January 2024 Digest — Whiskery Turnip

Feb 3

Feb 3 January 2024 Digest

Welcome to a wrap-up of reviews from January 2024!

The numbers at the end of the calendar flipped over yet again, and somehow, we find ourselves in the middle of the 2020s. It is hard to believe we are just a few years from being closer to 2050 than 2000.

I marked the end of the year with some long-delayed travel to visit family and a break from reviewing or tasting any whisky. Instead, I ate more than enough Tex-Mex and fried catfish to sustain me for a few years before I need to recharge again.

By the time I returned home, I was ready to start getting those whisky reviews edited and posted… anything to distract me as I raced to prepare for the Spring semester. I love crafting syllabi, lectures, and activities, but there is a level of tedium in copying material over and resetting course websites. Whisky reviews are, as always, one of my favorite ways to mark the end of the workday and get myself to break away from the computer.

I have appended a brief overview of various distilleries at the end of my reviews. This was something that I mentioned wanting to do last year, and I tried to get a head start writing up short blurbs for various distilleries that I knew I would be reviewing. I hope to keep it up!

I kicked off 2024 with a week dedicated to Glenfarclas. I reviewed very few Glenfarclas over the years, as its house style had yet to strike me as something I would enjoy. I am no sherry-fiend, and sherry maturations are practically synonymous with Glenfarclas. Well, I have slowly accumulated several samples of whiskies from the distillery due to a handful of friends who are absolute fanatics. They may have won me over— I cannot possibly compete for some of the older bottles, but I was blown away by a pair of 1960s vintage 8-Year releases (105 Proof and 100 Proof).

Springbank has occupied a similar place in my mind— a distillery with no shortage of fans but a shortage of widely available whisky. It has long been something that I have generally avoided tracking down or questing after; I have had some great ones, but it is hard for a whisky to live up to the hype and justify the prices people ask. My opinion has not entirely changed, but after reviewing Springbank all week, I remember more clearly why people go crazy for them. That week, The absolute pinnacle was a 26 Year from the indomitable WhiskySponge—a whisky that instantly transported me to the carefree summer of 2007.

I began 2023 with a week dedicated to Clynelish, and I included a Clynelish week again in early 2024. Clynelish is another distillery that receives lots of love, which I did not understand for a long time. I definitely got it last year, though I quickly realized I had no hope of chasing down those memorable 25-30+ Year Clynelish. I would likely never get to try any of these 1980s vintage SMWS releases (1983 and 1984), nor an absolutely mind-boggling 30-Year distilled in 1992 (aptly named “Ambrosial nectar”)

From malts, the month turned to single grains with a scattershot of various grain distilleries, many of which shuttered in the late 20th century. Yet, the absolute titan of the week was a 27-year Cameronbridge finished in a sherry cask. I am as sherry-reluctant as they come and had previously never had a particularly striking encounter with Diageo’s behemoth Cameronbridge, but that whisky was phenomenal.

The month ended with a week of sherry bombs to bridge the gap to February— a few of which I enjoyed quite a bit, meaning true sherry-stans will likely enjoy them even more. I was especially impressed with a 13-Year Macallan from SMWS and the Glenallachie 15-Year, which felt like a great gift.

On to February and a month chock-full of American Single Malt reviews!

A few numbers from January: