Author Archives: themadvatter

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July 26, 2015

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Scottish Whiskies, Whisky Reviews

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Glendronach 18 Years Old Marsala Cask Finish

GlenDronach-18YO-Marsala-Finish-infront-LR2_000

An exciting bottling form Glendronach this year if you are into wine cask finished whiskies, which I am!

This particular expression was first matured in European oak casks then finished in a small batch of Marsala hogsheads. Glendronach have been quite successful in their revival with some well respected core range expressions like the 12yr and 15yr Revival. So it’s nice to see them shake it up a bit with some more experimental whiskies.

Distillery: Glendronach

Age: 18 years

ABV: 46%

Cask: Marsala Wine Cask Finish

RRP: £71.95 from MoM

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July 19, 2015

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Edinburgh, Scotland

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Edinburgh Markets

Edinburgh has a great sense of community and one of the best places to experience this is at one of the city’s weekend markets. Filled with stalls offering local food and goods, the markets are a place of the people. From freshly baked breads and antiques to handmade crafts, the markets have a bounty to offer for both locals and tourists.

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Edinburgh Farmer’s Market (Castle)

Who: A variety of local producers and craftsmen. Check out their website below for a list of all the producers and who will be there on any given Saturday.

What: Fresh fruit and veg, Meats/fish/dairy, Sweets and Baking, Knitwear and ready-made foods.

Where: Castle Terrace

When: Saturday, year round, between 9am & 2pm.

Why: Right in the city, this market is easily reachable on foot (with access through the grassmarket via some stairs off King’s Stables road and Prince’s Street) and parking is generous with both street and a paid NCP parking lot nearby.

Market Highlights:

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July 18, 2015

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Welsh Whiskies, Whisky Reviews

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Penderyn Madeira Cask Finish

Penderyn_Madeira

Our first Welsh whisky! This is a double tasting with both of our thoughts! Penderyn distillery is the first new age (since the 19th century) whisky distillery in Wales. The Penderyn Madeira Cask Finish can be found in the UK at some supermarkets in 35cl bottles.

Distillery: Penderyn Distillery

Age: NAS

ABV: 46%

Cask: Finished in Madeira Casks

Price: £38 (£37.33 from Master of Malt)

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July 17, 2015

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Scottish Whiskies, Whisky Reviews

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Benromach Peat Smoke 2005-2013 67ppm

Benromach_Peat_Smoke

The current Benromach Distillery is owned by the independent bottler Gordon & MacPhail. While the name and site dates back to 1898, G&M installed all new equipment after they bought the distillery in 1992. The old equipment had previously been sold off or junked. Instead of replicating the old stills, G&M designed and built smaller stills. They began releasing whisky from the old stocks and then when their new whisky was ready they began selling from the new stocks. These two spirits, however, are effectively from different distilleries despite having the same name.

For their own distilled whiskies, G&M wanted to recreate an older style of Speyside whisky. While Speyside whiskies are now famous for being smooth and sweet without peat, they used to contain moderate levels peat, when peat was a major fuel source in the area. The Benromach 10 year old represents the whisky profile they were trying to create, while the Benromach Peat Smoke is more of an experimental bottling to see what a heavily peated speyside would be like.

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July 13, 2015

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Edinburgh, Scotland

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Royal Mile Whiskies (Edinburgh Whisky Shop)

RMW_1

Royal MIle Whiskies Shop Breakdown

Location: 379 High Street, The Royal Mile, Edinburgh, EH1 1PW

Phone: +44 (0)131 225 3383

Email: info@royalmilewhiskies.com

Opening times: Varies by season, see website for current hours.

Attributes: Very competitive pricing, knowledgeable staff, beautiful old world decor.

Advice: Make sure you find the real one. During tourist season (Summer) the shop gets busy and it’s not a large shop.

The one and only Royal Mile Whiskies shop! As the name would suggest it does indeed sit upon the Royal Mile (High Street) in Edinburgh (actually they have another location by the same name in London but this is the original). In fact it commands quite the location being opposite of St. Giles Cathedral which is on the more touristy side of North Bridge (the road that goes over the bridge with the stunning view of the Castle). The overall look of the place is almost too perfectly old world charm. Its wooden framed front windows featuring displays seemingly right out of “Martin Dressler: Tale of an American Dreamer” and victorian library interior scream tourist trap. Indeed that’s what I thought when I first came to Edinburgh.

I can vaguely recall my first experience there going something like this:

From the outside – “Well this place looks fancy, I guess I’ll just have a peak.”

Upon entering – “This place is fancy! I bet all the prices are inflated to take advantage of tourists. Better make a run for it before someone talks to me.” (without even looking at the prices)

After departure – “Phew! That could have been costly and awkward.”

However, I could not have been more wrong about the place! I suspect other people have made the same mistake as I once did. What I later discovered is that RMW (Royal Mile Whiskies) is in fact one of the best places in Edinburgh to purchase whiskies. The reason being that they also have a sizeable online store with online competitive pricing and unlike some hybrid shops, their in-shop prices are the same as their online prices. So basically, it would be hard to find a shop with better average pricing than these merchants. They also carry an impressive range of rare bottlings for the thirsty millionaire to purchase or the curious average alcoholic to gander.

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July 12, 2015

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Scottish Whiskies, Whisky Reviews

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Ardbeg Perpetuum Review: Distillery Release vs Standard Release

Ardbeg_Perpetuum

After learning that there were two versions of the Ardbeg Perpetuum, we’ve been anxious to do a comparison tasting and now we’ve finally done it!

Just in case you are unaware, Ardbeg first released the Perpetuum Distillery Release (~£70) some time in March of this year. As the name suggests it was only available for purchase at the distillery but they made a small number available online to UK Ardbeg Committee members. The Standard Release (~£85) was made available at Ardbeg Embassies on Ardbeg Day (May 30th). They are supposedly from the same vatting but diluted to different ABV’s (DE 49.2% vs SE 47.4%). While they are both Non-Age Statement whiskies, a range of casks from the very old to the very young were used to make these expressions. The idea behind the cask selection was to impart character from all of Ardbeg’s history. An interesting concept for sure, but how does that translate to taste?

For this review, both TheMadVatter and AliceInWhiskyland chimed in to give two perspectives on the two versions.

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July 8, 2015

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Scottish Whiskies, Whisky Reviews

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Glenmorangie Signet Review

Glenmorangie_Signet2

While you may not have tried this particular expression of Glenmorangie, you most probably have seen it. The Signet seems to be at every airport duty free shop I’ve been to. It is often encased in glass surrounded by black and golden decorations based on the pattern on the front label. It comes with a spiffy looking black box which to me screams “gift for Chinese business exec”. I am sure quite a few have been used for just that purpose.

What’s interesting about the Signet is that they used chocolate malt (a heavily roasted malt that is dark brown like chocolate) and “designer casks” from American oak. They also claim to have used some 30 year old whiskies from the time when they used to do their own floor maltings. A nice touch, but this is still a non-age statement whisky. At this point it seems like a lot of companies are using this marketting ploy of stating that some incredibly old and rare whiskies have gone into certain NAS expressions. What I wonder is how much of this was done for marketting purposes and how much for flavour. I suspect they don’t use that much from the old stock which would suggest that the implications on flavour are minimal at best. I am a skeptic at heart so I could very well be wrong here. Meh.

Disitllery: Glenmorangie Distillery

Age: NAS

ABV: 46%

Cask: Designer Casks

Price: ~£125 (£123.95 at Master of Malt)

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July 3, 2015

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Scottish Whiskies, Whisky Reviews

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SMWS 50.65 (Bladnoch) Tutti Frutti

SMWS_50.65

Cask strength old Bladnoch? Yes please! I am always on a lookout for an SMWS bottling of Bladnoch. Or any Bladnoch for that matter. Interesting thing about this outturn is that on the menu there is a “Closed Distillery” stamp on the description for this bottling. This is interesting for several reasons. First of all, I guess SMWS are pushing to incite the current whisky frenzy for closed distilleries. Secondly, Bladnoch is down right now due to issues with the ownership but calling it a closed distillery right now is a bit too soon and sounds like a joke in poor taste. C’mon guys! It’s just down on its luck! Don’t kick it while it’s down. In all seriousness, I hope Bladnoch gets back on its feet because there isn’t much Bladnoch whisky out there as it is and I don’t want to fight in a post apocalyptic whisky world for the last remaining bottles of this elixir.

Moniker: Tutti Frutti

Distillery: Bladnoch

Age: 25 years old

Cask: Refill Bourbon

ABV: 52.5%

Distill Date: 26th January 1990

Outturn: July 2015

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July 3, 2015

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SMWS 27.109 (Springbank) Guns on the Grouse Moor

SMWS_27.109

Haven’t seen too many Springbanks in the SMWS lineup as of late so I was quite excited when this bad boy popped up on the menu. I have a theory about the rarity of independent bottled Springbanks that goes like this: Springbank owns the independent bottler Cadenheads so why would they sell casks to competing independent bottlers? Right? I dunno maybe it’s a crackpot theory. Anyway, great to see a Springbank at SMWS.

Moniker: Guns on the Grouse Moor

Distillery: Springbank

Age: 16 years old

Cask: Refill Gorda

ABV: 58.3%

Distill Date: 31st May 1998

Outturn: June 2015

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June 24, 2015

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Scottish Whiskies, Whisky Reviews

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Laphroaig Cairdeas 2015 Feis Ile (200th Anniversary) Review

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How many businesses do you know that are 200 years old and still running? It’s not a long list. Laphroaig celebrates it’s 200th anniversary this year with this special bottling. Survival in the whisky industry requires long term thinking. Distillers must always think about what will be happening 10-15 years down the line when their products hit the market. It looks like Laphraoig has done just that as this year’s special “friendship” bottling contains 11-12 year old whisky that was produce as close to the old Laphroaig way as possible. All the malt came from their own maltings and only the 2 smallest stills were used for distillation. It’s as Laphroaig as Laphroaig can get.

If you’ve ever been to Laphroaig and taken a tour then you’ll know that their malting floor is not that large (by today’s standards) so it stands to reason that they were probably not able to make much of this stuff. This suspicion is somewhat backed by their move to use a ballot system for online sales of their 2015 Cairdeas bottling. At present there seems to be only 2 ways of getting a bottle of this: go to Laphroaig right now or be a “Friend of Laphroaig” and then enter a raffle for the chance to purchase online (click here for more info on that).

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