September 2023 Digest

October 1, 2023 Whiskery Turnip

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

September brought relief from the summer heat, which seemed to be in its retreat as the wind and rain returned to our little corner of the island. But it also brought a wretched fight against an old foe: influenza. I had managed to avoid any serious infection or illness for the last several years and any case of the flu severe enough to land me in bed for several consecutive days for about a decade, but did it ever strike me down this time.

I was probably due to take a pause on whisky tasting, and influenza made sure I did so sooner rather than later. There is nothing like a bout of illness to remind one to take it easy sometimes and ensure we give ourselves enough time to relax and breathe. It will be interesting to see if my palate has shifted or changed when I sit down with a dram again. I am mostly recovered now, but I plan to give it another week to ensure I return to 100%. I am sure my students appreciated the extra day or two off, though maybe a few were sad we missed out on discussing lice infestations among Napoleon’s army.

As we march toward the end of the year, I plan to alter my review format just a little bit. Earlier this year, when I began the theme weeks, I included a little information blurb about the distillery at the end of reviews. I only did that for a few weeks before I realized that would not work for the odd “random” week. I wondered if I should be writing blurbs for bottlers or regions when those come up? I put the whole thing on hold for a while.

Image Credit: Decision Lab

By the end of 2023, I plan to start organizing context blurbs to include at the end of reviews. The blurbs will consist of general notes about the distillery, bottler, era, region, or style— whatever seems most relevant. If I plotted my whisky knowledge on a Dunning-Kruger Effect graph, I would be somewhere in the direction of “competence/knowledge” but low on confidence— I know a lot, but in knowing a lot, I know there is a lot I do not know. As a result, I subconsciously assume that anything I know, everyone else must already know. But that is not true, especially for people discovering whisky or curiously beginning to poke around. I am deep enough to sometimes forget what is general and what is specialist knowledge.

I plan to start including a context section at the end of reviews with some notes so that the odd person who finds this blog or review repository through a search engine, and that is most people who visit here, will find not just a review of the bottle, but helpful information. For those already very knowledgeable about whisky, hopefully, it will help clarify some of my biases. For those totally new or still sponging up all the information they can find, it will be a useful little introduction.

So what about September? During September, I hit weeks dedicated to some of my absolute favorite distilleries, including the mighty Toberymory-Ledaig. How many other distilleries were used for cheese storage by a local dairy coop or changed their name every few decades? I reviewed a lot of good whiskies that week. Still, two stood out, both from 1995 when the distillery was undergoing a significant transition in ownership and production schedule: a 25-year from SMWS that the Society identifies as Ledaig and a 27-year from the Thompson Brothers that they label as Tobermory. The two whiskies were not all that different then, and some casks were mislabeled, so are these what they say they are? Who knows, but they are delicious.

From Tobermory, I turned to Glenallachie, not a distillery I regard very highly. Though, with Billy Walker at the helm, it is not a bad place for sherry-fiends to seek their fix. This UK exclusive was a great example of the cask-heavy whisky he is known for.

Kilchoman was my stop during the mid-month, with a number of the reviews done during a charity tasting event hosted at the Pint & Jigger by local retailer Fujioka’s, Kilchoman’s US Importer ImpEx, and Kilchoman. Representatives for all involved were present, and Chris Uhde supplied half the lineup from his collection. My favorite bottles of the evening can be found here in part 2 of the tasting, which featured Chris’s personal bottles, including some of the original Kilchoman releases and one of the earliest casks of malt.

The month wrapped in the Lowlands as I reviewed my first two whiskies from Glenkinchie! The Distiller’s Edition from 2003 and the 20-Year Special Release from 2010 were fascinating malts. I will watch for opportunities to revisit that Lowland distillery again. No doubt the high point of the week was either the 1970s Bladnoch, which was impressively complex and easy to drink, or the 24-Year Auchentoshan from 1984 that I picked up on my birthday a few years back.

A few numbers from September: