Singleton Of Dufftown - Single Malt Scotch Whisky Tailfire and Sunray

The newspapers in the UK are alive with stories of the British music scene from the mid-1990’s, when ‘Britpop’ lit up the world. British music has always been a major cultural export ever since Wings, only the band The Beatles could have been, released their debut album Wildlife in 1971. They got the ball rolling and it hasn’t stopped since...

From Punk, through to New Wave and beyond, it was through bands like Oxford’s Ride and London’s Lush that Britpop took shape, with highlights coming from Blur, Pulp, Suede, Oasis, Elastica, Ash, Supergrass, Radiohead and a few chosen others.

But, as with any cultural movement, there were a lot of people who jumped on the bandwagon, releasing music which never quite made it. Bands like Menswear, Northern Uproar, Rialto, These Animal Men, Whiteout, Sharkboy, Ultrasound, JJ72, King Adora, Seafood, The Llama Farmers, Sleeper, Marion, Heavy Stereo, Gene, Gaydad, Powder, Salad, 60ft Dolls and other acts whose CD’s and 7” releases when on to be filed under ‘indie landfill’.

The problem with these acts, the almost-rans, is that they didn’t provide any point of difference; nothing unique to make them stand out from the crowd.

The single malt whisky category is in danger of becoming like the Britpop-era music scene. At that time, you could pop into the Good Mixer pub in Camden and meet the lead singer of any band you wanted, good or bad. It was rammed with second hand clothes shop wearing indie hipsters, arguing over the merits of a cravat and brogues or tracksuit top and gazelles. Not much talk of the music was happening.

A similar situation occurs in whisky’s own ‘The Good Mixer’ today: The Whisky Exchange in London Bridge. The shelves are crammed with an ever expanding range of single malts, all vying for your attention and ‘share of throat’ as it is known in the business. But which expressions will win? Which will be the Blur and which the Marion?

Two new expressions which have recently been released by the folk over at Diageo are from the Singleton stable. Singleton is an interesting beast: in a niche of its own when it comes to the malleability of the liquid inside, having bottled single malts from Dufftown, Auchroisk, Glenn Ord and Glendullan so far.

The ‘standard’ release here in the UK is the Singleton of Dufftown 12 Year Old, a whisky which is designed to be easy to drink and doesn’t stray far from that objective. It has a 15 year old sister bottling which gives a little more depth of flavour, but doesn’t push any boundaries or ask any interesting questions.

They have now been joined by two more expression, Sunray and Tailfire (themselves sounding like Britpop almost-rans).

The Singleton of Dufftown – Sunray – NAS – 40% abv - £39.00

Nose:  A nice nose of apricot, honey, some fresh pine notes, a hint of tonic water, tinned pineapple and red apple.

Palate: A slight green veg note at first which develops into cream soda, dried apricots, peaches and pears. Not quite tropical fruit but it flirts with it. Easy and smooth.

Finish: An excellent finish of runny clear honey, more pineapple (chunks this time) and peach melba.

The Singleton of Dufftown – Tailfire – NAS – 40% abv £35.00

Nose: Much more earthy than the Sunray, this has a serried tone to it of dunnage warehouse floor and bung cloth. Fruitier than the Sunray, it has bigger elements of blackcurrant leaf, strawberry and blueberry.

Palate: A spicier palate which takes the red fruits from the nose and adds cinnamon and nutmeg. Some oak tones which add body and complexity to this palate, but do add a bitter overtone as well.

Finish: The nutmeg takes over and leaves a ‘used sherry’ impression at the end.

Overall: We both preferred Sunray, which gives a lighter, more palatable expression of the Singleton of Dufftown and, with a higher proportion of toasted ex-Bourbon casks, this way of maturation seems to be a more comfortable fit for the spirit from Dufftown. Tailfire, with a higher proportion of whisky from European oak casks, seems a little tired, a little too earthy for us. A clear winner at Caskstrength HQ was the Sunray edition. For under £40, this is actually a decent slug of single malt and, to be fair, the comparison between the two is an interesting exercise.

In the past we have discussed how we feel the Singleton of Dufftown at 12 Years Old is a little too underwhelming; an artist taking the popular bits of everyone’s songs and constructing a tune which hits the middle of target but with no personality or appeal. Coldplay, if you will.

However, these two new expressions do indeed show a different side of Dufftown’s output and the Sunray bursts through the clouds to really shine on their spirit; a good, solid release from this distillery. The Tailfire however feels like a bootlegged copy of a good album: lacking in a certain clarity. Ultimately, we are still waiting to see this distillery play live, to really excite us.

Whisky Flavour Profile: J&B Urban Honey, Ballantine's Brasil, Early Times Fire Eater

Life Imitating Art:

I’m Alan Partridge: A Room With An Alan. BBC TV, 1997.

Fictional radio DJ and TV presenter Alan Partridge meets the Head of BBC Programming, Tony Hayers to pitch ideas for some fourthcoming shows:

Alan Partridge:  ‘Shoestring’, ‘Taggart’, ‘Spender’, ‘Bergerac’, ‘Morse’. What does that say to you about regional detective series’?

Tony Hayers: There’s too many of them?

Alan: That’s one way of looking at it. Another way of looking at it is, ‘people like them, let’s make some more of them’....

An alternative scene in a drinks company marketing department, c.2013:

Marketing Person 1: ‘Jim Beam Red Stag’, ‘Wild Turkey American Honey’, ‘Jack Daniel’s Honey’, ‘Dewar’s Honey’, ‘Evan Williams Honey’, ‘Bushmills Irish Honey’, ‘Fireball Cinnamon Canadian Whisky’, ‘Paddy Devil’s Apple’. What does that say to you about flavoured whiskies?

Marketing Person 2: There are too many of them?

Marketing Person 1: That’s one way of looking at it. Another way of looking at it is 'people like them, let’s make some more of them’...

And so here we are today, with a glut of flavoured whisky from both sides of the Atlantic. But what are these beasts which seem to have been unleashed on us and what are they for?

Well, the first thing to point out is that they are not ‘whisky’, something which is made clear on their labels with the use of the phrase ‘Spirit Drink’ in large letters (although on the Scotch products, the term ‘Scotch whisky’ does appear, which could lead to some light confusion for the consumer).

The reason these products, specifically the ones from Scotland, are not ‘Scotch whiskies’ is twofold: firstly, because they (more often than not) are under 40% abv, and secondly because they have been flavoured.

So what is the point of these remixed editions? Well, it certainly is not about sipping and savouring. If you want to find that, buy a ‘proper’ whisky. These products are more about making spirit drinks more accessible, hopefully in a positive ‘David Beckham-esque’ manner, not a ‘make-it-sweeter-so-teenage-drinkers-can-woolf-it-down-in-the-graveyard-after-dark’ stylee.

The versatility of whisky (and we’re talking ‘whisky’ again here now, not ‘spirit drinks’) has been focused on in a new book by the always fantastic whisky writer Dave Broom. Whisky: The Manual takes the reader on a journey of discovery, looking at different whiskies and how they work with mixers; everything from your classic Jack & Coke combo through to Macallan’s and Yamazaki 18 with coconut water, cola and green tea.

Scrabbling around the office, we managed to find a couple of the whiskies included in Broom’s book and try out his little exercises to see what whisky works with what mixer.

First up, a classic: Cutty Sark Original and Soda Water. Broom scores this a 5* (the highest rating in the book) calling it an ‘an instant, appetizing, moreish, lightly herbal drink where the crispness of the mixer plays off the sweetness, revealing perfume notes’.

This drink is a favourite in both the Ridley and Harrison households, with many a summer sundowner created with a light whisky (which Cutty is famed for) and a good slug of soda and ice. Test in the office, which was little needed to be honest, mirrored Broom’s notes, creating a vibrant and delicious drink perfect for a warm spring afternoon.

Casting the net from the other side of the boat, Broom kicks the hornets’ nest that is single malt and mixers, taking some reverenced  expressions such as The Macallan 18, Highland Park 18, Yamazaki 18, Talikser 10 and The Balvenie 12 Year Old Doublewood and trying them out with different partners.

Not all scored well (for example, the Yamazaki and Macallan 18’s were both regarded as being perfect ‘naked’ or with a drizzle of water, but not much else), where as the Bowmore 12 Years Old scored well with coconut water and the one we decided to try, Lagavulin 16 with coke, both coming in with a 5/5 score.

Lagavulin 16 with cola was a real surprise. Measured out in equal parts, the smoke kicks through the bold cola flavours and delivers something not too far off a smoky Dr. Pepper. I’d be interested to see where a cola syrup would take this (or even a cola cube in an Old Fashioned: ‘Smoke and Coke’, which sounds like a like a night out in 1980’s New York, anyone?) and how far this partnership could be pushed. Well worth a try at home.

Broom’s book is another step towards the idea of whisky (in ALL forms) as a mixer. Not to remove the halo that, say single malt Scotch has and force on a crown of thorns, whisky is just a drink and should be enjoyed. If enjoying it means mixing it, then by all means do so.

And this brings us back around to flavoured whisky: if used properly, they can provide a great entry point for the consumer into the world of whisky and a wonderful mixer to a cocktail. At their very bet, these ‘pop’ editions of whisky might even encourage their fans to seek out the real flavours behind the booze. But only if they’re good.

Of the new releases we have seen recently, few have taken well to our palate. Not for their over-sweetened ideal of what a cocktail ingredient should taste like, but their closeness to reality: how real do they taste.

One good example has been Jim Beam Red Stag, something we used a few years ago in a coffee cocktail, and it was excellent.

But recently there have been some new release, in the shape of J&B Urban Honey and Ballantine’s Brasil from Scotland and Early Times Fire Eater from the States.

Ballantine’s Brasil is bottled t 35% abv and is a Spirit Drink made from ‘Scotch whisky selectively cask steeped with Brazilian lime peel’. The result is a rather odd affair of sweetness and bitterness, delivering some oak-tones and a smoothness on the palate with a hint of lime coming through. Too much of a liqueur note about this for us, used as a mixer it added an additional layer of sweetness to most of the cocktails we tried it with. However, with soda and a lime wedge with wasn’t half bad.

Urban Honey sounds like a new album from Beyonce, but is actually the new expression from the age-old blended Scotch house J&B. The thing about this release is... it is actually really, really nice. On the nose, there is nothing but honey and whisky; no saccharine sweet notes. It doesn’t smell like a freshly cleaned diabetes ward, which a lot of these products can. The biggest surprise here is the taste, which is a brilliant balance of honey and whisky. Enough earthy tones from the oak matured spirit, this certainly has a ‘real’ feel to it. Again, this has been developed at 35% abv.

Early Times Fire Eater: this is a ‘hot cinnamon liqueur’ and is ‘a blend of fine spirits, Early Times whisky and cinnamon flavours’. Also at 35% abv, this is very sweet and full of cinnamon (as you would expect). I’m not quite sure what the point of this is or where one would best use it. Aside from the extreme sweetness, the flavour is good and it tastes real. I think this could work well with Ginger Beer... something for the backburner (if you excuse the pun), the results of which I’ll let you know about at some stage.

So there you have it, as the doors of ‘Club Whisky’ swing wider by the day, with grain whisky, flavoured offerings and books like Whisky: The Manual, opening the appeal of our beloved spirit to an even wider audience, we are seeing the dusty old members’ club become more of a drinking democracy. In the words of Woolf Smith: Power To The People.

Long Live The Whisky Popular Front.

The Eagle Has (Finally) Landed? Arran 17 Year Old

Here at Caskstrength, we have a distinct soft spot for the Arran distillery. 

Back in 2011, when we decided to embark on our epic journey into the A-Z of Whisk(e)y, we began with A for Arran- a particularly fine 14 year old expression in our opinion, which quickly sold out.  

The Arran itself was deliciously light in character, full of orchard fruit, caramel malt and zest. When looking at the range of Arrans available We wouldn't hesitate to recommend the 10 year old to anyone looking to experience a single malt for the very first time (a steal at around £30) and the 14 year old continues to develop the distinctly fruity softness to another degree. 

In fact, we came to associate Arran with the flavours of summer, despite there being a host of other more robust offerings including a host of sherry and wine finishes available, alongside the lighted peated Machrie Moor and the spicy, slightly spirity Devil's Punch Bowl. 

The distillery's newest offering, a 17 year old, is the oldest expression to date (continuing the countdown to next year's 18 year old, after the official release of a 16 year old last year) and marks another turning point in the its very own spirited journey.  But rather than focus on the full fat, buttery rich sweetness of first fill bourbon to give all those lovely light summery notes, this release is made up from sherry hogsheads.    

So where does it fit into the canon of current releases?

Well, the good(ish) news is that it isn't a million miles from any of the previous ones...

Arran - 17 Year Old -  46% - RRP £65

Nose: Undeniably sweet from the get go, with a clean malty cereal note, tangy orange zest, a hint of golden syrup, some hazelnuts and a little liquorice. It isn't the most complex 17 year old you're likely to encounter and shares a lot of the hallmarks with the distillery's younger expressions.  

Palate: Slightly sharp initially, but with a return of the orange zest, a little spiced sugar syrup, more chopped nuts, fragrant marzipan and green apple. Given time, the orchard fruits we have come to expect develop with soft white peaches and pears coming to the fore. Again, it isn't the boldest palate you'll encounter, but it is certainly in-keeping with the Arran we have grown to love.

Finish: Slightly short, with lingering chopped hazelnuts and a touch of liquorice.  

Overall: Anyone hanging on for Arran's ascent into the realms of deep, dark complexity will be sorely disappointed. But in our opinion, that is unlikely to happen any time soon. The distillery has set its stall out as a characteristically light, easy drinking whisky and, wait for it... they have easily achieved this again with the 17 year old. For the price, you are getting a very dependable and well made whisky (given the cost of the numerous No Age Statement whiskies out there).  It may lack the bold touches other distilleries achieve at this age but with spring definitely joyfully bounding around like a puppy full of penny sweets, whiskies like this most certainly come into their own.  

Blend It Like Beckham - The New Haig Club Grain Whisky

Well, sometimes prophecies do come true it seems.

In January, we looked into our crystal whisky glass and thought long and hard about what was going to happen in the whisky world.

Our first prediction was that the world of grain whisky would get a lot more popular with several major players entering the market place with new products.

Our second prediction was that there would be the unveiling of a huge celebrity endorsement whisky.  At that point, the waters went cloudy and we couldn't quite make out just whose face was disappearing back into the haze -  but they looked familiar, fairly handsome and in possession of a decent haircut.

Today it seems that both of these predictions have proved to come true.

The whisky world has entered another realm of celebrity with the announcement of Haig Club -  a brand new grain whisky partnership between Diageo and none other than football's favourite son, David Beckham.

Beckham and his manager, the show business mogul Simon Fuller are familiar to millions around the globe so make no mistake, this is quite a big deal. What is surprising, but equally very pleasing, is that the whisky in question is a grain; the bedrock of any blended whisky and the spirit that really drives the Scotch  business forward. Without it, the world domination of whisky simply wouldn't have occurred. Brands like Johnnie Walker, Chivas Regal, Cutty Sark and any of the many other ubiquitous blends would not be welcoming sights in back bars from Alaska to Zurich.

So why Haig Club?

Well, the Haig family has a long seated presence in the grain whisky world. The Haig family are arguably the first distillers of Scotch whisky on record, dating back to 1655.  In 1824, John Haig established the Cameronbridge distillery, which has now become one of Scotland's largest grain distilleries producing around 120 million litres of spirit every year.  From Smirnoff vodka- to Gordon's and Tanqueray gin, through to a host of blended whiskies you will have tried, the large proportion of the grain spirit within these famous brands is made at the Cameronbridge distillery.

Haig is the name on another hugely successful blend - Dimple, which for all those Breaking Bad fans, was Walter White's favourite tipple of choice, shortly before cooking up a bad-ass batch of Crystal Meth.

Now it seems that Haig has reinvented itself again -  this time with a new global icon at the helm.

David Beckham and his team of business advisors have clearly entered the whisky market at the right time, given its continued global expansion. With the Far East becoming more switched on to Scotch whisky of all kinds (premium single malts and blended whiskies) and also South America (particularly Brazil) developing a healthy appetite for whisky, it is undoubtedly hot property. But the fact that Haig Club is solely a grain whisky is doubly clever. Unlike malt whisky, grain has a softer profile, lighter in style, making it easy to mix and certainly easier on the palate than heavier, more robustly flavoured whiskies.

Until recently, when William Grant & Sons released their Girvan series of whiskies (essentially becoming pioneers in opening up a new grain whisky market) there was little consistency around grain whiskies, with most coming from independent sources: some were excellent, some were truly terrible. Grain whisky has clearly always been an untapped resource and now it all lots set to change once again from being a team player within the confines of a blend, to becoming a real star player on its own (sorry, we couldn't resist that)

The new Haig Club whisky won't carry an age statement and will be made from three distinct styles of casks: refill - used whisky casks, rejuvenated casks (which give a greater level of spiciness to the flavour) and first fill bourbon casks. With grain whisky intended to be easy to mix with pretty much anything:  from soda, tonic, lemonade and cola, it is not going to be as complex and structured as a single malt - but that's the point. At the moment, there is no RRP, but the whisky will be released later this year, so we shall see if it will come with a price tag as lofty as a premiership transfer fee.

We were invited to try an advanced sample of Haig Club a few months ago and here's our tasting notes:

Haig Club - Grain Whisky -  40% 

Nose: Fresh coconut, milk chocolate, rich Madagascan vanilla, chopped hazelnuts, honeycomb and a hit of banoffee pie and a little fresh pine aroma too.

Palate: Coconut, pineapple and banana come to the fore, backed with a delicate undertone of blackcurrant, a hint of raspberry and more fresh vanilla. This is a sunny tropical fruit salad of a whisky, but there is a solid foundation of oak underneath.

Finish: Milk chocolate truffles, more coconut and a hint of oak-led spice which gives some real uplift to the finish. 

Overall: This is not a flighty, flavourless grain but one which has taken on a good balance of both tropical fruits on the top end (giving a mouth-watering flavour) yet with a strong foundation of vanilla and spice. No doubt, it will be a real game changer, like the man who has lent his name to the project. 

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.