Longrow Red 13 Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon

When I learned how much I like Springbank and how much peat and wine casks seem to work for me, my discovery of this line had me eager to try it. I got my hands on a bottle as soon as I could manage and have now finally done my review.

Longrow Red 13 Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon, Campbeltown Single Malt, 51.6% ABV

Minutia: After maturing for 10 years in Bourbon and Sherry casks, it was transferred and spent an additional 3 years in Cabernet Sauvignon barrels sourced from MontGras’ Intriga Estate in Alto Maipo, at the foot of the Andes in Chile. Enjoyed neat in a glencairn.

Color: Mahogany, 1.6.

Nose: Fruit, musty sweet smoke.

Taste: Dry, smoky wine. Some spice.

Finish: Smoke, wood, spice ramped up. Fades into a dry, fruity linger. Long.

The finish is real nice and takes this to the next level for me. Before the dram when I really concentrated on taking notes, I didn’t exactly get a very winey feel from this, but when focusing it did feel a lot like a wine. It was a clear wine facade over that excellent Longrow foundation, rich, smoky, and earthy. It feels like the funk and cask influence combined to give it a dry wine feeling. Very nice, and really looking forward to trying more of the Red released.

Score: 88

Musical Evocation: Avril Lavigne – "My Happy Ending"

Waterford Bannow Island 1.1

As soon as I heard about Waterford I was beyond excited. Needless to say, when I was able to snag a bottle when it released I was stoked. I really like how they’re experimenting with how the barley affects the whisky. I’m very keen on seeing how the different batches differ from one another, as well as following how one batch of the same farm compares to another. Second to none transparency, nice bottling ABV, super long fermentation time, there’s nothing about this distillery that has me wishing it were different. I’d really love to see similar terroir experiments done with peat, but you can’t effectively test multiple variables at once and they’re focusing on the barley for the foreseeable future. I’ve read Lagg will be doing something like that though, as if I wasn’t already looking forward to them, so I’ve got that at least. Also really like the bottle. The glass cork is an interesting choice I don’t quite understand, but it works.

Waterford Bannow Island 1.1, Ireland Single Malt, 50% ABV

Minutia: Distilled using barley from Bannow Island farm in 2016 and bottled in 2020, with an age statement of 3 years. It spent that time in American oak, virgin American oak, French oak, and Vin Doux Naturel casks. Enjoyed neat in a glencairn.

Color: Burnished, 1.1.

Nose: Doughy, butter. Cookie/sweet bread. Tropical fruit.

Taste: Strong banana, tropical fruit, malty.

Finish: Malt, chocolate. Bit of fruit late, and cut grass. Medium.

With expectations as high as mine were for this, I was very worried I’d be let down, particularly worried they were antsy and might have bottled this too soon. Those fears were unfounded. It’s not like they managed to make a super mature-tasting whisky at under 4 years old, but they did manage a good one. It’s actually one of the more unique whiskies I’ve tried and I’m more eager than before to see how these change over time. I managed to get a sample of 1.2 (as well as a handful of others), so I’ll be comparing that to this soon. I’m not expecting much difference on that particular one as it’s not much older, but it should still be interesting. That doughy quality reminds me of Kilkerran Heavily Peated, though without the peat. That makes me really want Waterford to play around with peat in the future.

Score: 84

Musical Evocation: Týr – “Mare of My Night”

Game of Thrones - Lagavulin 9 House Lannister

I liked the show enough, and as a collector, I ended up wanting a bottle from the distilleries I enjoy from which an expression was made despite initially being disinterested. I was skeptical with most expressions being unique to the line (except one, I believe) and figured it might have been better to slap some imagery on a standard release than come up with a bunch of new, temporary expressions. I ended up trying the Cardhu one at a friend’s and was not exactly thrilled, particularly with the bland expression being represented by a dragon. I had to hold onto hope the distilleries I know make good stuff could release something serviceable.

Lagavulin 9 Game of Thrones House Lannister, Islay Single Malt, 46% ABV

Minutia: Classic Diageo lack of cask disclosure, but at least we got an age statement. Enjoyed neat in a glencairn.

Color: Tawny, 1.4.

Nose: Earthy, woody, spicy smoke. Either smoke with those three qualities or maybe it’s just the first three with a bit of smoke, too. Musty banana bread, more like a cabinet where banana bread was rather than as full as smelling the actual loaf. Low potency dark fired Kentucky.

Taste: Woody earth with salt. Smoke in the back and comes up. Less smoke itself, makes itself known with the spiciness, like a smoked cinnamon.

Finish: Classic Lagavulin peat comes in big. Salty. Long.

While I hadn’t been dabbling outside of my preferred peat as I had done several months ago, something about this felt like a return to form, or a return home. This would make a fine regular expression at a price point in line with its age/ABV. I’m glad they had the Game of Thrones line to give them a reason to release this. I feel like if they did a limited 9 year old for no reason it would have seemed strange, and with the 8 being core a 9 doesn’t make much sense. Not sure why they mixed this up with the dragon/Cardhu when this is smoky and that one was uninspiring, and also had gold in the name.

Score: 90

Musical Evocation: Månegarm – “Hemfärd”

Ardbeg Wee Beastie

One of the releases I’ve looked forward to most, I was most pleased when it happened to have made its way into local stores despite the pandemic. It wasn’t the described flavor or the distillery that appealed to me, despite me liking both, but rather the age statement. Typically an exciting age statement is one that is quite high, but what appealed to me about this was the very low age statement. The occasional IB, Octomores, and stuff from newer distilleries like Kilchoman had thus far been the only distilleries to put an age statement under 8 on their expressions that I’ve had. So many releases that serve the same role for their distilleries as Wee Beastie does for Ardbeg, with a recent uptick in that past few years, are released NAS. Bowmore No. 1, Bunnahabhain Stiùireadair, Caol Ila Moch, Laphroaig Select, Talisker’s Skye, Storm, Dark Storm, Port Ruighe, Neist Point, 57° North, even Classic Laddie could be considered part of this (though Bruichladdich does essentially disclose and age statement for each batch via their transparency codes), and that’s just the distilleries with which I’m familiar. As soon as I heard about this it made me hopeful other distilleries would follow suit with their entry-entry-level expressions and disclose an age, young as it may be. I’m not the kind of person to dismiss a whisky for being NAS, but the more information about an expression I have, the happier I am. Besides, with a 5 year age statement I know the youngest whisky is 5 years old, rather than assuming it just turned 3 as I might for typical NAS releases. Anyway, all that to say the thing about this that excited me the most was the potential influence it might have in hastening the growing trend toward transparency being seen in the whisky world. Though the likelihood of that certainly depends on whether Ardbeg delivered something worthwhile rather than a dud that confirms the silly bias that something with a low age statement can’t be good. (Sticktap to Ardbeg for also going with a respectable ABV rather than the standard 40% a lot of distilleries would go to for whiskies of the type listed above).

Ardbeg Wee Beastie 5 year old, Islay Single Malt, 47.4% ABV

Minutia: Matured 5 years in ex-Bourbon and ex-Oloroso Sherry casks. Enjoyed neat in a glencairn.

Color: Yellow gold, 0.5.

Nose: Earthy smoke, vegetal, briny, butter cookie.

Taste: Herbal, salty, ashy.

Finish: Medium long. Charred meat/jerky. Salty, but less than the taste. Vague sense of sweetness.

They released a respectable, low age statement expression that I think will help catalyze that trend toward transparency. It’s certainly young, but this shows that isn’t always bad. The negative with this is the proximity in price to the 10 year old. With only about a $5 difference it’s hard to tell whether these are meant to occupy the same tier of whisky or not, and if not Ardbeg is kind of competing against themselves in that market. Under $50, even a $10 difference in price is enough to have them be considered of different tiers, but $5 is just not different enough. That said, rather than being an entry-level and budget option, the 10 and Wee Beastie, respectively, kind of fill the same role but differently. With Laphroaig Select, at its proximity in price to the 10 I’m always buying the 10 as the Select is too expensive to be a budget option. But for Ardbeg, neither are a proper budget option and I might alternate between the two when a bottle runs out and needs replacing or could possibly keep both on hand. I don’t think the same could be said for the other distilleries’ entry-level expression and their more budget-friendly options.

Score: 80

Musical Evocation: Jeff Buckley – “Kick Out the Jams”

Clynelish 14

I was looking for a few 200ml bottles of some regular expressions for which I have the Distillers Editions to do a side by side, and the pack that came with two of them had this in it. Fortunately people seem to like this a lot so it wasn’t like I ended up stuck with something awful. 

Clynelish 14, Highland Single Malt, 46% ABV

Minutia: Seems this features Bourbon and Sherry casks. Enjoyed neat in a glencairn.

Color: Russet muscat, 1.3.

Nose: Crisp fruit, apple. Underlying honey. Malt comes in and takes over, letting those other aromas in now and again, though sometimes those recurrences have a musty introduction.

Taste: Mostly malt, some fruit. Tastes nothing like cherry, artificial or natural, but reminds me of it, so I guess some cherry-like fruit I’ve not yet eaten. Low impact of ethanol creates a spicy sensation.

Finish: Slightly smoky (ever so slightly, I can’t stress how little, but it’s there a bit so worth mentioning) with apple, malt, and some honey at play.

I’ve seen this described as being peated, but I suspect whoever wrote it might be confusing it with the malt used by Brora when it was known as Clynelish or I was reading something that was about Clynelish of the past but thought it was about the present. Scotchwhisky.com’s whiskypedia lists their malt specification as non-peated. If this is in fact peated, it’s not really useful to think of it as such as it’s simply not a present factor. Maybe it’s like Bunnahabhain’s core expressions where peat is involved but only nominally, or whoever does the malting for Clynelish looks over at a pile of peat as they dry the barley with gas or whatever it is that’s used by the heathens who make barley 50% as good as it could be. Still, it’s simple and not punchy, but nice. I won’t seek more for myself, but it’s nice to know it exists as an option when I’m not looking for peat but want something lighter with some substance. If I find myself ever curating my home selection to have bottles that appeal to people other than me, it’s a likely choice to keep on hand in that case.

Score: 81

Musical Evocation: Buckethead – “Binge and Grab”