Halcyon Spirits 27yo Single Cask 1996 Burnside [Tasted #677]

I wrote last year about new Scottish-based Independent Bottler Halcyon Spirits, and how their 2000-strong cask inventory probably meant we'd probably see many bottles to come. It wasn't long after their inaugural release (a 30yo Macallan) that I tasted their second release (a 32yo Auchentoshan) and whilst I didn't manage to try their third (a 30yo Clynelish), the team have now released (and kindly sent me a sample of) their fourth - a 27yo Burnside from 1996 (finished in an ex-sherry cask and bottled in 2024).

"Burnside", some of you may ask? Basically, a teaspooned whisky, or a blended malt which is predominantly one malt, with only a small amount of another. There's a whole discussion to be had about if all "teaspooned" whisky is really teaspooned, or if some of it is single malt simply labelled/sold as a blended malt, but that's for another post. 

In this case, Burnside is the name given to a whisky predominantly made up of Balvenie, with only a small amount of Glenfiddich. 

Halcyon Spirits "Halcyon Release #4" Burnside Aged 27 Years (52.9% ABV, Blended Malt, 27yo, 1 of 292 bottles, Scotland, £195)
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Colour: Burnished copper-gold

Nose: Fruit & nuts, pear, honey and some molasses. There are sultana notes, and after some air & time to open up, subtle ginger hints.

Palate: Initial citrus zest, giving way to more honey and molasses, some oak spice, walnuts, dried oranges, vanilla custard, some green frog jelly lollies, and finally some cinnamon. The sherry influence is there, without doubt, but it doesn't overpower the whisky, allowing other notes to show.

Finish: Medium to long, with dried orange most predominant, and subtle ginger spice in the background.

Rating (on my very non-scientific scale): 90/100 (Martin). I enjoy Balvenie, and have always enjoyed the Burnsides I've tried - a lot. This one is no different - a great dram, and a very reasonable price for a 27yo (more or less) Balvenie!

Cheers,

Martin.

House of Hazelwood - Whisky from the Gordon Family private collection [Tasted #639 - 642]

As I think I've mentioned a few times on this blog, Glenfiddich is the whisky that got me into whisky (an abnormally large percentage of my posts from 2012 were about the distillery), and a whisky for which I've always had a soft spot. Over time that extended to sister distilleries Balvenie & Kininvie, so it's fair to say I'm a fan of what parent (and still family-owned) company William Grant & Sons produce. 

It shouldn't be a surprise then that when I was asked if I wanted to try some well-aged releases from House of Hazelwood, the latest venture from the Gordon Family (owners of WG&S), a very emphatic yes quickly followed.

Depending on when you began your whisky journey, "Hazelwood" could mean a few different things - a limited series of releases dating back to 2001 (with the first released only to WG&S employees, and the second being the first official bottling of Kininvie single malt), or a 2016 series of blended releases found largely in duty free, bottled in 500mL format as an 18, 21 and 25 year old.

It's the Hazelwood brand's most recent incarnation we're here to discuss though, and arguably its most exciting. To learn more, I sat down with Director Jonathan Gibson for a virtual tasting recently.

Jonathan explained that Charles Gordon (great-grandson of William Grant, father of the current WG&S Chairman & influential character in the company's history) began collecting casks not for commercial release, but for the family's personal stocks decades ago, and built the collection to the point that it simply became "too large". No doubt buoyed by whisky's immense rising popularity, the family decided it was time to bottle and sell these, and hence the House of Hazelwood collection was born, with a plan to release 8 new whiskies every 6-9 months.

 

(A point I found interesting is that the casks that go into the House of Hazelwood collection don't contain old Glenfiddich, Balvenie or Kininvie. The distilleries are diverse and varied, and the majority of the whiskies are blended, blended malt or blended grain whiskies.)

 

I asked Jonathan (who himself came from Compass Box) about the cask management - he explained some are actively managed, and others are left alone. Some are blended at birth (like the aptly titled "Blended at Birth"!) and others blended later in life.

The company (under the WG&S umbrella, but run as a separate company to the distilleries) launched in June 2022, and has recently officially launched in Australia, largely following a model of selling direct to consumers. With some luck Hong Kong distribution won't be too far behind.

Having covered the background, it was time to dive into a tasting of the 4 releases House of Hazelwood had kindly sent me:

• 33 Year Old "The Tops" Blended Malt Whisky (details)
• 44 Year Old "The Unknown" Blended Scotch Whisky
• 1965 56 Year Old "Blended at Birth" Blended Scotch Whisky (details); and
• 37 Year Old "A Breath of Fresh Air" Blended Grain Scotch Whisky

House of Hazelwood 1965 "Blended at Birth" Blended Scotch Whisky (47% ABV, Blended Scotch, 56yo, 1 of 192 bottles, Scotland, £4,500)

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A blend containing Girvan grain whisky, blended into the cask at birth and bottled a whopping 56 years later.

Colour: Deep amber

Nose: Dunnage warehouse, menthol, orange and almond.

Palate: Quite nutty initially - almonds, almondmeal and almond cake. Orange and grapefruit notes show up soon after, followed by herbal jelly. With some time in the glass, a brandy fruitiness emerges.

Finish: Long and lingering, with a slight fruit spice towards teh end.

Rating (on my very non-scientific scale): 92/100 (Martin). A very solid start, and a whisky that evokes those "old whisky" notes (as opposed to "old bottle") the way very few can.

House of Hazelwood "The Tops" Blended Malt Whisky (51.6% ABV, 33yo, 1 of 523 bottles, Blended Malt, Scotland, £1,450)

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Containing a blend of Speyside malts, matured in ex-Sherry casks.

Colour: Dark copper-brown.

Nose: Cherry, berry fruits at first. Rich, but beautifully clean sherry notes follow with juicy oak and some coffee grounds.

Palate: Spiced oak, caramel, hunidor, followed by more cherry, some sherry-soaked raisins, and rum & raisin ice cream.

Finish: Lasts incredibly long, with a fruity, rum & raisin finish with a hint of residual oak.

Rating (on my very non-scientific scale): 92/100 (Martin). Exactly what you want in a sherried Speyside - clean but noticeable sherry, with the oak in-check.

House of Hazelwood "The Unknown" Blended Scotch Whisky (43.3% ABV, 44yo, 1 of 143 bottles, Blended Scotch, Scotland, £3,000)

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Distilled in 1978 and blended in 1989, "The Unknown" underwent an extensive secondary maturation for a further 33 years in a single refill butt

Colour: Bright yellow-gold.

Nose: Fresh vanilla pods in a fruit salad - pear, peach, apple predominantly.

Palate: More vanilla - creamy, with the same fruit salad notes from the nose, adding in nectarine and some citrus. There's a light, delicate mouthfeel and an underlying sweetness you find with some old grain whiskies.

Finish: Medium to long in length, with vanilla-laced smooth oak notes.

Rating (on my very non-scientific scale): 91/100 (Martin).

House of Hazelwood "A Breath of Fresh Air" Blended Grain Whisky (46.4% ABV, 37yo, 1 of 417 bottles, Blended Grain, Scotland, £3,000)

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Colour: Morning sunrise golden

Nose: Strawberries, Butter Menthol lollies, creamed honey and an underlying butteriness.

Palate: Light, with the buttery notes continuing alongside some rum-like esthers, heather & honey.

Finish: Medium in length, with a sweet buttery shortbread note that gains some dryness towards the end.

Rating (on my very non-scientific scale): 90/100 (Martin). A delightful example of the unique characteristics old Grain whisky can produce.

House of Hazelwood whiskies are available now in UK and Australia, purchased directly from the official website, with further distribution to follow. The collection is expected to grow every 6-9 months (with another 8 bottles added), and we can't wait to see how the future releases shape up.

Cheers,

Martin.

Thanks to House of Hazelwood for the samples, and to Jonathan for his time.

Komagatake x Chichibu Malt Duo Blended Malt Japanese Whisky [Tasted #533]

Continuing our look into the current state of Japanese whisky, and following my recent tasting of the Kanosuke First Edition, we move onto Mars Whisky next (and uh, Chichibu as well), in the form of the Komagatake x Chichibu "Malt Duo" Blended Malt Japanese Whisky.

A blended malt may not seem that special, but in the world of Japanese whisky, it kind of is. Unlike Scotland, the Japanese whisky industry doesn't really have a history of cask trading. Yes, there are blends and blended malts, but they're typically either Scottish/Japanese (or "world") blends, or blends of whiskies from within one company's portfolio (Suntory's "Hibiki" being a good example of the latter, containing Yamazaki malt, Hakushu malt and Chita grain).

What makes this "Malt Duo" so special is it's a blend of two different malts from completely separate whisky distilleries, and two cult Japanese distilleries at that - Chichibu and Mars Shinshu. 

The story goes that in in 2015, Mars Shinshu Distillery and Venture Whisky's Chichibu Distillery began exchanging malt spirit and maturing it in their respective locations, and 5 years later in 2020, we have the result. This particular release was matured at Mars Shinshu distillery (and therefore contains Shinshu-matured Chichibu), whilst another release was matured at Chichibu (containing Chichibu-matured Komagatake in the blend). Still with us?  

10,918 bottles of this "Komagatake x Chichibu" were released, whilst the "Chichibu x Komagatake" was a 10,200 bottle release. 

Official HK importers of Mars Whisky, AFTrade were kind enough to provide a sample of the whisky for review. Having tried quite a few Mars whiskies on the blog previously, I was very keen to see how this one fared.

Komagatake x Chichibu "Malt Duo" Blended Malt Japanese Whisky (54% ABV, Over 5yo, Japan,  available from AFTrade)

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Colour: Golden amber.

Nose: A little heat initially, then pear, some grassiness, some herbal notes and then milk chocolate.

Palate: Personally I'd call this more "Komagatake" than "Chichibu" - I got notes of green apples, melon, chewy caramel, a youthful nuttiness, chocolate and maple syrup.

Finish: Medium in length, with the sweet maple / caramel notes quickly becoming spiced - almost like subtle chilli, with some slight oak tannins at the very end.

Rating (on my very non-scientific scale): 89/100. A tasty whisky, but more importantly, a historically important, and quite unusual bottle in the Japanese whisky market, and hopefully an indicator of thigns to come. More of this please, Japan! 

Thanks to AFTrade for the sample.

Cheers,

Martin.

Chivas Regal Ultis Sydney Launch (Tasted #329)

Walking into Palmer & Co, Merivale's renowned small bar tucked away in one of Sydney’s oldest lanes, one could easily mistake the bar for something more akin to the "House of Chivas Regal". Plastered across the room were Chivas Regal bottles, Chivas Regal mementos and five special Chivas stations. What was about to take place was the special launch of Chivas Regal Ultis, Chivas Regal’s first blended malt expression - though certainly not the first in the industry, with Johnnie Walker Green, Monkey Shoulder and various Compass Box expressions having already represented the segment for some time.

The launch celebration was rather special as not only was the occasion to celebrate the new Ultis expression, but also to celebrate Chris Evans (better known as Captain America) as the new Asia Pacific Ambassador for Chivas Regal, and Michael Klim as the Australian Chivas Regal Ambassador. Both Chris and Michael co-starred in Chivas Regal’s "Win the Right Way campaign" which launched in 2014 to help recognise and advocate for the power of shared success - or simply the message that real success is not measured by a one's wealth alone, but by how many lives one has enriched.

The name Ultis, derived from ‘Ultimate’ and ‘Fortis' (Latin for ‘strength’) was bestowed upon the new blended malt expression, which sees five Speyside malts from Chivas Brothers’ portfolio (Tormore, Longmorn, Strathisla, Allt A’Bhainne and Braeval) selected to form the whisky. The malts were specially selected by Chivas' blending team as a tribute to the work of the five generations of Masters Blenders that have worked on the Chivas brand and its distinct style since 1909. As Chris Evans highlighted on the day, Ultis is simply a "Whisky with people at its heart!”

What I truly loved at the launch were the five Chivas stations with each station representing the individual malts that help form Ultis, along with different sensory experiences that all related to the individual malt. The deliciously fruity and sweet Longmorn was well represented with pears, vanilla pods, honeycomb and milk chocolates whilst over at the Straithisla station we saw stone fruits and nuts visually describing the nutty nature of Chivas’ foundation malt.

Speaking to a few bloggers and Pernod Ricard representatives at the event, we discussed the on-going challenge that the whisky industry has with transparency. This is a topic that is at the heart of Compass Box's continued efforts to challenge the status quo by disclosing additional detail on the composition of their blended malts. The Ultis launch saw a move to do something similar by exposing the five individual malts and allowing an appreciation of the five individual malts in addition to the final blended expression. Although the percentage composition of the five malts was not disclosed, it is perhaps a step in the right direction. Having come onto my whisky journey only a few years ago, I am certainly an advocate for such transparency as it allows a deepening of my appreciation of the final expression.

Check out more photos from the launch event at our Facebook page.

Chivas Regal Ultis (40% ABV, NAS, Speyside, Scotland, AUD$198.90 / ~ AUD$265 for 1L Travel Retail, from December)
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Ultis is a delicious and balanced blended malt and having tasted some of the individual malts at the launch, the final expression clearly reflects different characteristics from the contributing single malts. Time and place? A comfy lounge with few good mates celebrating a momentous occasion.

Colour: Deep, dark caramel.

Nose: The nose is beautiful and loaded with sweet and fruity notes. There are hints of apple, apricot, toffee fudge, vanilla, burnt orange and cinnamon.

Palate: The palate is soft and mellow to start before opening up notes of apple, toffee followed by warming burst of spices; cardamon, cloves and black pepper.

Finish: A warming medium sweet and velvety finish.

Rating (on my very non-scientific scale): 91/100.

Chivas Regal Ultis 700ml will be available from November through selected retailers and from December at Duty Free retailers in a Travellers' Exclusive 1 Litre bottling.

Cheers,
Hendy.

TimeforWhisky.com would like to thank Pernod Ricard and Eva McKenzie of One Green Bean for the invite to the launch of the Chivas Regal Ultis.

Tasted #324 - 325: Compass Box Three Year Old Deluxe & Spice Tree Extravaganza

The folks at Compass Box have been good to us this year - sending us samples of "This is Not a Luxury Whisky" and "Flaming Heart (15th Anniversary)" first, then "Enlightenment" and "The Circus", and now Three Year Old Deluxe and Spice Tree Extravaganza.

We've talked before about Compass Box's transparency campaign, and the Three Year Old Deluxe is a brilliant (and very cheeky) extension of that. See, yes, it's a 3 year old whisky (in that the youngest whisky in the bottle is 3yo), but it also only contains <1% of 3yo whisky. A little over 90% is "considerably older" whisky from the same distillery (which we presume to be Clynelish), and the remaining 9% is "peaty malt whisky distilled on the Isle of Skye (which we presume to be Talisker).

Nowhere do they say the age of the older malt, nor the Talisker, but it certainly noses and tastes considerably more complex than three years old...


Compass Box "Three Year Old Deluxe" (49.2% ABV, 3yo, Blended Malt, Scotland, £153.29ex / HK & AU pricing not available)

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Colour: Yellow-gold.

Nose: Apples, candle wax, sweet tea, oak and cherries.

Palate: Apples, toffee and caramel at first. A slight meatiness, then strawberry short cake. Stewed pears. A few drops of water adds more waxiness.

Finish: Medium length. Residual fruitiness from the palate, but with a slightly tannic oakiness at the very end. 

Rating (on my very non-scientific scale):  92/100. Excellent - not quite as good as "This is Not a Luxury Whisky", but close. Certainly the most complex 3yo whisky out there!

Compass Box "Spice Tree Extravaganza" (46% ABV, NAS, Blended Malt, Scotland, £76.62ex / HK & AU pricing not available)

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Colour: Maple-gold.

Nose: Clean, fresh sherry (Oloroso?) with a hint of smoke. Red apples and ginger.

Palate: Citrus at first - whole oranges. BBQ'd pineapple. Molasses, treacle, brown sugar. Blackberries. 

Finish: Medium to long in length, with hints of ginger and maple syrup.

Rating (on my very non-scientific scale):  92/100. Another beautiful blended malt from Compass Box.

Big thanks to @compassboxwhiskyco for these samples recently. Every Compass Box we've tried so far has been great (and there's been quite a few of them) and these are no exception. - Gotta say...loving the cheekiness of this "3 year old" - a little dig at the current stoush with the SWA no doubt. With Less than 1% of (what we presume is) Clynelish 3yo, and 90% of significantly older malt from the same distillery, whilst it's technically a 3yo, it obviously doesn't drink like one. At ~£200 retail too, it's not priced like one either! A lovely complex blended malt though. - They must be busy at Compass Box HQ, with all these fantastic (and varied) whiskies coming out....but keep up the great work we say! -- #whisky #InstaWhisky #Instadram #WhiskyGram #RareWhisky #WhiskyTasting #WhiskyGeek #WhiskyBlogger #TimeforWhisky #DramFull #WhiskyHK #WhiskySYD #WhiskyFabric #WhiskyLover #Whiskey #威士忌 #ウイスキー #위스키 #WhiskyLife #WhiskyPorn #HongKongWhisky #WhiskySamples #CompassBoxWhisky #CompassBox #BlendedMalt #YoungWhisky #OldWhisky

A photo posted by Martin - www.TimeforWhisky.com (@timeforwhisky) on Oct 21, 2016 at 9:50am PDT

Another big thanks to Compass Box for the samples!

Cheers,

Martin. 

Tasted #304 - 305: Compass Box "Enlightenment" and "The Circus"

It was only a few months ago we wrote about Compass Box's transparency campaign, and tasted a few samples they'd kindly sent our way. Fast forward to last week, when another package appeared on the doorstep, this time containing a generous sample of each of Compass Box's latest offerings - "The Circus" and "Enlightenment".

Enlightenment continues the Transparency campaign by setting out to:

"...encourage the industry to consider the absurdity of a system that prevents producers from telling consumers exactly what has gone into the whisky they are drinking."

Pretty hard to argue with that logic. A limited run of 5,922 bottles worldwide, Enlightenment is bottled at 46% ABV, non chill-filtered and at its natural colour. It contains malt whiskies from Clynelish, Glentauchers, Balblair and Mortlach, making it a blended malt rather than a blend.

The Circus, on the other hand, celebrates old parcels of pre-blended Scotch Malt and Grain whisky (married in Sherry butts) that Compass Box recently uncovered, and is said to be a combination that displays magic, "like the very best of circuses". A limited run of 2,490 bottles worldwide, The Circus is bottled at a slightly higher 49% ABV and, like Enlightenment is non chill-filtered and bottled at its natural colour. It contains Malt whisky from Benrinnes and blended Scotch and Grain whiskies from refill sherry butts.

Compass Box "Enlightenment" (46% ABV, NAS, Blended Malt Scotch whisky, one of 5,922 bottles, bottled by Compass Box, Scotland, £49.54)

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Colour: Light, pale straw.

Nose: Candy apples and fresh green apples. So fresh and vibrant. There's a little freshly cut grass, but apple overhwelmingly dominates here (in a good way). I can't recall a recent whisky exhibiting so much apple.

Palate: More apples, but dusted with cinnamon. Lots of fresh fruit (pears, apples, lemons) and quite a lot of spice. Very smooth and the ABV feels "just right". Apple pie with a dollop of cream on the side.

Finish: Short to medium in length, with cinnamon spice and some orange zest.

Rating (on my very non-scientific scale): 92/100. Really very good. Judging by the fact that 95.7% of the liquid comes from 1st fill barrels, but the colour is so light, I'm guessing most of the whisky is relatively young...but who cares? This is a fantastic whisky and a testament to what a talented blender can produce. This could easily become a go-to summer whisky.

Compass Box "The Circus" (49% ABV, NAS, Blended Scotch whisky, bottled by Compass Box, Scotland, £154.17)

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Colour: Orange-brown.

Nose: Trademark sherry notes initially, but without any hints of sulphur. Sultanas, nutmeg, dried apricots and some whole oranges. Vibrant, clean, fresh. 

Palate: Big smooth caramel notes - rich and instantly mouth-filling. Lots of dried fruit, pot-pourri, brazil nuts. There's oak, but it's perfectly in check. There's a big maltiness too. At a guess, there's some pretty old malt whisky in here.

Finish: Long, rich, hazelnuts and burnt toast.

Rating (on my very non-scientific scale): 92/100. Another "luxurious", delicious, drink-me-right-now dram from Compass Box. Can these guys do no wrong? 

TimeforWhisky.com would again like to thank Compass Box for the generous samples.

Cheers,
Martin.