Tawny Port from Loch Lomond?

This last couple of weeks has felt like Christmas - first was the Tawny Port release from Glen Scotia and now their sister distillery Loch Lomond brings one out too!

This was  single cask exclusive from The Whisky Shop.

Peated Single Grain (Post #300)

Everyone has probably heard of Single Grain whisky - Bain's, Strathclyde, Loch Lomond, Port Dundas, Cameronbridge, Teeling et al, but have you ever heard of a Peated Single Grain?

A recent conversation with Michael Henry, Loch Lomond's Master Blender, pointed me in the direction of a unique bottling....

Side by side : Mid ABV Ryes

Over the last few months I've been enjoying more and more Ryes, I've bought a few bottles and swapped a few samples so am looking at three lower, three mid range and three higher ABV Ryes over three blogs.

In this blog I'm trying 3 at the mid level of the ABV range, lower range blog here, but higher ones are to follow!

W.D. O’Connell @TweetTastings

There seems to be a lot or Irish @TweetTastings this year - I guess that's because there are a lot of new Irish distilleries and Independent Bottlers coming online.

W.D. O’Connell Whisky Merchants is one such bottler and we're getting to try 2 of their releases.

Barley to Bottle - how is whisky made?

I'm sure we all know the basic process - spray some barley with hot water, cook it, add yeast, boil it 2 or 3 times? We've all done the tours, listened to the distiller tell us how it's done then had a few drams and forgotten the exact numbers - was it 50 hours fermentation or 60 hours, was it 2kgs of yeast or 20kgs, was the cut taken at 79% to 60% or 75% to 65%?

Well worry no longer, I've kept myself sober (relatively), took notes and have all the geeky detail for you here! Most photos are my own but some come from the #BlindTasting team John, Alistair, Max or Andy. You can see more of John's work here!

Side by side : Lower ABV Ryes

Over the last few months I've been enjoying more and more Ryes, I've bought a few bottles and swapped a few samples so am looking at three lower, three mid range and three higher ABV Ryes over three blogs.

In this blog I'm trying 3 at the lower level of the ABV range, but higher ones to follow!

More Tawny Port from Glen Scotia!

As you may possibly have heard I have a little thing for Glen Scotia and another little thing for Tawny Port finished whisky - put them together and it's a match made in heaven!

So imagine my reaction when I heard that the the Campbeltown Malts Festival 2020 release would be a Tawny Port finished whisky!

Different types of whisk(e)y

There are hundreds if not thousands of different whiskies available to buy in the world but most come down to a few different types. You've probably heard of a Single Malt or Blend, but what about Straight Corn, Single Grain or Pot Still? I've tried to categorise the different types of whisky in the charts below (with thanks to @jwbassman_ for the artistic skills).

Please let me know of any errors / omissions or if you can fill in any of the boxes and I'll try and get them fixed!

Side by side : Two Diageo Workhorses

Strathmill and Dufftown are two of Diageo's Speyside workhorses, producing malt whisky largely for the company's blends. Strathmill's goes into J&B and whilst there are some single malt bottlings of the Singleton of Dufftown most of it goes into Bells.

But what we have here is not the blends but two independent bottlings, a Strathmill from 1976 and a Dufftown from 1982, let see how they compare side by side!

#900 - Octomore Event Horizon

As you get older you get to try more and more whiskies, as you probably know I keep a meticulous record of what I've tried in my spreadsheet. So I know that this particular dram is my 900th different one.

A sample swap from @stewedwhisky gave me the chance to try this Fèis Ìle 2019 special release!

Side by side : Independent Staoisha

Staoisha is the name given by independent bottlers for heavily peated Bunnahabhain, the name is taken from a loch on Islay close to the distillery. These drams tend to be on the younger side and are usually single casks at cask strength.

In this review I'm looking at two from 2013, one from A.D. Rattray and the other from The Whisky Barrel.

#BlindTasting Series 6 Episode 2

Series 6 Episode 2

After a winter hibernation the #BlindTasting team were back to continue Series 6, trying to work out what the 5 drams they'd swapped were and to tell what we thought of them without knowing where they were from. #NoPreconceivedIdeas! If you haven't followed us before you can catch up with all the previous series here.