Wednesday the target for the evening was jekylls in Oslo, a wonderful pub with a range of good whiskies and a competent staff that alwyas is there to help you out with suggestions and information on bottles. It’s also the only pub in Norway with a cask behind the bar: a Highland Park 12yo sherry cask ( #1556 ) that holds a good 59% and is a sherry bomb! But, our venture was not to include this cask but rather a couple of Glenfiddich bottles and a bit odd Caol Ila.
Glenfiddich has been a whisky that I never had much to do with: I’d only tasted the standard bottle and wasn’t very impressed. Last year I “discovered” Glenfiddich with a bottle of 15yo Solera Reserva that suprised me very much. So I went out to taste a couple different bottles, first up was the Glenfiddich 18yo:
Nose: Sweet fruit came through here, some plum. Not very distinctive on the nose though.
Taste: The first thing that hit me was a bit harsh raw-spirit taste, didn’t enjoy that very much, but then it smoothed out a bit, and the fruit and plum from the nose came through and finished up with some honey in the end.
The bottle was ok, but not very much more than that, I give it 7/10 and rather go for a bottle of the solera reserva.
Then there was the Glenfiddich 21yo Havana Reserva, this one I chose to see what the rum finish could do with a Glenfiddich:
Nose: ok, sweet ( no big surprise there ) and fruit again.
Taste: again with the sharp hit on the tounge, then the rum finish came rushing in – sugarcane and dark sugar melted slowly, almost syrup. As the 18yo this also went smoother in the end and some smoother friuts and malt came through before it ended up dry in the mouth. Bone dry! rather unplesant if you ask me.
Well, rum finish is not my thing, and I rate this 6/10 and will most likely not taste this again very soon.
I now went to the bar and went for a Caol Ila to get me some peat and smoke, but the bartender pointed me to a bottle of Chieftans Caoli Ila 13yo. I thought: why not and went for a glass of it. I think this was the manzilla finish If I don’t remember too wrong.
Nose: definitely Caol Ila, but with a rather sweet smell sneaking its way.
Taste: Caol Ila, that’s for sure but with a hint of sweetness that tones down the normally peat and oily features of a Caol Ila. After a while when it had some air to breath in the disappointment hit me: perfume, way too much perfume with a sweetness that couldn’t be described as plesant.
Overall a ok dram as long as it was straight from the bottle, and I rate it 7/10.
We ended up with a taste of haandbryggeriet Ardenne Blond 7.5% batch 179, a norwegian beer. A hazy looking golden beer that has lots of fruits ( oranges and sitrus ), spice and some nice pepper in the end. The brewery delivers again with this beer, a bottle that would fit perfect on a hot summer day. 8.2/10
The night was a bit disappointing but the Glenfiddich bottles had to be tasted, I’m going to stay with the 15yo Solera Reserva from this distillery in the future.