A Walk Along The Dornoch

The Cabinet met last week to take a virtual walk along the Firth of Dornoch in the northeastern Highlands, about 70 km north of Inverness. The Manitoba Liquor Control Commission (MLCC) has a monopoly on whisky sales in Manitoba (and in fact all alcohol sales except wine), so The Cabinet is largely dependent on their judgment and good sense. By and large the MLCC does a reasonable job and they do in fact list 123 single malts. That being said, it can be a challenge to assemble a coherent tasting program as there is inevitably a bottle that would fit nicely but that is not available here. Consequently I was well pleased to discover that all three of the distilleries along the Firth of Dornoch have product in the local shops: Clynelish, Balblair and Glenmorangie.

We will begin then with the Clynelish 14 year old, distilled in the town of Brora, at the northern end of our walk. This is yet another Diageo owned distiller and yet another that originally just produced for the blending houses, but gradually in the 1990s began releasing more and more single malt bottlings as interest in that grew. Interestingly it is the reanimation of shuttered distillery that was put back into production because a drought on Islay in the late 60s created a shortage of peated malts and Clynelish was considered the peatiest of the mainland whiskies. The 14 year old is the flagship expression and by far the most popular. There was some dispute among the members whether this latter day Clynelish has much peat character anymore, but there was universal praise for it's pungent nose, dense and creamy mouthfeel and exceptionally long finish. This is a whisky with a lot going on. As is our custom we will not throw random, deliberately obscure descriptors at you
(diced carrots, chopped hazelnut, aged Turkish Delight and the like...). Everyone will taste something a bit different, which is the charm and appeal of a complex whisky. The Clynelish also had an interesting mouth puckering and salivary gland stimulating effect, almost like an intensely savory dish. I could practically hear my parotid glands clenching (it's a subtle squeak, like wet rubber). We scored it 7.0, or "Three Drams - Good" in our system, keeping company there with the Oban, Laphroaigs and Talisker. A last bit of trivia: the small animal on the label is a Scottish Wildcat, also known as the Highland Tiger. It's sort of a tabby crossed with a chainsaw. It is Britain's rarest mammal as there may only be 40 left in the wild.

We now march a good 40 km down the coast (Cabinet members are vigorous men for whom such a walk is a trifle), keeping away from the A9 when possible, crossing Loch Fleet on a small boat and then the Firth of Dornoch itself on the mile long bridge. Then it's a quick right turn soon we're at the Balblair distillery. Balblair was the first distillery that I am aware of to move away from the traditional age statements. Instead it marks it's bottles with the year the barrels were laid down; for

example we have a "Balblair '03". You have to look at the bottle to find the bottling date and then calculate how long the whisky was barrel aged. It turns out that the 2003 was bottled in 2014 and thus an "11 year old" in the old parlance. But the comparison isn't exact because the other difference appears to be that these bottlings are all from a single year, whereas previously "11 year old" would have meant that the youngest whisky in the bottle was 11, but that it had been blended with other older malts to create the flavour profile the malt master was after. Balblair states that instead they follow a given year's production, checking each year until the malt master declares it ready. This time it was at 11 years, but next time it may be at 10 or 12 or something else. Seems odd. Doesn't that imply that some years they may bottle two or three expressions and other years none at all? In any case, that's all perfectly fine, but how does it taste? I'm sad to report that it tastes just... ok. Perhaps it suffers in the shadow of the Clynelish, but any comparison is pointless as they are such completely different whiskies, despite being near neighbours in the same region. The Balblair '03 is sweet and thin. Perhaps a hint of pear drop and other sweetened fruit? A bit grassy maybe? It's... ok, but not at all complex or interesting and perhaps one of the rare malts that would be improved by ice in a situation where you just want cold slightly sweet booze in the summer. Disappointing. Merits a 3.9 in our system. Just "One Dram - Mediocre", albeit at the very top end of the "One Dram" score range.

Now we turn around and head back towards the Firth of Dornoch bridge but walk right past it, keeping to the south bank of the Firth until after just a few kilometers we reach Glenmorangie, easily the best known of the three. And a lovely place in a lovely setting it is. Although The Cabinet frequently expresses skepticism at specialty cask finishes, the Quinta Ruban is a favorite, having previously scored "Three Drams - Good".  MLCC offered a "Discovery Pack" with, or so they claimed, four 225 bottles. Having enjoyed the Quinta Ruban we were curious how the Lasanta and Nectar d'Or would compare. It seemed the perfect final stop on our Dornoch walk. Alas, MLCC lied. Please examine this webpage:
http://www.liquormarts.ca/product/glenmorangie-discovery-pack/4-x-225-ml

It is clear, yes? Four 225 ml bottles would provide a good ounce for each of the eight attendees. Perfect for tasting.
Instead, what the box contained was one 750 ml bottle of "The Original" (which we had recently tried and were not that keen on) and three absurdly lilliputian 45 ml bottles of the others. 45 ml divided by eight yielded 5 ml per person with 5 ml left over. A teaspoon each. Not enough to form any sort of opinion on. Rich colour though! Promise of very dense and flavorful whiskies! More cannot be said.

Thank you to Larry for being an excellent and knowlegable guest, thank you to Jason for the double smoked cheddar (we still don't now what "double smoked" means beyond the obvious, but it was good) and thank you Cory and Al for the photos. Another excellent meeting!

Slainte!