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Dramming
with Klaus
part 2
Blair
Athol
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Here we are again
with some of those infamous left-overs from MMA 2016, this time
from Blair Athol which is a distillery I've kind of ignored over
the years as I currently only have 4 tasting notes online.
Let's put that
right as I once again join Klaus for what he might phrase as
"two Malt Mates, one distillery, four drams, one IB and over 100
years of maturation" (that's the whisky, not the Malt Mates!) |
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Blair Athol
1988, 25y, 59.6%
ABV
21.10.1988 -
3.7.2014 551 btls
Casks 6920 & 6924
Refill Sherry Butts
Signatory Vintage
CS for GI Jane (Fortune Taiwan) |
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Keith Here we go again with Klaus, four Blair Athols,
classic malt glasses and over a century of maturation; this 25y
is one of three Signatory editions bottled for Taiwan and has a
lovely, deep golden - bronze colour. On the nose I'm getting
toffee, loads of it, perhaps even hints of butterscotch. It's
like a toffee apple without the apple. There's also aged wood
and then a suggestion of nuttiness, yes walnut and even
something that suggests cognac-marinated maltiness, if that's
possible. That walnut-iness comes across strongly on the palate
accompanied by a malted toffee-ness. It's rich, very rich and
has a distinct tingly pepperiness alongside a creamy
mouth-filling presence. The finish is long with plenty of that
peppery nuttiness. I just love this whisky with the elements of
toffee, walnut & maltiness. Not quite a "Great" but well worth
89 points from me.
Klaus
A lovely
dark amber-ish colour presents itself in my usual Classic Malt
glass. On the nose it's restrained - in a good way. Just a slight hint of
oak tannins with notes of orange liqueur, wine gums,
mint chocolate and a touch of dried kitchen herbs. Do I also
detect a whiff of freshly struck matches? On the palate the
alcohol is there, but well integrated. Okay, a few seconds in
you can really tell the nearly 60%. Hold press, let's add a
couple drops of water! Ah yes! Mouth coathing but on the dry-ish
side with orange liqueur, wine gums, sultanas, sweet plums.
Don't forget a touch of tannins and dried kitchen herbs. The
long finish (diluted) is throat-coating and big with orange
liqueur, sultanas, wine gums and plums with a lingering base
sweetness and just a touch of dryness. A subtle dram initially,
but it gets bigger and sweeter with time and water. A rather
lovely style of sherried dram that deserves a score of 88
points.
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Blair Athol
1988, 26y, 56.1%
ABV
14.10.1988 -
9.1.2015 624 btls
Cask 6846 Wine
Treated Butt
Signatory Vintage
CS for Taiwan |
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Klaus
"Wine
treated butt" oh my, that's the most technical description I've
heard in a long time - and what does it actually mean? Just a
butt that was treated with wine and nothing else? Or an
ex-Sherry but that had been used for whisky and was then
re-treated with wine? Weird in any case. Only one way to find
out - by sticking the nose inside the glass containing the
red-amber looking liquid. On the nose we've got strawberry,
raspberry, molasses, plum jam and just a dash of tannins and
mashed grape seeds. Hmmm, okay, a bit weird but agreeable. On
the palate, there's a gentle arrival at first before medium dry
notes make an appearance. Moderately thick in texture, too.
Again, we've got a mix of strawberries and plum jam with just a
dash of grape seeds and grape skins thrown in. And what's that
in the background? A few random spices are kicking around and…
some cask char smokiness? The long finish is big upon swallowing,
rather on the dry side with a gentle fruit sweetness (strawberry
and plum jam) being in sync with the slight grape seed
bitterness. Overall, this is a bit strange for a whisky but not
unpleasant overall. I think "agreeable" sums it up just well.
Score: 83
Keith I agree with Klaus here about the colour being rich
amber perhaps with a hint of copperiness. The nose initially
offers me lots of fruitiness, something dark and rich like black
cherries. It's also suggesting a dry bitterness to come on the
palate. I actually like the nose even if it is slightly unusual
and a difficult one to define. The palate is indeed dry but not
exactly bitter, thankfully. There's toffee again, maltiness and
even a tingly pepperiness. The finish is long offering more of
what I found on the palate. Yes, it's hard to fathom, unusual
with massive influence from whatever they did to the cask with
whatever wine, but it's one I find rather pleasing, unusually as
I don't generally like whisky being interfered with by wine. On
my first tasting I suggested a score of 87-88 but after a second
tasting I'm bringing that down to 86 points.
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Blair Athol
1988, 26y, 57% ABV
28.9.1988 -
9.1.2015 492 btls
Cask 6804 Wine
Treated Butt
Signatory Vintage
CS for GI Jane (Fortune Taiwan) |
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Keith Aye a similar colour to the last one, was this Butt
"treated" to the same wine maybe? Well, what a difference in the
nose, my initial thoughts are very medicinal in a germolene kind
of way. I love what germolene does but I'm not a great fan of
the smell, especially in my whisky. Fortunately the
germolene-ness disappears after a few moments to leave a
mustiness and almost rubberiness alongside an obvious suggestion
of (young) fruity red wine. The palate is dry, very dry and
almost suggests aged wood marinated in Apricot wine. Please tell
me they didn't actually use Apricot wine. Damson too perhaps?
Again I get a long finish, perhaps just a little too long. All I
can say is the orchestra needs a conductor to get all the
instruments playing in unison. It's not terrible, just
disjointed for me even though I like some of the elements which
allows me to give a score of 81 points.
Klaus
Another
one of these - with an identical shade of redd-ish amber. Let's
see. Err, yes, we've got wine. Red wine, wine tannins, grape
skins and mashed grape seeds with a whiff of rubber tyre. To be
fair, there's also liquorice and… strawberry and blackberry
fruit spread. Quite a bit of alcohol too. Hmmm… I'm not sold
yet, let's try the palate. Oh, very dry with loads of tannins,
grape skins and grape kernels, liquorice, blackberry juice and
maybe some dark chocolate. The medium long to long finish has an
alcoholic kick upon swallowing, soon followed by dryness with a
bit of sweetness thrown in for good measure (a puree of
blackberries and overripe red grapes with an extra dose of seeds).
Okay, you can probably tell I'm struggling with this, it feels
like a slightly sweetened and beefed up red wine more than a
whisky. Well-made if you're into this sort of thing, but you
really have to be - and I am not! Score: 77
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Blair Athol
1988, 27y, 55.7%
ABV
14.10.1988 -
16.5.2016 565 btls
Cask 6845 Refill
Sherry Butt
Signatory Vintage
CS for The Whisky Exchange |
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Klaus
Light amber
in colour. Sticking my nose
in I'm greeted by oak tannins paired with herbal notes (Thyme
anyone?), dried dates, old mushed banana, traces of fresh and
spent coffee and chocolate with orange peel. A tight, dense
package that's fun to nose. The arrival is gradual and quite dry,
with a noticeable alcohol punch. The dry tannins are back, so
are the herbs, paired with dried figs, sultanas, dark chocolate,
spent coffee and, again, the chocolate (medium dark with chunky
bits of orange peel). The medium long finsh is dry, tannic with
herbs and just a mere trace of sweetness. Well, this is a rather
lovely sherried dram. The oak has been so overwhelming you
wouldn't guess the distillery, but that's kind of the purpose
with sherry bombs, so... Score: 87
Keith Pale amber in colour this last example is the oldest
by a couple of years and my first impressions from the nose are
that I just walked into an olde worlde sweet shop where the
sweet (very sweet) aromas of childhood favourites greet you from
open tins. Oh yes, that's sweet in a quite marshmallow-y way.
Suddenly the sweetness fades and something resembling, but not
quite coffee-ish appears. Oh no, when I get to taste this I find
another childhood memory, this time of that strange
chicory-based coffee substitute which in the UK went under the
name of "Camp Coffee". Dreadful with water but I went through a
period of liking it when mixed with boiling milk. Perhaps more
kindly is a suggestion of those squidgy coffee creme chocolates
"all because the lady loves ...." This one's a sherry butt
without too much sherry influence although it is there as
suggested by hints of dark fruitiness, chocolate-iness and
(almost) coffee-ness. I like it and it's worth 86 points from
me.
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Final thoughs from Klaus So, what have
I learned today? I still have no idea what wine treated butts
are supposed to be, apart from that it has something to do with
butts (ex-Sherry ones?) that were treated (for how long) with
wine (which wine? Sherry is wine too, technically...). Other
than that I know that I definitely won't buy one blind - both
were weird, one just a bit and one decidedly so. I am glad to
see that Keith is on the same page as me! Another thing we have
in common is our winning dram of this comparison - the youngest
one in the mix and the one with the most balance and least
extreme cask influence. Sometimes less is more.
Conclusions & Observations from Keith The 2016 Malt
Maniacs Awards saw these four Signatory CS Vintage bottlings all
from 1988 being submitted. They were bottled at ages of 25y,
26y, 26y & in the case of TWE 27y. Two of the three bottlings
for Taiwan are declared as "wine treated butts", the third for
Taiwan and the one for The Whisky Exchange are refill sherry
butts. OK, I'll ask; what the hell are "wine treated butts"?
Although I quite liked (wine treated) cask 6846 it was
definitely strange, or shall we be kind and say different?
Neither I nor Klaus was impressed with cask No.6804, it was all
over the place with no real continuity or balance which is
strange as this is a sister cask to that from The Whisky
Exchnage (No.6845). OK, so TWE's cask is declared as refill
sherry butt and is a year older, but I'm also guessing there's
been no winey meddling to this one, just good old (or young)
sherry. Surprisingly the best of the bunch for us both was the
youngest, if 25 years old can be called young when it comes to
whisky. Not surprisingly it was also a non-wine-meddling good
old sherry cask with loads of character beyond just sherry-ness.
So the moral of today is ......... aye, you guessed ......
Please click on the
photo of Klaus (below left) to visit MaltKlaus.net and read his
take on this Blair Athol tasting. |
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Once again my heartfelt thanks
to Klaus for all his help with the crazy task of MMA filling
during 2015 & 2016 where in one weekend we typically had to fill
around 2000 sample bottles each year.
Click here for
"Dramming with Klaus, part 1" |
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A
selection of previous Dram-atics highlights
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Limburg
2018 |
Limburg
2017 |
Limburg
2015 |
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April 2019
Limburg 2019 |
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The Malt
Maniacs Awards - MMA |
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Dec.
2010 |
December's Advent-urous drams,
Nant Distillery,
The road to Certification |
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Nov. 2010 |
Journey to end of Scotverse,
Wick,
Pulteney,
Balblair,
Knockdhu,
Homecoming,
Tweetup,
Chilling with Cooley |
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Oct.
2010 |
The John Walker,
Sampling with Master of Malts,
Changing jobs,
Whisky Round Table |
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Sept.
2010 |
Playing Chinese whispers,
Oktoberfest,
SMWS Spirit Cellar,
500,000 |
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August
2010 |
Elementary my dear Islay,
Handbags at dawn,
Dram-arkable 500,
Cheapo Challenge,
Ah Dooagh,
1 from 3 left |
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July
2010 |
Age
matters. A series of whisky reviews concentrating upon 'Age' |
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June
2010 |
Jules
Rimet, pickles & crisps.
Mon coeur, mon amour oh mon sherry.
A
taste of the great outdoors. |
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May
2010 |
The
highly-acclaimed and record-breaking "Desert Island Drams" |
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April
2010 |
My
peat's bigger than your peat,
A foursome with a famous Scottish
bird |
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March
2010 |
Sample
Mania tasting notes,
The Good, the Bad & The Loch Dh-Ugly,
A return to sanity,
The Choice of Managers |
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Jan-Feb
2010 |
Keep
taking the medicine,
It's Festival time,
Maker's Mark,
Sleeveless in Munich |
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Dec. 2009 |
All
power to bean-counters,
protecting Scotch,
seasonal drams,
Definitive Xmas Drams,
2009 Whisky Awards |
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Nov. 2009 |
How it
all started,
Bonfire night,
Autumnal musings,
EU Tax & Duty,
What's in a (whisky) name? |
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© Copyright
2009-2019 by Keith Wood - All rights reserved - Whisky-Emporium |
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