Tastes

In my third ttip to Scotland i finally arrived to one of the best distilleries in Speyside, the one controled and owned by the legend itself: Billy Walker. The GlenAllachie, which is the gaelic word for "Valley of The Rocks", Is a very good looking place, where some heavily sherried speyside whiskies are made. I believe most people just loved their 10yo Cask Strength and the 12yo which is almost purple in color. Now it is the time to try one of their youngest expressions: The 8 year old. Bottled at 46%abv. On the nose, this is a breakfast: Honey, granola, macadamia nuts, hay, pecans. Grassy. After a first sip it released a note of  and old orange peel. On the palate, three notes, but everything well delivered and tasty. Old raisins, fruitspice and honeycomb. Aftertaste is where some youngness is felt, but this is so well crafted that it hids behind a nice hay and tobacco leaf note. Dry. Overall, for an 8yo, this is very good. The 46%abv is important to give the whisky drinker a nice experience, but that was also risky since this is a young dram. Luckily for GlenAllachie, the casks used seem to be absolutley amazing, which is Billy Walker's speciality. Totally recommended, my score for it is 88 over 100.

Don't you just love the times when you enter a new restaurant or bar and you spot a whisky bottle that you have never even seen before, and then you realize that it is open and they sell glasses of it?; I honestly believe that is one of the greatest pleasures in life. Well this was the case of a truly lovely bottle of Glenfarclas "100 proof", a 15yo Cask Strength at 57.1%, with a beautiful looking label. On the nose, it starts with Bbq sauce, sweet prunes, meat spices. It is a sunday Barbecue with Welsh grape juice. On the palate, i immidiately got the samd Welsh grape juice note. Red fruits, then it became a salty bomb which was tongue scorching. Grapes. Aftertaste is very cowboy-ish. Hay, tobacco and a long spicy finish. Chocolate cream. Overall, this was and incredible finding, you can tell by just looking at the label that this one is quite a rarity, and i love when this type of limited whiskies deliver a good experience. My score for it is 92 over 100.

One day when i was doing my hobbie, which is scrolling through thousands of bottles in auctions, i started seeing this crazy looking but apparently honest label that said "Seaweed & Aeons & Digging & Fire" with no clear distiller or anything. Of course they caught my attention, but i let it slide, till the day i entered a restaurant in the middle of nowhere in Speyside where a crazy but super fun guy called Craig received me and my group for lunch (the place is called The Craig Bar). Well, Craig started dropping some major jokes on everyone, nobody was left without a nickname, and then he offered us a whisky. It was called "CHRISTMAS CAKE & DARK CHOCOLATE & MEDJOOL DATES & CINNAMON". Clearly this was the sherried version of that other whisky i was telling you about. And guess what? It was great. On the nose, it is what it says it is. Dates, cinnamon, glazed ham, marzipan and Christmas cake. After a first sip it became a chocolate cake with raisins. A muffin and hints of bbq sauce. Lovely. On the palate it is delicious. Dates, raisins. Very winey, blueberries and red berries. Every single dehydrated fruit you can inmagine. Aftertaste is where the promised cinnamon lives. Christmas cake with wine; it is literally a loaf of bread with a blackberry marmalade. Overall, this is a stupendous dram, with a marketing strategy done right: it offers exactly what it says on the label. I still don't know who makes this, and i frankly don't care, because this mystery adds a layer to the whole experience. Wonderful whisky, my score for it is 92 over 100.

Cardhu, the house of Johnnie Walker, is a very famous single malt, that i often place it in a third line of single malt distilleries, since i have never tasted a whisky from them that blew my mind. Having said that, this year i went to their premises once again as a part of my scottish tour, and i tasted this year's (2023) hand filled expression, drawn from the cask 002/2023, a 11 year old dram. On the nose, green apples, cream and hazelnuts mixed with chocolate. Lots of green apples. On the palate, a nice milk chocolate, spicy red chilli. Lemon and a citric profile. Aftetaste is all about Sawdust. Very simple and a little dull. Overall, there is not much more to say here. A very simple speysider, with some fruity notes and a dissapointing finish. It could be better, specially for a 120 pound bottle, which is supposed to be a special edition. My score for it 78 over 100.

It has been a long time since i last truly enjoyed an Ardbeg Special Release. But i can honestly tell you, and i am giving a serious spoiler here, that finally this Islay distillery has given us a worthy whisky. "Bizarrebq" is one crazy name for a dram, and it is made to resemble a backyard BBQ. Actually, the whole brand has a partnership with the now famous "DJ Bbq", whose videos cooking food with Ardbeg are quite popular. This has been made in Px sherry casks and also in "Ardbeg's BBQ Casks" (???) Bottled at 50.9%abv, this is a core-limited-edition, which is a contradictory statement but you know how marketing works nowadays. On the nose, it is spectacular. Spanish curated ham; a pair of new socks and ashes. It smells like a "Pancetta" or a Brisket, cooked with lots of salt to produce a dry part of the meat which is delicious. Ashtray. On the palate, it starts with salty water than after one second turns into a creme brulee with pepper and Ardbeg's potent swampy-like peatiness. It feels like chewing the head of those "He-man" toys from the 1980s. Moss and caramel; peaty and sweet. Incredible experience. Aftertaste is good but a little simple and straightforward. Ashes and gunpowder. Salty. Overall, this was a great and powerful release by Ardbeg. They achieved here exactly what they wanted to: to give you a BBQ experience. This whisky can pair incredible with smoked food. Lovely really. My score for it is a well deserved 93 over 100.

Feis ile is always a great time where Islay's distilleries release new beauties. This 2023, Bunnahabhain made two releases; one a Manzanilla Cask super expensive and fancy one; and this Bunnahabhain Canasta Cask matured. Canasta is the spanish word for "basket", which has nothing to do here, since Canasta apparently is also a type of Oloroso Sherry. Well, this one has been bottled at a beautiful 51.2%abv, with a lovely tawny color. On the nose tjis is quite impressive. Orange peel, a tangerine caramel; Sawdust and white chocolate. Apple peel, crushed almonds. It is freaking aromatic! After a first sip, it became creamy beautiful on the nose. It smells like a "brigadeiro" sweet.  The citrus here is out of this world. Perfect score on the nose. On the palate, it is great, with an starting white chocolate like "Ritter"; impalpable sugar and orange acidity. On the second sip i got this marvelous sugary note with milk. Aftertaste was good, but not aa impressive as the palate and nose. Sawdust; hay. Maybe a little overly oaky. Overall, this is a very enjoyable single malt for a very affordable price. I truly believe Bunnhabhain did a great job in this one and if i ever cross paths with this one again, i will not hesitate to buy it once more. A proper dram, my score for it is 91 over 100.

Imagine this scenario: my wife tells me that she can buy a bottle that i truly like, but i have to choose it, pay it and then discount that amount from anything that i owe her from the daily house expenses. It might seem like it is not the best deal, but trust me, i got the best part of it! Of course i got my hands on a Glendronach 18yo, but a rare one, a Marsala Cask finished. Bottled at  46%abv, with a lovely almost orange color. On the nose, this is quite different. Floral in a beautiful way; dulce de leche, a milk dessert and white chocolate. Lovely. On the palate, it is a wonderful sweet thing. It is a biscuit that has a vanilla glazed feeling. Light red fruits, red acid fruits. There is this white chocolate profile. It might sound crazy, but it is like a drinking a thorny rose. Really very floral. Aftertaste has this crazy prune and acid super fruity profile. Very dry. On a second aip it gave me a surprising forest fruit note like gooseberries. Overall, if i had this in a blind tasting, i would never ever guessed it to be a Glendronach. Having said that, this is the most floral whisky i have had from the scottish highlands. It feels like a japanese whisky. My score for this very interesting and surprising single malt is 90 over 100.

There is an old saying, "every rule has an exception", and that eveb applies to the almighty Glendronach, a distillery that seemed undefeated in my humble critics. I have had quite a few of Glendronach's Cask Strength releases, and i just gave a perfect score to a couple of them, but the latest expression, Batch No. 12, was not my favorite. Bottled at 58.2%abv, it has been matured in oloroso and Px sherry casks. On the nose it starts buttery and young. White wine, white chocolate and almonds. It smells like "new make" whisky too much. It appears overly young. On the palate it is slightly better. White chocolate, almonds, spices. peppery feeling. Afteraste again feels young, with blurred notes of bitter chocolate and spices. Overall, not much happened here. This is the first time that you put the words "Glendronach", "Oloroso", "Cask Strength" and "Pedro Ximenez" together and you dont get complexity, beautiful aroma notes and a rewarding finish. A very average dram, underwhelming and a little dissapointing, my score for it is 85 over 100, and i believe this might be the lowest score i have given to a whisky from my favorite distillery.

Have i ever told you, how great is The Glendronach? Some years ago, Glendronach, one of my three favorite distilleries, started releasing batch strength expressions. They even had the vision to name them by numbers. I have had some of them, but this time i got my hands on Batch No. 2. This single malt has been matured in Oloroso and PX sherry, and has been bottled at 55.2%abv. Only 16.500 bottles where ever made.  On the nose, this is a MONSTER AROMA. A floral madness; a chocolate & hazelnut bomb. Nutmeg, cocoa powder. It has a dusty feeling to it. It smells exactly as leaving a Crunch chocolate bar in the fridge. It is the best chocolate note that has ever existed in the history of mankind. After a first sip, the aroma changed into something that i can only describe as red berries on steroids. Breathtaking. On the palate, it starts again with a very clean floral note, which is new for me in Glendronachs. Chocolate and something that i can describe as a "raisin wine". Strawberries dipped in chocolate. Aftertaste follows how inmense this dram is. Chocolate, floral; Dry. It is impressive; Chocolate and hazelnut. Nutty overall, almonds and pecans. In conclusion, this is the power of Billy Walker. This was released under his reign. Out of this world dram, this will definitively be on my yearly top ten, of 2023. Did i mention that this is the most "chocolatey" whisky ever, even dethroning the Glenmorangie Signet. I am speechless. Perfect 100 point score, because i can't give it 1 million. Slàinte Mhath!!!

Everytime you go to Glendronach's distillery, the very kind people that work there will let you taste both Hand Filled expressions that are available at the shop for you to take home. One of those, will almost always be an 11, 12 or 13 year old whisky, which is going to be amazing, for under 200 dollars. The other one, will be an impossible to pay (for guys like me) 27, 28 or 29 year old superb intergalactic whisky that is darker than my conscience, lol. Of course, i can't waste the opportunity to take notes and taste that wonderful whisky they are giving me to taste. So, this are my thoughts on Glendronach's 29yo, Oloroso Sherry Cask, vintage 1993, cask number 2463 MARAVILLOSA RED FRUITS JAM GUAYAS bottled at 55.5%abv on the 3rd of may, 2023. On the nose, incredible. Tobacco, granola, figs, macerated fruits, grapes and marzipan. Simply wonderful. So much happening here. On the palate, it is everything you need and expect from Glendronach. Chocolate, almonds, very sugary. It is nutty Toblerone bar;  Red fruits. Dry cherries, chocolate and nuts. Aftertaste is exactly a Toblerone chocolate bar. Almonds, hazelnut and... Toblerone! Overall, i can only ask a question: have you ever tasted a whisky that taste like a Toblerone chocolate?; that fact alone makes this whisky an amazing experience, specially if you consider how good it is on the palate and the nose. Perfect score here, but it is so expensive that i cried for two days because i could not buy it. My score for it is 100.