Mouton Rothschild is of course a legend amongst clarets and is perhaps our very favourite of Bordeaux’s first growth wines. Sadly, with the legend comes a price tag to match and unless you’re the Duke of Westminster or Roman Abramovich, it’s not for everyday drinking. With our view that second wines rather than the grand vins can offer tremendous value without losing too much in the process, this week, after some waiting, we finally took delivery of a half case of Le Petit Mouton, the second wine of Mouton Rothschild. On this occasion though, we were somewhat underwhelmed.

In the case of Le Petit Mouton, the total output is, according to Parker’s Bordeaux: A Comprehensive Guide just 10% of total production at the estate. With so little to go around, it’s actually quite hard to get your hands on and when you do, limited supply and the Mouton name means it’s not really that cheap. We sourced 2004 Le Petit Mouton for around £70 per bottle (so still not everyday drinking wine) though for the grand vin itself, you’d be looking closer to £250. Definitely a saving then but can it compare?

While second wines drink younger than their grand vin brothers, it still seems a little early to drink the 2004 Petit Mouton and the tannins were present though not harsh with two more years of cellaring perhaps needed. The chateau’s own tasting notes describe it as follows:

The wine, a deep and concentrated ruby red, has a nicely open, expansive and varied nose on which jammy cherry fruit, liquorice and spice mingle with the toast and vanilla of elegant oak.

Lush on the palate, it combines a stylish structure of well-rounded tannins with fresh, juicy red fruit, vine peach and caramel and a discreet but refined and agreeable touch of pepper in a rich and harmonious balance.

In our view, the nose was indeed big, the fruit flavours bold and there was a nice balance to the wine but ultimately there was no wow factor and little by way of complexity. Each time we drink the Mouton grand vin, we literally feel in awe of the wine and know that we are in the presence of greatness. We felt though with Le Petit Mouton, if served at a dinner party for example, few guests would be commenting on it – it’s a nice but, at the end of the day, unremarkable claret.

We’re still a huge fan of second wines but something like Chateau Palmer’s Alter Ego (2001) can be obtained  for under £40 a bottle and drinks just as well in our view. However, some of the best value we feel is in the grand vin of the lower rated growths such as second growth Pichon-Longueville Baron. A Pauillac wine like Mouton, situated adjacent to Latour, we recently acquired at auction the 1997 Pichon Baron at just £43 per bottle. Scoring 87-90 Parker points, we loved this wine; the bottle age is now coming through wonderfully on both the colour and the taste and the balance is just lovely. Accordingly, the '97 is an easy drinking medium weight wine with a satisfying finish that we love to revisit again and again. Each and every time, we would choose the Pichon Baron over Le Petit Mouton and for that we get up to a decade or more of bottle age and £30 spare change in our pocket. We love the Mouton Rothschild grand vin (of course) and we’ll certainly be happy to finish up Le Petit Mouton we now have in store but we wont be refreshing our order when we run dry.   

What do Cragganmore, Lagavulin and Talisker have in common? And what do Aberlour, Glenlivet and Scapa similarly have in common? Well, the first three are all owned by United Distillers (Diageo) who also own a further 23 distillers as well as brands like Guiness, Smirnoff and Tanqueray. The second set of triplets are all owned by Pernod Ricard who also stable Absolut Vodka, Havana Club and Beefeater Gin as well as over ten other Scotch whisky distilleries. 

Now, I'm a big fan of Talisker as readers of the blog know, and the investment made by these companies in the distilleries to be fair has been substantial and given us some great whisky. Furthermore, I'm certainly not anti-capitalism or anti-globalisation. Nevertheless, Diageo's turnover in 2009 was £9.3bn and its operating profit was £2.6bn. None of this do I have a problem with but one must appreciate that, for the most part, the world of Scotch whisky does not conform to the romanticised view that we might have of a local distillery passed down from generation to generation producing fine Scotch in the family tradition, rather, the whisky industry is the world of the multinational and so is on a par with big oil, banks and pharmaceuticals operating for the profit motive with the distilleries run by employees who no doubt report to a regional chief who reports to the global head who reports to the Board etc. Consequently, Diageo's marketing spend is a whopping £1.3 billion and accordingly its voice is heard.

For those though who crave a unique voice and a distillery that has been passed from generation to generation and for those who would cleave to their heart a family that have no doubt passed up countless open cheque book offers for the distillery so that they could carry on a tradition started 145 years previously there is one and really only one name: Glenfarclas.

Glenfarclas has been in the Grant family since 1865 and this week we were lucky enough to visit the Coburg bar at the Connaught to taste whisky across the Glenfarclas range with George Grant, 'Brand Ambassador' and son of the current Chairman John Grant. 

It would be too much to provide tasting notes across everything we took in during the day but as the saying goes, the list was long and distinguished. Tastings included the 10 year, the 105 proof, 15 year, 21 year, 25 year, 40 year, the Family Cask 1979 and the Family Cask 1962. Not bad for breakfast.

On the whole, Glenfarclas is simply lovely and will appeal to those who want depth to their whisky. First use sherry casks are predominantly used and the sherry flavours come through on both the nose and palate. Across the range too there's real warmth, with citrus orange, caramel and liquorice all varying in intensity with age. There's an intensity too of amber colour and the most amazing finish on the 15 year old (and above) that stays and stays and stays allowing you to savour the taste long after you swallow, perhaps the longest finish I can remember experiencing in any single malt. Furthermore, Glenfarclas is for the most part cask strength non chill filtered and 'non finished'; in other words, an honest whisky. Whisky Magazine named Glenfarclas '2006 Distiller of the Year' for 'being consistently good and staying true to its core values'.  

Michael Jackson's Malt Whisky Companion notes Glenfarclas as 'outstanding malts, and in an unusually wide variety of ages - experienced tasters usually place the Glenfarclas malts in the top three or four from this most distinguished district (Speyside)'. We agree.

What's more, George himself was charming and is an ambassador for life as much as an ambassador for the brand and we enjoyed his whisky and his company in equal measure. With George possessing an infectious passion for the product, the distillery is certainly in good hands for decades to come ensuring continuity of ownership and spirit for the rest of our lifetimes at least.

We noted earlier the 'Family Cask' which is something unique to Glenfarclas and underlines its own family ownership. The Family Casks represent a family of single cask expressions from every year from 1952 to 1994 highlighting the continuity of private ownership at Glenfarclasas as well as their ability to bottle the rarest and most sought after of complex malts. Only two bars in the world possess the full span of Family Casks (52-94) though the Coburg Bar at the Connaught with 9 different Family Casks together with the 15yr, 25yr and 40yr range will become the third widest holder of the collection.  

Glenfarclas doesn't have a billion pound marketing budget, instead it has George and for our money, he's the best advert for the best that a family owned distillery can produce and that, trust me, is very good indeed. In fact, don't trust me, go buy some yourself and see; available at the likes of Berry Bros and The Whisky Exchange at Vinopolis (and of course the Coburg Bar), thecriticalcouple are now 'officially' friends of Glenfarclas and we'll be making sure we always have a bottle gracing our bar at home.

Visit Glenfarclas at www.glenfarclas.co.uk/en/

The thrifty price tag of the entry level 10 year old Aberlour had seen me neglect the brand as a serious Scotch until one day in 2009, while driving through the Speyside in a DB9, I decided to stop by the distillery for the tour. With the tour around three hours in length, I was admittedly perplexed as to why it should take three times as long as the mooch around Talisker that I had enjoyed earlier in the year though was somewhat reassured that almost half of the tour time would be spent drinking the products. I duly handed over the car keys to my travelling companion and set in to drink his share also.  

Our convivial guide Dennis joked his way through the tour (telling us that the angel's share that evaporates from the casks and rises to heaven comes down again to earth in the rain thereby delighting the gardeners as the grass grows half cut) and then led us to the all important tasting shed.
 
Six glasses faced us including including the a'bunadh (Gaelic for 'original' after the 19th century 'recipe' was found in a time capsule and faithfully reproduced), a sherry cask finish and a bourbon cask finish. All three were cask strength, non chill filtered and the latter two, single cask expressions. Sadly, the latter two can only be bought at the distillery itself.

The a'bundah weighs in at a collosal 59.6% abv and is described by the distillery as mixed spices, praline and spiced orange, harmonising with rich, deep notes of Oloroso sherry on the nose and a taste of orange, black cherries, dried fruit and ginger, spiked with dark bitter chocolate and enriched with sherry and oak.

But it was the 14 year old Boubon Cask finish that blew me away with an even heftier 63.3% abv, a chocolate mocha nose and smooth taste and finish. The opportunity to 'bottle your own' from the tapped barrel on the side was irresistable (despite the fact I'd now have to check my luggage in for the flight back to London City) and those who visit the distillery can inspect the registry that bottle No 193 from cask 4427 was indeed hand bottled by yours truly.

At home less than a year later, I'm treasuring the final measures of this now near empty bottle that seems just too special to drink dry; I'm thinking of going back to Aberlour to retake the tour just so I can get a refill! 

For the most part though, the a'bundah does the trick and shouldn't be under-estimated, tasting in my view how a proper Scotch is supposed to taste. Who really needs chill filtering? The 10 year old is an easy drink and now a constant companion in the home but still rates an impressive 83 points in Michael Jackson's Malt Whisky Companion placing it in the 'distinctive and exceptional' camp (my fave 'ordinary' Scotch, a 10 year old Talisker rates 90 points in comparison). What's more though, and as alluded to earlier, 10yr old Aberlour is one of the best value Scotches on the market, especially as it's subject to offers at the likes of Majestic and Waitrose on a regular basis. But if you can get hold of the bourbon cask finish...

Visit Aberlour in Speyside or at http://www.aberlour.com/welcome.asp