Highland Park 12 Years (1998) Review

Country: Scotland

Brand: Highland Park 1998 Travel Retail Bottling

Type: Single Malt Whisky

Region: Highland (Orkney)

Age: 12 Years

Alcohol: 40%

Colour: Bright Gold

Nose: Be sure to let your dram open up for at least 20 minutes in order to let the wafts of alcohol escape. First impression on the nose is Malt and Peat with a puff of Smoke in the background. After a while I get Caramel, Leather, Honey, Lemon – and Orange Peel and Dried Apricot. A faint presence of Ashes or maybe Tobacco. Not entirely sure here. I found the nose interesting but a bit on the heavy side. Not really elegant. 

Taste: Mouth coating. Honey, Cocoa, Light Spices (Ginger) and Nuts.

Finish: Not overly long. Dry. Spices and Oak. A hint of Smoke.

Rating: 84 

Nose: 22 – Taste: 21 - Finish: 20 - Overall: 21

General Remarks: This whisky is a special bottling, at first exclusively for the Global Travel Retail aka Tax Free Shop. It matured for 12 years in American Oak casks. However, it’s not the same whisky as the regular 12 Year Expression. As you might remember, Highland Park is the Most Northern Scottish Distillery on the Orkney Isles. It was founded in 1798.

I added half a teaspoon of water and that brought more Peat to the nose. I advise you to nose it both neat and with a bit of water. Taste-wise I prefer it without water.

Drinking Experience Neat:  Good

Drinking Experience on the Rocks: Very Good

Conclusion:  Certainly not a bad Single Malt but I had come to expect more from a Highland Park. The nose is interesting but not spectacular. But I won’t lose any sleep tonight marvelling about the taste and the finish! I suppose that my next Highland Park needs to be either the 15 or the 18 Years!

Jan van den Ende                                                              December 9, 2011

Visit to the Glenkinchie and Glen Ord Distilleries (04/2010)

We welcome two guest writers to the site, Mirela and Paulo. In April last year they visited two Scottish whisky distilleries, Glenkinchie and Glen Ord and took some pictures as well. Let's quickly introduce the two distilleries:

Glen Ord

This active Highland distillery is located in Muir of Ord (Ross-Shire), not far from Inverness. It was established in 1838 and is currently owned by the Diageo Group. The distillery operates three wash stills and three spirit stills and has a 4 million liters per year capacity. It is part of the Johnny Walker Blend. The House Single Malt is the 12 Year old but Glen Ord also produces a.o. the 15, 18 and 32 year expressions. The Single Malts are usually smooth and silky with a sweet nose and are matured mainly on European Oak.

Glenkinchie Distillery

Glenkinchie is one of the very few remaining Lowland distilleries and is located in Pentcaitland (East Lothian), close to Edinburgh. Like Glen Ord, it currently belongs to the Diageo Group but was founded by John & George Rate in 1837. The active distillery has 1 wash still and 1 spirit still and has an annual production capacity of close to 2,4 million liters. Glenkinchie contributes to the Haigs blend. Its House Single Malt is the 12 Year Old but you will also find the 20 Year Expression and the Distillers Edition. The whiskies from Glenkinchie are usually light, simple and fruity with sweet Malt and herbal tones.

So here's the story of Mirela and Paulo:

In April 2010, Paulo and I went to the United Kingdom. We travelled for 10 days. Each day we were in a different city and sometimes in a different country! We only planned one day ahead, which meant we didn’t know where we were going until the last moment. Every day was a surprise! We only planned the two visits to the two distilleries, one in he Highlands and one in the Lowlands. We went to Glenkinchie (Edinburgh) and Glen Ord (Inverness). After the visits we now know a lot more about whiskies, the process of distilling, the flavors, the casks and everything. It was amazing!

At Inverness we found a whisky menu in almost every pub and of course Paulo drank almost all whiskies from the Flavor Map….In many days of course….ha ha ha ha!

Thanks a lot Mirela and Paulo for your story and your pictures! If you readers out there have some whisky story to tell or whisky pictures to share, please send me an e-mail with the details and we will post your story as soon as possible. (janende@uol.com.br) 

(Pictures used with kind permission of Mirela Cristina Gradim)

Jameson 2011 Review

Country: Ireland
Brand: Jameson

Age: NAS. The distillery puts it between 3 and 7 Years.

Alcohol: 40%

Colour: Light Gold

Nose: Light nose. Malt and Sweet Grain take the lead. Breakfast Cereals with Sugar. Alcohol and oak are prominent as well. There is some Spice there and a bit of Sherry as well. In the back of the glass I pick up some Floral tones and sweet Peaches.

Taste: Slightly Oily delivery. Not too much going on there. Basically Sugared Grain, some Caramel and a bit of Spice (Ginger). The taste reminds me somewhat of Gin.

Finish: Short. The alcohol burns a bit. Sweet Grains, Vanilla, light Spices. Slight nutty bitterness but in the end the sweet Grain and Peaches return.

Rating: 77.5

Nose: 20.5 – Taste: 19 – Finish: 19 – Overall: 19

General Remarks: This is the first Irish whiskey I’m tasting for the Whisky Paradise! The Jameson distillery was founded in 1780. The production process is slightly different from Scotch whisky in that Jameson uses both malted and un-malted barley. The wash is also distilled three times instead of the usual 2x in Scotland. Today, Jameson is the best selling Irish whiskey worldwide.

I added half a teaspoon of water but it doesn’t make a lot of difference. It brings out some Honey.

Drinking Experience Neat: Average

Conclusion: The good thing about the Jameson Standard Expression is that it’s not an expensive whiskey. It’s also better in my opinion than most of the cheaper blends such as Johnny Walker Red Label, White Horse, Grant’s Family Reserve, Ballantine’s Finest, Chivas 12 Years and Dewar’s White Label. So it scores high when it comes to value for money. On the other hand, I like to see things happen in a whisky and that’s not the case here. Too much Sweet Grain and Wood and Alcohol and a bit of Spices and very little else. That’s not enough to make the Jameson standard a whiskey I will look for again. 

Jan van den Ende                                                                December 3, 2011

Ballantine's 17 Years Review

Country: Scotland

Brand: Ballantine’s

Type: Blended Whisky

Age: 17 Years

ABV: 43%

Colour: Bright Gold

Nose: First of all I must advise you to let the whisky open up in the glass for at least half an hour in order to get rid of most of the wafts of alcohol. If you don’t do that it will be difficult to nose anything besides alcohol, wood and grain. By the way, the alcohol comes mainly from the grain whiskies that form 60 to 70 percent of any blend. But let’s move on. Here’s what I found after letting the blend rest for almost 40 minutes: Wood, Light Peat, Light Smoke and a bit of Leather are the introduction to the nose. This suggests that the blend contains one or more Single Malts from Islay. After a while, the Grain and Malt (think of cold Pancakes) and dried fruits (Raisins) arrive.

In the back I detect a bit of Vanilla and Lemon and some other fruit. Could be green Apples or green Grapes. Almost 1 hour after having opened the bottle, I nosed again and this time I found Raisins soaked in some sweet fortified wine like Madeira or Banyuls from the South of France near the Spanish border. From the above you can see that there is enough variety to be found but it comes in waves rather than forming a well-balanced nosing profile. It’s also difficult to get rid of the raw alcohol that keeps popping up from time to time even after 30 minutes or so of nosing.

Taste: The delivery is smooth with Wood, Spices (White Pepper and Cinnamon), some Milk Chocolate and a touch of Smoke and Leather.

Finish: Middle Long and Medium Sweet. Bit of Honey, Spices and Chocolate.

Rating: 85

Nose: 22 – Taste: 21 – Finish: 21 – Overall: 21

General Remarks: This blend was created for the first time in 1930. Today it’s the oldest blended whisky still in the market and it is said to contain over 50 different malt - and grain whiskies. Key components of the blend are the Single Malts Glenburgie and Miltonduff. But Ballantine’s owner, the French Pernod-Ricard Group, also possesses Aberlour, The Glenlivet, Glendronach, Strathisla, Longmorn, Scapa and Tormore. So we might suspect at least some of them to be part of this blend.

The bottling at 43% allows you to experiment with a bit of water. I added half a teaspoon of still water and found that it accentuates the sweetness of the grain on the nose. It’s not very hard to think of a plate full of cold Pancakes with some Honey. It also reveals additional delicate tones of Smoke and Lemon. On the palate the blend becomes even smoother with some Ginger appearing next to the Milk Chocolate.

I do advise you to try this blend both with and without water. 

Drinking Experience Neat: Good

Conclusion: This Blend was elected best whisky in the world by leading whisky writer Jim Murray in his 2011 edition of his Whisky Bible. I simply can’t agree with that. The Ballantine’s 17 Years is a very decent but expensive blend. There are better and less expensive alternatives available in the market, both  blends and Single Malts. Still, the 17 Years is a big step up from both the 12 Years and The Finest!

There are a lot of things happening in this blend and I do identify quite a few interesting components. But I also feel the blenders may have overplayed their hand a bit here. You can use a lot of excellent material to build a road. But in the end it’s important that the road goes somewhere. Somehow I felt a bit lost sometimes when tasting this whisky.

As an alternative try out Single Malts like The Balvenie Double Wood 12 Y or the BenRiach 16 Y. Less complicated but better balanced.

Jan van den Ende                                                             December 1, 2011

Why Is Whisky So Expensive.

Why Is Whisky So Expensive.

I do believe that whisky is currently (too) expensive. Like in all markets the price, in the end, is either driven by simple Supply and Demand and/or by the more subjective perceived value of the product.

Let’s have a look at the Production Side first. It is most likely that the actual production costs of whisky have not increased a lot, if any. At the beginning of the century there were hundreds of privately owned distilleries that most likely weren’t very cost effective. Today, large Multi National companies control most distilleries. Because of their size they usually are more cost effective both in operational and financial terms. To put it simple, they produce cheaper and pay less interest when they borrow money to finance the storage of the whisky during the maturation. And they merge distilleries to gain economies of scale thereby reducing labor costs.

Production technology improved a lot as well. New mash technologies optimize the extraction of sugar from the barley. A lot of energy saving measures was introduced and a lot of distilleries today re-use the energy during the production process. Wash Backs today are almost always made of stainless steel rather than wood. Much easier and cheaper to clean and less chance of bacteria.  All this greatly reduced the costs even considering the fact that whisky loses around 2% of “ Angel’s Share” per year during maturation.

So from a cost of production point of view I believe that the price of whisky should be relatively lower rather than higher than say 25 years ago. There are of course some variables in the ultimate consumer price such as local taxes that differ a lot from country to country. In Holland or Germany you pay around Euro 60 for a liter of Glenmorangie Nectar d’Or. Here in Brazil they want Euro 130 for that same bottle. While it costs around Euro 60 in the Free Shop at the Sao Paulo International Airport.

From the above I deduct that there are other reasons for the current high prices. For a long time the family owned distilleries had no – or little cash to spend on marketing. Today the multinational owners spend lots of money in this area. They really create the image of a Brand name or Single Malt or region around the globe. And to a growing number of consumers, as buying power is on the rise principally in the Asian and East-European markets.

And these new consumers who have lots of money to spend not only are willing to pay high prices for the older whiskies. They also found a new hobby in collecting whisky, especially older whiskies, special editions and whiskies from closed distilleries. And the industry is quick in offering special editions, limited casks, exotic finishing etc. This way, a lot of whiskies are becoming rare and therefore more expensive. Extremely high prices have been paid. I think the record was Euro 140.000 for a Bottle of Dalmore 1962. No whisky is really worth such an amount but it still could be a good investment with all these jealous collectors around!

We can ask ourselves if really expensive whisky is worth the money. Does the whisky really get better with age? I would say that older whiskies are different. They usually become more complex and therefore acquire unique flavors that made them stand out. But better? In the end that’s a matter of individual taste. Most whiskies above 30 years become too woody for my taste because of the extensive cask contact.

As older whiskies get rare and more expensive the basic distillery expressions like the 10-15 years range also begin to profit from the increased demand. And the industry increases its marketing efforts as soon as they perceive that a specific product or region is hot. I will give you a couple of examples. In the Highlands and Speyside you can still find good Single Malts with dusty and boring labels. Not something to attract new consumers. In contrast you see how much marketing effort is being put in the Single Malt whiskies from Islay. No boring labels here but nice bottles with new labels and names that refer to Mist and Waves and Beasts and what have you. And people go for that stuff. Hell, I do!

For the average consumer like you and me it means that whisky will stay expensive, at least for a while. On the other hand there is no need to pay large amounts of money for older whiskies. There are lots of good whiskies to be found in the range between Euro 50 and Euro 80.

I am a little worried though about quality. Because in every market it works more or less like this: If there is no demand, even with low prices, you have to beef up quality to attract consumers. In the world of today it’s the other way around. There’s a huge demand and the industry is going long ways to guarantee supply. Smaller casks are used to speed up the maturation process. Distilleries are working 24/7. And maturation takes place outside the production region simply because of lack of space. Will quality be maintained?  It’s up to consumers like you and me to closely follow quality versus price. And make our choice based on that!

Jan