Must Try

Caol Ila Unpeated 18 Yr 2017 Release

/ / Islay, Review, Scottish Whisky /

Caol Ila 18 yr ‘Unpeated Style’
Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Natural Cask Strength
Special Release 2017

59.8% ABV
$125 (SRP @ release)
Website
Caol Ila 18 Yr Old Unpeated Style

What the Distillery Says

This unusual limited release 18 year old is the oldest unpeated CAOL ILA ever bottled and was matured in refill American Oak casks. It has a style as
clean and fresh as the pale sky that follows clearing rain, with a bitter-sweet warmth and an appetising salty edge. Crisp, smooth hints of fruit and a wild strawberry sweetness dance boldly across the tongue like flecks of foam over wind-lashed waves.

What Gary Says

Nose:  Cut hay, salted caramel and vanilla, strawberry greens, gentle smoke and a hint of salted sea air; a bit of water brings out more smoke and maritime notes.
Palate:  Rich and thick mouthfeel that starts soft and gradually warms, caramel with berries, apricots, peaches, pears, bit of allspice and smoke pick-up in the middle along with honey malt.
Finish:  Long with a warm and subtle spice nod.
Comments:  Wow – this is delicious! I like Caol Ila, and when I heard ‘unpeated’ I’ll admit that my immediate thought was ‘Folks, if it ain’t broke – don’t fix it’. I was curious how this would be without the peat, and I am so glad to have had a chance to try this. Just a lovely, complex dram that highlights the craftsmanship of the makers. Some might wonder if peated malt is a lower quality (where the peat can cover up some mistakes). This shows that isn’t the case. Takes water well, although drinks like it is closer to 50% than 60%.

Rating: Must Try

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Maker’s Mark Private Select – Dekalb Bottle House 2018

/ / Bourbon, Review / ,

Maker’s Mark Private Select
Exclusive Oak Stave Selection – Dekalb Bottle House (TANSTAAFL)

55.7% ABV
$70
Website

What the Distillery Says

At Maker’s Mark, our wood-finishing series was created to explore new, unique expressions of our signature whisky. Beginning as fully matured Maker’s Mark® at cask strength, Private Select is created by adding 10 custom wood finishing staves to each barrel. It’s then aged in our limestone cellar to extract a unique, flavorful taste profile. Participants in this special barrel program get their say in the selection of these wooden staves. The finishing staves can be any combination of five flavor profiles chosen especially for this program. With 1,001 possible stave combinations, each expression of Private Select has a customized finish and taste profile that is unique, yet undeniably Maker’s®. Maker’s Mark Private Select® is available in select markets and also at our distillery.

Below are the notes on the different staves
The Maker’s 46® stave: The one that started this whole experiment. It delivers notes of dried fruit, vanilla and spice that you may be familiar with if you’ve tried Maker’s 46.
The Baked American Pure stave: Baked American Pure is American oak that’s slowly toasted. It adds notes of brown sugar, vanilla, caramel and spice.
The Seared French Cuvée stave: Seared French Cuvée is a French oak stave that’s cooked with infrared heat. It imparts toasty notes of oak and caramel.
The Roasted French Mocha stave: Roasted French Mocha is French oak cooked on high in a convection oven. It adds pleasant traces of char, maple and cacao.
The Toasted French Spice stave: Toasted French Spice is a French oak stave, cooked at both high and low temperatures in a convection oven. This stave has a flavor profile of smoke, coumarin and spice.

The finishing with the additional staves is typically 9 weeks.

This specific barrel’s stave selections were:

Seared French Cuvée: 1
Maker’s 46: 4
Roasted French Mocha: 4
Toasted French Spice: 1

What Gary Says
Nose:  Caramel, toffee, butterscotch, bits of dark chocolate, hints of anise, cinnamon, french oak.
Palate:  Sweet but spicy, caramel corn, toffee, nutmeg, dusting of pepper and cinnamon, hints of clove and vanilla.
Finish:  Moderately long with lingering baking spices.
Comments:  Like other Maker’s Mark Private Selections, this is more spicy than your typical Maker’s Mark (even the cask strength version).  I like this a lot, and this makes an outstanding Old Fashioned.  Takes a bit of water well, keeping the spice while tamping down the edges a bit.

Rating: Stands Out/Must Try

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Port Charlotte 10 Yr Old Heavily Peated

/ / Islay, Review, Scottish Whisky /

Port Charlotte 10 Yr Old Heavily Peated

50% ABV
$68 – $80
Website
Port Charlotte 10 Yr Heavily Peated

What the Distillery Says

This Port Charlotte 10 year old has been conceived, distilled, matured and bottled on Islay alone. We are a young team with deep-rooted values, and an ambition to make the ultimate “Islay” Islay whisky. A whisky made by people not software; a whisky watched over every day of its maturing life by those who made it; a whisky born of a community with a vision and a mission to kick start a single malt whisky revolution, this Port Charlotte 10 year old is who we are. This is where we’re from.

TASTING NOTES
Nose: The smoke is calmed by the marine, ozone character, time has brought a balance, a harmony in the combination of oak, smoke and spirit. While the smoke is always discernible on the nose it is dry, earthy, peatash in its style and so allows the oak to come forward with waves of golden caramel, fudge, vanilla custard, hints of ginger, nutmeg and clove. There is citrus fruit, coaxed from the glass with a drop of water, gentle lemon meringue and clementine. Breathe deeply and the floral aromas of wild thyme, heather and sea pink bring you to this Atlantic coast.
Palate: On the palate there is a noticeable delicacy and softness in texture and style. Again, the balance of flavour is superb as the smoke wraps loosely around the sweetness drawn from deep within the oak. Coconut, vanilla custard, lemon honey combines with smoked oysters and sun baked salty sand.
Finish: The finish is sublime, smoky sure, but also the soft sweetness of fudge and malted barley, orange, mango and Banoffee pie hinting of the depth and quality of the oak. The many layers interchange on each sip. As the smoke comes and goes so too the notes of the spirit, ripe apple and apricot, beautifully intertwined with malt and oak sweetness and that typical Port Charlotte style dry smoke.
Character: Ageing for 10 years on the shores of Loch Indaal has had a profound effect on this spirit. Like sunshine on a winters day, this Port Charlotte 10 brings clarity and lightens the mood, welcoming and brightening the future.

PRODUCT SPECIFICATION
WHISKY TYPE: HEAVILY PEATED ISLAY SINGLE MALT SCOTCH WHISKY
PHENOL LEVEL: 40 PARTS PER MILLION
BARLEY PROVENANCE: 100% SCOTTISH BARLEY FROM INVERNESSHIRE REGION
MATURATION PROFILE:
65% 1ST FILL AMERICAN WHISKEY CASKS
10% 2ND FILL AMERICAN WHISKEY CASKS
25% 2ND FILL FRENCH WINE CASKS
BOTTLING: BOTTLED ONSITE WITH ISLAY SPRING WATER, NON CHILL FILTERED & COLOURING FREE
LIQUID COLOUR: PRIMROSE TO CITRINE
TASTE DESCRIPTOR: BARBECUE SMOKINESS, RICH AND SPICY WITH SWEET MALTY NOTES

What Gary Says

Nose:  Boatloads of peat, medicinal notes of iodine, a briny sea mist with smoke and notes of ginger, honey, milk chocolate, and tropical fruits.
Palate:  Sweet start with vanilla, honey, coconut macaroons, chocolate and bits of caramel before sharpening in the mid palate with some pepper bite (and maybe oregano?); peat threaded throughout.
Finish:  Long and lovely, with honey and smokey peat with ocean breeze.
Comments:  This is squarely in the Islay peaty whisky family; which I happen to really enjoy. It takes a bit of water well, smoothing it out a bit without losing any richness. For fans of peat (Laphroaig, Lagavulin), I think you’ll want to seek this out; I’d recommend going out of your way to try it.

Rating: Must Try

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Lux Row Distillers 12 Year Double Barrel Bourbon

/ / Bourbon, Review /

Lux Row Distillers 12 Year Double Barrel Bourbon

59.2% ABV
$150
Website
Lux Row Distillers Double Barrel Bourbon
We would like to thank Luxco and Common Ground PR for sending us samples to review.

What the Producer Says

Lux Row Distillers has launched a new bourbon, Lux Row Distillers Double Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, to commemorate the distillery’s grand opening last year. The new limited edition bourbon brings together two carefully selected 12-year-old Kentucky Straight Bourbon barrels bottled together for the ultimate barrel strength taste and finish.

“We wanted to do something unique to commemorate the opening of Lux Row Distillers so I tasted through many barrels to find the ones that would complement each other perfectly creating a well-balanced, flavorful bourbon,” says Head Distiller John Rempe. “Each two barrel combinations will be slightly different but will have strong caramel and vanilla notes, with a warm and spicy finish.”

These masterfully selected bourbons have a rye mash bill and are bottled at cask strength at 118.4 proof – a nod to the distillery’s grand opening in April of 2018. The packaging includes a custom Lux Row Distillers embossed bottle, real metal labels and is topped with a solid copper cork. In addition, each bottle’s label includes the barrel numbers and age statements of the barrels selected. The back label tells the story of the grand opening, a celebration of the distillery’s first year. This limited edition bourbon, with approximately 6,000 bottles released, is available only in Kentucky and retails for a SRP of $150.

What Gary Says

Nose:  Rich, lovely caramel, vanilla, rice pudding, oak, a hint of peach cobbler and a note of cigar paper.
Palate:  Viscous mouthfeel, warm, rich chocolate fudge with caramel swirls, some baking spices with honey and brown sugar, bits of pepper spice at the end.
Finish:  Long, slightly drying with cocoa.
Comments:  This is just a lovely, sweet, luscious bourbon. I don’t often pay a lot of attention to the legs on whisk(e)y, but this one struck me after the first swirl in my Glencairn (a string of slowly growing pearls that took ages before gravity won out). Takes water well. This is on the sweeter side of the spectrum, which I enjoy in bourbon. The bottle itself is solid, with a topper that is pretty hefty (reminds me a bit of the Wild Turkey Master’s Keep tops for those familiar). Was fortunate enough to get a taste of this at the distillery in mid-September. If you’re in Bardstown, definitely recommend swinging by Lux Row Distillery (might be able to try a sample for yourself; if there’s any left).

Rating: Must Try

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Little Book Chapter 3: The Road Home

/ / Bourbon, Review /

Little Book Chapter 3: The Road Home

61.3% ABV
$125
Website

We would like to thank Beam Suntory and Multiply for sending us a sample to review.

What the Distillery Says

Freddie Noe, eighth generation Beam distiller and creator of Little Book® Whiskey, is proud to announce the third installment in his annual, limited-release series of blends – “Little Book Chapter 3: The Road Home.”

Following high acclaim for the first two blended whiskies within the Little Book series – 2017’s “The Easy” and 2018’s “Noe Simple Task” – the third chapter delivers on Noe’s passion for creating one-of-a-kind blends, while also honoring his storied family roots in Kentucky. Little Book Chapter 3: “The Road Home” features a blend of four super-premium Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskies, one from each brand of the original Small Batch Bourbon Collection created by his grandfather Booker Noe in the early 1990s. The result is a meticulously blended whiskey with depth of flavor and legacy.

FREDDIE’S NOTE
“The Road Home” batch pays tribute to my grandfather as the name Little Book is actually the childhood nickname that he gave me. And so I thought after having a couple of chapters under my belt that it would be a great time to pay honor to him and blend some of the liquids that he gave the bourbon industry. The four liquids that I chose to go into this batch of Little Book® are from the original small batch collection that my grandfather, Booker, created. The Road Home is a blend of nine year old Basil Hayden®, nine year old Knob Creek®, 11 year old Booker’s® and 12 year old Baker’s®, and as always with Little Book®, these liquids are at barrel strength and will be bottled at barrel strength as well. The name “The Road Home” references the road that I travel to and from on a regular basis, the same road my grandfather, Booker, traveled back when he used to work here at the distillery. I tinkered with a lot of different recipes, 57 to be exact, before finding what I was looking for – layers of vanilla, char and dried apricots with lingering oak. The final recipe I selected was 51 of the 57 I tried – a lot more trial and error than the others, but I thought if someone is going to play with the liquids that my grandfather developed, they had better produce a damned good blend. – Freddie Noe, 8th Generation Beam Family Distiller

Blend Overview:
9-year-old Knob Creek® Bourbon
9-year-old Basil Hayden’s® Bourbon
11-year-old Booker’s® Bourbon
12-year-old Baker’s® Bourbon

TASTING NOTES
COLOR: Deep golden brown with auburn hues
AROMA: Caramel, smoky barrel char, sweet baking spices and vanilla
TASTE: Vanilla, char and dried apricot with a lingering oak
FINISH: Lingering, warm and sweet, layered with tones of oak

What Gary Says

Nose:  Lovely rickhouse mustiness rich with vanilla custard, salted caramel, dark chocolate, peanut brittle, charred oak, bits of blood orange, allspice and cinnamon.
Palate:  Thick mouthfeel, warm with caramel drizzled atop brownies, vanilla flan with cinnamon, rich chocolate notes, cinnamon and pepper spice.
Finish:  Long, drying with oak, chocolate and lingering spices.
Comments:  I get a lot of similarities to Booker’s, what I imagine barrel-proof Baker’s might be like, and Knob Creek in this (but less of the Basil Hayden . . . bottled at 40% ABV, a little more challenging to pin how that would be at cask strength). This is a delightfully well balanced blend of some fine bourbon! Rich and thick, this nails all of the ‘bourbon’ notes I look for while including some oak (but not overdoing it). Fans of the Small Batch collection I think will find this to be lovely.

Rating: Must Try

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