Category Archives: Review

Review: Highland Park 1999 – 16yo – G&M/TWE

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Highland Park 1990 Bottle ShotHighland Park 1999 – 16 Year Old – G&M / TWE Exclusive

Info: This is an exclusive bottling for The Whisky Exchange by Gordon & MacPhail. It’s a 16 year old distilled in 1999… coming from cask #4260, a first-fill bourbon barrel, bottled at 56.6% abv.
Colour: Light summery gold, clear and bright.
Nose: Good and strong on your nose, don’t inhale too quickly. There’s a medium sweet floral fruit nose, hints of farmyard, citrus tones and burnt embers from honied heathery dry peat.
Palate: Although it’s strong, it’s easily introduced on to your palate with sweetness at the front, followed up by spices which layer the longer you hold it on your tongue. The peat here is reasonably restrained, but it’s there, it’s sweet and musty with wood smoke.
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Review: The Glenturret 16 Year Old Fly’s 16 Masters Edition

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glenturret 16yo fly bottleThe Glenturret 16 Year Old Fly’s 16 Masters Edition

Info: Bottle has a picture on it taken in 1905 of 16 stillmen and a dog called Fly. It’s 16 years old, and bottled at 44% abv.
Colour: Light to medium gold.
Nose: Sweet malt, brown sugar, over ripe fruits, nuts and slight smells that remind me of farmyards – which disappear with time.
Palate: The whisky is gentle on your palate, fairly velvety with oils, yet it follows up with pinches of spice to make it interesting. It’s got an older brown sugar sweetness to it which balances the malt and ripe fruits, maybe grilled caramelized pineapple with various other citrus hints.
Finish: The finish has a little gentle warmth on your chest, along with a honey sweetness and hints of oak tannin. It goes on for quite a while.
Thoughts: I like Glenturret, I make no secret of that. However, although I am really enjoying this, it seems maybe a little overpriced compared to the market.
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Review: Brenne 10 Year Old (vs NAS)

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Brenne Logo

Back in March I had the good fortune to bump in to, and spend some time with Allison Patel, the owner of Brenne whisky. She’s an awe inspiring lady who’s brand is building into a great set of releases, the newest of which is the 10 Year Old. It’s handy for me that she let me have some samples, because it’s nearly impossible to get in the UK (although the original Estate Cask – reviewed by me here – is now available at Master of Malt).

Before moving on to trying the 10yo, let me refresh my memory with a re-review of the Estate Cask – NAS – release…

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Review: The Circus by Compass Box

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Compass Box CircusThe Circus by Compass Box – 49% abv

Info: Blended scotch whisky consisting of various parcels of blended scotch whiskies, grain whiskies and Benrinnes, all from sherry butts. 2,490 bottles worldwide. 49% abv non chill filtered and no colouring.
Colour: Autumn gold, hints of orange rustiness.
Nose: The instant relaxing old style nose that puts you at ease and lets you know something good is coming. Lashings of gentle, balanced and well integrated sherried tones along with old, well matured oak notes. You’ll want to keep smelling this for quite a long time. Some creaminess, along with dried fruits and hints of nuttiness.
Palate: At first it’s almost quite fresh, but it very quickly then releases the older whisky tones on to your palate with their oils and medium level wood spices from the sherry butts. The sherried malt is sweet, well balanced and easy going with a warming autumnal character which covers your palate.
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Review: Enlightenment by Compass Box

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Compass Box EnlightenmentEnlightenment by Compass Box – 46% abv

Info: Enlightenment is a blended malt from Compass Box consisting of Clynelish, Glentauchers, Balblair and Mortlach. 5,922 bottles. 46% non chill filtered and natural colour.
Colour: Straw gold.
Nose: Malty and summery, with a good depth to back it up. It’s fresh and vibrant, hints of green apple, pear and vanilla.
Palate: Fairly waxy and thick with oils, there is a pinch of soft spices and gentle sweet tones with the green apples and orchard fruits there amongst the malty goodness. Citrus hints and touches of cream.
Finish: Fresh and vibrant, fairly long because of all the oils in the malt, with vanilla tones lasting out to the end with just a hint of tannins.
Water: A drop of water doesn’t take anything away, the soft spices stay, and maybe a hint more of the orchard fruits are released along with a slight toffeeiness.
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Review: Jura 21 Year Old

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isle of jura 21 year old whiskyIsle of Jura 21 Year Old – 44% abv

Info: Previously discontinued in 2009, but now it’s back for the distillery’s 200th anniversary. Fully matured in ex-Bourbon casks then finished in vintage 1963 oloroso sherry casks. 44% abv.
Colour: Fairly dark orangey gold, rusty.
Nose: Damp pencil shavings, nuts, blood oranges and marmalade. Older dunnage warehouse type notes.
Palate: Smooth and old, with pinches of spices to keep it interesting. Gently sweet with those old autumn stewed fruit notes, berries that have just started to go by their summer fresh best (in a good way). A good integrated oak note that gives everything a nice base.
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Review: Jura Tastival (2016)

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Jura Tastival Bottle 2016Jura Tastival – Feis Ile 2016 Release – 51% abv

Update: 12,000 bottles were released worldwide. Finished in Palomino Fino, Amoroso Oloroso and Apostoles Oloroso Sherry casks.
Info: The following information is rumored, unverified and not confirmed by Jura… Combining Jura 19 year old seasoned for 5 years in an 11 year old Palomino Fino sherry cask, Jura 14 year old seasoned for 4 years in a 15 year old Oloroso Amoroso sherry cask, and Jura 15 year old seasoned for 3 years in a 30 year old Oloroso Apostoles sherry cask. Released for Feis Ile 2016.
Colour: Rich golden, gentle orangey tints.
Nose: Malty and sweet, packed with punchy, rich sherry fruit flavours, yet undeniably still Jura underneath. There’s cream and vanilla notes along side more regular nutty tones you find in sherried whiskies.
Palate: Nice and thick and rich with oils, some spices for sure, in fact at first it’s quite hot with the high abv. There’s baked apples with brown sugar, less creaminess on the palate than on the nose.
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Review: BenRiach Cask Strength Batch 1

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BenRiach Cask Strength Batch 1BenRiach Cask Strength – Batch 1 – 57.2% abv

Info: In March BenRiach released its first Cask Strength, Batch 1 bottling. This finally draws a parallel with it’s sister distillery GlenDronach which has been releasing great Cask Strength editions for some time now.
Colour: Gold, perfectly golden in fact, lovely natural colour.
Nose: Powerful, gently sweet, dusty, slightly herbal, rather lovely. Classic speyside, of the slightly older style.
Palate: Nice, thick and oily, fab stuff. Quite powerful, but bear with it, you soon get used to the strength. There’s a good pinch of spices, plenty of malt, and a fair amount of stewed fruits with a dollop of cream.
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Review: The Epicurean by Douglas Laing

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Epicurean BottleInfo: So I’ve been a bit lax and naughty for not reviewing this sooner, sorry Douglas Laing! Anyway, the press release information for this was posted on my site a while back, and available here. It’s the last of the company’s Remarkable Regional Malts collection, and in this release features just lowland malts in the blend. It’s 46.2%abv, unchillfiltered and uncoloured. Perfect.

Colour: Light straw, very natural. Great oily legs produced.

Nose: Much more buttery than I expected, creamy buttery malt. Fairly powerful if you inhale too deeply. Slight metallic notes. Medium sweetness with some fruity tones (peach?).

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Review: Gosling’s Rums

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Gosling's Logo

gosling's seal logoI don’t know that much about rums to be honest with you, but I do know that sometimes they make a nice alternative drop of drammage to whiskies.

I know I like Appleton Estate rums, via previous twitter tastings… but recently I was lucky enough to be invited along to a twitter tasting of Gosling’s offerings, and very happy I was to be able to check them out. The rums come with various stories and names which I’ll skip over right now, and get straight on to the good stuff…
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