Tastes

Nikka, the natural rival of suntory, is well known for putting in the market some beautiful whiskies. But this time is not only the "juice" that is beautiful, but the bottle (decanter) itself, the one that holds a Samurai head and shoulder armor over the screw cap. The Nikka Gold & Gold, is now one famous bottle, that was discontinued in 2016; a blended whisky that was originally intended for the travel retail market. Bottled at 43%abv, golden color. On the nose, very fruity, very fresh. Peaches in syrup; Some oily spice and cooked Pineapples. A spongy vanilla cake, wet biscuits, fresh gooseberries and glazed pork. It is uncanny how much it resembles to a half peach in syrup. On the palate, it starts with tropical fruits, then a powerful spice appears, like wasabi; pineapple heart. A second sip gave me peaches, some saltiness and a metallic/sulphuric note. A third sip gave me some sugar syrup, sugar mixed with milk. Aftertaste is peaty! Some smoke, tobacco leaf and bitter flavors on the finish. Burnt hay, dry burnt grass. The typical nikka peat is present, a nice touch. Not very long. Dry, salty, grassy. Overall, i really liked this whisky. I have to be honest, i did not knew what to expect and i was actually surprised by it. The aroma wss lovely and the peaty finish was delicious. It is not a complex dram, but a good one. My score for this very balanced whisky is a solid 88 over 100. KANPAI!

On july 20th, 1969, at The Sea of Tranquility, on the Moon; Neil Armstrong said a famous phrase: "Houston, Tranquility base here, THE EAGLE HAS LANDED". That one was perhaps the greatest moment for mankind, at least for 6 hours, when Neil Armstrong finally descended from the lunar module and stepped the moon for the first time. Contrary to some popular belief, humans DID go to the moon, and it wasn't just one time, but six times. This happened during Nasa's Apollo missions, that were honoured by the online whisky retailers, "The Whisky Barrel". This is my fourth and final review (at least till i manage to find me another bottle) from the Apollo mission bottles, this time an 8yo Caol Ila, at 58.5%abv, called "THE EAGLE HAS LANDED". On the nose, starts with a nice chocolate fudge aroma, to the release a peat profile. Burnt tires, blood (like when you accidentaly cut yourself and lick the wound), wet clothes, stinky cheeses, pepper spice and grapes. After a first sip, the aroma became more chocolaty. There is this blood aroma, like a juicy medium rare steak. (No, i am not Darkly dreaming Dexter, lol). Herbal, aniseed, Bbq sauce and glazed pork. On the palate, it is very good. Chocolate and red fruits. Macerated cherries and Cherry syrup. Peat moss and Chilli. Aftertaste could be better, but it is not bad. Chocolate, bacon, maple. Earthy, coal and ashes. Grassy, burnt hay. Its like smoking from a pipe. Overall, this is a very good dram, with a gorgeous bottle that tells the most important history about success for mankind. Apollo 11 is an emotional event for anyone who lived it or who has read of it; and this whisky is trying to give you emotions, and it manages to do so. A strong, lovely dram, with minor flaws here and there, but definitively a collectible for space nerds like me. My score for it is a solid 90 over 100. Slàinte!

My third review of the "Apollo Collection" from The Whisky Barrel, is this Strathsmill 14yo called "BACK HOME ALMOST", which honours the Apollo 10 mission, the one that prepared everything for the first moon landing. The three astronauts orbited the moon and they even reached the dark side of it, taking pictures to decide where will the Apollo 11 finally land. Bottled at 61%abv, this single malt has a lovely red blood color. On the nose, it is amazing. Cabernet sauvignon, Metallic and Paper. Almonds and Chocolate milk. Hazelnut and Freshly baked brownies. Very sweet with hints of sulphuric notes. After a first sip, the aroma changed to a lovely vanilla with grapes and raisins. Dulce de leche ice cream and coffee. Bananas. On the palate it is not too complex, but fairly delicious. Cabernet sauvignon, a pepper bomb and some Red fruits. Toffee ice cream and Caramel. Aftertaste is a little short and that is a little dissapointing. Cotton candy, ginger, acid prunes and dulce de leche. Very dry and not too long. Overall, for a 61%abv, this is relatively easy to drink. Lots of sweet flavors and aromas, mostly a winey profile that comes from the maturation in a first fill sherry butt. A very good whisky, from a distillery that i haven't had before, my score for it is 90 over 100.

Continuing my series of reviews of the "Apollo Lunar Mission Bottles" from The Whisky Barrel, this is the time to talk about the second bottle i opened from this collection, the Auchroisk 10yo "THIS IS LIKE SPECTACULAR" Apollo 9, matured in first fill PX Hogsheads and bottled at 59.1%abv. First let me tell you that this is my second Auchroisk in this month, and the other one might just be my favorite whisky of 2021, the St. Margaret Of Scotland. Now "This is like Spectacular", honours its name completely. This "out of this world" dram, commemorates the Apollo 9 mission, which was the first to have a human walking on space. Russell Schweickart, the first astronaut to wear a portable life support system, emerged to space from the Lunar Module proclaiming: “Hey, this is like spectacular!” On the nose.... "HEY THIS IS LIKE SPECTACULAR". You just need to nose it. You don't even need to drink it. If the world smelled this good, life would be much better. Blackberry jam, hazelnut, Pedro Ximenez Sherry and the most incredible aroma of raisins ever. Wedding cake, very winey; marzipan, amaretto and other citric notes. After a first sip, the aroma changed into coffee, cocoa. Dark chocolate, quince and plum. Christmas cake and grapefruits. This is a breathtaking aroma, best nose ever. On the palate it is just delicious. Plums, followed by a pepper explosion. Molasses, cherries, Marshmallows and everything syrupy. Red Berries. Aftertaste follows the same rythm: Sherry supernova; Molasses and Winey. Rum and darrk chocolate. Very sugary, sugar cane; Dr. Pepper, Tobacco, a gasless Coca cola and some Metallic feelings. Overall, a superb dram, from a distillery that has blown my mind twice in two weeks. What is happening here? Do i need to fetch more Auchroisks? I have to. A PX explosion, super sweet and complex dram, that you won't fell its 59.1%abv at all. Incredible whisky, my score for it is 100 over 100. Slàinte Mhath!!!!

The Whisky Barrel, an online whisky retail store has released a collection of nice looking bottles, that honour the Apollo lunar missions. Of course, the space nerd i am, needed to taste them. I actually got my hands on 4 of this very limited bottles, and this is my first review on them. This is a Caol Ila, a 10yo expression, bottled in a 1st fill oloroso hogshead, at 56.4%abv. It commemorates the Apollo 8 mission, which was the first one to actually travel to the moon and circle back to earth. It is famous because the astronauts on the spaceship saw and took pictures of an "Earthrise" seen from the moon. That photo is the one shown in the label of this bottle, one of only 294 ever made. On the nose it is peaty and minty. Gooseberries, mint, permanent marker, Chocolate, Toffee and Aniseed. It has a rainforest profile, wet grass, swamp and hay. After a first sip, it released a humid aroma note. Orange, vanilla, perfume, and ashes. Wet paper. More sips gave me a metallic aroma cigarrettes and wet grass. On the palate it is a little normal, but still an interesting dram. An explosion of oranges, lime. Vanilla. It is like licking a battery. Toffee, condensed milk. Aftertaste is nice. Ashy with hints of Chocolate. Pepper, aniseed and peat. Earthy, it is a little metallic. Grassy; Tobacco and cigarrettes. Ginger and glue. Overall, i believe this is a good Caol Ila expression, without blowing anyone's minds. Caol Ila might be the most used whisky by independent bottlers, and it can actually change a lot depending on the casks used. The palate is not as good as the rest, that is why my score for it is a fair 88 over 100.

Tomintoul is one of those classic super fruity Speysiders that i usually avoid, due to a lack of complexity and/or because they are sometimes a little boring. Having said that, i really had some expectations for this expression since it was a 21 year old single malt, and that guarantees you a certain level; not because 21 years in a cask are necessarily going to make a whisky better than any other, but really because distilleries tend to bottle their best spirits at older ages to offer something that really blows customer's minds. Well, let's see how this one went: Bottled at 40%abv, golden color. On the nose it is clean and very floral; Very perfumed. Definitively cherries and fruitcake. Freshly cut apples; Feels like an apple liquor but not sider. Cold fruitcake and fruit spices. After a first sip a solid note of butterscotch appeared along a dim burnt grass aroma. On the palate, honey can be detected easily. Old apples, hay. Very easy and smooth, way too soft. Dried peaches and a very accurate butterscotch hard candy note. Aftertaste is not very appealing, but not bad. Old burnt hay, dry grass, paper. There is a little bitter/tobacco finish, which is not very long. Overall, this was far away from been worthy of anyone's time. An enjoyable, overly easy drinkable whisky that lacks emotion. It is like a sweet butterscotch juice with the most regular aroma and tasting notes ever. Too safe, boring and not memorable, specially when you realize this is a 21yo single malt. It is not expensive at all and there is a reason for that: it is not very interesting. My score for it is 79 over 100.

I have declared myself to be a GlenAllachie lover, specially since the Master Billy Walker took the distillery and made it an award-winning machine. Having said that, this is one of three "wine cask series" that GlenAllachie has released, the other two were excelent, the Grattamaco and the Rioja cask finish. This time, the Sauternes cask finish was the one i tasted to complete my set of reviews on this new collection. Bottled at 48%abv, golden color. On the nose, it is a little dim and not so easy to analyze. Stewed apples. Mashed apples; thick vanilla. There is a slight aromatic smoke somewhere. Fondant that feels like it is on the last day before going bad. After a first sip, it released aromas of pineapple pie, vanilla syrup, cinammon and honey. On the palate, it is sweet and easy to drink; not very complex though. Yellow apples, pineapple heart, apple pie and dim cinammon. Its exactly like a pie. Honey and peaches. Aftertaste is in a different rythm, it doesn't follow the nose nor the palate. Mild spiciness, Mashed apples; very Grassy / hay. Earthy Lots of very "farmy" hay. Hints of honey. Overall, this wasn't near as good as the other two expressions of the same "wine cask finishes" collection. It is dim, a little rough, not very clean when delivering the aroma and tasting notes and dissonant. I really expected something a lot better. It is not bad, just not memorable. My score for it is 76 over 100.

Everytime i read "Speyside Peated malt", i immediately get skeptic of the experiencie i am about to have. Having said that, this Benromach 10 year old is labeled as an "old style" Speyside malt, with light peat. Bottled at 43%abv, golden color. On the nose, it is fairly peated. Plastic, Cinnamon and apples. Wet clothes. After a first sip, the aroma became very similar to cotton candy. Smokey; aromatic. Cotton and freshly ironed clothes. Bubble gum. On the palate it starts as your typical speysider and then some salty notes appear. Apples and dulce de leche. The a maritime profile appeared. Mild and nice. After a first sip, i got sider and honey notes. Salty. Aftertaste is where most of the peaty profile can be found. Salt, hay and ashes. Pepper. It is very dry. Overall, for a 10yo whisky, this is fairly complex, easy drinkable and mildly peated. All of those are good things in a whisky. It actually feels a little older than 10yo. Good dram, but i just don't see myself drinking it for long periods of time. My score for it is 84 over 100.

I believe i have had only one Auchroisk before, or maybe i haven't at all... and now that feels unfortunate. The whisky i am about to describe to you is one of the greatest expressions i have ever tasted, and one that will definitively be on my top 10 whiskies from this year. Auchroisk belongs to Diageo, and it is the heart of one of the world's most acclaimed blends, J&B. On the other hand, St. Margaret was a queen of Scotland and she is also a Catholic Saint, because of her good and charity deeds back in the 11 century. Bottled at 60.3%abv, this is one of 260 bottles ever made, and released for a charity held by St. Margaret church in Scotland. Beautiful chesnut color. On the nose this is so spectacular that you don't even need to taste it. You can just nose it forever and be happy. Hazelnut, nutmeg, red fruits, berries, prunes. It feels powdery; Hershey's strawberry syrup, very sweet. Pumpkin. After a first sip, the aroma changed into "tres leches" sweet dessert. Cherries, cream and cocoa. Just amazing. More sips made the aroma change into molasses, gooseberries and macerated fruits. This is the good stuff. On the palate, this is one great whisky. Oranges, brown sugar, cherries, christmas cake and molasses are the main notes. More sips revealed dulce de leche, cocoa truffles and sawdust.again this "tres leches" sweet dessert. Aftertaste is the perfect ending to one of my favorite drams ever. Prunes, pepper bomb; red fruits, mint. Super dry, the second sip gave me sulphuric notes such as metallic, pepper and fruit spices. A third sip gave me... peat? Smoke, salt and burnt hay. Salty chocolate. This is just outstanding. Overall, this whisky is one that i will remember forever. The Auchroisk spirit has obtained the best from the port cask maturation and it was delivered in an incredible way. It doesn't feel like a 60.3%abv dram at all, but it is also a powerful single malt. I don't think it has anything that i can call a flaw, that is why my score for it is a 100 over 100. Best whisky of the year? Maybe.

Back in 1494 (MCDXCIV), in Lindores Abbey, a famous friar, John Cor, was authorized by the king to make "AquaVitæ" using 8 bowls of barley. Little did John Cor knew that 527 years later there would be a whisky release that tells his story, the one about the first scotch whisky ever made. Lindores is a new distillery, that has released their first single malt, bottled at 46%abv. Golden color. On the nose, very clean and well delivered. Maize, chocolate, brownies, malty. Hay and coconut oil; it has this buttery and cereal feeling. Bananas are also present on the aroma. On the palate, it has 3 notes, but they are easy to recognize. Vanilla, Pineapple heart and coconut sweet. Aftertaste has a little peaty profile. Salt, earth and hay. There is a dim pepper note also present. Overall, this is a young dram that needs more time. Having said that, it is not a bad whisky, and there is nothing off-putting about it. It is just too simple and the notes found here scream "standard american white oak". My score for it is 75 over 100.