islay festival of malt and music II

the feis ile or the islay festival of malt and music is already drawing to a close.
but from what caskstrength.net tell us, it has been a wonderful week of malts and more. wish i was there but had a few friends who flew in to jakarta to catch up and drink up.
we drank some dalmore 12 year old and reminisced about old times and the future as ground nut shells piled up on the table.
taking them out today while the rest of the world enjoy friday nights elsewhere and in islay.
will post some reviews as soon as i can.
cheers!

good friday grog

'twas one of those fridays with nothing much to do except go for a few rounds of drinks with friends in the city that was flushed wet as is the case every good friday. throw in some f1 parties and it was looking like a good friday to party.
well, had a laphroaig in the petronas twin towers before scooting off for drinks at the george and dragon pub. was asked to choose a single malt and after going through the list, settled for the pale gold bruichladdich 15 years old.
not many actually liked it until they added some water where the 46 percent by alcohol islay single malt turned cloudy as is the case for most non-chill filtered malt whiskies. it smelt fresh and flowery and redolent with the northern seaside.
but they continued to grumble even as they took copious swallows of the mellow malt with its slight seaweedy iodine taste which i put to its 15 year casking in american oak followed by 25 weeks in spanish sherry oaks.
which accounts for it being not as robust as other single malts but still palatable with its long but soft finish after a while.
despite their misgivings, good company and great conversation ensured that the bottle was finished by midnight.

smoky single malt

first off, gong xi fa cai and a happy lunar new year to all. i think the phrase yum seng is most appropriate for the occasion. fact is, that was the phrase in the two weddings i had attended between december 2007 and january 2008.
anyway, over the last weekend, some friends came down and we adjourned to a new english pub called the george and dragon in the bangsar shopping complex.
well, its managed by the finnegans pubs people and has a similar range of draught beers and single malts. a review of the place is possible in the near future although the initial sampling of food leaves much to be desired.
one of the single malts available is the rather new smokehead launched in 2006. the pale straw single malt is a 43 percent alcohol by volume whisky and is also an islay style single malt with an intense smoky and peaty nose.
not one for the faint-hearted or those who like sweet sherry-casked single malts, the smokehead smokiness is tempered with a spicy mix of lemon and ginger to give a heady fragrance to the dram.
the palate continues with the spicy masala and a hint of sweetness exploding although it feels a bit thin before a short smoky and intense peppery-peaty finish for a life-changing second and continues for some time after not quite unlike the laphroaig.
this is one big whisky that requires some getting used to with a lot of smoke and fire.
go for it.

islay in the sun

if there is any single malt one should taste at least once, it has to be an islay.
just like if you ever need to visit one island, i think it must be hawaii.
or cuba. so make it two islands one has to ever visit.
so it is with islay single malts. and caol ila - which is gaelic for the sound of islay - is one of the better islay single malts. just like laphroaig.
have seen the bottle around in various duty-free outlets but never got round to getting one until a discussion with the high-school sweetheart some time last year. she swears by it and would not try any other single malts.
a trip back from bangkok provided the perfect opportunity to get a bottle of caol ila 12 year old for consumption.
okay, the label is actually better than the photo here as the entire bottle was kept in an ice bucket during a party december 2006.
now that was a party all right. the food was excellent - thanks to a great italian-trained chef and the company wonderful. enough said as that would make me yearn for more of the food and the company that night.
anyway, the caol ila is said to be one of the lighter of the islays with one of the extremes being the much-beloved laphroaig and also the range of bowmore single malts.
a pale gold, this islay single malt has a honeyed peaty nose with some floral notes.
the 43 percent alcohol by volume caol ila has a sweet, smoky and seaweed taste with a cigar smoke and peppery finish.
very nice. definitely a must in any single malt collection.

worthwhile whiskies

'twas the night before christmas, when all through the house... i was looking for whiskies to drink.
found a few that was to last the sultans of single malts for just under a week between christmas and new year's eve - which everyone ensured was a week dedicated to the single-minded pursuit of single malts and other beverages too. mostly single malts.
we started with the glenmorangie cellar 13, a single malt from a single cellar.
it is different from the glenmorangie 10 years old single malt as aging in bourbon casks for 10 to 12 years in cellar 13 - a warehouse near the sea that brings a saltiness to the sweet single malt.
the 43 percent alcohol by volume single malt is pale yellow and we opened the bottle by the poolside as others started on their christmas eve dinner.
the nose was sweet with the scent of vanilla and wood and a hint of menthol as we swirled a tumblerful. there was the vanilla and honey and a taste of toffee - nice!
the finish was long and juicy with certain flowery fragrance. we drank more and savoured every wee dram of it.
christmas came by and other bottles of single malts were opened, among which were glenfiddich 12 year olds and a bottle of chivas brothers royal salute 21-year-old.
the chivas brothers were grocers and not distillers and therefore produced a blended whisky to smooth out the spectrum of taste that the single malts had during their time and led to the creation of chivas regal in 1909.
anyway, the royal salute 21-year-old is a super premium blended whisky that was created as a tribute to the coronation of queen elizabeth II in 1953. it is a 43 percent alcohol by volume whisky that is bottled in a collectible ceramic decanter complete with its own velvet sack.
it has an old world feel about it, like being dressed in a smoking jacket and having port with cigars but really, it is markedly different from other blended whiskies with an intense smokiness on the nose.
smooth with a rum and raisin taste on the palate, the finish is mellow with a hint of spiciness. it grows on you.
but the coup de grace for the week was the 17-year-old islay mist. it was a revelation of one of the best blended single malts of all time and what has been hailed as the perfect balance of oak, grain, malt and peat.
we could only agree as i opened the bottle and all our whisky dreams came true. it was smoky, salty and sweet.
that must be thanks to the fact the islay mist started off as a tribute to the 21st birthday of the son of the laird of islay house in 1922. it was considered such an important occasion that the good lads felt that laphroaig was too heavy and decided to blend with other highland malts like the glenlivet and grain whisky. that was the beginning of islay mist.
anyway, the palate was nutty and earthy enough you just wanted to slosh it around your mouth to experience complete relaxation like a day on a hammock in a white sandy beach with women with-or-without-bikinis tending to your every wish.
the finish was a light smoky one with a dash of salt and pepper like one of the best steaks you've ever had. satisfying to the hilt as the bottle finished in no time.
so, anyway, happy new year! hic!

whisky frisky

the festivities were over but the holidays still had a week to go in malaysia.
decided to kill a few bottles around town but ended up in ronnie q's in bangsar after this pantun - four line malay poem - was sent out for an evening of drinks.
satu syawal dah lama tiba,
selamat hari raya aidil fitri,
gelas ais dah lama sedia,
bila kita nak minum wiski!
the quorum was five.
so we went for the easy option and took a bottle of chivas regal. well, i have drunk and written about it so let's just say it still tasted the same.
although days earlier, i did imbibe it with green tea as a mixer. interesting green tea after-taste and not quite unlike having after-eight mint chocolates after a heady heavy curry dinner. try it, you might like it - the chivas-green tea mix i mean.
well, almost a week later some of us met up again at ronnie q's and decided to sacrifice another bottle to our decadent lifestyle. out came the standard chivas regal bottle but we decided against it.
instead, the three of us at the pub went for a bottle of bowmore 12 years old, for about one hundred ringgit more.
having extensively tried a few other bowmore variants, decided that it was time to drink and talk about the basic bowmore, an entry-level single malt in the world of rich peaty bowmore single malts.
well, the bouquet of this standard islay whisky brought a smile to our faces with its chocolate and citrus notes. awakened the senses it did, said the resident sith. took the tumbler to the lip and took a sip for a taste of peatiness.
it is not that peaty compared to other bowmores and it had a smokiness delicately balanced by a honeyed sweetness. the auburn liquid swirled around the palate with a long and very satisfying finish. this 40 percent alcohol by volume whisky is indeed pretty good.
it was so good that conversation flowed as well as the whisky and we ended up somewhere in the middle of kuala lumpur at a dangdut club, dancing the night away amongst a cohort of courteous courtesans and men with their silky dancefloor skills.
that is a story for another time. or never as the case may be.
in between the ronnie q whisky meetings, the few of us also met up at an open house where we finished off the remnants of a wonderful macallan 18 year old fine oak. the fine oak series came out in 2004 where the single malt is mellowed in bourbon oak casks as well as the standard sherry oak casks from jerez in spain.
that is not to say the sherry-casked whiskies are not bad. they are excellent of course but the bourbon adds a sparkle to the peatiness inherent in single malts.
the speyside whisky is 43 percent alcohol by volume and is sweet and smoky with a peppery finish. as all of us thirsted for the blonde whisky, there was not enough to go around but quite enough for us to hanker for more.
soon.

whisky wonderland

whisky wonderland is what i would call my friend's home, though one has to go through a pair of rottweilers to enter this plonk paradise.
be that as it may, a simple evening of margaritas and chicken fajitas in american chilis bangsar turned to serious whisky when he invited me over for a nightcap. it turned out to be six of the best.
six tumblers of single malt - all different in character and taste.
and all absolutely smashing.
it started with the bowmore cask strength islay single malt, a strong peaty smoky malty whisky that boldly dominated the palate with a taste of dry ash and with a long, long finish.
it lingered on the tongue and warmly spread through the body as i slowly emptied the tumbler.
the rottweilers looked and one of them sniffed me and eyed the tumbler eagerly.
the auburn single malt has 56 percent alcohol by volume and definitely comparable to other cask strength whiskies.
the evening was progressing well as my friend scanned through his wooden trunk of single malts for another bottle.
he settled on the lagavulin 16 years old single malt. a slight colour akin to the weakest of teas, the lagavulin burst in with a more subtle peaty taste that nimbly danced at the edge of my tongue.
the whisky, with 43 percent alcohol by volume, started off drily before strengthening aggressively with a rather oily and salty and fruity flavour, drawing one to sip it slowly but surely.
a rather good contrast to the peatier bowmore with discernible differences that i could appreciate as i finished it rather relunctantly.
it was also time to try something older and tastier.
and out came the glenlivet 18 years old.
the oak-casked whisky is also 43 percent alcohol by volume but very different from the lagavulin 16 years old.
the golden amber liquid was creamier, peatier and so much smoother - and like the bowmore, lingered long after it finished though not as strongly as the bowmore. it also had hints of honey, spice and nuts - flavours to keep one interested in it for a while.
it was time for a classic single malt and the glenfiddich 12 years old special reserve in its distinctive triangular green bottle appeared. the golden liquid is 40 percent alcohol by volume.
said to be the world's best-selling single malt, the 12-year-old has a fresh and fruity flavour with the peatiness solidly in the background. this makes the whisky a great entry-level single malt for one making the jump from blended whiskies and even sweet bourbon.
i can say that with conviction as i used to prefer this over the peatier bowmores. but times change and tastebuds broaden in search of stimulation. indeed, variety is the spice of life.
having said that, my friend fished around the trunk and came out with a single malt quite unknown to me.
the signatory vintage single islay malt scotch whisky was a bottle with a plain label that revealed everything except the taste. initial research shows its one of the only three indepedent bottlers and is actually the smallest distillery in scotland.
the single malt was a vintage 1993 that was bottled in early 2004 - yes, most cask strength is about 10 years old. the light golden liquid was 43 percent alcohol by volume and had a distinct peaty but sweet taste.
this was the fifth tumbler of single malt for the night but it held its distinctive taste, subtle and smooth yet bold with the slightly higher alcohol content.
it was time to relax and the sixth tumbler provided that, something easy to settle the spirit and the mind, the body and the soul.
we settled for the glenlivet 12 years old which like the glenfiddich 12 years old, is 40 percent alcohol by volume and another good entry-level single malt.
the glenlivet is a speyside whisky, smooth and soft with a fruity and floral flavour with some hints of vanilla, striking a different note in the palate. like its elder relative, it is also casked in oak, providing a woody finish to the single malt.
the night was coming to and end. not quite.
we had another bowmore cask strength, one for the road as it were.
a smashing time indeed with six of the best and one to spare.