Tastes

Weller 12. One of the most overhyped bourbons in my opinion. Considering the scotches I could get for the price of one of these, I am not impressed. Gave it a few tastings before writing this, and it did somewhat improve my opinion of it, but still, not worth it. Nose is slightly overripe apples, some vanilla, and the smell when you open the oven and the first waft of fresh baked cake comes out. That's what I get here. Not bad, but can be had for a lot less. Taste is somewhat vanilla, with apple pie, a few spices in there and some cinnamon. Reminds me a whole lot of Maker's Mark if I am totally honest here, and that one fell out of favor for me a while ago. I still like it, but it's not my go to at the moment. Aftertaste is some mellow cinnamon and warmth. Decent. Overall, it is not a bad bourbon, at all. What hurts it most is the hype and the resulting inflated price. If this would be a 50€ bottle, I'd be ok with it, but not for 90.

Damnit I got lazy with tasting. Haven't had any whisky in months. I blame the unusual high temperatures for that. Sometimes you are just not in the mood for a drink. Got time today, so I picked something at random. Mostly. Didn't want to get back into the game with a peat bomb or something north of 65%ABV, and this one is somewhere in between. Shame it is sold out everywhere, but yeah. The nose has a pleasent peat note that you expect from Kilchoman. Enough to be noticed, but not so much that it burns out your brain just from sniffing it. That's what Laphroaig is for. There is also a salty air to it, a load of stewed prunes that you kinda expect with red wine casks, an interesting wiff of cinnamon and nougat chocolate. Almost like those plums that are drenched in rum and covered in dark bitter chocolate if you know them. The taste is pleasently complex, and also kinda weird. In a good way. Reading off my notes, some of those flavors don't sound like they should work together, but for some reason they do. Peat, salt and dark fruits up front, so far, so good. Honey cereals take a bit of a back seat, but are still very clearly there. What is really damn weird are the spices and herbs that are in between the other tastes. Pepper ok, that's the peat usually...but oregano and basil is not something I expected. Gives it a nice fresh edge. Interesting. The aftertaste is peppery honey with salt and touch of fruit. Doesn't last all that long. All in all, Kilchoman gets it right. I usually prefer their offerings that got close to any sort of (foritfied) wine cask to their others. This is no exception. And now, back to another couple months of tasting hibernation. Probably. Gonna be back with an andvent calendar at the latest tho. Some traditions are worth keeping alive. Cheers.

Blimey....been a while since my laste tasting. Had a couple drinks here and there, but mostly been alcohol free lately. No time to enjoy it, and I'm too old to drink for the sake of getting drunk. This one was always high on my list, and today it just happened. Worth the wait. The MaCallan Rare Cask is one of the very few 200€+ bottles I would actually consider buying. If I had any whisky budget left (Pro tip...when you say "I don't need a powerful PC...might as well downscale"....don't use PC Part Picker...I'm now running out of space for monitors). It is expensive, but worth every cent. The nose starts mild and sweet. Not for every day, but when it fits the mood it is glorious. There are cherries, plums and hazelnut-milk-chocolate up front, with a bit of cereal below everything. Awesome, good start. The taste is somewhat compley, but never gets overwhelming. A gentle dose of vanilla, followed by breakfast cereals with honey, hazelnuts, cinnamon, some more chocolate and finally some spices, mostly cloves and cinnamon. Reminds of a spiced chai tea. Damn fine stuff. Aftertaste is spicy chocolate, honey and raisins. All in all, rather on the sweet side but never sticky. Give MaCallan a sherry cask, and they usually know what they are doing. The price is high, but appropriate. Sure, you could get this from any other distillery for 50 bucks less, but yeah, sometimes you just gotta shill out the extra cash for a fancy bottle and a well known name. Well then, cheers people. Let's hope it won't be another couple months until I have time to sit down and do this again....

Well, time for a new tasting. Been holding off for a while because I started to react badly to any kind of alcohol for a while (bad heartburn, no fun), but that got better, so I can finally start enjoying whisky again. Didn't even get a drink on my birthday earlier this month. But, since today is kind of a second birthday (the anniversary of my surgery), and I'm in a great mood (down exactly 170lbs in one year), I decided to grab a classic scotch. And discovered that I don't have many of those left in my samples...mostly Rum these days. But I got the Bunna 12, and man, that was a nice choice. On the nose it starts very scottish. Honey, salt, a surprising dose of roasted hazelnuts, some buttery biscuits (that I usually associate more with irish stuff, but it is there) and a fruity raisin note. Very nice start. The taste is a bit weird. Salt and smoky char up front, but the softer notes break through after a bit. Honey, caramel, dried fruits and even a hint of dark chocolate. So far, so good. What I didn't expect was a very strong bitterness. Oak maybe? Almost hoppy...IPA level intense. That almost ruined it for me, not a huge fan of bitter, but the rest of the notes kept in check enough for me to still be able to enjoy it. Aftertaste is a bittersweet and warming combination that lasts a decent amount of time. Was a bit torn on how to rate this, what bumped it up to a 4.0 is the price. It's about the price level of a HP12 or Talisker 10 these days, and in that price range, it is actually on the more complex side. And if you like bitter, you might enjoy this one even more. Now that I have a baseline for Bunna, there are a couple more samples that I want to try. Soon(tm).

Long day. Fun, successfull, a bit sad, but all in all, just long. Needed something sweet for this evening, and this fit the bill. Balvenie 15 starts with a very funky and weird smell. First thought was horse stables, but after a few sniffs it turns into raisins with chocolate. Weird. Really weird. There is also the barley, honey and citrus you would expect from this. Taste has the usualy barley and honey sweetness, the raisins and chocolate, some fudge for good measure (reminds me of clotted cream fudge somehow) and a dash of pepper thanks to the proof. Very nice sweet treat. Aftertaste is more sweetness and raisins, but never to an extent that it becomes overwhelming. All in all, good sweet stuff. Not sure if I would pay 100 bucks for a bottle if I can get the same with Glenfiddich 18 for less, but hey, it is worth a try.

I finally had a reason to open this bottle. Under 300lbs for the first time in almost 2 decades as of today. Rewarded myself with a 2 hour workout and now a taste of this beautiful dram. Got this bottle from my little sister and her girlfriend for my 30th birthday last year. Been sitting on my top shelf waiting for a reason to be opened. A little bit more information, this is a single barrel whisky, distilled in 1991. 215 bottles were made of this, and I am very fortunate to own one of those. Because just as I was hoping it would be, this stuff is amazing. On the nose it starts very inviting with peanuts (don't get those very often in scotch), some bitter spicy oak (21 years in a barrel do that), some light vanilla, and a beautiful note of stewed orchard fruits. Not too sweet, just fruity. Might be even a bit of cinnamon in there. The taste is very alcohol forward at first. It is a cask strength dram with an ABV of 56.2% after all (for some reason the app didn't allow me to enter the .2, so it's 56 up there). After a few seconds of burn, the real beauty of this liquid starts breaking through, and by god, this might even be on the same level as my all time favorite, the Hibiki 17 in sheer beauty. There is a base layer of vanilla, some crunchy peanut butter (I mean really, objectively speaking, crunchy is the only legit peanut butter anyway), several spices from cinnamon to pepper, and those sweet fruity orchard fruits from the nose are very present in the taste as well. It ends with a healthy dose of dark, bitter roasted coffee that give it another layer of complexity. The aftertaste is very warming thanks to the proof, with bitter coffee and cinnamon notes that just make you want to dive back in. I was hoping that this would not disappoint. And my expectations where more than met. This is not standing on too of my shelf for no reason. If you can ever get your hands on a bottle of this, or at least a dram, try it. It's worth it. Now I'm going to relax with the rest of this glass. Enjoy your saturday folks.

Day 22. Damn I'm really late with these. But I'd rather finish my advent calender until the 31st than chug a couple samples until the 24th when I'm just not really up for it. Ledaig 18. The 10 was my first tasting note if I remember correctly, and I loved it back then. Even got a bottle of it for my collection just because it was my first try. The 18 is a bit of a different beast. For some reason, I feel the peat is more pronounced here, but also more rounded if that makes sense. Let's start with the nose. There is a decent peat dose up front, but also a lot of fruityness going on. Pears, apples, berries. Sherry influence maybe? There is also a sweet honey and salt note. I dig it. The taste lacks the fruityness of the smell, but in my opinion bumps up the meat. Pepper, peatyness, salty bbq bacon and some grilled apples that still have some of the charred meat from before sticking to them. All in all, very nice, but a tad bitter for my tastes. Not so bitter that I dislike it, but it's on the end of my tolerance for bitterness. I can deal with sweet and salty much better than with bitter. Aftertaste is charred, salty meat. Just like after a nice BBQ. All in all, a very good entry into the peaty side of things, but for the price I'd still rather grab a bottle of the 10 and a Laphroaig 10. That should be about the same amount of money. So yeah, cheers. The last 2 samples are probably coming on the weekend.

Day 21. Tincup. This was one of the whiskies I added just because it's a baseline whisky that I had to try. Now I tried it, and decided that I won't buy a bottle. It's not bad, but a bit bland. Nose is apples, caramel, and some hay. Decent. Taste is rather thin, some caramel, some sugar, some corn(?). Tastes a bit watery to be honest. Aftertaste is non-existant. Down and gone. All in all....I've had better. It's not a bad taste, just way to watered down. Shame, cause the little bit that I get I like. All in all, from the american trio, michter was the best. Somewhat expected. On that note, Merry Christmas everybody.