Category Archives: Whisky Reviews

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October 27, 2015

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Scottish Whiskies, Whisky Reviews

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SMWS 29.169 (Laphroaig) Beach bonfires, creels and boats

SMWS_29.169_Laphroaig

How coincidental that SMWS releases a 20 year old Laphroaig from a bourbon barrel just a few months after Laphroaig released their 21 year old FOL. Hmmm. Good timing. Before I delve deeper into this I want to point out that from the SMWS website and emails and tweets, this specific bottling was advertised as being from a first fill bourbon barrel. Which is also strikingly similar to the profile of the Laphroaig 21. However, this was an error. The 29.169 is from a refill ex-bourbon barrel which can be easily verified by looking at the label.

Anyway, regardless of the similarities to the 21, this particular bottling has got enough going for it to be exciting for all of us. Independently bottled Laphroaig’s are not super common, it’s even less common to find one 20 years old or above and at cask strength and for less than 100 quid. So yeah with these powers combined this is one cool cat.

Bottler: SMWS

Distillery: Laphroaig

Age: 20 years old

Cask: Refill Ex-bourbon

Number of Bottles: 205

ABV: 56.5%

Date Distilled: 4th Apr 1995

Outturn: October 2015

Price: £84.50

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October 19, 2015

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Scottish Whiskies, Whisky Reviews

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Aberfeldy 21 Year Old

aberfeldy-21-year-old-whiskyNumero uno. The first whisky in the original “101 Whiskies to Try Before You Die” book is the Aberfeldy 21. Albeit it’s first because the whiskies are alphabetically ordered but none the less it makes quite an impression. Ian Buxton wrote a good review extolling it’s virtues so I won’t do too much with this intro. You should check out the book. It’s a fun read if you like whiskies.

Distillery: Aberfeldy Distillery

Age: 21 Years Old

ABV: 40%

Price: £116.76

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October 7, 2015

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Aberfeldy 12 Year Old

aberfeldy-12-year-old-whiskyAberfeldy Distillery was built in 1986 by John Dewar & Sons to supplement their booming blended whisky business. If you visit the distillery (between Perth and Pitlochry) you’ll learn all about the Dewar’s and how they built their whisky empire. These days, Dewars is owned by Bacardi, a powerful rum family. Makes you think of the Godfather. Anyway, along with Aberfeldy, Dewars/Bacardi own Aultmore, Craigellachie, MacDuff, and Royal Brackla. Prior to this year only Aberfeldy and MacDuff were regularly bottled as official single malts. MacDuff is marketed as Glen Deveron. But I guess because of the whisky boom, they have now released the 3 other single malts. The pricing on those however is somewhat astonishing (expensive that is). It’s all in the fashion of this modern gold rush of single malt madness. Well Aberfeldy has the most single malt experience in the lineup and the prices seem to be staying reasonably sane. So let’s see how it fares.

Distillery: Aberfeldy Distillery

Age: 12 Years Old

ABV: 40%

Price: ~£30 (£29.89 from Master of Malt)

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September 18, 2015

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SMWS 26.114 Clynelish (Grandma’s summer jam recipe)

SMWS_26.114_ClynelishOh Clynelish! Ever since trying the Distillery Only Clynelish bottling, I’m always on the lookout for new Clynelish! Luckily SMWS have been pumping out quite a few recently. This particular bottling was spruced up and presented with the release of their whisky ice creams. That’s right! SMWS made ice cream using single cask whiskies. They were as delicious as they sound. They also promoted this bottling quite a bit at this years Whisky Solstice. As a result, the bottles sold out quickly. But lucky for us and strangely enough they seemed to have found more bottles of this. So as of today they are selling this again on their website. Not sure how long they will last. I’ve been watching the page and the bottles remaining count seems to be dropping fairly quickly. Well anyway, it just so happens that we got a sample of this and it seemed like a good day to review it.

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September 16, 2015

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Scottish Whiskies, Whisky Reviews

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Royal Lochnagar 12 Year Old

Royal_Lochnagar_12Royal Lochnagar is one of three distilleries allowed to use “Royal” in their name. The other two are Glenury Royal (closed) and Royal Brackla. The story goes that Queen Victoria visited Balmoral castle and the neighboring Lochnagar distillery in 1848. She was so impressed with the “new” distillery built in (1845) that she granted it a royal warrant, hence the Royal in Royal Lochnagar. See Malt Madness for more info.

Royal Lochnagar is one of the “Classic Malts” of Diageo and you can take a tour there for free if you sign up to their “Friends of the Classic Malts” scheme. There aren’t too many (currently available) official expressions from Royal Lochnagar, but there are a few independent bottlings kicking around.

Distillery: Royal Lochnagar

Age: 12 years old

ABV: 43%

Price: ~£35 (£34.07 from Master of Malt)

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September 15, 2015

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Longrow Red Shiraz Cask (2nd Edition) 11 Year Old

Longrow_Red_ShirazBefore the Longrow Red Pinot Noir and before the much loved Longrow Red Port, came the Longrow Red Shiraz. It is however not the first in the Longrow line up, that would be the Longrow Red Cabernet Sauvignon. For a full list of the Longrow Red series see our Longrow Red Pinot Noir post.

In case you are unfamiliar with the Longrow Red series or with Longrow in general, Longrow is a range of expressions that is distilled at the Springbank distillery. However, unlike the usual Springbank spirit, Longrow is heavily peated and distilled twice (“Springbank spirit” is distilled 2.5 times). The Longrow Red series contains expressions that were matured partially or fully in red wine casks. Hence the “Red” in Longrow Red.

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September 11, 2015

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Glenlivet XXV 25 Year Old

Glenlivet_25With that uber fancy packing and the Glenlivet name, you can bet that this expression is going to cost you. I first tried this expression at the Whisky Stramash 2014 in Edinburgh. I have to admit that I tried it out of pure curiosity and with a bit of skepticism but I was pleasantly surprised along with my friend from the Whiskyphiles. I managed to acquire some more samples so that AliceInWhiskyland and I could have a proper review.

Distillery: Glenlivet

Age: 25

Cask: Olorosso Sherry Finish

ABV: 43%

Price: £198.49 from Master of Malt

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September 10, 2015

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Japanese Whiskies, Whisky Reviews

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Taketsuru 17 Years Old Pure Malt

Taketsuru_17This particular expression (and line of expressions) is named after Masataka Taketsuru who is widely regarded as the father of Japanese whisky. He also happens to be the founder of Nikka and he built both the Yoichi and Miyagikyo distilleries from which this spirit is derived. The Taketsuru line up includes the new NAS, 12, 17, and 21 years old. There are rumours that the Taketsuru 12 will be discontinued which would be shame. If you’ll notice in the picture at the top, the packaging consists of a lovely origami inspired card paper box. On the right side is a portrait and small description of Masataka Taketsuru and on the left side is a portrait and small description of Rita Taketsuru (Jessie Roberta Cowan). I really like these design touches and I wish all whisky packaging could be so well thought out. Unfortunately the US versions do not come with the box.

Anyway, onto the reviews!

Type: Blended Malt

Distilleries: Yoichi and Miyagikyo

Age: 17 Years Old

ABV: 43%

Price: ~£95 (£94.95 from Master of Malt)

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September 7, 2015

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Aberlour 16 Year Old (Double Cask Matured)

Aberlour_16We tried the Aberlour 16 at the distillery. You can see a bit of the tasting room in the photo at the top. Pretty classy eh? According to the website the 16 was matured in first fill ex-bourbon casks and sherry butts. I am not sure about the wording though so I do not know if they used first fill sherry as well. I am guessing no. Correct me if I’m wrong! It seems to have collected quite a few awards:

2012 WWA (Best Speyside 12 to 20 years)

2012 IWSC Gold (Scotch whisky)

2013 IWSC Silver Outstanding (Scotch Single Malt – Speyside)

2013 SFWSC Gold (Single Malt Scotch – 13 to 19 Yrs)

2014 IWSC Silver Outstanding (Scotch Single Malt – Speyside).

Well let’s see how we like it…

Distillery: Aberlour

Age: 16 Years Old

ABV: 40%

Cask Type: First Fill Ex-Bourbon and Sherry (Not sure if this is first fill sherry as well)

Price:  ~£45 (£43.90 from Master of Malt)

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August 31, 2015

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Glenfarclas £511.19s.0d Family Reserve

Glenfarclas_511At first glance, you might think it’s a bit weird to put the price of the whisky right on the front label. Then you might think that this is pretty expensive for an NAS whisky. Well fear not, that’s not the price of the bottle on the label. That’s the price of the distillery.

Perhaps some explanation is in order. Glanfarclas distillery was licensed in 1836 by Robert Hay. For reasons unknown (but speculated to be due to health issues) Robert sold the distillery to John Grant in 1865 for £511.19s.0d. 1865 happens to be 150 years ago. So this expression was released to commemorate the 150th year of Grant ownership of the Glenfarclas distillery. Hence the name. As you may know Glenfarclas is one of the last remaining family owned distilleries. The Grant’s are still in posession of this fine establishment and they seemed to have a liking for the names John and George. The succession of owners goes something like this: John, George/John, George, George, and John.

Distillery: Glenfarclas Distillery

Cask Type: Mostly first fill sherry butts

Age: NAS

ABV: 43%

Price:  ~£90  (£82.79 from the Master of Malt)

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