114 – Old Pulteney 1996 Cask 3557 Bottled 2011
Apricots, chocolate, salt, pepper, chicos, cloves. Really chewy, rose hips, apricot, cream.
115 – Aberlour Cadenhead 1995 19 Years Sauternes Cask
Sulphury, cucumber, stewed apples. Fruity soooo fruity, vanilla cream loads of it, brandy snaps, dried figs, green figs, peaches
116 – Benrinnes 23 Years
Rubber, sulphary, honey, stewed apples. Honey, cloves, rubber, lettuce, brown butter, leather, roast beef, dry wood. So freaking good.
110 – Swiss Highland Single Malt Whisky Classic
Malt, banana bread, warm coke and cloves. Nothing just slight cream and some bananas.
111 – Signatory Gottfried Koller Edition Glen Turret 1986 Cask 302
Cream, herbs, band-aids, yeast. Pencil shavings, melon, bitter herbs and salt. Really well put together.
112 – Bowmore Feis Ile 2006
Ozone, warm deep frying oil, panforte, Xmas pudding, dried pineapple, banana lollies, chocolate brownie fresh out of the oven, yeast. So fruity – peaches and apricots, vanilla custard, pencil and wood shavings and a medicinal heather finish.
113 – The Cross Hill 1990 Ben Nevis 2008 Bottling
Glue, pizza, fruit straps, rubber, maraschino cherries, red apple, lemon meringue. Rubber, sulphur, raisins, brown butter, salt and port. A-ma-zing!
107 – The Arran Devils Punchbowl II
White peaches, cream, ice cream, clove, apple snow, apricots. Bitter herbs, cream, brown sugar and brandy snaps.
108 – Royal Island 30 Years Arran (but really Bunnahabhain and Bowmore)
Chalk, pencil shavings, manzanilla Sherry, apples, toffee, stone fruit. Pencil shavings, some cream, pepper, cloves, pop corn, green herbs, salty.
109 – Springbank 12 1990s bottling
Christmas cake, dusty and fruity, brandy, brown sugar, salty butter, rose hips, egg white, apricot . Huge butter, caramel and rubber, coffee, apricot delight, passion fruit. Brilliant, top 5 this year, easy.
So more traveling this time in Zurich. Jetlagged to hell, I decided that is was worth trying to find the Old Crow Bar. Bloody hell was it worth it! I’ll be going back again during my short stay.
I had two drams; a Glendronach 15 Revival (geddit??) I’d had many times before but this Ben Nevis is up there with some of the best whisky I have had. Not the huge jammy apricots or marmalade that I associate with Ben Nevis but loads of cocoa and chocolate and so elegant.
106 – Ben Nevis 1973 1999 Cask 750
Sarsaparilla, maple syrup, medicinal, vanilla, maraschino cherry. Cloves, cocoa, chocolate, vanilla, coffee, green herbs, musk, slight fruit.
The Campbelltoun Loch is small, cramped, run down (don’t expect suit jackets) and full of whisky gems. It’s serious whisky drinking business.
102 – Ben Nevis The Whisky Agency 2013 1995 18 Years
Old leather, cake mix, almonds, green herbs, hazelnuts, as it opens up more and more cake mix – it is stunning. Slow to start but this amazingly long cake mix thing which lasts and lasts, apricot jam in a cake.
103 – The Prestonfield 1975 Ben Nevis Cask 7440 La Maison du Whisky 34 Years
Cake mix, crushed ants, hazelnuts, apricots and orange juice. Chocolate, tobacco and cigars, apricot jam on buttered toast, hazelnuts, chocolate. Smells like it is going to come alive in the glass?!?
104 – The Old Malt Cask Ben Nevis 19 Years 2013 Ref: HL12148
Pancakes, honey, oranges, stewed apricots, dark toffee and brown sugar. Apricots, green herbs, slightly bitter, crepes, vanilla, Fanta, malty.
105 – Kingsbury Glenrothes 2004 11 years
Rubber, sarsaparilla, smoked paprika, chicos, sulphur. Chocolate and vanilla, Xmas spices, ginger biscuits, cocoa powder on vanilla ice cream, roast chicken.
Back in Tokyo! At the wonderful Mash Tun. Owner Suzuki-san is a wonderful host and has some very unique bottlings. I will be going back!
100 – The Mash Tun and The Whisky Agency Ben Nevis 1998 Peated
Walnuts, ham, huge truffle nose. Meaty and sweet, typical Ben Nevis jammy apricot fruit but wow, such savory complexity. Simple but so well executed.
101 – The Whisky Agency Ben Nevis 1996 20 year Sherry butt
Honey, gunpowder, mushrooms, jersey caramel. Caramel, green herbs and apricots, churned butter, some slight earthiness.
I’ve decided on an October 2016 trip to Scotland. In my normal way, I am already planning. If you have any suggestions, please send them through. I’ll probably have between 10-16 days.
At this stage I am thinking; Edinburgh to Aberdeen, hit Glenfarclas, Glendronach, and quite a few other distilleries (let me know which ones you like) on the way to Scrabster, before jumping on a ferry to Orkney and visiting Highland Park.
GW
I had two great nights at The Mash Tun in Meguro, Tokyo. It’s a short walk from Meguro station and by Tokyo standards easy to find.
The Mash Tun has the largest collection of Cadenhead bottlings I’ve seen, maybe close to 40. While many of the locals (in fact now that I think about it all of them) were tucking into Cadenhead, I was there for the Japanese stuff you just can not get in Australia.
117 – Ichiro’s Malt – Whisky Talk 2015
Typical Japanese creaminess, cocoa, autumn leaves, salt, slight gassy note, angry dust. Tastes like it smells. Which is unusual. The peat is really subtle. I can taste this in my throat.
118 – Blackadder and Ichiro’s malt 5 year
Chestnut honey, flour, floral, ginger, egg white, clove and cola. Honey and cola. Really delicious. The sweetness is complex like brown/black sugar.
119 – Karuizawa TIBS 2012
Rubber, apricots, chocolate, maple syrup. Rubber, vanilla, pepper, sulfur, clove, salt, maple syrup.
120 – Fuji Gotemba Single Grain Blender’s Choice 2014 029/500
Bananas, coconut, formic acid, some acetone, apricots with ice cream. Butter, crushed ants, vanilla, tropical fruits, toasted hazelnuts.
121 – Ichiro’s malt 2015 Tokyo International Bar Show Cask 2360
Wow just wow – favourite for the year!! Banana, ice cream, malty bread with butter, tomato paste, fruit tingles, slight vino cotto, CHICOS. Yeast, brown bread, vanilla, banana bread, prunes, plums, grapes.
122 – Hanyu King and 6 of Spades Cask 123 (Grappa Cask)
Slight woody pine notes, vanilla, roses, dried strawberries, chocolate and a bit medicinal. Peppery and spicy, instant coffee, a touch of vanilla, strawberries in a day old chocolate cake, length that lasts forever.
2 – Yamazaki 21
Brown sugar, over ripe banana, rye bread, maple syrup. Coffee lollies, creamed butter with brown sugar, vanilla, formic acid.
A top whisky except I got price gouged at a nice restaurant. ¥4500 is just completely over the top.
I’m not a big fruit cocktail kinda guy but all the rave reviews I’ve read about Bar Gen Yamamoto, I had to give it a whirl. And what an amazing cocktail bar it is. More like a sushi bar than a cocktail bar, with a large wooden counter and 8 seats.
Gen-san is a lovely host and his drinks are superb. He happened to have a Sullivan’s Cove American Oak and a get this, Ichiro’s Malt Monochrome Joker! These are used for cocktails mind you. Unfortunately neither were in my cocktails for the evening, however he produced an amazing Yamazaki 12 and Kabocha (Japanese Pumpkin) drink pictured below.
A truly unique and beautiful cocktail bar.
grey whisky 