Tastes

Interesting drop. Viscous honey, vanilla, there is also a sulfuric meaty herbalness going on. I do like mortlach, craigallechie etc with the same surpheric, meaty flavour profile but what they don't have is that excessive lemony bitterness which comes along for the ride. The 26 year Glen Elgin Signatory I preferred which I gave a 3.75. 3 - 3.25 I'm thinking for this one.

This one was on my list. Not bucket list as if this was one of my aspirational experiences in life i might as well give up now. Anyhow it was cheap and foolishly my friends let me choose this round so we had one each. One mate commented he thought I was joking when he heard me order the "whiskey for those that don't like whiskey" (was this actually their slogan once?) or brown vodka as its known. Don't worry I told him it's 20 years old not the cheap nasty stuff...oh wait what if it was the cheap nasty stuff left to lounge around for 20 years slowly sucking the life out of a poor maple tree barrel...perhaps I didn't think this through that well. But hey a 4 star rating on Distiller that has to mean something doesn't it? Well lets say apparently not in this case. It was like a sweetly insipid low alcohol bourban had an illicit affair with a blended whiskey of ill repute and this is what popped out 20 years later. So no not a 4 star experience.

Ding, ding. The bell sounds for the WWWC (whisky welterweight championship) title. In the left corner we have the maple leaf champ Canadian club 20 year and in the right Scotlands finest - Macallan Amber. Whatya say Jim Murray whose gunna take it? Canadian Club you reckon? Hmm with JMs track reckon its not looking good for the Canuk if he's getting paid to promote...i mean honestly is giving his opinion. But as we know the ref is severely biased against all things Macallan.. Its a tough one. Macallan comes out smooth and strong. Left - candied oranges, vanilla - and then the right - toffee, caramel...not a devastatingly complex combo but it's more than enough for CCs weak kneed insipid sweetness. MA goes the round but CC gets dragged out of the ring and dumped unceremoniously down the sink by the waitress. The ref for once is impressed given Macallans share of the fight purse actually matches his ability this time round at $70 a bottle. 3.5 - 3.75 rounding to a 4 for the three initials usually never associated with the word Macallan...VFM. Sadly once his promoter hears those three letters he drops MA like a hot potato as he doesn't want to devalue his brand...

Ah a good dram it is. I had the Talisker Dark Storm before this and I definitely prefer this. Richer and more vibrant...even if the vibrancy is all about oily soot, smoke, tar with a hint of sweet vanilla on the palate and nose to round it out. Very nice. I think I got more of a flavour range from the Kelpie last year. But then saying that I get a hint of rich meat and the wine influence the more I got into it so it could just be that on initial impressions the soot etc taste just overpowers the rest of the flavours in there. I think if I drank my way through a bottle this one could really evolve but I have to go with what I have at hand. 4.25 to 4.5 for me. Also because it'll be well over the $150USD mark here when it comes out I reckon.

Ah the Talisker nose, smokey charcoally brine which translates to the palate which saltiness comes through even stronger. It's talisker so I like it. Seems more restrained than the storm but it's a newly opened bottle and if I've learned anything from a Talisker it's that you need to let it breathe. 3.5.

Ah Eire. Many moons ago as a fresh 20 something year old I lived there for 3 years, met my wife amongst a flat of up to a dozen at anytime flatmates (was a big old house), drank many a pint of Guinness, discovered whiskey wasn't that as terrible as I thought (very well watered down not neat...it took another decade to achieve that and truly drink whiskey) and now here back in NZ I crack open a sample of a brand which wasn't in existence when I was there. To be honest there was only 3 or 4 distilleries and limited brands in those days. Fast forward and the diversity is mind boggling. Now the whiskey at hand...is it any good. Hmm...not bad but not Redbreast, Yellow Spot good either. Mild bitterness mentioned in the 12 year in reviews comes through here...not massively but enough to slightly overpower and distract from the rest of the dram. The potstilled nature comes through, vanilla, bit of pepper, very mild sherry influence. I'd give it a 3.5 but couldn't round to a 4. Not bad value at just over $80USD

Aha I see this one has been roadtested by the tribe. Well by and large I'm on same page. 18 years not that well spent. The bitterness definately gets a bit over whelming the more you get in it. Not much point delving into the rest of what I can barely perceive under the hood given it falls at the first hurdle. 2.75. I see it won a medal last year at the world whisky fest. Interesting, I wonder if Jim Murray was the judge...boom boom.. Sorry couldn't resist :-)

I'm on a mission to try all of Scotland's distilleries. Mostly active but I've knocked off a few inactive along the way. It starts getting a bit harder for those opened in the last few years so I'm cheating and trying new make and progress statements. Alephi's 2 year progess statement I had Wed night was beautiful. Anyway to the drop at hand. Interesting back story this one for those who are avid golfers. A decade ago a golf caddie had an idea that he wanted to open a distillery. Ambitious on his salary you may think. What he had was a lot of rich contacts however i.e. those he had caddied for) and so after a lot of ringing round he had £100k of seed funding, bludged off the govt grants system a bit and the Wemyss family of Wemyss malts fame sorted the rest. Some time this year we should see whisky hopefully. Anyhow the new make. Its a bit like Sake or Soju. Sweet Umami, malt, fermented cabbage. I like it. Hard to rate really given its whisky that isn't quite yet i.e. half finished. So I won't.

Each Dramfest in Christchurch (every two years) Whisky Galore the whisky retailer that runs the festival selects a special bottling. This one was bottled at cask strength. So onto the review - Dramfest '18. Day 2. Very easy to drink at cask strength. Lovely drop, peat, sweet, vanilla. Def one of my favourite Benromach's up there if not better than the 10. Around $100USD here in NZD

Dramfest '18. Rich first fill sherry. 3.5