Yup! Though I usually like a sherry cask from Aberlour, they had a first fill bourbon 16 year old that was utterly sublime. Lovely floral and vanilla flavours with a gentle hint of oakiness, and 60.3% abv!
I am sure I will never find it here. :eusa_doh:
Yes, James, no problem, what was that address again? What? You're fading . . . . . We seem to have a bad connection . . . . . . .
Whilst reading some of my regular fare concerning single malts, I found something interesting concerning the true source of McClelland's source for its various offerings.
Their Lowland is from Auchentoshan. Their Islay is from Bowmore and interestingly their highland is from Glen Garioch. This is actually quite a solid range of distilleries for McClelland's and quite a bargain at their prices.
Glen Garioch has been around since 1797.
The Auchentoshan Three Wood won "the best Scotch Whisky and Cigar Combination" in the World when paired with the Bolivar Inmensas so that works for me.
Bowmore goes back to 1779 so it has been around a bit as well.
I have not found out who makes their Speyside just yet.
That sounds like a good relationship with Morrison-Bowmore as they own all three distilleries. I've come into contact with most of their output at one time or another.
Bowmore is sometimes fantastic, but they have suffered real problems with consistency. A major mistake was making the 15 yr old mariner a duty free exclusive bottling. The replacement, darkest, isn't bad, but it's not the mariner. If you can find it, tempest is rather good. The 12 year old is pretty dull but not unpleasant and surf/legend (whichever name they have bottled it under, it's the same stuff) is really wretched stuff.
Auchentoshan three wood is a fantastic dram, the 12 is unremarkable, but still pleasant. Avoid the entry level - classic. It's acrid and a little coppery.
Glen Garioch is really quite horrible. I've yet to have any dram from them that I wanted to finish, let alone buy a bottle of. They have only fairly recently started to ramp up production (they reopened after some renovation in '97) on a more industrial scale. Don't be taken in by the founding date of the distillery as any indicator of quality. They have a long way to go before they get their product right.
I've heard a rumour the Speyside is Craigellachie. If so, then it's certainly worth a punt, it's damned fine stuff.
Hope this is helpful in choosing malts wisely across the pond!
I think Bowmore owns McClellands as well.
Interesting. I figured there was a dcecent relationship with Bowmore there.
Thanks for the run down on the brands---quite helpful here.
Well, we have to go to specialty shops to get the really old or little known brands over here---then there are the ones like Greenspot that we just can't get at all. :eusa_doh:
There are sources on the web though that will ship you anything you want but it costs quite a bit. We do have a supporting magazine to help us source hard to find bottles in The Malt Advocate magazine.
:eeek::eusa_doh:
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