Category Archives: Review

Review: Clynelish Distillery Exclusive Single Malt Bottling 2019

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Clyenlish Distillery Exclusive 2019Info: Matured in a mixture of American ex-bourbon and rejuvenated casks. 6000 bottles available, bottled at 48% ABV. No age statement.
Colour: Natural looking, light straw. You’d hope no colouring here.
Nose: Clean, clear and slightly salty, with gentle wooden dunnage notes and plenty of sweet green ripe fruits among soft waxy hints.
Palate: Bursting with green and red apples and an oily waxyness. It’s warm and tingley on your tongue, with gentle heat and some spice building. Overall it’s nicely sweet and fruity with oaks to back it up.
Finish: The finish at first seems short but quickly comes back with a longer warm sweet fruit and malt note that sticks aronud for a while.
After: It turns more orangey, orange jelly, marmilade. Christmassy!
Thoughts: A slighty sweeter Clynelish than often found, but that suits my pallate just nicely! I really enjoy this dram, snap one up if visiting.
Availalbe: At the distillery, £90 a bottle. Continue reading →

Review: Jura Time & Tide: Two 21 year olds

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Jura Time and Tide

Jure Time and Jura Tide

“A Pair of 21 Year Old whiskies shaped by time, eroded by tide.”

Jura has released two permenant additions to it’s range, a pair of 21yo whiskies; both are non-chillfiltered, just how we like them. ‘Tide’ should be available at your usual specialist whisky retailer, where as ‘Time’ is travel retail only (i.e. airports). What are the differences? Let’s take a look at them…

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Review: Glengoyne Teapot Dram Batch 6

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Glengoyne Teapot Dram Batch 6Glengoyne Teapot Dram Batch 6 – 59.3% abv

Info: “Strictly limited [until the next batch!] release of just four first fill sherry butts and two first fill sherry hogsheads.”
Colour: Medium dark rusty autumnal sunset.
Nose: Plenty of sherried autumn fruit notes, but still a nice sprightly element to this. Sherry outside in a cool autumn shower. Hints of nuts amongst soft creamy vanilla toffee.  Notes of heathery honey. Strong, but not closed, full of flavours wanting to escape with nice rounded wood tones.
Palate: Strong, almost hot, but just backing off enough to remain easily enjoyable while letting flavours flow. It’s really oily, flavour packed; there’s plenty of lush autumn fruits, malty oils and hints of dark chocolate.
Finish: Fresh, fruity, warming and long. Hints of youngish cask wood at the back adding some weight to the dram (in a good way).
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Review: Steel Bonnets

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steel bonnets whiskySteel Bonnets: Blended Malt Whisky

Info: From The Lakes Distillery comes the first ever blend, so the press release says, of English and Scottish malt whiskies, Steel Bonnets. The blend is a combination of The Lakes Single Malt from England and some of the most respected malts from north of the Border. Awarded a gold medal in Spirits Business’ Luxury Masters Awards. 46.6% abv, non chillfiltered, non coloured.
Colour: Golden with a hint of autumn rust.
Nose: An interesting nose that is vibrant and flavourful. There’s some instant sweetness to the nose, possibly showing distillery character from younger (Lakes?) spirit. There is a dollop of sweetened cream with green and red fruits on the nose with smokey hints as a backdrop.
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Review: Deanston Decennary 50th Anniversary

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deanston decennary bottleDeanston Decennary 50th Anniversary – 46.3% abv

Info: Deanston Decennary 50th Anniversary is a marriage of four different casks; Whisky refil from 1977, American Oak from 1982, Port Pipe from 1996 and Pedro Ximenez from 2006. 1400 bottles available exclusively at the distillery. Natural colour, un-chillfiltered.
Colour: Summer gold with a hint of autumn rust.
Nose: The nose here is really autumnal. There’s hints of sharp, cold, clean rain on malt. There’s a bowl full of simmered down autumn fruits with a spoon of thick cream dolloped on top. There’s a nuttyness that’s coming from the casks. You can tell there’s some well aged malt here, but it’s well integrated and keeps a nice natural balance of the malts.
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Quick Review: Syndicate 58/6 12 Year Old

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syndicate 58/6 12 year old whiskySyndicate 58/6 12 year old

Info: Contains 18 single malts and 4 single grains, finished for a year in Oloroso sherry butts. From Douglas Laing, a blend by Richard Patterson.
Colour: End of summer golden.
Nose: Spirited hints of pear, malt and rainy ozone. All backed by gentle sweet berry notes.
Palate: Very gentle sweet berry notes at the fore, it’s not overly oily, but it coats the tongue pleasingly. A hint of lemon.
Finish: Flavourful, with hints of wood and a slight touch of tannin at the end. Not overly long.
Thoughts: It’s a tasty blend at a great price.
Available: Master of Malt – £30 inc free postage.

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Multi Review: The Ultimate American Whiskey Tweet Tasting

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The Ultimate American Whiskey Tweet Tasting

To help celebrate the 4th July, a well-known date in America – so I’ve been told, the good eggs at Maverick Drinks and The Whisky Wire sent me a curated selection pack of their best American whiskies for a bunch of us drunkards selection of bloggers to all taste at the same time on that-there-Twitter.

So without further ado, here’s my thoughts on the aforementioned 5 drams…

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Review: The Singleton of Dufftown Malt Master’s Selection

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Singleton Of Dufftown Malt Masters SelectionThe Singleton of Dufftown Malt Master’s Selection – 40% abv

Info: The Singleton of Dufftown Malt Master’s Selection is matured in a combination of refill, Sherry and Bourbon casks, with a greater proportion of refill to allow ‘the sweet yet refined distillery character to shine through’. This has no age statement and is chillfiltered.
Colour: Yellow golden sun, hints of rust.
Nose: Malty and sweet. There’s handfuls of malt intertwined with some caramel, a little toffee, and the peel of red apples. In the background there’s spring meadow grassiness.
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