The Cabinet met last Wednesday evening for its annual end of year "Member's Choice" meeting. Throughout the year the Cabinet Secretary is responsible for the selection of whiskies to fit with the tasting themes he has planned, but once a year a rotating group of members make the picks. This evening those members were Michael, Grant and Ivan and they selected, respectively, the Kirkland Speyside 20 year old, the Clynelish 14 year old and the Oban 14 year old.
They are listed above in ascending order of price, complexity and, as it happens, preference, although I should hasten to add that price, complexity and preference do not necessarily always correlate so neatly.
All of these have been reviewed in these pages before and our opinions have not changed, so instead I will present this a gift list as each one of them is a fine whisky and would make an excellent holiday gift, should you be in the market for such still at this late date. I will also add an interesting fact or two so you can present the gift and sound impressively knowledgeable while doing so. Much better than, "Hope you like it dude, the guy at the liquor store said it was his brother-in-law's favorite."
Kirkland Signature Speyside 20 Year Old $45 USD, therefore $62 CD (but not available in Canada)
This is almost certainly a Macallan and as such is an almost unbelievable bargain. Macallan no longer makes age statements, but the rough equivalent of this bottle branded as a Macallan would run about $120 CD.
Your interesting Macallan fact is that it has exclusive access to an oak forest in Galicia, northern Spain. Here the Tevesa cooperage makes sherry barrels from that oak specifically so that the barrels can be reused for Macallan. Look at the lovely sherry colour in this whisky and taste the smoothing effects of 20 year's exposure to the vanillin in the wood.
Clynelish 14 Year Old $88
While it is classed as a Highland whisky, it is distilled in Brora, on the Sutherland coast, and thus falls into the Cabinet's favoured sub-style: coastal Highland.
What is interesting about this distillery is that for many years almost all of it went into making blends, especially Johnny Walker Gold, of which Clynelish is a high percentage. The currently open distillery began production in 1967, but only much more recently entered the single malt market in any appreciable way. However, if you do find a bottle of single malt from between 1967 and 1983 (fat chance), it could actually be from one of two different dueling Clynelish distilleries. And a bottle from before 1967 (fatter chance) would be from the "other Clynelish", which closed in '83. The other Clynelish (sometimes called Brora too) produced a very different malt as it was heavily peated to fill a gap created by a shortage of Islay peated malts.
Oban 14 Year Old $125
Of the three this is our clear favorite. In fact it is one of our favorites overall and, not coincidentally, a fine example of the coastal Highland sub-style.
For your interesting fact we turn again to history. Oban is one of the oldest distilleries, beginning life in 1794 in a brewery that had been producing something called "Cowbell Ale". The town of Oban grew up around the distillery, leading to an existential crisis in 1968 when it's closure was announced because it was considered too small and incapable of expansion, wedged in the historic town as it was. Obviously, and thankfully, it was a given a reprieve.
And so another splendid evening of superb whisky, lively conversation and, this time, fine cheese (thank you Grant) passed and another year of Cabinet Meetings is inscribed into the history books.
Slainte!
They are listed above in ascending order of price, complexity and, as it happens, preference, although I should hasten to add that price, complexity and preference do not necessarily always correlate so neatly.
All of these have been reviewed in these pages before and our opinions have not changed, so instead I will present this a gift list as each one of them is a fine whisky and would make an excellent holiday gift, should you be in the market for such still at this late date. I will also add an interesting fact or two so you can present the gift and sound impressively knowledgeable while doing so. Much better than, "Hope you like it dude, the guy at the liquor store said it was his brother-in-law's favorite."
Kirkland Signature Speyside 20 Year Old $45 USD, therefore $62 CD (but not available in Canada)
This is almost certainly a Macallan and as such is an almost unbelievable bargain. Macallan no longer makes age statements, but the rough equivalent of this bottle branded as a Macallan would run about $120 CD.
Your interesting Macallan fact is that it has exclusive access to an oak forest in Galicia, northern Spain. Here the Tevesa cooperage makes sherry barrels from that oak specifically so that the barrels can be reused for Macallan. Look at the lovely sherry colour in this whisky and taste the smoothing effects of 20 year's exposure to the vanillin in the wood.
Clynelish 14 Year Old $88
While it is classed as a Highland whisky, it is distilled in Brora, on the Sutherland coast, and thus falls into the Cabinet's favoured sub-style: coastal Highland.
What is interesting about this distillery is that for many years almost all of it went into making blends, especially Johnny Walker Gold, of which Clynelish is a high percentage. The currently open distillery began production in 1967, but only much more recently entered the single malt market in any appreciable way. However, if you do find a bottle of single malt from between 1967 and 1983 (fat chance), it could actually be from one of two different dueling Clynelish distilleries. And a bottle from before 1967 (fatter chance) would be from the "other Clynelish", which closed in '83. The other Clynelish (sometimes called Brora too) produced a very different malt as it was heavily peated to fill a gap created by a shortage of Islay peated malts.
Oban 14 Year Old $125
Of the three this is our clear favorite. In fact it is one of our favorites overall and, not coincidentally, a fine example of the coastal Highland sub-style.
For your interesting fact we turn again to history. Oban is one of the oldest distilleries, beginning life in 1794 in a brewery that had been producing something called "Cowbell Ale". The town of Oban grew up around the distillery, leading to an existential crisis in 1968 when it's closure was announced because it was considered too small and incapable of expansion, wedged in the historic town as it was. Obviously, and thankfully, it was a given a reprieve.
And so another splendid evening of superb whisky, lively conversation and, this time, fine cheese (thank you Grant) passed and another year of Cabinet Meetings is inscribed into the history books.
Slainte!
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