MrWizard's Ramblings

Sneak Peek: Lots and lots of reviews to write. By my count i got ~40 samples in the backlog. A lot of Old Particular and Hart Brother’s single casks as well as few fancy ones too. Stay tuned. I got plenty of content to fill.

Kirkland 22 (2019/2020), 46%
Well I’ve finally opened up the bottle I got in 2020 or so. This is from the series of 46% heavily sherried (finished) Speyside Single Malt bottled by Alexander Murray for Costco. The 23 have been reviewed here: https://www.aerin.org/?x=entry:entry210108-212720 and 24 here: https://www.aerin.org/?x=entry:entry220215-215659 with mixed results. For the record, this particular bottling being written about now is supposedly the one that started the hype for the series. Let’s see how it compares.
Nose is malty, little spicy and sherry forward with nice dark stewed fruits, dried plums and perhaps some dried strawberries too. The palate is excellently velvety, pleasant and keeps solid balance between sweet and spicy without either one winning, sort of like roasted walnuts. Secondary notes spike up the spice and wood to surprisingly high levels, leading to long, sweet, baking spice notes, warming, charred fruit and vanilla compote aftertaste. Overall: This is an excellent everyday (heavily) sherried drinker, and totally justifies the hype it got. It’s an outstanding bottle from Murrays. I’ll note that there’s nothing in the glass here that screams 22 year old to me… but it’s no surprise with a heavy sherry finish will mask anything ‘odd’, as I’ve also noted very similar thing with the 24 year old… and that one was even older and objectively could have been better with more age. The rumor had it that this (unlike the later versions) was a Glenrothes which can be believed as a) Glenrothes takes to sherry like a champ b) It does have that sweet and nutty note that I’ve seen from the distillery… Though, please don’t buy this for the distillery name, as only for the contents of the bottle is what counts. Value: This was ~$70 which is a fairly solid price everything considering.
Score: B+

Balblair 15, 46%
This is a regular Balblair 15 that I happened to have a bottle of. This has been aged in american ex-bourbon oak casks and then finished in sherry… Full details and timing aren’t disclosed on the materials available to me at least. The nose is punchy and slightly sulfuric or iodine notes in there. Behind those are solid bourbon/sherry mix of notes as would be expected from the description. Velvety and quite punchy palate full of spice and sweetness, none of the weird notes here, spikes up with a tight spiral of more spice and sweetness that alternate into a medium length aftertaste that finishes malty sweet. An interesting note here is a light stainless steel metallic note in the secondary flavors and aftertaste but it’s almost like nut butter rather than a detriment. Overall: Delicious, full-flavored and well balanced malt. Perhaps a little too full-flavored as with repeated sips that nut roastiness is starting to border on bitterness. Value: The USA pricing for it varies but tends to be ~$110 or so currently; which is quite terrible value. Admittedly this is a solid pour but at $100 there are plenty of other solid pours and this is competing with Glendronach 15 which is ~$90.
Score: B+

Note: In side by side above… I found the Balblair is slightly better of the two because of better balance between malt, spice, and sherry making it a lot more interesting and dynamic vs Alexander Murray bottle. Neither of them are bad to be honest, and perfectly serviceable, especially with personal palate preferences easily could prefer one vs other.

Linkwood 13, Redacted Bros, 52%
A Linkwood bottling from 13 year old single cask by Thompson Bros at Dornoch Distillery, who likely for legal reasons are sold under ‘Redacted Bros’ label in USA. Anyways… Linkwood… I’m a fan of Linkwoods. This one was in Oak Casks for 13 years and one of 120 bottles. The nose is green apples, pears, vanilla, peach, some melons and citrus. Pretty much what you’d expect out of good oak cask. There are some hints on the website that this perhaps was a refill (refill) butt, which suggests sherry… but I dunno. It’s darn tasty and I’m not tasting much sherry here at all, instead this is got a bit of sauvignon blanc fruitiness going on there. The palate is loaded with sweet vanilla and fresh orchard fruits of the white and green variety, pears, peaches, green apples as well as more citrus. Really seems like a white vine in single malt wrapper. Aftertaste is gingery, peppery, and delicious if only medium length. Overall: This is excellent and continues fine tradition of solid offerings from Linkwood. I’m very happy consuming this. It doesn’t quite reach the wonders of Linkwood 37 but very few things do or will. Value: Sold for $69 this is good value.
Original: https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1555418
Score: A-

Courage & Conviction Cuvee SiB, K&L SP, 59.2%
This is Courage & Conviction (C&C) single casks picked for K&L that’s been aged in Cuvee cask which is pretentious way of saying ex-wine cask. In case of C&C they also make this an STR cask, which is a shorthand for Scraped/Toasted/Recharred… meaning renewed cask that was used previously. I’ll also mention the packaging here, which is ridiculously overwrought and looks all sorts of premium, metal cap top, magnetic cask badge, ribbon, premium looking tube and bottle. It sure looks good on the visual department. Let’s dig in.
Nose is rather intense with red wine fruits and very slight sulfuric note, likely from wine cask influence as it reminds of a dark red cab with all the plums. In this case the sulfuric note is more of a funk that you may get out of prunes. Some nuttyness on the nose too and of course toasted vanilla. Extremely flavorful and punchy on the palate, nearly overwhelming on the flavor notes intensity. That proof is also quite impactful even for a relatively ‘average’ single cask abv. Intense plums and prune compote on the palate, sweet vanilla, slight nuttiness, baking spices, cloves, nutmeg, burnt sugar. This is likely from the wood re-char and so I’m likely tasting a heavily toasted cask that this was aged in. The aftertaste slowly rolls down from the secondary notes of ginger and spices for a medium-long malty finish that’s quite even in its fading. With few drops of water to tone down the intensity this becomes much MUCH better. Water recommended. Overall: The sulfuric note only shows up in the nose and not anywhere else surprisingly, so perhaps I’m having a wrong association there. This bottling is extremely intense and flavorful but It’s so very different from what I expected, this really isn’t red wine ‘influenced’ but basically red wine wrapper around an American Single Malt and high proof. It also somewhat reminds of a Starward single casks but in an American execution, so bigger, bolder, perhaps with over-inflated military budget. This isn’t a delicate single malt, this isn’t even C&C regular stuff (which is proofed to 46% so there’s that) this is full frontal assault on the palate. Enjoyable? Yes. Everyday? No. With water? Yes. Value: Priced at $99 I’m a little torn but this is about average bracket on pricing, especially for a ‘good’ single malt as this well compares to whatever other cask strength US bottler produces, and they source…
Original listing: https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1615954
Score: B+ (A- /w Water)

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Scoring Breakdown: https://www.aerin.or … age=scores_breakdown