December 2014 – grey whisky

Whisky 2014 – 148-150

I made it to 150 whiskies for the year tonight. That was easy. Maybe I should shoot for 200 in 2015.

So more fun was had at Bar Cordon Noir, Kyoto this evening.

148 – Laphroaig Triple Wood
Boiled sweets, ice cream and seaweed and wood smoke. Citrus and powdered ginger, medicinal, peaty.

149 – Fuji Gotemba Blender’s Choice Bottle 261/500
Amazing fruit and vanilla: strawberries, raspberries and apricot. Fantastic. Coats and cushions the palate, hazelnuts and fruit cup, some banana and black pepper – reminds me of my mums stewed apricots and yoghurt.

150 – Kirin 1981 The Main Malt of Evermore 2003 (022863)
Toasted hazelnuts in brown butter, maple syrup, glue, dusty and egg white. Pink musk sticks, thyme, salt, butter.

Whisky 2014 – 147

I know. How is it possible that I haven’t had the Glenmorangie 18 yet? I’ve just skipped over it. Had a lovely meal at MOTOi in Kyoto. While no photograph of the whisky, enjoy the picture of the chocolate Paris Breast I ate with it.

147 – Glenmorangie 18
Pancakes with buttered walnuts and cola on the nose. Woody, nutmeg and cardamom, creamy and formic acid.

Whisky 2014 – 142-146

Ok so I’m in Kyoto. If you’re into your whisky you must head to Bar Cordon Noir. Approximately 600(!) different whiskies.

So my drinking this evening:

142 – Nikka Taketsuru Sherry Wood Finish
Honey, toffee and an easy nose. Vanilla and some cola to finish. Not much too it to be honest.

143 – Ichiro’s Malt 20 Years Old Bourbon Cask
Leather, wood, brown sugar/fake maple syrup, toasted bread crumbs, Terry’s choc Orange. The palate is syrupy and gentle, deep coffee, it really keeps going … Loads of crushed ants.

144 – Yamazaki 2000 Millennium
Slight yeasty banana bread, salty and eventually a strong nose of fresh rye bread and butter. Apricots, vanilla, creamed honey, pepper and salt.

145 – Yamazaki Limited Edition 2014
Banoffee pie, meringue and cola. Vanilla, crushed ants, salty, milk chocolate, rose water. I like this.

146 – Ledaig 18
Peanut brittle, salty almonds, bickfords lime cordial and seaweed. Peat, boiled sweets, white bread toast with melty butter.

Whisky 2014 – 141

141 – Nikka Yoichi 500ml
It’s Christmas Day in Tokyo. I arrived into some public transport disasters, however, I finally made it to Meguro. Walked into a bottle shop and found 4 litre bottles of Suntory White but I decided to pick up a more reasonably sized 500ml bottle of Nikka Yoichi, something I haven’t seen before.

It’s light and creamy with a few coffee notes. For ¥1800 it’s a bargain for Australians. The type of whisky where you don’t need to think to much or you’ve had too much too eat. In fact it would go really well with Christmas pud.

Whisky 2014 138-140

First up a big thanks to the staff at Whisky & Alement throughout the year and especially tonight. I set Luke, James and Brendan each challenge after a strange day. The first was a whisky for the end of an era, next was a whisky for starting new and finally a whisky to head home to. Great choices guys.

I’m not sure if it was my mood but the first two whiskies had strong memory links for me – being on the beach in winter as a kid and my mums cake mixture.

138 (end of an era) – Ardbeg Supernova
Sickly sweet (in a good way), rubber, cola lollies, green peaty seaweed monster… Pepper, salt, a winter rainy/windy day at the beach, bitter chocolate, apricots and rubber.

139 (start of something new) – Tormore 16
Proving bread, my mums butter cake batter, maple syrup. Melons, rubber, apricot bar.

140 (heading home) – Gordon & MacPhail Alba Whisky
Vanilla and tropical fruits. Orange cake with chocolate sauce.

Whisky 2014 – 134-137

134 – Cadenhead Small Batch Glengarioch 24
Chocolate, vanilla ice cream, some formic acid, orange zest and nutmeg. Smoke comes and goes, powdered ginger, chocolate.

135 – Yamazaki Bourbon Barrel
Yeasty, cedar, bananas and vanilla cream and cucumber. Dulche de leche! Ginger, meringue and vanilla.

136 – Ichiro’s Malt Chichibu – on the way
Vanilla and toasted grain, yeasty, banana. Great stuff.

137 – SMWS Never Ending Cask at Whisky & Alement
Bacon bits, green herbs, smoke, seaweed. Syrupy, honey and tea then smoke and peanuts. I reckon Caol Ila because of the peanuts.

Whisky 2014 – 133

133 – Michel Couvreur The Unique

Ok this is a bit of a strange one for me. Onion skin, tobacco smoke, leather, slight sulfur and a touch of vanilla. It’s not bad just not my thing. It tastes hot, way more than 44%. Just not sure about it.

Whisky 2014 – 130-132

130 – Cadenhead Small Batch Auchroisk 24 Years

Brown sugar and butter, with wattle seed and cola. Buttery palate with a hint of rubber.

131 – Yamazaki 1998 Rare Sherry Cask

Banoffee pie, cola, peanut butter and Pedro Ximenez. This thing is delicious, expensive, but delicious.

132 – Balvenie Tun 1509 Batch 1

Spicy banana bread, yeasty, nutmeg and a slight green medicinal tone. I found tropical fruit, almost like the tropical cordial I remember as a kid and some orange peel on the palate.

Favourite Whisky of 2014

A friend asked me for my favourite drops from 2014. Here they are in no order:

White Oak Sherry Cask 5 Year
Adelphi Glenrothes 2007 7 Year Australian Release (67.6%!!!)
Gordon & MacPhail Glenburgie 1964
Ichiro’s Malt Chichibu Port Pipe 2009
Glengoyne 21

As you can probably tell, I’m a bit of a sherry head. I don’t mind a bit of peat every now and then, but I’ll probably complain about it being like licking a fireplace or too medicinal.