Side by side : Single Casks from Glen Scotia

This time we are reviewing two drams from @GlenScotia, limited editions, one bottled selected by the master distiller Iain McAlister for sale at the distillery shop and one selected by the Friends of The Ardshiel for sale at the Hotel in Campbeltown - the whiskiest place in the world!

Picture: Glen Scotia

Let see how they compare side by side!

#MiniTasting - SWMS #2

The #MiniTasting gang have a second night of SMWS drams, this time two Speysiders and a peated Highlander.

Side by side : Port Wood Matured

As you probably know I love a port finished dram so for this side by side I've got three!

Looking at three different Port Wood matured drams from @PenderynWhisky, @Springbank1828 and @GlenScotiaMalts - How do they compare?

Whisky from...? India

Next in my little series on Whisky from...? is India. I think most of us have tried one of the excellent dram's from Paul John but what about any of the other distilleries in the country?

Located near the southern city of Bangalore is Amrut, distilling since 1948, their first single malt, the first from India, was released in 2004.

Whisky from...? England

Next in my little series on Whisky from...? is England. I've tried a few English whiskies in my time, most recently the new releases from Lakes, Bimber and Spirit of Yorkshire, this time I'm looking at the longest established distillery in England - The English Whisky Company at St. George's Distillery in Norfolk.

Some of these drams were part of a recent @TweetTastings that I wasn't selected for, but due to the generous sample sizes and my equally generous mate @jwbassman_ I'm able to try them! The others came from a drample swap with @BlackCountryWS

Review of my whisky year - 2019

First of all thank you to all the people who have read my blog (c48,000 up from 29,000 last year) and followed me on Twitter (c2,600 up from 1,700 last year).

My highlights of 2019 were:

Whisky from...? Japan

Next in my little series on Whisky from...? is Japan. I've tried a few Japanese whiskies in my time, more recently a great set from Yoichi. But this one is a little special - it's the 800th different whisky I've tried!

Japanese whisky has had a bit of a bust and boom in the last thirty years. In the 90s, the distilleries were not prepared for the economic crash in Japan, whisky fell out of favour in Japan, some distilleries closed and production was scaled back in the rest. In the subsequent recovery they didn't have enough stock laid down to cope with the an ever increasing demand, so now, stock is low and prices are high.

#BlendOff

We all love our drams (otherwise you wouldn't be reading this!) whether they are single malts, single grains or blends. Most of these are actually 'blends' or vattings of different casks, maybe from the same distillery (it's where the word 'Single' comes from) and someone has to put these together. It might be the Distillery's Manager, Master Blender or a team - whoever it is we all appreciate their work!

I'm part of a group who regularly swap samples without labeling them and take part in an evening of #BlindTasting - a great way to discover new drams! @Wessex had an idea to take it one step further and blind taste each other's blends. An interesting and at some time difficult challenge!

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?

Side by side : Single Casks from Benrinnes

I'm really really really trying to reduce my sample boxes, some of the samples, including these two have been in there for a while.

So, not a distillery I've reviewed before but, these are two independent bottlings of Benrinnes, let's see how they compare side by side!