Tastes

Yeah I'm really not a fan of the direction away from the rich, oily full bodied 16 yr expression. However saying that the rest which do take that path are still pretty good quality. This however is a shadow of even the 11yr Nick Offerman and 8 yr. Its rounded to the point of zero identifiable flavour characteristics or identity. My least favourite Lagavullin ever...Avoid.

I've had a few Mizunara finished whiskies now and whilst not as impressive as some other oak species finishes e.g. Caspian sea, French Chesnut, done well it does impart a lovely flavour. Apparently usage came about at the end of World War II, Japan faced shortages of imported casks to age whisky so whisky makers had to do something and they began to use the native oak, mizunara. The oak does not grow straight, it has a high moisture content and it’s much more porous than other varieties, he says. These issues make the casks prone to leaking. Its name, apparently, translates to “water oak.” Amazingly the tree needs to be 200 years old before they can use it for whisky casks. Why is unclear but it means casks sell for up to $6000 so for the cheaper whiskeys which use it I guess this necessitates short finishing. Yamazaki 18 is a great expensive whiskey but even that has less than 20% mizunara casking . Lovely sandalwood, incense flavour as official notes describe. I'm impressed with this distillery. People rave about 'Japanese' whiskey but most is either stupidly priced if single malt, overpriced and average if blended malt or outright not even Japanese distillate or even much casking in Japan. This is a good example of a fairly priced Japanese whiskey that is actually Japanese and does it well. Initially I thought good but nothing special but by the end I was really savouring ever drop 4 to 4.25 easy and that is on a jaded palate that has consumed several whiskies prior. Give this one time.

I really quite liked their wine finish and it scored a very good 4 rating from me. This one is back down to more solid territory. Its youngish side shows more prominently without the extra finishing to mask the youth of the distillate. Lovely vanilla slight green apple.

Ah the bastardized legacy which is Highland Park. Long before the NAS debacle which is still winding it's way to a sorry end or not, who really knows or cares, it had a solid core range. Now weirdly I had built it up in my mind as this legend of a distillery corrupted to it's core by aimless NAS releases however although there were plenty of those my top two out of the dozen HPs i've had have been Fire and Ice so go figure. I have Light and Dark to come and they are meant to be great so really my ravings about a legacy corrupted dont really hold true...although all those 4 are absolutely stupid pricing even though a couple are teenages so there is a grain of truth there. However that aside after those drams the standard 12 and 15 years seem a bit safe and boring to be honest, no fire in them excuse the pun. Apparently the age statement legacy was in turn a marketing effort as this was released for the TRE mkt which leads me to wonder what preceded this age stmt range? Anyhow this is a simple sweet lightly smoked pleasant well balanced dramdram nothing more or less. Solid 3.5

I quite enjoyed this one. Very simple flavoured dram, light and ethereal but carries and delivers the vanilla note well. I'm alternating between a 3.5 and 3.75 on this one. 3.5 because it's simple but 3.75 because it does simple in a very well balanced rounded way. Started at a 3.75 as after the poorly constructed Tomatin 18 which showed complete lack of care, skill or respect for the distillate this does. But then towards the end got slightly boring and i saw what the price was so 3.5 it is. But then after reviewing all drams on the day this was 2nd or 3rd so back to 3.75 it is. Now interestingly value wise this was £100 pounds which was an exorbitant rip off. I appear to be not the only one who thought so as MoM now has it 1/3rd off at £65. Looks like the CB bubble if not whiskey in general is about to deflate if not burst...about time. There are a few expressions which come to mind, about those swimming naked when the tide flows out and the emporer having no clothes which are now going to come into play (ok the moral of those stories doesn't actually apply to overpriced whiskeys trading on their status for a price premium but the figurative implications sound close :-))

After the Bushmills Steamship Sherry and the Scallwag 13 yr (Aberlour i am picking) this sherried offering is a sharp step down. This starts sweet and not to bad on the top palate but then as scotchinghard noted green apple like notes, bittering finish. This is my 11th Tomatin variety and personally whilst most have been middle of the road fair this one ranks near bottom. Higher than their awful 'Five Virtues' offerings. This distillery is a bit like Glenrothes, by in large they don't seem to be able to achieve anything great but when a 3rd party independent bottler like Adelphi get their hands on the distillate man it can blow you away - 4.5 rating and one of the top drams out of around 120 I sampled at Dramfest. It really shows great spirit, poor tired overused casking used in their official bottling. I do have 1 official limited 2400 run European and North American oak bottling a 21 yr which was really nice. This blargh, there is a reason why it's one of the cheapest 18 year olds.

First sip definitely made an impression. Strong diesel like sherry. Reminds me of Fettercairn although that's a highland region dram then I thought aha it must be Aberlour stock. It's quite a tidy dram all round. Burnt sweet toffee predominantly once it opens up, the finish is a bit drying and astringent however. Metallic note was observed initially but then seemed to fade into the background until the finish. I'm swinging between a 3.75 a 4 on this one. I love the sherry oomph up front but like a lot of aberlours doesn't have that nice oily full body which translates to a thinner mid palate and bitter finish. It's funny as it's a dram best swirled around your mouth as as soon as you let it settle and swallow the experience diminishes a fair bit.

Hmm definitely different. The nose reminded me of a herbal medicinal incense type thing going on. The palate was as people have noted a clove, juniper spearmint type of combo. Not really what I'm after in a dram. It's well balanced out, good oily backbone but all for naught if you aren't partial to the individual flavour components. Nice warming afterglow.

Thought I'd have a lazy Sat arvo with a bit of Whittakers dark chocolate (fijian ginger and NZ mandarin) and thought why not pair it with a whiskey. This one was a great match. Sweet green spiced oak, burnt toffee and a whole bunch more going on. It's abv belies a nice spicey punch which lingers long after the last drop is gone. At $75 fair to great value. Out of several drams tried today definitely the top.