Tastes

Old Forester Single Barrel.  64.35%, Non-Chill Filtered, Natural Color Old Forester is one of my favorite bourbons. They provide excellent value with their 1910 and 1920.  Today I am reviewing an Old Forester Single Barrel. These single barrel bottles are going to run you close to $100 but they are also cask strength (barrel proof) so you do get a little more bang for your buck.  The smell is brown sugar, caramel, burned corn, cherries, and oak. All of those are prominent. This is really nice so far The taste (neat) - is a little bit of cherry before the alcohol numbs your entire tongue. Some really nice brown sugar is detected in areas of my tongue that aren't numb yet. After adding some water I get the bright cherries but the brown sugar, caramel, toffee, and honey now show up. None of these are “hints” of flavors, all of these flavors are full force. Really impressive. The finish is medium to long depending on how much water you’ve added. I think the cherry hangs around a little longer than the other flavors but for the most part, the entire experience of flavor fades out equally.  This is an absolute stunner. Excellent bourbon.  Overall Grade: A (Excellent)

Compass Box – Peat Monster 46%, Non Chill Filtered, Natural Color Compass Box is a favorite around here. They have begun price gouging over the past couple of years but fortunately their core range is still very affordable. This bottle of Peat Monster is both in their core range and pre price gouging era. Currently the Peat Monster blended malt  is pretty much a blend of 2 malts (65% Caol Ila and 35% Laphroaig).  You can get the exact details on their site. Unfortunately I am not sure the exact age of this bottle or if the blend was different back then.  I am thinking it’s from the 2013-2015 era but I am only making a half educated guess based on the style of the label. Regardless of the age of the bottle and its contents, this is a pretty tasty whisky.   The smell is very pleasant.  Light fresh peat, gentle smoke and fresh orchard fruit (apples and pears) Taste - first you get hit with sweet and spicy smoke, vanilla. The fruits that were there in the smell begin to show up in the finish just before it fades to bonfire ash. Overall I really enjoy this blended malt. It was priced fairly at the time but now prices for everything are out of whack especially the Compass Box prices.   Overall Grade:  B

Laphroaig PX Cask  48% Triple Matured Travel Retail Only Laphroaig PX Cask is a travel retail only bottle but you can easily find it online in auctions for a pretty fair price.  It’s really not much different than their Cairdeas line of wine finishes but this one happens to be triple matured which means it’s kinda like the Triple Wood but with a PX finish. Smell - very nice - sweet, peat, raisins, fruit cake, fresh dark red fruits, brine/salt, medicinal.  It’s the usual Laphroaig scents with the added holiday dark red fruits and fruit cake. Taste - first thing is a blast of sweet flint/ash but quickly goes to the think oil seaweed blast you expect in Laphroaig.  Adding some water completely removes the ash and provides the dark red fruits.  Campfire, peat, smoke, oil, brine, raisins/fig/dates.  It is what I would expect a holiday fruitcake to taste like if it were made with Laphroaig.   Finish - Brine/Seaweed, Medicinal...more of a standard Laphroaig finish but still have some of the bitter red fruit and the initial blast of ash comes back.  Good or bad depending on your mood I suppose. I don’t know the details of the other 2 casks of the 3 cask maturation  but the PX certainly comes through.  I find this to be really interesting but not something I would approach on a daily basis. It is not one of my favorite Laphroaig’s.  I would still take the Laphroaig 10 CS over this any day of the week but considering you can get this from auction at prices much less than the Cairdeas bottlings AND it is a 1L bottle.  It's worth a punt of your a Laphroaig fan.   Overall Grade: B-

Ardbeg 10yr old, 46%, Non Chill Filtered, Natural Color   Ardbeg is always represented at the house and the 10yr old is as solid of an Islay whisky as you can get. It really hits all the marks you want.  It’s age stated, it’s non chill filtered and natural color and bottled at 46%.  It’s essentially a craft whisky from one of Islay’s most corporate juggernauts. The smell of this whisky is great – Clean Fresh Peat, Citrus, White pepper, Fresh sea salt, seaweed. The taste is a nice mix of soft vanilla, peat, sea salt, seaweed, pepper, orange peel The finish is long with more of the peat, sea salt and spicy vanilla/white pepper I have always loved the Ardbeg 10yr.  Probably my favorite of their core range. This is a highly recommended whisky.  Considering you can usually find this for under $60 this has to be one of the best QPR bottles you will find.  Overall Grade: A

Deanston 18yr old (Bourbon Cask Finish), 46.3%, Natural Color, Non Chill Filtered.   Deanston is a brand I have been familiar with for about 9 years now. It started while pre-gaming for a concert one night in Philly while visiting one of my good friends.  I stopped on the way and picked up a bottle of Ardbeg oogie and wanted a cheap non peated whisky for the pre-game.  I saw something called “Deanston Virgin Oak” and it was around $25.  I picked it up and read the bottle (non chill filtered, natural color, 46.3% abv) and thought “A craft presentation at $25?”  I’ll take it. And that night started my Deanston journey. I won’t be reviewing the Virgin Oak anytime soon as it’s quite young and spicy but I do remember it being worth the small price tag at the time. Anyway – on to the Deanston 18. Smelling this one is nice – vanilla, green apple, pear, fresh fruits, barley sugar Taste is good -   vanilla, clove, pepper, green apple, honey Finish is decent with the bitter/green apple and spice carrying it out. The Deanston 18 is really nice.  It’s not cheap but I’m not sure that you can find any 18yr old craft whisky at a fair price anymore.  Whatever price you find it at, you are getting a craft single malt with no branding at all which is “Exactly as it should be”.   Overall Grade:  B

Ardbeg An Oa 46.6% Non Chill Filtered, Natural Color While I was not happy to see another NAS join the ranks of Ardbeg I am happy with the end result of this.  Smelling the An Oa will give you the familiar seaweed, vanilla and pepper you expect in Ardbeg but also some citrus and chocolate Tasting is much like an oogie light...but in a good way.  It’s actually much sweeter than the oogie but shares a lot of similarities.  Sweet, peat, seaweed, dried red fruits and spice/pepper with vanilla.   The Finish is a bit short but tasty. Sweet, Sherried Red Fruits, and seaweed/sea salt. It’s Ardbeg - can it really be bad? Overall Grade: B

Lagavulin 11yr old Offerman Edition 46%  I figured this would be quite the gimmick but I found it at a decent price and figured to give it a shot. I mean - it couldn’t be worse than the GOT Lag could it?? (actually I seem to be in the minority on that one. Lots of people like the GOT Lag). I only wish this would have been released as the Ron Swanson edition. I was quite surprised with this as you can read below. Smell - sour peat, peat reek, banana, melon rind. Allspice and clove are there too but not as heavy, Not quite your standard Lag but still good.  The sourness of it all is a surprise to me but it’s enjoyable. It does show some qualities of the standard 16 yr old. Taste - clean, astringent, Iodine, seaweed, brine. After that blast of medicinal comes some nice barley sugar sweetness with some vanilla. Even the sweetness from it is crisp and clean. A little bit of the clove and allspice but mostly brine and barley sugar. Finish - peat reek, sour melon, campfire ash, iodine, clean. Lagavulin used to be more of a staple in this house than it is now mostly due to the ridiculous prices out there these days.  I still enjoy Lagavulin anytime I can get my hands on it for a reasonable price.  This particular bottle is much better than I had expected. Overall, I really like this. Overall Grade: B

Bruichladdich - The Classic Laddie Scottish Barley 50% abv, Non Chill Filtered and Natural Color   Bruichladdich is a brand we like around here.  I love that they are all about sourcing anything they can from local Scottish farmers.  I assume this is the NAS version to replace their 10yr old in the same turquoise opaque bottle.   The smell is fresh grass, barley, barley sugar, banana, honey.  Very nice The taste is quite hot at first.  Definitely get a huge blast of alcohol.  Give this one a few extra minutes in the glass.  After the alcohol blast is sea salt, honey, vanilla, burnt sugar. The finish is dry orange peel, spice, clove and sea salt. The Classic Laddie is decent and I am certainly happy to have tried it but I probably won’t be running out to grab a bottle of it. Overall Grade:  C   

Four Roses Small Batch - 45% abv Four Roses is a bottle I keep stocked at the home bar at all times.  Either the small batch or the single barrel.  You just can’t go wrong with either one.   Priced at around $32 this is a great value.  Four Roses is unique because of their different mash bills and yeast strains.  I am not going to get into that here.  It’s well documented on other sites including their own.    The smell is light -  Fresh grass, crisp spice, dusty corn, oak The taste is nice -  sweet corn, butterscotch, dry spice, vanilla, coconut The finish is fairly long with dusty corn, oak, almond, rye spice This is a really good bourbon with an excellent price tag.  Highly recommended. Overall Grade: B

Arran 14yr old.  46%, Non Chill Filtered, Natural Color Arran is great in general. I really enjoyed the 10yr old but ended up giving it away to one of my friends who really enjoyed it after an evening of sampling whiskies.  I was surprised at just how much more you get out of the 14yr old vs the 10yr.  Both are very good but this 14 is really nice. Smelling this is great – Fruit, Almonds, Grass, Honey, Vanilla, and Barley Sugar. The Taste is vanilla, toffee, caramel apple, some sherried flavors (raisins, figs, spice, clove).  With water the spice and clove really come out and the vanilla fades a bit.  Very enjoyable neat or with water.  The Finish is medium with green apples, spice, clove and cinnamon. I'm not sure this one is being produced anymore but all Arrans are good. Overall Grade: B