#BTC51 #BlindDrams Tasting Notes

These are my tasting notes and results from the Blind Tasting Consortium's 51st #BlindDrams evening.

These drams were picked by Mike and Duncan from Honest To A Malt

#BTC44 #BlindDrams Tasting Notes

These are my tasting notes and results from the Blind Tasting Consortium's 44th #BlindDrams evening.

These drams were picked by Callum @glen_scotia & Kate @kccjf

Virtual tasting : Fragrant Drops with NEWAS

The North East Whisky Appreciate Society @eastwhisky is a great little group based in the north east of England who organise regular virtual tastings, this one featured @FragrantDrops

The tasting was hosted by Rachel and George from Fib.

The Whisky Cellar @TweetTastings

@whisky_cellar shared some of their recent bottlings with us in a @TweetTastings.

Here's my thoughts and those of a few friends!

#BTC22 #BlindDrams Tasting Notes

These are my tasting notes from the Blind Tasting Consortium's 22nd #BlindDrams evening.

These drams were picked by Ben @WhiskyWithMolly

Side by side: Two 'plain' ex-bourbon drams from The Sipping Shed

A recent tasting by #TheSheds of five @TheSippingShed releases allowed us to taste two ex-bourbon drams, one from Linkwood and one from Loch Lomond.

Let's see how they compare!

Douglas Laing @TweetTasting

@DLaingWhisky Old Particular range features single cask malts and grains at a minimum of 6yo and 48.4%. 

A recent @TweetTastings took us through 4 of their latest releases.

Side by side : Independent Linkwood

On today's Side by side we're looking at two independently bottled Linkwoods. It's not a whisky you see very much, I can only think of one distillery bottling I've tried, all the rest I've tried or seen have been indies.

Let see how they compare side by side!

Virtual tasting: Elixir Tasting with BCWS

The Black Country Whisky Society are a small group with big ideas from Greater Birmingham. They've been going for around 18 months and successfully held a number of tastings before Covid-19 put a stop to meeting together. So like most groups they went virtual.

Their tasting are sometimes opened to non-members and I was lucky enough to get a place on one from Elixir Distillers.

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:

The Sipping Shed @TweetTastings

There's a new Independent bottler on the scene and Steve introduced them at his latest @TweetTastings

A plain looking box revealed an interesting use of some biodegradable packaging and four single cask bottles.

Another trip to the Prince Of Wales

I'm very lucky where I work that they let us out at 12 noon every Friday, this gives us a chance to visit some local hostelries and sample their wares. One of our regular haunts is the Prince Of Wales at Foxfield, it's a small pub on the Cumbria coast which boasts it's own brewery, regular beer, gin, rum and music festivals - check out their website.

There are normally 8 real ales on the bar plus a couple of ciders and many bottled delights. They also have a great, ever changing, selection of whiskies!

The Whisky Blackboard

This week they held a Dark, Strong Beer & Cider Weekend so we had to visit!

So whilst some of my colleagues made their way through the list of beers, I started with a few whiskies.

Distillery : Mannochmore

Whisky : 12yo (Flora & Fauna)

Characteristics : 700ml, 43% ABV.

Colour : Light Gold

Nose : Vanilla, Christmas cake spices

Palate : Smooth mouth filling vanilla, orange hints and those Christmas spices.

Finish : Long spicy finish

Overall : This is the first time dram which I spotted on the board from a distillery I couldn't remember sampling from before. It's part of the Flora & Fauna range of limited releases - I don't think these are very common?

Distillery : Linkwood

Whisky : 15yo (Gordon & MacPhail)

Characteristics : 700ml, 43% ABV. NCF, Uncoloured

Colour : Dark Gold

Nose : Vanilla and oak with a touch of cereal

Palate : Sweet vanilla, developing into chocolate

Finish : Long spicy sweet finish

Overall : Another dram which I spotted on the board from a distillery I couldn't remember sampling from before and definitely the best of the three I tried on the day.

Distillery : Dalmore

Whisky : 12yo 

Characteristics : 700ml, 43% ABV. NCF, Coloured 😟

Colour : Dark Gold

Nose : Sherry and vanilla, 

Palate : Dry sherry with hints of oranges and marshmallows

Finish : Long dry finish dominated by vanilla with a hint of spicy orange

Overall : Pretty standard fare this one but it was the first time I'd tried a Dalmore. Honesty I wasn't really impressed - nice bottle and presentation but just a little plain for me.