Head-to-head Scotch Tasting: Glenrothes vs Aberlour

As a friend pointed out, I have been a little delinquent on my posting, so I was determined last night to rectify that and hauled out some nosing glasses and two newer purchases to compare. Are these fair comparisons? I don't know. I'm not exactly scientific here at Epi-Q, but it's always fun to pitch whiskies against each other. Or for that matter compare Michel Richard Central's fried chicken to Popeye's (hmmm, I think Popeye's might come out on top).

For this tasting we will look at two Speyside Highland malts. Both are aged at least for a portion of their lives in sherry casks. In terms of price, the Glenrothes is more expensive (by about $20). Glenrothes has made a cottage industry out of vintage bottlings. This one is the 1991 vintage, aged 15 years and bottled at 43% ABV in 2006. The Aberlour 12 year old is the new standard entry-level Aberlour from the distillery for the US market, replacing the excellent 10 year old. The Aberlour is double cask matured, spending a good chunk of its life in traditional oak casks and then finishing in sherry casks. How long it spends in sherry is a good question. Their website doesn't give much information.

The two whiskies have nearly identical deep gold-amber color, which is rich and enticing. The Glenrothes has a subdued nose without water followed by sharp nose prickle from the alcohol. I thought I detected a faint bit of taffy in the background. On first taste it is very oily and coats the tongue. The Aberlour has a brighter nose than the Glenrothes with faint honey and flowers. Its taste is slicker but also coats well. Adding water, the Glenrothes opens up with toffee, hazelnut, faint vanilla and maybe even strawberry, whereas the Aberlour almost dies off. It is herbal, straw, maybe soap or lavender, but with more time it comes back a bit. Its taste is now sweeter with some oil and a long finish, while the Glenrothes is still a little sharp and less coating.

I let both sit a bit longer and I think the Glenrothes gains more sweetness and rounds out as it is exposed to air. The Aberlour is a little disappointing compared to the old 10 year old, but I will have to revisit it again in the future before I pronounce definitively on it.

Bourbon ***

I owe a couple of posts, which I will get to at some point, but I wanted to enter a few quick notes on Bourbon. You get no points for guessing this place's specialty. Hans and I went there last night for some drinks and dinner, our second visit to the Adams Morgan outlet. I won't give detailed tasting notes on the drinks, but we had the Elmer T. Lee Single Barrel from Buffalo Trace, Heaven Hill's Rittenhouse Rye, and a third that replaced the Four Roses the place was out of. I think it was Elijah Craig, but I forget at this point.

The drinks came in tumblers, which are not the best to drink out of if one is interested in getting the full experience, but I recall last time that drinks did come in nosing glasses. That said, this night was not about discovering the finer points of the drinks. The range of bourbons and whiskies is impressive and reasonably priced (many are in the $6-$9 range). The food is also very good. The veggie sliders -- house made -- are excellent, as was the bison burger and the ostrich burger. An excellent choice for drinks with friends.

Morimoto ****

The Iron Chef himself, Masaharu Morimoto, plunked his eponymous restaurant down in Philadelphia of all places -- not NYC, not LA, not any of those other places that get too much press for their culinary outlets. On a recent trip to visit the parents in Philadelphia, I sought out Morimoto's restaurant on a non-descript block of Chestnut Street (trust me, most of Chestnut Street is non-descript -- and that's being charitable).

I opted for the sushi bar seat, which allowed me to observe a small piece of the kitchen in addition to the sushi chefs. Morimoto probably doesn't cook much in his kitchen, but the results are stellar, nonetheless. I opted for the Omikasse menu, which essentially is a tasting menu at several price points, depending on how much you wish to splurge on the ingredients. I went for the middle of the road and was not disappointed. In all, I had seven course and none were anything but above average, with possibly the exception of the sushi course, which I think was a matter of placement in the batting line-up, not in execution. Here are my quick notes from the night:

1st course is a beautiful toro tuna tartare in a dashi sauce with caviar and some sourt of small pitted fruit on the side reminiscent of a strawberry in appearance. A sublime start to the meal.
2nd up is red snapper sashimi in oil and I think a soy sauce that is slightly spicy and warming. Tiny sprigs of cilantro added nice balance.
3rd course was a seared yellow-fin tuna sashimi in a sweet soy onion vinaigrette that was wonderful. The searing added flavor without messing up the flavor of this lovely fish.
Next came a strawberry lime jelly as a palate cleanser. Refreshing.
The 4th dish is the first of the hot dish. This first one is a rich halibut on three seaweed salad with a buerre blanc sauce and wrapped in yoba leaf, I believe. I could have sworn the fish was lobster, or failing that a perfectly executed monk-fish. I've never had such sweet, perfectly moist halibut before.
5th was a rack of lamb over spinach with ratatouille and a pesto. The ratatouille is not typical, rather it's got some sweetness that follows with spice in a southern style, like a fresh salsa. Delicious nonetheless. I wasn't sure the pesto had much place, but on second try it gives the rack of lamb a mint jelly flavor that is not unwelcome.
The 6th course is the somewhat out of place sushi. Five fish are laid before me, including a side belly of toro, skipjack, and Thai yellowtail. All are nice, but muted in flavor after the lamb and the halibut.
The dessert is a flourless chocolate cake with a white chocolate mousse and a brown rice crisp. There are two "smears" on the plate, one chocolate reduction, and the other adds a salty butterscotch texture. Too much salt, I think, but I have a sweet tooth. The cake is small, but satisfying.

Well done Morimoto. My only question -- who are all these people who ask me how my meal is? I get the floor manager, but then there's someone else, my main server, and at least two others. And none of them introduce themselves.

Morimoto also has beers under his own label that are brewed for him by Rogue Brewery in Newport Oregon. I tried the soba ale, because the other two seemed too rich (a porter and an ale that actually was described in a way I thought would be too bitter), which was very good, though I would never have guessed it was soba-based.

When in Philadelphia, visit Morimoto!

Clynelish 14 year old

No less an authority than Jim McEwan of Bruichladdich has stated his opinion that Clynelish is a fantastic malt that too many people overlook. Clynelish is part of Diageo's line of Classic Malts (so is Talisker and the surprisingly good Glenkinchie). The standard bottling at the moment is the 14 year old, which is 46% alcohol by volume. The color is deep gold, almost orange it seems to me. The nose is rich, with tangerine rind, some smoke as water is added, and light sherry notes. The texture is oily, thick and coating on the tongue. With water I get some pears too and a little bit of woodiness. A very good malt.

The distillery has an interesting history (check out the Malt Maniacs link on the right side of my blog or the link above), but perhaps the most intriguing is that for a period of time it went by the name Brora (from 1969-1983 according to Diageo). The two distilleries were side-by-side for a period of time, actually, and my one experience of Brora (a 31 year old, I think) was of a much smokier, peatier malt than Clynelish. Untypical of a highland malt, I guess, but as I have learned, regions of Scotland do not doom a malt to taste a particular way or meet a specific profile. Peaty, smoky malts can come from anywhere.

Alt-a-Bhainne vs Glenfarclas

This is not an exact head-to-head of Alt-a-Bhainne versus Glenfarclas, but it is close. I tasted the Alt-a-Bhainne (which is predominantly used in Chivas blends, not bottled as a single malt) on two consecutive nights and then transitioned to the Glenfarclas on the second night for a comparison.

The Alt-a-Bhainne is a Duncan Taylor bottling from their NC2 (non-chill filltered, non-colored) line of single malts. It was distilled in 1992 and bottled as a 14 year old in 2007 at 46% ABV. (The distillery was closed from 2002 to 2005, but after an ownership change production restarted and was ramped up). The color is quite light, almost straw colored. It has a slight medicinal smell before any water is added, but otherwise it was difficult to detect anything. The taste is full, coating the tongue, and not overly strong. Once I added water I smelled a little bit of apple, but not much else. Despite my long time spent over this one, it left me disappointed. The nose doesn't develop very well and the taste, though full, doesn't evoke much.

The Glenfarclas is the distillery official bottling at 12 years old and 43% ABV. The first thing I noticed was the rich, gold color. The nose (un-diluted) has honey, toffee, maybe burnt sugar, and some peat. It tastes full bodied and coats the tongue well, though feels stronger than 43%. After water is added the nose develops more. Still honey and sherry (it is sherry-cask aged, after all), but now some flowers come out and what seemed like fondant/wedding cake. The nose is rich and full; the sherry rounds it out without overwhelming.

From my description I'm sure you've guessed that the Glenfarclas is the winner. Well worth the time to enjoy this malt. I've heard good things about Glenfarclas 105 (the cask-strength release), but haven't found a bottle yet.

Aberlour A'bunadh

The A'bunadh from Aberlour, whose 10 year old is a fantastic malt, is a cask strength whisky in a 19th century style bottle (basically shorter, squatter, with a wider mouth). My bottle came from batch 18 bottled in 2006 at a strength of 59.7% ABV. The color is quite dark, almost a deep rich crimson. It seemed to smell like a bourbon at first (which is funny, because I believe it is only aged in sherry casks). The nose is quite sweet --- like a port, but not quite. It's got a cough-drop smell, maybe some eucalyptus.

After adding water it gets softer, but the sherry still comes through strong. There's a slight bit of smoke. It's very rough going down, even with water. I added more, but you need to go a long way with the water to keep it from dragging the grappling hooks the entire way down your throat. This is powerful stuff that makes you gasp if you're not careful. I added more water and got a slight bit of mint.

This is not a subtle drink. Supposedly distilled to be closer to the 19th century standard, it makes me worry a bit about the Macallan 1851 Inspiration I bought in Seoul airport -- that's also supposed to be a 19th century-like whisky. Since the Inspiration is only available in duty frees, though, I plan to hold onto it.

Bowmore Legend

Bowmore Legend is sold in most markets without an age statement, but is supposedly an eight year old. Its youth shows. This is a light, straw-colored whisky that needs a lot of time to develop in the glass. My first impressions were of new sneaker and rubber bands or latex. The legend was very closed the first night I tried it. Adding water didn't add much to the nose. A first taste revealed light smoke and a sharp finish. I could tell it would eventually become a Bowmore like the 12 year old, but more time in a barrel is definitely needed.

The second night I poured a dram and let it be for more than an hour before I even attempted to try it. In fact, I was closer to 90 minutes before I took my first whiff, which yielded much more of the traditional Bowmore nose. Some fruit came through, green vegetation and maybe sherry. Still some plastic. Finally some faint peat and smoke, but not a lot.

An interesting dram, particularly to see what a Scotch is like early in its career, but I would not choose this as a regular drink.