Tag Archives: Featured

Whisky of the Month

Springbank Single Cask 19 Year Old

1 Comment
Springbank 19 Single Cask

Notes by member Tamara Maurer.

Campbeltown Single Malt Scotch Whisky

Aged: 19 years

Distilled on: May 1997

Bottled on: May 2016

Matured in: Sherry Cask

Bottles: 390

Alcohol: 55.6%

Our purchase price: $390 CAN

Club rating: 4.01/5

When I saw this rare Springbank sitting on a dusty shelf in a private liquor dealer in Santa Monica California, there was no doubt that it would be one of the bottles I lugged back to Ontario.

Such a treat to have this as part of the collection. When I finally found an occasion to crack it open 3 years after nervously standing at the luggage carousel praying it made the journey unharmed, it did not disappoint. A beautiful colour (the last of a dying sunset over Lake Huron under a cloudless sky? Too much?) with no colour additives per Springbank’s usual practice, this whisky could have been a song of sweetness, but is muted due to its high alcohol content, at 55.6%. With an unmistakable sherry influence, this gem is genuinely unique, mixing vanilla sweetness with the saltiness of the Campbeltown sea influence. Peppery and spicy, with nothing floral or too funky.

Pure elegance, in a quirky way that is so, so Springbank.

(Note: we did sample this whisky with and without a drop of water, as recommended by past reviewers. It made a significant impact on the palate, becoming much creamier tasting with the water, with a stronger sherry punch. The club seemed to prefer it with water overall).

(Note 2: Although not a fair inclusion in a review of the whisky itself, I will add that my one criticism of this whisky is its packaging. Springbank continues to bottle its whisky in a decidedly “oldschool” fashion. Although I enjoy the love of tradition, this particular bottle should have packaging to match its specialness, rather than a nondescript bottle with a flimsy open cardboard box)

News

An Evening with Gibson’s Finest, February 22, 2019

Leave a comment

Presented by Expensive Taste:

The Club had the good fortune of having Josh Groom the global brand ambassador/customer relations guru (not sure of the title) from Gibson’s Finest Canadian Whisky in to Kitchener for a guided tasting of four Gibson’s Finest expressions.

Prior to our evening tasting, Josh from Gibson’s had sent some parcels to our tasting location, which we soon learned, contained three different types of glassware for the event and some other Gibson’s swag, more on that shortly.

From the outset this appeared to be a different type of guided tasting than the club has had in the past, and to put it lightly, Josh did not disappoint.  To get the night going Josh whipped up an “Old Fashioned” mix drink for each member mixed with the Gibson’s Finest 12 Year Old Rare, simple syrup, bitters and a slice of orange peel.  What a fantastic drink, we would highly recommend using this spirit for your mixed cocktails.

The evenings taster’s consisted of the four Gibson’s Finest expressions shown below:

  • Gibson’s Finest Sterling
  • Gibson’s Finest Bold 8 Year
  • Gibson’s Finest Rare 12 Year
  • Gibson’s Finest Venerable 18 Year

After the mixed Old-Fashioned cocktail, we started out with the Sterling, here are some brief tasting notes:

Nose: Sweet and fruity. Mild and slightly floral caramel and rye spices also slight nuttiness

Palate: Creamy with many fruit notes, the fruit, apples, berries, just hints of cherry ice cream – Caramel notes fade quickly, leaving a pleasant warmth behind

Finish: Medium. Fading on tingly peppery spices and caramel. The berry tones return with citrus zest

Next up was the Gibson’s Finest Bold 8 Year:

The Bold is bottled at 46% ABV and Josh mentioned that it is finished in a darkened toasted barrel with a level three char.  Josh flipped over the bottle display he brought with him, revealing that  it was a charred piece of the finishing barrel. It was interesting to see the level of char and you could tell how the spirit picked up colour and flavour from the toasted wood finishing.  The maturation process in level three charred barrels made this expression the surprise of the night.

Here are some basic notes:

Nose:  Dark and rich molasses, dense rye bread, orange peel, oak, roasted grain, rich maple butter, coconut cream, hazelnut toffee. Terrific.

Palate: Rich grain, corn, rye – alongside some peppery spices, plums, orange, and a light coating of oaky vanilla. Seeing this at 46% makes me wish Gibson’s did this with all their whiskies – it is a phenomenal difference in ramping up flavour, spice, and finish.

Finish: Lots of sweet grains, cinnamon, and clove. Slightly tangy- and very nicely dry, so smooth.

Gibson’s third offering of the night is the one that’s most familiar, the Rare 12 Year, colloquially known as “Gibby Gold” amongst the members of Expensive Taste KW as this expression was once called Gibson’s gold.  With the Gibson’s brand this is the whisky I most identify with and is always a go to when I am in the market for Canadian whisky.

Here are some notes on this delicious expression:

Nose:  Sweet fruit with oaky notes, wood does not overpower, butterscotch, apple, cherry, dry tobacco leaves followed by milder suggestions of dry grain, impart greater depth

Palate: Sweet and silky, but with lots of bitter citric zest, fresh-cut wood, spicy white pepper and hints of ginger, pepper and cinnamon. Fresh fruit and inklings of rye spices including cloves and Christmas pudding round it out.

Finish: Medium long, hot and peppery, some sweetness, citrus, fading while the pepper lingers.

To finish off the tasting event we had the pleasure of tasting Gibson’s Finest Venerable 18 Year.  What a fantastic whisky, this is such a smooth, more complex dram thanks to the increased maturity.

Nose: Very creamy sensation from the start, with oaky caramel, butterscotch and vanilla aromas that seem more like creme caramel, plum, pear, something slightly nutty.

Palate: Much the same flavours as found on the nose, with even more vanilla up. Luxurious creamy mouthfeel. Rye “baking spices” (nutmeg, cinnamon, touch of cloves, a bit of bourbon sweetness throughout. Finally, a touch of bitterness

Finish: Sweet, creamy, smooth clean finish, with a touch of vanilla

Overall during the tasting event Josh from Gibson’s was a fantastic storyteller, delivering the background history of the brand in an engaging and exciting way. He was able to immerse us in the world of Gibson’s Finest.  In addition to the glassware that was provided to the club he also had additional brand swag with hats, books and Gibson’s Finest tin bar signs.  Overall, this strengthened my and the clubs love of great Canadian whisky, it worked pretty-damn well as just the other day I picked up a bottle of the 12 year.

 

Get yourself a bottle of one of these fine Canadian Whiskies and you will not be disappointed.

 

Thank you again to Josh for the great entertaining evening with four wonderful expressions of Gibson’s Finest Whisky!

 

Whisky of the Month

Scapa Glansa Single Malt

Leave a comment
Scapa Glansa

Scapa Glansa,

The name Glansa is taken from Old Norse and means ‘shining storm-laden skies’

Limited Availability at the LCBO

40% ABV

$83.60

I’m reminded of an early damp spring morning, with a blustery wind at my back. I have selected my driver as I’m not sure I can reach the par 3 220 yard 10th hole at Orkney Golf Club. This old style classic Scottish links course is providing quite the test for my amateur at best golf skills. With the salted bite of the cool sea air in the breeze, I am reminded of my hip flask full of this warm mysterious dram, picked up on a visit yesterday to the nearby Scapa distillery about 2 kms down the Scottish countryside. I pause to look over the the lush green landscape and the nearby shoreline. I take a swig of the Scapa Glansa… I’m instantly warmed by the light peated flavour and taken back to days gone by.  The sweet palate brings a euphoric sense of pleasure to my taste buds. As the finish finds me like the sunshine that has opened the clouds and has brightened up this old style links course. I am warmed by not only the rays of sunshine, but the warmth of this succulent dram, shame I am drinking it out of the hip flask as this whisky needs a proper Glencairn. I take a deep breath and a whisper of the salty warm delicate smoke fills my nostrils and tickles my senses. I smile and know that this will be a dram that provides the inspiration to approach this daunting par 3. I tee it up and unleash my swing, the swing and contact is pure. The brisk breeze knocks my drive down short of the green but in relative safety. I go for another nip and I am reminded why I made the trip from the mainland to the Orkney Islands during my travels to Scotland last year. As I sit crafting these notes in my basement bar, all it takes is the pop of the cork on my bottle of Scapa Glansa to transport me right back, to a place I would love to visit time and time again. Hey, maybe one of these times I’ll even par that 220 yard par 3.

Scapa Glansa is highly recommended, let this dram transport you on a taste adventure to the Orkney Islands.

For more information visit
http://scapawhisky.com/

Joshua Campbell

Whisky of the Month

Glengoyne 25 Year Old

Leave a comment

 

On January 26, 2019 we had a the opportunity to have the Glengoyne 25 Year Old as one of our featured tasters as we celebrated our 11 Year Anniversary as a Whisky club.

Club member Tamara has added her notes:

Glengoyne 25 Years

Specs:

Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky

Aged: 25 years

Matured in: Sherry Cask

Alcohol: 48.0%

Our purchase price: $485 CAD

Glengoyne 25 was not a hard sell on me from the get-go, generally being a fan of sherry casks.

Rich & spicy, with no peat, this whisky is a beautiful and impressive amber colour, a baseline signature of the sherry cask. My first impression, it tastes like it looks! On the brown sugary sweet side, but not too sweet, it reminded me of Grandma’s Christmas fruitcake, which would perennially appear on the kitchen counter around December 25 throughout my childhood, and which would still be there come March, mysteriously intact. I never developed the taste for indestructible cake crammed with old dried fruit, but I’ll take these homey flavours in my whisky. Throw in a little orange flavour, a few nuts (walnuts, almonds?) and bam! A bottle that I certainly would include as a highlight of my personal collection. Apologies however, the LCBO does not carry this bottle, making it difficult to obtain in Ontario.

Other common comments from online reviews are notes of old leather, cinnamon and licorice, which were not the stand out elements for me in sampling this bottle. Kensington Wine Market reviews this whisky on their website as “one of the best releases by any distillery in the last few years”. This whisky also won Gold at both the Asian Spirits Masters 2018 and the San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2017.

The distillery’s slogan, “Unhurried since 1833”, reflects perfectly in this bottle. Very easy to drink and a definite go-back-for seconds experience. Overall, a great selection for those who want a complex, rich whisky without the smoke. Skip the dessert, just have a Glengoyne!

Wow what an endorsement, if the above notes strike you we would highly recommend this Glengoyne expression.  Cheers!

Whisky of the Month

Craigellachie 23 Year Old Single Malt

Leave a comment

The club recently celebrated our 11 Year Anniversary and this was bottle #2 in our tasting range for the evening, notes by member Adam Buchholtz.

Craigellachie 23 Year Old Single Malt

Specs: Speyside Scotch Whisky

Matured in: American Oak Cask

Alcohol: 46%

Our Purchase Price: $535.85 (LCBO in Ontario)

Nose: The first impression on the nose of this whisky is quite complex. I picked up some peppery notes, with an aromatic spice blend, along with something akin to sulphur. It seemed like quite a pungent smell, with a hint of sea salt mixed in. Absent for me were the fruity notes that are mentioned in many a review of this whisky, however I was so excited to taste it, that it may not have had the requisite time in the glass to fully envelope my senses.

Taste: Immediately I got an old leathery taste, almost rawhide-esk, to go along with a very oily mouthfeel. I was surprised at how different this expression is from their younger age statement bottles. With the taste also came a range of fruits, mostly tropical and citrusy in nature, like pineapple, orange, or even grapefruit. It meshed surprisingly well with the leathery flavours and made for a complex dram.

Finish: Again the oiliness was evident on the finish, with some heat from pepper notes, but also sweet citrus, with a touch of honey. It lasted quite a while, with a dryness to it that allowed it to linger.

Overall: The Craigellachie 23 is a complex scotch, as should be expected from anything that has been matured in American Oak for 23 years. However at the price point, it isn’t a bottle that I would strive to add to my personal collection. It is definitely worth a taste if you should be able, but I would not go out of my way for another dram

Whisky of the Month

Collectivum XXVIII-Special Release 2017

Leave a comment

Background from Mater of Malt website:

There was quite the hullabaloo when Diageo announced that its 2017 Special Releases series would include a blended malt for the first time. Luckily, Collectivum XXVIII lives up to the hype. Not only does the expression include malt from every single operational Diageo distillery*, its also really rather lovely. It’s the only blend of its kind ever released, and at 57.3% ABV, it packs quite the (tasty) punch.

*There’s 28. We counted them: Auchroisk, Benrinnes, Blair Athol, Caol Ila, Cardhu, Clynelish, Cragganmore, Dailuaine, Dalwhinnie, Dufftown, Glendullan, Glen Elgin, Glenkinchie, Glenlossie, Glen Ord, Glen Spey, Inchgower, Knockando, Lagavulin, Linkwood, Mannochmore, Mortlach, Oban, Roseisle, Royal Lochnagar, Strathmill, Talisker and Teaninich.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: Chocolate, sweet cake, red berries and  a hint of apples to start. Custard and cocoa sit underneath and a sprinkle of candied lemon lies on top.

Palate: Quite hot to start – it takes water well – with intense cinnamon and nutmeg spiciness. Orchard fruit comes in through the middle, surrounded by lemon and orange. Spice fades and then builds again, with liquorice and hints of smoke at the back.

Finish: Damp leaves and spice fading to chocolate milk.

Comment: A densely packed dram that needs time to reveal itself. A drop of water helps – while it’s great that the Special Releases are bottled at full strength, this one definitely needs a drop to show its full potential.

Bottom line if you have a chance to try it, it’s well worth your time and money, great work on this blend Diageo.

Whisky of the Month

Glenglassaugh Torfa

Leave a comment

Torfa bottling notes: We’ve seen the Revival and the Evolution, and now Glenglassaugh are adding a peated expression to their range. The Torfa (which refers to the Old Norse word for turf or peat) has been matured in ex-bourbon barrels and weighs in at 20 PPM. We love to see that Glenglassaugh is back up and running again after being closed for over 20 years, and they’ve even got enough momentum to try new things, as this is their first peated single malt Scotch whisky!