Read stories about Tasting of A Wardrobe of Whisky blog.

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” :)

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It is always nice to taste a Bruichladdich whisky. So you can understand that when I was at The Whisky Show 2013 I assaulted their stand and drank all their stuff ( a bit of each of course ).

Bruichladdich has started a new campaign to reclaim the “terroir” in whisky. They are creating lots of whiskies with barley from local farms or in this case with barley only from Scotland ( Did you know that Scotch can be done with barley from anywhere in the world?! ).

So, the whisky…

“A decent Bruichladdich whisky but on the other hand pretty uninteresting”

87

This dram has a gold-like color.

Nose (87): more than average. honey, citrus, vanilla.

Palate (87): powerful, oily. honey, citrus, vanilla, spices, wood.

Finish (87): longer than average. honey, vanilla.

So based on other whiskies I have already tasted I rate this Bruichladdich Scottish Barley - The Classic Laddie with 87 points over 100.

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As I said I love Bruichladdich whiskies, but this one is mean, completely unpeated and showing signs of being bottled just too young. Bad whisky! Bad! Go to your cask and sleep three more years! On the other hand I tasted this Islay Farm and it was a hell more interesting

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First time I read Loch Lomond I had no idea what they were talking about, later I discovered that it is a Loch Lomond still is a special kind of still that can alter the way that it works easily making different types of whiskies. So many that in fact Loch Lomond released up to seven different types of whiskies between single malts and blended whiskies.

Here I am reviewing their most basic single malt offer, the entry level Loch Lomond Single Malt.

“Not sure what to make with this whisky... It could be a moscatel finished highlander?”

85

A mellow, slightly peaty nose, with a hint of brandy butter. The taste on the palette is sweet, smokey, with hints of finest Madeira wine and has a long, mellow finish, with echoes of a raisiny Christmas pudding.

This dram has a gold-like color.

Nose (84): more than average. honey, fruits, raisins, citrus, vanilla. I have tasted this before... Highlands?

Palate (85): powerful, oily. honey, citrus, fruity, wood, vanilla.

Finish (86): longer than average. honey, wood, tobacco.

So based on other whiskies I have already tasted I rate this Loch Lomond with 85 points over 100.

Not recommended… unless you want to appreciate good whisky. This Loch Lomond makes good whiskies look even better.

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I always have at home a bottle of Balvenie 12 years old Doublewood. I love it. It is a good whisky with lots of flavour and a very interesting price. So I was quite happy when I knew that The Balvenie released a 17 years old Doublewood.

The Balvenie 17 years old is “slightly” more expensive than the 12 years old. So my question and the one you perhaps are asking yourself, Is it worth the price?

“Quite nice Balvenie with a hint of age not seen on the younger versions. A real nice treat if you ask me”

90

Another fantastic invention from the workbench of Balvenie Malt Master David Stewart - a 17 year old version of the best selling DoubleWood. Still initially matured in'Whisky Oak' casks before being switched to sherry wood to finish, the extra years give it extra depth without being overpowering.

This dram has a amber-like color.

Nose (90): more than average. honey, spices, cinnamon, vanilla, tobacco, wood.

Palate (91): powerful, oily. honey, vanilla, wood, cinnamon, vanilla, nuts, candies.

Finish (90): longer than average. candies, citrus.

So based on other whiskies I have already tasted I rate this Balvenie 17 Year Old / DoubleWood Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky with 90 points over 100.

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• Buy on Master of Malt for £91.78
• Buy on The Whisky Exchange for £91.95

Well, it is a quite nice whisky. I bought one bottle but if you ask me if I will change my 12 years old for this one I have to say that I don’t.

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Fettercairn has gone recently on a repacking of their range dropping the “Old” word. This Fettercairn Fior is a non age statement ( NAS ) whisky that it is released on a really cool bottle and with a strength of 42% ABV.

“A bit light of nose but not bad at all. Undecided about if this one is peated or have a ton of wood in it. Interesting malt”

87

70cl / 42% / Distillery Bottling - Fior means pure or true in Gaelic, and this no-age-statement bottling launched in summer 2010 is something of a rebirth for the much-maligned Fettercairn distillery. Described by the producers as tasting of dark chocolate, coffee beans and peat smoke, with nutmeg, mint, citrus fruits and truffle. The finish is said to be of sherry trifle, marzipan and pineapple.

This dram has a cooper-like color.

Nose (85): average. honey, citrus, spices, ginger, cinnamon, vanilla.

Palate (88): powerful, oily. honey, citrus, peat, spices, raisins, pepper.

Finish (87): longer than average. honey, peat.

So based on other whiskies I have already tasted I rate this Fettercairn Fior Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky with 87 points over 100.

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Not sure what I would make if it. Personally for me it is a not buy. It isn’t good enough

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When I think of peat almost automatically I think of Islay whiskies ( and if you don’t you should read this article! ) but there is lots of peat outside that little Scotch island. Benriach, that now owns too Glendronach and Glenglassaugh distilleries, has had a stormy past with periods of time closed until it was rescued and reopened in 2004.

Since that year we have seen lots of different aged and finished Benriach whiskies, in particular the whisky we review today, Heredotus, is part of a series of 12 years old peated whiskies aged in different cask types: Importanticus Fumosus, Aromaticus Fumosus and Heredotus Fumosus.

Benriach Heredotus has been aged in PX casks for twelve years.

“Not bad although it is an style that I don't enjoy, peat and sherry. This one remembers me of my failed attempt of moscatel finished Laphroaig but correctly done”

89

Along with Importanticus Fumosus and Aromaticus Fumosus, this was part of a series of peated Benriachs finished in different wood types - in this case, Pedro Ximenez sherry casks have been used.

This dram has a gold-like color.

Nose (90): more than average. peat, honey, wood, citrus, raisins, cocoa.

Palate (89): powerful, oily. peat, honey, citrus, wood, cocoa, spices.

Finish (89): longer than average. peat, wood.

So based on other whiskies I have already tasted I rate this Benriach 12 year Heredotus Fumosus with 89 points over 100.

Well, there are lots of people that love this style. For me, it remind me so much of this failed attempt to age whisky that I can not truly enjoy it… oh! How much I miss this Laphroaig…

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I have had the pleasure of sharing another tweet tasting with Steve from The Whisky Wire ( you are missing great stuff if you don’t follow him on Twitter! ). So yesterday we did a new Milroys Tweet Tasting. Milroys of Soho is a great whisky shop located at Greek St. London just in the heart of the Soho.

Last year when I travelled to London for TWE Whisky Show 2012 ( this year show has been fantastic! ), I visited Milroys and get delighted by the huge amount of whiskies on stock there. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to taste anything and because I travelled with Ryanair I couldn’t get any bottle with me ( Damn you Ryanair! ) so when I tasted a few weeks later some of the whiskies I realized what mistake I did. Milroy’s of Soho bottles great whiskies with a price that is hard to believe nowadays.

So my expectations for this #MilroysTT2 were quite high because I was sure that whatever it was on the samples it would be a great night.

So let’s see the whiskies. As with other tweet tasting we tasted blind and after the tasting we were told what we have been drinking. It is really impressive that several people nailed the dram they were drinking.

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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.

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At last, after writing almost one month ago my experience at The Whisky Exchange Whisky Show I have written the whole set of tasting notes. So here you have all the whiskies I tasted scored and reviewed. The whiskies are shown in the exact order that I tasted them.

Warning! 100 Bottles of whisky ahead. Keep your wallet in a safe remote place or you will end up ordering great stuff… much like me.

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