Elements Of Islay – Pl1 (Port Charlotte), 60%.
Rich dark gold to copper in colour.
The trademark Bruichladdich buttery peated nose easily identified here, slight tcp notes poking through. Not as fruity on the nose as the colour may lead you to expect, but quite openly maritime, with some malt chucked in to the salt pot. The nose is fairly complex and keeps you there for quite some while and finally gives up damp smoky wood notes. Continue reading
Bally Delicious (Balvenie) – 23yo/1989 – Master of Malt – 54%
Light straw yellow in colour.
A light, elegantly fragrant and accessible nose with light stewed fruits making an appearance.
Much stronger on the palate than the nose leads you to imagine, a spicy hit that tales straight off into a pleasantly warming experience. The wood is very up front, but adds an interesting aspect to the whisky which doesn’t over power it but leads to long slightly dry finish.
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GlenDronach Cask Strength Batch 1 – 54.8%
A deep golden colour lures in your nose for a sniff of this cask strength sherried treasure.
The nose is grown up, and although there is no age statement on this whisky it feels fairly well aged on first impressions. It seems to have an excellent balance of vanillary wood which neither dominates nor is out shined by the sweet sherry notes that come through clearly. There are orange zest and chocolatey notes amongst and assortment of other jelly sweetie notes.
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Benrinnes – Batch 1 – That Boutique-y Whisky Company – 48.9%
Fairly dark golden in colour. Sweet, heavily sherried nose, plump sultanas and nuts, top quality stuff.
The palate is huge, one of the biggest sherry monsters I’ve had yet, it must have come from an excellent first fill PX cask. An oily goodness covers the mouth with spices warming the back of the tongue.
The finish is long with a slow warming heat covering your chest. The slightly lower ABV makes I smooth and easy to drink straight. That, along with the way the palate feels tends to lead you to think that this bottle contained fairly well aged whisky.
A top dram that any sherry fan will completely love. It’s got to be well in to the 90’s for score.
All anCnoc Single Malt is distilled using traditional methods and aged on site at the Knockdhu Distillery in the village of Knock, Aberdeenshire. anCnoc 22 Year Old was matured predominantly in top quality American ex-bourbon casks but some Spanish casks seasoned for two years with Oloroso sherry were also used. The whisky is bottled at 46% ABV, non-chill filtered and presented at its natural colour.
Read on for my tasting notes: Continue reading
Bowmore is offering two lucky winners the chance to take part in a very special Valentines Twitter tasting date with their Master Blender, Rachel Barrie, and a select panel of 13 experts from the world of whisky.
The two lucky winners will receive a very special Valentine’s whisky bouquet containing three classic Bowmore tasting expressions and one exclusive, unreleased, ‘work in progress’.
The exclusive competition is only open until Monday at 11am so there’s only a short time to enter, and the tasting will take place on Wednesday 13th February at 7pm, good luck!
https://www.facebook.com/bowmore/app_439628179438049
(That link only works on a PC, it’ll probably show an error via a mobile)
Tobermory – 17yo/1995 – Master of Malt – 57%
Light straw yellow in colour.
A fairly strong but light tropical vanilla nose, sweet and doughy with malty notes.
The age works nicely, it hits just the right part of your tongue and is warm to hot and spicy with a great mouth feel coating. A touch of water may be needed here. There are slight cardboard notes at the back of the palate, soon however replaced with the tropical fruity notes that you often find in bourbon matured whisky.
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Aultmore – Batch 1 – That Boutique-y Whisky Company – 53.4%
Dark yellow to gold in colour. Buttery on the nose, vanillary. Almost like a touch of wine cask somewhere in the background. Defo some wood and white chocolate.
On the palate a warming spicy Speysider comes through happily, fairly thick and moorish, it covers your tongue in a spiced buttery fruit cocktail with nicely balanced wood notes coming through.
A long pleasant and warming finish comes through, possibly eluding to some middle aged whisky in this NAS bottling. A refreshing note near the end comes through beckoning you back for another sip.
MacDuff International (independent Scotch Whisky blenders) announce the first new addition to the Islay Mist range in almost 10 years. Islay Mist Peated Reserve adds a smokier finish while retaining Islay Mist’s unique balance. Created by master blender, Gilmour Burnett, this premium blend will be available in shops in the coming weeks in 700ml size and will soon also be produced in litre size for travel retail.
Islay Mist was created in 1922 in Islay to celebrate the 21st birthday of Lord Margadale. It was thought that the local single malt scotch, Laphroaig, might be too heavy for all the guests’ taste so this rare blend of Laphroaig with Speyside malts and grain whisky was born.
Glenmorangie Ealanta – 19yo – 46%
Blurb: Ealanta is 19 years old and matured virgin American oak casks selected from the forests of the Ozark Mountains in Missouri, which were filled in 1993 as part of an experiment by Dr Bill Lumsden, Director of Distilling and whisky creation at Glenmorangie.
Yellow to golden in colour. Fresh nose, light fruity notes with vanilla sweets and young wood shavings. Peppery and strong on the palate, again fresh woody notes on the finish, like a brand new pencil being sharpened to a fine point. It’s sweet, but not as sweet as I was expecting from reading other comments.
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