“Like chewing an Habano cigar! Powerfully intense whisky from Craganmore distillery”
90
A full-strength Cragganmore 1997 bottled in 2009 from a single sherry cask by Diageo for their Manager's Choice series.
A marvelous cask strength Speyside whisky but Diageo clearly missed the goal when the marketing deparment set the price for the Managers' Choice range.
Awfully expensive.
This dram has a gold-like color.
Nose (90): more than average.
honey, floral, fruits, spices, apples, plums, vanilla.
Palate (91): smooth, powerful, oily.
honey, spices, floral, some tobacco, vanilla, wood.
Very intense with lots of tobacco leaves taste.
Finish (90): longer than average.
honey, tobacco, vanilla.
So based on other whiskies I have already tasted I rate this Cragganmore 1997 Managers Choice with 90 points over 100.
A secret recipe cocktail created by the genius minds at Master of Malt.
This cocktail was created in occasion of this Leap year and Master of Malt organized a contest for guessing with five ingredients are used in the recipe.
The winner will be also entitled to name the cocktail when it is released to the public.
Awesome drink.
This dram has a amber-like color.
Nose (88): average.
gin, honey, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom.
Very nice nose.
Palate (90): smooth, oily.
honey, ginger, cinnamon, gin, rosemary, red hot peppers, wood.
Finish (89): longer than average.
ginger, honey, floral.
So based on other whiskies I have already tasted I rate this Secret Leap Year Cocktail with 89 points over 100.
“Nice overwhelming Oloroso whisky. The first sherry monster I am really scared of”
89
The Glendronach “Parliament” both complements Glendronach core range and continues the great GlenDronach tradition of offering fruit-laden intensity in its single malts.
This Speyside whisky matured in a combination of the finest Oloroso and Pedro Ximenez sherry casks.
This is a stunning single malt whisky from this Speyside distillery with a massive sherry flavor. Only for sherry-heads.
This dram has a old oak-like color.
Nose (89): more than average.
floral, citrus, nuts, leather, wood.
Master of Malt has given me the chance of tasting the oldest Glenfarclas whisky to date, an outstanding 58 years old single cask cask strength single malt whisky choosen by an elitist tasting panel: Serge Valentin, key member of the internationally renowned Malt Maniacs, Master of Malt’s Sales Director Ben, Michal Kowalski of investment company Wealth Solutions and George Grant, of Glenfarclas.
The cask is a Spanish sherry cask filled on 20 November 1953. The angels have been greedy – after 58 years of slow maturation in Glenfarclas’ traditional Highland Dunnage warehouses, the 1953 cask yielded just 400 bottles, that’s around 280 litres of a cask of between 500 to 600 litres, so around half the cask has been lost to the angels. :)
How old is it? This whisky was distilled in 1953. For me the date is unfathomable.
My parents wasn’t even born in 1953.
My country was just starting to recover from a civil war that set it to ruins and the whole world was healing from the 2nd World War. And the grandfather of George Grant was distilling this whisky as his father and his grandfather before him had done for years in a small distillery on the North of Scotland.
I have to say I have been waiting for days to taste this one. And today, my first holiday day is the chosen date!
“Maybe the best Glenfarclas I have had? An awesome single malt whisky as every Glenfarclas whiskies are.”
93
The oldest released Glenfarclas single malt whisky bottled to date.
This stunning single malt has been chosen by a panel of experts, between whom you can find Serge Valentin and George Grant, from the oldest casks that distillery had available by Wealth Solutions in collaboration with Master of Malt.
Only 400 bottles at cask strength has result after 58 years of ageing in a Spanish sherry oak cask.
This dram has a tawny-like color.
Nose (93): more than average.
candies, eucalyptus, wood, spices, candies, flowers, cinnamon.
Like a marvelous wooden box full of violets candies! Really complex and evolving.
Palate (92): powerful, oily.
honey, nuts, wood, spices, figs, flowers, cinnamon, cocoa.
So intense whisky! It is almost smoke on the palate.
Finish (93): long.
honey, wood, flowers, citrus.
So based on other whiskies I have already tasted I rate this Glenfarclas 1953 - 58 Years Old with 93 points over 100.
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The oldest and most expensive bottle of my collection, even if this one has never been available for sale. I like this whisky, not that I see myself drinking this single malt but I like it.
I plan doing a vertical tasting of Glenfarclas in the following weeks and this whisky will have an honor place there for sure.
“Lovely as always. You can't go wrong with an Aberlour A'bunadh”
90
Aberlour A'bunadh is a cask strength Speyside single malt whisky that is released by the distillery in small batches each with a slightly different profile but all on the sherry monsters style.
“Deliciously sweet peat from one of the lost distilleries of the Scottish Highlands: Brora”
91
The 8th release of Diageo's revered Brora 30 years old is, in our opinion, one of the greats. Gorgeous fruit, with much less emphasis on smoke & peat this time.
Brora distillery is now closed and these are part of the last remaining stocks that Diageo releases yearly. Brora sunset began with the building of Clynelish just in front of them.
This scotch whisky has been bottled at cask strength.
This dram has a fino-like color.
Nose (92): more than average.
peat, honey, floral, vanilla, wood, spices.
Islay is an island in the west of Scotland that produce a style of single malts that you either love or hate: peated whiskies.
(Photo on top of one of the Jura Pups looking south overseeing the Isle of Islay by Gregor Haslinger)
You may wonder why such an small island have so many distilleries and I hope this article enlighten you and share with us the passion for peated whiskies.
I have tasted already many of the whiskies created at Islay but I really wanted to taste them all in a row so I can compare them side by side. I hate when I taste blindly a whisky and I can’t decide if it is a Caol Ila( most are ) or an Ardbeg.
So come with me in this trip around Islay in nine drams. Oh man! I am sure you can smell the smoke from there.
Buy on Whisky Online for £105.00
Buy on The Whisky Exchange for £1,000.00
