Old Malt Cask

The full line-up

For our March tasting at the Seven Oaks, we had a selection of whiskies to enjoy from well-known whisky bottler Hunter Laing, all from their Old Malt Cask brand.

Royal Brackla 12yo

The Laing name has been associated with whisky for decades through Douglas Laing, the family business and its impressive catalogue of whisky splitting in two back in 2013, with the new Hunter Laing keeping Old Malt Cask as part of the bargain.

We got going with a 12-year-old Royal Brackla, which has had a royal warrant since 1833 and the days of William IV (Royal Lochnagar are the johnny come latelies in this particular battle, having won over Queen Victoria a little later on). This expression was from a single refill hogshead.

Sweet on the nose, we got Parma Violet and Fruit Salad sweeties, along with a creaminess and citrussy notes, like grapefruit. There was quite a strong and distinctive taste, more powerful than we might have expected. Water brought out the oiliness, as well as doses of apples and pears.

Old Pulteney 20yo

At £79 we thought this was a good start to the evening, although the jury's out on whether the extra expense over the distillery bottling would really be worth it.

Sticking with Highland whiskies, Old Pulteney is a distillery we've visited relatively rarely at the club. We've had a few over the years, but none for a while. This was a 20-year-old expression, which set us back a cool £150.

There perhaps wasn't much on the nose here but it had a great flavour. Citrussy again, oranges and grapefruit, the sorts of notes Old Pulteney is often noted for. There was also an oily element, almost like parmesan someone suggested. Lime marmalade was another shout (I can't say I've ever had lime marmalade by way of comparison, but I knew what they meant) as was a peachiness. A nice, easy drinker, but most members felt they wouldn't pay the price tag.

Mortlach 14yo

Off to Speyside for dram three and Mortlach, with a 14-year-old fully matured in cream sherry casks. Harvey's Bristol Cream? Almost certainly not. Besides, we cannot hope to match these levels of refinement in Manchester Whisky Club.

You could smell the sherry a mile off though. It should be sweet and it was. It should be creamy and it was all of that too. A "turbo sherry" as someone described it. A bit of coffee on the palate as well. One for your nan, or perhaps to keep to yourself. It was £100.

After a break to recharge our beer glasses downstairs, it was back for the second half.

Linkwood 22yo

The fourth whisky was a Linkwood, a distillery known for producing a relatively light spirit. We were intrigued by this bottling, which after 22 years of full maturation in refill Pedro Ximenez sherry, might offer something different.

Lots of people liked this one a lot. The PX was a good addition for many, with drinkers feeling it helped smooth things over and tie the dram together very well.

Others who knew Linkwood well reckoned it was a little bit overpowering and something was lost in the maturation. As someone else concluded: "It's not shit though". It was £159.

Ardmore 12yo

Time for peat with dram five and a 12-year-old Ardmore, from a refill bourbon cask, courtesy of Paul the brand ambassador (thanks Paul!), who had been due to join us for the tasting but sadly couldn't.

We liked this one. Subtle and easy to drink, but you got the peat on the nose and it carried through to the palate as well. A consistent drink throughout from the nose onwards. It was £79.

Whisky: model's own

Which brought us to the last dram of the night. A sherried 12-year-old Caol Ila, offering the always alluring promise of a blend of sherry and peat.

This was matured in a Manzanilla cask and certainly didn't taste like a normal Caol Ila. A little bit sweet with a consistent hit of peat throughout, this was well balanced and very nice all round. It cost £109.

The dram of the night voting was quite evenly split, with only the first whisky of the night not picking up at least four votes. But it was a win in the end for that Caol Ila, with ten votes, just one ahead of the Linkwood.

Thank you to Martin for leading us through the whiskies and to all club members and guests for attending another sold out evening.

The Return to the Britons Protection: Missed You Sherry Much!

A bumper line up

After more than a year and a half of Covid-enforced remote tastings, we were back in the familiar surroundings of the top room at the Britons for October's meeting of Manchester Whisky Club.

Tamnavulin

And we had a line up of sherried drams to try, as part of 'We Missed You Sherry Much'.

Sherried whiskies are typically associated with Speyside, and that's where we began the evening. Dram number one was a whisky that's widely available, the Tamnavulin Sherry Cask. Part of the Whyte and Mackay group (in turn under Filipino ownership), it appeared under its own name relatively rarely under 2016, when a range of bottlings at reasonable prices began to pop up in supermarkets especially.

The Sherry Cask is actually only finished in sherry, is £33 and comes in at 40%. It certainly fits the bill of 'cheap and cheerful'. Mild and muted, with a bit of a bite in there somewhere to take it out of the ordinary. Someone said they got a bit of apple skin. Very quaffable, and good as a calibration dram.

Mortlach 16yo

Next, it was Mortlach, a Diageo Speyside known for a heavier character than the light and fruity output of nearby distilleries. We had a bottle of the 16-year-old to hand, a 43.4% whisky available for £66.

And this was very nice. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the distillery's reputation, it tasted stronger than that 43.4% on the label. Water opened up the nose a bit as well. One frequently mentioned tasting note from the members was 'gingery'.

Macallan is a Speyside distillery that almost needs no introduction, being virtually synonymous with the area's whisky production. An independent bottling of the stuff is what we had before us this time, the work of the well-known Elgin-based firm Gordon and Macphail under the Spey Malt name. It's only bottled now and again, and released in certain international markets only.

G&M Spey Malt 14yo

The bottle we had was a 14-year-old bottled in 2019, coming in at 43%. Nice on the nose, with a hint of marshmallow. The main hit was a range of tropical fruits: maybe including pineapples among some other fruity notes. Not bad at all. It's £75 or thereabouts if you can find a bottle online.

Another independent bottler was the source of dram four. And it was one of the club's favourites, Whiskybroker. We were treated to an eight-year-old Balmenach, from WB's recent outturn. Balmenach would have to be one of the least well-known distilleries in Speyside, with all its output going into blends and just the odd independent bottling such as this one.

WB Balmenach 8yo

Great on the nose. Chewy: you certainly know when you've tasted it. Nice and strong all round. Some club members liked it with water. As ever from Whiskybroker, it was competitively priced, although I haven't got a note of exactly how much it was (I bought another Balmenach in the same outturn for £32, so I'd say something around that). It was 54%.

Tobermory 17yo

It was Tobermory next, so away from Speyside on to the Isle of Mull. This distilery produces whiskies for two brands, and you might be more familiar with the peated version, Ledaig. This was a 17-year-old Tobermory, though, fully matured in Oloroso sherry casks.

This was "unbelievably nice" according to one comment. Lots of toffee on the palate, even Lion bars at a push, along with festive spices. Plenty of thumbs up for this one. Ideal for late autumn into winter. It's 55.9% and it's still available online for £130.

Glen Grant 23yo

The sixth dram of the night, normally the last one of any tasting but not on this occasion as we will see in a moment, took us back to Speyside and Glen Grant. Another independent bottling, this was a 23-year-old from Lady of the Glen, finished in a fresh Oloroso hogshead.

A very Christmassy type of taste here, with citrus and rum and raisin notes. Very nice, but also a bit dry as befits the age. Tasted older than it was, in fact. It's 50.4%, and there are still a few bottles kicking about for £170.

We don't normally have seven drams but a mishap during the pouring meant that some of drams five and six ended up blended together in some glasses, giving everyone an unexpected extra drop. The Tobermory certainly overpowered the Glen Grant, it's fair to say. While again drinkable, tasting the impromptu creation allowed us to see why blenders get paid!

Dram of the night!

If you're in for a penny, you're in for a pound. And committee member Martin produced an additional bottle for us to cap off the night, in honour of he and Anna becoming parents recently. This was another one from Whiskybroker, a 12-year-old Dufftown. By this time the tasting notes I had been keeping had become extremely brief, and under this one I've just written "a beast". So read into that what you will.

It must have been very good indeed though, because the eighth dram waltzed off with the dram of the night voting, taking ten votes. The Glen Grant was second with the Mortlach in third.

Thank you to Martin for taking us through a great selection of drams, and to all club members new and old for attending. And thanks in particular to everyone at the Britons for having us back in the top room, we're looking forward to many more tastings in the near future.

Speyside Special

Six Speysiders.

Matthew lined up a series of six whiskies from Speyside for our blind July tasting. It's by far the largest of Scotland's whisky-producing regions, with more than half of the country's distilleries squished into the area around the River Spey in the north-east. Among the best-known Speysides are Glenlivet and Glenfiddich. But perhaps unsurprisingly, we didn't drink either of those.

Monkey Shoulder.

Well, actually we sort of did. Our first dram was a bit of a warm up for the evening. With notes of chocolate and burnt orange, it turned out to be none other than Monkey Shoulder. Widely available and often used as the basis of whisky cocktails, it's a blend of three Speyside whiskies, including Glenfiddich, and acts as a pretty decent benchmark for what a middle of the road Speyside might taste like.

It's £27 (although you can often find it cheaper in the supermarket) and 43%.

14yo G&M Tormore

On we went to something a little further up the whisky scale, and a dram that certainly split the room. For some it had a sticky sweetness, reminiscent of Scottish tearoom favourite Millionaire's shortbread. But in another corner this "packed a mouth punch" and was "a bit gut rotty".

It turned out to be a 14yo Tormore, bottled by Gordon & MacPhail, clocking in at £65. A finish in a wine cask and some slightly peated barley gave this a bit of a dry feel, certainly a bit unusual for a whisky.

Whisky number three tasted perhaps the most obviously Speysidey of the drams so far, with quite a lot going on: sweet on the nose, notes of fruitcake and honey and a long finish, although perhaps not quite as distinctive overall as the Tormore was.

18yo TBWC Mortlach

And it was another independent bottling, this time by That Boutiquey Whisky Company. The distillery was Mortlach, not a name you often see in its own right as its output generally ends up in Johnnie Walker.

It was an 18yo whisky which helped explain the £93 price tag, but as it was 50cl rather than the standard 70cl (as is always the case with TBWC's bottlings), we felt this was a bit overpriced.

G&M Cask Strength Ardmore

There was time before the mid-tasting break to squeeze in a fourth whisky, and this was a bit of a departure: an immediate blast of peat giving way to lots of contended murmuring around the room. Tasting notes ranged from "barbecued gingerbread" to the perhaps less likely "Germolene and Frazzles" which is probably best avoided.

Some thought this might have been a Ben Riach, in mind of some peaty Speysides they've produced in the past. But in fact, it turned out to be an Ardmore, once again from Gordon & MacPhail, from their Cask Strength range. At 57.5% and just £62, this sent some drinkers reaching for their phones to snap up a bottle (or even two).

25yo Hunter Laing Braeval

After the break we had another taste of the Monkey Shoulder as part of a little experiment planned by Matthew. The first whisky of the night often seems to be forgotten by the end of the night, once we've had a few more powerful and memorable drams. Revisiting it after a gap it certainly did taste better, and notably sweeter.

A few people suggested it had developed some butterscotch notes, which led us to a side discussion about why butterscotch was undoubtedly the best flavour of Angel Delight. Yes, it was that time of the evening.

The peated Ben Riach

The next whisky was a much lighter drink. "Incredibly light" in fact, while someone else suggested it would do for breakfast time. The official tasting notes proposed brownies and caramel, although one suggestion in the room - a nearly-banana sort of sweetness, like plaintain - got plenty of nods of agreement.

Another independent bottling, on this occasion from Hunter Laing, it was a 25yo Braeval. Another less familiar name on the whisky scene, the distillery used to be known as Braes of Glenlivet. At 44.7% and £100, this was good but a bit on the expensive side.

The last whisky of the evening went down extremely well. Smoky, peated, again reminiscent of a barbecue, everyone seemed to like it very much.

And it turns out we were drinking a Ben Riach a couple of whiskies later than we'd thought. This was a 56% no age statement expression, romantically called Cask Strength Batch 1 Peated. We fancied at least some of this was probably quite young indeed, but it worked well, and at 56% and £58 it was decent value.

The dram of the night voting came down to a battle between whiskies four and six, with the Ardmore taking 9 votes to the Ben Riach's 5, and a smattering of support for the others. Matthew had thought the Ben Riach might take it, but either would have been worthy winners. Thanks not only to Matthew but to everyone who attended yet another successful evening!