hello you multi multiplied monsters and thank you to jenny g for that not mentioned welcome to the
botti i'm ralphie this is ralphie review 939 extras with the extras um i go into
information over and above orthodox specific reviews of quality spirits being primarily
single malt scotch whiskey now i have just reviewed a bottle of 10 year old benromach
and what i would tell you about this is that it is a delightfully naturally complex whisky with a
good array of sensations in it now i'm not talking about flavors lemon is a flavor that contains a
sensation it contains sour it contain bitter it can contain sweet you can get sweet lemon
sour lemon bitter lemon you can get salty lemon you can get savory lemon so but the lemon itself
is a flavor but it's accompanied by sensations and one of the things that makes scotch whiskey
so unique and complicated in the world of spirits but it applies to all spirits all spirits globally
is that alcohol is a very good holder of complexity of both flavor and sensation
and it holds them together come with they can last thousands of years without deteriorating
literally thousands of years the longest shelf life for any product unless it's seriously dry
in seriously dry conditions is something that's stored in alcohol and in fact
in ancient times when distilling was invented primarily for the production of perfume initially
so the history books tell us but what do you believe nowadays because there's so much
misinformation and disinformation out there you know we've really got to kind of do our
own research but um distillation came from the alchemists because they were creating the fusion
of two elements of fire and water into one element which was spirit which is why it's called spirit
because it's the spirits of element um and one of the remarkable properties was not
just that alcohol would hold strong and complex flavors for a long period of time
but insufficient strength it would hold the potency of herbaceous hurdle herbal
medicines poisons and also in perfumes another classic example you could really concentrate so
that in alcohol a small amount of perfume could be very long lasting and very complicated and
there you have it wonderful invention distilling remarkably simple and yet full of complexities and
one of the complexities is the sheer complexity of flavor profile that gets concentrated
and concentrated through the distillation process into the flavors that we encounter
on this instance in single malt scotch whiskey and the flavors can range from
toffee chocolate raisin peat
vanilla ginger sultana spices herbs floral it's extraordinary and not only that in the alcohol
it's not static it's only static while it's in the bottle but it will continue to develop in
the bottle given sufficient time it's called old bottle effect it's partly to do with the
glass that's used the minerality in the glass but it's more than that so whatever what ever anybody
tells you out there even the experts they're only telling you part of what's really going on now
with this particular whiskey it has a notable bitter element
and this leads me now having set the scene here with my commentary over the last few minutes it
sets me the scene for me to introduce to you the sensations and how we react to them okay
where's my board here is the sensation board
starting with sweet a nice big yellow line big sunshine line for sweet
as humans
sweetness is a very welcome sensation historically
sweetness was a sign of energy of sugars of sustenance of concentrated refined carbohydrates
and therefore to consume something sweet could be a lifesaver but within humans it has morphed into
an addiction and in the modern food industry to sell food at a higher price
and a greater volume and to encourage people to consume more food than they need so as to be
obese and to encounter all these health problems the number one additive the number one is sugar
pure white and deadly there's a book called that have a look at the book if you want to really know
about sugar but with sweetness occurs in whiskey it can it can be there as part of the natural
distilled profile of a single malt so that in new make spirits you will notice that there's a
certain sweetness and the lightness particularly in lowland single malts and in some space side
single mocks like cardu and some highland single mocks like feta can they tend to be naturally
sweet profile whiskies and therefore they do not need much in the way of sweetness and casks
otherwise it goes over the top but hey when we're now in the age where people are buying sugar added
alcopop liqueurs ethel bros good example i don't regard it i don't take it seriously as a liqueur
to be honest the only liqueurs i take seriously lochenora and drambui both are excellent liquors
but that's another subject sweetness is the first thing that someone getting into
whiskey will gravitate to and enjoy that's one reason why people add add lemonade and coca-cola
to to blended scotch another sensation which people are quite happy with is sour
sweet and sour go together it's the mainstay of chinese take away cuisine on the high street
of the uk and other countries sweet and sour complement each other they just just
they just episodes no i'll better change i'll find another one because i've completely mispronouncing
that they delightfully contradict one another successfully so so that our sweet and sour whiskey
is something that's a very accessible whiskey it's one of the best line sensations in most whiskies
sweet and sour it adds the the appearance to certainly set the illusion of complexity it
adds the beginnings of complexity particularly in young whiskeys which haven't been aged for
very long long so you'll find that sweet and sour dominates in non-age statement
single malts where the signature of the still is quite strong and it's not quite matured yet
then salt we like a little bit of salt
oops a daisy we like a little bit of salt in some of our malts but it depends on the malt
we don't really like salt in lowland single malts but we do like salt in highland
and isla single mulch you'll find that in brooklyn you get that saline note they call it nautical
because it's quite restrained and it needs to be restrained to be successful noticeable
but suggested rather than imposed if you've ever added some salt or brine to whiskey don't know
if you have just a wee touch of seawater would do absolutely fine it wrecks it ruins it destroys it
so when it comes to salt less is more it doesn't appear in too many whiskies you'll find it in old
i mentioned you'll find it occasionally in laphroaig you'll find it in some of
the highland whiskies now and again um glenard i've noticed a little bit of salinity in glenard
but in fact less is more so we're really looking at sweet and sour being the dominant which is
why i put them first this is what you'll notice when you get a little bit of salt
if you're inexperienced you're fine however when we get to
let's see savory
things start to get more complex savory malts include mortlak let's start with more black
it is the the beast of duff town etc it is notable for being savoury savory whiskeys
are very much an acquired taste but we do acquire them over time as our palate gets more experienced
with sweet and sour and enjoys a little bit of salt now and again starts to get bearings there
and then a little bit of sweet and sour maybe the sour's diminished bit more savory in there
you'll find these savory notes in matured uh glenn farklaces i mentioned mortlak you'll find
it in long row you'll find it in spring bank you'll most certainly find it in every door
and the painted version of edrador called bellicon these are old-school old-fashioned
single malts which are not frightened to deliver the flavor that they create they are an absolute
treasure trove for the experienced malt drinker the experienced small drinker you will gravitate
to these savory malts and they you you will treasure them when you get a good bottling
because i noticed there's less good bottlings than they used to be and then finally bitter now bitter
see that big jaggy line the poop there bitter is the most hard to access sensation in whiskey
notable whiskies that include bitterness are old pultney and benromach
many whiskeys along with sweet and sour
will have a little touch of bitterness but they're not prominent bitterness and unfortunately whiskey
whiskies that are bitter that are overtly bitter and it could be due to the cask influence
because casks can create bitterness uh because clack casks create so much due to the uniqueness
of the prominence of even a single cask it's quite extraordinary when you've got
500 plus chemicals in the wood alone which can influence not just the flavor of whiskey
but the sensation of whiskey and the form of the whiskey you see how complicated it gets
but see when you actually analyze the five basic sensations and address them
and then what you're going to do and i'm going to come back to this as an extra later you start
to isolate the sensations and experience them on your palate in isolation so that if for example
you had a bitter whiskey which really wasn't to your taste what you do is you get your bitter
draft your little bitter tonic and you take a wee bit in your tongue and oh really really bitter
but what it does is when it comes to the whiskey it negates the sweetness so it
negates the bitterness of that whiskey likewise with a sweet whiskey that's too sweet for you
if you taste a wee bit of sugar in your tongue and sweeten up your palate then you taste the whiskey
it'll taste drier but hey passing on the knowledge this is what's all about i'm
ralphie i hope you've enjoyed this little session i've been really going into a bit more detail
about the sensations and i'm going to conclude by saying when you start off with whiskey this
is the one that you'll like the most then this the sweet and sour it's the one you're going to enjoy
that's why glenfiddich is always a great single malt to start with and then you'll discover a
little bit of saltiness and you'll enjoy that then you'll discover the savory and then finally
you'll taste something that makes you go oh and that's the bitter
but let me tell you as an experienced cynical old hack in the whiskey game having bought
all these bottles over what 40 years you know i'm losing i've forgotten how many i've bought
but many times i've tasted that bitterness and initially i didn't like it but laterally
i've really come to include it in the profile of a whiskey because it's so rare and it's such
a valuable aspect of a whiskey sensation and it's being engineered out of modern whiskies
so when you come across a bitter whiskey it's it's something special that bitterness and it's
slightly dominant and if it's slightly dominant and you're noticing and you go oh it's too bitter
add a drop of whiskey to your glass put add a drop of water to your glass of whiskey and just leave
it for now with the lid on it come back and you will find that the whiskey has rearranged itself
it's recalibrated itself during that time and you may find that the sensation of bitterness
has diminished because the flavors can remain but sensations can change as a whiskey evolves in the
glass oxidization in a drop of water over the space of a period of time before you drink it
when you drink it slow the further you will go malt mates i'm ralphie delivering the delivering
the energy delivering the love delivering the the moments for you and i hope you find this valuable
and useful and if you do subscribe and yeah one might want to pop along to my patreon channel
where i give extra and occasional live streams so there you have it now you know bye bye