Shelter Point Classic NAS vs 7yo
Canadian Single Malt Duo | 46% ABV
Does Stuffiness Come with an Age Statement?
Are we hung up on age still? With the massive increase in the past several years in no age statement (NAS) whiskies from official bottlers and even some independents, do we still care about a number?
I’d wager we still do but perhaps some of us to a lesser degree.
There exists a certain stuffiness around whisky in general and also around age statements. Some swear by age statements while others may prefer something with an age statement, especially when buying for the first time. But are willing to forgo the silly little number on the label given the whiskies bottler and provenance?
I think this has been a very positive step forward for the industry and whisky drinkers, although when you think of it, we are somewhat trending backwards and reverting to the previous century where NAS blends ruled the market and single malts were “too rough”. Sometimes there’s nothing new, just the sinusoidal cyclical nature of markets and demands.
Now back to the stuffiness comment. A local brick-and-mortar store had floated the idea of creating a local whisky club several months back. My city, with its over a million people population, doesn’t have much in the way of whisky clubs, especially in the quadrant that I live in. This was a large step in the right direction and my friends were all excited. On a recent Sunday night, we all walked over the store for the inaugural meetup to suss out the details of the club. Boring things such as yearly dues, meeting frequency, style of whisky club “gatherings”, and other tedious but necessary items.
The evening was led off with the stellar Bruichladdich Black Art 11.1 24yo that continued to evolve in the glass the longer we sat with it. Dark caramel, stewed dates, firm oak, and an evolving licorice note punctuated the experience. Following up this dram was a 5yo Bunnahabhain Moine finished in an Oloroso bloodtub, quite the antithesis to the much older Black Art. Powerful and delicious earthy peat, oyster sauce, and brown sugar in a very unassuming 60% abv package. Two other drams, a Garrison Brothers bourbon and a 4 yo peated Wild Life Distillery single malt, a local distillery, followed up but were mere shadows from the first two stunners.
So how again is this stuffy? Of the 19 people in attendance, and of the 30 or so that expressed interest but couldn’t make it that fine evening, the average age ranged from 45-60 years old. The three of us stood out like the Stooges, sitting there with our smack-dab-in-the-middle of our 30’s faces compared to the much older spread of gentleman arrayed around us. And the final bit: only one lady was in attendance, in the upper end of the age range too.
While we all had fun and couldn’t wait for the first official session to feature hand-filled Campbeltown whiskies, I couldn’t help but recall the lack of a younger crowd and diversity in people in attendance. Why was that? Was it because not everyone could make it and the younger crowd was busy with new families and couldn’t sneak away on a Sunday? Or was it just a sign of the local whisky demographics as a whole? I think it’s more of the latter, especially if we consider our wives as data points. Despite all of us being quite deep into whisky, our wives often resoundingly refuse to drink the stuff, routinely stating it smells and tastes like burning.
While great progress and efforts have been made in diversifying the whisky realm, we still have work to do.
Review 1/2
Shelter Point Classic, Canadian Single Malt, NAS, Early 2023 bottle (est.), 46% ABV
CAD$75 paid (£42)
Nose
Runny honey, apple slices. Graham crackers, barley grist, and vanilla. Some of that deliciously crunchy fire-blasted sugar topping from creme brulee. Some light wine underneath after time in the glass. A nice nose, if a tad light.
Palate
It’s a medley of vanilla, tannins, runny honey, and tannin nibbles with black pepper. That Shelter Point toasted rye bread/graham cracker vibe is here, albeit hiding underneath those top notes. It is moderately thick in the mouth and walks the line between sweet, malty, tannic, and toasty.
Score: 6/10
Review 2/2
Shelter Point Classic 7yo, Canadian Single Malt, Early 2023 bottle (est.), 46% ABV
CAD$75 paid (£42)
Nose
Much richer. Everything has lovely golden rich overtones like golden hour. Thick unpasteurized honey and caramel drizzle. Some orange oil spritz and delicate saltiness hiding underneath. Shelter Point’s characteristic malty grist is still here, albeit lessened, a change I’m happy for. I like the maltiness and cereal aspects in whiskies but I like balance more, and this new release achieves that.
Palate
The palate experience here is more refined, less jagged and more put together. It’s bright and moreish. Take all the golden and lovely notes from the nose and transpose them here, now with a very Arran 10-like zip. Now trace golden raisins, barley sugar, and the barest touches of the toasty notes that underpin Shelter Point. The recipe here sounds simple but it works well.
The Dregs
This has got a little bit extra, that “x-factor” that I so crave. The original iterations were all good and solidly deserving of the 6/10 scores but now this new bottle has kicked it up a notch. It’s like the old saying: the first 80% of the work is the easiest (ie., using good ingredients and taking your time) while the last 20% takes the most effort and it is in those trials and tribulations that many often falter. It’s what creates the little x-factors that lead to greatness in some and lack of progress in others. This 2024 release is slightly sweeter, more balanced, and pleasantly more-ish.
And this my friends, according to my preferences of course, has that little x-factor. For the price and experiences, it’s very solidly a 7/10 and will always feature on my bar alongside Shelter Point’s 7/10-scoring Smoke Point.
Score: 7/10
The Final Dregs
The direct familial links here are evident. I’ve very much enjoyed my time with Shelter Point’s core-range single malt over the years, from the older squatter Vinolok “Artisanal Single Malt” bottles, to the COVID era bottles where glass shortages were common and Shelter Point was forced (I believe) to change to the more ubiquitous taller shape, to the now custom emblazoned bottles renamed as their Classic Single Malt.
This competes directly with the venerable Arran 10, Tobermory 12, Loch Lomond 12 and 12 Inchmurrin, Glencadam 10, and many others in terms of the price point and entry level aspect in their respective brands core range. Although I think we can all agree that any of these could hardly be considered “entry level”. How does this fare? Well, the pair of Shelter Point’s hold their own, offering their own unique distillery character amongst these other competitors, while being similarly priced (or slightly cheaper) and down a few years.
Keep up the good work Shelter Point, your journey has been fun to taste along and I’m excited to see where you go. You’re now par with those on the big stage, despite only distilling for 13 years! The addition of an age statement, while nice, doesn’t really mean as much as the evolution of the quality of the whisky. Quality should always be the all important factor here and we shouldn’t be pandering to the stuffy consumers who turn their noses up at NAS whiskies.
I also hope this “new wave” of distilleries and products released into the market appeal to the “newer” or lesser represented demographics in whisky, eroding long-standing pillars of the traditional Scotch or whisky consumers who may be more entrenched into the more long-standing brands within whisky. There have definitely been improvements, with the prevalence of YouTube content being generated by younger and female creators, and long-form content such as our own Paisley, but we still have a long way to go as an industry.
After all, diversity is the spice of life and doing whatever we can to erode this stuffiness will create a breath of fresh air for the industry. I, for one, believe new distilleries have an active and important role in this transition, either through staffing choices, product design, marketing, or just downright elbow grease in making good products and getting them into the hands with younger crowds at good prices, something this Shelter Point has been able to do.
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. BB