Loch Lomond Remarkable Alchemy
Global Travel Retail release | 46.8% ABV
Score: 7/10
Very Good Indeed.
TL;DR
A rare GTR release that’s actually convincing
Keep a hold of the good ones
It’s funny how life goes sometimes. People come, people go, some stick around.
And while making friends (and losing sight or track of them again) is part of life and is something that happens from kindergarten all the way to this very day: perhaps not staying in touch with the kids you spent second grade kicking a ball around during recess with isn’t a bad thing as such.
Just imagine if you were to keep in touch with everyone, at some point in your life, you considered a friend. Life would be ridiculously busy for starters and for another thing I’m pretty certain there would be plenty of people you’d need to socialise with who, if you were honest with yourself, would now rather avoid.
While I’m by no means a hermit, I also don’t have a gazillion people I would consider friends. Sure, friendly acquaintances don’t come in short supply, but when we’re talking friends: probably no more than a few dozen and as for close friends: I think I can count those on the fingers of my hands. And, as so often, these long-lasting friendships are built with people you almost instantly connect with.
One of those specimens has been a friend since university back in the late 1990’s (yikes!). In the case of Jan, as that’s his name, the seed was planted at a bar (where else). He was in his second year of uni and, since he was a member of our faculty’s students club, he had taken it upon himself to show the new students around. One of them was me.
As it takes one to know one, we immediately clicked in the sense that we both shared similar interests in music, football, books, film, comedy… and throughout it all a more than generous amount of banter and sarcasm. We support different football teams which is almost always an excellent excuse for heartfelt conversations, meaningless debate, some serious banter and a dose of taking the mickey at each other’s expense.
Nights on the town or going clubbing have since made way for catching comedians perform over an afternoon or an evening of watching sports over a nice beer, or just hanging out while talking about life, family, politics and the universe in general. He introduced me to board games (I dig them, but couldn’t possibly afford another expensive hobby as I already have this one) and while I tried to lure him into the world of the golden amber, he insists he prefers a nice cold beer or gin. However, his girlfriend isn’t averse to a nice single malt, though, so there is hope for him yet.
So when he texted me saying he was visiting Edinburgh with his daughter earlier this summer, I couldn’t help immediately checking Cadenhead’s or Royal Mile Whiskies’ website to see if they had anything of interest I could ask for him to bring back home. Choices a plenty, as was to be expected.
But I also remembered my all but overly cramped shelves and thought better of it. Mission aborted. Then a few days later he texted me back, saying he’s at the airport and if he can bring me back something from the Global Travel Retail store. Now it’s one thing to scrape together the self-control to deny your friend to bring you whisky when they visit Scotland, but when they offer twice, I can only plead that given the circumstances I had no other option than to comply…
Review
Loch Lomond Remarkable Alchemy, GTR exclusive, 2024 release, American oak matured, Colombian oak finished, un-chill. filtered, coloured, 46.8% ABV
£54 and available through Global Travel Retail
You might remember how we tend to be a bit wary about GTR whiskies here on Dramface. In fact it was a Travel Retail Exclusive that had the dubious honour of receiving Dramface’s first ever 1/10 score. And within the first six months of launching Dramface, our chieftain Wally went on a bit of a rant when discussing where GTR is these days.
If there is one place where something of genuine interest to an enthusiast might pop up, it’s probably The Motherland. So when I got the text from Jan I did a quick browse through Edinburgh's GTR web shop and quickly landed on this recent Loch Lomond bottling. The ‘Remarkable’ series actually consists of several expressions, there’s also a ‘Remarkable Copper’ and a ‘Remarkable Origins’ expression. Since my pal texted me at the airport and was therefore on a bit of a schedule, I didn’t really fully assess which of these I expected to like the most, but the ‘alchemy’ thing appealed to me; if only for the fact that they emphasise the finish in Colombian oak casks on the (actually fairly ‘factual’) marketing panel printed on the box. If you know Loch Lomond’s master distiller Michael Henry, you’ll know his focus when talking flavour tends to lie at what happens with the spirit, before the casks ever come into play. So, fair to say, the whole Colombian Oak thing stood out a bit. Precisely for that reason this one tickled my curiosity.
Knowing Michael is always willing to go a bit more in depth on Loch Lomond’s whiskies, I reached out to him to see if he was able to share some more details on this release. Turns out he had plenty to share for which I am ever so grateful as it’s always insightful to get a wee peek underneath the bonnet.
The whisky consists of a combination from three distillates, all running through their straight neck stills:
1. Unpeated malt, with a 4 day fermentation using distillers M & MX yeast. The cut points were narrow, taken between 90-80% giving a new make strength of 85%.
2. Unpeated malt, also with a 4 day fermentation using the same yeast strains. Again with a high cut point, initiated at 90% ABV but running as far as 55%, giving new make strength of 65%
3. Heavily peated malt at 50ppm phenol, again with 4 day fermentation using distillers M & MX yeast. Here too, the cut points were taken between 90-55%, giving a new make strength of 65% ABV
The three distillates were matured individually in refill bourbon barrels for 5-10 years before being vatted together and filled into first-fill new Colombian Oak barrels for a six month finish and then finally it was married for one month in refill bourbon barrels before bottling.
Score: 7/10
Very Good Indeed.
TL;DR
A rare GTR release that’s actually convincing
Nose
Hmm… absolutely lovely! Frangipane tart (almonds!) and coconut, sweet apples and pears, vanilla and demerara sugar. But don’t expect layers of sweetness on top of other layers of sweetness, as it remains well in check and it all gets tied neatly together by a subtle, equally lovely smokiness. Think wood char and smoke rather than peat here. There’s a spicy, spiky whiff in the form of black pepper perhaps, which adds an extra layer rather than being obtrusive.
Palate
Gently woody again, with that woodsmoke flavour now more prominent. The sweetness now comes from caramelised sugar, stewed apple and pear. Towards the finish it turns more oaky-woody, making for a pleasant soft bitterness, with again that black pepper note at the very end.
The Dregs
Colombian Oak also known as Quercus Humboldtii has a name that’s a dead giveaway, as it’s actually only found in Colombia and parts of Panama in the vicinity of the Colombian border. A little personal bonus here is that it was named after someone who is one of my favourite historic characters. Alexander Von Humboldt is an absolutely fascinating figure to whom we as mankind owe a great deal. He was of pivotal importance in the development of our understanding of natural sciences in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. He spent years exploring and studying life, the universe and everything, particularly during a five year long exploration of the Americas. He’s also considered to be the founder of modern geography, establishing it as a science in its own right. Furthermore, he was also a philosopher and as a close friend of Goethe, developing an interest in culture and the arts, all in line with the German romantic movement of the time which aimed to harmonise and unify science and art.
I can only recommend you pick up and read Andrea Wulf’s absolutely excellent work ‘Magnificent Rebels’, a most fascinating, captivating book that reads like a novel and an eye witness report of how great minds like the Von Humboldt brothers, Goethe, Schiller, Hegel and others all clicked together in the small university town of Jena - in what is now Germany - in the most turbulent of times right after the French Revolution and during the Napoleonic wars.
But I digress. Back to the whisky at hand. The nose is intriguing and absolutely lovely, and while I feel the palate ever so slightly falls short of living up to this, it takes little away from a rock-solid whisky. Overall it’s pleasant and also quite firm and it carries enough depth to make up for perhaps lacking a bit in terms of complexity. It’s a bit like Loch Lomond’s Inchmurrin 12 in the way of fruit-and-sweet notes, mixed in with a bit of the understated, gently bitter tone of the Steam and Fire and then adds a certain ‘extra’ in the way of woody smoke with use of the Colombian Oak.
At £54 for a litre, this is an absolutely excellent bang for buck purchase. In fact, it makes me curious about the other two expressions in the ‘remarkable stills’ range (and it seems there is a fourth in the making). Intrinsically I feel this would hover between a 6 and a 7, seeing how the palate is marginally less impressive than the nose, but given the excellent value and the fact that I’m currently a third into this 100cl bottle - and it keeps on improving - I’m more than okay with looking up rather than down.
Here’s to hanging onto the good friends!
Score: 7/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. EA
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