I don’t like Christmas. But I do like whisky. I’ll give it a go!
worth a try IMHO - I spent quite some time in Ireland in a previous role & sampled the wares.
Powers 12 was ( & would be ) my choice If venturing into Irish whisky
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Despite my claim to be waiting until the new year before I buy any more bottles I bought myself a Balvenie Caribbean Cask earlier today (thought I'd put my money where my mouth is given that I recently recommended it on here) and I've also just ordered a bottle of the above - cheers for the heads-up! I tried the 15 for the first time 3 weeks back and enjoyed it so thought that this one would be worth a go, the tasting notes sound appealing.
There are 5 of us currently in discussions about organising a blind virtual tasting session with each of us sourcing 2 whiskies, these two will do the job as I'm reasonably sure that the other 4 haven't tried them, not in my company anyway.
A question though - for those of you that have taken part in tasting sessions did you follow any particular routine between one spirit and the next, for example a quick swig of water? I've always gone straight from one spirit to another however with our planned session being blind I'd like for it to be as fair as possible, if that makes sense, so that the preceding whisky is tainted as little as possible by the previous one. We may have 10(!) to try so there's a reasonable chance that the last couple or so are going to be lovely anyway...
Try and keep each whisky present, so you can compare and contrast between them all. It'll be a lot of glasses, but it's worth it to be able to recheck things you thought, or to see what new flavours are brought out by others.
With 10 to taste, it's more of a piss-up with structure! It'll be grand.
I saw the deal on Red Breast and indulged yesterday.
It sure will be! Thanks for the suggestion, that certainly makes sense.
On this day two years ago I was in Ireland and staying in Dublin for a few days after a driving tour around the south and west. In memory of such an event, and my first visit to the Dingle Whisky Bar in Dublin, I shall be finishing off this bottle of Irish nectar tonight.
Green Spot
I hope to visit this bar again some day -
Dingle Whiskey Bar
Has anybody managed to have a sip of this years chichibu London edition 2020?
Or a bottle for that matter
The Arran 10 year is cracking no wonder it’s sold out.
https://www.masterofmalt.com/whiskie...ar-old-whisky/
Bought a bottle of Seven Heads blended Irish no.10, last week, very smooth and suppable, priced with discount under 10 euros, well would've been rude not to.
I bought a bottle of Highland Park Viking Tribe on Prime Day, really impressed with it... I suspect it won't last long!
If you can find it for less than £30 it's worth a go!
Tried Glendronach 21 Parliament last night - what a phenomenal thing. It's bafflingly loaded with tastes and smells.
It's overwhelming, in a very, very good way.
^Their old Revival 15 was the best of their offerings IMO. Truly impressive. The Allardice is also a nice dram but still preferred the Revival.
From reading around, the 'recent' bottlings have changed quite a bit on account of the distillery's closure from 1996-2002. That closure means a few years ago the 15 year old contained substantially older whiskies than 15, then a little later the same for the 18 year, and now it's the 21 year's turn for that.
It doesn't necessarily mean 'better' of course, it just depends on your tastes. It does mean different though.
Retrying Glenfarclas 15 just now - previously loved it, then really disliked it...
It definitely needs time in the glass after pouring; really quite balsamic vinegary when first poured. I like balsamic vinegar, but not as a drink!
After a good 10 minutes or so, that note has departed (or my nose has got bored of noticing it) and on the palate, it's wonderfully fruit candied. Not overly sweet, but definitely like a combination of various tropical fruit sweets yet still with a nice alcoholic whack to balance things out.
It's one that, for me, needs to be drunk very, very slowly, to see what else is in there.
Not getting the coffee or oak noted by others. Am getting the hints at bitterness though.
And now come the darker, cooked fruits like in a Christmas pudding.
Last edited by hughtrimble; 30th October 2020 at 19:54.
Ralfy always reckons to give a whisky a minute per year of maturation, to open up... e.g 15 minutes for a 15 year old.
I have also opened my mind to a little water in whisky these days... a necessity in most cask strengths and anything down to say 43% ... sometimes just a couple of drops can change the flavour totally, in very positive ways. Always seems to open up a lot of sweetness for me which is confusing as you would assume that was there regardless..
Pure coincidence that this is the second bottle to say goodbye to in two days Though I’m going to miss this a lot more than the Glen Grant I have to say.
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I'm very close to finishing an Allardice Glendronach, thankfully I've another 2 in reserve! One of them, like the open bottle, is an older bottling than the stated 18 and the other, going by the bottling date, isn't.
Well we had our blind session last night, only 4 of us in the end though we have another planned for a few weeks from now where we should be a 5.
Tamdhu, Hibiki, Ardmore, Redbreast, Balvenie, Laphroaig and Glenlivet were all represented, along with a Bells.... He's still invited to the next session though I don't know why
Not the most dramatic range of colours...
Blind
Well we did get a bit pished, especially so as we all had a measure or two from our own collections after we'd finished the eight 35ml bottles...
It went really well, TBH. Of the four of us I'm the most experienced though I'm not at the point that I could pick out individual distilleries, I'm getting better at identifying individual flavours and being able to vocalise what I can taste/smell and, from that, maybe take a stab at what barrels may have been used and if peat was involved however that's about it. I hadn't tried any of the other 6 before so I didn't have any drinking history to fall back on there either. I did call out the Laphroaig Lore however that was mostly because I knew the contributor had recently bought a bottle and I called out the single Japanese whisky due to its lighter flavour profile though it was pot luck I mentioned Hibiki before any other. Not knowing what you were drinking certainly focused the mind and we all took time to genuinely appreciate each spirit on its own merits without getting too geeky about them, and it was fun comparing individual notes with the power of suggestion certainly coming in to play as well. This may sound a bit daft however I think we were all a bit wary of slating the more expensive whiskies and loving the cheaper ones!
We also scored each spirit out of ten, the Balvenie Caribbean Cask scored the highest with Laphroaig's Lore 2nd, I think the Bells(!) was last.... The Bells surprised me, actually. It wasn't particularly pleasant, it had flavour though it was monotone and bland, however it was relatively (cliche alert) smooth without any harshness that I would have expected.
Once we'd finished the 8 and got stuck in to our own spirits we started putting the world to rights which was a good part of the why we met up virtually anyway.
The next session may have a bourbon or two mixed in and we may organise another before Xmas as well, if we do it'll be completely free choice of spirit. I've a couple of tequilas, I'm guessing that we'll have the odd rum, vodka and gin thrown into the mix as well. I can feel the hangover creeping up on me already...
Last edited by CardShark; 1st November 2020 at 16:54.
Picked up on a whim in Tesco - for £20 very decent.
Giving the 18yo JW a go tonight. Haven’t tried it in years - used to be called the Platinum I think in previous years. Not bad at all.
Tried this also last week - was it an Amazon Prime day special for you too?
I thought it was very decent dram also, and it gave me an excuse to have a dram of blue label after it for comparison purposes. While they are both easy drinking and smooth, I was surprised to pick out the faint smokey notes a bit more this time round then usually...I dare say it's evidence of my pallet becoming better at telling the flavours apart.
Very excited to receive delivery of a couple of special bottles this week - a GlenDronach 13yrs old single cask PX bottled at cask strength, and the Hazelburn 13 single cask oloroso at cask strength...might sit on those for a while before deciding to open them though.
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Have you ever tried Glenfarclas 105? I picked up a bottle on a ferry a few years ago, probably due to the very generous free whisky tasting in the shop.
I think it's excellent, at around 60% it certainly needs a drop of water and it helps to let it stand for a few minutes but for such a strong whisky it is not harsh at all. It is quite sweet and has certainly spent some time in sherry casks.
Glenfarclas 105. That takes me back. During my PhD we’d have an annual Christmas lunch for the organic chemistry section of the department. It would start with a cheeky pint at ca. 11am, followed by a lunch washed down with copious amounts of wine. Afterwards we’d retire to the local pub to drink Old Peculiar with Glenfarclas 105 chasers. If you were still out at dinner time you were doing well!
That sounds exactly how I'd hope things to go if I do similar given this impending repeat closure of pubs. Sounds really, really enjoyable.
I'd also like to throw in some things like Bells etc. just to see what I think without the snobbery that I'll inevitably have, subconscious or otherwise.
Cheers to you in advance for your next one!
I'm a fan of an Ian Macleod's 'Smokehead', allegedly a young Arbeg.
I generally pick up a bottle from Amazon when it drops below £30. Spotted it on the shelf in Morrisons last night, only £25
I havent posted in a while but the whisk(e)y purchases have continued.
You know - 8 years is quite a long time, and back then - it seemed like a good idea to be in a private 6-person syndicate for some good whisky.....................
Now bottled and told: "Your 42 bottles are at my house, when you are ready to collect them"
The Dalmore gets bottled next year.
Time for a nightcap.
Kilkerran 12
The Glengyle Distillery is a neighbour of Springbank (they're literally right next door to each other) and it's Springbank's bottling facility that's used to complete the final product. Good to see a Hazelburn a post or two above as well, that's one of Springbank's own.