Whisky of the Week

Bain’s 15 year old Whisky

On 12/12/2022

The first time I tasted the Bain’s 15 year old whisky was about five years ago at The Only Whisky Show when Andy Watts had some in a beautiful decanter hidden underneath the table at his Three Ships stand.

It was love at first taste. I knew that this was what, for me, perfect whisky tasted like. Unfortunately, it took a year or so before it was released as a distillery bottling.

The Bain’s 15 year old whisky is the first in the Founder’s Collection series and pays tribute to Andrew Geddes Bain, who built the Bain’s Kloof Pass. More editions in the Founders collection include the Bain’s 18 year old PX Cask, Oloroso Cask, and Fino casks. The Bain’s range has also expanded with a 10 yo Shiraz cask and even a 21 year old Double Cask.

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Initially, only 2 000 bottles of the Bain’s 15 yo whisky was released in June 2018 for the Mandela Centenary celebrations and the special guests attending the Barack Obama speech and gala dinner.

Fortunately, the distillery released more bottles in travel retail and the James Sedgwick distillery shop. It retails for about R1000. I have also seen this bottle in duty free in Mauritius.

Bain’s is a 100% South African yellow corn single grain whisky. The Bain’s 15 yo started life similar to the standard Bain’s whisky with an initial maturation of 3 years in first fill bourbon casks before being re-casked for a further 2-3 years in a second set of first fill bourbon casks. Then for an additional 10 years of maturing in both 3rd and 4th fill bourbon cask before bottling.

Bain’s 15 year old Whisky Review

COUNTRY: South Africa

ABV: 52.5%

COLOUR: Golden amber

NOSE: Rich vanilla and tropical fruit. Banana and sweet pineapple with hints of toasted nuts, muscovado sugar and wood. A floral hints in the background with soft black pepper. Rich, inviting, and just perfect.

PALATE: Heaven in a glass. Tropical fruit salad sprinkled with vanilla sugar and freshly baked French palmiers. Creamy and sweet with hints of cinnamon, pepper and caramelised banana. Bits of toasted wood, dried fruit and marmalade in the background.

It needs no water and is perfectly drinkable, just like it is. More creamy vanilla and pepper come to the front if you want to add a few drops of water. Medium body and perfect for summer.

FINISH: Long and lingering with tropical sweetness, cinnamon and white pepper.

RATING: DIVINE

If I can take only one whisky with me to a desert island, it will be the Bains 15 year old whisky. It perfectly balances sweetness and spices but is light and ideal for island sunshine. The Bain’s have the perfect level of spicy vanilla sweetness balanced with wood and tropical fruit to keep me happy for a long, long time. A true masterpiece!

I have also tasted the Bain’s 15 year old Sonically Matured whisky and have captured my tasting notes for this release as well.

Dunville’s PX Cask 12 year old Irish Whiskey

By Jeannette Wentzel

On 12/05/2022

In Irish Whiskey

An Irish whiskey for me to try today. Dunville Irish whiskey is relatively new to South Africa, and I have not yet tasted anything from this Northern Ireland-based distillery. I received three different Danville samples from Truman & Orange, and I loved the packaging on this Dunville’s PX Cask 12 year old single malt Irish whiskey, so I decided to try it first.

The Dunville Company initially began as a tea and spirits merchant company based in Belfast, founded by John Dumville. He soon ditched the tea portion and became successful as an Irish whiskey blender, and in 1869 built his own distillery, the Royal Irish Distilleries. The distillery occupied an impressive four-storey red-brick building and was amongst the most modern in Ireland.

Prohibition in the USA caused Dunville to lose access to its most important market. And when the last heir and chairman of Dunville, Robert Lambart Dunville, died in 1931, the company was liquidated.

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In 2013, almost 80 years after the last Dunville’s spirits was distilled, the Echlinville distillery revived the Dunville’s brand and began distilling it at their farm distillery in the Ards Peninsula. Before they began distilling their own, they purchased spirits elsewhere and finished them in their own warehouse.

Dunville’s core range features the Dunville’s PX 12 year old single malt, Dunville’s Three Crowns Vintage blend and Dunville’s Three Crowns Peated – one of only a small handful of peated Irish whiskeys.

The Dunville’s PX 12 year old whiskey from Dunville’s Very Rare range has been matured exclusively in Pedro Ximénez casks.

Dunville’s PX Cask 12 year old Whiskey Review

COUNTRY: Ireland

ABV: 46%

COLOUR: Reddish gold

NOSE: Fresh-cut grass and pine needles with elegant pepper and bits of oak. Sultanas and sherry notes with a creamy undertone. Lovely and inviting.

PALATE: Baking spice and oak with dry fruit sweetness. Vanilla and hints of Christmas cake mixed with baked Granny Smith apples, lemon peel and black pepper. Medium body with a bit of alcohol heat.

The sherry comes through soft and elegant, and not overwhelming. It is lovely without water. Water softens the alcohol heat but also brings more pepper and pectin spice to the front.

FINISH: Medium length with drying oak and soft sherry and pepper notes.

RATING: EXCELLENT

The Dunville’s PX cask 12 year old single malt is smooth and delicious, and very drinkable. Complex enough to entice without losing the accessibility of Irish whiskey.

The Dunville’s range is brought to South Africa by Truman & Orange, a premium drinks company seeking to bring greater choice to the South African spirits landscape. They also have Highland Park, Sexton whisky and The Naked Range in their portfolio.

The Dunville’s whiskey range is available at WhiskyShop and Whiskybrother&Co and also online at Cutlerdrinks. They are also available via Amazon and retail for around £85.

Sample disclosure: I received this whisky from the Truman & Orange team. The review and tasting notes are my own honest, fair and independent thoughts about the whiskey.

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Laphroaig PX Cask Whisky

By Jeannette Wentzel

On 11/28/2022

In Single Malt whisky

It is my second Laphroaig I am tasting this year. Earlier in 2015, I tasted the Laphroaig An Cuan Mor whisky. The Laphroaig PX Cask Islay single malt Scotch whisky and the An Cuan Mor bottling are part of three travel retail exclusive releases from Laphroaig.

I notice that the PX Cask and the An Cuan Mor are now available more widely, even in South Africa.

The third bottle in this series is the Laphroaig Quarter Cask whisky. Laphroaig is a single malt Scotch whisky distillery on the beautiful Islay. It is named for the area of land at the head of Loch Laphroaig on the south coast of Islay.

The Johnston brothers founded the distillery in 1810 on what was originally a family-run farm. Laphroaig’s distinctive flavour comes in part from its vicinity to the coast and the high moss content of its peat, which is processed in the distillery’s floor maltings.

The Laphroaig PX Cask single malt whisky is matured in three types of cask. The spirit is aged initially in American oak bourbon casks and then in quarter casks before a final finishing period in ex-Pedro Ximenez sherry casks. It has no age statement, but looking at some of the comments on line, it seems that the release is at least 10 years old.

The three different casks give this Laphroaig PX bottling a flavour profile which ties together the classic, peaty Laphroaig smoke and the sherry sweetness. The distillery and brand are owned and operated by Beam Suntory, the American subsidiary of Japan’s Suntory Holdings.

We took this bottle with us on our escape to the Golden Gate National Park in the Free State. What more can you ask for, the mountains in the back and a Laphroaig in the glass in front of you?

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Laphroaig PX Cask Whisky Review

REGION: Islay

ABV: 48%

COLOUR: A wonderful old gold colour.

NOSE: Hints of sweetness, followed by the traditional smoke and peat that Laphroaig is known for. There are hints of raisins with bits of seaweed and nuts. The nose is a wonderful balance between the peaty Laphroaig notes and the sherry sweetness.

PALATE: This dram is something else. It is a riot of different tastes. There are smoke, Christmas Cake, oak, seaweed, peat and tar mixed with hints of a coal pit and some ash. Bit of spiciness floats around in between the bare hints of the sweet wine notes.

The sweetness is not overwhelming but also does not disappear in the peat. It has a beautiful balance. Water brings out more of the fruity sweetness and smooths out the peaty notes. But you need to add the water sparingly.

FINISH: Long and lingering with hints of tar, oak, hints of spice and ending in fruity sweet notes.

RATING: EXCELLENT

An amazing dram. I did not give this a Divine rating because the flavours seemed a bit disjointed. There are lots of flavours, but it is as if they did not spend enough time together in the last cask.

My regular readers would know, John loves his peaty whiskies while I prefer the sweeter, softer drams. But this peaty PX Cask Scotch blew us both away. We both loved it. The balance is perfect, and the sweetness makes the coal pit, ash and tar taste like something from heaven. Strange but true!

I paired this Laphroaig PX cask with coconut macarons for my New Years Eve celebration. I was hesitant to try this combination, but was pleasantly surprised when the Laphroaig paired beautifully with the sweet coconut.

The Laphroaig PX Cask release is rather expensive though. In South Africa, it retails for around R2400 and in the UK for around £110 on Amazon.

Laphroaig has also released a Port Cask Finish. It is not part of this specific series, but I have managed to taste the Laphroaig Brodir release as well as the Laphroaig Four Oak whisky as well.

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Woodford Reserve Rye vs Jack Daniel’s Rye

By Jeannette Wentzel

On 11/21/2022

In Whisky Comparison

Woodford Reserve Rye vs Jack Daniel’s Rye whiskey comparison
Today I do another side-by-side comparison using the Woodford Reserve Rye. The Woodford Reserve brand is part of the Brown Forman portfolio with Jack Daniel’s, GlenDronach and Benriach whisky.

There is not a rye whisky in the Brown Forman’s Scottish whisky portfolio (not yet anyway), but last year, I tried the Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Rye whiskey, which makes for a great comparison; Woodford Reserve Rye vs Jack Daniel’s Rye whiskey.

There are two significant differences between these releases. The mash bill between them is very different, and the Lincoln country process that is only part of Jack Daniel’s production.

The mash bill for the Woodford Reserve and the Jack Daniel’s differ considerably when you compare the percentage of rye that make up the mash bill. The Jack Daniel’s is rye heavy with 70% rye compared to the 54% of the Woodford Reserve whiskey.

The other difference is the maple charcoal filtration that characterises Tennessee whiskey and Jack Daniel’s. The Lincoln Country process is the process of filtering new make distillate through sugar maple charcoal.

The charcoal filtration allows some other flavours imparted by fermentation to shine through. The process doesn’t add flavours or sweetness to the spirit itself.

So let’s get to the two glasses in front of me.

Jack Daniel’s Rye Whiskey

Jack Daniel’s Rye whiskey with glass
The Jack Daniel’s Rye whiskey was released in September 2017 as a new addition to the standard Jack Daniel’s lineup. This Tennessee Straight rye is produced using a mash bill of 70% rye, 18% corn, 12% malted barley.

It follows the same Lincoln County Process that makes Tennessee whiskey unique. It is a NAS release. Like other rye whiskey bottles, the labelling is green in the familiar Jack Daniel’s square bottle shape.

Woodford Reserve Rye Whiskey

The Woodford Reserve Rye whiskey was launched in 2015 as the third permanent addition to the brand’s core range. Woodford Reserve Rye uses a pre-prohibition style rye ratio to pay homage to history’s original rye whiskeys.

The Woodford Reserve Rye mash bill is 53% rye, 33% corn, and 14% malt. It is a NAS release. The Woodford Reserve Rye bottle shape is similar to the Woodford Reserve bourbon, just with green labelling.

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Woodford Reserve Rye vs Jack Daniel’s Rye whiskey

Woodford Reserve Rye vs Jack Daniel’s Rye Whiskey

	Jack Daniel's Rye	Woodford Reserve Rye
Type	Tennessee Rye whiskey	Rye whiskey
ABV	45%	45.2%
Mashbill	70% rye, 18% corn, 12% malted barley	53% rye, 33% corn, and 14% malt
Colour	Light amber	Polished copper
Nose	Tropical banana, hints of dark chocolate and toasted oak. Cinnamon and sweetness.	Caramel sweetness, fresh green orchid fruit, cereal and toasted wood. The traditional rye spice notes with hints of black pepper.
Palate	Freshly baked banana bread sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. Drying cinnamon and nutmeg with hints of chocolate sweetness. Bits of oily wood and vanilla.	Rye spices mixed with fresh fruit, green grass and black pepper. Bits of honey and bourbon vanilla with a butterscotch note. Toasted oak, green herbs with bits of orange. Medium body that is soft and oily.
Finish	Black pepper, spicy cinnamon and oak spices.	Medium length with oaky notes, pepper and caramel sweetness. Something green in the background.
My Rating	Excellent	Excellent
Price point	$35	$40

This has probably been one of my favourite comparisons. I like both these rye’s, and to make sure we don’t get influenced by our preconceived ideas, we did a blind comparison.

However, because of the tropical notes that I associate with Jack Daniel’s Rye, it was relatively easy to pick it out from the two. The Jack Daniel’s is sweeter than the Woodford Reserve, but the rye notes were bolder. The Jack Daniel’s Rye has notes of dark chocolate, freshly baked banana bread, cinnamon and nutmeg.

The Woodford Reserve is not the boldest rye but has a great balance between the rye spice and sweet fruity notes. The rye notes were more green herby when compared to the Jack Daniel’s. The Woodford Reserve Rye brings notes of caramel, fresh green orchid fruits, green grass, toasted oak and pepper.

Choosing a favourite will be difficult. Both are in the affordable price range, and both are readily available. The Jack Daniel’s Rye retail for around £28 on Amazon and the Woodford Reserve Rye for about £38.

You might enjoy Jack Daniel’s Rye more if you like a sweeter dram with bold rye notes. Suppose you are looking for an easy-drinking rye whiskey with a softer spicy-sweet balance, then the Woodford Reserve Rye will be perfect.

Choosing a favourite is difficult. Both my bottles were finished quite quickly and have been replaced. I have a soft spot for the tropical and chocolate notes in the Jack Daniel’s and that will probably make me choose it ahead of the Woodford Reserve.

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GlenDronach 18 year old Allardice Whisky

By Jeannette Wentzel

On 11/14/2022

In Single Malt whisky

Time for an 18 yo Highland release, so today I am looking at the GlenDronach 18 year old Allardice single malt Scotch whisky. The GlenDronach opened its doors way back in 1826. A syndicate headed by James Allardes started the distillery, and it iss located at the Dronach Burn in the Deveron area.

Ownership changed frequently and nearly all the big whisky brands owned this distillery at one stage or another. Chivas Brother, Charles Grant and William Teacher and Sons left a mark.

BenRiach’s owners purchased the GlenDronach distillery in 2008. The new owners added a visitors centre and re-launched the old core range of 12 year old, 15 year old, 18 year old and GlenDronach 21 year old whisky releases. They also introduced a Peated expression to showcase their innovative streak.

In 2016 GlenDronach (and BenRiach Distillery Company) was purchased by Brown-Forman. The GlenDronach 18 year old release is named after the distillery’s founder, James Allardice. The current Master Blender is Dr Rachel Barrie.

This single malt release was matured exclusively in ex-oloroso sherry casks and was initially released in 2009. It is not chill-filtered and of natural colour.

GlenDronach 18 year old Allardice Whisky Review

REGION: Highland

ABV: 46%

COLOUR: Burnished mahogany

NOSE: A big and rich sherry bomb. So delicious with notes of Christmas cake and fresh red berries drizzled with sugar. Chocolate covered cherries and fudge with bits of cinnamon and vanilla. Something tropical in the background mixed with raisins and lemon peel.

PALATE: Brandy soaked Christmas cake sweetness, chocolate-coated nuts, stewed fruits and allspice mixed with rich sherry. Overripe figs with bits of dried orange peel, vanilla, fresh cream and pepper.

Perfectly balanced. Chewy and delicious. I finished my first glass without water. It was just perfect! Adding water releases a bit more complexity in the dram.

FINISH: Red berries and cinnamon sugar. Complex and long.

RATING: DIVINE

Just sublime! I have no other words. The GlenDronach 18 year old single malt leaves me speechless with wonder. This Scotch whisky is everything I could dream of in a whisky. Rich, delicious and perfectly balanced. Sherry sweetness, spices and fruity notes all work together to make something bold and smooth.

For me, with my sweet palate, it ticks all the boxes. I looked up at John to see his thoughts, and I could see he feels the same. Even though he prefers a peated whisky, this sherry bomb just bowled him over.

I loved the GlenDronach 12 year old release. I think the GlenDonrach 21 year old whisky should also make an appearance on my tasting lists quite soon. In South Africa the GlenDronach 18 year old Allardice single malt retails for around R1 600 and in the UK for around £180 on Amazon.

I have done a side by side comparison between the GlenDronach 21 yoParliament release and the 18 year old whisky to see how they rate next to each other.

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