I saw this on the shelf, at my local liquor store, and thought it was time to revisit it. Fifteen years ago, I was a big fan of this single malt. It was a nuanced honey, barley, golden cereal type of flavor profile that exhibited impressive complexity. It was totally in my wheelhouse: a classic Speysider on the lighter honey based flavor map. Back then, Glenfiddich 15 Solera had a place on my shelf alongside other malts with similar flavor profiles like Cragganmore 12 and Glenmorangie 12 Nectar d'Or.
So, while the security cameras watched my every move in the liquor store, as I hefted the bottle in its tube, I decided to pull the trigger, and approached the cashier. $99! Times have changed. Used to be much cheaper. But, I thought this is a fifteen year old single malt and given that age statement, $99 in Canada is fair. My friends south of the Canadian border are probably getting it for $70 or so. Still fair I think at first glance.
So, I get this bottle home, sit out on the back deck, pull the cork, pour a dram and just let it sit for about 10 minutes or so. Let it breathe. I do this because sometimes the first dram poured too soon tastes a little tight or hot with some single malts. Highland Park 18 comes to mind. Best to open the bottle, have a dram after twenty minutes, and it will taste even more mellow a week from then because of oxidation.
Solera?
While my dram breathes, I think about 'solera' on the label, and what it really means. 'Solera' is a method of aging port and sherry that originated in Portugal and Spain.
Imagine rows of barrels or casks, stacked five or so levels high, all connected by pipes, and sherry drained from the ground level casks is the oldest, and the empty space in the cask is replaced with sherry from the cask of the row above. Meanwhile, as the oldest sherry is bottled by draining the floor level barrels, more young sherry, is poured into top row barrels. This is the purported Solera system, but from what I have read, the term is used very loosely meaning the actual aging and blending of spirit may not be adhering to Spanish tradition outlined above.
The solera technique also is purportedly used by some rum producers. However, I read one rum expert write he had never seen a Solera system employed at any distillery as described above. So, who knows what the truth is? Anyhow, you and I now have some understanding of what Glenfiddich wants you to believe. I suspect the use of the Solera term is more marketing than fact.
Category
Single Malt
Region
Speyside
Age Statement
15 years
ABV
40%
Artificial Color
Yes.
Chill Filtration
Yes.
Availability
Widely distributed.
Price?
For a 15 year old single malt, the price was reasonable. Most single malts of this age statement are priced 40% or so higher.
Wood Management
Ex-sherry casks, European oak, New American Oak.
Nose (undiluted)
Honey, dandelions. Pleasant. Speaks of quality. Light aromas.
Palate (undiluted)
Apple juice, honey, apricots, white grapes, a hint of raspberry.
Finish (undiluted)
Short. Tastes young on the finish of flabby white grapes. Hint of bitterness. Is that ginger? For a 15 year old single malt there should be some length of flavors. Faint, stale note of New York City, yellow taxi cab, cigarette smoke hanging in the backseat.
General Impressions
This may say a 15 year old single malt, but the ingredient whiskies are tasting much younger. Notes of pearl onions . . . ahh not in a good way.
Really disappointing.
15 years ago or so, I really liked this malt, but not now. Somehow, it tastes young. Maybe the ingredient whiskies are much closer to 15 years age statement and years ago it was composed of more older whiskies closer to 18 years? Can't say for sure, but does taste that way.
In a peer review, this used to be on par with Cragganmore 12, but not anymore as Cragganmore continues to outshine this malt. As for Glenmorangie Nectar d'Or, the age statement has been sadly dropped and it too is now a disappointment.
"So, get this," Roger peers closer at the two day old New York Times, as he is too vain to get glasses, and continues. "The Clemson Tigers won the national college football championship right?"
"Yup," I say only wishing I could have watched some of it, but family and work life is very busy at this point for me or should I say unbalanced. I envision a retirement where Saturdays are devoted to college football and Sundays to NFL. Haven't broached that retirement vision with my Significant Other though. Gotta have dreams, aim high they say.
"Trump fetes the team at the White House. This is what he says: 'We ordered American fast food, paid for by me. Lots of hamburgers, lots of pizza.' He bought Wendys, Burger King and McDonalds! I mean for chrissakes. It's the White House."
"They are college students. He's giving them what they want. When I was 21, a burger was the centre piece of my diet." No doubt, Roger would be thinking foie gras on a baguette with white pepper should be served to a winning football team, but this just reinforces for me that Roger and his democrats are out of touch with Main Street. If Obama served burgers and fries the Times and the New Yorker on his rustic coffee table would have headlines celebrating such a move as in touch with college and ordinary people. Trump does it and liberal heads explode.
"What's gonna happen after the Super Bowl? Have Hooters or Twin Peaks cater the White House reception for the winning team?"
'Limousine liberal' Roger and I didn't see eye to eye on politics, but I didn't help bridge the gulf with my view that Trump is really an acolyte of Andy Kaufman, performing the greatest performance art act of all time. Fortunately, sitting between us on his chic farmhouse coffee table that Saturday afternoon were two bottles of Macallan 12 Double Cask capable of mediating our political differences.
So, here's the deal. In the last couple of years, I have not been a fan of The Macallan distillery because for a time they had stopped distributing in Canada age statement whiskies and had moved to a color scheme of younger, inferior but still high priced malts. Think the NAS '1824 Series' with the Gold, Amber, Ruby and Sienna releases. Gold was terrible and Sienna was the only impressive one of the lot, but super expensive. Macallan also put out a 10 year old Fine Oak that was horrid and well borderline rancid.
The Macallan is owned by the Edrington Group who I think have really been suffering from a case of identity crisis. Can't really commit fully to age statement whiskies and so release some no age statement stuff but still hold on to the old 12 year sherry wood and some age statement Fine Oak stuff.
So, I found myself at Spec's, a huge liquor retailer in Houston, in early December. I was there for an NFL game at the generous invitation of my cousin and her husband, Greg. Sitting on a shelf amongst all the brands preening for my attention was The Macallan 12 year old Sherry Wood. I bought it, got it back to my cousin's house, pulled the cork poolside and had a sip. It was boring. A balanced, pleasant but oh so boring. No zing, no panache, nuthin'. Americans love Macallan. I mean really love it. Huge sales in the USA.
Christmas arrives in Canada and Greg, up here for a visit, gifts me a bottle of The Macallan Double Cask 12 years from Texas. I smile, accept graciously thinking 'ahh shit this will be another super boring malt.'
But, it's not. This Double Cask is the Clemson Tigers of the 12 year old malts.
Edrington takes new American oak and sends it to Spain. There they build the casks. Obviously, the newly made casks have not held bourbon. Instead, the virgin American oak is filled with sherry for a while. Not sure how long the sherry is in the barrel because of highly guarded proprietary secrets of Edrington, plus we are not exactly chummy, me a lowly conservative blogger and them a high minded multinational.
In any case, the sherry is eventually emptied out and the casks are shipped to Speyside. At the distillery, in goes Macallan spirit. Thereafter, These seasoned sherry casks now holding Macallan spirit are blended with other Macallan spirit that aged in their traditional European oak. What you end up with then is a malt aged partly in American oak and then European. Hence, double cask. Let's have a taste friend:
The Macallan 12 years 'Double Cask'
ABV
43%
Age Statement
12 years
Category
Single Malt
Region
Speyside
Nose (undiluted)
Sherry for sure, but its rich, high quality, red fruit, and then the oak and vanilla.
Palate (undiluted)
Nice balance between sherry and oak; the oak is unique and complex. Spices of thyme and tarragon come to mind. High quality oak for sure. Creamy notes too. English cream follows the sherried entry onto the palate. Not as sherried as the sherry oak 12 years.
Finish (undiluted)
More cream, wood char, limestone oddly enough but totally in a good way, spring water, red apple and some nutmeg.
General Impressions
This is really good! It has restored my faith in the brand. So excited was I upon discovering this fine malt, I went to my local liquor emporium in Canada and bought two more bottles. One night I open one of those and have a dram and to my dismay it is toned down, flatter, thinner, and much less complex. What has happened? I am baffled. Looking at the bottle bought in Canada I see it is bottled at 40% whereas the American release is at 43% and that in my opinion makes a big difference. Look closely at my photo above of the two bottles and notice the differing ABVs. Why the discrepancy? An industry insider says bottling ABV levels are according to regional tastes. Another insider says its all about taxes. Some regions tax higher ABVs higher. So, those high tax regions sometimes get lower ABV malts to keep the price a little less.
Damn!
I hold the American bottle up to Roger as proof Trump may indeed be making America great again!
A good friend of mine (though I would never tell him I consider him as such, given my faux-British stiff-upper lip adoption caused by filling my teen years binging on Fawlty Towers, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin and Churchill documentaries) did gift me for my birthday a bottle of Aultmore 12 years Single Malt.
I had seen this bottle as a newcomer to the shelves of the local liquor store, but wasn't keen on buying a totally unknown commodity. I mean who has heard of Aultmore? I did a quick internet search and learned that this distillery is basically a source malt for what goes in Dewar's blended whisky. Not the strongest lineage in the whisky world. I mean we all know about Highland Park, Macallan and others, but Aultmore? The name sounds like a medical condition. I can just imagine my near centenarian doctor with his bifocals low on the bridge of his beak as he peers at me with clear disdain and says with a hint of Lanchashire, "you've Aultmore of the privates m'boy and it has spread to the lower GI tract."
Not expensive, but not the cheapest 12 year old single malt. It is priced moderately and does boast on its packaging non-chill filtration and no artificial colour. Plus it weighs in at a hefty 46% ABV so that could augur some complexity of flavour or disaster. As you know friend, only one way to find out.
Region
Speyside
Category
Single Malt
ABV
46%
Artificial Color?
No!
Chill filtration?
No!
Wood Management
Ex-Bourbon casks. Not tasting any ex-sherry casks. Don't believe any are used.
Nose (undiluted)
Floral notes of dandelion, roses, apple blossoms, honey sweetness and butter. Very balanced and pleasing drawing you in again and again.
Palate (undiluted)
Powerful burst of graprefruit and pears. Honey, fruit cup syrup (in a good way!), golden wheat, barley, vanilla, banana, English cream and custard.
Finish (undiluted)
Cream, lemons, sea salt, limes. The flavors linger a long time!
Add Water?
Yeah, you could but you would rob yourself of the wonderful complexity of this single malt. When you have no artificial color, no chill filtration and a higher ABV, that is a recipe for greater complexity and you get it here!
Peer Review
If you like Chivas Regal 12, 18, Dalwhinnie and Glenfiddich 15 Solera you are gonna love Aultmore 12.
Conclusion
Friend, I love this stuff!
It's affordable, non-chillfiltered, no artificial colour and a high ABV of 46%. All of these factors plus the Master Blender's tremendous talent in never letting this malt taste hot or fiery makes it a must buy. Amazing that a whisky devoid of smoke, peat and sherry can be so good, but it is. Put it on your list! It's good for what ails you! Especially if you contract Aultmore of the privates!
If Johnnie Walker Black was a fellow, he would be a young, lean, angular jawed, recent MBA grad, full of ambition with his career mapped out in exhaustive Montblanc detail on a coffee shop napkin, should you care to ask.
Got an expensive car lease that you impulsively plunged into during the sunny honeymoon period with your ex-gf, and now, under the gathering sombre clouds of insolvency, you are desperate to escape? Johnnie actually knows someone, who knows someone, who wants that overpriced and unreliable German automotive piece of revenge, launched against us because our grandfathers won the War. After a volley of texts, email, and countless lattes, you will find yourself, an offender released from the Mercedes Benz Finance debtor's prison.
Seated next to Johnnie, in a gray Philadelphia Eagles poncho, is Glen, or more precisely Glenfiddich 12, and he likes fishing, Coors Light and football. Everyone likes Glen, particularly the ladies. He has an interesting opinion on everything from Ford truck lift kits to what kind of industrial glue, wax and gold metallic paint is used to maintain Trump's pompadour!
And sitting across from these two characters at the coffee shop/ bookstore / consignment art gallery, or hunting ground for a Friday night date, is Jura. He's got the J.Crew catalogue thing goin' on a little too much with the green merino wool v-neck, the golf ball white Brooks Brothers button down underneath, and of course ironed safari beige khakis. Are we in church or trying to meet ladies in a coffee shop / bookstore / avante garde nude interpretative dance theatre troupe gallery or whatever the hell this place is? C'mon Mr. Rogers !!!
What can I tell you about Jura? He's frugal. Cheap to hang out with, but damn, the 25 cent tip he leaves behind is a bitter reminder to the waitress that it is a cold world out there just like February's icicles lining the metal awning beyond the cafe's storefront window.
Category
Single Malt Scotch
Price
Cheap price for the 10 yr single malt category.
Region
Island (Jura) Age
10 years
Closure
Cork stopper ABV
43% (depending on market, may be 40%) Production Note
Aged exclusively in ex-bourbon casks, unpeated.
Palate (undiluted)
Creamy, banana, oak, melon, honey, coconut and white cake bread. Faint marine/dulse note (even though the malt is not peated, maybe the bogs covering much of the island transfer some peat/phenolic notes into the natural water supply used by this distillery). Wood smoke / kippers.
Finish (undiluted)
Tight green apple, slightly acidic green pepper, unripened melon, bitter lemon seed and orange pith. Some mackerel and wet wood smoke too.
General Impressions
Jura delivers the goods for the price, but just barely. The grapefruit pith and lemon rind finish is simply too bitter to be pleasant leaving this malt unbalanced and wanting. Maybe it needed more time in the cask. Or maybe the spirit needed some time in sherry casks to soften the citrus bitterness. I suspect so.
For what you paid, you receive a very basic malt. No complexity, no intrigue, no excitement. Maybe sometime you may want a simple Maritime style whisky that will not break the bank.
You are not being wowed. Your friend is not Highland Park 18 doing an in-store poetry reading, that attracts a circle of fluttering ladies like moths to a flame.
Instead, Jura is a strait-laced / law abiding fellow, who by turns can be a little taciturn, which makes it hard to attract bees since there is little honey sweetness once the finish arrives or when he opens his mouth to speak. I mean, he is not willing to accept some sherry casks and peat into his personality. Need I say more? He would be more charismatic if he would adopt the easygoing world view of Glen. As a friend, you accept Jura's risk-averse nature for what it is, a decent character, who by turns is a little bitter and astringent.
Cheers!
Jason Debly
P.S. Glenfiddich 12 is typically priced lower than Jura 10 yrs "Origin" and does not present any of the bitter grapefruit pith notes. However, Glenfiddich 12 is not particularly smoky or marine-like in the style of Jura. If you want the nautical and sea-like style around the same price point, then please consider Old Pulteney 12 years.
