Review 219. My most ‘hoarded’ distillery…

Just last week Roy tackled the topic of whisky collections on his Aqvavitae channel. It seems that, apart from an industry  heading straight towards another whisky loch, there will also be a quite significant glass loch right next to it to keep it company. As these things go, many of us have accumulated quite a collection over time, up to a point where some of us now have more than enough whisky to last them a lifetime and possibly 1 or 2 generations after them as well at that. Before  sharing the size of his current collection, Roy also paused and considered his 5 ‘most hoarded’ distilleries. It’s really quite interesting to watch, if only to see how he handles the fact that he now de facto lives in a whisky library and probably has earned a gold membership card at the Glasgow Ikea store in the process.

Unfortunately (or perhaps  it’s quite the opposite and I should say ‘luckily’) my collection is nowhere near as vast as Roy’s or some of yours. Everything is contained to one cabinet in the living room and while there may or may not be a few bottles stashed away in other areas of Malty Towers or at work, there are no shelves or floorboards in danger of collapsing by the sheer weight of this secret stash. By and large, I have a ‘collection’ of about 60-70 bottles at any given point, 90% of it being whisky, and the other 10% consisting of other spirits. ‘Quite manageable’ is probably the way to describe things.

One way of keeping it that way, is by not sticking to the so called permashelf. While I tend to regularly revisit and restock quite a few brands and expressions (Glencadam 10, Springbank 10, Kilkerran 8, Port Charlotte, indies from Van Wees, Signatory, Cadenhead’s, Elixir, Dràm Mòr or Alistair Walker…) it’s quite rare for me to have several bottles of the same whisky in the cabinet. Which doesn’t mean I shy away from having different expressions from the same distillery, obviously. As I write this, there’s a few Kilkerrans, some Springbanks, a couple of Arrans and several indie Ardmores and Benrinneseseseses… But the distillery taking up the most space in my cabinet, is Loch Lomond. Including indies, I am currently the proud owner of  6.5 bottles of this southern Highland distillery. I was quite surprised by that number, considering that I ‘only’ have room for about 60 bottles (the ‘.5’ comes from an indie blended malt made up from Ardmore and Loch Lomond - Inchmurin and Inchfad casks to be precise). So what better way to stay on the topic than pouring and discussing a Loch Lomond sample I picked up at Liquid Leuven just last month.

Loch Lomond 16 yo Falls of Falloch Waypoint series. 46.2% ABV, NC and UCF, matured in first fill, refill and recharred bourbon casks and finished in cognac casks for 12 months, 2024 release. App. €90 (£75).

Falls of Falloch

While I was surprised by the number of bottles in my collection, I wasn’t really surprised by the fact that Loch Lomond came out on top. They were my ‘distillery of the year’ in 2023 after all, and while I couldn’t really be bothered to do a ‘distillery of the year’ post in 2024 (as I feel so many whisky bloggers and vloggers do these sort of posts already, and usually do a way better job than me), pretty much everything I said back then about Loch Lomond still applies today.

This 16 yo was released in autumn last year but somehow completely flew under my radar. Luckily,  one of the perks of festivals is you will always come across new and surprising releases. Interestingly, this was distilled fully in Loch Lomond’s  ‘swan neck’ (= traditional) pot stills. As you probably know, Loch Lomond boasts various sets of stills – traditional pot stills, straight neck ‘Lomond style’ stills (essentially putting a column still on top of a pot still) and column stills. For many expressions, they tend to combine their different pot stills to get their desired result, so this seems pretty straightforward by Loch Lomond standards.

Nose

A lot of citrus and sour notes! And I do mean ‘a lot’! Fresh, crisp lemon notes, with a clear yet soft touch of grassy-herbal notes (mostly sage but possibly some parsley as well) and green apples underneath. Give it 10 – 15 minutes and a pleasant lactic note emerges, while an at first almost subdued honey note gradually becomes clearer and claims its place. If you love your Glencadam 10 year old, chances are you’ll fancy this as well.

Palate

A very clean and crisp arrival. A soft peppery note, spicing up a distinct element of grain and cereal. Again that grassy-herbal touch, while the citrus moves to the background a bit and, seemingly out of nowhere, some white fruit notes of peach and apricot pop up. It brings a medium full and clinging  texture and towards the back there’s an ever so shy funky grape note, suggesting more than announcing the cognac casks that were used.

Finish

Dry and woody. Slightly vegetal and quite long. Even after 10 minutes, there’s still echoes hanging about!

Final thoughts

Subtle, nuanced, somewhat delicate even. Even after 15 years in different bourbon casks and a full year’s finish in cognac casks, it’s the spirit that’s doing a lot of the talking. Of course this bears the signature of Master Blender Michael Henry, who tends to put the emphasis on the flavours coming from the spirit rather than the casks. On the back label of this bottle it tells you (in barely readable gold print, I will add) all about how they got the inspiration for this expression from the Falls of Falloch (a 10m/30ft high waterfall located some 30 miles away from the distillery).

I’m generally not that bothered with all this ‘inspired by…’ stuff to help brand and sell a certain release (best to leave that sort of thing to the boys and girls of Macallan’s marketing team), but if the idea was indeed to create something fresh, clean, lively and crisp like a waterfall, I actually feel they’ve done a really good job and in that way the ‘story’ behind this release makes perfect sense.

This release is right up my alley and  I feel I would more than likely  really enjoy having a bottle of this one in the cabinet, although I would also completely understand why some would be a bit hesitant by the price tag. Indeed £75-£80 (€90 – ish) isn’t cheap, especially if you consider the fact that their core range 18 yo (which, I will say, is a completely different animal in terms of flavour profile) tends to be a tenner cheaper. Thinking about squeezing in (and take that quite literally) a 7th bottle of Loch Lomond when there’s already 6 bottles of this distillery in a collection of 60: it says ‘something’ of how I appreciate what they’ve been doing lately. It may be pitiful compared to, say, Roy’s 30 odd bottles of Loch Lomond alone, let alone his 900 odd bottles in total, but it is what it is and quite frankly, I’m quite happy with how things stand at the moment.