Malt Mission 2007 #80

Rare Ayrshire 1975, 31yo
Signatory Vintage
Single Malt Scotch Whisky
47.7% abv
£132.95

Well, I thought I was going to end this week with a Balvenie, an appropriate finish to this William Grant & Sons themed week. But yesterday evening I had the pleasure of sticking my nose into a few glasses with Michael Hopert, manager at Royal Mile Whiskies here in London, and had to share notes on this rare gem.

East Ayrshire was not a distillery, it is just a designation often given to the (limited) releases from this unique and now dismantled distillery. Ladyburn Distillery was a malt distillery experiment of sorts within the Girvan grain distillery.

Girvan was built in 1963 to provide grain whisky for Grant's increasingly popular blends. In 1966, the malt distillery Ladyburn was built on the same site, again, mainly to go into Grant's blends. The distillery was very compact and could be operated by one employee. The site was chosen for these distilleries because of a good water source, good transport via rail and sea(only a mile from the coast), and proximity to the bonding and blending halls of southern Scotland.

Only nine years later, Ladyburn was closed, making it the shortest-lived of the "malt-within-a-grain" distilleries. Ben Wyvis in Invergordon survived just slightly longer, 1965-1977, while Inverleven (1938-1991) and Lomond (1956-1985) malts were produced within Dumbarton grain distillery, Kinclaith (1957-1976) at Strathclyde; Glen Flagler and Killyloch (1965-1985) were distilled within Moffat Distillery. Due to the rarity of these malts, not necessarily their outstanding quality, some of these bottlings had been known to fetch a pretty penny. In this regard, I find this expression from Signatory to be quite reasonable.

TASTING NOTES:

I unsually don't mention colour or viscosity, but because I was tasting this blind, I noted the v e r y SLOW legs in an attempt to guess the age (for the record, I guessed 30, but I was told the abv% and that helped, too)

Bubblegum sweetness, synthetic fruits, watermelon Hubba Bubba. Bourbon cask characteristics, creaminess, cool whip, tropical; lime, strawberries, molasses based Trinidad rum.

Bright, honey and bread, bannock. Pine, spruce, hemlock, a coniferous forest floor. Really develops its flavours as they linger in the tingly finish.

SUMMARY:

No water needed to reduce the abv%, but it did bring out even sweeter, fruitier essences in the nose. For me, it was really enjoyable whisky, fresh, fruity, and well matured.

Malt Mission #76
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Malt Mission #78
Malt Mission #79

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Malt Mission 2007 #78

Grant's Ale Cask Reserve
Blended Scotch Whisky
40% abv
£14
$25.15(CAD)
$20(USD)

One of the last remaining, self-sufficient, family-owned distilling/blending companies in the world of Scottish whisky, William Grant & Sons owns the Dufftown based Glenfiddich, Balvenie and Kininvie, as well as the grain distillery, Girvan, in the town of the same name.

David Stewart, the master blender of the whole William Grant & Sons range, is responsible for malts and blends that make up 10.5% of the market share and has been at it for over 40 years. The nose knows. Not afraid of getting on the the e-thing, the label's brand ambassadors, Ian Millar and Ludo Ducrocq, have been keeping a blog of their own.

In the 1890s, William Grant introduced his family's blend, Grant's Standfast, which today is known as Grant's Family Reserve. It is currently among the top 5 biggest selling blends in the world.

The blend has a clear Speyside theme, Balvenie and Kininvie take the leads and Glenfiddich finds its way in there, too. But that is only 40% of the malt content. The rest comes from all over the whisky map, including a few squirts of Laphroaig and Bowmore. It is thought that they also use different grain distilleries (than their own, Girvan) to make up the grain component.

With this special Ale Cask Reserve, the blend is put into casks that held beer (see yesterday's post) for a further, albeit short, maturation. The result has been critically acclaimed and award winning. Let's taste it.

TASTING NOTES:

Huge mix of aromas. Dried fruits, tropical fruits, preserved fruits. Honey, ginger, toffee, ice cream truck butterscotch. Some soy and oyster sauces, too.

Creamy in the mouth. Bittersweet, rich maltiness, some smoke. Quick finish not unlike the beer yesterday, malty and creamy and then whoosh... gone.

SUMMARY:

Unusual nose, unique mouthfeel, but that is where the excitement ends. Weighty, physically, but sort of too well integrated? No off-notes, nothing to really complain about, it's just a bit... ______. And the nose really pointed to more action on the palate. The short and pretty uneventful finish makes a case for a good quaffing whisky, though.

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