I've often heard many whisky enthusiasts say: "I'm not allowed to buy anymore whisky until I get rid of a few bottles" or "My wife says I'm not allowed to build a bigger storage area". I have to say that having a partner who is just as passionate as I am leads us completely down the other path. I look at Graham and say: "There's no more room in my bookshelf". He scratches his head and builds me shelves. He looks at me while we are on vacation and says: "Do we want this bottle", and I don't even look over. "You want it, get it". You can see the dilemma right? There is... NO VOICE OF REASON!
Now mind you we do try to have limits (try...) so our spending habits have changed slightly in the last few years. We are more selective with our whisky purchases and have many less bottles open then we did 5 years ago. Looking back at 2016 and what we bought, I was quite satisfied with our choices and only had one small disappointment overall. Not bad, I say...
As mentioned in a previous post when tasting the whiskies in the advent calendar, I knew I was going to be in trouble and promised myself I would limit my purchases to 3. Many of whiskies in the Secret Spirits calendar were pretty stellar but I managed to narrow it down to the ones I really wanted a full bottle of. Wemyss Marmalade Appeal, Glenrothes 27 year old.
Number 3 on my top 12 of 2016 easily slides into this position for two reasons:
1. These bottles are rarely available in Canada and I usually have to wait until a trip to Scotland or the kindness of #whiskyfabric to get these, so I'm super excited to have this one in our collection.
2. This whisky was truly a stellar dram and next to Velvet Fig (which I miss very much), this is the best of the Wemyss Malts I've ever tried.
Serge Valentin (Malt Maniacs) as well as www.whiskyfun.com rates this particular bottling 4 stars. (I highly respect his opinion).
My review was here as part of the advent fun I participated in:
http://whiskylassie.blogspot.ca/2016/12/day-21-wemyss-glenrothes-27-year-old.html
Whiskies that make the "world" stop for a few minutes are a rarity. I come across these every once and awhile and absolutely cherish them. There were very few bottles of this Wemyss (688 I believe)... and I consider myself extremely lucky to be getting one.
To Emma, Karen, Jacqueline, Ginny, and the rest of the team that works extremely hard at Wemyss Malts: Keep up the good work. Every whisky enthusiast should be so lucky to own a few good bottles from this independent company.
Cheers!
Lassie
I can't believe how quickly this has gone? When I started on day 1, it was almost a little intimidating. I have to nose/taste a whisky every day for 25 days straight, and here I am on day 21 looking at all the empty doors with only 5 left to go. It's been a fantastic adventure so far and as I poke my finger through door 21, the reveal makes me squeal with delight once more. I'm noticing that as we get closer to day 25 the drams are getting more and more special!
Today's dram is Wemyss Glenrothes 27 year old - Marmalade appeal. With a name like that, how could my mouth not begin to water immediately. Marmalade is my favorite of all the preserves!!! I run back up the stairs, taking them two by two. (At least I'll have gotten 25 days of exercise out of all this?! hehe) I trust the bottle into Graham's face: BOUUUYAH! I announce as those I've won the lottery. He laughs at me and reads the label. "Nice!" he says as he hands it back. I snatch it from his hands and skip (yes, I skipped) back to my arm chair. Pop that baby open and nose... nose... and sink into my chair just a little. The aromas of the whisky are simply divine.
Martine once walked us through a very interesting masterclass where all you relied upon was the nose/taste of the whisky to conjure up one image of what the whisky in your glass represents for you. As I sat there, nosing Marmalade appeal, I was suddenly brought back to an era that I did not exists in, the Victorian period and it was lovely. This whisky evoked an image of sophisticated ladies with muffles and gentlemen in top hats!
I seriously got lost in this dram to the point that I didn't finish my coffee and Graham wandered into the living room and just stared at me: "You, errrr, going to work?". I stopped for a moment and considered it, but then how do you explain to your boss you can't come in because a whisky sidelined your whole day? :)
Once the day was done, I had a bit of a headache. Supper/dishes out of the way and I knew I had to get back to that whisky. I sat overlooking our street, all decorated for Christmas and simply smiled. It was another one of those simple but lovely moments created by whisky. It was perfect in the time and place I was at.
Wemyss Glenrothes 27 year old, Marmalade Appeal, 46% ABV. Sherry Butt cask #5376.
Colour: Hay bail at sunrise.
Nose: Chocolate pot de creme with shaved orange rind. The smell captures you immediately and lulls you into the glass. Gorgeous!
Palate: Seville orange marmalade allll the way! The sweetness and tangy kick makes your saliva glands kick in immediately. Warm and rich dram.
Finish: Long and sweet! Probably the longest finish of this whole advent calendar so far. It stayed with me for the better part of 20-30 minutes.
Some drams are lovely sipping whiskies, this one my friends, is a time traveller. It brings you back to a different time and quality of whisky that we don't see very often anymore. Jonathan, this is my favourite dram, so I hope this will be available soon in full bottle!
If you want to read more about this lovely whisky please click here to see what Jonathan thought:
In the meantime, to my friend Jacqueline who works really hard on the Wemyss team, thank you for this sublime whisky. I truly loved it for many reasons and it made me miss you all the more xoxox
Cheers for now,
Lassie
