Darkness Tasting

Darkness may not be a brand you've heard of - they are part of Atom Brands who also own Boutique-y Whisky amongst others. Darkness is their bottlings of Sherry Octave finished whiskies.

We spent an evening with Sam Simmons @dr_whisky trying some samples from Release #2.

#BlindPack : Lady Of The Glen Tasting

The #BlindPack are a small secretive organisation who have regular virtual tastings - some blind but some labelled. They change their code name to reflect the contents each tasting, this time it was #LadyBoys!

We spent an evening with Paul McKendrick from @Lady_ofthe_Glen trying some of their bottlings.

BTC9 #BlindDrams Tasting Notes

These are my tasting notes from the Blind Tasting Consortium's 9th #BlindDrams evening.

These drams were picked by Richard @MckWhisky

Whisky 'machinery' - the Mash Tun

A new series looking at some of the 'machinery' used in a distillery to create whisky - this time the Mash Tun.

I've covered the basic process of creating whisky here, but I'm going to explore the machinery a little more in this series.

Side by side : Scapa old and new

Ask anyone to name a distillery on Orkney and 99% of them won't say Scapa first, it's very much under the radar and only opened to visitors in 2015. Most of the output is for Chivas Brothers blends but single malt bottling are available.

Here I've got two to try, an old one and the latest!

Side by side : A Glenglassaugh flight

Dating back to 1875 Glenglassaugh was been closed a number of times, it's most recent being for 20 years until it was reopened in 2008.

Let's find out a little more...

Mackmyra Seasonal Releases - Björksav

Well known Swedish distillery @Mackmyra release two annual 'seasonal' whiskies usually featuring innovative seasonal characteristics focusing on unusual finishes often reflecting the prevailing season.

I've tried a number of them including Jaktlycka, Gront Te, Äppelblom, Blomstertid and Vintersol, this season's release linked with Springtime - Björksav, let's see what it's like...

Loch Lomond Tasting live from the distillery

A little late to the Covid virtual tasting game but Loch Lomond released a tasting pack with the invitation to join Master Blender Michael Henry on Zoom - how could I miss it?

We each paid £30 for a tasting set of the three 12yo making up the core range, the Peated Single Grain, the 14yo Limousin cask finished and the 21yo

Side by side : The Fisherman's Retreat Edition 8

I've been reviewing @FishRetreat releases for a while now - Jim McEwan selected Bruichladdich and Arran single casks. - this time they've gone a little different and released a a white wine Arran as a 50% bottling as well as a Cask Strength version.

Let's see how the compare?