Read stories about Featured of A Wardrobe of Whisky blog.

Well, hate is a too strong word, so maybe dislike may be better. Umm!… no, hate is fine, pure distilled clear hate. But anyway, let me explain it to you…

As you know I am from Spain, a country that in less than forty years moved from very poor to reasonably rich ( and it looks like back at fullspeed to poor again ) place. So, as in most in-development countries we had an special interest in those kind of luxury products that come from abroad, for example, Rolex watches, Mercedes Benz cars and Scotch whisky.

So imagine, a country where monthly income moved from £150 to £1500 in less than twenty years… so we were a nice market niche for Scotch Whisky industry, despite the fact that Spanish biggest selling whisky is DYC. So we were invaded with hordes of best whiskies Scotland could produce; Johnnie Walker Red Label, Ballantines, J&B, Cutty Sark, Dewars White Label,… you get an idea of the situation, don’t you?

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Hello!

Welcome to this new serie of tastings that I starting right here and right now. What the f*** is WTF Tastings is listen to you asking? Let me explain…

In these three years I have tasted almost 1,000 whiskies and I have realized that although I do my best for not to score whiskies because of its name, its bottle or its price I end up doing it. But don’t despair! I have decided to use a new method to grab samples and taste it. I call it WTF!.

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After my article about why I think it is a bad idea to invest in whisky and after reading an excellent piece of Oliver from Dramming about the same subject, I come back again with a graph about money and time…

All the bubbles are denied, so “trust” me, there is no such thing as a whisky bubble, emergent economies will take the drop in sales of countries under recession right now and later a herd of unicorns will appear and mature to perfection any booze the industry can produce at ten gazillion litres per seconds… finally only old Captain McCallister will be able to drink the stuff…

In which point do you think we are right now? Here are my two cents…

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In the last five years I have seen a constant increase in whisky prices I am interested in. I remember when a interesting new Ardbeg was only £60 or when a 25 years old Ardbeg Lord of Isles was so expensive at £150…

Many persons are now joining the wagon of whisky investment just for the future ( or immediate sometimes ) reward. So read why I think that this is quite a bad idea if you don’t know what you are doing.

I am a whisky collector, I collect whisky, really. Many friends have told me as an insult that I don’t open bottles. And yes, I don’t usually open them. I collect because I love the way the bottles look and love to see them one after the other, to put my hands on them. There is so little moments better than opening a box full of whisky… well, maybe having a dram of them may be better :)

An open bottle of whisky last several years on my cabinet, so I have an extra problem keeping open bottles at hand.

But I don’t buy whisky as an investment. I haven’t sold a single bottle of my collection nor I will (by now, until my country’s economy finally collapse I am forced to beg on a street corner). The whisky collection profit is an interior growth in knowledge and pleasure.

So, why do I think it is a bad idea to invest in whisky?

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Happy St. Patrick day!

What? Not today? Damn! Hell, anyway… like if we need an excuse to have a good whiskey!.
You know St. Patrick, the holy patron of Ireland, the one that drove the snakes out of the island, the one that brought Christianity on Ireland and …

Enough writing. Let’s drink. As an old Irish saying says, “God invented whiskey so the Irish wouldn’t rule the world!”

As my contribution to the Irish whiskey let’s do a whiskey walk around Ireland. And as Sjoerd has told me several times I better state it right here and now: I love Single Pot Still Irish whiskey ( I just can’t stand their cheap blends ).

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At last, Winter is coming to an end. And what better way of saying goodbye to this strange winter that with a few glasses of peat medicines?

In the quest to taste all the stuff that I have ordered, I have decided for five magnifique drams: Arran, Ardmore and three Bruichladdiches.

Didn’t you said peat? Yeah, and I am going to taste peated whiskies from those distilleries. A quite lovely bottled of Arran Machrie Moor, Ardmore Traditional, Port Charlotte 10 years old and two Octomore: 04.2 Comus and 03.1

You know that a have a little sweet heart that loves peat. I adore peated whiskies but on this tasting I have found a whisky that it is just too peated for me. Much like sucking mud!

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Just a few weeks after I started blogging I wrote a short article about how scores worked in A Wardrobe of Whisky. I feel it is now my duty to update it after more than 800 whiskies tasted.

I do rate whiskies, and you should too, because I am desperately in need of sorting them. I hate bad whiskies, I hate even more when I buy a expensive whisky and isn’t a good one and definitively I hate overall Johnnie Walker ( all but Green and Blue label :P ).

In these three years I have got emails and messages usually pointing that such or such score for such whisky was a too high score. I have nothing to do with the whisky industry or any retailer, but being a worker myself I understand the degree of care and effort place on each bottle of whisky ( all but Johnnie Walker :P ). So let’s make clear, any decent drinkable whisky is scored between 80 and 84 points.

I have roughtly three different classes of whisky scores:

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Hurray! New year, new blind tasting session.

As usual Jean-Marie Putz of Whisky-distilleries.info proposed six unnamed samples on a stunning box like previous tastings.

A blind tasting is a quite interesting experience because tasting whiskies in this way you really pay more attention to the whisky and less to the bottle. I have tasted whiskies that I have considered good but nothing special ( Is there such a thing as bad whisky?! ) and then I discovered that I were tasting a 39 years old single malt. Have I known before hand what I was tasting I am 100% sure it would have affected my rating.

So here are the drams…

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Yesterday, I joined Steve Rush and fellow bloggers in a delicious tasting of Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey.
Steve proposed a tasting of four interesting whiskeys: Redbreast, Green Spot, Powers and Midleton.

I have already tasted some of them in their Pure Pot still form and two of them were completely unknown to me. So the night promised quite interesting.

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A few days ago I received a miniature of this Karuizawa 1964. This is the second special release done by Wealth Solutions, whose mission is to provide unique ( and expensive! ) products to Polish collectors and investors, after an incredible 58 years old Glenfarclas.

This Karuizawa is bottled from the left stock of the distillery that closed it doors just after turning into the new millennia. Number One Drinks acquired all the existing casks of Karuizawa in August 2011 and they have provided this sensational cask for Wealth Solutions.

This special Japanese whisky has been bottled by Wealth Solutions from one of the oldest and few remaining 1960s cask of Karuizawa. This cask #3603 was a 400 litres Olosoro sherry Oak Butt. It has been bottled at 57.7% ABV.

It was filled on 1st September 1964 and bottled on Christmas Eve 2012 which makes it one of the oldest Japanese whisky ever bottled with 48 years old. Barely 143 bottles of this whisky will be available ( greedy angels! ).

There are several things that make Karuizawa quite unique and a tragic lost: they used only Golden Promise barley for their whiskies that although produces less alcohol on distillation create better whiskies when aged for a long time, they used peated malt from Scotland until they decided to start using in 1990s unpeated malt in a last try to catch with japanese consumers and to be my surprise most of the whisky was sold for blending. So in fact it is a real miracle to have this whisky in my hands.

Let’s taste it ( haha! Sorry, I am going to taste, you keep reading ) and then I share my thoughts.

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