Wee Whisky Weview!

    There's nothing better in life than to intellectualise a wee dram. That's why I got all excited and had a little wee when I saw that the Good Spirits Company In Glasgow had a whisky and Gaelic tasting event last week. An interesting concept and part of their whisky lectures series of events (the last being whisky and astronomy which I unfortunately missed).

  On arrival there was a man from South Uist called Caillen (I think) who was providing the Gaelic half of the night, and as usual one of the Good Spirit's Company guys was talking through the whiskies. We were taught some Gaelic history, some Gaelic words and sayings and how they translate to modern language, also interestingly some Gaelic words which are now part of our common language (listed at the end of this blog). The concept I think was a real success. Prior to all the Calvinist prohibition and shutting down of 'illicit' stills in the 1700's is somewhat forgotten or not commonly known that Whisky was once a commodity for trade providing wealth and economic power to the native Scots especially on the isolated Gaelic speaking Islands. It's amazing how the establishment can warp the actions of ordinary people living independent lives and paint them as criminals or insurgents if it suits the governments selfish agenda. Anyhow. on to the whiskies.


Glen Grant Major's Reserve, 40% abv
Priced around £25

 The first whisky was Glen Grant's Major's Reserve, a no age statement whisky which is probably about 8 years old. We were given this whisky as the style of Glen Grant is extremely popular in Northern Italy, which also happens to be where the Gaelic language and people originated. The language and people spread around the coast of Europe, past France, Spain, Wales and Ireland before culminating on the western Scottish Isles and Hebrides, leaving the language and culture as they went. Daily Mirror readers take note that people have always been 'immigrants' and it is a natural part of human society. This whisky was a nice light, fragrant dram with notes of apples and orange peel and a light honeyed vanilla. The mouth feel was light as you'd expect for a malt at 40% with chill filtering. I'd never tasted a Glen Grant before, although I do occasionally see it the brand isn't massively popular. Interestingly though I found out that it is massive in Italy, possibly due to the light style being well suited to drinking as an aperitif or in a warmer climate, so often a brand which is relatively small in the UK can be massive elsewhere. I liked it, it was perfectly decent whisky and very enjoyable, but alas didn't have the complexity and fullness of a non filtered dram.

The next up was a blended malt from the Gaelic whisky company called Poit Dhubh which roughly translates as black pot, a kind of euphemism for an illicit still. We found out that the Gaelic whisky company was set up by the English aristocrat Sir Ian Noble on the Isle of Skye who was keen to revive the Gaelic language and culture with almost tyrannical practices. We heard some first hand accounts of how he demanded that his workforce speak Gaelic at all times or else they lost their jobs (plus other dubious tales about him). He is viewed equally as a Gaelic champion and a total bastard by many!
 Apparently this whisky has a lot of Talisker at it's heart which shows as it has a lovely hit of peat and iodine and quite a briny coastal vibe. There's a lot of spice and quite a jammy hint to the nose and palate. Very nice but not my favourite.

Price about £35

    Next up was a beautiful whisky by anCnoc, their 22 year old. My favourite of the night. Due to reading good reviews I've tried the 16 year old on several occasions and really liked it, but this was extra special. Bottled at 46% abv, non chill filtered and with no added colourant from a mixture of oloroso and bourbon casks, Matthew from the Good Spirits Company was very excited to spread it's virtues. The Gaelic link here was to highlight the silly rebranding by marketeers to rename the whisky from the Knockdu distillery to anCnoc so as not to be confused with the other nearby Speyside distillery Knockando. Gaelic rebranding is often used by whisky marketeers but more often than not they don't understand the pronunciation or the true meaning. This whisky is a prime example as the packaging states the C should be silent but in actual fact the C should be pronounced as the KN in Knockdu. My tasting notes are as follows;

Nose: Sweet, lovely fruity sherry, touch of smoke, umptious and tropical

Taste: Very complete and rich, has a lovely flavour envelope which moves through vanilla, guava and passion fruit through to a lovely dry smoky finish with a lovely oakiness.

A beautiful whisky with a rounded maturity not present in any of the others at this tasting.

Price about £85

NEXT!

The next whisky was met with excitement from many and was apparently shoe horned in to the tasting, ousting a more relevant whisky in terms of the Gaelic educational thread simply beacause Cailleen fancied trying it! It was Glen Garioch 1999 Sherry Cask bottled at a cask strength 56.3%.
Glen Garioch is an example of confusing Gaelic pronunciation as it should be spoken as Glen Geary. There you go! The whisky was obviously very sherried, I think they said that first fill oloroso casks were solely used in it's maturation. Initially the nose was incredibly full of the most lovely brown sugar and Demerara notes, think Dundee cake. However with water things went a little downhill. A bitter drying sulphur note appeared which I found a little unpleasant. Other members of the group seemed unaffected, maybe they were too proud to admit their shortcomings? Sulphur is used to treat casks after they have been used for maturing the sherry prior to shipment for whisky purposes, the sulphur is administered via a 'candle' to sterilise the cask and stop the remainding sherry residue turning to vinegar etc. Occasionally though the sulphur is very present in the resulting whisky such as this one.

Price about £65





 The penultimate whisky comes in the form of a trendy rebranding by the unfashionable Tomatin distillery. Strangely the Tomatin distillery is absolutely massive considering how widely unknown it's whisky is, with the capacity to produce several million litres of booze per year. However it's giant capacity dates back to a time before prohibition and this distillery has fluctuated it's output ever since. Also like other large but mainly unknown distillery in terms of single malt such as Speyburn and Linkwood, most of Tomatin's output goes into blends. Maybe this trendy new, Gaelic twinged, peaty rebrand is an attempt to captured the current zeitgeist for single malts and 'craft' products? Cu Bocan is the name of a mystical black beast which apparently haunts the local area. Convenient marketing back story fodder.

 

Nose: Initially a bit like strawberry/raseberry laces. A real bubble gummy confectionary nose! Notes of nuts and soft peat come in. Very nice.

 

Taste: Not that peaty at 15ppm, sweet malt and young with lovely fruity esthers.

Price about £35

 

Probably my number 3 malt.

 

 

 

    Last by in no way least was a whisky I was very excited about. A new cask strength Springbank bottled at 54.7% after being matured for 9 years in ex Itailian Barolo red wine casks by a top producer Gaja. There is a Gaelic link but I have forgotten it (possibly due to alcohol intake), something to do with a common link between the wine producer and Springbank like the Longrow Red which was matured in Australian red wine casks from the Longrow vineyard. A long time ago when I first got into whisky at the Leicester Malt Club we had a sampling of the Longrow Gaja Barolo and I remember it well. This time the Springbank version from the Campbletown distillery has had this type of maturation. Springbank is a truly artisanal affair, once Campbeltown was a massive whisky producer now only Springbank and Glen Scotia remain. Springbank use local barley, do their own malting, mature in traditional dunnage warehouses and even bottle on site. The results are a labour intensive yet truly traditional production method providing maximum employment to local people and excellent whisky with unique provenance and terroir. I learnt at this tasting an interesting fact about maturation. Note that the alcoholic strength of the Springbank is lower (54.7%) than the older Glen Garioch (56.3%) despite it being several years younger. This is due to the relatively higher humidity and milder conditions in Campbeltown compared to other regions in Scotland. In humid air the alcohol evaporates much more quickly from the barrel therefore the whisky loses it's potency faster.

Nose: Strange, very sweet and peaty, salty, coal fires

Taste: Lovely smooth sweetness with the typical Springbank mineral oiliness too, brine and coal smoke. Apparently this has the same peatiness as the Cu Bocan at 15ppm but it tastes way more smokey than the Tomatin. Could be to do with the more rustic and less controlled production methods varying the actual peating levels?

Price about £58


A very close second.....