Tastes

Despite my dislike of the previous bourbons due to their profile they were quality drams. This sad to say is not. I think it's worse than the terrible 25 year i once had (solely a batch issue as 2 years later I had another which was great). That at least was a twisted promise of what could have been potential. This doesn't even try. It's like they got the dregs from all the crap barrels watered them down and flogged them off. Usually this would be a sub 3 score but it still has the magic Talisker profile I love however much it tramples over the reputation. Taste: its like a diluted ash tray had a baby with a bottle of honey mead and then tried to abort it and instead bottled it under the Talisker label. One good thing about it is it isn't terrible as such despite that description just really inoffensive and cheaply constructed. On a more positive note I managed to score a bottle of the fabulous Talisker 8 year special release, sadly it's in Aussie with the relatives until either they or I travel to our respective places. Ok enough sampling for a monday night I'm going to round out with a tried and true Loch Gorm 2019 as a night cap. Oíche mhaith!

Ah man I know it's Monday but you think I'll just have one, then another to finish up but that one isn't as good as the first one and before you know it you are chasing the original high. Like a milder form of meth I've heard.. the first one blows your mind but after that you never can reach the same high. I thought an American whiskey would get me closer after the Elijah Craig but I took one sip and thought ah damn it's like its milder brother. As per review number 2 I just read...' it's like Elijah Craig'.. I've had great American Whiskies that taste nothing like bourbon why make one that does. Anyhow as per my EC review..blargh...

Hmm I'm not having a good run with bourbons lately. Not because they are bad but they are just not a profile I like. Very sickly sweet cherry, liquorice etc. I can see how people would rate this highly as it's a quality dram but you could say that about a good kombucha or such like... great quality wholesome drink but urgh zero balance just over powering sweet simplicity. 2 for flavour 4.5 for quality call it 3.5 even

Hmm I really should stop chasing whiskey unicorns real or imagined..some are great, others aren't but all are over priced. I think a bottle of this is something stupid like $300 USD here. I scored a sample of this for a measily $40USD after shipping and taxes and one compound word sums it up OVERPRICED. I'd be ok as a bog standard drink at $40USD a bottle but nearly ten times the price forget it. Dingle batch 2 was a 1/3rd of the price and at least a third better. Hard pass unless you like chasing overpriced unicorns.

Finally I'm aboard the Dingle bandwagon with batch numero dos! In short, it's good, I like it, you should try it. The much longer version is these guys started a brewery / chain pub in Dublin and then branched out to making whiskey in a place near a small town called (take a wild guess). They converted an old sawmill and dug down to source water from an aquifer and hey presto water was turned into whiskey. Sadly one of the co-founders died a couple of years ago but his name lives on on barrel number one (the first casks were sold to founding members who had their names put on them). Other interesting facts: The artwork on their bottles is done by an Irish artist and their current head distiller used to be a local dairy farmer! It's a lovely dram complex honey, apricot and more going on. Maybe a 4.25 I'm thinking as the balance is spot on.

Black Bottle is a blended Scotch Whisky bottled by Burn Stewart Distillers. The brand was introduced in 1879 and was first produced by Aberdeen tea blenders Charles, David and Gordon Graham. After many years of decline prompted by a distillery fire and subsequent business sale, the Black Bottle recipe was changed in 1990 with a new blend using Islay single malt whiskies. It was changed again in 2013 reducing the peat component. Black Bottle was indeed sold in a black bottle until 1914. Supplies of the black glass bottle came from Germany and had to be abandoned after the start of World War I. The non-vintage bottle was dark green until 2013 when it was changed back to black. That's the heavily plagiarized history lesson over folks! I created a separate entry given this is the ~ 50 year bottling based on the old pre 1990s recipe. It's not bad at all. This is the 2nd old bottling of a bog standard blended whiskey I've had (the other being a 1970s Black and White). Both have way more character than their bland current variants. Why did blends become synonymous with mediocrity given the standard they were at 40 / 50 years ago? Profit? Changing tastes? Inability to obtain their core components? Ok update apparently in 1959 the family sold the company and over the next 30 years it got watered down to nothing. The 1990s recipe was a revamp under new owners who used every working distillery in Islay. Laphroaig, Ardbeg and primarily Bunnahabhain. The whiskey itself has a dual personality. One side very sweet honey (almost meadish) the other a light Islay peat. I wouldn't say massive complexity or anything but way more personality even at 40% than the current blends.