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Nikka Whisky From the Barrel
Distiller Score 92
The nose is very complex and tends to drift. Cedar cigar-box and exotic woods are ribboned with smoke and peat accents. A sherry influence is layered into the blend and if you wait long enough, soy sauce, celery and other umami components are part of the drift. This whisky dances across all taste buds with cloves, cinnamon and orange zest seasoned by salt spray. A walnut like bitterness accompanies the extended finish. A very rich blend.
Reviewed by Blair Phillips
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Kornog Peated Single Malt Whisky
Distiller Score 83
A creamy and smoky nose reveals notes of toffee, chocolate-covered toasted marshmallows and buttered vanilla while the palate offers richer flavours with hot spices and a more present smokiness. The finish is fruity, smoky and peppery. A French whisky with attitude!
Reviewed by Anne-Sophie Bigot
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J.P. Wiser's Union 52
Distiller Score 96
This whisky deserves applause breaks between sips. The usual suspects of caramel and vanilla drift from the nose, but they’re chaperoned by spearmint, rye bread, pipe tobacco, cherry, earthy oak and roasted nuts. All of these ravishing flavors carry on to the palate capped off by flourishing smoke. Then the shape shifting begins from smoky to sweet accented by a dry spiciness. This large and lovely whisky comes in a chunky bottle that can take a high five. Something you’ll feel inclined to do.
Reviewed by Blair Phillips
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High West Campfire (Discontinued)
Distiller Score 81
On the nose fine dried peaches, apricots, Heath bar, and peat. The palate shows vanilla, more peat, cinnamon, nutmeg, and leather. The dry finish has smoked fruits shine through. Interesting, but definitely an acquired taste. This is perfect for someone who is over all the old standbys on the shelf and want a new added layer to the regular, vanilla, fruit and oak tasting notes.
Reviewed by Rob Morton
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Hellyers Road Slightly Peated Single Malt
Distiller Score 92
Floral smoke begins this dram with mingling, delicate peat residing in the back, letting the delicate nuts and vanilla come through with honey sultanas and a leather twist, the whole adventure being rich and fulfilling. On the tongue the peat is doughy, and moves towards toasted malts before arriving at small orchid fruit, fragrant roses, and a cinnamon dusting. The finish is long and fulfilling, pleasantly glazed with hay, leather smoke and salty peat.
Reviewed by Marcus Parmenter
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J.P. Wiser's Dissertation
Distiller Score 94
A whisky that confirms it’s cool to stay in school. The nose builds from wet straw, lilacs and other spring flowers to brown sugar, caramel and drops of chocolate mint. Rye bread and ginger baking spices are accented with honeycomb. A blend of white and black pepper shifts to a scholarly citrus pith completing this essay of flavors.
Reviewed by Blair Phillips
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Lot No. 40 12 Year Cask Strength
Distiller Score 95
This rye beast is crammed with so many spices that a copper label is fitted to the bottle to brace it from bulging. Fruity spring flowers and freshly baked rye bread flood from the whisky. And not just any rye bread, but the kind they teach in a prison baking class. The robust rye spices and bottomless oak rumble on the palate with a delicate caramel that pulls its own weight. The Energizer Bunny’s mentor is the endless finish. An instant classic.
Reviewed by Blair Phillips
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Amrut Peated Indian Single Malt
Distiller Score 87
Like the cask strength version of this whisky, there are fruity aromas, but this 92 proof version seems to highlight more maple syrup and barrel spices. As you exhale after tasting, you taste fireplace smoke with a tinge of maple lingering in the background. The peat seems to become more gentle as you continue to drink with the sweet fruit dousing the flames, so to speak.
Reviewed by Stephanie Moreno
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J.P. Wiser's Legacy Canadian Whisky
Distiller Score 94
J.P. Wiser would be rolling in his grave. Not because this whisky insults the name, quite the opposite in fact – he’d be rolling to bust out and try it. The whisky’s nose pulses from one note to the next where a potpourri wafts in and out like a star-studded movie full of cameos. The cast includes maple, baking spices, vanilla, rye bread, charismatic oak and the full spectrum of orchard fruits. Missing is George Clooney. All of the same notes land in the palate mingled with a sweet and peppery citric zest. Toasted oak comes through and fades into tobacco as Legacy starts rolling its long list of delicious finishing credits.
Reviewed by Blair Phillips
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Gibson's Finest Rare 18 Year
Distiller Score 90
This is a loaded whisky that teeter-totters with fruity rye, a spicy oak-forward bouquet and sweet vanilla caramels on the nose. The palate is the reverse. It starts with the sweeter vanilla then the spicy oak soars with an undertone of fresh wood and sawdust. The whisky lands with a citrus pith parachute onto the same wood platform that has supported it through the entire ride. A Canadian classic.
Reviewed by Blair Phillips
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Penderyn Peated
Distiller Score 88
Round, juicy plum and apple notes muscle through the ash and wispy smoke, which are relegated to the background on the nose. There’s a lot of brawn behind the fruity brightness. A kinda surprising cinnamon spiciness pushes the fruit to the side on the palate. The water amplifies the spice and washes away the fruit, leaving a musty storage-room floor in its wake--in the best possible way. The cinnamon—with all the intensity of a fireball candy –lingers with a slow burn on the finish. A bold and dynamic dram, one that will definitely have people talking about the UK’s least talked about country.
Reviewed by Liza Weisstuch
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Forty Creek John's Private Cask No. 1
Distiller Score 95
The nose is bursting with fragrant woods, citrus, brown sugar, vanilla, and figs. Avoid the temptation to splash a couple of drops behind the ears. In the mouth, hot ginger and solar spice flares start immediately, strong enough to disrupt cell phone reception. They don’t end, rather they build with each sip. The finish is long and loud where the spices smash guitars then kick over the drum kit. Don't spend too long reflecting on the fact that you may have cracked the seal on a collector’s item. Regret nothing.
Reviewed by Blair Phillips