Tastes
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Hayman's London Dry Gin
London Dry Gin — England
Reviewed September 18, 2020 (edited March 19, 2021)Nothing fancy or particularly interesting. No distinct flavours however if you are after a simple relatively neutral well priced gin which makes a decent mixer then this will do the job. I wouldn't buy a bottle vs say Ki No Bi or Roots gins but if i was in a bar and asked for a G&T I wouldn't give this the cold shoulder... -
I saw my local had this highly rated gin as a 50ml taster so popped in a grabbed it. Lets say I'm very glad i only got 50ml as man you get berry alright but it tastes artificial as. Now it may not be but either way it's not great..unless you are into sweet berry rtds. Even with a decent tonic i just couldn't drink it and tipped it down the sink...
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Black & White Blended Scotch
Blended — Scotland
Reviewed September 18, 2020 (edited January 16, 2022)They say lightning doesn't strike twice but I popped into a local whisky store and hello hello an old Black and White. Now the last one I got to try was a 1980's. This was from 1966 and at $10USD a pour or $200 USD a bottle damn good value. I got to see the half opened cask with a number of unopened bottles remaining. Similar to the 1980s one from dramfest. It's like molasses, burnt rich toffee. Really interesting. Night and day from todays bland offerings. I still can't believe you can still get 50+ year bottlings so reasonably. -
Springbank 18 Year
Single Malt — Campbeltown, Scotland
Reviewed September 11, 2020 (edited December 9, 2021)I'm really glad I kept both the Longrow 18, 2018 and this Springbank 18, 2015 edition back from auction. Mr Excellent has nailed a lot of the flavour descriptors. Oily, ripe banana, coconut, pepper, cinnamon, and more going on. I had a think a while back what my favourite distilleries were. A fair number have dropped back due to quality/crap cheap NAS (Talisker) and poor blending (Glendronach) from my top few. Springbank (incl. Longrow, Hazelburn) however I now declare is solidly top spot. Have they let me down, yes. Particularly an over sulphured bomb. There is only one bottle of any spirit i have bought out of the however many hundreds i have returned and that was a massively sulphur bombed Hazelburn 14 Sherry casked. I LOVED the first one I had but man the next two... One i left open for 3 or 4 months, barely drank any and gave the rest away. The next year I was like na this is even worse so I returned it. And this is from a man who loves a bit of sulphur e.g. Mortlach. Anyhow they are my no. 1 as despite sometimes severe quality control issues they always have best intentions and cam deliver some absolute stunners at a (21 and 25 year aged stmts aside) fair price. It's not in their DNA to ramp up production, go mass mkt and pump out crap. If they pump out crap it's still good intentions (just sloppy quality ctl - seriously do they taste each run??). Anyhow let it open for a few weeks and enjoy. Another SB stunner. Update: Months later and close to bottle kill i'm raising this to a ultra rare 4.75. I've bought hundreds of bottles and had thousands of samples and it's extremely rare I see a bottle all the way through. Mostly i give it away as i either go off it, it degrades and or i get bored. Not this one, this I will mourn. I love the flavour profile, complexity and most importantly perfect balance that oxegen and time just has not degraded. There maybe drams I have thought more special than this but very few that have consistently delivered and kept me wanting to go back to every single time..never once have I felt not in the mood for this dram. -
Longrow 18 Year
Single Malt — Campbeltown, Scotland
Reviewed September 11, 2020 (edited May 18, 2021)I very very rarely do a double review of something. Out of 1000+ I'm pretty sure I can count on 1 hand the doubles. If it's the same but my rating has changed i either leave as is or update the existing one. The exception is if the whiskey is for some reason or another fundamentally different by design to it's predecessor. There is often variation in quality (hello any old Talisker age stmt) and perhaps a trend over time to a slightly different profile to age stmts (hello Laga 16). Longrow 18 however is a fundamentally different beast.. it's neither of those..each yearly age statement is essentially a limited release. So if you don't rate it that highly one year... the next it might be awesome. I purely bought this on the recommendation of @Generously_Paul and @ScotchingHard having tried it before 4 years ago and being underwhelmed. I had offloaded a load of bottles in my collection but kept a bunch i was fond of and 3 I had yet to try. This, Springbank 18 (ok 4 years ago at a tasting but I forgot what it was like) and Redbreast 21. Let's say I'm very glad I got the 2018 edition. Lovely pure sweet vanilla note forms the backbone, light peat, lovely wood influence. I like this very much solid 4.5 edging to 4.75 territory. Update: After much time with the bottle I'm thinking more 4.25 to 4.5. It got slightly more stringent and unbalanced with time whilst the Springbank 18 just kept going solid like the energizer bunny...just as controversially as the USA election I'm calling SB18 as pipping LG18 at the post. -
Ki No Tea Kyoto Dry Gin
Modern Gin — Kyoto, Japan
Reviewed September 9, 2020 (edited August 24, 2021)My wife isn't a G&T fan but this mixed with East Imperial Royal Botanical she liked. It's a very subtle drink and easy to drink straight. Lovely green tea and other flavours mixes well with any tonic. I got a 3 200ml pack of a number of their gins so looking forward too trying the rest. 4 to 4.25 territory. -
Reid + Reid Barrel Aged Gin
Barrel-Aged Gin — Martinborough, New Zealand
Reviewed September 3, 2020 (edited March 19, 2021)Number 3 on the gin flight. Pinot noir finish rounds this one out a bit more but still expensive -
Reid + Reid Rev. Dawson's Gin
Modern Gin — Martinborough, New Zealand
Reviewed September 3, 2020 (edited March 19, 2021)No 2 on the Reid + Reid tasting flight after their native gin. Again not subtle, juniper and citrus hit like a sledgehammer. NZ does waaay better gins. Roots, Juno -
We are on an enforced break as our floor boards are getting sanded and polished as part of our home renos so we popped over the hill to the Martinborough vineyard area to chill out for a few days. We visited a number of playgrounds and a number of vineyards (deal with kids they get what they want if we get what we want :-)). One place in the small town is a very old bank which was converted to a wine tasting place. 56 wines and several local gins. After hammering the various pinots and an enforced break to a kids playground nextdoor I got a free pass sans kids to try out the gins. The name Reid + Reid comes from the fact it is two brothers who set up the operation. Very 2 dimensional - Pepper and juniper. Not unbalanced but not that intriguing. Sadly they only had FeverTree not East Imperial tonic. The former being IMHO a quite light slightly artificial tasting tonic compared to the rich robustness of EE.
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Gin, whisky and now rum... the trifecta all happening tonight. Another last bottle I allowed in the door as a chunk of my collection was heading out the other way. Foursquare is known as the Pappy of the rum world. They are lazer focused on excellent traditional quality rum, no adulterents or short cuts. Their bottlings are sort after by rum purists and having tried a boutique whiskey offering and now this I can see why. Once a liberal helping of water is added to bring it down under the 50% abv mark (I'm guessing) lovely toasted caramelized coconut wood flavours burst forward. If you are a whiskey drinker not interested in sweet rums I'd seek these guys out. I'd start with the excellent R. L. Seale's 10 year rum (they have 3 brands: R. L. Seale's, Doorley's and Foursquare). The R. L. Seale's 10 year rum is a great drop and quite cheap. Richer and sweeter but not over the top.
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