Lochlea Sowing Edition First Crop - Whisky Review 154

[@nenads.3695]

Thanks

[@WhiskyLock]

Thank you my friend! You're the first person to do that and it means a lot. Cheers 🥃

[@jasoncoates1835]

Just picked one of these up locally. Good review. I'll be getting into it over the weekend, sounds like it's going to give me pretty much what I'm expecting out of it. I love taking a peek at new distilleries at this age and casking. Cheers!

[@WhiskyLock]

Cheers Jason 🥃

[@nenads.3695]

Great review. I was shocked that it is available here in Australia so I have ordered a bottle. Keep up the great reviews.

[@WhiskyLock]

I'm glad you found it. I've tried a couple of other Lochleas since recording this review and I think this is the best. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

[@prestonw3878]

I brought a bottle of this first edition and loved it! Initially it had a strong fresh cracked black pepper note. Hoping to see the second edition on shelves soon or cask strength.

[@WhiskyLock]

I think this in Cask Strength would be superb 👌

[@thewhiskyenthusiast]

Great review Shane! I tried this last year and I didn't rate it too much but knowing they didn't use any STR help to 'mature' their whisky made me appreciate it much more later on. Cheers!

[@WhiskyLock]

STR is the ketchup of the whisky world 😉 Cheers 🥃

[@thewhiskyenthusiast]

@@WhiskyLock I see what you're saying but these new distilleries do need something to make their spirit appeal to a wider public so they can continue producing. Just like producing gin/vodka/rum in the early years, in my opinion STR helps them sell their products more. I don't think Cotswolds Signature would've sold as much if it didn't use STR s. It is a fantastic breakfast whisky, which even non whisky drinkers can enjoy. This kind of sale led them to expand in such a short time. I think these new guys are doing a good job balancing between 'consumers' and 'whisky drinkers', what with craft presentation and approachable profiles.

[@WhiskyLock]

@@thewhiskyenthusiast Isn't that just like ketchup though? A new distillery puts a 3yo whisky into STR the same way that McDonalds covers cheap beef in mac sauce. Both are working with limited resources to make something people will buy. Neither are really the road to quality. Some people will enjoy STR but 9/10 it's far too on the nose for me. The thing I hate about it most is that it has a habit of covering up. They all taste the same. Like a jelly baby dissolved in whisky. The only whiskies that I've had where I felt that STR worked well have been Kingsbarns (where I couldn't really tell) and to a lesser extent Cotswolds Signature that you mentioned. Which I do like. And it's interesting that you mentioned that one because I have a Cotswolds Bourbon Cask open at the moment, also a very young whisky, but it beats the Signature release hands down IMHO. It's glorious at a very young age. No STR required. It's just my opinion of course and really in the end it all comes down to what sells but I'd much rather see new distilleries selling gin to make ends meet and keeping hold of their casks until they're ready. Or sell newmake to those who are interested in it. Which Cotswolds also do (and it's amazing). Just my grumpy, traditionalist opinion.

[@thewhiskyenthusiast]

@@WhiskyLock I absolutely agree with you on the context, all I'm saying is 'the ketchup' is necessary and is helping the distillery increase the sales because the general consumer likes it, which then thanks to these sales people like you and I can get craft presentations and single casks and just good whisky. The bourbon cask is brilliant but the two times I had my general consumer friends try the bourbon, founder's choice and Signature, they all went for Signature unsurprisingly. The White Pheasant is one of the tastiest new makes I ever had. I could actually taste the lavender fields around the distillery. Beautiful stuff. Thanks for the conversation Shane and not grumpy at all, I understand where you're coming from 🥃

[@thenavajoknow]

Thanks for reviewing these so competently, they are very interesting but beyond purchasability for me. I'm torn on the design, it's quite good as such but doesn't signal Scotch as much to me as somewhat generic trendy booze. Which might be exactly what they're going for...I wish some Lowland Malt would aesthetically cite Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

[@WhiskyLock]

Mackintosh inspired presentation would be fantastic. I feel Compass Box might be our best bet 😉

[@Rohit_M]

Fantastic review Shane. Lochlea sounds like a promising new distillery that can put out a quality even in younger age offerings. I am now excited to try the two I got late last year, the Harvest Edition First Crop and Fallow Edition First Crop which are port and first fill Oloroso maturation. The bourbon maturation sounds great though and will keep an eye out for.

[@juntaelee381]

I think it’s a really timely mini series with a lot more people like me getting interested and curious about new up-and-coming distilleries with less reliable reviews online! I saw Glasgow 1770 in your previous video so could you share briefly what it was like? That one (original and peated ones) and Raasay were the only brands I could get hold of here in Korea and Raasay ones sell out fast with a higher price tag, and I almost bought the peated one at a liquor shop last week and held back thinking I should check some more reviews online first!

[@WhiskyLock]

Hi! My review of 1770 is out now. Sorry for the late reply. I've only had the 1770 original and honestly I find it very oaky. Too oaky for my tastes. I prefer Raasay. Cheers 🥃

[@davidowen2834]

Hi Shane, it’s a bit pricey where I am for a 3 year old malt ( over €60) would love to try it especially being all bourbon matured but not at that price,the offerings from Ardnamurchan and Rassay for eg are just over €50 which I find reasonable. Slàinte Shane as always a good honest review.

[@WhiskyLock]

They're all good but honestly Ardnamurchan is probably the best of the three... cheers David 🥃

[@justwhisky]

Helpful review! Bold statement saying you almost prefer it to Bruichladdich Classic Laddie. You now have me intrigued as I also gravitate toward more ex-bourbon to dissect the distillate. Over here in the states the Inaugural release was easy to buy at retail….after the looong boat ride I think some of the initial fever subsided. That was a few months ago and is now no longer available. Looking forward to trying their “Plowing “ winter release matured in Laphroaig casks. Cheers 🥃

[@WhiskyLock]

I've always had a soft spot for ex bourbon or... whisper it... Refill! Much easier to dissect the spirit as you say. It was very frustrating trying to get hold of an early release from Lochlea. From what I can tell it was mostly because of flippers buying it all to resell. Believe it or not, to get this bottle I found an off licence in Glasgow who had some stock and paid them to courier it to me.... not something you should have to do 😂 Cheers 🥃

[@justwhisky]

@@WhiskyLock …the price we 💰 pay to put on a show…🤩…

[@welshtoro3256]

Totally agree about the colour of course. I actually have come to dislike the colour of Talisker 10 (the 18 is identical) because of its marmalade hue. It's a complete give away. Laphroaig 10 Cask Strength has to be one of the most idiotically coloured whiskies of the lot. Who the hell do they think they sell this stuff too? When all is said and done it's just a disgraceful deception to suggest the whisky is something it isn't. Young whisky can just taste too young. A curiosity which decent enough has to have limited expectation. £50 is a lot of cash for an experience like that. I can buy a superb bottle of wine for the same outlay. I suppose the question is whether we can learn to adjust our palate to this style. Straight off the still is how the Victorians drank it, even Queen Victoria herself. The price of whisky is going to be one heck of an issue for producers and consumers in the coming years. Bruichladdich Islay Barley and Ardbeg 10 are cheaper than this and we're all feeling the pinch right now. I know that costs are high for start up but that has to be factored into a business model. If I have 50 quid I'll buy the better whisky - Bruichladdich; Ardbeg, etc. We went through all of this with Kilkerran before they reached the 12 year statement. The bourbon was more popular than the sherry and it got better and better before the magic 12 and the bourbon/sherry combo. Better than Classic Laddie? That's a really good whisky at this moment in time. Too many of these distilleries are releasing stuff too soon to generate cash. £50 a bottle is so steep and there's so much great whisky at that price. Distilleries like this need to wait until it's better or sell it cheaper. WT

[@marclambert8596]

I’m so curious to know if there’s any recent market research supporting the assumption that color matters to consumers???

[@welshtoro3256]

@@marclambert8596 It clearly doesn't matter for the vast majority of whisky consumers which consume cheaper blended whisky. The colour is marmalade (just like Talisker) and it doesn't matter to folk that buy it including me. When you get to selling age statement single malt whisky it does matter. The colour of the whisky contains an awful amount of information about what we can expect it to taste like. Furthermore, we are are an informed consumer who really appreciate the entire range of colours in whisky. That awful Talisker and Laphroaig colouring is telling us that caramel is added and that's just a big turn off to folks like me and Loch.

[@marclambert8596]

@@welshtoro3256 Artificial color clearly matters, negatively, to those of us who know better, but if darker color does not in fact make much of a difference to those uninformed regular consumers, then what’s the “good” reason for doing it? I just have to wonder if there has been any recent testing of the hypothesis that darker actually sells better than lighter, natural color.

[@welshtoro3256]

@@marclambert8596 Good point Marc. I guess that colour the blends use has become so uniformally recognised that any deviation risks a a drop in sales. The truth is when I talk to my friends they know nothing at all about whisky and ageing. They don't even know that the marmalade E150 colour is a pretence of maturation in a wood cask. They just think whisky IS that colour. The average, casual, consumer of blended scotch, bourbon, rum and the very occasional entry level malt knows absolutely nothing about the product in the bottle. I'm certain large brand owners such as Diageo have conducted research into the perceived benefits of that colour. I'm sure it deceives people into thinking it has a richer flavour profile. Johnnie Walker Red is three years old and aged in completely washed up casks. If it wasn't coloured it would look like vodka and give the consumer a completely different flavour perception. Why those companies apply that principle to an expression like Laphroaig 10 I have no idea. I've said it before: Who the hell do they think buys and drinks that kind of whisky? It's expensive, cask strength, and drunk, exclusively, by serious malt heads that enjoy natural colour. I will say this though; even we can be duped into giving a drink certain characteristics when we actually know we are being duped. I'm sure the big brand owners have conducted research into that too. Cheers. WT

[@WhiskyLock]

The colour of Talisker is a disgrace and a joke. A stain on their reputation if you will 😉 Absurd that the 10 and 18 are the same colour as you say. And who are they trying to impress? I like the idea of whisky made to be drunk young. If the Victorians could do it and rum and Tequila producers can do it then why not? Some changes may be required to the production process but I'd love to see it. I'm not too sure that I'm willing to say goodbye to all higher age statements yet... but it's slowly becoming a financial necessity...

[@catnapgee5357]

in your opinion, do you think it is worth investing in the first crop of Lochlea releases for collecting/reselling purposes later on, while they're still available now?

[@WhiskyLock]

It's anyone's guess but I would say probably not. I think a lot of people bought these early Lochlea releases with this in mind which means it's unlikely to become rare or sought after. You never know though!

[@raeraeraeth]

Good to know Lochlea is representative of the lowland style, since I've been looking for a good well-presented version of that, since I think the first single malt I had (as a birthday present) was a lowland and I'm interested to revisit that style. I have no idea what distillery it would have been... must have been 10 years ago at least, and it was a supermarket bottling.

[@WhiskyLock]

We've had a bit of a dry spell in recent years with the Lowlands not being that well represented. Thats changing though and I think this bourbon matured Lochlea is a fine example. Unless you're going way WAY back then your supermarket lowland stands a good chance of having been a Glenkinchie. The 12yo is quite nice if you can find it for a good price. Smaller 200ml bottles exist if you wanted to try it without committing too much cash.

[@Nikolay_Nikolov]

Another sound review of an interesting malt, Shane. Lochlea is not available in Bulgaria, but given how swiftly those new, independent distilleries make their way to even the smallest markets, I hope someday we'll se it on the shelves around here too. So far, out of the new distilleries, Waterford, Kingsbarns and Ardnamurchan had made it to Bulgaria and their non cask strength stuff is priced at roughly 45-50 pounds by current exchange rates. Which is a price I don't mind paying for the "crowd funding" sake, as long as the juice in the bottle is sound. There are also some Bimber available for a couple of pounds more. Some Daftmill expressions also appeared breafly but the prices were non surprisingly absurd so I ignored them😀 Cheers!

[@WhiskyLock]

Yeah Daftmill prices are.... daft 😎 not worth what they're asking. Ardnamurchan and Kingsbarns are fantastic though. Cheers 🥃

[@Gwhisky]

Interesting review! We've only got the "Our Barley" release here, which I'm mulling over. STR or not, Im quite curious to try it out. Cheers! 🥃

[@WhiskyLock]

Thanks Geoff. I actually tried Our Barley blind in the advent calendar last year. Yes, I recorded this video for Sowing Edition a long time ago 😬 I wasn't anywhere near as impressed with Our Barley. Although STR really isn't my thing. I'd recommend trying one of their future bourbon maturations if you ever get the chance though. I think you'd like it. Cheers 🥃

[@WhiskyLock]

Oh and I recorded this video way before our discussion about Laddie Classic 🙂 I'm still looking to revisit that and hope I taste an improvement like you did. I managed to get a couple of samples, so maybe I'll do a review off of those. Cheers 🥃

[@Gwhisky]

@Whisky Lock Really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on that one, especially since you liked Kingsbarns Dream to Dram. Bright, clean, distillate-driven, and characterful. A style I'm very much enjoying these days. 🥃