To the Hybrids

Ardmore
Traditional Cask
46% ABV
Speyside, Highlands

A gift from my in-laws, Ardmore is not currently available in Virginia, so it's always a treat when I can get a bottle. The interesting thing about Ardmore, and why it's so distinctive, is that Ardmore is a Peated Highland whisky. The barley is dried using natural, highland peat fires, so you get a whisky that has a hint of peat combined with creaminess and vanilla. This stands in pretty stark contrast to typical Highland whiskies which don't rely upon a ton of peat for drying, as well as island whiskies which have traditionally relied upon peat fires, but tend to have a lot more taste of the sea in them.

Other "hybrids" to take a look at are, Ben Riach, which has expanded with a massive and really interesting range since they were bought by a small group of businessmen from Chivas in 2004, and, of course, Highland Park.

Glenkinchie 12 year old

Statistics:



Glenkinchie 10 year old
43% ABV
Pencaitland, South of Edinburgh

Lowland Region

Glenkinchie will also have a warm place in my heart. First and foremost, it's the first distillery I ever visited. My then-fiance, Vicki, and I stopped in the idyllic little hamlet of Pencaitland to see this distillery on the road from Newcastle to Edinburgh. It's a beautiful scene, complete with bright gardens, and lawn bowling.

The distillery tour itself was informative, and being a weekday, the tour guide was willing to spend an inordinate amount of time answering my questions. He also was more than willing to give me multiple samples at the tasting bar at the end of the tour.

The whisky itself is a beautiful, golden color. The taste is very soft, with a hint of spiciness. It's a very good example of a lowland whisky, a species that's all too rare these days. In fact, with its western neighbor, Auchentoshen, it's the only game in town.

Because of it's distinctive style, Glenkinchie is the Lowland representative of the "Classic Malts" - a collection of six of the whiskies owned by Diageo considered to be good representatives of the different types of scotch whisky, as much as it is a marketing campaign.

The six Classic Malts are:
Dalwhinnie (Highland)
Talisker (Skye)
Cragganmore (Speyside)
Oban (West Highland)
Lagavulin (Islay)
Glenkinchie (Lowland)

They're a very easy way to take a tour of the different regions of whisky and a good way to start to understand what you do and don't like.

Ardbeg 10 year old

Statistics:
Ardbeg 10 years old

No bottling year noted
Proof: 92

So now we're into the heart of the lineup. Ardbeg is the ultimate expression of an Islay whisky. Whiskies from this small island off the west coast of Scotland are noted for their taste of sea air, strong finishes, and above all, PEAT. Islay whiskies, most notably Ardbeg, owe a lot of their distinctiveness to the use of peat, instead of a pure wood fire, in the toasting of their malts. The peat bog aroma infuses a unique smokiness, but also saltiness from the sea air and high winds of the region.

Ardbeg has a very fine gold color which belies the stiff kick that's coming to you when you have a wee dram. Quite frankly, it can knock your socks off the first time you have it if you are not used to Islay whisky in general. But stick with, sip slowly, even add a small amount of room temperature water, and you'll be happy you did.

On my first trip to England with my future wife, and as a pure whisky neophyte, I asked a kindly shop lady in the Duty Free Store in Heathrow to recommend a good whisky for a beginner. She handed me Ardbeg. Needless to say, I was surprised when I opened it in America. To this day, I don't know if she was being cruel, stupid, or doing me a huge favor.

Highland Park 20 year old

Statistics:
Highland Park 20 year old (4.120)
Distilled: December, 1986
Bottled: July, 2007 by the Scotch Malt Whisky Society
Proof: 101

This is a cask strength whisky bottled by the independent bottler, The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (herein referred to as SMWS). The SMWS buys individual barrels, or casks, from specific distilleries and bottles their own whiskies for the membership. Not to become an advertisement, but the SMWS is a great way to learn about rarer, more flavorful whiskies from distilleries which may not otherwise be available in the states (Virginia at least). They also assign their own naming convention to each distillery and bottling, thus the 4 for Highland Park and 120 for the specific SMWS bottling.

I'll end up talking a lot about Highland Park because, along with Ardbeg, my favorite whiskies in the world come from this distillery in the northern Scottish island of Orkney. As Michael Jackson notes in his definitive book on the topic, Michael Jackson's Complete Guide to Single Malt Scotch, "Highland Park is the greatest all-rounder in the world of malt whisky. It is definitely an island style, but combining all the elements of a classic single malt: smokiness (with its own heather-honey accent), maltiness, smoothness, roundness, fullness of flavour, and length of finish". Not bad, huh?

If you can find any bottle of cask strength Highland Park, buy it. That's all I have to say about that.

Potential Topics

I've been thinking about this blog for a while now. There are a couple of categories of posts that I think I'll be focusing on:

- Information about whisky in general
- Reviews from the experts (Jackson and Murray primarily) on whiskies that I'm drinking
- My own opinion on various whiskies I've had recently

When I go from zero followers to one follower (sometime in 5 or 6 years) I'll be glad to add any other topics . . .

Welcome

Welcome to Confessions of a Whisky Drinker. In this blog, I will attempt to offer my opinion on one of my favorite topics - whisky. My hope is that this site will offer a mix of expert reviews, background on the whisky itself, and my own opinions on the whisky I'm drinking. Notice that I consider myself a whisky drinker - not an expert and not a connoisseur. I leave that title to some of the giants of whisky that I'll hopefully reference in the blog.

I guess I'm writing this for myself, to get some of my thoughts on the whiskies that I am drinking down "on paper" and for friends who ask me for advise on whisky.

I hope you'll enjoy this as much as I'll enjoy the research!