Choice FM

Ok, here's a little scoop for you....some of you will have already heard about Diageo's plans to release a Manager's Choice single cask bottling from each of their operational distilleries (except for Roseisle, which is obviously not ready yet). We, like many of you received an excitable email recently about the release and immediately our appetites were whetted.

Here are the details of the first batch of distilleries, unveiled... a pretty attractive looking starting point:

Cardhu - distilled 1997- 252 bottles - £250

Glen Elgin - distilled 1998 - 534 bottles - £250

Linkwood - distilled 1996 - 480 bottles - £200

Mortlach- distilled 1997 - 240 bottles - £250

Oban- distilled 2000 - 534 bottles - £300

Teaninich - distilled 1996 - 246 bottles - £200

However, one thing keeps nagging away whilst I type this....the pricing.

Granted, some of these bottlings will become legendary- especially when we get into the Talisker/Lagavulin/Caol Ila territory (look at the 15 yo Caol Ila Manager's Dram of old - purportedly an astonishing sherried expression of Caol Ila & now retailing for around 500 quid).

But consider one thing:

At this years Feis Ile, the "Diageo-owned-operational-Islay-distilleries" both released single cask bottlings, of a similar age to the Managers Choice, hand selected by The Manager (or Iain McArthur in Lagavulin's case) which retailed for between 60 and 70 quid. That seems like pretty good value, in any financial climate. Okay, you had to get to Islay on a certain week at the end of May, but I can't help thinking that the new bottlings seem mightily expensive, especially when you can pick up one of these bottling on eBay (or equivalent site) for well under what the first batch of the Managers Choice's are being released at.

That said, these bottles are unique and individual. And to have a complete collection of Manager's Choice bottlings in one's cabinet would be pretty impressive, wouldn't it? This is mirrored in the press release where Classic Malts Selection spokesperson Nick Morgan says:

"We have occasionally issued single-cask bottlings of individual single malt whiskies before, for instance for visitors to the annual Islay Festival. And single-cask bottlings of our malts can sometimes be obtained from independent bottlers.

“But this is a much more ambitious venture - the most extensive collection we’ve ever released of single cask malt whisky bottlings, from 27 of our operational malt distilleries, involving both the well-known and those whose product isn’t widely available.

“Each individual distillery cask selected by the experts after an extensive examination has doubly earned its place in The Managers’ Choice, regardless of its age: because it faithfully illuminates that distillery's individual DNA, and also because it will offer the connoisseur a different, interesting and perhaps unexpected experience of that whisky.”

Hopefully at some point we'll be in a position to bring you a few notes on a couple of the Managers Choice whiskies but until then, you can re-enjoy the notes on the Caol Ila Feis Ile 2009 (Billy even put his signature on that bottle...) and the 2007, 2008 and 2009 single cask Lagavulins by clicking on the text.

Islay Festival 2009 - Day Eight

‘A bunch of prize tossers’

It was another early start on Friday as we had a lot of ground to cover. First up was a 9.30am tasting at Islay’s newest distillery, Kilchoman, where we were shown around by deputy manager Gavin Douglas who was filling in at short notice for Jim Swan who had been injured in an accident at home – our best wishes and hopes for a speedy recovery.

We hadn’t realised just how small Kilchoman was – it really is tiny. Small but perfectly-formed, I suppose. Gavin told us that the small stills produce only enough 45ppm spirit to fill three casks per day (a mix of fresh and refill bourbon plus some fresh sherry, although we also saw some French wine casks in the warehouse).

The warehouse was, like the rest of the distillery, small and full to bursting with barrels. The spirit we tasted was mostly 3yo from different cask types, and we all agreed that it had the potential to become seriously good whisky when it gets a bit older.

Kilchoman 2006, nearly 3yo. Matured in fresh bourbon, then re-racked into a sherry cask. 60ish %.

N: Vanilla, buttered toast, cream soda, muffins. Develops a faint TCP / bandages note with time.

P: Honey and smoke. Pretty peppery. A nice combination of sweetness and soot.

F: Becomes grassy and medicinal.

With the tasting finished, we motored over to Bruichladdich to say a quick hello to our friend Jo in the warehouse. We only popped in for a minute as we were running late for a lunchtime tasting at Bunnahabhain, but we still managed to fit in a bit of an exclusive: full-term sherried Octomore!

Octomore 2004 Sherry Cask, 67.1% (!!)

N: Honey and tweed, rather pleasant. A little closed, though what’s there is pretty promising.

P: Boom! Massively phenolic as expected and, unlike the other two Octomores we’ve tried, some balancing sweetness in the form of honeycomb – real Crunchie bar character. The coalsmoke and burnt wood win through, but this has real potential.

F: Hot and smoky like a roaring coal fire, but with a thread of honey that really adds to the fun. This is definitely the most interesting Octomore we’ve tried so far.

Having said our thank-yous to Jo, we jumped back into our trusty Focus and roared down to Bunnahabhain, arriving in the nick of time for our blending masterclass, which was run by blender Kirsty McCallum from Burn Stewart. This was great fun, with the tables festooned with measuring cylinders and plastic beakers as well as the expected tasting glasses (Glencairn must do bloody well out of this festival, by the way).

In the event, just as with the Nosing contest a few days before, we were rubbish and didn’t win, although Faceman got pretty close. However, the best was yet to come. It transpired that Ian Millar, master distiller and Global Brand Ambassador for Glenfiddich, was sitting at our table with some whisky mates from Dufftown.

At the end of the competition, Ian calmly plonked an incredibly old and rare Bunnahabhain on the table and announced that he’d been given it a while ago and that this seemed like a good time for it to be drunk! The room was taken aback by this very generous gesture, but recovered quickly and got stuck into what turned out to be one of the best malts we tried in the whole week.

Bunnahabhain 1976, 31yo 47.3% bottled in 208 for Falster (which seems to be a Danish hotel). Check out the amazing metal label.

N: Wow. Pure rhubarb and custard – with the emphasis on the custard. To pick a few more things at random from the swirl of lovely flavours: Green apple, apple pie, caramelised sugar, crushed almonds, pineapple cubes. Sensational.

P: Again, fabulous quality. Amazing apple crumble flavours, spice, cinnamon, clove, a hint of woodsmoke / bonfire. Blackberry pie.

F: Longer and more graceful than a supermodel’s legs. Absolutely beautiful.

Very special, heartfelt thanks to Ian Millar of Glenfiddich for an absolutely wonderful dram. This was up there with the 1968 Auld Aquaintance as the best Bunna I’ve ever tried.

We were pretty hungry after all this dramming and it was still only 2pm, so on exiting the tasting we joined the queue for a burger. There were probably 20 people ahead of us. Forty-five minutes later there were still five or so people ahead of us. After an hour we were at the front and pretty cross. It seemed that the people running the BBQ had been unable to grasp that the burgers weren’t cooking because of a lack of fuel. We watched as burgers that had been on the grill for ten minutes were turned over still raw and decided to sack it off.

Thankfully, the vegetarian Faceman had been in the queue for the spectacular scallops (actually he’d been through the queue twice in the time we were waiting for a burger) and was able to contribute a few delicious morsels. Disconsolate and still pretty hungry we trooped round to the lawn in front of Bunna’s cottages for the mini-Highland games, where we met up with our Austrian friends Eva and Jasmine and our Swiss chums Bernard and Risto.

After some fairly pathetic horseshoe throwing (none of us got more than one shoe anywhere near the pole), we moved on to the caber tossing. Joel’s massive pole was too big for him to get both hands round, so his attempts to toss it off were largely unsuccessful. Neil, on the other hand, was a natural, and he quickly proved to be a magnificent tosser of his admittedly smaller caber.

We were still hankering after a burger, so we decided to head for home by way of the Co-op for some instant BBQs. On our return to the lodge we managed to knock out some delicious scallops, a tuna steak, some chicken and half a dozen burgers in record time, and feeling suitably refuelled we headed back into Bowmore to our pre-arranged forum meet-up in the Lochside.

Duffie’s bar was heaving, but fortunately we ran into Gordon & Mel from Spirit of Islay as soon as we walked in. Willie JJ and Malcolm were also there and before long we were joined by Eva, Jasmine, Bernard and Risto. Islay ales and a couple of drams were consumed over a great chat before we headed our separate ways – it’d been a long day, not without its trials - and we needed our beauty sleep if we were going to be at our best for our big day at Ardbeg the following day...

Islay Festival 2009 - Day Seven

“Can I throw my apple-core in the sea?”



Ahhh! A rare lie-in for the bloggers with just an 11am start to our day. Bliss! Today was another day of tastings and we were very much focused on Laphroaig, kicking off with an “Old vs New” tasting, which lined up the now discontinued 15 Year Old vs. the new 18 Year Old and the Old Cask Strength 10 Year Old vs the new Cask Strength 10 Year Old, Batch 001 (Feb 2009).

Presented by Simon Brooking, Brand Ambassador for Laphroaig for North America and Vicky Stephens, the Visitor Centre Manager, this tasting was a great way to compare the out-going product with the newer replacements.

Especially nice is the Cask Strength 10 Year Old (Batch 001). Apparently, according to new laws, when bottling a cask strength vatting, distilleries must now publish a batch number and a year of bottling. This “first edition”, they said, would sell out extra fast as a result. They also said that there’d be 6000 cases, though, so probably no need to panic just yet.

In terms of difference between the current version and the new edition, the main differences are that the new version is sweeter on the nose and sootier on the palate, with notes of Fishermen’s Friends, clove and potato peelings. Great long, warm finish.

After receiving our Laphroaig ‘rent’ (certificates and a mini of Quarter cask), we headed for a quick cheese cob for lunch in Port Ellen, before heading back up to Laphroaig for one of the best events thus far: “Source, Peat, Malt; The Hands-on Laphroaig Experience” with John Campbell, Laphroaig’s distillery manager.



This started with us donning wellies and jumping into the Laphroaig-mobile and being driven up to near the water source, the Kilbride reservoir, where we had a quick dram of the 10yo and tasted the peaty water while John regaled us with a tale of the early 20th-century dispute with near neighbours Lagavulin over the water source.


Back in the car, after a quick pose for John’s Tweet update, we drove down towards the airport to the bog where Laphroaig get all their peat for their own maltings. Before we could tuck into the new cask strength (accompanied by the delicious Laphroaig cheese) we had to earn our dram by cutting some new peat from the bog. This proved rather comical, with Joel turning out to be a natural, while Neil had rather less success (something to do with his Chappish aversion to a hard days work, no doubt).


After much hilarity, we bounced back into the people-carrier and headed back to the distillery where we took in the floor malting. We thought the laughs were over for this tour, but more fun was to be had with all of our thoroughly inept performances on the malting floor (special mention for Tim’s inept performance at the steeping bin).

As the evening beckoned we headed into Bowmore for the Homecoming parade.
At 6.30pm it seemed like the whole island had lined the streets of Bowmore in anticipation. However, this being Islay time, the event kicked off a little late, giving us plenty of time to assume prime viewing positions at the bottom of the street.


The earlier overcast skies had cleared, leaving a warm evening with a bewitching late afternoon sun fading to twilight as the distillery managers led the parade to the square, followed by assorted emergency services, Brownies, kid’s football teams and a horde of enthusiastic flag-waving ankle-biters. After the compulsory speech from Lord Robertson (probably the last politician with any credibility on Islay, being a local lad), it was time for the party to commence with the distillery managers introducing local acts and Scottish bands for the evening’s entertainment.



Meanwhile, our alter egos, Mandate, had drifted down to the harbour wall to catch another glorious sunset, with the late evening rays bursting through clouds onto the shimmering waters of Loch Indaal. It was yet another special moment in what has become an almost transcendental trip.

Feis Ile Day Five

Feis Ile Day Five: Ardbeg & Laphroaig

After shaking the bed out to check for any errant sand fleas that might have escaped the heel of a brogue the night before, our team assembled around the breakfast table for scotch pancakes and Sugarpuffs.

Darrell, looking particularly tired, remarked that room-mate Tim’s snoring was akin to a cornered Rottweiller, or, to be slightly more specific, a suffocating wild boar. As expressions of wonder and condolence were wished to the long-suffering Mrs F, an abashed Tim announced his intention to sleep in self-imposed exile on the sofa for the rest of the festival.
After much guffawing (mostly at Tim’s expense), we hot-footed it down to Ardbeg for our first tasting of the week with Mickey Heads.
The line up promised some recent committee bottlings, as well as a mouth-watering flight of recent single casks which got our pulses racing the moment we strolled into the newly refurbished tasting room upstairs at the distillery. Luckily for us, the two Feis Ile bottlings were included so, with a huge smile, we let battle commence!!

Corryvreckan – Committee Bottling- 57.2% - 70cl

N: Notes of creosote, cloves and mint, with a really oily overtone.

P: Linseed oil, sweet minty humbugs with hints of licorice.

F: Long and oily. A delicious dram- will we see this as part of the core range soon?? Come on Ardbeg!! (and please keep it at cask strength!!)

Supernova – 58.9% (already reviewed recently, but still a cracking dram, if not a little expensive now it’s commercially released)

Ardbeg - Single Cask Bottling – cask number 772 – 55.7% - 70cl – First fill bourbon.

N: Honey, lemon, a light waft of sea spray and some menthol notes, mixed with a lovely undertone of pralines and mature cheddar. There’s also fruit salad sweets and sugared almonds on this as well.

P: Very detailed on the palate, with rosewater and fondant notes plus some sherbert and rich toffees. Coffee powder. Dime bars. Then the peat – pretty huge – with wood spice, cocoa and marshmallows.

F: Salty sea spray again, with throat lozenges and a touch of light milky coffee right on the death. Highly drinkable and an indication of some great whisky to come.

Ardbeg – Single Cask Bottling – cask number 1189 – distilled 11/5/98 – bottled 10/12/08- 54% -70cl - Toasted oak – 252 bottles exclusive to the 2009 Feis Ile

For a young whisky, the colour of this whisky was truly something else!!

N: orange peel, clear honey, hints of bacon smoke, church pews, wool and that milky coffee again. With water some wonderful vanilla notes come to the fore, giving you aromas of Caramac, and custard tart.

P: Initial sips reveal very dark Arabic coffee with more of the dry wood vanilla notes and tannic flavours. Toast, furniture polish, leather, old books and stewed fruit. Becomes slightly drying.

F: A rich, woody finish with some dried fruits. Excellent, balanced and overall, a sensational bottling. We all adored this.

Ardbeg– Single Cask Bottling – cask number 1190 – distilled 11/5/98 – bottled 10/12/09 – 54.7% - 70cl - Toasted oak –282 bottles exclusive to the 2009 Feis Ile

N: Noticeable orange bitters (Tonka beans anyone…. ;-) with more woody notes like its sister cask. This one has a much more dark zesty element (blood oranges), mahogany furniture and a sweet aromatic note, rather like Dr Pepper! Some almost rancio-esque notes of leather, raisins and old wood.

P: The wood influence gives this a very dry mouth feel, but it isn’t all one-sided, with a lovely rich vanilla sweetness like home made ice cream milkshakes. Faintly briney.

F: Very heady and aromatic, with something vaguely botanical coming through at the very end. Cask 1189 edges it in the perfection stakes, but don’t underestimate this dram- it’s another killer dram. Ardbeg’s bottlings are both sensational this year.

By the time we’d finished our tasting, the Kiln Café was heaving and we managed to find a table, for a spot of lunch with Willie JJ and pal Malcolm. Several sensational meals later (including an eye bulging tablet ice cream Pavlova for dessert) and we ambled down to Laphroaig for our 2nd tasting of the day.

Last years FI bottling of Cairdeas was a let down, compared to the others available, so we had high hopes that this years, a caskstrength, 12 yo version was considerably better.
The filling store was our destination for a very informative demonstration from Distillery Manager, John Campbell, Master Blender Robert Hicks and UU Brand Ambassador for Laphroaig, Simon Brooking. Before any whiskies were actually drunk, Robert took the group through a nosing of 3 poor quality casks, to highlight the problem of bad wood and its effect on the spirit inside.

The tasting consisted of five very different whiskies:

Laphroaig Cairdeas – 12 yo – caskstrength release- Feis Ile 2009 – 5000 bottles

N: Pencil shavings, red berries, dry leaves and strawberries with fresh cream all leap out the glass. With water, aromas of toffee and bananas develop.

P: Saltiness at first, but a very fruity dram with a restrained peat (unlike the Quarter Cask or Cask Strength 10 yo)

F: Long peaty and fresh. A huge improvement on last years bottling, that’s for sure!

Laphroaig – Triple Wood

This is a whisky matured in 3 types of cask- Bourbon barrels, Quarter casks and then finally rested in European sherry for 9-10 months.

N: Hints of vanilla custard, nutmeg Menthol, with a slight farmyard/wet hay undertone. With a little water, the peat aspects come through mixed with a little lemon drizzle cake.

P: Earthy and very dry, with a slightly hot and cloying mouthfeel, mixed with Brazil nuts.

F: The dryness continues with more nuttiness and very dark chocolate. A mixed dram.

Laphroaig - 25 yo (2008 edition) – 50.9%

N: Tropical fruit (passion fruit/melon) mixed with white chocolate, white wine notes with a darker dried fruit backbone.

P: Unreduced – a mixture of moist dried fruits, peaches and cream, with the classic Laphroaig medicinal note and flavoursome licorice. Very good indeed.

F: Lovely soft creamy feel and a lengthy sweet finish.

Laphroaig 30 yo - 2004

N: Lovely notes of old polished mahogany wood, plus some sherry influence – raisins, treacle etc. With time, develops nougat, sugared almonds, Edinburgh rock and damson jam. A nose you can get lost in – it’s easy to see why this is such a popular dram amongst aficionados.

P: Medium-full, with an incredibly silky mouthfeel displaying polished barley, pepper and soft wet peat (and I mean peat, not smoke or anything else. REAL peat). The fruit and candy-store notes from the nose pop in and out of the mix, everything is seamlessly integrated into the whole.

F: Long soft and generous. Pretty amazing stuff.

Laphroaig 1981 27yo - Oloroso sherry casks

N: Hugely sherried as you would expect. Incredibly dense, sweet and rich. Hints of balsamic vinegar over rich Oloroso character. Over-ripe bananas, massively concentrated raisin aromas, mixed peel, dark chocolate, dates, and old polished wood. This is very big, if you hadn’t yet guessed.

P: Continues on from the nose. Very big and chocolatey, with rich dark coffee in the background. The sherry influence is everywhere, threaded through every facet of the dram. The faintest hint of (natural) sulphur is here, alongside rich dark chocolate orange notes and tingling spice, but it seems to fit somehow without spoiling the enjoyment of the dram.

F: The fruit and turfy notes survive the sherried onslaught and the surges of oakspices. Big and brooding. A massive improvement on the original 1980 27yo which was too sulphury for comfort. This is the real thing.

Also this afternoon, Joel and Tim took a spin around the island to visit the Kildalton Cross. Despite a mysterious (and gigantic) pile of empty scallop shells situated just outside the churchyard, the cross was as beautiful as ever. The random fact of several hundredweight of scallops seemed to fit perfectly with the enjoyably surreal tone of the festival so far, particularly as Tim has eaten so many scallops himself in the course of the trip.

In the evening the team kicked back at the lodge, wrote up the previous day’s events, had a good giggle at some silly You-Tube stuff and reflected on a good job well done and some tremendous new drams tried on the day. Joel began a list of everything we’d drammed so far on this trip. The total came to 68 different malts tried between the four of us since Friday, so we’re on course for the ton by the end of the week – wish us luck!

Islay Festival 2009 - Day Four

Day Four – Shame, Sunsets and Sandfleas

Today was all about Caol Ila. After watching Newcastle and ‘Boro crash out from the Premiership on Sunday night we were in high spirits on the way up to the distillery – despite the crappy weather. Joel had done a good job on breakfast, providing exemplary bacon rolls, but after a relatively heavy session over the previous night’s football we felt the need for more, and treated ourselves to some sweet potato and butternut squash soup at the distillery – lush!

After meeting up with Paula from Edinburgh’s Whisky Experience (on behalf of Edinburgh Whisky Blog – Guys, sorry you couldn’t make it), it was time to taste some whisky, and it’s fair to say we were pretty stoked about it – we love Caol Ila here on the TWE blog and caskstrength. The tasting was conducted by Mr. Caol Ila himself, Billy Stichell.

Caol lla New Make 70.2%

N: Pure cereal – very oily. Very reminiscent of a cachaca or rhum agricole.

P: Pretty hot and assertive, as you might expect at seventy per cent abv. Some estery notes, but the over-riding impression is of a very well-made spirit. Clean as a whistle.

F: Hot and short, but not too bitey. A drop of water was called for here, and opened up a very clear uncooked sweetcorn character.

Next up was a bit of a scoop: the 10yo Unpeated 65.4%, not scheduled to appear on shelves until October!

N: Beautiful. Sooooo chocolatey! Also coffee, chocolate cake, sponge, trifle etc – you get the idea. Very, very promising.

P: Really delicious. Crystal clear distillery character, with lemon, cereal, rich chocolate, sherbert and sponge-cake sweetness.

F: Long and lovely. This is a real treat. Last year’s 8yo unpeated was a great whisky, but this is even better.

The next two drams were the widely-reviewed Caol Ila 12yo and Distiller’s Edition, so we’ll skip straight to the Caol Ila Distillery Only Bottling (58.4%, bottled 2007)

N: Natural caramel, Dime bars, sweet coconut, dark chocolate brazil nuts, developing runner bean aromas.

P: Quite hot. Soil, soot, pepper, clove. Becomes biscuity with water.

F: Long, warming.

O: Good stuff, best enjoyed with a drop of water.

Finally came the 2009 Festival bottling (Sherry Cask, 1996, 58%)

N: Chocolate biscuits. Leafy and grassy with a hint of menthol. Brown breadcrusts. Fudge and shortbread.

P: Surge of peat, over some honeycomb, syrup and roasted cereal notes. Good body and depth of flavour. Very pleasant.

F: A bit of heat, nicely-balanced with lingering sweetness and some chilli and black pepper notes.
We were all very impressed with this, it was very good stuff. Great to taste Caol Ila from a sherry cask as well coupled with a well presented tasting by Billy.

We didn’t have anything in the diary for the rest of the afternoon, so we were playing it by ear. We sauntered on up to Bunnahabhain for a brief chat with John MacLellan, who showed us his very impressive collection of Bunna festival bottlings.

On the way home, we dropped into the legendary Duffie’s bar in Bowmore and bought a dram of this year’s Bunnahabhain ‘Moine’ festival bottling, which is a heavily–peated spirit finished in an Oloroso cask:

N: Youthful and spirity. Pepper, soot, Edam. Not very expressive.

P: Vegetal, earthy peat – but very little else. Very thin, crisp and hot. Completely one-dimensional.

F: Fresh shoots, still hot. Nothing to it.

O: We felt that while it was a good idea for Bunna to do a heavily-peated bottling, it really needed something else to make it interesting or worthwhile. This was the most disappointing of the festival bottlings so far.

After returning to the ranch to write up the previous day’s events, we moseyed into Port Ellen to take part in the annual blind nosing contest held in Ramsey Hall. Neil and Joel were pretty confident, having both scored an impressive seven out of ten last year. As it turned out, this confidence was totally misplaced, with Neil’s four out of eleven the best score we could manage between us. Ashamed and embarrassed at our poor performance, we legged it before the ceilidh started.

The sun was just starting to set as we drove back to the Machrie, so on impulse we grabbed a bottle of Port Askaig 17yo and strolled the couple of hundred yards to the beach. As we arrived, we were privileged to witness a quite stunning sunset. Sparking up a Cohiba and swigging the Port Askaig, we grabbed a few photos as the clouds blazed with the embers of the dying light. It was a truly beautiful moment and we were all exhilarated as we strolled back over the hotel’s golf course in the dying light. Unfortunately a family of sandfleas had stowed away on our rugs and emerged when we got back to our lodge, causing Neil great distress. A Chap can’t be having uninvited insects disporting themselves in his chambers. Still, you can’t have it all your own way.

Islay festival 2009 - Day three

Day 3: What the hell is a Tonka Bean?

The weather had improved incredibly after Saturday's wash out, so onwards to the Bruichladdich open day. Speaking to Jim McEwan the night before, the last 8 years of festivals have remained sunny for the distillery’s open day, so all fingers were crossed that the 9th would be shining on us too. The courtyard was heaving as we arrived at midday and after some food in the malt barn, (slices of Islay AND Jura pork!) we sampled 3 of the distilleries ‘First Growth’ bottlings- all essentially 16 yo Bruichladdich’s, finished in first growth wine casks:

Bruichladdich – First Growth Series – Margaux Finish 46%

N: Red grape juice, a faint hint of smoke and notes of mandarin orange and peach- quite closed though.

P: Very woody indeed, with lots of dried fruit, but more perfumed than a sherried finish, with lavender and rose water and big flavours of grain / cereal on the death.

F: More drying wood spices and a lengthy, peppery finish.

O: A difficult-to-read dram.

Bruichladdich – First Growth Series – Chateau Lafite Finish 46%

N: Chocolate powder, blackcurrant jelly, damsons, toast, white grape juice and hot buttered corn.

P: Rosehips, honey black pepper, dried ginger, baked apples and rhubarb crumble.

F: Long, with pepper and honey into fading spice.

O: Something really interesting going on here, try to seek out and find out for yourself.

Bruichladdich – First Growth Series - Yquem Finish 46%

N: Lots of sweet white grape juice, fresh orange juice and mandarin with a hint of cocoa powder.

P: Quite an oily mouth feel, which comes across a lot stronger than its 46%. Elements of clear honey and coffee, which make it very pleasant.

F: A touch of red chilli, with a very dry end note.

O: Yet again, worth seeking out for its well developed finish.

Once the shop had died down slightly, we managed to dive in for a sneaky tasting of the festival Valinch, which, had been selling like hot cakes since the open day started:

Bruichladdich – Oirthir Gaidheal, Festival Valinch, Cask 013, Distilled 22/04/93 bottled…. Today!!! 53.6% vol 50cl

N: Honey, fudge, caramel, chocolate, Very similar in fact to a Cadbury’s Curly Wurly, dipped again in white chocolate.

P: 80 ppm, so it packs a punch in the peat dept. Very ‘earthy’ with a nutty middle. Baked dark chocolate dessert, combines with fresh cream.

F: Mint, chopped nuts, atop vanilla ice cream with a hint of grist.

O: A very enjoyable dram. Huge middle with some big nuts.

At 3pm we were ushered up the hill towards ‘The Vatican’ Bruichladdich’s duty-free warehouse for a Robert Burns tasting- which provided a huge insight into the man and the myth as well as giving the audience a huge opportunity to try some wonderfully textured Bruichladdich drams- including a VERY special bottling indeed:

Bruichladdich- 1989 Rum Cask Finish –limited to 106 bottles, exclusive to the Robert Burns tasting event, Feis Ile 2009. Cask Number 1878 - 56.5% vol - 50cl

N: Sherbet, with hugely rich floral notes and sweet fruity notes, which combine with slightly burnt sugar and dark rum aromas.

P: Hard candy sweets, which evoke a day out in your local sweetshop back in the 80’s- Swizzle Sticks, Parma Violets and sherbet lemons, with a hint of sweet soft peat hidden away at the back. Really enjoyable and very surprising.

F: The finish is long and sweet, leading into passion fruit with a slightly salty death.

O: One of the most interesting and unexpected Bruichladdich’s we’ve tried, different to the other rum finishes but certainly a step apart. Fantastic stuff.

As the sunset descends over Bruichladdich, the team head back towards the Machrie hotel for our evening’s festivities- on this occasion, a well-earned feast of local cheese, cold meats and some Port Askaig 17 yo. We try to decipher the tasting notes for another of this year’s festival bottlings, only to fall about like naughty giggling school boys. So far, 2 days down and we’re pretty much convinced that it’s setting out to be an absolute cracker.