Atomic Blend?

Some of you may not of heard of Atom Brands but I'm sure you've heard of some of their brands - Master Of Malt, That Boutique-y Whisky Company, Drinks By The Dram, Darkness! and The Blended Whisky Company to name a few.

Basically they are an independent bottler trading into different market areas with different brands - I've tried whisky from all but one of these companies and been impressed with everything they do. They can be a little pricey but the quality is always very good.

The brands I've yet to try is The Blended Whisky Company, they sell a range of three high-end blended whiskies - The Lost Distilleries Blend, The Half-Century Blend and the XL Blend, but thanks to Ros at Atom Brands I'm able to try the last one on the list.

Side by side: Christmas Sherry Teenagers

Rather than review drams by themselves I'm doing a little series comparing some 'side by side'.

There may be two or more, they may be from the same or different distilleries, similar ages, ABVs and types or not as I decide!

This time we are reviewing two teenage sherried drams ideal for Christmas Glenfarclas 15yo and Douglas Laing's Scallywag 13yo what differences are there?

Review of my whisky year - 2018

First of all thank you to all the people who have read my blog (c29,000 up from 16,500 last year) and followed me on Twitter (c1,680 up from 900 last year).

My highlights of 2018 were:

#BlindTasting Series 4 - Review

Series 4 of #BlindTasting has recently finished and as usual I'll post a summary. There had been a bit of a gap from Series 3 and this one extended longer than we thought it would - pressures of work!
This one, like all the rest, has brought up a few surprised with the five of us trying to identify 15 mystery drams through smell and taste, having #NoPreconceivedIdeas to sway our opinions.

Whiskey from South Shields?

A recent sample swap from South Shields, Tyne & Wear, England not Indiana, USA delivered a set of five interesting whiskies. I've tried a few bourbon and rye drams in my time and got a bit of a taste from them on a recent holiday to the States but this was the first time I'd tried these ones. Many thanks to @Bobafett2k6 for the sample swap!

This is my dram!

I'm sure most of you will have come across Stu and Andy's @ThisIsMyDram podcast before! But just in case you haven't, you're missing a treat! You can listen online, download or subscribe via your favourite podcast app.

Mini-reviews: Mekong River Commission?

This was a blind sample from @Maltman_Mike which turned out to be Port Charlotte's MRC:01

Mini-reviews: Peanuts....

This was a blind sample from @Maltman_Mike which turned out to be Kilchoman's Machir Bay Cask Strength

Mini-reviews: Orchard delight!

This was a sample from @iheartwhisky of TBWC's Glen Moray 10yo Batch 2

Jura Travel Retail @TweetTastings

Earlier in the year I was lucky enough to take part in a @TweetTasting of @JuraWhisky's newly relaunched range - and I really liked them! Steve then went and arranged a tasting of their new Global Travel Retail (GTR) range so I knew I had to take part!

It's a range of five sherried whiskies called The Jura Sherry Cask Collection, using slightly peated spirit they've been matured in ex-Bourbon barrels before being finished in PX casks which have held sherry for different lengths of time. They are all named after features on Jura near the distillery.

The new range consists of:

• The Sound - 42.5% NAS finished in casks previously containing 15yo PX
• The Road - 43.6% NAS finished in casks previously containing 20yo PX
• The Bay - 44% NAS finished in casks previously containing 15yo PX
• The Loch - 44.5% NAS finished in casks previously containing 30yo PX
• The Paps - 45.6% 19yo finished in casks previously containing 40yo PX

Fettercairn @TweetTastings

Fettercairn is a distillery you might not of heard of, it's tucked away in that little category of 'hard working distillery making malt for blends'. In this case it's been around since 1824 with the malt going into Whyte and Mackay's blends. Some single malts have been released over the years, the most recent around 2009 with 2 NAS releases named Fior and Fasque (the name of the Fettercairn estate).

The distillery, which is open to visitors, is located halfway between Dundee and Aberdeen.

#BlindTasting Series 5 - Part 1

Series 5

Who thought it would last this long - but it has and two years later the gang are starting out on Series 5 of #BlindTasting, we've also just booked out second #BlindTastingOnTour for next summer! If you haven't followed us before you can catch up with all the previous series here.

Glen Moray @TweetTastings

There's been a few @TweetTastings in the run up to Christmas and I'd applied to a few of them, this was the one I really wanted to take part in as I'd missed out on the @GlenMorayDist one earlier in the year.

Glen Moray send a lovely package of @GlenMorayGCoull selected drams : five 100ml bottles:

Mini-reviews: Any Port in a storm?

This was a blind sample from @Maltman_Mike which turned out to be a Cadenhead Port Dundas

Mini-review: Arran Double Seven Eight?

This was a blind sample from @Maltman_Mike which turned out be an Arran Single Cask.

Mini-review: Captain Cognac

This was a blind sample from @Maltman_Mike which turned out to be the Glenlivet Captain's Reserve