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How Sherry Became the Secret to Great Scotch

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Re: How Sherry Became the Secret to Great Scotch

#51

Post by seanhandley »

tptacek wrote: post #6

Sherry is the reason people like Macallan, but: * lots of Scotch has no sherry, and, particularly, the smokey peaty Islays tend not to be sherried at all. Sherried Scotch is a distinctive style, mostly centered in Speyside. * There are better, cheaper sherry bomb whiskies than Macallan; try Aberlour A’bunadh (cheap, excellent) and Glendronach (still substantially cheaper than Macallan, and I think much better). The b…

It depends.

If it's a 1st-fill cask you can get a lot of flavour imparted from bourbon. A lot of my favourite "tropical fruit" flavour whiskies come from 1st fill bourbon casks.

Re: How Sherry Became the Secret to Great Scotch

#52

Post by seanhandley »

For me, a great whisky is "spirit led" i.e. the flavour is dominated by the flavours present in the spirit itself before maturation.

It's difficult and expensive to make a really good "spirit led" whisky so many distilleries use casks as a way to imbue more flavours. Of course, a good cask helps (and you can't have whisky without casks) but beware of marketing departments trying to bamboozle you with fancy barrels.

The real art is in the distillation itself.

Re: How Sherry Became the Secret to Great Scotch

#53

Post by maaarghk »

dboreham wrote: post #21

One thing to know : I had always had the idea that Whisky tasted basically of the barrel, with the implication that the stuff put in the barrel doesn't taste of much -- like pure ethanol. This turns out to be not the case. I happened to visit a distillery where they let you drink the liquid straight out the still (that, in turn, because this particular distillery hasn't been in business long enough to have final prod…

Harris?

Re: How Sherry Became the Secret to Great Scotch

#55

Post by maaarghk »

tptacek wrote: post #6

Sherry is the reason people like Macallan, but: * lots of Scotch has no sherry, and, particularly, the smokey peaty Islays tend not to be sherried at all. Sherried Scotch is a distinctive style, mostly centered in Speyside. * There are better, cheaper sherry bomb whiskies than Macallan; try Aberlour A’bunadh (cheap, excellent) and Glendronach (still substantially cheaper than Macallan, and I think much better). The b…

On NAS bottlings: My girlfriend is in the Scotch whisky industry and tells me that among some circles, Compass Box's "transparency campaign" has been gaining some supporters.

Occasionally, (apparently) you'll find a NAS is actually comprised 80% of some 18 year old or 25 year old stuff but the master blender has added some 5 year old (say) not because of shortage but because it improves flavour. Of course then you need to sell that either as a 5 year old blended whisky or not mention its age at all. Frustrating for marketers and consumers alike, because one person can't say what they are selling other than the promise of high quality, and the other side has no real idea what they are buying (because the marketing would claim high quality regardless).

A few years back Compass Box, finding themselves in this situation, published the full recipe for one of their blends online (not even on the packaging) and this was found to be in contravention of EU regulations. They launched a campaign to have this rule relaxed in the case where full recipes are posted.

Another side to it is that the current rules might be considered by some to give an unfair advantage to your massive conglomerates i.e. Diageo and Pernod-Ricard who have massive purchasing power over the "old stuff".

I see both sides of the argument: on the one hand it's hard to feel like people are misled by a full and accurate recipe being posted. But maybe it carries with it that because your blend is comprised % 18 year old then your average consumer might decide it is of comparable quality to a straight 18 year old even if you've mixed in some paint thinner.

My take is that Compass Box's particular situation is different than that of the distillers as they blend off the shelf whisky. They would be saying "we blended 18 year old Glenlivet with 12 year old macallan" as opposed to "we took some of an 18 year old cask and some of a 12 year old cask" - I think it's less clear that the latter is a recipe than the former.

(All this isn't to say lack of stock isn't a problem - it is and it is the main reason for NAS - just not always the only reason.)

Re: How Sherry Became the Secret to Great Scotch

#56

Post by omnimus »

peterwwillis wrote: post #49
wheels wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whisky became hip in the last 5-ish years and all of the stuff I used to recommend to people has gotten too expensive. I've expanded significantly towards other matured spirits where the prices haven't gotten as redonkulous yet: rum, brandy, and even some good tequila.

Weird side effect: I found Scottish whiskeys were cheaper in Japan for the past 5 years compared to the US. That and buying in a spirit's native country saves me a chunk of change. I'm almost out of good rum, so I might need to plan my next vacation to the Caribbean..

Go Barbados or Jamaica.

Re: How Sherry Became the Secret to Great Scotch

#57

Post by dmurray »

vowelless wrote: post #9
tptacek wrote: post #6

Sherry is the reason people like Macallan, but: * lots of Scotch has no sherry, and, particularly, the smokey peaty Islays tend not to be sherried at all. Sherried Scotch is a distinctive style, mostly centered in Speyside. * There are better, cheaper sherry bomb whiskies than Macallan; try Aberlour A’bunadh (cheap, excellent) and Glendronach (still substantially cheaper than Macallan, and I think much better). The b…

> Aberlour A’bunadh Where are you getting cheap Aberlour A'bunadh?? It's my favorite scotch but I cannot find it for less than 2 to 3 times the price of Macallan 12. Also, Glenmorangie is a delicious sherry scotch. Tastes a lot like Macallan and usually cheaper. > The big trend in Scotch is towards “no age statement” (NAS) bottlings, because Scotland is not keeping up with resurgent global demand. NAS bottles are you…

> Interestingly, Macallan in the US still has an age statement. This, however, is not the case in other countries.

I wonder if this is because the USA allows it? In a country where you can sell Argentine cheese as Parmesan and Oklahoma beef as being from Kobe, it doesn't seem like a stretch that you could sell 3-year-old coloured vodka as fine 18-year-old Scotch whisky.

Re: How Sherry Became the Secret to Great Scotch

#58

Post by valar_k »

tptacek wrote: post #6

Sherry is the reason people like Macallan, but: * lots of Scotch has no sherry, and, particularly, the smokey peaty Islays tend not to be sherried at all. Sherried Scotch is a distinctive style, mostly centered in Speyside. * There are better, cheaper sherry bomb whiskies than Macallan; try Aberlour A’bunadh (cheap, excellent) and Glendronach (still substantially cheaper than Macallan, and I think much better). The b…

While A'bunadh is great, try Macallan Classic Cut if there is still any in your area. Almost all Macallan is over-hyped and over-priced, but Macallan CC is a fantastic cask strength sherry bomb at around $70-80 that handily beats out A'bunadh (which is saying a lot!)

I'd also recommend Clynelish 14 as an entry level sherried scotch. The Signatory Vintage releases of Clynelish distillate tend to be a bit more ($90-140) but are some of the best scotch money can buy in my opinion.

Re: How Sherry Became the Secret to Great Scotch

#59

Post by Semaphor »

tptacek wrote: post #6

Sherry is the reason people like Macallan, but: * lots of Scotch has no sherry, and, particularly, the smokey peaty Islays tend not to be sherried at all. Sherried Scotch is a distinctive style, mostly centered in Speyside. * There are better, cheaper sherry bomb whiskies than Macallan; try Aberlour A’bunadh (cheap, excellent) and Glendronach (still substantially cheaper than Macallan, and I think much better). The b…

Aberlour A’bunadh is amazing, sadly it's almost always not available here (GER) whenever I'm in the market for getting a new bottle.

Re: How Sherry Became the Secret to Great Scotch

#60

Post by BurnGpuBurn »

flyinghamster wrote: post #14
vowelless wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Aberlour A’bunadh Where are you getting cheap Aberlour A'bunadh?? It's my favorite scotch but I cannot find it for less than 2 to 3 times the price of Macallan 12. Also, Glenmorangie is a delicious sherry scotch. Tastes a lot like Macallan and usually cheaper. > The big trend in Scotch is towards “no age statement” (NAS) bottlings, because Scotland is not keeping up with resurgent global demand. NAS bottles are you…

> Where are you getting cheap Aberlour A'bunadh?? It's my favorite scotch but I cannot find it for less than 2 to 3 times the price of Macallan 12. I was going to ask that, as well. :-) In Chicagoland at least, there isn't a huge price difference, though ($67 for Macallan 12, $90 for A'bunadh). On the other hand, last time I had a bottle of A'bunadh, it was in the $60-$65 range. Fortunately, being cask strength, the…

I suspect you're in the US but for Europeans whiskyauction.com is interesting. See https://whiskyauction.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.pl?action=... for Aberlour A'bunadh for instance. I don't know anything about price differences between EU and US.
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