World Archives - More drams, less drama

Nantou Batch 2 TBWC

29th January 202328th January 2023Coldorak

Back in September, my friend Dave Worthington, That Boutique-y Whisky Company’s brand ambassador, gave me a mountain of samples, and I’m still working my way through them. Hard work, I know. This time I’m trying something from a Taiwanese distillery I have never tried anything before: Nantou. Nantou Distillery was founded in 2008, becoming Taiwan’s second whisky distillery. In 2015, Puli Pan, the distillery manager since 2012, releases a first whisky called Omar. This core range will become known as Yushan Signature and will be joined by Yushan Blended Malt. Since then, they also released whisky under the Nantou name. For now, only two independent bottlers released whisky from Nantou apart from the official bottlings, and we try Nantou batch 2 from That Boutique-y Whisky Company (TBWC).

Kavalan 2008 Conquête LMDW

7th January 20237th January 2023Coldorak

Kavalan is a Taiwanese whisky distillery that was founded in 2005 by Mr. Ting, Chairman of the King Car Group, which is known for its production of food and beverages, as well as its involvement in transportation and renewable energy. Located in Yilan County, Taiwan, Kavalan takes its name from the indigenous Kavalan people who have lived in the area for centuries. The distillery is known for using locally grown barley and water from the Snow Mountain and Central Mountain Range to produce its whiskies, which are aged in a variety of barrels in a hot and humid climate. It is worth noting that Kavalan whiskies are often bottled at a young age due to the rapid maturation process that is induced by Taiwan’s climate. But in this review, we will be tasting a 12-year-old Kavalan 2008 Conquête whisky that was selected by LMDW.

Amrut 8-Year-Old Greedy Angels (2017)

4th December 20224th December 2022Coldorak

Our third dram from this year’s whisky and malternative advent calendar is coming from a range we’ve tried a few newer releases last year. Yes, we’re trying them in the wrong order, but since so far they’ve all been very good, I guess that’s more than okay that we get to try some more, right? So this time, we’ll be trying an Amrut 8-year-old Greedy Angels released in 2017.

Two Brewers Classic

16th September 20221st October 2022Coldorak

Two Brewers started in 1997 when Bob Baxter and Al Hansen founded the brewery in 1997, after a canoe trip in Yukon, Canada. A dozen years later, then decided to take the next step and start making whisky. Using their experience as brewers and knowing the importance of the malt and the fermentation, they pay special attention to those steps as from the start they have a great influence on the final product. Those final products are numbered and unique, without a search for homogeneity, and classified in one of their ‘collections’: Classic, Innovation and their Special Finishes single casks. What we’re trying today is not one of their very latest batches but let’s try it anyway: the release N°26: a Two Brewers Classic.

Old vs New Canadian Club

16th August 202216th August 2022Coldorak

Canadian Club is one of the most famous Canadian whisky brands. It was founded in 1858 by Hiram Walker in Walkerville, Ontario. You might raise an eyebrow here: “Wait, Walkerville and Hiram Walker? Coincidence?” And you’d be right to raise that eyebrow. Hiram Walker founded Walkerville in 1890 as a model town, which was probably without a name before. Walker made homes for his workers, a church, and a school, the town growing outwards from the distillery. Nowadays, Walkerville is a heritage precinct of the town of Windsor. The whisky made there was first known as Club Whisky as it was well appreciated in the US and Canada ‘Gentlemen’s Clubs’. In an attempt to hamper on Walker’s whisky fame, American distillers petitioned to have the word ‘Canada’ added to the label, but it backfired and helped Walker’s whisky to become more exclusive. In 1889, Walker added ‘Canadian’ to the label and after a few movements on the label, it became part of the brand name a year later. The ones we’ll try today are unfortunately not from this time nor some of the thousands of cases Al Capone secretly imported during Prohibition. Now, we’re far from the romantic view of Prohibition given out with movies as the brand is owned by the giant Beam Suntory. We’ll do an Old vs New Canadian club, as we’ll try to Canadian Club distilled in 1969 and 1976 and will compare them with the current Canadian Club 1858.

Amrut 10yo Greedy Angels Peated Sherry Finish

16th January 202216th January 2022Coldorak

Back in 2019, Amrut released three expressions of its top shelf Greedy Angels. The first one was the unpeated ex-bourbon cask 10-year-old Greedy Angels I reviewed back in 2019. It was also the occasion for me to dive into what’s the Angels’ Share, and if you haven’t read this article, I encourage you to do so. The second one was the 10yo Greedy Angels Peated Rum Finish I reviewed a few weeks ago. And the third and last one was the one I’ll review today (take a deep breath): the Amrut 10-year-old Greedy Angels Peated Sherry Finish. I’ve talked about this range previously, so let’s directly jump to the tasting.

Amrut Triparva

15th December 202115th December 2021Coldorak

We’re back to India today, to try something quite new from Amrut: a triple-distilled single malt. Triple distillation is mostly associated with Irish whiskey, as most Irish distilleries use this process to distil their whiskey. If you want to learn a bit more about that process, I talked about it here. Ireland is not the only country where triple distillation is used however, as some Scottish distilleries, Auchentoshan or Springbank – for its Hazelburn brand – for example, also distil thrice their spirit before filling it into casks. But today, it’s Indian triple distillation, so let’s taste and review the recently released Amrut Triparva.

Amrut 10yo Greedy Angels Peated Rum Finish

Amrut 10-year-old Greedy Angels Peated Rum Finish

12th December 202112th December 2021Coldorak

Two years ago, the Amrut 10yo Greedy Angels I tried was a fantastic demonstration about the difference about maturation and evaporation, the Angels’ Share, between countries and regions of the world. So I did some research to better understand how the Angels’ Share was working. How the type of warehouse, the oak the cask is made from and the climate all have an influence on the evaporation of the content of the cask. How some volume disappears over the years. Why usually the alcohol by volume drops in the whisky, but sometimes it’s rising. But I won’t write it again about the Angels’ Share, just go read what I wrote early last year, when I reviewed another Amrut 10yo Greedy Angels. Then in February when I kept the Angels’ Share part of the article to have a dedicated one in the ‘All about whisky’ category. But tonight, I’ll just review another victim of the angels, the Amrut 10yo Greedy Angels Peated Rum Finish.

Hellyers Road 2002

4th December 20214th December 2021Coldorak

We’re still in Tasmania this evening for our fourth dram from the advent calendar, and still at Hellyers Road. But we go a bit older and unpeated this time, so it will be interesting to see what’s different (to the one in the back saying “This one is not peated”, thank you, I’ve already said it, please listen next time) compared to the 2004 Peated from yesterday. As I said yesterday, Hellyers Road sits near Burning, in Tasmania, and was founded in 1999. Australian whisky, including Tasmanian, has really exploded since the beginning of the 21st century. Before the year 2000, there were only four distilleries in Australia, of which three of them were in Tasmania. Lark, founded in 1992, Sullivans Cove, founded in 1994 and Hellyers Road saw the light of day and the spirit flow in Tasmania. The fourth one is Bakery Hill, founded in 1998 in Victoria. And what about now? Well, now there are more than 70 distilleries running or about to, including the very well-known Starward founded in 2004. The exponential rate at which distilleries pop of the ground with whisky flowing soon after is mind-boggling. However, many of those distilleries are not widely distributed yet and I may not have the chance to try what they do. But today I’m back at Hellyers Road, and I’m very happy about that.

Hellyers Road 2004

3rd December 20211st December 2022Coldorak

Hellyers Road is one of the largest whisky distilleries in Australia, with a capacity of 120.000 litres of pure alcohol per annum. Located near the town of Burnie, in Tasmania, it was founded by dairy farmers in 1999, and is named after Henry Hellyer, an explorer and cartographer who carved a bushy trail into a road in 1827. The distillery features a 60.000 litres wash still and a 20.000 litres capacity spirit still, and I must admit their capacity compared to the global capacity of production of the distillery eludes me. But I couldn’t find a lot of information on this distillery. Anyway. Dram 3 of my whisky calendar is a Hellyers Road 2004 that is 16 years old and peated, so let’s try that!