Tastes

A distillery with more lives than a cat and a resurrection and brand funded by government tax relief. There is a story in every dram! The Tobermory distillery has opened and closed a number of times. In 1992 3 investors realized they could reopen it produce a bunch of whiskey and a year later sell it for a handsome tax free profit courtesy of BES a govt scheme to ensure equity was available for small businesses. So their efforts and this brand is responsible for the Tobermory and Ledaig drams loved by many today. Anyhow less history more drinking. This is a simple damn but quite nice. Lovely sweet vanilla and that's it but its a note it hits well.

Hmm again an example of older not necessarily better. I prefer the NAS Murray irrespective of price. And the 20 year. I just find a number of these drams once they get over the 18 to 21 year mark they get over wooded and slightly bitter even after leaving to breathe for a long time. The 20 year mark was the good place to stop. Heavy toffee, slight bit of spice woodness not to bad and fades a bit the more you get into it. $200 USD is good value these days for a 25 year. By the end I was coming round to the dram a bit more.

I like Rye bourbons if done well and for the price I think it's a decent drop. Quite rustic - spice, good kick of rye. Not much complexity but for $35USD here in NZ for 700ml bottle equivalent I wasn't expecting quantum physics on the palate. Bit of a weird aftertaste lets it down.

Hmm not getting a lot out of this one. I know it's only 40% but it feels very weak and watered down. Caramel spice, leather, oak, light toffee. It's...ok but nothing great.

I'm more in the Cascode camp on this dram. Thin lemony peat flavour, balanced by lovely sweet vanilla. It's a step up from Black Tartan and Hammerhead but that's not hard. Initially on par with the 21 year tawny port I thought and vague similarities with Ledaig 10. Initially 3.25 to 3.5 territory. Aftertaste has bitter astringency as cascode noted. Interestingly after I added a few drops of water in and left it to breathe it moved more into the 3 5 to 3.75 territory as the astringency faded and the flavour was amplified more...the aftertaste was still pretty short and average though. I've had a bit of a average run tonight but then again I had a pretty awesome run through the superdrams recently so all good things come to an end for a bit I guess... I'll end the detour of random drams and move back to SD territory next I think (with the obligatory palate cleanser prior of course :-))

This whiskey has an interesting tale indeed. The distillery was founded in 1929 as part of Leonello Stock’s Austro-Hungarian empire, selling spirits to Central Europe and the Balkans. It specialised in making local spirits and herbal bitters, like Fernet Stock. In the 1980s under the iron curtain it expanded into whiskey in the belief there was a mkt because very few imported brands were allowed (bar Cuban rum). One Mr. Vaclav Sitner had a good crack but he relied on old books for instructions and not surprisingly ended up doing some bizarre things like a double distill, first in a column still and then in a pot still (even I could have told you that wasn't the best idea!) and buying their wash from an external source. He even managed to get in a shipment of Highland peated Barley in 1989 (I get zilch of that in this dram). It got worse for old Vaclav as weeks after he laid down the casks the Berlin wall came down and voila he was competing with the rest of the world. I can tell you know drinking this that this is not the dram to do that. It reminds me of a blandish grain distillery output. Thousands of barrels lay there until 2007 when another company bought the distillery and started exporting it (as Tullimore Dew is apparently the Czech whiskey of choice now). Flavour profile is a weak vanillish marzipan type affair with an odd aftertaste.

Hmm, this was rated very highly on MoM so thought I'd take a chance. It's a blend of 4 highland malts apparently.. no idea which ones. Light vanilla and ethanol on the nose and on the palette, aftertaste is average. It's what you'd expect for $30USD i guess, a palette cleanser. 2.75

This dram appears to be an opinion divider. I read the reviews and saw apple pie on the nose, yeah weirdly it does, tastes like egg nog, again check. A lot of interesting flavour profiles coming through. You get cherry and apricot liquor and caramelized peaches on the nose. Palate is oakey cough syrup but not in an initially terrible way (although as you work through it it gets a bit too much). I'm torn on this one. A bit like four roses single barrel bourbon for me. Great delivery and quality, no flaws but I couldn't drink too much of this at all and in fact as I work my way through the dram and keep writing the review I think one drams more than enough. Hmm quality 4, flavour profile 2.5. 3.25 I think.

Over the years I've been working my way through drams in roughly the order I bought them with the exception of the 20 or so super drams which I bundled up over the last year and a half and am now working my through with slight Segways or palate cleansers. After the tasting of that lot it will be FIFO (first in first out) with rare exceptions I expedite as one of the Segways as I want to know whether it is worth the rare 2019 instance of a bottle purchase before they sell out. This was one such dram. Beautiful peat, married with sauternes sweetness, no flaws and a lovely warming glowing aftertaste. It is a very nice dram definitely a 4.25. It doesn't however cross into the rare must buy 2019 category for me. I miss the full aging Kilchoman experience. For me whilst excellently executed I'm more of a smack me in the face with what you've got Mr. Cask and this dram isn't that. That was the red wine cask. Nice dram but no cigar / bottle this time round (although I will gratefully accept donations :-)). I will be saving my bottle pennies for the fabled Solstice given the Albariza is most likely sadly out of my reach. Update 11/19. Ok I blew my pennies on the Solstice and then couldn't stop...feast or famine it seems like for me. After buying a bottle of this, the STR and Benromach Peat Sherry 2010 CS I'm officially taking a break.

To be honest so far I've been slightly disappointed with the cuatro series. The ratings are very high and from what I've tasted they are just pretty average, lighter on the finish. The fino I gave a charitable 3.75 and this I'd say the same. It has no obvious flaws, is well balanced, nice mouth feel but the flavours are weaker allowing ethanol to be the predominant flavour of the aftertaste...like it's fino brother it's not that exciting. Mild toffee yadah yadah. I think all the great drams I've had recently have ruined the tasting experience of all the average stuff which follows.