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!

Kininvie Experiments

Kininvie is a distillery you may not have heard of, it's located in Dufftown on the same site as Balvenie and Glenfiddich, the three constituents of the Monkey Shoulder Blended Malt, so as you might think is owned by William Grant & Sons.

The reason you may not of heard of them is that nearly all of their output goes into Grant's Blends, so what's changed? Well recently they released a set of three experiments, and the geeky scientist inside me said "You've got to try them!"

Side by side: Lakes Whiskymaker's Reserves #1 and #2

At the end of the summer Lakes distillery released their first proper single malt, all of the 6,100 or 5,922 bottles (depending on if you believe the bottle or box!) sold out within a couple of months.

The second release came out in the autumn, here we compare the two side by side.

Whyte & Mackay @TweetTastings #WhyteChristmas

Recently Whyte & Mackay celebrated their 175th Anniversary and released a 50yo Blend... but with a difference! It wasn't available to buy anywhere, if you bought a bottle of the normal blend you could enter a draw to win a bottle of the 50yo - a brilliant idea. Or if you were really lucky and got selected for the #WhyteChristmas @TweetTastings you received a 50ml sample!

I was lucky and received the set but struggled to wait until the night of the tasting!

#LetsTrySomeWhisky - Yoichi blind tasting

As always with these kinds of things it started with a twitter conversation which lead to some sample swaps, a calendar appointment and a great night tasting whisky with mates!

We were supposed to meet up at Spirit Of Speyside but my plans got cancelled, so although I've never actually met some of these guys, we talk regularly on twitter and have occasional video hangouts.

Scotch Whisky Advent Calendar

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!