The Birmingham Whisky Club - Pernod Ricard New Releases Tasting

I was fortunate enough to be able to go along to my first tasting through the fabulous Birmingham Whisky Club this week. It was a fantastic evening hosted at The Wellington Pub on Bennetts Hill in central Birmingham. If you haven't visited the pub before I would strongly recommend it - great traditional atmosphere, lots of fab ales and most importantly, a healthy selection of great drams behind the bar!

Our host for the evening was Lauren Mustard, Brand Ambassador for Chivas Regal. She did a great job talking us through the whiskies on offer, and we had some good ones! It was also great as a new blogger to meet some like-minded people, in particular fellow Birmingham whisky blogger Rob from the wonderful Dead Bottle Collective.

Anyways, onto the whisky and my thoughts / tasting notes...

The Glenlivet Nadurra First Fill Selection (RRP £45-£50)

This is a no age statement (although I suspect quite young) cask strength offering from The Glenlivet Nadurra range. It's non-chill filtered and from 100% 1st fill ex-bourbon casks.

Colour - Quite light and pale, suspect this is quite a young offering

Nose - Tropical and citrus fruits, honey and vanilla

Palate - Floral and sweet, butterscotch and apricots. As it is young and cask strength it packs a punch as despite the sweetness it has plenty of spark

Finish - I got lots of dark chocolate and coffee that lingered for quite some time

Overall, a very pleasant first dram, setting the tone nicely. A good easy drinking cask strength whisky with lots of sweet and floral notes. A little drop of water opened up the flavours some more although for me didn't make as much of a difference as in some cask strength offerings

Chivas Regal Extra (RRP £35)

This is a blend made up of almost all sherry cask whisky, which as a sherry cask fan I thought was a rather interesting idea. I must confess to not being blown away by this one...

Colour - Deep Amber, loads of sherry influence coming through, although there is also colouring added here...

Nose - Rich but still floral, dried fruits and Christmas cake

Palate - Really quite harsh and metallic, possibly some spice and candied peel

Finish - Very short, bordering on the non-existent. Possibly some vanilla notes coming through but you have to be quick to catch them

I must confess that this is not the dram for me. Very smooth due to the sherry cask influence and low abv (40%) but really lacking in both style and substance. And this is not just me being a malt purest, I have drank many better blends, I'd even pick the Chivas 12 ahead of this. I know it was quite popular on the night, just not one for me!

Chivas Ultis (RRP a not insignificant £160!)

Now here was an interesting idea...this is a blended malt (so no grain whisky in sight) from five of Chivas's distilleries. This was created in honour of the five master blenders of Chivas Regal - certainly an interesting concept, particularly given the quality and range of the malts that Chivas have access to. This was rather exciting. So, which malts are included and what, according to Chivas, does each one of them bring to the table in this blend...

Strathisla - This is the linchpin of Chivas and the distillery is the blend's spiritual home. This malt is there to bring fruitiness to the whisky
Tormore - One of the younger whiskies on Speyside, built to supply the Long John Blend. This malt brings the citrus notes
Longmorn - Ah, one of my favourite malts (more about them later). Creamy flavours will be coming from this fella
Braeval - Reopened in 2008, this malt is used almost exclusively for Chivas blends. This malt will be bringing the floral notes
Allt-a-Bhainne - Another reopened distillery (restarting in 2005) and again used for Chivas blends (they are now used for adding a peated malt to their mix as Chivas don't have a distillery on Islay anymore). In this dram this apparently brings the spice!

OK, now all that background has been covered, how does it taste?

Colour - Rich amber, not as dark as the Extra but still plenty of depth

Nose- Plenty of floral notes, almost a hint of perfume and perhaps coconuts?

Palate - I get a lot of very sweet peaches here with dried apples and apricots and just a hint of cream.

Finish - Medium, plenty of floral notes. Very smooth, too smooth?

Overall, this was a pleasant whisky - a good, well rounded smooth and easy drinking dram. I must say however, at the high price point of £160 RRP there are many, many malts that I'd choose ahead of this one.

Longmorn 16 (RRP £80-£90)

So, this was the whisky I was most looking forward to ahead of the tasting. Longmorn is one of those hidden gem malts that is highly regarded but you don't see very often. I had a few drams of Longmore (I think the old discontinued 15) a few years ago at The Blake in Sheffield (a great pub with a great selection of drams) and absolutely loved them. So, this was to be quite a treat. I was not disappointed!

Colour - Mid-amber. Lighter than you may expect from a 16YO malt.

Nose - Fresh cream, apples and cappuccino

Palate - Beautifully delicate and creamy, so full and mouth coating, hints of marshmallows and perfume

Finish - Medium and surprisingly spicy and dry (especially given how it wasn't spicy on the palate at all)!

Yes, this whisky did not disappoint! A lovely, well balanced, rich and creamy dram. I may have to buy myself a bottle of this!

The Glenlivet Nadurra Peated Cask (RRP £50)

So, this is an interesting one. A whisky that is peated not from the barley being dried on a peat fire but due to the whisky being finished in a cask that previously held a heavily peated whisky. The spirit is first matured in first fill ex-bourbon casks before moving on to add it's peaty edge. Lauren hinted that the casks may have been from one of the big boys in Islay (possibly Laphroaig?). There was some discussion in our household ahead of the tasting around this whisky. Was it cheating to have a peated malt that doesn't come from peated barley? Let's have a taste and see...

Colour - Another very pale whisky, implying that this is probably quite young (again this is a no age statement whisky)

Nose - Definite peatiness although considerably less than you would find with a traditional peated malt. I also got hints of coconut, vanilla and caramel

Palate - A lot less smokiness than you might expect from the nose. A really well balanced and rich dram. Got hints of cream, butterscotch and black pepper coming through alongside the peatiness

Finish - Very long, dry and spicy with almost no peat coming through here

Overall, I really, really like this whisky. It was a real surprise for me. as a lover of all things peaty it bridges the gap between Speyside and Islay beautifully. You get the rich, sweet flavours of Speyside with the hints of smoke from the peat mostly on the nose. I reckon that for me, this just edged it as the dram of the night, if for no other reason than uniqueness.

So, overall, it was a most enjoyable evening. 5 great drams in a lovely setting with some great and very knowledgeable people. It was lovely to mingle with a few more of the enthusiasts who came out on a rainy Thursday to enjoy good whisky. Special thanks to Amy at Birmingham Whisky Club (http://thebirminghamwhiskyclub.co.uk/) for organising such a great event! Will definitely be back soon and would strongly recommend these events to anyone with an interest in whisky.

Until next time, sláinte!