Tastes

I wasn't expecting much but I like it. Has the familiar rich smokey sherried sea salty barbecue flavour of bowmore and even some of the springbank vegetal flavour. I like it. Underlying spirit is a bit young but the flavour compensates well. This is very cheap at $55USD a litre or under $40 a regular sized bottle. 4 it is!

Whilst not unusual to have a whiskey distillery with a 130+ history its a lot less common to have a whiskey itself have the same longevity. Well officially its name wasn't Black and White until 1902 but it was known as such long before that. It initially incorporated Dalwhinnie, Clynelish and Glendullan malts but not to sure what the mixture is now. They still sell over 1 million cases these days. Many moons ago it seems (well actually last month) at NZ Dramfest I was lucky my friend mentioned a free talk on rare whiskeys. I had sadly missed out on purchasing the paid session (and my chance to taste a Brora dammit!) but I took what I thought was a break from drinking whiskey to listen to some talking from Dave Broom, Charles MacLean and the founder of the festival. To my surprise they also allowed us a sample of a 30 year old 30% example of this drop. One of my most interesting whiskey experiences, completely different from today's style or even singe malts of similar age. One word Molasses! Hard to judge it as its a unique beast but I'll say 3.5.

Beautiful rich sherry, slight alcohol inbalance and dryness. All in all good dram though and reasonable price at around $120USD. Solid 4.

Thanks to Mikael and the team for updating the app to allow photos to be upload. Much better professional images can be attached now! Just need to start writing professional reviews now I guess :-). Well this won't be one of them sorry. Not a bad drop. Lovely honey and vanilla. $170 USD for a 12 year old. Even Macallan is better value than that. 3.5.

Oily green apple,vanilla, honey, citrus, cinnamon, hint of spiced oak. Has a gentle warming glow of an aftertaste. I prefer this to the 14 year twin wood. Nice drop and good VFM at $60USD... just such a relief to get the taste and memory of the Dictador Perpetual rum out of my mouth! 3.75 to 4.

2017 AD marks the 2nd release from the Ardnamurchan distillery's spirit series, selected from a mix of peated and unpeated spirits matured in 130 55 litre sherry octaves that matured on the upper floor of their warehousing, then married in ex-Pedro Ximénez casks for an extra four months. It's such a great dram for only 2 years old. I got fermented cabbage on the nose and the palate was truely multi-faceted. Sherry, nuts, smoke, nutmeg, sultanas, and much much more going on. Around $80USD and worth it. I really need to get a bottle!

Rich, xmas pudding, fruit, toffee caramel, oak, spices. Nice drop, slightly harsh on the alcohol for 46%. 3.75 and VFM at $65USD.

Hmm interesting a loaded entry with no official or unofficial rating. Lucky for Distiller I have the missing piece...a sample of the dram itself! Even without water its a good one. Toffee, vanilla, caramel, hint of sherry, toasted oak. Even with liberal doses of water it's still a bit "burny" for the abv but that still doesn't detract that much from the great casking. Interestingly the 14 year I had a while back was the same..only 46% but burnt the hair off your chest a bit. The port casking just couldn't hold its own. Based on the two samples I'm thinking their casking policy is very good just not sure about the underlying spirit. Out of interest does anyone know why some drams run a lot hotter than others? e.g. two drams with the same ABV but one just seems like it's much stronger alcohol % than the other? Anyhow I'm loving this more and more and I understand now why LeeE loves this brand. I'm wishing I added water in the 14 yr port sample to see how that evolved but often I find they just fall apart at the lower abv level so I refrained. Anyhow back to the whiskey. This is at least 4.25 maybe 4.5. Very nice drop.