GlenDronach 8 yo 2002 (55%, OB for Cask in a Van III 2011, PX sherry butt #2009, 660 btl.)

Nose: sweet with lots of moscovado sugar and caramel. Flambéed bananas. Angelica fruit cake. Sweet nuts and honey. Punchy pepper and a few herbs in the background, as well as toasted oak. Mouth: sweet and spicy start (pepper again, but also softer vanilla). Then a burst of forest fruits and praline as well as some winey flavours (hints of chocolates filled with balsamic ganache). Then some liquorice, dark chocolate and a few earthy notes. Finish: rather long, on sweet mocha and milk chocolate with a slightly hot afterglow.

A young GlenDronach that shows typical sherry influences but also a youthful nervousness. Good value for money. Around € 55. Still a few bottles available.

Score: 86/100

Jura 30 yo 1973
(55%, OB 2003, cask 3155, 468 btl.)

Nose: big notes of cigar boxes mixed with quite some wine and camphor. Interesting. Dried fruits. Makes me think more of Port wine than of sherry. Hints of mint. Mouth: too much wood which means the fruity side of the sherry gets drowned. Rum / raisins. Notes of nutmeg and ginger. It shows nice coastal notes (iodine)? Getting quite resinous and slightly bitter, on Seville oranges. Finish: dry and winey with some salty liquorice.

This Jura is interestingly different but a tad too old. The palate is too oaky for my taste and can’t match the otherwise attractive nose. Worth around € 350 now.

Score: 86/100

Saint Magnus

Saint Magnus was matured mainly in Spanish sherry oak, of which 20% were first fill casks. It is bottled at 55%.

The third edition in this series, Highland Park Haakon, will be bottled as an 18 year-old. Expected in the second half of 2011.

Highland Park 12 yo 1998 Saint Magnus (55%, OB 2010, 12.000 btl.)

Nose: starts with a few unfresh smells, especially in comparison with yesterday’s 1986 by Daily Dram. Hints of rubber and meat. This is not uncommon for sherry releases, but I have troubles with it sometimes. After a while it fades and shows more classic dried fruits and honey lacquered meat (overall not very sweet though). A little yeast. Apples and cinnamon. Heather. Subtle peat. Some barbecue smoke, leather and plenty of spices. Mouth: very spicy (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg) with toffee notes, apples and a hint of wax. A little pepper. Some bitter liquorice. In the end there’s something like burnt oranges and still some rubber. Finish: rather long, dry / bitter and sherried with peat smoke.

I had high hopes for this, but they’re not entirely fulfilled. It’s nicely coastal and relatively peaty but I’m more a fan of fresh, juicy (second fill?) sherry influence. Quite expensive as well: sold for € 100.

Score: 80/100

Macduff 25 yo 1984 
(55%, Kintra 2009, cask CM143, 60 btl.)

Nose: malty / fruity with apple, vanilla and almonds. Initially there’s also a vegetal side to it, but this seems to disappear after a while. Some fresh oak. Develops further when you add a little water. Gets slightly flowery and brings out vanilla cake. A little leather. Mouth: nice body, very fruity – mainly citrus (tangerine, lemon). Cinnamon and soft pepper. A little herbal tea, which grows stronger over time. Slightly grassy towards the end. Finish: quite long and drying with spices and herbal notes.

This Macduff 25yo is a nice dram that unfolds itself in different ways if you wait long enough and add some water. It reminds me a lot (a lot!) of the Thosop bottling. If it’s not the same whisky, then it’s certainly a closely related sister cask.
Around € 90.

Score: 86/100

Apart from the usual Coffey grain whisky, Japanese distillery Nikka had this limited release of malt whisky distilled in Coffey stills, which is quite unusual.

Nikka 12 yo ‘Single coffey malt’ (55%, OB 2008, 3027 btl.)

Nose: very similar to grain whisky with a few bourbonny notes. Plenty of vanilla. Some white chocolate. Almonds and nutmeg. A little honeyed sweetness. Not too complex, and it shows a raw alcohol kick. A little better when diluted – it gets more fragrant and delicate. Mouth: again too close to plain alcohol for my taste, like eau-de-vie or vodka. Sweet vanilla again, some coconut and banana. Sugared cereals. More enjoyable with water, although the advantage over grain whisky is very small. Finish: quite long, in the same vein.

A one-dimensional experiment with a big emphasis on alcohol. I prefer many grain whiskies above this Coffey malt. Around € 120 at the time but sold out.

Score: 73/100

Glen Mhor 27yo 1982 (55%, Signatory Vintage 2010, cask #1327, 235 btl.)

Nose: grassy / flinty, with an alcohol kick and some minor fruity / honey notes. Faint hints of coconut and leather. A bit of lemon zest and menthol. A wee touch of soot. Interesting because it’s quite rough and delicately floral at the same time. Old-style. Mouth: sweet and punchy attack. Quickly turns to grassy and flinty flavours again, with a bitter tang and lemon zest. Then showing a few floral notes, liquorice and clove. Finish: long and dry with herbs, lemon and green tea.

An old-fashioned Speysider. A bit of a challenge as it goes in different directions and keeps you wondering about its true character. Around € 135.

Score: 83/100

Isle of Jura 11 yo 1999 Boutique Barrels (55%, OB 2010, Bourbon XU cask finish)

Nose: nice profile with obvious peat but also orange skin and lemon grass. Very enticing. A bit of camphor. Flowers and a hint of vanilla. A few sharp cider notes. Water brings out more lemon grass and citrus with a candied edge. Interesting variation on the peat theme. Mouth: a mineral start with apples, quickly taken over by a big wave of pepper, peat and deep smoke. A faint nuttiness in the background. Oranges again. Lemon cake. Some sweet vanilla and liquorice. Interesting wood (pine tree), bigger than I expected it to be at 11 years. Takes water well. Finish: ashes, sweet almond milk and vanilla, slowly getting drier. It takes a while before it has faded completely.

I especially liked the nose, which shows a nice balance between the oak influence and the fresh lemon grass. On the palate it’s a little less spectacular but still really nice. Modern and well crafted. Around € 60.

Score: 85/100

Let’s be honest, most of the Belgian whiskies are curiosities hardly worth buying, but a couple of weeks ago, I received an e-mail from Bert Bruyneel telling me I would be surprised by this one!

Limousin is a French region around the city of Limoges. It’s not a great wine producing area but Limousin is well known for their oak barrels, used in other regions for maturing white wine.

Goldlys 1994 ‘Single cask Limousin’ 
(55%, OB 2009, 440 btl.)

Nose: starts on white wood glue but it gets better. The oak stays very present, but it is balanced by fruity notes (yellow apples, unripe banana). Burnt sugar. Vanilla. Some waxy notes. Nice but there’s something artificial that kind of spoils it for me. Mouth: certainly not as sweet as I would have expected. Very very resinous, is this liquid pine tree? Similar to some bourbons in that respect (Pappy Van Winkle 20 years old pops to mind). Herbal notes. Lots of spices (nutmeg, ginger and pepper). Some notes of burnt caramel as well. The fruit seems to be buried somewhere. Finish: rather short and dry, mostly the wood that’s talking.

My fellow reviewers really like this and there’s not a single bottle left in stores. Still I don’t really get the hype. Sure, it’s different and probably the best Belgian whisky to date, but when tasted blind I would say this is closer to a mediocre bourbon than to a quality Scotch. € 30.

Score: 77/100

Thanks for the sample, Bert!

This cask strength bottling is the third or fourth Tamnavulin release in the Master of Malt series.

Tamnavulin 16 yo (55%, Master of Malt 2008)

Nose: malty start with grapey accents. Some pears. Becomes significantly more flowery and sweeter after breathing. Vanilla. There’s also a vegetal side to it, like raw cabbage. That may seem strange, but it’s very enjoyable. Mouth: punchy attack. Starts very sweet but grows maltier. Apples and pears. Nice oak. Hints of pineapple sweets and violets. Lemon squash. Some notes of lavender. Getting slightly spirity and even perfumy in the end, but nothing too bad. More or less the same with water. Finish: long, grainy and very sugary. Loads of honey with hints of oranges.

Interesting Tamnavulin. It shows a few uncommon flavours, although it’s not overly complex. Maybe not my style of dram, but still quite nice, certainly if you have a sweet tooth. Around € 70.

Score: 81/100