One man's excuse…
My final masterclass of Maltstock was the one I put at the top of my list – Tamdhu with Antony McCallum-Caron. Ever since I tried the recently released Tamdhu 10 I’ve been rather interested in what else the distillery might produce, and as such was rather keen to know what Antony might have brought along with him.
I’m so very tired. It’s over a week since I got back from The Netherlands and still I am a broken wreck who looks on the concept of being a ‘shell of a man’ as being a step up. And what is to blame for this? Maltstock 2011 – the best whisky festival I’ve been to so far. A gathering of whisky fans from mainly across Europe organised by a group of whisky fans and with the intention of being pretty much the least commercial whisky festival in the world.
The weekend took place at an old Cub Scout lodge in Nijmegen, near the German border, and the plan was simple – turn up, bring whisky, put the whisky on one of the tables provided, share, talk toot and maybe sleep. A few companies had organised tastings, including my employers who had commented “do you want to do a tasting?” when I tried to blag some whiskies from our tasting cupboard to take along for the table, and I ended up showcasing some upcoming releases in the Elements of Islay range. There was also the promise of music and a BBQ, but mainly it was focused around sitting down with a bunch of new friends and drinking, talking and generally contemplating whisky.
After 25 years of visiting Aviemore, one of Scotland’s biggest skiing resorts, it still surprises me when there’s enough snow to ski and not so much that you can’t get up the mountain. This year, however, we were treated to the most perfect snowy weather that I’ve heard of in Scotland – good powder on top of deeper snow, clear blue skies and enough coverage to get you from the top of Cairngorm to bottom of the ski slopes without having to walk. I was eventually convinced to go skiing for a day and despite my natural inability when attached to skis I rather enjoyed myself. Annoyingly, one final fall onto my not-quite-padded-enough bottom put an end to my day of activity and I repaired to the top of the mountain for a dram in the early afternoon. While wandering around the obligatory shop I found a couple of Cairngorm Mountain Ltd whisky bottlings and decided to grab a sampler of each – The Ptarmigan 15 year old blended malt and 16 year old single malt.
At first I thought the 15 year old was a regular blend, but as the name implies it is instead a blend of single malts of at least 15 years old each. On the nose it has hints of pear, pineapple and a malty toffee, and to taste this turns slightly sugary with hints of lemon and a touch of oiliness. With water the oiliness develops into a light linseedy flavour that compliments the rich sweetness. All in all a fairly drinkable whisky – nothing to raise eyebrows, but perfectly decent.
The 16 year old is much lighter in colour, which suggested to me at first that it might not have picked up much from the wood – I was wrong. On the nose it has salt, pepper and floor polish along with a slug of smoky leather. In the mouth there was still a lot of peaty leather, but also an unexpected oaky wood taste and a touch of sharp fruit. Water softened the wood to bring out vanilla and banana, but the peatiness remained. Again, not what I expected at all and quite pleasant. My little sample went down surprisingly easily, despite the smokiness.
There’s not much information about them online, but it seems they are bottled by the Edrington Group, owners of local(ish) distilleries Tamdhu and Glenrothes. I’ve not tried either, but from the descriptions I’ve found online it seems that the single malt may well be from the former – it’s certainly added Tamdhu to my list of whiskies to try.
The Ptarmigan 15 year old Blended Malt
40%
The Ptarmigan 16 year old Single Malt
40%
Both available from the Shop at the Top and Mountain Shop on Cairngorm mountain, near Aviemore.