Berry Berry Good...

Dashing through the rain soaked streets of St James in London and it appears nobody is looking where they're going, or indeed, where they've come from. Shame on them. I have just bought a brand new umbrella and i'm dead excited. Because it is keeping me splendidly dry, it gives me time to wander about and look at just how great this part of London actually looks in the rain.

Spend half and hour just 'looking' around here and you realise how many tiny details you either overlook or just don't have time to see. St James used to be THE place to be seen back in the early-mid 19th Century. The private members clubs of Pall Mall were frequented by the upwardly mobile from every echelon of society- landed gentry, minor royalty, politicians and the independently wealthy. Beau Brummell and his chums used to regularly rack up large gambling debts over outlandish wagers- like which raindrop would reach the bottom of the window pane first.


It was even recorded that the rakish Brummell instructed his tailor to send him a new weskit (waistcoat) EVERY HOUR so he could be seen looking the part, strutting around the smoking lounge of his club, White's. (Joel, we need to turn Caskstrength headquarters into a club like this!!)

Walking down Pall Mall today does not reveal much to the untrained eye. But stop for a second and take a closer look at the robust and well-maintained Regency edifices on either side. A decidedly more secretive and salubrious scene lies in wait, behind the many anonymous doorways and nondescript, brass signage plates. Close your eyes and you can almost imagine sharing a vintage port with the likes of Brummell and Thackeray. Chances are, that port would have been provided by one establishment, sitting at No. 3 St James 's Street. The proprietor was Mr George Berry and his extraordinary establishment is still there today, unchanged and uncompromised.

Berry Bros & Rudd have been in business for around 300 years. That alone is a staggering feat. Initially selling coffee, (sign above the door still has an illustrated coffee mill adorning it) they moved into retailing wines and other imported drinks such as port, cognac and sherry.




Customers could even get themselves weighted when visiting the shop on their vast scales. The company's sales books have notes next to some of the more eminent customers, recording their weight, proclaiming they were 'wearing a heavy coat at the time'. Must use that excuse when I next step on the scales!!

A book 'The Story Of Berry Bro's & Rudd - Wine & Spirits Merchants' by Tom Johnson is available if you fancy learning more about BBR..


We popped in recently for a catch up with Doug McIvor and Edward Bates, the chaps behind the wonderfully stocked spirits section. We were in for a real treat. Several new Berry's Own Selection bottling's were on the menu and we were keen to get stuck in...

First up.... a Big bold Macduff

Berry’s Owen Selection – Macduff – 1984 – 52.2 %

Nose: Now this is more like it! Mint toffee, butterscotch then straight into passion fruit (think that classic Bowmore tropical fruit note) and a touch of ground coffee. Really direct, expressive and superb. With water, a meaty, herbaceous note profoundly pops up and proclaims it’s dinner time!!

Palate: Oily, menthol notes, burnt Demerera sugar /crème brulee and lots of woody sherry. This is very brooding and dark. The coffee notes comeback, (strong sweetened Espresso) and even a hint of blackened bananas. This Macduff loves BIG flavours, as long as they’re all dark and intense.

Finish: Woody and drying, but the coffee still lingers on. Decent is an understatement. This is a total beast! A powerful, intense but very expressive beast.

Overall: One of Berry’s essential new bottlings. Miss this at your peril. And finally, something unusual indeed...

Berry’s Own Selection – Balmenach – 1979 – 56.3%

Nose: Chopped Hazelnuts, digestive biscuits, golden syrup, and wet tissue paper. Then something very unexpected…Heinz Tomato soup. Just a whiff but it seemed to mix in very nicely indeed. Left in the glass, this is a constantly evolving nose. Some swirls of smoke sweet smoke start to emerge. Masses to get your nose into here!! Great stuff.

Palate: More of the Hazelnuts, some drying toasted oats, fruit jelly sweets and a little influence from European oak (dried apricots). Some crystalised lemon and ginger notes dance on the tongue with some cherry sherbet- then some sweetened cocoa powder. This whisky is all over the place, but in a really great way. Highly unusual and very unique.

Finish: Toasty notes and some citrus sharpness linger on the palate.

Overall: This is my first Balmenach and it certainly shines- it has so much going on, it’s very difficult to put your finger on where it’s heading next. It also really drinks well, even at caskstrength, so be sparing with the water.

Berry’s Own Selection – Glen Mhor – 1982 – 46%

Nose: Phenolic vanillas, banana, juicy green apples (without the peel), some lime juice and the faintest hint of coal smoke on the death. Noses really, really well. Very refreshing, summer-like.

Palate: This doesn't need any water and sits on the palate in a very delicate manner, bringing in some lovely dry white wine tones before popping into life. As it warms on the palate, ginger and grapefruit become apparent as it settles nicely in the mid-palate.

Finish: Medium in length, and a little more meaty than the nose, there is a sprinkling of cracked black pepper, some more grapefruit and that's pretty much it.

Overall: The nose is just wonderfully refreshing. I could sniff this all day long... perfectly drinkable and a smooth and easy going dram. But the nose is just wonderful.

Berry’s Own Selection – Cragganmore – 1997 – 58.6%

Nose: Very fruity, with red carnations and rosewater. A touch of wood in there too.

Palate: Hot going in, but really swirl it around and it starts to open up with ginger and rhubarb showing through best of all. With water: The vanillas open up a lot more, like vanilla custard and this moves along into the finish...

Finish: Longish finish, quite bitter, like a good lime cordial should be. With water: You get a crème brulee note backed with the bitterness of the limes.

Overall: I recently had a "non-whisky drinking" friend over for dinner ("What sort of friend are they, Joel?!" - Neil) and after a few rejected whiskies this, with plenty of water, was the dram they said could turn them on to drinking Scotch. It needs a good slug of H2O, but once cut down, all the great aspects of a good Craggy come out to play: Heather, vanilla, white flowers.

Here's to another 300 years chaps!!

Finish Reading All About... Joel Has Turned 30! **PART TWO**

In my first post I wrote about an 18 month journey to put together some whiskies from the year of my birth, 1979 in order to celebrate my 30th Birthday. In that post, I wrote about the first threewhiskies of the evening: A Port Ellen Single Cask Signatory bottling, the Port Ellen 3rd Release and a miniature of Imperial. So far, so yummy!

As my search for whisky from 1979 grew, I found my bank balance shrinking; the recession, rising energy bills, fuel duty increasing... the list seemed endless! In line with the shrinking bank balance, the bottles must shrink too, I thought. Feeling not unlike Alice In Wonderland, I was about to enter the interesting world of the miniature... My first purchase was the Imperial- a distillery which I had never experience before and I wasn't disappointed. Next up was another newby on me: Inverleven.

Inverleven - 1979 - 40% vol - 5cl - Gordon & Macphail

Nose: A lovely and sweet nose, I would have pinpointed this as a lowland from that alone. Not as rich in flowers and perfume as a Rosebank, but certainly some white flowers and a hint of toffee.

Palate: A touch of burnt sugar, some bacon.

Finish: Medium with mild spice.

Overall: A pleasant enough dram, but not one to knock the socks off.

The final wee bottle for the evening was a Glen Mhor, yet another distillery that won't ever produce again. This "little drinking" is a good way forward. Cheaper than big bottles and you get to try some whisky you may never have again!

Glen Mhor - 1979 - Distilled 25/5/1979 Bottled July 1995 - Cask No. 2377 + 2378 - 66.7% - 5cl

Nose: Over Mature Compost! Mint Tea, Apple Juice and old sackcloth

Palate: Vanilla Sherbet, much more of the fresh green apples

Finish: Lots of spices, with water cinnamon buns.

Overall: This needs a big dollop of water to open the senses up and get all the flavours out. Only a 16 year old but the is a real maturity about this dram. Robust and flavourful; just make sure you add water!

With the miniatures all gone, it was time to refocus on the big bottles of 1979 stock. By this time my budget was long gone. A few miniatures, a 1979 Port Ellen Single Cask and the Port Ellen 3rd Release later, the tank was indeed empty. It is at this stage that one has to rely on the extreme generosity of friends! There is an old saying:

"A man can be judged by the company he keeps".

On this showing, I am indeed one of the richest men alive. And the next part of this post is a tribute to those people. Thank you!

The first bottle to be unwrapped was a 1979 Caol Ila from Berry Bros, a gift from fellow caskstrengther, Neil (in the interests of clarity, we tried this at BB&R a couple of months ago and I expressed a delight in the bottling, so no prizes to Neil for picking up my very unsubtle hints!!- Cheers mate!):

Caol Ila - 1979 / 2009 - Cask No. 4412 - 53.1% vol - 70cl

Nose: This is a beast! Coal smoke, peat and general targeted aggression drag up pear drops, honeysuckle and mint. Whoooah! This is a nose!

Palate: Yes, that's a Caol Ila- everything you'd expect from the coal driven palate, but there is also some delicate creams in there. Leave it in for as long as you dare and the smoke rises. And rise. And rise. You can hold it for an eternity, but it's like holding a wasp in your mouth... it just gets more and more aggressive as it looks for a way out. This is not only very tasty, but very lively. A fun dram.

Finish: Not as long as you would expect from something as richly flavoured as this, nor from something with this level of strength. There seems just a whiff of relief from the liquid that you've released it. Again, the coal is dominant flavour, but when dies down there is a load of different florals with clear, runny-honey coming in late.

Overall: This is a sensational dram. I had a dinner party last week with one of the attendees from my birthday drinks there. He claimed he'd only come over to try this whisky again. There seems to be a real race developing for "dram of the night" with two front runners being this Caol Ila and the Port Ellen 3rd Release...

So far, so good. I'm very pleased with the additional drammage from 1979. It was truly turning out to be a great year for whisky. But where next? Kudos must go to Darren from the SMWS who pulled out a wonderfully interesting bottle from 1979, dragged kicking and screaming from his own archives. Another demolished distillery... a Glen Albyn.

SMWS 69.11 - July 1979 / July 2006 - 27 Years Old - 58.1% Vol - 70cl

Nose: Very nutty with a hint of sherry. I'm guessing from the nose and the colour that this a 2nd or 3rd refill sherry cask. I would never have pinpointed this whisky from the nose alone (why should I have done?!) but there is real body to it, backed with a freshness or lightness of grass.

Palate: Quite bitter at first, then some tobacco notes, pepper and a hint of salt.

Finish: Long and strong. With water this dram come alive much more- cooking apple notes leap out along with fresh brown bread.

Overall: Unusual and a real welcome break from the peatiness of the evening. This is a strong dram in every way; full of flavours of forest floors, cooking apples and brown bread. A MALT drinkers malt.

It was at this stage that the bottlings hit a wall. That was it for drams from 1979. But the little fact that I was born in '79 didn't put people off. It was time to dig in to some new bottlings... all THIRTY YEAR OLDS. Whoop!

The first came courtesy of my good friend Rich. We've grown up together and he was also born in 1979 but Rich was very kind in bringing along a bottle from yet another new distillery on me... Tamdhu.

Tamdhu - 30 Years Old - The Macphail's Collection - 43% vol - 70cl

Nose: One of those wonderful noses you get with a well aged sherry cask of dark chocolate with cherries in. Beautifully rounded.

Palate: Not as intense on the palate as the nose would suggest. Hold to the promise of dark chocolate but this time with a greater nutty feel of chopped hazelnuts.

Finish: Oooh, spices which I wasn't expecting. A lot hotter than I thought it would be and really quite long.

Overall: A cracker. Never had Tamdhu before but this makes me want to explore it further.

The next 30 year old up was a very special one for me. It had been re-label by the wonderful chaps at Master Of Malt as "Joel Harrison's 30th Birthday Malt - 30 Years Old". How very, very kind of them. The empty bottle I shall keep forever!

Master Of Malt - Secret Bottling Series - Joel Harrison's 30th Birthday Malt - 30 Years Old - Speyside - 40% Vol - 70cl

(note: this is a very heavily sherried Speyside from an un-named distillery...)

Nose: Burnt sugar, creme brulee, walnuts, old polished wood.

Palate: Phawr! That's sherried and aged! Pure apricots in syrup with toffee apple.

Finsh: Medium, lightly spiced and medium dry. Like well brewed tea without milk. Just leaves you wanting more.

Overall: That, ladies and gentlemen, is how to do heavily sherried 30 year old whisky. Everything you want on the nose from a good sherry cask, a plate that isn't too heavy but is nice and fruity and just enough dryness in the finish to leave you wanting more.

"Where do you go from here?" I hear you cry! Well, there are just two more drams from the night, so let's move on to Ma & Pa Harrison's contribution to my celebrations (Thanks Mum and Dad. xx) and guess what?!? It's only more bloody Port Ellen!!

Port Ellen 8th Release - 1978 / 2008 - 29 Years Old - 6618 bottles - 55.3% Vol - 70cl

Nose: The most delicate of all the islay whisky on the night. Hints of lemon, sea salt and smoke.

Palate: The smoke is subtle on this one and the first thing to pop up is those lemons and the salt, the smoke follows in later. Touch of liquorice too.

Finish: After the smoke dies down, pear drops and lime come up and then the fire of the chillies takes over. Long.

Overall: This is a good dram, but not the best islay of the night. In fact, probably in 4th place after the 3rd release, the single cask and the Caol Ila. But let's be honest... to finish behind those three is still bloody good going!

Finally, we come back to the mainland from Islay for one last dram as we travel down to Campbletown courtesy of a man whose picture should be found next to the word generous in the dictionary, Sukhinder Singh.

Longrow - MacMhuirich, Currie & Wilkinson - 1993 - 13 Year Old - Cask No. 635 - 46% Vol - 70cl

Nose: Wowzer! The most delicate hint of peat, banana and vanilla.

Palate: The smoke and banana intermingle with parma violets and touch of liquorice.

Finish: All of the above carried over a medium length and a hint of sherbet.

Overall: This is a fantastic dram. So delicate yet with some real push from the smoke behind it.

It's been a wonderful evening of drams. Thank you to all who came along. I am a very blessed person.