Tuesday 27 May 2014

Zombies Ahoy!
 
 
Whisky: That Boutique-y Whisky Company Auchroisk Batch 1

Distillery/Brand:

Auchroisk

Bottling:
That Boutique-y Whisky Company Auchroisk Batch 1


Region:
Highlands

ABV:
44.7%


Colour:
Young Sauternes

Review:
I love zombies, like freaking love zombies.

I count 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, Night of the Living Dead (the original), Day of the Living Dead, I mean if it's got zombies in it, new school or old school, I'm there!

The last sample that I reviewed for consideration for import (because I'd found the other whiskies already) was Auchroisk.

Part of my consideration for import was visual appeal of labels, this was secondary to the whisky inside of the bottle, but I wanted to make sure that the bottles jumped out on the shelves.

The label that jumped out at me, more then any other bottle was Auchroisk, a whisky that's primarily used in the J & B blends.  The reason why the label jumped out at me was due to all the zombies on it.

It jumped out as one of the most colorful labels, with something that would appeal to me, but that being said I am crazy.

I'd settled on other whiskies for import, but this is the whisky I was crossing my fingers would be good.  I had no freaking clue what I was walking into.  It could be good, great, ok or crap.

So I poured the whisky into my glencairn, with no small amount of trepidation, fingers crossed as if this whisky was crap I would be searching for another whisky for import, but I REALLY wanted the last whisky to be a cracker.

Like all of the rest of the Boutiquey Whiskies, this is a No Age Statement, bottled at cask strength, with no artificial coloring and non chill filtered.  There are 127 bottles in this batch, bottled at 44.7% abv.

The nose was a super fruity nose, strawberries, melons, pineapples, green apples, pear juice, eucalyptus, mint, and vanilla. 

The palate is sweet, but balanced. Very fruity again, green apples, pears, Liptons Pear Tea, strawberries, light and refreshing, makes me think of an orchard on a beautiful spring day, grassy, cereal, yummy!

The finish is full of mint, eucalyptus, long, little bit of honey. Grassy notes once more.

Love this, no denying it. I was worried, especially as the zombies on the label had my eyes, since I'm a zombie freak. The fact that this whisky delivered is nothing but a massive relief, especially as I ordered 42 bottles for the country.

A bottle of this before shipping, taxes and all that good stuff would run around $130 AUS, however it should retail around the $200 AUS mark when it comes into the country.  I know that I said there were 42 bottles for the country, but just so ya'll know two bottles are coming straight to my house!

Don't believe me?  Buy a sample off Master of Malt :D

Nose:           24/25
Palate:         24/25
Finish:         21/25
Balance:      21/25

Overall:       90/100

Thursday 22 May 2014


All Hail The Spoon!
Whisky: That Boutique-y Whisky Company Blended Malt

Distillery/Brand:
Balvenie

Bottling:
That Boutique-y Whisky Company Blended Malt Batch 1

Region:
Speyside

ABV:
54%

Colour:
Young Sauternes

Review:
Homework continues, but now it's time to worship the spoon!

What the hell you might be saying to yourself, what the hell is SquidgyAsh going on about, what's all this worship and hailing of the spoon?

In fact what the hell does he mean when he says spoon?

When we'd decided to import whisky into Australia, there were a few that I'd pretty much been crossing my fingers on, either because of the distillery or even in one case to be bluntly honest, the label was so attractive.

However having worked with alcohol, especially beer, for several years I'm always very leery on purchasing a bottle based off the label, much less bottles for resale where it's my name on the line.

One of the whiskies that had me very excited was The Boutiquey Whisky Company's Blended Malt Batch 1, which features a picture of a crowd of people worshiping a giant spoon, referring to a process called Spooning, which is the practice of a distillery selling a cask of whisky, but then adding a spoonful of whisky from ANOTHER distillery so it's no longer a single malt.

This prevents companies from selling another distilleries whisky as a single malt, which sort of lowers the prestige of actually managing to score a single cask from some of the distilleries where's it's notoriously difficult to get casks out of.

Some distilleries such as Talisker, Lagavulin, Glenfarclas, Glenfiddich, Balvenie, etc are very difficult to get casks from, and when you do, there's usually some sort of stipulation preventing you from naming it, such as Glenfarclas almost always being called a Secret Speyside, Mystery Speyside, etc, or Gordon & MacPhail's Secret Stills range or Elements of Islay's habit of naming their bottles by the periodic table method, so Lg2 for their 2nd release of Lagavulin.

However Grant's who own Balvenie, Glenfiddich and Kininvie have a different approach to those who are actually lucky enough to purchase a cask off of them.  Their solution is the spoon, where they add a spoonful of whisky

This prevents a bottler from strutting around bragging about how he's selling a Glenfiddich single cask, since it's no longer a single cask, it's had a spoon of Balvenie or Kininvie added to it, making it a blended malt.

Following so far?

Does this spoon of another distilleries whisky really matter?

No, not really, it's such a small amount as to be a drop of water in a bucket.  One of the ways I explain it to beer guys is you take this big lovely beer, for the purpose of this conversation we'll say a lager (meh can't personally stand lagers, too bland, but oh well) and into your big stein of lager you take an eye dropper and add a few drops of a big black imperial stout. 

At most there's the slightest color change, but your palate won't pick up the stout at all, it's still a lager.

This entire process is designed so that distilleries won't have their whiskies bottled as a single cask with their name on the label in order to prevent brand dilution.  Mind you all that needs to happen is one single drop of another whisky distilleries spirit going into that cask and it's no longer a single malt technically.

When I see this Blended Malt I lose the plot, I go absolutely apeshit with excitement.  A single cask of Glenfiddich?!  Who gives a shit if it's not a single malt anymore, we all know what it is!

Then I see it's a Balvenie, even better as far as I'm concerned as I enjoy Balvenie more!

However we still have to do the taste test, because this whisky could still be crap.

There were 210 bottles in this batch, bottled at 54% abv, as always this is a No Age Statement whisky, with no artificial coloring or E150 and non chill filtered.  This as mentioned before is a Balvenie with a teaspoon of either Glenfiddich or Kininvie poured into it.

Into the glencairn the whisky goes, a lovely amber color and let's get this show on the road!

The nose is so fruity and vanilla, peaches, apricots, nectarines, pears, hint of smoke, and a wisp of bbq pork

The palate has cocoa dust, honey, poached pear, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, toasted oak, caramel, coffee, and again a hint of meat

The finish is caramel coffee, long and sweet.

I Love It!

Easily love it, and all I could think about once I finished tasting this whisky is how I needed to grab a couple of bottles for myself.

A bottle of this would run at around $92 AUS before shipping, taxes, etc.  It'll retail around the mark of $160 to $175 a bottle with roughly 40 bottles coming into Australia, of which at least 2 will automatically come home with me because I love this whisky!


Nose:          23/25
Taste:          23/25
Finish:        23/25
Balance:     20/25

Overall:      90/100