Tastes

Many years ago I was in a liquor store in Texas on the weekend, as I usually was, browsing over their assortments when I saw this and the 18 sitting on the shelves. The 12 was only 40 dollars and the 18 selling for 100, without knowing the future or anything about Japanese whisky, I decide to go for the cheaper option to give it a try. All I remember from that time was that I enjoyed it, but didn’t feel the need for a second bottle or need to spend 100 to try the 18. I really wish I had, as I hear great things about the 18, but not for the price of 900 today. Many years have gone by since I tasted this one and decided I might have just been too young to appreciate it with the hype around it and a friend was kind enough to procure one for me at 120. So let’s see if my palate has evolved since then and I can appreciate this better. The nose starts with a smoky quality, between fresh burnt matchsticks or ash then follows with some pickled ginger leading to sweeter notes of bubble gum, pineapple, honey, tangerine, anise, some breakfast cereal and poached pears with light ethanol burn. The taste is a medium viscosity that starts sweet with big league chew bubble gum leading to fruits of pineapple, green apple, lemon, then some breakfast cereal before the smoke notes come in with that burnt matchstick or ash and spices of pickled ginger, sage, sandalwood with a light ethanol burn that finishes medium length that’s dry and spicy with pickled ginger, watered down wasabi or horseradish, sage, sandalwood, pineapple, lemon and green apple. This is a nice whisky that has blown up in price just like many overhyped names. I brought this with me on vacation along with a WR double oak, and the double oak didn’t make it home. The spice notes on the finish ruin the whisky for me as it’s just overpowering the fruits and they don’t balance each other out.

The nose is a big sherry bomb right up front with a box of Sunkist raisins, then freshly baked dark chocolate chip cookies, ocean sea salt, hot sun-baked fruits of orange and lemon, a light peat smoke and cavern minerals with vanilla cream and light ethanol burn. The taste is an oily mouthfeel starting with loads of chocolate covered raisins, then salted baked orange and lemon, light peat smoke, cavern minerals and light ethanol burn that finished long with chocolate covered raisins, salted baked orange and lemon, cavern minerals, vanilla cream, and light peat smoke that lingers for minutes. Wow, just wow! This one is just an amazing balance of sweet, salty, sour and bitter that comes at you but each one is light and refined. It’s still a sherry bomb that some might not like with some nice funk in it, but those raisin flavors don’t seem to overpower or bring a Sulphur imbalance like other sherry bombs I’ve tried. This is just a masterpiece and big thank you to @ctbeck11 for the sample. I think I’m starting to turn into a Springbank fanboy and I’m ok with that as I feel a need now to add one or two of these to my collection.

Springbank has been on my list to try for a while, but I always seemed to gravitate towards something else. Thankfully @ctbeck11 took me on a Springbank, Longrow and Hazelburn flight to help highlight this distillery and provide a few samples, this and a few others for me to dive into. The nose is very light but starts with hay and light citrus fruits of lemon, orange maybe even some peach that have ocean sea salt sprinkled over them with a vanilla cream and subtle light peat there but in the background wrapping them together with light ethanol burn. The taste is an oily mouthfeel with hay, light citrus fruits of lemon, orange with sea salt, vanilla cream, ginger and light peat all just intermingling together with a light ethanol burn finishing medium length with hay, sea salt, vanilla cream, lemon and orange, ginger and a cave mineral wet rock flavor that lingers for minutes. Now that I’ve finished the sample, I might need to get a bottle to work through and find more notes in. This is a great VFM for 80 dollars and I’m looking forward to the rest of the Springbank samples if this is what their 10 year has to offer.

On the nose: starts with fresh campfire surrounded by spruce trees, then smoked apples, smoked vanilla cupcake, smoked caramel and smoked chocolate covered toasted marshmallow with light ethanol burn. The taste is a medium mouthfeel starting with mesquite smoked barbecue (short ribs, brisket), then smoked apples, smoked chocolate covered toasted marshmallow leading to barrel spices and smoked leather with a medium ethanol burn that finishes medium length with smoked beef short ribs, smoked chocolate covered toasted marshmallow, smoked apples and smoked vanilla cupcake. I’m not sure if I said smoke enough to describe how smoky this one is, but this tastes like someone just got a smoker and decided to treat the family to a full smoked dinner but to be sure it was smoky enough they smoked everything for 16 hours and then poured artificial liquid smoke on top of everything. There are a lot of great flavors in this but that smoke, for me, is just overwhelming all of them. Big thanks to @ContemplativeFox for the generous sample of this for tasting.

This is a new one, Corsair Mosaic is a single malt whisky that’s been vapor hopped through the distillation process. Thanks @ContemplativeFox for the sample to try as I’ve only had one whisky before this that had hops included and that was Charbay S Lot 211A which I liked a lot, so interested in how this experiment with hops went. Going into this one is reminiscent of a past experience from my childhood. So let’s start up my childhood/whisky story. I used to play little league baseball and my prime position was right field, then one day my coach decided I am ready for a change and has me play third base. Similar to this whisky, I question if I want to step out of my comfort zone and try something else and decide to go for it. So I get all set up, pitcher is ready, batter comes up and I take my position ready to play. The nose on this is starts with lemon pine-sol, freshly cut grass, a pile of freshly pulled weeds from the garden, flint rocks, used cooking oils, light caramel, ginger and moderate ethanol burn. So the nose is interesting and kind of a weird funky, definitely some new flavors I’ve not had in a whisky before. Much like playing third base for the first time, it’s different, and a feeling of nervousness and excitement all at the same time. So the game has begun and now the batter comes up, pitcher throws the first pitch of the game and I’m ready, then all of a sudden the batter crushed the ball and I have a line drive headed right for me. Time for a taste. The taste is medium mouthfeel starting with lemon pine-sol, grass clippings, piles of pulled weeds, flint rocks, bitter dark chocolate finishing with ginger and barrel spices with a strong burn. The taste is similar to what happened next in the story, the baseball came at me and bounced off my chest, similar to the hop flavor bomb of this whisky. It’s so much, I’m looking for water and ready to head back to right field to kick dandelions and watch planes fly over again. The finish is weedy, spicy with ginger beer that’s unbalanced and too much ginger, some bitter chocolate and long, those herbal notes stick around much like my chest pain after getting clobbered by the baseball and the bruising my tongue has endured from this whisky. It takes time to heal but lingers for minutes. One would think, I would learn from the first tasting, but I repeated this multiple times to make sure it wasn’t just a surprise shock. It turned out to not be a surprise shock and each time was another line drive of weedy hop covered baseball rocketing at my chest, that I was incapable of catching, followed by knocking me off my feet again and again. I am now back to right field with a bottle of WR double oak, enjoying my Hershey syrup covered banana split as I work through the emotional and physical toll Mosaic has done to me. Perhaps a visit to a psychiatrist called Dr. Jack Daniels to get some much needed barrel proof medication is required.

On the nose: you’re greeted with ocean sea salted caramel apple, white peaches, lemon leading to white cake, ginger, and a smoking olive oil with light oak and a light ethanol burn. The taste starts with a medium mouthfeel starting with sea salt caramel over caramelized apples then peaches, lemon and grapefruit rind followed by spices of ginger, cloves, pepper and barrel spices with a medium ethanol burn. The finish is medium length with peaches, grapefruit rind, ginger, cloves, ocean sea salt, pepper and smoking olive oil that lingers for minutes and reminds me of stepping outside at the beach with a lingering salty flavor stuck in my mouth. Overall this is a delicious and very well balanced whisky that brings ocean brine, light peat and fruity flavors all together without one overpowering the other. A big thank you to @ctbeck11 for the sample of this for me to try, as I’ve always been curious about this one. The only problem I’ve heard about this bottle is that it’s like a soda and tends to go flat rather quickly and lose those wonderful flavors that it has. Although I guess that’s a great excuse to say to my wife “Honey, I don’t have a drinking problem, this bottle has a going flat problem” as I finish the bottle in under two weeks’ time.

This is a sample graciously sent from @ContemplativeFox. I have never heard of this one before and am going into this one blind besides the fact that he wrote BiB on the bottle. On the nose: you’re greeted with pecan caramel clusters leading to apple pie filling then comes chocolate, some dusty oak, vanilla crème brulee, light barrel spices and a moderate ethanol burn. The taste reveals a viscous mouthfeel starting with rich caramel, orange peel, chocolate, spearmint, dusty oak leading to medium barrel spices and medium ethanol burn with a finish that is medium length with light spices, caramel, spearmint, dusty oak and orange peel. Ok, so now that I’m done tasting this, I’m guessing this probably falls into the 40 to 60 dollar category of quality whiskey. I then pull up my phone to do a quick search and “Holy Shitballs, Batman!” this thing is only 25 dollars for a liter. Honestly, I’ve paid 3 times more than that for a terrible bourbon and probably will do so again in the future. Is this going to blow someone away, no, but for the price it’s something inexpensive, easy to drink and nice to have around to pour for friends or even throw into a few cocktails.

Ardbeg was a spirit that I thought I would hate and never like, judging it based on my experience in my youth with Laphroaig 10, and never tried until a whisky fest one year. The whisky fest was holding master classes for people to sign up and I was late to the sign up roster and all that was left was Ardbeg as the other had filled up, funny to think that it would probably be the opposite now. My friend and I arrived to the masterclass to find that Ardbeg's marketing came up with a virtual reality Islay experience. The VR experience involved three pours of their core range at the time of Ardbeg 10, Uigeadall and Corryvreckan and for each pour you needed to first put on your VR headset, watch the marketing, then get to take a taste. I'm pretty sure there was some brainwashing involved in those headsets because I went into that class not a peathead and left it chasing things like Octomore. Their core range was so good I immediately bought a bottle of Corryvreckan and have kept one in my liquor cabinet since, but have never attempted to give it a proper review besides "Fuck that's good" until now. The nose starts with a burning campfire next to the ocean followed by freshly charred citrus of lemon and orange leading to sour dough bread, then candied bacon wrapped in dark chocolate with bourbon caramel in the middle and finishing with dried fish jerky and a medium ethanol burn. The taste is a medium mouthfeel starting with sweet bourbon caramel and dark chocolate raisins leading to those charred fruits of lemon and orange, smoked fish jerky, ocean brine, candied bacon and pepper with a medium ethanol burn. The finish is medium long with sea salt caramel, dark chocolate, burnt lemon and orange, and campfire ash lingering for minutes. This is just damn good whisky and for the price of 80 dollars, a great VFM one. A friend of mine ended up finding my current bottle for sale at an ABC store for 60 dollars and was kind enough to grab it for me.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day, a perfect reason to open an Irish whiskey and give a tasting or two. Sadly I was all out of stock, but @ContemplativeFox was kind enough to give me a sample of this to taste. The nose starts sweet with freshly baked short bread cookies then caramel and citrus fruits of orange, lemon, apple, and cereal before finishing with spices of cinnamon, ginger, pepper, cloves, light oak and medium ethanol burn. The taste comes through with a medium viscosity starting with bubble gum, light caramel, leading to citrus fruits of orange, lemon, apple, then spicy pepper invaded and hits hard along with flavors of ginger, cloves, and medium oak tannins with medium ethanol burn leading to a medium finish that’s very spicy with pepper, ginger, cloves, medium oak tannins and light lemon. Overall, I think this is a pretty solid whiskey and happy I got to try it, but for the price of 70 and above, there are better value options than this one to choose like Writer’s Tears Double Oak. The flavors on the nose are nice, the first half of the taste was nice but then the spice bomb came on and seemed to not stop.

The nose starts with a mingling of peat and mesquite smokes, charred meats (leaning towards brisket), bacon wrapped dates, black tea, candied pecans, dehydrated figs, chocolate covered raisins, polished mahogany, leather and pit master signature secret “take to the grave” dry rub with a high ethanol burn. The taste is another flavor explosion, basically think of a flavor genie granting you flavor wishes, anything someone thinks is delicious and tells me they find in this one, I’ll believe. Let’s start on my genie wish list on this one: it starts with a very viscous mouthfeel with pecan pie and wildflower honey, brisket, dark chocolate, bacon wrapped dates, Jamaican jerk eggplant, bit-o-honey candy, sour patch kids, smoked s’mores sandwich, steeped black tea, leather and pit master secret dry rub with a medium ethanol burn. The finish is long with brisket, chocolate covered bacon, dates, dehydrated figs, bit-o-honey candy, toasted marshmallow, and espresso that lingers for what seems like forever. This is a big powerful in your face whisky with all of those flavors coming right at you in full force before the next one takes over and somehow manages to balance that flow without one overpowering the other. A hell of a whisky that if you spot in the aisle, grab it, bring it home, rub the bottle, pop the top and see what your flavor genie has in store for you. Thanks to @Ctrexman and @skillerified for bringing this one to my attention and the great tasting notes you two provided.