Read stories about Douglas Laing of A Wardrobe of Whisky blog.

A few weeks ago I got a sample of Rock Oyster from Douglas Laing. I am a huge fan of their whiskies because they are a fair and good bang for the buck dram… so this one looked so promising… I had to taste it. So here is the review.

“Lovely character. Delicious layers of peat, spices and toffee assault you with each sip. Imagine a sweet peated Talisker”

90

Joining Douglas Laing's range of blended malts in early 2015, Rock Oyster is a magnificent maritime marvel made with single malts distilled on Scottish islands including Orkney, Jura, Arran and Islay.

This dram has a white wine-like color.

Nose (90): more than average. honey, peat, toffee, vanilla, salt, flowers.

Palate (91): powerful, oily. peat, honey, salt, vanilla, pepper, citrus.

Finish (90): longer than average. peat, spices, honey.

So based on other whiskies I have already tasted I rate this Rock Oyster Blended Malt with 90 points over 100.

Buy this bottle at

Save money when you buy Blended Malt Whisky online. Check for the best prices from best online shops below:

• Buy on Master of Malt for £36.73
• Buy on The Whisky Exchange for £36.85

I still haven’t been disappointed by any of their whisky and this is yet another fantastic dram. Only for the peat heads of the house by the way :)

Share your thoughts! comments written.

A few weeks ago I received an email offering me to taste a new whisky from USA called SIA. Umm, free whisky… umm too good to be true. Let me introduce you SIA and then I explain you a few things that really raised my expectations.

SIA was funded through Kickstarter by Carin Luna-Ostaseski using malts from Speyside, Highlands and Islay… well… so SIA is a Scotch whisky and bottled in Scotland by… guess who… Douglas Laing & Co!. Yay! The makers of Peat Monster and Scallywag. Yay!

The whisky is bottled at 43% ABV and has a decent ratio of malt/grain, with around 40% of single malts whiskies into the recipe…

Enough smalltalk… let’s taste this whisky!

SIA Blended Scotch Whisky

“Quite gorgeous! This blended whisky has three or four secrets inside... and the grain join to the chorus to make it even more yummy and delicious!”

88

This dram has a amber-like color.

Nose (88): more than average. honey, spices, citrus, cinnamon, peaches, vanilla, smoke, tobacco, corn.

Palate (87): light, powerful. honey, vanilla, spices, citrus, wood, smoke, peaches.

Finish (88): longer than average. honey, smoke, spices.

So based on other whiskies I have already tasted I rate this SIA Blended Scotch Whisky with 88 points over 100.

Miguel says…

Wooha! I have been taken by surprise! This whisky is really nice and I find quite surprising that in the leaflet is written: “What I found is so many consumers think of Scotch as heavy, smoky… something their father or grandfather would drink”… one of the things I love from this whisky is exactly that! It is slightly peated and definitively it isn’t a light poor whisky, here the grain whisky adds complexity and a extra layer of awesomeness into the blend. Damn! I really love it! [ Note to self: When wife isn’t looking at, order one or two! ]

And definitively… this is to good to by mixed! Enjoy it straight! Grow up!

Share your thoughts! comments written.

It is a pleasure to visit every year The Whisky Exchange Whisky Show because there are great whiskies waiting for me. One of the definitively most interesting stands is Douglas Laing one because they have very good whiskies and they are still priced in such a way that it looks like they really want you to buy them… ( Who the fuck can pay £2000 for a Lagavulin?! ).

It is a pleasure to be there between all the Clan Denny awesome stuff, their Director’s Cut, this year new range of Old Particular and of course Big Peat. You all know that I love peated whiskies… so I was slightly disappointed when I first tasted Big Peat and it didn’t fulfill my expectations, it was peated but no big peated at all… so when I tasted Big Peat Xmas 2012 Limited Edition I was taken by surprise by an awesome whisky. You can imagine how happy I was when I saw Big Peat Xmas 2013 this year.

So, let’s taste the whisky.

“Absolutely delightful whisky with a nice peat punch... although I want to believe that last year whisky was slightly better”

91

This dram has a white wine-like color.

Nose (91): more than average. peat, smoke, citrus, vanilla, earth.

Palate (91): powerful, oily. peat, earth, honey, citrus, vanilla, coffee.

Finish (91): longer than average. peat, smoke, spices.

So based on other whiskies I have already tasted I rate this Big Peat at Christmas 2013 with 91 points over 100.

Highly recommended. But if you can find it, grab the 2012 version. It was slightly more “macho” :)

Share your thoughts! comments written.

I have just received a sample of the new Scallywag from Douglas Laing. I really wanted to taste this new whisky since I listen about it at The Whisky Show because it was described as a whisky that it is to Speyside what Big Peat was for Islay.

If you know about malt whisky, you for sure know that Speyside is one of the areas of Scotland that concentrates most distilleries around the Spey river. Their single malts are usually sweet, floral with notes of honey and oranges, with some fantastic examples as The Macallan, Glendronach, The Glenrothes, Glenlivet… all “The” important stuff is there.

So Scallywag is a new blended malt whisky created by Douglas Laing using just single malt whiskies from the Speyside region to create this fantastic whisky. Douglas Laing remarks that they wanted to remark the sweet and orange zesty character of Speyside whiskies on this vatted malt. It is blended malt whisky with single malts aged in oloroso sherry butts and ex-bourbon cask. It sounds like tasting, so let’s drink it.

Read the full story »

Share your thoughts! comments written.

Hello Peat fans!,

Douglas Laing was kind to send me a sample ( a very cool pen that my kids love ) of their newest Big Peat whisky, a Private Bottling limited to just 250 bottles.

If you recall, Big Peat is a vatted whisky made using Ardbeg, Bowmore, Caol Ila and Port Ellen single malt whiskies. They have an standard everyday bottle at 46% ABV and Douglas Laing releases yearly editions around Christmas bottled at cask strength.

This Private Bottling edition is bottled at 50% ABV which is a very interesting move over the crappy 40% ABV the industry usually works with. They have also made an stunning and quite different whisky bottle with this one, no more ruined corks :)

So, the whisky…

Read the full story »

Share your thoughts! comments written.

This post continue from TWE Whisky Show [Part 3]

The Whisky Exchange Whisky Show 2012 took place at October 6th and 7th and although it has been a great experience it has been a short one. With over 450 whiskies to taste and just barely six hours ahead it was impossible to taste them all.

What I couldn’t taste

This post is just a set of photos of what I couldn’t taste. Sorry, people… I can write about this because I get sad… so great stuff that I had to skip… *sniff*

I visited Compass Box stand for saying hi to Chris and I take a few photos with the people on the show.

Read the full story »

Share your thoughts! comments written.

This post continue from TWE Whisky Show [Part 1]

I have just complete the first floor of The Whisky Exchange Whisky Show, and after tasting very nice whiskies as Talisker 35, Midleton Rare or several Kavalan Solist. Now I run for the ground floor where more whisky is awaiting me.

Hurry up! Hurry up Miguel! Ok, first floor has the whisky and food pairings, sure, very interesting. Thank you very much sir.

Going one floor under it. Wooa! Mother of God! So much whiskies and so little time. Only two and a half hours for the show to close. ok! Ok! Don’t panic!.

Read the full story »

Share your thoughts! comments written.