January tasting usually is planned to commemorate birthday of the first President of the Club - Alexey Savchenko Snr. Being designated as his friends meeting the core theme for the evening was selection of originally non-commercial Manager Drams (predecessor of Manager's Choice series).
So the line-up is the following: 7 Manager's Dram bottles at minimal strength of 57.2%. Only the strongest will survive :)
Royal Lochnagar 10 yo (bottled 2006) 57.2% - one of 3 existing distilleries proudly bearing Royal in their names. Kind of training ground for Diageo young distillers.
Nose: quite reserved (I guess that with average strength of about 60% that would be typical situation today), then some grassy and malty notes appear.
Taste: powerful and salty with notes of pine resin.
Finish: long and warmingly spicy.
Overall: unexpectedly good for 10 yo cask strength Lochnagar which is usually quite simple. You should work hard to get some nose, but the taste atones for its faiure.
Score = 20 23 22 22, 87/100!
Inchgower 13 yo the Manager's Dram (bottled 2007) 58.9% - mainly used for Bell's blend and rarely can be seen as official single malt expression.
Nose: more vivid already, nice theme of green walnut and apples.
Taste: thick and creamy mainly on salted butter and vanilla.
Finish: long, spicy and salty.
Overall: nice dry and salty whisky, a bit better mark comparing to Royal Lochnagar. Though it's quite personal, some of us liked Lochnagar more than this one.
Score = 22 22- 22+ 22, 88/100!
Linkwood 12 yo the Manager's Dram (bottled 1999) 59.5% - refill sherry butt was used here.
Nose: subtle sherry layers, lots of different oils. A touch of struck match but pleasant one.
Taste: strong, spicy and sour, pleasant umami and citrus.
Finish: long, bitter and salty
Overall: not a light one and bearing no signs of typical Linkwood varnish which is good imo :)
Score = 22 22 22 22, 88/100!
Mannochmore 18 yo the Manager's Dram (bottled 1997) 66.0% - I see such strength for the first time, trembling already ...
Nose: not a sign of alcohol here, very sweet and sherried, nice ripe strawberry.
Taste: very strong, should add more and more spoons of water to cope with it, becomes sweet and herbal after strength reduction.
Finish: long and grassy with touch of fresh mint.
Overall: very interesting one, though 66% is a bit too much, can't feel the taste properly.
Score = 22 21 22 21, 86/100!
Dailuaine 17 yo the Manager's Dram (bottled 2000) 59.5% - again a distillery you can hardly meet as official single malt release.
Nose: thick sweet sherry, you can cut it with a knife. Boiled fruits and sweet flowers blooming on a summer meadow. Delicious.
Taste: thick, sweet, herbal, honeyed, even a touch of mushrooms is there (presumably sherry cask influence).
Finish: long and fresh, mint lollipop at the very end.
Overall: the best one to me so far, highly recommended for those who like sherry sweetness.
Score = 23 23 23 23, 92/100!
Cragganmore 17 yo the Manager's Dram (bottled 1992) 62.0% - praised by Michael Jackson (not a singer of course) as the most complex Speyside whisky.
Nose: sweet and sophisticated with fruity, spicy and malty notes.
Taste: nervous, vibrant, sweet and fruity.
Finish: long, sweet, grassy and fruity.
Overall: very complex fruity malt indeed, but I haven't found some wow effect to reach 90 points. Maybe we should have started with it, after 5 samples the palate is a bit overloaded already.
Score = 22 22 22 22, 88/100!
Oban 16 yo the 200-th Anniversary of Oban bottled 1994 64.0% - bottled to celebrate 200 years of Oban distillery at crazy strength of 64% :)
Nose: classy one, fruits, cherry, some hints of mold and mushrooms.
Taste: bitterness...
Finish: long with soaked apples and cucumbers :)
Overall: I must be too tired already, the nose was nice, though the rest was pretty decent. Don't consider the score too seriously but that was the least enjoyable dram today. Should retaste Oban and Cragganmore once more some day.
Score = 22 21 21 21, 85/100!
No comments:
Post a Comment