From The Archive v2

October's line up

Anna took us deep into the club's stocks once again for October's From The Archive v2 tasting.

North Star

I wasn't able to be there so thanks to David for the pictures and both David and James for the notes for this one.

First up was a refill sherry blend from indie bottler North Star, no less than 26 years old. A Speyside blend from a 'mix of distilleries' but that's all we get.

This was well received. Much chat in the room about how they are able to bottle such high ages so cheaply. A good sherried starter this, and it didn't need water. A rum and raisin chocolate eclair was one tasting note. It was 44.2% and was just £65.

Tobermory 30yo

A 30-year-old Tobermory next, from another popular indie bottler known for great drams at good value, Whiskybroker.

Notes here included peach and white tea. Some oak but not much. Fruity too. Delicate but coats the mouth. A good breakfast dram, perhaps. Some felt it was too oaky but this wasn't universal. Other notes included bananas, blanched almonds and vanilla.

It was as bourbon cask bottling, at 44.2% and we paid just £120 for it. A bargain!

Bimber

Bimber produced dram number three, a June release finished in Amontillado casks. The London-based distillery has been in the headlines for the wrong reasons of late amid the departure of its founder, and speculation continues within the industry as to whether it might be sold. But it was good to put the focus on the whisky here, with their number 6 Klub Edition.

Very sweet, with a nose and taste reminiscent of golden syrup. Cinnamon, toffee and pecan nuts too. Very nice and, as standard for Bimber, plenty of cask in this one. It was £80 and came in at 51.5%.

Glenlossie 21yo

Onto part two and a 21-year-old Glenlossie from another indie, Lady of the Glen. A refill hogshead, this divided opinion in the room. Fruity and creamy, it had lots of love from some quarters but not others.

On the plus side some drinkers picked up Starburst (Opal Fruits to you and me) and other treats from the old sweetie jar, like Refreshers and Flying Saucers. Others felt it was unremarkable on the nose and didn't have much of a finish. It was 56.7% and cost £92.

Glen Scotia 11yo

Dram five was from Campbeltown and one of the club's favoured distilleries, Glen Scotia. We had high hopes for the 2023 Malts Festival expression, an 11-year-old lightly peated white port finish.

Salty and lightly peated. Very light in fact, some struggled to pick it out. White port wasn't something many had tried, so that was something new. A bit cheesy almost. Decent, but for some not as good as the previous dram. Others, meanwhile, found this sweet and marshmallowy, with a hint of smoke. We paid £70 and it's 54.5%.

Chorlton Islay vatting

The last dram was much closer to home, with local bottler Chorlton and an Islay vatted malt with two parts Ardbeg to one part Caol Ila.

Buttery, quite peated but not too overwhelming we thought. Earthy and clearly more Ardbeg was the general consensus, with the Caol Ila perhaps a bit of a moderating influence. Well enjoyed, as peat often is within the club. But there was also a sense that the palate didn't quite deliver on what the nose promised.

It was a five-year-old, cost us £62 and was 56.9%.

Which meant it was dram of the night time. And it was a draw, with drams four and five getting ten votes each, so a joint victory for the Glenlossie and the Glen Scotia, although all whiskies got at least one vote.

Thanks to Anna for raiding the club's archives for this one, all club members and guests for attending, and to everyone at the Seven Oaks for looking after us once again.

English Whisky

 

The full line up

For July's meeting of the Manchester Whisky Club we had a great selection of whiskies from around England to try, as we visited a mixture of brand new names and some distilleries which have already become firm favourites.

A new one for most of us to start with though, Ludlow, which comes from, well, Ludlow. We had a bottle of the Batch 5 PX finish. Despite that advertised sherry hit, we didn't get much of it beyond the faintest of hints. The taste itself was a bit thin as well, but perhaps not unexpected for a 3yo at 42%. The price tag was off putting though: at £80 this was more than a bit steep, we felt.

The dram of the night: Bimber!

We moved south and east next for a bottle of Oxford Rye. The purple label gave away the theme of this expression, in that after two years in American virgin oak it was finished in purple Moscatel. A 53.6% cask strength dram, this was great on the nose. Very sweet but overall it divided the room, some very much liked it but the bigger rye fans in the room weren't as thrilled. A last tasting note: buttered toast! It was £75.

The English Whisky Company from Norfolk kickstarted the resurgence in English whisky more than a decade ago, and we tipped our collective caps to them with dram three, a 9yo dating from 2018 released especially for friends of the club Aston's of Manchester. We weren't sure of the tasting notes as only 60 bottles were produced. But it was definitely citrussy, smooth, strong and tasty. There must have been some wine barrels involved somewhere, we felt. Committee member Martin, who raided his own stocks for this one, couldn't quite remember how much it cost, but it was £80 or thereabouts.

After a half-time break to recharge our glasses downstairs at the Britons Protection, we were back for the fourth whisky, from the Weetwood Distillery close to home in Cheshire. Only just over 3yo but, in contrast to the Ludlow, full of flavours such as foam bananas (!), this generated a lot of excitement in the room for what the spirit might turn into in years to come. This had more on the nose than the palate but was still great all round. It was 46% and £60.

Wire Works in the Peak District has already become a favourite with many club members after succcessful outings at previous tastings. We had in our hands a bottle of their latest collaboration with nearby craft brewer Thornbridge, Necessary Evil, where beer and whisky are swapped around before bottling (this expression involved stout). Absolutely delicious, this, there was an almost universal love for it. It was 51.3% and £65 (full disclosure: I went online and bought a bottle straight away).

The biggest name in English whisky is arguably Bimber from London, popular with hipster drinkers and savvy investors alike. We had a bottle from Martin's cask. At only just over 3yo this was another young one, but having been warehoused in a particularly hot location (it had lost ten litres) this really accelerated the maturation process. This had a hint of smoke and was absolutely lovely. It was no less than 58.9%.

This took us on to the dram of the night voting, and it was a win for Bimber with ten votes, just ahead of the Cheshire in second place and the Wire Works third.

Thanks to all in the club, those on the waiting list and everyone who hosted us at the Britons for another great evening.

All the drams

English Whisky Special

Another Zoom tasting!

For our September tasting, once again held via Zoom, we had a selection of whiskies from across England to try. It wasn't so long that England didn't produce any whisky at all, but now there are an increasing number of distilleries not only producing the stuff, but putting some impressive bottlings out onto the market, and we had five to try.

Filey Bay

We kicked off the evening with a dram from what is, by geography at least, the closest working whisky distillery to Manchester. It's Filey Bay in North Yorkshire, and we had a bottle of its First Release, which came out towards the end of 2019, once the spirit had passed the three year mark.

It certainly tasted young, with not a lot of wood in it yet, although it was nice and biscuity. The real sages in the group felt this tasted like great quality whisky, although it was obviously still very young and therefore perhaps a bit rough around the edges. It was short-lived on the palate, although quite smooth considering its youth, while others did think it burned a bit. The whisky is all grain to glass on the same site, and we certainly think it's one to watch as it moves up in age in the coming years. This was 46% and £63 when you could get it, although it now goes for upwards of £100 on auction sites.

Cotswolds

Next it was a move much further south, to the Cotswolds in fact, and another inaugural release, from the Cotswolds Distillery. As with Filey Bay, this distillery was established with the help of whisky guru, the late Jim Swan. We felt this had more about it straight away, with a very good nose like a sweet pastry or strudel.

There was a little bit of dryness too, and we felt this was better than some of its English rivals of a similar sort of age, although those who added water felt this killed the whisky a bit. Aged in a mixture of red wine and bourbon casks, this was again 46% and was just £50 when it came out - a bargain! But if you want to buy a bottle now it'll set you back a cool £300. So perhaps best wait for something newer from them.

The English

For our third drink of the evening we visited the oldest of this new breed of English distilleries, the English Whisky Company in Norfolk, which at one time was the first English distillery to bring a whisky to the market in a century. A sign of the age of the distillery is that they are now producing an 11-year-old, which is what we had before us.

We got toasty nuts on the nose, with a little bit of ashtray. Adding water diminished that a bit, and made the drink sweeter. At 56.8% this had a real cask strength feeling to it, which did polarise the club members a bit, with some of our Zoom breakout rooms giving this the thumbs up and others less keen. The finish was a bit short. A single cask whisky, one of 311 bottles matured in a red wine cask, it was £75 when you could get it although it's now sold out.

The Lakes

After a short half-time break, we were on to the fourth whisky and a return to the north of England and The Lakes distillery. Possibly best known for its The One blend, featuring a mixture of whiskies from the four nations of the UK, we had a bottle of its higher end Whiskymaker Reserve No 3.

Spicy, with citrus on the nose, and burnt orange, dark fruits and even cherry. In short, lots going on, with a different sort of taste and some unusual flavours. Very enjoyable, although the nose was perhaps more of a highlight than how it tasted on the palate, yet still a very well balanced drink overall. At 54% and £65, this had a bit of "all the sherries" in it, from Oloroso, PX, cream sherry and then red wine, as if that wasn't enough.

Bimber

To finish off we had something even more special, and it was from one of the hottest names in whisky this year, super trendy London distillery Bimber. This was a bottle of a recent release, an unpeated whisky finished in a peated Islay quarter cask, which sold out of its 1,750 bottles in under an hour.

This whisky was, to quote one member "on another level" to even the very good ones we'd had earlier in the tasting. A lot to it, perhaps with more on the palate than the nose, but it really came at you in layers. Waxy and greasy with a mixture of subtle tastes, that helped it to taste much older than it really is. At auction these bottles will already cost you more than £100. It's 54.1%.

And so it came to our dram of the night voting, and it was the Bimber which came out on top with 10 votes, while the slightly more polarising English Whisky Company bottling picked up 7, while the others also attracted at least one vote each. Bimber certainly one to watch - but then so are all these developing English distilleries.

Thanks to the committee and club members who all took part in another successful tasting. We're counting down the days until we can return to in person tastings at the Britons Protection, but in the meantime, these lockdown specials are continuing to prove hugely successful!

The full line-up