Distillery Visit - Glengyle (Kilkerran)

I visited the Glengyle distillery in April '18, this was my first time!

Glengyle is in Campbeltown at the bottom of the Kintyre Peninsula, about 3 hours drive from Glasgow.

Distillery Visit - Springbank

I visited the Springbank distillery in April '18, around 12 years since my previous visit - not much had changed!

Springbank is in Campbeltown at the bottom of the Kintyre Peninsula, about 3 hours drive from Glasgow.

#BlindTasting Series 3 - Part 2 (for Charlotte Victoria)

This is the second part of Series 3 of #BlindTasting, with the extra special bonus of being a celebration of the safe arrival of some Port Charlotte and Glen Scotia Victoriana drams!

Heavily Peated but not from Islay?

Through a couple of #dample swaps I managed to get my hands on a couple of unusual heavily peated drams - now as most of you know I love peated drams - Ardbeg, Laphroaig, Lagavulin, Port Charlotte etc but these two are a little different - neither are from Islay and one isn't even from Scotland!

My favourite peated dram of the last year or so was Port Charlotte Islay Barley - this was labelled "Heavily Peated" at 40ppm which I reviewed here. These two drams sit either side of that phenol level, one is 30ppm and one is 50ppm.

So what are they?

First up at 30ppm from Japan is Hakushu Heavily Peated - a 46% NAS from Suntory's second distillery in the Southern Japanese Alps

Distillery: Hakushu
Whisky: Heavily Peated

Characteristics: 48% NAS NCF Pale Gold (looks naturally coloured) 30ppm
Source: #drample swap with @GeoffGilmore1

Nose: light smoke, a distant fire? Damp soil, wood shavings but all very light!
Palate: honey sweetness with a big kick of spice, very smooth on the tongue, a little salt and maybe some citrus?
Finish: long, warming and very smokey, some citrus again but lingering smoke!

Next up at 50ppm is Edradour's Ballechin 10yo Heavily Peated.

Distillery: Edradour

Whisky: Ballechin 10yo Heavily Peated

Characteristics: 46% 10yo NCF Rose Gold Non-coloured 50ppm
Source: #drample swap with @The_Cask_Blog

Nose: in-your-face Smokey Bacon! A big peaty kick in the nose with little hints of tropical fruit.
Palate: very light almost watery, slightly spicy - unusual and not what I was expecting! There's all sorts on the palate - orchard fruit, red fruits but all very fleeting - the smoke covers all - it's also very drying.
Finish: as it goes down your throat it gives you a big kick of smoke to let you know it's there!


Comments: two completely different drams, overall I think I prefered the first - the Japanese one - it might have 'only' been 30ppm but I think it carried it off much better and had a bit more about it. The Edradour was far 'peatier' at 50ppm but was quite rough in it's approach - like Octomore's little brother! Both were hunting out if you like peated drams and want to explore a little away from Islay!

#BlindTasting Series 3 - Part 1

If you've followed us so far on our #BlindTasting journey of discovery you'll know that is a great fun set of evenings here the five of us try to identify drams from each other. sometimes we can get quite close, sometimes we are completely flummoxed. But the key things are we are trying the drams blind with no preconceived ideas and we are having lots of fun!

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!

The Real McCoy Rum Tasting

OK, OK, OK, yes it's a whisky blog, I know, I know but I got offered the chance to try some rum and as I'd never had any before I thought - "well why not?"

The #TheRealMcCoyTT twitter tasting was arranged by TheFloatingRumShack (what a brilliant twitter handle!) and he wanted to include some whisky drinkers to see what we thought - you can say no to that can you?

So as is usual with these things a small parcel arrived a few days before the tasting:

#BlindTasting Series 2 - Review

Series 2 of #BlindTasting finished just after Christmas! Following on from a fantastic Series 1 - this one was a huge amount of fun with the five of us trying to identify 15 mystery drams through smell and taste, having #NoPreconceivedIdeas or #MarketingBullshit to sway our opinions.

#BlindTasting Series 2 - part 3

And we finally get to the 3rd part of Series 2 of #BlindTasting, like all good bands and the search for the second album we had some issues - these were mainly down to prolonged episodes of severe Man Flu on the part of a couple of members of the team and of course Christmas.

What about Ardbeg?

The title of this post is pointing a finger, and it's pointing it at me....

The second ever bottle of whisky I ever bought was an Ardbeg Ten and I'm been a peat fan ever since, but I've never written a blog about Ardbeg.... Well that has now been rectified after a bottle (not sample) swap of Uigeadail and a couple of recent #drample swaps of An Oa (From @Maltman_Mike) and Kelpie CR (from @SpiritAndWood). So I have a set of four to compare, if anyone is willing to swap a dram of Corrie I'd be very grateful!

First a little story!

One of them bottles look wrong doesn't it? The bottle swap came about when a colleague at work approached me and asked if I liked peated whisky? Not a difficult question to answer! (Un)fortunately he didn't, but on the occasion of his 60th birthday his daughter had bought him a beautifully engraved bottle of Uigeadail. He'd tried a couple of drams but just couldn't drink it. Did I have an empty bottle I could decant it into as he wanted to keep the engraved bottle? After a little struggle I managed to find one and now have a nearly full bottle of The Claymore! In return I filled up his bottle with a lovely Speysider which was much more to his liking!

This smells like no Claymore has ever done before!

You can't imagine how my room smelt after I'd poured these four drams - it was like I'd just lit a BBQ - heaven on earth!

L:R An Oa, 10yo, Uigeadail, Kelpie CR

Whisky : An Oa
Characteristics : 700ml 46.6% ABV Non-chill filtered, Non-coloured
Price : £49 many outlets
Distillery info : "Singularly rounded, due in no small part to time spent in our newly established bespoke oak Gathering Vat where whiskies from several cask types - including; sweet Pedro Ximenez; spicy virgin charred oak; and intense ex-bourbon casks, amongst others - familiarise themselves with each other. The result is a dram with smoky power, mellowed by a delectable, smooth sweetness. Hallmark Ardbeg peat, dark chocolate and aniseed are wrapped in smooth, silky butterscotch, black pepper and clove, before rising to an intense crescendo of flavour."

Colour : Pale Gold
In the Glass : Thin swirls, very slow to develop legs
Nose : Smoke, gentle citrus maybe a little sherry? There's a sweetness which develops after a little time in the glass. Pine needles!
Palate: Smooth sweet runny honey, some citrus notes.
Finish : Slow to develop then gives a spicy kick of ginger and cardamom in amongst the smoke!




Whisky : Ten
Characteristics : 700ml 46% ABV Non-chill filtered
Price : £40 many outlets
Distillery info : "Revered around the world as the peatiest, smokiest, most complex single malt of them all. Yet it does not flaunt the peat; rather it gives way to the natural sweetness of the malt to produce a whisky of perfect balance. Named World Whisky of the Year in 2008."

Colour : White Wine
In the Glass : Thin swirls, very slow to develop legs
Nose : Medicinal smoke, some gentle baked apple and honey.
Palate: Thin but flavoursome, some honey notes but not as sweet as the An Oa, Lots of spice on the tongue and some hints of dark fruit & nut chocolate. After a few sips a dryness develops - the smoke taking the moisture out of your mouth. Hints of peanut but not in the bad way I've had with other recent Islay drams.
Finish : More peaty smoke than the An Oa and tons more spice, this is real spice - chilli being forced down your throat!





Whisky : Uigeadail
Characteristics : 700ml 54.2% ABV Non-chill filtered
Price : £60
Distillery info : "Pronounced ‘Oog-a-dal’, it’s a special vatting that marries Ardbeg’s traditional deep, smoky notes with luscious, raisiny tones of old ex-Sherry casks. Ardbeg Uigeadail was voted by the 120,000+ strong Ardbeg Committee as their favourite Ardbeg."

Colour : Pale Gold
In the Glass : Thin swirls, very slow to develop legs
Nose : Smoke with some maritime notes, foam bananas and stewed pears.
Palate: A very chewy mouthfeel, coats your tongue with a light honey sweetness and hits you immediately with the peat smoke. A hint of the foam bananas from the nose and some burnt marshmallow. Lots of spicy ginger on the tongue and again some dryness.
Finish : Lots of smoke, gingery spiciness and some chocolate orange.






Whisky : Kelpie Committee Reserve
Characteristics : 700ml 51.7% ABV Non-chill filtered
Price : £360 (limited edition - discontinued)
Distillery info : "Part-matured in Bourbon and Russian oak casks from Adygea by the Black Sea, this cask strength Islay malt scored 86 points on WhiskyFun and has been generally well received by critics and punters alike. The Kelpie takes its name from the Scottish water-faeries, who are known to take the shape of a horse or bull when luring mariners to their watery doom. The sound of a Kelpie’s tail entering the water is said to resemble that of thunder. So, should you be passing a river and hear an unearthly wailing or howling; beware it could be a Kelpie warning of an approaching storm!"

Colour : Pale Gold
In the Glass : Thin swirls, very slow to develop legs
Nose : Tiny amount of smoke, definitely not as much as the others and a strong honey soaked porridge aroma.
Palate: The honey porridge from the nose come through on the palate initially but is quickly masked by the spices - there's allsorts here - ginger, chilli, pepper. Hints of walnuts, pears and dried fruit try to get through but the spice doesn't take any prisoners!
Finish : Lots of peat smoke, some chocolate orange (like the Uigeadail) and the maritime saltiness from the nose.

Overall: I surprised myself here and actually prefered the An Oa of the four, it didn't have the peaty smoke kick of the Ten but the sweetness and spicy kick stuck out. The Uigeadail and Kelpie both shared a chocolate orange note the first without, the second with some salt. As I said at the beginning the Ten was probably the second bottle of whisky I ever bought and has been a go to staple for a long time, but I think the An Oa has just taken the place away on my shelf.