[December 2022] Another update: I pimped-up many of the drams which stood on my shelve for a long time without nobody ever touching them twice, and it worked pretty well. The secret is: Just find out what the malt lacks in terms of flavours and add the respective sherry accordingly, e.g.:
- If the malt is okay, but lacks a profile as such: Use Oloroso sherry and start with a ratio of 1:13.
- If the malt is powerful, but lacks sweetness: Use PX sherry and start with a ratio of 1:20.
- If the malt is both balanced and owns an average profile, but lacks complexity or "finesse": Use either Amontillado or Palo Cortado sherry and start with a ratio of 1:15.
- If the malt is delicate and shy, but lacks complexity or "finesse": Use Fino or Manzanilla and start with a ratio of 1:6 (Fino) or 1:10 (Manzanilla).
Please remember, the sherry will become stronger after some marriage time in the bottle - but you can adjust anytime by adding more whisky or sherry respectively. So, go for the ratio you like best (on the spot) and adjust later if needed.
[October 2022] IMPORTANT UPDATE: I re-tasted all the creations of my experiment after four weeks and I am stunned: All the different sherry wines gained a lot of power during the marriage hence all the drams became unbalanced with the sherry clearly dominating. So, the ratios below are perfect if you plan to drink the stuff within one (or two) weeks, but if you want to keep them for longer the ratios have to be reduced substantially. I will prepare a bunch of bottles of several lowered ratios to find out what works best but this will take some time. In the meantime, you can add some more malt anytime to re-establish balance again (tonight it is about 10-15 per cent more Glenmorangie). If you are still interested, stay tuned...
[September 2022] I bought this bottle for 33 Euro (per litre) in July 2009, and it was bottled on the 324th day of 2008 (bottling hall code L8 324). I scored this dram at 85 points back in 2009 and I rate it 86 points neat tonight - so how can it be my score is way above 90 points? The answer is both simple and tricky...
...because I created my own sherried expressions of this dram. I selected this Glenmorangie because it is a flawless, very balanced and easy quaffable dram which just lacks some impressive flavours. The latter any high-quality sherry wine adds within seconds, and it does not need any cask to do this. It is just because of Scottish regulations that they pour the sherry in a cask first as these regulations forbid any additives to Scotch malt whisky accept caramel for colouring purposes. So, the clever Scotsmen pour some bottles of sherry wine into a cask, roll it across the distillery plaza to the warehouses so that the sherry is soaked up by the wood and then they re-rack any whisky that should be converted into a sherry profile into this "wet cask". The effect is almost the same as if you pour the sherry into the whisky in your glass, all you need to know is the ratio of the mix (but this is tricky as the wine overpowers the malt very quickly). I like both sherry wines and subtle malt whiskies, but both lack something the others can provide: Sherry wines lack the power ("Oompf") and subtle whisky lack the impressive flavours ("Wow-effect"), hence a combination of the two seems to be a win-win situation.
I did some extensive experiments with high-quality but still reasonable priced sherry wines (all about 15-20 Euro per bottle) to find out these "hidden formulas" and here they are (always 1 part of sherry : x parts of whisky):
- Fino sherry 1:6 (Valdespino "Ynocente" Fino dry sherry from Macharnudo vineyard) => with Glenfiddich 12-years old the best ratio is 1:5
- Manzanilla sherry 1:11 (Valdespino "Deliciosa" Manzanilla sherry from Sanlúcar de Barrameda) => with Glenfiddich 12-years old the best ratio is 1:10
- Amontillado sherry 1:14 (Lustau "Los Arcos" Medium dry blend of Amontillado) => with Glenfiddich 12-years old the best ratio is 1:12, with Laphroaig Triple Wood (bottled 2009) it is 1:13
- Oloroso sherry 1:15 (Primus Inter Pares "El Maestro Sierra" Dry Oloroso 15-years old) => with Glenfiddich 12-years old the best ratio is 1:12
- Palo Cortado sherry 1:17 (Lustau "Península" Dry Palo Cortado) => with Glenfiddich 12-years old the best ratio is 1:14
- Pedro Ximenez sherry* 1:22 (Primus Inter Pares "El Maestro Sierra" natural sweet vine) => with Glenfiddich 12-years old the best ratio is 1:19
The results were astonishing, I really liked all compositions (in their final ratio) because they all offered an old-style sherry profile, and I scored them all above 90 points with the following characteristics:
- Fino sherry 92 points: elegant and subtle profile, malt and sherry in perfect harmony, not very impressive to sherry monster lovers, interesting to explore
- Manzanilla sherry 93 points: like Fino but with a little more complexity (additional saltiness), interesting to explore (because this profile is very rare)
- Amontillado sherry 94 points: the best combo of Fino and Oloroso profiles, both complex and delicious, very impressive to both "flavours seekers" and "harmony drinkers"
- Oloroso sherry 91 points: standard sour-sweet sherried malt profile, a little boring compared to the others but still great (hey, we are talking about a 90+ points dram!)
- Palo Cortado sherry 94 points: complex and nicely balanced, full load of flavours, extremely quaffable and interesting to explore (because this profile is very rare)
- Pedro Ximenez sherry* 92 points: sweet, full-bodied, very rich flavours, malt in a walk-on role only, sherry monster candidate at 1:15 or lower.
So, I created excellent drams for around 30 Euro per bottle and I am dead-sure that nobody would recognise this "forbidden practice" in a blind setting. There is nothing wrong with that as long as you do not sell such "illegal" stuff, but you can save a hell of money compared to the ridiculous over-priced sherry malts of today which are often of average quality only. So, if you drink just because of the taste and for your pleasure simply try this dirty trick (maybe your preferred ratios are different to mine, but you can find out easily by adding more sherry or whisky respectively).
PS: By the way, I am absolutely serious about this note - I just set the score to 99 points to draw your attention to it, so please be soft on me for that little cheat (as there are hundreds of other rates for this Glenmo' my cheat will not manipulate the overall score). I am completely aware that pouring sherry into a glass of whisky might be seen as a sacrilege by hardcore malt enthusiasts and I am very sorry about that. But I did not start the fire for ordinary whisky drinkers with these outrageous prices for average-only sherried malts, I just want to inject some extinguishing water into the over-heating whisky boom.
[October 2022] I checked all the ratios again using precise measures and adjusted them where needed. After some months of marriage these might change again (a little bit) so if you are interested in this experiment stay tuned, I will keep you posted. By the way, according to Scottish law these drams can no longer be called whisky that is why I named them "Whishersky" instead. I do not plan to register a trademark for that name, but I will be very upset if anyone else does it ;-)
After a lot of extensive experiments here is what works according to my taste buds (as of today):
- Amontillado sherry (1:12) and Manzanilla sherry (1:10) works with (almost) all whiskies
- pimp-up delicate and subtle whisky using Fino sherry, e.g., Lowlanders or light Speysiders/Highlanders (start at 1:6)
- bolder or lightly peated profiles are better improved using Oloroso or Palo Cortado sherry (start at 1:15)
- use Pedro Ximenez* for very bold profiles only and with care (start at 1:25)
- the best way to pimp-up heavy peated profiles is using good Cognac (start at 1:5), maybe additional sherry (Manzanilla or Amontillado) can help to enhance the dram further (1:10)
If you are as curious as I am and you are open to explore new impressions, I strongly recommend playing around a little with such mixtures as this both saves you a hell of money and maybe creates a profile you really like but is not available on the market. So far, my best creation is Laphroaig Triple Wood (2009) at 13 parts, Cognac (high quality) at 3 parts and Amontillado sherry (medium dry) at 1 part. I score this astonishing 94 points for drinking pleasures, and it cost just about 35 Eurobucks per 700ml bottle.
PS: I will try high-quality Calvados and single cask high-ester rum later, because I can imagine these spirits will work too in certain circumstances. But nothing beyond that, for now (subject to further investigation).
* Pedro Ximenez sherry is named after a German guy ("Peter Siemens") who invented this method of creating a very sweet sherry, but to be honest: As a German myself I prefer all other types of sherry over this one, not kidding.
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