I went to a Scotch tasting class at Total Wine and the instructor said all Scotches are peated.
I had opportunities for a bourbon tasting Thursday night and a Scotch tasting Friday night. After tasting four bourbons at Craft Wine and Beer I can definitely say I want to add bourbon to my list of spirits I want to explore. After tasting 10 Scotches at a Total Wine Scotch tasting I can say there’s a lot of flawed and uninteresting Scotch from Speyside and the Highlands, some of it at $80 a bottle.
The Craft tasting was a chance to sample the bourbon along with pumpkin pie. They were a nice match.
First up was Johnny Drum sour mash. This is only $20 a bottle and it was great. Quite smooth. Wine geeks called it balanced. No alcohol that I noticed. It didn’t have a lot of depth but the flavors were nice. Kind of a butter toffee but not especially sweet. Shortish finish, but for the price that was forgivable.
Next up was Waitsburg Bourbon by Oola Distillery from Seattle. This is the only bourbon at Craft I didn’t like. It was 94 proof but seemed bigger and unbalanced. I probably should have cut it with more water. Vanilla taste dominated.
The third bourbon was Old Forester Birthday Bourbon. This was a 12-year-old bourbon released in 2014. This was pretty nice. It had vanilla flavors also, but they didn’t overwhelm everything else. Some nice spices too and a good finish.
The last bourbon was a treat. It’s Rhetoric from the Orphan Barrel program by Diageo. I’ve had its little brother, Barterhouse. Although they’re the same age, I’d say Rhetoric is smoother and has a lot more spice. I got some maple flavor with this, too, which matched nicely with the pumpkin pie. Tremendous finish. Just great sipping bourbon.
The results were not so great at the Total Wine Scotch tasting the following night. I disliked six of the 10 Scotches and would only rate two as Scotches I really liked. Those six seemed flawed, forgettable or both.
The first was one of the ones I liked. It was 8-year-old Glen Ness Highland single malt. It retails for less than $20. I think it’s a private label for Total Wine. It was simple but it was also smooth. Some caramel and vanilla. I’d say the Johnny Drum sour mash kicked it’s butt, but if I had a Scotch collection at home I wouldn’t mind having this.
It would be a long spell before I found another Scotch I liked at this tasting. Next up was the Glenlivet 12-year-old. This seems to be made with so few characteristics that it wouldn’t offend anyone. It’s light, true, but there also isn’t much there there. Shortish finish. I was encouraged when the instructor asked the 33 people attending the tasting if they liked it and most said they didn’t.
Next up was the Macallan 12-year-old. This was my first time having this Scotch that I remember and it also was forgettable. The label said 43 percent alcohol, which suggests it was not chill filtered to remove the oils, but this seemed so generic tasting I wonder if they did filter it. The instructor said Glenlivet and Macallan are like the Ford and Chevy of Scotch, but to me it seemed more like McDonald’s and Taco Bell. Just bland, safe and inoffensive.
Next up were the Sheldaig 12 year old followed by the Sheldaig 18 year old. With the latter I was thinking how Scotch may peak at 18 years and if this was best it was going to ever be then it’s not that good.
Next was a Glenfiddich 18 year old. This had a touch of smokiness but again was so generic tasting. It was $80 a bottle. I wouldn’t pay $80 for a Scotch that is this dull.
Next were two Grangestones. I liked the first one, a Master’s Selection Double Cask. It was simple, but smooth and enough enough flavors to hold my interest. Obviously young. If it was expensive, I wouldn’t buy it. The next was a Grangestone 21 year old Scotch. This just didn’t have any depth or anything to show for its age.
The next two I liked, both Berrys’. The first was 22 year old from the Littlemill Distillery. This was big but carried it well. I added just a few drops of water to tame it. Very complex. Subtle spiciness. Lots going on. Also some white fruits. Great finish. This aged quite well. It is a Lowland Scotch.
Next was a Berrys’ 18 year old from Allt-a-bhainne Distillery, a Speyside. Wjereas the Littlemill was spicy, this one was more floral and fruity. It was proably the most elegant Scotch I tasted all night although I liked the flavors of the Littlemill more. The instructor said this distillery provides Chivas with most of its Scotch.
I knew Berry Bros. & Rudd were involved in buying and selling wine, but I guess they also go around and sample Scotch casks (and other spirits) that they sell under their own label.
That is absolutely not true. That instructor should be fired.
Using peat, for an ironic touch.
I went to a rye tasting and enjoyed them all, although the least expensive rye stood out as the best. This was the Rittenhouse 100, which is sold at a local chain for $25 a bottle but which I picked up at Craft Reno for $31 in order to buy local.
Rittenhouse Rye 100 is worthy of sipping. Nothing in the nose or palate betrays the 100 proof. In liquor they call this smooth. Wine geeks call it balanced. There’s nice spice on the nose along with some oak. But oak here is good. But while the alcohol is not betrayed, this is a big, in-your-face kind of whiskey. Not subtle.
Quite dry on the palate, although not to a fault. Also, non-sweet toffee flavors, along with some rye grain flavor. Good finish.
My next favorite rye was the Sazerac. This has 39 percent corn so it had a nice sweetness to contrast the dry rye flavor. It had a good finish. This was borderline worthy of sipping straight. I guess mainly it paled compared to the Rittenhouse.
We also drank a Bulleit rye and a Wild Turkey (not the 101). The Wild Turkey was my least favorite, although it still wasn’t bad, Just one dimensional. I didn’t like Bulleit bourbon and I was surprised to find out I liked the Bulleit rye when I tried it before. Still rather simple and perhaps best for mixes.
We started the night with a cocktail called a Continental sour – the instructor’s version of a New York sour – made with Templeton rye. She floated sauvignon blanc on top. The drink got much tastier when I got to the bottom. I don’t know if this was because the ratio of sauvignon blanc went down or because of other factors. I couldn’t evaluate the rye, but I liked the drink.
I love Rittenhouse, and you’ll find much love for it on this board. That said, I use it to mix, not to drink straight. Regarding whether you can sense the 100 proof, I’ve found that after drinking whiskey for awhile, you really want that extra proof, particularly with water or ice, or as a mixer of course. You start to expect that bite.
If you want a Rye worth sipping I’d suggest Lot 40, Canadian Rye. I liked it, though not as much as bourbons available at the same price.
So my exploration of Scotch led me to try a horrible Scotch. This Scotch is so bad it’s almost worth the $12 to try a shot just for the experience.
I was at a local restaurant that serves good food. I had a beer and felt like a shot of Scotch. I couldn’t read the labels on the top shelf in the dim light, so I asked the bartender what they had. The first one he mentioned was the new Haig Club Scotch. A waitress chimed in and said it was sweet and was good with dessert. I decided to give that a try, also ordering a chocolate budino.
The bartender stepped on a shelf and pulled the bottle off the top shelf. The first clue something was wrong was that it was in a cobalt blue bottle. That’s like flowers or baby animals on wine labels. I should have bailed then but I decided to go ahead.
When I got it I smelled it. The nose has a strong turpentine aroma. I got black pepper and a chemical flavor on the palate. It was all on the attack. No midpalate or finish. I later found out it’s a Diageo product with endorsements by David Beckham and music mogul Simon Fuller. I wouldn’t want my name associated with this.
I tasted some crappy Scotches at a Total Wine tasting but this was a whole level beneath that.
Yuck! The blue bottle was indeed a clue.
So in honor of St. Patrick’s Day my local wine, beer and liquor store had 12-year-old Connemara Irish whiskey on sale for half price. I got to sample the regular version in the store and I bought the 12-year-old for home.
These are both peated. The 12-year-old was an absolute peat bomb when I first pulled the cork. Peat clubbed every other flavor and aroma to death. It improved after it got air and it improved out of the bottle quite a bit after a few days. I like it.
It’s still peat heavy, but there’s subtle flavors of caramel, iodine and some spices. It’s grassy on the finish. I think this will improve and other flavors and aromas will emerge as it gets some air.
Apparently it may be the only peated whiskey in Ireland. I guess the idea is that whiskey got its start in Ireland and they were probably peated because that’s what they had to use.