#carn mor

[big-kahuno]

[whisky-surfer]

It’s been a while since i posted a bottle I bought. Don’t really know why, but this bottle is the perfect reason to start again :-)

It’s a Càrn Mòr North British single grain whisky, from their Celebration of the cask series. Aged for 23 years in a sherry hogshead. The angels left 58.3% alcohol and 168 bottles for us mortals. This one is numbered 98.

It is total bliss. Heavily sherried, but no bomb. Many layers..The best single grain I ever tasted. 

[big-kahuno]

[big-kahuno]

[maltrunners]

Caperdonich 24 Year (1995) Carn Mor "Celebration of the Cask"

Review by: The Muskox I’ve been very lucky to have a semi-regular flow of dead-distillery whisky delivered straight to my door. Caperdonich survived much longer than most of its counterparts, distilling all the way up to 2002. This cask was bottled for Whisky Fair Takao in Taiwan (hence the vaguely-sexy label). Distillery: Caperdonich. Bottler: Carn Mor. Region: Speyside. ABV: 56.6%. Cask…

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[maltrunners]

Imperial 27 Year (1989) Carn Mor "Celebration of the Cask"

Review by: The Muskox Like the other day’s Rosebank, his is another whisky my group picked for our “ghost distilleries” tasting. For a distillery that closed over 25 years ago, there’s still a fair bit of Imperial floating around (floating because it’s a ghost!) at auctions or even excellent (read: “European”) retailers. I’m still pissed that of all the Speyside distilleries that could have…

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[whiskytastings]

Review #189: Glentauchers 2010 5 yo Càrn Mòr Strictly Limited

46% ABV, natural colour, non-chill-filtered Distillery: Glentauchers Distillery, Speyside, Scotland Producer: Morrison & MacKay Ltd.

Glentauchers distillery was founded in 1898 by James Buchanan & Co, during the height of the whisky bubble at the end of the 19th century. Located in the north eastern part of the Speyside region, in the neighbourhood of Auchroisk and Strathisla, Glentauchers was designed and built under the supervision of the famed distillery architects Charles Doig & Son of Elgin. It was constructed by its founders to provide fill malt for the production of Buchanan’s Blended Scotch, one of the most popular brands of blended Scotch at the time. Due to its striking presentation in a dark glass bottle with a white label, Buchanan’s was frequently referred to as “the black and white whisky” by its drinkers, and Buchanan & Co adopted the name “Black & White” officially in 1902. The brand of course lives on to this day, nowadays under the ownership of Diageo. 

Despite the collapse of the Scottish whisky industry shortly after the distillery’s opening, Glentauchers survived the crash fairly unscathed and, following the merger of Buchanan’s with Dewar’s in 1915, the joint company Buchanan-Dewar’s was taken over by Distillery Company Ltd in 1925. DCL went on to become one of the precursors of today’s Diageo, that formed when DCL successor United Distillers merged with Grand Metropolitan in 1997. 

During the 1910′s, the distillery briefly experimented with continuous distillation of malt whisky, by adapting a pot still to have a constant influx of wash. The experiment was however abandoned shortly after, when tightened whisky regulations made it impossible to market the result as malt whisky. The distillery was renovated extensively in 1966, as well as expanded from two to six stills, and a few years later, in 1969, the on-site floor maltings were closed. 

In 1985 Glentauchers fell victim to the whisky slump of the 1980′s, and was mothballed by DCL. Deemed surplus to requirements by its owners, the distillery was sold in 1989 to one of the company’s competitors, Allied Distillers. Production resumed in 1992, and Glentauchers malt became a key component in Ballantine’s Blended Scotch. During that time, the only ever official release of Glentauchers, a 15 year old bottling, became available, but was discontinued again a few years later. Following the hostile takeover of Allied Distillers by Pernod Ricard in 2005, Glentauchers is today part of the Pernod Ricard stable, and its whisky continues to be used mostly for the production of blends. Although there are no official bottlings of Glentauchers available at the moment, there are quite a number of single malt releases by independent bottlers, particularly Gordon & MacPhail, who have acted as the semi-official bottlers in the past.

This bottling of Glentauchers single malt has been released by independent bottler Morrison & MacKay Ltd from Perth, Scotland. The company was founded in 1992 under the name John Murray & Co Ltd, and initially produced a Scotch whisky liqueur by the name of Columba Cream, before branching out into the trading of Scotch whisky. Today the company produces, beside a number of whisky and cream liqueurs, a blended malt whisky by the name of Old Perth, as well as the Càrn Mòr range of independently bottled single malt Scotch whiskies. The Càrn Mòr range itself is split into “Strictly Limited”, with mostly younger single cask as well as small batch bottlings, and “Celebration Of The Cask”, a more premium oriented range of older aged, numbered, cask strength single cask bottlings.

The Glentauchers in this review is from the Càrn Mòr Strictly Limited range. It was distilled in 2010, and bottled in 2015 as a 5 year old whisky. It was drawn from a single sherry puncheon that yielded 931 bottles. The whisky is bottled at 46% ABV, is not chill-filtered and natural in colour.

Eye: A plain looking and unostentatious clear glass bottle with all the important information on the label. The whisky is deep gold in colour. Nose: Quite pungent with camphor, conifer, sour cream, curry leaf, mandarin juice, morello cherry, dried apricot, raisins and yeast. Palate: Tart and sherry-forward with dried fruit, lemon and lime, red wine, furniture polish, dark chocolate, wood tannins and quite some spirity bite. Finish: Medium long with lasting tannins, cigar tobacco and a slight metallic note towards the end. Opens up nicely with a good splash of water. Verdict: For a five year old, this whisky really is phenomenal. Yes, there is a certain degree of immaturity, but the amount of flavour and complexity the sherry cask has imparted on the spirit in such a short amount of time is simply astonishing. It would be easy to mistake this for a 15 year old whisky. Plus, it ticks all the right boxes bottling wise. 84/100

[carissahickling]

Glentauchers 18 years (1996/2014) 2 casks 46%

Glentauchers 18 years (1996/2014) 2 casks 46%

I first flirted with Glentauchers as part of a set of 17 year old Ballantine‘s blends ‘featuring’ variations that focused on exploring the component distilleries. While an interesting experiment, nothing substitutes for experiencing a whisky in its single malt avatar.

Given nearly all Glentauchers goes into blends – primarily Ballantine’s and Teachers – this isn’t so easy to accomplish.

So I was…

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