Tastes

Very PX with a good bunch of fresh ground black pepper, dark honey, black and red currant marmalade. Delicious. Very sherry heavy.

A quite intriguing pineapple on the nose with a burned sugar crust with some barbecuey aspect to it. Taste-wise it is really sweet. The nose is the strong suit here but on the palate I feel there is something missing. Feels very one-sided. A little disappointing.

Quite savory spices and nuts with a deep Oloroso cask influence. For a 10 years old very serious and surprisingly complex and deep. More on the dry side with a younger alcohol burn. But likeably good. (Tasted after a hearty barbecue outside on the terrace in light rain - definitely added to the experience.)

Tasting the Octomore 10 years - The Outlier 09.4/167 ppm/56,8%. Nose: really not as peaty as I was expecting “the highest ppm whisky” to be. Actually really pleasant and smooth. The peat also isn’t chemical or plastic-like. It is more thick and sweet. But it has a cold and wet earthyness to it. I like it. There also is a lingering fruitiness as well, with sour apples plus some fresh cucumber and bitter walnuts. Interesting is a wet fermented straw smell. Palate: also not as peaty as I was anticipating. It is really hot and keeps on maintaining a hot chili burn into the quiet long finish. The taste itself is good though. Very creamy sweet like hard milk caramel sweets. But now - yeah - the peat is definitely something. But it can be handled very easily and gives you enough room to “see” the actual whisky-flavors behind. After adding water it becomes a lot more drinkable and even more enjoyable. In fact dangerously drinkable and delicious. Watering it down really keeps the hot burn in check and releases even more sweetness. That was unexpected. I like it. Did I mention it is really sweet. My goodness - I didn’t know whisky can be this sweet. I actually would rate it higher if it would be less sweet. But this level of sugary sweetness after adding water is insane.

Today is my son’s 3rd birthday. He is asleep now and I am glad I have a very special whisky here for that special occasion, which is a kindly provided sample from @Soba45 - which btw traveled around literally half the earth. Thanks. Some of you gentlemen who were getting the chance to review this rarity as well already had the best words to say about it so I won’t even try to analyze it. Instead I will just enjoy it and just state what makes it different to what I know so far from experiences of my personal whisky journey. This 41 years old whisky which was distilled half a century ago is by far the oldest whisky I had (24 being the oldest so far). From a friend I heard that this is particularly interesting because scotch was made differently back then with no real electronic or digital help and a lot of it came down to “gut feeling”. So I was told to be prepared for imperfections. I also was told to let it breathe for a while - so I have it resting here in a Norlan glass for a little over an hour now. That I hope will have given it proper time to develop. Cheers / Slainte @Soba45 and @Distiller community. (30 Minutes later) Ok this really is different. It feels like after all these years there is no maltyness or sweetness left. Instead it is ultra herbal and like a intense dry red wine with a lot of wood influence, which really feels like OLD wood. And really good black tea you let infuse way to long. What an experience. I like it quite a lot but I couldn’t drink it regularly. It is very challenging and something to pay proper attention and focus to. I also won’t give it a rating. I can only rate whisky in comparison with other whiskies and I honestly have nothing I can compare it with. I also base my ratings on aspects I think a whisky does good or doesn’t. A whisky like this doesn’t bring something to the table which anyone could ever anticipate it having so there is no balancing outcomes and flavors they could optimize in other batches. This Whisky is like a Picasso or Van Gogh painting - both you can’t really compare with other paintings in general. It is simply something with its own art and identity - completely unique. The same applies here. But yeah - I like this whisky more than a lot of the whiskies I had to date but it still just doesn’t fit in.

I had a pour of this at a whisky picknick. This was the most recent batch 12. It really surprised me positively. I had like 3 or 4 different Laphroaigs prior to this but this one is my favorite so far. That’s probably because of it being cask strength. The color was so umber red that itassume that I is colored. So I will just ignore it. But the nose, palate and finish were really good. It starts of unexpectedly smooth and sweet on the nose with that characteristic Islay peat but just at the right level so it doesn’t overwhelm you with any chemical or plastic aromas. It is really present but leaves the main stage for its nice caramel, vanilla and fruity aspects. It has been a couple of days so I can’t really recall any specifics but it reminded me of a more intense, sweeter and red berry driven Laphroaig Brodir. It just goes way deeper. After the first sips the nose changes dramatically and opens up to other very nice flavors and some iodine with some sea salt sensation. Water flattens it out a bid and release more of the cask wood. A very fine whisky.

I have this bottle for a while now and are half way through it. Time to give it a proper tasting. I had the 12 year previously and was positively surprised so I got the 18y that comes in a 500ml bottle. The nose very sherry yet with a savory note as well. Really delicious and rich and deep and intense. Dried apricots and citrus. Natural orange lemonade. Some interesting spice notes as well (fresh black pepper, anise, cloves). Simply amazing and not overly sweet. Pepper and oaky wood right of the bat. Then some deep spiced dried fruits, some nuts and whole grain cereals. A slight burn. Very mature tannins and an amazing cask style. So unique. Later sour red fruit juice. This is a serious whisky. Very strong and intense. And very delicious and complex. Strongly recommended. One of the best sherry whiskys you can get in my opinion if you want a strong and not overly sweet one.

A weekend of 4 Irish whiskey samples. 4/4 Irish Whisky Society single cask 2015 (cask no. 21885 - 1997-2015 - bottle 75/114) Nose: coconut - really! - a bid like roasted and caramelized coconut flakes, then plums and vanilla, sweet white grapes, a bid of banana. Very fruity and sweet on the nose with the cask strength ABV being not noticeable as such. Palate: very sweet directly up front, then dried fruits (mostly exotic) and a very creamy smoothness nicely distributed by that still very fitting alcohol percentage, surprisingly no bitterness at all even though it is 18 years old and has that quite high ABV. Impressive. Finish: long and sweet with only a slight gingery burn on the tongue that feels just right.

A weekend of 4 Irish whiskey samples. 3/4 Redbreast Mano a Lámh (2000 bottles limited release / 17-20 years old / sherry butt only) Nose: the sherry cask only maturation of course crushes your nose buds. Thick orange sultana syrup sprinkled with burned caramelized sugar spices with cinnamon and powdered ginger and sprayed with fresh lime juice Palate: spicy, mildly hot and oily. Some flavorful oak tannins. Hard to explain but very unusual and really good. Finish: the caramel and oak are accompanied with the intense sherry into a very long finish The characteristic single pots still taste of Irish whisky is something you really need to get used to and this whisky really demonstrates this quite intensely. But it is so brilliantly put together that combined it all falls in place so well. Every stage is impressive and really intense and deep. This was my third pour of this whiskey and this was the last time I will get to taste it. Forever. A once in a lifetime opportunity and I’m glad I had it. A Irish friend of mine had one of the 2000 produced bottles and now it is empty and I was given a last sample bottle from him.

A weekend of 4 Irish whiskey samples. 2/4 Irishman cask strength 2015 (small batch 227/2595) Nose: custard, vanilla pudding, milky chocolate, slight coffee, fresh resin, whole grain cookies, christmas spiced orange, fresh cucumber. Some nice freshly poured light beer note as well. Although cask strength not overly noticeable alcohol. Palate: a fresh but fitting alcohol hotness, apples freshly cut, sprouted grain, overly ripe strawberries, a bid like blue cheese or French Brie in some way but combined with sour sweet white grapes. Interesting really. Finish: expectedly long with the nearly turned fruitiness equally sweet and bitter.