Old Master Spirits' Tiffon V.45 Petite Champagne Cognac [Tasted #678]

 We've tasted plenty of pretty old spirits on the blog over the years (and some very old ones), but I'll never say no to another. So when Deni from Australia's Old Master Spirits reached out to say there was a care package of samples on the way, I was pretty excited. 

That care package included some beauties I've already covered like their 63yo Peyrot Cognac (which was a steal at $349AUD), but it included one sample I had to keep quiet about for a while. One special sample - in the form of Old Master Spirits' 1945 Tiffon Petite Champagne Cognac.

The oldest release so far by Deni & David from OMS, this nearly 80 year old war time Tiffon was distilled in 1945 and bottled in 2023 after more than 60 years in refill troncais and limousine barrels (in Tiffon's humid cellars) followed by the remainder in Demijohn. 

I'll admit I wasn't overly familiar with Tiffon, but learned that much like the other houses OMS work with, it's a family-owned house (currently run by the fourth generation), founded in 1875 on the banks of the River Charente located in Grande Champagne cru (not far from Courvoisier). The current generation harvests grapes, distils cognac and cares for the still-maturing stock from previous generations - like this release.

Bottled at natural cask strength of 45.2% ABV and made from Ugni Blanc grapes, this release is limited to a minuscule 24 bottles only, available by ballot with results to be announced on 31st October 2024.

So let's try this #malternative shall we?

 

Old Master Spirits' 1945 Tiffany  V.45 Petite Champagne Cognac (45.2% ABV, 77-78yo, Cask Strength, France, One of 24 bottles, $1,299AUD)
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Colour: Burnished copper gold.

Nose: Initially there's a well-balanced mix of mandarin and varnish, but almost instantly comes notes of milk chocolate, herbal jelly & cigar box. Give it some air though, and some beautiful tropical notes start to emerge - lashings of guava, more mandarin and tangerine, and some underripe mango.

Palate: Mandarin again, fruit compote, raisins and fresh apricots, then oranges, more guava, some pineapple, and a slight hint of varnish. With some Cognacs of this age, I find the varnish / furniture polish notes can dominate. Here, they're perfectly balanced with significant amounts of fruit - much of it tropical.

Finish: Long and citrusy, with orange chocolate notes partnering with sweet hints of oak long after the liquid is gone.

Rating (on my very non-scientific scale): 92/100 (Martin). This has amazing freshness for something over 75 years old. It's incredibly balanced, AND delicious (OK that's subjective, but I suspect most will agree).  

Thanks yet again Deni & David for the sample.

Cheers,
Martin.

Gordon & MacPhail Private Collection 1949 from Glenlivet Distillery 74 Year Old [Tasted #650]

It seems like only yesterday I posted a trio of incredible whiskies from Gordon & MacPhail (because it was, admittedly a little late on my part), but evidently time and new releases wait for no-one, because today I'm back to taste G&M's latest - which just happens to be the second oldest whisky I've ever tried!

Glenlivet & Glen Grant seem to both be whiskies that can take incredible age, so it's no surprise this whisky hails from the former. Distilled on New Year's Day 1949 and bottled 6th March 2023, the whisky slumbered for an incredible 74 years in a single refill Sherry butt under the care of G&M, who were able to produce 192 bottles at a very respectable 49.3% ABV.

Drinking whisky distilled before I was born is a rare treat these days. Drinking whisky distilled before my parents were born though? I honestly didn't know if I'd get the chance again...and yet here we are.

Dave Broom said of the whisky:

"To find a whisky of this age is absolutely extraordinary. What comes across immediately is the fruit - there’s richness and there’s depth. You have this wonderful interplay of distillery character, of oak and oxygen. It’s a gift that keeps on giving."

...so let's see how I felt about it!

Gordon & MacPhail 1949 from Glenlivet Distillery 74yo Private Collection (49.3% ABV, 74yo, Refill Sherry Butt #11, Speyside, Scotland, One of 192 bottles, £35,000)
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Distilled on 1 January 1949(!) and bottled 74 years later on 6 March 2023, this incredible whisky has matured over a longer period of time than most people spend on this earth! It also happens to be the last cask of 1949 Glenlivet from Gordon & MacPhail.

Colour: Copper gold

Nose: Waxy oranges, dunnage warehouse and clean, sweet sherry to start with. Then comes ginger, toffee, the slightest hint of leather polish, cinnamon spice, and with some air, peach and stone fruit compote.

Palate: Big and rich, it flits back and forth between spicy sherry and zesty fruity/citrus notes, with mandarin peel, flamed orange peel, a slight meatiness and dusty oak. A second sip shows some chocolate - both milk and dark, more oranges (whole this time), Christmas cake, and an emerging herbaceousness - mint, or is that tea tree? It's a beautifully complex palate. Dave Broom referred to its layers and complexity, and he's spot on. There's tonnes going on here, all working in harmony. The oak spice is an underlying theme, but considering this whisky spent 74 years in oak, it retains impressive balance.

Finish: Long, orange chocolate with a soft residual oak undertone.

Rating (on my very non-scientific scale): 93/100 (Martin). Generally speaking, a whisky shouldn't normally make it to 74 years old and still be good. How G&M manage to consistently put out whiskies of 60, 70, 80 years old that aren't just "good", but "incredible" never ceases to amaze me.

For the past 19 days, the whisky has been available for purchase at Dubai International Airport. Launched in partnership with Le Clos on Friday 1st September, the Dubai airport store had an exclusivity period, but the whisky is now available worldwide as of today, priced at £35,000. 

Cheers,

Martin.

Gordon & MacPhail Private Collection 1949 from Milton Distillery 72 Year Old [Tasted #580]

My admiration of Gordon & MacPhail has been well documented on this blog - not just for the quality and variety of independently bottled whisky they release, but for their respect for Scotch Whisky, stemming from their 125 years as an integral part of the industry, across four generations.

Part of that respect includes ensuring the utmost historical accuracy, exemplified by their latest release, the 72 year old "Private Collection 1949 from Milton Distillery".

"Milton Distillery" you say? Confused? I was too...

Strathisla may be known as the most picturesque distillery in Scotland, but it turns out it was only officially named Strathisla in 1951 - prior to that, it was (you guessed it) Milton distillery. So whilst G&M could have called this Strathisla (known for their high-quality, well-aged malts), they chose to keep things accurate and use the name under which the whisky was distilled - Milton.

Gordon & MacPhail's relationship with Strathisla/Milton goes back more than a century, and in 1949 (19th May, to be precise), being well familiar with the distillery's liquid, they filled a first-fill Sherry puncheon (made to G&M's specifications), intended for long-term maturation.

"Long-term" was certainly what they got, as the whisky wasn't bottled until 6th January 2022, 72 years later, yielding 180 bottles at 48.6% ABV.

Gordon & MacPhail "Private Collection 1949 from Milton Distillery" 72yo (48.6% ABV, 72yo, Cask #383, One of 180 bottles, Speyside, £TBC)
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Colour: Deep orange gold.

Nose: Subtle aged sherry, seville oranges, well-aged cigars, with a slight herbal grassiness. After time, some spiced butterscotch becomes noticeable.

Palate: Initial subtle oak tannins quickly give way to overripe oranges, cigar box notes and cut grass. Stewed fruits (pear and apricot predominantly) show, along with apple pie with a hint of spiced honey. 

Finish: Long (no surprises there!) with the spiced honey continuing to the end, alongside the slightest hint of smoke (more of a BBQ meat smoke).

Rating (on my very non-scientific scale): 93/100. Another sublime whisky from G&M which defies conventional thinking about whisky and "optimum age". Yes, these casks were built to "go the distance", but to find such nuanced drams at over 70 years old, and without any overt oak influence, continues to impress me.

Cheers,

Martin.

Gordon & MacPhail "Private Collection 1952 from Glen Grant Distillery Platinum Jubilee Edition" 70yo [Tasted #568]

It's been less than a month since I wrote about this 64yo 1957 "Mr George Legacy" 2nd Edition Glen Grant, and if that was the oldest whisky I was to try this year, I'd consider it a pretty good year....but the fine people at Gordon & MacPhail had other plans, and were kind enough to send a sample of something even more special, commemorating an event that most of us will likely never again experience in our lifetimes.

I'm talking about the Queen's Platinum (70th) Jubilee, and the Gordon & MacPhail "Platinum Jubilee Edition" 70yo 1952 Glen Grant, bottled for the occasion. Not the oldest whisky we've tried on the site, but impressively, the equal second.

Bottled on the 6th February (the same date as Her Majesty's accession to the throne) after maturing for 7 decades in a first fill Sherry butt, the whisky serves as a fitting tribute to Her Majesty, having served the same amount of time on the throne.

Distilled on 26th January 1952, and bottled 70 years later at a cask strength 52.3% ABV, the "Gordon & MacPhail Private Collection 1952 from Glen Grant Distillery" sees just 256 bottles released worldwide, with a recommended retail price of £20,000, available from Gordon & MacPhail's own online shop in the UK, and no doubt Master of Malt for International buyers in due course. No word yet on Hong Kong or Australian pricing.

In support of the Queen’s ‘green canopy’ initiative and building on the successful 2021 partnership with Scottish charity Trees for Life we mentioned here, Gordon & MacPhail is donating a further £20,000 from the proceeds of the release.

 

So having well and truly established the whisky's suitability for such a momentous occasion, let's find out how it tastes...

Gordon & MacPhail "Private Collection 1952 from Glen Grant Distillery Platinum Jubilee Edition" 70yo (52.3% ABV, 70yo, Cask #381, One of 256 bottles, Speyside, £20,000)
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Colour: Mahogany gold.

Nose: Fresh leather, waxed apples and juicy sultanas, followed by orange marmalade. Give it time (as you must always with such an old and complex whisky), and herbal notes (mint predominantly) and cigars emerge.

Palate: Hugely rich and mouthfilling, there are initial wisps of smoke, followed by dark chocolate, then milk chocolate, cigar humidor, oranges (orange cakes actually), then slight hints of mint. After time, notes of blackcurrant emerge. It's not an in-your face sherry bomb, it's more of a subtle, complex, evolving sherried dram. Impressive, hugely impressive.

Finish: Long and minty, with lingering grapefruit hints and minimal oaky notes.

Rating (on my very non-scientific scale): 92/100. Not quite the same intensity of sherry in the 64yo 1957 "Mr George Legacy" 2nd Edition, more of a subtle, intricate dram giving layers of different notes as time goes on. A fitting tribute to Her Majesty if ever there was one.

Cheers,

Martin.

Tasted #429: 70yo Gordon & MacPhail "Private Collection 1948 from Glen Grant Distillery"

Writing about whisky fairly consistently for the last ~7 years has afforded us the opportunity to try some incredible whiskies, as well as some incredibly old whiskies - with several in their 40s, a fair few in their 50s, and three in their 60s, topping out at 65yo.

With the exponential rise we've seen in both the demand for and value of old and rare whisky, it seemed like that 65yo might retain the crown as our oldest whisky ever tasted...until this arrived in the mail...

Bottled at a whopping seventy years old (70yo), this Glen Grant from Gordon & MacPhail's "Private Collection" range (full name: "Gordon & MacPhail 1948 from Glen Grant Distillery") was distilled on 11th June 1948 and bottled on 19th October 2018 @ 48.6% from a single first fill sherry butt - #2154, yielding 210 bottles.

See our previous thoughts on the "Private Collection" range here, including a 50yo Caol Ila, 64yo Glenlivet, a pair of 57 year old Longmorns and more.

A lot of whiskies are termed "liquid history" but this one is truly deserving of the title. Distilled only 3 years after World War II ended, when the UK was still rationing barley and spirit production was below pre-WWII levels, it was filled by G&M and maintained by four generations of the owning Urquhart family, whilst it matured in Glen Grant's Warehouse No.5 (for the first 20 years) and GM's Elgin warehouses (for its final 50 years).

You have to give G&M credit for their recent Private Collection releases - they've produced some stunning decanters to go with some stunning whiskies, and whilst the focus should always be on the liquid - it doesn't hurt when the presentation is this impressive:

But, the focus is on the liquid and so to that end...let's dive into the oldest whisky we've ever tasted...

Gordon & MacPhail "Private Collection" 1948 from Glen Grant Distillery 70yo (48.6% ABV, 70yo, Speyside, One of 210 bottles, £17,500)

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Colour: Golden orange-copper.

Nose: Fresh herbal-citrus at first - mandarin, orange peel and spearmint, with coriander. But hold on, now it's got some older, earthier notes coming through - vintage books, polished leather. After some time, a waxiness emerges, with some strawberry jam and cinnamon. Now there's mint, and some subtle-but-definitely-there dried, smoky oak staves.

Palate: Big and expressive - initially with cinnamon and oak showing, then strawberry and apricot jam. More of the smoked oak from the nose, and then some cracked pepper. Underneath all this are herbal undertones - earthy, wet-grass notes, along with hints of aged dry leather. The sherry influence here is noticeable, but remarkably restrained and refined for a 70 year old whisky. No one note dominates here - it's an orchestra of flavours, each coming and going and then returning again.

Finish: Medium to long in length, with more noticeable woodsmoke than the nose and palate. There's a residual citrus (whole oranges) note throughout, and right towards the end, more mint.

Rating (on my very non-scientific scale):  92/100. It's truly astonishing that a whisky can be 70 years old, from a first-fill sherry butt, and still retain such complexity, refinement, and most remarkably of all - not be entirely dominated by oak. Well done to G&M for what would have to be one of the most incredible examples of maturation I've experienced.


Gordon & MacPhail 1948 from Glen Grant Distillery is available for a UK RRP of £17,500 (Hong Kong pricing TBC) and will be available worldwide. Thanks to G&M for this review sample.

Cheers,
Martin.