An Fearr Grinn Against the Grain

Pretty similar to another whiskey I reviewed a while ago, Two Stacks Smoke & Mirrors, I came across this and a bottle was available so I picked it up. Always looking to try Irish peat, and the stout aspect gives it a little something interesting.

An Fear Grinn Against the Grain, Ireland Single Malt, 46% ABV

Minutia: Distilled at the Great Northern Distillery, the peated spirit was matured in a bourbon cask, vatted with imperial stout finished malt and bottled by the Whiskey Factor on November 3, 2020 yielding 303 bottles. Bottle 294 was enjoyed neat in a Tuath glass.

Color: Amber; 0.7.

Nose: Light, green. Classic Irish cookie nose, bananaesque.

Taste: Quite similar notes to the nose, banana taffy, a subtle green/yellow apple.

Finish: Smoke, roasted coffee beans in chocolate, a touch earthy. Medium.

I’m a fan. Shortly I’ll be reviewing another release from this bottler and I’m looking forward to it. It’s a nice, light whisky with a really strong finish that’s right up my alley and is where the peat and stout cask make themselves known.

Score: 83

Musical Evocation: múm – “On the Old Mountain Radio”

Dalmore Cigar Malt Reserve

The next of the Dalmore sample pack I picked up. I’ve heard some good things about this (sometimes to the point it’s almost aggressive) and having loved an SMWS Dalmore I am keen to at least try it, but for what it costs that never would have happened if not for this sample. So here we go.

Dalmore Cigar Malt Reserve, Highland Single Malt, 44% ABV

Minutia: Matured first in ex-bourbon American oak casks, with some being finished in either Gonzalez Byass Sherry casks which previously matured 30-year old Oloroso Sherry or cabernet sauvignon barriques, and then all three styles are brought together. Enjoyed neat in a glencairn.

Color: Auburn, polished mahogany; 1.5.

Nose: Very fruity on the pour, musty, vegetal, leather.

Taste: Sweet orange, woody, wine elements.

Finish: Spice, fades into the same elements as the taste, more elements on the orange and wood, though less wood than orange. Medium.

I quite like this. It’s not the most amazing dram in the world, but it is quite good, and I’d keep a bottle on my shelf for when in an unpeated mood or for guests if not for the rather substantial pricetag.

Score: 80

Musical Evocation: Pink Floyd – “Have a Cigar”

West Cork Glengarriff Series Peat Charred Cask & Bog Oak Charred Cask

I’m not sure how I came across these, but I learned of them and they appealed to me. I like peat/smoke, so anything to do with that will have some of my interest, and this experiment was interesting enough. With all the time in the world at the start of the pandemic, I took on woodworking as a hobby and bog oak happened to be a material I enjoyed working with, then I come across this other use for it. Anyway, I decided to review them and post them together (just collected in a post, not a proper side-by-side). The labels say cask strength, but that was an error as it was the initial plan but that was changed and they forgot to correct it. The experiment is that they are triple distilled single malt (unpeated barley) aged for about 3 years in Sherry casks, and then finished 4-6 months in casks which were virgin oak and used a novel material to burn in the charring process, peat for one and bog oak for the other (bog oak is wood which has been preserved in a peat bog protecting it from decay and is in the process of fossilizing, and specimens are often thousands of years old).

West Cork Glengarriff Series Peat Charred Cask, Ireland Single Malt, 43% ABV

Minutia: Aged as described above (finishing cask charred with peat). Enjoyed neat in a Tuath glass.

Color: Deep copper; 1.0.

Nose: Butter cookie, toasted marshmallow, banana.

Taste: Gummy bear, taffy, malt.

Finish: Malt, apple. Peanut late sometimes. Medium-short.

It’s a nice light Irish whiskey, but I’m not sure what influence the cask had that a regular virgin oak cask wouldn’t have had. It’s certainly not smoky, and I don’t get anything similar to what peated malt gives.

Score: 77

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West Cork Glengarriff Series Bog Oak Charred Cask, Ireland Single Malt, 43% ABV

Minutia: Aged as described above (finishing cask charred with bog oak). Enjoyed neat in a Tuath glass.

Color: Deep copper; 1.0.

Nose: Malty, light apple.

Taste: Very nutty, almond and hazelnut at least, spice comes in later.

Finish: Toasty, coffee grounds. Choclate later. Medium-short.

Huh. After the other one didn’t seem to have any influence from peat and with them being so close in color, I fully expected an experience much more similar to that with the peat-charred cask. However they were a fair bit different, so I guess the cask charring did something, just not what you might expect.

Score: 79

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A fun experiment resulting in an enjoyable enough product, and the price is quite nice. A good series of expressions.

Dalmore Port Wood Reserve

I was placing an order from a UK retailer for some Irish whiskeys I was interested (reviews for those coming over the coming weeks over at r/worldwhisky) and they had a Dalmore sampler pack so I grabbed it for a few reasons. First, the more you order from overseas, often the better the shipping looks. Second, at the time an SMWS Dalmore was one of my favorite whiskies (spoiler alert: still is) and as a peat fan it was from a distillery I’d never really have bothered to try if not for the name and description selling me on it so I did want to get some familiarity with their releases. And finally, there was a King Alexander sample in the pack and for the price it was tough to say no as I’d never pay a typical rate to try that. Anyway, here's the first of those Dalmore reviews.

Dalmore Port Wood Reserve, Highland Single Malt, 46.5% ABV

Minutia: Matured in ex-bourbon casks with half of the casks being transferred for finishing in Tawny Port casks. Enjoyed neat in a glencairn. Molasses.

Color: Auburn, polished mahogany; 1.5.

Nose: Toffee, chocolate. Dark fruits. A bit of a woody note which is floral in character.

Taste: Almost like rye, some spices with a fruity tone.

Finish: Nutty and fruity. Floral and herbal. Medium.

Not bad at all. It has a lot of flavor and I actually find it enjoyable enough (if not exciting due to lack of peat). A good start to this series of Dalmores.

Score: 77

Isle of Raasay While We Wait Last Orders & Inaugural Release

Not a terribly long time ago I saw on Raasay’s webshop that they could ship to the US so I put in a preorder for their Inaugural Release and also added a bottle of the whisky they sourced to kind of “demonstrate” what their whisky will be like, as well as get some cash coming in. So, fortunately for me I got this at a normal price and not the wildly absurd flipped prices I saw this going for. Anyway, I figured I do these together to see how well the While We Wait series served as a bit of a “preview” for what was to come.

Isle of Raasay While We Wat Last Orders, Single Malt, 46% ABV

Minutia: Distilled somewhere ang aged for some amount of time prior to a finish in Tuscan red wine casks. Since the Tuscan casks were kind of their thing at the time, I assume that finishing occurred on Raasay. This was from bottle number 5703 of the “Last Orders” line of the While We Wait series, the fifth and final batch prior to a release distilled at the distillery. Enjoyed neat in a glencairn side by side with the Inaugural release.

Color: Russet, Muscat; 1.3.

Nose: Musty, taken over quickly by nuts with a fruity element. Toffee. Earthy and floral. Maybe berry/banana a bit. Vanilla.

Taste: Smoky, vanilla and toffee. Wood.

Finish: Wood, smoky porter/stout, so malt and chocolate. Medium.

This is decent and would be a fine regular product from whoever distilled it. The finish was really nice, reminding me of the finish of certain beers, and as a person who avoids beer most of the time in favor of whisky and cider, it’s a reminder that I do quite like the darker beers like that. Anyway, if this were like the final spirit it’s a good sign, so lets see if it was.

Score: 78

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Isle of Raasay Inaugural Release, Island (Raasay) Single Malt, 52% ABV

Minutia: Distilled from 100% Scottish concerto barley malted to >48ppm and matured in ex-Tennessee whiskey casks and finished in ex-Bordeax red wine casks, both 1st fill, for a total maturation time of 3 years. This is from bottle number 7565. Enjoyed neat in a glencairn side by side with While We Wait Last Orders.

Color: Tawny; 1.4.

Nose: A bit like wine, gentle smoke, some sea feeling to it. Earthy and dirty.

Taste: Earthy and fruity with salty smoke lingering underneath.

Finish: Smoke and salty meat pop up after a woody start, and fade into chocolate. Sour fruit after. Medium.

This is a promising start for me. I have a handful of ofther whisky from them for review a bit down the line (a sample of batch R-01 and a bottle of R-02) which follow their formal six-cask type recipe, as well as samples of each specific cask (3 styles of cask, unpeated and peated spirit in each). That will be fun when I have those later this year. With the fact that the nose felt like wine, I have good hopes for the mature spirit as I tend to favor peated spirit that saw a wine cask.

Score: 81

Tobermory Clearic (New Make)

I initially intended this to stand entirely on its own, but it just so happened to be in my lineup right after these other Tobermorys so I decided to post them at the same time. Since it’s not technically Scotch (or even a whisky) due to its lack of barrel maturation - and because it’s really more of a little tidbit for those interested than a proper review - the score is not included in my statistics so it won't impact them in a way that would be significant and anti-meaningful.

Tobermory Clearic, Island (Mull) Malt New Make, 63.5% ABV

Minutia: Distilled at Tobermory in March 2016 and bottled on November 10, 2020. Reviewed neat in a glencairn.

Color: Gin clear; 0.0.

Nose: Nutty ocean breeze. Smells like a sweet, musty vodka.

Taste: Hot and peppery, that fades and lets the same notes from the nose come in.

Finish: Kind of rough at the start, It kind of fades into a somewhat pleasant maritime note.

It’s not terrible, but it’s certainly not something I’d choose to drink. I am glad to have gotten to try new make, though I’m a little disappointed that the bundles I ordered contained two Tobermory new make samples instead of one each of that and Ledaig. Oh well, something to try to do during and inevitable visit to the distillery.

Score: 65

Musical Evocation: Muggle Death Camp – “Through the Orb of Swirling Mist”

SMWS Tobermory 9/10 2008 Side by Side: 42.34 “Slytherin potion flask”, 42.46 “Seahorse to air missile”, & 42.47 “Oblivious to genius”

A personally “meaningful” set of reviews for a milestone review. After the first side by side I did, I decided to do it for all milestone reviews that don’t occur during ‘events’ such as my Advent calendar. Number 300 just so happened to (read: was contrived to) fall right after the Advent calendar for this year. As soon as I heard of it, “Slytherin potion flask” became a unicorn whisky for me. The names shouldn’t matter, but I’m a big Harry Potter fan and a Slytherin at heart and Ledaig is my favorite distillery, and I also really like 42 as 7 is my favorite number and it’s a multiple of that and I also really enjoyed Hitchhiker’s Guide, so it almost felt made for me (or at least marketed directly toward me). Unfortunately it was bottled before I got into whisky and the society, and it wasn’t even released in what would have been my chapter, so it went onto the wishlist and life went on. 

A while later I was bidding in an auction and saw 42.46 and bid and ended up winning it. I wanted to try a society bottling of my favorite distillery. Turns out, since the SMWS doesn’t differentiate Tobermory and Ledaig, different sites have different standards for listing those bottles. Whiskybase has every 42 as a Tobermory, peated or not, and evidently Scotch Whisky Auctions has every 42 listed as a Ledaig. Unfortunately peated whisky can easily fall into the Oily & Coastal flavor profile, so you can’t even rely on that cue. Anyway, I was mildly disappointed, but it’s not like Tobermory makes garbage when they’re not using peat. I put it on the shelf for another time, and life went on.

Then I joined the society and a 42 came up (42.47). I called in to order it, and Tom made sure to point out which type of 42 it was without me having to ask (stick tap to Tom for that), but I figured “What the hell, I’m already on the phone, plus I really want another bottle to group with my held order to ease the shipping.” That got delivered, I put it on the shelf for another time, and life went on. 

Months later with a stroke of luck only Harry Potter himself and his plot armor could hope for, 42.34 popped up in an auction and I made sure to get it. I finally got the bottle I had resigned myself never to have, and my unicorn list was empty (other than the bunch of others that went on it between this going on and coming off, of course). But the bottle was too special to just open, so it went on the shelf for another time, and life…you get it.

Then I ended up with enough SMWS bottles that I decided to track details (like the rest of you I ended up with a lot more spare time than I had ante-covid, and my OCD ran out of amok) and I discovered these were sister casks. Since I had decided to do sister cask reviews these got penciled in for the next available slot of significance. And now, here we are, with the text you actually clicked on this post for:

Tobermory 9, 2008 Vintage, Scotch Malt Whisky Society 42.34, Island (Mull) Single Malt, 61.2% ABV

Minutia: Distilled on June 25, 2008 and matured in a refill ex-bourbon barrel for 9 years yielding 221 bottles. This is part of the Oily & Coastal flavor profile named “Slytherin potion flask”. Enjoyed neat in a glencairn side by side with its sister casks, 42.46 & 42.47, with water added later.

Color: Old gold; 0.6.

Nose: Sweet malt, salty. Floral, a little honey. With water, softer, gains an almost smoky note.

Taste: Leather, spice/salt intensity. A bit of salty sweet malt. With water: amplified spice & salt.

Finish: Coffee beans, cacao. Salty. Medium-long. With water: loses the non-salt note.

Very nice for an unpeated malt for my tastes. I’d have liked some smoke, if course, but as my appreciation for unpeated malt has grown, it’s nice that this whisky which appealed to me was enjoyable and not a stinker.

Score: 84

Musical Evocation: Muggle Death Camp – “Love Song for a Serpent”

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Tobermory 10, 2008 Vintage, Scotch Malt Whisky Society 42.46, Island (Mull) Single Malt, 61.9% ABV

Minutia: Distilled on June 25, 2008 and matured in a refill ex-bourbon barrel for 10 years yielding 207 bottles. This is part of the Oily & Coastal flavor profile named “Seahorse to air missile”. Enjoyed neat in a glencairn side by side with its sister casks, 42.34 & 42.47, with water added later.

Color: Amber; 0.7.

Nose: Dark, hidden aromas to start, lemon after. Gets coastal. With water: sharper, some malt.

Taste: Sweet into very salty/briny. Hot. With water: earthy and briny. Still hot not not quite so much.

Finish: Hot. A berry note late. Settles into chocolate after that berry flourish. With water: not quite as hot but still potent. Chocolate and malt notes dance in and out with each other.

It’s quite hot, which makes it a bit harder for me to enjoy, otherwise it’s quite good. I’m looking forward to spending more time with it as it feels like a lot is masked by that heat.

Score: 81

Musical Evocation: Muggle Death Camp – “Salazar’s Treasure”

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Tobermory 10, 2008 Vintage, Scotch Malt Whisky Society 42.47, Island (Mull) Single Malt, 60.1% ABV

Minutia: Distilled on June 25, 2008 and matured in a 1st fill ex-bourbon barrel for 10 years yielding 184 bottles. This is part of the Oily & Coastal flavor profile named “Oblivious to genius”. Enjoyed neat in a glencairn side by side with its sister casks, 42.34 & 42.46, with water added later.

Color: Old gold amber; 0.6.5.

Nose: Subtle. Apple, and more pear, they step aside to reveal the malt. With water: easier to find the fruit, with a bit of vanilla sweeping through.

Taste: Salt into spicy. A savory note tries to peek through. With water: it stays softer, and a light nutty flavor is there.

Finish: Heat at the top. Fades to salt. Some chocolate late. Medium. With water: A light heat gives way to chocolatey malt with a kick. Cereal later.

Another dram that’s decent if unastounding. The finish improved a good deal with the water. It’s another one I’m looking to spend more time with as it seems like a dram that rewards it with subtle notes that won’t jump out at you every time. It’s not as hot as the other one, so it doesn’t feel like that’s masking the other notes in the same way, more that you really need to tease and coax them out here.

Score: 83

Musical Evocation: Muggle Death Camp – “The Crown of the Grey Lady”

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A fun side by side to mark review #300. I’m glad I made it here and I’m glad I’ve finally opened this bottle. Far too many bottles in the “I have it but haven’t opened it yet, category” and with some restructuring to my process, I think I’ll be able to speed that up (in a way that doesn’t entail endangering my body more than I already am). Three is a lot for a side by side, I think I prefer two, but I’ll be back in 25 reviews with 5 of this distillery’s peated brother. Of course, if between now and when I get to them (I’m guess sometime around April) I end up with one or more other sister casks, I might just split them like I did with the ten Bunnahabhains, TBD.