Tastes

Dramfest '18. Sweet, savoury vanilla. Really interesting new make. The cask fades into the background. 4.25. Amazingly value for $80USD. I'd love a bottle but sold out instantly here. MoM still has two left.

Dramfest '18. Average not much flavour. 3

Dramfest `18. Loved the Craigellachie 13 official bottling this sadly didn't have much going on but could be my palate is a bit stuffed.

Decent drop and quite reasonable for $70USD

Girvan was only built in 1963 as a grain distillery and interestingly it's also the home of Ailsa Bay distillery since 2007. I'm on a bit of a roll with grain spirits as as you dig deeper into the older independent labels the flavour profile is just really different to what I was expecting generally i.e. not a flat lifeless blend type thing. This is an interesting dram. Really get cherry coming through, mild cough syrup. Really weird as its like a mild Balcones or something. Definitely not what i was expecting. 3.5

Dramfest `18. Average dram. Definitely Caol Ila

Dramfest `18. Not a bad dram. Definitely Caol Ila. 3.5

Dramfest '18. Not really a stand out dram on the day. 3.5

I saw vanilla cherry coke mentioned in a review here. The analogue I had was mild cough syrup flavour but I like the other expression better...add a dash of hazelnut (think frangellico) and your compete. It's a smooth drop, good quality but I find it a bit sickly sweet. Not a Dictador Perpetual abomination sweet but sweeter and more cherry like than I like in a bourban. It's a hard one, I don't think its a 3 but it's not really a 4 either. I'd give it a 3.5.

We all have prejudices in life. For a brief time mine was grains, blends and anything not single malt, a group I thought merited little attention. Like a blow torch taken to ice my prejudices started melting and melting fast...Pot still Irish whiskey, Compass Box, Boutique Whiskey and now this majestic whiskey from a closed in 1988 Edinburgh grain distillery. Really, really interesting. Waxy, earwax, candle wax taste....wax, wax....and hazelnut. I really like it. Many years well spent. I've never tasted a dram like this. 35 years old and very reasonable price at under $200. 4.75.