Posted in Uncategorized on January 24, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Warm baked apples and pears, just carmelizing sugar, subtle smoke, salt, seaweed.
Sounds pretty good, but surely I was distracted from my tasting notes as a thirty year old whisky couldn’t possibly have been this simple. Reserving judgement on this one.
Posted in Uncategorized on January 23, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Super dry, very stale beer, oak, anise, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, vanilla, maple, potato chips, artificial maple syrup.
Sounds like a big ol’ thumbs down on this one.
Posted in Uncategorized on January 22, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Very hot and closed, simple but with lots of vanilla. Very light caramel, subtle cherry, turbonado sugar, oak spice. Opens up with time to reveal cola, almonds, pie crust, lard, subtle smoke.
I’m generally a springbank fan and this one was good, but not good enough to spend money on.
Posted in Uncategorized on January 21, 2011| Leave a Comment »
KABOOM! big old sherry and caramel, stale beer, chili peppers, salt, vanilla, netlles, very light smoke in the background.
Stale beer? Yuck. Thumbs down.
I really don't recall which label this was. How useless am I?
Posted in Uncategorized on January 20, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Butterscotch, cofee, bitter dark chocolate, pink peppercorns, strawberries, clay, watermelon, oak leaves, quite some tannins, cream
From the notes it sounds good except for the clay and tannins (and maybe the watermelon), but I remember ultimately not liking it. Hmm… perhaps one to retaste. Funny that it tasted pink and brown.
Someone's sample bottle, but correct label
Posted in Uncategorized on January 19, 2011| Leave a Comment »
The aforementioned importer also tasted me on a few of the 2010 releases from Black Adder. None of them really amazed me, though I liked the 11 YO bottling of Peat Reek quite a bit. This years bottlings are coming soon and the line-up is VERY interesting. Some older bourbon-barrel speysiders that should be terrific, some younger islays that I was skeptical of until I tried an older Black Adder bottling of a 14 YO Caol Ila that upsets this years Lagavulin 12 for my favorite young islay of recent memory (Octomore notwithstanding). Can’t wait for the new stuff, but here’s the old, lack-luster stuff. It should be noted that these were tasted after tasting the Amrut line-up, and so my palate was hardly in top form.
Aberlour 17 YO 46%: too watery, caramel, butter, light velvety mouthfeel, oak spice, red pepper flakes, lemons, honey, jasmine, spent coffee grounds.
Auchroisk 18 YO 46%: honey, clementines, burnt paper, fire (an odd bird, to say the least)
Lochranza 11 Raw Cask: heavier body, lots of butter, earthy, gritty, coffee, clay.
Tomatin 17 YO Raw Cask: very porridgey, oak spice, baby sick, subtle honey, wet paper, with time the honey comes through stronger and shows notes of crabapples
Peat Reek 10 YO Raw Cask: apple sauce, honeysuckle, hemlock, peat, smoke, bergamot, cinnamon, porridge, nutmeg.
Peat Reek 11 YO Raw Cask: complex burning wood flavors, soy, charred meat, pine, moss, grapefruit, evergreens, black peppercorns, red currents.
That last one is hitting shelves in boston already, though some stores have yet to see their shipment. I may very well grab a couple bottles of it if it’s as good as I remember.
Posted in Uncategorized on January 18, 2011| Leave a Comment »
The US importer tasted me on the line-up several months ago. I have a bottle of the new “Intermediate Sherry” bottling, a review of which will come in the future. I have tried it, it’s great and I will probably snag another bottle to put in the bunker. Price on that one is around $130.
Traditional (unpeated) 46%: baked apples and cinnamon, honey, oatmeal, apple blossom
Traditional Cask Strength: baked aplpes, porridge, rye grain
Fusion 50%: velvety mouthfeel, honey, subtle smoke, toffee, burnt sugar, goose berries, nettles
Peated 46%: smoke, smoldering embers, ash, red currents, lighter porridge
Peated Cask Strength: no real change, perhaps some more burnt sugar, more ash.
Overall: I could see myself buying a bottle of the Fusion… but I haven’t yet. I guess it’s on my shopping list with a low priority. Price is great on these though. $55-$75 if memory serves me correctly.
Posted in Uncategorized on January 17, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Thick sherry and smoke, candy apples, gripping oak, ginger, wasabi, subtle farmy note.
I vaguely remember this as a “Good, but not good enough to buy a bottle of”, or perhaps wanting to buy a bottle but figuring there’s none around. Still, “gripping oak” is usually something I write when I don’t like something.
Apologies for the small pic
Posted in Uncategorized on January 16, 2011| Leave a Comment »
10 years in a bourbon barrel, 6 years in a port pipe.
Nose: Port up front, honey and prunes underneath with an unusually deep heather and violet note. Pine and yeast, brioche dough. Black raisins on the vine, black cherries and a touch of vanilla. Nutmeg. Develops black licorice and caramel. Marzipan and candied ginger comes through eventually. With time gaining popcorn and peppercorns, a touch of salt and buttercream.
Palate: bitter, tannic, musty, sweet and red.
Score: somewhere between “bad” and “good, but not good enough to buy a bottle of”. Beautiful nose, horrible taste. An odd bird, that’s for sure.
Posted in Uncategorized on January 15, 2011| Leave a Comment »
One of Joe’s favorite whiskies and one could hardly blame him. This is another one that I have a bottle in the bunker for a special occasion.
demerera sugar, peach pie, “a whole damn prarie” (not my first drink of the evening…), subtle smoke, amazingly complex, flavor keeps evolving in really dramatic ways with time.
More on this one when I open it, promise.
Things I Taste 