The Call Of Nature

On Friday, we decided to move the Caskstrength office from its usual residence, surrounded by dusty bottles, into the fresh air of Crystal Palace Park. Sure, the broadband speed isn't quite up to much, relying on leaf power as opposed to fibre optics. However, they have real dinosaurs, (as above) an ice cream van and a place to chill whiskies in the form of a nice clear boating lake. And, as an additional bonus, A slightly swarthy-looking man occasionally pops by, offering freshly prepared platters of Paella. Is there a point where too much Paella becomes dangerous?

Whom ever came up with the phrase 'Hot Desking' clearly hasn't left the confines of his/her comfortably serviced, yet blindingly bland office block, for fear of encountering nature. Imagine- this could be you...

Or this, should you so desire.

This outdoor 'Park Desking' seemed the perfect environment for trying a new batch of blends, which we suspect were designed for the express purpose of outdoor drinking.

Wemyss are fast developing into a very progressive and forward thinking whisky company- and their newest batch of blended malts, The Hive, Spice King and Peat Chimney, all aged at 12yo really nail the point. There's a simplicity at the very heart of these whiskies, each one doing exactly what is suggested on the label.

So, with a little flask of chilled mineral water, some ice and a gob full of Paella, we set about doing an experimental day of mundane office-based chores - tax returns, some statistical analysis and the most evil of all office drudgery - the powerpoint presentation. Would these whiskies, coupled with our canopy of fresh air make them more palatable?

Wemyss - Blended Malt - The Hive - 12yo - 40%

Nose: Light, soft fruit compote notes, some honeyed sweetness, tinned pears and vanilla.

Palate: A surprising amount of smokiness hits the palate on the first mouthful, coupled with homemade apple pie, sweet vanilla ice cream and chopped almonds. Refreshing and very easy drinking. As a long drink, the subtleties of the blend come through, working nicely in a Mizuwari.

Finish: Light, refreshing and fruity.

Overall: A surprising mix of soft fruit and thick rich smoke on the palate. Expertly put together working either on its own, with a couple blocks of ice or as a longer drink.

The tax return is ripped through in no time.

Office Chores: 0

Wemyss Whisky: 1

Next up: Spice King 12yo, apparently uses a Highland malt as its signature spicy backbone... Let's see how it works in our outdoor challenge.

Wemyss - Blended Malt - Spice King - 12yo - 40%

Nose: Dry, woody spice notes (cinnamon, cedar and bleck pepper) with some licorice, a hint of menthol and some burnt bonfire aromas. With a little time in the glass, some cooked banana notes develop nicely.

Palate: Very spicy and dry on the first sip, cinnamon and clove, mixed with Bramley apples, burnt caramel (verging on the bitter type) leading into a sweet, vanilla custard note and hints of pipe tobacco.

Finish: The vanilla notes linger, the more drying woody notes following through shortly afterwards.

Overall: Complex, well balanced and flowing with flavour, this dram is another step up on The Hive. It isn't particularly suited to a long drink, we preferred it as a easy sippin' short drink, so perhaps not something to pair with the task of finishing a powerpoint presentation outdoors- but a fine dram nonetheless.

Office Chores: 1

Wemyss Whisky: 1

The final job to be completed in our outdoor South London office was a personal bugbear of mine- filing away emails. By now, we're feeling a lot more relaxed, after a couple of drams and the surroundings of the park are beginning to completely envelop us. Time to crack the Peat Chimney out.

Wemyss - Blended Malt - Peat King - 12yo - 40%

Nose: Fresh cherries, a very light peat initially, followed by a distinct sootiness and wet tweed. With a bit of time in the glass, blackcurrant notes, banana milkshake and some hazelnut chocolate begin to emerge. The sootiness certainly weighs in, but this isn't a massive blast of peat- just propping up the back.

Palate: Ah. There's the peat. Swathes of the brown stuff, coupled with more silky, rich chocolate coat the palate. Once again, nutty notes begin to take over. It isn't by any means an abrasive style peat, more along the lines of the recent Port Askaig we reviewed.

Finish: Slight vegetive notes, with sweet root vegetable and pepper notes, with a very sweet note on the death.

Overall: With a big slug of superbly chilled still water, ice and a slice of lemon zest (which we had to pilfer from the Crystal Palace Park Cafe, the emails seemed to miraculously fly into their destination folders. I even managed to delete a huge backlog of mails that had been stubbornly been refusing to leave quietly.

Office Chores: 1

Weymss Whisky: 2

The evening is now drawing in- We're pleasantly tanned, relaxed and have done a day's office work, in one of London's most idyllic parks. What's more we've had 3 really good drams, 2 of which worked perfectly as refreshing summer sippers. Hopefully we'll have at least a few more weeks of sunshine throughout September, where we can enjoy more office days like this, coupled with some great outdoor whiskies. We're certainly committed to the cause...

You Miss Malts? Wemyss Malts!!

Apologies for the weekend's absence but after our last post, both Joel and myself were dragged off to the Tower Of London to await a fate too evil to fully describe - needless to say, it involved a large quantity of rough Sainsbury's 'Basics' blended whisky, some goose grease and an industrial-sized pipette. Fortunately in the nick of time, we smooth talked our way past the Beefeaters guarding our fetid cell and walked off with a year's supply of Ermine topped capes.

We're back at our own towers now and the post was piling up - with some unusually shaped polystyrene boxes blocking the letterbox. On closer examination they revealed themselves to be samples from an independent bottler who we've yet to feature on caskstrength, but on enjoying their contents, we'll be bringing you more of, no doubt.

Wemyss Malts (pronounced 'Weems') are a family run company, whose history dates back to the imposing Wemyss Castle, the family seat in Fife. It was apparently on Wemyss land that John Haig built his first distillery and for centuries, barley grown on the family estate land has been used by numerous distillers to craft their whiskies. The name Wemyss also means caves in Gaelic and one would suspect that the myriad of them around the castle were used to hide many an illicit still from the prying eyes of the exciseman.

The company bottles a range of single cask releases from the Highlands, Speyside and Islay, as well as blending a small range, which are growing in popularity- one of our favourite bars, Bramble in Edinburgh has used their wares in a few innovative cocktails. Rather than dwell on distillery name or style, Wemyss have decided to focus on the inherent character of each cask - something which has obviously worked extremely well for the SMWS and blender extraordinaires- Compass Box.

The 3 samples we were sent are all early-mid 1990's single casks so lets see how they stack up.

Wemyss Malts - Single Highland Scotch Whisky - 'Mocha Spice' - distilled 1990 - bottled 2011 - 732 bottles - 46%

Nose: Sweet spices (nutmeg and vanilla) dance around the nostrils, along with woody cinnamon bark, oak shavings, grated dark chocolate and the merest whiff of tinned tropical fruit salad. Detailed and very open, given this is now over 20 years old.

Palate: Very creamy (highland fudge immediately springs to mind) with sweetened coffee notes (ah! there's the mocha from the name) more of the oak, but tempered with some nice green apple fruit flavour, some fresh butter, sweetened cereal and a dusting of cinnamon. In fact, there's a real hot cross bun thing going on, which is timely, as I fancy one!

Finish: The apple notes lead into a drying oak, with a touch of vanilla, which clings to the palate for a fairly lengthy finish.

Overall: Nicely done chaps- this is highly drinkable, well aged and not too dominated by the oak- a fine balance of fruit, sweet goodies and age is always a winner in my book.

Next up: Wemyss's latest Speyside release.

Wemyss Malts - Single Speyside Scotch Whisky - 'Ginger Compote' - distilled 1996 - bottled 2011 - 767 bottles - 46%

Nose: A big caramel note hits you before anything else, with buttery mashed potato, dark thick cut marmalade and some crystalised ginger.

Palate: Stones Ginger Wine. There it is- massively prominent, with a backbeat of menthol, cloves and dark honey. I'd say this would make for a very flavoursome Whisky Mac.

Finish: The spiced notes linger and rather like the Highland bottling, a sliced green apple note creeps in on the death, for a very fruity, spicy finish.

Overall: Well rounded with detailed malt balancing out the other flavours, this is a much more warming dram and really worth seeking out if you like your drams erring on the side of spicy.

The final dram from Wemyss' new batch of single casks comes to us from Islay, immediately bringing back memories of the great times we've spent there... Not long till Feis Ile now... ;-)

Wemyss Malts - Single Islay Scotch Whisky - 'Smoke Stack'- distilled 1996 - bottled 2011 - 294 bottles - 46%

Nose: Quite citrus'y at first, with plenty of orange zest balancing against a very mild medicinal /lint bandages style peat. Dive in and you'll find Terry's Chocolate Orange, some very pleasant malted almost toasted cereal. Not like some of the more overpowering Islay malts - this has some real subtlety at its heart.

Palate: The peat is far more prominent on the first sip, but still backed with the oranges. given a little drop of water some vanilla sweetness to come to the fore, which can only be a good thing.

Finish: lingering notes of peat on the death with a very mineral note drying on the palate, but balanced with subtle, sweet and delicious.

Overall: Another triumphant bottling from the company and again well worth seeking out if you like your peat without the loudness button pressed in.

For more info on these and other Wemyss bottlings visit their website here: