Caskstrength And Carry On: Bottle 'C'

Ahoy, Mateys!

Okay, we’ll admit it... the frequency of posts on Caskstrength.net has not been as regular as we would have liked so far in 2013. The number of samples piling up on our desk is beginning to resemble World of Whiskies at Heathrow T5 and we will, we promise, get rolling on these very soon, so expect a landslide of entertaining, educational and irreverent posts later this month and on in to the new year.

One of the reasons we’ve been slightly distracted recently is due to us working hard on getting everything sorted for our new bottling in our series of A – Z whiskies.

You’ll remember that we started our A – Z with a single cask Arran release in 2011 for 'A', followed up by last year’s BenRiach, for B. Both of which were highly limited and sold in a heartbeat... and so, as night follows day, our ‘B’ bottling will be followed by our ‘C’ offering.

In order to have this next release lined up, Neil and I have been up and down to Scotland, like a crazy whisky yoyo, making sure each and every detail of this next release has been covered and so far it’s looking ship shape and Bristol fashion...  We’re very excited about it, so much so, that we’ve shot a little teaser video to give you a taste for what is on the way, with a slight twist: we’re not actually going to tell you what it is, just yet.

And this is where you step in. 

If, after watching the video, you have an educated guess as to which ‘C’ we are bottling, then you can send us your guess, along with your age and country of residence, to carryon@caskstrength.net and we’ll pick TWO winning entries to send a free bottle to. Closing date for the competition is 15^th March 2013 and the usual T&C’s apply (over legal drinking age, etc).

Caskstrength And Carry On / Teaser Trailer from Caskstrength Creative on Vimeo.

(for those of you on our mailing list, the video can be found by clicking this link here)
(for those of you on an Android device, you can watch on youtube by clicking here)

The whisky will be officially released on March 27th at 10am though Master of Malt. We are yet to finalise the RRP, but as with the last two, will be priced at a level which makes us look a little bit mental...

The Second Coming...

As the collective gold, silver and bronze accolades have been duly divided up across the globe, it is once again time to turn our attention to what makes this site tick -  the sweet taste of liquid gold, which kicks our sorry summer laziness into touch and reminds us about what is probably the greatest business to be involved with- the business of F.U.N.... (and whisky)

Last year, Caskstrength decided to do something a little unusual for a whisky website -  we decided that whilst writing about superbly well-crafted drams was of course a brilliant way to earn a living, it is ever so slightly scary, yet exciting to actually put our money where our mouse is, pop to a distillery, open the doors of a warehouse and to liberate a particular cask that we felt was exceptional.

Our inaugural release started as we mean to go on -  A for Arran yielded a spritely 94 bottles and the follow up release is now upon us.   After spending a little time scratching our collective head about the type of whisky we wanted to release next, we chanced upon a cask from the BenRiach distillery, which exceeded our expectations in every way.

Cask 5614 was distilled in 1996 and initially filled into a bourbon hogshead.  However in 2008, the decision was made to re-rack the whisky into a rather succulent, spicy Pedro Ximinez sherry cask for the four remaining years of its maturation.

The resulting whisky is something we're very proud to put our name to.  It retains a fresh fruity note, which a super spicy backdrop of classic PX richness.    Both Joel and myself knew we'd found what we were looking for after the first dram and in no time at all it was bottled, the cask yielding 296 bottles in total, with an abv of 55.2%.

As with the Arran, our great friends at Master Of Malt are the exclusive retailers for this single cask offering - Caskstrength And Carry On BenRiach.   It is priced at £54.95 and another exciting piece of news is that the first 50 bottles come complete with a rather fetching premium cotton shopping bag, bearing the Caskstrength and Carry On logo in gloriously 70's flock print! What more could you want from a whisky release!!

Joel and I initially struggled to come up with a combined tasting note. So we turned our phones off, poured two large glasses and got stuck in with a blank page and two pens.  Minutes turned to hours, ties were removed, voiced were raised and a scene resembling Peter Griffin and the giant chicken was narrowly avoided by the stroke of midnight, when we finally pooled together our collective thoughts.




We're not in the business of the hard sell, so we'll leave it up to you to decide whether you like the sound of it, but needless to say, if you like your whisky fresh, vibrant and with a bold backbone of spiciness, we think you'll like this one.

Caskstrength & Carry On  - BenRiach  - Single cask bottling - Cask no: 5614 - Distilled 1996 -  Filled July 2012 - 55.2%

Nose: An initial freshness of sliced apples, ripe pears and bananas, dusted in cinnamon, dark chocolate and a touch of clove.  given a dash of water, some bold, sweet citrus notes (caramelised blood orange) come to the fore, with more dark chocolate and warming spice. 

Palate:  The spiciness is carried over onto the palate, with a robust cinnamon mocha/dark chocolate fondant note, some fresh mint, dark tobacco leaf, a touch of ripe plum, all dusted with a little white pepper.  Water broadens the sweetness, bringing more of the ripe orchard fruit and woody spice. 

Finish:  You've probably guessed it, but those spices are determined to linger around and the dark chocolate notes, caramel and cinnamon all coat the palate, giving the finish a very warming conclusion. 

If this sounds like your kind of dram, you can dive onto the following link from midnight tonight (that's the 20th August to avoid any doubt) and grab a bottle from Master Of Malt. If you do, we hope you like it as much as we do.  

Slainte!

Neil & Joel

Big Birnie & His Older Brother

Seems to be the month of new peated releases, in that earlier on, the new unidentified Peat's Beast arrived on the shelves (with a mixed reaction from us) and hot on the beast's cloven hooves, BenRiach have released a newly labeled Birnie Moss peated single malt and a 25yo Authenticus.

BenRiach is a distillery close to our heart (more exciting news on this later) and the Authenticus has often hit the spot. In its younger, 21yo guise, the whisky reminds one of just how well the distillery do peated whisky and they are unquestionably up there with some of the great Islay malts of the same age. The 25yo follows on from this, but with a extra reserve of refinement.

BenRiach - Authenticus - 25 years Old - 46%

Nose: Some surprising fresh lime notes get this off to a very fruity start. In comes the peat, gentle at first, but building with each sniff, delivering a full bodied sooty/burnt bonfire style peat the further you get in. From here, it is more delicate red berry notes, meringue and fresh cream and a dusting of salted liquorice. Very good indeed.

Palate: The fruit continues to the palate but is pipped to the post by more liquorice spice, that morning-after bonfire air, some heather honey and a big dose of menthol. Rounded and oaky.

Finish: The peat lingers, giving some drier pine smoke notes, but the tongue is still coated with the remnants of fruit and cream.

Overall: A nice way to reprise the Authenticus and a 'must' if you're a fan of the original 21yo.

Next up, the NAS Birnie Moss. On first glance, this looks frighteningly similar (ie very light) to the Peat's Beast, sans the lavish Scarfe-esque illustration.

BenRiach - Birnie Moss - 48%

Nose: First up are crushed multi-vitamins (that slightly off-yeasty note) straight into some very oily peat smoke. There is a little lemon zest and possibly some white pepper in there somewhere, but it is direct, driven and very peaty. Perhaps a little one dimensionsal.

Palate: Creamy, but with a thin mouthfeel. How did they do that? The peat is again upfront, but is this time tempered with some green apple and swathes of vanilla.

Finish: Some honeycomb notes begin to emerge, but the peat keeps a grasp on the palate- the whole experience is short and sharp.

Overall: Clearly a very young whisky, this has promise, but is a little impetuous and one- dimensional. If this were a discussion about racing drivers, the Authenticus, with its balance, grace and refinement is the Sterling Moss to the younger, more aggressive but not fully developed sibling, Birnie.

Braving The Elements

Next week, Caskstrength are off to Helsinki for the second annual Uisge Festival - Finland's first dedicated whisky festival. We'll be doing a talk on cask finishes so hopefully there will be plenty of discussion points - and some decent drams to analyse!

In preparation for the sub-zero temperatures and snow, we've bought some new clothing: Boots with big laces and thick soles (the Berlin brogues 'debacle' is still firmly in our mind), as well as some decent cardigans (somewhere in-between Val Doonican and Starsky) and new hats. As fur is a little bit non-pc, we went for the soft option of an ear hat, rather than this rather startlingly dressed gentleman!!

And rather like filling your car with anti-freeze, we're topping up the blood levels with whisky, so we don't freeze internally.

Fortunately, a brace of samples from BenRiach has just arrived, so without further ado, time to start warming!!

Benriach - 17yo - Rioja Cask Finish 46%

Nose: Fruit sherbet, whisky steeped raisins, dried cherries, a little waft of liquorice and some mint.

Palate: Ooh! A very nice balance between sweetened liquorice, some clove/all spice and more of the steeped raisins. Some thick malt extract notes develop, alongside a touch of burnt orange, but all in all, rather nice indeed.

Finish: Lingering notes of the raisin and dried cherry.

Overall: Surprising, as we have tried a few wine finishes recently and with the exception of Glenmorangie's Artein they were all quite sub -standard. This really works though - with enough of a balance between malt and sweetness to satisfy even the most demanding of palates.

next up: a heavily peated madeira cask bottling...

BenRiach - 13yo - Heavily Peated Madeira Cask - 46%

Nose: A blast of young peat on the first nosing- confirms the name of this whisky, without question. Some tweed, woollen notes develop and a deft sweetness, but the peat is without a doubt the domineering force here.

Palate: As expected, some bonfire-like smoke washes over the tongue, but brings with it notes of strawberries and cream, some dark toffee and a hint of Java coffee. There is more depth than the nose, but minus the slightly sweet fruit notes, you'd be hard pressed to tell this was matured in a madeira cask.

Finish: lingering sweetness and an ashy peaty coating.

Overall: Straight, direct and luscious peat. Elements of sweetness too, but one for the peat hounds out there for sure.

We'll bring you a couple more of these over the next few days - thus completing our warming preparation for chilly Finland! Stay tuned...