January 2023 Digest

January 31, 2023 Whiskery Turnip

Welcome to a brief wrap-up of reviews from January 2023!

It is good to be back. At the end of 2022, I posted my annual year-in-review and took some time away from whisky and writing. My time off extended longer than expected when I underwent minor surgery on my left hand early in the month. The lingering effects of antibiotics and anesthesia meant my whisky cabinet stayed firmly shut, while the splint and bandages on my hand meant left me with just one hand to type. You may have noticed I did not stop posting reviews; luckily, I had plenty of those queued up and only in need of some light revisions before I could post them.

The start of the New Year coincided with the beginning of a new semester, so between an injured hand, course planning, travel to plan for the summer, a trio of kitties, and the daily hum-drum of activity, it has been a busy month. But when is it ever not busy?

For 2023 I decided to try something different with my reviews. Rather than taste and post whatever I felt like and in no particular order, I have attempted to organize reviews around specific themes. With a central theme in mind, I can approach tasting and reviewing more methodically and do more side-by-side tasting of similar whiskies. Or whiskies that have some critical aspect in common be it: distillery, style, age, origin, bottler, etc.

January began with a week focused on Bowmore, an Islay distillery capable of incredible highs and lows. Blended Malts comprised the next theme, with reviews of various producers and products, culminating with a collection of Compass Box reviews. Clynelish carried me through the mid-month as I finally expanded my experience with the distillery; for a whisky that should be right up my alley, I have reviewed remarkably few malts from Clynelish. I moved on to Bunnahabhain with the final coherent theme of the month and then closed out the month with the beginning of a week of miscellaneous malts.

Who knows what is to come for February! A collection from the French buyer and bottler Michel Couvreur will follow the miscellaneous week. Still, after that, things are wide open!

It was a busy month, but I still found time to relax with some whisky! Let us begin with a few numbers.

21 reviews
5.86 average score
16.4 Years average age

Here are a few standouts from the pack:

Best of the Month

There were several possible candidates for whisky of the month; which is no surprise, as the month included weeks dedicated to Bowmore and Clynelish, distilleries capable of stratospheric highs. In the end, there was a clear winner: SMWS 26.151, a 26 Year Clynelish from 1993. As I mentioned in the review, this was the sort of whisky that ruins a distillery because how can it ever be this good again? True to form, the whisky was magical, and I will no doubt be chasing that waxy-garden Clynelish high for years to come.

Honorable mentions go out to two superb Bowmore: a 25 Year from Fox-Fitzgerald’s Rest & Be Thankful line which was brimming with maritime delights and sweet spice, and 3.169, a 16 Year from SMWS, entitled “Pagoda reek drifting over Loch Indaal” which featured heavy bonfire, meat, and candy notes.

Surprise of the Month

I am sticking with Clynelish for the surprise of the month and turning to a 20 Year “Lynch Isle” from North Star Spirits. During my Clynelish tastings, this bottle stood out as uniquely wild. After an initial maturation in a sherry butt, the whisky was finished in a Portuguese Brandy Butt, which pushed and pulled the flavors between sweet spice, stewed fruit, musty oak, and the occasional meaty, and slightly funky, flavor spike. The profile was wild and untamed; it reminded me of exploring an attic crawlspace and finding discarded or lost treasures— it was so dusty and musty.

While the flavor profile was unexpected in and of itself, the overall effect was even more bizarre. The nose was undoubtedly intriguing, but the strength of the funk on the palate was a bit of a turn-off as a storm of leather and olive funk blew in. The occasional hint of spoiled meat only furthered the peculiar effect, which was not to my taste. Yet, the finish was delicious— the funky storm faded and left lingering dates, spice, leather, and meaty, which sat on the palate, slowly fading over a long period. There may have been a hint of funk on the finish, but it felt well-integrated and managed by the other flavors.

So this was my surprise of the month, a whisky whose flavors did not endear themselves to me but whose finish was absolutely superb.

Value of the Month

Two whiskies impressed me with their overall value proposition; Compass Box’s Great King Street Glasgow Blend and Artist’s Blend. I will give the nod to the Glasgow Blend as my favorite. As core Compass Box products, these blends are widely available and typically sit in the same price band as Monkey Shoulder, Chivas 12 Year, Johnnie Walker Black Label, and similar whiskies. These whiskies are often nice to sip on or perfect for elevating a cocktail. I thought the Glasgow Blend stood above the rest as agreeable to sip on straight up.

A full list of reviews can be found below:

Jan. 3 Bowmore 13 Year (2001), AD Rattray

Jan. 5 Bowmore 16 Year (1994) SMWS 3.169 “Pagoda reek drifting over Loch Indaal”

Jan. 7 Bowmore 24 Year (1997), Alistair Walker Whisky Co. Infrequent Flyers Cask 2690

Jan. 8 Bowmore 25 Year (1990), Rest & Be Thankful

Jan. 10 Old Perth 23 Year (1994) Blended Malt Whisky, Morrison & Mackay

Jan. 12 Gerston Blended Malt, Lost Distillery Co. Archivist Collection

Jan. 14 Exotic Cargo 10 Year (2006), SMWS Blended Malt Batch 1

Jan. 15 Compass Box Orchard House, Artist’s, and Glasgow with Douglas Laing’s Epicurean

Jan. 17 Clynelish 12 Year, 2022 Special Release

Jan. 19 Clynelish 20 Year (1995), Signatory Vintage Cask 8685

Jan. 20 Clynelish 20 Year (2000), North Star Spirits “Lynch Isle”