Category Archives: Review

Review: Douglas Laing’s Yula

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Yula – 20yo – Douglas Laing – 52.6% abv

Yula Bottle ShotInfo: First of a three part trilogy, 900 bottles. Cask strength maritime malt distilled in 1995, combining Islay and Island whiskies.
Colour: Ripe straw to light golden.
Nose: Instantly you’re into a gentle nose, the sort that you only get with a bit more age in good casks. There’s floral hints there, along with a note of coal and older peat, the sort of peat that’s lost some of it’s instant fireyness and toned down a little. It’s fruity with notes of grapefruit and gooseberries.
Palate: The palate is lovely and thick, with a little bit of drying wood tannins hitting you quite quickly before settling down with the floral notes coming forward (90’s Bowmore?). There’s reminiscent sweets here of things like Parma Violets, love hearts and refreshers, however they’re all there with an older edge to them.
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Review: Glenmorangie Milsean

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Glenmorangie Milsean Bottle ShotGlenmorangie Private Edition VII Milsean – 46% abv

Info: Matured in ex-bourbon casks and then extra-matured in former wine casks, re-toasted for the purpose.
Colour: Bright golden with slight caramelly orange tints.
Nose: With some attention you can find the Morangie notes there, but at first it seems a bit of a different beast. It benefits from a few moments in the air to open up. There’s sweet nutty notes, candy floss, barley and spices (sweet spices, cinnamon, etc). Pleasant stuff.
Palate: Fairly thick and really quite easy, I was expecting it to be introduced more sharply. However, with a bit of time the spices build a little, but it stays thick and fairly sweet… we’re talking a balanced sweetness, not too much. Barley notes not so evident at this point.
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Review: Yoichi

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yoichi non age whiskyYoichi – NAS – 43% abv

Info: A no age statement single malt produced by the Yoichi Distillery, the first distillery established by Nikka in 1934.
Colour: Golden.
Nose: Hints of peat and citrusy boiled sweets. Light tropical citrus fruits and some sweet grass notes.
Palate: Thicker than expected. Tiny pinch of spices, lots of citrus sweet malt and the most gentle peaty hints.
Finish: Hints of younger malt notes, medium lasting length.
Thoughts: Easy, enjoyable, fresh and a little different! Nice.
Available: Master of Malt £39.25, or ministryofdrinks.co.uk

Thanks to Master of Malt for the sample.

Review: Glenfarclas 25yo

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Glenfarclas 25 year old whiskyGlenfarclas 25yo – 43% abv

Info: It’s Glenfarclas, and it’s 25 years old!
Colour: Early sunset orange.
Nose: Big, rich and classic, just what you’d expect and hope for from this malt. Gentle malt, big sherry, the gentle sort of sherry, not the dark PX types. The orange colour follows to the nose, there’s a citrusy orange peel.
Palate: Instant candied citrus sweetness meets you with a very approachable and smooth palate. Sometimes sherry matured whiskies of this age can get a little too spicy for me, but this is a lovely balanced palate with just a pinch of spices to give it some gravitas. It’s creamy, with oaks after a while.
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Review: GlenDronach Peated

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GlenDronach PeatedGlenDronach Peated – 46% abv

Info:  Peated, unusually for GlenDronach. Initially matured in bourbon casks before being finished in Oloroso and Pedro Ximénez Sherry casks. NAS.
Colour: Ripe straw to light gold.
Nose: Instant peaty hit, we’re talking a smoked peat, a lightish mossy highland peat rather than a punchy coastal TCP island style. There’s rich malt playing nicely with a medium level of peat, both complimenting each other with good level of sweetness from some sherry cask influence. The peaty malt has a dusty quality with a sweet toffee fruit note. A very smellable dram!
Palate: Sweet peaty malt covers your tongue with nice thick oils. It’s not over powering, meaning that you can hold it on your tongue for a long time to enjoy and explore the flavours.
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Review: The GlenDronach 12 Year Old

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the-glendronach-12-year-old-whiskyGlenDronach 12yo ‘Original’ – 43% abv

Info: Matured for at least 12 years in a combination of Spanish PX & Oloroso sherry casks. Non-chill filtered, natural colour.
Colour: Rich sunset gold, rusty orange tints.
Nose: Instant rich and deep sherry bomb tones on this fine malt. Plenty of ripe plump winter fruits and packed with nuts. Hints of menthol and gentle oaks.
Palate: Fairly oily and easier on the palate than expected; sweet, honied and wonderful with the Christmas / Dundee type of fruit cake notes coming out.
Finish: Long with brown sugar caramel and honeyed fruits.
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Review: Girvan 25yo Old Particular (vs Girvan 25yo Proprietary)

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girvan-25-year-old-1989-cask-10805-old-particular-douglas-laing-whiskyGirvan 25 Year Old – Old Particular – 51.1% abv

Info: Distilled by Girvan grain distillery in December 1989 and filled into cask 10805. Bottled by Old Particular (Douglas Laing) in June 2015.
Colour: Ripening straw.
Nose: Nice, light and sprightly… fairly spirity with a great grain nose, slightly closed, but opens up with time and a bit of warmth. Lovely old, subtle nut tones from the cask. Sweet vanilla and milk chocolatey hints.
Palate: The higher abv is fairly easy going on your palate – very slightly hot maybe, but the age helps to make it rounded and creamy. It’s medium thick feeling, and fairly sweet.
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Review: GlenDronach Cask Strength Batch 5

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GDCaskStrengthBatch5-bottleinfrontLR_000GlenDronach Cask Strength – Batch 5 – 55.3% abv

Info: NAS, cask strength, non chill filtered and natural colour. Matured in a combination of PX and Oloroso sherry casks.
Colour: Vibrant autumnal gold.
Nose: Rich, punchy deep sherry nose. There’s winter fruits in abundance, blackcurrants, redcurrants, loganberries, cranberries, fat juicy currants, sultanas and raisins. All underlined with a buttery creamy malt and hints of oak wood.
Palate: Instantly a great crushed nut and gentle oak note which leads into the sweet deep malty fruits. It’s a bowl of stewed winter fruits with thick Birds vanilla custard on it. Thick and enjoyably oily.
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Review: Tullamore D.E.W. Cider Cask Finished

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cider-cask-2015Tullamore D.E.W Cider Cask Finished – 40% abv

Info: No age statement, but finished in ex-cider casks for 3 months. Triple distilled, triple blend Irish whiskey. Limited production made yearly between September and November.
Colour: Evening gold.
Nose: Rich, refined and malty with a real flinty metallic quality. After a short while it becomes quite aromatic and fragrant. If there are apples then they’re more in the background, quite a sour dry cider apple; don’t think sweet apple juice… they show their head after the whisky has had plenty of time to breath.
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Review: Aberfeldy 16yo

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Aberfeldy_16YOAberfeldy 16yo – 40% abv

Info: To finish off a trio of Last Great Malts related reviews, we arrive at Aberfeldy, a distillery I’ve always enjoyed ever since I had some of their whisky directly out of a cask in one of their warehouses whilst on a visit… It was one of the best drams I’ve ever had. Happily, Aberfeldy have now added and extra bottling into their core range and released a 16yo which is finished in Oloroso sherry casks. More info on SWB here.
Colour: Fairly bright and clear gold. Aberfeldy uses colouring although this seems rather more natural than some others in the range so maybe (as I know they would like) it’s now colouring free?
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