Scotch Whisky Advent Calendar - Review

I was lucky enough to receive a whisky advent calendar from those lovely people at @DrinksByTheDram, it was their Scotch Whisky 2019 edition.

Each day during #Dramvent I opened a door and discovered what was inside - looking back now - what are my thoughts?

I was pretty excited when my Advent Calendar arrived:

I did a little research so you can find out more about the history of advent calendars here! I made a small video of each door opening which I posted each morning and followed up with my tasting notes in the evening, you can read them all here!

So looking back what did I think?

• There was genuine excitement at opening a door each morning to see what was behind it - bringing back memories of being a child! It was a beautifully presented calendar with lovely wax dipped labelled bottles.

• I was a little wary of a dram a day, as I'd not normally drink every day - but as this was in moderation (how else can you enjoy whisky?) it worked out OK. I did miss a few days towards the end when I was away on holiday - you didn't notice?

• I think it's important to remember, especially around Christmas, that these calendars are really for exploring and tasting different whiskies. We're not kids anymore devouring each chocolate lump as it comes out of the calendar, these are whiskies to taste : explore, nose, sip, savour and appreciate!

• To be honest I was a little underwhelmed by the selection of drams in the calendar - to a whisky newbie they may be a great selection but, as a regular scotch drinker of a number of years, I feel they were just a little unexciting - maybe I should have tried a different box? The drams in the box were:

Arran 10yo Auchentoshan 21yo Balvenie 14yo The Week Of Peat Bunnahabhain Stiùireadair Cardhu Gold Reserve Copper Dog Blend Darkness 8yo Douglas Laing Timorous Beastie Glen Grant 18yo Glen Scotia Victoriana CS Glenfarclas 21yo Glenfiddich 15yo Solera

Glenglassaugh Revival Glengoyne Legacy Series Chapter 1 Glenrothes Whisky Maker's Cut Highland Park 18yo Inchmurrin 12yo Laphroaig 10yo Moncreiffe Signature Blend Port Askaig 8yo Tamdhu Batch Strength TBWC Glengoyne Batch 4 TBWC Royal Brackla Batch 1 Wolfburn Northland

• My favourite would have been the Glen Scotia Victoriana, but actually I was really impressed by the Glengoyne Legacy Series Chapter 1. Most of the 48% plus drams were really good and I noted a few where an extra 4 or 6% would improve them - that's down to the distillery / bottler rather than Drinks by the Dram who make the advent calendar!

• My least favourite was the Port Askaig 8yo, none of them were terrible but the Copper Dog, Cardhu, Moncreiffe Signature Blend and Auchentoshan were a little bland.

Overall I understand the calendar needs to be made to a price, but I thought that including some cheap blends and NAS drams would have been balanced out with one or two more expensive malts? 

I'm not sure if the door order is the same for everyone or if it's random, but I was expecting a big finish behind door 24 and the Auchentoshan 21yo was actually a big disappointment....

Would I recommend buying a Whisky Advent Calendar - yes I would! You can still get some of the 2019 ones half price from the Master of Malt website but when it comes to 2020 I'd suggest that if you are a regular scotch taster have a think about trying one of the others - maybe the That Boutique-y Whisky, Irish, World, American or Japanese ones?