Auchendores Highland "Jerusalem Hills" Single Malt Whisky review

 Auchendores Highland "Jerusalem Hills" Single Malt Whisky

A few blogs back, I reviewed the Ben Eideann Fionain Jerusalem Mountains Cabernet Sauvignon Finish, remarkable for its prestigious BADATZ Eida Chareidis Kosher Certification. For those of you who are not familiar with kosher certifications, it’s considered by many to be the “Rolls Royce” of hechsherim. (I would also assume it’s probably the most expensive?)

I recognise that the Kashrus reliability of this single malt from an unknown distillery, finished in Israeli Wine Casks, is probably second to none. It’s a pity that the Ben Eideann wasn’t that great. If you look back at my review, I described it as a refreshing and tasty aperitif that lacked any maltiness or any kind of typical flavour character associated with Scotch whisky. It also tasted very diluted, far less than the 40% abv (which is the legal minimum) it states on the bottle.

So, I was intrigued when browsing the shelves of a wine shop near the Bar Ilan Junction in Yerushalayim, to see, next to the “Ben Eideann”s, some similar looking cartons, but titled “Auchendores” Single Malt.

Taking one down off the shelf, the first thing I noticed were the words “Never Chill Filtered” in bold letters. (Interesting!) Then I see that the Single Malt has been bottled at a much higher 46% abv and has been finished in Kosher “Jerusalem Hills” red wine Casks, with the same Badatz  Eida Chareidis hechsher on it. (OK, now you have my attention). The price was a very reasonable (at least for Israel) 229 shekels. I am always on the lookout for something unusual and interesting so it was “Tally Ho”, and taken to the counter forthwith.

By the way, (as you can see from the photo), there was also an American Oak Matured Auchendores with the same carton cardboard box style and bottling profile. Why someone would be interested in this product, I have no idea, unless of course, they only buy products with Badatz Eida Chareidis. I can’t see the point of a product like this. Why would you buy a standard bottle of American Oak Cask Bourbon matured single malt whisky from an unknown distillery, matured for an unknown amount of years (almost certainly not many), when you can buy any number of excellent Single Malts which are also 100% Matured in Ex-Bourbon (and therefore have no Kashrus issues), where you do actually know the name of the distillery from whence it came, and the number of years it has been maturing in the cask, for the same price or cheaper!?

 

“Boutique Whisky”

The bottle describes this as a “Boutique Whisky”. What does that mean?

In the Wine World, a Boutique Winery is defined as a small, craft winery where they produce less than 10,000 bottles a year. You don’t see the term “Boutique Distillery” used in the whisky industry but you do see the term “Micro Distillery”, which implies the same thing. However, this says “Boutique Whisky”! I am reasonably confident the whisky comes from a large industrial sized Highlands distillery where they produce hundreds of thousands of bottles a year. I therefore assume that the term is another way of saying “Limited Edition”? This is borne out by the fact that it states “1 of 1500 bottles” on the label. Why they would use this strange term though, I am really unsure.

And now it’s time to play that game again:

From which Mystery Distillery does this Single Malt Come From?

I brought the bottle home and started doing some research to determine which distillery it was from. I started with the assumption that Auchendores was from the same company who produce Ben Eideann, which I concluded in my review of that whisky, came from Tullibardine distillery. Googling the name “Auchendores”, the top result told me that it is the name of an Avenue in Port Glasgow, along the A8 on the far left of Scotland. It is also the name of a reservoir in Inverclyde, also near Port Glasgow. Incidentally, there are no distilleries anywhere near there! The nearest seems to be Loch Lomond further north. I shot off an email to the manager of Loch Lomond who assured me that he had nothing to do with it. One down, 130 to go!

So, based upon my research on Ben Eideann and the almost identical bottle type to Tullibardine, I began to work on the assumption that Auchendores comes from the same distillery. An email from the manager of Tullibardine first denied any connection with his distillery and then a second email a few hours later, stated that, he had done some further investigations and it seems that the whisky might possibly have come from his distillery after all! He wrote that perhaps it was a special order for a private client who supplied his own casks. (Say no more!).

404 Not Found!

I noticed that there was an Internet site printed on the box so typed it into the URL field in order to perhaps get some more information, only to receive the message 404 Not Found!

The Auchendores.com site, it seems, does not exist!

So I did a Domain lookup of the site and found it was registered to the same person who registered the domain name “beneideann.com”. So that confirms the connection.

I wrote to the domain owner and received a lovely phone call from Yochanan. We chatted for over an hour and I managed to find out some useful information.

He told me that the casks used were Psagot Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 French Oak casks. He said that the bung holes of the casks were triple sealed at the winery and then transported to Scotland, whereupon supervisors from Badatz Eida Chareidis supervised the filling of the wine casks.

The casks were filled (with no preparation whatsoever, such as Re-Charring), with already Ex-Bourbon matured Single Malt whisky. Yochanan was unable to tell me exactly how old the whisky was which went into the casks, but I would guess they were under 10 years old. The whisky was then matured in these kosher wine casks for a further 9 months, before being bottled.

When asked, Yochanan did not deny that the distillery where all this work was done, was in fact Tullibardine, but as I had already had this pretty much confirmed by the manager, I did not push the point. In general, as far as I understand, it is the distillery who supplies the sourced whisky, who requests anonymity and I had no intention of getting Yochanan into any trouble with his whisky suppliers.

At this stage, I usually discuss the Packaging and artwork design so here goes.

On the Left, Auchendores. On the Right, a KN95 mask

A Rather fiddly carton opening.

In conversation with Yochanan, he informed me that he had invested in a professional whisky industry designer, the same company which had designed the Ileach Cask Strength Islay Single Malt whisky, which is produced by the “Highlands and Islands Whisky Company”.

I told him that I really wasn’t impressed as there were, in my opinion, a lot of problems with the packaging.

The cardboard used to make the box is too thin, flimsy and cheap looking.

The overall look of both the carton box and label, looks bland, generic and uninspiring with most of it in plain black and white. The main problem though is, besides the printed name “Auchendores”, all the writing is absolutely tiny and made even more difficult to read on that brown/maroon background. On the left, it says “Jerusalem Hills” in gold but you would hardly notice it as it’s almost invisible on that background. Even repeated photos from different angles failed to make it clear.

You can only see the words "Jerusalem Hills", at an angle

The pencil like drawing of a Loch in front of a mountain is hardly emotionally rousing stuff. On the shelf, it is simply indistinguishable from so many other generic bottles.

There is no doubt that this is a unique and special product and it needs something to show that in the artwork. I’m not saying to plaster the words “Jerusalem Hills Kosher Red Wine” and “BADATZ” in multi coloured letters all over the box, but it needs something to establish it as a brand that stands out on the shelves which will do it justice.

Regarding the text at the back of the box, I was expecting something ultra-kitschy but was in fact pleasantly surprised to find some really good information and pretty descriptive and accurate tasting notes. The only thing missing is the fact that this single malt, as well as being non-chill filtered, is also natural colour, but it fails to mention this. Yochanan admitted that the absence of a statement about this being without colouring, was an oversight.

So, in summary, we need a design which:

1. Stands out on the shelf and does not look generic.

2. Informs us that it has a BADATZ hechsher at a glance.

3. Informs us on the front in bold letters that this is premium single malt, that is, Non-Chilll Filtered, Natural Colour and bottled at 46% abv.

4. That it’s been matured in Kosher Israeli Wine casks.

This should get the pulse racing of any Orthodox Jewish Single Malt Whisky lover!

Scotch Whisky Branding Design

Interestingly, the subject of current Whisky packaging design was discussed on the Ralfy.com channel a few weeks ago, particularly in regard to the new repackaging “disasters” of the Benromach and BenRiach brands. We were all in more or less unanimous agreement that the once much loved unique packaging from bottle shape design to label artwork, which had established both brands, had now been rebranded into lacklustre bland generic lifeless looking products, indistinguishable from a hundred other bottles, all fighting for shelf recognition.

Whereas in the World of World Whiskies coming from say, Sweden, Australia, India and Israel, where they are all developing a brand look which stands out and makes them readily identifiable, the whole current trend in Scotch Whisky Branding design is going in the completely opposite direction and seems totally counterintuitive.

I did like the cork and the paper seal that goes around it. This used the be very popular a few years ago but seems to have fallen out of fashion, so it’s a nice touch.

Auchendores Jerusalem red Wine Finish, 46% abv, NCF, NC, 230 Shekels.

Ah, did I mention that it has a Badatz Eida Charedis hechsher? I can’t remember!

Appearance

The Auchendores seemed quite viscous as I swirled it around in the glass. I had the urge to place this whisky in a Sherry Copita glass rather than a standard Glencairn and I feel it suits it a lot better. The colour is a lovely light red-copper brown which reveals perfectly its Red Wine finish. This is a fine looking Single Malt.

On the Nose

(As mentioned earlier), Yochanan informed me that the Red wine casks used, previously contains Cabernet Sauvignon from the Psagot winery. He isn’t sure but thinks it was vintage 2016. This is interesting as the overall flavour note of this whisky is red fruity sweet and certainly not dry tannic red wine notes you might associate with a young Cabernet Sauvignon.

Immediately on the nose, you get lashings of fresh red sweet fruity notes. This is accompanied by a typical tangy alcohol Red wine aroma.  Ah, but then you become aware of the Malted Barley Whisky influence with some rich Malty biscuit.

It has really nice juicy, fruity sweet malty feel to it in the mouthfeel. It doesn’t seem that complex, but what flavours are there, are clear and distinct, and really tantalising.

What I particularly enjoyed was the fact that the red wine and malted barley element seemed in perfect harmony, neither of them dominating the other. This is exactly what you want with a Sherry or wine finish of previously Ex-Bourbon cask matured single malt.

There is a perfume wood polish smell, sweet honey-cream sweets, Fruit chews and a slight pleasant copper smell perhaps.  However, those red berry aromas remain up front with Raspberries and other Red berries.

Despite its young age, there was no sign of either an alcoholic nose nip or harsh tannic notes from this very competently produced red wine finished whisky. Overall impression was bright, mouth-watering red fruity sweetness, and this was carried over to the taste.

Tasting

A word of caution about adding water

Being that this is 46% abv, I naturally wanted to add a touch of water but from experimentation, soon found that this wasn’t actually necessary. Just as the Ben Eideann at 40% abv behaved more like 35% abv, so this 46% abv Auchendores interestingly behaves more like a 40% abv whisky! I haven’t got round to measuring the alcohol level myself (for fun purposes only you understand), but somehow I would guess that we would see similar results showing a few degrees of abv lower than stated on the bottle. (I wonder what this is all about?)

It is really satisfying when your expectations from the aroma translate into the taste and this was definitely the case with this Auchendores. Big mouth-watering red fruity flavours, balanced with the taste of malty fruit cake. Raspberries, red-berries, a touch of cranberries perhaps, dried glazed fruit, honey and wood spices.

Conclusion

This is very easy drinking whisky indeed and quite delicious. No need to add water or to wait after pouring it from the bottle. It’s ready to be enjoyed immediately. This highly approachable style will certainly endear it and appeal to the many Kiddush Club casual whisky drinkers, who may be, (dare I say), even tempted to say Kiddush over it on Shabbos morning (with the bracha of SheHaKol of course!). I wouldn’t argue with them. But then, once you have returned from shul, a dram of this Auchendores would go very nicely with the first course of the Shabbos seuda, particularly with some chopped liver, eggs and onion. I can see someone getting through quite a few bottles of this.

Kiddush over Whisk[e]y?

At least in Shuls in the UK, it is quite common to see people saying Kiddush over Blended Scotch Whisky on Shabbos day “after the service” (as they say in England). Obviously, it is clear from the Shulchan Aruch and Rambam, that Friday night Kiddush (being based on a mitzvah DeOrita), should be said over wine, and if this is not available for any reason, then over the Challos (Shabbos braded bread).

However, according to the Shulchan Aruch, Kiddush Shabbos morning (which is 100% D'rabanan), should be said over wine, and if this is not available, then Challa or Beer. The Mishna Berura says that the preference should be beer, rather than Challa.

Most modern poskim would agree that Schnapps, Whiskey or Whisky is considered a more choshuva (important and more dignified) drink than beer and therefore one could argue that whisky would take priority over beer. Many Rabbonim allow the use of whisk[e]y for Kiddush, even if red wine is available.

(I would personally say that if only grape juice or cheap sweet red wine is available, then Scotch Whisky, even a Blend, would be the preferred choice, but that’s me).

The question is now, what is the minimum quantity of whisky you have to drink?

According to the Magen Avraham, a Reviis is required for all types of “honoured“ beverage you would use to say Kiddush. That would mean pouring at least about 90 (86cc) of whisky into a glass and drinking at least half of that.

However, I believe that most Rabbonim today would concur that actually, the way that whisky is usually drunk, (that is, using a whisky glass and a minimum of 30cc of liquid), is the acceptable way for saying Kiddush over whisky.

The next question is whether it is acceptable to pour a standard 30-40cc “dram” into the bottom of a Glencairn glass or must it be filled to the top, which would be the requirement of wine in a wine glass? The concept, as I understand, is to send the message that by filling the glass up to the very top, you have the intention of fulfilling the mitzvah to the full!

Perhaps therefore, it might be better to use one of those shot glasses, (rather than pouring whisky into a Glencairn, a Copita or wine glass), and fill this up to the top? This would certainly make sense with Blended Scotch Whisky or other inferior drink like Schnapps or North American whiskey, but would seem to me to be drinking in a disrespectful manner (and therefore against the “spirit” of Kiddush), when it comes to Single Malts!?

Well, that’s something to argue over at the next shul Kiddush, please G-d, may it come very soon after this COVID pandemic is finally over.

NOTE: As always, please consult with your LROR, (Local Reliable Orthodox Rabbi) for what the practice is regarding saying Kiddush over whisk[e]y in your community.