Review 111: Balvenie 14 Yr Carribean Cask

Review 111

12/5/12

The Balvenie 14 Yr Caribbean Cask: 43% abv

Unfortunately, Balvenie thinks that they are THE Ohio State, so I titled is as they did, but I it against any fiber in my being to do so, because this is actually quite an awesome brand of Scotch. So for the rest of The Review, I will be calling this Balvenie. Balvenie is owned by Grant’s & Sons, which makes Grant’s Blended Scotch and owns Glenfiddich. Glenfiddich and Balvenie are also geographical neighbors as well, which makes this an interesting comparison. Here’s a fun experiment for you to try. Put Balvenie 12 Yr Double Wood and Glenfiddich 12 Yr next to each other and compare. You’ll be absolutely shocked by the differences, if you pay enough attention. So here we go. Balvenie 14 Yr. You don’t see a great number of rum casks being used for whisky, partially because the regulation on how often you can use casks for a rum don’t exist, so rum producers have very little reason to dispose of their casks. There is more to it then that, but this is also why sherried whiskies are more expensive and rare. 

How does this one fair and what does it add to the whisky? Well, on the nose we get a complex blend of flavors, including barley, malt, oak, light green grape, vanilla, a subtle blend of bananas and anise, molasses, nutmeg, slight lemon, soft apple, toffee, white chocolate, and spicy fruits. {Deep inhale}. Alright. So yeah, this one has a lot to it on the nose. And after adding water, you’ll get more malt in the nose, with additions of caramel and sea salt. The arrival is strangely going to contradict the nose. There is malt and huge vanilla on the arrival, with some spiciness and caramel. After adding water, the arrival deteriorates greatly. The body makes up for this with more complexity. Vanilla, malt grain, caramel, cinnamon, ginger, slight mint, apple, honeydew, honey and slight saltiness are all present in the body. Vanilla is first in line here for a reason. The vanilla in this is so huge, as a compliment of the cask it was aged in. The body will not do well in water, as it just backs off the flavor. The finish contains vanilla, toffee, malt, slight saltiness, caramel, molasses/brown sugar, cinnamon, confectioner’s sugar, dry black pepper, honey, and slight mint. 

The finish remains relatively unchanged with water. So this is a complex Single Malt. This whisky will not do well if left out for over a half hour or so. It will thin out and taste dull. So pour small drams and enjoy at a leisurely pace. This isn’t the MOST complex Scotch, partially due to the fact that the Caribbean cask is very dominant in influencing the flavors with sweetness. All the same, it is a wonderful expression and we know many people who love this. Do note: this isn’t one of their standards so if you want it, buy it now. And we suggest you do. 

Score: 9.0/10

Review 110: Bell's This One Goes to 11

Review 110

12/4/12

Bell’s This One Goes to 11 Ale: 11% abv

Okay. Bell’s put this one out for their 11,000th batch, and they got a little out of hand with the number 11. I’m not sure what the significance of the word 11 is, or if there is just a lot of things you can do with it, but they sure did a lot to emphasize it. You’ll notice that its name is so cleverly crafted, AND it is at 11%. Oh Bell’s, you never cease to impress. Okay, onto the beer. This is an imperial red ale, which we haven’t seen a whole bunch of, but it sounds good enough. So what’s it like? 

Well, the nose is pretty impressive. Right of the bat, you can find grapefruit and fruity citrus notes come out in the form of lemon and grape acidity. There is also the addition of red apple, pear, pear skins, barley grain, pine resin, pineapple, and agave. So with this slew of notes you should think we’re crazy. The point is it has a fruity, but slightly bitter nose with some sweetness and maltiness to it. It is complex and enjoyable. Now I’ve told you the good news? Do you want to hear the bad news? Too bad. The arrival starts off well, with a sweet, mellow overtone of malt, with caramel, creaminess, molasses, agave, and some pine tastes to it. That pine obviously introduces the bitter into the beer. The body is malty, with caramel, lemon rind, slight bitterness, slight apple, and some hops. So not very complex, with primarily grain and bitterness to offer. The finish is identical with the addition of grapefruit. Translation: more bitterness. 

Don’t get me wrong, this beer isn’t excessively bitter in comparison to some of those beers out there, but it just doesn’t have other flavors to justify it. Now, there is a footnote to this as well. Generally speaking, this would garner a harsh score, but we have had some inventory issues, so this beer has been sitting around for about two months. We’ve been told that this beer is at its prime fresh off the shelf. We can’t score this as a winner, but there is a potential that what we’ve reported could be less than what this beer’s maximum potential is. 

Score: 7.25/10

Review 109: Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron

Review 109

11/24/12

Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron: 12% abv

Here we are with another Dogfish Head. This one may seem a little confusing to you. Dogfish puts on the label that this is a malt beverage. All that this implies is that malted barley is part of the grain they use in manufacturing this beer. This isn’t in any way revolutionary or different from any other beer, ever. The difference is that there can be a malted beverage without hops, which is not a beer. So is this a beer, or a malted beverage? The answer is yes. It is a beer and they are calling this one a brown ale, says their website (making us do extra work to find the answers here). Okay, so then is there anything else interesting to know about this beer? Well it’s called Palo Santo Marron, and to our best translation, a marron is a name given to two closely related crayfish. Yes, that isn’t very exciting, and if you sensed the uncertainty here, its because we don’t know who would name a beer after a crayfish. 

The Palo Santo we can shed some more light on, though. This is a wood, specifically coming from the Bulnesia Sarmientoi tree, or Palo Santo tree, which is commonly used in burning for incense or aging wine, along with having some medicinal qualities. So this is a unique paring with wood we’ve never tasted before. How’s it hold out? On the nose, you can find the obvious malt scent quite easily, but there are some other obvious ones as well. Raisons, dark coffee, milk chocolate, and some large berry flavors of strawberry, raspberry, and unique slight banana, and pear, with smooth rich notes of vanilla and toffee. When you first try this beer, you will realize how dark and rich it is for a “brown” ale. The arrival contains chocolate, blueberry, raspberry, vanilla, banana, cream, and there is even a slight note of light citrus in there. This is a very complex arrival and intrigued us to dig deeper. The body of the taste contains malt, a slight unexpected dryness, ginger, raisons, fruity notes of pears and some creaminess, tobacco and vanilla. The body is sort of empty and disappointing comparatively speaking, but don’t worry. We haven’t yet finished this. 

Because there is still the finish! AH! Get it? The finish contains many complex flavors, the most obvious of which is malt, but giving off chocolate, substantial tobacco flavors, yeast, more malt, wheat, dry barley, dark fruits, coffee-like bitterness, pears, slight woodiness, cream, vanilla, caramel, and even a slight smokiness. This is a fantastic array of flavors, and they do blend well together. The beer is dark and smooth, with bitter coffee and tobacco flavors setting this one apart from other dark beers in its category, but there is hardly any influence of hops in here. We like this one, but it is expensive. Worth at least one try if it sounds good to you. 

Score: 9.25/10

Review 107: Dogfish Head Raison D'Etre

Review 107

11/21/12

Dogfish Head Raison D’Etre: 8% abv

Alright people. Dogfish Head is a big deal to some of you for their 90 Minute IPA. Dogfish Head Brewery is from Delaware, and only recently has it entered into the Michigan market. They were founded in 1995, which makes them younger than I am...amateurs. So are they worth the fuss? Well we were going to tell you a while ago, when they were a bigger deal, but we are backed up on spirits and beers to try. Since we’ve done a lot of IPAs, we wanted to move forward with something different. This is a “mahogany ale”, or a Belgian style brown ale which we are effectively calling a brown ale, so let’s get started. On the nose, we have a light, smooth blend of light woodiness and light hops, mixed with some wheat-like graininess. There is also a noticeable fruitiness in the form of raspberries and strawberries, but it includes yeast, raisons, cantaloupe, and heath. Overall, a unique, complex nose. When finally trying the beer, you’ll get instant sweetness from molasses and maple syrup like flavors, some berries and dark grapes and raisons. The body of the flavor gives off more light, dry raison taste, with some mixed berries, and some sugar and honey flavors. Unfortunately, there is a watery character to this beer, which is instantly a disappointment. The finish is light with some hops, raspberry and strawberry again, walnuts, and more cantaloupe. It is slightly dry as well. Overal, this is not a complex beer, and the nose is the most enjoyable part of it. It is sweet and drinkable, but other than that, it isn’t very compelling. Luckily it isn’t too expensive, so it might be worth a try, but we wouldn’t rush out to the store for it. We are hopeful that the next Dogfish Head gives us better luck. Thank you to some guest reviewers, Josh and Justin. Glad to have you contribute. 

Score: 7.0/10

Review 106: Old Pulteney 12 Yr

Review 106

11/21/12

Old Pulteney 12 Yr: 43% abv

This is a Single Malt Scotch, and quite a wonderful one. Sorry not to leave you in anticipation, but I didn’t want to wait. This is the most northern distillery on the main land of Scotland, which sits in Pulteneytown near Wick Bay. Ahh! That’s why they have the boat theme going on here. What does location matter in a whisky review? It turns out to be a really important thing. Coastal spirits generally take on a more salty, seawater characteristic, where valley whiskies have more of a fresh taste to them, which fresh valley water attributes too. Do you want evidence that this matters? Old Pulteney 12 Yr would shout that to you. Here is some tasting notes:

 On the nose, you get an instant, light graininess to the whisky, with malt barley right up front, some lemon-type citrus, and with our long intro about water sources foreshadowing to this, saltiness! Yes, there is salt and brininess to this, with some seaweed on the nose as well, but there is sweetness as well: sugarcane type sweetness, and a very slight hint of honeydew. There is slight spiciness, and a dry yeast on the nose well. The nose is quite complex, and feeds more in after water, adding some more sea water smell, light dry mint, and other dry herbs and fruits into the nose. When you finally try the whisky, you might be surprised at how personable it is. 

It does start salty on the arrival, but gives you the malt that you love in your Scotch, with some interesting ginger spice and seaweed. After water, you’ll find the arrival sweeter, with an addition of wheaty grain notes and a smooth palate. The body gives you a great blast of sweet barley, briny salt, even some slight peat. Interestingly, this isn’t a complex body before you put some water in it, but after, more starts to come out. You’ll get some heather honey, more malt, pepper and allspice, mint leaves, and even some light herb and spice notes as well. The finish is complex as well, with similar notes to the body, but adding some molasses, powdered sugar, hay and sherry, wheat, sweet cinnamon, peat, pepper, and a slight dryness. 

It is a medium finish, so not terribly impressive, but gives off some great notes and differences, and the introduction of sherry into the finish is really enjoyable. Overall, this is a complex and different Scotch, and we think it to be light-years ahead of other Scotches in the same price range. The saltiness shouldn’t deter you from this, as it is compelling and not overbearing. We highly recommend this, and at $40 a bottle, it should be a Single Malt staple for anybody looking for something refreshing and wonderful. At 43% and a natural looking color, this hits all the right marks. Highly recommended.

Score: 9.25/10

Review 108: Glenmorangie Nectar D'Or 12 Yr

Review 108

11/18/12

Glenmorangie Nectar D’Or 12 Yr: 46% abv

In our third whisky of a three part evaluation of Glenmorangie, we look at the Sauternes cask-aged Scotch alternative. Sauternes is a light wine generally described by its high acidity and relative sweetness. That makes us wonder if this will play into the whisky at all (spoiler alert, it does). On the nose of this one, you’ll get honey right off the bat, sweetness associated with sugarcane, vanilla, sweet apple, and slight malt. 

The nose is soft and delicate, but after adding water becomes a little more fruity, adding pear, stronger grain, specifically barley and wheat. The arrival contains soft woodiness, vanilla, some slight white chocolate, and honey. After water, there is an addition of a lot of vanilla that starts being added as the whisky opens up. The body contains complex flavors of barley malt, tartness, lemon, slight brine and saltiness, grapes, pears, and a noted large amount of acidity, which tends to dominate the flavor. After adding water, there is a decrease of tartness. The finish tended to be the speaking point of this whisky.  There are some unique points to the finish. Interesting notes included white chocolate, light nuttiness, barley grain, tartness, salt, pear, melon, and acidic white grape. After water, the taste of vanilla, cream, and malt got bigger, and there was a very little spice to be tasted. 

In general, the character of this Malt whisky show huge reflections of the Sauternes wine that helped to shape its palate. It is mellow and light, carries the white wine flavors with acidity, and is not terribly complex. It is pretty smooth and water works well with it. There are some unique flavors involved with the whisky. 

Score: 8.25/10

Review 105: Parker's Heritage Collection

Review 105

11/3/12

Parker’s Heritage Collection Bourbon: 65.8% abv

Is it a cask strength bourbon? Yes, yes it is. This tips the scale as our highest abv review to date, at about 66%. The difference between this and 151 rum is that you can actually do something with this, even at such a high alcohol content. So what are we really comparing this bad boy against? Well, if you were looking for other cask strength bourbons, we would first point you to Booker’s. So how does this compare to Booker’s? And how is it as a single whiskey. 

On the nose, you get some classic bourbon notes, with a large burn to it. The caramel, large oakiness, vanilla, and spiciness is all there. It can be said though, that a strong impression of alcohol is in the nose. Just plain alcohol. After a substantial amount of water, it stops melting your face off, and gives you some more complex, enjoyable notes of hazelnut, powdered sugar, wheat, rye, toffee, chocolate, and light chocolate. With any cask strength whiskeys, we always obligate ourselves to try them before adding water, so as you know the spirit in its natural state. 

The arrival is pretty simple, but gives off the standards notes of caramel, vanilla, and molasses. After adding water, this bourbon really changes. On the arrival anyway, you can start to experience some peppery notes and cinnamon. Impressions of the body include wheat, rye, caramel, vanilla, ginger, and molasses. To really get a good impression of this whiskey, water is almost entirely a necessity. You simply won’t get the complexities without it. In the finish, there is a nice variety of flavors, including wheat, semi-sweet chocolate, raspberry, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, molasses, black pepper, oak, and large grain flavors. It’s a pretty powerful whiskey, even with several teaspoons of water to it. 

To conclude about this Parker’s, we’d like to just say a few things. This bourbon is a pretty penny, so do your research before buying it. It also isn’t for everybody. We got the impression that it was trying to be a rye whiskey with all of the spiciness, but it is certainly good. It presents some unique flavors that you wouldn’t always expect from your bourbon, and it tastes pure and like any quality whiskey would. There’s a lot of technical jargon on this bourbon that I don’t care to get into. So how does it compare to Booker’s? To be honest, it really doesn’t. It just doesn’t hold the complexity, and for the price you would hope it did. All the same, it’s a wonderful spirit, and we enjoyed trying it. As a quick note, you might notice this review was done “on location”. It should also be mentioned that we did not buy the Parker’s, so to the person who did buy it, we thank you and love you as a friend and a mentor. Cheers.

Score: 9.0/10