Want a $2,400 bottle of 40-year-old Glenfarclas Scotch whisky?
Our friends at Master of Malt are running a sweepstakes: Buy any bottle of Glenfarclas from them (even the 10 Year Old), and you’re entered into a drawing to win the 40 Year. Your odds are actually pretty good: Only the first 250 purchasers will be entered into the drawing.
The contest runs until February 20 or the 250 chances run out… 244 are left as I write this! Good luck.
It’s not just a drawing on the label of this whiskey. There really is a Slane Castle. It’s even in Ireland, thank the stars.
Slane Castle Irish Whiskey is a new whiskey on our shores, and it’s now becoming available on the eastern seaboard. Created by the good folks at Cooley Distillery, it’s a young blend, traditionally crafted without peat and aged about four years in old bourbon barrels.
The result is a very young whiskey that’s still finding its legs: Lightly sweet, with strong grassy notes and solid wood on the finish. Not very complex, but easy to drink It’s a bit boozy up front, though, a sign of its immaturity and youth. Worth a try if you’re an Irish fan, but nothing you’ll go crazy over.
B+ / $30 / slanecastle.ie
Posted in Irish Whiskey, Rated B+, Reviews, Whiskey
The French wine region of Languedoc is attempting a renaissance of late, highlighting the carignan grape — a workhorse of this region’s wines and something which is also making a bit of a comeback as a standalone varietal in the U.S.
No one will argue that Languedoc’s biggest selling point is value, and this 2007 Domaine de Fabregues is no exception. At just $13 a bottle, it’s a real bargain that you can’t argue with.
This ruby-hued red is a little tight at first, but its tannic character opens up in the glass, revealing leather and orange peel character atop a thick, plum-fruit core. While not terribly complex — and with a finish that veers toward a little vegetal bitterness – it’s a solid enough wine for a weekday meal, or even for a glass before it.
B+ / $13 / domainefabregues.eu
Hailing from Guyana, El Dorado makes what is known as demerara rum, which is simply a rum from the Guyana area that is made using demerara sugar, aka turbinado sugar — you probably know the coarse brown crystals best under the trade name Sugar in the Raw.
El Dorado isn’t Rum in the Raw, though: It’s a smooth and sophisticated rum that’s well worth seeking out. Available in nearly a dozen variations, I tried three of its oldest bottlings. All are 80 proof.
El Dorado Rum 12 Years Old is a very mature rum, fragrant with mint but deeply sugary. The brown sugar character is strong here, but otherwise it’s a pretty simple construction. Dark, smooth, and ready to go. A- / $25
El Dorado Rum 15 Years Old ups the age another three years, creating a spirit even darker in color and richer in flavor. Wood comes through stronger on this one, with mint and herb fading into the background. Again it’s the brown sugar body that impresses deeply, with a rich mouthfeel that makes this one easy to sip. The only false note is a touch of harshness on the palate as it first hits the tongue, but the finish is extremely smooth. A- / $30
El Dorado Rum 21 Years Old is extremely dark brown and almost overdoes it with the wood notes. Here a certain vegetal character starts to weigh down the rum’s natural sweetness, and any other secondary flavors tend to fade away. It’s still good rum — sweet and sophisticated, but in my mind it’s spent a few years too long in the barrel. B+ / $65
Wine club? What could be more boring?
Our friends at For Scotch Lovers are doing something new: Offering a sort of Whiskey of the Month Club called the Whisky Explorers Club.
Here’s how it works: Six times a year each member will receive four tasting sample bottles of whiskies from around the world. These whiskies will arrive in generically-labeled bottles, with no brand or age identity. Members will also receive instructions directing them to our website, where they will be required to input their own tasting notes for each whisky, after which they will provided with the name of the whisky they tasted. The fee is $120 a year (or just $5 per whiskey — and that includes shipping and a free tasting glass!) — and two higher-tier memberships are also available, mainly offering discounts on retail bottles.
Pretty cool idea — letting you taste 24 whiskies completely blind every year and getting to find out what they were after you sample them. (Many such clubs do private bottlings and never let on what the identity of the whiskey is, leaving you forever in the dark.)
I can’t wait to try it out for myself!
Posted in Whiskey
The only sane thing to do here is to explain what soju is. It’s not sake, though sake drinkers will notice some similarities in the flavor profile. While sake is more akin to wine or beer, soju is a Korean distilled beverage, more like vodka.
But not exactly: At just 48 proof (Ty Ku’s alcohol level is typical), most soju wouldn’t pass for any serious spirit. Instead it occupies a middle ground between wine and liquor… and one which will probably suffer confused consumers for years to come. (To further complicate things, in China, shochu is about the same thing as soju.)
Ty Ku’s blue-bottled soju (the actual spirit is clear) is a crisp and pleasant spirit that I like a lot. With fresh melon notes like the best sakes, this soju is brisk and easy to drink on its own or with mixers. (Ty Ku positions it as a “modern update” to soju and as a substitute for vodka in mixed drinks as a way to cut calories. Not a bad idea.)
Distilled from barley and made in Japan (not Korea), a touch of sweetness is evident in the body, but it fades fast, leaving behind that honeydew character that begs you to take another sip.
Very easy to drink and worth a try in any vodka-based cocktail… but only after you give it a whirl on its own.
A- / $30 / trytyku.com
I’m an avowed fan of the Vacu Vin Rapid Ice Wine Chiller, which can take a bottle of white wine from cellar temp to ready-to-drink in under ten minutes, and as a result I had high hopes for Vacu Vin’s Rapid Ice Beer Chiller.
The theory is simple: A cylinder of re-freezable ice packs envelops your bottle, chilling it quickly. The beer bottle version not only shrinks the pack down to 12-oz. size, it also puts a delightful bit of frothy beer art on the exterior to get you in the mood.
Too bad it doesn’t really work all that well. With the reduced surface area and (likely) higher starting temperature of your beer, it takes at least half an hour to get your beer down to a drinkable temperature, and even then it’s dicey. By the time the Vacu Vin got warm to the touch, my beer still wasn’t as cold as I’d have liked it.
Overall this is a fine gadget if you want to keep an already cold beer chilly, but it’s not ideal for quickly cooling down something that’s starting warm.
C / $14 for two / [BUY IT HERE]
Our good friends at Gordon & MacPhail sent along these three new independently-bottled single malt whiskys for our consideration. Naturally we oblige them with our fair-minded coverage.
Gordon & MacPhail Benromach 10 Years Old is a privately bottled whisky from a relatively quiet Speyside distillery. It’s clearly young, with a bit of bite on the tongue and a lack of cohesion, but it’s a whisky that grows on you with its rugged character. A kind of nutmeg finish and a lot of wood, but very little peat, makes this a curio worth a try. Would like to have tried this after another 4-5 years in cask. 86 proof. B+ / price TBD
Gordon & MacPhail Private Collection Caol Ila 10 Years Old Madeira Finish continues the minor trend of finishing Scotch in Madeira casks. This one spends 20 months in Madeira casks, giving it a very big Madeira character to reckon with. There’s a surprising vanilla character in the mix, but the finish is really wine-like. At 90 proof, it feels a little on the rough side. B+ / $75
Gordon & MacPhail Private Collection Caol Ila 10 Years Old Port Finish is the flipside to the Madeira finish Scotch, spending 20 months in Port pipes before bottling. It’s a much darker Scotch, a pretty, deep amber that is matched by a lush, rich body. It’s not overly Port-like, with smooth honey, caramel, and chocolate character. Not much bite, it goes down way too easy. I love this malt! A / $75
Dulce Vida: “The sweet life?”
The lush life is more like it. Tequila already gets a bad rap for turning ordinary citizens into raging drunks, and Dulce Vida has to go and pump it up to 100 proof just to make sure the job gets done.
I’m sure their hearts were in the right place. The idea is that the higher proof means a stronger cocktail — and more agave flavor — once you start mixing with it. This tequila, all made from 100 percent organic blue agave and imported by an Austin, Texas company, comes in the usual three varieties. Distribution is very limited for now but will expand over 2010.
Dulce Vida Tequila Blanco is completely unaged and feels very crisp and fresh. Agave is strong in this one, naturally, and it’s braced with lemon citrus character. Lots of bite, probably due to the high alcohol content. B+ / $45
Dulce Vida Tequila Reposado is aged for a year and not just in regular oak barrels, but rather used Kentucky whiskey barrels. The result is completely unique, a clear tequila at heart but one with woodsy, spicy kick that’s a clear influence of the Bourbon in the mix. The finish is unexpected, with sweetened agave and a touch of wintergreen. A little odd, still wrapping my arms around it. B+ / $50
Dulce Vida Tequila Anejo is aged for two years in old whiskey barrels and is by far the most successful of the bunch. The wood and tequila have had time to marry and get to know each other better, giving a richer mouthfeel and a creamy, caramel character to the spirit. This is a whiskey drinker’s tequila big with sugar but still brawny and a bit rustic. Unlike many anejos, the agave still comes through, and it packs a wallop. This is a clear favorite, definitely worth seeking out. A / $55
A few months ago I had the opportunity to try The Balvenie’s newest expression — a 17 year old single malt finished in Madeira casks — before its formal release.
But that was a mere taste in the grand scheme of things. Lately I’ve been sampling it again to form a more fully fleshed-out opinion on the whisky, putting aside my old notes and tasting it with a fresh palate.
The nose and body are simple and fairly traditional, with just the lightest touch of oak to play with the honey, heather, and jasmine notes in the Scotch. You get a whiff of the Madeira here, too, but it’s not until you let it linger on the tongue that that finishing cask comes through. Madeira is an acquired taste for many, and I expect that some Scotch drinkers will be put off by it, but it works pretty well with the otherwise straightforward Speyside Scotch. The finish is aromatic, exotic with incense character, and a bit spicy. Racy, even.
86 proof.
A- / $110 / thebalvenie.com
