Scotland Road Trip 2018 - Day One (Glasgow)
Back from Alba! After a 10-day journey to Scotland, including some Mecca-esque visits to our favorite distilleries, we're a little sad to be home and experiencing serious Hebridean withdrawal. Now I can see why Scotland is listed often as one of the most beautiful countries in the world (not to mention, on top of that, their creation of the best whiskies known to man).
This series is going to be a bit of a departure for me. Rather than do discrete bar reviews and whisky reviews -- quite frankly, there would just be too many to manage -- I'm going to give a quick recap of each day's whisky-related activities along with a little color about what we did. That's right: for the next few weeks, this is going to be a travel blog. One that will inordinately feature whisky tasting notes, of course.
Welcome to Scotland - Glasgow
Our trip began in Glasgow. Naturally, the first thing we did before embarking on whisky tasting was the consumption of heavy Indian food!
We grabbed a bite at Chaakoo, a lovely little cafe just a block or two away from our hotel, the Grand Central. Travel tip: our stay at the hotel was great, the rooms have impressive, high ceilings, and the hotel itself is a beautiful old historic building that once hosted major figures like JFK and Churchill. But be aware that it is right next to (or, really, part of) the main train station of Glasgow, as the name suggests, and at times you can hear the train arrival and departure announcements from the rooms of the hotel.
Chaakoo lived up to its reputation for cheap, delicious Indian food, albeit not the most authentic in the world. Their lunchtime menu included an "Indian-style wrap" that ended up basically being a spicy chicken wrap, accompanied by fries. The paneer skewer and chicken madras curry hit the mark a bit closer.
Good Spirits Co.
After lunch, we grabbed a quick catnap to recover from the redeye flight. My wife needed a bit more time to recover, so while she slept, I made my way to a well-reviewed whisky shop close by. I'd scoped it out online before arriving and grew excited when I saw that they had a bottle of Elements of Islay Lg7, a rare independent bottling of Lagavulin single malt (the schtick of the Elements series is that each distillery gets an element-like symbol, such as Lg for Lagavulin, and then the number indicates how many releases there have been from that distillery).
I was thrilled to find Lg7 there, as advertised, but I ended up finding a lot more than I bargained for. To wit:
Yeah, this place is pretty serious about its whiskies (out of courtesy to the Scots, I'll refrain from referring to their product as 'scotch' for the duration of these posts -- in Scotland, there is only 'whisky'). Good Spirits Co. may be the best liquor store I've visited in my trips around the world. Not only did it have a spectacular selection, but it had more than reasonable prices. If only I could transplant this shop and all of its keepers directly across the street from our place in Miami.
While, there, I had an opportunity to try some of the shop's exclusive single cask releases, which it receives from The Creative Whisky Co. While I was there, they were offering free tastings of two bottles: a 4-year old peated Bunnahabhain, and a 24-year old single grain whisky from Invergordon. So, without further ado, let's do some tasting notes!
Good Spirits Co. Bunnahabhain 4 (59.2% ABV) - I am stunned that this whisky is only 4 years old. But this offers a great lesson in the value of seeking out independent releases and single casks, especially from whisky shops that know what the hell they're doing. While whisky on average needs more time to mature than bourbon or other similar products aged in hotter climates, there is always going to be significant barrel-to-barrel variation. Some develop quickly and are ready to go after a few years, others may need a decade or more. Distilleries need to put out large volumes of uniform product, so it is difficult if not impossible for them to put out a spectacular 4-year old dram. Not so for an independent bottler who doesn't need to produce 10,000 bottles, and only needs to find that one "honey barrel."
This Bunnahabhain is somewhat deceptive; if tasted blind, I would never have guessed its origin. It tastes more like a youthful, vibrant Laphroaig to me. The nose is dry minerality, almost like the scent of dry stone or sand. The smoke that appears is spice-laced and piquant. The palate hammers home that spicy smoke and is a touch hot (this is only 4 years old and almost 60% alcohol, after all), but also has a strong punch of black cherry and medicinal flavor that is a Laphroaig signature. That medicinal note defines the finish as well. Perhaps the best part of this scotch was the price, as 50£ is a cut-rate price for any single-cask independent release. A-
Good Spirits Co. Invergordon 24 (48.2%) - Up next was a grain whisky a full 20 years older. This one was dark, especially for a single grain, a category that tends to feature light, airy flavors. This one was a classic grain whisky in its profile, albeit with some influence from its lengthy lifespan in a sherry butt. The nose led with vanilla frosting and just a hint of darker sherry fruit. The palate was a shapeshifter, with some sips tasting more like a bourbon with honey, simple syrup, and vanilla winning out, and others that screamed PX sherry stone fruits and tobacco. Vanilla and cream returned on the finish, and it slips away so slickly that I found myself checking my watch and wallet to make sure I hadn't been pick-pocketed. Grain whiskies tend to take longer to develop than single malts, and this one was plucked from the barrel at just the right time. A-
I ended up leaving Good Spirits Co. with three bottles: Elements of Islay Lg7, Elements of Islay CI8 (as one could probably guess, a Caol Ila), and a bottle of that scrumptious Bunnahabhain 4. I'd end up making that Bunnahabhain 4 my go-to hangout session dram throughout the rest of the trip, so it'll always have a fond place in my memory!
The Pot Still
The final stop of our first day in Scotland was The Pot Still, a world-famous whisky bar that boasts a selection of over 700 bottles of whisky. The Pot Still is the real deal, blending the aesthetic and vibe of an old-school English pub with an increased emphasis on whisky. Aside from being absolutely stacked with whiskies from all over the country, including rare and hard-to-find bottles, The Pot Still even had its own single-cask bottling of a sherried Speyside whisky on offer, in celebration of its birthday.
As with everything else in Glasgow, the bar also featured reasonable prices and a special price on a single malt of the month. Here's what we tried.
Benromach Peat Smoke (46%) - This is some impressive stuff for a peated Highland single malt! I generally haven't been overwhelmed with love for other peated Highland single malts I've tried because of the significant differences between Highland peat and Islay peat (which adds much more of those maritime flavors and richness). Highland peat, in contrast, tends to remind me of what happens when you throw fresh-cut wood onto a fire. It's more herbal in nature. For some reason, I don't have that problem with this release from the relatively unknown Benromach distillery. It reminds me a lot of Lagavulin 8 (think lemons, cereal grains, honey, smoke), although, if anything, it may have a superior finish that tastes like a latte or cappuccino blend of bitter, rich coffee and warm cream. This one is an underappreciated gem. A-
Glen Moray Classic Port Cask Finish (40%) - This one was the malt of the month and is an easy "quaffing" scotch. Not to be dismissive of it, but it's not the kind of dram that calls for being savored and pondered. It's a sweet, rich dram, and one of the least expensive out there thanks to its lack of an age statement and low ABV. The powerful sweetness recalled butterscotch at times, and cotton candy at other times. This is either a beginning-of-the-night dram, meant to ease the palate into more challenging scotches, or an end-of-meal dessert dram. It does pack a surprising amount of flavor given its dilution. B-
SMWS 29.178, "Bee-smoker on a pebble beach" (55%) - First vacation splurge mistake. We paid 18£ for this dram (after the first two were in the 3-4£ range), and I probably should have thought twice before saying yes after hearing that price. But I couldn't resist the chance to try a 20-year old Laphroaig from the usually reliable bottlers at the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. This was just a strange whisky through and through, albeit one that still had some of those signature Laphroaig pleasures. On the nose, there was the expected smoke, but also a distinct plastic scent, mingled with gum and caramel. The palate was very sweet for a Laphroaig, although I've often remarked that sweetness builds the longer Laphroaig ages. Here, however, it again has an artificial edge to it, like chewing gum. The finish of spicy, sharp, peaty smoke redeems this whisky a little, but not enough to justify the high price tag. If it was a 5£ dram, I might be more accepting of flaws. If nothing else, it does highlight a unique permutation of Laphroaig's distillate. C+
That wraps up the recap of our first day in Scotland. Coming up: the road to Islay!