Manchester Whisky Club's 10th Anniversary!

 

The tenth anniversary line up

Has it really been ten years? Yes, yes it has. A full decade on from the beginnings of Manchester Whisky Club, on Twitter and then at the Lass O'Gowrie, we were packed in at the Britons Protection the day after Burns Night, to mark our biggest anniversary yet.

29yo Glaswegian

Chairman Adam has picked out some special cask strength goodies to mark the occasion. And we started off with a whisky almost three times as old as the club, a 29-year-old Glaswegian from the Whisky Works brand. An indie-style offshoot of a famous old name in whisky, Whyte and Mackay, this was the first time we'd had anything of theirs at the club.

The liquid came from the now-closed Port Dundas grain whisky distillery. It was very pale, but went down well straight away. "Gorgeous" offered someone. It was very biscuity, and the mouthfeel improved a bit with a drop of water. A bit sweet, a bit of caramel. A good start all round. It's 54.2% and it's available at £128.

WotW Mackmyra

Next we went to Sweden and one of the club's favourite distilleries, Mackmyra. Unusually though, rather than a distillery bottling it was an independent offering from French outfit Swell de Spirits as part of its Wonders of the World range. A 2013 bottled last year, this was aged in virgin American oak throughout.

This was great on the nose in particular. A real sweet shop vibe about it. Syrup as well, and biscuits again too. A further tasting note was a carton of apple juice! Quite spirity as befits the 53.4% ABV, this was another that got plenty of positive comments. It's available for £95 (although it's a 50cl, rather than 70cl bottle).

GlenDronach 26yo

We concluded the first half of the tasting with something the club really pushed the boat out for: a bottle of 26-year-old GlenDronach that came in at no less than £245 (although if you can find a bottle now, it would be an awful lot more than that). GlenDronach is always associated with sherry and this was a real sherry monster, having spent its full maturation in a Pedro Ximenez puncheon.

Big and sweet, this one came on as strong as you might expect for a 54.9% dram, with some big flavours on the nose and then the palate - intense fruits, raisins, syrup and much more along those lines. One or two in the club thought it faded a little in terms of an aftertaste, although not everyone went along with that, although given the high proportion of sherried Speyside fans in the membership it's perhaps not surprising this went down well.

M&H 3yo

After a half-time opportunity to recharge our beer glasses at the bar of the Britons - which has been our home for most of the past decade following initial spells in the old snug at the Lass and then upstairs at the Castle (each of which we quickly outgrew) - it was back for another trio.

Another feature of our tastings over the years has been trying a whole range of international whiskies, including from all sorts of new and up and coming distilleries. To check off that particular tradition, Adam selected a bottle from Israel's Milk and Honey. It was a 3-year-old which had spent its full maturation in a cask which previously held port-style fortified wine from Galilee, although there's no word on whether this had previously been water.

Talisker 8yo

I immediately got cigarette ends, although nobody else really did so this might say more about whatever beer I had drinking than anything else. Even allowing for the faster maturation possible in the Israeli climate, this tasted much older than three years. It was too strong for some at 66.5%, and gave some a bit of a harsh, heartburny type taste. But with water this mellowed a bit, and gave way to some lovely fruity notes, along with a bit of barbecue. It's £85.

A bit more smoke for dram number five, in the shape of Skye's Talisker and an eight-year-old, from Diageo's 2021 special release series. This was matured in some heavily peated refill casks, adding a real edge to the already coastal character of the liquid.

Ruadh Maor 10yo

And it was very peaty. In fact, we felt this tasted a bit like another great dram we've had over recent years, Bruichladdich's Port Charlotte. This was just as drinkable, and at £82 we felt this was decent value as well. It's 59.7%.

Adam rounded off the half dozen with another indie, a Lady of the Glen bottling of Ruadh Mhor, the name used by Glenturret for its peated expressions. This was a 10-year-old, finished in a first fill ex-Amarone wine barrique for the last two of those years.

Smoky and salty, this got Frazzles on a very distinctive nose (although as I often say when Frazzles comes up a tasting note - when was the last time anyone actually ate Frazzles?). If anything the nose overshadowed the actual taste of the stuff, although perhaps our palates were a touch worn out after an evening of very big flavours of which this was last but certainly not least. It was 61.8% and cost £86.

JD Manchester cask

This brought us to the dram of the night voting. As is only sometimes the case, each of the six whiskies attracted at least one vote - always the sign of a well-chosen selection. But it was the Mackmyra that came out narrowly on top, with 13 votes ahead of the 11 which went to the GlenDronach in second, while five peat monsters backed the smoky Talisker.

There was still time for one more whisky, though, courtesy of our generous hosts at the Britons.

The pub has a long association with Jack Daniel's and boasts the best range of JD in the UK and probably Europe. This extends to a series of special expressions created just for the Britons, and we had in our hands a bottle of cask number five. I didn't actually take any detailed tasting notes down for it (it was that time of the evening), but it was a great dram - a lovely way to finish another successful evening.

Thanks to all club members for attending and continuing to show such support to us, and once again to the Britons for hosting us so brilliantly. I think we can all drink to the next ten years.

November 2020 Tasting

The full line-up

For our latest Zoom tasting in November, Martin had laid on a selection of six drams from some unusual distilleries.

White Peak

And we started off very close to home indeed. The White Peak Distillery is now the closest distillery to Manchester in the process of making whisky, based in the former Derwent Wire Works in Derbyshire and founded back in 2016. The area is best known for brewing, and the distillery apparently makes use of some interesting yeasts from its near-neighbours.

Martin is one of the members of the distillery's Temperance Club, which gives early supporters the opportunity to try some of its outturn, and he shared a bottle of 24-month-old White Peak Temperance Club bottling 2 with us. Still too young to be whisky, but really very nice indeed already, with a pleasant and subtle taste reminiscent of some of our favourite Irish whiskeys. Hints of marzipan and cream soda. We liked this a lot, and it's certainly whetted our appetite to see what else will be coming out of White Peak in the future. It was 48% but isn't generally on sale.

Wolfburn No. 375

Next we travelled much further away from Manchester, to the independently-owned Wolfburn, the most northerly distillery in mainland Scotland. This was the third release in its Small Batch series, a no-age statement called No. 375, matured in a combination of first fill bourbon barrels and second fill Oloroso sherry hogsheads.

As soon as we got into the Zoom breakout rooms to try this one, some of the drinkers weren't as immediately keen on this as they'd hoped, especially as many who'd tried Wolfburn's stuff before had really enjoyed it. Comments included notes of brown sugar and biscuits, but that overall it just seemed lacking. The price didn't exactly help on this, it's all of £79. For that kind of money, there are better bottles to buy. It's 46%.

1770 Whisky

Staying in Scotland for whisky number three, and it was time to try another new name on the whisky scene, the Glasgow Distillery. I say a new name, it's actually a revival of a very old one, but the distillery opened in 2014 with the claim that it is the first new single malt distillery in Glasgow itself for a century.

We had a bottle of the 2019 release, called 1770 Whisky. A no age statement bottling (but on the other hand, you don't exactly need to be a maths genius to work out roughly how old it is), this was very pleasant on the nose indeed and was very sweet, almost reminiscent of Coke. Certainly sharp but without any sense of burning, a sip of water helped bring the flavours out for some drinkers, with butterscotch coming through. Interesting and a bit different, this is 46% and cost £49 for a 50cl bottle.

Strathearn Batch 001

Another new-ish distillery gave us dram number four, on this occasion the small Strathearn distillery near Perth. Established in 2013, it has already been sold to independent bottler Douglas Laing, allowing the founder a successful 'exit' for all the time and effort spend building up the business. An experimental distillery, Strathearn produces whisky, gin and rum.

We had the Batch 001 single malt, almost certainly three years old (although the label was a little unclear on this), aged in European oak and ex-sherry casks. A "weird nose" and "interesting" were some of the suggestions here, and there was definitely a heavy wood influence. Lots of positive comments all around in fact, and in particular many noted the incredible colour in such a young whisky. This was 46.6% and cost £85 when it was available.

Milk and Honey

A bit of a surprise next as we visited Israel. A nation not exactly known as a whisky hotbed, but the Milk and Honey distillery in Tel Aviv, Israel's first, is trying to change that. With the warm climate, and maturation by the Dead Sea of all places, this already drew comparisons to Indian distilleries Amrut and Paul John before we'd even had a taste.

The bottle we had was called Young Single Malt Aged Spirit, so presumably below three years again, and was matured in a combination of ex-red wine, bourbon and Islay casks. The smoke from the Islay definitely came through very clearly, and we got an interesting mix of sweetness, spiciness and that smoke, with tasting notes suggested including nougat or even incense. Quite a few drinkers really liked this one, although there was a view that adding water did nothing for it. It's 46% and is £41 for a 50cl bottle.

Langatun Old Bear

And we finished off with a visit to another country we've not visited before, Switzerland. There's not much history of whisky making, but things are changing, with the Langatun Distillery in the vanguard. We had a bottle of its Old Bear Smoky, a five-year-old aged in Chateauneuf-du-Pape wine casks, full maturation we believe.

This was certainly unusual once again, with some interesting, weird and spicy bittersweet notes. We couldn't tell if this was from the spirit or the grain. It opened up a bit and mellowed with a little water, bringing forward the flavour and warmth. It's £68.75 and 58.5%.

And so that brought us to the dram of the night voting, and each of the whiskies got at least two votes, a sign of another fine selection. The winner though, and unusually as it was first in the line-up, was the White Peak, which just pipped the Strathearn.

Thanks to Martin and all club members for joining us for another successful evening!

Another Zoom tasting