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KWM 2022 Whisky Calendar Day 24: Boutique-y Soup Town Blend 24 Year

Posted on December 24, 2022

BONUS CONTENT: Read Andrew's post on our very special Compass Box KWM 30th Anniversary Blend!

by Evan

Christmas Eve Proper is upon us! With only two drams left in the 2022 KWM Whisky Calendar, I am starting to feel conflicting emotions. Part of me is relieved that I will be able to take a break from all this frantic and excessive blog posting. However, there is a piece of my soul that will immediately yearn for the days spent typing up these missives and pretending that my opinion on topics even tangentially related to whisky matter to anyone other than myself.

I am sure my wife also has mixed feelings about all of this. She will be happy that I will finally be doing less “work” at home and potentially be more present in conversations again (hah!). That feeling will probably be short-lived though, as she soon realizes that once again, she is stuck being the audience for every single pithy pun I blather and half-formed idea that spills from my mind.

I am getting ahead of myself, though, aren’t I? I do still have two more blog posts to bludgeon words on and inflict on anybody silly enough to read them. So: onto today’s whisky! Behind Door Number Twenty-Four in our 2022 KWM Whisky Calendar, you will find a mini bottle of That Boutique-y Whisky Company Blended Malt #6 Batch 2 – 24 Year Old. That is a mouthful to both read and type, but what does it actually mean? It means we are headed to Soup Town – I mean Campbeltown!

Oh boy, am I excited for this bottle! I have tasted Batch 1 of this 24-year-old Blended Malt a few times, and in my opinion, it is darned good whisky. I am curious to see how this Batch 2 compares. Batch 1 is rustic. It also is tropical. But, it is sherried. And it is salty and coastal. It contains a cacophony of what should be jarringly opposing notes and styles, yet they remain harmonious in a way that Campbeltown distilleries seem to pull of better than pretty much any others in Scotland.

So, just what could be in this Blended Malt from a place fictitiously named Soup Town? Well, Soup Town is a reference that only That Boutique-y Whisky Company and their wit could come up with. Soup Town refers to Campbeltown. Campbell = Soup. Campbell’s Soup. Get it? Oh, and spoilers: Apparently the other part of the blend is likely from Loch Lomond. Check out the YouTube video of Andrew and Dave Worthington discussing the Soup Town Blended Malt for more info!

Campbeltown is currently the most bereft distillery region in Scotland, as it contains only three active distilleries: Springbank, Glengyle (bottled under the name Kilkerran), and Glen Scotia. This was not always the case. A little more than a century ago, there was a joke told about Campbeltown having more operating distilleries than churches. This was an impressive claim and funny joke beca...

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History In A Bottle Day 24: Compass Box KWM 30th Anniversary Blend

Posted on December 24, 2022

This post is Bonus Content. It has information on one of the KWM Cask bottles that are featured on the back of our 2022 KWM Whisky Calendar box. You can find the blog post for the mini bottle for Day 24 of our 2022 KWM Whisky Calendar here.

by Andrew

I have already touched on this one a little on Day 16 when I talked about our 25th Anniversary Compass Box Blend. While the latter was a Blend proper, the Compass Box KWM 30th Anniversary bottling is a Blended Malt, meaning there is no grain in the mix. The whiskies used in its creation were matured exclusively in American oak, which means we have room for oxidative fruity tones and lots of spirit character…

The largest component is 20-year-old Caol Ila (37%*), and the next is 20-year-old Teaninich (30%*). While neither in and of themselves might be exciting, think of the Teaninich as something of a stand-in for Clynelish, and 20-year-old Caol Ila… that’s not something you see too often anymore. The two remaining components are the most interesting to be because, at ¼ and 1/10 of the overall volume of the whisky, you wouldn’t think they have too much impact, but this is far from the case. The 19-year-old Mortlach (23%*) adds some weight and a touch of savoury meaty tones. And the 17-year-old Ardbeg (10%*), this is the whisky’s capstone, and despite being the smallest component it makes itself felt with citrus fruits, salt and elegant peat.

The origin of the Ardbeg used is a cool story… it is actually the remnants of the parcel of Ardbeg used to create the Compass Box No Name I. I loved the audacity of the first edition of No Name, which married a parcel of 14-year-old Ardbeg, infuriating Ardbeg single malt purists the world over, with Caol Ila and Clynelish. I had the privilege of trying the Ardbeg on its own, before it was blended, and can confirm that the final product, No Name I, was an improvement on it. That’s one of the things they do at Compass Box, they find cool things and then ask themselves how they can make them better. In theory, a good blend should be able to improve on its component parts… It also highlighted how the addition of something delicate, like Clynelish, in relatively small quantities, could still have an impact. So we were thrilled that James Saxon chose to include that same Ardbeg, which continued maturing in cask for an additional 3 years in our blend. And despite only being roughly 10% of the liquid, it is an identifiable component…

You may have noted the * after the percentage of each of the components. Funny story about the recipe for this whisky, it has a margin of error... At the time of blending, one of the necessary components could not be added in precisely the right volume, though how much it was short was not entirely clear. This necessitated a bit of improvisation by Whisky Maker Jam...

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KWM 2022 Whisky Calendar Day 23: Kilchoman Machir Bay

Posted on December 23, 2022

BONUS CONTENT: Read Andrew's post on a very curious Aberlour KWM Cask!

by Evan

We are in the home stretch ladies and gentlemen! If you are following along on the day of this blog, we have made it to Christmas Eve-Eve. Shall we have some whisky to celebrate? Perhaps something peated?

Yesterday, having nothing new to write about Paul John, I managed to pull a blog post out of… the ether, let’s say. Will I be able to do the same thing today for Kilchoman Distillery? Like Paul John, we already talked about one Kilchoman in the 2022 KWM Whisky Calendar back on Day Ten with the Sanaig. Now, for Day 23, we have the Kilchoman Machir Bay!

Machir Bay is the flagship bottle in Kilchoman Distillery’s whisky lineup, and like the Sanaig, Loch Gorm, and other bottlings from other Islay Whisky producers, it is named after a geographical location on the island. Machir Bay itself is about a 5-minute drive from the Kilchoman distillery and only a few hundred metres from the tiny settlement of Kilchoman. The bay contains some rugged and rocky coastline but also a sandy beach.

Now to the whisky. Machir Bay was first introduced in 2012, about six years after Kilchoman first opened. With this being one of Kilchoman’s regular expressions and easily the most obtainable release from the distillery, this looks to be the second time we have featured the Machir Bay in one of our KWM Whisky Calendars. It was likely in our 2014 KWM Whisky Calendar, back then Andrew was etching the blog posts on stone tablets that were distributed via carrier pigeon back then, so unfortunately they have not survived the test of time.

I did find four blog posts from December of 2014 in the archives, including one talking about our Christmas Trees being stolen. I take comfort in knowing that even back then, our entrance was undergoing cosmetic deconstruction. If anybody has seen these stolen trees in the eight intervening years, please call Crimestoppers. I suspect a black Dodge Ram may have been involved, but I cannot prove it due to the BETAMAX security videotape being grainy and not in colour.

Where was I? Oh, right. The Kilchoman Machir Bay is matured in a combination of ex-Bourbon and ex-Sherry casks, but much heavier on the ex-Bourbon side of things. The peat level of the malt is around 50 PPM and sourced from Port Ellen Maltings. This is the same spec that Ardbeg Distillery uses. Thanks to its peaty profile and mostly ex-Bourbon cask makeup, Kilchoman’s website states that the main traits of this bottling include “Citrus fruit, layered vanilla and butterscotch”. Let’s give it a taste and see if we agree!

Kilchoman Machir Bay – 46%

Also available in full-size bottles

Machir Bay was the first edition of the Kilchoman core range, and it remains a stap...

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History In A Bottle Day 23: First Editions Aberlour 23 Year KWM Cask

Posted on December 23, 2022

This post is Bonus Content. It has information on one of the KWM Cask bottles that are featured on the back of our 2022 KWM Whisky Calendar box. You can find the blog post for the mini bottle for Day 23 of our 2022 KWM Whisky Calendar here.

by Andrew

The Outturn on this whisky might seem low, but that’s because we had minis filled and featured in our KWM Whisky Calendar on Day 23, in 2018. This was an exciting cask at the time, a 23-year-old Aberlour for starters, something you don’t see too often, but even more curiously, it was a peated Aberlour.

The whisky was a beast, though a gentle one, with a profile nothing like the sherried style the distillery is famous for. A prominent hint of peat on the nose and clean smoke on the palate. Far from over-oaked, the whisky was also decadent and tropical. It isn’t the only Aberlour single cask we bottled, we also put our name on a 19-year-old 1994 Berry Bros & Rudd cask of Aberlour back in 2014. It too was atypical for the distillery, matured in a first fill ex-Bourbon Hoggie!

First Editions Aberlour 23-Year KWM Cask

This is our 2nd single cask of Aberlour and our first-ever exclusive single cask under the First Editions label. Only 151 bottles were filled from a Refill Hogshead cask, Ref: HL14881, bottled at 58.8% after 23 years.

Andrew's Tasting Note

Nose: old English butterscotch, Tarte Tatin, pecan pie and candied nuts; the nose is big and oily with candied orange; polished Italian leather shoes, brandy-soaked cherries and freshly opened cedar cigar box; is there a slight trace of peat?

Palate: sweet, fruity and coating and then boom... wow this packs some power; more old English butterscotch, Tarte Tatin and candied nuts but also creme Brule, ginger-molasses cookies and treacle tarts; leather and tobacco are there too with building spice; as it settles down (and or the palate adjusts) more delicate tropical fruits emerge: mango and papaya; late chocolate and prominent licorice; there is also a delicate thread of smoke?!

Finish: long, sweet and very fruity; builds into a crescendo of lovely spices, tobacco, leather and tropical fruits; warming, silky and smooth.

Comment: This is a gentle beast of a whisky; the complexity is nearly off the charts including a tantalizing trace of smoke; this is a bold but layered Aberlour, very different from the sherried house style of the Distillery bottlings.
...

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KWM 2022 Whisky Calendar Day 22: Paul John Peated Select Cask

Posted on December 23, 2022

BONUS CONTENT: Read Andrew's post on our very first Clynelish KWM Cask, as well as our most recent Clynelish from That Boutique-y Whisky Company!

by Evan

Remember back, ages ago, on Day Three of the 2022 KWM Whisky Calendar? It was a long time back from where we are now.

We had this quaint idea that this would be the year we got all of our holiday shopping done and wrapped by the beginning of the month, and not leave it to the last minute like every year before this. We were going to set ourselves up to relax and enjoy December. The Farmer’s Almanac told us that it would be mild weather throughout the month until after new year’s, so we didn’t have to worry about the engine block in our vehicle becoming a giant ice cube and not starting one morning.

We would get to all of our children’s ice times and Christmas concerts and other activities promptly and get absolutely filthy wallowing in the festive spirit of it all. Plus, we were going to eat meals full of fibre and vegetables, stay away from sweets and caffeine and set ourselves up for a reasonable, obtainable goal of healthy living and moderation without having to resort to a knee-jerk and extreme resolution in the new year.

Wait... You don’t remember any of those best-laid plans and hopes for staving off the general holiday panic and anxiety? Well, neither do I!

What I do remember is the excellent Paul John PX Select Cask mini bottle we enjoyed back on Day Three of this year’s KWM Whisky Calendar. I don’t remember it like it only happened a scant 19 days ago, though. It almost feels like a bottle from a previous lifetime at this point. But this all brings us back around to today’s whisky, which is also from Paul John. Crack open Door number Twenty-Two and you will find the Paul John Peated Select Cask Indian Single Malt Whisky!

Now, perhaps you made slogged your way through that preamble and are just now realizing that I have not said anything new about Paul John Distillery, which resides in Goa, India and was founded in 1992 but didn’t start releasing single malt whisky until 2012…

Sadly, you are right. I don’t have much else to say about Paul John that wasn’t already covered in my blog post from Day Three.

So, let’s stick to a quick recap regarding this specific bottle. For their peated malt, John Distillers sources peat from the UK. It is brought to India and then used to dry malted 6-row barley that was grown within India itself. It is matured in ex-Bourbon casks and bottled at a healthy 55.5%. Shall we try it out?

Paul John Peated Select Cask – 55.5%

Full-size bottles can be found here

This is a peated cask-strength Indian single malt whisky from the state of Goa. Matured in Ex-Bourbon barrels before bottling ...

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