Longrow Red 11 Year Fresh Port Casks

Another night in NYC, another whiskey bar.  This time, The Whiskey Ward, on the lower east side.  The Whiskey Ward is a casual place with a neighborhood bar vibe, albeit one with 400+ whiskeys. It was a quiet Sunday night, and the wife and I took seats at the bar.  The whiskeys are listed on chalkboards suspended from the ceiling, as well as in a three ring binder at the bar.  The bottles are lined up on asymetrical shelves behind the bar in a highly random fashion.  Chatting with the bartender, I learned that the owner frequently buys new whiskeys, adds more shelving as needed, and fills the shelves in no particular order.  The disorder is apparently compounded by bottles being returned to different locations after each pour. I found some charm in the chaos, and since it was a quiet night, the bartender took her time hunting for my selections.  In several cases she determined that the bottle must have been finished, although it's entirely possible that it was there but neither one of us was seeing it. After a couple of misses, I selected the Longrow Red 11 Cabernet Sauvignon Finish.  The bartender gave me a pour and left the bottle.  While I was giving it a few minutes to sit, I noticed that it wasn't actually the Red 11 Cab Finish, but the Red 11 Port Finish.  At that point, the Port seemed just fine.   The nose and palate did not surprise - there's dark berries, peat smoke, and a little bit of char.  It has what I think of as the Campbeltown density, and an oily and rich texture.  Overall, very nice. The one surprise was a bit more of a mellow, rounded off profile than I expected.  The answer, as I now see from the prior reviews, may be in the age of the bottle.  This was apparently a 2015 or 2016 release, so it has possibly been sitting open on the shelf for several years.  As best I can tell, a few years and some air has not been unkind.  While I'd still like to try the cab finish, I have no regrets trying the port instead.

In the Glass: This kind of lives up to the "Red" moniker, it has a lot of dark/burnt sienna going for it. On the Nose: Seeing as how this is cask strength, it needs a few drops of water to subdue the alcohol a bit, otherwise there is a fair amount of astringency to it. Once that's done and it's opened a bit in the glass... Sweet. Red berry jam, roasted nuts and vegetal peat. This may be a peated whisky, but it's no smoke bomb from Islay. The Springbank character is very much intact at the core of this, but the port cask influence is definitely present. I think that a lot of the fruity aspects come from this, though it dials down the "saltiness" that a lot of Springbanks are known for. Taste: An amped up version of the nose. The first thing you get is an intense fruit sweetness which takes on a touch of smoke through the development. The finish has a lot of bitter roasted nuts to it that plays really nicely against that initial sweetness. I really recommend looking out for this one. I haven't tried the other "Reds", but I can imagine that they are equally interesting. This is a great example of how gentle and characterful a peated whisky can be, with only touches of smoke.

I don't believe this is still being made in 2016, which is a damn shame. I was given a sample by a whisky friend and I'm not sure whether to thank him or curse him. I need to get a bottle of this somehow. The nose is very "wine-like" to me. Fruits, caramel, roasted nuts, cinnamon perhaps and a lovely charcoal smoke. Arrival and development match the nose, with the "smoked meat" and berry flavors becoming a bit more prominent. This rides the line between sweet and savory and from what I gather was the clear favorite of the Longrow Red for most people. It's on a very short list of instant buys should I ever be lucky enough to come across a bottle of it. I'm not willing, yet, to fuss about with auctions or trading sites, nor am I willing to pull the trigger on getting a bottle from some of the sketchy looking online retailers that claim to have a bottle. But that day is probably coming. I think about this bottle often and am exceedingly eager to try it again.

I was expecting to like this quite a bit more than I did. There's a strange tire thing going on with the finish that ruins things for me. I blame the Australians.

N: fruity sherry, oily smoke, brine, citrus, very faint acetone T: sweet smoke, seasalt, red berries, moss, key lime F: medium, smoke, tart berries, light bitter

2016 at Blok. Nice balance smoke, sweet, wine