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!

Stagg Jr

A recent sample swap with @SpikeyDog120 delivered an unexpected surprise - a sample of @BuffaloTrace's 3rd batch Stagg Jr.

Beautiful colour!

Distillery : Buffalo Trace Distillery
Whiskey : Stagg Jr. Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey (3rd Batch)
Price : £75

Characteristics : 700ml, 66.05% ABV. The mash bill on this one is 75% Corn, 15% Malted Barley and 10% Rye, it's matured in charred oak for around 8-9 years but is sold with NAS.

Box/Bottle Information : "Rich, sweet, chocolate and brown sugar flavors mingle in perfect balance with the bold rye spiciness."

Colour : Mahogany
Nose : Vanilla, earthy oak, cherries, lemon

Palate : WOW - obviously with this strength it's going to be powerful and I'd been warned so was only taking tiny sips. It was solid, like a spoonful of burning treacle rolling over your tongue! It burned but there were hints of old leather. A little water opened it up a bit - with honey and raisins, over time cherries from the nose came through quite strongly.

Finish : Oak, vanilla and a strong burn! with a lingering taste of spicy (cinnamon?) honey.

Overall : Definitely a sipping whiskey (with a strong burn if that's that you like). The addition of a little water reduced the burn and opened up the flavours - I enjoyed the cherry on the nose and palate giving the whiskey a little sourness. Many thanks to @SpikeyDog120 for the surprise!

Link : Stagg Jr

#WishkyTwo Blind Tasting

Following on from a fantastic blind tasting in February WishkyOne, @WishkyCo came up with another evening in March, again an beautiful unidentified 50ml bottle arrived in the post - a simple label identified it as WishkyTwo. The hardest part of all of this is not opening the bottle before the night....

For those of you who haven't heard of this, we had a hour to try and identify the mystery dram - it was time for #WishkyHour

Appearance: Pale Gold.
Nose: SMOKE

As soon as I opened the bottle the smoke jumped out - obviously an Islay - buy which one? My thoughts in the text, others from Twitter:

Appearance: Pale Gold, clinging to the glass when swirled indicating age or non chill-filtered?

Nose: Smoke, Seaweed, Salt with floral tones but not medicinal...

Palate: Strong smoke, vanilla, salt. The dram also came across as very strong...

Finish: Bitter and dry...

Overall: Even though I'm an Islay Fan Boy I wasn't blown away by this one - which led me to believe it was maybe one I hadn't tried before maybe Bowmore,  Bunnahabhain or a strange  Bruichladdich Port Charlotte? Over time we were told it was a 46% whisky.

Eventually we got to the end of the hour and the end of the dram...

If you haven't guessed what dram we were drinking yet from my notes - we were drinking Kilchoman Machir Bay.

Many thanks to Neil at @wishkyco for organising, if you want to get involved next time, there is a small fee to cover costs, get in touch with Neil or better still sign up for one of his boxes, all can be tried blind but tasting notes are included!

House Of Malt Twitter Tasting

A great evening of whisky tasting took place on Friday 24th March and luckily I was invited to take part! @MaltmanMike distributed samples of @HouseOfMalt's Secret Distillery Bottlings from three distilleries, one each from the Highland, Speyside and Islay regions of Scotland.

Once again I used my geeky Tasting Mat design which allowed me to record and then tweet my tasting thoughts as we went along!

Distillery : Secret Highland
Whisky : 10yo
Characteristics : 700ml 43% ABV
Price : £35
Colour : Pale Gold
Nose : Quite a complex nose on this one, developed over the 10 minutes I was nosing. It started with Polish and honey, developed into strawberries, pears and apples then later a lovely vanilla came through.
Palate : Smooth and creamy with oranges, vanilla. It was also very drying and sweet like icing sugar.
Finish : A short spicy finish of orange oil.
Overall : I really enjoyed this yummy dram, a really complex nose, smooth creamy taste and spicy finish - what else do you want from a Highland dram?
Link : HoM Highland

Distillery : Secret Speyside
Whisky : 15yo
Characteristics : 700ml 40% ABV
Price : £45
Colour : Deep Gold
Nose : Vanilla and a little sherry, rubber glue and oak
Palate : Creamy sweet sherry, a little honey, lime and cinnamon
Finish : Short spicy finish like dry roasted peanuts
Overall : All we know is that this comes from Ex Bourbon and Oloroso casks - it was a nice dram with a typical Speyside sherry finsh.
Link : HoM Speyside

Distillery : Secret Islay
Whisky : 10yo
Characteristics : 700ml 43% ABV
Price : £40
Colour : Pale Gold
Nose : BBQ smoke, not medicinal, honey, stewed pears developing into BBQ bananas with chocolate drops
Palate : Smoke, a little honey, vanilla, salt, drying licorice
Finish : Sugared almonds, smoke
Overall : A nice smokey dram with BBQ overtones
Link : HoM Islay

Overall : A great evening of tasting, but it's really annoying that we don't know the distilleries! Personally I preferred the Highland even though normally I'm an Islay Fan Boy! The nose was brilliant - very complex! The Islay came second and the Speyside third. For the price these were all very good drams, fine examples of their respective regions and I don't think anyone who tries they will be disappointed!

UK v USA @TweetTasting

Another fantastic evening of @TweetTasting took place on Wednesday 22nd March and luckily I was invited to take part! This is time was a bit of a competition between UK distillery @GlenGrant and US distillery @WildTurkey but seeming as the drams were very different it wasn't really a competition!

I demoed my geeky Tasting Mat design for the first time which allowed me to record and then tweet my tasting thoughts as we went along!

Distillery : Glen Grant
Whisky : 10yo
Characteristics : 700ml 40% ABV
Price : £30
Colour : Old Gold (Non Coloured)
Nose : Pear, watermelon and apple notes develop into vanilla with overtones of strawberry chewits
Palate : Pear & liquorice developing into vanilla with a touch of pepper
Finish : Smooth, long vanilla with a touch of pepper
Overall : I enjoyed this dram, it's a basic delicate whisky with no surprises - ideal for beginners looking for a typical Speyside malt.
Link : Glen Grant 10yo

Distillery : Wild Turkey
Whisky : 101 Bourbon
Characteristics : 700ml 50.5% ABV
Price : £31
Colour : Tawny
Nose : Fig biscuits, caramel, wax polish developing into a lovely golden syrup
Palate : Spicy cinnamon and nutmeg with apple strudel covered in creamy vanilla custard.
Finish : Vanilla custard, much more rounded than the 10yo
Overall : My first ever Bourbon this is made with 75% Corn, 13% Rye and 12% Barley
Link : Wild Turkey 101

Distillery : Glen Grant
Whisky : 12yo
Characteristics : 700ml 43% ABV
Price : £43
Colour : Old Gold (Non Coloured)
Nose : Pear, watermelon and apple notes similar to the 10yo but with more punch. Fresh baked apple pie and Pistachios
Palate : Honey, apples and pear (in a pie?)
Finish : Vanilla custard, more rounded that the 10yo
Overall : An improvement on the 10yo, the extra 2 years make quite a difference - more punch and smoother.
Link : Not currently on the Glen Grant website.

Distillery : Wild Turkey
Whisky : Rye
Characteristics : 700ml 40.5% ABV
Price : £28
Colour : Deep Gold
Nose : Toffee, wax polish, cream soda, marshmallow
Palate : Watered honey, cream soda with a little bitter lemon
Finish : Spicy with a kick, juice from a pickled egg jar?
Overall : So my 2nd Bourbon, this one was 65% Rye, 23% Corn and 12% Barley matured in a cask which has had an Alligator #4 char.
Link : Wild Turkey Rye

Overall : A really interesting evening of sampling - thanks to @GlenGrant and @WildTurkey for the drams, @TheWhiskyWire for organising and all the Tweet Tasters who shared their thoughts on the night. My order of preference was the Glen Grant 12yo, Wild Turkey 101 Bourbon, Glen Grant 10yo and finally the Wild Turkey Rye.

Glen Moray Elgin Classics

Glen Moray used to belong to Glenmorangie but when they were taken over by the the luxury brand Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy in 2004 they were surplus to requirements, in 2008 they were sold to the French company La Martiniquaise.

Located near Elgin in Speyside, they have only ever had five Master Distillers. Each have taken their jobs very seriously crafting their whiskies since 1897. In 2005 Graham Coull took the role, his predecessor Edwin Dodson retired after 20 years in the job. Graham marries his respect for the Glen Moray traditions with an eagerness to explore innovative new techniques. Some of these new techniques have resulted in a set of drams called the Elgin Classic range.

Classic, Peated, Chardonnay, Sherry & Port

I recently bought a bottle of the Sherry Cask Finish and have samples of the Port Finish (thanks to a sample swap with Rob @RealDramRob) and Peated Finish (thanks to a sample swap with Craig @SpikeyDog120) for this review. The other two in the range are the 'plain' Classic which I tried a few years ago and the Chardonnay Finish which for some reason I've had trouble locating - their website still says coming soon!

All five whiskies in the range are NAS, probably coloured and chill-filtered, the boxes/bottles don't say otherwise. They are also relatively in-expensive, each can be had for less than £25.

Peated, Sherry, Port

Distillery : Glen Moray
Whisky : Elgin Classic Peated
Presentation : Cardboard box, some whisky information, lovely still shaped bottle with cork stopper.
Box Info : "The intense and subtly-smoked expression of our Classic Single Malt, this is the perfect easy-drinking introduction to peated whiskies. Matured in ex-bourbon casks for added spiciness."
Source : Sample Swap from Craig @SpikeyDog120
Price : £20 many outlets
Characteristics : 700ml, 40% ABV, NAS, Coloured, Chill-filtered
Colour : White Wine - very pale for being coloured
Nose : Sweet wood smoke, but not medicinal like Islay drams, floral overtones
Palate: Delicate smoke, vanilla leading to stewed rhubarb
Finish : Toffee popcorn developing into spice
Overall : A lovely dram with a gentle smokiness (guesses suggest a PPM of 13 then an average of 7 years in probably 2nd or 3rd fill bourbon casks) , would be ideal for introducing a newbie to peated whisky before graduating on to Islay malts.

Distillery : Glen Moray
Whisky : Elgin Classic Sherry Finish
Presentation : Cardboard box, some whisky information, lovely still shaped bottle with cork stopper.
Box Info : "Only the finest Oloroso casks are used to mature this extraordinary single malt. The Elgin Classic's unmistakable vanilla and light oak is still evident but, with vibrant dried fruit and earthy, nutty notes of the sherry, the finish is multi-faceted."
Source : Morrisons Supermarket
Price : £22
Characteristics : 700ml, 40% ABV, NAS, Coloured, Chill-filtered
Colour : Amber
Nose : Toffee, dried fruits developing to plums
Palate: Sweet sherry, honey leading to drying vanilla
Finish : Sweet honey and cherries
Overall : This isn't a sherry bomb! But like the Peated is probably a good introduction to Sherried whiskies. Again a maturation of circa 7 years is suggested with an 8 month finish in Oloroso sherry casks. A very drinkable dram!

Distillery : Glen Moray
Whisky : Elgin Classic Port Finish
Presentation : Cardboard box, some whisky information, lovely still shaped bottle with cork stopper.
Box Info : "This light and fruity expression is finished for eight months in Port pipes from Porto Cruz, the N°1 Porto company in the world. The spirit picks up intense embellishments of summer fruit, dark chocolate and cinnamon and a distinct pink hue."
Source : Sample Swap from Rob @RealDramRob
Price : £22 many outlets
Characteristics : 700ml, 40% ABV, NAS, Coloured, Chill-filtered
Colour : Pale Gold with a slight pink tinge - very pale for being coloured
Nose : Fruity vanilla, caramel leading to fruit and nut chocolate
Palate: Stewed plums sprinkled with cinnamon
Finish : Honey developing into a smooth vanilla with woody cinnamon
Overall : A lovely dram with a beautiful mouth feel and flavour - a longer finish that the previous two. Of the three this was my favourite!

Summary : OK, these are inexpensive NAS drams so you might not be expecting much, but you'll be pleasantly surprised! All three are very drinkable - ideal for newbies and more experienced drinkers who just want to sit down in a quiet spot and drink a nice dram. And I love the still shaped bottles!

Link : Elgin Classic Collection

That Boutique-y Whisky's night of 101 years!

Last night I had the great pleasure of taking part in another of Steve @TheWhiskyWire's @TweetTastings where we sampled 101 years of whisky in 5 delicious drams from That Boutique-y Whisky Company @BoutiqueyWhisky. If you've not heard of them they are an independent bottler specialising in small batch whiskies from around the world, each is cask strength, non chill filtered and non-coloured.


Each bottle has it's own unique graphic-novel-style label and associated postcard by Emily Chappell. You can read an amusing account of how she came to create whisky labels here!

The Glenrothes Select Reserve

Distillery : The Glenrothes
Whisky : Select Reserve

Not much left...

Presentation : Open cardboard box, some distillery information, clear dumpy bottle with wooden topped
cork stopper
Source : Whisky shop in Soller in Majorca
Price : £35 many outlets

Characteristics : 700ml, 43% ABV, NAS
Box/Bottle Information : "Ripe Fruits, citrus, vanilla, hints of spice."

Colour : Pale Gold.
Glance : Oily, leaves thin trails when swirled around the glass.
Nose : Masses of Vanilla with faint citrus : oranges and lemons.

Palate: Oranges floating in Golden Syrup, smooth spicy.

Finish : Drying spicy finish - more of the Syrup.

Overall : I picked this up whilst on holiday in Majorca a few years ago from a tiny whisky shop on a back street of a small village.I was attracted by the dumpy bottle and small 'hand written' style label. As you can see from the photo there's not much left! It's an inexpensive NAS but well worth exploring - who doesn't like Golden Syrup and I'm sure this dram is made by diluting it!

Link : Select Reserve.

Campbeltown Whisky Finishes?

Before you all start panicking - no Springbank aren't closing down! I thought I'd write a blog comparing two drams in my collection - an old bottle of mine : Springbank 14yo Port Wood and a recent sample I received from Andy the Amateur Drammer : Longrow Red 12yo Pinot Noir. Both are cask strength malts from Springbank in Campbeltown but with subtly different finishes.

Last whisky from Campbeltown?

Distillery : Springbank
Whisky : Port Wood 14 years old (2004)
Presentation : Card box with clear front, some distillery information; clear bottle with cork stopper, some 'hand written' whisky information.
Source : Distillery Shop (a number of years ago)
Price : No longer available 😥

Characteristics : 700ml, 52.8% ABV, Non-Chill Filtered, Not Coloured
Box/Bottle Information : "12 yrs refill sherry, 2 yrs fresh port pipes, distilled 1989, bottled September 2004, out turn 7200 bottles"

Colour : Old Gold.
Glance : Oily, leaves thick trails when swirled around the glass.
Nose : Wine, port. (Water brings out a nutty aroma)
Palate: Mouth filling, chewy, pineapple and dry apricots, it's huge, obviously the 52,8% ABV gives you that but the mouth feel is fantastic, it hits you then quickly goes dry. (Water brings out bananas)
Finish : Medium oily finish some pear and more of the drying apricot.
Link : Springbank Port Wood.

No just different finishes!

Distillery : Springbank
Whisky : Longrow Red 12 years old (2015)
Presentation : Sample bottle.
Source : @amateurdrammer
Price : No longer available 😥

Characteristics : 52.92% ABV,

Colour : Deep Copper
Glance : Oily, leaves thick trails when swirled around the glass.
Nose : Sweet smoke, chocolate with brazil nuts (Water enhances the chocolate)
Palate: Very dry peaty, overpowering almost gritty in the mouth.
Finish : Sharp bitter burn giving way to a medium winey finish.
Link : Longrow Red

Overall : Two quite different drams from a favourite distillery of mine, the Port Wood has been in my collection for a long time but is nearing the end of the bottle, it's been an irregular go to for cold winter nights and will be missed, you don't really notice the strength. The Longrow is very different : overpowering without the addition of a little water even though it is a similar strength to the Port Wood, I'm guessing the peat is 

making the difference? Both benefit from the addition of a little water, the Port Wood gains a little on the nose and taste - shortening the finish but still excellent! With water the Longrow's nose became even more chocolatey and I didn't like it.

Port Wood & Pinot Noir

Blind Twitter Tasting with Wishky

Last night I spent a very enjoyable #wishkyhour drinking whisky with no one! Well that isn't entirely true.... Let me rewind a week or so!

I'm a huge fan of Twitter and follow a whole load of people in the #WhiskyFabric exchanging news, thoughts and sometimes dram samples. A post from one of these was an invite to a Twitter Tasting, I immediately signed up and a week or so later a bottle appeared in the post!

Beautiful bottle

What I failed to realise at the time, but did once I'd looked at the bottle, was that this was going to be a blind tasting, we didn't know in advance what the whisky was! I was both intrigued and worried: how was I going to identify the dram, what if I didn't like it?

As the night grew closer a few messages were exchanged with other testers about the colour and possible source, but we all managed to avoid opening the bottle before the night!

Concerning the bottle: I've received many different ones in the samples I've received from companies and the #WhiskyFabric but none have been as nice as this. It was a little 50ml glass bottle with a lovely cork stopper and sealing sticker labeled "Hand Filled".

So on to the night: I connected to Twitter and set up a window showing the agreed hash tags #wishkyhour and #wishkyone and waited for the fun to start. Most of us were ready for the 8pm start time and we all eagerly poured a dram.



Ready to pour!

Appearance: lovely amber colour with slow falling legs when swirled around the glass, quite oily.
Nose: Winey, honey and lemon - later vanilla with a little pepper?
Palate: Loving the taste - coating my tongue - it's floral - cut grass? But no honey in the taste
Finish: Nice lingering finish - vanilla
Overall: Not peaty (like a normally drink) I detect maybe a little sherry?

My guesses were that we were trying an unsherried, 8-10 year old Speyside, I also suggested maybe an Arran. Other suggestions included Ballantines, anCnoc or Glengoyne.



All done - but what was it?

We all agreed that we enjoyed the dram and we're eager to find out what it was! Right at the end one of the group @jonpearcewhufc guessed correctly!

If you haven't guessed what dram we were drinking yet from my notes - have a look over at the wishky blog.

Many thanks to Neil @wishkyco at for organising and @jwbassman_ @richinspirit @B_R_Drams @bgmearns @GentlemanGrimm @TheAndrewCarr and @mgilberties for making it a really enjoyable evening by myself!

There's another great write up here.