May 2023 Digest

May 30, 2023 Whiskery Turnip

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

May was a time of celebration in the Whiskery Turnip household— time to celebrate birthdays and the end of the Spring semester. What better reason to pour some delicious whisky than marking another trip around the sun and successfully grading a mountain of finals and late work.

Theme weeks galore this month as I hit my stride! We started with two of my favorite distilleries: Longmorn and Arran. While I typically like my whisky on the peatier side with earthy or maritime profiles, when I want fruit, I turn to these two distilleries (and Glenburgie, of course!) During that week, I said goodbye to a 17-Year Longmorn from SMWS with a note about a friend who magically improved his bottle even further with a stave of Korean Mizunara wood. I also tipped my hat to a 17-Year Arran from Cadenhead’s, one of my favorite Arran in quite some time.

Image Credit: LochLomondWhiskies.com

The month continued with a trip to Loch Lomond, the Swiss army knife of Scotch distilleries that uses a variety of yeasts, fermentation times, and still types to produce about a dozen different types of malt and a few grains. In many ways, Loch Lomond resembles the older Japanese distilleries whose massive setups produce a variety of different kinds of whisky— during the early decades of Japanese whisky, there was no real cask trading taking place between rivals Nikka and Suntory so each needed to be able to produce everything in house at their handful of distilleries. While those groups maintain relatively tight control over their cask management programs, a thaw has occurred in Japan with some of the new generations of distilleries trading casks.

While most of the Loch Lomond reviews this month were Inchmurrin, a house style that tends to be light and fruity (see SMWS 112.51 or WhiskySpring No. 52), I also tried, for the first time, Old Rhosdhu. Old Rhosdhu is not to be confused with Rhosdhu, a single grain distilled on the Coffey Stills at Loch Lomond; rather, it is a discontinued style of malt. It was never something the distillery bottled itself. Still, several independent bottlers have released mature examples of the spirit in the last few years. While I might describe the whisky as more interesting than good (and it was, in fact, still tasty), that made it perfect for sharing with friends.

The following week I focused on ghost distilleries with a set of reviews I had eagerly anticipated all year. While I tried a few of these whiskies much earlier on— the Brora 24-Year and Port Ellen 16-Year were my last pours of 2022 and first of 2023— the rest of the week was malts I tried more recently. Two of them were my first and possibly last times experiencing the distillery. Boy, what an introduction to Glen Esk and Millburn! The week also featured a send-off to the final St. Magdalene taster I had readily available and a 31-Year Port Ellen, which a commenter on Reddit supposed to have been the last well-priced release before prices skyrocketed around 2013. It was a wonderful week of malts and a high point for the year that will be hard to top.

Next, I moved on to Japan, where I again encountered a handful of distilleries for the first time! Shizuoka is among the latest generation of Japanese distilleries. Still, they have already built a massive dedicated following, not unlike Chichibu. Just like Chichibu, they have a connection to the lost Karuizawa distillery, using one of its stills in their production. It was also my first time encountering Mount Fuji Distillery (previously Fuji Gotemba) and the Mars Shinshu Distillery. The star of the week, though, without a doubt, was a 22-Year Karuizawa from SMWS. Sometimes the whisky gods smile upon you, and clearly, I did something right to get a few drops of that liquid gold (or is it more valuable by weight than gold at this point?)

I ended the month with a week of Caol Ila, bridging the gap between May and June. Caol Ila is the largest distillery on Islay and one of my favorites. Few distilleries are as consistent as Caol Ila across hundreds of thousands of casks and distillation runs. Though the distillery is known for its peaty new make, it produces several different styles, primarily by varying fermentation times.

With Caol Ila ending the month, it will also kick off June with future weeks dedicated to Highland Park and Glen Scotia on the horizon. I will be off and traveling for the next month, so reviews may be a bit more irregular, though considering the reach of modern communications networks, I may not miss a beat. Here’s to some exciting travel and potentially a few whisky adventures along the way.

Let us begin with a few numbers.

26 reviews

6.35 average score

17.9 Years average age

Here are a few standouts from the pack:

Best of the Month

May was stacked with incredible whiskies— unique samples and bottles I had been saving and those that came about from the serendipity of making great whisky friends. Some months picking a favorite is easy; on months like this, it is downright impossible.

I went with the two whiskies that really stood out the most. I found myself returning to these two due to how exceptional they were, and I am unlikely to try anything like that again.

So for May, I have two best bottles because I could not choose; a 24-Year Glen Esk from SMWS and a 22-Year Karuizawa from SMWS. These whiskies were incredible with unique well-integrated flavors that easily lent themselves to visualization, be it the Hobbit-holes of the Rich and Famous with Glen Esk or a Mermaid Candy Store with the Karuizawa.

I hesitate to always put unicorn whiskies like these on a pedestal and coronate them as best of the month. Still, there was no way around the quality of these malts.

Surprise of the Month

Plucking another whisky from my week of ghost distillery reviews, the surprise of the month was the 17-Year Imperial from Berry Bros & Rudd. I went into this whisky with relatively subdued expectations, as I wrote in the review. My prior experience with Imperial was not great, and while I try not to be a cask-strength diva, I think subconsciously, the attenuated bottling strength played a role. I also picked this up at auction for a good deal last year, which always leaves me wondering if everyone else knows something I do not.

Yet, this was wonderful. I could tell from the second I popped the cork to share it with friends that this was aromatic and fragrant with plenty of deliciously sweet tropical fruits. I poured more to kick off a welcome-back tasting for a friend, and it nearly stole the show. This bottle will not be around for long.