.) are once again covered as well.

The price of the MWYB 2011 is still a paltry 12,95 GBP - which really is a very decent price, given the vast amount of current information on offer. In fact, compared to many whisky magazines, the yearbook offers much better value. Many whisky magazines fill around half of their pages with advertising, advertorials and promotions these days. Of course, many publishers will argue that they need several sources of revenue to make their business model work. That may very well be, but to me it still feels a bit like I'm paying for the privilege of looking at some pretty advertising that's designed to make me spend more money on something than I probably should. Something about that feels a tad masochistic...

Anyway, Ingvar proves every year that you can stuff an incredible amount of malt whisky information (facts, opinions and analysis) in a handy, flexible form for a very fair price. I'd say that you get the equivalent of information to two or three vintages of an average whisky magazine with the Malt Whisky Yearbook. So, should you spend the equivalent of three decent drams in a whisky bar on the Malt Whisky Yearbook ? I think that the question you should really be asking yourself is: "Can you afford NOT to?"

I mean, it's simple mathematics. It's a well known fact that knowing more about the background of a dram enhances your enjoyment of that whisky considerably. So, let's say you are a mild imbiber and you consume one dram on every day of the week except for Sundays. That's some 300 glasses of whisky per year with an average value of 4 Euro's. That's a total value of 1200 Euro's of whisky per year. If the information in the yearbook increases your enjoyment of every glass by 10% on average, that represents a value of 120 Euro's - almost ten times your investment for the book. Like I said, it's simple mathematics...

Meanwhile, I'm actually a little ahead of schedule with my awards dramming because I feel a common cold breathing down my neck. The problem is that us jurors need to sample some dozen whiskies per day on average, and if you're out of the running for just a few days with a cold, it means you need to pick up the drams you missed later on. So, I'm running around taking vitamin pills and throwing salt over my shoulder - but I may have misinterpreted my grandmother's health advice in this matter ;-). Nevertheless, I'm trying to finish the blind tastings for the Malt Maniacs Awards 2010 as soon as humanly and humanely possible.

Sweet drams,

#389 - Awards Season Is Here!

2010-10-19T23:00:00.000+02:00

This afternoon my heart was filled with glee and my eyes were filled with tears. Tears of joy, because the samples for the Malt Maniacs Awards 2010 had finally arrived. To be more precise: more than 260 samples have arrived! As you can see from the picture at the right, I've cleared out most of my whisky shelves to make room for the little buggers.

It seems that the folkloric strikes in France may have delayed the awards parcels for a few days, but at least most now seem to have gotten out of the country safely. From what I see on the TV News, the pressure in France is rising to a boiling point. France is a really beautiful country, but I'm glad I don't have to be there at the moment... ;-)

Fortunately, I'm in Holland now, sampling my first "blind" drams for our little whisky competition as I write this.

The other jurors and me can't afford to waste any time, because we're expected to submit our scores around the end of November. That means that we have around 5 weeks left to sample more than 260 different whiskies. That means we'll have to taste around 50 whiskies every week!

So, I'm afraid I'll have to give my liver a rest and keep it brief this time. I can confirm that I've now received a copy of the Malt Whisky Yearbook 2011 though. It looks sharp, as usual. I'll use the breaks between the awards samples to write a review for the book - as well as a more thorough examination of Dave Broom's excellent new Atlas of Whisky.

Watch this space...

Sweet drams,

#388 - World Atlas of Whisky

2010-10-12T21:59:00.001+02:00

I'm a fairly content person to begin with (I imagine that's why my current job title is 'content manager'), but the past few days I've been particularly happy. We've been enjoying a bit of an 'Indian Summer' here in Holland, and the weather has been absolutely glorious for a week or so. Clear skies & brilliant sunsets - great!

And even better; I've found a little piece of 'ersatz' forest near my apartment in Amsterdam. Two years ago, real estate developers demolished the nearby park where I used to go when I needed to escape the chaos of big city life for a while. I really miss that park! Fortunately, I've now managed to use Google Earth to locate the last pockets of nature in the 'Bijlmer' ghetto where I live.

So, I've now laid out the route for a hugely relaxing walk of half an hour that takes me through some woodland and along some small ponds and streams. If I squint and look through my eyelashes a lot (and use both my hands to cover my ears so I can't hear the sound of the nearby highway), it's almost like being back home in 'the woods'. This 'fleeing from reality' trick works especially well with the help of a stiff dram of whisky or two... ;-)

Anyway - as I said, this summer has an Indian quality to it.

The leaves on most trees are still pretending to be green, although you can see that they don't really believe in it any more. In a few weeks time the trees will be al bald as I am - which always signals the return of whisky season for me. And that's usually signalled by the arrival of the 'Malt Whisky Yearbook' from Ingvar Ronde. However, this afternoon I found a much bigger book in my mailbox instead: Dave Broom's World Atlas of Whisky.

Wow! Or rather: WAoW!!! I've only read a few pages so far, but I'm already deeply impressed after flipping through it for half an hour. The book looks like the secret love child of the aforementioned 'Malt Whisky Yearbook' and Tolstoy's 'War and Peace' - on steroids. The photography is stunning and the same goes for the large, detailed maps. Like the name 'atlas' would suggest, the book looks at the whisky distilleries of the world from a 'geographic' point of view. That means that the distilleries in Scotland are grouped into regions as well. Scotland covers roughly 65% of this hardback tome, but there's plenty of information on the distilleries in the rest of the world as well. From what I've seen so far, Dave has tasted at least one expression from every distillery and brand that is discussed. In short: FANTASTIC!

Or, in the words of the publishers;

"The World Atlas of Whisky is the only guide the connoisseur will ever need to understand everything there is to know about the international life and love of whisky. It is an in-depth and comprehensive journey through the history, process, distilleries, and expressions of world whiskies, featuring detailed maps of the key whisky-producing regions. Heritage, romance, flavour, and craftsmanship are all celebrated in this complete study of the most versatile of drinks.

In-depth descriptions of all the key Scottish distilleries can be found, while Ireland, Japan, India, France, Canada and the USA, and the rest of the world are given exhaustive coverage. The World Atlas of Whisky includes detailed maps, and sample single malts from Aberfeldy to Tormore, great blends from Bushmills to Yoichi, and the best of the bourbons and ryes from Barton to Wild Turkey. It also offers tasting notes on over 300 selected expressions.

Whisky expert Dave Broom has divided the whiskies of the world into six flavour camps to provide a perfect one-stop guide for selecting the right one for your palate and your preference. Experience the entire range, from ‘malty’ malts, with their crisp, biscuit-like aroma, to ‘peaty’ expressions, where smoke is the dominant aroma. ‘Fragrant’ malts, delicate and perfumed with aromas of cut flowers, grass, and fresh fruit; ‘oaky dried fruit’ malts full of Christmas cake, cloves, walnuts, and figs; ‘oaky soft fruits’ aged in American bourbon casks and infused with aromas of vanilla, butter, pine, coconut and sweet spices; and finally, the small and unusual group of ‘waxy’ unctuous malts, full of texture with an oily rich nature. The appreciation of whisky offers a world of variety, subtlety and gratification.

So, experiment with a new taste or relax with an old favourite and prepare to immerse yourself in this stylish, beautiful collection. Whether you savour with experience or are looking for that perfect first taste, this is the ideal whisky bible."

The World Atlas of Whisky by Dave Broom, £30, Published 4^th October by Mitchell Beazley, www.octopusbooks.co.uk or on Amazon: http://tiny.cc/d3t5u

Hah! "the ideal whisky bible" indeed. Now HERE we indeed have a book that deserves to be called a BIBLE on the topic of whisky. From what I've read to far this seems to be a very worthy successor to Michael Jackson's Whisky Encyclopedia. I'm very proud that this work of whisky art was produced by a fellow malt maniac.

I will delve deeper into the book in the coming weeks; I'll need many breaks during the tasting for the MM Awards 2010 anyway. Now I can improve my theoretical knowledge about whisky while I'm improving my practical knowledge of whisky.

That's it for now - more about the awards later...

Sweet drams,

#387 - Whisky Disneyfication

2010-10-02T00:14:00.001+02:00

Perhaps I'm becoming just as selective about my memories as I am about my whiskies (or perhaps it's just because I'm growing older), but it really seems to me that malt whisky marketing has suffered from "disneyfication" in recent years.

At the end of the 20th century, single malt whiskies were hardly 'marketed' - at least not compared to well known blends like Ballantine's and Johnnie Walker. This situation was caused mostly by the fact that the single malt whisky category was a small niche market that represented only a fraction of the value of the blended Scotch whisky market. The focus of PR and advertising for single malts was mostly on product and heritage.

However, these days the marketeers use a much wider range of tools. I receive press releases about whisky festivals, competitions and charity events on a daily basis. I also receive regular press releases about 'Donald Trump whiskies' - like a new 50yo Highland Park that's supposed to fetch the nice round sum of 10,000 GBP per bottle. In the various articles that have been written about the launch of this whisky, most of the attention was reserved for the sterling silver casing that comes with the bottle and the Manhattan jeweller that produced them.

I'm suffering from a progressive case of oldfashioned-ness, so it's entirely possible that the next generation has no problems with the growing gap between the actual product and the image or "extended experience" of the whisky brand. However, my body has already reached middle age - and now my brain is rapidly catching up. As a penny-pinching Dutchman I'm having problem with this growing gap. The Dutch phrase for hollow, meaningless boasting is "gebakken lucht" - which means something like 'fried air'. One of the problems with fried air is the fact that it isn't free. In fact, sometimes you have to pay dearly for it.

That's why I'm extra happy to report that we've received plenty of entries in the 'Daily Drams' category) priced below 50 Euro´s a bottle' of the Malt Maniacs Awards 2010. In fact, the total number of entries was a whopping 260 bottles of whisky - and it would have been even higher if half a dozen bottles hadn't broken during transit. The record number of bottles means that the members of the awards jury will have to put their personal lives in sleep mode until December 1.

Oh, the pain we endure for the sake of good whisky ;-)

Sweet drams,

#386 - Is Google Growing Evil-ish?

2010-09-18T22:17:00.000+02:00

So far I've used this new 'Blogger' blog mostly to apologise for the fact that I post so few messages here - but then again I'd like to think that I usually have a good excuse...

Like this time. I had to upgrade to a new PC last month and strangely enough, such a relatively simple 'domestic' procedure also affects the Malt Madness and Malt Maniacs web sites. Because the foundations of these sites were laid in 1995, simple things like transferring files from one computer to another can cause some technical problems.

So, I have to admit that one of the reasons for starting this "external" whisky blog was that it would allow me to keep sharing my thoughts with other whisky lovers, even if something went wrong with the main sites. Since Google generously provides all the services behind this "Blogger" blog for free, I guess I really can't complain to loud when something goes wrong. Nevertheless, some very colourful words were shouted in Google's general direction when I found out last week that all pages on Malt Madness had disappeared from Google's index.

This effectively meant that novices in the confusing world of whisky would no longer be able to find any of the precious nuggets of whisky wisdom that are littering the pages of Malt Madness. And that wasn't even the worst part of it. Unless I'm sorely mistaken, Google did more than introduce 'Google Instant' last week. (Google Instant starts offering search results before you hit 'enter' - significantly increasing the amount of web traffic in the process...) I'm not sure yet, but it seems Google used this opportunity to change their search algorithms as well. Many pages on Malt Madness used to score quite high "organically" with Google on whisky-related searches, but even now that most pages seem to be back in Google's index, they score much lower than they once did.

So, I'll have to make some changes to the structure of the site to try and make Malt Madness easy to find again. This could mean that parts of Malt Madness will be temporarily off-line in the days and weeks to come. Fortunately, I'll still be able to vent my spleen via other channels like this blog, the Mixed Messages mailinglist, Malt Maniacs, Facebook and Twitter.

So, watch this space for updates in the weeks to come. As far as the news over the past few weeks is concerned: we've already received more than 150 bottles for the MM Awards 2010, our annual whisky competition. And there's still one week left for participants to join the competition, so we should get over 200 bottles again. Yumm.... Furthermore, we've received an interesting E-pistle about taxes on whisky in Europe from foreign correspondent Keith Wood. There are a few more E-pistles in the pipeline AND Rich Howard has been making some steady progress with the Malt Maniacs Database. The demo of the new MMMonitor is fully functional, so that should hopefully keep you suitably entertained for a while.

And if that isn't enough, here are a handful of links to some enjoyable music I found on YouTube. Since YouTube is owned by Google, I figured that my enjoyment of the music they so generously provide might diminish their increased evilness a bit in the grander scheme of things. I'd like to encourage everybody to help me reduce Google's evilness by enjoying this small but eclectic collection of some home grown Dutch music...

Johannes Heesters - Ode aan de Westertoren (An antique pre-WWII song)
Caro Emerald - Back It Up (The Original Videoclip)
Caro Emerald - Back It Up (A funny Kraak & Smaak Video-remix)
Veldhuis & Kemper - Volkomen Kut (Funny videoclip & lyrics)
Room Eleven - Hey hey hey! (Just some happy music)
Zangeres Zonder Naam - Ach Vaderlief, toe drink niet meer (1959)
Bløf - Mooie Dag (lovely spacy music to my ears)
Jurk! - Tram 7 (Live)
Jurk! - Verloren (Beautiful melancholic lyrics)
De Lenco's - Het Grote Brandweerlied (Dutch Uber-folk)*

(* Voor de Nederlandse lezertjes: in het laatste lied spreekt me met name het tomeloze enthousiasme aan waarmee de Lenco's over "een brandende hel" zingen...)

Eauqui-deauqui - enjoy....

#385 - Cask Logistics in South Africa

2010-09-01T18:16:00.000+02:00

In entry #382 I posted some thoughts from the other maniacs and myself in response to a question from Jeff Borowitz regarding the selection of casks for ageing. Our South African maniac Joe Barry was kind enough to follow up on Jeff's question and forwarded it to Andy Watts, Manager of the James Sedgewick distillery in South Africa. Andy wrote;

"Great to hear from you again and this is a very interesting and good question. I will try to answer with my opinion which is not necessarily that of the company or other whisky companies / distillers. Please also remember that we are relatively very new in the whisky business and therefore we don’t currently have all the “nice” options of very old aged stock! To try to answer you would ideally have some kind of strategy within your company which would give guidelines as to what products the marketing department would want available with volumes and when!

This strategy may change due to various reasons; however it must remain the back bone of your planning. This means that for example a certain amount would be laid down for a 12yr plan but also an acceptable volume may be added so that if during this 12 years the strategy changes you do have some stock to go forward with.

In our case our oldest commercially available whiskies at current are 5yr old but with the success of the previous 10yr old single malt it highlighted the fact you need a whisky strategy. Over the last few years we have put that in place and this means we now have whiskies laid down which will eventually bring an ongoing 10yr old and then also older versions.

I would be very reluctant to make the decision that a particular whisky is made for being 30yr old and then just left in maturation. I believe whisky inventory control means constantly assessing the product and making decisions regarding re-vat into a different / older type of cask etc. At all times quality must take preference over age!

Economics also plays a very big role in whisky inventory and that is why, in our case, the older offerings are generally low volume. The accountants are reluctant to sit with stock of high value which can’t move. It is therefore a case of demand outstripping supply on these products. Special occasions or significant dates in history may necessitate releasing whisky at a younger age than anticipated or leaving it in for an extended period of time.

Personally I believe that style is starting to play a more important role in the whisky we drink making an age statement not always necessary but there is no escaping the fact that age is a traditional part of the whisky heritage and there will always be aged products and a demand for them.

I hope the above gives Jeff some insight into the mind of a distiller. If I have missed anything or not been specific enough then please let me know but I think the reality is all companies will approach this differently and there is no hard and fast rule. Whisky Live will see me at both Cape Town and Jo’burg this year and look out for the new 10 yr old single malt which will be on the Three Ships stand. It is due for release towards the end of October and I can’t wait to hear the honest comments from all of you whisky lovers."

Joe added: "An interesting point to note is the pending release of new single malts from South Africa, the one Andy mentions and a first ever from Draymans which was supposed to be ready for the World Cup but will now appear at Whisky Live here."

So, apart from the theories of a the maniacs that were posted in July, we now also have a contribution from somebody working in the whisky industry. That's great - although I should point out that the situation might be a little different in Scotland. In fact, given the differences between the way the process works in countries like Japan, Ireland and Canada it's possible that things work a little differently in every country.

Sweet drams,

#384 - Kilbeggan Malt Whiskey Revisited

2010-08-30T21:44:00.001+02:00

Dear readers...

Sorry for the relative radio silence. I've been busy working on a new site for my boss and that has been eating up most of my attention over the past few weeks. Apart from that, I've been having lots of bad nose days AND we've been suffering from a heat wave. So, all in all there have not been many nights that were really suitable for serious dramming.

However, a post on the wall of Malt Maniacs & Friends on Facebook reminded me of the lastest arrival on my shelves; the recently introduced Kilbeggan NAS Malt Whiskey (40%, OB, Batch #0001, Btl. 06/2010, 70cl). I tried it last month, but that was right after I opened the bottle. Now that it has broken in, I found much more spices in the nose than first time. Again, it's grainy as well. It's sweet and extremely smooth on the palate. That is one advantage of the average Irish whiskey over the average Scotch whisky. There's a touch of smoke in the finish and after a delay some gentle tannins emerge. Slightly bitter at the very end of the finish.

It has opened up a bit since I opened the bottle, so I'll increase my initial score to 71 points. For a MALT whisk(e)y that's a few points below average, but I'd like to point out that I would pick this over some Scotch single malts like Glen Grant NAS, Auchentoshan 10yo or Dalwhinnie any day. I also expect that this could be a sort of 'gateway drug' for people who are used to drinking bottom shelf blends and bourbons...

Anyway, that's it for this micro-report... However, expect some big announcements soon. The first bottle for the Malt Maniacs Awards 2010 has just arrived at our logistics centre and we now have a working demo of an interactive version of our monitor; the first steps for our very own whisky database. Stay tuned for upcoming updates...

Sweet drams,

#383 - A new Irish MALT whiskey

2010-07-19T22:42:00.000+02:00

A few weeks ago Cooley's Jack Teeling informed
me that the very first malt whiskey from the re-opened Kilbeggan distillery in Ireland had been bottled. That's excellent news! A little over three years ago I could visit the grand re-opening of Ireland's oldest distillery (and have a chat with Michael Jackson) and now I would have the opportunity to sample the matured product.

The label of the bottle boasts "from the world's oldest pot still". If I'm not mistaken, that would be the rather unique contraption depicted at the right. It might not be quite what most people imagine if they try to form a mental picture of 'the world's oldest pot still', but the gap between image and reality in the Scotch whiskey industry can be shockingly wide as well. Anyway, let's open the bottle and try it...

Kilbeggan NAS Malt Whiskey (40%, OB, Batch #0001, Btl. 06/2010, 70cl)
(And that's not everything on the label; it also says "KD" and "Distillery Reserve".)

Nose: Grainy. Some subtle spices in the background. Gradually growing complexity.

Dust? That being said, it's really too hot to seriously taste whisky at the moment.

Taste: Warm and honeyed. Quite sweet. Very smooth - like all Irish whiskeys, really.

Toffee too. Surprisingly sweet and mellow for such a young whiskey.
Score: 70 points - but I should point out that it's a very provisional score...

I'll give the bottle a few weeks to break in and try it again a little later when the heatwave that's torturing Northern Europe is over.

Meanwhile, if we assume that production started around the time of my visit to Kilbeggan in May 2007, this first Kilbeggan whiskey was aged for three years. That's the minimum age of Scotch whisky - anything younger isn't 'legally' whisky but just spirit. Maybe the Irish have a similar law, or they simply felt that the whiskey was at the right age now. Whatever the case, the second Irish malt whisky (after the peated Connemara, also from Cooley) is now on the market - and it's not bad at all. It has the accessibility and smoothness of other Irish whiskeys, but more complexity than most.

Anyway, watch this space for a more thorough review in a few weeks time...

Sweet drams...

#382 - Advance Planning for Bottling?

2010-07-01T22:33:00.004+02:00

Gmail has made my on-line life a lot easier in recent years, but the amount of E-mail traffic I receive can still be overwhelming at times. So, it's not unusual for a message to 'slip between the cracks' every now and then.

Fortunately, you don't have to clean out your inbox regularly with 7471 megabytes of storage space at your disposal, so I often stumble across those missed messages a few weeks or even months later. My most recent stumble was this morning when I discovered the message below from Jeff Borowitz. It concerns an interesting topic that may not have been explicitly discussed on M-Madness or M-Maniacs before;

"Hi Johannes, I found your site tremendously informative -- thanks! I'm a doctoral student in economics at the University of Maryland, and I'm interested in potentially applying some economic theory to the decision of when to bottle whiskeys. I did have another question about the business decisions that go into the maturation and bottling process which I couldn't figure out from your Beginner's Guide. My question is whether distillers plan to mature a particular group of casks for 12 years, another group for 18 years, etc? Or do they simply mature everything for 12 years, and then make a business decision about how much to bottle this year and how much to keep back towards making older bottles? To rephrase the question, after distillation takes place, are there some batches of whiskey that are planned to be aged for certain amounts of time? And if so, how often do these plans change after more than a decade? Thanks so much for your help! Your site is fantastic. Best, Jeff Borowitz."

Hah! That's a very interesting question from Jeff!

I'm a romantic at heart, so whenever I'm daydreaming about Scotland (which I do more often than average I think), I still like to paint a mental picture of a few lucky Scottish distillery workers that get to sample the contents of each maturing cask of malt whisky on a regular basis. Sadly enough, that rosy view may not reflect the reality in most modern Scotch malt whisky distilleries any more. Especially the contents of casks that are destined to be used in blends may never even be tasted before they are vatted together.

In fact, 'Wood Management' (making sure that you have enough casks of the required variety to hold the freshly distilled spirit) is a very important topic these days. This suggests that the 'fate' of many casks can be predicted with a fair degree of certainty when the cask is filled. Still, I'd like to think there is room to deviate from the rules when an exceptional cask is discovered. However, at this point all this is pure speculation. So, I decided it was time to give my fellow malt maniacs a chance to share their thoughts on the question...

Olivier: "Very interesting question indeed. He, or we, should ask it to the distillers… My guess is that the price of the older whiskies includes the extra financial cost of keep stocks longer + loss to the angel’s share + gain of image if selling an older whisky. However, market prices do not always allow such price adjustments, especially when some very young whiskies < 12yo sell at a high price. It is hard to imagine today what the market will be in 21 years for a 21yo! I’m sure they change the rules as they go along… IMHO. Or the question is: are they making an 18yo or + because they can’t sell all their 12yo? I guess that we see so many 30+ yo whiskies today because of the difficult times distilleries experienced in the 1970s and 1980s…"

Patrick: "At first thought and in my opinion, when they distilled they don't presume the evolution, it's only after some years that they take the decision to bottle some cask and give the other a further maturation. This general rule shouldn't apply for sherry cask unless they are used to "enhance the whisky"."

Davin: "Maniacs, someone once said: "If all the accountants in the world were lined up
end to end that would be a good thing." Same goes for economists, and in whisky this is doubly true. My guesses: when the batches are large, differences among casks get
evened out. Likely there are specific barrels set aside to be aged for predetermined periods, but adjusments may be made along the way. Some age statements, particularly new ones, are based on available inventory. Same with lack of age statements."

Louis: "I am quite sure that all of the larger distilleries keep a constant eye on their inventory and market conditions. After being burned by the 18 year old malt shortage in the early 2000's, they absolutely need to know what's going on. Also, computers make this easy, they can project the yield at different ages at the click of a mouse. When the new spirit goes into the barrel, they should have a reasonable guess at what the breakdown will be down the road, but also have the flexibility to change directions mid-course. Lets us also not forget that the most of the output of many distilleries goes for blending, so they are only looking at three years for some of it. Slainte."

Lawrence: "I’ll wager they start out with one plan and then change course as the market fluctuates, the way the spirit is maturing and if their finances go south they’ll sell as much as they can now as a 10yo (or whatever the case may be). Then they kick themselves 3 years later. I also assume that Diageo and Springbank or Loch Lomond behave quite differently. And as a curious aside Dewar Rattray / Stronachie has come out of the closetwith Stronachie / Benrinnes (the worst kept secret in the whisky world). Regards, and HAPPY CANADA everybody!"

Serge: "Well, I doubt they wouldn't know that the malt will be bottled early when using first fill bourbon, for instance. I seem to recall that first fill bourbon casks are usually prepared with grain when used for long-term maturation. In short, very active casks (flavour-packed ones) maybe be used for short maturation only, on purpose. Or for older whisky 'rejuvenation' of course (finishing). But I may well be completely wrong here. It's just that in the wording 'wood management', there's also 'management', which is the art of planning things (isn't it?). Santé."

Craig: "Hi all. I know it might be naïve or disingenuous, but my understanding was that there were a multiple (a couple at least) of different types of filled barrels. Most distilleries were blending focussed so under the law the make needed to be matured for 3 yrs. In the malt/branded whiskies, the early selection of barrels depended on whether they were likely to be selected for blending or were selected for ‘further maturation’ to become single malts. I find it most credible that the people marshalling the casks get a say, but I might be wrong!"

Well, thanks to these useful additions from the other maniacs I now have a somewhat clearer picture of the 'modus operandi' of most distillers. So, the consensus seems to be that most of the wood management is carefully planned out in advance these days. In other words, most of the whisky industry has chosen the 'technocratic' perspective that considers the production of whisky a science (or perhaps a craft) rather than an art. Well, I suppose the risks and interests are so large these days that it's only logical that most of the Scotch whisky industry tries to minimise the role of coincidence in the production process. Before Louis accuses me of grumpiness again, I'd like to point out that I fully appreciate that the rationalisation and uniformisation of the production process has had some notable benefits - like the fact that REALLY BAD WHISKY is rarer now than it was in the 1990's. Unfortunately, that goes for the extremes on the other end of the spectrum as well. Oh, and I've been ungrumpified about something else too - I'm happy that A. D. Rattray now openly admit that Stronachie is actually produced at the Benrinnes distillery.

I think I'll let this topic simmer inside of my brain for a while now...
I'll leave you with two links on topics I've been discussing with a few friends recently; My beloved old DAF 66 car that I used to drive around in during the late 1980's (just before I moved to Amsterdam and discovered single malt whisky) and a compilation of footage of a favourite national Dutch pastime in those years: racing those DAF cars backwards!

Sweet drams...

#381 - Age Statements Before Beauty?

2010-06-30T07:27:00.019+02:00

Due to some micro-mismanagement from an interim manager on a project I'm currently involved with (well, I don't think he initially planned to be 'interim', but the aforementioned mismanagement took care of that ;-) I've had to spend a lot of extra hours on work during the past week.Those were hours I didn't get to spend updating this blog as often as I wanted to - sorry...

Nevertheless, I've managed to finish the refurbishment of the 'Distillery Data' section of Malt Madness just before the second half of 2010 kicks off. The profiles of all active malt whisky distilleries are now expanded with sub-sections with a small selection of recent developments. So, I'm enjoying a stiff dram of the Glendronach 15yo to celebrate while I write this...

Meanwhile, Pernod Ricard / Chivas Brothers launched a large PR & publicity campaign a few days ago. A bunch of 'whisky web publishers' among the malt maniacs (Serge, Mark, myself, etc.) were invited last week to interview a senior Chivas Brothers spokesperson about a certain 'very interesting' topic. However, the invitor was unable to give more information about the topic at that time. Being the skeptic that I am, I figured this was the equivalent of a shop trying to sell me 'an interesting whisky' in a closed cardboard box, so I politely declined.

However, as it turned out this PR and press campaign wasn't about the oldest or most expensive whisky ever sold, or a new packaging or yet another 'brand extension'. In a time when more and more whiskies are released without an age statement (so that younger - and therefore cheaper - whisky can be used to fill the bottles), Chivas Brothers is now launching a campaign to point out the age statements on whisky bottles to consumers.

Interesting!

The interests of the larger members of 'the whisky industry' (Diageo, Pernod Ricard, William Grant, etc.) are often similar in nature, so when the industry moves, most members usually move in the same direction. The SWA's introduction of new whisky classifications like 'blended malt whisky' may have been a miscarriage of logic, but at least it was supported by most whisky producers. With this campaign Pernod / Chivas seems to be taking a stand against producers of whisky brands like Ardbeg, Bruichladdich, Bunnahabhain, Glenmorangie and Jura, that have released a handful of new bottlings without an age statement lately. It seems that it's mostly the (relatively) smaller whisky producers that have launched expressions without age statements. Could it be that the drop in demand for malt whisky worldwide gives the larger players an advantage because they now have larger stocks of maturing whisky, so they can 'play the age card' for a long while to come?

So, that's interesting food for thought, but typing all of those thoughts down is a little pointless because Serge beat me to it on Whiskyfun. Check out Serge's entry for June 28 for a bunch of interesting thoughts and observations about the new Chivas campaign. On the whole I tend to agree with Serge's thoughts, although I've always felt that the 'older = better' rule of thumb should be taken with a few grains of salt.

OFF TOPIC: Meanwhile, here's a little update for the international audience of this blog: the Dutch politicians have made no progress whatsoever in forming a coalition government yet, three weeks after the elections... Many of us that grew up in 'the free west' during the 1960's and 1970's have been indoctrinated with the idea that our form of parliamentary representation was the best form of democracy we could hope for. As I'm growing ever older and wiser, I'm starting to have my doubts. Since I've learned that in Holland the severely mentally handicapped get to vote as well, I'm starting to believe that the politicians can't have a lot of respect for the voters. After all, if that 'solemn responsibility' can be given to somebody who can't even go to the toilet unsupervised, how important can it be?
Pffft.... I needed to get that off my chest.

So, that's already 'it' for this report - more news about the work on MM in my next post.

Sweet drams...

#380 - A Talisker Tasting

2010-06-09T22:15:00.012+02:00

It has been a while since my last report because I've been busy with some preparations for the Malt Maniacs Awards 2010 - and with wrapping up some more distillery profiles in the Distillery Data section. I expect to finish the refurbishment of that site section before July 1. I've also made some minor tweaks to the Beginner's Guide that make it easier to 'drill down' to other site sections for people that want to learn more about a specific
topic from one of the ten chapters.

To cut a long story short; I haven't had any whisky for a few weeks,
but tonight I really need a few drams; it's election night in Holland...
As opposed to many other countries that have only two or three main
political parties, we had around a dozen different political parties in
the Dutch parliament. The first signs indicate that they will need a
coalition of at least four different parties to form a new government.
I think it's safe to say that the coming weeks will be interesting ;-)

Talisker NAS '57° North' (57%, OB, Bottled 2008)
Nose: Fairly fruity. Loads of spices; like being served a fresh dish in an Indonesian restaurant. Taste: Hot, sweet and peaty. A fairly rough centre. Hint of menthol? Hot finish. Mellows out a little with air. I was watching a TV programme while tasting this one, so I’m afraid I forgot to make many notes. Score: 87 points - I like it quite a bit, but I feel the high proof masks the youth of the whisky a bit.

Talisker 10yo (45.8%, OB, Bottled +/- 2009)
Nose: Fruity and sweaty. Some organics. A malty component as well. Opens up after some breathing. A hint of rotting milk powder - and yes, I realise that this is a fragrance outside most people’s experience ;-) Oddly oily for a Talisker 10yo; I never found any oil in Talisker before as far as I know. Some cardboard. Taste: Sweet. Some fairly faint smoke and organics, evolving into peat. Very subtle fruits in the finish. Score: 83 points - which is a little below earlier batches, but still very respectable for a 10yo whisky.

Talisker 25yo (54.2%, OB, Bottled 2008, 9708 Bts.)
Nose: Passion fruit, bordering on perfumy. Maybe a hint of chloride? Coffee. Cassis? Evolves quickly; more medicinal after a minute before it gradually sweetens out. Grows a little dustier. Taste: Smooth, sweet and fruity in the beginning. Tannins already emerge in the centre. Raisins too. Touches of smoke. Maybe a hint of coconut? The mouth feel is big, full and round. Yes, I like this one... Score: 88 points - which means that I like this batch exactly as much as the previous one from 2007.

Talisker 30yo (49.5%, OB, Bottled 2008, 2970 Bts.)
Nose: Slightly uneven start; veggy and a little oily. The bouquet opens up after a minute. Fairly simple compared to the palate at first. During a second try the nose appeared light and a tad watery. Light citrus? Speculaas? The bouquet is fairly subtle, but it shows quite some development over time. Taste: Fruity start, teetering on the brink of perfumy. Passion fruits? Fairly hot and harsh in the dry finish. The finish also shows some 'aspirin' bitterness after a few minutes. A (relatively) crappy cask? Score: 82 points - recommendable, but perhaps the bouquet is just a tad too ‘bourbony’ for my tastes.

Talimburg 20yo 1986/2006 (43.8%, The Whisky Fair, Artist Edition)
Nose: Sweetish and a little sweaty. Perhaps a tad rubbery? Anthracite and some subtle organics. Taste: Smooth and soft start, before liquorice and some smoke emerge. Sweeter towards the finish. Score: 86 points - I had it at 87 points for a long time, but the finish grew a little too dry for me.

Talisker 26yo 1975/2002 (44.7%, Douglas Laing for Cöpenicker WH, 'Tactical', 294 Bts.) Nose: Cassis. It’s fruity for a minute before it grows oilier. Powerful start, but it loses some steam quickly. Taste: Sweet pastry. More phenols in the centre. Wonderful mouth feel. Feels stronger than its actual ABV. In fact, the longer you keep this whisky in your mouth, the more powerful it becomes. Light tannins. Score: 85 points - perhaps not terribly impressive given its ripe old age, but still highly recommendable.

And that's already 'it' - time to call it a night...

Sweet drams...

#379 - Battling the Biotics

2010-05-28T21:54:00.008+02:00

Generally speaking, I love nature...
Unfortunately, these days nature has wild ticks in it. And even more unfortunately, little fat middle-aged men like myself seem to be the favourite prey of those wild ticks.

Well, who could blame them; I was easy prey.
Instead of running away in panic like I should have done, I just sat there drinking whisky for hours on end, enjoying the first summery weekend of the year with some fat middle-aged friends. So, one of them got me without much effort. Within a week or so the first mild signs of Lyme's disease appeared, so I had to get on powerful antibiotics for three weeks. That wouldn't have been too bad on itself, but these were the kind of antibiotics that requires you to avoid sunlight and alcohol.

So, it could be because of the Vitamin D deficit or unusual soberness, but I decided to post some whisky news here about an open day at Arran distillery. My fellow malt maniac Dave Broom will be performing tricks there, so that's an extra good reason to check out a counterpart to the Islay distilleries that receive so much (well deserved) attention these days... So, HEAR YEA, HEAR YEA...

Attention all Single Malt Lovers!

What do you get when you combine beautiful surroundings with good company and a fantastic dram of single malt? Keep reading……

The Isle of Arran Distillery is celebrating its 15th Anniversary this year and to celebrate it in style we are holding an open day at our distillery in Lochranza on the Isle of Arran. It’s the perfect day out for whisky lovers and anyone who enjoys sampling the finest produce that one of Scotland’s most beautiful islands has to offer.

Here are just a few of the things that everyone can look forward to on the day:

·         Limited Edition Bottling of 3 x 1995 casks, especially for the occasion, exclusive to the Arran Distillery Visitor Centre – you won’t find these anywhere else!

·         Master-classes with our Master Distiller James MacTaggart, Arran Team Member Andy Hogan and whisky writer Dave Broom (these are not included in the ticket price – please phone our Visitor Centre on 0044 1770 830 264 or e-mail on visitorcentre@arranwhisky.com ASAP to book your place)

·         Island showcase featuring all of the fantastic food & drink producers on the Isle of Arran – including a special ale brewed for the event by the Arran Brewery

·         Under 18s come free and there’s plenty of activities for our younger fans; face painting, archery, mountain biking, bird display with the RSPB and story telling to name a few!

·         Evening ceilidh in Lochranza Village Hall with live ceilidh band “Skerryvore”

Why not get a few of you together and make a weekend of it – come along and soak up the great atmosphere and great whisky.

Tickets are being sold on our web site, priced at £10 for a day or evening ticket, and £18 if you’re in it for the long haul and decide to join us for both the day and evening events. Go straight to our web site shop http://www.arranwhisky.com/ProductCategories.aspx?cat_id=41 to buy your tickets or e-mail jaclyn@arranwhisky.com for more info.

Looking forward to seeing you there,

Slainte,

Jaclyn McKie
Isle of Arran Distillers Ltd
43 Enterprise House
Springkerse Business Park
Stirling FK7 7UF
Tel: (0044) (0) 1786 431 903

===================

Meanwhile, there are just two more days left to my anti-biotics treatment, so I'll celebrate with a tasting of some 'T' malts within a few days. I'm REALLY looking forward to it - my liver has been idle long enough I tell you!

Sweet drams...

#378 - [EXPLETIVE REMOVED]

2010-05-13T09:47:00.021+02:00

Oh boy...

I had intended to fill this log entry with the tasting notes for
four antique samples I received from our Australian malt
maniac Craig Daniels some time ago. However, once again
I'm being pestered by a lawyer - and over the last few
months the story has grown weird enough to warrant a
publication on my whisky blog. So, you'll only find my
scores at the bottom of this article; the tasting notes
will be published on the distillery profiles.

Those of you that have been following the Malt Madness
and Malt Maniacs web sites for a few years may remember
that we used to publish quite a lot of information about our
investigations about fake whiskies on our website in the
past. Before the old website crashed in 2006 we even had a special 'Fake Alert' page that was dedicated to this topic.

After the old site crashed, the fake alert page became part of the 'frozen' ADHD archive while I started work on two brand new websites. This effectively meant that I now have to dive directly into the HTML code of the old pages for every single change - a lengthy, boring and cumbersome process, especially if you have better things to do.

Fortunately, during a period of some four years there had been no need for me to directly edit the code of any of the old pages - until circa three months ago when I received an e-mail from our Italian maniac Luca, begging me to try and sort out an issue with Italian whisky trader Giuseppe Gambi. Luca told me that Mr. Gambi kept harassing him because of the fact that his name was mentioned several times on the aforementioned "fake alert" page. His name was mentioned there because a few suspicious bottles could be traced back to his rare whisky store in Ravenna.

The fact that Mr. Gambi was mentioned on the whisky fakes page made this fake alert page pop up whenever peope searched for his name on Google. Mr. Gambi still deals in whisky - these days under the name "Rare Whisky" - and he claimed that the fact that his name was (publicly) connected with the trade in fake whisky damaged his business because some customers were extra cautious. So, he asked me to change or remove the page. I certainly didn't want to remove the page, because I feel it still provides valuable information to caution people about fake whiskies, but since it deals with two cases from circa 2004 (and in both cases the fakes were not "confirmed" with certainty, I decided to delve into the HTML code of the old page and change the name of Mr. Gambi in 'An anonymous whisky seller from Ravenna, Italy'. Nevertheless, a few weeks ago I received this message from the lawyer of Mr. Gambi;

"On behalf of Mr. Giuseppe Gambi, who turned to our assistance, formulating this to reiterate the same as expressed in the entire pre-existing post. In particular, while appreciating its operation to avoid the juxtaposition of the name of Mr Gambi to vendors of counterfeit whiskey typing its name on the web, also recognizing the attempt to eliminate the name of our client from the page www.maltmaniacs/ADHD/fake.html (SIC!), we regret to point out that in any event the reader of your magazine and the visitor of your web pages is inevitable pull the name of Mr Gambi to that of Mr. Boroli when referring to a collector and seller of whiskey rare in Ravenna, given the paucity of knowledgeable and expert in your field and then back to the ease of Mr. Gambi by the mere physical location. This inevitably affects the right of integrity and respectability of our patients, considering also the honesty and frankness with which he himself presents the bottles you examined. While acknowledging the good will, please remove any reference to our client from the page mentioned above, anything ostando the fact that this is an archive page. Finally, recognizing the importance of your work to protect consumers, we want to reaffirm the correctness of the work of our client, too deep lover of whiskey, whose integrity must be respected through a proper comparison of the merits of the issues and through the ability to counter the "allegations" moves, giving him the opportunity to argue his case by granting the "defense" as much space and prominence on your online magazine granted yours. Sure of the collaboration that will be kind, and we wait for clarification and any need and in the occasion we send our warmest greetings adv. MATTEO SANTINI"

Wow... Did Mr. Santini use 'Google Translate' to compose this letter? It's a very useful tool if you want to know the general meaning of a certain phrase in Swahili, but perhaps not the best tool for legal correspondence quite yet. The letter seemed friendly enough - at least the parts I could understand. I know my English is far from perfect, but I surely hope my sentences are more intelligible than this gibberish. Nevertheless, I decided to make the connection to Mr. Gambi on the fake alert page even vaguer and changed the description to "A whisky trader from Italy". Surely, they can't object to that?

Well, apparently they can - see the enclosed second portion of gibberish I received a few weeks later... "Further to previous correspondence, took note with appreciation of the interventions made by you on the site particolre's claim relating to our client, evidenziat already in our previous letter, we ask you one last time on this page www.maltmaniacs/ADHD/mm16b.html (SIC!) intervention. from the reading of which we unfortunately highlight emerging considerations, going beyond the legitimate right to criticize, undermines the integrity and respectability of our client. We ask you to delete any reference to our client from the page referred to above, or reformulated in terms of its sphere less invasive of personal rights in order to consider closed this whole affair. Sure again of the collaboration that will be kind, we remain at your disposal for any need or clarification and we renove our warmest greetings. Adv. MATTEO SANTINI"

And "Google Translate" rears its ugly tongue again. From what I understood of it, Giuseppe Gambi and his lawyer now had problems with YET ANOTHER page on Malt Maniacs, this time one with an article about fake whiskies where Mr. Gambi was only mentioned in passing. By now my patience had grown really, really thin. However, once again the gentler side of my personality managed to suppress my instincts to place a giant banner with the text "WE SUSPECT GIUSEPPE GAMBI MAY HAVE SOLD FAKE WHISKY IN THE PAST" on all pages of Malt Madness and Malt Maniacs to express my annoyance. However, that would take even more of my precious free time, so I took a few deep breaths and dove into the HTML code of yet another old archive page to appease Mr. Gambi and Mr. Santini. So, now the name of Mr. Gambi had been removed from all pages on Malt Maniacs and all connections in the Googlyverse would soon be severed.

And then, incredulously enough, I received this message yesterday;

"(...) we reported that the research carried out on the Google search engine by typing its name and the word whiskey is the first page that appears: Malt Maniacs investigates the world of fake whiskey and Other Contraband. www.maltmaniacs.org / ADHD / fake.html. Although a blank page whose content is not attributable to our experienced, its placement within the search engine itself creates damage to the image of Mr. Gambi. Please therefore speeding up the procedures for cancellation, maybe contacting http: / / www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?&answer=164734 to remove from Google results no longer valid and consider closed the whole thing."

Whaaaat???? So, now I've spent several hours removing the name 'Giuseppe Gambi' from two different pages on Malt Madness and Malt Maniacs, and now they want me to contact Google because one very specific search string shows a page in the search results that was changed over a month ago? Mind you: I've checked and a regular search for "Giuseppe Gambi" showed no pages on Malt Madness and Malt Maniacs - just the specific search on his name in combination with the word 'whisky'. And mind you even more: Google refreshes its results regularly, so even that specific search result would have disappeared in a few weeks time I imagine.

But apparently Mr. Gambi enjoys spending money on a lawyer to keep pestering me. Not an expensive lawyer though; I imagine those would either have a proper command of the English language - or at least the funds to hire one if they happen to be linguistically challenged. Now, I've always had a distaste for lawyers - I think that many lawyers are parasites in the fabric of our modern Western society that charge a lot of money but don't actually contribute a lot to 'the greater good'. Just like the mercenaries of companies like Blackwater they profit from conflict - they are just better dressed... (Note to lawyers: I may need one of you soon if this article backfires, so please keep in mind that I said those nasty things about MANY lawyers; of course that didn't apply to you. What's more, I made a compliment about your dress sense... ;-)

Anyway, by now my patience had worn out altogether. I kindly invited Mr. Gambi and Mr. Santini to contact Google with their complains about the free search service. I suspect Google has lawyers of their own, so they can battle it out together. And interestingly enough, the same goes for the contents of this article...

Which is incidentally hosted by "Blogger"...
Which is owned by Google....
Ironic, isn't it?

Meanwhile, as far as Craig's samples are concerned... I'll limit myself to the scores here; you can find my tasting notes in the Distillery Data section within a few days...

89 - Lochside 17yo 1965
(40%, G&M Connoisseurs Choice, Old brown label)

87 - Millburn 18yo 1977/1996 (43%, Coopers Choice)

78 - Millburn 1978/1997 (65.6%, G&M, C#3166)

That's it for now. I'll leave you with news that we're enjoying a cold spell here in Holland at the moment, which I'll use to clear a few Islay samples from my shelves soon.

Sweet drams...

* = The humanitarian in me decided to change the title of this post a few months later so it would no longer receive 'top billing' from Google for searches on 'Guiseppe Gambi'.

#377 - Assorted Tasting Notes

2010-05-08T08:28:00.023+02:00

The winter has been long and cold in Holland, with a snowy blanket that covered the land for more than a month. That was quite unusual, and spring has started the same. There has been a green haze around the trees since a few weeks now, but due to unusually dry conditions they did not signal the arrival of spring yet with the usual explosion of fresh green leaves.

However, after three warm and sunny weeks we're now enjoying a cold and rainy weekend - ideal for a two day dramming session to 'work away' some old samples and do some serious thinking. The national elections are only a month away and I'm still a 'vigorously floating voter'. I'm even considering NOT voting at all because one could argue that one is satisfied with the current, antiquated electoral system by voting.

Compass Box NAS 'Magic Cask 2006' (46%, OB, Over 480 Bts.)
(A vatting of Clynelish 14yo and Linkwood Madeira Finish)
Nose: Fruity with a hint of oil in the background. Polished.
Some chloride and very subtle spices emerge over time.

Taste: Round, light and sweet. Very smooth on the palate.
Score: 79 points - nice; just short of recommendable...

Murray McDavid 'Trilogy' (40.3%, MMcD, Bottled 2006)
(A vatting of Bowmore, Bruichladdich and Bunnahabhain)
Nose: Classy, very antique and distinguished. Coal smoke. Fruits.
The fruits evolve over time. I wanted to prolong the experience.
Taste: A bit weak in the start, loads of 'OBE'. Dry, tannic finish.
A bit meaty as well; a perfect example of an 'antique' whisky.
Coffee. Lots of coal smoke and a hint of beer. I love this profile!
Score: 91 points - a brilliant vatting that grew on me over time.
For a while it was too weak on the palate for the 90's, but it finally arrived there. After almost an hour it finally reached 91 points...

QE2 NAS (43%, OB, Morrisson Bowmore Ltd., Black Decanter, 75cl)
Nose: Smoky and sweaty. Tertiary fruits. Crushed plant stems.
Old fashioned menthol sweets. The aroma is simply unique.
Very fragrant; this one has 'a lot of nose' for the first ten minutes.
Taste: Lovely combination of sweetness and 'OBE'. Liquorice.
Gentle tannins in the finish. This one grows sweeter over time.
Score: 88 points - I received this sample from Olivier, who described it as "a ceramic black decanter (jug) done by Morrison Bowmore, probably a vatted or blended malt (can't remember) that was served on the QE2 (the boat) for 1st class passenger after it's launch. There is a NAS version and a 12yo. The Whisky is called QE2 like the ship and not Queen Elizabeth 2." So there you have it...

Aberlour-Glenlivet 8yo 1965
(50%, OB, Cube bottle, small cork, Rinaldi Import, 75cl)
Nose: Birch wood smoke. Subtle sweet and organic notes. Great!
Sweet with a hint of pine. Fruity richness in the background.
Mon Cherie - liquor filled chocolates. Just hugely enjoyable...
Taste: Quite unique. Woody and quite dry, but softer 'edges'.
The pine I found in the nose returns on the palate. Dry finish.
Score: 89 points - incredibly complex for such a young malt.

That's it for now - but expect some fresh notes in a few days.
Most of these samples came from Olivier (Thanks Olivier, lovely stuff!); next time I'll focus on a few samples Craig Daniels sent me.

Meanwhile, I'm very happy to report that I've managed to update all distillery profiles in the 'G' section with the latest details and tasting notes. About two thirds of the Distillery Data section of Malt Madness is now revised; I hope to finish the rest before the preparations of the Malt Maniacs Awards 2010 begin in earnest.

Sweet drams...

#376 - A Darker Glen Grant?

2010-04-24T08:28:00.009+02:00

Over the years, a lot of official bottlings have evolved beyond my financial comfort zone. So, my interest in the affordable 'bottom shelf' segment of the single malts market has only grown keener over time. I'm very happy that quite a few affordable 'daily drams' are entered into our annual Malt Maniacs Awards competition each year, so I can stay informed about the condition of a wide range of affordable single malt whiskies that are available these days.

Unfortunately, some distilleries and bottlers never participate in our competition, so I have to buy bottles or swap samples if I want to know what the latest batches taste like. With that in mind, I bought myself a bottle of the regular Glen Grant NAS a wile ago, so I could publish fresh tasting notes and a score. I didn't really notice the colour initially, because it was a dark amber 'whisky colour' like so many other bottles on my shelf. However, then it dawned on me that the Glen Grant NAS used to be unusually light in colour in the 1990's - perhaps the lightest regular OB available at the time. Maybe my memory is playing tricks on me, but could it be that Campari started using lots of caramel when they introduced the new packaging in 2007? I decided to share my thoughts with the maniacs...

Olivier: "More caramel, absolutely… I am sure it increases image value. In Germany you can see all these ‘Mit Farbstoff’ on all these bottlings. I recently looked at a big range of Dalmore and they ALL had this mention on the back label. Unless they use a standard back label for all products, I would say that most commercial 12yo or less have caramel added in order to avoid colour differences between batches, but now it also adds a certain image of quality (darker = more tasty and older). However, I am happy that one of my favourite 12yo is now made without colorant: Highland Park 12yo. In 2008 they started using again older sherry casks to adjust colour.".

Ho-cheng: "Dear Johannes, You are certainly right. When I visit Glen Grant in 2007 summer, they just release the new labeling, I did remember the distillery manger, Dennis Malcolm, showed me both versions, the new one with caramel the old one don't, He asked my opinion about it. (Please see the attached photo.) He mentioned that the marketing team believe coloring is better for the sales and he think it has very minor effects with the taste. Honestly, I did remember I taste them in spot and also brought some back for the second blind tasting, I can only tell very little difference but hardly to say which one is better."

Dave Broom: "Without wanting to stir up the bloody caramel debate yet again it's worth noting that from this year Burn Stewart are bottling their malts with no caramel, no chill-filtering and at a higher strength. Just got the samples through. I think (well.. hope) that as single malt begins to move into the premium price area where it always should have resided that we will see more of this."

Luca: "In Italy, one of the selling points of Glen Grant was the light color of the whisky. "Colore chiaro, gusto pulito" (Light color, clean taste) has been the classic lines used for the ads and TV commercials. I wonder how they will change marketing strategy now, after using that approach for so many decades. Another case of Macallan turning from "we only use sherry casks" to "we are using all kinds of crappy casks and the result is wonderful"?"

Davin: "Don't forget the Van Meersbergen experiment which showed some Maniacs couldn't tell the difference or marginally preferred the flavour of vatted malts with caramel added. That Jim Murray hates it so, has campaigned so hard against it, (and detects it in places it isn't), almost makes me hope Burns Stewart change their minds."

Nabil: "OK, I don't want to raise the wrath of Davin...I'm going to see him in a couple days! Let's set flavour aside. Ho-Cheng's and Olivier's comments are really the crux of the issue: The industry wants the colour of the whisky to make a (perhaps deceptive) statement about time in the cask, type of cask, and tastiness. I understand the marketing challenges, but on principle I wish they wouldn't use caramel....I prefer au naturel."

Serge: "Nabil, I guess it's hard to resist what the consumer wants and anoraks do not quite make for 'a market'. In the 1960s they had to 'de-colourise' some whiskies because the people wanted 'light' or 'light-looking' whiskies! And I've heard Coca-Cola, were it not caramelised, would be green ;-). As they say, 'tastes and colours!'..."

These wise words were not the end of our debate (in fact, we seldom finish our debates with wise words ;-) but the 'Ask an Anorak' discussion derailed a bit after this. I'd like to stress that I'm not against colouring by definition. In fact, a recent tasting from Bert, Paul, Michel and myself sort of proved that caramel doesn't only work as a colouring agent, it also has a positive effect on the taste and cohesion of the whisky. I wouldn't be surprised if this is also a reason why many producers add it these days. It's not allowed to add flavour components to a pure product like Scotch whisky - but if a change in flavour is a side-effect of the colouring agent, there's little they can do about it, right?

Oh, it looks I'm growing cynical in my old age ;-)

Sweet drams...

#375 - The Shelf Situation in 2010

2010-04-18T16:39:00.013+02:00

During my reconstruction work on the 'Malt Madness' site, I recently stumbled across my old 'stock list' with a detailed overview of my malt whisky collection in 2004. I published the reconstructed page last week and I've received quite a few positive responses from readers that enjoyed the revival of this 'little look over my shoulder'.

I don't actually plan on reviving the detailed overview of my single malt whisky collection, but since I've recently obtained a new telephone with a crappy camera, I have the opportunity to share a peek at part of my current whisky collection.

As you can see, I only use my top shelf for big bottles at the moment; the rest of my cabinate is reserved for whisky samples, whisky books and my 'reserve stock'. At the moment, my top shelf contains a fair share of 'light antiques' - (among other things);

- Braes of Glenlivet 1977/2000 (43%, Montgomerie's)
- Glenglassaugh 1973 Family Silver (40%, OB, +/- 2000)
- Glenmorangie NAS '100 Proof (57,2%, OB, 100cl, +/- 1999)
- Greenore 15yo (43%, OB, Single Grain, Ireland, +/- 2008)
- Knockando 1984/1998 (40%, OB)
- Lagavulin 16yo (43%, OB, +/- 2009)
- Lark NAS (46%, OB, Cask LD51, Btl. 2007, Tasmania)
- Macallan 12yo (43%, OB, 100cl, +/- 1997)
- Port Askaig 17yo (45.8%, TWE, +/- 2009)
- Tomintoul 12yo (43%, OB, Perfume tube, +/- 1990, 75cl)

Meanwhile, I haven't posted too many fresh entries lately, but that's mainly because I've been busy updating and re-vamping the distillery profiles. During the work on the pages I had the opportunity to sample a handful of ancient samples that had been on my shelves for at least two years. A lot of these samples were donated a long time ago by Serge and Bert. I'll only list the scores here; you can find many of the tasting notes in the distillery profiles.

78 - Bunnahabhain 10yo 1997/2008 - Revised score
(46%, Signatory UCF, Refill Butt, C#5355, 852 Bts.)

88 - Dufftown-Glenlivet 21yo 1978/1999
(55.2%, Cadenhead's, Sherry Hogshead, 264 Bts.)

82 - Glenfarclas 1991/2004
(46%, OB, Cask #5619, 649 Bts.)

59 - Glen Grant NAS
(40%, OB, Bottled +/- 2010)

71 - Glenrothes 1986/2005

(46%, Helen Arthur, Plain Oak, 600 Bts.)

86 - Glenury Royal 29yo 1970/1999

(57.0%, UD Rare Malts)

66 - Inchmoan 1994/2005
(55.4%, OB for The Whisky Fair, C#647, 222 Bts.)

89 - Linkwood 16yo 1990/2007
(58.7%, Single Malts of Scotland, Sherry hogs., C#5038, 283 Bts.)

87 - Linlithgow 31yo 1970/2002

(52.4%, Douglas Laing Platinum, 139 Bts.)

That's all the news at the moment - stay tuned for more.

Sweet drams...

#374 - Glenrothes Approvals

2010-04-12T21:07:00.003+02:00

A few days ago our Taiwanese malt maniac Ho-cheng Yao wondered about something that I had wondered about as well a few years ago. Around the turn of the millennium, the labels of every official bottling of the Glenrothes malt whisky contained two dates; a 'checked' date and an 'approved' date. Oddly enough, the bottling year was sometimes different from the approval year.When Ho-cheng brought up this question again, there was quite some speculation amongst the maniacs before Martine Nouet was clever enough to simply pass our questions along to Ronnie Cox of Glenrothes. This afternoon I received this enlightening response from Ronnie;

"Dear Johannes, I received this from one of the Malt Maniacs and perhaps you'd like to share this reply with the others.

The Glenrothes Vintages are a collection of casks chosen to represent a style, mood or personality of The Glenrothes. Each Vintage will be different and vary in accordance with time spent in the cask and the type of casks selected. It is certainly true that some Vintages have sold several thousand cases (sold over a few years) but others can be measured in hundreds of cases. A Malt like The Glenrothes which sells less than 20,000 cases of combined vintages p.a. is tiny compared to the top volume malts. Vintages of The Glenrothes represent no more than 2% of the distilleries' annual production capacity. To put it into perspective Glenrothes can produce 870,000 equivalent cases of spirit @ 43% per annum.

To your doubts:

The "Checked" date merely indicates the year when the New Make Spirit was approved, by the laboratory or distillery, for maturation in the casks selected for this Vintage.

The "Approved" year is when is was originally approved by the Malt Master and ourselves in London, for bottling.

If there is a difference on the label between the "Approved" year and year of bottling, it means that whilst the whiskies were from the same original vatting, they were bottled after the approval date. The process is as follows: once vatted and reduced to 45% the vatted Vintage is returned to cask where it remains until it is needed. This "marriage" will occur over several months (normally about 6) before the first bottling is made. A second bottling of this same Vintage (and original stock) is sometimes made in a subsequent year.

The casks used for the marrying process are what we call "inactive" casks - having served their useful and active life. They contribute nothing to the flavour at this stage but simply act as a vehicle to store the Vintage and to allow the marrying process to take place following the disturbance of water reduction.

I hope that this answers Ho-cheng Yao's question as well. I should perhaps add, for clarification, that when the marrying takes place in "oak casks of a capacity not exceeding 700 litres", it is legally ageing. This isn't relevant to The Glenrothes as we don't talk about age (as age tells us little about the maturity and flavour) but, of course, we make sure that the correct year of bottling is on the label for those who want to know.

Let me know if there are any other questions.....(...) A lot of whisky has crossed the bar since we last met."

Excellent - I think that answers all our questions... Thanks, Ronnie!

I will update the Glenrothes distillery profile accordingly.

Sweet drams...

#373 - Three Old Glens & Icy Balls

2010-03-18T21:24:00.012+01:00

From the looks of it, it might seem that not a lot has happened on Malt Madness for the past two weeks - but looks can be deceiving... I've been quietly working on a revisionist version of the Liquid Log. Most sections of the site have now recovered from the major crash of the website in 2006, but the liquid log was still damaged.

Now I hope to be able to publish a fully revised version of my liquid log in a few weeks. My revised log won't be quite 'as good as new', but most links should work again. Of course, some of the information will be out-dated...

Meanwhile, in this entry I'd like to say something about the PR agency of The Macallan that now apparently suggests that the best way to enjoy the Macallan Fine Oak is in a tumbler with a huge ball of ice. However, I want to start with my notes for three oldies that Craig Daniels sent me from Australia.

Glencraig 16yo 1970 (40%, G&M Connoisseur’s Choice Old brown label, +/- 1986, Australia) Nose: Surprisingly fresh with a hint of pine. Alcoholic, but in a pleasant way. Not a lot of ‘OBE’ apparently. Sweetens out a little after five minutes, and eventually it grows a little more metallic too. Growing complexity. Taste: A classic, malty profile that powers up in the centre. More substance than many CC’s from the 1990’s. A touch of smoke. Some sapy green wood in the finish. Some pine. I’d say this comes from a bourbon cask. After circa twenty minutes I finally found a touch of ‘old bottle effect’ on the palate. That lifts it into the 80’s. Score: 80 points - appropriately enough, this sample was sent to me by Craig Daniels in Australia. Thanks a lot, ‘Glen’ Craig ;-)

Glendronach 1959-1960/1986 (40%, Gordon & MacPhail, Royal Wedding of Andrew & Sarah) Nose: Ah! Rich and surprisingly 'winey'. Definitely some 'old bottle effect here, lovely, lovely, lovely... Light Spring fruits and a touch of smoke. Brilliant evolution over time. Some subtle spices too. Hint of mint. Taste: Surprisingly smoky. A surprisingly powerful centre - this is just wonderful. Lots of OBE here as well. Cool wood in the finish with some tannins. Dry. Hey, and there’s a touch of liquorice in the finish as well. Score: 90 points - this really is an excellent example of the way single malt whiskies used to be.

Glen Grant 1959-1960/1986 (40%, Gordon & MacPhail, Andrew and Fergie) Nose: Coffee. Loads of old bottle effect. Settles down after a few minutes but remains very pleasant. Parsley. Sellery. Grows very sweet after half an hour with honey and caramel. Not much fruits. Keeps evolving. Taste: Pleasantly potent; plenty of smoke, but it doesn’t overpower the malty notes and the wood. Toffee and liquorice; an unusual combination. Hints of caramel (Caramac). Quite potent. Score: 91 points - a lovely example of a classic Speyside malt whisky.

Wow, excellent stuff - a wonderful opportunity to take a look into the past... Thanks Craig!

I'll finish this report with a rant about this press release I received recently from Macallan. Apparently, the people of macallan now have icy balls...

===

Macallan Press Release - Raising the Bar

The Macallan Introduces the Ice Ball Serve

The ice or water debate has long remained a fiercely contested subject amongst whisky drinkers and The Macallan has thrown its hat into the ring by creating an innovative serving method expressly for those who like their whisky with ice.

Believing the perfect serve to come down to personal preference, The Macallan has pioneered the Ice Ball Serve. It is the first real move by any whisky brand in the UK to present whisky in an innovative, contemporary fashion and open the doors to a growing adult population that regards ice as an integral part of the spirit-drinking experience.

The Ice Ball Serve is based on the Japanese tradition of serving hand-carved ice with ultra-premium spirits. The ice ball press instantly creates a flawlessly formed sphere of ice that adds a touch of theatre and sophistication.

The Macallan’s Marketing Assistant, Pat Lee, explains the science part: “The Ice Ball Press was inspired by Japanese cocktail culture where artisans hand-carve ice balls from massive slabs to create an uninterrupted surface that cools spirits quickly and evenly. The ice ball melts slowly to preserve the integrity of the spirit. We have updated this process, by developing a copper press that instantly trims a block of ice into a flawless ice ball. This, combined with our masterful single malt Scotch whisky, is The Macallan Perfect Serve.

“The Macallan’s liquid excellence is continuously defined by its unprecedented elegance and versatility. The ice ball balances these qualities. As global cocktail culture has evolved, ice has become central to the modern-day spirits experience. With an eye on this trend, we created The Macallan Perfect Serve, to modernise the way single malt can be enjoyed and appeal to a wider range of consumers.”

In essence; The Macallan ice ball serve takes this traditional practice to the ultimate level, with a single perfect sphere of ice, a unique beautiful serve with the benefits of maximum chill with minimum dilution.

(...)

The Macallan remains the single malt against which all others must be judged. It is celebrated far and wide by experts and discerning drinkers as the world’s most precious whisky.

===

Yeah, well...
Needless to say, the press release lead to some discussion amongst the maniacs because Macallan's PR agency apparently employs a gifted spin doctor. The 'ice or water debate' really is more of a 'dilution or not debate' among experts and discerning whisky drinkers. And for those of you that prefer NOT to dilute their whisky (or at least not those that were bottled at 40% or 43%), here's a tip from Olivier Humbrecht;

"My technique is still the easiest: take nice little granite stones about half inch size and put them in the freezer. You can use them to cool down whatever drink you don't want to mix with water. Whisky on the rocks..."

To which Dave Broom responded: "My tip : don't slug the drink back! unless you're not that attached to your front teeth."

Well, when handled with some caution, this seems like an excellent way to cool whisky if you prefer your whiskies at a manly strength. According to Mark and Martine these cubes are available from Laphroaig and Kilchoman.

Sweet drams...

#372 - The Retard Tax

2010-03-03T16:50:00.009+01:00

People sometimes accuse me of having no heart...
I suppose the mere fact that those accusations don't bother me very much proves that there could be some truth to them, but unless the accuser is a certified cardiologist who has just studied my x-ray photo's, I'm not overly concerned...

Because of my relative heartlessness, I'm not as easily affected
by advertising as some other people. That makes sense; most advertising is aimed for the heart anyway. After working in publishing and marketing for two decades, a thick layer of callus has formed around my soul. That layer acts like a protective shield against a lot of whisky PR and advertising - like the press release from Evan Williams (Heaven Hill) that I've just received.

The press release proudly announces the fact that Evan Williams will become the official bourbon of the 'sport' bull riding. I find this sponsorship deal oddly appropriate, because I've always considered sports sponsoring to be some form of "retard tax". Brands decide to sponsor sporting events and sports teams in order to boost their image with their target audience. The target audience of many sports (for example bull riding, or American football in the US and proper football in the rest of the world) consists of mainly retards.

The vast majority of those retards do not seem to realise that THEY are the ones paying the price for the "generosity" of the sponsors. After all, increases in the advertising budget are generally paid for by increases in the prices for the products, not by reducing salaries and bonuses for staff and management. So, in a weird way the consumers of Evan Williams bourbon whiskey who will visit a bull riding event in the future are paying for the Evan Williams advertising and PR they will be submitted to - hence the phrase 'retard tax'.
Yeah, the corporate system is a thing of wonder and beauty... ;-)

On the other hand, I guess the people of Evan Williams could have had the best of intentions. After all, those bulls are not going to ride themselves... Apparently SOMEBODY has to ride them, and in that case it's probably best if it's done by a professional bull rider. Yeah, right... Anyway; here's a snippet of the press release;

World’s Second Leading Selling Bourbon Reaches Partnership Agreement with CBR Nationwide Professional Bull Riding Tour

BARDSTOWN, KY—Evan Williams Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, the second best selling Bourbon in the world, has signed a deal with Championship Bull Riding (CBR) to become the “Official Bourbon of the CBR”. Evan Williams, a product of Heaven Hill Distilleries, Inc., is already a major sponsor of the BASS Elite Series and BASS Elite pro angler Jason Quinn, but is expanding their sponsorship dollars out into another sport that indexes particularly high against the Bourbon demographic—professional bull riding.

By becoming a major sponsor and the official Bourbon of the CBR, Evan Williams will enjoy exposure to attendees at more than 20 live events nationwide with over 100,000 fans in attendance, plus over 14 million viewers each year through primetime broadcast of CBR events on the Great American Country (GAC) cable network. Evan Williams, which sold over a million 9-liter cases last year in the United States and internationally, will also enjoy display and sampling opportunities at CBR events. CBR was founded by bull riding icon Tuff Hedeman in 2004 and bills itself as “The Real Cowboy Sport”, riding a wave of popularity for rodeo events and bull riding in particular. (...)

Anyway - I didn't really need an extra reason NOT to drink bourbon (the vast majority of the ones I've tried tasted foul), but I'll happily use this as a spare one. Professional bull riding isn't quite as bad as the professional bull killing that goes on in Spain, but I'm thinking that the many gates and fences in those arena's indicate that the bulls would prefer NOT to participate in these "sports" if they were given a choice. So, I wouldn't want to run the risk of inadvertently financing cruelty to animals...

Phew.... My spleen feels properly vented for now ;-)

Sweet drams...

#371 - Connemara Drammavaganza

2010-03-01T21:53:00.020+01:00

Over the past week I've managed to make some decent progress with the old Liquid Log; I hope to be able to publish a fully revised version in a week or two. It should provide a much smoother surfing experience - for one thing because I've repaired many broken links.
Of course, many of the bottlings I tried a decade or more ago just
don't exist anymore - or the profile has changed over the years.

I've also made some revisions to the mAlmanac and a few other
pages. Last but certainly not least: you'll now be able to track
my progress with the revision of the distillery profiles. Every
time I'm finished with reviewing a distillery profile I'll add a
direct link to the distillery map on the overview page.
I expect to be finished somewhere around July 1.

Meanwhile, it looks like winter may be coming to an end. I'd better take advantage from the cold while it lasts - let's try a few peaty drams that were also part of the Malt Maniacs Awards 2009.

I started with the Connemara NAS (40%, OB, Peated, Bottled +/- 2009). Nose: Light fruits. Then more rubbery notes emerge. Perhaps some very faint spices in the background. Hey, wait - after ten seconds I got some meaty and 'sweaty' notes that earned it an extra point. Some sparkly veggy notes too after a few months of breathing. Taste: Peaty and fruity; light but nicely balanced in the beginning. The balance disappears in the centre and finish, though. Hint of salt liquorice? The finish is almost watery, but it remains recommendable.
Score: 81 points - a reliable and affordable 'daily dram' for peat lovers. It feels just a little 'greener' and younger than previous batches though. Nice evolving complexity over time...

Connemara NAS 'Cask Strength' (57.9%, OB, Peated, +/- 2009)
Nose: Clay over a phenolic base. Peculiar. Rubber? Something salty too. The nose starts more phenolic than that of the 40% version. Lighter fruits (water melon) emerge after five minutes. It gradlually climbs into the lower 80's. Taste: Rubbery start with a hint of sweetness. Lots of smoke and peat. Industrial oil. Garage smells. Quite some tannins in the dry finish.
Score: 82 points. Definitely a more potent malt than the version at 40%, but it's not as complex and balanced as earlier batches. A great alternative to many Islay malts.

Connemara 2001/2009 (59.2%, OB for Limburg, Peated, cask#K01/10 1196). Nose: Grainy and a little sharp. Beer. Sourish notes (rhubarb?) and a hint of dust. More phenolic elements after a minute, followed by more sweetness. Growing complexity over time, during which it climbs from barely 80 points to the mid-80's. This one desperately NEEDS time. Taste: Very peaty start with leather and organics. Not a lot of staying power though - and a fairly dry and weak finish. Just like the nose it improves over time. However, the palate doesn't quite warrant a score in the upper 80's. Score: 83 points.
Yeah, I guess it's a little more complex than the OB...

Last but not least, the Connemara NAS 'Sherry Finish' (46%, OB Small Batch Collection, Peated, Lot L9088, +/- 2009). Nose: Big, fruity and woody. Organics. Sweet and leathery. Cake? Cough syrup? Sweet desert wine? Industrial oil with the lightest hints of unripe apples in the background. Taste: The most phenolic of all expressions I've tried tonight. Solid, fruity and peaty. Smooth. A great mouth feel, but it makes it to the upper 80's mostly based on the nose. Score: 85 points. This beats the Ardbeg Blasda with a stick!

Well, these results are further proof that Cooley is still the only Irish distillery that can go head-to-head with the Scottish competition on a malt whisky level; only exceptional casks of Bushmills are able to reach this level and Jameson's seems to compete mostly on the level of blended whisky. It seems that Cooley is picking much more medals than the others and I tend to agree for a change...

Sweet drams...

#370 - Freaky Gymnastics

2010-02-18T18:00:00.011+01:00

Phew... I know that I promised that I would have some fresh whisky tasting notes for this log entry, but I just received an e-mail from a friend with a short, simple exercise. When I tried it, it freaked me out so much that I wanted to share it with as many people as possible.

The exercise that proves that we don't always have as much control over our bodies as we like to think... Assuming you're sitting behind a PC at the moment, try to:

1) Lift your right leg from the floor and continue to make clockwise circles with your foot, and...

2) While you continue to make circles with your right leg, draw the number '6' in the air with your right hand.

If your body functions remotely like mine, you were unable to perform this simple task as well, because your leg automatically started circling in the other direction... Freaky, eh? Meanwhile, I don't have any fresh tasting notes, but I do have a few words to share about whisky. This morning I received this message from Kyle Anderson;

"Dear Malt Madness, I am a recent discoverer of single malt scotch whisky when I went to this Pub/Restaurant: www.dukeofperth.com/. I usually stick to beer, but considering I was at the best SMSW bar in Chicago (Possibily all of the U.S.A.) I decided I would order whisky. I didn't know what to get because the Menu was so extensive and the most I knew about Scotland was the Spey river and how to Spey cast (I am an avid fly fisherman). The waitress asked what region (I picked spey side) and made a suggestion (Glenfiddich 12YO). Upon the first taste I was converted from a "Beer" guy to a "Beer and Whisky" guy. I am a college student in Chicago and have a limited budget, I took your advice and bought a bottle of Balvenie 12YO "Double Wood" ($39 USD) along with some snifters to serve it in. It is the best whisky I have had, but alas my budget is still tighter and I must make more modest purchases. I was wondering if there were any less expensive blended Scotch Whiskys (e.g. Chivas Regal, Johnny Walker, Cutty Sark, etc.) that came the closest to having a SMSW taste or in other words what's the best blended whisky. I have looked online and didn't find any comparisons of the blended whiskys. Any address in this matter is greatly appreciated."

I have to admit that it has been at least two decades since I bought a blended whisky because the presence of too much grain whisky spoils the fun for me. However, some malt maniacs don't share my prejudices, so here are a few tips from a few other malt maniacs;

Lawrence Graham: "Well, odd as it may seem and for good value there’s Bell’s (just the standard garden variety) and as I just discovered in Hawaii…….. Clan MacGregor (Grants) for……..$11.99 which is certainly excellent value for money and being a college student dollars are always an issue. Before you start throwing your empty malt bottles at me try them…..I expect the Clan MacGregor is older than the stated 36 months; perhaps even 40 months. Lauders 36 months (Barton Brands) should be avoided…….. and the Scorseby 36 month (Diageo) is OK and these also are around $11.99."

Louis Perlman: "Kyle is lucky that he has one of the best liquor stores in the country in his backyard. Tell him to go right over to the nearest Binny's, check www.binnys.com for locations. Low end blends that I have found to be half decent include Grants, Ballantines, and even the latest Johnnie Walker Red, the last one much improved from the days it headlined the MM Bad Malt Alert list."

Serge Valentin: "Sorry, no real experience with blends... But BTW, I've seen that there's now a cold-distilled gin, Oxley (distillation by freezing of the water). Ever heard of such experiences with 'whisky'? (SWA forbid!)."

Lex Kraaijeveld: "Something I wrote some time ago on freeze-distilled ‘whisky’ (published as a ‘Whisky on the Edge’ column on the celticmalts web-site): Distilling of a spirit from a low-alcoholic liquid is basically nothing more than increasing the alcohol concentration by making use of the difference in boiling point between alcohol and water. But besides having a different boiling point, alcohol and water also have a different freezing point, which makes it possible to make a strong alcoholic spirit by gently freezing a low-alcoholic liquor: the water will freeze out of the liquid first, leaving an increasingly stronger spirit. Chinese records of 'frozen-out' wine go back to at least the 6th century, and possibly even further. In Europe, the Vikings had a drink that was called "winter wine" but it is unclear whether this indeed was a 'frozen-out' spirit or not. The earliest solid European record of a 'frozen-out' spirit is from the late 16th century. Dutch sailors were forced to overwinter on Nova Zembla, an island off the north coast of Siberia, in 1596. They made the chance discovery that when their beer barrels started to freeze ..... There was scarce any unfrozen Beer in the barrel; but in that thick Yiest that was unfrozen lay the Strength of the Beer, so that is was too Strong to drink alone, and that which was frozen tasted like Water ...

This Dutch-Siberian spirit was 'frozen-out' from a grain-based fermented liquor, so it basically was the 'frozen-out' counterpart of whisky! Producing an alcoholic spirit by heat-distillation is a technique that needed to be invented, but the use of temperatures below the freezing point of water to make a strong alcoholic spirit can easily be discovered by accident; just leave a barrel with beer or wine outside in the cold. Such a chance discovery could be made in any part of the world that has a climate where temperatures drop well below freezing in winter. To my knowledge there are no records to support this, but I wonder if some farmers in the Highlands of Scotland didn't know about whisky's 'frozen-out' sister centuries before the heat-distilled spirit came into being ....".

Serge Valentin: "Yes, thanks Lex.
And there's this beer, 'Brewdog', that's made that way if I'm correct. I've also heard stories about cattle that got completely plastered ;-) But ever heard of 'whisky' made like this? ('beer' being 'cold distilled' and then matured in wood)"

Dave Broom: "Not all Brewdog is made this way.. sometimes (occasionally) they're just normal brewers. The first freeze distilled beer "Tactical Nuclear Penguin' was above 30% abv. It's status was almost immediately usurped by a German brewer who made one even stronger. The Brewdog guys have just retaliated with one at 41% ABV called 'Sink The Bismarck'. Old-style Canadian applejack was allegedly made by the freezing method."

Right.... Well, sorry Kyle - I tried, but as you can see the discussions among the malt maniacs have a tendency to get side-tracked ;-) From my end, I can only offer one additional suggestion: try an Irish whisky instead of a blended Scotch; they often offer better value. The same goes for French cognacs these days IMHO.

Sweet drams...

#369 - Slave To The Google?

2010-02-12T13:47:00.007+01:00

I've been a fan of the (mostly) useful stuff that Google shares with nerds around the world for quite some time now. Most malt maniacs have a Gmail account these days, we use a Google Calendar on the Malt Maniacs site, we share YouTube links, I've started this new 'Blogger' blog (which is owned by Google), I use Google's 'AdSense' programme to show some ads, etc.

However, oddly enough I've somehow managed to avoid their iGoogle personalised homepage until now. I like to wallow in paranoia every once in a while, so the thought of the almighty Google knowing absolutely everything about me didn't really appeal to me. Somehow the thought of not using every single service that Google offers gave me a false sense of security and privacy. I've recently realised that Google already knows so much about me that the addition on one extra service would probably not make a very big difference. What's more, because I've worked in advertising I've learned to ignore most of it and 'read between the lines' of the remaining advertisements. I'd like to think that I've built up quite some resistance against the thousands of glossy lies that are fired in my general direction on a daily basis.

So, after switching to this Google 'Blogger' blog a few weeks ago I decided to jump into the Google pool with both feet forward. Not all the 'services' they offer are equally brilliant from the start. For example, the malt maniacs experimented with a Google discussion board before we moved to the Malt Maniacs & Friends group on Facebook to facilitate some interaction with our readers. At the time, the Facebook interface was more intuitive than Google's, but that has changed dramatically over time. While Google keeps perfecting and fine-tuning their services, the usability of Facebook has deteriorated because they lack Google's vision for the future. Sure, Google presents me with modest amounts of advertising, but at least the advertising is RELEVANT to me. By contrast, virtually all advertising I've seen on Facebook so far has been misleading. The type of advertising they show on Facebook suggests that, unlike Google, they don't care very much about the interests of the end user... In other words; Google understands that serving the needs of the end users helps them achieve their own goals while Facebook still follows 2nd millennium corporate logic. If that doesn't change, Facebook will probably go the way of Altavista, Geocities and thousands of other companies that didn't think far enough ahead.

Anyway; thoughts along these lines made me decide to give iGoogle a shot yesterday after Serge suggested I should check out NetVibes to help me keep track of RSS feeds. That seemed like a cool solution, but since I already use stuff like Gmail and Google Calendar to manage my on-line life, I felt it would probably be easier to stay within the Google cloud. I'm happy to report that it was, especially after the news about Google Buzz dropped in my mailbox yesterday. I'm not entirely sure how that works yet, but I'll make sure to give Google Buzz a thorough test drive to see how I can use it in my virtual life.

These were some thoughts that have nothing to so with single malt whisky, but I felt like sharing them nonetheless. I'll get back to whisky in my next entry...

Sweet drams,

#368 - Exotics from Wales & Brittany

2010-02-09T22:19:00.019+01:00

It's the same old story; I've been suffering from a long string of 'bad nose days' during which my nose was clogged up. Meanwhile, a handful of fresh 'deviant drams' have been eagerly awaiting my opinion.

Tonight I couldn't contain my curiosity any longer, so I went ahead and opened the Penderyn NAS Peated Whisky (46%, OB, Bottled 2009, 5cl) that was produced in Wales. The nose showed its tender age, along with fairly gentle peat and smoke, along with sourish, farmy notes and a subtle sweetness that keeps lingering about.

I also found some clay in the background; the whisky grows chalkier over time. Quite 'spirity' - in the sense that it reminds me of freshly distilled spirit. More vanilla after a few minutes, followed by some metallic notes. On the surprisingly smooth palate I found a sweet touch of caramel; the smoke emerges in the dry finish. The whisky feels very 'green' with notes of sappy wood and grass. Perhaps a touch of pine? Grows even drier after a while; clean smoke. It's not the sort of profile I usually enjoy, so my score of 64 point may not sound like a enthusiastic recommendation. However, given the tender age of this Welsh whisky that score is not too bad at all! Besides, it's VERY different from most 'modern' Scottish single malts. The certified malt maniacs have been discussing the 'Parkerisation' of malt whisky recently; some maniacs feel that the variety in the Scotch whisky world has diminished in recent years. This whisky is an interesting detour from the 'bourbony' profile of many modern Scotch whiskies. Especially sniffing the empty glass reveals many different elements.

I had the chance to compare the peated whisky from Wales with a peated whisky from Brittany, France; the Glan Ar Mor NAS 'Kornog' (57.1%, OB, Peated whisky, Britanny France). I already tried this one for the Malt Maniacs Awards 2009 and gave it 84 points at the time. I could write almost the same tasting notes... Nose: Mellow start with sweet orange and lemon notes after a few seconds. Honey. A little rough, but very expressive. Some more subtle fruity notes in the background. Cucumber? Taste: Surprising blast of peat - the nose didn't prepare me for that. Wait, it's not so much 'organic' peat; rather smoke and anthracite. Grain whisky smoothness. Harsh but pleasant finish with some meaty notes emerging. Surprisingly sweet. I'll stick with my score of 84 points - this particular cask plays in the same league as many Islay malts; a good job by Jean Donnay!

Last but not least, the 'regular' Glann Ar Mor NAS (46%, OB, Britanny France). The nose seemed dry, clean and quite 'veggy'. Sorrel? Some sour apples too. A little chalky. After circa 10 minutes it grew more metallic. A whiff of ant acid? Quite some evolution over time; it became very light after half an hour. It starts very sweet on the palate with more and more different fruity notes emerging. It has quite a lot of body at 46%. Grape skins in the finish. A little 'acetonic'; it reminds me a bit of 'bauerngeist' (an Austrian fruit spirit) - in a good way! Hey, and it has some traits of calvados as well. Quite a lot of difference between the nose and the palate. Feisty; perhaps a little less integrated than the average Scotch single malt, but that makes it interesting. Let's go with 71 points for this one... Like the Penderyn, it's quite different from the average Scotch single malt. In fact, I'd say that these two 'European' whiskies resemble each other more closely than Scotch single malts. I don't ENJOY them as much as some other whiskies because the profiles simply are not really 'up my alley', but some people will love these profiles and at the very least they add to the overall variety in the whisky world - which is a good thing...

I'll leave you with news that I'm still working my way (alphabetically) through a large update of the Distillery Data section on Malt Madness; I've just updated and expanded the Bruichladdich and Caol Ila distillery profiles. And if you're interested in the idea of 'Parkerisation' of single malt whisky (the phenomenon that many producers try to achieve a certain taste profile to appeal to one or a few 'authorities' in a certain drinks market) I have some good news: Serge is working on an E-pistle right now...

Sweet drams,

#367 - What's In A Brand Name?

2010-02-05T15:13:00.024+01:00

Granted, the malt maniacs can be a crusty old bunch at times. Because many of us have been interested in single malt whisky for at least two decades, we personally experienced a time (during the 1990's) when single malt whisky still was a more-or-less authentic product. What's more, we started building our 'collections' (actually mostly deferred drinking stocks) when bottles from the 1970's and 1980's were still affordable...

Of course, the influence of "big business" and corporate ownership could already be felt on the 'production' side of the whisky world, but consumers could still enjoy crafted single malts that displayed a distinct distillery character. This situation has changed dramatically in recent years; there's little room anymore for the miracle of coincidences in the ISO-driven processes of most alcohol conglomerates. These days, the goal for most malt whisky distilleries is to produce as much malt whisky as possible, as cheaply as possible. This effectively means that single malts are now often marketed in the same way as blends. The name of the distillery used to be the only 'brand' in the single malt whisky world, but these days the connection between brands and distilleries has grown very slim indeed.

Take 'Singleton' for example - it used to be the brand name for single malts that were produced at the Auchroisk distillery, but these days Diageo uses the old 'Singleton' name for three different single malts that are marketed in three different markets under the same name; the Glendullan 12yo for the USA, the Dufftown 12yo for Europe and the Glen Ord 12yo for Asia. So, that's three completely different malts (granted, not as different as they used to be in the 20th century) that are sold under one generic brand name for people that buy 'by the label'... That's why one malt maniac prefers the brand name 'Simpleton' for these simplified, relatively generic whiskies.

Another example of the growing gap between the brand and the product is the recent sale of the Glenrothes brand from Edrington to Berry Brothers. While Berry Brothers become the owners of the brand, ownership of the Glenrothes distillery itself stays with the Edrington Group. In exchange, ownership of the Cutty Sark blend transfers to Edrington. The deal is supposed to be concluded by April 2010...

Sweet drams,

#366 - A Brave New World

2010-01-25T22:18:00.032+01:00

It's 'Burns Night' tonight - as good an opportunity as any to pour myself a stiff dram and kick off this second phase (or actually the third phase) of my 'Liquid Log' on MM.

I started my log about single malt whisky in 1997; well over a decade ago. That whisky log wasn't actually a "blog'' in the modern sense of the word yet; I never intended to confront readers with my rants and raves every day like Serge manages to do on his excellent WhiskyFun website.

But wait, there's more...
The general population didn't have the opportunity to comment on the articles, other than by e-mail. This new blog from Google should allow me to do some stuff I couldn't do on my old 'HTML' blog on Malt Madness... For one thing, I should be able to share 'external' links much easier than on Malt Madness. The software I've been using to publish the main Malt Madness website since 1999 tends to become unstable if I use too many external links. As a result, I was never able to use a lot of links to other websites. Google LOVES links, so I should be able to use much more links in my posts...

So, I'll finally be able to use the full interactivity of the interwebs in my rants and raves... For example, one external link to a quirky website I'd like to share is 'Sip, Smoke, Savor'. I have to admit that I would NEVER pollute a fine single malt with chocolate or a cigar myself, but I've come to accept the fact that there are people who are less fundamentalistic about these matters than I am. Besides, my objections only concern the mixing of good whisky (or rum, or cognac) with chocolate and/or cigars - they can actually IMPROVE my enjoyment of a glass of Jack Daniels or Johnnie Walker Red Label. So, check out www.sipsmokesavor.com and see what you think...

Meanwhile, I'm suffering from a 'bad nose day' yet again, so opening one of the circa 200 samples with new discoveries tonight would be pearls before swine. Instead, I'll try to polish off some of the bottles that have been on my shelves for far too long, quite frankly... All are still more than half full so they're probably all still drinkable, but most will have changed considerably. Take the Macallan-Glenlivet 8yo 1989/1997 (61.5%, Milroy's Speyside Reserve) for example -a rare bottling from the 1990's with a little sticker that corrects the 62.5% that's printed on the label. It starts out much fruitier in the nose than a few years ago, but after a few seconds painty aroma's take over. Not much complexity left. On the palate it's sweeter but also smoother - more like an Irish or a grain whisky. No, wait - now the complexity actually returns in the nose with blueberries and gentle marzipan. Later on some spices too - that's a nice surprise! And when I checked the Malt Maniacs Monitor I found our that I hadn't submitted my score yet - 84 points. When I opened it I wasn't too enthusiastic, but I need to give a small whisky tasting on wednesday and I think I'll bring this one too...

That's already 'it' for today. I have to get on my home trainer now to lose some of the superfluous fat on my body. I hate the wasting of time, but at least my bachelor's life allowed me to put my home trainer in front of the TV so I can watch the news while I torture myself. I doubt Robbie Burns ever took the time to excersise - and look where that got him ;-)

(Click HERE to read older entries in my Liquid Log)

Sweet drams,