In like a lion, out like a lamb: it’s been a hectic month that can’t end soon enough so that my winter hibernation can begin in earnest.
On the heels of filming the tasting videos for the Spirit of Toronto Holiday Edition was one last trip to Scotland. While Islay was the destination, 24 hours in Glasgow afforded just enough time for a quick pub crawl, and a reminder of why Scotch whisky’s first city should be on the itinerary of any pilgrimage.
We started out at The Lismore in mid-afternoon, in my experience the best time of day to take in a pub’s atmosphere and have a wee blether with its regulars. I was still crushing on Glen Scotia after filming our segment with master distiller Iain McAlister so it was exciting to see Glen Scotia Victoriana on the shelf. Despite the breadth of its selection, The Lismore is more pub than whisky bar but the staff were still agreeable when I asked to switch my tumbler for a more appropriate tasting glass. Nursing a dram of Victoriana’s gritty, oily spirit was a welcome respite after an hour spent walking the damp, cold streets of Glasgow in December. It was also a reminder as to why Campbeltown fans are taking solace in Glen Scotia as Springbank becomes scarce; long overdue in my opinion, but with the consequence that Victoriana, too, is now becoming harder to find.
From the west end we caught a taxi into the city centre, getting out at the Good Spirits Co. on Bath Street for a quick perusal of their wares. This is a true emporium for whisky lovers by whisky lovers, and it’s always a pleasure to stop by given the enthusiasm of the staff and their well considered selection. Samples were on offer that day from no less than 3 different reps, the most impressive being a deliciously naked Aberfeldy 10 Year Old from Decadent Drinks that highlighted the distillery in its truest form. Sold!
Purchase in hand, we crossed the street for a 6pm reservation at the newest outpost of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. In truth I’ve always been agnostic when it comes to the SMWS, but I have a weakness for supper club vibes so I like to check out their members rooms whenever I can. I’ve always had a good time, and to their credit the food never disappoints. I wish I could say the same about the whisky, but on this occasion we were in luck to have Tim taking good care of us. A Geordie from Newcastle, Tim knew the 800-whisky library intimately and asked insightful questions as we gave him a range of suggested profiles and price points. His selections of Glen Garioch 19 Year Old and Blair Athol 15 Year Old were very well recommended, but nevertheless it was the Ox Cheek Bourguignon that made my night, though their Christmas Pudding with Armagnac Butter came in as a close second.
The SMWS is less than ten minutes on foot from Glasgow’s most famous whisky bar so we headed west and turned south onto Hope Street. Quite predictably The Pot Still was heaving on a Saturday night, but with as many tulip shaped glasses of whisky in hand as pints of beer. It was a striking change in clientele since our first visit in 2007, and a little surreal to witness how a room of white-haired men had been transformed into such a diverse blend of locals, students and tourists talking and tasting whisky.
With one of Scotland’s widest selections we should have been thwarted by the tyranny of choice. Thankfully Charles has eagle eyes and they quickly landed on the Ardnamurchan Sherry Cask released this year. As the saying goes, it is what is: a rich and round sherry monster with enough peat to muscle through the higher proof. A winner, yes, but a bit one dimensional as compared to their Madeira cask, or the sublime beauty of their Paul Launois annual releases.
Despite concerns about finding a cab on a Saturday night in December, we easily hailed a ride on the street and headed back towards our hotel in Finnieston. Stopping around the corner for a night cap we were surprised to find a seat at The Ben Nevis, nevermind one right next to the fireplace. On the shelf was the second installment of Old Pulteney’s Coastal Series, a marketing brief that pairs ex-casks of coastal wines with a coastal whisky. Last winter we both fell hard for Old Pulteney finished in Pineau des Charentes, and my father even harder as he quickly finished the bottle we brought back for him. Sadly take two was a Port wine finish that felt flat by comparison, though I couldn’t quite figure out why. Most port finishes run the risk of overpowering a whisky, but in this case the port cask seemed lost in transit while somehow dampening Pulteney’s maritime character all the same.
Islay in December is for either the brave or the foolhardy, and when the locals thank you for visiting at this time of year, they do so in all sincerity. With a shortage of ferries Calmac has become unreliable at the best of times, and let it be known that December is not the best of times on the Scottish west coast. Knowing this we had booked passage with Loganair and found ourselves with clenched knuckles in a 19-seat Twin Otter hurtling towards Islay over the pitch blackness of the sea.
We took refuge in The Islay Hotel and made ourselves at home in its whisky bar after dinner, with one of the highlights being my first taste of Ardbeg Wee Beastie 5 Year Old paired with Christmas cake made from nuts and dried fruit soaked in same said Beastie. It was tasty enough to warrant seconds along with a cheeky sip from Charles’ glass, though I remain open to the possibility that it may have been a triumph of dessert, or low expectations.
A truly dismal tasting of six and seven year old overwrought cask samples ensued at Laphroaig the following morning, where I was swiftly chided for voicing my opinion: “Our master blender disagrees with you.” Thankfully salvation was found in their very comfortable lounge where we revisited the core range for the first time in several years. Tasting both the Laphroaig 10 Year Old and Batch 16 of the Laphroaig Cask Strength – at one time, my Islay crush – begat more disappointment, but the Laphroaig Select was a sprightly young whisky that was a great handshake for the price, not to mention one that’s far more emblematic of the distillery. But even more impressive was Laphroaig Lore, a superb blend of young and old malts that brought back memories of the long defunct Laphroaig 15 Year Old, a whisky that is near and dear to both my heart and palate.
Our visit to Lagavulin was an opportunity to say goodbye in person to Iain McArthur, an Islay icon who retired this month. After 53 years not only was Iain one of Scotch whisky’s longest tenured personalities, but his ‘warehouse demonstrations’ made him a legend among whisky fans around the world.
As Lagavulin’s longtime warehouse manager, Iain would typically begin his sessions with a talk on maturation and how it affects the spirit, with whisky drawn from cask by the audience and tasted in situ. In the early days the casks were all chosen by Iain starting off with a taste of new make, moving onto a youngling around the 8 year mark (“baby Lagavulin”), followed by adolescent casks, before moving onto samples of pure nectar such as an 18-year-old fully matured in bodega sherry (“mother’s milk”), a 25-year-old from a hogshead, occasionally ending, on a lucky day, with a truly ancient whisky such as a cask from 1966 (“history”). As a point of comparison there would be a commercial sample included, such as the Lagavulin 16 Year Old or – once management got more involved – the latest distillery exclusive on sale. Iain quickly became as known for both his outsized wit and generosity, the latter of which gained him an international following, as well as an assistant to ensure that cask samples were duly measured to the millimetre.
Fast forward to 2023 and we were grateful to salute Iain in person upon his departure, but disappointed to see the occasion used as an opportunity to shift dusty overstock. Billed as the ‘Christmas Grand Finale’, the stockings and decorations may have been hung in the warehouse with care, but sadly the Grinch had considerably altered Iain’s script from earlier in the day, when Iain had brought us into the warehouse for a cheeky yet sumptuous dram of Lagavulin aged in French oak for twelve years – one of several samples that were nowhere to be found once the Grand Finale got started.
In their place was not one but two bottles of overstock gathering dust in the visitor centre. Having long tendered his resignation, Iain was blisteringly candid upon introducing the first whisky, coincidentally the same bottle we’d been urged to buy as it would likely sell out that same night: “We’re starting off with a taste of Lagavulin bottled for the 2018 Jazz Festival because they told me that they need to sell these bottles! Well I told them, ‘no problem, just put down the price!’”
Next up was the latest Feis Ile bottling also languishing on the shelves, followed by genuine cask samples that included a 9-year-old hogshead, a 16-year-old refill bourbon barrel – that evening’s version of “mother’s milk” – and a mystery cask, the details of which Iain would not disclose, full stop. The last sample of the night came from an unlabeled bottle that was equally shrouded in mystery, with Iain eventually revealing that this woody, spicy whisky was an 18-year-old Lagavulin finished in an ex-Manzanilla cask.
Days later the other shoe dropped: we had been tasting the cask bottled as Iain’s Farewell Dram, dubbed the McArthur Edition — 194 bottles of which were allocated under cloak and dagger to ‘friends and family’, with 18 bottles reputedly sold through a stealth lottery in the visitor centre for £350 apiece. Time will tell how much it fetches on the auction block, though already having had my taste, I’m fine to let others wrestle in the mud for this one.
Back at home there were tasting kits to package and shipping labels to print, and when the work was done we rewarded ourselves by taking our own advice and pairing oysters with Talisker 10 Year Old using the shuck-and-tipple method explained in the tasting video I filmed with Patrick McMurray, oyster sommelier and general bon vivant. Having enjoyed oysters and whisky in a number of permutations, I’m firmly sold that this is the best way to maximize enjoyment of both.
A rare trip to the SAQ netted two bottles of Big Peat 2023 Christmas Edition: one as a thank you gift for our video editor, and one for ourselves that’s been mixed into a Big Peat Festive Sour. Admittedly at $100 a bottle it’s an extravagance for a cocktail, but isn’t that what the holidays are about?
Not to mention there’s something about shorter days and colder nights that forgives the indulgence of a more elaborate drink. Charles is definitely the cocktail nerd of the two of us. His copper barware from Japan says it all, and this month he used it to blend various bourbons with Smith & Cross Jamaican rum in attempts to improvise on a recipe by
for a split-base Old Fashioned, sweetened with maple syrup.Bee meet bonnet: Suderman calls for Wild Turkey 101, in the absence of which Charles has experimented with Michter’s 10 Year Old (pass) and Remus Straight Bourbon at 47% abv (hard pass). For the moment he’s settled on a blend of Larceny Barrel Proof Batch C921 at 61.3% with Smith & Cross, though I suspect at some point over the winter he’ll just break down and buy a bottle of Wild Turkey 101 – if only because it’s a great mid-shelf whiskey, and eventually he’ll realize that using maple syrup really does call for Wild Turkey. My two cents.