Whisky of the Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am the worst procrastinator of all time.  Christmas is one day away and do you think I have my gift shopping done?  No!  I am the worst.  No doubt about it.

My procrastination extends to this blog too.  I was at a whisky festival in late November and walked out of there bedazzled and gobsmacked by an incredible run of single and blended malts.  I thought, I must write on that cold wintery night and let you know that there are still some stars twinkling in that inky, foreboding night whisky sky.  Did I get that post out?  Hell no!  The black hole of procrastination bent back any ray of ambition I had..  Well, until now.  I'm gonna tell ya all about it now brother!  I have broken free of the gravitational, soul-sucking force of the collapsed dead star of my procrastination.

So, I was at this whisky festival and most of the tastings were OK, but no surprises, and well there were a lot of no age statement releases that left me wanting, left me with considerable Charlie Brownesque discontent.  However, the last tasting of the night put a smile on my face like the rare one on Chuck pictured above.

I and the whisky dogs (that's how we pretentiously refer to our whisky club members) went to the usual tastings put on by Ardbeg, Macallan, Highland Park and others.  But, like I said, the magic just wasn't there.  Fortunately, I had suggested we check out Hart Brothers.  Alistair Hart would be leading a tasting of Hart Brothers latest releases.

Hart Brothers are independent bottlers.  As you know, independent bottlers do not own a distillery and therefore do not actually make whisky.  But, they inhabit a special place in the whisky cosmos where they have the uncanny skill to see merit and potential in unwanted whiskies of an established or even a mothballed single malt distillery.  So, Hart Brothers, Gordon & MacPhail, Berry Bros, and others are constantly buying up the unwanted stocks of distilleries both famous and unknown.  They do their own blending and wood management/aging, warehousing, etc and the end result can be pretty amazing at times.  Needless to say, I was pumped to attend the Hart Bros tasting.

The first whisky up was the Mortlach Distillery 14 year old single malt.

ABV
46%

Color
Pale straw.

Nose (undiluted)
Lightly peated, rich  yet restrained sherry notes, damp earth, a delightful mustiness too.

Palate (undiluted)
Concentrated citrus, apple juice, hay, honey, spiced marmalade.

Finish (undiluted)
Malty, sherried, raspberries appear, drying, pomegranate.

General Impressions
Wow!  This is good!  This is the reason why I like whisky and deep down believe Scotch to offer what no other varieties of whisky can: magical complexity.  Specifically, there are mineral notes delicately weaved with honey, that delivers a fine mosaic of flavors.  This is complexity, this is what great whisky is all about.  But, this is not the whisky of the year. The others were good, but then I had my moment of oneness with the universe . . .

Hart Brothers Blended Malt 17 year old Port Finish
When I tasted the 17 year old blended malt with a port finish, I was stopped dead in my tracks.  Atheists!  Take note!  Drink this and you may abandon your previous notions of a lack of divinity.  This spirit has been touched by the hand of G-d.

I don't have a tasting note, but I can tell you this, it was incredibly complex, the port finish delivered what sherry never can, dark, rich fruits of plum, blackberry, logan berry and the best Christmas cake with COMPLEXITY.  The tapestry of flavors woven so well, it left me at a loss for words (a truly rare phenomenon).  Aging in port pipes is tricky and fickle business, but Alistair Hart and his team succeeded where many have failed.

While I don't have a tasting note written down, I and everyone in the room held their breath when they drank this blended malt.  It was the best of the night and the festival.  I was so in awe, I wanted my picture taken with Alistair.  I mean, I wanted to stand next to the guy who had a hand in creating this masterpiece.

The ABV of the Port Finish Blended Malt is 50%, but of course I was enjoying it neat because it was that damn good!

I tried to get Alistair to tell me what were some of the single malts making up this blended malt.  With some prodding, he mentioned Glenfarclas.  He also said that this and other malts were aged in first fill port pipes.  No chill filtering and color added.  This is the real deal.

I rarely get super excited about a whisky, but this is one, that I can say in the past year was the best.

You've got one day till Christmas, a few more till New Years, so do the right thing and pick up a bottle as a gift for that special person in your life!

Cheers!  Happy Holidays!  Merry Christmas and I hope Santa finds you!


Jason Debly

Review: Glenburgie Single Malt Scotch 10 years - Gordon & MacPhail

When you hear the words "Scotch whisky" you probably think "Glenlivet" or "Glenfiddich" or maybe just visualize the iconic green triangular Glenfiddich bottle. Of course, there are so many other distilleries, even ones that start with the first four letters: Glen . . . but then you draw a blank having never heard of them.

You probably have never heard of "Glenburgie," but you may actually already be familiar with it. Glenburgie is a little known Speyside distillery that produces a lot of malt whisky for some blended Scotch whiskies that are household names: Chivas Regal 12 years, Ballantine's Finest, Old Smuggler.

It is always an enjoyable exercise to try the core malts that make up famous blends to see if the malts are better on their own.

I was able to try Glenburgie because the independent bottler Gordon & MacPhail have released a 10 year old, which I picked up for the very reasonable price of $44 in Canada. In the US, you will get this much cheaper.

'Independent bottlers' are companies that typically do not own distilleries, but still manage to have a hand in bringing to market great single malts. These companies buy up stocks of surplus malt from various distilleries, age them in various casks, and then bottle when they consider the malt is at its zenith. Some of these companies do a brilliant job in this regard. Gordon & MacPhail is one of them.

By way of astute cask selection, aging in their own warehouses, Gordon & MacPhail is able to take what was a mediocre or subpar malt and transform it into an interesting and sometimes even marvelous single malt.

They have succeeded with Glenburgie 10 years.

Nose
Malty, cereal, warm apple pie.

Palate
Sweet entry of baklava/marzipan, vanilla, oatmeal with a dash of brown sugar.

Finish
Florida oranges, crisp red grape skins, lemon zest.

General Impressions
Great value for money here.  A little complexity too!  Virtually no peat or smoke, so if you are a novice whisky fan who is put off by Islay malts, rest assured Glenburgie is a traditional Speysider that will not offend. Smooth, not offensive, very quaffable malt that starts sweet but nicely transitions and become drying by time of the finish.

Highly recommended!

Cheers!


Jason Debly