Review of my whisky year - 2020

First of all thank you to all the people who have read my blog (c79,000 up from 48,000 last year) and followed me on Twitter (c3,570 up from 2,600 last year).

I think all of us would agree it's been a very tough year.....

Side by side : A Famous Grouse flight

The Famous Grouse is one of the biggest selling whiskies in the world - around 43m bottles annually.

It features whisky from Edrington's Glenrothes, Highland Park, Macallan, North British, swaps with other Scottish distilleries and until recently Glenturret.

Whiskybroker's 21yo Springbank

You don't see that many independent bottlings of Springbank but somehow @whiskybroker managed to get their hands on a cask.

This one is a 21yo distilled in 1999 and matured in Sherry Hogshead 412.

Whisky from...? Germany 2

As you may know there are more distilleries in Germany than in Scotland so it's about time I did a second in the Whisky from...? series.

Whilst in Berlin last year I picked up a couple of bottles from Pinkernells Whisky Market, the third I'm trying in this blog came from a sample swap with @bhoy_whisky The three drams come from three different distilleries.

BTC7 #BlindDrams Tasting Notes

These are my tasting notes from the Blind Tasting Consortium's 7th #BlindDrams evening.

These drams were picked by Gordon @gordonsmith63 and Scott @ScotchB78

Longrow Red

Longrow Red is an annual release of around 9,000 bottles from Springbank Distillery using heavily peated spirit which has been matured in red wine casks.

They choose a different kind of wine cask each year and to be honest I've never really got on with it, the 2015 I tried ended up being thrown down the sink. Lets see how the 2019 compares....

Side by side : Springbank from Cadenhead's Cage

If you've ever been to Cadenhead's shop in Campbeltown you will have had a look in The Cage, a simple wooden cupboard with chicken wire doors and a padlock - you can look but you can't touch!

You can ask them to open the doors if you have chosen a bottle to buy.

Peated Port Blind Tasting with @TheWhiskeyChaps

A message from @TheWhiskyChaps arrived asking if I'd like to run a #BlindTasting session for them - how could I say no?

I picked my favourite style of whisky - Peated Port Cask Finish and invited them to guess what they were!

Spey Distillery @TweetTastings

Spey is a distillery that's not on many people's radar, to be honest I've only tried some independent bottlers so when the chance of trying some with @TweetTastings I applied!

I was one of those luck enough to be selected!

Glen Scotia Campbeltown Malts Festival 2020 Single Casks

The Campbeltown Malts Festival was cancelled for 2020 but Glen Scotia were able to release the magnificent Tawny Port Festival Edition. Normally they'd also have Festival Edition and Festival Dinner Single Casks.

 

Well they've just released them....

TBWC Nc'Nean

New distilleries seem to be popping up all over the place recently, with their first releases disappearing from the shelves very quickly. @Ncnean distillery's first release did exactly the same but more recent batches are available.

Some how @BoutiqueyWhisky managed to get hold of a single cask and bottled it at cask strength.

Whiskey from...? Ireland

In 2013 there were just 3 distilleries in Ireland (excluding N.I.) but now there are over 20, a huge increase in just 7 years. Two of them have just had some of their first whiskies released.

In this blog I'm trying one from Waterford and one from Drumshanbo, let see how they compare side by side!