Standing at the Auccy...

Hot on the heels of our recent trip to the Lowlands where we visited Cameron Bridge and Glen Kinchie, we find ourselves in Glasgow for a tasting of Auchentoshan, including a sneak preview of their soon to be released 1975 vintage bottling. As some of you will remember 1975 happens to be my birth year and it always seems to take on an additional resonance to drink something produced in the year you just so happened to pop out.

Our tasting began with an introduction to the core range of malts from the distillery's Senior Blender, Jeremy Stephens. What we find intriguing about Auchentoshan is the relationship between the range of expressions 12 Year Old and Three Wood. At their hearts are a series of very prominent key characteristics, despite the type of maturation or age. Tonight's tasting also highlighted just how much of a forward thinking company Auchentoshan have become; in a few short years the brand have considerably increased their output and now sell around 60,000 cases worldwide per year. This might not sound like a lot, but they seem to be appealing to a new, previously untapped group of whisky drinkers - by way of example, Mrs Ridley recently proclaimed Auchentoshan Three Wood as her pathway into enjoying whisky...a big bold statement... and something I have been hoping would happen for nigh on a decade now!!

You can view Mrs Ridley's tasting notes on the Three Wood here.

Auchentoshan - 12yo - 40% - 70cl

Nose: Very distinct aromas of dried coconut, unblanched almonds and cherry drops all greet the nostrils on the first sniff- it is light, but not in the same way perhaps Glenkinchie or Bladnoch is (not remotely zesty, or floral) and definitely has plenty of individual character.

Palate: A slightly off kilter coal/oil like note first hits you, not what I was expecting, but not unpleasant- this subsides into ripe pears, more almond notes and perhaps the deftest hint of sherry wood.

Finish: Lingering fruit notes with a hint of woody oak creeping in on the death.

Overall: A very solid starting point from the distillery's key malt. It perhaps lacks the character demonstrated so eloquently in the brilliant Three Wood, but nonetheless a easy and enjoyable single malt.

Next up and a real coup- a sneaky dram of the brand spanking new Auchentoshan 1975 vintage. We reviewed the distillery's last 2 vintage bottlings (the 1977 and 1998) back in December, with the older whisky showing off a different side to intense sherry cask maturation.

The 1975 is a different beast altogether. It's not clear exactly what type of casks this has come from (we suspect refill Bourbon, rather than 1st fill) ) but with only 500 bottles in the outturn and around 30 for the domestic market, it probably isn't going to be around for long. Looking at the label and packaging- simplicity a great thing indeed... Rest assured, there will be no Lalique decanter here...

Auchentoshan 1975 - 46.9% - 500 bottles- 70cl

Nose: Quite remarkable. Although this is quite the middle-aged gentleman, it exhibits elements of the dried coconut and unblanched almonds found in the 12yo. But then it really starts to come alive. Wow- stewed rhubarb, marshmallows, melted brandy butter and gingersnap biscuits are all there in abundance. Balanced, rich, moreish, wonderful.

Palate: A huge hit of tropical fruit takes you by surprise - very unexpected indeed. It's mango and passion fruit, but then a little smoked pork begins to take over and we're off in a different direction, with white pepper, hints of aged tobacco and then back to some sweetened tinned peaches and cream. Utterly brilliant.

Finish: The fruit lingers nicely, with the peaches being the overriding force.

Overall: An absolute delight of a whisky. Make no mistake, I am probably harder on whiskies from this year than any other, but this one is totally spot on. The birthday collection I have been slowly building when I can afford to is developing nicely but now it has an Auchentoshan shaped hole in it. Damn it...

Lowlands trip Day Three: How 'Low' can you actually go??

Technically, this isn't really 'Day Three', as we were only in the Lowlands for 2 days, but we wanted to conclude our mini odyssey with a little round up from the other Lowland distilleries, as well as tasting notes from a few, both open and closed.

There feels like a bit of a buzz in the air about Lowland whiskies presently. As well as William Grant's huge operation Ailsa Bay, We have the opposite end of the spectrum with Daftmill (www.daftmill.com) the newest functioning Lowland distillery in Fife, Who have been producing spirit since 2005, but not bottling for at least another 4-5 years. We may well soon have a brand new one to contend with, in the shape of The Falkirk Distillery Co. who look to have got their licenses in order and are busily developing their plans for a brand new Lowland single malt. We reported this last year and now the company has a fully up-to-date website with a little more detail... www.falkirkdistillery.com

Time will tell if the project gets off the ground, but any new distillery is good news in our eyes so best of luck to the owners. Hot on their heels are another group of new contenders Kingsbarns Distillery (www.kingsbarnsdistillery.com) who are looking to locate a distillery, not far from St Andrews and a short distance from the aforementioned Daftmill. They've teamed up with pioneering Tasmanian distiller Bill Lark so the results look promising on paper. More info as we get it.

Now for something a little different. It gives me great pleasure to introduce Mrs Carrie Ridley, Mrs Caskstrength for her very first whisky review! Carrie was so taken with Auchentoshan's Three Wood that we asked her to put her thoughts down and her own style of tasting notes. Go girl....

Don’t be alarmed. It’s not that caststrength.net have opted to balance the sexes by opening the floor up… to a ‘girl’. But I was invited by Neil Caskstrength (my other half) to explain my partial whisky ‘epiphany’ that I had recently experienced.

You see, I’d been asking for a bottle of Auchentoshan Three Wood for a while when Neil Caskstrength presented me with one as a Christmas present last month. This being most unusual for me since I don’t proclaim to be a ‘whisky drinker’, far from it. Over the years I have struggled to enjoy the fine flavours and complexities of whisky on my palate, despite many efforts to overcome this. But there was something different about this Three Wood release when I tasted it last summer at the Taste Of London Festival. Something that actually made me think I could claim this as the one whisky I would like to taste more of and savour on a regular basis.

Auchentoshan - Three Wood - 43%

On first nosing, it seemed so different to the previous drams I’ve tried. Soft, fruity (orange zest, anyone?) and buttery, not that overwhelming kick-back, that a novice whisky drinker senses when approaching a glass. I felt suitably intrigued to go in further and see if this might be something I could enjoy more of. And indeed it was. More of that butter smoothness on first taste, almost a whole Werther’s Original in there, followed by the subtle smoky textures you would expect from a bottle called ‘Three Wood’. Lots of dried fruit notes also grabbed the taste buds, reminding me of some of the Oloroso and Pedro Ximenez sherries I tried on a recent trip to Porto.

Finally, a Whisky I can definitely envisage myself curling up on the sofa with. It’s been a long time coming but well done Auchentoshan, hopefully this will be the turning point for me and I’ll be able to sample a few more from the Caskstrength vaults with a more open mind to see what all the fuss has been about over the last 3 years!!

Thanks Carrie- hopefully we'll be bringing you a few more 'Mrs Caskstrength's Recommendations' over the coming months...

Next up- The Lowland's 'lowest' distillery- draw a line out east from Bladnoch, next to Wigtown and you'll hit Carlisle. We recently tasted Bladnoch's 8yo, bottled at caskstrength and was mightily impressed by its vibrant fruitness and bite.

Bladnoch - 8yo - 55%

Nose: Very fresh notes of nectarines, ripe plums, fresh bread/yeast, marzipan, fudge and clean cereals.

Palate: Warming, with a mild fruitiness, wheat and grass notes with a mild oily texture and citrus notes on the front. With a dash of water, the cereals open up, to reveal some sweet, barley sugar notes. Very satisfying indeed.

Finish: Short, but clean and malty.

Overall: For a youngish whisky, this has some solid fruity depth, coupled with a clean, refreshing palate. Definitively Lowland and certainly a distillery we'll be visiting soon, with a view to exploring the more mature whiskies in their portfolio.

Our final dram from this wonderful trip has a special resonance for me. In the past year, i've been putting together a list of birthday whiskies, to enjoy with friends on my 40th birthday. Although it's still 5 years away, i'm a bit of a hoarder and I certainly feel like buying a few decent bottlings now, before the price goes through the roof, just in time for all those folks who turn 40 in the same year. So I picked up a bottle of Linlithgow or, using its alternative name, St Magdalene. The distillery, based in the town of Linlithgow, not a million miles from Glenkinchie fell silent in 1983, along with that other long lost great from the Highlands, Brora.

This Murray McDavid 'Mission' bottling was distilled in 1975 and bottled in 2004, making it 29 years old. The last time I tried a St Magdalene/Linlithgow was in a bar in Cape Town and, to be honest, I was a little disappointed. I decided to open this now for a sneaky dram, as my curiosity got the better of me. Let's see where it takes us...

St Magdalene - Murray McDavid Mission bottling - Distilled 1975 - bottled 2004 - 46%

Nose: Very dry and grassy at first, but then leading into some quite pronounced floral notes (jasmine, lillies). A hint of dry oak begins to dominate, but with a drop of water, we return to the floral fruitiness with the merest dash of Rowntree's Fruitgums.

Palate: Initially a little bitter, with the oak again taking precedence, but given a few minutes in the glass, this evens out giving more of the Fruitgums, some vanilla sweetness and a dash of green apple skins. Not very developed, but with a bit of vitality hidden away behind a big oak door.

Finish: The palate dries off to a slightly bitter tannic note, with the remnants of the grassy/fruitiness remaining for a short while.

Overall: I can't help but feel a little let down, although it does possess lots of lighter, softer qualities, which are beaten down by the heavy oakiness. I imagine a younger bottling of this would be rather excellent, in a similar fashion to a younger Rosebank, a distillery which, in my opinion also seemingly doesn't age particularly well. Fortunately, I have a trump card up my sleeve when, a few years ago, I bought an extra bottle of The Whisky Exchange's phenomenal SMS 14yo Rosebank, as modelled here by Mrs Ridley. What a corker, eh... ;-)

A Load Of Old 'Toshan....

Recently, I was going through the cabinet at Caskstrength towers, wondering whether I should categorise all the bottles into their respective regions. I'd seen my pal do this and create a rather fetching leather-bound menu, which I liked the look of. So like trying to order one's music collection into genres (which starts out like fun, only to descend into absolute misery)

I set about the task, only to quickly realise that 1 region, the Lowlands was pretty poorly represented. I have a couple of nice Rosebanks, which i've been rationing out, but are becoming severely depleted. I also picked up a bottle of Auchentoshan Three Wood, as Mrs Caskstrength tasted it at a food festival earlier this summer and proclaimed it to be 'the whisky that MIGHT start her enjoying whisky'... High praise indeed.

It was somewhat timely then, that earlier this week, we received a couple of small samples of 2 new Auchentoshan releases, namely their 1998 and 1977 vintages.

Auchentoshan - 1977 vintage- 49% - Oloroso Sherry Cask - 249 bottles

Nose: Moist Christmas cake, slightly earthy and musty, with some pine resin, aged leather, big fat juicy raisins and some freshly cut oak. Quite surprising that this has been in Oloroso for its entire term, yet doesn't show any signs of over-age or dryness/dark fruit.

Palate: Hot and quite firey, with ginger, lemon zest, a hint of chilli, then extinguished with some creamy milk chocolate, some herbaceous /almost vermouth notes. Lingering sweetness from those big juicy raisins and all spice come through on the death.

Finish: Not a hint of dryness, the palate is left feeling juicy and peppered with fruit and spice.

Overall: Altogether, a bit of a minx. The nose has lots of juice and leather, the palate is very spicy, but the whole thing is very pleasingly balanced. This works as a wintery whisky, but differently to most other older sherry casks, in that it certainly isn't dominated by overly woody flavours and still retains a zesty, spicy sense of youth.

Auchentoshan - 1998 - Fino Sherry Cask - 54.6%

Nose: Toffee, with peanut brittle, honeycomb, oak sawdust, white pepper and lemon zest are all noticeable on the first nosing. With a little water, summer fruits including gooseberries and elderberries make themselves known, coupled with a malty cereal undercarriage.

Palate: Not as open as the 1977. There is a similar spiciness, with the ginger and lemon zest, but it's not quite as appealing as before. Water really gives this a lift, with a much more fruity edge coming to the fore.

Finish: Clean, with a residual malty note developing as the palate dries.

Overall: Nothing inherently wrong here- a very well put together Auchentoshan, but perhaps not as developed and as exciting as the 1977. The Fino sherry notes really compliment this style of whisky, heightening the spice and citrus. Overall, well worth seeking out if you have a penchant for discovering a hidden depth to Lowland whiskies.

I think I already have one resolution for 2011. A bigger cabinet.