Håvard Eide

Last week the time came for a Ardbeg Supernova tasting at Jekylls in Oslo, hosted by Chris Maile. The basement of Jekylls filled pretty much up and we were presented with a introduction by Chris about the Ardbeg distillery.

Then there was the tasting, first we tasted the new Renaissance before we digged into the Supernova.

Renaissance

Nose: citrus, pineapple and a nutty backdrop.
Taste: peat and salt, classic Ardbeg taste on this one. With a bit of water: more distinct smoke and tar. The smoke really fills the mouth! Then the citrus comes back. This develops really nice with a tiny drop of water.
The interesting thing with the Renaissance was after it had aired a bit: a very sweet cotton candy on the nose, very sweet! I’ve never seen this in a Ardbeg before!

Supernova

This was what we came for: Ardbeg Supernova 2001, aged on first fill burboun and sherry casks.
Nose: the citrus is there, and some iodine. Some dried fruits and the smoke is absolutely on track here!
Taste: The initial hit comes with coffee and very dry cocoapowder on the tounge. The cask strength is absolute noticable but not to a degree where it’s not drinkable. It then develops with the smoke, tar and peat that hits hard, but not as hard as “the peaties Ardbeg ever” would lead you to think. With a tiny splash of water it develops a very dry smoke on the toung, very dry, I can only describe it as a dry pile of ash. Finally the finish: long, very long! It just wouldn’t go away ( in a good manner ), so a interesting experience with this new bottle!

Supernova is released the 2nd of may here in Norway at 829NOK and I do think I’ll pick up a bottle, but you should at least have a little taste of this bottle if you get the chance ( at least if you like peaty whisky ). Supernova is still young ( only 8 years ) and I can imagine that it will be a good one after a few more years in a cask to smoothen out a bit. For now I prefer the Renaissance over the Supernova of the new cask strengths that Ardbeg has released the last year.

After the tasting I got on my bicycle and road back home, that was a experience in itself: the dry ash and smoke dried out my mouth all the way home and I had to cool down with a Ardbeg 10yo before going to bed that night.

A couple of weeks ago I sat down on a nmwl with 5 10yo whiskies in front of me to taste blind. This is always a good exercise since you don’t pre-judge based on the label of the bottle, everyone should try this from time to time just to see what happens. We got a list of 15 distilleries up front so that we had something to base our decision on. Here are my notes for the evening.

First up was Aberlour: sherry cask here? some vanilla and perfume, lots of perfume. some sulphur and the balance is not very good. Not a bottle I would buy. But: my initial thought that it had to be a Aberlour was correct
The second bottle smelled like green grass, had some pear and apple ( mainly fruity ) and a dry finish. It was a Glengoyne, and I did not guess correct.
The third bottle smelled like green apples and had a intense initial hit, then a salty taste that lingered, must be a burboun cask. This was Longrow 100 proof and I did not guess correct.
Fourth up was a odd one: smelled like a old wet fireplace, peaty and lots of wood. This was a Chieftain’s Choise Bunnahabain peated, I was correct and I bought myself a bottle of this the day after.
Finally Ardbeg was servered, this one I had correct ( Ardbeg is on my top 3 distilleries, wasn’t that hard to guess it ).

So: 3 out of 5 wasn’t that bad I think The suprise of the evening was the Bunnahabain peated that got a safe home the next day. Looking forward to opening that one!

I also got to taste a Glen Scotia 1999-2007 bottle 294/345, nose: dry hay, a liqurish hint and some spices. Mouth: bitter and dry liqurish with a hard liquor taste on it. It had a very short finish, this one should have a couple more years before shining through.
Then I tasted a Teaninich 12yo ( Exclusive malts ) that was a bit anonymous, and finally a Caol Ila Dun Behgan 12yo that was very good! I wish there was bottles of this one still available in Norway, I would get it instantly!

2009 have started out as good as 2008 was when it came to quality hiphop concerts, and looking at the schedule for what’s to come later this year it will be a great one! So far it’s been 3 concerts.

Check The Rhyme

This one went down on Betong in Oslo: a classic lineup of 5 groups that became a part of my youth when I grew up and started to listen to hiphop in the first place. My initial thought before buying a ticket was that this could end in disaster with groups showing up late and be a bit dis-organized, but it turned out great! All the groups showed up when they were supposed to and kept to the time schedule!
Jeru The Damaja started the show dropping classics from The Sun Rises in the East. A one-man show that rocked the hard-core fans in the audience, he didn’t have much of a stage show, but the impact that this guy have had on hiphop is legendary.
Next up was Paris a/k/a The Black Panther of Hip Hop: a hard-hitting westcoast rapper that I first encountered with Guerilla Funk back in -94. The set was thight with the distinct sound of Paris showing up ( up-beat and hard ).
Third up was the Alkaholics: these guys still do their thing and serving up classics one after the other.
Lords Of The Underground came up after this and this was the highlight of the evening: rocking the crowd with a (yet another) set of classic tunes( check out the Here Come the Lords album ). This was the group that managed to keep the crowd up and the intensity on stage so high that it really made the night! The set was so good it was worth the entire evening. I hope these guys come back to Oslo in the near future
Finally Beatnuts came on stage and delivered a worthy closure of a evening filled with 90s hiphop

Interesting to see was that there were a lot of younger people in the crowd early on the night, but these faded away quickly so that when LOTUG came on stage it was less people there then when it started….. This was a night for the old-school people that have been around since the early 90s growing up with these groups.

EPMD

EPMD came to Blå to deliver one of the best concerts that I’ve seen, they were only on stage for a good hour, but delivered such a thight set that I couldn’t care less. This was hiphop at its finest!

Too $hort

Last night I went back to Blå to see Too $hort, the okland pimp that goes back 20+ years and 17 albums. The weed smoke was thick and the pimpin factor was high for the disappointingly short 45 minutes that he was on stage ( and what was up with the “dj”, he looked so misplaced he could just have been off stage ).
Image by Vilhelm, my colleague

With these 3 concerts I’ve now seen 7 of the groups that I grew up with in the 90s for the first time live. I just hope more of them are coming out ( must be a lot of 20year anniversaries for a lot of those groups these days )

Today I have set up planet-whisky.com: a site that aggregates whisky blogs and news from around the world into one easy-to-read overview of what’s happening in the whisky world.

The site fetches RSS feeds from various sources that I have picked out on a regular basis (once every hour ). You can of course use google reader or any other RSS reader, but with a planet site you don’t have to go out and find the sites, I’ll find them and put them up there as they appear ( there is even a feed that you can use in your favourite RSS reader if you prefer that ).

I would love some feedback on the site and tips on others sites that could be included.