Merry Christmas from Springbank. In August! : Spirit Of Freedom 30 Year Old Blended Scotch Whisky

It is yet another Friday on the global procession towards Christmas. For those of you who work in or around retail, you’ll be aware that around this time business start to propose their Xmas line ups to the world, in preparation for those magazines who need a good long run up at events such as this.

Thankfully, running a website means that we don’t have to write about anything until the very last moment it is required- but our other print outlets in the media, such as magazines and books, do require a fair amount of notice, so it is nice to see the odd email popping into our inbox with a nod in the direction to how we can help you spend your gifting pounds in December and I’m sure you’ll hear more about those from us, on here (and other places) when the chill reality sets in and the snow begins to fall.

However, in with some of the more Christmas-facing press releases and emails, there are often ones about products which have suddenly, without warning, appeared on a shelf somewhere. Traditionally a silly season for news (of all kinds- John Lennon 40 Year Old Scotch whisky anyone?!) it can often be hard to pick out the good from the bad, or the good from the mad.

Here at Caskstrength.net we do receive press samples for review, sometimes for this site, sometime for books we are writing, or contributing to, and sometimes for articles we may be writing elsewhere or discussions we might be involve in. And of course we also buy booze- lots of it. A fair amount of brandy, gin, absinthe, rum, aquavit and other great potables were purchased as research (yes, research...) for our forthcoming book, but nothing gets us more excited, our wallets out faster, than an exciting new whisky purchase.

And last week that is exactly what happened, when I heard about a new release from J & A Mitchell, the chaps behind Springbank Distillery and Wm Cadenheads, when they announced a very limited edition (2014 bottles) 30 Year Old blended Scotch whisky.

All apparently exactly 30 years old (so all from 1984) and constructed from 75% malt and 25% grain, the chaps down in Campbeltown are known for having some exceptional old casks hidden away. So, what price on this 30 year old Scotch... just £75. Yeah, £75.

Spirit of Freedom – 30 Years Old - Blended Scotch Whisky – 2014 bottles only - 46% abv – 70cl - £72.95 here and £74.20 here

Nose: A strong vanilla and fennel note rises with a butter back bone and just a delicate hint of smoke. Walnuts and honey mix well, to give some sandlewood. Peaches and green apple too and a hint of pine. Sea salt. This smells like a blend of old- those great value ones from the 1970’s and 1980’s you can pick up for such great value at auction sites nowadays.

Palate:  Very, very drinkable at its bottled strength, it sits on the palate with a good dollop of oil and pineapple juice. A hint of coal dust in the background, gives a great foundation to tropical fruits and big butterscotch from the grain. A classic blend.

Finish: Oddly, probably the best bit (quite a feat given the nose and palate) with juicy fruit tropical chewing gum, more pineapple, honey, syrup and cinnamon spices with just a hint of that coal dust again.

Overall: For £75 you just can’t go wrong. Not at all.

At this price, you can drink this neat by the fireside, in preparation for Christmas, or you can run headlong in the opposite direction and, while there is still some sunshine left in the sky, dodge the gathering clouds, head out to your garden and drink this in a simply stunning highball.

“What, with a 30 year old blended Scotch whisky?” I hear you cry?!

Yup. With a 30 year old blended Scotch whisky. Happy Christmas!

Cheap As Chips: Cadenhead's 1973 Glenfiddich and 1976 Dalmore Single Malt Scotch Whiskies

Those of you who have read this site for a while will remember back to my 30th birthday. In the years leading up to it, I had assembled a collection of bottles from the year of my birth, 1979. Doing so wasn't too difficult (this was in the days when one could purchase a bottle of 1979 Port Ellen from an indie bottler for under £100, and an OB for little over that) and the army of drams which were opened on my celebration day would grace any high end hotel nowadays.

I'm not one of those people who perpetually complain about the price of whisky rising. I understand that it is a finite product and if demand rises, so will prices. Doing so, is like complaining about the current house prices in certain parts of London. 20 years ago, I could have probably afforded to live in, say, Notting Hill. But not these days. Do I complain? No, I just go and live somewhere that is nice and affordable. Move on. Literally.

The price of a bottle of whisky is not determined just by the demand for mature stocks, however. As discussed in a post from last week about the possible shortage of casks coming over from America (legislation tbc), cash-flow plays a major part, too. If more money is needed now to lay stocks down for the future, then you'll more than likely see an uplift in the cost of your beloved dram.

All of this is going to have an effect on whiskies from the year of my birth, 1979 especially when people like me actually go and open the damn things. More so, any Scotch from the 1970’s seems to have seen a fairly hefty price hike in the last few years and my thoughts go out to you if you were born in the 60's, 50's or, god forbid, the 1940s and you’re looking to purchase birthday bottles! My advice would be: stockpile now if you want something to drink on your special birthday in the future.

However, there is hope! The indie bottler often rides to the rescue of those indeed of a rare, old dram and we feature a few of them on this site every so often. But one bottler who we hardly ever talk about (in fact, I don't think we ever do) is Cadenhead’s.

The last time we had a wee drop from these chaps was down in Campbeltown after a visit to Springbank distillery. They have a shop locally and sell some quite astonishing stuff at exceptionally low prices. I used to frequent their shop in London's Covent Garden (before rent price hikes forced them out to Marylebone- see what they did there? When faced with a price hike, they just moved on...) but have sadly not taken the time out to check out their new London store.

Silly me.

Why? Because of bottling such as this:

Cadenhead's 43 yo Glenlivet

I discovered this wee treat behind the bar at the Royal Oak  pub in Dufftown a few weeks ago. Not many people have whisky dating back this far. And not many sell it for well under £200 a bottle. Yeah, you heard: under £200 a bottle.

So, what do Candenhead’s have in store for future release? Well, one of them is their most expensive bottling ever, a 41 year old Glenfiddich from 1973 which comes, as Brand Ambassdor Mark Watt excitedly tells me "in a cardboard box!" and is a single cask which yielded just 96 bottles, retailing for £450.

Glenfiddich - 1973 – 41 Years Old – Wm. Cadenhead – 96 bottles only - 43.1% abv

Nose: A complex nose of sandalwood, petrichor, old diesel locomotives, school desks and furniture polish. This is like sticking your nose into a 1960's ercol cabinet. Some orange peel, fig, angostura bitters... this would be brilliant in an Old Fashioned.  

Palate: Rich and oily, it starts off with apricot jam, dark chocolate-dipped candied orange, some more sandalwood, cinnamon sticks and ginger. Rich and mouthfilling, this could have been dry and woody, but it is as refreshing as a dewy walk through an autumnal wood at dawn.

 

Finish: Apricots, old armagnac and a hint of menthol.

Overall: Rich with great woody notes, a full body and lots of fresh fruits. Fantastic.

Alongside this release is a single cask 37 year old Dalmore, retailing at an astonishing £170.

Dalmore - 1976 – 37 Years Old – Wm. Cadenhead - 150 – 46.4% abv

Nose: Brandy butter, rich clotted cream, some marzipan and toasted almonds give way to the oak, which takes a while to lift from the glass, but once it does it provides a good spicy topline, finally resting on fresh pine needles.

Palate: Vanilla again, rounded with cinnamon and green apple, which quickly develops into toffee apple and light, runny honey. The palate also has an element of watermelon and pear drop sweets. Some custard notes, too.

Finish: Rhubarb and custard sweets.

Overall: A great dram at a stella price, this is all about the vanilla, cinnamon spice and rhubarb & custard.

So, if you look hard enough, you'll find the odd bottle out there which is extremely good value for a well aged product. Just keep your eyes peeled.

The Art Of Whisky

It’s been nearly three weeks since we returned from our last, epic trip to Scotland.

The video camera has been left on the shelf, the liver has been blasted with milk thistle and the credit card has been encased in concrete and thrown to the fishes off the Millennium Bridge. An action which caused a passing curator from a local modern art gallery to remark this as art, calling it a “modern day take on Found Art with strong references to Duchamp and, in particular, Man Ray’s iconic “Iron With Nails”.

According to the gentleman-scholar I was taking an everyday item, rendering it useless and then returning the raw material to whence they came.

I politely pointed out that we all do this every day, with the food we eat. Surely there is no greater critique of consumerism than actually consuming mass marketed, mass produced items of food: tearing them up with our teeth, breaking the items down with one of the strongest acids known to man and then depositing them in sit-down versions of Duchamp’s Fountain makes us all the greatest modern artists ever to walk the earth.

Needless to say I now have an interactive installation at the Tate Modern: it can be found on every floor and is easily identifiable by the following sign:

Enough of the toilet humour (in the literal sense), let’s get back to reality. And it doesn’t get more real than Monday morning. So what better way to see off the weekend than with a wee whisky.

One distillery that Neil and I have always been in the vicinity of, but never quite managed to get to, is Springbank. Situated in Campbelltown, just down the coast from the ferry terminal to Islay, the distillery produces three different styles of whisky (Springbank two-and-a-half times distilled, the more peated Longrow which is distilled twice and the triple-distilled Hazelburn) and owners J & A Mitchell / Springbank Distillers have to good grace to put them all in a bottle embossed with the words SPRINGBANK DISTILLERY. Other distillers take note.

The Springbank which is sitting in my glass is from Single Malts Of Scotland, an independent bottler owned by The Whisky Exchange. Never shy of a good cask, let us see what this offering brings:

Springbank – 1999 - Cask No. 114 (Sherry Butt) - 53% Vol

Nose: This whisky is a rich mahogany red and the moment you pour the liquid in to the glass, the aroma jumps straight out at you, like an escaped prisoner running hard and fast to avoid the search lights. Energy and guile emerge and, after settling down, rich sherry tones backed with cherry jam, a hint of ginger, loads of really fresh wood spices, like a newly split oak log. With additional time, the waft of a second hand paperback book. Not much changes with a dash of water, save for a drier wood tone.

Palate: The oiliness of the whisky coats the mouth and brings with it a hint of smoke, sweet cure bacon, maple syrup, toffee apple coating. With water, the palate opens up a little more with an enhancement of the sweet, juicy summer fruits which this time add plums and a back palate hint of over ripe kiwi fruit.

Finish: Rich, red cherries (newly picked, warm from the sun), deep wood polish and a hint of minty strawberry and lime cordial. With water, the finish is curtailed a little too soon, but the powerful, sweet and juicy notes from the palate still linger. The slightest hint of salt.

Overall: I thought this offering was fantastic; I wasn’t prepared for quite the assault of rich, sweet and juicy flavours, coupled with great oiliness and real depth. Pow!

Well, what better way to see off a weekend than with a rich, oily and juicy whisky such as this. It almost makes Monday morning seem palatable.

Saturated Facts

One of the things I love about the UK is our veracious appetite for news; we seem to devour news stories with as much gusto as Americans devour saturated fat.

If you head to the Weatherspoons in Farringdon, a stones throw away from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society in London, you’ll find massive TV screens not showing the football or MTV but rolling 24 hour news. Jump on public transport in The Big Smoke and you’ll be forced to read some form of gratis journal, updating you on anything from world news to local events and everything in between.

In the UK we are obese with facts, our arteries are clogged with knowledge. And yet we will chat about the weather as if we haven’t had access to media our entire lives. Indeed, it was Samuel Johnston writing for Idler in 1798 who remarked

“It is commonly observed, that when two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather; they are in haste to tell each other, what each must already know, that it is hot or cold, bright or cloudy, windy or calm.”

If you so desire, it is possible to feed solely from free news sources on a daily basis. To satisfy your hunger with the fast food version of news, the free paper.

Ranging from traditional news services such as The Metro on a weekday morning to The Evening Standard to see you back home again, London’s public transport system even has its own Male and Female specific style magazines, Shortlist and Stylist. The most niche of them all however must be City AM.

City AM is a free newspaper aimed at those folk who work, as the inventive and cunning title suggests, in the City. Those people who aggressively push figures around their offices (in more ways than one) and pride themselves on feasting at the table of capitalism, where the house red is often the blood of the weak and poor.

The most vile section of this actually sometimes informative rag, is called The Capitalist, particularly their weekly column entitled 'Bill Of The Week' where City workers are encouraged to send in a receipt for an outrageous lunch or dinner to be published for the rest of their fellow workers to admire.

Bill Of The Week is basically the modern day equivalent of a hunting trip: shoot an animal, cut off its head and mount it on a wall in your massive house, for all to see. Only in the current economic climate (caused in part by the traders and bankers who are lording their lunchtime killings), the beheaded animal is an endangered species and the rest of the world has no walls left to hang stuff on, having had to sell them to pay of the country's national debt...

At the start of the week I had the misfortune to stumble upon a copy of City AM while taking an early morning tube journey from Central London, heading out East. Flicking through I came across the aforementioned column showcasing a receipt for a long lunch taken by four City ‘gents’ on a Wednesday at the new Boisdale Restaurant in Canary Wharf. The total bill, for lunch, was a shade under £1800.

£1800. For lunch. For 4 people. On a Wednesday.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not hanging Capitalism out to dry here. I'm a supporter of Common Sense Capitalism but like anything, those involved to an extreme degree seem to come across badly. If you work hard and earn good money, you are within your rights to spend it how you see fit. It just seems clear from Bill Of The Week, that money doesn't buy you humility, meekness and modesty. Moreover, it just makes you look like a dick. But whatever your take on a lunchtime spend such as this, we should have a more detailed look at this weeks featured bill. What exactly has the eighteen hundred quid gone on?

The obvious headline spend is on food and wine. There are also some nice cigars thrown in the mix. But for those of you outside of London who have yet to hear about the new Boisdales, its newly opened bar features one of the finest whisky selections in the UK, with over 500 different Scotchs alone on the menu.

Surely there must be some excellent Scotch on our boys bill? After all, they've had the balls to send it in to City AM for publication. So, what have our highly paid, highly educated City fellas chosen to drink, with all those drams on tap and all that money in the bank?

Johnnie Walker Blue Label, at £27.20 a dram.

I’m fortunate enough to have visited the new Boisdale’s a couple of times since it opened in April, it being just a short tube ride away from home. The whisky selection is mind blowing, the atmosphere fantastic and the prices are reasonable. Considering the local clientèle, they’d be within their rights to charge a fortune. But they don’t.

Now, you can have all the seafood you like, you can visit the cigar terrace and have a Churchill or a Robusto. But if you’re surrounded by some of the greatest whisky in the world, at least try something you can’t get in Selfridges or a whisky you are unlikely to have at home.

Last time I popped in to the new Boisdales, one particular dram stood out on the menu for me. For £20.40p (for 50ml), that’s just under £7 less than the Blue Label, you can get yourself a single cask, cask strength 1968 39 year old Springbank. And you can order a 25ml dram for half that price...

Er, yes please:

Springbank – Acorn’s 1968 – 39 Year Old – Distilled April 1968 / Bottled November 2007 – Cask No 617 – 47.6% Vol

Nose: there are some smokes whiffs and the slight waxy nature that you would expect from a Springbank; I once had a candle handrolled from beeswax, with a light vanilla tone to it and this has a similar aroma but backed with tinned peaches and apricots. A delicate nose for something so old.

Palate: Plenty of peach melba, runny honey and dried apricot. A good deal of vanilla is rounded off with just a hint of smoke.

Finish: Delicate at first, with some light oak spices and then the runny honey and beeswax to finish.

Overall: A bargain of a dram and a slice of history from Campbeltown.

Wouldn't it be nice if City AM gave equal column inches on the same page as Bill Of The Week to a charity such as Christian Aid or Oxfam and requested that the people submitting such receipts make an equal donation to said charities, or even one closer to home such as Shelter, working to house and feed families made homeless in the local area. This may put their Wednesday afternoon spending in to light somewhat.

Right, I’m off for my knitting lesson with Madame Defarge...

Brighton Rock (s)

As winter wraps its chilling cloak around us, a trip to the seaside probably isn't up there on everyone's to do lists. However last week, we were invited to Brighton's Hotel Du Vin, home to the south east's Scotch Malt Whisky Society rooms to sample several of their new bottlings.

The trip from London to Brighton was a fairly tortuous affair, with trees on the line, the wrong leaves, farting businessmen and the overpoweringly twee sound of Justin Bieber, piped loudly from a teenage iPod next to me. It's at times like this that my inner Basil Fawlty rises up. Like David Banner trying to resist the transition into the Hulk, I furiously fought back the urges to snip the offending iPod cable discreetly with nail scissors. Fortunately, We had a hot meal and several fabulous drams to look forward to, so Basil was banished and we soon pulled into a crisp and bracing Brighton night.

The hotel has been superbly renovated and features an immaculate bar, behind which, you'll find a plethora of great whiskies. But for SMWS members, the hotel features a private room for tastings and it was here that our fun began.

London SMWS Manager Joe McGirr was on hand with 5 new bottlings from their extensive range, including an absolutely divine Clynelish and a downright bizarre Penderyn...

Here's our pick from the current outturn:

26.68 - SMWS single cask bottling- 'Morph and Minty' - 18 years old- 52.9% - 150 bottles

Nose: Butterscotch, wax jackets, Refreshers sweets, a hit of blue cheese and musty church books. Yes- a heady but superb mix of extremely diverse aromas.

Palate: Perfumed and floral notes mix with cereals, some waxy honey, mint humbugs, lavender and creamy homemade fudge. Wonderfully fruity and rich.

Finish: A hint of saltiness creeps in at the end, but the floral notes and a classic waxiness develops and you're left with a very satisfied set of senses.

Overall: Another choice cask from a consistently brilliant highland distillery.

Next up... Is it a Cognac? An Armagnac? Calvados? No... it's Welsh...

OK, so we can't really keep the identity of this one a secret, but the sheer strangeness of this, the society's first bottling from Penderyn needs to be noted. 6 years in a very fresh port cask has 'influenced' the spirit beyond all recognition...

128.1 - SMWS single cask bottling- 'A String Quartet of Flavours' - 6 years old - 55.6% - 233 bottles

Nose: Huge notes of fruity but floral Cognac, reminiscent of a very feminine VSOP. Dig past these notes and you walk headlong into buttery apple sweetness, with a distinct Calvados slant. the colour is absolutely staggering- russet red/brown.

Palate: The fruit develops, with port dominating at first, some talc notes and butterscotch.

Finish: Highly different- some lemon zest notes but again a drying finish really similar to a decent well-aged Armagnac.

Overall: It's hard to say that this is a decent whisky, as in all honestly, it isn't like any whisky we've tried for a long time. The cask has dominated the spirit to such an extent, that it is very one dimensional. But it's a dimension that displays how the use of interesting European oak can influence a whisky and because of that- this is well worth seeking out.

A heavily sherried Laphroaig reared its head (29.91) - with lots of big BBQ pork notes on the nose, coupled with a woody, slightly biting and dry palate. Also, the peaty 'chalk' to the Laphroaig's 'cheese' - a very handsome and light Ardbeg (33.96), with citrus, light peat and vanilla, mixed with cream soda and pairing very well with the Hotel du Vin's Creme Brulee.

But our attention was focused on our final pic of the night - one from Cambeltown's duo of distilleries.

27.85 - SMWS single cask bottling- 'Manly and Penetrating' - 12 years old - 58.8% - 209 bottles

Nose: Slightly musty, notes of wet wood and a slight damp warehouses. Then toffee, peanut brittle, marshmallows, and toffee apples.

Palate: Sherbet fruits, port sweetness, fruit gums, a hint of coffee and sawdust.

Finish: The fruity notes lead into slightly musty wine notes, with a little waft of west coast peat.

Overall: A highly entertaining and enjoyable dram, highlighting further that the society can root out some real gems from around the world.

As the evening drew to a close, it was clear that the SMWS continue to knock out excellent bottlings quicker than South East Rail can get you from Brighton to London. And nearly always at a reasonable price to their members. The pick of the bunch from this lot was the 26.68 and we happily took a hip flask full as preparation for the train ride home.

Bank on these...

Every now and again, we're supposed to take time off- even from the things we love. Maybe it's because we all need time to reflect on how great certain things are, or to occasionally rethink one's strategies. At Caskstrength.net, we find that really hard to achieve when it comes to whisky. Last Friday, a social gathering was arranged with some of our top chums (Darrell and Tim), with the view being that we'd for once leave the tasting books at home, watch a film (the mostly excellent 'In Bruges') eat pizza and chat about other things in our lives.  Yeah right.... 

Of course, it would have been simple if  A: we had no whiskies, or B:  we had a modicum of will power between us. 

So, without further ado, we bring you a rather unexpected lateral tasting, which came together in a relatively spontaneous manner.

After acquiring a rather interesting Springbank single cask bottling (exclusive to Oddbins) a couple of weeks back, we were itching to get stuck in. But to make things really exciting, we also hastily rustled up both batches of Springbank's rather splendid 1997 Vintage as venerable sidekicks.  Side-by-side,  the bottles look identical. In fact, only very subtle cosmetic artwork changes reveal the uniqueness of their contents- which are all from the same group of re-charred sherry casks. 

So, will power consigned to the bin and an all-star trio in front of us on the dining table,  which would come out as the banker of the 'banks??

Springbank 'Vintage 1997' - Batch no. 1 (bottled in June 2007) - 55.2 % abv - 70 cl 

Nose: An initial mustiness emerges from the glass, but is swiftly followed up by cloves, bags of fresh mint and cracked black pepper corns.  A few swirls -and the addition of water reveal more of that 'dunnage warehouse' dampness- fresh, but clouded with the aroma of a nicely aged cask.  After time, a real element of Canada Dry Ginger Ale comes thru.  

Palate: Surprisingly sweet on the first sip, then leading into masses of white pepper, a hint of marzipan, candyfloss, pears and Caramac bars.  What starts out fresh and vibrant, leads into something hot and firey, with green chilli emerging on the death.

Finish: The tiniest notes of elastoplast arrive after that chilli has settled down, giving a long and slightly medicinal echo.  Really warming and enjoyable.

Overall:  If anything, this improves over time within the glass.  The balance of sweetness against the backdrop of its firey mouth feel is really excellent and sets the bar highly for its siblings. 

Springbank 'Vintage 1997'  - Batch no. 2 (bottled in May 2008) - 54.9% abv - 70 cl

Nose: On first nosing, noticeably different from its slightly younger brother.  Notes of milky coffee jump out immediately and a slight woodiness, which make this less biting and much more subtle.  Given time in the glass though, its heart and spice start to come through and that familiar spice and pepperiness start to emerge, this time with a hint of smoke.

Palate: Definitely less sweet than batch 1, with initial spice, cedar and then a slightly candied note (barley sugar?) coming through.  More air and a little touch of water reveal a really dry, oaky red wine characteristic as the tannins come to the fore. 

Finish: A similar lengthy finish, but this time with fresh apple and then a much drier mouth feel.

Overall:  Another cracking bottling, showing signs of its slightly longer cask time, with the woody, oaky notes this time more prevalent.  

Springbank 'Vintage 1997' - Single cask bottling exclusive to Oddbins - Cask no. 789 filled 1997- bottled 2008 - limitd to 475 bottles

Nose: Wow, initially fresh and fruity with green apples, then a peated loveliness coming through which was perhaps missing from the previous bottlings.  A slight farmyard note of damp hay, then cloves and back into the fresh mint of batch 1.  Much more concentrated and expressive than the other two bottlings.

Palate: Initially hot on the taste buds but quickly, a real sweetness takes over the mouth with brown sugar, vanilla, apple peelings, touches of cedar then an almost cayenne pepper-like quality. A huge amount going on in the glass. 

Finish: Very long, dry and oaky, with that delicious red wine mustiness, then hints of coffee on the death.  

Overall: The cracking mouth feel and depth of this bottling wins over our hearts and perhaps puts the other 2 bottlings slightly in the shade. This is an excellent expression of Springbank. Try to seek out one now, if you still can!

The progression through these 3 bottlings was extremely enjoyable, with each one offering up a slightly different, but nonetheless delicious surprise.  Who needs will power, when you have whiskies like these....