I was fortunate enough to attend this year's Diageo Special Releases tasting at TWE, hosted by the ever entertaining and manic Colin Dunn. Thanks to u/cowfishbilly for the heads up on the tickets. Tonight had a lot to live up to, as I'd been to the 2011 special releases tasting, which was pretty fantastic
I've attempted to decouple the scores from my expectations of the whiskys as far as possible. I've had several expressions of all these whiskys before, other than the Port Ellen, and made a concerted effort to taste them against each other before allocating scores. Scoring is using the traditional Reddit format of score/20 + 75.
Clynlelish Select Reserve, £500, 54.9%
Surely amongst the most expensive NAS whiskys ever released. Allegedly a blend of more 35yo with less 15yo. Clearly almost entirely
refill bourbon casked.
Nose: Caramel, Butterscotch, clover honey.
Palate: Hot, red peppers, granny smith apples, geosmin
I attended a big Clyenlish vertical under the auspices of the Whisky Squad recently, so Clynelish's charchter is pretty fresh in my
mind. That might be reflected in the slightly cliched tasting notes. A questionable choice for the first drink of the evening - very hot
an alcoholic. Improved upon a return to it later on, although my tastebuds were somewhat numbed by then
Palate: Sweet and savoury, chicken korma, pineapple cubes, cherryade
In part, exactly what you'd expect from a Rosebank - high aromatic perfume notes of the sort that you just don't see in modern
lowlanders. And yet, there was a substantial savoury flavour there contributing unexpected depth.
The tasting notes probably don't sound too positive, and certainly if you agree with Jim Murray on sulphur you'll want to steer well clear of this - but if you're a fan of deeply savoury beery flavours you may get on with this
Score: 87
Glendullan 38yo £750, 59.8%
Nose: Rum & Raisin, toffee, acetone, xmas cake, violets
Palate: black pepper, famyard, hay
Somewhat of a disappointment on the palate. Whilst the nose promised big old-school sherry character, the palate was a bit short of
anything really interesting. Surprisingly aromatic for its age.
Score: 89
Caol Ila Unpeated 1998 15yo £74, 60.4%
Nose: Oranges, cola cubes, grain
Palate: Szechuan pepper, milk bottles
I'd like to think I could pick out Caol Ila even without the peat, though this example suggests otherwise. Knowing what it is you can stick on similarities to young laddie, but blind I think it would be tricky.
Score: 87
Port Ellen 1978, 35yo £2,200, 56.5%
Nose: Seaweed, pine, furniture polish, classic car garage
Palate: Tobacco, terpenes, paraffin lamp smoke, brown sugar, juniper
Widely anticipated as the highlight of the evening, tended to deliver. All sorts of OTT leather and smoky flavours, miles of depth, and far dissimilar to any other Islay, at any price. Perhaps closest to Laga, but much more dry and chemical.
Score: 96
Brora 35yo £1,200, 48.6%
Nose: Raisins, indistinct
Palate: Honey, peach, acidity. Distant peat
I've had a fair amount of Brora before, so had a decent idea what to expect here - not this. This feels past its best, and at 48% from a 15-odd cask vatting, some barrels must have got very low, with a commensurate loss of smoke. Perhaps the mediocrity of this year's release is a consequence of the quality of last year's but from an aficionado's perspective, I hope Diageo bottle what they've got left sooner rather than later. It's worth mentioning that my mate's notes for this one are more or less in total disagreement, and he rated this whisky of the night
Score: 86
Lagavulin 12yo £80, 54.4%
Nose: Young, sticking plasters, petrichor
Palate: Vegetal, new make
The notes don't really do what was clearly the best value offering of the night credit. A reminder that there ought to be far more CS Laga releases - and that the spirit is astonishingly good, and hardly needs numbing with age or sherry.
Score: 92
And there we have it. Apologies for the glut of chemistry themed tasting notes. If you're an oligarch, get the Port Ellen immediately, otherwise stick to the Laga 12, which remains fantastic.
Hoooooooooooolyyyyyyyyyy shit. Amazing! I'd love to try that Rosebank and the Benrinnes for comparison's sake to the 23 year. I can't believe how expensive that Clynelish is for NAS. What was the surprise of the evening for you?
Thanks so much for sharing with us! Please archive these reviews when you can. What would you like your flair to say?
Ya know...my cork got all loosey goosey on my 23 and I emailed diageo. I had a replacement cork in like 5 days. We love to hate these guys, but they're not absolutely terrible.
Some interesting flavors listed here. Chicken korma, christmas cake, asafoetida, geosmin and the flavor of a long-awaited rain. I'll admit I had to google a few of these.
I was also at the tasting last night, and Colin talked about this briefly.
Basically, they wanted to keep one lowland distillery, and Glenkinchie had space around & within it to expand - initially for production, but Colin mentioned visitor centres and car parks.
1991 seems a little early for visitor centres, but the Classic Malts appeared in 1989 so it's possible. They may also have been thinking of expanding capacity if the future required it.
Rosebank was in a town, with residences and businesses all around it, so there was no way it could be expanded. The blenders wanted to keep Rosebank (so Colin said, but who knows?) but Rosebank would have just been too expensive to fit into their long term plans...
(Yes, I saw that your question was rhetorical. But I hope this is an interesting enough answer to make it worth ignoring that.)
I don't recall whether it was still DCL (proto-Diageo) or Diageo but they shut down Rosebank because it was "surplus to requirements." Basically Glenkinchie was making more than enough whisky to supply the blends and single malts. However I think many of us disagree with that assessment.
Oops, it's a bit hard to recognize rhetorical questions online. I sort of agree with Diageo in that closing some distilleries allowed the others to stay open ("surplus to requirements", though, is such a lame excuse). However I hate that Diageo chose to shutter those distilleries permanently rather than sell them off to interested buyers who could reopen them.
I was fortunate enough to attend this year's Diageo Special Releases tasting at TWE, hosted by the ever entertaining and manic Colin Dunn. Thanks to u/cowfishbilly for the heads up on the tickets. Tonight had a lot to live up to, as I'd been to the 2011 special releases tasting, which was pretty fantastic
I've attempted to decouple the scores from my expectations of the whiskys as far as possible. I've had several expressions of all these whiskys before, other than the Port Ellen, and made a concerted effort to taste them against each other before allocating scores. Scoring is using the traditional Reddit format of score/20 + 75.
Clynlelish Select Reserve, £500, 54.9%
Surely amongst the most expensive NAS whiskys ever released. Allegedly a blend of more 35yo with less 15yo. Clearly almost entirely refill bourbon casked.
Nose: Caramel, Butterscotch, clover honey.
Palate: Hot, red peppers, granny smith apples, geosmin
I attended a big Clyenlish vertical under the auspices of the Whisky Squad recently, so Clynelish's charchter is pretty fresh in my mind. That might be reflected in the slightly cliched tasting notes. A questionable choice for the first drink of the evening - very hot an alcoholic. Improved upon a return to it later on, although my tastebuds were somewhat numbed by then
Score: 91
Rosebank 1992 21yo, £300, 55.3%
Nose: FWP, rosewater, pears, toothpaste
Palate: Sweet and savoury, chicken korma, pineapple cubes, cherryade
In part, exactly what you'd expect from a Rosebank - high aromatic perfume notes of the sort that you just don't see in modern lowlanders. And yet, there was a substantial savoury flavour there contributing unexpected depth.
Score: 93
Benrinnes 1992 21yo £240, 56.9%
Nose: Dark chocolate, autolysed yeast, mercaptans
Palate: Leather, ash, asafoetida, oat crunchies, Westvleteren 12
The tasting notes probably don't sound too positive, and certainly if you agree with Jim Murray on sulphur you'll want to steer well clear of this - but if you're a fan of deeply savoury beery flavours you may get on with this
Score: 87
Glendullan 38yo £750, 59.8%
Nose: Rum & Raisin, toffee, acetone, xmas cake, violets
Palate: black pepper, famyard, hay
Somewhat of a disappointment on the palate. Whilst the nose promised big old-school sherry character, the palate was a bit short of anything really interesting. Surprisingly aromatic for its age.
Score: 89
Caol Ila Unpeated 1998 15yo £74, 60.4%
Nose: Oranges, cola cubes, grain
Palate: Szechuan pepper, milk bottles
I'd like to think I could pick out Caol Ila even without the peat, though this example suggests otherwise. Knowing what it is you can stick on similarities to young laddie, but blind I think it would be tricky.
Score: 87
Port Ellen 1978, 35yo £2,200, 56.5%
Nose: Seaweed, pine, furniture polish, classic car garage
Palate: Tobacco, terpenes, paraffin lamp smoke, brown sugar, juniper
Widely anticipated as the highlight of the evening, tended to deliver. All sorts of OTT leather and smoky flavours, miles of depth, and far dissimilar to any other Islay, at any price. Perhaps closest to Laga, but much more dry and chemical.
Score: 96
Brora 35yo £1,200, 48.6%
Nose: Raisins, indistinct
Palate: Honey, peach, acidity. Distant peat
I've had a fair amount of Brora before, so had a decent idea what to expect here - not this. This feels past its best, and at 48% from a 15-odd cask vatting, some barrels must have got very low, with a commensurate loss of smoke. Perhaps the mediocrity of this year's release is a consequence of the quality of last year's but from an aficionado's perspective, I hope Diageo bottle what they've got left sooner rather than later. It's worth mentioning that my mate's notes for this one are more or less in total disagreement, and he rated this whisky of the night
Score: 86
Lagavulin 12yo £80, 54.4%
Nose: Young, sticking plasters, petrichor
Palate: Vegetal, new make
The notes don't really do what was clearly the best value offering of the night credit. A reminder that there ought to be far more CS Laga releases - and that the spirit is astonishingly good, and hardly needs numbing with age or sherry.
Score: 92
And there we have it. Apologies for the glut of chemistry themed tasting notes. If you're an oligarch, get the Port Ellen immediately, otherwise stick to the Laga 12, which remains fantastic.
Hoooooooooooolyyyyyyyyyy shit. Amazing! I'd love to try that Rosebank and the Benrinnes for comparison's sake to the 23 year. I can't believe how expensive that Clynelish is for NAS. What was the surprise of the evening for you?
Thanks so much for sharing with us! Please archive these reviews when you can. What would you like your flair to say?
Hit up u/daft_hunk, he has an open Benrinnes 21 that he's angry at for having a shit cork.
Ya know...my cork got all loosey goosey on my 23 and I emailed diageo. I had a replacement cork in like 5 days. We love to hate these guys, but they're not absolutely terrible.
Yes they are.
Awesome contribution.
Some interesting flavors listed here. Chicken korma, christmas cake, asafoetida, geosmin and the flavor of a long-awaited rain. I'll admit I had to google a few of these.
Sounds like most are not worth the money. Would very much like to try that Rosebank though. Why is that closed again?
I was also at the tasting last night, and Colin talked about this briefly.
Basically, they wanted to keep one lowland distillery, and Glenkinchie had space around & within it to expand - initially for production, but Colin mentioned visitor centres and car parks.
1991 seems a little early for visitor centres, but the Classic Malts appeared in 1989 so it's possible. They may also have been thinking of expanding capacity if the future required it.
Rosebank was in a town, with residences and businesses all around it, so there was no way it could be expanded. The blenders wanted to keep Rosebank (so Colin said, but who knows?) but Rosebank would have just been too expensive to fit into their long term plans...
(Yes, I saw that your question was rhetorical. But I hope this is an interesting enough answer to make it worth ignoring that.)
I don't recall whether it was still DCL (proto-Diageo) or Diageo but they shut down Rosebank because it was "surplus to requirements." Basically Glenkinchie was making more than enough whisky to supply the blends and single malts. However I think many of us disagree with that assessment.
My question was rhetorical. I disagree with most Diageo decisions, and that is one of them.
Oops, it's a bit hard to recognize rhetorical questions online. I sort of agree with Diageo in that closing some distilleries allowed the others to stay open ("surplus to requirements", though, is such a lame excuse). However I hate that Diageo chose to shutter those distilleries permanently rather than sell them off to interested buyers who could reopen them.
Bloody Nora! Thanks for those reviews, I'm credibly jealous.