Tastes

I recommended the Monkey Shoulder to my sister in law who’s a beginning whisky appreciator, even before I had tried it myself. I was convinced that a blend of Glenfiddich, The Balvenie and Kininvie couldn’t go wrong. I prefer to refer to it as a triple Malt, though. We cracked her bottle on Christmas Eve, and we both loved it instantly. It shows sufficient body, and just the right amount of sweetness, spicyness with a tad of salt. For me, one of the best blend I’ve tried.

One of my cousins swears by Chivas for his daily dram and had me try it last day. I think it’s a quite decent blend, albeit a bit flat. I missed some dept and body.

After a work related Christmas dinner I had the chance to taste The Dalmore 15. My expectations were high, as The Dalmore was one of my most anticipated on brands since I got interested in whisky - partly because of the hype around the brand - but, since my preferences started to lean towards peated whiskies early on, The Dalmore dropped lower on my Wishlist. I’m going to confess right from the start that I found The Dalmore 15 to be an absolutely outstanding dram, from the Nose to the finish, but at the same time I feel The Dalmore is a bit over-hyped. I had a similar thoughts and experiences with The Macallan I tasted in Italy last year, though. The Dalmore 15 has perfect balance, a full, round body and I liked the caramel peanuts in the palate as well as the obvious the sherrycask-influences, but this 15 year old didn’t ‘wow’ me very much at all. The finish was ok though and lingers on quite a while, especially it’s sweetness. All in all it’s certainly not a bad dram, and I’ll try other expressions and ages of The Dalmore whenever I’ll get the chance to, but it the expectations will be a lot lower next time.

The Ledaig 10 was pretty high on my whishlist. My wife brought it with her after Christmas shopping. That still leaves a bit of room for an educated guess what the actually holiday gifts will be, but she declines to comment on my guesses though. Haha. She won’t ruin the fun :). While distilled at the Tobermory Distillery on the Isle of Mull, the Ledaig 10 shows in every other aspect an Islay wisky, and proves that a full, rich, smokey whisky doesn’t necessarily has to originate from Islay. While a Laphroaig does remind of a nightly campfire at a windy beach however, this one more reminds me of Grandmothers’ coil stove while baking crispy sweet bacon. If she had had a coil stove that is. (She could cook a great bacon with eggs though!). Damn, this is just a great dram. I really find it hard to rate. I’m inclined to rate it 5 stars, but I’ve already gave Lagavulin 16, Bruichladdich Black Art 4 and the Octomore 10 5 stars. For the moment I’m sticking with 4, but read 4 and a half stars, please.

As I mentioned in the review of the Caol Ila 18, I tasted this one on a mini blind-tasting together with the Ardbeg 10. The latter one was pretty obvious as I knew it already, and the longer maturation of the Coal Ila showed trough by it’s subdued smoke and sweetness. For the Kilchoman Long Gorm, it’s youth was quite obvious - but that’s not a negative. To the contrary, I was impressed by the nose and palate, considering it’s young age. It’s a complex dram, with lots of sweetness (probably due the Sherry Cask finish) with some hints of bitter chocolate, some citrus fruits and of course a nice amount of smoke. Again, considering it’s age, a very well balanced dram that makes me wonder for their other expressions.

As a Peat lover, I was curious to taste something from Coal Ila. At a mini-tasting, my cousin let me try and blind tast the 18 year old, along with the Kilchoman Long Gorm, and the Ardbeg 10. Knowing the Ardbeg already , it was quite easy to deduct which one was the Coal Ila: the youth of the Kilchoman showed through quite obviously (see also it’s own review soon). The Coal Ila 18 was a fine dram, but to be honest, I was a bit disappointed by the modest amount of smoke. Again, not a bad whisky, but I guess the long maturation subdues a bit of the character I expected. Perhaps the 12 year old holds up a bit better?

The Octomore 10 (2nd edition) is with 167ppm a real peat monster. Presented right after the 169pp Octomore 7.3 at a Bruichladdich Masterclass, it appeared to be a tad smoother, and somewhat sweeter, but that’s not a minus, really. The extra five years of maturation tempers the smoke a bit, and the partial maturation in white wine cask is quite obvious, and certainly adds some tropical, fruity tones. Both the nose and the palate are pretty impressive and complex, and make it really hard to choose between this one and the 7.3… Actually, I’d take either one of these, any time, without any hesitation… :)

Holy. Peat. Smoke. At 169ppm the smokiest whisky I’ve tried. Despite this, and despite being bottled at 63% ABV, this Octomore 7.3 was surprinsingly accessible. Sweet, fruity, salty… smoky… the Spanish Wine barrel finish is quite obvious. Perfect from the nose to the finish. And this one finishes… I’ve got no words for this… I goes right to the top for me.