Manchester Whisky Club Commonwealth Games

 

The full line-up

On the night of the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony in Birmingham, the club met for a much more thirsty kind of contest, as we tried a range of six whiskies plus two wildcard drinks to see which nation would take home the gold medal (I should say I was hosting the tasting and didn't take any photos as we were going along, so the one at the top is all you're getting this month!).

We started off in Canada for an early double header. In one hand the Glen Breton Ice 10yo, the world's first regularly available whisky to be finished in casks which previously held ice wine. And in the other, some Canadian icewine itself - not from the same vineyard in Nova Scotia used by Glen Breton - but some Lakeview Cellars wine from Niagara-on-the-Lake in Ontario.

The nose of the Glen Breton is interesting, some thought a bit weird and off-putting, and certainly distinctive. Official tasting notes suggest sticky toffee pudding and ginger biscuits and there was a bit of that around for sure. The icewine, made using frozen grapes for a more concentrated, sweeter, but small volume drink, was really very sweet indeed for the club members' palates, although those with a sweet tooth enjoyed it. A bit citrussy and syrupy, some got a bit of elderflower or even honey, almost like mead. The Glen Breton is £48 and 40%, and the Lakeview Cellars icewine is available from Aldi at £14 for a 37.5cl bottle.

Next, South Africa and a bottling from Africa's only commercial whisky distillery, James Sedgwick. Bain's and Three Ships are the brands it's known for, but we had in our hands a 10yo version of the standard Bain's single grain, finished in a Shiraz cask for the last five years of its maturation and then bottled at cask strength - on this occasion a whopping 63.5%. This went down very well, it certainly tasted strong although it was perhaps surprisingly drinkable as well given the strength. Lots of toffee again, with vanilla, spice and red fruits. It's £50.

Having been to a couple of corners of the earth, it was much closer to home for the fourth drink, and third whisky. Wire Works Whisky is the brand name for the White Peak distillery, based in an old wire and cable factory on the River Derwent. We had one of their early expressions a couple of years back, before it was whisky, and thought there was already something interesting developing, so I thought it would be a good idea to revisit it, in the form of their latest Small Batch release, number 3. A lightly-peated single malt from a small batch vatting of American and French oak casks, aged mostly in STR with some ex-bourbon, the distillery says it's a nice complement to their spirit which they describe as 'fruit forward'. On the nose, butterscotch and vanilla slice, and to be honest more vanilla all the way through. Again, not bad, but still bottled too young really, albeit out of necessity as the distillery starts to pay its way. It's £60 and 46.2%.

After a half-time break, the night's curveball. I wanted to find a rum to represent the Caribbean islands of the Commonwealth, and especially one finished in a Scottish whisky cask. There were no obviously candidates, so I broke my own rule and went outside the Commonwealth to the Dominican Republic for the Opthimus 15yo Malt Whisky Aged Cask, which uses ex-Tomatin casks in the maturation. Aiming for a whisky-ish rum that would please a whisky crowd, this did a pretty good job, and if you were blind tasting it could certainly pass for a very sweet whisky. A smooth sipper, lots of brown sugar and banana around here. £53 and 43%.

Back to the whisky for the sixth drink of the evening, and the fruits of a recent visit to the new Penderyn distillery in Llandudno. I did the whole fill-your-own-bottle thing in the distillery shop, and came back clutching a bottle of ex-Bourbon cask liquid from 2016. Green apples and pears on the nose, more citrussy and spicy on the palate. Despite Penderyn's general popularity with the club, some slightly mixed views on this one, and again a general feeling it was perhaps a bit young and not quite worth the money - I paid £101 although that included an extra sample and a glass as well, so the bottle itself would be more like £90. It was 59.7% although again, it didn't really taste like it.

Next to India for two names quite familiar to us. One being Paul John, the distillery. The other, Cadenheads, the bottler which produced the particular expression in hand. This 9yo spent five years in India - although the faster maturation in the warmer climate means that's much more like 15 - and then the last four years in Scotland. So in a way, it was more equivalent to a 19-year-old. Aged in a Bourbon hogshead cask, we got redcurrants and ginger, citrus and dates. Very nice indeed, in fact. £85 and 53.3%.

We finished the night on the other side of the world, Australia, for the Unexpeated bottle from Melbourne's Starward. It uses lots of locally-sourced ingredients, including casks from local vineyards. But on this occasion, also made use of some ex-Islay single malt casks, presumably from Diageo stablemates Caol Ila or Lagavulin, to aim for a drink balancing its natural juicy fruit flavours with a big dash of smoke. The verdict was that this worked pretty successfully on the nose and finish, but the two flavours perhaps clashed a bit on the palate and were fighting against each other. Certainly drinkable again though, with lots of red berries and a lingering peaty finish. It's £80 and 48%.

The dram of the night voting was the closest ever! The rum came fourth, just one vote behind the joint silver medallists from India and Australia, a further single vote behind the gold medallist from South Africa. So well done to Bain's! And thanks to all who attended another sold out tasting, and to everyone at the Britons Protection for hosting us once again.

April Fools Special

 

The line up (minus the Buckfast)

For our April tasting, we were back at the Britons for a selection of drams in honour of April Fools' Day. Club member Rich had picked out a selection of drinks with an unusual or surprising twist for us to get stuck into.

Glenallachie 10yo

And it didn't take us long to get started on dram number one. This was sweet and very nice. "One of the best opening drams we've had" offered someone almost straight away. There was a bit of heather honey around, liquorice too, lots of good notes. We liked it very much.

It was a Glenallachie 10-year-old, from a distillery and a town right in the heart of Speyside. But the twist here was the finish, in that it spent the last 18 months or so before bottling in casks made of Chinquapin oak. A wood sourced from the northern Ozarks in Missouri, this was the first time most of us had tried it. A great way to start the evening. The bottle is £60 and is 48%.

Defilement 8yo

The second whisky was very dark. A bit weird in fact. There was definitely something unusual about it from the off. It was warming though. We got notes of caramel and toffee - again something very sweet here. Someone else suggested furniture polish, which only served to send those of us of a certain age down this rabbit hole.

Back to the whisky itself, and it was a Defilement, a series available from Master of Malt in which various whisky 'rules' are broken. In this case, it was the use of a chestnut cask, rather than the oak which is typically used for maturation. It's an 8-year-old and it's still available for £49.

Starward Ginger Beer

Whisky three was very distinctive. Sweet again. Fresh mint too, said someone, and a long finish, but there was something very obvious and zingy we were all missing.

And when we saw the bottle we realised it was: ginger. From Australian distillery Starward, this was their Ginger Beer Cask whisky. It spent three years in a mixture of Apera (Australian fortified wine) and red wine casks, and then six months in ginger beer casks. Fresh and fiery, this was a great drink. It's 48% and costs £86 for a 50cl bottle. A bit on the pricey side for most of us, but another example of the success of a whisky club like ours: a chance to try something great we'd never normally splash out on.

The Buckfast whisky!

After a half-time break to recharge our (beer) glasses downstairs at the Britons Protection, we were back for the second half.

And as it turned out, this really was something even more unusual than even a ginger cask. We got caramel and a real sweetness like cream soda, or Dutch stroopwaffles. Highly drinkable and very nice. But what was giving us that lovely flavour?

It was a finish in none other than Buckfast tonic wine. Beloved of drinkers in and around Glasgow, but created by monks in Devon, it's a caffeinated fortified wine. Here, it was used to add a bit of seasoning to some ex-bourbon casks. The whisky was a collaboration between Master of Malt and a thing called the Rhythm and Booze Project, which is run by a couple of guys who mix whisky, music and live events. It was £45 and came in at 46%. For good measure, we had a bit of Buckfast itself as well, for a treat.

30yo April Fool 2021

There were still more treats to come, as well. Dram five was again very nice, and sweet too. "Cakey" someone suggested, and then to really drill down on that, "maybe lemon drizzle." Other tasting notes included a butteriness, and perhaps the inevitable pear drops (second only perhaps to Frazzles as a ubiquitous tasting note relating to a thing most of us haven't tried since we were about eight years old).

We were drinking the 2021 April Fool bottling from The Whisky Exchange, called 'Extremely Young, I Wish I Was Older'. The twist here being that it was in fact a 30-year-old. From an unknown Speyside distillery (although internet sleuths have proposed it might be Glenburgie), there were 869 of these and they all sold out within an hour even at the £150 price tag. It was 51.7%. We really enjoyed this one all round, so we were grateful to Rich for grabbing a bottle while he could.

5yo April Fool 2022

The last whisky of the night was darker. Indeed, a dark roasted peanut butter as someone suggested for a tasting note. As ever, looking back at my notes for this stage of the evening reveals no other tasting notes at all, so we'll just have to stick with the peanut butter here.

It was this year's follow up, the 2022 April Fool offering from TWE. This time around it had the name 'Extremely Old, I Wish I Was Younger' and it was just five years old. Matured in a range of first fill bourbon casks and peated ex-Oloroso hogsheads, the 1,575 bottles were gone in 45 minutes. It was £75 and had an ABV of 53.2%. We assume this may once again be a Glenburgie.

Which brought us to the dram of the night voting. A tough one as ever, it was the two TWE April Fools whiskies we liked the best. The last dram took top honours with eight votes, over six for dram five, but all except dram two got at least one vote.

Thank you to all club members and those from the waiting list who attended, and special thanks to Rich for putting on such a great selection!

Cask Mania

This month's line up.

For May's meeting of Manchester Whisky Club we were treated to a selection of whiskies picked out by Anna and presented to the group by Martin, on the theme of cask mania - putting the spotlight on drams matured in a wide variety of different cask types.

Cask maturation is one of the most influential processes that define the taste of any whisky. The wood of each cask adds complex flavours to the character of the particular distillery already present in the new make spirit. And using different casks can make things very interesting.

The Carn Mor Glen Garioch 6yo.

We started off the evening in the north east of Scotland with a whisky from the Glen Garioch distillery, bottled by the independent Carn Mor. It was a 6-year-old matured in a sherry puncheon, with an ABV of 46%.

And what a great start to the tasting it was. Very rich, dark and sweet, while some drinkers picked out aniseed and liquorice on the palate as well. Quite oily, quite heavy (even "chewy") and with that distinctive sherry flavour, perhaps one better suited to a winter's night rather than a very warm May evening. But at just under £40 we thought this was excellent value.

SMWS Full of Vim and Vigour

After that crowd pleaser we moved on to a bottle from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, the subjects of last month's tasting. This particular dram, Full of Vim and Vigour, was from the Glen Moray distillery in Elgin. It was matured in a first fill French wine barrique (these are also known as 'Bordeaux barrels') and really took things up a notch in terms of strength, at 61.5%.

As ever for SMWS bottlings there was an array of unusual tasting notes on the label, and some of us thought that pineapple fritters was actually pretty close to the mark with this one. It was a little on the strong side for some - "almost bourbony it's got so much oak on it" - but in general people really liked it, in particular after a drop of water when it became sweeter. At £51.40 to Society members, again this was something of a bargain.

Starward 10th Anniversary bottling.

We went much further afield for whisky number three. In fact, about as far away from Scotland as it's possible to get in the world of whisky, as we tried a bottle from the Starward distillery in Melbourne. Not just any bottling this, but a special 10th anniversary expression to celebrate a decade of operation. With some recent investment from Diageo, Starward has grown from being a tiny craft distillery into being a still-quite-small craft distillery, now operating from slightly larger premises than before.

Anyway, how about the whisky? Well, this was created from a mixture of the eight cask types used across the company's short history, with 28 casks of different ages used in all, focusing on those previously used for Australian wine and fortified wine. It's a no age statement whisky coming in at 52% and, perhaps surprisingly given the complexity involved, just £80. And this really was quite something. Rich and woody, with a touch of the chemistry classroom on the nose and some pepper on the palate. If anything, there was maybe a bit much going on here for some drinkers, but a lot of people in the room completely loved it.

Chichibu IPA Cask.

After a half-time break we were back for the fourth whisky and this time we were in Japan for an Ichiro's Malt Chichibu finished in IPA beer casks from a local craft brewer. This kind of finish has, in the past, been considered somewhat disappointing when tried elsewhere. But we were led to believe this would be an exception.

And so it was! There was no disputing the IPA finish, this was quite a dry whisky on the palate with malt loaf one of the suggestions for a tasting note, and custard another. This divided the room a bit though, with some very much enjoying it and others, while appreciating it, saying that it just wasn't for them. It's 57.5% and if you can find a bottle, it'll cost you £145. In truth there were probably some better value whiskies elsewhere in the line-up.

G&M Connoisseur's Choice Caol Ila

It was back to Elgin for the fifth whisky, and our old friends from that famous bottler Gordon and Macphail. This time they were working their magic on an Islay whisky in the form of a 13yo Caol Ila, released as part of their Connoisseur's Choice range (now sporting some new-look packaging). This 45% whisky spent the last three years of its maturation in Hermitage wine casks.

Again this divided opinion a little. On the one hand we picked up some lovely notes of barbecue and wine gums, but for others this was the least favourite of the evening. It's £70.

Kilchoman Port Cask 2014

Another Islay whisky rounded off the tasting, and it was a Kilchoman which had a distinctive reddish colour, betraying the fact it had spent its full maturation in port hogsheads. Admittedly, they'd only been in there since 2014, making it a three or four year old only. But apparently when the port casks turned up later than expected, the distillery workers were in such a hurry to get them filled they didn't realise until later that there was still a bit of port lurking in the bottom of the casks. So that certainly helped account for the unusual colour.

"Have you ever seen red diesel?" someone asked as we got down to tasting. As with drams four and five, this got mixed reviews. Creamy in a cream soda sort of way, but with a surprisingly short finish, this was possibly a case of high expectations not quite being met rather than it being a particularly mediocre whisky. It's 50% and costs £77.

So that brought us to the dram of the night voting. And while a few had their supporters, there was a convincing victory in the end for whisky number three - the Starward from Australia. Strewth!

Thank you to all club members and guests from the waiting list who joined us, both old and new, for another successful tasting, and thanks also to all the staff at the Britons Protection for looking after us once again. We're already looking forward to June's tasting, which will be all about some great blends.