The Three Silver Seal Whiskies + 1 More!

L-R: Macallan 22, Highland Park 18, Ardbeg 18

A few days back SGwhisky wrote on the interesting new Independent bottler making waves in the Singapore scene (resonating from The Auld Alliance no less), Silver Seal. The independent bottler has been garnering acclaim from the whisky world, and from the regular patrons of The Auld Alliance. But as the saying goes, the proof of the pudding is always in the eating. That phrase is chronically overused in this blog, but the fact of the matter is I truly believe in it, that's why I repeat it till it gets really old.

But I digress, today is about the whiskies that were tasted at the Silver Seal tasting last week. There were 4 altogether, but as the last one was a Rum, it will be better to focus on the 3 whiskies that were tried. So without further ado, here are the 3 whiskies in the order that was tasted.

Name: Silver Seal 'Sestante Collection' Ardbeg 1991
Distillery: Ardbeg (Islay)
Type: Single Cask Single Malt Scotch
Age Statement: 18YO
Vintage: 1991
Bottler: Silver Seal
Alc/Vol: 50%


Ardbeg is considered by Max (Silver Seal's owner) as an elite malt. Sadly, due to the immense popularity of Ardbeg in recent years, they are now jealously but totally understandably guarding their best casks. This works against the independent bottlers who have lesser quality casks to choose from. This Ardbeg seems lightly peated, and is quite an interesting malt.

Nose: Loads of lemon, grass and antiseptic. Salted anchovies, and the slightest hint of peat that comes out a bit more with some water. An interesting Ardbeg (21)

Taste/Palate: Very salty but yet clean, like high quality potato chips with sea salt, along with an ashy smokiness. These then give way to some fruity notes of Blood orange, cherries and sweet lemon drops. The flavors then give way to a very mineral-ly finish, like drinking mineral water (almost metallic) (21)

Finish: Very mineral-ly again, with a slight saltiness and notes of lemon drops. (20)

Overall: This might be one of the casks Ardbeg selected for lower peating levels as it tastes lightly peated. The mineral taste is interesting, but I found it a bit intrusive. Overall a drinkable dram though (21) 83/100




Name: Silver Seal Highland Park 18YO (bottled to commemorate the 30th Anniversary of Silver Seal)
Distillery: Highland Park (Islands)
Type: Single Cask Single Malt Scotch
Age Statement: 18YO
Vintage: 1992
Alc/Vol: 53.1%


Arguably my dram of the day, the Highland Park 18 is a truly unique whisky, extremely aromatic, beautifully complex on the nose and palate, it is a great Highland Park.


Nose: A real beautiful Highland Park nose. Fruity (red fruits), heather honey, unique aromatic peat of Highland park. Lavender, stewed fruits, even some banana. Beautiful (23) 

Taste/Palate: Amazingly complex. First notes of burnt sugar, kiwi, banana, lemon drops, orange sweets. Then the malt, heather honey, rich peat and lavender come in. Notes of honeycomb cake as well, and a touch of nuttiness and peanut butter. The only weakness is that it all comes too close together so its hard to make out all the flavours, but that is just nit-picking (24)


Finish: Lavender, honey, green banana and even some aldehydes in the form of leather. Trails off a bit quickly though. (21)


Overall: Despite the slightly disappointing ending, this is a truly unique and beautiful whisky. Definitely one for the big occasion. It costs quite a bit more than the standard HP 18 bottling, but it is definitely one worth trying! (23) 91/100




Name: Silver Seal Macallan 22YO 
Distillery: Macallan (Speyside)
Type: Single Cask Single Malt Scotch
Age Statement: 22YO
Vintage: 1988
Alc/Vol: 56.7%


This Macallan was given a very good 90/100 from Serge Valentin, and according to Max, a recent re-taste has led to a conclusion that some time in the bottle has made it even better. This could be the closest approximation to the 'old styled' Macallans the whisky lovers of the world rave about.

Nose: Absolutely brilliant and complex. Icing sugar, cocoa, candied orange, fresh bananas, banana cream, banana skittles, ripe papaya, honeydew, toffee, red apples, Chinese fragrant pears. This is one amazing nose. One of the few that deserve the accolade of 'Nearly flawless' in my book (25)


Taste/Palate: Vanillia cream, sweet milk chocolate (the rich Valronha sort), chocolate lava cake, green banana, sweet cream ice cream, banana chips? Interesting (22)


Finish: Icing sugar is the main note in an otherwise slightly short ending, quite disappointing actually (21)


Overall: A brilliant nose but the flavours don't seem to keep up sadly. This affects its overall balance too... (21) 89/100

And to round it off, let's have a look at one last Silver Seal Bottling, a very interesting Longmorn 22!

Name: Silver Seal Longmorn 22YO
Distillery: Longmorn (Speyside)
Type: Single Cask Single Malt Scotch
Age Statement: 22YO
Vintage: 1988
Bottle No: 116/315
Alc/Vol: 53%


A Bourbon matured Longmorn (quite different from the classically Sherried Longmorns), this is a real interesting dram.

Nose: Creamy and fruity. Banana cream (again!), icing sugar and pears. Sweet, and pleasant! (22)


Taste/Palate: Rich, sweet, but has a strong bitterness to it. Notes of sweet cream ice cream, ripe rock melons and even some ginseng (21)


Finish: More rock melon, and some sweetened milk (21)


Overall: Interesting, a great drinking dram in general, and not too complex (22) 86/100


All Whiskies Found At: The Auld Alliance

Three Tobermorys and The Most Peated Whisky

Tobermory distillery is the only distillery on the Isle of Mull, a nice little island of West of Mainland Scotland. It is also one of the distilleries that can proudly claim to be founded in the 18th century, 1798 to be exact. Interestingly, Tobermory distillery also produces a heavier, peated version of their whisky under the name Ledaig, making it one of the distilleries that boasts more than one whisky name under their belt.

But that's the little background of the distillery, how is Tobermory here in Singapore? It is distributed by Planet Spirits, and is found at the Quaich Bar and The Auld Alliance. The expressions are pretty straightforward, a 10YO, 15YO and the 32YO. Last month, Quaich had Tobermory as its whisky of the month, and SGwhisky decided it was a great time to go down and give these whiskies a shot. So here's introducing Tobermory distillery's whiskies!

Name: Tobermory 10YO

Distillery: Tobermory (Island)

Type: Single Malt Scotch

Age Statement: 10YO

Alc/Vol: 46.3%

The entry level expression of the Tobermory range is the 10YO, which recently got a facelift and was bottled at a higher alcoholic percentage. It was a light and easy to drink whisky, but it was too light for my own liking

Nose: Very salty and creamy, almost like pure peanut butter. Slightly grassy. (20)

Taste/Palate: Quite bland, a touch of sweetness and saltiness but overall slightly more sweet. (19)

Finish: Like fruit and rose water are the more prominent notes, but overall the finish is quite flat as well (18)

Overall: The nose was interesting and promising but the taste and the finish are frankly a bit too weak and simple. (19) 76/100

Found at: Quaich Bar

Name: Tobermory 15YO

Distillery: Tobermory (Islands)

Type: Single Malt Scotch

Age Statement: 15YO

Alc/Vol: 46.3%

Nose: A richer and more alluring saltiness with notes of red fruit and the slightest hint of sweet citrus. Very nice and pleasant (23)

Taste/Palate: Slight smokiness playing with a real rich salty sweetness at first. Carries on with a dryness of the oak. Fades a bit too quickly though (20)

Finish: Winey finish with notes of green grapes and white fruit (pear?) (20)

Overall: Much better than the 10YO but still seems to offer much more on the nose than it delivers. Nicely balanced though (21) 84/100

Found at: Quaich Bar

Name: Tobermory 32YO

Distillery: Tobermory (Islands)

Type: Single Malt Scotch

Age Statement: 32YO

Vintage: 1972 (Bottled 2005)

Bottle No: 147/902

Alc/Vol: 50.1%

Nose: Ooohh.... peanut butter and chocolate milkshake (notes of cream, salt and rich chocolate). Raisins and brandied fruits show a real sweet sherry influence, all combining for a really beautiful nose! (24)

Taste/Palate: Salty sweet entry like the 10 and 15YO, but far more complex this time. The sweetness is reminiscent of juicy plums, licorice and sugar cane. The sweetness carries on with a light touch of pepper and anise (23)

Finish: Rich berries bring up a pure, light fruity and formal end that is very long and lingering. Extremely pleasant as well! (23)

Overall: This was definitely the stand out of the three drams, and for good reason. A beautiful all-rounder (23) 93/100

Found at: Quaich Bar, The Auld Alliance

How about this Most Peated Whisky?  You might ask.... well, to add a nice little extra to this piece, here is SGwhisky's take on the world's most peated whisky, The Octomore Orpheus.

The brainchild of Bruichladdich Master Blender Jim McEwan, the Octomore Orpheus is touted as the world's most peated whisky. The unit of measurement of the smoke (the phenols in the smoke to be exact) that is used to dry the barley and give it that smoky flavour is measured by Parts Per Million, and it is the concentration of the phenols that Bruichladdich has tried to push the boundaries of. This expression of the Octomore had a peat level of 140ppm, which at that time was the highest in any whisky (the third edition of the Octomore has since superseded this version, reaching 152ppm). Just to give everyone a sense of perspective, Ardbeg's classic 10YO whisky has a peat level of around 24ppm, and Lagavulin's peat level is believed to be around 50ppm. This makes this Octomore a behemoth in terms of peat levels. But that's not all, the Octomore is also finished in Chateau Petrus casks and bottled at a ridiculous strength of 61%. This makes it highly peated, winey and very strong on paper.

So for you peat freaks out there SGwhisky presents the Octomore Orpheus 02.2!

Name: Octomore Orpheus 02.2 (Finished in Chateau Petrus casks)

Distillery: Bruichladdich (Islay)

Type: Single Malt Scotch

Age Statement: 5YO

Alc/Vol: 61%

Nose: Strong fruity and winey notes with a sweet ham smoke. An interesting aroma of stale fish though. After a while it develops some notes of citrus and unripe fruit (20)

Taste/Palate: Sweet, very very sweet. Syrup and some preserved fish. Powerful and rich but not very complex (21)

Finish: The sweetness transforms to reveal a richer note of Chinese dark sweet sauce (the ones used in Fried Carrot Cake) and a note of soya sauce. Sweet ashy smoke. Interesting (23)

Overall: The whisky itself is pretty one dimensional, but it is good for what it promises to be delivering. I personally enjoyed the interesting finish (21) 85/100

Found at: The Auld Alliance

Coming up soon.... The Silver Seal Tasting Notes!

Whiskies of the World: A Bourbon... Plus an Interesting Talisker

To continue on the whiskies of the world voyage SGwhisky is taking, we go back to the 'New World' (or Old Whisky World), to one of the national drinks of America, Bourbon. We have tried a few bourbons here at SGwhisky, which in my opinion is very interesting and distinctive with that rye-like sweetness. The whisky here at hand is the Buillet Bourbon Frontier Whiskey, a very traditional whisky which traces its history back to the start of the 19th century. Today, especially in Singapore, Buillet is far behind in the pecking order of bourbon, with Jim Beam and (technically not a bourbon but a Tennessee Whiskey) Jack Daniels leading the way.

Let's have a look at this interesting whiskey!

Name: Buillet Bourbon Frontier Whiskey
Distillery: Buillet (America)
Type: Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Age Statement: Nil
Alc/Vol: 90 Proof (45%)


Nose: Creamy with a nice note of rye sweetness and faint notes of citrus. Promising! (20)


Taste/Palate: Initial pleasant sweetness followed by some orange and oaky spice. Then trails off very quickly (18)

Finish: Almost non-existent. Some oaky dryness, but overall very quick and not impressionable (16)


Overall: The nose was really quite interesting, but flavour wise it is not really rich, and the lack of a finish is a real achilles heel for this whiskey (17) 71/100


Found at: Drinks Fellas

EXTRAS!

Running concurrently with my little world whisky project is another aim of mine to source out and try some of the best whiskies that the Malt Maniacs and other leading whisky writers have strongly recommended. One of those that I have seen receiving good feedback is this interesting Talisker 20YO Cask strength, bottled in 2003. A limited edition with a rather generous run of 12,000 bottles, this was one whisky that really polarized opinion amongst the maniacs, with scores ranging from 80-92. SGwhisky takes on this real beast of a whisky and sees what it gets out of it!

Name: Talisker 20YO
Distillery: Talisker (Islands)
Type: Single Malt Scotch
Age Statement: 20YO
Number Produced: 12000
Vintage: 2003
Alc/Vol: 58.8%

Nose: Dark chocolate, dried prunes, unripe fruits, with a slightest hint of hidden peat and a rich malty sweetness. A while longer in the glass reveals interesting notes of Chrysanthemum tea sweetened with rock sugar. (22)


Taste/Palate: Sweet at first then very spicy. Chrysanthemum tea continues on the palate initially before notes of fruit (banana chips!) and a real sharp pepperiness that is indicative of Talisker whiskies. Loads of liquorice bitterness akin to when you bite on a peppercorn after it has been cooked and muted. (22)


Finish: An interesting finish with what can be described as 'a bubble in your mouth' type of mouthfeel, with the flavours all around the mouth but not in the centre. Predominant green notes with eucalyptus, grassy notes, cooked green vegetables and some lettuce. Weird but certainly interesting (21)


Overall: I can see why this polarizes opinions (in my opinion), it is powerful, rich in flavours, but also has interesting notes which I have never encountered in my very limited whisky library. It is also quite aggressive on the palate. Not for the faint of heart! (21) 86/100


Found at: The Auld Alliance

Whisky Tastings: Arran Malt's Cask Finish Series

L-R: Arran Port Cask finish, Amarone Cask Finish and Sauternes Cask Finish

This is a long overdue post to highlight one of the Whisky Tasting events that I went to earlier this month. One good thing about Singapore is that the whisky bars here do schedule regular tasting sessions to showcase new products, offering a great chance to try some great new whiskies. Many thanks to The Highlander Bar Asia for the invite to this tasting of the Isle of Arran Single Malt Cask Finish series tasting. I will seek to do a write up on the Highlander Bar soon.

The Isle of Arran Malt Whisky is considered an Island whisky, but as mentioned in the previous post on the Talisker 18, the differing conditions on the islands of Scotland mean differing characteristics for the whiskies that come out of them. Arran Malt is a relatively new company, founded in 1995, but it has established itself as one of the dynamic new forces in the world of Scotch whiskies, and one of the ways they have done so is by experimenting intensively with different cask finishes. What this means is that after maturation in standard barrels (this differs for different distillery), the whiskies are transferred to a separate set of casks to 'finish' for anything from a few months to a year. These casks almost definitely used to contain some other beverage, mostly different types of wine, and hence the flavours of the wine that were contained in the barrel are infused into the whisky during this final period of maturation.

In the case of the Arran Malt, the experimentation culminated in an official release of 3 cask finishes, namely the Amarone, Port and Sauternes finishes. These were the whiskies that were offered during the tasting.

Name: The Arran Malt Amarone Cask Finish
Distillery: Arran
Region: Island (Isle of Arran)
Age Statement: 8 Years Old
Type: Single Malt
Alc/Vol: 50%

The Amarone Cask Finish, as it suggests, uses casks that used to contain Amarone, a sweet dry wine from Italy. This was the biggest and strongest of the lot that we tasted

Nose: Nice and open for a relatively high alcoholic percentage. Salted cashews, melted milk chocolate and faint floral notes

Taste/Palate: Salted butter with thick flavours of pears and strawberries, mixed with cocoa

Finish: Oaky dryness with lovely lingering flavours of fragrant pears

Overall: The Amarone Cask Finish was pretty powerful but nicely balanced with fruity flavours. I personally felt it was pleasant, but not something to really write home about. 82/100


Name: The Arran Malt Port Wood Finish
Distillery: Arran

Region: Island (Isle of Arran)
Age Statement: 8 Years Old

Type: Single Malt
Alc/Vol: 50%

Port Cask finishes are getting more and more popular these days, with companies like The Balvenie, Glenmorangie and BenRiach releasing their own expressions of such finishes. This one was a lot gentler than the Amarone, and was actually really good in my honest opinion.

Nose: Very fruity with hints of berries on a salted butter crust, balanced nicely with the aromas of honey.

Taste/Palate: The influence of the Port is very much apparent with fruity and floral notes along with the butter and caramel. Berry gum drops. The port sweetness coats the mouth, leaving a pleasant mouthfeel.

Finish: The port sweetness comes to the fore with a hint of spice and oakiness from the wood. Sweet and lingering.

Overall: My personal favourite of the night. It was nice and balanced and very pleasant to drink. But I agree that the sweetness may not be everyone's cup of tea. 87/100

Name: The Arran Malt Sauternes Finish

Distillery: Arran
Region: Island (Isle of Arran)
Age Statement: 8 Years Old

Type: Single Malt
Alc/Vol: 50%

This expression was finished in Sauternes casks which used to hold the famous French dessert wine. Mostly Sauternes finishes have a strong sweet finish to it, and this one was no different.

Nose: Fruity notes of cherries mixed with vanilla. Notes of caramel and butter also apparent.

Taste/Palate: Spicy with a nice honey sweetness with the influence of the wine bring up the rear.

Finish: Extremely sweet finish thanks to the wine, with a slight hint of watermelon.

Overall: The Sauternes Cask Finish is very much an example of how the wine can influence the whisky. The sweetness of the Sauternes is well and truly prevalent here. Sadly I found it a tad too sweet for my liking. 81/100

Where to Find: Altimate Spirits, The Highlander Bar

A Whisky Three-Peat! Karuizawa Noh 1995, Yoichi 15, Talisker 18

From L-R: Karuizawa Noh 1995,
Yoichi 15, Talisker 18

As a budding whisky writer, if luck serves I do get to try a good dram once every week or a few days, but I do feel on some special day, one should spoil one's self. So yesterday, I went with my Whisky buddy and companion to The Auld Alliance, a new whisky bar in CHIJMES, which I will soon be doing a write up on along with the other places to get a good dram in Singapore. The owner of the bar recommended 3 decently priced drams which we see on top: The Karuizawa Noh 1995, Yoichi 15 and the Talisker 18. Without much further ado, let's stop-a-talking and start-a-tasting!

Name: Talisker 18 Single Malt
Distillery: Talisker
Region: Island (Isle of Skye)
Type: Single Malt
Alc/Vol: 45.8%

This was also my first time trying a Talisker, which seems to have garnered very good reviews for their balanced and peppery whiskies. Talisker is classified as an Island whisky, which is the region that is used to describe whiskies produced on the various islands surrounding Scotland, exlcuding the revered whiskies on the Isle of Islay. Island whiskies are typically very well balanced but due to the differing conditions on these various islands, I would personally say it is pretty hard to pin down a certain set of characteristics!

All in all, this dram was pretty good. I enjoyed it, and it did have a good balance. Many thanks to the owner of The Auld Alliance for introducing it to me.

Nose: A nice balanced and opened nose is detected here. Caramel and light fruit notes are complemented by the smell of cracked white pepper and a touch of smoke.

Palate/Taste: This is where the balance and poise of a good whisky (Island dram) is seen. Honied sweetness and fruity notes are balanced well with lovely white pepper spiciness and the slight smokiness and sea salt that reflect the maritime characteristics of the whisky

Finish: Lingering fruit finish that is reminiscent of apples cooked in a sugary syrup. The fruit and sugar notes really leave a pleasant mouthfeel!

Overall: This is indeed a balanced dram, but in some ways, it does seem to lack a bit of the punch in terms of richness of flavours. Nevertheless, it is still a darn good one in my opinion simply by virtue of the elegant balance it has. 88/100

Found at: The Auld Alliance, La Maison Du Whisky

Name: Karuizawa Noh 1995 (13 Years Old, bottled 2008)
Distillery: Karuizawa
Origin: Japan
Type: Single Malt
Alc/Vol: 63.0%


So here's the deal. Japan has, as seen in the inaugural review, put itself well on truly on the world map of whiskies. The two bigwigs of the Japanese whisky industry, Suntory and Nikka, have constantly produced amazing drams that have captured the attention of the whisky-loving world. And in this writer's humble opinion, knowing the industrious qualities of the Japanese, one can see them continuing to produce more gems. Lesser is known about the other distilleries in Japan, but as one continues to learn more, one would realise that some of these distilleries have attained an almost cult-like status. Karuizawa is one of these distilleries.

According to the menu in the bar, Karuizawa closed in 2001, but over the years, it has continued to gain acclaim with a string of stellar cask-strength releases. Just a short bit on the idea of cask-strength whiskies: When whiskies come out of the cask, they are usually at extremely high alcoholic percentages, hence there is a need to dilute them with water. Whisky out of the cask may also have some cloudiness or lack of clarity so companies choose to filter their whiskies (a process called chill-filtering) and add colouring and caramel so the product looks clear of any such cloudiness.

Hence, in the case of Karuizawa, their whiskies are all bottled at cask-strength, meaning they are bottled straight from the cask without any of the processes listed above, hence the extremely high alcoholic percentage. Due to the high percentage, this whisky is big-boned and extremely strong. Not for the faint of heart! But don't let this deceive you, this is one amazing whisky. Perhaps one of the best I have had the joy of tasting in the relatively short period of time I've had tasting whisky so far.

Nose: 
Neat: A closed nose, with not many flavours clearly apparent but one immediately can detect the influence of the sherry casks used. The spiciness and caramel notes play backup to the amazing dark chocolately aromas so often associated with sherry casks.

With Water: With a drop of water, the nose opens up a lot more. The aroma of brandy soaked raisins and cherries now come out and compliment the chocolate. This smells a lot like a black-forest cake! Strong caramel notes also come up. Amazing stuff.

Taste/Palate:
Neat: The nose here doesn't lie as the strong spice hits one before the notes of cocoa, caramel and the woodiness of the oak come along.

With Water: With water, one can detect a coffee-like acidity, with a slight sweetness of cocoa and some slight liquorice

Finish: 
Neat: Dark Cocoa with a liquorice like finish, with the influence of the wood spiciness taking over. Amazingly no hint of burn at all.

With Water: The liquorice is much stronger with water, and nice rich sweet notes of fruit bringing up the rear.

Overall: I confess I'm new to this world of whisky. Compared to the experts in the scene who have been in this industry longer than I've been alive, I am still very much an amateur finding his way around. But I do believe that at a personal level, I know a good whisky when I taste one. It may be very early in the game to give the first 90 and above rating, but I have a sneaking suspicion this one is here to stay. This is an immense whisky, a pure gem, and I recommend it to anyone lucky enough to find a bottle! Be warned though, this beast isn't easily tamed! 92/100


Found at: The Auld Alliance

Name: Yoichi 15 Single Malt Whisky
Distillery Nikka Yoichi
Origin: Japan
Type: Single Malt
Alc/Vol: 45%

The Nikka Yoichi 15 has been hailed by whisky experts all over the world as a standard bearer for the Yoichi brand. Unfortunately for the viewers, I have no tasting notes for this as this was my partner's drink of choice. What I can say from the little I tried that the nose is rich in vanilla and toffee notes, and the palate is a lovely mix of smoke and rich sweetness. I can also safely say that this is next on my 'to-buy' whisky list. Stay tuned for more!

So this wraps up my piece on the whisky three-peat. Hope this has helped everyone! Cheers.