Tastes

Picked this up for st patrick's day and after some rave reviews from Telex and Malt Muser on their tuesday show. Lets jump in. Nose - Fruity orchard fruits, bubble gum, light malt and bread notes, twinge of red fruits, nearing the level of chocolate but perhaps white chocolate. There's an almost icing meats glue thing going on in the back transitioning to light toasted oak. Taste - Juicy fruit bubble gum transitioning to tropical fruits. There's vanilla and oak, sugary almost fast food bun notes, and perhaps some berries and cream. Finish - nice toasted oak and a light spice. Overall for 56 bucks you can't really beat this, unless you grab a powers 12 year. 1.5 score here. A bit below the average whisky I'd buy but I'm more than happy with the price to value. Ultimately, it's a bit boring and will be my go to pour until it is gone. I don't want to waste space with it but I'm enjoying every pour more than enough to go back to it. Edit going 2.0. It's a nicer better whisky than I thought. The hype hurt it for me and the price didn't help. But yeah I'm happy with this as a cheap really tasty bottle.

This is going to be a series from this distillery but I have a feeling I'll be adding most of the bottles. Citrus, vanilla, light salts, some light waxy elements and some floral notes. Pretty basic on the nose for me. The taste is a bit more of the same, but there's a lot more here. Creamy vanilla, citrus, floral, and toasted oak barrels. Little bit of spice from the oak and a nice medium lingering finish . Overall is a really nicely made bottle, good mouth feel, good body, rich flavors, and it really is that classic quality scotch. Solid 3.0 on this one. I think everyone will be really impressed for about 100 pounds. Edit - going back the lack of character here just keeps coming up each time i go back. It's just too classic and basic. 2.5 instead of the 3.0. Sorry for those who gives this 90+

So quick info, just pass on this. It's a joke beyond words. Just pass, these guys are putting out trash and charging these stupid prices. It's comical. But I was suckered in. Nose - Honestly, it's a weird nose. Kinda comes off like a young, ethanol forward bourbon. Taste - first off this feels like water and then kicks on the back like 200 proof, wtf is going on here? OK so it's vanilla and oak. I mean there's not really much more going on. It's almost as if someone flavored vanilla vodka with bourbon and oak. Just for sanity I poured me some belle meade reserve, all those rye spices and lovely balanced sweet and spicy notes. Lovely. The 400 dollar bourbon? It's sweeter, but it's almost like it tastes like a watered down bourbon as in I just added too much water, but then hits with alcohol. Water - oddly enough the water seems to be teasing out some things on the nose. Bringing out more bourbon oils and more of a mellow creamy note. The nose at first was crazy closed off. Getting a bit of odd mushroom sauce notes here, but mostly just oak and vanilla. Water Pallet - it's still pretty thin but it's not more thin than before. I'm getting more spice and tannins. The finish is medium but it's better now than before. Going back again to the belle meade, it's younger but it's not young. The flavors are rich and full as hell. Great whisky. The st nick is coming alive slowly for me and it's not a bad bourbon. I can't even guess where this is from. There's a legit note of buffalo trace with way more oak and bite than normal. Overall I'm scoring it a 2.25, but if price factors in at all, it's a 0. Seriously screw these guys.

At this point I feel most know what they're getting with these. This is a 3 year old whisky with 8% coming from an aberlour cask that was aged in a first fill sherry butt for like 2 years after a year in bourbon or something like that. And then a 22 year old imperial aged in first fill bourbon. I know nothing of imperial but the descriptions leave me expecting a pretty traditional highland/speyside type malt with a lot of vanilla infused from the bourbon casks. nose - orchard fruits, stone fruits, and even some more citrus orange like elements. Plenty of vanilla with some oak and an almost light smoke from perhaps the youthful first fill sherry just somewhat not mixing into the bourbon notes. Very fruity but not really compared to a lot of recent compassbox offerings which have gone to the moon on sweet fruity notes. I should note this isn't my first pour but the whisky seems a touch closed off. I reserve the right to adjust as needed. Taste - Clean simple cereal grain and fruit leads off then fades into a somewhat muted vanilla and light chocolate finish. Some oak tanins, some sherry elements. It's leaving me wanting. Water opens it up a touch brings the fruits together into a singular fruit cocktail and the oak and sherry elements move mostly into the finish where they make a fairly strong impression. I'm now down below the shoulder and I've poured 2 glasses each time I've spent time with this. You can tell they added young whisky to older whisky. You can taste more of that younger cask than perhaps you'd want but it does add something with that really rich sherry note. I had no idea what to expect coming in and to be honest, I have no idea what to expect as this opens up. And yet, it's still compass box and with that, i did know what to expect. For now I'm scoring this is a 2.0 but I'm leaving a strong chance this improves with time. As for buying it and the price, this is a risky buy and I'd generally say it might be one to think twice about for all but serious fans. It's good, you'll like it. But I feel this is pretty average stuff with some moments of very good and some moments of "I could do better for 70-80". Also the box is too big and flimsily. Phenomenalogy was that last well made quality box from them. I'm getting home with wrinkles on my boxes now every time I buy one. Sure I'm walking with it too much but still, come on guys, fancy labels need quality cardboard (I'm not asking for wood or anything crazy).

I'm really new to Ledaig and with that and a unique profile, I'm concerned with properly grading but, this is a newbie review I suppose. Nose - glue, plastic sour oak, ash and shoot, very much reminding me of bowmore. Water tames this one, bringing out sweetness and makes is much more pleasant and sweet forward. Taste - milk chocolate meets glue and plastic, putty, soot, with a tanic almost battery acid like peat finish. Water brings out more milk chocolate, tames the glue and plastic while pushing the soot out in front. There's a lot of baked fruit notes coming through now as well. So review coming with mike and I but I wanted to sit down with this by itself as my first drink of a day and really try and discover the malt. With water I start going back to talisker and craigellachie with the worm wood sweetness and that bit of talisker pepper. There's still a bowmore plastic note, very clean malt before the soot notes come in. A dirty malt mellowed with 21 years of aging, tamed with manzanilla notes, but still a dirty dirty dog at its core. I'm going with a 3 star rating. I think mike and I had this around an 87, but you'll have to watch the review in a few weeks. I whisky I love hating or hate loving? I'm not sure, but it's good stuff with a very traditional classic old world type feel that just doesn't nail on what I love in whisky, but hits on a lot of things I like.

This is my guilty, embarrassing purchase. They're not worth the trouble to get them...but I really do enjoy these. Nose - chocolate cherries, alcohol, oak, and a touch of barn funk. It's pretty straight forward, a mix of buffalo trace, touch of youth, lotta alcohol, and the real unique note is that touch of funk/oak. With water a bit of caramel comes out (shocking?). Taste - Hot for sure, these are all hot but this one is a bit hotter than usual. A lot of chocolate, touch of oak, really rich heavy vanilla cream, some cream corn/grain, and some varnish. Water doesn't change much here, even a health dose doesn't kill the alcohol. I like this bourbon. It's very nice and pretty enjoyable. Not too complex and I think that's where this one falls flat. Great upfront flavor and a nice oaky note I don't get on other Stagg Jrs. But the finish is perhaps a drop of spice and it lingers but it's simple and pretty basic. It's more the result of the high proof than there being a rich complex whisky here. Anyway 2.25, I'm gonna keep over paying (not through dollars but favors or store points/rewards programs) for these but if you can't get one...you'll live. There's better stuff on the shelf. Edit - well I scored the last two batches 2.75 so let me move this to a 2.5. I think I was just too nice but whatever. This is pretty good so a 2.5 is perfectly fine. I think this is very close to the last two releases so they really should all be the same score and the 12 was likely more than a quarter star better.

On sale for under 100....why not? Nose - Straight up sherry bomb. There's some meat and peat elements WAYYYYYYYY back there or there's just too much sherry? I get a lot of red fruits from a second use oloroso or perhaps some PX. The meaty peaty malt is giving me elements but not coming out here strong. I get the smoke off a pig roast with some glaze, but it's still a touch out of line with exceptional. Taste - I get why these are so expensive at retail. It really is a flavor bomb with elements from all over coming out. It's sherry and oak and peat, and then this totally weird funk where I think the wood and oak you're storing this in are going bad. That said, it's darn complex and tasty.... Ok so the nose isn't doing well for me. The taste of really well done, really complex, but doesn't hit on notes geeks love. Still I love what they did on the neck and I'm told drink that neck. SO cheers.

Nose - Really rich fruity nose, one of the sweetest longrow reds yet. There's a very nice finish on the end letting you know these are wine casks and not some sherry cask. Light peat, touch of smoke, currants, aged wine oak, vanilla, and a nice somewhat hot spice finish. Taste - Opens with vanilla and sweet wine notes, then you have a slow drive as peat and smoke slowly build up as the oak (with wine notes) drive up. Rich with a distinct 4 different transitions. There aren't a lot of distinct notes here like strawberries or jam per say but a lot of just wonderful well balanced and yet perfectly out of balance to be a longrow red where big bold flavors are expected. I'm a huge fan of this series and the more I go back to this one the more I like it. 3.75 out of 5. Great stuff and well worth the 150 these are going for. Edit - a few more pours in and I got a try an heel to add that to my knowledge (my bottles still pretty full). Yeah I"m bringing this way down. There's a nice finish deep into this one, but it's just not that great. To confirm I poured a drop of the 11 cabernet franc red, and it's just night and day better up front, the 13 year cab does have a nice spicy finish that does make me think I'm being harsh but the up front is boring. Dropping this to a 3.25. Edit 2 I'm back to 3.5 and thinking 3.75. Really good stuff. My bottle is about at the 70% mark and it's really coming into it's own. The heel I had clearly got there way too fast!

I'm not sure what compelled me to buy this but I did and hey now I can share with you guys a review, and unlike 90% of the reviews I've seen, I didn't get the bottle free. Nose - At first I get really a lot of bourbon elements. Vanilla and light oak with some caramel and rye spice. Digging in more some tea leaves and "green" sweetness seem to come out. An ever so slight menthol. Then there's an earthy barn/oak not at the end. Taste - The taste unlike the nose is a journey and explosive. Opens sweet and fruity with orchard fruits and caramel meets some brown sugar. Then the spices come storming in very spicy, very biting on the tongue. Winter green mint, rye bread, tea leaves and perhaps some butter scotch (darn was that a note from the bottle or did I get it?). I have to assume the toasted barrels are imparting a good amount of sweetness upfront that's then balanced with some really spicy charred rye casks. OK this is good whisky. It's VERY good actually. Balanced, cask strength, and while I wouldn't call 6 years well aged, it's not horrible in the world rye. So at 180 for a bottle? Yeah the price is more packaging than the whisky but I really do feel this is a solid 100 dollar bottle which isn't something I say often about rye. 3.25, firmly above average and while it's a bit expensive, I'm not upset with the purchase. If you're a huge rye fan, this might be worthy of a purchase but you'd have to really be into rye for the price to be justified.

The overrated whisky of the year? I had this when it first came out over in the UK and felt it was young and off, but I had to buy my own bottle to explore. So is it better now? Nose - oak, a lot of oak actually. Then I get this under ripe banana that signals YOUNG whisky. A lot of alcohol. I get some chalk and perhaps some brown sugar. I'm oddly not getting much sherry but we'll come back with water. Water might have made it more dusty. A lot of alcohol and maybe some cherry now which I get in the taste so maybe that's influencing me. Taste - There's some dirty notes, clay, oak, I get corn oddly enough like a bloody butcher corn, cereal notes, and then some chocolate and some of those alcohol soaked cherries. Water opens this up into a more sherry driven sweeter dram. Still young, alcohol bite and yes some unique and interesting flavors. You know what cinnamon a lot of it, more than I've gotten on anything scotch. This is balcones malt levels of cinnamon or some versions of bookers. It's getting into red hot levels. I truly am not enjoying this. Everything about this is "craft" and unique which I want to be favorable for. It's just not enjoyable to drink. That said good abv and they clearly used an active cask. I'm scoring this a 1.75 but I really want to give it a 1.0 based on my enjoyment. I'm sorry I just don't get it. I don't like it.