Someone has to do it!
This is my drinking queue for July with lots of interesting stuff. I will begin with Bruichladdich Cuvee First Growth. The rest of stuff is a vertical tasting of Tomintoul, several Aberlour whiskies including two A’bunadh, five peated whiskies including this year Feis Ile’s Kilchoman whisky and eight whiskies of the world.
I will keep you updated!
Share your thoughts! May your whisky never runs out my friend! Unless you are drinking Johnnie Walker, if you are please… let me pour something better on your glass…
This is not a proper What the F*** tasting session with blind samples, but I just got from my evil box stuff that I wanted to drink. Particularly there were two whiskies I have a huge interest in tasting: Yamazaki 10 years old… I still remember when I could buy bottles of this one at £17… and Octomore 10 years old. As you know I collect whisky and I had my chance of buying this Octomore for it RRP… but still £150 was quite high for such a whisky… Did I go wrong with it?
Time to drink!
Hello there,
You can’t go wrong with a Macallan. Or can you? As I were not longer sure I really wanted to give a try to the new range: The 1824 Collection, released a few months ago to replace their core range of bottles. So say goodbye to 10 years old, 12 years old, 15 years old Macallan ( stock while you can, you fools! ).
So when Steve from The Whisky Wire proposed a tweet tasting about Macallan new whiskies I couldn’t but to apply. I have to say that, as everything Macallan related, this is one of the best, most precious presented samples set ever.
In case you have been living under a rock in the last year, or just that you arrived here through Google looking for the Best Single Malt Whisky in the World, the Macallan has recently decided to replace their core range of bottles with a non age statement bottles. It is quite a bold movement.
The Macallan Master Distiller Bob Dalgarno, explains that this move allow them to deliver simply the very best product without having the burden of age statements. Other persons said that this desperate movement by Macallan is just the direct result of having run-out of old stocked whiskies ( just go and try buying a Macallan 25 years old ). I have my mind clear and open, and really I don’t care about how old is the whisky but how good is it… BUT… recently we have lots of NAS whiskies scaling above £100 easily. That’s no way!.
So I poured the samples and decided I could add a few more drams into the tasting: Macallan Elegancia 12 years old, and both Macallan 18 years old and Macallan 18 years old Fine Oak.
So the whiskies…
Jura Distillery is making its 50th anniversary of its reopening this year. So they decided to do an awesome tweet tasting with fifty bloggers from all around the world and organized by Steve Rush from The Whisky Wire.
I have been a big fan of Jura since I rediscovered their sherried whiskies a few years ago. In each of them you can feel the great nose of Mr Richard Paterson. Great whiskies they are in fact.
So who of you would say no to a tasting of five Jura whiskies? Not me really.
On the way from Scotland to home one of the samples got broken. RIP dear friend.
I have to say that I had already tasted the 30 years old Camas An Staca and I was quite happy about it. But about the rest I have no clue about what we were drinking.
Yesterday, I got invited to a fantastic Tweet Tasting organized by Tomintoul and directed by Robert Fleming, master distiller for Tomintoul.
The tasting was to introduce their 21 years old whisky and a new single cask expression released recently: 1981. As I have tasted so little of this distillery I thought it was a fantastic chance of increasing my knowledge on the gentle single malt whisky. So two days ago I received a small parcel with no external annotations and voila!
So I just obeyed the instructions and “YOU MUST NOT RESIST THE URGE TO DRINK THEM”… well, ok, the tasting was supposed to be May, 29 but… what the hell! :) An order is an order :)
Just kidding, of lately I really lack of time so I just unwrapped them 10 minutes before the tasting and poured them. So, the whiskies….
Damn postal service! Alembic Communications invited me to #Balblair whisky tasting at May, 2nd but unfortunately the parcel didn’t arrive in time as May, 1st is holiday on Spain.
So here I am on my own tasting. #Balblair tasting was composed of three drams: Balblair 1997 2nd edition, Balblair 1990 Peated Cask sold in exclusive by Master of Malt and Balblair 1975.
So, the whiskies…
Well, here it is!
I have been wanting to taste this Highland Park Loki dram since I bought the sample a few weeks ago. I didn’t buy Highland Park Thor because I thought it was a clear rip-off and after tasting it I clearly reaffirmed on my opinion.
But with this Loki… something happened. Just forget about the horrible amount of money that Highland Park spent on promoting the stuff ( save a bit and send me a sample next time! ), just forget about all the buzzing around the whisky PR. The thing that turned me into buying one of the most mis-priced whiskies I have had lately was Serge Valentin‘s review at Whiskyfun. I really trust Serge judgement and although we don’t have exactly the same tastes I know he enjoys good whiskies and so do I.
So the problem was there, the whisky was also clearly another rip-off but after a 92p review by Serge it would be sold out before I could be able to taste it, so I ate my own words and ordered a bottle ( I am a collector nor an investor ) and decided to give it a try.
So much bullshit has been written about this whisky that I wasn’t even sure what to expect: enigmatic, elusive, chameleonic, … So there I went. The whisky…
Talisker is a single malt whisky produced at the Isle of Skye on the North of Scotland. Talisker has really worked hard to have his whisky related to the maritime tradition of Skye habitants and this whisky is just an step further.
Talisker Storm was introduced in the range at beginnings of 2013 as a “more Talisker” dram. In contrast with their introductory Talisker 10 years old, Storm has no age statement. Really I care very little about age statements but the problem ( the big problem ) with all the round of NAS whiskies we are seeing lately is that although first batches of most of them are reasonably good the producers may be tempted ( by the dark side ) to introduce younger and younger whiskies into the mix so they can reply faster to demand.
I am not stating on the other hand that older means better as good cask control and ageing is absolutely a must if you don’t want to end with an overwoody whisky ( Chivas 12 years old anyone?! )
Anyway… the whisky
Hello there,
Yesterday, we had another great tweet tasting with The Glenlivet and Steve from The Whisky Wire. To be honest I were not going to apply to this tasting because I had already tasted the Glenlivet 12, 15 and 18 ( oops, looks like I didn’t taste it ) and although Alpha was somewhat appealing I though I was just a marketing move.
But I was offered a seat and who of you would reject free whisky, and what the hell, I really want to revisit the Glenlivet range. After touching the miniature of Alpha I started to get excited about the idea of such a mysterious whisky label and I have ordered one full-bottle for myself ( The Whisky Exchange is still stocking Alpha. One per client. )
I am a huge fan of Ardbeg since the moment I tasted for first time their 10 years old whisky. I love so much the peat, the honey and the motor aromas that I always have two bottles of Ardbeg around: one of 10 years old and one of Uigeidail when I need a bit more of peat-power.
So there I was at home when the whisky fairy knocked on my door and let a big envelop from Glenmorangie. Umm, could it be… Woof! Woof!
Right! This is Ardbog! The latest whisky from my beloved Ardbeg to celebrate with all their fans worldwide the Ardbog Day on June, 1st 2013. With the whisky comes also a coin that features JackieShortie on one side and a boat with many rowers on the other side. A delightful allegory of the hordes of fans that will travel to Islay to enjoy Feis Ile festival.
So, the whisky.
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Lagavulin 16 year
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