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Hi, you're in the Archives, March 2006 - Part 1 |
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| CONCERT
REVIEWS - GOGOL BORDELLO by Dave and
Nick, head to head! |
| Where
else do you get that, where? Imagine
Whiskyfun's most distinguished concert
reviewers just went to see the very
same band, but not the same gig, and
each of them decided to write his
very own report. Interesting isn't
it? Me, I'm amazed... How lucky we
are! Okay, please take a deep breath...
Drum roll... Here we go! |
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Gogol
Bordello, Concorde 2,
Brighton, March 5th 2006
By
DAVE BROOM
OK Serge. Imagine that you have
fallen hopelessly in love with
a mysterious, sophisticated,
Ukrainian woman. It is a whirlwind
romance: hearts leaping out
of the body, eyes turning into
hearts, tongues lolling (my
template for life was formulated
through over-exposure to Looney
Tunes). You decide to wed. The
first time that you will meet
the parents, however, will be
at the wedding. Wishing to impress,
you decide to surprise them
by booking a Ukrainian folk
band for the event. That night,
mysteriously, coincidentally,
a mangled flier is pushed through
your letterbox: “Gypsy
Music! 8 piece! Band!! Weddings!!
Parties!! Anything! No gig too
small!! Have own transport!’
You book them. |
| |
| Fast
forward to the day of the wedding.
All is going well until a battered,
bus arrives with GOGOL BORDELLO
painted in straggling red and
black letters on the side. Into
the hall stagger nine misfits
dressed in ripped clothes, strange
hats and weird jewellery. There’s
a lot of exposed flesh. All
have a manic glint in their
eyes. There’s a bass player
with locks, a worryingly straight
guitarist, a desiccated long-haired
violinist, a portly bald accordionist
with a penchant for shell suits,
a huge, silent drummer and two
hopelessly exotic girls. The
singer pushes his way to the
front. He’s whipcord thin
with pale translucent skin,
crazed eyes, pomaded hair and
a luxuriant moustache. For a
moment, Serge, I think it is
you. “My name is Eugene
HUTZ!” he shouts at me
with a crazed grin. “We
are band! Let’s party!” |
 |
| They
start. My in-laws’ jaws
drop. My new wife glares. I
shrug and start to pogo. How
can’t I? This music is
driven by that compelling gypsy
folk mix of violin and accordion,
but electrified and slashed
through with Clash-like
reggae lines (GB are one of
the few bands to master this).
There’s a hint of dub,
off-tune punk-folk. The violinist
leers at us and shreds his first
bow, the flying horsehair matching
his ragged long grey frizz.
Eugene, who has lost his shirt,
starts shouting ‘Start
Wearing Purple!” We all
bounce along, chanting it back
at him. On come the girls with
washboards. One is called Pamela
the other is Elizabeth. I’m
unsure whether the names refer
to the women, or the instruments. |
| The
venue is now mass of sweaty,
grinning people. The music is
relentless, frenetic, played
without a break and with a defiant,
crazed attitude. It does for
gypsy music what the Pogues
did for Irish folk, what the
Boggs
tried to do for bluegrass. GB
have the art-punk look of New
York (their base) married to
the dangerous air and magpie
approach of the Alabama
Three. In their clattering
take on the world Mussolini
takes Stalin on a fishing trip;
we can all go: ‘through
the roof! Underground!’ |
 |
| The
girls are back on.. screaming,
while Eugene hits a battered
fire bucket with a drumstick.
Elizabeth then begins to crash
her cymbals together. I look
round. My new mother in law
is heading my way. She grabs
me and starts to dance. No-one
can resist. The music gets faster.
That violinist is in league
with the devil, forcing us to
dance ever faster. Half of the
audience has invaded the stage.
Pamela is being carried aloft
through the crowd while standing
on top of a bass drum and beating
the shit out of it. Eugene is
playing the drumkit with his
soaked shirt. Now he‘s
replaced Pamela on the drum
and has started howling. I haven’t
seen a climax to a gig like
this since Lux Interior of the
Cramps
cut his trousers off with a
broken wine bottle. My father
in law embraces me, weeping
with thanks. Best live band
around? They can’t be
far off. Serge. embrace the
gypsy punk in you ... you’re
half way there already! -
Dave Broom |
|
|
Gogol
Bordello, The
Astoria, London, March 10th
2006
By
NICK MORGAN
Prepared to be shocked. He reels,
lurches and stumbles around
like a man caught in a shockwave,
yells in a barely comprehensible
English like a singer with advanced
Tourette’s syndrome, leers
at girls, mothers and even grannies,
and throws himself, without
restraint, into the nearest
crowd of unsuspecting rock fans.
Yep, that’s Jozzer, who
in the absence of The Photographer
is my chaperone for the night.
We dined at one of our Chinatown
haunts: after quail, scallops,
mustard greens, eel and aubergine
our chirpy waiter looked pretty
glum when we announced our intention
to leave. “You go down
pub?” he asked, warily
eyeing Jozzer’s collection
of empty glasses. So I tried
to explain Gogol Bordello to
him, eventually showing him
the tickets to assuage his incredulity.
“You pay money for that?
Sounds like big rubbish”.
|
 |
|
We’re at the Pickle Factory,
packed like gherkins (or cornichons
to you Serge) in a jar, to see
Gogol Bordello, purveyors of
‘Gypsy Punk’, and
the darlings of New York’s
easily impressed arty club scene,
fronted by singer and sometime
actor Eugene Hutz “a larger-than-life,
New York-based Ukrainian émigré.
If you want to picture him then
think of Liverpool FC’s
beanpole striker Peter Crouch
with a Charlie MacLean tash.
And I know, I’m uncomfortable
about the ‘G’ word
too, hardly PC here these days,
so let’s call them purveyors
of ‘Traveller Punk’
. Yes Serge, this is a country
where we now have crappy Italian
restaurants that have ‘travelling
violinists’ who come and
persecute you at your table
with hopelessly played romantic
melodies. |
| ‘Gypsy
Punk’? Well it’s
hardly new is it, but New York
has a very short memory. A little
piece of my heart is forever
the Three
Mustaphas Three, musically
the same sort of idea, and far
more sophisticated. And it’s
really Pogues
territory too, and, for that
matter, Th’
Legendary Shack Shakers
whose lead singer, J D Wilkes
could truly be said to be shocking.
And then Serge there are your
own Les
Négresses Vertes,
who I recall seeing playing
on Glasgow Green way back in
the 1980s, truly the embodiment
of ‘Gypsy punk’. |
 |
| Never
mind. In the cause of brevity
I will summarise: high in energy,
huge in entertainment, low in
spontaneity, poor in music,
medium in originality. But it’s
great fun, and the Astoria is
rocking like I have never seen
it rock before. Hutz and his
fellow band members, a wonderfully
roguish assembly of expat Eastern
Europeans and Americans, and
the ‘dance troupe’
(I know they’re called
Elizabeth and Pamela, because
their names were written on
their washboards) work the audience
with a studied professionalism
beyond compare, and the result
is frenzy. Set list? How the
hell should I know? But they
did the purple song, and the
one about being an immigrant,
and the fast one that sounded
like the purple one, and a slow
one, and then an even faster
sort of purple one. And I did
notice a few throw away but
deeply profound lyrics –
something about Bill Clinton’s
saxophone, and the end of western
civilisation, but to be frank
no more than a delicate non-conformist
veneer on a wonderfully well
thought out and brilliantly
executed performance concept. |
| “One
trick pony” said Jozzer,
who by this time was working
the audience, cider in hand,
trying to sell them “Unlucky
white heather, get your unlucky
white heather here”. I
disagreed. At least two tricks,
for the adroit use of the carefully
choreographed ‘dance troupe’,
with their feisty attitude,
washboards, cymbals and bass
drums stopped the rather repetitive
content from dragging –
and without this street theatre
showmanship the gig could so
easily have been another Hayseed
Dixie. I’m glad it wasn’t.
Not shocking, but thoroughly
entertaining. Buy their music?
Not sure. But you must go and
see them. And I know Jozzer
would like to go too –
I can give you his number…
- Nick Morgan (all concert
photographs by Nick's Nokia
- other by Hilary Hulteen) |
|
| Wow,
many thanks, Dave and Nick! That
was (even) better than the tasting
section in whiskymag - although
you both agreed GB sounded like
the Pogues - and on the girls' names!
I must confess Gogol Bordello sounds
rather like the Klezmatics meeting
Manu Chao meeting The Clash (indeed)
meeting Goran Bregovic to my ears,
all that after a good dram or three.
Genetically modified music? Our
honourable readers may decide to
find out by themselves, as we do
have quite a bunch of mp3's on Gogol
Bordello's website,
which is mighty cool. They can for
instance have a try at Sacred
darling.mp3, Green
card husband.mp3 or When
the trickster starts a-poking.mp3.
Now, I think true Gypsy punk music
(in the best sense of 'punk', if
that exists) was invented before
WWII, by a certain Django Reinhardt.
Yeah, I told you I'm no good musicologist!
And oh, by the way, Dave, I may
sport a moustache just like Eugene,
but last time I went to the bathroom,
I could check, alas, that I'm not
exactly 'whipcord thin' anymore.
A side effect of whisky? As for
the Cramps, I saw them six or seven
years ago in France, and Mr. Interior
didn't cut his trousers off - he
just didn't wear any! - S. |
| TASTING
- THREE INDIE 10 yo ARDBEGS |
 |
Ardbeg
10 yo 1992/2003 (40%, G&M for
GDA Milano) 
Colour: dark straw. Nose: rather aromatic
at first nosing, with some peat and
notes of apple compote and peat. Granted,
it lacks a little oomph but we’re
in the same territories as most ‘Connoisseur’s
Choices’. Notes of iodine, sea
air, seaweed with a little lemon and
orange juices and hints of camphor.
An enjoyable, discreet Ardbeg. Mouth:
well, now it lacks a little body,
I’m afraid. Not exactly watery
but rather tea-ish, with quite some
wax and paraffined cardboard, vanilla
fudge, dried herbs. Interesting notes
of smoked salmon as well but there’s
too much caramelly notes in there,
globally. We’d have liked a
little more sharpness and vivacity,
and especially the finish is quite
weak and too tea-ish. Don’t
get me wrong, it’s not unpleasant
at all but I feel the association
of a low A.B.V. with these caramelly
tastes do not fit Ardbeg too well.
78 points.
Ardbeg
10 yo 1992/2002 (46%, McNeill’s
Choice, Germany)
Colour: pale white wine. Nose: again
it’s a little discreet right
at first nosing but then we have the
usual notes of peated malt, grain
barn, boiled cereals, porridge…
It’s also quite flinty and gets
then more and more mineral. A very
mashy nose, with no sign of fruitiness.
Mouth: a little sweeter but again,
we’ve very little fruit. Lots
of peat of course, together with something
waxy and cardboardy again, developing
on more or less the same aromas as
on the nose: grains, kilned malt,
porridge… A very simple profile,
very pleasant in its ‘Ardbegness’
but lacking a little complexity. The
finish is rather long but getting
almost acrid. Very austere. 80
points.
Ardbeg
10 yo 1991/2001 (59.9%, Acorn, Japan)
Colour: white wine. Nose: this one
starts quite different, probably thanks
to the high A.B.V. It’s a little
coffeeish (as often with high-octane
malts) and much more medicinal and
maritime than the previous one. Big
iodine, bandages, oysters, wet stones,
grapefruit… Notes of cold ashes.
Let’s see what happens with
a little water: the peat grows even
bolder, waxier, more medicinal and
farmier at the same time (bold notes
of cow stable and horse dung). Superb,
especially considering its age! Mouth
(neat): really full-bodied but incredibly
drinkable. Lots of peat, smoke, lemon,
grass… Much more exciting than
its lighter siblings. Goes on with
cough syrup, beeswax and fir sweets,
white rum, notes of pisco… Okay,
water needed now: oh, now we do have
lots of fruits, mostly lemon, tangerines
but also very ripe melons. Superb
notes of gentian spirit as often,
liquorice stick, and a great dryness.
It’s sharp like a blade! And
the finish is long, very coating,
very compact, with a little salt…
Anyway, a totally flawless young Ardbeg.
89 points. |
 |
SHOPPING
- Seen on Billig-sprit.se!
Here's what they say about it: 'Alcohol
with 96 % Vol. Trink Alkohol very
rare - Alcohol
with 96 % Vol. Normaly only to buy
in the Farmacia. Very rare and difficult
to get. Clear pure taste. You can
only enjoy mixed. Minimum age is
32 years to order this product.
This product could be very dangerous
if you drink straight. You could
be death if you try to enjoy straight.'
Yeah,
rings a bell... By the way, the
price is 'now' 119,95 EUR
for 5 litres. Okay, I'd add 'please
advertise responsibly!' (and thanks,
Robert) |
CONCERT
REVIEW by Nick Morgan
THE MYSTERY JETS, The Mean
Fiddler, London, March 9th 2006
|
| I
sometimes wonder about people in marketing,
I really do. I mean, I thought their
job was to find the right people for
their product, and then persuade them
to buy it. Isn’t that right
Serge? Well in the case of the Mystery
Jets, whose first album
Making Dens was released last Monday,
I can’t help thinking that the
marketing department at 679 Recordings
(an ‘indie’ offshoot of
Warner Music) were having a ‘Friday
afternoon’, as they used to
say at Ford Motors in Dagenham. |
 |
| The
insight that they seem to be working
on is that music lovers like eccentrics
and misfits (and God knows Serge,
that’s certainly true of us
isn’t it?). So what do they
do? Well they seem to spend all their
time telling us, the press, anyone
who will listen, that that’s
what the Mystery Jets are. Big mistake
guys! |
 |
We
don’t want to be told that in
advertising, and we might even get
a bit fed up reading it in interviews
or reviews. What we really want to
do is find out for ourselves –
or at least get told by our best mates.
If I didn’t know better I’d
look at the adverts and make a positive
decision not to buy – but then
I guess I’m not a ‘target
consumer’ as they say. I can
also tell that from the beautifully
produced CD sleeve (the design and
packaging work associated with this
band is fantastic – marketers
reprieved!), which nicely, instead
of having lyrics, has a carefully
crafted picture to represent each
song. But try and read the typeface
with my tired middle aged eyes –
wrong font, wrong colour background.
That’s it – moan over. |
| It’s
the Mean Fiddler, and I’m only
here in the middle of a domestic crisis
involving a 14 year old boy, football
and fractured elbows (ouch!) because
it’s a big night for the Jets,
and quite a big one for my daughter
who’s professionally involved
with the band (but not, as you might
guess from the above, on the marketing
side – phew!). So yes Serge,
I declare ‘an interest’
here, as our Members of Parliament
only occasionally like to say. But
let’s be clear, in keeping with
Whiskyfun principles I bought my own
ticket (yes, this is reviewing without
the bungs and freebies that occur
in much music journalism – and
other categories I could think of
too) and I even declined a pass for
the after show party. Where was I?
|
 |
| Yes
– it’s a big night because
the album is just released –
something of a rite of passage as
singer Blaine Harrison picturesquely
explained to us, and they’re
here celebrating with longstanding
fans, friends, mums and dads. And
blimey, one of the dads is even on
stage – guitarist, keyboard
player and stylophone meister, Henry
Harrison. Who from what I can gather
was in the band when it started when
the rest of the boys were about nine.
So it’s taken some years of
careful nurturing in their wonderful
London hideaway on Eel Pie Island
(whose association with the birth
of rhythm and blues in the UK is knowingly
acknowledged on the CD cover) to get
them to this stage. And if only people
can see beyond the unhelpful ‘eccentric’,
‘quirky’, ‘bonkers’
stereotyping I suspect they have a
long way to go yet, and probably very
quickly. |
 |
Left,
Blaine Harrison - right, Kai Fish
and William Rees |
| The
gig is fantastic. The opener is Zoo
Time. Play the ‘who do they
remind me of’ game and you’ll
quickly on one song get through Franz
Ferdinand, Pink Floyd, Barclay James
Harvest, Moody Blues, Teardrop Explodes
and more. In fact in the end you have
to give up and simply agree that they
sound like the Mystery Jets. Full
stop. In the engine room are drummer
Kapil Trivedi and the often Bruce
Foxtonesque bass-player Kai Fish –
and combined with the nicely fractured
guitar playing of William Rees they
provide a formidable rock and roll
outfit, supported by Harrison (Henry,
senior) and Harrison (Blaine, junior),
who (seated as a result of a longstanding
illness) sings, plays occasional guitar,
and plays as second drummer, famously
bashing away at all sorts of pots
and pans (this, apparently, is one
of the things that makes them ‘eccentric’
– hmmmm). I should add that
Blaine Harrison has a great English
rock and roll voice, and also that
I get a weird sense of déjà
vu every time I hear him sing. |
 |
| In
the course of a pretty high energy
hour or so they work through the entire
album and give us ‘Lizzie’s
Lion’ as an encore. Highlights
for me are,(in addition to the really
powerful opener ‘Zoo time’),
‘The boy who ran away’,
‘Purple prose’ (nice guitar
playing), ‘You can’t fool
me Dennis’ (shades of the sadly
departed Boo Radleys), ‘Horse
drawn cart’, ‘Little bag
of hair’, and ‘Making
dens’ (which has a satisfyingly
nice feel of what the Beachboys should
have been about it). The songs are
well crafted – and if you haven’t
guessed it’s the sort of good
old English stuff that your Whiskyfun
reviewer adores - as the packaging
emphasises it’s all cricket
bats, boys' comics, red telephone
boxes and model aeroplanes. Magic. |
| The
whole evening is totally engaging,
with these charming young men (well,
except Harrison senior) sharing their
obvious pleasure in the moment with
their adoring fans – typical
of the feel is when bassist Fish climbs
on the speaker stack in the middle
of a song to shake hands with friends
and admirers in the balcony. I can’t
see him being able to do that in twelve
month’s time. In fact they look
so happy you can only imagine that
they must feel like they’ve
got the best job in the world. |
|
|
 |
|
Which reminds me of the only low point
of the evening – the man with
the worst job in the world, stuck
in a corner of the squalid and stinking
floor-flooded men’s urinals,
trying to persuade his would-be clients
to buy a soft towel or some aftershave.
Two last things. I’m reliably
informed that the band began life
as ‘the misery jets’.
I can only congratulate whoever it
was that threw out the misery and
put in the mystery – what a
great name. And secondly, just to
keep a few old Dads very happy, as
Serge would say, “please go
and buy their music”. - Nick
Morgan (concert photographs by Nick's
Nokia) |
| Many
thanks, Nick! All that reminds me
of the Kinks' 1975 'Schoolboys in
disgrace' LP, I don't know why...
It's true that I quite liked the first
Mystery Jets promo EP I got a few
months ago via some London undercover
connection, and all generations in
the house have been debating since
then on whether the Mystery Jets are
hotter than the Arctic Monkeys or
not these days (Kaiser Chiefs are
already out here but it seems that
Franz Ferdinand are doing a remarkable
come back). Yes, we're trying hard
to keep up with the UK pace (have
you heard about these new shoes called
'Churches'? And how's the Queen Mother?
And I've heard Fortnum and Mason have
a whisky department now... Who's playing
at the Marquee these days, by the
way? And who's the resident DJ at
the Studio 54? No, wait, that's NYC,
right? And did England's rugby team
win in Paris, finally? Oops, sorry,
Nick.) Anyway, as for these young
Mystery Jets, good news, we do have
You
can't fool me Dennis.mp3! And
to all, 'please go and buy their music'
indeed! |
 |
Benriach
36 yo 1968/2005 (50.7%, Duncan Taylor,
cask #2595, 131 bottles)
Colour: gold amber. Nose: very present,
starting on old dry white wine and
gunpowder, cordite, apple compote,
cider… Gets really smoky and
sulphury after a while, and starts
then to develop towards fresher, fruitier
notes (very ripe apricots) and also
light honey, heather, Virginia tobacco,
before it gets back to very nice winey
notes (more like ice wines now) although
I doubt it was a wine cask. And always
these whiffs of smoke and ashes. –
lots of body and ‘energy’
considering this Benriach’s
age! Also hints of musk, orange water…
|
| Mouth:
sweet, bold and broad attack, on toasted
cake and fruitcake, getting almost
hot. Very spicy, peppery and gingery
but nicely balanced, with just a certain
lack of ‘middle’ (as often
in old malts) despite the otherwise
very full body. Lots of cloves, a
little Tabasco, cinnamon and plum
pie, notes of kirsch, hints of mint…
The finish is rather long but also
quite tannic and slightly bitter.
Anyway, one of the most nervous 35+
malts I ever had, excellent to make
your friend play the age guessing
game, they might tell you it’s
10 or 12 years old. 85 points. |
Benriach
1982/1993 (60.6%, Gordon & MacPhail
Cask, casks #5211, 12, 13)
Colour: gold. Nose: hotter and more
spirity than the 36 yo but most amazingly,
it doesn’t seem to be much younger
(well, it’s rather that the
other one didn’t seem to be
much older, actually). We do have
quite some flinty, gunpowder-like
notes again, as well as apricots,
tobacco, hints of cedar wood and mint
leaves, but with probably more sourness
and yeastiness (quite some muesli,
oatmeal, true yoghurt…) and
hints of fresh parsley. Notes of buttered
caramel – nice and not overpowering!
Mouth: again, it’s surprisingly
drinkable and I don’t feel the
need to add any water to it. Very
sweet and grainy attack, with lots
of cider, apple juice, cereals, getting
almost as spicy as the 36 yo (pepper,
cinnamon and clove etc.) We do have
a certain sourness again that make
me think of some Greek or Turkish
dishes that are cooked with yoghurt.
Something bourbonny as well, quite
some vanilla and lactones… The
finish is rather long but not immensely
so, despite the 60%. Anyway, a good
one again, lacking perhaps a little
delicacy. But then again, maybe I
should have added a few drops of water.
82 points. |
| TASTING
- TWO INDIE CLYNELISHES |
 |
Clynelish
12 yo 1992/2005 (59.9%, Adelphi, cask
#15100)
Colour: white wine. Nose: rather powerful
and fragrant but very noseable at
such high strength. Very fresh, very
clean, with notes of coffee, cut apples,
newly mown grass and quite some smoke.
But right, it does get overpowering
now, so quick, some water! Ah, now
we have the usual bold waxy notes,
lots of farmy aromas (wet hay and
‘clean’ manure as often)
and whiffs of smoke. Something milky
in the background. The whole is very
fresh, maybe a little simple but very
‘young Clynelish’. I like
that. |
| Mouth
(neat): very sweet and fruity, with
lots tangerines, pineapples, apples
and pears… Simple but nice,
getting burning… With water:
it doesn’t change much, except
that we do have something waxy again
now, as well as notes of marshmallows
and bubble gum. Lots of body, even
when reduced to roughly 45%. The finish
is long, nicely citrusy and with an
enjoyable bitterness. A prototypical
young Clynelish. 86 points. |
| Clynelish
1989/2003 (60.6%, Blackadder, cask
#6088)
Colour: white wine. Nose: just as
powerful, as expected, but more discreet.
Very fresh again but it’s less
fragrant and more mineral. This one
does need water! Right, it’s
much closer to the Adelphi now, with
the same beautiful farmy aromas and
smoke. Probably even more expressive,
now that it got watered down. Most
enjoyable. Mouth: that’s funny,
it’s got almost the same attack
as the Adelphi, with maybe more notes
of fruit sweets and fruit liqueurs.
Maybe a little less clean. With water:
it’s almost exactly the same
whisky as the Adelphi now, and I can’t
taste any significant differences.
Same rating (of course): 86
points. |
| CRAZY
WHISKY ADS - JOHANNES WANTS MORE...
So be it! |
 |
Okay,
Johannes did
it again! I had thought Amsterdam
had surrendered, and that the ad
war between maltmadness.com and
whiskyfun.com was over. But no,
our sneaky Dutchman was just cleaning
and shining his weapons and he just
stroke back with a very famous Maker's
Mark ad. Okay, the fact that that
ad is very famous may be the problem
but let's be magnanimous and consider
Johannes' reply as valid, and as
'the most important thing in life
is not the triumph but the struggle',
let's go on with this extremely
rare set of three ads (I think they
only ran each once, it was in a
women's magazine from Outer-Mongolia
- and maybe Inner-Mongolia as well
but I'm not too sure). Johannes,
your turn - if you dare...
|
| TASTING
- TWO 1981 LOCHSIDES BY CADENHEAD |
| Lochside
23 yo 1981/2004 (55.1%, Cadenhead,
204 bottles)
Colour: deep amber – brownish.
Nose: rather powerful, starting quite
caramelly and very winey, with whiffs
of smoke. It isn’t too expressive,
even after a good ten minutes, with
just notes of dried oranges. Very
unusual for a Lochside, I guess the
sherry’s really too dominating.
Let’s try it with water…
Right, it gets more herbal as often,
smokier, with notes of wet chalk,
stones, rosehip tea and something
meaty. Nice but not a thilling. Mouth
(neat): powerful and very sweet again.
Almost sugarish. Extremely caramelized,
with something slightly sour…
Lots of dried oranges as well, heavily
sugared orange marmalade, Cointreau…
something bitter in the background
(rubber). Quite enjoyable in fact
but really simple. With water: not
much changes this time, maybe more
praline, toasted bread and a pinch
of salt. The finish is rather long
but marked by some notes of burnt
cake and bitter caramel. In short
an okay Lochside but the sherry really
overwhelms Lochisde’s trademark
fruity notes and maybe the whole lacks
complexity – too bad! Not even
sure they were there in the first
place! Now, it’s not a flawed
whisky, far from it. 78 points. |
 |
| Lochside
23 yo 1981/2005 (56.7%, Cadenhead,
Portwood matured, 246 bottles)
Colour: deep amber. Nose: starts as
powerful but much less marked by the
wine. Much less caramelly and more
austere, more elegant and better balanced.
It’s not that the fruits manage
to come through either, but there
are more meaty notes (whiffs of hot
gravy), ashes, soy sauce… We
have also these mineral notes, something
chalky, smoky… Also notes of
hot butter, mashed potatoes, celeriac,
hints of dill and even aniseed, maybe
old roses. Interesting and no need
to add water as far as I’m concerned.
Mouth: now it’s much closer
to the other one, even if it’s
more nervous. Quite some caramel again,
sweet red wine (err, Port), blackcurrant
jam. It gets a little too hot and
we’ll try to add a little water
now: no, not much else happening I’m
afraid. Perhaps a little more mint
and tea. The finish is medium long,
getting frankly minty now… Again,
not a winning Lochside and there’s
little distillery character but I
think it’s still quite better
than the first version, even if it
lacks a little complexity as well.
81 points. |
 |
TASTING
- TWO GLEN SPEYS
Glen
Spey 32 yo 1973 (48.7%, JWWW Auld
Distillers, Bourbon cask, 174 bottles,
2006)
Colour: gold – amber. Nose:
quite fragrant at first nosing,
with some rather winey and rubbery
notes… Lots of very ripe yellow
fruits coming through after a few
seconds, such as mirabelle plums,
yellow peaches, apricot… We
have also something quite mineral
and smoky, notes of toasted bread,
old white wine (old Rieslings) with
little hints of Madeira, coffee,
chicory ‘coffee’...
There’s quite some menthol
as well, a little camphor… |
| Another
‘wine-malt’, and a nice
one, at that, with a perfect balance.
Very, very enjoyable – another
great selection by Jack ‘The
Pirate’, it seems… Mouth:
extremely fruity and nervous attack,
with tons of crystallized oranges
and kumquats, eau-de-vie cherries
and dried apricots and notes of fructose
but quite strangely, the malts gets
then suddenly dry and sort of short.
Bizarre! It gets then quite coffeeish
and smoky again, with notes of burnt
cake, cough syrup and grilled tea
but the mouth feel is maybe a little
thin. What’s more, the finish
is rather short as expected, minty
and sort of dry, but not unpleasant.
Well, the nose was wonderful, the
attack superb but it didn’t
quite deliver after that. Too bad,
but on the other hand, that makes
it very easy to drink. 86
points (but it would have
probably reached the 90-mark with
a little more body). |
| Glen
Spey 16 yo 1981/1997 (60.5%, Cadenhead,
oak cask)
Colour: white wine. Nose: very spirity,
grassy and coffeeish like many high-octane
malts. Lots of newly mown grass, limestone
and… and? Yeah, let’s
add a little water! Oh, it gets even
grassier and mineral, even after a
few minutes. Very grainy and buttery
as well, with some very nice notes
of rosemary and thyme coming through.
Wild carrots? Interesting, nevertheless,
and very, very ‘natural’,
with little direct wood influence.
Mouth (neat): unexpectedly drinkable,
sweet and joyous, on apple compote
and marzipan, pear spirit, boxed pineapple…
Right, it’s starting to burn
now… Water please! That worked,
it really improved. Nice notes of
gentian (do you know ‘Suze’?),
liquorice stick, sugared tea…
Gets even grassier, tea-ish (not the
kind of tea you find in tired malts),
with also hints of white chocolate
and dried coconut. It’s good,
and the finish is rather long, grassy
again, getting just a tad too drying.
But the whole is very nice, very natural
but not ‘neutral’ at all.
85 points. |
| MUSIC
– Recommended
listening - Just another new Astrud
Gilberto? Certainly not! Brazilian
born French resident (and singer)
Bïa
has his own, laidback way of singing
bossa nova and it's totally beautiful!
Try for instance Mon
coeur est un vagabond.mp3 (my
heart is a wanderer)... Superb, don't
you think? And not that easy low-fi
kind of bossa at all. Please buy Bïa's
music! |
 |
NEW
– EXCLUSIVE MUSIC AND WHISKY
INTERVIEWS
Whiskyfun’s motto could be ‘fun,
whisky and music go together’
and we often noticed that many excellent
musicians enjoy good whisky indeed.
That’s why we came up with this
idea: asking artistes we like what
they think about music and whisky,
about their experiences, their projects
etc. with a set of pre-formatted questions.
Kind of a ‘music and whisky
Chinese portrait’ if you like.
We hope you’ll like this new
rubric! |
| Today,
as a first, we interview the excellent
English singer and songwriter PHIL
DOLEMAN, whom guitarnoise.com
called “Joe Jackson meets
Richard Thompson” and the
BBC… “The male Victoria
Wood”!
Whiskyfun:
Phil, tell us briefly about
what you do, music-wise.
Phil
Doleman: I’m
a singer / songwriter / guitarist.
I write, record and perform my own
material as a solo acoustic act.
I also play other instruments (bass,
5 string banjo, ukulele, mandolin,
harmonica, whistle). |
 |
WF:
Which
other musicians did you play with?
Phil:
In 2004 I became
the banjo player for part-time band
4-4-2, who were originally brought
together to record a song for the
Euro 2004. We made the record “Come
on England”, which went straight
in at number 2, making it the most
successful record of the tournament.
Recently the band reformed to record
some demos for a possible World Cup
release. |
WF:
Which
are your other favourite artistes?
Phil:
I
love quirky lyrics & short, snappy,
to the point songs. Billy Bragg, John
Otway, Squeeze, Richard Thompson,
Ian Dury. |
WF:
Which are your current
projects?
Phil:
I’m working
on a new CD, which should be released
in June. As the evenings get longer
I’m also going to be repeating
the ‘Live in Your Living Room
Tour’ that I did last year.
I take my show out to people’s
homes, rather than asking them to
make the effort and come out to see
me! |
WF:
When did you start
enjoying whisky? Are there any musical
memories you particularly associate
with that moment?
Phil:
I’d
only tried fairly nasty cheap blended
whisky until a friend introduced me
to single malts in the late 80’s
and I was hooked. At the time I was
playing in my first band, so a lot
of the musical memories are not ones
that people would ever have heard
unless they had been to one of our
gigs, but at the time I was listening
to (on CD and live) Clive Gregson
& Christine Collister, the late
Isaac Guillory, and a lot of ‘pub
rock’. |
WF:
What’s your
most memorable whisky?
Phil:
Laphroaig
– at the time it barely tasted
like Whisky to my uneducated palate,
but I loved it from the first sip. |
WF:
Do you have one, or
several favourite whiskies?
Phil:
Laphroaig,
Talisker, Glenfarclas, Glenmorangie. |
WF:
Are there whiskies
you don’t like?
Phil:
I haven’t
found one yet! |
WF:
‘If the river
was whisky baby, and I was a diving
duck’ is one of the most famous
and well used whisky lyrics, from
sea-shanties to blues and rock and
roll. Do you have a favourite musical
whisky reference?
Phil:
Squeeze
– Labelled with Love.
“She unscrews the top of a new
whiskey bottle
And shuffles about in her candle lit
hovel,
Like some kind of witch with blue
fingers in mittens
She smells like the cat and the neighbours
she sickens” |
WF:
Music and whisky are
often though of as being male preserves.
Should girls play guitars, should
girls drink whisky?
Phil:
Absolutely! |
WF:
In some ways you could
argue that tasting a whisky is similar
to listening to a piece of music –
you deconstruct the two in the same
way? Care to comment?
Phil:
I am always wary
of deconstructing anything –
especially music and comedy (which
my songs often contain). You usually
end up with lots of bits that are
less than the whole. |
WF:
If your favourite
whisky was a piece of music what would
it be, if it was a musical instrument
what would it be?
Phil:
A good
tear-jerking ballad, and probably
a slide guitar or a harmonica. |
Thank
you Phil!
Phil Doleman's official website
is here.
Video and audio files are to be found
in its download section, or on Phil's
myspace page (we especially like
'My name is Susan'). And no need to
say that we're all looking forward
to Phil's new CD 'Rock & Roll
Casualty'! |
 |
TASTING
- TWO RECENT YOUNG CAOL ILAS
Caol
Ila 1998/2005 ‘Very Cloudy’
(40%, Signatory for La Maison du
Whisky)
From the ‘funny’ series
that was filtered before it got
reduced. Colour: very pale white
wine. Nose: it doesn’t start
wildly but there’s presence
indeed. Very smoky, peaty and rather
rubbery (rubber bands), with quite
some burnt matchsticks, ashes, stones
and hints of marzipan, almond milk,
a little resin and maybe faint hints
of new plastic. Whiffs of smoked
tea, humus, forest after the rain…
Very little fruity notes if any.
A very clean, honest and uncomplicated
Caol Ila, with quite some oomph
at just 40%. |
| Mouth:
there’s maybe a little lack
of body right at the attack but it
does grow bolder after that. Smoked
herbs, resins, herbal teas, something
very leafy with a nice bitterness
but always quite some freshness. Something
that really makes me think of some
(good) gins. A poolside Caol Ila?
Quite some peat but again, very little
fruits and almost no sweetness, which
may be good news here. We have also
an unexpectedly long finish, on marzipan
and cold, un-sugared strong tea. Again,
a good one for next summer –
on ice? 82 points. |
| Caol
Ila ‘Very Young’ (59.4%,
Whisky-Doris, 2006)
This one is bottled for German online
retailer whisky-doris.de. Previous
bottlings were very good, I thought.
Nose: not as rough as expected but
typically uncomplicated and compact.
Peat, smoke, ashes, stones, a little
lemon juice and a dash of pepper and
that’s it, ite Missa est. Ah,
yes, also whiffs of fermenting hay
and maybe a little manure. A flawless
youngster that will neither make you
scratch your head, nor frown. Mouth:
quite oily, with lots of sweetness
now, probably from the alcohol. Astonishingly
drinkable at such high strength. Develops
on grapefruits, lemon skins and seeds,
peat of course… Something bitterly
vegetal (endives), quite some liquorice,
something rooty… Exactly the
same comments: it’s simple,
straightforward but flawless. For
true peatheads or people who’d
like to try new kinds of cocktails,
as I guess this one would make for
an excellent kind of high-octane ti-punch
(1 measure whisky, 1 measure lemon
juice, a dash of candy sugar and one
mint leave or two. To be served chilled!)
In short, a good one again. 81
points. |
| TASTING
- TWO YOUNG SPRINGBANKS |
| Springbank
8 yo (43%, OB for Japan, pear shaped,
late 1970’s)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: oh, this
is very different from what we’re
used to, and probably much closer
to the current young OB’s than
to the older tenners. Starts very
fresh, clean and fragrant. Very bold
notes of pear spirit, freshly cut
vegetables (Turnips? Celeriac?), cider,
something rubbery (rubber bands)…
It gets then rather flowery (lily
of the valley, lilac) and slightly
earthy and rooty (humus). Something
mineral as well, whiffs of smoke,
lemon juice… And maybe hints
of fresh coconut milk and sake (or
is just self-suggestion?) No traces
of sherry in this one, but a rather
long development and lots of subtlety.
A ‘Riesling malt’ again?
|
 |
| Mouth:
simpler, starting maybe a tad weak
but then, yes, we do have lots of
fresh coconut. Rather tons of it,
in fact. We have then a nice bitterness
(strong tea) and notes of cough syrup,
liquorice stick, celeriac again (did
you already taste celeriac spirit?
It’s not too bad!) Not lots
of development now, the palate being
certainly simpler than the nose, but
the finish is rather long and, most
of all, very salty. A very interesting
old Springbank, in any case, even
if not one of the richest. 88
points. |
 |
Springbank
10 yo 1995/2005 (58.4%, Blackadder
Raw Cask)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: it’s
much hotter of course, thanks to the
high alcohol (lots of coffee), so
let’s just water it down to
approx 43% vol. right away, just for
the sake of the comparison. Wow, it’s
a revolution! Quick sniffs when it
was neat didn’t reveal much
depth but now it’s a whole new
whisky. Very similar to its elder
sibling in fact, although it does
not start on lots of pear spirit,
rather walnut liqueur and high-end
tequila. |
| A
beautiful compactness, with quite
some menthol, eucalyptus, coffee again…
and again these earthy, rooty notes.
Fresh mushrooms? We have also notes
of greengages, gooseberries, wet hay,
smoke… A great surprise! Mouth
(diluted): oh yes, again it’s
beautiful. Very little coconut if
any but lots of oomph, even at roughly
43%, with some big liquorice stick,
smoked tea, dried oranges… It
develops on various other spirits
– it really reminds me of the
‘blanche’, that rather
trendy white, immature armagnac you
can sip in summer on lots of ice.
Notes of pisco as well, grapefruit
juice, something flinty and slightly
metallic. I’m not sure everybody
will say it’s whisky (again,
I feel it could be several other spirits
– or a blend) but it’s
most enjoyable and highly original.
Also nice notes of aloe juice. The
finish is rather long, nicely bitter
and vegetal, herbal, and again quite
salty… Again a very interesting
young Springbank, for people out there
who seek… well, difference.
87 points. (and
thanks, Antoine). |
 |
SCOTTISH
GENIUS LOST - For
anyone who had ever set foot inside
a Glaswegian wally close tenement
parlour, or sitting room, Ivor
Cutler's scatological
observations on Scottish urban living
struck a resonant chord, no doubt
deeply in tune with his maudlin harmonium
accompaniment. A truly unique oddity
(like the Bonzo Dog Band, famed for
his appearance in the Beatles' Magical
Mystery Tour) he deserves to be remembered
on the occasion of his death, and
far beyond. Nick. |
|
MUSIC
– Recommended
listening - Carolyn Pennypacker
Riggs and Aaron Morgan, from California,
aka The
Finches, play a nice
little song called The
road.mp3. Charming, don't you
think?... Please buy their music! |
 |
| TASTING
- TWO RATHER EXTREME 1975 ABERFELDIES |
 |
Aberfeldy
1975/2006 (56.2%, JWWW The Cross Hill,
Bourbon cask, 146 bottles)
Colour: pale amber. Nose: we have
some rather disturbing whiffs of rubber
and sulphur at very first nosing but
good news, those are soon to dwindle.
It gets then a little spirity but
other than that we have some rather
enjoyable notes of candied oranges,
tangerine liqueur, rancio (yes Charlie),
and kind of a ‘nice’ dirtiness
coming from the wood. It smells almost
like a sherry cask whisky. |
| Goes
on with something sweet and sour,
cooked strawberries, buttered caramel,
slightly smoky and flinty… The
whole gets then very oaky, quite herbal
and a little resinous… Well,
nothing too special here in fact,
I think it’s a little too indefinite
and that it lacks a little ‘cleanliness’.
Mouth: hmmm, it starts much better,
with some nice fruity notes (orange
marmalade) and both a sourness and
a bitterness that give it lots of
personality. We have huge, but not
excessive notes of infused wood, bay
leafs, burnt bread. It’s also
rather rubbery, at that, but it’s
an enjoyable kind of rubber. The finish
is bold, long, spicy and almost penetrating…
An interesting, beastly palate, rather
extreme! 86 points
for the whole. |
| Aberfeldy
25 yo 1975/2001 (57%, Cadenhead Bond
Reserve, Sherry Hog., 228 bottles)
Colour: amber. Nose: much cleaner,
with a wood that’s much less
dominating. It’s rather powerful
but also subtle and very elegant,
with a beautiful balance, this time.
Notes of cooked fruits, orange jam
and caramel, woodworker’s workbench,
quite some spices (nutmeg, curry).
Goes on with whiffs of melted butter,
hot pastries, cooked manioc, peppered
chocolate (that’s excellent)
and hints of raw celeriac… Just
great – and again, what a beautiful
balance. Classy! Mouth: an excellent
attack, majestic and probably as woody
as the Cross Hill, but perhaps more
balanced. Yet, there’s lots
of mustard, even wasabi, pepper, huge
notes of gentian and liquorice stick,
celeriac again… Very herbal
indeed! It’s so compact, so
nicely austere in its own way, I would
even say ‘serious’ (!)
There’s a little sweetness in
the background to prevent it from
getting sinister… Just perfect!
And the finish is long, persistent,
on liquorice and ginger... In short,
a rather unusual but very, very classy
sherried malt. 91 points. |
| MUSIC
– Recommended
listening - Some news from Whiskyfun
favourite Nellie
McKay, at least! Well,
her much anticipated new album 'Pretty
little head' has been postponed, due
to legal issues, by her record company,
Columbia (she wanted it to be a double
CD, they didn't etc.). A shame! Thank
God we could find a few demos, like
the rather brilliant The
big one.mp3 (remember, it's just
a demo). Please buy Miss McKay's new
album as soon as it's out, and in
the meantime, buy her first release,
Get Away From Me. Thanks! (via
the excellent blog The
rich girls are weeping) |
 |
| Lots
of oranges, fresh pineapples and guavas
on one side, then we have the flowers
(iris, lilly of the valley). Not the
‘sweet’ kind of flowers
at all, something more herbal. And
finally lots of hay, clean horse stable…
All that is underlined with a beautiful
phenolic structure: a little peat,
lots of wax (dare I say of course),
resins, ‘fatty’ smoke,
humus… I say wow, it’s
splendid! And very, very elegant,
not of the ‘obvious’ kind
at all. Mouth: wow again! Direct,
powerful, very affirmative (hum),
sexy (huh?) but it’s more Ava
Garner than Pamela Anderson –
classy stuff. Superbly grassy, salty,
waxy, resinous, fruity (citrusy)…
It grows saltier and saltier, more
and more herbal, with even notes of
mustard and curry. Something frankly
Brora-ish in there! Lots of liquorice
as well, Worcester sauce, oyster sauce.
It gets rather extreme in its very
own way, almost hot, invading, camphory…
Tell me about presence! A whisky you’ll
remember for years. I love it! And
the finish is long, thick (salted
liquorice), almost impregnating…
Anyway, 93 points
for this excellent surprise, but that
rating is even more personal than
usually, and I guess all aficionados
won’t like it as much as I do,
for it’s so extreme (and
thanks Lexus). |
| Clynelish
32 yo 1973/2005 (55.1%, Douglas Laing
Platinum, 6 months rum finish)
We won’t wonder why they decided
to finish a 1973 Clynelish, will we?
Sacrilege? Hum, we’ll see…
Colour: pale gold. Nose: much more
rounded and sweet, I’d say more
discreet than the 1974 although it’s
far from being ‘silent’.
Starts on something buttery, creamy
(vanilla cream, freshly baked pastries),
together with very nice flowery notes
(flowers from the fields) and fruit
jam (melon, plums, peaches). Whiffs
of smoke and ashes, ripe apricots…
And then the usual waxiness (like
a beehive here). Simpler but undoubtedly
enjoyable, with a nice freshness and
hints of rum but it’s really
integrated here – maybe it’s
not the rum that I can smell, after
all. Above all, it’s much fruitier
than the Signatory, hence more ‘classical’.
Mouth: punchy and powerful, much closer
to the typical old Clynelish we know
– which is strange, considering
it’s been finished. I guess
the ‘treatment’ has been
very light here, despite the 6 months.
Rounded, fruity (quince jelly, oranges,
a little bananas, hints of mangoes),
getting rather close to quince eau-de-vie
(that’s really excellent when
it’s properly distilled). Quite
some pepper, tannins (much more tannins
than in the 1974), maybe the rum coming
through now… Closer to white
rum, I’d say… Strange,
I must be wrong ;-). And we have quite
some salt again, something slightly
metallic (silver spoon), wax…
And a very nice balance and compactness.
The finish is long, waxy and a little
drying but nothing excessive. Another
good old Clynelish, no doubt, even
if it’s quite far from being
as grand, majestic and explosive as
that 1974. 88 points. |
| CRAZY
WHISKY AD - ON THE STUFF INSIDE |
| It's
been quite a while since Johannes,
over at maltmadness.com, declared
an ad war on us. That was on February
24 and we retaliated right on
February
26. Since that very day, no news
from the sneaky Dutchman, except a
long strain of poor excuses (like,
you know, 'my PC crashed and stuff')
or vain threats... Well, I don't doubt
he'll manage to come up with a proper
reply Dutch-style within the coming
days (months, actually), maybe with,
again, half-naked starlets... So,
in the meantime, I thought we could
keep the preassure on him, by publishing
a few naked starlets of a different
breed... |
| |
Fifty
years and the same old idea - more
or less.
Top, left, Johnnie Walker
Black Label in the 1940's:
'A whisky that needs no label'
Top, right, Chivas Regal,
in the 1960's: 'Just a reminder
that the most impressive thing about
Chivas Regal is what's in the bottle,
not what's on it.'
Bottom, left, Crown Royal
in the 1970's: 'A king with no
clothes is still a king.'
Bottom, right, Jim Beam White
in the 2000's: 'The stuff inside
matters most.' |
| |
 |
MUSIC
– Recommended
listening - If you're in a bad mood
(or if you live in Los Angeles)
maybe you'd better postpone this
one: the
Mooks playing Hollywood
nocturne.mp3. A magnificent,
I think, blend of blues and German
neorealism... Just superb. Please
buy the Mooks' music...(via
motel
de moka) |
| Royal
Brackla 1976/2006 (61.2%, The Cross
Hill JWWW, sherry cask)
Already quite some malts bottled in
2006 to taste. Let's start with this
'German' Brackla. Colour: gold. Nose:
oh, there’s also a little peat
in there! Much less, that is. Bold
notes of citronella and stones, flints,
with whiffs of rubber (rubber band),
fresh mint leaves and cooking yellow
plum jam. Quite rounded for such a
high strength malt, very jammy, It
gets then very winey but it’s
more like a Sauternes or an Alsatian
late harvest wine than like a sherry.
Lots of very ripe fruits, bananas,
ginger bread, … Let’s
try it with a few drops of water:
it gets a little grassier now, with
notes of forest, fern and moss, pine
needles, old papers… Great,
it got even more complex. |
 |
| Mouth:
very sweet, astonishingly rounded
and drinkable at more than 60%, very
creamy, on tons of fruit jam again,
orange salad with honey and olive
oil (try that one day, it’s
delectable), resin sweets, rubber,
cough syrup… Excellent, I guess
it was a refill cask. Let’s
add water: oh, it gets even creamier
and fruitier, on Xmas cake, candied
kumquats, ginger. Quite some pepper,
hints of cloves, fruit liqueurs…
And always quite some rubber. The
finish is very long, very bold and
very fruity. One of these great old
Bracklas, definitely, maybe there’s
just a little too much rubber. 89
points. |
| Royal
Brackla 1983 (57.5%, The Whisky Connoisseur)
Colour: white wine. Nose: ha-ha! This
Brackla seems to be unusually peaty…
Fresh, very herbal and grassy, with
notes of fresh mint and paraffin,
lit candles, marzipan, motor grease,
diesel oil… A very interesting
peat, not exactly Islay-style, nor
of the farmy kind. Delicate and lively
– an excellent surprise. Mouth:
the attack is sweet and very fruity
(pears, strawberries, white peaches)
with quite some peat again in the
background. What a perfect balance!
Quite some paraffin, waxed cardboard
(not too enjoyable this time), with
odd notes of rotted game developing
now… Strange… Notes of
over-infused earl grey tea, marzipan…
lavender soap… Hum, thing seam
to skid now. Bizarre… Plus,
the finish isn’t too long but
quite bitter. Is it falling apart?
Too bad, it did start great…
78 points. |
|
MUSIC
– It's Sunday,
we go classical with something pretty
interesting, I think: the superb
avant-garde soprano Claron
McFadden singing (well,
you can hear her singing) a rare
work by Adolphe Sax - who invented,
well, you know what - Paradiso.mp3
(excerpt). Please buy her records
and go to her concerts! |
 |
| TASTING
- TWO INDIE PULTENEYS |
 |
Old
Pulteney 14 yo 1990 (43%, Signatory,
casks #04/781/1 & 2, 729 bottles)
Colour: pale white wine. Nose: rather
discreet at first nosing, with just
whiffs of alcohol and something mashy
but it gets then quite nicely flowery
and fruity (not that it’s a
fruitbomb if course). Green apples
and pears, daisies… We have
something rather smoky in the background
(fireplace, wood smoke), growing then
bolder with time. Also notes of yoghurt
(quite yeasty), barbeque herbs, bitter
chocolate, ginger ale, cardboard,
maybe sea water… Not too expressive
but fresh and pleasant. |
| Mouth:
a rather nice attack on coconut milk
(like in some un-sherried Springbanks)
and sugared orange juice, something
waxy… It gets then rather earthy
and rooty (gentian spirit), sort of
medicinal, switching then to watered
down lemon juice, lettuce, grass juice.
Herbal, almost bitter but not unbalanced.
The finish is quite long, herbal and
very salty, with the coconut making
a remarkable coming back (Malibu?).
A rather natural and lively expression
of Pulteney, without the usual ‘relative’
roundness we can find in most OB’s.
No thrill but good. 81 points. |
| Old
Pulteney 16 yo 1989/2005 (46%, Whisky
Galore)
Colour: white wine. Nose: we’re
more or less on the same territories
here, although this one is more mineral,
sharper, and not yeasty at all. Bold
notes of wet limestone, grapefruit
juice, again quite some smoke…
Cleaner and probably more elegant,
but not really more complex. No coconut
here but hints of fresh litchis and
roses. Again a pleasant, natural Pulteney
with almost no direct cask influence
that I can smell this time. Mouth:
sweeter and nervous, starting on lots
of sweets (Haribo’s strawberries,
marshmallows) and again quite some
salt. It gets then very grassy and
herbal (green tea, lemon zests, fresh
rhubarb). Lots of oomph and boldness.
Develops a little further with quite
some liquorice and ginseng powder
(yes, quite earthy again). The finish
is long again, maybe rougher than
the Signatory but just as salty, with
notes of gin. Again a good one to
sip just because you wanted to have
a nice ‘natural’ whisky
with quite some personality. 83
points. |
| PETE
McPEAT AND JACK WASHBACK |
|
MUSIC
– Recommended
listening - Long time heroes
Idaho
play Much
closer now.mp3. (from We
Were Young and Needed the Money)
Almost everything is out of tune
in there - yes, on purpose, I guess
- but I think it's a beautiful song
- it's magical! Please buy Idaho's
music... |
 |
 |
TASTING
- TWO CLASSY INCHGOWERS
Inchgower
25 yo (54.1%, Whisky Doris, 2006)
Colour: cognac. Nose: oh yes, this
is the kind of sherry I like! It
starts on a fantastic mix of smoked
‘stuff’, coffee and
cocoa, with no heaviness at all.
We have then quite some balsamic
vinegar, grilled meat, old dry white
wine (very old Montrachets, Château-Chalons),
bitter caramel, hot brownies…
Very little rummy, raisiny, fruity
notes this time and kind of an austerity
that’s all elegance here... |
| The
smoke grows bolder by the minute (I
already had a few very smoky Inchgowers),
with also notes of game (foul pheasant),
sea air, coal, maybe also heating
oil. Ah, yes, and linseed oil. Extremely
classy, with not a single hint of
sourness or vinosity. Mouth: yummy!
It starts sweeter and rounder but
still in a rather austere, almost
rigorous way. Lots of cocoa, toasted
bread, ristretto coffee, Smyrna raisins
this time, grilled almonds with caramel…
It’s beautifully dry in fact,
all elegance. The bitter chocolate
really starts to overwhelm the whole
after a moment, and I love bitter
chocolate and its dryness. It doesn’t
really develop any further, but what
we have is that excellent, that it’s
almost good news. The finish is long,
beautifully dry and, again, superbly
austere. Bingo! 93 points
(but you have to like dryness in your
whisky). |
| Inchgower
27 yo 1976/2004 (55.6%, Rare Malts)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: oh, that’s
funny, there’s lots of smoke
in there as well! It starts maybe
a little more discretely, though (no
sherry at all), but develops quietly,
on mineral notes, ashes, newly mown
grass and old books. Just as elegant
as the 25yo… Notes of burning
beech tree wood… It gets then
quite peaty, farmy (hay, very clean
manure) and goes back to ashes (err…)
Another relatively shy, but great
Inchgower – on the nose, at
least. Mouth: now it’s much
creamier, sweeter than its sherried
sibling, with lots of fresh fruits
(mostly Williams pears but also ripe
plums and white peaches) and hints
of fructose that add a little extra-vivacity.
It gets then quite herbal (lettuce,
a little dill, chives), then goes
back to cider apples and pears…
Turkish delights, notes of buggle
gum, marzipan, mint… Very good,
all in nuances despite the high alcohol.
And the finish is long and ‘broad’,
on almond milk, pears again, something
waxy and resinous… In a nutshell,
another classy Inchgower, maybe not
as truly exceptional as the ‘dry
sherry monster’ above but still
worth 90 points as
far as I’m concerned. |
| MUSIC
– Recommended
listening - Breaking news, I'm into
post-hardcore! Well, not really, don't
worry, but as much I as I hate this
kind of music usually, I like
Lauren
K. Newman's work quite
a lot (which won't fail to amaze all
the youngsters around, hahaha!) Do
you want to become the hero of the
neighbourhood as well? Have a try
at Bleak,
ruined choir of one.mp3 and play
it loud! And then buy her music (or
present your favourite nephew with
her CD...) |
 |
CONCERT
REVIEW by Nick Morgan
CHAS AND DAVE The 100 Club,
London, February 24th 2006
|
| Well
Serge, welcome to my knees-up nightmare.
Crash bang wallop! We took a smash
and grab – that was a Paul McKenna
– to the rub-a-dub, got a couple
of Britneys (a bloody deep sea diver!),
grabbed a lion’s lair in the
Johnny Horner, sat on our fifes and
enjoyed the Russell. The place was
packed – not your usual 100
Club muso crowd, more like a cross
between an East End wedding reception
and a Hen Night (yes Serge –
we still have them here, despite your
bird flu’) in Southend. We’ve
got a mum, dad and kids in front of
us, a bemused American sociologist
to our left, and to the right, in
a tight 1960s psychedelic Dicky, someone
who looks remarkably like Lionel Blair
(and who, for the amusement of Cockney
rhyming slang aficionados, is actually
wearing a pair of flares). The excellent
DJ Boss
Goodman is working his way through
a fine selection of British R&B,
and making quite a Serge. |
Lionel Blair |
| We’re
here to see Chas
and Dave. They’re
hot. They wowed Glastonbury, toured
with the Libertines, and have at last
made it big in the USA. In case you
don’t know they play rockney
– a unique combination of cockney
sing-a-long songs and rock and roll.
Sounds awful doesn’t it –
barely better than my Dad’s
favourite long-player, always brought
out at Christmas, Mrs Mills Honk-Tonk
Christmas Party Favourites Volume
9. |
 |
Actually
it’s a lot cleverer than that
– slightly misogynistic yet
innocent reflections on the fragility
of the human condition I would say,
with lyrical callisthenics of astonishing
accomplishment (yes I know ‘Rabbit’
drove everyone bonkers in the end
but listen to it again and you’ll
have to admit it really is sweet).
|
And
although they wear their talent very
lightly, Chas Hodges (piano) and Dave
Peacock (bass) are musicians of no
mean skill, with a long list of session
work to their names. Dave might be
one of the best bass players we see
all year. Oh yes – and on drums
is Micky Burt – formerly of
the late and much lamented Cliff Bennett
and the Rebel Rousers (“Oi Mick,
let’s ‘av some stick”),
doing a passable impersonation of
Albert Steptoe.
Strangely Chas comes to the stage
with his own bodyguard – but
it’s easy to see why as the
girls (and their Mums, and their Grannies)
close in on the cramped stage. “Are
there any London girls in ‘ere
tonight” almost provokes a riot
– just as the photographer goes
into action. But it’s a happy
crowd with just the right number of
Britneys inside them – no sign
of trouble here. We get what we might
expect – ‘Rabbit’,
‘Gertcha’, ‘Beer
belly’, ‘Margate’,
‘London girls’, and of
course, the number one smash ‘Ain’t
no pleasing you’, with a selection
of somewhat interminable instrumental
medleys of the Mrs Mills meets Russ
Conway school. But overall it’s
great fun and educational too –
we learn all the special hand signals
you have to give to different songs
from the Mum in front of us, who like
almost everyone else knows the words
and the dances off by heart.
By the end you could hardly move.
A passing bus party of Pearly Kings
and Queens had joined us, and behind
them came a veritable procession of
barrow boys, coster-mongers, cockle
sellers, lovable street urchins and
poor little match-girls. Lionel B
was busy choreographing them in the
style of the opening number from the
other Lionel’s Fings ain’t
wot they used t’be. There’s
a gang of dodgy villains from Kent
at the bar buying everyone drinks
with £500 notes. The Mum in
front has succumbed to the several
bottles of the 100 Club’s special
Chateau Neuf et Six, and has to be
restrained by the bouncer, and her
kids, from jumping all over Chas.
Why Serge, I swear I even saw the
late Queen Mum there enjoying the
crack with a nice glass of hock as
the deathly silent whistle of V2 missiles
could be heard overhead. |
What a knees-up! |
| What
a night! What a knees up! I saw Chas
and Dave described as ‘strangely
life affirming’ in a Guardian
review last year – but that’s
just Guardian Jackson Pollocks isn’t
it? They’re simply good fun
– if you get the chance go along
and enjoy. - Nick Morgan (concert
photographs by Kate) |
| Thanks
a bunch, Nick. I didn't know you were
mastering Cockney Rhyming Slang so
well and I must confess I was pretty
much in terra incognita with these
Chas and Dave fellows, but then again,
the only thing we really know about
English popular culture over here
comes from Quadrophenia or Tommy.
Okay, add to that the Full Monty,
Trainspotting and yes, football (soccer)!
Speaking of which, while doing my
homework, I found out that Chas and
Dave are also famous for something
that you did not mention (God knows
why): the songs they wrote for the
Tottenham Hotspurs. I won’t
comment on them, as I know next to
nothing about football, and just nothing
about sport anthems, but our distinguished
readers may have a try at them. Quite
strangely, you can find many of them
via a Tottenham supporters’
club from… Singapore! |
 |
Balblair
40 yo (42.8%, Single Malts of Scotland,
cask #1346, 2005)
Colour: pale amber. Nose: starts on
bold and scary notes of varnish and
cellulose but they are soon to give
the fruits some elbowroom. We have
quite some apricot pie, ripe peaches
and strawberries, spear mint and fresh
almonds… It gets then nuttier
and nuttier (roasted hazelnuts), with
also some melon and plums… Notes
of light honey, heather, cigarette
tobacco, all that being quite fresh
and lively despite the old age. Whiffs
of spices, the malt getting very minty
after a few minutes, with hints of
lemon balm. Enjoyable, no doubt, even
if not enormously expressive. |
| Mouth:
oh yes, there’s quite some wood
in there. It’s far from being
just plank juice like some other oldies
but there’s quite some tannins
indeed, notes of immature fruits (plums),
liquorice roots, bold nutmeg and pure
cocoa, getting quite bitter and drying
after a while. Notes of varnish again
(not that I drink varnish usually),
walnut liqueur, the whole getting
cardboardy and slightly sour (cider
apples). It gets a little difficult
now, sort of tight and thin –
except for the wood. The finish is
rather short, lacking body and frankly
woody. Well, the nose was very nice
but the mouth is maybe too dry, slightly
tired and a tad disappointing, unlike
all other malts from this series I’ve
had, all ranging from very good to
excellent. 80 points. |
| Balblair
10 yo (57%, OB for Pinerolo, late
1970’s)
Colour: full amber. Nose: oh, this
is rather unusual! Punchy but not
violent, starting very earthy, on
fresh mushrooms, humus, bold notes
of moss, fresh almonds, wet dead leaves.
There’s quite some varnish again,
interestingly, and also notes of fresh
mint, camphor, turpentine… The
varnish doesn’t vanish like
in the 40yo, though. Keeps developing
on marzipan, coffee and chocolate,
getting then sort of winey (sweet
white wine) and flowery (peonies).
Also notes of blackcurrant syrup,
mulberries… There must have
been quite some ex-wine casks in this
vatting. A very interesting whisky.
Mouth: this one is much punchier,
creamier yet far from being ‘thick’.
Very herbal now (barbeque herbs, curry),
really dry and bitter but not excessively
so. Notes of old sweet wine again,
cooked fruits (apricots), and lots
of tannins, not unlike the 40 yo but
there’s much more body and oomph
here. Bitter caramel, strong tea,
Tabasco, Worcester sauce… Yes,
it’s hot! Cough! Notes of sugared
mustard, orange marmalade and more
and more tannins. Hints of cooked
mushrooms and liquorice stick. I must
say I like this rather extreme, rough
and most unusual profile. Not what
we’d expect from a Balblair
at all! And the finish is long, bold,
tannic and hot - what a beast. 86
points. |
| Bowmore
13 yo 1991/2005 (49%, Glen Denny –
Hunter Hamilton, cask #HH91/1699,
272 bottles)
Colour: white wine. Nose: rather spirity,
sharp at first nosing, very pure.
Starts quite mineral, almost like
a Riesling (flints, matchsticks, lemon),
getting very smoky (garden fire) and
maritime (fresh oysters, seashells).
We have then some very nice grainy
notes (soaked barley), notes of buttered
mashed potatoes and something herbal
(hay). A very fresh and clean Bowmore,
extremely far from most young OB’s
from the last years. Very, very ‘Islay’,
whatever that means. . |
 |
| Mouth:
sweet and nervous, more typically
‘recent Bowmore’. Smoke,
fruit liqueurs, boxed fruits, lavender
crème… Something slightly
unpleasant in that mixture, but that’s
me, I guess. We have also quite some
salt, liquorice, gentian roots, and
a rather long, more classical, peaty
and salty finish. Loads of salt! The
nose was just great, hence my 83
points |
| Bowmore
8 yo 1990/1999 (56.5%, The Whisky
House – Donato, Italy, cask
#3409)
Colour: white wine. Nose: we have
a very similar Bowmore here, everything
being just toned down, with maybe
a little more flowery flowers (not
of the lavender – violets –
geraniums kinds, rather flowers from
the fields. Other than that it’s
almost as mineral, lemony and maritime
as the Glen Denny, maybe just a tad
less smoky. Less expressive, globally.
Mouth: extremely close to the Glen
Denny, just more powerful, thanks
to the higher ABV I guess. What’s
more, it’s even saltier, which
is amazing. It gets also a little
cleaner after a moment, a little smokier…
The finish is very long, ‘plentiful’,
sweet and smoky, all the perfumy notes
having vanished. Good news. 84
points. |
 |
Bowmore
12 yo (43%, OB, early 1990’s?)
Colour: amber. Nose: already some
notes of ‘bottle age’,
with very little smoke if any (was
it a lack of 'tails'?) No notes of
‘geranium’ or ‘lavender’,
that is. There is something coastal,
though, together with a little dust
and cardboard. Rather discreet…
Notes of ashes, a certain lack of
cleanliness. Mouth: there is quite
some peat now, and also crystallised
fruits and butter caramel plus a little
liquorice. It gets then bolder, with
quite some salt and tar and gets then
a little ‘difficult’ (heavy
notes of salty liquorice). The finish
is rather long, mostly on dried plums
and salt… In short, this one
is little weird, lacking freshness
and cleanliness. Not my cup of tea,
I’m afraid. 77 points. |
|
MUSIC
– Recommended
listening - Lavender
Diamond's singer Becky
Stark does Why
oh why.mp3 (from her CD 'Artifacts
of The Winged'). Very delicate!
Please buy her music... And there's
a nice cartoon there. |
 |
Check
the index of all entries:
Whisky
Music
Nick's Concert
Reviews |
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Best
malts I had these weeks - 90+
points only - alphabetical:
Aberfeldy
25 yo 1975/2001 (57%,
Cadenhead Bond Reserve, Sherry Hog., 228 bottles)
Clynelish
27 yo 1974/2001 (55.7%,
Signatory, cask #2570, 229 bottles)
Inchgower
25 yo (54.1%,
Whisky Doris, 2006)
Inchgower
27 yo 1976/2004 (55.6%, Rare Malts)
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