Tastes

Ah Talisker the other side of the whisky coin to the Auchentoshan I just imbibed (not that I'm prejudiced against either heads or tails as opposed to the distilleries I mentioned) :-). Starts off soft and mild and as I'm getting into it it opens up nicely. The usual smokey sea spray although nothing like the Storm in intensity. Pepper, spice and plums come to the fore. I went from 'meh'ish to hmmm lovely. The aftertaste let's it down a bit, slightly short and bitter. I went from 3.5 to 3.75 to 4 over the course of the dram. Its just over $60USD and which is great VFM.

Not sure if it's because the bottles been opened to long (although this bar does turn over stuff pretty quick) but as Lee said flat mouth feel and I'm getting literally nothing out of this. I'll copy and past Lee's score as well 2.75...done. Not too disappointed as it was a palate cleanser / warm up act for the 21 yr G&M Mortlach and one off cask sample Longrow Red 17 yr (provided straight to the bar owner from the Springbank rep who came to Dramfest). Onwards and upwards!

Ah Laphroaig...even your not so great is good. Good official review on this. I have a problem whereby I can taste flavours but can't put my finger on what they are until I read flavour descriptors. Strawberry...of course now I read it it hits me. Lovely balanced drop. So light and smooth and smokey... with the trademark iodine bringing up the rear. Initially after the Millstone rye this was so faint but unlike some drams which hit you with flavour and drop off this goes the other way....slight on the initial hit then builds and builds to a lovely afterglow. Now the downside of reading other reviews for flavour guides is..well you get other things which come along for the ride and get implanted in your head. Yes that strawberry is getting quite sickly... would i have noticed without pre-reading....maybe...ok definitely it's way to sickly. Hmm $130...whaat! Do I go with first or last impressions? Ok 3.5.

My first Millstone and I must say it's an interesting dram. Xmas pudding, currents, clove and tangerine on the nose and also on the palate. The alcohol is a bit harsh but doesn't completely negate the good flavour components. I haven't had a lot of rye drams but from memory this is one of the better ones but I couldn't drink to much of it. 3.75

Batch no. 2. I love virgin / first fill oak and I've had a few great ones recently (yes I'm looking at you Tullibardine 'Murray'). This one starts of with the right notes but there is a bit of an off one which runs through it. 3.5 and at $120 USD here in NZ.

Yeah I think I'm with Telex on this one. It's nice but quite faint on the peat for me, I thought maybe a drop of water would open up to the flavours others were getting which it did for a brief moment but then a few drops more it fell apart. Its sorta like a much milder Ledaig with Ardbeg 10s lemony notes. Peats on the more acidic side, faint and lemony side which I'm not a huge fan of. It did grow on me towards the end but not enough to raise above the 3.25 level. I preferred the Timerous Beasty I had last night.

This really is a whiskey of two halves. The good rich viscous honey and vanilla. The not so good shorter slightly bitter finish. Initially the longer I drank it the latter seemed to over power the former but then it balanced out a bit. 3.5 rounding up as I don't like to disrespect the dead (aka discontinued) :-)

Not a bad dram. Sorta in the vein of a Glenglassaugh Torfa or Laphroiag Select. Starts of with nice balance of sweet vanilla and mild peat. Fades a bit at the end and the more you drink looking for other flavours, depth or complexity to develop nothing really does. Still not to bad. 3.5 I'll give it. Not in the 4 territory however.

Dramfest '18. Day 2. Getting faint honey and vanilla, not much sherry. Better balance than the 15. Would be interesting to try without having tried a number of drams before. The Glen Scotia's definately seem to be of fainter flavour....3.5

Dramfest `18...day 2....somewhere near the end....I only now realise I already had a sample of that at home :-). I can't read all my notes but I got 3.25 crossed our and then 3.5. Ah actually I can...I had this after the Ardbeg Coryvecken so 46% vs a peated 57.1%....it was probably handicapped from the start. Slightly ethanolly, then richness, then unbalanced. The correyveckan and more than 10% seemed to have more balance between alcohol and flavour. I will retry and adjust rating if I've been unfair! 3.5 it is for now. Update 5 months later. Now I have another sample to enjoy at my leisure my rating has definitely gone up a notch. Bubblegum winey toffee on the nose and palate, hint of smoke, bit of drying oak and salt very nice. Definitely a jump up to a 3.75 (4 less .25 for aftertaste). The drying slightly bitter soap suddy thinner aftertaste stops it being really great and from memory I think the Victoriana was better. (I gave that a 4.25). Still at around $55USD here in NZ very good value for $. I've been impressed by some of the Glen Scotias..bar the double cask.