Woodrow’s Pulteney 15yo
2007 - 2023 Release | 57.8% ABV
It’s all art, isn’t it?
There have been a flurry of Pulteney conversations here at Dramface recently. Doog hung the NAS Huddart distillery release up against an SMWS 7yo. Monsieur Fife is busy putting the finishing touches to a close up on a 10yo Global Travel Retail Exclusive release, but the general feeling has been a lack of creative flourish from Wick's legendary House of Amber Art.
It would seem it's a brand that constantly reminds many of us of the old masters such as the long lost 21yo and the fabled 17yo. Perhaps it's time to see if a relatively new bottler to the scene can add a little fresh colour to the canvas?
I’m not into the art world. I see paintings I like and I have a few but generally I’m at the wrong end of what is considered ‘good art’.
In Britain we have a show called ‘Portrait Artist of the Year’ where a bunch of clearly talented artists get around four hours to paint a celebrity. My favourites are invariably never the ones that the ‘professionals’ select. But it is clear to me, even as a novice in the art world, that it is much more about what you can say about a picture than it is the actual picture. Damian Hirst didn’t sell his formaldehyde, split-in-two-cow because it looked good. It was the arty bollocks that went with it.
We reached this point in the whisky world quite a while ago. At times it was through celebrity endorsement ‘selected by XX’ or ’bottled exclusively for [insert posh brand/restaurant etc]’ but, and for me more disconcerting, it was simply the name or age of the whisky. Companies popped up all over the place seeking to buy casks of any whisky deemed by its drinking public as special. These companies, let’s call them ‘Name & Score Hunters’, or ‘NASH’ for short, had too much money and not enough time.
These NASH companies (I will refrain from calling them ‘bottlers’ as none really are) seek out casks of Ardbeg, Springbank, Bowmore etc and bottle them, often in garish packaging – the kind of style that would please Kauffman Vodka, or the modern Macallan marketing team. Price tags are not important – irrelevant even; for some of these brands only the names and ages matter. It is getting so commonplace that often the prestige can only be found in the price.
While not exclusively so, this is also becoming quite prevalent in many Asian markets; brands of sometimes run-of-the-mill whiskies receive lavish, exotic labels, boxes, packaging and priced as if it was signed by Zeus or ordained by Buddha.
Every respectable independent bottler can tell you a story of the email, letter or approach from an individual or company seeking stock that goes along the lines of; ‘I’m looking for something from the ‘60s or ‘70s but only big names. Also any heavily sherried whiskies - but big names like Macallan’.
Now this can of course be good business for the independent bottler and can be an immediate return on some big hitting (in terms of cost) casks. And if it is genuinely for a club, or importer or society etc then that is all part and parcel of being an IB. It is these businesses (or individuals) that then claim to be on some sort of higher plane than the rest – perhaps even coupled with a greater palate/nose for cask selection – that piss me, and others, off. The ones that boast about the incredibly rare whiskies they bottle and the high scores they get from websites.
Frankly, bollocks to both of those sentiments. I recall a bottler telling me of receiving an email along the lines of “I’m going to become an independent bottler; can you sell me casks, but I only want those old malts that have tropical fruits”. Oh, is that all? Is that how you think this game works? Is independent bottling that easy?
These impertinent requests imply two things: firstly that independent bottlers are over-burdened with incredible stock and secondly that they somehow don’t know what they’ve got. For the last 10-15 years supply of old whisky has been really tough. Older whiskies are very much the gems in any portfolio or bottling. The requester has implied that their palate (ergo ability to pick casks) is somehow more advanced than the independent bottler (or that their money talks). For both of these points that ship has sailed – you need a time machine back to the late ‘70s.
But the point that really sticks in my craw is this idea that you can pick and choose the very best casks, ignoring supply constraints, pricing and the game that ‘proper’ independent bottlers have to play. There’s a bit to unpack here.
Supply I can only dip into, so let’s have a look at the ‘game’ and ‘pricing’. Being an IB is a game of sorts; you balance on a tightrope of supply, price, quality, variety and ensure you remain off the radar of any one distiller. Supply is rarely a single cask of something – they are often bought in parcels (say 5 or 10 etc) and these are often split between independent bottlers (hence why you see the same age and makes of whisky being bottled by multiple bottlers). These are bought blind – the independent bottler takes the risk that the spirit is good enough for bottling or further maturation or re-racking.
The casks are often bought young and aged for a number of years. No bottler would ever buy a large parcel of one make and bottle all of them at the same time – the art of the selection is not only ‘what are the best casks’ but ‘what variation can we offer’. Twenty consecutive casks of say Glenlivet will saturate the market, annoy importers and retailers, turn off consumers and potentially get noticed by Chivas who will then turn off the tap for that supply (and I have used Glenlivet as an example because that is exactly what happened).
So IBs have to constantly monitor what they are bottling; ages and makes, whilst keeping in mind retail prices versus supply prices. They have to ‘play the game’ of making the importers, distributors, customers and distillers happy (or at least oblivious to the latter).
This new trend of the NASH bottler that simply buys whatever whisky is in vogue and releases it in some ridiculous bottle and box, and almost always direct to the consumer, ignores all of the other issues and constraints. The problem lies in that cost becomes irrelevant and that has been a driving force in these ridiculously inflated prices we are seeing today.
Be honest with yourself, how many times have you read a review for a stellar whisky only to discover that the whisky is in the £000s? And how many times has that been an exclusive for ‘XXX’ or a bottling for or from someone you’ve never heard of.
Independent bottling is hard enough without all of the coat-tail-riding shysters seeking the ‘big names’. Remember, any idiot can bottle an Ardbeg and sell it all – but it takes a quality outfit to shift a Miltonduff, Braeval or Mannochmore.
Review
Pulteney 15yo, Woodrow’s of Edinburgh, Warehouse Reserve Series, First-fill bourbon barrel, 21/11/2007 - 02/06/2023, 57.8% ABV
£108 still some availability
Nose
There’s certainly a lot of honey at the start of this most-promising nose. Not a major surprise given the distillery and the fact that this is from an ex-Bourbon barrel (and just a minor gripe – the description should always state, in my opinion, ex-whatever was in there before).
Coconut and vanilla, again expected but quite delightful. Perhaps had I nosed this blind I wouldn’t get this tasting note, but I can definitely pick out a slight salty-seaside flavour – the distillery is not a mile from the coast so why not?
Getting slightly deeper into it and some brown sugar, barley and fudge with marshmallows (if such a thing exists). Pulteney rarely shakes people to their toes and this is no exception – but it is extremely nice.
Palate
Lots of barley-sweetness with toffee, honey-lozenge and more vanilla. The alcohol does not overpower at first – more towards the end does that hot-prickly feel of the alcohol come through but at no point does it overpower.
It’s not a heavy-weight but it is balanced. Not too sweet, the oakiness is not bitter at all and those first fill ex-Bourbon flavours are clearly evident but not at the wheel. We get a delightful return of the coconut from the nose in the finish and a slight herbal quality that is bittersweet. Water does much to soften it down and brings the vanilla (which is more like real vanilla rather than synthetic) to the fore with again that honey-lozenge on the finish.
The Dregs
Independent bottlings of Pulteney are few and far between. That such a young bottler as Woodrow’s should get one, and a first fill cask at that, shows really well for the company.
I won’t rush out to buy another one, certainly not at £108, but I do not regret my purchase. The distillate is there to see and whilst this cask could have been one of those Pulteneys to start to really shake socks and boots if left for another ten years, that is not for me to say or even question. This is one to pour for those many numerous folk that have never tried an independent Pulteney and discuss its distillate.
Would I recommend you buy it – no. Would I recommend you try it in a bar – abso-blooming-lutely. Do you take recommendations from me – debatable.
But in my opinion, this was a worthy bottling; a great little find for Woodrow and I completely understand that a 15yo cask strength Pulteney just over the £100 mark is where the industry is at the moment. I’m also very glad that not one penny of my purchase went to a ’straight in the bin’ tube or carton, regardless of how pretty the artwork was.
Score: 6/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. FF