Mannochmore Archives - Whisky a Day

Whiskies #474-477: The Scotch Malt Whisky Society World Whisky Day Showdown

May 20, 2017 by Whisky a Day Leave a Comment

Whiskies #474-477: The Scotch Malt Whisky Society World Whisky Day Showdown.

Happy World Whisky Day to you all! It’s certainly one of my favourite days on the whisky calendar…along with any Delivery Day when the whisky gods deliver their sweet nectar in the post. To celebrate this holiest of whisky days, I thought it best to crack out something fairly unique and a bit special. And what more aptly fits that description than a few bottlings from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society.

Single cask, cask strength independent bottlings…for those of you who haven’t sampled a SMWS whisky before, get on it! They really are brilliant. I’m not paid by them and don’t get any kickbacks to write nice things, I’m just a very happy paid-up member who thinks they’re doing some amazing stuff.

Anyway, I’m thirsty – let’s get into the booze!

Whisky #474: SMWS 54.34 Monkey’s Lunch. 9 year old Scotch Malt Whisky Society bottling from Aberlour distillery. Speyside, Scotland. ABV: 59.8%. Tasted at home, $165 (bottle).

Colour: Pale straw.

Nose: Fruit salad, soft lemon, passionfruit, strawberries and cream.

Palate: It’s a wave of creamy, lemony flavours…like biting into a lemon cheesecake.

Finish: Dried pineapple chunks that fade to a drying mouthfeel with white pepper and woody notes.

Comments: The finish is quite a contrast to the nose and palate, it’s a bit Jekyll and Hyde this one. Aberlour are one of my favourite distilleries so it’s great to try a whisky that’s quite different to their usual house style full of dried fruits and Christmas cake flavours. Cracking drop this one.

Whisky #475: SMWS 64.80 Fruit Punch Explosion. 9 year old Scotch Malt Whisky Society bottling from Mannochmore distillery. Speyside, Scotland. ABV: 58.2%. Tasted at home, $150 (bottle).

Colour: Sparkling honey.

Nose: Fruit covered pavlova. Now this is going to sound a bit odd – there’s some aromas like opening up a velvet lined wooden chess set. The kind where the board is hinged and folds in half so you can keep the pieces inside. My dad had one from when he was a young fella, I still remember the smell of it as I opened it to set up the pieces and have a few games with the old man when I was younger. The old bugger always beat me!

Palate: Fresh raw honey straight from the hive, served on a wooden stick…sweet and oaky.

Finish: Almost a few candied bacon flavours in the fade, like you’ve poured maple syrup over pancakes with crispy bacon on the side.

Comments: I love a whisky that triggers memories from long ago, whether they be from the aromas or the flavours. Stunning.

Whisky #476: SMWS 63.33 Rich,Treacly, and Sumptuous. 9 year old Scotch Malt Whisky Society bottling from Glentauchers distillery. Speyside, Scotland. ABV: . Tasted at home, $185 (bottle).

Colour: Bright toffee.

Nose: Golden syrup, treacle and freshly baked blueberry muffins. A slight nose prickle.

Palate: Buttery and lots more golden syrup. If I had to do a blind tasting and pick the distillery I would have said Glendronach. The SMWS title really has summed it up perfectly – it is incredibly rich, treacly and sumptuous.

Finish: Front of the palate gets all the fun – plenty of salted caramel. A long tingly finish, like crushing some brown sugar crystals against the roof of your mouth with your tongue.

Comments: As I sip this one I’m listening to Nina Simone singing “I Put a Spell On You”. Kind of like tasting cask strength whiskies when you’re doing healthy pours – by the time you get to the third whisky it’s starting to put a spell on you. But without a doubt, this is the standout whisky of the night. Amazing stuff.

Whisky #477: SMWS 42.25 A Beach Barnacle Banquet. 9 year old Scotch Malt Whisky Society bottling from Tobermory distillery. Isle of Mull, Scotland. ABV: 60.4%. Tasted at home, $165 (bottle).

Colour: Pale apple juice.

Nose: Salty; hessian sacks soaked in sea water.

Palate: Surprisingly smooth and sweet. Reminds me of grilled salmon nigiri, the one with some kind of glaze on it that they’ve smashed with a blow torch to give those amazing caramelised salmon flavours.

Finish: A long salty tang at the front of the palate, especially when you press your tongue up into the roof of your mouth.

Comments: A perfect conclusion to the Speyside sweetness we’ve had before. Great balance between salty, sweet and savoury.

There’s just something about the SMWS whiskies that makes me think of all kinds of foods and flavours. They’re always so vivid and take your mind and your tastebuds on a wild gastronomic journey. I’m not known for doing things by half measures (some of my friends would say I do things by double measure), but with whisky this good it’s probably not my penchant for smashed avocado and coffee that’s preventing me getting into this insane Sydney property market. Bugger it, I might just pour another dram of each of these…happy World Whisky Day!

Whiskies #382-387: Scotch Malt Whisky Society Winter Tasting

August 13, 2015 by Whisky a Day Leave a Comment

Whiskies #382-387: Scotch Malt Whisky Society Winter Tasting. Royal Automobile Club, Sydney. $85.

Since Whisky a Day only recently located from Perth to Sydney a month ago, the first SMWS tasting event was locked into the calendar. Excellently hosted by the SMWS Australian Cellar Master Andrew Derbidge, last night’s tasting was an overview of six of the Society’s latest releases.

Whisky #382: 64.54 Sweet and Tart, Subtle and Delicate. 10 year old bottling from Mannochmore Distillery. Speyside, Scotland. ABV: 56.3%.

Colour: Pale straw.
Nose: Pine needles, wood chips, and sherbet.
Palate: Tangy lemon, peppery spice, with some cheesecake flavours to round off.
Finish: White pepper with a long, salty tingle and generous warmth around the mouth. Like the sensation of sucking the lemon after you’ve just downed a shot of good tequila. The oily warmth lingers longer than the flavours, but in a comforting way.

Whisky #383: 35.133 Mediterranean Maharaja goes Americana. 20 year old bottling from Glen Moray Distillery. Speyside, Scotland. ABV: 55.8%.

Colour: Rich honey.
Nose: It’s a very bourbon-ish nose which hits you immediately. Fennel and spiced mead; sweet oaky notes with some time in the glass.
Palate: Spiced honey, cocoa, sultanas and spiced fruit toast.
Finish: Quite a short, drying finish with some savoury biscuit notes.

Whisky #384: 46.25 Soft, Elegant and Intensely Creamy. 21 year old bottling from Glenlossie Distillery. Speyside, Scotland. ABV: 46.4%.

Colour: Pale apple juice.
Nose: Fresh apples in a wet hessian sack. Ok, so I got fresh apples and I separately got some wet hessian notes, but seeing as the tasting was being conducted in the Royal Automobile Club where anoraks abound, I thought I’d better combine the two descriptors and really turn the wankiness up to 11. My eminent whisky tasting neighbour Dave picked up notes like walking past a makeup counter through a department store.
Palate: Baked pears, some sweet caramelised flavours too. A cool, creamy mouthfeel; reminds me of fruit salad atop a freshly baked pavlova.
Finish: Passionfruit syrup and vanilla ice-cream. Very light and delicate.
Comments: This was my favourite whisky if the night. Quite a low ABV for a cask strength bottling, but it’s just so easy to drink and keeps begging you back for more. So much so that I ordered a bottle so I could do precisely that.

Whisky #385: 119.14 Raspberry Imperial Stout. 11 year old bottling from Yamazaki Distillery. Japan. ABV: 53.9%.

Colour: Wow. Deep rich toffee. I started enjoying this one long before I picked up the glass.
Nose: It’s a huge sherry bomb, simply divine. It reminds me a lot of the nose you get from some Glendronach malts, particularly the Glendronach Allardice 18 year old and Glendronach 21 year old. Though it’s more intense and syrupy than you’ll find say on the Glendronach 15 year old.
Palate: Syrupy Christmas cake spice, oily mouthfeel. Yes that sounds quite stereotypical for a malt matured in ex sherry casks, but boy is this a fine example of the style. An amazing drop. Some dark chocolate and cherry notes come through too.
Finish: Paradoxically for a syrupy whisky, the finish is quite drying. Huge legs on the glass.
Comments: In a blind tasting, I would have picked this to be a Speyside malt as it is a fine example of the sherried malts so often produced from that region. Yamazaki have done brilliant work with this one.

Whisky #386: 66.66 Ginger Makes Fred Smile. 10 year old bottling from Ardmore Distillery. Highlands, Scotland. ABV: 61.9%.

Colour: Pale translucent copper; almost a rosey tinge.
Nose: Flame grilled steak, salted caramel and smoked salmon.
Palate: Smoked ham hock and beef jerky. It’s smokey with a hint of fruity sweetness; reminds me of a slice of juicy pineapple on the BBQ.
Finish: Super long and sumptuous.
Comments: Matured in a first fill white wine hogshead, which is both quite unusual but also an amazing choice for this malt. I enjoyed it so much I ordered a bottle on the spot.

Whisky #387: 3.234 Scallops Cooked on a Puffer Shovel. 16 year old bottling from Bowmore Distillery. Islay, Scotland. ABV: 57.5%.

Colour: Pure gold.
Nose: Caramel popcorn is the first thing that hits. Orange chocolate and soft straw notes too – like a handful of straw thrown on a campfire.
Palate: Salty blackcurrant pastilles and caramelised bacon. Hmmm, bacon… *drool*.
Finish: A building meaty saltiness with a very long, mouthwatering finish.
Comments: An Islay malt from Bowmore that has been perfectly matched to a refill sherry butt to produce those delicious caramelised meaty flavours. Though I think the nose is the winner here, simply divine. Some would say that there’s lots of smoke here both on the nose and on the palate, and they’d be 100% right…for me the smoke is there in droves, but it somehow takes a back seat to the amazing array of other flavours and aromas that are layered here.

Whisky #5: Blackadder 1999 Raw Cask

February 19, 2014 by Whisky a Day Leave a Comment

Blackadder 1999 12 Years Old Raw Cask. Distilled at Mannochmore Distillery. Speyside, Scotland. ABV: 60.9%. Tasted at The Royal Hotel, $16.

Colour: Pale straw. Similar in colour to a third-day pitch at the SCG where the Aussies typically wrap up the Ashes. What’s that Pommies, 5-nil?!

Nose: Hay / grassy scents. Not the strong waft of alcohol that I was expecting from a cask strength whisky at 60%.

Palate: Woody notes, a moderate amount of peat.

Finish: Ah, there’s the alcohol kick. Lingering warm sensations, slowly filling the mouth and moving back on the tongue. Much like my date the other night!

Comments: Dangerously drinkable, I’m predicting this will be one of my favourites. Didn’t have the pungent alcohol kick or fumes I was expecting from a dram at 60%. Quite a rare drop being a single cask release, only 304 bottles released. Definitely will be coming back to have some more of this one before they run out.