Complimentary Tasting at LMDW - A big mixed bag

For the month of April, La Maison is hosting complimentary whisky tasting in the afternoons, from noon till 6pm, when the bar opens. If you're free, in the area, and wanna sip some good, cheap whiskies and have a lovely chat with the lovely Sarah, then do pop down. A word of warning, though: tasting good and cheap whiskies has a strange effect on you; it makes you a lot more willing to buy. After the complimentary tasting, I bought 2 bottles - the Redbreast 12 Cask Strength, and a Caol Ila from LDMW's The Ten series of whiskies for beginners.

Quick notes of the whiskies that were on offer:

Picture taken from LMDW's FB page: https://www.facebook.com/finespiritsLMDW/

I didn't try everything, and the Kilchoman Caroni Cask ran out.

Whisky de Table
Nose: Could be my eyes playing tricks on me with the colour and packaging of the bottle, but this smelt like white wine. Citrusy, tannic, sour and refreshing. A light malty notes comes out after some time in the glass.
Palate: Ok, yes, this is more like whisky. A lemon and lime edge, slightly smoky, with this whisky carrying a significant proportion of Clynelish. Texture is pretty smooth. Very easy, very quaffable. Sarah kept this bottle refrigerated, and I don't disagree with that.
Finish: Short, slightly sweet notes of honey. Vinous.

Redbreast Cask Strength
Nose: Intense, this one. Rich fruits. Apricots, figs, apples, pears, some hint of minerality...limestone and copper. A little vinous, but maybe more on dessert wine - more sweet, less sour. That's gotta be the sherry talking Rich, velvety vanilla and oak. There's so much going on here.
Palate: Ok, the alcohol packs a punch. After that subsides...rich and smooth. Mouth coating and full bodied. It's like ramping up the normal Redbreast 12 several notches - this one has more flavour coming in huge waves. Similar to the nose. Very consistent, with maybe a touch of floral about it. Maltier on the palate than on the nose.
Finish: Long, intense, clean. Fruity, spicy, oak.

Clynelish 8 years (2008/2015), Signatory 'Very Cloudy'
This one is very cloudy because it is un-chill filtered.

Nose: Mm. Smokier, maltier. Spicy, even on the nose. Compared to the Whisky de Table, of course.
Palate: Lemon, pear, malted barley. Clean, simple, very straightforward. I think I preferred the Compass Box blend...
Finish: Short, slightly spicy, a little woody. Good spirit, young age.

Glenrothes 8 years, G&M 'The Macphail's Collection'
Nose: This is rather meaty and chewy. I would say it smells more chewy than the Mortlach 21 I finished some time back. Chewy, malty too. It's sherried, but the sherry cask must have been a refill, I think. It's not very dominant on the nose, forming more of a backdrop. Like a fruitcake made with preserved fruits.
Palate: Spicy, slightly sherried. Fruits are dried - raisins, dried cranberries. Still chewy and slightly waxy texture.
Finish: Short, spicy and woody.

Cambus 24, Signatory
Nose: Intense. Bubblegum sweetness, corn syrup. Smells more like maize than rye. Mm. Spicy, on ginger and pepper. Big smells, really. Wood behind all the sweetness. Vanilla comes up too, if you get behind the corn syrup. Floral and perfumed.
Palate: Big hitting syrup, but not without complexity - honey, spicy. Ginger, cinnamon, saffron. Toffee, caramel. Solid oak backing too. Pretty good, these old grain whiskies
Finish: Long, spicy. A slight sour note here. Like wine tanginess, if there's such a word.

AnCnoc 12
Nose: Rather straightforward. Honeyed, with wood and light spiciness. Raisins and apple, cinnamon. Simple, good Speyside. But not very special.
Palate: same as above. The body runs out of ideas quite quickly. It starts out nice and supple, but turns flat fairly quickly. Easy, quick drinking. Not one to be mulled over.
Finish: short, sweet. Mm. Slight bitter note here. Artificial colouring, perhaps...?

Ben Nevis Mcdonald's Traditional 
Nose: Whoa. Really old school. The makers wanted to replicate an old style highland whisky, and I think they've succeeded. Big on rocks and charcoal. Sooty, even. A touch of engine oil. Smoky, but on the ashy side. Some lemons and pears too, under all that.
Palate: Slightly peaty - but it's closer to ash than iodine. Big on leather and rubber, but made less brutal by a touch of apples that lies under those big, old-style, industrial notes. Mm. Pomelo - Sour and slightly tannic. I really like this style, but maybe a little more fruit, or wood, or spice would have helped pick it up. I like this, but found it too brooding to buy a bottle.
Finish: Medium, on leather, tannins, and a slight spiciness. Mm. A slight bitter note too.

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And, that's a wrap. Didn't try the rest: Highland Park 8 from the Macphail's Collection, and a Caol Ila G&M Reserve. Whew. Couldn't taste anything for the rest of the day.

Many thanks to Sarah, who very graciously talked PY and I through all the whiskies, sharing thoughts, stories, tasting notes from Google, and for being very patient while we deliberated on what to buy. Benefits of going to LMDW on a rainy afternoon eh?

First post!

This blog was started about a year after I first started drinking whisky. I don't remember the tastes of many of these whiskies enough to pen my own notes for them. Yet, there are some that stick in my mind, as if something about the whisky still lingers on long after the bottle is emptied.

There is always some difficulty in deciding how to inaugurate a blog. What shall we start with? A couple of popular, go-to whiskies? Start with a bang? Start with an award winner?

Maybe I'll start with a story about my first proper exposure to whisky...

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A year ago, I was privileged to be invited to a good friend's house for the Lunar New Year. His father had purchased several bottles of whisky to entertain the guests who'll be coming around. Among the bottles that were on the table, I remember a Glenrothes 30, 25, 20. There was a Ballantine's 30 year, as well as a Hakushu 18. There were probably one or two more, but my memory is hazy. I remember clearly that I loved the Hakushu 18, for how refreshing and mellow it was, with slight grassy, warming peatiness, and the gentle citrus notes...beautiful, balanced flavours. The Ballantine's was smooth, as one would expect from a 30 year old blend. Floral, nutty, but I thought that it wasn't that special, nor quite worth the price, if I were just talking about how it tasted and smelt. 

As I was happily sipping a dram of the Hakushu 18, one of the other guests poured herself a glass of the Glenrothes 30 (this one: https://www.whiskybase.com/whisky/820/glenrothes-30-year-old). And by a glass, I mean about 100 ml or slightly more. Of a 30 year old whisky. She took a sip, and declared that it was too strong. 

So, she split that glass of whisky into two glasses. She then took up a pack of Pokka's Jasmine Green Tea, less sugar, opened the pack of Green Tea, and poured the whole packet of green tea into the two half-glasses of 30 year-old Glenrothes. Mixing the drinks, she took another sip, and with great satisfaction, said that the drink was now "much better". After all, we have to mix whisky so that we can drink more, she sagely proclaimed.

And thus, a tragedy. 

There are many ways to drink whisky, and some of us do like to mix our whiskies into highballs and cocktails. No problem. I'm just not sure if a $1000 bottle was supposed to be drunk in this way...

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Is there a moral to this story? Perhaps not. But this story is firmly part of my initiation to whisky drinking. The heartache I felt for the Glenrothes, and the joy I got from the Hakushu, became the starting point of my whisky journey. Pain and joy are part of life's journey - they nudge us on, step by step, out of the Garden of Eden (or is it the forests on the Japanese Southern Alps??) and into the scary and beautiful world out there...

The next post will have some notes about two whiskies that I like enough to drink them as daily (ok, not quite daily) sips: the Oban 14, and the Talisker 10.