In oktober I revisited the GlenDronach 15 Year Old , which turned out a really nice surprise. I thought it would be a good idea to try its older brother again as well (my favourite back in 2009): GlenDronach 18 Year Old .

GlenDronach 18 yo ‘Allardice’ (46%, OB 2014, 2014/09/03)

Nose: like the initial 15yo. More nutty notes (almonds, hazelnut paste), more beef stock and mushrooms, more sulphury edges as well. Some apple peelings and raisins. Muddy notes. The sherry sweetness that’s left feels a bit flat. Mouth: a disappointment. Sweet dates and fig syrup, but in...

It’s the last week of 2015 and we’ll dedicate it to a few good premium whiskies, which some you can still buy if you have the money. The BTC 2015 recap will follow next week.

The first dram will be a youngster, a mere 25 Year old whisky but it’s a closed distillery and a good one at that – the 25 Year Old Brora from Diageo 2008 Special Releases. It was distilled in 1982 and bottled in 2008 yielding 3000 bottles.

Brora 25 Year Old (2008 Special Releases) (56.3%,  £999.95 / £1200 / €1299 )

Nose : It’s plainly a Brora...

Pyrat XO Reserve 40%...

Blackwell’s Jamaican Rum 40%...

Murray McDavid ‘Renegade Rum’ Diamond Distillery, Guyana 6 year old 46%

Bourbon/ Tempranillo (Figuero Ribera del Duero) – Limited release of 6650 bottles

Tasted: Dec 2010

A nose of pungent, intense, oily, marc-likearomas. Less evolved than the Four Square 6 yearold. Hints of wood spice, menthol and a very light cask suggestion.

Edgy, light and oily on the palate with a heavy marc-like character. A brief oily orange note appears and there is a suggestion of spice on the middle, but it is far too young and unevolved. Although pretty intense, that intensity is rather short lived but the finish...

Mezan Guyana 2005 (10 year old?) 40%

Distilled at the Diamond Distillery using the old Port Morant Wooden Pot Still

Tasted: Sept 2015

Youth, lightly oiled aromas of nutty dried fruit. Very heavy on the oily congeners, because I’m guessing the wooden still doesn’t remove as many impurities as a copper still. There is a little fruit sweetness beneath and with time the aromas broaden to show a touch of coconut and antisceptic.

The palate is a little watery to be honest with a fair degree of oily terpenes-like note. Very youthful and a bit unevolved with nascent dried fruit...

Bristol Classic Rum’s Enmore Still , Guyana 12 year old 46%

Tasted: Feb 2005

A pretty straightforward and simple nose. Slightly oily, slightly fruity. Quite light in body and like the nose simple. Slightly oily, slightly fruity, slightly sugary with a touch of tropical fruit. Unexciting.

Bristol Classic Rum’s Port Morant Still, Guyana 12 year old 46%

Tasted: Feb 2005

Clean, a very oily yet slightly youthful nose of linseed oil along with menthol, earth and herbal notes. Dry on the palate with a good depth of linseed oil soaked fruit, which given time becomes quite tropical in character. Lovely...

Dewar Rattray Port Morant Rum 1992 (17 year old) 46%

Dist: 1992 Btl: 2009

Tasted: Nov 2009

Now the interesting thing with this is that the sample arrived at its natural cask strength of 58.8% and obviously my notes reflect this, so the ‘with water’ notes will be what it will actually taste like. I asked Francis at Dewar Rattray why they had decided to bottle it at 46% and she told me it was because not being specialists in rum they had taken it on advice to bottle it at the lower abv, and one or two of there other...

For Christmas 2015 I got my hands on the SMWS Sample Box No. 1, a sampling of 25 different whiskys from Scotch Maltwhisky Society. This was meant to be my malty Christmas calendar, but somehow I never got around to tasting the whiskys throughout december. It is now december 27 when I write this, […]...

Hudson Maple Cask Rye Whiskey, 46 % Finally I get to try a new whiskey from New York state distillery Tuthilltown Spirits, the home of Hudson whiskey. I reviewed their core range back in 2012, and more recently I revisited the Baby Bourbon. Today I am reviewing the limited edition Hudson Maple Cask Rye Whiskey. […]...

Another one of these peated Irish single malts distilled at Bushmills (?) in 1991 . It’s bottled with a Samurai label by Sansibar .

Irish single malt 24 yo 1991 (50,2%, Sansibar ‘Samurai’ 2015, bourbon cask, 232 btl.)

Nose: it has this typical tropical fruitiness (lime, green banana, green mango, pineapple) but in a lighter way than some others. There’s also the peaty side, wet tobacco leafs, a little camphor. Excellent, just a tad less expressive. Mouth: this time more peppermint, eucalyptus and other lightly medicinal touches. Hints of smoked fish. Granadilla, cara cara, pink grapefruit and bananas in...

Region – Speyside – ABV -45%

Day 25 here. Merry Christmas to all that enjoy this holiday.

For me, I’ll enjoy Chinese Food and a Movie on this joyful day.

Silliness aside, we’ve got a 30yo Linkwood in ye old whisky glass. Time to discover the penultimate whisky!

On the nose — Deviled eggs (heavy on the paprika) in a walk-in humidor.

Well oiled elevator shoes, subtle cologne and old Topps baseball cards (sans the brittle chewing gum stick).

In the mouth — Lived in study, more oiled leather, yellow label chartreuse, white pepper, a velvet Elvis picture that’s been...

Merry Christmas everyone!

Another example of sherry maturation, this time in a first-fill sherry cask. We’re trying a Glen Grant 1954 from the Rare Vintage series by Gordon & MacPhail .

In partnership with each respective distillery, all whiskies in the Rare Vintage range are uniquely labelled. In years gone by many of these unique designs were used ‘officially’ to bottle the whisky under licence from the distillery (the same goes for yesterday’s Ardmore 1996 by the way).

I don’t think this is a new bottling. The bottling date wasn’t mentioned on the sample and I can only find...

As soon as I opened dram 16 of the competition, I knew it’s something special but I had no idea how nasty Ewald can be. With my guess I went for Cadenhead Littlemill 23yo but instead of basking in the light of my new 100 points, we got another Loch Lomond whisky (a different brand so somehow it’s legal) and I was left with an utter surprise and zero points.

How big of a land mine is that dram? It doesn’t even have a whiskybase.com page! Oh well, I did guess the bottler correctly!

Cadenhead’s Inchmurrin 1974 41 Year Old (47%)

Nose...

Last night was star wars night when I went to view “The force awakening” on the first screening (a minute past midnight). But I paid dearly for this adventure as I missed the opportunity to delve into the daily dram and majbe get a full slate of 100 points. It was clear to me that it’s a Campeltown whisky, aged 10-12 and mid fifties ABV but since I had no time, I entered a generic guess of Springbank, 12yo, 54% which yielded me 69 points, the highest daily amount of the competition. Oh, there was a whisky too and it...

The Blind Tasting Competition rages on and I fell back a bit with a few bad guesses and with some whiskies I didn’t like much. But then, dram #15 arrived and oh my, what’s a lovely drink it is. My first instinct was some nicely aged whisky (23 year old or so) and the floral note should have lead me to Linkwood. but instead I went for a 12 year old from a different region and so I got no points (AVB was close but not close enough). I guess I deserve it if instead of working hard on the dram, I...