Monthly Archives: Oct 2015

Review: Littlemill 25 Year Old Private Cellar Edition

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littlemill25yobottleLittlemill 25yo Private Cellar Edition – 50.4% abv

Info: The Loch Lomond Group are releasing this 25 year old Littlemill, whisky from a distillery which has long gone, destroyed by fire in 2004 and now mostly demolished. Selected from a mix of 10 American and European oak casks which were then married together and finished in Oloroso sherry casks. 1500 bottles, bottle includes a mini.
Legs: Thick, slow, oily legs.
Colour: Autumnal bold, bright gold.
Nose: Fairly powerful nose, quite high alcohol vapours. Behind the vapours are sweet notes of barley, gentle hints of peat and stewed autumn fruits. There’s a rubbery quality, coming from the sherry influence. After a while there’s a nuttyness that comes out a little.
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Review: Glenfiddich The Original

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GlenfiddichTheOriginalBottleGlenfiddich The Original 40%abv

Info: Recreated and inspired by Glenfiddich Straight Malt’s taste profile that was first introduced in 1963. NAS.
Colour: Lightly golden to straw.
Nose: Much more of a wine-like hit on the nose to start with than I was expecting. Closely followed up by malt, a handful of nuts, touches of smoke (cask char? a tiny bit of peated malt?), and hints of cut grass and leather. Back to white wine type notes again before back to mashed malt and a fudgey sweetness which comes out after a while.
Palate: It’s medium oily on the palate, thicker than I expected for 40%. It’s very easy, fairly velvety with just a mere hint of spices followed by the grassy malt and some brown sugar sweetness. Not much of the wine found on the nose at first, although after more time in the glass and in your mouth it’s certainly there if you look, it’s rather nice.
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Review: Paul John Bold

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BoldPaul John’s “Bold” Whisky – 46%abv

Info: Peated single malt whisky from Goa, India. Non chill filtered, no colouring. Matured in American oak for 4 to 5 years, with the peat coming from Islay and being imported to India specially.
Colour: Golden, hints of ripe barley.
Nose: Peaty, an Islay style peat but with a background of heat, sundried heat. There’s certainly a slight sweet floralness about it, sometimes I’d associate that with an Orkey type tone. Some other tasting notes from Twitter have suggested condensed milk type sweetness.
Palate: There’s a gentle Islay style peat that is at the forefront but doesn’t dominate at all, behind that is a host of great flavours, subtly sweet barley and a dryness as if you were sitting in a dessert. It’s medium in thickness, remaining reasonably light and zippy. Hints of cracked black pepper & clove.
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Review: Bowmore Mizunara Cask Finish

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bowmoremizunarabottleBowmore Mizunara Cask Finish – 53.9% abv

Info: This has been made up of different vintages from the 1990s (so around 15-25 years old), and then finished in Japanese Mizunara oak which is the first time that Mizunara casks have been exported from Japan. There’s 2000 bottles.
Colour: Fully golden, setting evening sun.
Nose: Straight away there’s a great waft of coastal peat that you’d come to expect from Bowmore, although it seems slightly more at the fore than on general releases. However behind it there’s all sorts of goodies, and a sweetness that reminds me of Love Heart sweets. There’s also definitely a sour touch there as well which balances out the sweetness.
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Review: Battle of the Blends – The Judging

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Whisky Mag’s Battle of the Blends
in association with Master of Malt

Battle-of-the-BlendsSo, Dave ‘The Rummager’ Broom and Neil ‘Copper Dog’ Ridley have been set a challenge by the Whisky Mag along with Master of Malt… which of the two can produce the best blend… and it’s now time for selected blaggers judges to compare, contrast and submit their favourites. Want more info on the fight? Head to Master of Malt’s blog here.

As regular readers of my blog may have noticed I’ve run a small selection of blend reviews over the last few posts, so this seems a great way to finish that round up.

Annnd it’s on to my thoughts…

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