Tastes

The nose has some really nice perfumed berry and grape notes. Comes across creamy and very delicious. All of it is a bid faint though. You need a while to be able to grasp them. The palate is smooth and sweet. No alcohol noticeable. Goes down like warm buttery syrup. Then you get nice port oak as well with a not-too-sweet spiciness. Later some nice bitter nuts appear along some great spices. It becomes less sweet over time which is really interesting - that gives way to the wood and spice flavors. This really is above average whisky. Has a lot of character and for its age goes deep enough. The transition and palate development is impressive.

Young and fresh with some typical oak-only characteristics. I’m not too familiar with the styles of different oak types so I can’t really make out a difference to European oak. It is good though. Fruity, some spices, good amount of florals. Surprisingly I don’t vanilla or citrus notes, which was what I expected. The mouthfeel is also fresh and lively. It develops some sweet berry flavors after a while and then settles with spicy wood (the fresh cut kind) with soft caramel notes. Becomes really malty later and fairly sweet. Nice and quite interesting but not exiting enough. It feels quite young though with a edgy alcoholic burn.

I have had only one Longrow before. The standard Longrow peated NAS and that was more then a year ago. I only found it okay but but since then I tasted a variety of Campeltown whiskies and learned to appreciate and like them. The nose already is very promising. A organic leathery peat hand in hand with vanilla & caramel and thick sweet grape juice, mushy black and red currants. Very present and rich. Strong and prominent punches on the palate right away. Super dry with the typical Campeltown peat. Dry leather, brown apples, fermented grapes. The finish let’s you grasp the red wine from the maturation casks. Also oak, lemon and burned sugar with brown butter remain. I like this whiskies characteristic honesty and its signature Campeltown DNA. It is playful yet displays its proud origin nicely. I like it but for my taste it is a bid too dry and the alcohol is really dominant. Water brings out a maritime saltiness on the nose, makes it a lot smoother and sweeter on the palate / finish but the dryness and alcoholic burn remain.

The nose and the palate are very much in sync. delicate and rich mix of some very well placed aromas: coffee, deep unripe strawberries and other red berries, wine gummies, salty crackers, sour plums, a distinct mild spice mix (pepper, nutmeg, ginger), nice chocolaty nougat and soft blanched almonds. All very charmingly smooth and incredibly intense with a certain dryness. What a great whisky this is. The mother of all sherry bombs. I assume there aren’t many who deliver the sherry bomb experience as nice as this one. But you need to be a fan of that to be able to fully enjoy it, because one might find it a bid too much or too fruity. For everyone else this is close to heaven. 

If GD would release a similar age statement as a peated variant I would buy it in an instant. I love the “Glendronach Traditionaly Peated” expression which is an NAS - can you imagine it at 18 years age?

Nose: dried fruits in dark syrup, liquid malt, cocoa, sweet cough juice, mint, sour blood oranges, apricots, raisins, milk chocolate, cold tea, fresh autumn leaves, an open old book / old paper, dry exotic spices, caramelized nuts - a fantasticly balanced mix, rich and powerful Palate: ground coffee / roasted wood, cereal with dehydrated berries, citrus, a little bitter dried fruits (dates but not as sweet) Finish: oak forward and slightly smoky (not peaty but more like cask-char), dry orchard fruits, I had this whisky before as a sample about a year ago. And I knew that I had to get a bottle sometimes. Then it was sold out for many months and as soon as they were restocked I pulled the trigger. This is simply a very nice whisky. Easy to drink but very exiting and flavorful. A lot to discover in the wide palette of flavors and aromas. It is rich and deep and “dark”. Extremely well put together and balanced. I love it. A great whisky to share because it feels like it can be enjoyed by a wide range of whisky lovers.

Nose: ripe strawberries, white almonds, then an old peat, feels mature, medicinal, moss, sweet rich sherry aromas, fresh cut pine tree wood - it is intense for sure. The peat is a little different to regular Ardbegs which is probably because of the interesting manzanilla sherry casks they matured it in for 10 years. It is very good. Later a lot of vanilla with a bid of lemon, butter pie, dry grass and syrupy sherry. Palate: prickly, cold and acidic, then right away a cold ash note appears - still somehow unlike what I know from regular Ardbegs. Fruity fresh and slightly sweet, then yellow fruits (peaches and that sort) as well as a bunch of citrus fruits, wood chips and fresh resin. Very much alive, super present and vibrant. Finish: strong and flavorful, intense and forever ongoing, apples, vanilla. Slightly wood-bitter. Water makes the nose less peaty but sweeter - reminds me of creamy sweetened condensed milk. This whisky makes for a very exiting and interesting dram. So intense and colorful in its aromas and flavors. I had it before in a pub some months ago and remember liking it slightly better, so I am looking forward to how it develops over time.

As a big fan of BenRiach in general I came across mentions of this whisky quite often here on Distiller. It is nearly impossible to find anymore so I wasn’t able to get samples. But I finally found a bottle. Nose: dry sherry notes with blackberries and currants, then a wide peat bottom which somehow elevates all other aromas: leather, pears, whole grain shortbread, creamy silky custard, fresh cloudy apple juice and then some super delicious peat-strings on the side, later mixed-nut-butter, the nose gets better and better by combining everything into such a perfect blend - just wow. The peat starts off and remains just remarkable - very interesting and so enjoyable. Palate: full frontal smooth but very present peat, then silky sweet fresh fruit mousse with a hugely enjoyable mouth feel and rich flavor segments. Vanilla creme with cooked orchard fruits. Finish: buttery crisp toast with sour & sweet red berries jam, molten chocolate, lemon/grapefruit peel, medium long but super delicious. I like BenRiach - especially some of their peated expressions really convinced me. This one here is a step up from what I knew so far. It is so interesting and makes for a very intense experience. It is very different to what BenRaich offers today in their peated range - not to compare. It reminds me of ‘Loch Gorm‘ from Kilchoman which I also like a lot. It really conveys Islay character without trying to copy it - but that’s how good the peat is utilized. Yet it is remains unique. My favorite BenRiach to date.

Now that #dryjanuary is over, I want to start my new whisky year properly with a selection of amazing whisky that I collected over the last few months - most of which have been recommendations from you guys. Here we go with the first one. 

Highland Park 17y The Dark Nose: super fragrant ripe orchard fruits (dark cherries, apples, peaches, pears and plums) on a warm early autumn day, a super creamy vanilla infused with a nice rich peat (not ashy or smoky ... more like blown out matches), lots of florals as well (like blossoming orchard fruits trees), lots of dark forest-honey, blackberry jam, very rich and deep from the sherry casks that they used with lots of oak wood influences, all so very up front and vibrant. The second nose presents an insane creamy coffee and orange chocolate - that was there probably before - I just didn’t notice. Super interesting. Palate: sherry soaked wood and the peat lie dry and saturated on the tongue, it takes quite a long time for it to smooth out and release an incredible caramel creme brûlée and soft vanilla butter cookies. The final palate is really heavy and rich but still with a vibrant dryness. The second palate is a lot more sweet and feels much more balanced too. You get some nice additional bitter flavors like anise, hops, lime peel, wood chips. Very nice. Finish: medium long and well balanced. In the middle of all the extrem spectrums it presented on the nose and palate, you find bits and pieces of all kind of things popping up (port, wood, dry spices, fruit seeds, honey / wax, hops) have you ever had pine tree honey - that’s what I get here too. After all the praise from you guys I convinced myself to get my hands on this bottle. And wow is it good. It is insane how the nose and palate transforms / rebalances over the course of a dram. It has the typical Highland Park DNA including the roughness / dryness but here it definitely is in-place and likeable. This is good whisky. Period. Very well crafted and blended. By the way - the packaging of this special edition is amazing. Not only is the bottle itself very cool with that large emblem directly formed in the glas but it comes in a black wooden open box with engravings - everything of very high quality I want to add. 
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A word on my 2021 resolutions: Over the last two years I really tried to dig deep into this new hobby of mine and now after over 200 different tasted whiskies I came to a conclusion: even though I can really enjoy normal / average whisky, I found myself in a position where I want to make every dram I drink from my own collection to be at least amazing if not spectacular. 

Why? I cautiously try to monitor my alcohol intake to keep drinking a healthy hobby, which officially means 100g alcohol per week across 5 days. And this is not a lot (1 dram with 50% ABV on 5 days in one week with two “dry“ days in between). And since money isn’t that big of an issue at the moment I will try to create a collection where every whisky is at least a great experience and it doesnt feel like I wasted my intake limit with something “just nice”. All subjective of course. Think “Why drink the 12 or 15y if you can get the 18 or 21y.”

While this means that most of the whiskys I am aiming for are only starting at 3 digit prices, there are of course quite a few very affordable bottles that still give me the joy I am looking for in the future. (Like Kilkerran 12, Uigeadail, BenRiach with quite a few expressions as well as Arran, Balblair, Benromach and of course Kilchoman.) Of course I will finish my current collection but I also already outed a few bottles and samples as well. New purchases will be picked much more carefully with this goal in mind. And that means no more impulsive purchases. Thank god we have severeal amazing Online Stores here in Germany / Europe that professionally sell Whisky samples, which makes this a lot easier. So here on Distiller I am looking forward to a great lineup over the next couple of days that I want to share with you guys here. In the weeks after that I will be revisiting my favourites from last year. And after that I will go back and forth with drams from my collection as well as new samples. 

I already have quite a few bottles on my wishlist but I would be happy to get recommendations from you guys for other top shelve whiskies up to 400$. So, happy new year to all of you fine people again. And if you have, what are you guys’ new years resolutions in whisky? Slainte Mhath

(Vita Dulcis Advent Calendar 22/24) Nose: nutty and spicy sweet, nutmeg, oily leathery peat, orange cookies, vanilla and cocoa powder Palate: quite bity attack with a bid more peat than expected, a likable Highland Park Palate, bitter and sour oranges, roasted & burned nuts, crushed rock candy Finish: like roasted whole grain bread that is actually a bid burned on the edges, with grains and a malty sweetness and some remainders of the fruity sherry notes Verdict: actually quite enjoyable, I had it before but I definitely didn’t like it as much as today in my second taste, it is smoother and not as woody-bitter as the regular age statement bottlings, the fruity notes come through more noticeably but it also feels quite young as well, a very nice alternative to the regular 12y for sure if you like HP and want something a little different. Really strong alcohol burn though for it’s only 43% ABV.