Knoc, Knoc.

Being of dual nationality, I'm very much choosing this week to be a blatant glory hunter; wrapping myself in the Union Flag (not literally; there is a line...), standing side-by-side with my fellow countryman, whisky in hand, singing God Save The Queen.

For at this very moment we have a huge haul of gold medals, needing just one more to equal #TeamGB's achievements four years ago in Beijing.

However, it isn't just the extreme haul of medals that is pleasing; it's everything that comes along with it. Unlike a roast dinner, with the Olympics, the trimming are even tastier.

From the unsung heroes mentioned in my previous post, to the jokes on twitter ("Spelling is important. The difference between won and one: Great Britain have just won gold. Australia have just one gold") right the way through to news that, despite still having to contest the 200 meters and the 4x 100 meter relay, Usain Bolt was seen in a night club at 3.45 this morning celebrating his gold medal win with... the Sweden women’s handball team. This Olympics has been pure soap opera.

Hands and balls, indeed...

But alongside such well known sports as track & field, tennis ('Mon The Muzz!), football and gymnastics, we're being given the option to watch, learn and enjoy some fantastic events which usually we might not turn our eyes to.

Let's face it, we all have a limited capacity; both time-wise and financially, and in this modern age there is always something looking for our attention or our almighty dollar. So it has been a real pleasure to drop in for small snippets on events such as equestrianism, clay pigeon shooting, Greco-Roman wrestling and the aforementioned handball.

In a similar way, it is very easy to get stuck in a rut when it comes to your favourite whiskies: daring to venture outside of your usual few bottles ('few' being defined however you like) takes not only a leap of fiscal faith, but also time to find out if you really enjoy said liquid.

And what if you do like what you try? Shock! Horror! It means yet another item for the Christmas list. Yet another range to discover. Yet more time and money. But, oh! The joy of finding a new friend.

One good way to see if you like a whisky is with the purchase of miniatures. Much like flicking over to BBC3 and checking out the water polo, you can always retreat to the comfort and safety of Clare Balding taking about someone simply running as fast as they can, if the water-based sport is not to your liking.

Phew.

Of course, here at Caskstrength.net we're always trying to provide you with interesting alternatives (as well as plain old simple ones, too) to your usual tipple. So, inspired by this taster of sport, I've decided to cast my net in to the world of the miniatures and try a couple of things which are not usually on my radar nor in my standard cabinet of delights. Why? Because I've never really had a chance to get to know them, despite their relative ubiquity in most decent whisky retailers.

Firstly, I'm gonna kick off with Speyburn. A small distillery just outside Rothes in, as the name suggests, Speyside. I was due to visit a few weeks ago but due to illness couldn't make the trip, so here’s hoping this brings me good luck and not bad memories...

Speyburn - 10 Years Old - 40%

Nose: Water melon, barley water, unripe kiwi fruit, some buttery notes with a hint of lemon juice.

Palate: Sweetened grapefruit juice,  custard creams, heather and a drizzle of light honey. Some green apples, too.

Finish: Every such a small amount of spices but very light and delicate.

Overall: I don't know why, but I wasn't expecting a lot from this whisky yet its clean and crisp palate is really lovely. Would be great on a summers day with a block of ice. Something I'll try of this biblical weather ever ceases.

The next mini is actually from a distillery owned by the same team as Speyburn (who also boast Balblair and Old Pultney in their ranks, too) but it's one of the odder names bottles out there, ancnoc.

Hailing from Knockdhu distillery, I'm led to believe that the bottling name was changed due to the original distillery sounding too much like Knockando. And a fair point that is. So, when asking the locals what it should be called they simply replied ‘Ancnoc‘ because that was their name for the local distillery anyway.

Ancnoc - 12 Years Old - 40% abv

Nose: Minted peas and steamed garden vegetables develops in to dried figs and some earthy tones (forest floor). At the back of the nose lies some cream soda notes.

Palate: the palate is soft with brown sugars and some green tea. It develops light cigar tobacco flavours which, in turn, mould in to the over ripe figs from the nose.

Finish: subtle Christmas spices of cinnamon and ginger.

Overall: well, a totally different beast. A whisky to snuggle up to the open fire with on Boxing Day.

Two solid drams working hard to squeeze their way in to my Olympic team, these are different drams for different seasons. Right now, of the two, I’d sit back with a large glass of the Speyburn in the vain hope that the sun may well start to shine again.

Right, I'm off to learn Greco-Roman wrestling. Look out, Ridley...

The Wemyss Medal Table

Ok, so we're one day off now, weather looks great, Boris has just given a suitably rousing, but slightly xenophobic speech at Hyde Park and we got the first gob-smacking, hum-dinging mistake out the way with the Korean flag f**k up.  Having been down to see the Olympic torch relay hit my manor on Tuesday, to witness the reaction it got from the usually cynical South Londoners, I think the Olympics and Team GB are going to be a huge success.

But what to drink?

Is there a gold, silver and bronze line up of booze out there, to enjoy in times of triumph - and perhaps a commiseration dram to lift one's spirits when diving sensation Tom Daley comes 6th, due to suffering fatigue from all his pre-Olympics media commitments.

Of course it is completely subjective, but here at Caskstrength, we've worked out a little drinking game to mirror the actual games themselves.

In-keeping with the actual medals table, we'll be trying to consume beverages produced by the top ten medal winning nations during the next two weeks.  Now as you will see below, this immediately presents us with a continent-sized problem.  Looking at the huge success of China in the 2008 Beijing games, I think we'll mostly be drinking shochu for a fortnight.  However, we've come up with a strategy to combat this, due to the lack of  readily available domestic Chinese spirit in the Caskstrength office. As whisky is now hugely popular in China, and often consumed with green tea, we'll use this as our oriental caveat. 


So Russia...erm...vodka?


 And South Korea?... Oh forget it. What a bloody stupid idea this was.

Joking aside, we will be bringing you whiskies from a few international nations over the Olympic period and, when we can be bothered, a fun, national-themed cocktail too.  Tonight though, we'll start with our first offering in the shape of a trio of excellent new releases from indie bottlers, Wemyss (or to apply the ludicrous-Olympics-theme-we've-mistakenly-saddled-ourselves- with, 'Team GB')

We last featured a batch of their interestingly titled releases last year and in that time, the world seems to have gone a little bit gaga for their flavoursome offerings.  This current batch is in keeping with the creative naming policy, working on dessert themes.  So seeing as my supper of tuna and lime fishcakes, steamed anya potatoes and peas has now gone down, I might as well prepare for afters...

Wemyss - Campbeltown -  Glen Scotia - 1991 - 'Strawberry Ganache' - 46%

Nose: Waxy notes, dark honey, malt extract, floor polish, honey comb and dark chocolate. It's very rich, malty and heavy- more Black Forest Gateau, than a ganache.  

Palate:  A lovely silky, oily mouthfeel, giving notes of woody sherry, cinnamon bark, black treacle and tobacco.  Given a bit of time, mint humbugs and rum-soaked raisins coat the whole of the mouth.  

Finish: Lengthy, malty, bittersweet and heavyweight. In fact, as heavy as an olympic medal, no doubt.  

Overall: If this were a medal, colour wise, it has to be bronze, but don't let the colour influence your decision- this is a top step of the podium whisky. Superb.

                                     

Wemyss -  Highland -  Clynelish - 1997 - 'Fresh Fruit Sorbet' - 46%  

Nose: Wow, now we've finished our ganache (or gateau) it's on to a palate cleansing fruit salad and what a bowl of loveliness we have here.  Papaya, blood orange, fresh strawberry, lavender, parma violet, fruit sherbet and freshly cut red apple.  There's also a waft of cedarwood if you dig deep enough.

Palate: Quite hot, but then an explosion of fruitiness on the tongue, tinned peaches and cream, mango, raspberries, more sherbet (citrus this time) and American original chewing gum (think Hubba Bubba or Bazooka Joes)

Finish: The fruit notes linger, with a touch of green apple peel, giving way to some lighter liquorice spiciness. Not hugely lengthy, but pleasant and very summery. 

Overall:  Unusually fruity for a Clynelish, lacking some of the waxy notes one would ordinarily expect, but making up for the absence with that stonking fruit bowl effect. Golden in colour, but perhaps running a close second or silver to the Glen Scotia. 

Our final contestant is the youngest of the trio, coming from the Lowlands.  Will it be Usain Bolt on a good day... or a 2012 Daley Thompson comeback?  Let's find out.

Wemyss - Lowland - Auchentoshan - 1998 -  'Lemon Sorbet' - 46%

Nose: Unusual at first, sappy pine freshness, pea shoots and clean linen all spring to attention off the bat.  Given time, some pencil shavings, followed by a touch of basil start to develop. It's hard to pin this one down and it is a little closed.  A drop of water brings out some more mineral-like notes and some cherry sherbet.

Palate: Sweet, with a touch of vanilla, more cherry sherbet but quite short in the character department, compared to the other two. A touch of pepper rounds out the experience.

Finish: Short, with notes of vanilla again.

Overall: The weakest of the three releases, this has moments where it tries to grab your attention, but is just a little too polite, compared to the might of the Glen Scotia and the fruity charm of the Clynelish.  

To stick with the Olympic theme (sorry) the Auchentoshan is probably a little way off being selected for Team GB, needing more time to find its feet, whereas the Glen Scotia is the already experienced  gold medal shoe-in Sir Chris Hoy and the Clynelish a confident, talented and very feminine Jessica Ennis. 

Promise i'll stop now.  Let's hope the lighting of the opening ceremony Olympic flame goes more smoothly than this shocking fire lighting attempt:

Ardbeg Day

The 2nd June marks a special day on the island of Islay.  As part of the the annual Feis Ile (which we are visiting again for the 6th year now) Ardbeg have decided to rename the 2nd June as an official Ardbeg Day.  Quite whether they've approached the Queen to get the name changed is another matter (she's quite busy at the moment, I believe) and I'm not sure it will count as a national holiday, for those of you having to work. However if you are attending the Feis this year, the line up, which Ardbeg have thrown together looks like a lot of fun indeed -  Olympic-themed japery including phenolic gymnastics, sheep tossing, (one of Joel's favourites) bog snorkelling (another one of Joel's personal favourites) and terrier racing (canine permitting)

Alongside the events is the traditional bottling, which is produced especially for the day.  In the past several years, the Ardbeg releases have been exceptional single casks and very limited release bottlings, resulting in long queues outside the distillery from an early hour.  We've been in those queues - dependent on the weather, it's actually quite fun.  This year will be a little different.  Although the heart of Ardbeg Day will be directly at the distillery, around the world, separate splinter events are happening from everywhere between Vancouver and Vietnam (quite possibly) and for the 99.999% of Ardbeg fans out there, the good news is that the bottling will be available across the globe from a number of Ardbeg Embassies just for the day.

1,100 cases of this special Ardbeg Day bottling will be produced (which in real-person-speak means around 13,000 bottles), so the outturn is relatively on a par with that of some of the previous Ardbeg Committee bottlings and also the Laphroaig Cairdeas bottlings, which were released alongside the Feis Ile.  The bottling is selected and married using several parcels of refill sherry casks, which were previously used for Uigeadail and the ABV will stand at 56.7%

We were lucky enough to spend some time with Dr Bill Lumsden this lunchtime and get a sneaky peak at the whisky, alongside several other expressions of Ardbeg including the 10 year-old and the mighty Alligator (which Bill describes as his 'Sweeney' version of Ardbeg, for reasons too long to explain in this post.)

Ardbeg - Ardbeg Day Bottling - 56.7% - NAS - 70cl.  RRP £60

Nose: Hearty notes of dry ginger, woody spices, hints of golden syrup and fragrant vanilla. With water, the spice notes develop and the sweetness gets more syrupy.  

Palate:  A superb dryness hits first (making one think about rich, dry Oloroso sherry) with more dried ginger, cinnamon, peppered meats, a hint of apple pie and a dusting of dark sugar.  With water, there is also a creaminess, perhaps reminding the palate of some of the Ardbeg bottlings of the last few years -  Uigeadail, Airgh Nam Beist and Alligator.  In fact, the dried fruit, chocolate gingers and orange zest notes are very reminiscent of the snappily titled bottling of last year. 

Finish: Lingering notes of dried fruit, with a touch of the ginger and a little menthol creeping in.

Overall:  Another highly drinkable Ardbeg, which sits firmly in the flavour camp of many of the distilleries favourite bottlings.  It is powerful without water, but doesn't lose its dynamic when a touch is added.  If you liked Alligator, you'll definitely enjoy this.  Question is, would you be prepared to undertake a bog snorkelling session for a bottle?   

I guess we would.  Zip up Harrison. We're going in.

oooh, what could this be? An Ardbeg Playing Card perhaps. Click on it for some fun, fun, fun...

oooh, what could this be? An Ardbeg Playing Card perhaps. Click on it for some fun, fun, fun...

A Royal Flush

Is it me, or has everyone jumped on the 'Jubilympics' bandwagon?

To be honest, with the Olympics, the Mayoral elections and the Queen's celebrations (god bless her)  living in London is a little like living in Disneyland.  It feels surreal to think that around the world, images of fairytale royal carriages, flotillas, Olympic torches and of course, Boris Johnson's ludicrous mop top are becoming potent symbols of the city in the 21st Century.  Practically every whisky company has released some sort of extortionate lovingly authentic, celebratory bottling - we reviewed the Johnnie Walker bottling, (which to be fair, was excellent) but frankly gave up counting the number of press releases from other companies showboating their liquid tributes to Her Majesty.

Anyway, not wanting to sound like i'm bandwagoneering or indeed, a miserable sod, but about eight months ago after failing to obtain any Olympic tickets whatsoever (who'd have thought that female weightlifting, tennis and basque pelota - (ok I made the last one up, but it did feature in the 1900 Olympics)) would prove to be so popular, I decided to put Caskstrength Towers up for rental for a two-week period and get the hell out of 'Dodge for the whole thing.  I now have a kindly family utilising the stunning location of the property, which is ideally located to access the Olympic site (being that it is South East London.)  Previously the family had booked into a 'family room' at a Travelodge on the outskirts of London and were being charged - get this - the best part of £2000 for the privilege of five days accommodation.  Feeling like a good Samaritan, I drastically undercut the budget hotel chain and everyone has ended up happy.

Or so I thought.  Realising that timing has never my strong point, Mrs Caskstrength duly reminded me after the deal was done that we will have a six-week old baby to look after - and now, no where to live for a while. Oops.  Timing Ridley, timing.

So while finding temporary digs for my family is clearly a priority, I can't help but thinking how pleased I am that we won't have to suffer sweltering conditions on London's creaking tube network, or endure the frustration of having to suddenly cough up £5 extra for a cup of coffee/tea/pint/apple/loaf of bread (insert every day item here) simply because we have Jacques Rogge's circus in town for a few weeks.

All this brings me to a whisky.  As said above, I don't much care for anything with Royal in its name at the moment (though Royal Leamington Spa is delightful) but I just received a sample of a rather unusual, but, I suppose, timely single malt release from Glenury Royal.  

For those who haven't come across the distillery before- it is a long since demolished site, which gained its royal approval from King William IV back in 1835.  Sadly, this patronage was never enough to stop the distillery suffering long periods of silence and in 1992, the axe finally fell on the distillery for good.

Diageo own the remaining stocks of whisky and it has matured into a barnstormer.   We first reviewed a fabulous 36 year old 1968 Glenury Royal back in 2009 and now, we have the pleasure of trying its 40 year old cousin, distilled in 1970 and filled into American oak refill casks.

Whilst Diageo's timing might be a little off with this royal release, next to the numerous others bearing the word royal,  it can't be any worse than mine...

Glenury Royal - 40 Year Old - 59.4% 

Nose: Initially, quite wine'y, with muted dry cask notes, some pasteurised apple juice, a little touch of woody spice and brown sugar.  With water, toffee apple notes, white chocolate and a hint of lemon sherbet round out a very pleasing balance of aromas.

Palate:  Wow, a terrific mouthfeel. Oily, fat and rich off the bat - and a little hot too.  Pepper and charcoal notes mix with fragrant fresh fruits, vanilla pods and tannic red wine. Big, bold and quite lively for its age. Water delivers a touch of Manuka honey, some honey charred ribs and green apple skins.  Very unusual flavours to find in one sip, but all the better for it.

Finish: Dry, with touches of spice, vanilla, a shake of pepper and the green apple skin.

Overall:  This sits perfectly alongside the 36 year old and perhaps has a little edge in the spice department.  It is certainly an elder statesman, but don't let that put you off.  It also comes in a damn sight cheaper than most of the other 'Royal' releases currently competing with each other -  the RRP is £525, which for a 40 year old whisky in this day and age, is not as butt-clenchingly terrifying as you'd have probably expected. 

Now, about that rental money....