Billy from the Whisky Exchange

 

The full line-up

In June we had a special guest to lead the tasting. Billy Abbot from top spirits retailer the Whisky Exchange was with us to guide us through half a dozen choices, (mostly) still available to buy.

Linkwood 10yo

And we kicked us off with an expression from the Whisky Exchange's line-up of Seasons drams. Representing 'Spring' we had a 10-year-old Linkwood, matured in a single refill bourbon cask.

Billy told us the Spring whiskies are aimed at showing off fresh, fruity and zingy flavours. This one delivered, and gave us pears, citrus fruits, a hint of mint and fruity chewing gum. There wasn't much oak in evidence really, giving the spirit itself a chance to come through nicely, and strongly.

Very summery and easy to drink, we thought, ideal to have with a barbecue. It was 57.7% and cost a very reasonable £68.

BBR Macduff 21yo

For the second dram we went to Berry Brothers and Rudd, the legendary London wines and spirits retailer and regular bottler of quality drams. This was a 21-year-old Macduff, matured in a sherry butt.

"Taste the distillery, not the wood" urged Billy, and this tasted stronger than whisky number one, as well it might have done at 58%. This was lovely, really good, with strong notes of pineapple and tropical fruit. Some members thought it was better with a little water. It cost £169.

Ben Nevis

Billy himself was looking back at us from the label of whisky number three. This was part of a series of bottles produced for the Whisky Show, run by the Whisky Exchange, featuring various members of the WE team.

Ben Nevis, owned by Nikka in Japan, is a popular distillery with club members. This was an example of a 'dirty Ben Nevis' we felt, all chewy and tasty with lots of red fruits in evidence. It was 60.2% and cost again a very fair £72.

After a half-time break giving us the chance to recharge our glasses downstairs at the Seven Oaks, we were back for another trio.

Whistlepig 13yo

Dram four was in fact a rye whiskey, from Whistlepig, and for Billy was "the most ridiculous thing we've bottled at the Whisky Exchange." Rather than from Whistlepig's Vermont base, this Amburana Rye was made in Indiana by spirits giant MGP, and was a mix of 95% rye to 5% malted barley, aged for more than 12 years in American oak.

Here's the thing: it didn't really taste like whiskey at all. Very sweet on the nose, it was giving coconut and mint, almost mint choc chip ice cream. It had spent a mere ten days in an amburana cask, a trendy and very aggressive South American wood that imparts flavour on liquid very quickly. This gave it so much flavour, especially on the nose, and it ended up reminding us of liquor chocolates or After Eight mints. Weird in a good way. It was £175 and 43%.

Kilchoman 11yo

Back to Scotland for whisky five and to Islay for some Kilchoman. Billy had picked out an 11-year-old, aged in a first fill ex-bourbon cask and bottled for the 2023 Whisky Show. "This is non-messed with, unadulterated stuff."

At 54.5% this was "not overpowering, just nice." This was smoky and peaty, but more in a subtle barbecue rather than punch in the nose sort of way. It was £140, and so there were perhaps one or two cheaper options from earlier in the night more likely to get us reaching for our virtual wallets.

G&M Caol Ila

We finished off with the very last bottle of something special.

A 19-year-old Caol Ila, so another Islay whisky, bottled by Gordon and Macphail back in 2021. Billy told us when smoky whisky gets older it tends to become more fruity and mellow, and this is a good example. It is apparently unusual to get such an old Caol Ila, as the younger ones tend to be very nice.

This smelt absolutely great. So much so we almost didn't want to taste it. But it was delicious and gave us a huge amount of flavour. It was 57.6% although you can't get it anymore.

Which brought us to the dram of the night voting, and all six secured at least one vote, always the sign of a great tasting. The winner though was the Ben Nevis with ten votes, just ahead of the opening Linkwood in second and then the Caol Ila third.

Our thanks to Billy for visiting us and picking out such a great selection, and to all club members and guests for coming along.

Bang For Your Buck

This month's line up

For May's tasting, there was a welcome return for Anna who presented a line up of best 'bang for your buck' whiskies currently on the market, a timely tasting considering not only the cost of living crisis, but also the general inflationary pressures on whisky prices too. Anna was out to show us that there remains all kinds of great stuff out there at reasonable prices if you know where to look.

Compass Box

Most of the drinks came from independent bottlers, and dram number one was the work of one of the club's favourites, Compass Box, the London-based blender and bottler. We were drinking Orchard House, a blend (of which the biggest component was Clynelish) with a definite fruit and apple vibe from the label onwards.

There was no doubt about the apple straight from the nose, green apples especially. We also got some peanut butter, and perhaps a faint bit of smoke on the palate, too. The finish was nice and long. It's 46% and you can pick it up for about £41 from the usual online retailers. 

Kilchoman SB3

Dram number two took us to Islay and Kilchoman, and a small batch distillery bottling. It's number three in Kilchoman's small batch series, and features a combination of bourbon and Oloroso aged Kilchoman, along with some much stronger Sauternes cask, to create a bottling at 49.1%.

This was sweet before it got peaty. Apples again and other sweet notes, making for a lovely combination with the smoke which grew on the palate. "I'd buy that" said more than one club member. It's £52. Cheap at the price, we felt.

Petrichor Galore

Back to the indie bottlers for dram three, and a whisky from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. This one was called Petrichor Galore (petrichor being the smell of rain, a new one on me!) and was bottle 63.81, the 63 standing for Glentauchers.

This was intense and "sherry tastic" with toffee another tasting note that we got. "This makes me violently happy" someone said. As well it might, at just £53.20 (for members, and sadly it's all since gone), it was an extremely strong 66.3%. Great value as well as being an excellent drop. Not sure about the smell of rain, though.

IF Knockdhu

After a half-time break to recharge our beer glasses downstairs at the Britons Protection, we returned for whisky four. The indie bottler this time was Infrequent Flyers, a brand run by ex-BenRiach man Alistair Walker, which aims to showcase some rarer single malts at affordable prices. On this occasion it was a Knockdhu, a Speyside distillery which normally produces whisky under the name anCnoc to avoid confusion with Knockando up the road.

Another superb drink, this. Lots of marzipan and almond as the key tasting notes. A really easy drinker, too, remarkable considering its strength of 58.9% (so perhaps we should reclassify it as a 'dangerously' easy drinker). It's £52.90.

North Star Chaos

As a measure of how strong the last two were, there was a bit of surprise that whisky number five was "only" 50%! A North Star bottling from its Chaos range, asking the question 'do port and peat go well together?' being an Islay whisky mostly aged in ruby port octaves.

It's assumed the liquid in this bottling is a Caol Ila, but as someone commented, "if it's a Caol Ila, the delivery van has crashed with an Ardbeg". This was very floral, and savoury. Again great value at £50.

Highland Laird

All too soon it was the last dram of the night, and bottling under name Highland Laird, owned by family-run bottler Bartels. This was a 9-year-old Macduff with plenty of big strength again, at 65.4%. The colour was particularly notable, it was fully matured in first fill sherry casks.

This was another superb whisky, and there were lots of phones out to buy a bottle (including mine) at the excellent price of £48. There are still some available, too, so it's well worth getting one before they're all gone. As a sidenote, after the bottle I ordered went walkabout after an issue with the courier, full marks to Bartels for sending me another! Great customer service and a business well worth supporting.

There was plenty of support for the Highland Laird in the dram of the night voting, but it narrowly lost a three-way battle with the Knockdhu and - this month's winner - the SMWS Glentauchers.

Thanks to Anna for such a great selection of whiskies, and to all club members and their guests for attending another successful tasting. And, as ever, thanks to the Britons for hosting us so well once again.

There they all are

Best of The Whisky Exchange Show

The November line-up.

Committee members Martin, Anna and Adam came back from a visit to The Whisky Exchange's whisky show in London clutching two bottles each. And so it was that the club membership gathered upstairs at the Briton's Protection on the last Thursday in November to knock through them all in the usual style.

G&M Macduff 18yo

None of the six whiskies on show were standard distillery bottlings with a range of independents represented. And we kicked off with one of the oldest and best-known names in the field, Gordon & Macphail.

This was an 18yo from the Macduff distillery. On the Moray Firth coast, the distillery's official bottlings appear under the name Glen Deveron, named for the local river, so expressions under the Macduff name are the preserve of indies only.

On this occasion we were drinking a 58% whisky that was big and strong straight away. We got pear drops and vanilla, and one of the tasting notes which struck a particular chord was grapefruit. Some drinkers thought this started off well but perhaps didn't quite live up it, with the alcohol coming through a bit much. It was £100 but is now sold out.

27yo Bunnahabhain

We're not necessarily big fans of spending large sums of money on packaging, but even we had to admit the box for our next bottle was very nice indeed. What was inside was a 27yo Bunnahabhain, part of the rather premium Single Malts of Scotland range from Speciality Drinks, which is in turn another part of The Whisky Exchange business.

This went down a storm. Very smooth, with a definite hint of butter - like melting butter on a crumpet as someone put it. There was definitely some citrus around too. A bottle will set you back £230 though! So although a lovely drop, perhaps not quite worth the price tag. It's a very drinkable 48.4%.

Another distillery which relatively rarely appears under its own name is Glen Elgin, and that's where he went for the third dram of the evening.

22yo Glen Elgin

Glen Elgin is most commonly used in the White Horse blend, still one of the biggest sellers worldwide. But we had a 22yo single malt bottling from Signatory to try.

We were told the distillery is noted for producing particularly fruity drinks, in part because of a long fermentation process. And this was certainly fruity, with a waxiness about it too.

Certainly a good drink but trying to follow those opening two drams, which had both been particularly punchy, was always going to be hard. So it maybe wasn't surprising this divided the room a little more. It's 49.5% and comes in at £107.

After a half-time break and a chance to refill our pint glasses downstairs at the Briton's, it was back for the next three whiskies, and we went west to Ben Nevis.

21yo Ben Nevis

This was a 21yo sherry cask whisky, clocking in at 47.5%, bottled by The Whisky Exchange under a range it's calling The Future of Whisky - this particular dram apparently representing 'Past Future' because it was what people used to think the future of whisky would be like.

By the time we'd got our heads around the logic of that, this particular dram was already in our past. We felt that while the bottle looked as snazzy as the concept, the contents possibly didn't quite live up to that promise.

But then again, after a couple of memorable, flavourful whiskies to start the evening, anything coming along later was maybe inevitably on a bit of a hiding to nothing. At £130, we weren't reaching for our phones to order any bottles, although they seem to have sold out anyway.

14yo Hunter Laing Glenrothes

The sherry theme continued with whisky number five, but this was more of a full-on sherry monster. From the Glenrothes distillery, it was a 14yo bottling by Hunter Laing and its First Editions range.

This proved very popular with the membership, although with many having a known taste for big sherried whiskies this wasn't much of a surprise!

A couple of the tasting notes from the drinkers in the room were maple syrup and chocolate which probably says it all. It's 49.8% and at £73 or thereabouts doesn't represent the worst value in the world, especially if your Christmas list is looking a little bare.

12yo Ledaig

The last dram was a 12yo Ledaig from the Tobermory distillery in Mull, again bottled as part of The Whisky Exchange's The Future of Whisky range, this time representing 'Present Future'.

Another sherry cask one here, but much more of a peat king. By this stage of the evening my notes had become predictably short, and all I managed to get down was "we loved it". It's 58.4% and was £80 but has already all gone, sadly.

The voting for dram of the night came down to a straight fight between the Bunnahabhain and the Ledaig, with the Bunna taking it by 12 votes to 11, with three other whiskies getting two votes each.

Thank you to everyone old and new who attended another extremely busy tasting, as well as to the Britons for hosting us and in particular to Anna, Martin and Adam for coming back from the show which such an interesting and excellent range of drinks for us to try. Up next: it's the Christmas party!

Here they all are.