Signatory Vintage 100 Proof

Signatory Vintage have been releasing a series of 100 Proof bottlings over the last 6 months or so...

Let's find out a little more.

#BTC40 #BlindDrams Tasting Notes

These are my tasting notes and results from the Blind Tasting Consortium's 40th #BlindDrams evening.

These drams were picked by Mike @whiskyrover and Sam @ReviewsWhisky

DrivenByDrams Speyside Tour - Planning

This year the DrivenByDrams gang paid a visit to Speyside, for me it was my first time that far north in Scotland.

We'd picked four 'warehouse tastings' and a number of distillery visits to fill our time!

Side by side: Lismore

Lismore is a brand you may not of heard of - it's an indie bottler based at the same address in Speyside as Glenfarclas!

Let's try some!

#BTC19 #BlindDrams Tasting Notes

These are my tasting notes from the Blind Tasting Consortium's 19th #BlindDrams evening.

These drams were picked by Kate @kccjf and Callam @glen_scotia

#BTC16 #BlindDrams Tasting Notes

These are my tasting notes from the Blind Tasting Consortium's 16th #BlindDrams evening.

These drams were picked by Ben @WhiskyWithMolly

Whisky 'machinery' - the Washback

Continuing the series looking at some of the 'machinery' used in a distillery to create whisky - this time the Washback or fermenting vessel.

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

Duncan Taylor An Iconic Speyside Octave

Established in 1938, Duncan Taylor is an independent whisky merchant with one of the largest privately held collections of aged single malt and single grain Scotch whisky casks.

One part of their range is Octaves, let's find out a little more:

Something a little special for my 1000th Review

The whisky community on Twitter is one of the friendliest I've come across but every now and again one of it's members goes that little step further. This is what happened a couple of weeks ago when @mentaldrams, who I've been swapping drams with for a couple of years now, asked if I'd like a sample of his birthday dram.

He'd decided to open a bottle of Signatory Vintage's North British 1959 51yo. How could I refuse? He included a 1989 Glenfarclas and also sent samples for @jwbassman_ so we arranged a little zoom tasting to try them!

Side by side : Three TBWC Speysiders

Heading up to Speyside for this side by side, three drams bottled by @BoutiqueyWhisky

Lets see how they compare:

Southport Whisky Festival

How do you organise a Whisky Festival during Lockdown? People aren't allowed to meet in large numbers, suppliers can't or won't get onboard...

You find an enthusiastic team... maybe an existing whisky club... with a leader with strong industry links.... and put a plan together!

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!

Glenfarclas youngster

I have a bit of a love / hate relationship with Glenfarclas, I've huge expectations but have frequently been disappointed. So when I was offered a chance to buy a bottle of 9yo I wasn't exactly enthusiastic.

Photo: @jwbassman_

My mate @jwbassman_ told me he'd designed the label and my enthusiasm grew a little, then when he said it was 48.2% ABV I was sold and bottle number 278 was on it's way to my shelf!

#MiniTasting - Cask Strength Night

Cask Strength Night - the #MiniTasting gang take on 3 cask strength drams for our 9th #MiniTasting.

Side by side : Glenfarclas

Rather than review drams by themselves I'm doing a little series comparing some 'side by side'.

There may be two or more, they may be from the same or different distilleries, similar ages, ABVs and types or not as I decide!

This time we are reviewing four drams from @Glenfarclas, the 12yo, 15yo, 21yo and 25yo, let's compare and contrast!

Side by side: The Legends of Speyside trilogy

Rather than review drams by themselves I'm doing a little series comparing some 'side by side'.
There may be two or more, they may be from the same or different distilleries, similar ages, ABVs and types or not as I decide!

This time we are reviewing three different drams which make up the Legends Of Speyside Trilogy from @Glenfarclas - what difference is there?

Side by side: Christmas Sherry Teenagers

Rather than review drams by themselves I'm doing a little series comparing some 'side by side'.

There may be two or more, they may be from the same or different distilleries, similar ages, ABVs and types or not as I decide!

This time we are reviewing two teenage sherried drams ideal for Christmas Glenfarclas 15yo and Douglas Laing's Scallywag 13yo what differences are there?

Mini-review: French No.63?

Blind sample from @GregsWhiskyG

In the glass : Interesting brown coloured bottle so I had no idea of colour before I opened it. But it is quite a dark coloured dram, swirls cling to the glass and not much in the way of legs.... High ABV?

Nose: This seems quite complex - there's a little dunnage warehouse, some damp hay, maybe even a hint of smoke? After a little time in the glass there's some honey and toffee coming through too.

Palate: Lots of honey, very sweet, a little toffee. Not getting any of the smoke from the nose and not much in the way of spice. I think I'll reverse my thoughts on a high ABV - this seems to be a low 40s% ABV. From the honey notes I'd suggest a Speyside or maybe a Highlander?

Finish: A hint of spice on the finish, and again maybe some smoke? Lovely malty finish - very warming. I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest a Benromach ?

Hanging out with an old dram

A few weeks ago @MaltMan_Mike tweeted a picture of a 57 year old sample he'd been send from Glenfarclas, we were all insanely jealous!

A few days later a DM came through asking if a few of us were possibly interested in trying a sample? What could we say?

A date was set and some #dramples of the Glenfarclas and 4 other blind tasting samples sent out.

One of these drams was a little older than the others!

Rather than the usual tweet tasting type format that we are used to he held a Google Hangout instead - this meant we had live video and sound - meaning we all got to watch each other try the drams and see & hear the reactions!

@MaltMan_Mike & @Tim_Squixl

So first up was dram #1

Nose : Apples and pears, marzipan, some spice
Palate : Sweet honey, some spice and a little banana
Finish : Short and spicy, slightly creamy
Overall : An OK dram but not great, I felt it just lacked a little something.

We all had a guess at the region, ABV, distillery and expression - Mike kept score!

This turned out to be The Gauldrons Blended Campbeltown Malt from Douglas Laing (46%)

@Whisky_Viking

Next up was another pale dram, #2

Nose : Tropical! Pineapples with vanilla - and a nice spicy element.

Palate : Lots of vanilla, more of the honey and a mild chilli spice.

Finish : The spice came through on this one and a long vanilla finish.

Overall : Definitely thought this was a grain from first nose and turned out to be right - but wasn't expecting a Japanese one!

This turned out to be The Chita Suntory Whisky (43%)

@GentlemanGrimm

Third of the evening was another pale dram #3

Nose : Another tropical nose.

Palate : Honey, some pineapple and a little spice but seemed weak and watered down. 

Finish : Orchard fruits with a little spice.

Overall : I was disappointed with this one, and even more so when a found out what it was - usually a huge fan of GM but this one just didn't do it for me, I think the low ABV let it down.

This turned out to be The Glen Moray 15yo (40%)

@GavsDrams

Fourth up was the Glenfarclas 1957 (50.3%)!

Nose : Road tar, lots of oak, sherry

Palate : Sour blueberries (in a nice way), the ABV stripped the moisture from your mouth. A little vanilla and a gingery spice. 

Finish : More of the oak, a sweet sherry note but masked again by the slightly sour note.

Overall : A nice dram, easily the oldest (57yo) and most expensive (£10k / bottle) I'd ever tried. Some interesting tasting notes from everyone but I felt it was loosing it's whisky identity and taking on too much oak - maybe it had spent to long in the cask? 

Yours truly!

The final dram of the night was one I'd supplied #5

Nose : Peat smoke but with an equally intense salty maritime note.

Palate : Loads of smoke, some salt, can tell its a young whisky.

Finish : Long lingering BBQ smoke.

Overall : A lovely dram, typical Islay but not medicinal - so that narrowed it down a little.

This one was a Creative Whisky Company Islay Single Cask (50%) which is reckoned to be a youngish Bunna!

The Whisky Viking changed hats for each dram!

A really enjoyable night tasting a great range of drams including a real special from Glenfarclas. The Hangouts aspect really made the evening - being able to talk rather the tweet to each other and see the reactions of tasting and each other comments made for a great night.

Thanks to @MaltMan_Mike for the samples and @whisky_viking @GentlemanGrimm @gavsdrams & @Tim_Squixl for making a great evening!

There was even time fro some PorkiePorkiePorkie pies afterwards!