Tastes

this is my go-to. if i ever just want a whisky, i go here. there is a bar in vienna that over-stocks this if they know i have a work meeting there. it's just smooth and beautifully peated, well structured over the dram and a classic house statement. lagavulin do all sorts of "distillers editions", and "feis ile expressions" and "eight year olds" and what have you ... but the base 16 is a giant among islays. this is "last meal" stuff.

glen moray is my enduring "best on field per price point" in the speyside single malt scotch segment. it's a fantastic dram and continues to offer age statements where others cannot. that fact may speak to their historically diminished single malt profile, and their key role in supplying high throughput blends. But as an everyday, bat-away single malt, there is very little on the market to give you better quality for investment.

i bought my first bottle of this three years ago. since then, it has doubled in price on the australian market. this is a wondrous drink - a sipping blend if ever i found one. complex yet balanced - possibly the most balanced whiskey i have ever tried and sublimely subtle in its complexity. its floral notes are not cloying, its minor smokiness is a welcome offering, the influence of multiple woodings marry well in the blend. i've drunk half a bottle of this - i'm rationing the rest of it given the jump in japanese whiskey prices recently as i am loathe to run out of this fantastic drink and loathe to pay A$300 a bottle to replenish this wonderful expression.

this was the first australian whiskey that made me sit up and go, "wow ... now there's something". the triple-distillation means it is smooth, very smooth. but there is depth and length underneath that smooth exterior. when i'm doing tastings, i introduce this dram as plum pudding, stewed fruits and christmas cake - across the nose, palette and finish. there's vanilla and burnt orange in there as well. and the finish is powerful as it is long. some lovely, subtle peat smoke plus some rich colour and berry notes from the shiraz casking. i have made a pact with myself to always have a bottle of this available.

i bought this before i started examining sherried whiskies properly - and having arrived in whiskyland on the stable expression peat-bus, i was interested in the facts that glengoyne burnfoot is a completely unpeated expression, a nas, and a travel exclusive. it was a bad jumping off point to sherry given my journey to date. an unremarkable nose, heavy cereal notes on the palette and a finish that was frustratingly short. i've read other online reviews that talk of the wineiness across this dram - but i can't find it. to go back to the peat; a talisker port ruighe nas shows how to get some big wine notes to lift up a smokey base. And to go further into sherry; try a glenfarclas 105 nas and the wine is unmistakable. in short - glengoyne burnfoot is an interesting offering that is drinkable but unremarkable.