Whisky Review: Glenlivet Vertical Tasting (12, 15, and 18 Year)

Glenlivet is just behind Glenfiddich as the second biggest whisky brand in the world. With a capacity to produce 10.5 million liters a year for its owner, Pernod Richard, it is tied with Glenfiddich as one of the biggest malt distilleries in Scotland (which will be matched by Diageo's new Roseisle distillery and likely the Teaninich expansion when they are finished/hit their stride). Unsurprisingly, >90% of their production ends up in various blends, but that still leaves plenty for single malts - it is the biggest selling brand in the United States and second behind Glenfiddich in the world.

I'll point you towards Malt Madness if you want the history of the distillery so I can dive straight into the tasting notes.

Glenlivet 12 Year

Nose: extremely light, malt, apples, dry oak, a touch of vanilla and something floral, light caramel and brown sugar, wood polish, slightly musty/dusty alongside vegetal notes. After adding a few drops of water, it becomes richer and more expressive, grainier with more malt sugars, more floral, apple and oak notes, plus a touch of grape.

Taste: sweet apples up front, fading into clean malt, then moderately bitter cardboard-y oak tannins with baking spices (cinnamon) and something vegetal (a touch of peat?). After dilution, a bit of grape pops up in front, there are more sweet apples throughout, less oak, but with a sour/off-putting twist.

Finish: apple skins, oak, slightly off vanilla, vegetal

This may be the most boring single malt I've ever tried - it was a struggle to get anything out of it. I think this is what reviewers charitably refer to as 'unchallenging'. Most of the standard components of single malt whisky are present: malt, oak, and some fruity accents. But they're all so tepid as to be almost non-existant. Water improves the nose a fair bit, but the palate never delivers. As far as starter single malts go, I would rate this below 'Fiddich 12 Year and far below Glenmorangie 10 Year. It'd be one thing if it was at least pleasantly boring, but this just rubs me the wrong way. However, the sales figures suggest that there are plenty of people who would disagree with me and more power to 'em.

Glenlivet 15 Year French Oak

Nose: oak dominates with a slight French oak inflection, light underlying malt, apples, a touch of something perfumed/floral, brown sugar oatmeal, berries, green/white fruits (peach, apple, pear) and vanilla. After adding a few drops of water, it becomes sweeter and creamier with honey, apple cider, and more French oak alongside something savory.

Taste: rather flat on delivery, sweetness is tucked inside the American and French oak, flat tannins at the back, diffuse apple/grape fruitiness. After dilution, it becomes a lot sweeter throughout, with more but unpleasantly bitter oak, plus a few floral notes.

Finish: flat tannins, subtle French oak influence

I wanted to like this whisky. I think French oak can provide a really nice twist on the standard ex-bourbon characteristics, but this one doesn't do it for me. I'm not sure if it's that the malt isn't particularly suited for French oak or if they didn't use quality casks, or it's just my sense of taste, but it never really came together. I might say that it's a bit of an improvement over the 12 year, but not enough to make me want to rush out and buy a bottle.

Glenlivet 18 Year

Nose: same set of notes (apple, malt, oak) with more depth and maturity, a little floral, very light sherry, a touch of cinnamon, vanilla, grainy. After adding a few drops of water, a bit of smoke pops out alongside something savory/meaty, with the other notes becoming more integrated.

Taste: apple and malt sweetness throughout, hefty dose of pepper, much more assertive oak, creamy, a touch of grape, more cohesive than the others. After dilution, there is honey and sweet vanilla up front along with a burst of fruit/floral notes, oak tannins are more bitter but accompanied by a hint of chocolate/coffee.

Finish: grape, hefty oak, bitter

This is finally approaching something that I can imagine drinking again. However, it has the same issue that I found with Glenfiddich 18 Year - the oak character seems stronger than necessary, as if their master blender is trying to create what consumers think an 18 year old whisky should taste like. If that aspect was just eased up on a bit, I think this would be fairly solid. As is, the oak unbalances the experience, especially on the finish. This one disappointed me the most, because there actually seemed to be some very nice malt whisky at its core, betrayed by either a lack of care or producing to a price point rather than a flavor profile. It is, however, disappointing rather than off-putting like the rest of the lineup, so I wouldn't say no if someone handed me a glass, but I won't be buying any with my own money.

Scotland 2013: Isle of Arran Distillery Tour

The day dawned cool and overcast, but I was ready to get an early start. Once again, I had scheduled a 10 AM tour at a distillery, though in this case it was just a 2 mile walk down one road instead of a 15 mile ride with lots of navigation.

Breakfast was the full Scottish affair, complete with haggis, which I found to be quite tasty. Castlekirk's dining room looks out over Lochranza Castle, which certainly enhanced the experience.

Pleasantly full, I strolled down the road towards the distillery. I passed by the local golf course and a lovely little burn that rolled down towards the bay. A light mist was falling, which made things damp but not uncomfortable.

I arrived at the distillery a bit before opening time, which gave me an opportunity to take lots of pictures.

No eagles in sight, unfortunately

The distillery's setting is absolutely everything you could want - craggy, green hills form a valley leading to the sea, with water flowing by from lochs and burns up above. Though I wasn't lucky enough to see them while I was there, a pair of Golden eagles live above the distillery and are often glimpsed flying in the area. As an added bonus when you're producing lots of flammable liquids, it's also right across the street from the local fire station.

I didn't have too long to wait after the visitor center's doors opened before I was ushered off on the tour by Stewart, our guide for the morning. We began with a short video, introducing the story of the distillery, which was accompanied by a dram of the excellent 14 Year.

We all trooped into Arran's stillhouse, which contains the whole production process from start to finish. All of their malt is shipped in, as the island is too wet to grow good barley. The majority is unpeated malt, with smaller amounts of peated malt (which is blended with unpeated malt to hit a 12 PPM average) and one-offs like their Bere barley project. The two very different kinds of malt require Arran to have a rotating production schedule - unpeated whisky is made for most of the year, then a small number of runs of peated spirit are made just before the quiet season when they can shut down and clean out their stills in preparation for producing unpeated spirit again.

After milling and mashing, the wort is fermented to 6-8% ABV, then piped to their wash still. At 13,000 L, each mash gives enough liquid for several charges of the 7,100 L wash still. The output of the wash still, called low wines, has an ABV of ~23% and is sent to the low wines receiver. The low wines are then charged into the smaller 4,300 L spirit still and redistilled. Three cuts are made: from 80-74% alcohol is the foreshots, which contain lighter compounds like methanol and acetone that are sent back to the low wines receiver for redistillation; 74-63.5% alcohol is the hearts, which are the potable spirit and are sent to the intermediate receiver; lastly, 63.5-26% alcohol is the feints, which contain heavier compounds like fusel oils are also sent to the low wines receiver for redistillation. Arran's tall, narrow-necked stills with flat lyne arms plus the use of condensers instead of worm tubs give lots of reflux and copper contact to produce a relatively light and grassy spirit.

At that point the spirit is filled into casks, primarily ex-bourbon and ex-sherry. Though Arran was an early and vigorous adopter of the cask-finishing trend over the last ten years, they have since backed off a bit, focusing on a small core of finishes that seem to agree with their spirit (port, sauternes, and Amarone wine). However these finishes tend to occur after the spirit has already matured in ex-bourbon casks for about eight years rather than the wine casks being filled right off the still.

The only disappointing part of the tour was that we were not able to see the inside of Arran's warehouses. Only the high end Gold Tours get to go inside and they require group reservations. As I was traveling by myself and there weren't any Gold Tours that day for me to glom onto, I was out of luck. I wanted to be able to do some cask tasting, since I really enjoyed the Arran Sherry Single Cask I reviewed last year, but it was not to be.

The tour ended in the tasting room, where we were offered samples of the Arran Gold cream liqueur. I passed on the liqueur, but did correct some impressions that I had about Arran's whiskies. The 10 Year is made from 100% ex-sherry casks, which I incorrectly thought was a mix of ex-bourbon and ex-sherry cask whisky. This is also true of their new 12 Year Cask Strength release. The 14 Year and new 16 Year releases are, however, roughly even mixtures of ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks.

After the tour, I had lunch at the distillery - be sure to have a bite to eat if you ever visit as the food is quite tasty. Afterwards I had a round of drams (tasting notes coming later) and periodically chatted with Faye, an Arran employee I had previously talked to via email and Twitter. She was unfailing welcoming while I was at the distillery and asked a lot of questions about my trip and this blog. Being recognized in a land of strangers is no small thing.

After wrapping up my drams, I wandered back down the road and decided to explore a bit around Lochranza. I had originally hoped to ride around the island, but between the long day before and the iffy weather, a walk seemed like a safer bet.

Looking north to the mouth of the bay

Looking south towards the interior of the island

After dinner at a local hotel I decided to make an early night again, since I was looking at a lot of miles of riding the next day to get down the Kintyre Peninsula to Campbeltown.

Scotland 2013: Auchentoshan and Traveling to Arran

Trying to figure out how best to pack my panniers - a daily exercise

My first full day in Scotland... I woke up bright and early, reasonably well-rested and ready to head off into the unknown. I had two goals to accomplish: ride ~15 miles to Auchentoshan distillery for a tour, then get to Lochranza on the Isle of Arran by some combination of train, ferry, and biking.

After a smallish breakfast, I set out to get to my 10 AM tour of Auchentoshan. I had a few different options for how to get there, but went with more or less reversing course from the day before - down Byres to the river, then taking the cycle route paralleling Dumbarton until it petered out around Clydebank. At that point I more or less threw up my hands and got on Dumbarton, taking ease of navigation over the threat of cars not noticing me on a relatively busy road. I overshot the turn to Mountblow Road by a bit, but thankfully caught the mistake fairly quickly and got myself turned around. Thankfully I was able to ride the sidewalk along the A82 instead of having to get into traffic, then quickly ducked down the private road to Auchentoshan with plenty of time to spare.

The man at the gate was quite nice and promised to watch out for my bike if I propped it up by his shed. From there I wandered about the distillery buildings for a bit and eventually found my way to the visitor center.

There was a fairly large group of men waiting for a private tour, but I lucked out and there was only one other couple waiting around for the 10 AM standard tour. Rose greeted the three of us and took us off to see the Auchentoshan process. Rather than saddle you with the details, I'll point you towards Auchentoshan's very detailed website that covers most of what you'd want to know.

There are a few tidbits I can add, such as the picture right above. That middle bottle is blue for a reason - the foreshots, which contain lots of nasty chemicals like methanol and acetone, take so much copper sulfate out of the stills that it colors the liquid. You can also see it in the spirit safes as a blue-green patina around the chutes. This is why stills wear out - the copper is literally being stripped out of them molecule by molecule every time they're used.

After seeing their production process, we took a quick look through a dunnage warehouse. Auchentoshan only ages some of its spirit on site, with the rest going to the parent company Morrison Bowmore's Springburn Bond site in Glasgow, which is also where all of their whisky is bottled. A few more interesting things I learned during the tour:

Auchentoshan proofs all of their whisky with distilled water, so there's none of the "pure Highland/Island/whathaveyou water" imparting flavor directly to their non-cask strength bottles.

When their coopers rework ex-bourbon barrels into hogsheads, they put new oak heads on the casks to impart extra flavor, making an interesting hybrid of new and refill oak. This was also the first place that confirmed the fact that most sherry casks used in the whisky industry are now made custom - casks tend to be built new, seasoned with sherry destined for vingear, then emptied and shipped to Scotland. So despite all the talk of 'top-quality sherry casks' and whatnot, very few of them will have been filled with top of the line sherry. Ultimately this makes sense, since sherry bodegas are less interested in wood extraction than scotch whisky distillers. Sherry primarily gains flavor via oxidation, so the bodegas would rather use very old casks without a lot left in the wood to extract. Scotch whisky distillers want more active casks that will impart a lot of flavor to the spirit. However, this does cost a lot of money - Rose quoted a price of ~£500 for a custom sherry butt.

After our tour through the warehouse, we dropped into the tasting lounge, where Rose poured us samples of various Auchentoshan whiskies. Because we were such a small group, she actually offered to let us try whatever we wanted from the core lineup, rather than just the standard Three Wood pour. Having tried the 12, 18, and Three Wood earlier this year, I went for the 21 Year. Since I didn't have proper glassware I wasn't able to get detailed tasting notes, but my impression was that it was a bit too woody in comparison to the 18 Year that I absolutely adore. The 21 also has some sherry casks added to the mix, which didn't help when compared again the bourbon wood clarity of the 18. While a transcendent experience would have been lovely, there is something satisfying about enjoying a younger and more affordable whisky over than an older one.

After snagging a small single cask bottle of Auchentoshan at the visitor's center (haven't cracked it yet, so you'll have to wait for tasting notes), I packed my things up again and prepared to ride back into Glasgow. I took a slightly different route back after finding the Firth & Clyde Canal path, which started with the tiniest set of locks I've ever seen.

The water in the canal is almost level with the bridge, so instead of building a higher bridge they installed a set of locks to allow boats to pass underneath. While not quick, it's an ingenious solution that allowed the other infrastructure to stay in place. I continued along the path for a number of miles, until the pavement ran out and I was forced to head back onto the roads. I was saved by the Scot Guide app on my phone, as Google Maps had reset, leaving me without any other way to navigate (yes, I did have a paper map, but it was buried somewhere in my panniers). I can't recommend it enough if you're going to Scotland, as it stores maps offline and thus doesn't require cellular or WiFi service to work. After some circumlocution, I eventually made my way into the city center. Unfortunately it had taken me a lot more time than I had planned on, so I had to grab some yogurt for a quick lunch - setting a bad precedent for the rest of the trip - before navigating my way to Glasgow Central Station. There I purchased tickets to Ardrossan Harbour so I could catch a ferry to the Isle of Arran. The train ride was fairly uneventful, though I enjoyed watching the countryside slide by.

The train pulled into the last stop just in time for me to purchase tickets for the ferry and walk on board. I tied up my bike and slipped upstairs to the top deck.

Saying goodbye to the mainland for a bit

The weather was windy but dry and relatively warm, which I appreciated since I knew I had more miles to ride before the end of the day. We disembarked at Brodick, where I stocked up on a few essentials that I had forgotten and tucked into a late lunch/early dinner to refuel before I got back on my bike. The chili I had was... palatable... but then, I'm not sure how much I expected of TexMex cooking half a world away. The important part was that it was filling, so I set off with a reasonably full belly.

The opening miles of the road from Brodick to Lochranza were relatively flat and in decent shape compared to what I was expecting - everything I had read and heard suggested that island roads in Scotland tended to be a mess. The views were almost universally excellent.

The view across Brodick's harbor as the next CalMac ferry comes in

Resting in a small park a few miles along the road

The road continued to be pleasant until I reached North Glen Sannox. It was an astoundingly beautiful valley, but the road became a long and unrelenting uphill slog. Much of this was due to it being my first real day out, the fact that I had already ridden a respectable number of miles that morning, and not eating lunch at the proper time. Unfortunately this also meant that I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked, but others have done as well or better than I could have.

The downhill descent on the other side was a little bit harrowing, as it had gotten a bit damp and it was both long and steep. Thankfully my brakes held out and it was only a little bit further to reach Lochranza. My first look across the bay was gorgeous, with the old castle standing watch over the sea.

I finally reached my destination, the Castlekirk B&B, where I found that a) I was the only person scheduled to stay there and b) the proprietor was taking off for a vacation, leaving me in her friend's hands. After being shown to my small but comfortable room, I more or less flopped over and went to sleep after such a long day.

Scotland 2013: Glasgow, Part I

Looking down the Kelvin

It was with no small amount of trepidation that I packed my life for the next two and a half weeks up into two Ortlieb panniers and a cardboard bike box (obtained for free from Gregg's Greenlake Cycles).

Thankfully the trip from Seattle to Glasgow was relatively uneventful - baggage was checked and I found my way through security to my gate at SeaTac without any trouble. I settled into my seat only to be asked if I would be willing to sit in an exit row. On a 7+ hour flight? You bet. Even better, it was only 2/3 full, so I had plenty of room to stretch out. Sadly I'm bad at sleeping on flights, though I managed to catch a few fitful naps.

The sun was just rising as we approached Iceland. After collecting my belongings, I trooped into the airport in search of food. A bit of yogurt was enough to banish the rumblings for a bit, but I also knew it had been a long time since my last meal. I shuffled onto the next plane for a short hop to Glasgow. Again, pretty uneventful, though there was a growing sense of "Am I actually doing this?"

The pleasant view from my room

I got into Glasgow International around 10 AM. After a fairly quick trip through customs, I found my bike box on the carousel and dragged it outside. While I had thought about getting a taxi into town to find the B&B where I would be staying the night, I had entered that peculiarly lucid realm where my hunger had faded and I actually felt strangely rested. So I pulled the pieces of my bike out of the box and managed to put everything back together. Thankfully I happened to be right next to a waste collection area, so I was able to get rid of the box without any guilt. After that I saddled up and slowly rolled out of the airport - after making sure Google Maps was loaded up. It took a few false starts (especially since I hadn't adequately tightened the front brake hanger), but I found my way to the Renfrew passenger ferry, which got me to the north bank of the Clyde. Though there was a fair bit of traffic, I took the clear route of Dumbarton Road towards the center of the city. I was eventually able to duck off to a cycle path that paralleled it, but that petered out and I had to turn north along the B808 to Byres Road heading towards the university. Eventually I got onto the Great Western Road, which quickly took me across the Kelvin. It didn't take too much more effort to find the Amadeus Guesthouse.

This was, to put it mildly, a relief, since it had been roughly a day since I had last eaten a proper meal. After getting in and crashing for a bit, I went out in search of food. Thankfully I was in a great neighborhood and my Glasgow guidebook pointed me towards a rather tasty (albeit priced accordingly) Indian restaurant, Shish Mahal.

University of Glasgow

Bas relief on the engineering building

After refueling, I wandered around the neighborhood for a while, passing along the Kelvin and through the university campus. As the sun started to go down, I finally wandered back to the B&B, knowing that I had to make an early start the next morning. Auchentoshan and Arran beckoned...

Scotland 2013: Trip Overview

This trip was roughly a year in the making - sometime around mid-2012 I realized that not only did Icelandair offer more or less direct (you have to change planes in Iceland, but all of their America -> Europe flights require that) and rather reasonably priced (~$1000 round-trip) flights to Glasgow, but they only charged ~$50 each way to check a boxed bike. Combined with my growing interest in single malt whisky, this got the wheels spinning in my head. Could I do a bike tour visiting distilleries?

Conveniently, quite a number of my favorite distilleries are located in a fairly close cluster around SW Scotland. After plotting out the distances, it appeared that I wouldn't have to do more than a few dozen miles of riding in any one day. That discovery started to get me excited - while I've always been a decent cyclist, the idea of riding a lot of miles carrying a lot of gear and having to navigate unfamiliar terrain were fairly daunting, so I didn't want push myself too hard. It was supposed to be a vacation, after all.

Buying the tickets really committed me - this was going to be the first time I had traveled internationally by myself, so there were a lot of unknowns. To begin with, my passport needed to be renewed, a decade after my last international trip (this turned out to be a completely smooth process).

Slightly travel-stained plans

Next up was trying to schedule everything - there were a few fixed points, since a number of distilleries only offered their in-depth tours on particular days of the week. Making everything fit together was a bit like one of those logic puzzles we had to solve in math class - you were given a few pieces of information and forced to make everything else conform to it. Eventually I made everything fit together in a form that seemed doable. There were a few hiccups, like Laphroaig being closed for the weekdays when I would be staying in Port Ellen, but the compromises were tolerable.

After that, I had to make sure I had somewhere to sleep every night. Again, since this was a vacation, I wasn't particularly interested in camping. Given the high chance of rain and the hilly terrain, a warm bed and a hot shower at the end of every day felt like a necessity. Thankfully, while there were a few places that it was hard to nail down (Port Ellen was surprisingly busy for early September), I got everything settled without too much trouble or having to commit to spending a lot more money than my ideal.

At that point, it all came down to waiting...

Whisky Review: Ledaig 10 Year (Non Chill Filtered)

Ledaig (good luck figuring out how to pronounce it) is the peated whisky marque for Tobermory distillery. I've reviewed their unpeated Tobermory 10 expression before and found it to be quite tasty after airing out, so I was curious to find out how the peatier version stacked up.

I will admit that I opened the bottle with a bit of trepidation after reading some rather unfavorable reviews. Especially before it was reformulated into a higher strength, non chill filtered version, its reputation wasn't stellar. However, Burn Stewart seemed to be pushing to up the quality of their single malts, so I dove right in.

Ledaig 10 Year NCF

Nose: clearly first-fill bourbon - rich sweet caramel, earthy/vegetal peat, very fresh, salty - maritime/bready notes, clean malt, fruits (apples, pears, etc). After adding a few drops of water, it becomes drier and more malt-focused, with lighter and more vegetal peat, stronger salt/maritime notes, less fruit, but more vanilla and a bit of cacao.

Taste: clean sweetness throughout, a hefty dose of pepper quickly comes on top, edges of fruit and berries around the sweetness mid-palate, vegetal and smokey peat begins gently then grows towards the back, well-integrated oak and salt/maritime notes at the back. After dilution, it becomes less  sweet with much more pronounced bitter oak tannins and peat, the fruity edges attaches itself to the peat, there are some raisin, dark chocolate, and creamy bourbon barrel notes in the middle.

Finish: earthy, malty, pepper, peat, and oak tannins

In contrast to Tobermory 10, this Ledaig was actually more expressive right off the bat than after sitting for a few weeks. Initially there was a huge wash of bourbon barrel influence - caramel, sweet vanilla, etc. That died down a bit after it aired, but that character was definitely still present later. This was, at least to me, the key to this whisky. The peat clearly still has a very youthful quality, so the strong barrel notes from first-fill casks was key to giving it richness and balance. This makes me feel like it stacks up well against other entry-level peated single malts from Islay, which it clearly has the most kinship with. The price is also quite respectable - if you look in the right places. I picked my bottle up from Astor Wine, which has a nice free shipping deal for first-time customers. Basically, if you can find this one for under $50, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. Above that the competition gets stiffer.

There are a couple of things I'd like to see from Ledaig now that I've tried the standard offering - first, and foremost, is a sherry cask matured version. I think Ledaig could shine even more brightly if it got the Bunnahabhain treatment - blend together a mix of first- and second-fill bourbon casks with some first-fill sherry casks. You'd get all of the rich caramel and vanilla alongside some extra fruit notes to work in counterpoint with the earthy peat. Sadly there aren't even a lot of options in the IB world right now, so I can only hope that Burn Stewart has some Ledaig sherry casks tucked away that will see the light of day in future. Secondly, I wish that the distillery would release some older expressions. I've heard excellent things about Ledaig after it has some more age on it and it would be great if the distillery started expanding their range. I have a bad feeling that older expressions would also be rather expensive, given the price point of Tobermory 15 Year, but one can hope.

Whisky Review: Bruichladdich 10 Year (Old Style)

I've gone through a few expressions of Bruichladdich before, but this is an interesting one as it represents a previous chapter in the distillery's history. I was lucky enough to try a dram at the ever-wonderful Highland Stillhouse.

Like the 12 Year that I reviewed last year, this 10 Year old was put together from stock that came with the distillery when it was purchased by Mark Reynier. While supplies were spotty for the first few years due to the low production volumes during the 1990s under the previous owners, this was one of the early entry level whiskies that was meant to establish a core set of expressions. It was, however, briefly superseded by the aforementioned 12 Year, before being replaced by the current Laddie 10, which is composed entirely of whisky produced since 2001. Thus, the 10 Year represents a period when the distillery was trying to build its own style from the remnants of the old.

Bruichladdich 10 Year (Old Style) 

Nose: malty, sour wine/vinegar/berries, very light sherry, even lighter oak, vanilla, caramel, a bit floral. After adding a few drops of water, there is more vanilla, less sherry, some apples, a bit flatter, and some vegetal peat comes out.

Taste: rather fresh overall, sweet/sour berries and creamy malt up front, sliding into caramel and sherry, very light oak and some maritime influence along with a bit of green peat at the back. After dilution, it gets malty/sucrose sweetness throughout, the flavors are a bit flatter and the sherry is lighter, more pepper and a bit of chocolate come out.

Finish: fresh malt, caramel, light sherry, hint of pepper, lightly bitter, slightly vegetal

While not a show-stopper, I felt like this was a very solid whisky. I have a feeling it may have lost something sitting open for so long - this whisky hasn't been bottled in a while, so I have a feeling it's soaked up a fair bit of oxygen in the intervening years. However it still does a good job of representing the house style - light oak influence, balanced malt and sherry, with just a hint of something maritime to remind you of its origins. Overall, a very pleasant whisky that I could see myself enjoying again if I could get my hands on more. It remains to be seen how the new Laddie 10 stacks up.