Tastes

Damn app. 3rd time posting as other times failed. Murphy's law it seems.. this distillery had a solid 4 streak now sadly with this dram it ends. 3.25. Very little flavour or character. Faint, smoke sherry etc

Creme Brulee, Orange peel, mild earthy smoke, honeyed viscosity...I like it. It has a bit of a short ethanolly finish however but the alcohol is in balance overall with the rest of the components. It's just over $50USD here in NZ. This is my seventh from this distillery and amazingly this is the only distillery I have never rated less than a 4 on distiller (with more than a few drams tried). Middleton comes a close 2nd with one 3.5 that really could have gone up rather than down. Also amazingly I never considered them in my top 10 but really it should be in the top handful. I think I just really like the overall style and balance of their whiskies. 3.75 and yet another 4.

Ok full disclosure. Drinking this after a flight of 10 to 25% higher abv quality bourbans was perhaps folly in terms of an objective rating. Still an average rating (prior to mine) of 4.7 is highly outrageous. It's got character for a blend...more than nice or pleasantness but still that's it's backbone. Light toffee, honey, green apple (a first for me - I think - but after reading taste descriptors given my mild descriptive ageusia i was like yeah apple). Hmmm....3.5 max I'm thinking and if it had a fighting chance maybe higher but I have to call it on the night. VFM (at well over $300 USD a bottle) suggests 3 but fairness given my muted taste buds says round up so distiller gets a 4 star. But then I wouldn't buy or drink my way through a bottle. So back to 3 to balance things out it is.

This distillery group has bottlings under many names. Inchmurrin, Inchmoan, Inchfad, Crotengea, Glen Douglass, Craiglodge and Loch Lomond. It's almost like the company that has bad PR and constantly changes their name. That isn't the case but given how much I detest their offerings I imagined it was. I thought musty but after drinking quality bourbans it's sour I'm getting this time. I never got used to sour beer and neither in whiskey. Some people like them, I don't. Some distilleries I love, most I'm ambivalent but only one Scotch single malt distillery I detest and this it is. 3 ratings below 3, 3 strikes and out.

I read an article about appreciation of blending and the obsession with single barrel and it struck a cord. Single barrel is put on a pedestal but really like wine making the human element shouldn't stop at harvest time. Blending is an art form and here it's done well. Ainiseed, burnt caramel and much much more going on here. One part of me is how can this retain its 5 star if I didn't give Pappy 15 and George Stag 2017 a similar rating? Still its $70 USD. Yes that's right folks less than a 15th of the price of the Pappy on the secondary market. Its got beautiful earthy depth, one you can taste the history on. Faded burnt caramel, rich but mellow oak, hint of dryness, cherry in the background. In todays world VFM is stratospheric. How much should VFM contribute to a score? The original score was 4.5 and I'm hesitant to lower. It more than held it's own against the winkle family. Update 29/9. The story of my life.. love a sample and a while later buy a bottle.. in the mean time quality plummets...it's a Glenfiddich and bourbon blender speciality these days. This sadly has gone down hill. It was a 4.75 dram in its heyday..now a 3.75 to 4.

I first tried this many years ago when I first started getting into whiskey and it scored a 5. Now wind forward a few years and coming up to 500 unique drams later (not all on distiller), I've got a lot harder on scoring. Most drams have dropped a star on retaste and this is no exception. Unfortunately I drank this after Van winkle 10 and Pappy 15 so the benchmark was set high. Now it's still a very good dram. If the 10 yr was 3.5 - 3.75, the 15yr 4.25 - 4.5, this is around the 4 to 4.25 for me. As I'm drinking it I'm thinking about the 15yr and missing it already. Spice hits you first up, mint or eucalyptus, clove, oak and maple syrupor caramel...similar to the Colonel rye in a way but a bit better. It's thinner than the 15 Pappy and Weller (is it their wheat influence perhaps?). And so as yet another 5 star falls my Beasts of Bourban from Buffalo Trace tour finishes. Of the several some good a number great.

Prices in the scotch world are often a bit stupid but generally there is correlation (to a point) between price and enjoyment. In the bourban world things get seriously detached fast. The van winkle family is a good bunch, definitely a step above the rest of the over priced mob e.g. Colonel range. This one is one very smooth drop and almost tastes weaker neat than it's 10 year Old Van Winkle brother does after a liberal dose of water. The cherry is there but doesn't seem to bother me as much. The dram neat doesn't scream anything but subtlety really which I like. It's a more gentler more rustic experience like the Weller 12. Water doesn't really bring anything much else out and a few drops even seems to weaken it a bit to much. Quite amazing for the abv. I'm really quite enjoying this. I looked at the price of a bottle online... $1200USD! As I said massive detachment from reality. Unlike the 10 year I'd buy a bottle at a 10th of the price but that'd be the limit. Maple syrup, treacle, caramel, hint of cherry (perfect amount), hint of spice, plums and nutmeg. Very, very nice. Perfect balance. Started at a 4 but I'm thinking 4.25 to 4.5 up with the B lot.

I had a drop of the special reserve lot b which was a mighty fine drop. This is also a good bourban but not quite in the same class nor do i enjoy it as much. Caramel and cherry are the dominant flavours here with spicey oak aftertaste. It is a great dram but the flavour profile isn't one that resonates with me given it's cherry forward. The secondary prices are stupid ($700) and I wouldn't buy a bottle at a 10th of that price. 3.75 and despite the price a 4 as a 3 is to harsh a score.

There are so many variables which impact your tasting experience. Reviews you've read, comments from others, what you've eaten or drank at the time, variety of the product, aeration, additional water, your frame of mind, how long a bottle has been open and more. I generally find however that as a bottle opens, you try it again in a different setting etc you can get a bit of variation but generally it's within half a Distiller point - sometimes up and often down. All you can really do is try a few times and make a call. I think with the Colonel range I've had a good crack over the years and although they are a quality product they aren't one that blow me away and VFM is way out of wack in NZ. This one is probably the least favorite of the range. Nice drop; balanced but not loads of complexity and little body. There are much better bourbans out there IMHO and hopefully I'll be coming across one or two in the last 3 out of the 7 in my BBB tasting tour. 3.5 rounding down for VFM.

PBM has hit it on the head with the eucalyptus, minty flavour. Its definitely not the usual rye flavour and it's also a bit thin bodied. It's a quality dram but not one I'd drink a lot of. Given how outrageously gouged we are price wise for this dram given we are paying 3+ times more here in nz vs the USA, I'd say 3.5 rounding down on VFM.