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Hi, you're in the Archives, August 2007 - Part 1 |
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August
14, 2007 |
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| CONCERT
REVIEW - by Serge |
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JOE
COCKER
Foire aux Vins, Colmar, France,
August 11th, 2007
It’s
a wine region here, so we have a
huge wine
fair in the city of Colmar every
year in August, with all the fitting
overindulgences that you may guess.
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| The
most surprising part of that fair,
that is, are all the concerts that
take place every evening since fifty
years or so, often showcasing world
famous bands and singers, some of
them not hesitating to take a stroll
along the wine booths after their
shows (I’ll always remember
that evening when, while sipping a
gewuztraminer at one of the booths,
I suddenly noticed that the tall guy
with long hair and a strange accent
standing next to me was Robert Plant).
Of course we had many French-speaking
singers, such as Brel, Trénet,
Brassens or Aznavour, but also all
kinds of international artistes such
as Ray Charles, Pink Floyd, James
Brown, Chet Baker, Lou Reed, Dizzy
Gillespie, ZZ Top, Iggy Pop or Joan
Baez to name but a few. Yes, it’s
quite eclectic! This year the programme
is rather varied again, with interesting
gigs to choose from, including quite
a few old lags: The Chemical Brothers,
Norah Jones, Ten Years After, Mika,
Status Quo, Smashing Pumpkins…
And that good old Joe
Cocker, whom we never
saw live before, even if he already
performed at the Foire aux Vins seven
years ago. |
| So,
here we are for Joe Cocker, in the
so-called ‘coquille’,
a semi-open air concert hall that
can shelter up to 9,000 people. And
it’s full with a pretty eclectic
audience tonight, spanning several
generations. There’s the “With
a little help” generation, or
should I say “Woodstock”.
White hair if any, Lacoste polo shirt
(crushed raspberries seems to be quite
hot a colour this year, just like
last year, and the year before, and
the year before…) and heavy
cotton trousers, beige of course.
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| Then
the “Unchain my heart”
generation. Men, no style, women,
discotheque style, stamped 1988. And
finally the “You can leave your
hat on” generation, that is
to say just anybody, since ‘that’
movie is regularly rerun on television.On
stage it’s a large band. Drums,
percs, bass (a charming girl –
but why do so many bands hire female
bassists these days? Is the thin girl
- big guitar combo that hot?), guitar
(Gene Black, excellent, he does both
solo and rhythm and brings a more
rock and roll side to the whole),
tenor sax and accordion (good player),
Hammond organ, Fender Rhodes (I believe)
and two omnipresent female vocalists.
And, of course, Mr Joe Cocker, all
dressed in black and starting to look
more and more like a thicker Anthony
Hopkins. |
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They
are all as regular as clockwork from
the first song on (I think it’s
Chain of Fools) till the very end
of the set and the whole really sounds
like a studio album. Perfect tuning,
perfect voice, but everything is very
predictable and some passages are
too polished for my tastes, like that
schmaltzy “Up where we belong”
(from the movie Officer and Gentleman,
aaargh!) or a very reggae-ish “Summer
in the city”. Now, Joe Cocker
is in very good voice I must say,
doing his famous and obligatory shrieks
exactly like… err, at Woodstock.
Granted, the skilful backing vocalists
really support the whole almost permanently
but Mr Cocker, 63, hasn’t lost
a single bit of it despite all the
compulsory excesses he did in the
1970’s, of which all biographies
of any rock legends are full anyway
(whether dead or alive). |
| And
of course he does his trademark epileptic
body movements, forearms and hands,
playing with imaginary pianos and
guitars as if it was what he had preferred
to do in the first place – even
if I’ve read that he used to
be a drummer when he was a kid. |
| The
gig is sometimes really like a variety
show, despite the very heavy drumming
(no swing so it does not mean a thing)
and Gene Black’s rare guitar
solos, all very perfect (did I already
write that?). Little blues, little
soul and sometimes it all sounds like
a casino orchestra at 2am, especially
when the dreadful electric piano is
in action. It gets better with “N’oubliez
jamais”, the audience cheering
of course since there’s a few
French words in that song. Then there’s
that “You are so beautiful”
and all women in the audience are
overcome with love and sing the refrain,
which sounds quite horrible I must
say. And then it’s “I
put a spell on you”, a bit dull
I’m afraid, except for the guitar
solo (geez!) and the support of the
Hammond organ. The crowd likes it,
that is, and Joe Cocker says, “Thank
you Colmar, we’ve been on the
road for so long, 40 years!” |
Then
the backing vocalists start to sway
their hips… Yes, it’s
“You can leave your hat on”,
of course. Works like musical aphrodisiac
it seems, as the young couples in
front of us get closer to each other
after Madame had made languorous eyes
at Monsieur. Actually, all women in
the hall seem to think they are Kim
Basinger at this point, although the
male part of the audience doesn’t
seem to agree too much.
Then comes “The Letter”.
FM sound stamped 1995 this time, a
bit embarrassing but certainly less
than the almost pure disco sound of
“Unchain my heart” that
follows. I never liked that song.
They play it ponderously, which makes
it longer and more painful to my ears,
but the crowd stands up as one man.
They like it! There is a perfect moment
that is, which is the sax solo. Solos!
Actually, he sounds as if he is improvising,
but he probably isn’t. Improvising?
C’mon! |
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| And
finally, the grand moment a part of
the crowd has been waiting for since
the beginning of the show, “With
a little help from my friends”.
I must say he does this last song
of the gig perfectly, the famous two
screeches being perfectly executed,
and even if it’s a shortened
version it seems (not Woodstock’s
8 minutes), and doubling the tempo
at the end works perfectly. Yes, all
perfect now, and Joe Cocker’s
voice is superb I must say, maybe
it’s the Corona that’s
waiting for him backstage. |
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By
the way, we found on the Web a very
interesting list (well) of Mr Cocker’s
requirements to all concert organisers.
It reads; ‘Joe Cocker’s
dressing room: to be prepared by 6
pm. Food: 1 bowl of fresh, assorted,
uncut fruit (to include banana). Drinks:
ice chest with lots of ice, containing
only the beer. 4 litres of Evian water.
4 bottles of Gatorade (lemon lime),
8 cans of diet Coke, 8 bottles of
Corona beer. Beer to be iced at 6pm,
re-iced at 8pm and again at 10:45pm
(“Little Help”). Clean
cubed (not crushed) ice for drinks
– 8pm & 10:45, only beer
to be iced. After show: (approx. 10
minutes after the end of the show),
one serving of traditional Shepherds
pie, with a side of baked beans will
be required each show night after
the performance. To be advised by
the Tour Manager if needed. Fresh
clean ice for drinks after show.’
Well, all that plus what’s
to be prepared on stage (20 cans of
beer for the whole band, diet Sprite,
Evian, Gatorade and so on.) They are
heavy on drinks it seems! |
| But
it’s time for the first encore,
a song that I didn’t know -
quite good - and then “Cry me
a river”, where the drummer
sounds like if he was with the Spinal
Tap. The crowd cheers, so there’s
going to be a second encore, John
Fogerty’s beautiful “Long
as I can see the light”, from
Joe Cocker’s latest album “Hymn
for my soul”. A small part of
the audience hisses (pearls before
swine, *ssh*les!) but it really is
the best part of the show. I’d
love to go see Mr Cocker singing only
this kind of music, I’m sure
he would be brilliant. But like all
great musicians he’s probably
a prisoner of his repertoire… |
| «We
love you, keep rocking, we’ll
be back!» are Joe Cocker’s
last words before he leaves the stage
for good, and probably for more beer,
ending a true live encyclopaedia of
soul rock hits. Mrs Serge tells me
that she didn’t know that Joe
Cocker had created so many hits, so
I feel I have to tell her that what
we just heard was some Creedence Clearwater
Revival (-who?), and that
what we had heard before was some
Beatles (-ah!), some Julie
London (-who?), some Box
Tops (-who?), some Screamin'
Jay Hawkins (-who?), some
Aretha Franklin (-rings a bell!),
some Lovin’ Spoonful (-who?)
or some Buffy Sainte-Marie (-who?).
Yes, Mrs Serge isn't into rock and
roll. As for Joe Cocker, sure he delivered
(“a touching and sincere travel
though time” wrote the local
press), but again, we’d have
preferred something less polished.
Maybe less professional and less for
all public, in fact, just like what
he was probably doing in that Sheffield
pub where he used to play in the early
sixties. But that’s being a
bit too demanding I guess. Sorry.
- Serge |
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| Listen
to Creedence's beautiful original
Long
as I can see the light.mp3 |
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TASTING
– TWO 1997 HAZELBURNS
Hazelburn 8 yo 1997/2006 (58.4%,
Cadenhead's Bond Reserve, 288 bottles)
Colour: brown-mahogany.
Nose: powerful and starting all
on coffee, prunes and tangerine
liqueur. One of these new young
malts filled in heavily sherried
casks and that get almost black
within months. Pleasant smokiness
in the background, whiffs of paper
and cardboard, meat (barbecued beef).
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| Gets
seriously vinous after a moment, with
also hints of dried parsley. Faint
chemical notes arising after a few
minutes (ginger tonic, lemonade).
More and more cinchona, Campari, Schweppes…
And more and more gravy and oxtail.
Really thick on the nose but certainly
not uninteresting. Not unlike Loch
Dhu in a certain way, only much nicer!
Mouth: extremely strong, extremely
winey, as thick as it can get but
not really oily or fat. Pipe juice,
pudding… Clearly an infusion
of something, or a mixture of ristretto
coffee, Kahlua, chocolate sauce, plum
jam, cherry liqueur, soy sauce and
orange liqueur. Then you cook all
that to get even higher concentration.
What’s quite amazing is that
it’s quite drinkable, even sort
of pleasant. A little cranberry and
pomegranate juice brings a little
freshness to the whole. Finish: rather
long, still big and thick but getting
sort of cleaner, with something like
armagnac-soaked prunes remaining on
your palate. Extreme and interesting!
82 points. |
Hazelburn
1997/2006 (59.2%, OB, private bottling,
Specially bottled for Brewing &
Jahnel, cask #1037)
Colour: amber. Nose: much more elegant
I’d say, more restrained, with
the spirit character managing to come
through here (well, what I think is
distillery character). Shoe polish,
paraffin, roasted nuts… A little
smoke and again these bold meaty notes
after that (English brown sauce).
And now these ‘chemical’
notes again, but I wouldn’t
say it’s a problem at all here,
quite the contrary (tonic, bitter
orange liqueur, Campari and such).
Maybe kind of whacked globally, in
the sense that it’s anything
but classic whisky… Which deserves
at least polite applause I’d
say. Mouth: closer to the Cadenhead’s
but cleaner and, again, more elegant.
Very nice oakiness, lots of chocolate
(milk and bitter), more tannins that
gives it a better structure and kind
of nervousness… More fresh fruits
as well (oranges) – and more
spices (big notes of cloves and quite
some pepper). Good stuff I must say,
rather convincing, except if you don’t
like heavy whiskies. Long finish,
a little fresher than the Cadenhead’s,
cleaner… Good, whisky, good
cask. And still quite extreme. Only
problem, it’s hard to taste
anything else after these monsters,
except maybe a heavily sherried young
peat monster. Rollerball. 84
points. |
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August
13, 2007 |
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| PETE
McPEAT AND JACK WASHBACK in Saint-Tropez
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TASTING
– TWO HIGH OCTANE PORT ELLENS
Port
Ellen 24 yo 1982/2007 (59.6%, The
Whisky Fair, sherry butt, 509 bottles)
In a certain way, it’s great
to have a tempo di mierda these
days, that gives us the occasion
to try our most warming whiskies
right in the middle of summer. Colour:
white wine. Nose: phew, this is
extremely powerful! (nice notes
of golden delicious apples and lemonade,
though). So powerful that we’ll
add a little water right away. |
| Right,
this is definitely not a very smoky
and peaty Port Ellen. It’s more
on almondy notes as well as more apples,
apple skin, wet chalk, shoe polish,
a distant sherry (more echoes of it),
sultanas… The peat smoke is
more here as seasoning so to speak.
And always litres of lemonade…
Quite different from most Port Ellens
we’re used to but still great.
Mouth (neat): fab, really fab. Drinkable
if you take very small sips, all on
lemon, almonds, marzipan and all sorts
of smoked ‘things’ plus
notes of sultanas, probably from the
sherry (certainly no first fill, that
is). With water: same flavours, just
toned down. Lemon, marzipan, sultanas,
apples… The balance is perfect
and the whisky tastes somewhat like
if it had spent twenty years in glass
(typical OBE on old Islayers). Surprising!
Anyway, another very good, and very
interesting PE by Carsten and gang.
No wonder he’s a big PE collector.
Very solid – and valid –
cask selection. 91 points. |
| Port
Ellen 15 yo 1969/1985 (64.7%, G&M
for Intertrade)
A rather young Port Ellen from the
very first years since last reopening,
and at very high strength! Let’s
fasten our seatbelts… Colour:
pale gold. Nose: superb notes of roasted
coffee beans when holding my glass
at a good 10cm away from my nose as
well as newly cut apples and fresh
almonds but let’s not tempt
fate and add a little water…
Oh yes, it’s superb. All on
coal, peat, metal polish, tar (not
a very bold one, that is), mint, camphor…
Exceptional. Mouth (neat): hardly
drinkable at full strength but the
few ‘pearls’ I took into
my mouth revealed fantastic notes
of kumquats and pu-erh tea as well
as, again, marzipan. With water: censored
by the Anti-maltoporn police. Let’s
just add ‘lots of salt at the
long finish’ and ‘absolutely
stellar’. Ah, if only G&M
had not diluted whole stashes of 1969
or 1970 PE’s for their CC series
(and consorts) at the time…
But ‘other times, other realities’
I guess. 96 points. |
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August
12, 2007 |
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| TASTING
– FOUR BLAIR ATHOLS |
Blair
Athol 28 yo 1976/2004 (45%, Samaroli,
sherry wood, cask #7310)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: starts really
middle-of-the-roadish, on oak, apples
and faint hints of camphor. Gets slightly
winey and gingery after a while but
I’m afraid that there’s
not much else. Maybe hints of mint
and eucalyptus. Not much thrill. Mouth:
no, this one doesn’t do it for
me I’m afraid. Sort of dirty,
oddly gingery (ginger beer), cardboardy,
woody and bitter… A miss I think,
even if the finish is a little nicer,
sort of citrusy but still a little
sour (wood). 76 points. |
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Blair
Athol 27 yo 1976/2004 (50%, Douglas
Laing OMC, 172 bottles)
Colour: mahogany. Nose: this is sherry!
Toasted, roasted, raisiny, orangey,
delicately winey… Fab notes
of espresso after a moment, roasting
peanuts, chocolate cake that juts
came out of the oven… Then it
gets all on the finest orange liqueurs,
pipe smoke, a little tar, leather
polish… Brilliantly smoky and
toasted. It would be hard not to love
this one. |
| Mouth:
yes! Take everything above and add
notes of liquorice allsorts and red
currant jam and you get the picture.
Very entertaining and not thick at
all despite the strong sherry. I love
it. 91 points (and
thanks, Carsten). |
|
Blair
Athol 29 yo 1977/2006 (54.8%, Duncan
Taylor Rare Auld, cask #36852, 266
bottles)
Colour: gold. Nose: quite vibrant
but very buttery and vanilled, with
notes of wet wood, earth, oak, toasted
bread again… Winey again but
also a little sour, mouldy. It seems
that the wood and its previous content
took more than their share here, yet
it’s not too drying on the nose.
Mouth: much, much better now. Punchy,
oaky but nicely, very peppery and
gingery, I’d say it’s
a very good oak tisane. Good sweetness
and lots of spices (cloves, ginger
of course, something like paprika…)
Lots of zing even if the distillery
itself hasn’t got much to say
here. It’s all a matter of cask
it seems. 83 points. |
| Blair
Athol 30 yo 1976/2006 (54.9%, C&S
Dram Collection, cask #7312, 132 bottles)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: underwhelmingly
woody and silent at the same time.
The Samaroli at cask strength (please
see above). Nose: same plus notes
of rotting oranges, bubblegum and
sour wood. Well, it’s drinkable
whisky but we’re expecting a
little more from a 30yo SMSW. 75
points. |
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August
11, 2007 |
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TASTING
– TWO MACDUFFS
Macduff
12 yo (40%, James MacArthur, late
1980’s) 
Colour: pale straw. Nose: plain
weird, on glue, varnish, plastic,
vinegar… Artichokes? Asparagus
cooking water? Cabbage? Mouth: as
weak, beerish (and bearish) and
cardboardy as it can get. Not too
far from a disaster. Finish: none,
which is rather good news. One of
the very few real misses by this
reputable bottler (the same that
bottled maybe the best Port Ellen
and Caol Ila ever, imagine). 30
points. |
Macduff
16 yo 1991/2007 (59.6%, The Single
Malts of Scotland, cask #6731, 180
bottles) 
Colour: straw. Nose: this is bizarre!
Really powerful but starts on asparagus
almost like the 12 yo. Also quite
some cut cactus, cooked artichokes
again, tinned palm hearts… Really
on vegetables, which is sort of funny
and very unusual to say the least.
I must confess I’m not familiar
with Macduff (or Glen Deveron), so
maybe that’s the distillery’s
profile. Oh, did I mention turnips?
But maybe water will make it change…
Well, it got mashier and also a little
more cardboardy, with also notes of
ginger and wet hay. Mouth (neat):
sweeter and fruitier, hot and punchy
but not aggressive, more on tinned
pineapples, oranges, malt and liquorice.
With water: it got really enjoyable,
even if a little simple. Nice notes
of yellow peaches. The tinned pineapple
is still very present. Finish: rather
long, fruity and spirity, quite clean
in fact. ‘No vegetables’
(sounds like a Frank Zappa tune).
All these vegetables on the nose are
really funny, hence my 78
points for this interesting
whisky. Good idea to bottle this as
an example of something very, well,
vegetal (but only one the nose). |
| MUSIC
– JAZZ - Recommended
listening: something different for,
well, a change, it's the great baritone
saxophonist Claire
Daly and a bunch of friends
playing Theme
for the Eulipions/ What We Got Against
Tyranny.mp3 (with Napoleon Maddox
being the human beat box and Kirpal
Gordon on 'spoken word'). I like that,
please buy Claire Daly's music. |
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August
10, 2007 |
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| PETE
McPEAT AND JACK WASHBACK in Saint-Tropez
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| TASTING
– THREE OLD DALMORES |
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| Dalmore
25yo (43%, OB, 1970's)
Colour: full amber. Nose: superbly
sherried, nutty, smoky and fruity
albeit quite dry at first nosing.
Extremely elegant, well-matured, developing
on dried oranges and unlit cigarettes,
then old leather, hot roasted chestnuts
and hints of old rancio and ham. Game
(wild boar terrine). Also dried mint
leaves, a little camphor and quite
some quince jelly. Not really big
actually, all restraint and elegance.
Mouth: quite punchy! Slightly oily
mouth feel, then loads of bigarreaux
cherries, raspberry jam, fruit ganache…
It gets then nuttier and more honeyed
(honeyed cashew?) but the sherry remains
quite strong even if it’s all
perfectly integrated. Finish: medium
long but beautifully dry, quite salty,
toasted, pleasantly coffeeish. A wonderful
old sherried malt that’s still
got lots to tell us. Very salty aftertaste.
90 points. |
Dalmore
33 yo 1973/2006 (45%, OB, Cabernet
Sauvignon Finish, 1000 bottles)
It’s not that often that we
microwave PR stuff from the industry
but we’re happy to report that
this one was transferred on the 11th
of July, 2006 to Chateau Haut Marbuzet
Cabernet Sauvignon wine butts (uh?)
to provide The Ultimate Finish (ah!).
There are real gold leaf stag heads
gilded onto bottle, packaged within
a walnut embossed presentation box
(wow!) I’d add that sources
vary on the previous wood, a famous
retailer in England talking about
American White Oak whereas another
famous retailer in Scotland ‘prefers’
second fill Oloroso sherry butts.
Maybe it was both? Dalmore’s
website doesn’t know of this
bottling yet, that is. It is also
to be noted that Haut-Marbuzet (with
an hyphen, guys) is a well reputed
St-Estèphe, albeit only a Cru
Bourgeois (not a Cru Classé). |
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| The
price of Haut-Marbuzet
as ‘primeur’ for a 2006
is 25 Euros a bottle (Mouton or Margaux
are priced at 450 Euros a bottle,
just to give you an idea). No, no
ideas about Pétrus yet. But
that’s enough wine prattle (but
they started it first ;-)), let’s
try this fantamagnibulous new Dalmore…
Colour: dark amber with orangey/reddish
hues. Nose: no wine, rather ultra-bold
notes of varnish to start with, getting
then slightly minty and camphory.
Goes on with even bolder notes of
old rum (really, it smells more of
rum than whisky), incense, sandalwood,
guignolet (cherry liqueur) and finally
vanilla crème and arranged
rum (dark rum with sliced bananas
and pineapples). Gets a little less
extravagant with time but also very
slightly beefy. No odd winey note
that I can get, the whole being a
success on the nose I think. Mouth:
we have the same heavy woodiness at
the start, with these varnishy notes,
lots of tannins and toasted bread,
huge notes of liquorice sticks. Also
bitter chocolate, unsugared black
tea, cinnamon… We’ve also
got a little more wine here but it
doesn’t stay apart at all (big
notes of blackcurrant leaves)…
The finish is very long but very oaky,
still sort of varnishy, tannic, drying…
Yet, all that wood sort of works here,
but you have to like this style. You
can feel that something unusual happened
to this old whisky! 87 points. |
|
Dalmore
35 yo 1965/2000 (53.1%, Big Market
Berlin, 130 bottles)
Colour: gold. Nose: exactly the opposite!
The same kind of varnishy, woody notes
actually but with less balance and
less extravagance. Gets better with
time, that is, with notes of earl
grey tea, cut grass, herbal teas,
mint… Faint soapiness, or is
it something like fusel oil? Rubber?
Also a little camphor, but it’s
a very discreet oldie. With a few
drops of water: not only it’s
still very woody, but it got watery
at roughly 45%, as if the spirit had
vanished. Strange… Mouth: extremely
woody and tannic, and it is not pleasant
here. Hints of bubblegum and marshmallows
but the tannins (of a very peppery
sort) really dominate the spirit.
With water: no-no. Finish: not long,
dry, tea-ish. Drinkable but not really
enjoyable. On the wane when it was
bottled I think. 70 points. |
| MUSIC
– Recommended listening:
in the mood for some true Cuban salsa
in the good old Fania tradition? Oaky,
let's listen to Estrella
Acosta singing Camina
y ven.mp3 then (I think that's
the name of the song - not sure).
Please buy her music... |
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August
9, 2007 |
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CONCERT
REVIEW by Nick Morgan
JAMES HUNTER AND HIS BAND
The Jazz Café,
Camden, London, August 1st 2007
Summer’s
come to London – or to be
more accurate London’s gone
in search of the summer. The place
feels deserted – empty early
morning streets, desolate school
playgrounds, spare seats on the
trains. This seasonal exodus is
the only reason I can think of to
explain the fact that the Jazz Café
is only about two thirds full for
this first of two nights of the
superb James
Hunter and his band.
Hunter’s album. ‘People
Gonna Talk’, was one of the
highlights of 2006, and it earned
him a Grammy nomination for Best
Blues Album. It also topped the
Billboard charts in the US. It’s
a brilliantly constructed piece
of 1960s style R&B – think
Sam Cooke and you wouldn’t
be too far from the spot –
recorded at Liam Watson’s
Toe
Rag Studios, which specialises
in using analogue recording equipment
(Watson also hosted the White Stripes
for Elephant). The result for Hunter
is perfect – too perfect for
some, who accuse him of being a
nostalgic imitator with little original
talent. Not fair I would say –
there’s a real contemporary
verve about the record and the songs,
all original compositions, are witty
and pleasingly lyrical (“Strike
me dead if I don’t love you,
and I’d be damned if I do”).
Hunter’s been around for years
– he’s 43 so fame has
taken some time to arrive, a reward
for persistence. One of his former
incarnations was as ‘Howling
Wilf and the Veejays’, and
he was also well known on the busking
scene in London before the early
nineties when he was taken under
the wing of Van Morrison, with whom
he performed for a number of years.
Having got his band together the
album emerged as a result of their
playing at a private party thrown
by a friend in New York. Fortune,
it is said, favours the brave. |
| He
hits the stage like a rod of lightning
(what do they put in the dressing
room tea these days?) and spends the
rest of the evening working through
the album’s fourteen songs,
throwing in a few old ones along the
way. The band are as tight as a …
well, uncharacteristic sensitivity
prevents me from completing the metaphor
– but they are. Drums, double
bass, keyboards, and on tenor and
baritone sax the Barlinnie Twins –
Damian Hands and Lee Badau –
a heady combination of note to note
perfection. |
|
 |
| Hunter
rasps out his vocals and plays with
an absurd guitar technique –
trying to be both rhythm and lead
at one and the same time. It looks
ugly – all fingers and thumbs
– but sounds fantastic. Afterwards,
not quite an interview, I ask “James.
Thinking about your guitar technique,
it’s highly idiosyncratic, very
unusual, and frankly probably not
what people expect to see. What made
you play the guitar like that?”
“Mental illness” he replied. |
|
Well, our guests, Big Bobby and Little
Claire are going mental at the vibe.
The house is rocking – Hunter’s
doing old-time Mississippi guitar
tricks and even playing that Gibson
with his teeth - and it feels like
this is what a summer’s night
really ought to be. You should catch
Mr Hunter if you get the chance, and
at worst you should buy the album.
Whiskyfun readers in the United States
– he’s heading your way.
Treat him with the respect he deserves.
- Nick Morgan (photographs by
Kate) |
| Thank
you Nick, I must confess that I had
never heard of Mr Hunter before. Thanks
for having drawn our attention to
his music (aren't there a few rocksteady
influences somewhere?) of which we
have several great examples on his
MySpace
page. - S. |
| EBAY
BUYERS BEWARE! |
 |
| These
lots have just been sold on eBay!
We can’t imagine anybody being
crazy enough to hand out 141 Euros
plus postage (yes) for eight empty
bottles of whisky, so we’re
quite afraid that they will reappear
one day… But full! So you may
prefer to ask for close-up pictures
of the necks and capsules if you spot
any of those at future auctions, and
maybe tend to buy only what’s
delivered with original boxes (thanks
Luc). While I’m at it,
if you ever get broken bottles via
courier or the post, don’t forget
to check if the corks or screwcaps
are still ‘unviolated’.
If they aren’t, it’s probably
a forgery (either the liquid was stolen
during transportation, or it wasn’t
there in the first place). Mad, mad
world… |
 |
TASTING
– THREE NEW 1970 GLEN GRANTS
BY DUNCAN TAYLOR
Glen
Grant 36 yo 1970/2007 (45.7%, Duncan
Taylor Rare Old, cask #3493)
From a bourbon cask, distilled in
May. Colour: gold. Nose: wow, this
is uberfruity! Loads of peaches,
melons, apricots, gooseberries…
And then the oaky counterpoint,
all subtle, that mingles with the
fruitiness after a few seconds,
with an added layer of fresh herbs
(a little dill, a little mint).
Superbly simple and simply superb.
We’re more used to old heavily
sherried Glen Grants but this one
may prove that it might sometimes
be a shame. Mouth: we had feared
the oak would have killed the fruitiness
but it’s nothing of the sort.
All on white fruits (pears, ripe
apples, peaches) and soft spices
(white pepper, cinnamon), with much
more oomph than expected. Finish:
long, getting spicier, more peppery
but never drying, with funny muscaty
notes in the aftertaste. In short,
probably not the most complex old
malt but at 36 years it’s
still perfectly steady on its feet.
And what a nose! 91 points. |
Glen
Grant 37 yo 1970/2007 (49.7%, Duncan
Taylor Rare Old, cask #3490)
A sister cask of the previous one.
Colour: gold (slightly paler than
cask #3493). Nose: well, this one
is more directly marked by the oak
and starts more on vanilla, coffee,
lactones and cinnamon as well as hints
of cloves and nutmeg. Gets spicier
and spicier with time but the fruitiness
never makes it through those spices
from the wood. So, it’s extremely,
and unexpectedly different from its
ex-neighbour but certainly not less
good. Maybe a tad less interesting.
Mouth: we’re closer to its sister
cask now. The extra 4% make it punchier,
that is. Also a bit spicier and woodier
again in fact (more nutmeg). Finish:
longer but woodier, still not really
drying that is. Excellent again but
maybe a bit less interesting. 88
points. |
| Glen
Grant 37 yo 1970/2007 (49.7%, Duncan
Taylor Rare Old, cask #861)
Distilled in Februray
and filled into sherry wood it seems.
Let’s do our maths, cask #861
in February, cask #3490 in May, that
should mean that Glen Grant filled
2,600 casks within 3 months in 1970.
I know, not that we care too much…
Colour: mahogany. Nose: ho-ho, once
more, this is completely different.
Starts on beautiful coffee and cocoa
notes, antiques shop, ‘good’
varnish, roasted nuts and develops
on more resinous and slightly minty/camphory
notes. Little vinosity, no sweetness,
it’s all on dry coffee and I
like that. Very elegant. (slight smokiness
and meatiness after a moment, very
discreet). Mouth: yes yes yes, another
great old sherried Glen Grant even
if the attack is a bit more jammy/winey
than the nose. Blackcurrant jelly,
strawberry jam, orange marmalade,
sugared coffee (slight acidity). Faint
hints of rubber. Gets seriously resinous
after a moment (Retsina). Finish:
very long, still on blackcurrants,
both oloroso and PX sherry, liqueur-filled
chocolate… Maybe a bit heavy
at this stage in fact but the whole
is just another excellent old sherried
Glen Grant. Just keep them coming!
90 points. |
| |
August
8, 2007 |
|
|
| PETE
McPEAT AND JACK WASHBACK in Saint-Tropez
|
| TASTING
– FOUR JURAS |
 |
| Isle
of Jura 1989/2006 (43%, Private Cellar
Collection)
Colour: straw. Nose: very sweet and
very malty, quite buttery and extremely
fruity (banana crème, orange
cake). There’s a distinct smokiness
in the background, maybe it was one
of these ex-Islay casks they use sometimes
on Jura, and that can impart quite
a smokiness to the whisky. Other than
that this one is also a little toasted.
Hints of cigarette tobacco. Harmless
but very pleasant I must say. Mouth:
very coherent, extremely malty and
cereally again (like if you ate a
whole box of (no brand name, thanks).
Add to that a few sultanas, very ripe
bananas again, marzipan-stuffed dates
(I know, I know) as well as dried
figs and you’ll get a very enjoyable
dram. Nice honey as well. Finish:
rather long, just as cereally and
candied. Most funnily, this is an
IB that tastes like an OB, whatever
that means. Not big but perfectly
composed. 84 points. |
| Isle
of Jura 16 yo (40%, OB, circa 2006)
A very funny rather new bottle! First,
on the neck label there’s a
stamp stating that the bottle is from
the ‘Vintage Collection’
(but there no vintage stated whatsoever)
– ha, magic words! – and
on another small label they write
that it’s ‘distilled in
paradise’. We agree much more
on this… ;-). Colour: gold-orange
(the colour of c……l).
Nose: slight soapiness right at first
nosing but then we have more or less
the same whisky as the 1989, just
with a little more caramel and something
maybe a little too candied or rounded.
Good spirit. |
 |
| Mouth:
I decided to try this one in second
position because of the darker colour
(silly me) but it’s a little
weaker than the 1989 actually, even
if the heavy notes of treacle toffee
sort of lift the whole. It’s
also quite malty again, candied, toasted
(toasted cake), honeyed… The
caramelly notes are a little too much,
that is. Also lots of peanut butter
and maple syrup. Finish: not too long
but very candied again, toffeeish,
jammy… and extremely malty.
I like a little more freshness in
my Jura, but isn’t paradise
sometimes represented as a candy shop?
81 points. I like the 21yo
much better (85). |
Isle
of Jura 1988/2007 'The Delmé-Evans
Select' (59.98%, OB, Oloroso, cask
#1796, 757 bottles, Feis Ile 2007)
Mr Delmé-Evans was the manager
and architect who designed the new
distillery. I’m sure he did
worst things in his life. The whisky
came from American white oak (is that
bourbon?) and was re-racked from into
a European oloroso sherry butt (is
that finishing?). Phew… Colour:
mahogany. Nose: starts on loads of
porridge and loads of caramel. Very
heavy and very spicy – and rather
oddly perfumy I must say. Yoghurt
sauce, caramel crème…
And quite some sulphur I’m afraid
(but some like it sulphury). Rather
thick and, I must say, hard. Mouth:
rough, thick, vinous… I’d
say ‘cloying’ even if
that may be too strong a word. Other
than that all the very mashy notes
are well here behind that heavy mask.
Let’s stop it here because sincerely,
this is too much for my taste. I feel
this ‘treatment’ is excessive
and I doubt that even a young Ardbeg
would have survived under these conditions.
Too bad, we’ve had many great
sherried Juras before, and I’m
sure we’ll have many other ones
in the future. But this one doesn’t
really click for me (especially at
£95). 69 points. |
| Isle
of Jura 1975 (60.9%, OB, Matthew Forrest
Collection, cask #2620, 192 bottles,
circa 2002)
Matthew Forrest was specialised in
sourcing ‘official’ casks
for the Japanese market. I think it’s
him who revealed the famous very young
peated Juras to the world. Colour:
straw. Nose: this one starts all on
grass and coffee and that may well
be the high alcohol. Also whiffs of
wet newspaper of the day (lots of
ink) and shoe polish, but it’s
a bit pungent, let’s add water
right away. An extreme saponification
takes place. In case you don’t
know yet, sometimes adding water to
whisky will create smells of soap
(and heat) so it’s better to
wait a bit before you go on with your
nosing, as those smells should quickly
vanish. That’s exactly what
happens here, leaving room for more
rather beautiful fresh fruits (now
I get mangos, papayas, quinces) as
well as something very coastal such
as very fresh fish, very fresh oysters,
kelp… Also quite some fresh
almonds. Keyword: fresh, you got it.
And superb. Mouth (neat): extremely
powerful but also hugely fruity (various
apples including their skins, grapefruits),
getting very citrusy, sharp like a
blade, acrid in a nice way. This one
really fires on all (twelve) cylinders,
but it’s a bit too untameable.
With water now (at roughly 45%): oh
yes, it got even more citrusy (always
these lemons and grapefruits but also
tangerines and oranges). Beautiful
notes of Turkish delights (not the
ones for cheap tourists), mangos again,
then soft spices (cloves as often
with Jura, although we know that should
come from the wood, not from the spirit)…
Truly superb. Finish: long, on roughly
the same style except for an added
saltiness. A great ‘naked’
Jura, extremely classy. Good work
Mr Forrest. 91 points
(and thanks, Patrick S.) |
 |
SHOPPING
– I shop, therefore I am! That’s
what the buyer of this roughly 6 year
old Ley .925 tequila may be allowed
to claim as the price for one bottle
is… Well, we don’t know
exactly as Ley
.925’s website
says this
USD’s?
Euros? Better decide quick as it’s
not just a tiny difference anymore.
Anyway, we all thought the Scots were
going for premiumisation but it seems
that they are really left behind here. |
So, are you into tequila? Here are
all details: hand-blown glass created
by 32 Mexican craftsmen - Bottle capacity:
1.2 litres (1,200 millilitres) - Covered
with 18 microns of pure Sterling silver
.925 and an anticorrosive varnish.
- 4 Kilogrammes of pure Platinum -
Sterling .925 - 6,000 brilliant-cut
diamonds 1 to 30 points “D”
quality, purity DEF/VVS /VS - Tequila
Quality: Extra Aged, 3, 6 & 9
years blended in cured barrels personally
supervised by Fernando Altamirano,
Tequila Ley .925 CEO - Alcohol: 42%
/ 84 proof - Black leather and jute
case with white stitching, black chamois
leather inside with the Tequila Ley
.925’s logo in the centre of
a white gold blazon. Approximate weight
of bottle with Tequila content is
8 Kilogrammes.
Sorry, no tasting notes... |
MUSIC
– Recommended listening:
today
it's going to be the great late
Katie
Webster and her powerful
voice singing I'm
bad.mp3. Please buy her music. |
 |
| |
August
7, 2007 |
|
|
| TASTING
– SIX BEAUTIFUL LONGMORNS |
 |
| Longmorn-Glenlivet
12 yo (40%, Gordon & MacPhail,
licensed bottling, ‘Finest Highland
Malt’, 1980’s)
As you may know, I’ve got a
few old books about whisky and in
‘The Whiskies of Scotland’
by R.S.J. McDowall, published 1967,
the author wrote about Longmorn, ‘The
whisky, sold at 70° proof, has
perhaps not the rich flavour of Smith’s
Glenlivet or Macallan’s but
it has an outstanding bouquet worthy
of a brandy glass after dinner. A
mixture of these whiskies with Longmorn
with perhaps a dash of Clynelish makes
what is probably the best possible
drink in the world.’ We’ll
try that one day! But back to this
‘single’ Longmorn…We
already had the ‘Pure Malt’
version of this 12yo by G&M, that
we liked a lot (87). Colour: gold.
Nose: a perfect combination of apple
juice, freshly squeezed oranges, malt,
honey, yellow flowers (buttercups,
dandelions) and whiffs of wood smoke.
Quite superb, very fresh, clean and
complex. Mouth: yes! Granted, it’s
no bold whisky but it’s got
quite some oomph, starting again on
orange juice and honey and developing
on figs, dates, cereals, roasted nuts,
with a rather huge and enjoyable maltiness.
Again something smoky on top of that
and also quite some oak. Finish: quite
long, on malt and honey, with hints
of salt. The palate is maybe less
complex than the nose but the whole
makes for a rather perfect dram. I’m
a fan of this version. 87
points. |
| Longmorn
15 yo (43%, OB, 1980’s)
Colour: gold. Nose: extremely close
to the 12yo, with just added hints
of shoe polish and metal, and maybe
a faint soapiness and a little cardboard.
Mouth: rounder, creamier than the
12yo, with certainly more body and
it’s not only the added 3% alcohol.
Also a little more oak and spices
(I get quite some nutmeg and cinnamon).
Dried oranges, toasted bread, cereals,
old walnuts… Truly classic.
Rather long finish, very malty, maybe
just a tad too drying (slightly tannic
aftertaste). Very good again, maybe
a tad less pleasurable (and drinkable)
than the 12 yo. 86 points. |
| Longmorn
30 yo 1973/2004 (51.1%, Duncan Taylor,
bourbon, cask #8919, 137 bottles)
Colour: straw. Nose: less demonstrative
than the old youngsters but certainly
subtler at first nosing, starting
on a rather delicate mix of vanilla
crème and Longmorn’s
trademark fruitiness (butter pears,
not too ripe bananas). But it’s
also very floral just like them (dandelions,
nectar), with also notes of oriental
pastry (baklava, honey, orange blossom
water) and whiffs of incense. Maybe
a little musk, old roses… Quite
beautiful even if, again, not really
wham-bam. Mouth: all fruits and spices!
Again these bananas and tangerines,
Chinese anise, cinnamon… A little
fructose. Goes on with rose jam, gewürztraminer,
eucalyptus honey… More demonstrative
on the palate than on the nose. Loads
of pleasure. Finish: medium long but
still very fruity, with a whispering
oak and just hints of soft curry.
Keywords: fruits and pleasure. 90
points. |
| Longmorn
31 yo 1976/2007 (54.1%, The Whisky
Fair, bourbon hogshead, 131 bottles)
Colour: gold (slightly darker than
the 1973). Nose: it is from a bourbon
cask, yet I get something like sherry
at first nosing, which sometimes happens.
Other than that, I’d say it’s
a slightly rougher and oakier version.
We have the same expressive fruitiness
(maybe a tad more on oranges here),
yellow flowers, various honeys, quite
some vanilla… And then, as said,
the oak with it’s spicy cortege
(cinnamon, nutmeg, white pepper, hints
of cloves). Classic but I feel maybe
it’s got a little more to tell
us, let’s ad a few drops of
water to it. Right, it got more complex
indeed, with added notes of rosewood,
pear skin, leather, even a little
pine resin. Fab. Mouth (neat): just
great now! Perfect balance between
the usual huge fruitiness and the
oak (and the spices). Ripe gooseberries,
butter pears, papayas and melons mixed
with ginger, pepper and cloves. Just
excellent. With water it got added
notes of various herbal teas (I get
mostly hawthorn and rosehip). Finish:
longer than the 1973’s, probably
thanks to the oak. Even better and
anything but tired at 31 years of
age. One of the winners of The Whisky
Fair’s latest batch of bottlings
I think – this is why we’re
into whisky. 92 points. |
| Longmorn
1973/2003 (55.8%, Gordon & MacPhail
‘Cask Collection’, cask
#3240)
From a first fill
sherry hogshead. Colour: deep amber.
Nose: as the Belgians would say, ‘whauhhh!’
– or something like that. Starts
on an extraordinary blend of pipe
tobacco (like Dunhill’s famous
early morning pipe – I prefer
early morning whisky), old leather
and orange or tangerine liqueur. Develops
on hints of oyster sauce and old cognac,
getting sort of more winey with time.
Also big notes of dried figs (and
good arrak). All that is ultra clean
despite what you make think. Really
brilliant. Mouth: an astounding fruitiness
mixed with all sorts of nuts, both
roasted and fresh. Also toasted brioche,
coffee-flavoured toffee and old Banyuls
and Rivesaltes. Notes of old rancio,
definitely. Maybe just a tad drying
and tannic at some point. Finish:
long, bold, candied, honeyed, nutty…
In short, truly very excellent. Too
bad it’s a bit drying on the
palate, otherwise I’d have rated
it even above 91 points.
The nose was stunning. (And thanks,
Fabrice) Attention, wrong picture,
it's a "white label" not
a green one (thanks, Govert!) |
| Longmorn
18 yo 1971/1990 (58.1%, Antica Casa
Marchesi Spinola)
This series is an intriguing one.
Some versions are really underwhelming
(the Port Ellen) but others are just
fabulous, like this one I’ve
heard. Let’s see… Colour:
amber with bronze hues. Nose: take
everything I wrote for the G&M,
minus the winey notes, plus old walnuts
and camphor. Result: totally brilliant
Longmorn. Mouth: exceptional. All
kinds of raisins, nuts, herbs (mint,
dill)… Plus quite some liquorice,
dried fruits, crystallised ones…
and tutti quanti. ‘Just fab.’
93 points. (and thanks,
Johan.) |
 |
| MUSIC
– JAZZ - Very heavily
recommended listening - even if you're
not into jazz: flutist Robert
Dick plays John Coltrane's
extraordinary India.mp3
with luminaries such as Regina Carter
on violin, Dave Soldier or Richard
Bona on bass. No wonder the result
flies so high! Please buy all these
people's music. (thanks to Mulatta
Records) |
| |
August
6, 2007 |
|
|
| PETE
McPEAT AND JACK WASHBACK
in Saint-Tropez |
 |
TASTING
– THREE SHERRIED 1990 LINKWOODS |
|
Linkwood 1990/2006 (45%, Samaroli,
Coilltean, sherry wood, cask #4203)
Colour: full gold. Nose: starts quite
assertively, on crystallized oranges,
toffee, mocha and caramelised nuts
and developing on honey, a little
wood smoke, coffee and raisins. More
than perfect, compact and extremely
satisfying. Very clean sherry. Mouth:
very beautiful sherry again, very
candied and toffeeish, not winey at
all. Again lots of sultanas, cappuccino,
crystallised oranges, vanilla fudge.
Pure confectionery. Finish: more of
the same and for a rather long time,
with added notes of liquorice allsorts.
Pure pleasure. 87 points. |
| Linkwood
1990/2002 (46%, Murray McDavid, fresh
sherry, MM 4800)
Colour: full gold. Nose: close to
the Samaroli, just a little drier
and maybe a tad more nervous and faintly
meaty. Just as nice globally. Mouth:
again, the same as the Samaroli, with
maybe a little more ‘responsiveness’
(could it be the 1%?) and a little
more fresh fruits (oranges, bananas).
Same very pleasant finish. Why give
this one a different rating? 87
points. |
| Linkwood
16 yo 1990/2007 (58.7%, The Single
Malts of Scotland, sherry hogshead,
cask #5038, 283 bottles)
Colour: pale amber. Nose: more spirity
of course and a little silent at first
nosing but starting to get closer
to the ‘lower strength versions’.
Same notes of raisins, toffee, orange
marmalade, honey… A little more
sulphur in this one. With water: more
on all things orangey, including cake
and orange blossom water. Mouth (neat):
even closer to the two lightweights
but with more of everything this time,
especially spices and maple syrup.
Easily drinkable without water but
let’s try it with a few drops…
It gets even better, really tasting
like everything in a candy shop plus
quite some cloves and a little cinnamon.
Perfect sherry and whisky association,
only for pleasure. Perfect balance
and compactness. 89 points. |
| |
August
5, 2007 |
|
|
 |
TASTING
– A
FEW GLEN SCOTIAS |
| Glen
Scotia 13 yo 1992/2005 (43%, Signatory,
cask #305, 761 bottles)
Matured in refill butt. Colour: pale
gold. Nose: very pleasant at first
nosing, starting on vanilla yoghurt,
caramel crème, muesli and dried
pears. Then there’s a little
smoke, hints of tar, white rum…
Really smells like a rum matured malt.
Very enjoyable on the nose. Mouth:
excellent attack, smoked and fruity
(pears, white peaches), rather phenolic.
Cough gums, pu-erh tea, thyme…
It’s also quite malty and yes,
again, we have notes of young rum.
A great surprise. Finish: sweeter,
rather long, still quite smoky, with
something mineral and hints of tinned
pineapples. Very entertaining and
certainly a bang for your buck bottle.
Worth chasing down if you ask me…
87 points. |
| Glen
Scotia 14 yo 1991/2005 (46%, Murray
McDavid, Guigal Hermitage Blanc, 3500
bottles)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: the wine
strikes right at first nosing but
as it’s great wine (maybe Guigal's
'ex-voto'?) the sensation is great.
Whiffs of high-end emptied barrel,
flints, toasts, green tea, mushrooms,
old Muscat wine… Frankly, I
don’t quite know what’s
the whisky’s part here but the
end result is superb on the nose.
By the way, did I tell you I love
white hermitages? Mouth: just like
on the nose, it’s the wine that
does all the talking. Sweet, rounded
but not dull at all, slightly muscaty
again, discreetly smoky, spicy just
like these wines are (hints of rosemary
and lavender sweets)… A true
winesky but one that worked out pretty
well. Finish: quite long, still spicy
and sweet/fruity (blackberry jam)…
I’m wondering whether the smokiness
comes from the whisky or from the
wine – and I’d be curious
to learn what Robert Parker Jr. or
other wine gurus would think of this
one. I say 87 points
again. |
| Glen
Scotia 1973/1996 (40%, OB, bulky bottle)
Colour: gold. Nose: not very powerful
to say the least but it starts on
nice notes of beeswax, pollen and
dried flowers. Great notes of old
wardrobe, marzipan, something antique,
quite refined. Also notes of very
old Muscat wine, hints of dried figs…
Quite complex, this one. Too bad it’s
slightly weakish. Mouth: seriously
weaker now, a little acrid and peppery
but there’s also nice notes
of dried fruits in the background
as well as a little honey. Caramelised
walnuts. Probably less complex than
on the nose. Finish; not very long
but getting better, fruity and candied.
Gets also a little tannic, alas…
But the nose was really interesting,
hence my 86 points. |
 |
And
also Glen
Scotia 14yo 1991/2006 (61,6%, Adelphi,
cask #1071, 255 bottles)
Nose: pears and farmyard. Mouth: apples,
all sorts of fruit eaux-de-vie. Hot.
Finish on distillation, fruit eaux
de vie. 82 points. |
| MUSIC
– Recommended listening: |
|
It's Sunday, we go classical with
the excellent Soldier
Quartet (aka the Ramones
of classical music) playing Gershwin's
Prelude.mp3
with no less than Myra Melford on
piano. Don't worry, nothing to do
with the Ramones actually. Please
buy their music. |
 |
| |
August
4, 2007 |
|
|
 |
TASTING
– TWO AUCHROISKS
Singleton
of Auchroisk 10yo (43%, OB, +/-2000)
Many versions of this early ‘Singleton’
were vintage ones but this one wasn’t.
Colour: full gold. Nose: a very
malty, honeyed and nutty start,
with a rather short but pleasant
development on orange marmalade,
with whiffs of ginger tonic and
stout beer. And quite some caramel.
Mouth: very soft, grainy, caramelly,
cereally, nutty… And a little
weak I must say. Nice notes of honey
but the whole lacks body. Finish:
short, a little malty and coffeeish.
Not enough to make us plunder the
shops that still have these ones
on their shelves these days. 72
points. |
| Auchroisk
16 yo 1990/2007 (59.8%, C&S Dram
Collection, cask #13820, 516 bottles)
Colour: straw. Nose: quite raw, spirity
and less mature than expected, with
loads of pears and apples as well
as quite some porridge, mashed potatoes
and vanilla-flavoured yoghurt. Let’s
try it with a little water…
No, not much else, except maybe peaches
but also hints of rubber. Mouth (neat):
extremely young and fruity (pears
and pineapples) like a very young
malt and a little pepper. With water:
it got finally better, with much more
different fruits (now I get gooseberries,
melon, kiwi…) and pleasant touches
of fresh vanilla. Finish: long, still
very fruity and more peppery. In short,
a little average and immature I think
but drinkable, provided you add quite
some water to it. 75 points. |
| PETE
McPEAT AND JACK WASHBACK in Saint-Tropez
|
| |
|
| |
| (yeah,
that was a bit cliché...) |
| |
August
3, 2007 |
|
|
| PETE
McPEAT AND JACK WASHBACK in Saint-Tropez
|
| TASTING
– TWO PEATY VATTINGS |
 |
Lapbeg 75/25 8 yo 1998 (48%, MacY,
Denmark, Butt #2, 900 bottles)
A vatting of 75% Laphroaig and 25%
Ardbeg. Colour: white wine. Nose:
full peat mode, punto basta. Smoke,
ashes, oysters, wet stones, smoked
tea, lemon juice… Ultra-clean.
Smells stronger than just 48%. Simple
but classy stuff, we don’t always
need complexity when the profile is
perfect. |
| Mouth:
less demonstrative now but still balanced.
The peat is sort of rounded off and
so is the smokiness. A little acacia
honey, apple compote with cinnamon,
smoked tea again, a little candy sugar…
It’s at the long finish that
the peat strikes back, together with
a little pineapple syrup (sign of
young age in my books) and a little
pepper. More civilized than on the
nose but still quite, well, assertive.
Another perfect Islayer for your (silver)
hipflask, but no sherry despite the
butt. The Danes did it properly, as
expected. 87 points.
(and thanks Al and Carsten-H.) |
| Pillage
2005 12 yo (55.8%, OB’s, Lagavulin
Fundraisers)
Each year, a few friends and distillers
sail and row between the distilleries
of Jura, Islay and Bushmills and pillage
whisky en route and then sell the
vatting of all for charity. It seems
that in 2005, they managed to gather
no less than £40,000 for children's
hospice in Northern Ireland and Scotland.
Kudos to them. Colour: gold. Nose:
very nice! It seems that there’s
a lot of smoke but not too much peat,
which is unusual under these latitudes.
Granted, there’s quite some
peat in fact (Lagavulin sort of stands
out) but also nice vanilla, gingerbread,
hints of mangos and bananas (could
that be Bushmills?), wood smoke, a
little coal, pepper… And kiwis?
Really super. Mouth: a very successful
blend of Islay’s south shore
and of its gentler colleagues from
Ireland, Jura and Islay. Actually,
it’s so nicely composed that
it’s hard to believe that it’s
not a master blender who made it and
that it’s a vatting done almost
at random instead. Really??? Superb
fruitiness, mangos, guavas, passion
fruits… Plus the peat and loads
of various spices (dozens)…
It’s extremely drinkable, probably
one of the best vatted malts I ever
had (together with John Glaser’s
Flaming Heart). Finish: long, sort
of soothing, ideally balanced between
the peat and the fruits. And, of course,
a little salt. Just great, 91
points (one of the points
is for the idea). Quick, let’s
start to experiment with home vattings
of Lagavulin and Bushmills… |
MUSIC
– JAZZ - Recommended
listening: let's be bit cliché
today... Take your favourite dram,
sit in your favourite armchair,
close your eyes and click on Diane
Schuur's perfect interpretation
of New
York state of mind.mp3 (well,
the other way 'round). And then
please buy her music... |
 |
| |
August
2, 2007 |
|
|
| CONCERT
REVIEWS by Nick Morgan - TRIPLE
REVIEW BONUS EXTRA!
|
| Well
with life being what it is I’ve
been away from my desk for a little
while, in the course of which a few
reviews have been waiting to be written.
And as a number of hefty gigs are
looming it seemed the best way out
of this problem, without doing a disservice
to the artistes involved, was to write
three (thankfully no doubt for some)
abbreviated pieces. So here they are. |
 |
| PAT
METHENY AND BRAD MEHLDAU The
Barbican, London, July 2nd 2007 |
 |
| It’s
just a shame that we went to see Pat
Metheny and Brad
Mehldau so soon after
Chick Corea and Gary Burton. The latter
robbed me of my sparse vocabulary
of jazz descriptors and superlatives,
and to re-use them again so soon would
be a disservice both to you, dear
reader, and to my limited literary
talent. Metheny of course has been
around for years – coincidentally
starting his career in Gary Burton’s
band – at 37 (almost to the
day) Mehldau is a relative whipper-snapper.
However this equally ill-matched couple
– think of Garth from Wayne’s
World meets British snooker ace Steve
Davies – play together as if
joined at the hip (more than ably
supported for some of the set by Mehldau
sidekicks Larry Grenadier on bass
and Jorge Rossy on drums). Metheny
as one would expect is more forward
and perhaps obvious, Mehldau’s
keyboards restrained and subdued yet
complex beyond belief. The result
is entrancing. Well almost. Metheny
plays in the classic jazz guitar style
with a very full-fat and rich plectrum
driven tone from his big semi-acoustic
Epiphone (I think), and a lot of finger
board carry-over. He occasionally
plays (quite beautifully) an acoustic,
and also a Roland G-303 synth guitar
(which sounds like a trumpet) –
but the Barney Kessel sound predominated,
and to be honest became just slightly
tedious. Having said that the appearance
of his frankly absurd Ibanez Pikasso
– a sort of cross between a
guitar and several zithers, with its
five sets of strings – would
lead me to forgive him almost anything.
What I couldn’t forgive was
the overbearing steward who jumped
on The Photographer as she fired off
her first shot, muttering “You
can’t do that, it’s copyright”.
So I’m off to consult my best
friends the Intellectual Property
lawyers on that moot point. |
| STEELY
DAN The
Hammersmith Apollo, London, July 7th
2007 |
 |
| I’d
come a long way for this gig. Over
thirteen hours on a jet plane to be
precise, into a bomb-scared Heathrow.
Home, shower, sharpener and straight
out into our plush balcony seats for
a Steely
Dan spectacular, or as
the outrageously expensive programme
put it, “The Heavy Rollers Tour”.
If I were to say, “Maybe I was
a bit too tired …” then
you might imagine what’s going
to come next. So I’ll restrain
myself and say first that much of
the musicianship from this twelve-piece
outfit was just outstanding. And if
Walter
Becker had a few dodgy moments
on guitar then these were more than
made up for by guitarist and band
leader John
Herrington. Nor were there many
duff songs – why Becker chose
to sing ‘Hawaiian divorce’
in the way he did we’ll never
know, and though nice it was an unnessecary
gesture to give ‘Dirty work’
to the backing vocalists, sort of
throwing the song away really. What
did surprise me was that there were
only two songs from the Dansters’
first two albums. You see for me these
were works of real genius, after which
it all got a bit too clever, too slick
and just like a well-practiced production
line. |
 |
Whilst
I know the parallel might shock Dan
fans, it is a bit like (as the Photographer
suggested) 10CC, who after two and
a half brilliantly accomplished and
funny albums lost sight of the joke
and started to take themselves too
seriously. And boy these guys are
so serious they’re sanitised.
And though the set is presented as
an American soul review, it’s
actually a totally soulless affair
with the band remaining as far to
the back of the huge Hammersmith stage
as they possible can. Audience engagement:
nil. Try as I might I could only see
cynicism in place of sincerity, and
a granular image of Fagen and Becker
counting the night’s quids in
the back of a stretch-limo on their
way to the next gig. |
THE
GOOD THE BAD AND THE QUEEN
The
Tower of London, London, July 9th,
2007 |
 |
In
case you didn’t know, or so
my daughter tells me, Damon
Albarn is a bit of a prodigy.
He’s certainly all over the
place at the moment, with the hugely
successful cartoon band Gorillaz,
a new opera, Monkey, a Journey to
the West, and his latest project,
the
Good, the Bad and the Queen.
The eponymous album has been something
of a surprise hit (Gold within a week),
and on the road the band have been
receiving increasingly positive reviews.
|
| I
hope they’re good – we’re
at the Tower of London (which features
on the album cover) and it is, as
befits an English July evening, pissing
it down, cats, dogs, kitchen sinks
and the lot. It’s cold too.
So we take shelter by the forbidding
walls of the Tower and eventually
take our (flooded) seats just before
the band take the stage. They are
an accomplished lot – ex Verve
and sometime Gorillaz guitarist Simon
Tong, drum virtuoso Tony Allen and
ex Clash bassist Paul Simonon (who,
by the way, is responsible for the
excellent drawings that come in the
album’s wonderful little booklet).
The songs are sinister, pessimistic
(count the references to war) and
largely melancholic London streetscapes
and vignettes: some of it feels like
a guided tour of Holloway, Islington
and Camden Town. But it’s compelling
and engaging, the band supported by
a hauntingly powerful choir and at
one stage David Coulter and his saw
(on ‘Behind the sun’).
|
| The
sound is defined by Albarn’s
distinctive singing, Tong’s
pedal driven guitar, Allen’s
surprisingly delicate drumming and
most of all Simonon’s deep pounding
reggae-fuelled bass playing. In fact
he’s the star of the show –
he’s rarely more than a foot
away from Albarn and with his menacing
swagger and perpetual posing he confirms
that this is something from London’s
darker side. It was certainly enough
to scare the rain away and keep the
cold from biting too deep. And I,
I have to say, sat in these incongruous
and damp surroundings simply engrossed
by what I heard. Highly recommended.
- Nick Morgan (photographs by
Kate) |
Damon Albarn and Paul Simonon
(GBQ website forum) |
| Very
much sank yoo Nick (as my neighbour
would say). My! A triple review! And
varied, at that. That was worth waiting
for your return home. We’ve
got quite a program here as well in
the coming days (Chemical Brothers,
Smashin’ Pumpkins and Joe Cocker
in a row, find the odd one out!) but
I’m not sure I’ll find
time to write modest reviews, as writing
such pieces in English takes me a
very long time if I want it to be
more or less understandable. We’ll
see… In the meantime, let’s
listen to… Wait, Mehldau? Metherny?
Steely Dan? Not Steely Dan…
Why not simply The Clash and their
most famous hit London
calling.mp3? - S. |
 |
TASTING
– THREE NEW BUNNAHABHAINS |
| Bunnahabhain
29 yo 1977/2007 (45.1%, The Whisky
Fair, bourbon hogshead, 108 bottles)
Colour: full gold. Nose: an unexpectedly
fresh start on a mix of tinned pineapple
and herbs (sage, chive) plus quite
some acacia honey and whiffs of wet
newspaper (fits the weather we had
over here in July). There’s
also a little smoke, ashes, watermelon,
hints of porridge, hay, hints of beer…
Rather complex, with no obviously
dominant aromas. Let’s say it’s
a little wilder and farmier than most
old OB’s. Mouth: a rather grassy,
grainy and nicely sour attack with
also quite some fruits (pears, tangerines,
peaches with their skin) but the tannins
start to put their stamp on the whole.
Gets also quite kirschy (or is it
plum spirit?) Lots of cinnamon from
the wood. Finish: medium long, with
the fruitiness fading away but not
the tannins. It’s pleasant wood
but it’s like if the spirit
didn’t really stand it –
on the palate, at least. Not really
my cup of malt this time, but most
other new TWF bottlings are excellent
so no big deal. 78 points
(for the rather complex nose). |
| Bunnahabhain
27 yo 1979/2007 (46%, The Single Malts
of Scotland, cask #11488, 234 bottles)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: we’re
very close to the 1977 here, although
this one a little more nervous and
more citrusy. Just the same notes
of tinned pineapples (also pear juice),
then these whiffs of wet hay, ashes,
ink, cut grass, porridge… Raw
wool? A striking freshness again considering
this one’s age, a little sharp.
Anything but ‘round’ at
27 years of age. Mouth: quite punchier
than the 1977 at the start, starting
on the same notes of both tinned and
fresh pineapples as on the nose, melons,
peaches… There’s a rather
heavy oakiness again but it’s
kind of spicier here, more an asset
to the whisky. Cloves, curry, cinnamon,
nutmeg… Finish: not extremely
long again but more balanced, although
the tannins start to dominate the
spirit again. A good old Bunnahabhain.
84 points. |
| Bunnahabhain
9 yo 1997/2007 (46%, Signatory, refill
butt #5274, 864 bottles)
This is from the famous peated batches
they made ‘for peatophiles’.
Colour: almost white. Nose: as peaty
as a very young Laphroaig, and relatively
similar I must say, minus the medicinal
and/or coastal notes. What’s
left then? Well, ashes, wet stones,
white peaches, white pepper, porridge,
cherries, wet paper, chalk…
Not complicated but pleasant, with
little oak influence it seems. Mouth:
simple but pleasant peat and fruits.
Or let’s say peated pear juice
with a little pepper. Very simple
indeed but balance is achieved. Finish:
medium long, in the same vein. Kind
of a super-gin I’d say. I’m
sure it would be brilliant on ice.
84 points (with extra-points
for drinkability and ‘general
feeling’). |
| |
August
1, 2007 |
|
|
| TASTING
– VARIOUS CAOL ILAS |
 |
| Caol
Ila 10 yo 1995 (46%, Queen of the
Moorlands, 318 bottles)
You can try several of these new ’Queen
of the Moorlands’ whiskies at
the Lanesborough Hotel on Hyde Park
Corner, London, but the prices are
pretty insane over there (ever seen
a 1964 Bowmore – not a Black
one – at £700 for 2cl?
And this is no joke!) Anyway, let’s
try this (probably) more mundane Caol
Ila. Colour: white wine. Nose: quite
mineral and grassy, soon to get sort
of chemical (aspirin) and unusually
medicinal for a Caol Ila – not
nicely medicinal. Quite poor in my
opinion. Let’s go straight to
the palate: very peaty and very peppery,
quite harsh, almost pungent despite
the ‘low’ strength. Little
pleasure with this one, and little
sweetness. The palate isn’t
as terrible as the nose in fact, far
from that, but it’s still very
average. 78 points
(still, because of its punchy attack). |
| Caol
Ila 17 yo 1974/1991 (61.1%, Signatory,
cask #5-9)
Colour: straw. Nose: much straighter,
crystal-clean peat and sea elements.
Sea breeze, oysters, kelp… Then
lemon juice, wet stones, freshly cut
green apples. Hints of aniseed and
dill. As pure and clean as possible.
Mouth: ultra-punchy but very drinkable
at such high strength. Very close
to the Samaroli in fact, just a tad
purer. Please see above. With a little
water: extraordinary notes of high-end
marzipan, butter apples, smoked salmon,
dozens of various crystallised fruits…
And so on. One of the greatest, utterly
brilliant, will send many Ardbegs/Laphroaigs/Lagavulin
back to the Peat School. 96
points (and many thanks,
Konstantin) |
| Caol
Ila 24 yo 1975/2000 (54.3%, Wilson
& Morgan, millennium bottling)
Colour: gold. Nose: rather discreet,
grassy at first sniffs. Takes off
on wood smoke (birch?) and fusel oil,
cider apples and lemon juice. Hints
of porridge. Notes of freshly cut
grass, green tea. Funnily, there’s
also notes of new make after all these
years. High-end wheat beer. Lemon
sweets. Excellent nose. Mouth: sweeter,
bold, creamy, with beautiful balance.
Maybe not very complex but the peat
and crystallised lemons combo works
perfectly well. Earl grey tea. Hints
of strawberries. Finish: long, sweet,
fruitier now (tangerines). Excellent,
with a perfect balance. A sweeter
old Caol Ila. 89 points. |
| Caol
Ila 26 yo 1975/2001 (56.1%, Signatory,
cask #459, 242 bottles)
Colour: straw. Nose: same as the W&M,
just a tad sharper in style and a
tad less beer-ish. Mouth: again, very
close to the W&M, just a little
less rounded and slightly wilder.
90 points. |
| Caol
Ila 1981/1995 (63.1%, G&M Cask,
casks #1747-50-52-53)
Colour: straw. Nose: heavily alcoholised
lemon juice, tequila. Really pungent,
water is needed. With water: it got
even grassier, with notes of pear
and light peat. Gets sweeter after
that but a little indefinite (very
sweet apples). Mouth: extremely strong,
lemony… Don’t expect to
enjoy this without water. With water:
rounder, creamier, on lemon and apples
topped with black pepper and grated
ginger. Finish: long, hot, lemony…
Good Caol Ila but it’s quite,
let’s say explosive. 83
points. |
| PETE
McPEAT AND JACK WASHBACK in Saint-Tropez
|
| MUSIC
– Recommended listening:
do elephants have a sense of rhythm?
It seems so! Indeed, let's listen
to the Thai
Elephant Orchestra 'playing'
Thung
Kwian Sunrise.mp3. Yes, thats
right, true elephants, and here's
the obligatory stupid comment: 'Don't
they play better than some famous
human drummers with big ears?' Please
buy, err, these animals' music.
(What, a joke? No, they were even
featured in National Geographic! And
they even make whisky! No, that was
a joke...) |
 |
Check
the index of all entries:
Whisky
Music
Nick's Concert
Reviews
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Best
malts I had these weeks - 90+
points only - alphabetical:
Blair
Athol 27 yo 1976/2004 (50%,
Douglas Laing OMC, 172 bottles)
Caol
Ila 17 yo 1974/1991 (61.1%,
Signatory, cask #5-9)
Caol
Ila 26 yo 1975/2001 (56.1%, Signatory,
cask #459, 242 bottles)
Dalmore
25yo (43%, OB, 1970's)
Glen
Grant 36 yo 1970/2007 (45.7%,
Duncan Taylor Rare Old, cask #3493)
Glen
Grant 37 yo 1970/2007 (49.7%, Duncan
Taylor Rare Old, cask #861)
Isle
of Jura 1975 (60.9%, OB, Matthew Forrest
Collection, cask #2620, 192 bottles, circa 2002)
Longmorn
18 yo 1971/1990 (58.1%, Antica Casa
Marchesi Spinola)
Longmorn
30 yo 1973/2004 (51.1%, Duncan Taylor,
bourbon, cask #8919, 137 bottles)
Longmorn
1973/2003 (55.8%, Gordon & MacPhail
‘Cask Collection’, cask #3240)
Longmorn
31 yo 1976/2007 (54.1%, The Whisky
Fair, bourbon hogshead, 131 bottles)
Pillage
2005 12 yo (55.8%, OB’s, Lagavulin
Fundraisers)
Port
Ellen 15 yo 1969/1985 (64.7%, G&M
for Intertrade)
Port
Ellen 24 yo 1982/2007 (59.6%, The Whisky
Fair, sherry butt, 509 bottles)
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