Blends Archives - Rant And Whisky

Matt is a long-time whisky taster.

He is also a very knowledgeable whisky connoisseur. So the prospect of Matt holding a tasting of blended whiskies made my ears prick up. A lot.

The majority of my whisky education has come from listening to people who know more than me – which is a big group of people! Matt is very deservedly in that group.

I’ve sat in the room with him at a lot of whisky tastings over the years. In recent times many of those tastings have involved reasonably esoteric Single Malt bottlings.

While drinking esoteric single malts is all very fine and ego-building, they are generally harder whiskies to find. And they tend to be at a higher price point if you do!

As a rule, blends tend to be more accessible – and more affordable, especially if you need to buy petrol too.

Single Malts v Blends

I don’t want to be lecturing on the difference between single malts and blended whiskies.

Suffice to say that – in exceptionally broad terms – a blended whisky is a combination of two or more whiskies that have been distilled in different distilleries and then put together in one bottle. That’s a very simplistic description – there a considerable number of variations on the theme!

I greatly admire whisky makers. They do stuff that I couldn’t do: I’m happy to let them do it and leave me to reap the benefits three to thirty years down the line.

Examples of blended whiskies include the Johnny Walker range, Chivas Regal, and Famous Grouse whiskies.

Making blended whisky

Any single malt whisky is the combination of a set of given ingredients and circumstance – the materials (grain, water, yeast), the manufacturing equipment and process, the duration of maturation, the type of cask used. Within these parameters the outcome is reasonably predictable, but the results can also vary widely.

I greatly admire whisky makers. They do stuff that I couldn’t do: I’m happy to let them do it and leave me to reap the benefits three to thirty years down the line.

But whisky blenders are a different breed! Their task is to produce a whisky that noses, tastes and feels the same as the one they produced last year and the years before that.

Like making the same chocolate cake each birthday.

But the whiskies the blenders took to get make last year’s cake may not be available this year. Eggs can’t be got and the chocolate supply has dried up. The blender is left to source other component whiskies that she/he can blend in different ways and quantities to produce a cake that is indistinguishable from last year’s.

That’s skill!

The Tasting

Matt had six blends for the tasting. All of them are reasonable available if you shop around a bit.

As usual, five of the whiskies were known to the tasters and the sixth was a “mystery”, the drams were presented “blind”.

The tasting notes and scores by glass are mine from the evening. Any resemblance to the overall results at the bottom is purely coincidental!

Glass 1: Naked Malt, 40% 19yo, Naked Grouse without the grain component

Nose: Brown-bread toast, grassy (straw), chocolate
Palate: Sweet and soft, then pepper corns
Finish: oily residue on tongue & lips
Conclusion: OK, but not startling. First fill oloroso casks
Score: 7.1

Glass 2: Monkey Shoulder “Smokey Money” Batch 9, 40%

Nose: There’s the peaty one! Raw bacon in a crepe bandage, banana-flavoured lollies.
Palate: Watery & thin.
Finish: Peat stays on … and on. Oily.
Conclusion: A bit disappointing. I’ve had other Monkey Shoulder expressions that left a better impression. The peat gets in the way here.
Score: 6.8

Glass3: The Mystery (revealed as Johnny Walker Blue Label)

Nose: Nose prickle, sherried, and hint of smoke. Honey and Solvol soap.
Palate: Tannic and a bit non-descript.
Conclusion: I didn’t pick it as a JW.
Score: 7.2

Glass 4: Whisky Trail “Rockabilly Hoedown” 19yo, 45%. Sherry Butt .

Nose: Potato crisps and poached stone fruit.
Palate: Sweet & soft, inoffensive.
Finish: Berries and brown sugar. Long!
Conclusion: Nice! This whisky is from Elixir Distillers, who’s other brands include Port Askaig and Elements of Islay. At 19 yo the Rockabilly Hoedown may be the combination of two purchases of raw spirit that have been casked and matured together. Could be a teaspooned Longmorn?
Score: 8.1

Glass 5: North Star SuperSonic Mach 4, 7yo, 60%. 2 Sherry Butts

Nose: Slight nose of kerosene, like a Riesling wine. Buttery, with good legs, citrus marmalade, Honey & sawdust and brown sugar.
Palate: Rich and vegetal (not in a bad way), coffee and goes hot with a tannic edge.
Finish: Sack-y, sherry, hot, dark chocolate
Conclusion: Want to buy one!
Score: 8.5

Glass 6: Adelphi Private Stock Reserve, 57%

Nose: “Hell of a good nose”, medicinal and bandages, smoke and marine, buttery bacon.
Palate: Salty, peaty, sweet bacon.
Finish: Warming.
Conclusion: Lives much more to the promise of the nose than a lot of earlier Ardnamurchans.
Score: 8.5

Group Results

The results for “Best Nose” are:
Glass 1: Naked Malt: 7 Votes (3rd Place)
Glass 2: Smokey Monkey: 6 Votes (4th Place)
Glass 3: Johnnie Walker Blue Label: 2 Votes (5th Place)
Glass 4: The Whisky Trail: 9 Votes (2nd Place)
Glass 5: Super Sonic Mach 4: 12 Votes (1st Place)
Glass 6: Adelphi Peated” 1 Vote (6th Place)

The results for Overall Favourite with the average score from the toom are:
Glass 1: Naked Malt: score 6.24 (4th Place)
Glass 2: Smokey Monkey: score 6.14 (5th Place)
Glass 3: Johnnie Walker Blue Label: score 6.06 (6th Place)
Glass 4: The Whisky Trail: score 7.86 (1st Place)
Glass 5: Super Sonic Mach 4: score 7.24 (2nd Place)
Glass 6: Adelphi Peated: score 7.14 (3rd Place)

Earlier this year we had an article on whiskies that won’t break your bank.

We observed that over a third of the total advertised drams on offer in the 2020 Dramfest Catalogue were priced below $100 retail. Note: we didn’t count the ones hidden underneath the tables!

It was interesting that a lot of these “cheaper” offerings were from established mainstream distilleries, were not from start-up operations trying to make a name.

At Dramfest we also put ourselves out to doing some personal research into the quality of some of the less costly whiskies. We checked them against their more highly-priced cousins and remarked pretty favourably on their quality.

Whisky Books

There are a lot of whisky books that encourage you to try this whisky or that other one.

Sadly many of whiskies they recommend are not available in New Zealand. And the ones that you can buy can often be too expensive for what they are.

And that started us thinking – why don’t we do some more investigation into the whiskies that may not have seemed “elite” enough to own up to drinking?

The issue of Availability

There are a large number of whiskies available in NZ that deserve to be noticed but that are not at all expensive. So why not create a list f some of the ones we’ve found as a starter-for-ten guide for others to try?

Stepping out of our comfort zone has been an enriching experience. Letting your taste buds do the walking may make your whisky world become a fuller colour palette.

One dram well-worth trying is the Loch Lomond 12 year-old. This won a Platinum at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition this year. It also has garnered two Golds and a Silver from other competitions, plus a Gold spirits business award. That is no mean feat for a 12 year-old!

The Loch Lomond distillery also has an outstanding Single Grain, on show at Dramfest. Another award-winning dram at San Francisco, it also won the world whisky awards best Scotch grain and a Gold at the Berlin International Spirits Competition 2017. the Inchmurrin range of whiskies is another product of Loch Lomond distillery.

Non-Scottish

I went out and purchased three bottlings of West Cork Irish whiskey.

Because they were new to the market, I knew nothing about them other than the labels looked pretty cool and the price was right.

They were very nice indeed.

With a little assistance I’ve emptied two different bottles already. Now I only have the blend left – at a whopping 62%, it’s the highest abv blend I have tasted and, much to my surprise, very smooth.

On a whim – because it was distilled in Wellington, South Africa, – I decided to try the Bains single grain. From the Sedgwick Distillery, this dram is double matured in ex bourbon barrels for five years. Again, it is a super smooth drop with loads of vanilla. This entry level grain was awarded the world’s Best Grain Whisky at the 2018 World Whisky Awards. Bains also produce a 15 year-old and three 18 year-olds, currently only available through travel retail.

Blends

Our list includes some really impressive blends. They have broken the traditional mould for exploring flavour, most made deliberately to be mellow and served over ice.

The first of these is Cutty Sark Prohibition. This is a healthy 50% abv, and described as full flavoured and complex. You might well think you’re having a single malt.

Next up is the West Cork blend. At 62%, the flavour is loads of grapefruit, mouth feel and very smooth.

The Skibbereen Eagle blend took me by surprise. It is reasonably cheap and from the same distillers as West Cork but has a completely different flavour profile. It is sweet, with caramel, toffee notes with green fruit, chocolate and cocoa.

Antiquity Blue is a cheap Indian blend at 42.8%. This was awarded “Silver Best in Class” in the Spirits Tasting competition by the International Wine and Spirit Competition WSWA in 2012. At its price point it gives many other blended Scotches a run for their money.

So here, in no particular order, are our picks of reasonably priced (NZ$40 to $105) bottlings that are usually available in New Zealand. For convenience the list has been divided into whisky types.

Single Malt, Scottish, Irish and world

Glenlivet 12 year old
West Cork Irish sherry finish
West Cork Irish Port Wood finish
Tomatin 12 Year old
Benriach 12 year old sherry wood finish
Glenlivet Nadurra oloroso cask strength
Loch Lomond 12 year old
Arran Bothy Quarter Cask
Glen Grant 10 year old
Glen Grant The Major’s Reserve
Paul John Classic Indian Whisky
Glendronach 8 Year old The Hielan
Bunnahabhain 12 year old
Glen Scotia Double Cask
Inchmurrin Madeira Wood Finish

Single Grain Whisky

Bains Single grain South African Whisky
Teeling Single grain Irish
Loch Lomond Single Grain

Blended Malt Whisky

Wemyss Treacle Chest Blended malt
Wemyss The Hive
Wemyss Family Collection Flaming Feast
Wemyss Family Collection Blooming Gorse
Wemyss Spice King Batch Strength

Blended Whisky (Malt and Grain)

Cutty Sark Prohibition 50%
West Cork Blended cask strength 62%
Skibbereen Eagle Irish
Antiquity Blue Indian

Tag: Blends

Matt’s Blended Tasting – Six at Seatoun