Tastes

The standard Hazelburn, the flagship of this pseudo-distillery (because it actually is Springbank Distillery) is this 10yo single malt, that has become one of the most acclaimed whiskies in Scotland, sharing that popularity with its sisters bottlings Longrow and Springbank. Bottled at 46%abv. On the nose, creamy and full of chocolate. Red fruits; it has this milk cream that is used in coffee. On the palate, whipped cream, a little grainy. Chocolate and fairly nutty. Lots of vanilla, grain, malted barley and chocolate. Aftertaste is Salty, and very mineral. Coffee beans notes. Overall, a nice, straightforward whisky, with clean flavors which are very well delivered. Mostly creamy and sweet, it has a salty spin-off here and there. A nice offering for a core range, my score is 80 over 100.

I've just returned from the holy land of Whisky, Scotland. I had a mission and it was to reach my whisky review number 1000, and i started that journey with only 71 whiskies left to taste to achieve that goal. My first dram of the trip was a lovely Gordon & MacPhail bottling of one of those bottles you don't tend to find that often, a Tormore. To ve precise, a 20yo Tormore, Cask Strength at 57.4% abv, distilled in 1995 from a refill bourbon barrel. On the nose, quite beautiful. Lime and salt. Slight chocolate. Creamy; some hay and sulphur saltiness have risen. Metallic. Tequila light feeling. Very fruity, lemon, citric. Very aromatic. On the palate, it mantains a good offering. Toffee, lime and salt. Very nice, sweet dulce de leche, slightly sulphuric. A second sip was way lighter, still a chocolate note infused with salt. There is a ghostly lemon behind the chocolate. Aftertaste was a little straightforward, but still delicious. Toffee, metallic notes. Lemon, salty, chocolate, hay. Overall, this one was a nice opening for such a trip. I will be visiting a lot of distilleries in the mainland, and i will finally achieve my dream of going to Islay. This one is a fine, elegant single malt, worthy of 90 over 100 points in my books.

Critics always say, that Dalmore has a low abv and that is why it fails. I am not one of those critics since i have long loved Dalmore since the day i first tasted it. Having said that, this expression is the one critics have been waiting: a Distillery release Cask Strength. Bottled at 57.7%abv, Dalmore 1263 The Custodian Millenium Release is a 12yo Cask Strength bottling, distilled in the year 2000 with that same amount of bottles ever made. Matured in part in matusalem sherry, i believe this is going to be good. It was only available to Dalmore Custodians, a group you can be a part of. On the nose, oh my god what is marvelous aroma!!! Coffee, cocoa, nutella, waffer. It is like coffee with milk. Toffee. Cherry syrup, prunes, dates and candied fruits. It is the most powerful, dark and lovely aroma ever in the world. On the palate, it was out of this world. Chocolate, hazelnut, Nutella;  crazy winey. Dates, raisins and dulce de leche, but everything super powerfully delivered. Amazing. Aftertaste was CRAZY. Acid prunes,  Grassy; wine and.... VINEGAR? OLIVE OIL, olives. It has this Martini feeling, it is very strange and interesting. Super weird. Fantastic. Well, let me tell you this: i shared this dram in a tasting event with 15 other people. 8 of them gave it the title of Whisky of the night, the other 7 hated it. They all recognized it as the best nose ever in whisky, but the vinegar aftertaste was the part not everyone liked. For me, it was proper for an amazing and interesting dram; it offered me something completely different and inappreciate that. The olives and vinegar were fantastic in my books, but i can see how this can be a love-or-hate dram as any Laphroaig when you taste it for the first time. My score for it is not 100. It is 102, if that is even possible. Slàinte!

There is nothing like drinking a good whisky that has been discontinued, because you can say "i was responsible for its extinction of this world, and it was great". I felt exactly that when i drank this marvelous GlenAllachie 25yo, matured in Px and Oloroso Casks, distillery release. Actually, GlenAllachie, since Billy Walker bought it, has became the king of Speyside whiskies, with emormous flavors and aromas. This was no exception. Bottled at 48%abv, lovely chesnut color. On the nose, it is exactly as sweet prune that got stuck in you nose. Incredible. Very winey, rum and raisins, dates. It smells like ice cream, it actually smells cold. Chocolate, hay and glazed pork. Dark chocolate. Perfect score here. On the palate it was divine. Red wine, Red fruits, gooseberries and Tobacco. Oily but fancy. Cuban cigars Aftertaste continues the greatness of this dram. Salty, sawdust, winey, sulphur and Cigar. It felt citric everywhere. Overall, this was majestic. I don't know about you, but it is not like i am drinking 25yo whiskies everyday, and what really impressed me, is that older drams normally tend to be a little overly oaked, but this was so perfectly crafted that you are given the proper amount of oakiness to make this dram an oustanding whisky. My score for it is 97 over 100.

Milk & Honey, a young Israeli distillery have released this Apex Cask Strength Single Malt from... The Dead Sea. It has been matured at extreme temperatures in that place, which i was lucky to have visited. The Dead Sea gets its name because of a bigger amount of salt that any other lake, and that makes you float in the water. That is why there are no fish in the lake (it is not a sea) and the most attractive tourist thing to do there is to pick some of the mud on the floor (it is not a sandy place, but a muddy one) and put it on your skin to be rejuvenated... allegedly. Well, this was bottled at 56.5%abv. On the nose, it is very Appealing. Mint and the classic yeast from this distillery. Cake and Cotton candy. Lime. A very spongy cake and lemon ice cream. Red Chilli, lemon citric. It smells exactly like a pancake without the honey. On the palate, it is sweet and fruity. Oranges And chocolalte for a second; then it turns into a nice dulce de leche. The second sip is exactly as a recently made orange juice, acid and very nice.  Aftertaste is a little short, but not bad. Orange peel, metallic. Orange bubblegum and impalpable sugar. Sweet and appealing. Overall, for a Cask Strength, this is not super complex, but it is easy to drink. The nose is very good, and it passes the test in every criteria. A nice dram, i hope to have more from this distillery in the future, my score for it is 85 over 100.

In 2005, one of my favorite two distilleries, Talisker, released a 175th Anniversary edition, which says on the label that it contains some of the rarest casks on the distillery. Bottled at their traditional 45.8%abv, this is one rare bottle, only seen in auctions nowadays. On the nose, it is a little different from other Taliskers. Chocolate with some sea salt. Little smoke. Oranges and mint. Sawdust. After a first sip, the aroma changed to Red fruits: Strawberries and whipped cream. On the palate it is almost perfect. Starts with a cheap orange hard candy, lime, salt and pepper. The second sip gave me cherry tomato (that small tomato from the salads), grain salt, strawberries and lemon meringue. It is like a lemon pie. Aftertaste is very fancy and enjoyable. Heavy sawdust, salt and sulphur. It has two aftertastes, since the 2nd one rises after a couple of seconds after the ending of the first, with a lip scorching ginger note. Very good stuff. Overall, this is what you can call a fancy, very fancy dram. But, it is not my favorite Talisker. I recognize it as a different, birthday expression, full of red fruits and cream, but it wasn't your typical Skye Salt and pepper madness. Still a very elegant offering, my score for it is 91 over 100.

Another Israeli whisky, this time a Cask Strength expression from Milk & Honey, a Pomegranate Wine finish. This should be interesting. Bottled at 59.5%abv. On the nose, the typical Yeasty note from this distillery but super spicy. Pumpkin, very tropical aroma. Peaches. A Tropical fruit punch. On the palate is fairly good. Chocolate with hazelnut. Very rough and salty. After a first sip it was all about creamy nuttiness like Ferrero Rocher bombom. Aftertaste is sweet and spicy. A chocolate hard cream. Salty and something that i can only describe as a spongy pepper. Overall, this is not a bad whisky at all. I could rank it in a third place from this distillery after the Red Wine Cask and the Apex Dead Sea Cask Strength one. A nice offering, but a little rough on the edges. My score for it is an 80 over 100.

My first Ballechin comes from a Signatory Vintage 2010 exclusive for Kirsh Import. This pseudo-distillery is really the peated version of Edradour. It was originally a farm distillery, and to this day is one of the smallest whisky makers of Scotland. Bottled at 48.1%abv, nice chesnut color. On the nose, oh the beautiful strange peaty notes: a pair of cotton socks, sea foam, merthiolate and iodine. Distilled water, stinky cheese and recently cut grass. On the palate, it is very appealing, but a little straightforward. Salted caramel, nutty, Sulphuric and toffee. Very well delivered. Aftertaste is all about peanut butter, butterscotch and some saltiness. Nice stuff. Brown salt. Overall i think this one passes the test. For a 10yo peated edradour, this is the least you expect to get. It is nothing too memorable, just a fine, enjoyable dram. Balanced scored im all of its parts, my rate for it is a solid 84 over 100.

Can i call this one a "rarity"? Beinn Dubh "the Black" is one of the darkest whiskies out there, compiting only with a 10yo Loch Dhu for that title. Matured in Ruby Port casks, this single malt from The Speyside Distillery (the "Spey" one, with the tall bottles) is also called "The Flying Scotsman" as a tribute to the first Train to reach 100km per hour. Bottled at 43%abv, coca cola colour. Only 10.000 bottles were ever made. On the nose, pretty straight. Red fruits, Red lingonberries and Chocolate. Red wine. On the palate it is a light red fruit juice. Red wine, Cabernet sauvignon. Actually Salty. Church wine. Aftertaste mantained the rythm. Salty and red fruitiness. Quince. Overall, this felt exactly as a Cabernet Sauvignon cheap wine. Was it bad? Not at all. Was it good? Not really. As an experiment it can be a little collectible i guess, but completely unnecessary for any whisky lover. Boring, too straightforward and very winey, it didn't even felt like whisky. It is so light. My score for it is 69 over 100.

Incredibly for me to say, it has been a long time since i last tasted a Johnnie Walker. I have seen this new travel retail expressions, which are basically blends from specific scottish regions. Of course if i had the chance i was going to pick the Islay one. Bottled at 40%abv. On the nose, your standard nice peaty aroma. Prunes, ashes and smokey profiles. Cotton socks (the ones with the gray colored area for the toes). A rancid vanilla like the one you smell on a cake that has been on the fridge, that is going to go bad the next day, but it is still edible, on its last day. Pepper and salt. On the palate, it is fairly good. Vanilla cake, pepper, salty. It is actually very light for a peaty whisky. Sawdust Aftertaste had a nice peatiness but way too short. Ashy and salty. Sawdust is delivered in a nice way.  Overall, i can understand that JW went super safe on this one, since Islay's profiles can be off putting for some people, and i can also understand this blend as an entry to peated drams. Not bad, not oustanding, very drinkable, my score for it is 80 over 100.