Tastes

Trying this after a Laphroaig Cairdeas meant it went down pretty smooth but as Santa found it's still a potent dram. Sadly it was a bourbon profile I'm really not fond of. Often you get the feeling a dram tastes a bit like cough medicine... this was like drinking an industrial strength version..like the lean mixture the kids drink without the lemonade. I powered through for a bit and it then tasted a bit like oaked cough syrup... which was hard to tell if it was an improvement or not. I'm with Santa aka @PBMichiganWolverine on this one...and so ends Santa Chronicle number 6..i think..i lost track somewhere..

A part of xmas is regifting. Usually you don't tell the person who gave you it you're doing so but in this case I asked permission from Santa to share the love as this was not a 'who can I offload this to?' but more 'I'm duty bound to share this large bounty with fellow distiller compatriots in the southern hemisphere.' Santa aka @PBMichiganWolverine gave the nod and all going well with Australian customs part of this 'aromatherapy sample' should be making it to one @cascode hopefully before xmas. It's a very fine dram way better than the ordinary triple cask but not to the level of the 2013 Portwood. Thanks Santa!

A man's 6 year old daughter played truth or dare with his wife before xmas. The woman foolishly chose truth."Is it Santa or you and daddy who brings us presents?" asked the girl. As the man knew to well the woman was cunning and answered "We buy some of them" which was true as her aunties bought the rest. The child was not done however...like her mother she waited until the man was at his most vulnerable....hung over and running late to pick up his wife. "Truth or dare" a small voice piped up from the back seat of the car. The man had his hands full literally with a steering wheel so Truth was his only option. 'How hard can it be he thought?' She's only a fraction of the age of her mother.."I've seen a lot of fake Santas so far..is he actually real?" The man did what he often did when hung over or drunk or pretty much anytime he thought he was smarter than he was and spoke his mind... which ladies and gentlemen is NEVER a good thing in married life. "Well think about it darling how likely do you think it is that magic reindeer fly round the world to 3 billion kids to give them presents and a fat man who is 300 years old squeezes down chimneys in an age of heat pumps and eats approximately 4 billion cookies and drinks 2 billion litres of milk in one night?". Instantly as soon as the words were out of his mouth the man knew he was in deep deep trouble from mumma bear as junior bear who deeply believed in santa more than the man believed whiskey would solve all his problems was also in the car. Desperately he said "Let's talk about this later darling and hey you can all have as much icecream as you want... think about the flavors you want". Picking up his wife and driving home in record time whilst praying no mention of santa or a game of truth or dare would occur he cracked open a present from santa aka @PBMichiganWolverine and wrote #5 in the Santa Chronicles. Man this is a nice dram. Initially young and harsh once your tongue gets used to the flavour the combination of French oak and bourbony flavors marries well. Thanks PBM!

A man bought his 5 year old daughter and 4 year old son to meet Santa in the park. Afterwards the man asked his daughter if she enjoyed seeing Santa and she said no because that wasn't him. Why do you think that he asked? Well she said I could see he had another set of clothes under his suit and when I asked him where his sleigh was all he said was hohoho. And so begins the Santa chronicles #4. It's not often you get to try whiskies which are 50+ years old and it's even rarer that Santa delivers them. Well in the age of outsourcing and the reindeer being made redundant it was actually FedEx who did the job but who really cares as Santa aka @PBMichiganWolverine does actually exist in real life boys and girls and even better he has a crazy great stash of top shelf stuff this being one of them. Oak, liquorice, molasses and more. It positively oozes age. The man would love know which distilleries comprised this and the man suddenly thinks about Game of Thrones where the faceless man also refers to himself as the man and thinks great series but man that ending sucked. Anyhow thanks once again PBM!

The Santa chronicles #3. A long long time ago (last xmas to be exact) a young girl at the tender age of 5 asked her dad why the presents from Santa said 'Made in China'. Ah said the man its because Chinese elves are cheaper than those in the North Pole. "How does Santa get the presents if they are in China" she asked do the reindeer fly there to pick them up? No said the man due to the worldwide postal union it is very cheap to ship from China to the North Pole. A great man called Trump who will make things great again (except if you are Mexican, an immigrant or basically anyone who doesn't love country music) is going to sort it out so reindeer can fairly compete in international shipping again. "Why do you say he is a great man?" asked the girl "as you always swear at the tv and call him a useless idiot?". Ah said the man it's like when your mother says that to your daddy...she's showing how much she loves him. The girl persisted "If shipping is so cheap from China why dont they ship it to us instead of the North Pole" said the girl. At this point the man realised that perhaps he wasn't smarter than a 5 year old so he did what all good dad's do in this situation and patted her on the head and said "Isn't it time for tv"? He then went to his man den and celebrated his wisdom and parenting skills with a whiskey. It was a good whisky but not as awesome as this whisky. Finally said the man an Octomore deserving of the price. Fantastically balanced and with an aftertaste longer than a supermodels legs. Once again the man gave praise to Santa aka @PBMichiganWolverine for an awesome xmas present and went to bed dreaming of what the next night would bring.

I remember when I was a child and I heard about the make a wish foundation. I thought that's awesome that people would do that for a sick kid. Well add 30 years or so and less any serious health conditions this grown man also had wishes. One was to try the fabled Cairdeas...any of them but particularly a good one. It wasn't the make a wish foundation which came to the party though it was Santa aka @PBMichiganWolverine. Hoho he said I'll not only grant your wish I'll double it...TWO Cairdeas's AND I'll make the sample double size cos hey I'm American and everything is bigger here...and to make my reindeers journey worth it I'll throw in a load more awesome stuff. The man was very excited as he really hadn't been good enough to deserve anything this year according to his wife but then again he never got anything when he was. Also he didn't even believe in Santa but hey this man was DESPERATE..he'd believe in Santa, the tooth fairy and the Easter bunny if one of them promised him a Cairdeas sample. Now the man always made his kids wait until xmas until they could open their presents but hey he wore the pants round here...when his wife let him... so if he didn't want to wait he wouldn't. So begins the 12 drams to xmas aka the Santa chronicles. This dram is fantastic. Way better than the Brodir or whatever that pale imitation was... the man dreamed of a world that was pure, just and when Laphroaig would once again produce great stuff but hey as we all know boys and girls once the marketing dept gets in charge all the presents get watered down. A great dram which makes the top 10 for 2019 easy!

Quick hit review #5: Man I had high hopes for Billy Walker but this dram was my least favorite of a lineup which didn't blow me away collectively. It was very rough and disjointed. I can't believe he reached released this. It's like seeing a top coach work wonders with a team then he moves elsewhere and loses his magic. He did say he'd never have another like Glendronach in his lifetime and he was right!

Quick hit #3: My 2nd favorite on the night. Nice full on peat..no lemony, acidic profile just good old fashion peat. I forgot to take time to analyze where it could come from. Not a CI, Ard, Laph, Ledaig. Maybe a lagavullin or bowmore?

Quick hit review #3: Great dram. Nothing majorly different from the usual Kilchoman profile though. Although I love Kilchoman a lot of their offerings are seeming same same recently. I miss the full on profile of say the Red wine cask finish which provided variety.