Five new reviews from Kentucky, Scotland, and Ireland

PURE KENTUCKY XO KSBW

N: fresh-hewn hickory and sassafras root; grilled orange, clove, and candied cherries; honeysuckle, ginger snaps and just-turned bottom soil; long tobacco hung in an august barn; the tiniest breath of campfire on the outro

P: earthy, bloody cinnamon and lime zest; juniper berry and banana bread; clean sweet clay and chai tea; vanilla icing and pine needles; orange pith and brine on the back end.

Medium-bodied, sophisticated, and pleasingly dry, this is a 12-year whiskey produced by Kentucky Bourbon Distillers, who also make Rowan’s Creek and Noah’s Mill.  It’s my current favorite in the $40-$50 range.

GLENMORANGIE NECTAR D’OR

N: Warm apple compote with cinnamon-crumb crust; lime zest and creamy cherimoya; an almost bourbon-like spice in the center; herbs on the finish: rosemary, tarragon

P: sweet creamy cedarwood and marzipan; delicious oxidized-winey notes of roasted filberts and grilled lemon; a hint of brine, pencil lead, and pine needles on the medium-long finish

I probably prefer the sherry-cask Lasanta to this pretty bottling, but it shows all the purity and plushness for which Glenmorangie are justly famous.

CLYNELISH 14-year

N: delicate, airy sun-dried grass; lime pith and molten caramel; big, broad, and just slightly maritime, with warm, buttered banana bread and pencil shavings

P: first hit is classic highland, elegant and nutty, with old-library-pages, sweet tobacco, and vanilla crème fraiche; cinnamon toast and grape skins, a breath of lychee syrup and white pepper on the finish.

A delicious single-malt, one of the most northerly produced on the mainland, this Clynelish is some juice I will reapproach with pleasure.  I look forward to exploring their further expressions.

LEDAIG 10-year  (Isle of Mull)

N: extremely tight at cork’s pull; needs at least a week to open up, until which it smells more like inexpensive blended whisky than anything else… after its week of air, sweet cherryladen smoke and dried mango show some briny notes on the tail end…

P: banana bread and incense ash flow into cinnamon sticks and creamy smoke; green tropical flavors like underripe mamosillos (Spanish limes, we called ‘em) and coconut hull; the finish is salty, with ginger and a touch of salt

This was an odd whisky (pron. "led-chig," so i read) that took some time to warm up to.  Its label proudly proclaims “wonderfully-peated,” which, though surely a matter of opinion, mightn’t be the way I’d describe this rather mildly-peated Island malt.  The disconnect between nose and palate is fascinating rather than off-putting, for some reason.  With some time under air, it is an eminently enjoyable dram.

CONNEMARA PEATED IRISH SINGLE MALT

N: sweet bubblegum and peach syrup, coiled round with mossy fir needles and next-morning campfire (barely a-crackle, here and there a spiraling whorl of ruby heat that shimmers like a wind-shoal over white ashes)

P: once more that bright yummy sweetness that I so want to call something more fancified than bubble-gum (strawberry-banana yogurt?  Fruit Slices gum [the one with the zebra on the package]?  …damn, gum again), not least as the idea of that flavor in a whiskey sounds so- well, gross-  but is in fact delicious and grinningly compelling here.  The smoke is subtle, but present, particularly on the finish, which is rather short, but dense with character and nearly refreshing (Erin go braugh!).

With its flavors of smoke and bubble gum, it’s a whiskey reminiscent of one’s first 9^th-grade make out sessions.  Made by Cooley- who else, with all these riotous fruit flavors?