“Helping you to find the best whisky with concise whisky reviews and recommendations”

Well, here it is… my first Absinthe tasting. I have had the samples around in the box for two years where they have been improving due to bottle maturation… well, not really… I am a lazy ass and I didn’t want to drink absinthe when I could be drinking a 40 years old malt whisky. #truth

But a few weeks ago Billy Abbot, Richard Barr and I were having a “passionate” chat about the qualities of Jim Murray as whisky taster and his Liquid Gold Award ( and 96.5 score ) for Johnnie Walker Black Label, yep, that very same whisky.

At first we were just talking about if the score was good or it was bad ( and I think that it is crazy ). I reckon that I usually score whiskies between 85-93 with very few bottles outside that range as I explain here.
Personally I think a score-less review is like a way of cheating you, the reader of this blog, of saying that I am not sure that I want to say the whisky is bad because I will lose something ( free samples anyone?! ).

I can understand that there are people out there that don’t score whiskies. Perfect. But in whatever way you do, you must mentally sort your whiskies… with a number, with a color, with stars… but it is hard ( for me ) to believe that a bad whisky and a good whisky can live one next to the other.

And so here the conversation started to get mad ( I even read about the quality of Black Label as a whisky not as a windows cleaner )… and finally it ended in Absinthe. ( Take that one Godwin! ). So I remembered about the poor absinthe samples that I had here and planned myself a tasting. And as a extra a Black Label review :)

So here are the whiskies… err… absinthes…

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Well… with all the excitement about Malt Maniacs Awards 2013 I forgot I had to write my review of the Aberlour Tweet Tasting #AberlourTT. I am a real fan of the kind of sherried whiskies Aberlour creates so when Steve from The Whisky Wire proposed me to join this tasting I was really happy. #thanksyou

Five whiskies to enjoy: 12 and 16 Double Matured Casks, Abunadh 45, 18yo and a 12yo no chill-filtered. It is not exactly the order I would have chosen because the Abunadh is bottled at very high strength ( and it is a fantastic whisky ) and will put the others in a hard time.

Ann Miller, International Brand Ambassador of Chivas Brothers shared the tasting with us and a very funny gossip about a peated Aberlour; it seems that during a dinner with the distillery manager someone asked him for a peated Aberlour and then he took the whisky glass and put a piece of peat inside and said “there you have”. #lol

Well, enough smalltalk… let’s hear the whiskies.

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We are just one day away of celebrating again the Repeal’s day. The day when distilling alcohol for consumption was no longer illegal on the United States of America. So what better way of enjoying this moment that with a list of The Ten Most Interesting Bourbons I have had.

I am no expert in whisky although I have tasted right now way above 1,200 of them but I still have to work my way through bourbon. I have tasted most of the great stuff that it is available outside USA but I know I must be missing awesome stuff that it is hard to spot at this side of the pond.

So here is my list of ten Bourbons you should drink before you die…

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Malt Maniacs Awards or MMA is perhaps the very best whisky awards out there because it is done by a group of amateur whisky lovers ( I hate experts ) that taste 100-150 samples of whiskies blind. So they taste the whiskies, they score them and they submit the result to the organizer who run run some statistics on them and create a mean score from all the judges.

Basically whiskies over 90 gets a Gold Medal, between 85 and 90 gets a Silver Medal and below that and over 80 gets a Bronze Medal. It is a very rare honor to get a Gold Medal and unfortunately most of them are special single cask whiskies for a group of persons.

So, here are the winner…

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If you are a whisky anorak you may recall an infamous Loch Dhu, a black whisky that rapidly turned into a collector’s item despite its bad reputation. This Cu Dhub is a attempt to repeat the “successful formula” of a widely known Speyside distillery.

“It has a familiar nose I can't spot right now. Not peated, nor smoked ( oh, man! You would have nailed it with a hyper-peated black whisky ). It has a character more similar to rum than to whisky”

80

A black whisky, produced to replace the infamous but much loved Loch Dhu and now developing a bit of a following. Cu Dhub means Black Dog in Gaelic.

This dram has a treacle-like color.

Nose (80): average. sweet, cinnamon, citrus, burn sugar, vanilla. It smells like a old cheap rum.

Palate (81): dry, oily. burnt sugar, spices, pepper, citrus. Tastes a bit spicy, almost hot.

Finish (80): average. burnt sugar, spices, citrus.

So based on other whiskies I have already tasted I rate this Cú Dhub with 80 points over 100.

I still have the feeling that if they would have done this with an Islay whisky ( like Laphroaig ) it would have been a real crack! Dark, smoky bottled pleasure. This one is a whisky to forget about on the other hand.

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The Macallan used to be synonymous of sherried whiskies until they launched their Fine Oak range a few years ago.
Now they are back to their origins with a no age statement range of bottles called the Macallan 1824 series that is composed right now of 4 bottles all of the aged in sherry butts.

But if there is a Macallan that shine over all of them, yes, even over the 18 years old, it is the 10 years old Cask Strength.

Let me try to show how good it is…

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I love Japanese whiskies, in fact one of the first whiskies I have ever had was a Yoichi 10 years old when I read something in the newspaper about the best whisky in the world. I was around seven years ago and ( I still have no clue about how it ended there ) I found a Nikka Yoichi 10yo on the shop where I used to buy my wine. Then I discovered Yamazaki, and Taketsuru and the awesome blended malts of Nikka and finally one day I discovered Karuizawa… Damn day! To taste such great whisky just to learn that it is to never be done again…

Well… maybe this Isawa is a hidden gem. It looks like it was created at Monde Shuzo distillery in Japan’s main island.

“Not bad but it is quite light, much like a blended whisky. Japan produces better whiskies that this Isawa”

86

This dram has a fino-like color.

Nose (87): average. honey, citrus, cardboard, wood, floral, spices .

Palate (85): light, smooth. honey, spices, pepper, citrus, wood, floral, vanilla.

Finish (85): average. honey, citrus, spices.

So based on other whiskies I have already tasted I rate this Isawa Japanese Blended Whisky with 86 points over 100.

I didn’t like it enough. You can get better stuff for its price.

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Bushmills claims to have the oldest distilling license in the world and this whiskey pays homage to that fact. And well, I have said so many times that I don’t enjoy Irish whiskey that most of you should already know… there are of course exceptions, notable exceptions, but this Bushmills is on that category.

“I was expecting something better for such a great event as the 400^th anniversary... but well... lovers of Irish whiskey will enjoy it”

88

A special bottling to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the license to distil aqua vitae in Antrim originally granted in 1608 to Sir Thomas Phillips. This has already won 'Best Irish Blended Whiskey (No Age Statement)' at the World Whiskies Awards 2008.

This dram has a amber-like color.

Nose (90): more than average. honey, citrus, vanilla, fruits, peaches, raisins. Irish whiskey with a twist. Really nice.

Palate (86): smooth, powerful. honey, citrus, floral, wood, spices.

Finish (87): longer than average. honey, spices, floral.

So based on other whiskies I have already tasted I rate this Bushmills 1608 400th anniversary with 88 points over 100.

Well, it is not expensive and it isn’t a bad dram. If you enjoy Irish whiskey this could be a great option.

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Today I review a blended whiskey from Ireland, created by Cooley distilleries.

“Dry and green with a strong woody character. Not my cup of tea if you ask me”

85

Millar's is a blend of malt and grain whiskeys from the Cooley distillery, matured in first-fill bourbon casks.

This dram has a fino-like color.

Nose (88): more than average. honey, citrus, floral, wood, corn, vanilla, cinnamon. Sweet, very Irish with a touch of woody cinnamon aromas.

Palate (84): light. honey, wood, floral, green banana, pears.

Finish (84): average. wood, floral, spices.

So based on other whiskies I have already tasted I rate this Millars Special Reserve Blended Irish Whiskey with 85 points over 100.

The nose is fantastic. It is two steps above the standard cheap Jameson. I am not much into the blends but this one is a good option.

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When I first read about Balvenie Tun 1401 I was quite excited because I love the idea and lots of people seemed to love the whisky. I was quite dissappointed when I learnt that it was beyond my pocket size at launch time…

So I forget about it until I recently found a sample of it for a reasonable price. And so I tasted…

“All the lovely Oloroso character of Balvenie with a touch of sweet sherry. SImply gorgeous...if only it wasn't so expensive”

91

The long awaited follow up to the distillery only first batch, Tun 1401 Batch 2 is named for Malt Master David Stewart's favourite marrying tun, used to create this whisky. It's a multi-vintage combination of sherry and bourbon cask whiskies from the late 1960s through to the late 1980s and elegantly blends age and (comparative) youthful vigour.

This dram has a cooper-like color.

Nose (90): more than average. nuts, wood, honey, citrus, sulphur, peaches.

Palate (92): powerful, oily. nuts, honey, citrus, spices, flowers, pepper, vanilla, liquorice. Fantastic flavor!

Finish (91): longer than average. honey, liquorice, wood.

So based on other whiskies I have already tasted I rate this Balvenie Tun 1401 - Batch 2 with 91 points over 100.

My advice is Buy if you can afford, it is a sensational dram, but it is too expensive for my pocket. Much like the excelent Balvenie 30 years old… Damn!

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