Clynelish 1997 Oloroso Sherry Distillers Edition

Today I will be tasting the second last whisky from my advent calendar. That means that the next tasting will be the 50 year old... Very exciting.

Back to today... the guest of honour is the Clynelish 1997 Oloroso Sherry Distillers Edition. This whisky was distilled in 1997 and bottled in 2012, which makes it a 15 year old (or possibly 14 depending on the months). I have only had the pleasure of trying a Clynelish once before and I was very happy with it.

For music I am listening to Pink Floyds' Atom Heart Mother. This is Pink Floyds' fifth studio album. The cover features a simple (albeit beautiful) photo of a cow in pasture. There is no writing on the cover. Sound wise it sounds like a movie soundtrack. It also makes great driving music. Now to see how it pairs with whisky.

Nose: Orchard fruit that is lightly spiced. I also got notes of raisins, charred wood and a hint of an almost candy like aroma. Delicious.

Palate: A mouth watering blast of delicious fruit that is tapered by baking spices and honey. It is like the flavour profile of a home baked strawberry rhubarb pie with cherries and boysenberries. There is also a leathery quality hidden within layers of vanilla and wood.

Finish: The finish is very smooth and long. It is also quite dry. It leaves me with notes of burnt raisins and perhaps some milk chocolate.


I am really happy with this whisky. I found it to be very complex. It also reminded me of fresh baked pie and that has to be worth a bunch of extra points. The music is enjoyable. It seemed to take a back seat to the whisky, content to just linger in the background supportive but not really involved. I think this album is best suited for times were I am able to just focus on it.
 

Bushmills 10 Year Old Single Malt

On this tenth day of March I am going to have a taste of the Bushmills' 10 Year Old Single Malt. I have been looking forward to this tasting for some time now and am eager to get going. This whiskey spent most of its ten years in bourbon casks and was finished in Oloroso sherry casks. The only other Bushmills' single malt I have tried before this was the 16 year old, and I can only describe that as almost like candy. A little younger the 10 year old may be but I am no less excited.

For musical accompaniment I have chosen to go with Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon. This album was released 41 years ago today. It is not only Pink Floyd's most commercially successful album (over 1500 weeks in the charts and 45 million copies sold) it is also one of the most successful albums of all time. A true masterpiece, this album takes you on a journey of intense space rock with unparallelled sound engineering. When I was about eighteen years old I had heard that this album could be matched with The wizard of Oz movie. I decided to give it a try. Some of the film lined up with the music while other parts lead me to believe that this was just some stoner's experiment. All the same it was fun. How can you go wrong with one of the greatest movies of all time mixed with one of the worlds greatest albums.

Let's see if the music can fit with this dram.

Nose: mouth watering honey sweetness with a touch of spice. I also detect what I can only describe as old paperbacks.

Palate: starts off as wood and then quickly opens up into chocolate notes that develop into the sweetness of lychee. The mouth feel is exquisite.

Finish: a long finish of the lychee hangs on and then the wood comes back before the finish quickly fades.

True to its Irish nature this whisky is very smooth and light. It is delicious, approachable and all around attractive. As for whether the music worked with this dram... I think that there aren't a lot of situations that this album couldn't work with.

Next weeks tasting will be on St Patrick's day. I think that one should call for a double.

Until then have a great week.