The 23rd meeting of the Norwegian Scotch Malt Whisky Society was held at the abode of Mr. Finn Atle Haldorsen on October 27, 2000.
Members present were:
  1. Ms. Anne-Katrine Haldorsen
  2. Mr. Finn Atle Haldorsen
  3. Mr. Willy Hauge
  4. Mr. Dag Handal
  5. Ms. Christine Handal
  6. Ms. Per Chr. Valland
  7. Mr. Paal Bjaarstad
Seven NSMWS members were present for this society meeting. Mr Finn Atle Haldorsen presented the whisky of the night which was a SMWS bottled cask strength whisky (cask no. 13.27). Some notes on this whisky and the other 5 new whiskies are shown below.

Whiskies of the night

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society - cask no. 13.27 (this number became the basis for Paal Bjaarstad's name ie. 13.27) Distilled Oct. 1989, Bottled Sept. 1999. Alcohol content 59.8% (not cold filtered). Age 9 years

Glenmorangie, Traditional
Non-chill filtered straight from the wood. Alc. 57.2%. Age 10 years. Glenmorangie Distillery, Coy, Tain, Ross-Shire - founded 1843. Water source is from inside the mountain called Tarlogie. The distillery is one of Scotland's smallest and is noted for still with a very high "neck" (5.14m) which results in a "soft" whisky.

Glenmorangie, Madeira Wood Finish
Alc. 43%, Age ?. Originally matured in American oak casks and then in Madeira "drums" for extra ageing. Glenmorangie Distillery, Coy, Tain, Ross-Shire

Glen Morven, Pure Islay Malt
Alc 43%, Age12 years. Bottled by the Douglas Macniven and Co., Broxburn, This is a limited edition whisky. The company makes 2 other whiskies by the same name, but different types of whiskies. These are Speyside and Highland. We must assume they do not distil themselves, but bottle other distillery whiskies

Tomatin
Alc, 40%, Age 10 years. Highland whisky made by the Tomatin distillery which is the largest in Scotland with a capacity of up to 12 million litres of alcohol per year. The undersigned visited the distillery in October 2000 and was not impressed by what he saw. Founded in 1897. Water source is the river Altt-na-Frithe. Owned by Japanese company Takara, Shuzo & Kura Consortium.

Glenlossie
Alc. 43%, Age 10 years. Speyside whisky made by Glenlossie distillery, Tromshill, Elgin, Moray. Distillery founded in 1876. Glenlossie is an important constituent of Haig's Whisky. Water source is the river Bardon.

SPEECH OF THE NIGHT - MATURATION

Scotch whisky is matured for at least 3 years at the distillery. The tradition states that the local microclimate is important for the final taste of the whisky. If the casks are stored in another location it is said that the taste is affected. The experts are still arguing how important it is to mature whisky in oak casks. Studies at the Glenmorangie distillery show that 50 to 60 percent of the whiskies aroma and taste occurs during the maturation process in casks. After distilling the whisky usually contains 70% alcohol. If the whisky is distilled three times then the percentage will be somewhat higher. Usually before the whisky is stored in casks it is watered out until it contains approx. 63.4% alcohol. However, in some cases the whisky is not watered out before casking. The distillers of Scotch whisky use various types of casks. The cask type and size can be critical to the taste of the final product. For example the smaller the cask the stronger the oak character of the whisky. The normal sizes of casks are as follows.

Type of cast Size (approx. litres)
Puncheon 580
Butt 500
Hogshead 250-305
American Barrel 173-191
Quarter 127-159
Octave 45-68

Even the type of oak the cask is made of has an effect on the taste. There are considerable differences for example between American and French oak. Compared to American casks the French type a less "rough" whisky. Spanish oak is also used and tends to make the whisky even "rougher" than the American oak. Most distilleries use Spanish and American oak casks and rarely French.

The age of the cask is also important. New casks will obviously give more "wood" taste than old used ones. It is very rare that Scotch distilleries use new casks because it tends to give the whisky too much tannin and oak character. Thus usually casks are used before they mature whisky and usually have matured another drink like Sherry, Madeira, Bourbon, Port, and Rum. Even Cognac casks have been tried by some distillers. Butt cask which are Sherry casks are highly prized. Some distilleries even buy sherry casks, lend then to a sherry producer only to get them back after the sherry is matured. Even the type of sherry made on the casks has an effect on the taste of the whisky.

Casks are often re-used many times and can be up to 100 year old. Some even spray sherry concentrate on the inside of used barrels to get the sherry effect during maturation.

Most Scotch whisky however, is matured in American bourbon casks. This is because they are cheaper, and plentiful. This is because American bourbon distillers only use their casks once. As the bourbon casks are burned on the inside the result is that whisky stored in them gets a slight "burnt" character. Often like with the Glenmorangie we will try tonight the whisky is first matured in bourbon cask and then finally in sherry casks.

The members did enjoy the various whiskies and points were allocated accordingly:

Whisky FAH WH DH PCV
SMWS 13.27
Cask strength
70-75
70-75
76-80
70-75
Glenmorangie - Traditional
Cask strength
81-85
81-85
86-90
81-85
Glen Morven
 
91-95
91-95
86-90
86-90
Glenlossie
 
86-90
-
81-85
76-80
Tomatin
 
81-85
81-85
76-80
76-80
Glenmorangie
 
86-90
-
86-90
81-85

AKH, CH, were pregnant and therefore had the great misfortune not to taste these whiskies. PB had such a bad cold that he did not wish to give points. WH was heading north very early the next morning and therefore was regrettable unable to taste all the whiskies.

PCV noted that the Glenmorangie- traditional had a taste of orange, FAH commented on the great smoothness of the Glenlossie. DH thought the Glenmorangie reminded him of Bowmore. There was common agreement that the SMWS whisky was the poorest of all the whiskies of the night - something that was a great disappointment. Moreover, both the SMWS and Glenmorangie- traditional were supposed not to be cold filtered. According to the literature this can be shown by a milky colour of the whisky when water is added. The members could not see any milky colour when water was added to these whiskies. It was agreed that all the whisky members should be listed with e-mails, telephone numbers on the Web page (with the permission of the Secretary of course). The following names were adopted instead of using real names on the Web.

Synopsis written by Mr. Finn Atle Haldorsen
21.11.2000.