24 Days of Christmas Whisky: Day 6!

 

 

Whisky: Johnnie Walker Gold Label 18 Year Old

 

Distillery/Brand:

Johnnie Walker

 

Bottling:

Johnnie Walker Gold Label 18 Year Old

 

Region:

Scotch Blend

 

ABV:

40%

 

Colour:

Sunlight

Review:
My wife bought me this sexy little whisky calender for Christmas. It came from Master of Malt and was a sample pack of 24 different whiskies, blends, bourbons, single malts, Islay, Highland, Speyside, Island whiskies.

The whole range!

 I'd immediately gone through the few whiskies in the calender that I'd already tried and reviewed before, then I moved onto the two whiskies that I'd tried before and had never really examined/reviewed.

Then I moved onto whiskies that I'd never tried before. I'd started with entry level single malts and after a few days, just for shits and giggles I decided to throw in a blended whisky.
Johnnie Walker Gold Label to be exact.

Now I'd tried a decent selection of the Johnnie Walker whiskies, the Red label, the Black label and the Green Label.

For the record the Black and Green label damn well rock and in my mind kill the thoughts that blends can't be as awesome as a single malt.

So I finally get a chance to sit down with my wife for dinner and decide to crack open the Gold Label sample bottle and pour it into one of my glencairns.

The nose starts off woody with a wee bit of peat and smoke and then it goes sweet with honey, apples and pears. And then it goes to a wee bit of maritime air.

A very complex nose that keeps changing, and seems to have fun sucking me in.

Time for a taste!

Smooth, very very smooth. Practically no bite to it at all. The flavors are sweet with the honey and fruits and then some soft peat. Quite a floral flavor to it too.

A medium to long dry finish with soft smoke and fruit ends this very nice whisky.

A stupidly nice whisky which once again destroys the myth that I hear oh so often that for a whisky to be good it has to be single malt.

Or a blend that runs hundreds and hundreds of dollars, such as the Johnnie Walker Blue Label.

This whisky runs at around $80 AUS and is damn good value for money, my only complaint is that it's just a wee bit too smooth for my tastes. I prefer my whiskies with just a bit of bite to them, but I'm damn glad that I got a chance to try this bad boy out!

If you're sitting there thinking that blends are crap, I dare you to try Johnnie Walker Green and Johnnie Walker Gold and say it again!

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

Overall:    87/100

24 Days of Christmas Whisky: Day 5!

Whisky: Scapa 16 Year Old

 

Distillery/Brand:

Scapa

 

Bottling:

Scapa 16 Year old

 

Region:

Island

 

ABV:

40%

 

Colour:

Sunlight

Region:
My wife recently bought me the coolest calender ever made for me for Christmas.

A whisky calender!

24 different samples bottled by Master of Malt, covering a variety of styles, ages, strengths and countries.

When I saw it in my email I knew THAT'S what I wanted for Christmas so I sent my wife that email as a very subtle hint to her and she, being insanely observant and deep picked up on that hint.

Each calender is different, containing different samples in each of them. The only constant in each of calenders was a 50 year old Speyside whisky that Master of Malt had bottled.

I'd gone through Islays, Highlands, Lowlands, and Irish whiskies so far in my calender and today I was going to be tasting an Island whisky.

Even cooler it was an Island distillery that I'd never tried before.

Scapa!

Now this is the second furthest North distillery in Scotland, being just half a mile South of Highland Park. Another one of my favorite distilleries!

This was the 16 year old, so not quite entry level considering that they also produce a 14 year old.

Relaxing as I cook dinner I crack open the sample bottle and pour it's contents into the glencairn.

First off let's nose!

First thing that comes through is honeyed toffee, then it goes salty with hints of peat and fruit.

It's a nice nose, nothing super special, but not bad and it does make me eager to take a taste.

Which is the very thing that I shall do!

Starts sweet then it jumps to sea salt covered bananas.

Lots of bananas. Actually salty bananas are the strongest flavors that come through on this whisky. It tastes good, but sadly it's boring.

Finish is of a nice length with more and more bananas coming through, with just a hint of salt at the end.

Not a bad little whisky, however while it's not bad, it's boring, non complex.

And odds are I'm going to guess that a bottle of this would normally run around $120 AUS which is way too much for a nice, but boring 16 yr old whisky.

If you get a chance to taste it, go for it. I don't think you'll be upset, but spending more then $60-$70 AUS and you're sadly paying too much.

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

Overall:     76/100

To Start A Whisky Club Attempt 1!


 

Whisky: Bruichladdich Laddie Classic Edition 1

 

Distillery/Brand:

Bruichladdich

 

Bottling:

Laddie Classic Edition 1

 

Region:

Islay

 

ABV:

46%

 

Colour:

Chardonnay

Review:
 As many of you my fine friends know, I work at a beer importers. We bring the good stuff into Australia. If you've ever seen some of my beers, Weihenstephan, Sierra Nevada, Green Flash, Theakston's, etc anywhere in Australia, that store bought it from me.

Now while the vast majority of our business's income comes from bottle shops that all Australians know and love, we had a small room in the front of our building that was sitting there and doing nothing.

We figured "Why don't we open this small room, fill it up with beer and let the public come in and see/sample the wares?"

Hence my showroom was borne. In this showroom I've got something along the lines of 200 different beers, and every Friday and Saturday I host a free tasting, for the public to come in and try the good stuff.

Now you're probably wondering why I figure this is relevant for a whisky site.

Simple.

I find that most guys who like beer, ALSO like whisky.

And as time has gone along, more and more of my customers know me for the whisky man that I am. And more and more often I'm getting customers asking me about whisky.

What ones are the good ones?

What ones are worth the money?

Is ANY whisky worth more then $200 honestly?!

As one of my regulars put it "with whisky prices what they are, each and every bottle is an investment"

Very true.

So I decided to create a little impromptu whisky club. Just a few members getting together every few weeks as we try different regions and styles of whisky.

The customers love the idea! Sounds like a plan.

So I'd intended the first night to actually be tonight.

I call up my favorite whisky bar to confirm that they were indeed open tonight, I email them and after almost a week I hear a response.

Sadly they're not open.

Amusingly enough I'd decided not to wait on a confirmation before looking for another possible venue to do our first tasting.

Someone had suggested the Mechanic's Institute.

I give them a call, asking about tasting glasses, whisky selection, etc.

They inform me they have one of the biggest selections of rye whiskies, and a decent selection of single malts. They have tasting glasses, but they can't tell me what kind.

I need to investigate.

So yesterday my sister in law, my wife and I all decide to head down there for lunch.

Nice little bar on the second floor of a building, tucked away from the main road. I order food for my wife and myself and then start perusing the whisky selection.

Definitely a nice rye selection, might be fun to do a rye tasting there, but just about every other whisky in the bar, I've had.

Now that's not a bad thing, I find that at just about any bar around I've had all/almost all of the whiskies available. I've just hit over 200 different whiskies sampled this year alone, so that's not a bad thing like I said.

But the selection is not enough for a whisky tasting for a club for the first time.

I need a large variety of regions and styles, which sadly this bar doesn't have.

So I decide to grab a dram of one of the whiskies that I've yet to try and see first hand what type of whisky tasting glasses they have.

I've been an Islay mood so I decide to grab a Bruichladdich Laddie Classic Edition #1.

It's got a pretty blue bottle, what can I say?

So I grab a dram and it comes in a tulip style tasting glass, not bad. I set it down at our table when I go to get our food.

I come back to my sister in law and wife having tried it ahead of me.

Hahaha cheeky!

I decide to give it a nose.

Interesting, very interesting.

It's like a sexy little Christmas pudding almost.

Lots of salt, lots of nuts, barley, fruit, the slightest hint of peat, hints of cocoa as the whisky
breathes.

My sister in law and wife ask what region it's from and when I inform them that it's Islay they blink.

My sister in law then informs me that she'd have never guessed that.

Fair enough, neither would I if I didn't know the distillery's background.

Let's see what it tastes like!

Time for a taste!

Salty and sweet is a very good way to describe it with a nice dose of bitterness thrown in. You get more of the ripe fruits along with some sexy caramel bitterness along with sweet barley and then lots of salt.

Yum!

There is just a wee bit of peat, but again nothing that would make you jump up and down and yell Islay. You'd honestly be thinking more Islands or a Highlands whisky.

A nice long bitter finish with hints of fruit at the very end of the caramel.

Quite enjoyable!

But once more you wouldn't say Islay when you tried this.

And it's available at Dan Murphy's for roughly $90 AUS. Not bad!

I think this would be a really nice whisky to pull out for say an Islay tasting. You know? An Ardbeg, a Laphroaig, a Caol Ila and a Bruichladdich would be a very nice tasting!

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

Overall:     84/100

24 Days of Christmas Whisky: Day 4!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Distillery/Brand:

Caol Ila

Bottling:

Caol ila 12 Year old

 

Region:

Islay

 

ABV:

43%

 

Colour:

Sunlight

Review:
My wife purchased an extremely awesome Christmas present for me this year. A calender. A very special calender.

A calender made of whiskies!

Entry level whiskies, old whiskies, cask strength whiskies, whiskies from around the world.

Sweeet!

I'd tasted a few of them before, some I'd reviewed before, but now I was finally moving into new whisky territory.

Caol Ila 12 year old!

I'd been lucky enough to try a single cask offering from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society that was awesome, but was very keen to try the entry level as I'd heard nothing, but good things about it.

That and I'm a big Islay fan, loving every single distillery that I'd tried from Islay, Ardbeg, Lagavulin, Laphroaig, Caol Ila.

Very very pale whisky in it's little sample bottle.

Pour it into it's glencairn.

And now a nose.

A grin crosses my face. God it smells good.

Smoke, but it's a sweet smoke, hints of toffee, peat, fruit, some citrus, but I swear I'm getting a wee bit of red fruits, raspberries maybe. Hints of brine (yes yes I know that Caol Ila isn't actually aged near the sea, but that's still what I pick up!)

Underneath that there is the faintest phenolic aroma, something slightly medicinal, but much less then say Ardbeg.

Time for a taste!

Sweet smoke, peat and then quite a bit of salt. It's an interesting play between smoke, sweet and salty.

It's not bad, but definitely not the most exciting Islay I've ever tried, mind you as an entry level single malt, they don't tend to be the most interesting, but Ardbeg and Laphroaig were quite a bit more complex, or at least I remember them being quite a bit more complex.

A decent peaty finish with salty charcoal finishes the whisky.

Interesting. And definitely a whisky that I enjoyed, I think I prefer Ardbeg 10 yr old over this, but it's still a nice change of pace and an interesting variation on the typical Islay whisky.

I haven't found this bottle in any of the local bottle shops, but I'm guessing that a bottle would normally run around $90 or so, which isn't a bad price for the whisky that you're getting and definitely not a bad price for what I would almost term entry level Islay single malt.
If you haven't tried this distillery yet, it's definitely not a distillery you should pass up!

 Nose:        21/25
Taste:        21/25
Finish:        19/25
Balance:     20/25

Overall:      81/100

24 Days of Christmas Whisky: Day 3!

Whisky: Jameson Whisky

 

Distillery/Brand:

Jameson

 

Bottling:

Jameson

 

Region:

Irish 

 

ABV:

40%

 

Colour:

Pale Straw

Review:

My wife purchased a Master of Malt Whisky Calender for me for Christmas. This whisky calender was comprised of 24 different whisky samples varying in whisky regions, ages, abv strengths, types of whisky, etc.

I'd tried only a few of the whiskies before, and had been working my way through some entry level whiskies, some of which I'd had before, when on the third day I decided I needed to mix things up.

I decided to try a whisky that I used to drink many years ago, abeit in whiskies and coke and over ice.

An Irish whisky.

Jameson.

Only this time I was trying it neat.

In a glencairn.

Wewt!

Time to see the differences.

Nose is sweet with citrus, apples, spices, specifically hints of cinnamon and nutmeg, some grassy notes along with oak.

Not too bad. Actually considering this is one of the whiskies I grew up on it's really nice to be able to nose it and sit there and say "whisky doesn't smell like whisky, it smells like...."

Huzzah for getting older!

Time for a drink!

Apples, pears, oak, some spices and barley.

It's not awful, however there's something in there that's actively unpleasant, something artificial, something causes a burning sensation when the liquid hits my stomach. Something chemical. Can't place it, but I don't like it.

Actually check that, it is awful.

Finish is short with pears and apples and that chemical flavor.

This is definitely a mixing whisky, if you enjoy whiskies and cokes have lots of fun. However if you're looking for a nice sipping whisky, this is definitely not the whisky for you. Mind you it runs for roughly $40-45 AUS, so it's not horribly priced, however there are quite a few other whiskies in that same price range which are far superior.

Glad that I got a chance to revisit this whisky though, especially without paying for a full bottle.

Nose:        19/25
Taste:       16/25
Finish:       16/25
Balance:     16/25

Overall:      67/100

24 Days of Christmas: Day 2!

 

Whisky: Oban 14 year old

 

Distillery/Brand:

Oban

 

Bottling:

Oban 14 Year old

 

Region:

Highland

 

ABV:

43%

 

Colour:

Pale Straw

Region:
My wife just picked me up a 24 bottle whisky sample pack for Christmas. She picked it up from Master of Malt based off my oh so very subtle hints based off an email I sent her asking for it for Christmas.

This was a good thing as up to then neither of us really had an idea on a good gift for me for Christmas.

Even better is that the large majority of whisky samples in the pack were from whiskies/distilleries that I'd never tried before and a couple of the whiskies that I had tasted before I'd never sat down and contemplated them before so even better!

The first sample I tried was a Dalwhinnie 15 yr old and the next one up was a whisky I'd tasted before, but under less then ideal conditions.

Oban 14 yr old.

Now the first time I'd tried this whisky was in an Irish restaurant, after discovering that this was the only whisky they had that I'd never tried before.

Sadly the dram came out in a massive tumbler, from a half full bottle which after trying this sample seems like it was largely oxidized.

So I decided to crack open this sample next in order to give it a try.

Nosing it in it's glencairn the first odors to hit the nose is citrus with honey, then oak develops with peat smoke and always an undertone of salt.

Interesting nose, especially with the salt, but honestly not a nose that makes me eager to take a sip.

However whisky isn't just for nosing, it's also for tasting.

Odd palate. Sweet with salty. Pears, apples, vanilla, honey and through it all is salt.

A drying mouthfeel and finish. Faint fruit and lingering salt ends the whisky.

This for me had the potential to be a really cool whisky, especially with the salt, however sadly the salt dominates every aspect of this whisky.

I'd still call this an entry level single malt, however at $85 or so AUS it's not a whisky that I'd ever pick up in it's current form.

Nose:       20/25
Taste:      18/25
Finish:      18/25
Balance:    17/25

Overall:     73/100

24 Days Of Christmas: Day 1!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whisky: Dalwhinnie 15 Year Old

 

Distillery/Brand:

Dalwhinnie

 

Bottling:

Dalwhinnie 15 Year old

 

Region:

Highland

 

ABV:

43%

 

Colour:

Pale Straw

Review:
My wife has been wondering what to get me for Christmas.

Should she buy me a nice bottle of whisky?

 Should she just set aside some money for a nice bottle of whisky for when we get to Scotland?

Movies?

Video games?

She had no real good ideas, and to be honest neither did I.

Until I received an email from Master of Malt. In this email they had a couple gift ideas, including a whisky calender that was comprised of 24 different whiskies, including a 50 year old whisky worth hundreds of dollars.

Awesome!

So I send my wife the email at which she calls out to me "Is this a hint to me?"

"Yes!"

24 different samples of whiskies, I couldn't wait!

We order this whisky calender and then we wait.

And wait.

And wait some more on Customs.

All the while Master of Malt posts on Facebook each and every day a picture of the calenders, asking "What's in your calender today?"

And the responses, oh sweet jesus the responses.

I see people getting whiskies I've never even heard of, distilleries I've never tried, different ages, cask strengths, differ countries.

Oh I am so jealous!

Mind you I also see duds being posted, one guy in particular seemed to have a bad calender, but overall I'm left drooling.

As I wait.

And then finally one day the customs invoice arrives, I pay it immediately and 4 days later it appears.

Sweet!

My wife and I sit down that night and dinner and crack open the calender, I've got to see what mine contains!!

Oh sweet!

50 yrs olds, 30 yr olds, no age statements, cask strengths!

Score!

Actually such a score because out of the 24 whiskies in it I've only tried 5 of them before.

Even better two out of those five whiskies were tasted under less then ideal conditions (massive tumblers) so here was a chance to try it in ideal settings!

Not wanting to crack open anything I've never tried before this evening I decide to crack open one that I'd had and reviewed before.

Dalwhinnie 15 yr old.

So I crack the wax open and pour it into my glencairn and start nosing the whisky.

Honeyed flowers, citrus, toffee, apples and a hint of smoke after sitting in the glencairn for about twenty minutes.

This is when I decide to pull up my tasting notes on this bad boy, to see if it's at all different from the last time I'd had it.

Too my surprise I quickly discover that I've actually never reviewed this whisky, actually I've never tasted this one before...

Score!!

Time to get back to the whisky!

Again a slight hint of smoke develops on the whisky's nose after about twenty minutes on top of the honeyed flowers, citrus, toffee and apples make this an enjoyable nose and makes me eager to take a sip.

The flavors are similar to the nose with the honeyed flowers, however after the honeyed flowers the palate comes into it's own with vanilla, pears and hints of cocoa.

Yummy!

A short finish with flowers, vanilla and pears ends this whisky.

Not a bad sample, and definitely not a bad whisky! Especially for roughly $60 AUS.

By no means is this a super whisky, however price per value it's pretty damn good.

Nose:         21/25
Taste:        21/25
Finish:       20/25
Balance:     21/25

Overall:      83/100