has anyone made their own vatted malt???

by **elli** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 5:24 pm

I has several bottles of whisky that had a small amount left, so I decided to blend them together, and the result was a lovely complex vatted malt. I used a 12 year Dalmore, a 10 year old Macallan, some Bowmore 17 years, a 12 year Caol Ila, and added abit of 18year Talisker. The taste was a lovely and smooth, yet peated and peppery whisky, the finish was short like a Dalmore but it was complex.
Has anyone made their own version of a vatted malt??

by **Marvin** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 6:36 pm

No but I'm currently making my own single malt. :wink:

by **old rarity** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 6:54 pm

I have been doing this for years. The logic is impeccable (after all it only follows industry practice, and blends are just a variation too of what you did, i.e., through adding grain whisky to display the malts).

Of course the results may be hit and miss but often you can come up with something really good, and it sounds like you did.

I take my inspiration from something like Johnnie Walker Gold Label. Whether or not I incorporate grain whisky in my blends, I aim for that kind of palate. But there are many types of palate you can go for, sherried, older, younger, peat-edged, non-peated, etc., etc.

By the way, say you want to try adding grain whisky but can't find any (Scots grain) conveniently. Consider adding something like Black Velvet (the Canadian whisky). An alternative is an Irish grain, or grain-based, whisky (Clontarf's, say). These will be very close to a Scots grain whisky (high proof corn-based spirit aged in reused wood). Of course the result is not a Scots whisky, but it may be pretty good. In adding a grain element I like to use it for not more than 40% of the total. 20% is even better and can display the malts very well while lightening the blend only a little.
If despite your best efforts the result is not well-integrated, try adding a dash of Oloroso sherry or madeira. They can act as a remarkable blending agent and sometimes indeed as a catylyst.

Gary

by **Paul A Jellis** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 8:20 pm

I've been doing this for several years, I use a small oak barrel (about 2 litres) which I top up during the year and, usually, enjoy over Christmas and the New Year. I usually use single malts, but I have, on occasion, topped it up with a blended. Results are often interesting and sometimes very good!

Cheers, Paul

by **Marvin** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 8:33 pm

Where do you get the barrel from?

by **Paul A Jellis** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 8:57 pm

Marvin wrote:Where do you get the barrel from?

The barrel came from Australia.

Cheers, Paul

by **Marvin** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 9:13 pm

Any idea where I'd find a barrel that size in UK? Wouldnt mind trying the old vatted malt/blended thing myself.

by **maverick** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 10:09 pm

I'm new to all this terminology but from what I understood vatted malt is when you mix different whiskeys together? Am I correct? It's like a whiskey coctail then!

by **irishwhiskeychaser** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 11:03 pm

Marvin wrote:Any idea where I'd find a barrel that size in UK? Wouldnt mind trying the old vatted malt/blended thing myself.

They are all over ebay but I think you'd have to get it shipped from the US so postage may be expensive. There are various handy sizes.

by **Marvin** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 11:11 pm

maverick wrote:I'm new to all this terminology but from what I understood vatted malt is when you mix different whiskeys together? Am I correct? It's like a whiskey coctail then!

Vatted = different malts blended together. It has to be 100% malts though I believe.

by **Reggaeblues** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 2:28 am

One day i stopped at my local to break up a good long rural walk with a dram of Lagavulin. the girl who served me was Scottish, and she told me she used to work at the Talisker distillery. She also said where she comes from they drink a thing called a "Macfrog" a 50-50 mix of Macallan and Laphroaig(Heck, i've even heard they mix Laphroaig with lemonade in some parts.)Interesting I thought. Maybe another day...

Several nights later, I was sampling a bog standard Macallan cask strength as sold at duty free, and by no means my first dram of the evening. Tho' it had the up-front Mac sherry and fruit, it seemed a little one-dimensional, especially on the finish. So I thought "what the heck!" and reached for the Ardbeg Ten - a lighter dram at 46% as opposed to 58.6%. I poured in a splash. Maybe 10-15% by volume -not much more.

Bingo! Macbeg! A sherried mac with a wisp of smoke and a lingering smoky finish!Maybe I should call it something...like "Synchronicity", or "Serenity", or...or...

don't tell Jim Murray, folks!

by **mikeymad** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 6:26 am

Well I have this two bottle dispenser that I hang the bottles I want to work on:

A little while ago I had a Bowmore 17yo, and a Trader Joe's bottling of Macallan 10yo.

I tried various combinations of the two together, and I found a 2 part Bowmore with a single shot of the Macallan made the best combo of the two.

by **Di Blasi** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 12:54 pm

I have some opened whisky I've been planning on blending, looking forward to it! After my "master blending" experience this August at Glengoyne, (certificate to prove it!!) I'm ready!

by **Reggaeblues** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 3:44 pm

At a large private dinner party 2 yers ago I smuggled in a flask of Ardbeg 10 which i duly poured nto my wine glass. Everything was fine until the wine waiter, assuming my glass needed refilling, filled it...

Another unintentional vatting with Ardbeg... this one definitely NOT recommended!

by **Drammer** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 2:37 pm

Reggaeblues wrote:At a large private dinner party 2 yers ago I smuggled in a flask of Ardbeg 10 which i duly poured nto my wine glass. Everything was fine until the wine waiter, assuming my glass needed refilling, filled it...

Another unintentional vatting with Ardbeg... this one definitely NOT recommended!

Hmm, sounds like my jack + port combo.

Equal parts , tastes great, believe it or not.

by **Bulkington** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 5:27 pm

So any recommendations for something to mix with Aberlour a'bunadh? My palate has shifted away from sherry monsters, so I'm willing to experiment (one glass at a time). Maybe mixing it with a peat monster? One part Aberlour to two of something else? Aberfrog?

by **TheLiquorBaron** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 5:49 am

Marvin wrote:Where do you get the barrel from?

I don't want to solicit a commercial ad, however I have barrels that I retail. They are american oak and range in size from 2L to 25L...

I have 2 of the 2L barrels myself...one was recently filled with Bourbon after having port in it for nearly 12months. I also experimented with rebarrelling a bottle of Glenfiddich 21yr old Gran Reserva, unfortunately I didn't get much after the angels took their share, but there was some additional spicey notes...If anyone was interested they can ask Ludo(Brand Ambassador for Glenfiddich) as he also sampled the re-barrelled Gran Reserva.

by **Wave** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 6:23 am

Bulkington wrote:So any recommendations for something to mix with Aberlour a'bunadh? My palate has shifted away from sherry monsters, so I'm willing to experiment (one glass at a time). Maybe mixing it with a peat monster? One part Aberlour to two of something else? Aberfrog?

Or you can keep it in the region, mixed with Mortlach you'd have an Aberlach, mixed with a Glenfiddich you'd have an Aberdich, mixed with a Craigellachie you'd have an Aberellachie and if mixed with an Imperial you'd have an Imperilour. :mrgreen:

Cheers!

by **TheLiquorBaron** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 6:44 am

Di Blasi wrote:I have some opened whisky I've been planning on blending, looking forward to it! After my "master blending" experience this August at Glengoyne, (certificate to prove it!!) I'm ready!

Congratulations Di!!

When can we expect our samples?? :wink:

by **Drammer** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 6:41 pm

I have a few drops left in a few bolltles, may as well try to mix some oban with a little solera reserve, see what happens

edit btw:

http://www.whiskymag.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3262

by **TheLaddie** » Sat Nov 04, 2006 1:29 am

I accidentally mixed some Ardbeg with a Glen Moray. Didn't really work... :wink:

by **irishwhiskeychaser** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 1:19 am

Had an aughfull Tamnavulin 12yo which I mixed with an equal part Black bottle but did not improve either :lol:

so I've added another part Talisker 10 which I fear the only thing it's going to do is ruin the Talisker :roll:

I'll leave it a few days and see...

by **Reggaeblues** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 2:02 am

Bulkington wonders what he can mix with his a'bunadh...whilst reading this, having just got back from a great blues jam with the /Robin Bibi band,( Robin's a talisker man BTW) i fancied a little experiment. I combined some batch 16 with some ardbeg 10 in two separate mixes. Two parts of one to one part t'other...and tasted them back to back, having acclimatised my palate with a mere sip of Lagavulin 16.

I tell you wot...they're both worthy! One mix seems to accent lemon, t'other dark chocolate.

And there we have it- Ardblour, pronounced(for the linguistics among us)
Ard - blower.Or you could leave in the 'e' and have an Ardbelour(pronounced Ard-bellower.)

by **irishwhiskeychaser** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 9:03 pm

Okay I could not leave it.... :roll:

But I must say that I'm very pleased with the result.

Remember equal parts of Tamavulin 12yo (which I did not enjoy at all) Black bottle (which I found too sweet) and beautiful Talisker 10 to hopefully to brink it all to gether.

Well firstly and strangely the very Grassy and Malty nose of the Tamnavulin still stands out quite clearly, then there is sweeness which is quite fruity (apricots) whih would not be evident in any of the 3 ???

Taste is not bad at all which pleasently surprised me. The talisker charachter seems lost in the taste but yes the smokeis there with a touch of gobstopper sweetness from the blackbottle. Mouth feel is quite oily but dry and dusty at the same time????

The finish is probably the strangest part with all the parts fighting each other. The spice from talisker probably wins but the pepper is really subdued. So the finish is quite unbalanced but is that because I know what is going on I cannot say. But one thing I can say is .... a quality malt will make a lot of crap taste good :wink:

So was the experiment a success. Well in the sence of the original idea yes. I made 2 drams that I did not enjoy into a quite enjoyable dram. However was it worth sacraficing Talisker 10? I'm so sure on that score but the fact I have 2 bottles in reserve I would have to say yes.

by **Bulkington** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 9:15 pm

Bulkington wonders what he can mix with his a'bunadh...whilst reading this, having just got back from a great blues jam with the /Robin Bibi band,( Robin's a talisker man BTW) i fancied a little experiment. I combined some batch 16 with some ardbeg 10 in two separate mixes. Two parts of one to one part t'other...and tasted them back to back, having acclimatised my palate with a mere sip of Lagavulin 16.

I thought of something like that: two-parts Ardbeg to one of the a'bunadh ... but I've been out of Ardbeg for a while and am trying to get control of my scotch-spending till after the New Year.

I did recently try two parts Lagavulin to one of the Aberlour and was not pleased. Thumbs down to Lagerlour or Abervulin

by **Reggaeblues** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 9:35 pm

Lagerlour, eh? Just a coupla letters away from Lagerlout!(Are you in UK Bulkington? If not you may not be familiar with a lager lout. Actually, you wouldn't want to be!!)

...I realise you're saving coins for Christmas, but if you ARE in UK Ardbeg ten is fairly available at not much more than £20.

a snip!! Every home should have one!

I think Irishwhiskeychaser has the right idea ...leave the mix to vat for a few days before sampling.

I actually intend to try Ardbeg 10 as is, and later(2nd dram!) add just a splash of my batch 16...

in fact, I may use Mac cask strength instead. Similar, but not as good IMO...but it may do the job just as well. Ardallan? Macbeg??

This is fun!

by **Bulkington** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 9:49 pm

No, I'm in NYC.

Ardbeg's quite affordable here, as far as the young standards go. Downtown, Warehouse Wine and Spirits and Astor Wine are engaged in a price war, so I can get Ardbeg and Talisker 10, for example, for $40, which is very good, since I've seen both here and there selling for as much as $50 (or more: Park Ave. is asking $57 for the Talisker). Rumor around work is that some liquor store out in New Jersey is selling Ardbeg 10 for around $35, but it's not worth the cost to go there to get it.

I've got a bottle of Longrow 100 Proof and 12 yr Springbank 175th Anniversary coming with a friend on a plane from Chicago tomorrow night and I hope to be getting a bottle of McCarthy's (3 yr single malt from Oregon that Murray gushes over) after work today. That's it for the year! Really!

by **Reggaeblues** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 11:51 pm

Ardbeg for $40?!? I'm moving to NYC!

by **Bulkington** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 4:44 pm

Two parts Talisker 10 + one part a'bunadh = something like Talisker Dist. Ed. Not bad.

by **irishwhiskeychaser** » Fri Nov 24, 2006 4:39 pm

irishwhiskeychaser wrote:Had an aughfull Tamnavulin 12yo which I mixed with an equal part Black bottle but did not improve either so I've added another part Talisker 10 which I fear the only thing it's going to do is ruin the Talisker I'll leave it a few days and see...

irishwhiskeychaser wrote:Okay I could not leave it....

But I must say that I'm very pleased with the result.

Remember equal parts of Tamavulin 12yo (which I did not enjoy at all) Black bottle (which I found too sweet) and beautiful Talisker 10 to hopefully to brink it all to gether.

Well firstly and strangely the very Grassy and Malty nose of the Tamnavulin still stands out quite clearly, then there is sweeness which is quite fruity (apricots) whih would not be evident in any of the 3 ???

Taste is not bad at all which pleasently surprised me. The talisker charachter seems lost in the taste but yes the smokeis there with a touch of gobstopper sweetness from the blackbottle. Mouth feel is quite oily but dry and dusty at the same time????

The finish is probably the strangest part with all the parts fighting each other. The spice from talisker probably wins but the pepper is really subdued. So the finish is quite unbalanced but is that because I know what is going on I cannot say. But one thing I can say is .... a quality malt will make a lot of crap taste good

So was the experiment a success. Well in the sence of the original idea yes. I made 2 drams that I did not enjoy into a quite enjoyable dram. However was it worth sacraficing Talisker 10? I'm so sure on that score but the fact I have 2 bottles in reserve I would have to say yes.

I forgot to update my odesy with the above vatting ....

Well it all went wrong shortly after. I left it a week and the horrible Tamnavulin (horrible to me that is) smothered the talisker which really surprised me further the sweetness of the (too sweet) black bottle remained.

I had to dump it in the end :cry: