Glenrothes Archives - Rant And Whisky

Over the weekend of 4^th and 5^th of March I got to go to New Zealand’s premier whisky event, Dramfest.

Before I went, my wife told me to treat this like an adventure – very good advice, as you will see.

Saturday morning flight to Christchurch and off to the Te Pai Convention Centre at 12:30 to be meet a queue of other Whisky addicts. Te Pai has plenty of space and the show was well laid out on one level (t as the afternoon went on, that was good as everybody became relaxed in various degrees of inattention).

After a lovely bagpipe intro, the stands were allowed to pour.

The Show

This year I decided to forgo the master classes and instead just do the stands. At previous Dramfests I have gone to every master class available; this time I wanted to spend more time just mingling.

On Saturday I managed to try about forty drams, the majority cask strength (the Wellington Curse).

Saturday picks

My pick for the day – and indeed as one of the stand outs for Dramfest – was the Cotswolds Founders Choice at a hefty 60.5% ABV. My notes record just the word “Wow” under Nose, with the same recorded in Taste. I don’t usually limit myself to a few words, but this was fantastic.

The next memorable stand was the Alistair Walker Whisky Company. They had two drams that stood out: the Infrequent Flyers Benriach at 57.2% and the Glenrothes at 62.8%. I feel the Benriach nudged ahead and indeed shares my first equal as the best dram of the weekend with the Founders Choice.

The impact of 40 high-strength whiskies during Saturday afternoon created a few internal GPS issues.

A surprising Saturday find for me was the Sagamore Spirit stand. Sagamore make Rye whiskey, and I like Rye whiskey. Two drams on the stand stood out, mainly by not having that minty taste you sometimes get with Rye. I found one not listed in the menu but that had a very much a Wow moment – the Sherry Finish Rye finished in PX sherry barrels at 52%. It came at you in two layers on the taste, and I hope Whisky Galore gets more in!

The Adventure – aka Pat’s Magical Mystery Tour

The Te Pai venue is 200 metres in a straight-ish line from our hotel – a short walk. However, the impact of 40 high-strength whiskies during Saturday afternoon created a few internal GPS issues, and getting to the hotel became a much greater challenge than anticipated.

I had walked four blocks past my hotel before I encountered another Dramfest attendee.

“Pat, you’ve gone too far. You need to turn around and go back into town.”

So I went back three blocks, then sat down thinking “This is hard work!”

There followed a text conversation with my wife (who was waiting with deteriorating patience in the hotel lobby) – refer photos below. My part in the conversation was rather confused, and my wife was not amused in the slightest. I walked the last block and saw a large neon sign identifying the hotel. Bliss.

Screen Print 1 – **Blue messages are from Mrs Pat.**

For clarity, the phrase “No funding idwa” contains typing errors.

Sunday

I started the Sunday session with the Kavalan 58.6% Port finish. It is amazing, and surprisingly better than their Sherry finish.

The New Zealanders

I was taken aback with delight by the New Zealand offerings at Dramfest, and my Sunday tour of various NZ distillers’ stands revealed some new delights.

I visited the stand of Christchurch’s own Spirits Workshop, with their 5-year-old Divergence 5 and the new bottling of the Portwood in tawny casks.

Next was the Pokeno Whisky stand. The Origin was a lovely smooth dram, but the pick was the Prohibition Porter from a first fill bourbon single cask – dark chocolate all the way and very smooth indeed. I had to leave the stand; staying was far too far too tempting.

Then on to Waiheke Whisky. I had sort of written Waiheke off a few months back after tasting some of their sample minis. After tasting their offerings at Dramfest, I admit I definitely was wrong. They gave me the Dramfest special bottling at 46%. There is amazing mouth feel and, typical of NZ peat, just a hint of sea, smooth with a long finish.

I was then given a dram called Cantankerous which they said was for a cantankerous person. Moi??? Again, this dram was not on the menu. It is excellent and well worth finding – if you can.

Going home

No worries getting back to the hotel this time.

It is always a pleasure to go to a world class event here in NZ and, as usual, the team at Whisky Galore have done an superb job in a great venue.

Silly Statistics

Because we were interested (and a little bit bored) we analysed some of the numbers in the Dramfest catalogue. They make for quite interesting reading.

The total price of all bottle in the catalogue: $34,320.76

The average prince: $138.39

The highest orice: the Glenfiddich “Grand Cru” 23yo 40% $592.00
Second: the Buffalo Trace Stagg JR 64.2% $401.00
Third: The Whisky Cellar Cambus Single Grain33yo 52.5% $386.00

On the (probably slightly under attended) Black Tot rum stand on Sunday, we used three bottles of each of the two drams we had. Assuming the same level of consumption for all the other stands over the two days, that is $205,900 worth of whisky consumed!

And that wildly undependable calculation:
– undoubtedly understates the number of bottles used on many of the stands,
– does not include the values of the “under the counter” bottles, or
– the value of merchandise sales from the front shop.

This article is assembled from detail kindly provided from Daniel’s highly competent whiteboard notes, and with Ian & John D’s best recollections of proceedings. Scoring is from Ian and John, together with the overall group average scoring and the group’s final placing.

Many thanks to Richard Mayston for his photography.

The Book of Great Whisky Tastings

There is a book being written somewhere that will be entitled The Book of Great Whisky Tastings.

To be fair, in my experience there are not many bad whisky tastings.

However, every now and again one comes along that absolutely hits the headlines – the Springbank and associates tasting in Wellington after the 2018 Dramfest is a memorable example.

But now we have new heights! Kurt’s Dark Matter tasting – the seven Sherry Bombs Tasting to rule the world!

On our arrival, Kurt welcomed us and offered us an introductory dram. There were a dozen black Glencairn glasses on the kitchen top, so Kurt had been busy ensuring that we could not even guess the whisky from the colour. After a lot of educated – and a few less so – guesses were made, Ian shouted “Imperial” and got lucky. It was one of the G&M Imperials that was the most common way people got to try product from this demolished Speyside distillery.

The Seven Tastings Line-up.

All seven whiskies were tasted blind. What was in each glass was not revealed until the commentary, the scoring and the guesses were complete.

In glass order (the names have been added with the advantage of hindsight):

Adelphi Laudale Batch Release No 3, 12 yo, 46%

Nose: Rum & raisin, a cardboard box of stewed raisins, sage with peach and marker pen. It smells old, like a dirty barrel, a forest floor and fresh cut grass with pineapple lumps, liquorice and marshmallow.
Palette: Christmas cake with custard, thin, bitter, lemon, metallic.
Finish: Short, going tannic. Slightly bitter, tamarillo, waxy, chocolate orange and roasted coffee.
Score: John 7.4, Ian 8.5, The Group 8.92
Place: 6^th

There is a book being written somewhere that will be entitled The Book of Great Whisky Tastings.

Adelphi Hororata Linkwood 11yo, 55.4% ex-sherry

Nose: Dark chocolate, coffee caramel chews. Young and feisty, with vinegar, leather, sherbet and Turkish delight, lavender, and asparagus.
Palette: Oranges, boiled sweets, dry but balanced.
Finish: Lapsang tea leaves, not fully together, young, dusty and slightly ragged.
Score: John 8.3, Ian 8.3, The Group 8.7
Place: 7^th

The Whisky Barrel One Giant Leap – Deanston, 10yo 61.6%, first fill Pedro Ximenes

Nose: Stinky, marmite, dark chocolate, decomposing cabbage, potato chips, almonds, bonfire, buddha stick, earl grey tea, gun powder
Palette: Hot, better than the nose, chilli, chocolate cake, marmite, creamy
Finish: Spicy, stewed tea, sage bonbons, menthol, waxy & alcohol
Score: John 7.5, Ian 8.2, The Group 9.37
Place: 3^rd

G&M Balblair 1993, 49/6% first fill puncheon

Nose: Meadow grass, apple tarts, Turkish coffee, condensed milk, brown sugar, stale chocolate, nectarines, aged ham, modelling glue,
Palette: Raw runner beans, sherry casks, pleasant plums, soft.
Finish: Huge, sweet, dry, a drinker, sticky, chocolate, PX.
Score: John 7.8, Ian 8.4, The Group 9.03
Place: 5^th

Adelphi Glenrothes 8 yo 66.6% one of 315 bottles

Nose: Walnuts, plums, mahogany, bee pollen, oranges, simple and elegant.
Palette: Not very old, anaesthetic, grubby
Finish: Alcohol buzz, chocolate powder
Score: John 9.4, Ian 8.7, The Group 9.46
Place: 2^nd

Adelphi Blair Athol, 21yo, 57.2%, Sherry Hogshead (The Mystery)

Nose: Dark fudge chocolate, floral, raisins, camphor, copper, an unlit cigarette, blueberry tarts, toffee apples, plum pudding
Palette: Pureed fruit pudding, Turkish delight lollies, a menthol cigarette, chocolate-covered plums.
Finish: Chewy date pudding and hospitals. Fantastic!
Scores: John 9.5, Ian 8.8, The Group 9.1
Place: 1^st

Adelphi Teaninich 12yo 55.9% first fill Sherry Butt

Nose: Autumn leaves, caramel, a leather seat in a new car, cooking apples and figs, and a dirty bookcase.
Palette: Liquorice, spearmint and vine fruit.
Finish: Chewy and yummy
Scores: John 9.1, Ian 8.6, The Group 9.1
Place: 4^th

The “After-Match” Function

From Ian’s notes:

Once the main proceedings were finished. Kurt offered some yummy food to soak up the alcohol and attention turned to a range of novel drams that people had brought for others to try.

Meeting in a convivial atmosphere brings out the sharing nature: there is too much whisky in the world to buy a bottle of, and each of us has only a limited exposure. It is nice to try something someone picked up in some store or on their pre-Covid travels that they think is worth a wider audience.

Pat brought a bottle of peated French whisky. It was a little synthetic to start with and a bit raw, but I liked how the peat worked with the spirit – I scored it a 7.9 but I did not make any detailed notes. The French consume a lot of whisky so it makes sense that they also have a few distilleries of their own. This was a first for me and probably for many people present – a great choice by Pat.

From Mel, a dark Adelphi Benriach 8yo 59.1% #34 to fit into proceedings: dark chocolate, Phoenix cola – score 8.5. Matt’s comment: a face full of salty raisins

From Kurt, an Adelphi Inchgower 2007 12yo 55.8% Hororata bottling. I didn’t score it but it was in the 8-8.5 region.

I poured a mystery sherried whisky which no-one seriously objected to – a 12yo Jura, from Douglas Laing, finished in PX. I would say you would be hard pushed to recognise it as a Jura.

The Wrap-Up

For someone with mobility issues, it is quite a walk up paths and stairs to Kurt’s house. It’s a more perilous trek back down the paths and stairs four-and-a-half hours later.

But the time spent in between the climb and the trek back was sublime.

And mobility issues are taken for granted after drinking a wide range of good whiskies for that long. My personal thanks to Pat for moral and physical support on the return journey.

And an enormous vote of thanks to Kurt for the event, for his organisation and especially his hospitality.

Slainte mhath

Tag: Glenrothes

Dramfest 2023 Review – Chapter 2 – The Adventures of Pat