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f4f3Just back from two days on Islay (two wonderful days, of which more anon) and I'm sitting here surrounded by more "rare bottlings" and "distillery special editions" and various gaelic tags than you could shake an antique mash tun stirrer at. Want to know what I bought?
Swag:
Caol Ila:
8 Years Old “Unpeated Style”
Up in the North of the island, near Port Askaig, the distillery is a big operation, with a modern still house facing out into the Sound of Jura. The shop was small and cosy, and staffed by two girls, one a local and one a Kiwi with Islay roots.
Caol Ila is a favourite of mine. I tried the “Distillery only” cask strength bottle, which was very nice, but in the end I settled on the much lighter 8 year old unpeated. Maybe it was a reaction to all the peat I’d supped, but it came across as fruity, accessible, and an unusual dram I’d enjoy.
They also threw in a free glass for Unblinkered, since she was driving. Which was nice.
Bruichladdich:
1998 Manzanilla: A ten year old sherry cask, with a lovely label. No, honestly, it’s a black and white bull illustration, looks like Picasso to me... The Laddie stands up well to sherry, generally, and I’m looking forward to trying this one.
WMD II: The Yellow Submarine:
Not my bottle, but unblinkered’s. I’ll leave her to tell the story behind it, but it’s a 15 year old Rioja fill. Yum.
Port Charlotte Single Cask, Streah Independent Bottling – 6 Years Old, 57.6%
A story goes with this one. Ben, our tour guide, was a charming business studies student in his final year, and had bought a cask of the second Port Charlotte make to bottle and sell himself. He let it drop that he was returning to Glasgow with 25 cases of it tomorrow night, and I offered to make his packing a little easier.
Port Charlotte distillery was closed down a while back, and Bruichladdich have started to build a new distillery there (it’s a couple of miles down the road). In the meantime, they’ve started bottling a slightly more peated version of their own malt as Port Charlotte. I’d been intending to pick up a bottle, but jumped at the chance of getting this instead. It’s only 6 years old, and I’m almost tempted to keep it intact until Ben makes his fortune.
Bowmore: Dusk – Bordeaux Cask (no age statement, but I was told it was 12 years in sherry and 2 in Bordeaux)
Hey, I like pink whisky, ok? I’d gone to Bowmore expecting to pick up their “Darkest”, which is fairly rare, and one of my favourites (at one time it was my most favourite malt). A tour had just kicked off when we arrived, and once they’d left the shop I told the assistant that I couldn’t decide between the two. She instantly whisked the two of us upstairs to their bar, and poured generous measures of both (ignoring the price list on the wall). Given a few minutes to walk around with them both (the bar has a balcony overlooking the shore, which may be the best spot in the world) I had to admit that the Dusk worked better for me. What a shocker.
They’ve put a quote on the wall behind the bar from Ian Banks’ book “Raw Spirit”: “If you can’t find a whisky to love from Bowmore, you may have to give serious consideration to the thought that you’re wasting your time drinking whisky.”
Ardbeg: Airigh Nam Beist, Limited 1990 release. 46% (as an aside this business of giving the year of distillation but not bottling gets on my nerves – it’s all very well when you can ask at the distillery, but it’s a bit of a con when you buy it elsewhere years after the bottling. This is a 16 year old).
Ardbeg probably has the best restaurant of any of the Islay distilleries, and are happy to press tastings on you while you wait for a table. This seemed to be the most intriguing of the three I tried.
Laphroaig: Cairdeas, 55%
Another distillery special, put together to woo visitors and locals, and an absolute stoatir. Their current quarter cask bottling is superb, but this shades it for me. I also tasted, um, another one. This was better.
Honourable mentions:
Lagavulin; A lovely malt, but they had nothing in the shop that you can’t buy in Tesco. And they didn’t offer me a taste (the only distillery not to), so I took some photographs and moved on.
Bunahabhain: I admit it, I just plain don’t like this one. It isn’t bad, but I always find it astringent and thin. On the other hand, I did drink the large sample (about a double) and bought some jam and a very nice woolly jumper.
Furth of Islay:
I did pick up some other bottles on holiday...
The Arran Malt: Tokaji Aszu Cask: Bought this at the distillery in Lochranza after careful tasting. All of the Arran special makes I’ve tried have been lovely, this one, sweet, fruity, lightly peated is no exception.
Cadenhead’s Campbeltown Malt, 55.6%
Cadenhead’s are the bottling arm of Springbank, the last of the Campbeltown producers (for the moment – there’s a new make on the way). This is one of the six casks they have in the shop, and a wee beauty.
Swag:
Caol Ila:
8 Years Old “Unpeated Style”
Up in the North of the island, near Port Askaig, the distillery is a big operation, with a modern still house facing out into the Sound of Jura. The shop was small and cosy, and staffed by two girls, one a local and one a Kiwi with Islay roots.
Caol Ila is a favourite of mine. I tried the “Distillery only” cask strength bottle, which was very nice, but in the end I settled on the much lighter 8 year old unpeated. Maybe it was a reaction to all the peat I’d supped, but it came across as fruity, accessible, and an unusual dram I’d enjoy.
They also threw in a free glass for Unblinkered, since she was driving. Which was nice.
Bruichladdich:
1998 Manzanilla: A ten year old sherry cask, with a lovely label. No, honestly, it’s a black and white bull illustration, looks like Picasso to me... The Laddie stands up well to sherry, generally, and I’m looking forward to trying this one.
WMD II: The Yellow Submarine:
Not my bottle, but unblinkered’s. I’ll leave her to tell the story behind it, but it’s a 15 year old Rioja fill. Yum.
Port Charlotte Single Cask, Streah Independent Bottling – 6 Years Old, 57.6%
A story goes with this one. Ben, our tour guide, was a charming business studies student in his final year, and had bought a cask of the second Port Charlotte make to bottle and sell himself. He let it drop that he was returning to Glasgow with 25 cases of it tomorrow night, and I offered to make his packing a little easier.
Port Charlotte distillery was closed down a while back, and Bruichladdich have started to build a new distillery there (it’s a couple of miles down the road). In the meantime, they’ve started bottling a slightly more peated version of their own malt as Port Charlotte. I’d been intending to pick up a bottle, but jumped at the chance of getting this instead. It’s only 6 years old, and I’m almost tempted to keep it intact until Ben makes his fortune.
Bowmore: Dusk – Bordeaux Cask (no age statement, but I was told it was 12 years in sherry and 2 in Bordeaux)
Hey, I like pink whisky, ok? I’d gone to Bowmore expecting to pick up their “Darkest”, which is fairly rare, and one of my favourites (at one time it was my most favourite malt). A tour had just kicked off when we arrived, and once they’d left the shop I told the assistant that I couldn’t decide between the two. She instantly whisked the two of us upstairs to their bar, and poured generous measures of both (ignoring the price list on the wall). Given a few minutes to walk around with them both (the bar has a balcony overlooking the shore, which may be the best spot in the world) I had to admit that the Dusk worked better for me. What a shocker.
They’ve put a quote on the wall behind the bar from Ian Banks’ book “Raw Spirit”: “If you can’t find a whisky to love from Bowmore, you may have to give serious consideration to the thought that you’re wasting your time drinking whisky.”
Ardbeg: Airigh Nam Beist, Limited 1990 release. 46% (as an aside this business of giving the year of distillation but not bottling gets on my nerves – it’s all very well when you can ask at the distillery, but it’s a bit of a con when you buy it elsewhere years after the bottling. This is a 16 year old).
Ardbeg probably has the best restaurant of any of the Islay distilleries, and are happy to press tastings on you while you wait for a table. This seemed to be the most intriguing of the three I tried.
Laphroaig: Cairdeas, 55%
Another distillery special, put together to woo visitors and locals, and an absolute stoatir. Their current quarter cask bottling is superb, but this shades it for me. I also tasted, um, another one. This was better.
Honourable mentions:
Lagavulin; A lovely malt, but they had nothing in the shop that you can’t buy in Tesco. And they didn’t offer me a taste (the only distillery not to), so I took some photographs and moved on.
Bunahabhain: I admit it, I just plain don’t like this one. It isn’t bad, but I always find it astringent and thin. On the other hand, I did drink the large sample (about a double) and bought some jam and a very nice woolly jumper.
Furth of Islay:
I did pick up some other bottles on holiday...
The Arran Malt: Tokaji Aszu Cask: Bought this at the distillery in Lochranza after careful tasting. All of the Arran special makes I’ve tried have been lovely, this one, sweet, fruity, lightly peated is no exception.
Cadenhead’s Campbeltown Malt, 55.6%
Cadenhead’s are the bottling arm of Springbank, the last of the Campbeltown producers (for the moment – there’s a new make on the way). This is one of the six casks they have in the shop, and a wee beauty.
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Date: 2008-08-30 09:21 am (UTC)Bruichladdich are still doing the valinch, and we had a taste. The latest barrel is called The Angel's Dream, and has a very nice label.