Brave New Spirits - More WhiskyHeroes

 Indie bottler Brave New Spirits @BNS_Whisky keep coming out with new releases!

Here's my thoughts on four recent ones from the new WhiskyHeroes series!

AD Rattray @TweetTasting

@ADRattrayWhisky chose a @TweetTastings to launch some of their new Cask Collection bottlings.

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

Whisky Advent Calendar 2022 - Dram reviews

Those great people at @DrinksByTheDram sent me an Advent Calendar for the run up to Christmas! For the whisky fans amongst us this makes much more sense than a chocolate one!

Now the idea with an Advent Calendar is that you open 1 door each day from the 1st December through to Christmas Eve... But please enjoy your whisky responsibly! Sometimes it may not possible to open a dram each day, you could share with mates or save a couple to enjoy at the weekend?

Side by side : Tamdhu maturation

Tamdhu say that every bottle of whisky which they release has been matured "exclusively in the finest Oloroso sherry casks", but... 

...they also fill bourbon and PX casks for indie bottlers, here I explain what this means and compare Ex-bourbon, Oloroso and PX drams from Tamdhu.

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!

Youtube clips

I've appeared in a few Youtube clips talking about whisky or doing reviews - here's an updated list of them!

The Whisky Family (Was Maltman Mike & Friends)

Glen Scotia Campbeltown 1832

Review of my whisky year - 2018

First of all thank you to all the people who have read my blog (c29,000 up from 16,500 last year) and followed me on Twitter (c1,680 up from 900 last year).

My highlights of 2018 were:

#BlindTasting Series 3 - Review

Series 3 of #BlindTasting has recently finished and as usual I'll post a summary. Following on from fantastic Series 1 & 2 - this one was brought up a few surprised with the five of us trying to identify 15 mystery drams through smell and taste, having #NoPreconceivedIdeas or #MarketingBullshit to sway our opinions.

Tamdhu 120th Anniversary @TweetTastings

As part of their 120th Anniversary celebrations and the Spirit Of Speyside festival Tamdhu held a tasting in the filling store of the distillery broadcast live on Facebook. Thanks to Steve @TweetTastings a number of us were also able to join it at home, following along online and sharing our thoughts on twitter.

As usual with these things a parcel arrived a few days before the tasting...

#BlindTasting Series 3 - Part 3

The final part of Series 3 of #BlindTasting took place last week and it turned out to be one of our more interesting sessions with a few differences of opinion on the drams we were tasting. That was great because that's what #BlindTasting is all about #NoPreconceivedIdeas #EveryPalateIsDifferent

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!

Saturday afternoon with Tamdhu @TweetTastings

You never know what is going to turn up when you sign up and get accepted for one of @TheWhiskyWire's @TweetTasting and this one was no different. This one took a while to get my hands on - the DHL man tried to deliver it twice when I was away on holiday, then took it back to the depot - I was really concerned that it wasn't going to get delivered in time!

When it did arrive I opened a beautiful large box from @TamdhuWhisky with a hand written welcome letter, a booklet about the history of the distillery and tasting notes for two of the 4 bottles. Underneath was a beautiful glass and four small bottles.

Box opening!

The drams included : New Make Spirit, 10yo, 10yo Limited Edition and Batch Strength.

The drams

This tasting was a little different for a number of reasons:

1. It look place on a Saturday evening - usually they take place on a Wednesday night.
2. It was a joint twitter and distillery tasting as it coincided with the Spirit of Speyside festival.
3. As they were 50cl bottles I'd invited a mate round to help me sample them!

Personally I thought the evening went a little quickly - there wasn't a lot of time for the usual twitter discussion - I'm guessing that's because the distillery tasters had a schedule to meet!

My thoughts:

Distillery : Tamdhu

Whisky : New Make Spirit

Characteristics : 50ml, 69.7% ABV.

Colour : Transparent

Nose : Fresh baked bread with a little sweetness

Palate : Sweetness, lip numbing, like schnapps but at all rough like I expected!

Finish : None to speak of - must have been the alcohol

Overall : This is the first time I'd tried New Make Spirit from any distillery and was apprehensive when I saw the strength thinking it was be very rough and burning - it wasn't like that at all. Initially I'd only poured a small amount into my glass to try and soon topped it up! It was quite drinkable as long as you only took small sips.

Distillery : Tamdhu
Whisky : 10yo
Characteristics : 700ml 40% ABV
Price : £30
Colour : Light Gold
Nose : Sherry and almonds with a slight rough edge - developed over time into buttery toffee
Palate : Creamy smooth, banoffee pie
Finish : Medium - spicy - aniseed?
Overall : A lovely beginners Speyside dram - just the right about of sherry which if left in the glass to develop turns into toffee - delicious!
Link : 10yo

Distillery : Tamdhu
Whisky : 10yo Limited Edition (1000 bottles)
Characteristics : 700ml 46% ABV
Price : £120
Colour : Dark Gold
Nose : Sherry with a slight rough edge - developed over time into buttery toffee - similar to 10yo
Palate : Sherry, toffee - very smooth and drying with a spicy tingle of cloves
Finish : A long spicy clove finish
Overall : Another lovely dram, this time the sherry was a little more pronounced on the nose and palate.
Link : 10yo Ltd Edn

Distillery : Tamdhu
Whisky : Batch Strength No 002
Characteristics : 700ml 58.5% ABV
Price : £60
Colour : Dark Gold
Nose : Toffee, Vanilla, Citrus - maybe orange - no rough edge like the previous two
Palate : Toffee, orange - drying in the mouth, again with spicy cloves or cinnamon on the tongue
Finish : Long orange oil finish
Overall : For all it's strength - this one was my favourite on the night - strong yes - but a lovely sipping whisky, the addition of a little water added to the vanilla on the nose and orange on the palate and finish.
Link : Batch Strength

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