24 Days of Christmas Whisky: Day 9; Scotland's Smallest Distillery!

Whisky: Edradour 10 Year Old

 

Distillery/Brand:

Edradour

 

Bottling:

Edradour 10 Year old

 

Region:

Highland

 

ABV:

40%

 

Colour:

Young Sauternes

Review:
My wife got me one of the coolest Christmas presents ever! A whisky advent calender. A calender made up of 24 different whiskies, from all different countries, all different whisky regions, all different ages and strengths. Including a 50 year old Speyside!

Each calender is different, with different samples in each calender, and I immediately loved this calender enough that I requested 2 more calenders.

Lots of different distilleries, Talisker, Glenfarclas, Tobermory, Aberlour, Caol Ila, Bowmore, Four Roses, Wild Turkey!

So many different whiskies, so little time.

So I'm finishing working my way through the entry level whiskies and the last one on the list.

Edradour 10 year old.

Edradour, the smallest distillery in Scotlands, a Highlands distillery.

I've seen the bottles before, they have a tendency to draw one's eye, but I've never got a chance to try it.

Until now.

So this evening when I got home I cracked the sample bottle open and poured the contents into a glencairn, it pours a copperish color, with not very many legs.

Nosing the glencairn the first thing that hits me is it's spice. Lots of spice, cinnamon, nutmeg, then it moves sweet with honey and then goes floral with apple blossoms, fruity with citrus and some vanilla at the end.

A fairly complex nose, especially for a 10 year old, I really enjoy the brief burst of apple blossoms personally.

Time for a taste though!

Mmmm really not sure how much I care for this!

Flavors are oaky, then it shifts into a dry floral apple and cinnamon sequence. Very dry.

The oak at least initially overpowers all the other flavors and makes it mildly unpleasant at times. The whisky does improve, but that initial burst of oak is quite dry and bitter.

The finish moves to a sweet apple pie suggestion with apples, cinnamon, and vanilla. A little sweet and quite pleasant.

Now I've never seen Edradour before in Australia, however I'd guess that if you could find it over here you'd be looking at an $80 or so bottle, which at that price I'd much rather pick up a Highland Park, Ardbeg, Glenfarclas, Talisker, you get the point. The nose on this whisky is quite nice and interesting, but that initial oak bitterness sort of kills the whisky pleasure for me.

Maybe if you were to oxidize the bottle a bit it might lessen that bitterness, but at this stage I'd pass on picking up a bottle of this.

Nose:       22/25
Taste:      18/25
Finish:      20/25
Balance:   18/25

Overall:    78/100

24 Days of Christmas Whisky: Day 8; Island Paradise!

Whisky: Tobermory 15 Year Old

 

Distillery/Brand:

Tobermory

Bottling:

Tobermory 15 Year Old

 

Region:

Island

 

ABV:

46.3%

 

Colour:

Old Sauternes

Review:
My wife bought me a whisky Advent calender from Master of Malt for Christmas. 24 different whiskies from all around the world, all different styles, all different ages, it's enough to make me giggle!

I'd started working my way through the calender, focusing on entry level single malts, blends and lower level abv whiskies, and now I'd slowly started working my way through some of the higher level whiskies, specifically one that had me intrigued.

Tobermory 15 year old.

An Island distillery from the Isle of Mull.

I've never tried Tobermory before, had only heard of it in passing, so I was quite keen to crack open the sample and get into it.

Bottled at 46.3% ABV and a dark golden color this whisky looks so inviting.

So let's start this bad boy up! I wound up sampling this whisky over the course of a day and a half over roughly 3 hours, over the course of which this whisky continued to evolve, stupidly so at times.

The sample was covered with a glencairn cover when I wasn't actually tasting it for the record.

The nose was stupidly complex, starting off oaky and then sweet and fruity, with figs, plums, raisins, all aspects of it's sherry influence, hints of cocoa appear and then it then slowly moves to a slight peaty influence, then spicy, but as time goes by a few wisps of smoked meat appears and then it goes to spicy oranges.

Very sexy. The nose alone makes me want to pick up a bottle of this!

Time for a taste!

Big strong sexy flavors of the fruits and oak are all over the palate, big enough that I'm taken aback just a little bit. Just a wee bit stronger then 46% and it's got so much flavor, it's so big that I'm blown away. The oak and sweet fruit slowly moves into hints of the cocoa that was on the nose, just a wee bit, at times it's almost like a memory of a memory of the cocoa, then the actual cocoa. The spices are present, at times cinnamon, hints of nutmeg, but it never moves into overpowering.

The finish is spicy, but now is the time when I'm actually saying to myself "I know I'm in the Islands" it goes a little salty with brine and just a hint of that peat rearing up it's little head again.

Holy crap this is an awesome whisky! And so far in all the whiskies out of this advent calender this is the clear winner. Blowing everything else out of the water.

However all this beauty comes at a price, at least in Australia it does. $140 Aussie dollars, but hey quality does cost. And I've had quite a few whiskies that were that expensive or even more so that weren't worth the price. This one is!

If you get a chance to try this whisky, do it!!

Nose:        24/25
Taste:       23/25
Finish:       22/25
Balance:    22/25

Overall:     91/100

Weekend Enjoyment 1:
America's Beer Shouts Out!



Brewery: Heretic

Country: American

Style: Belgian Strong Ale (Dark)

ABV: 10%

Review:
Beer, yeah yeah I know this is mainly a whisky blog, but considering the fact that I work with beer almost as much as I hang with whisky every so often I feel obligated to give a bit of information about some of the awesome beers out there.

Now any of my customers reading this know that I'm a dark beer geek, stouts, porters, dark Belgian strong ales, smoked beers, anything dark usually has me giggling.

Now I'm not sure why this is, however I know that I tend to find lagers and pilsners completely boring, 

Pale Ales and Amber Ales are ok, easy drinking, but once again fairly boring.

Wheat beers have to be brilliant, but once again I can take them or leave it.

But dark beers, big sexy dark beers, yeah that makes me happy.

Normally I'm sitting there happily with my imperial stouts and imperial porters, but every so often I feel the need to depart from the usual and move to some sexy dark Belgian beers.

Now recently my company started bringing in Heretic Brewery, a Californian brewery.

Not bad beer to date, but sadly a brewery where I often say "not bad, but for 'x' price you can get 'y' beer in the very same style, but for cheaper and a better quality."

Like I said not bad, but nothing for me to write home about.

Until about 3 months ago when Heretic Worry came in, a light colored Belgian Strong Ale aged in Chardonnay barrels, only 25 or so cases came into the country and the bottles were 355ml bottles that were selling for about $17 to $20+ each.

But then I was informed about Torment.

Torment: A Sexy Barrel Aged Belgian Strong Ale done by the Americans.

A big beautiful dark beer, now this was something I could get behind! 

And even better more cases of this guy were coming into the country, about 60 cases of 12 650ml bottles, so almost triple the amount as the Worry.

So it finally arrives into my store and I know I need to take a bottle home, to try it, just for research so I can sell it better you know?

So I crack the bottle when I get home and pour it into a goblet and it pours a blackish color with reddish overtones and a slight beige head.

Lovely ripe fruit comes off the nose, slight coffee notes, lots of spice and candied sugars, oh it's beautiful and the more the beer warms up the more the fruits and spices come through oh so beautifully.

Time for a taste!

Lovely mouthfeel, just the right amount of carbonation and the flavors follow the nose very closely.  Almost no bitterness leading to a sweet spicy aftertaste.

Oh so gorgeous this beer is.  I wound up picking up bottles of this for my brother in laws Christmas present, after we'd tried it at a tasting at my house, and then my sister in law tried it over the recent holidays at a friends house where I'd brought a bottle.  She wound up loving it, heck even our friend who doesn't like beer so it was pretty darn good.

This is a beautiful beer and I'll be sad when I run out of it at my shop, but it's selling steady and not just too me, but something that I've noticed over the last year.  I don't buy more then one beer of a type from a brewery.  Unless it's brilliant.  Then I'll indulge in it by picking up a couple extra bottles.

At $17 to $20 a $650ml bottle it's a damn good deal and I will just say this, when we're looking at the last case in the country...it's going home with me.

Nose:       23/25
Taste:      23/25
Finish:      21/25
Balance:   22/25

Overall:    89/100

The Whisky Club Starts Review 2!

 

Whisky: Longrow 2000 7 Year old Gaja Barolo Finish

 

Distillery/Brand:

Longrow

 

Bottling:

Longrow 2000 7 Year old Gaja Barolo Finish

 

Region:

Campbeltown

 

ABV:

55.8%

 

Colour:

Full Gold

Review:
I'd started a local whisky club with the help of my brother in law and a few regulars of my imported beer shop.

I'd finally decided to do that when so many of my regular customers had complained about whiskies.

What whiskies would they like? What whiskies were good, what whiskies were bad, what whiskies were worth the price that was being charged for them in the bottleshops?

So many questions, and the only way to get the answers was for them to try different whiskies.

I guess I'd just have to suffer along with them.

Poor me hahaha the lengths I go to provide good customer service for my customers.

Just so you know I have a giant grin right now.

Now my brother in law had tried a few mehish whiskies and a couple of good ones.

At this time the good ones we'd tried were Talisker 18 yr old and Longrow 7 Year Old Gaja Barolo Wood.

My brother in law has been a fan of the Campbeltown whiskies for a while now, ever since his first Springbank.

Now when we're out trying whiskies my brother in law share, it's the best way to expand your range for the cheapest amount of money.

Now we'd just tried the Talisker 18 yr old which was sexy, now it was time to try the Longrow Gaja Barolo Wood.

A nice dark whisky comes out in a tasting glass similar to a glencairn and my brother in law noses it first then tries it and deems it "Very good!"

He then hands me the glass, ripe sexy fruit aromas float up out of the glass, mainly grapes, but
you can definitely see the wine cask finishing influences.

Then the smoke and peat appear with some hints of pepper, it's a lovely little nose and I can immediately see why my brother in law pronounced it very good.

Time to take a taste of my brother in law's whisky though!

Thick oily mouthfeel that covers every inch of my mouth with a delicious smoky fruity flavor.
Lovely thick leather flavors surrounded in that smokey fruit with just a hint of salt and I'm sitting here grinning going "Very good!" to myself.

The finish is long with smokey peat fruit drenched in salt that just lingers forever. I'm loving this whisky!

Even better is this whisky is surprisingly affordable, especially for a cask strength at roughly $145 AUS.

It's a nice play between the big smoke and peat of Longrow and the sexy Italian wine influence of the cask. At no point does either side dominate, but rather they compliment one another, playing with each other, making a beautiful complex dram.

If you get a chance to try this whisky, DO SO!

Nose:        22/25
Taste:       23/25
Finish:      22/25
Balance:   23/25

Overall:     90/100

The Whisky Club Starts Review 1!

 

Whisky: Talisker 18 Year Old

 

Distillery/Brand:

Talisker

 

Bottling:

Talisker 18 Year old

 

Region:

Island

 

ABV:

45.8%

 

Colour:

Sunlight

Review:
I work in an imported beer store, I sell wholesale to the public and due to that alcohol is a large part of my daily life.

Conversations revolve around it, days revolve around it, sometimes even weeks revolve around it.

But many of my customers know me for a passionate whisky fiend who's always experimenting and trying new whiskies all the time and due to the price of alcohol in Australia I found myself
answering quite a few questions about not beer, but whisky instead.

What whiskies are good? What whiskies would I, the customer like? Is that whisky really worth that price?

So I brought in a couple whisky samples for a couple of my regulars to try, to see if they'd like something in that style, what whiskies they might like, would they actually like whisky or did
they just think they liked whisky, etc

I might have cheated considering that I gave them samples of Thomas H Handy 2011 and
Balvenie 21 yr old Portwood.

But they loved them.

So I suggested that if they were interested we could possibly start up a whisky club.

Everyone was interested.

Sweet!

We set up a meet for a Saturday evening get together at the local whisky bar, just one of my regulars, a friend of his, my brother in law and myself.

My brother in law and I are the first to arrive so e start ourselves off with an opening dram and then after about 20 or so minutes we're joined by my regular and his friend.

We chat whisky, distilleries, styles, personal histories, all that good stuff and eventually my brother in law and I decide we're ready for a second whisky.

I go with Talisker 18 yr old, he goes with Longrow 7 Year Old Gaja Barolo Wood.

Now Talisker is one of my favorite distilleries out there. It holds a special place in my heart as the 10 yr old was the only whisky my wife and I could afford on our first wedding anniversary.

The 10 yr old is one of the few whiskies that you can always find in my cabinet.

I've been hearing good things about the 18 yr old for quite a while now, but I'd never had a chance to try it so hear it goes!

They bring out the whisky in a tasting glass, very similar to a glencairn and I eagerly give it a nose.

It's the typical peaty smokey nose that I expect. But it's refined, with lots of sexy notes to it.
Some sweet fruit, nothing that I could put my finger on, but sweet with hints of iodine and sea salt. Oh so sexy.

It's close to the 10 yr old in nose, but it's been made ever so much more elegant.

Time for a taste though!

Peppery, without the intensity of the 10 yr old, with smoke and peat, then it gets more spicy as some coffee and sweet toffee becomes apparent, and all through it comes my beloved Talisker peppers.

A BEAUTIFUL long sexy peppery Talisker finish with hints of salt.

Oh god I've waited so long to try this bad boy, and it was completely worth it. It reaffirms my love for this distillery and doubly reaffirms my determination to come home from Scotland with an older age or cask strength expression from this distillery.

Sadly in Australia you can expect to pay close to $175 or more which while I love this whisky I do think is a wee bit pricey. Definitely a bit pricey to make it an every day dram. However if you've never gotten a chance to taste this expression and you enjoy the 10 yr old, don't pass up a chance to grab a taste of this!

Nose:         23/25
Taste:        23/25
Finish:       22/25
Balance:    23/25

Overall:     91/100

Abbey Whisky Starts Off My New Year Perfectly, With A Bang!

Whisky: Caperdonich 17 Year Old / The Rare Casks (Abbey Whisky)

 

Distillery/Brand:

Caperdonich

 

Bottling:

Caperdonich 17 Year Old / The Rare Casks (Abbey Whisky)

 

Region:

Speyside

 

ABV:

57.8%

 

Colour:

Sunlight

Review:
A while back, before Christmas in fact, Abbey whisky contacted me asking if I'd like to try their new whisky bottling, Caperdonich. They asked me this after I'd contacted them asking what Silent Distillery bottlings they had and might be getting in the near future as my wife and I are heading over to Scotland in the next few months and I'm looking to stock up.

When Abbey Whisky informed me about the Caperdonich bottling, I just stared blankly and said "Caperwhasit?"

I'd maybe encountered the name in my reading about the different distilleries in Scotland, but not enough so that it stuck in my head, not enough to recognize it past it being a single malt.

Maybe not even that to be honest.

However the lovely folks at Abbey Whisky were more then happy to give me a real quick rundown on the distillery's history.

Quick little excerpt from Facebook "it started its life as a sister distillery to Glen Grant, build just across the road, and was built to basically supply similar whisky to GG... Rumor had it that
there was a pipe that ran across the road connecting the 2 distilleries, and the locals used to drill a whole in the pipe and steal the spirit! It was given the well thought out name of Glen Grant No 2! But this changed in 1967 or so, to Caperdonich... As its been basically used in the past for blends etc its rather rare to find this released as a single casks... This is because the distillery was demolished in 2002."

God I love history lessons!

Anyway when Abbey Whisky asked me if I'd like to try this new whisky I said the only thing that I could...

"Of course!"

So they send out my whisky sample and I wait...and wait...and wait...and wait.

Then my spidey sense starts tingling. I have brought in enough whiskies over the last year or so that I have a pretty good idea on how long it takes to come in from the UK, clear customs and arrive at my doorstep.

This whisky was way too late.

So I contacted Abbey Whisky, asking if they knew where the whisky was on it's journey.
 
It had been delivered...to the wrong address.

Possibly to an address that didn't exist.

The post during the holiday rush had misplaced my precious whisky sample, my rare whisky sample, had either been completely lost, or had gone to somebody who was going to mix it with COKE AND ICE?!

Oh the humanity!

Abbey Whisky lets me know right away that they're getting another sample shipped out to me and hopefully it'll be here by Christmas.

God I love how Abbey Whisky kicks butt when during the rare times something happens to an order that the Post loses or misplaces!

Now I just have to cross fingers that the Post doesn't misplace it again!

Christmas comes and goes.

New Years comes and goes.

And I start worrying. Has it been lost again? Misplaced? Hung up in customs?!

Then today, after a back breaking day of moving pallet after pallet of heavy cases of beer, as I'm sweaty and sore and achy I call my wife as I head home and she informs me that the sample has arrived!

Oh sweet baby jebus it's here!

This right here was brilliant news! Better news then I could have hoped for when the day started.

So I head home and my wife finally arrives home with the sample.

It's in a cute little box filled with straw, black wax covering the lid. Very nice looking.

Pale pale liquid.

This whisky is from a single barrel, bottled at cask strength of 57.8% and the barrel only produced 96 bottles. So this is going to be a treat!

I pour the sample into my glencairn and just grin as I watch the thick sexy legs climb down the glass. Pale yellow and with a nose that starts off simple, but then gets sexily complex.

Starts off with heaps of vanilla and oak, then moves to a sexy peppery fruit salad. Pineapples, cherries, bananas, hints of lychee. The nose is thick and creamy and has my mouth salivating within about 10 seconds.

I'm literally smelling this dram for about 40 minutes as I almost don't want to take a taste.

What if it doesn't live up to it's nose, what if it's only meh. I don't want to be disappointed.

But you know the old saying don't you? Whisky isn't meant for looking at or smelling, it's meant
for tasting!

Time to taste!

I take the first swallow and I roll it around my mouth and I hold it there for about 15, 20 seconds.

Until it's coated my entire mouth.

It burns, but god it burns good. This is no blushing violet of a whisky, this is a whisky with balls!
Big pepper chilli kick to it, but it's also sweet with honey and some very shy fruits. I'm picking up a small amount of pears, but that's just the sideshow. The main event is all those sexy spices, peppers, oak and vanilla, all backed up by a strong malt backbone. As the whisky develops some floral notes develop. But once again that's not the main event.

God that's good, with a nice sexy creamy mouthfeel and I'm in heaven.

Nice long bitter floral finish with vanilla and hints of cocoa and I'm a guy who's left with a giant grin on his face.

Now here comes the best part, the price. Roughly $60 AUS. For a 17 year old, cask strength, great quality, silent distillery. That price is nothing short of stupid. To the point that I'm picking up at least one bottle for me, possibly two if I can convince my wife without getting murdered by her.

And this whisky has led me to one undeniable conclusion: Abbey Whisky is bad for my budget, because they seem to have this talent for choosing brilliant whiskies, then pricing them at a more then reasonable price which makes it so hard for me to resist so that every time they send me a sample I wind up buying a bottle. This is going to get real expensive, real quick I both hope and fear...

If you get a chance to try this whisky, to buy this whisky, don't hesitate, DO SO. Right now I'm afraid that I'm not going to be able to get my hands on my bottle.

Now where's my credit card.....

Nose:         24/25
Taste:        24/25
Finish:        23/25
Balance:     23/25

Overall:      94/100

24 Days of Christmas Whisky: Day 7; 
I Kiss A Pig's Nose!

Whisky: Pig's Nose

 

Distillery/Brand:

Spencerfield Spirits

 

Bottling:

Pig's Nose

 

Region:

Scotch Blend

 

ABV:

40%

 

Colour:

Pale Straw


Review:
My wife, being the awesome wife she is, picked me up a very sexy whisky calender for Christmas this year. 24 different whisky samples from around the world, differing ages, differing styles, different countries....

God it's enough to make a man grin!!

I'd drunk all the whiskies that I'd had before, then I started in on the entry level single malts that I'd never tried before.

Still got a few of those left to be honest.

But I decided to change things up the last couple days and move into some blended whiskies before heading back to single malt territory.

I'd tried Johnnie Walker Gold Label 18 yr old the other day, but now it was time to move into the farmyard.

Into Pig's Nose territory!

Now I'd tried it's big brother, Sheep Dip Old Hebridean 1990 Vintage, a smokey giant vatted whisky involving malts from Ardbeg, Dalmore and Fettercairn.

Pigs Nose however is not a vatted whisky, but a blend and from what I've heard there are something like 26 different single malts that have gone into this little guy, malts from Islay, Speyside and the Highlands.

I'd really enjoyed Sheep Dip Old Hebridean quite a lot so I was looking forward to the Pigs Nose.

So I crack the cute little sample bottle with it's red wax seal and pour the contents into the glencairn.

Surprisingly dark for such a young whisky, I believe it comes in at around 8 years of age, so I'm willing to bet that there is a fair amount of caramel coloring that have been added, but I could be wrong.

But enough about it's looks, it's time to nose!

Sweet, very very sweet. There is a hint of peat to it, quite a bit of honey, citrus, specifically pineapples, some other fruits in there, hints of sour apple, sultanas, peaches, caramel, underneath it all a hint of pepper.

Very very sweet.

It's not bad, just a sweet nose. Actually it's sorta sucking me in the longer I nose it.

Time for a drink!

Sweet!

Woooeeee! That's sweet.

Initial burst in the mouth is caramel, then honey, oranges, more caramel, hint of stewed prune, lots of different spices, bit of pepper.

However it's gone sickly sweet, too young.

Short spicy dry finish with the caramel and honey coming through clean as day. The peat reappears for a second and then disappears again.

Not bad for a blend, however the over the top sweetness kills it just a bit for me. It's nothing that I could have more then a dram of at a time, however it might be nice to use with people who think all blends are the same.

However the price is where I start sighing, I want to say that it sits at around the $75 to $85 price point which is sadly too much to pay for this in my opinion. If I want something sweet I'd head to Macallan 12 yr old, if I wanted something complex I'd head to Talisker 10 year old (and save $20 or so dollars) if I wanted a blend I'd grab Johnnie Walker Green Label (grab it while you still can my friends because they're going fast!) But I don't think I'd pick up a bottle of Pig's Nose. Just too sweet for my palate.

Nose:       20/25
Taste:      19/25
Finish:      18/25
Balance:   18/25

Overall:    75/100