Duncan Taylor Octave Highland Park 2008
$139.99
This 10 year old Highland Park has been finished for 4 months in a bespoke Sherry Octave cask. Bottled at 53.2%, a total of 98 bottles were produced with less than that coming to Canada!
Andrew's Tasting Note
Nose: honeyed, oily and floral; tallow wax candles, bacon fat on parchment paper and briny coastal sea notes with clean smoke.
Palate: still honeyed and oily with a big backbone of vanilla-cream; bacon fat and maple syrup; malty with building clean smoke and smoked kippers; bright juicy fruits develop especially on the citrus and melon ends of the spectrum; crisp but elegant smoke.
Finish: lovely peat oils mingle with vanilla cream, silky honey and more tallow candle wax; in the back of my mind I can't let go of dipping fatting bacon in maple syrup.
Comment: this is a lovely whisky, Octave or not; classic Highland park honey with crisp clean smoke and gentle peat; this is a sweet one!
Duncan Taylor Rare Auld PC 14 Year
$374.99
The bottler can't call this Port Charlotte, they have simply abbreviated it as PC, but we are under no such restriction. Only 8 bottles of this sherry matured Laddie are coming to KWM, 4 of them have sold at the time of writing. 52.8%. Distilled 2003.
Andrew's Tasting Note
Nose: everything you want from a dram that is both heavily sherried and heavily peated; its starts off full of the aromas you'd find in a Spanish cooperage: fresh oak, sawdust and charred wood; firm new leather, salty Dutch licorice and pipe tobacco; a doughy underlayer full of fruit (fruit flan); a touch of gunsmoke.
Palate: the gunsmoke hits first followed by a surge of dry earthy peat; the oak is layered underneath; tarry with dried and burnt dark fruits; maple butter on burnt toast and orange peels from an Old Fashioned; intense building spices, moving toward clove, fennel and anise.
Finish: drying, leathery and tarry with earthy peat and firm spices; there are fruits underneath, but they are struggling under the weight of sherry and peat.
Comment: if you like big sherry and big peat this is the dram for you; there is a touch of gunsmoke here, so never-sulphur folks best beware; all the better for the rest of us!
Duncan Taylor Octave Auchindoun 2008
$89.99
Supposedly Kininvie, the little know 3rd Dufftown distillery owned by William Grants (Glenfiddich & Balvenie). Matured 10 years and bottled at 53.1% after finishing 4 months in a bespoke sherry seasoned Octave.
Andrew’s Tasting Note
Nose: floral, creamed heather honey and melons; vanilla icing sugar and whipped cream on Belgian waffles; candied lemon and lime.
Palate: malty, soft, creamy and coating; very floral and waxy with loads of vanilla; whipped cream on Belgian waffles with lemon and lime; drying with leather and oak shavings; peppery with some clove and black licorice jujubes.
Finish: long, coating and spicy; more clove and late Dutch licorice.
Comment: a malty and juicy malt with lots of black licorice.
Scotch Malt Whisky Society 4.242
$161.49
COASTAL LANDSCAPE WITH SMOKE
This 13 year old from the Highland Islands was matured in a refill hogshead and comes in at 58%.
Flavour profile: Lightly peated.
Outturn: 262 bottles.
Panel's tasting note: "The nose declares itself with shed-loads of vanilla, panettone, dried pineapple and coconut – then slowly another tale unfolds – sheep’s wool, light smoke, ash, distant heather moor-burn and coastal elements. On the neat palate, unmistakable peat smoke and wood ash combine tastily with brown sugar and toasted marshmallows – the finish has curious anise and nutmeg spice with almost medicinal and resinous echoes.
The reduced nose has toasted cumin seeds and dried herbs, incense smoke and yellow Chartreuse. The palate now has serenely restrained smoke, nougat, sugared buns, heather and the herbal and wild flower scents of the summer machair."
Kornog Oloroso Single Malt Whisky
$149.99
Remember all that cool stuff we said about Glann Ar Mor's production philosophy? You know...wooden washbacks, small direct-fired stills, worm tub condensers, coastal maturation? In other words...the wee details that make lovers of old school malts take notice. Well...the same applies for this little French distillery's peated range. Kornog is the name they give to this phenolic heavyweight that weighs in just shy of Laphroaig's peat specification. Now...imagine that fiery young spirit being matured in ex-Oloroso sherry casks along the seaside, et voila!
46% abv
Kornog Coteaux du Layon Single Malt
$194.99
Founded in 1999 with full production beginning in 2005, Glann Ar Mor Distillery resides on the Northern Coast of France in Brittany. Owned by Martine and Jean Donnay, Glann Ar Mor roughly translates to 'By the Seaside' as that is where the distillery resides, which also seems to reflect the style of whisky they produce.The distillery produces two distinct styles of Single Malt Whisky: the unpeated and self-named Glann Ar Mor and the peated Kornog. Kornog whisky is typically peated to a level of 35-40PPM.
Kornog Sant Ivy Single Malt Whisky
$189.99
Founded in 1999 with full production beginning in 2005, Glann Ar Mor Distillery resides on the Northern Coast of France in Brittany. Owned by Martine and Jean Donnay, Glann Ar Mor roughly translates to 'By the Seaside' as that is where the distillery resides, which also seems to reflect the style of whisky they produce.The distillery produces two distinct styles of Single Malt Whisky: the unpeated and self-named Glann Ar Mor and the peated Kornog. Kornog whisky is typically peated to a level of 35-40PPM.
Nikka Yoichi Single Malt Sherry Finish
$215.99
Celebration of the Cask Ardmore 2008
$119.99
Congratulations to the team at Rare Drams on their first cask purchase, a 10 year old lightly peated Ardmore matured in an ex-Laphroaig barrel. Quite a few of these popping up on the open market. Bottled at 57% from a Refill Ex-Bourbon barrel which previously matured Laphroaig. 254 total bottles, most of them sold in Alberta with the balance in BC.
Andrew's Tasting Note
Nose: soft, doughy and fresh; juicy malt, some heathery peat and fading citrus: orange and lemon; the alcohol has no edge on the nose and the smoke is restrained by honey and oak.
Palate: there we go; this is a winter warmer; big, gristy, chewy malt with barley sugars and Turkish coffee dregs (with sugar); more faded citrus and a touch of honeydew melon; mellows with every passing sip, honey, oak and loads of barley with balanced maritime smoke and firm base of tarry peat.
Finish: bright, fresh and juicy; more sweet malt, surgar, tarry peat and light citrus.
Comment: the polar vortex is due to hit Calgary in the coming days, a dram like this will help stave off the cold!
