A Scotch For Bourbon Lovers.

The tart, smoky taste of peat is such a scotch whisky signature, and so unlike any flavor in the bourbon profile, that it is easy to say no common ground exists between the world’s two favorite whiskey styles.

Since more than 90 percent of the scotch consumed is blended, and most blends work in at least a hint of peat, finding a scotch with none can be challenging, but they do exist.

If peat-less scotch is what you seek, look to single malts from Speyside. Cutty Sark has about the lightest peat signature of any blend and there is a lovely Speyside malt at the heart of Cutty; The Glenrothes.

Although The Glenrothes Distillery is 134 years old, the Glenrothes brand is only about 20. That’s when London’s Berry Bros. & Rudd, Britain's oldest wine and spirits merchant, first issued a Glenrothes single malt. It was also the first vintage-dated single malt.

The Glenrothes is a huge distillery, one of five in the small town of Rothes. Only about two-percent of its output is released as singles, the rest goes into blends.

“Glen,” by the way, is the Scottish word for river, and when a whiskey’s name starts with Glen, the second part is the name of the river on which the distillery is located. In this case, Rothes is both a tributary of the Spey and the town name.

Rothes is also home to Forsyths, a major still manufacturer. Forsyths made the three pot stills at the Woodford Reserve Distillery in Kentucky.

These notes are based on the just-released 1995 vintage. It is 16-years-old and 43 percent ABV.

In the absence of peat, most of the whisky’s flavor comes from the barrel. About a third of this batch comes from sherry casks, both American and Spanish oak. These casks are new wood that has just been briefly seasoned with Oloroso sherry.

The rest is from former bourbon barrels that have been through at least one full aging cycle with malt whiskey.

Because they're using new wood there’s a lot of vanilla and caramel, a little bit of chocolate, butterscotch, white pepper, and cedar, with a hint of peanuts on the finish. The taste is mild overall and very easy to like. There is a resemblance to Weller 12, a wheated bourbon, believe it or not.

If you’re mostly a bourbon drinker and haven’t had much luck with scotch, this is a premium single malt you just might enjoy.

One of the advantages bourbon usually has over scotch is price. Weller 12 will set you back about $30. The Glenrothes 1995 Vintage is more than twice that much, but you can find other Glenrothes for as little as $45.

In the USA, The Glenrothes is marketed by Campari America, the new name for Skyy Spirits, which in addition to Skyy Vodka also gives us Wild Turkey bourbon and rye.

Evan Williams Single Barrel Vintage Is Exciting Again.

On Saturday, October 13, Heaven Hill is unveiling its Evan Williams Single Barrel 1998 Vintage at the J. B. Speed Art Museum in Louisville. I don’t know when they announced it but I hear it’s already sold out. The ad on the web site says, "Meet Master Distillers Parker & Craig Beam and noted Bourbon experts." I’m pretty sure I’m one of the noted Bourbon experts.

Heaven Hill does something like this every year. Good for them and that's what’s so great about the vintage concept; each annual release is 'news.' True as that is, it's hard for me to get all worked up about it every year. It's always good whiskey, it's always interesting to compare it to previous releases, but let's just say it's not up there with Christmas.

This year is different. I'm really looking forward to this one, and the one after that, and the one after that, for the next few years. Why? Because Heaven Hill's distillery in Bardstown (DSP-31) was destroyed in a fire in 1996. They don't like to talk about it but I do, because it's bourbon history in the making.

EWSB always has a barrel entry date on the label. Anything entered after November of 1996 isn't DSP-31 bourbon. Some of the 1996 and all of the 1997 is whiskey made at Jim Beam to Heaven Hill's specifications and supervised by Parker and Craig Beam (P&C). Subsequently, Brown-Forman also made whiskey for them, supervised by P&C, etc. Sometime in 1999 they began producing in their new home, the Bernheim facility in Louisville, but it took maybe another year or more before P&C got the operation there the way they wanted it. Because Heaven Hill needs more whiskey than Bernheim alone can produce, they have continued to use Brown-Forman’s plant in Shively too, so who knows where the next EWSB was made. That's why these next few years of EWSB will be so interesting. They will be the only legacy of the '96 fire that you can taste and take home with you.

What we're going to see or, rather, taste is a transition. Heaven Hill has pretty much committed to making EWSB represent the best single-barrel whiskey they can produce in nine years. Each year the pool changes but the criteria doesn’t. You expected them to clear the bar every year at DSP-31 after they got this thing going. With DSP-31 out of the picture and not one but possibly three different distilleries in the mix, it starts to get interesting again.

There seems to be nothing to be concerned about, as the 1997 is good and perhaps superior to some of the last DSP-31 vintages (though '94 is still the one to beat). I'm looking forward to tasting the new one next month, much more so than I have looked forward to it in years. Heaven Hill was good about telling us that the 1997 was made at Beam and I expect they will be equally forthcoming about this and subsequent vintages.

I’ll let you know what I think after October 13.