DrivenByDrams Speyside Tour - Glenfiddich

After our fantastic tour of @BalvenieUS (I'm linking in the US account as the UK one hasn't been active since 2017) the DrivenByDrams gang walked up the road to @GlenfiddichSMW 

There's been a lot of building work in the last few years...

DrivenByDrams Speyside Tour - Balvenie

After our fantastic tour of @TheDunphail.the DrivenByDrams gang rested overnight before our Speyside trip had us heading for @BalvenieUS

A distillery that's often overlooked because of it's Glenfiddich big sister next door.

Core Range: Glenfiddich

Continuing the series of posts showing a distillery's core range of bottlings.

This time looking at Glenfiddich

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!

Side by side: Glenfiddich 12yo, 15yo & 18yo

Looking at three different drams from the @GlenfiddichSMW distillery aged range, the 12yo, 15yo and 18yo - what differences are there?

Review of my whisky year - 2017

First of all thank you to all the people who have read my blog (c16,500) and followed me on Twitter (c900) since I started back in January with my first whisky post.

Spirit Of Speyside winners @TweetTastings

Last week I was lucky to be selected to take part in Steve @TheWhiskyWire latest @TweetTasting, this time is was 6 of the winners and runners up from the recent @Spirit_Speyside

Not the most exciting of un-boxing videos but more than made up by the contents and the lovely hand written letter!

@_littlebrowndog managed to sprint around Speyside on the day taking photos of each of the drams outside their native distilleries! Many thanks for allowing me to use them here!

@_littlebrowndog with the drams and the Spey

First up was:

@_littlebrowndog outside Aberlour

Nose: Loads of sherry on the nose - as you would expect! Lots of honey and dried fruit, if I didn't know better I'd think the Mrs was making Christmas Cake! After a little time in the glass  the nose develops with  chocolate hints and spice.

Palate: Smooth, tongue coating, you can taste the spice attacking your mouth followed by soothing sherry - yummy! A little water enhances this dram - honey and spice fill the mouth. A little dry biscuit develops but the sherry is always there!

Conclusion: A strong dram to start with and a really lovely one - liquid Christmas Cake - this is a typical sipping Speysider!

Next was:

@_littlebrowndog outside Tamdhu

Nose: On the nose - dried apple, a little honey and wood. A strong dram which just jumps out of the glass to say hello! There are some nuts and a little cinnamon over the top of the dried apples.

Palate: Quite drying on the palate - lots of toffee and a little orange, finishes with some spice - delicious!

Finish: This is a great dram - love the long dry finish, sprinkled nuts and spice over apples

Conclusion: Had this one a few weeks ago on a previous @TweetTastings Liquid gold - delicious dram!

Third up was:

@_littlebrowndog outside Cragganmore

Nose: Nose has a lot of perfume, strange but not unpleasant! Pears with a little sweetness may be pineapple? Not getting any smoke thought.

Palate: Disappointing, maybe because of the previous two? watery honey with a little smoke now!

Finish: Enjoying the smoke on the finish - this one would have been better to start with rather than the high ABVs

Conclusion: A new one for me, would maybe have been better as the first of the night?

Fourth was:

@_littlebrowndog outside Aberlour again?

Nose: Aniseed bullets straight out of the sweet shop! A little grass and some sherry! Getting the chocolate - maybe a cherry chocolate cake - now there's a plan! Getting some spice on the nose as it lingers in the glass - maybe some fresh black pepper?

Palate: Oily, mouth filling, an expected surprise. Melon and cinnamon with a touch on honey!

Finish:

Conclusion: !

Fifth dram was:

@_littlebrowndog outside? Glenlivet

Nose: Grass and herbs, with a little spice - very nice! Develops after a while - still grassy but chocolate and ginger spice come through.

Palate: Smooth and buttery on the palate, some sweetness with a long honey finish. Very nice!

Conclusion: This is a class dram, develops over time - loved the loooong dry biscuity finish. 

Final dram of the evening was:

@_littlebrowndog outside the beautiful Glenfiddich distillery

Nose: The vanilla jumps out at you to start with, a little ginger - I think this one needs time to develop.

Palate: Creamy on the palate, slightly drying, some fudge and biscuit - with a chewy finish

Conclusion: A slightly underwhelming dram, expected a lot fmore but maybe as it was the 6th of the night following the stronger drams it was a little nose and palate fatigue! Will need to try again on it's own.

For me I think the first two won the @spirit_speyside competition - @TamdhuWhisky Batch Strength 2 only just 'nosed' the @AberlourVC A'Bunadh

Many thanks to Steve and Pery at Spirit Of Speyside for organising and all the other folks who joined in!

Would you like a slice with that whisky?

You never know what is going to turn up when you sign up and get accepted for one of @TheWhiskyWire's @TweetTasting and this week's was an especially unusual one! I've been lucky enough to have taken part in a number of these and have received a box with a glass and 3 samples, another had 5 samples, but this one was the strangest yet! When Steve announced it was a #GlenfiddichIPA tasting my first though was OK, we're only sampling 1 dram, but that's not quite how it turned out!

Box opening

So in the box we had a sample of Glenfiddich IPA, a bottle of Brew Two India Pale Ale, a slice of Blood Orange skin and a nice beer mat! What's unusual about this dram is that the casks have been used to mature beer:

The evening kicked off as normal with our thoughts on the whisky:

My thoughts:

Distillery : Glenfiddich

Whisky : Experimental Series - IPA Cask Finish

Price : £45

Characteristics : 700ml, 43% ABV.  NAS but around 8yo

Colour : Deep Gold

Nose : Floral and fruity, Orange, pear, cereals - develops into apples with cinnamon

Palate : Smooth and sweet but tasting a little like honey sandwiches, some sour apple and hops

Finish : Very bitter, with hints of spice (ginger?)

Overall : The nose and taste of this dram were very nice - a little fruit and cereal but the finish was very bitter - maybe slightly unpleasant.

Link : IPA

Next came the beer!

The beer is brewed by Seb Jones at @SpeysideCraftBrewery and matured in the ex-whisky American Oak casks for a month before being bottled.

The beer is dry, very bitter and has hints of citrus - very moreish!

After a couple of mouthfuls of the beer I went back to the whisky and it had changed a little - more creamy and fruity on the palate and the bitter finish had gone altogether - interesting! 

Then came the strange part of the evening - we were invited to get a handful of ice, add it to the beer, twist and add the blood orange peel and finally add a little of the dram! I found it really difficult to 'pour away' some of my whisky.....

The resulting 'IPA Experimental Serve' was an unusual experience! There was huge explosion of zesty orange followed by a dry bitter taste, from the beer, finishing with a little kick from the whisky. Not really my cup of tea but I'm sure it wouldn't be out of place at a summer BBQ!

Glenfiddich have a swish video showing you how to make their Serve:

Many thanks to Steve for organising, Mark and @GlenfiddichSMW for the samples and my fellow tasters for a really enjoyable evening!