Barbados Rum Foursquare 2007

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It’s time for the first (but not the last!) review of an official bottling from Foursquare, the Rum distillery in Barbados. Let’s start with the latest vintage release ,Foursquare 2007 which follows the 2005 vintage from last year (and the 2004 vintage the year before).

It’s a 12 Year Old rum from ex-bourbon casks, all matured in Barbados so the aging is intense and the Angel’s share is on a different (and higher) scale than the Scottish whisky figures…

Foursquare 2007 12 Year Old (59%, £55.95/€59,97/$74.95)

Nose: Bright and fruity, almost perfume-y, banana, fermented fruits, esters, Demerara sugar, pineapple and mango, sweet wood spices. After a few minutes it’s turning perfume-y  with caramelized pears, peaches and some very ripe apricots. Continue reading →

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Glenfarclas 1989 29 Year Old (Edition No.23 Jakob I.)

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Today’s subject is a shiny Glenfarclas which just happens to be the latest link in a series that honors Scottish figures that started back in 1996.

The 23rd edition in the series honours the Scottish king Jakob I. (19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625):

Charles James was the son of Maria Stuart and her second husband’s Lord Darnley. When his mother had to resign one year after his birth, he was appointed Scottish king under the name Jakob/James VI. on 24 July 1567. But after Elisabeth I. died without children in 1603, he also received the crown of England and Ireland on 24 March 1603 and was known since then as James I.

This edition is a 29 Year Old Glenfarclas distilled back in 1989 andit was bottled at 46%.

Glenfarclas 1989 29 Year Old (Edition No.23 Jakob I.) (46%, €168,90)

Nose: Dried fruit, mostly sweet with a bit sour fruits thrown in, quite fresh and light, bright cherries, strawberry, low-key oak spice after all that time, cinnamon, more sour fruitiness (with tropic bearing), a very pleasant nose. Continue reading →

Longrow 14 Year Old Sherry Cask

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Longrow 14 Year Old Sherry Cask Matured was one of the 2018 limited editions from Springbank (along with the Hazelburn Oloroso) and it was released exactly 12 months ago in August 2018.

Interesting enough, even a year later it’s still widely available (unlike most Springbank limited editions), so we need to review it and understand why…

This Longrow was distilled November 2003 and Bottled in July 2018, the refill oloroso casks yielded 9000 bottles at 57.8%

Longrow 14 Year Old Sherry Cask 57.8% (€97/$109.99)

Nose: Dirty, gun powder and mild sulphur. Then dried raspberries, strong espresso, fresh sour berries with lingonberries and cranberries, cocoa and sour plums. Continue reading →

Dramfool Elderly Elvis Tilting (Glenlivet) 25 Year Old

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After checking out the mildly disappointing Glenlivet Cpatain’s Reserve let’s have another Glenlivet to balance the scales. In the last year we’ve seen a few interesting releases coming from an unnamed Speyside distilleries, and some are rumored to be from Glenlivet. They have similar age and strength so maybe they are coming from the same casks parcel?

One of those releases is the Dramfool special bottling for Spirit of Speyside 2019, named Elderly Elvis Tilting

Bruce, the man behind Dramfool love words game and anagrams. We reviewed a Lagavulin called Like a Villian and there was another Glenlivet called Give n Tell. Anyway, given those facts you can easily find out that the bottling name is an anagram for Glenlivet Distillery.

So we have a 25 year old Glenlivet from ex-bourbon barrel. Only 109 bottles at 51.2% were released, non-chill filtered and no caramel was added.

Dramfool Elderly Elvis Tilting (Glenlivet) 25 Year Old (51.2%, £135)

Nose: Clean and richly sweet, green apples and pears, sweet barley, pink grapefruit, melon, pear drops and red apple peels. After a few minutes more tropical fruit and extra grapefruit juice. Continue reading →

The Glenlivet Captain’s Reserve

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The review today checks out the latest Glenlivet core line addition (from August 2018) – The Glenlivet Captain’s Reserve. The name comes from Captain William Smith Grant who was the great grandson of Glenlivet’s founder George Smith.

It’s a NAS offering (at 40% and probably chill filtered), matured in ex-bourbon barrel and sherry butts and then finished for a short time (6 months) in Cognac casks. Cognac cask finish isn’t too common in the industry, especially for mainstream core line release, so I’m quite intriguing to try it.

The Glenlivet Captain’s Reserve (40%, £46.95/€35,50)

Nose: Weak and thin, showing some youth as well, sweet green grapes, golden apples, oak sweetness, cereals porridge, cream. After a few minutes anise and concentrated oranges juice from can. Continue reading →

Compass Box The Circle Release No. 1

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Compass Box are really geared up in 2019 as I counted 6 new global releases so far in 2019 and a few more are coming later year. We’ve managed to review most of them here and here’s the review on their latest release to date: The Circle No. 1.

The Circle is the result of a competition ran by Compass Box back in 2018 for bartenders and Rosey Mitchell, the winner of the competition was prized creating a blend along with John Glazer and Jill Boyd.

Rosey wanted to make an approachable whisky to be shared with friends, something for the daytime, a whisky with brightness. She called it “sunshine in a glass.”

And the way to ‘sunshine in a glass’ went through this recipe:

We usually don’t get to see a whisky so dominated by ex-bourbon Tamdhu so I was very keen to try this and see how this combo works out.

6,151 bottles were produced (at 46%) and as usual, no colorant or chill filtering we used.

Compass Box The Circle Release No. 1 (46%, £112/€123.95)

Nose: Toffee and honey, followed by sweet dried fruit and candle wax. Then subtle wood spice and peat smoke drifts in, cake dough, soursweet raspberry jam. After a few minutes more honey, white pepper and delicate greenery with dried peaches and pears. Then it gets herbal honey, cinnamon and ever so gentle waxy texture. Continue reading →

Diamond Rum 1998 20 Year Old Armagnac Cask Finish (The Duchess)

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Another lazy weekend, and it’s time for yet another Rum review – Yes, yet another Rum review from The Duchess, this time Guyana rum from Diamond distillery.

It was distilled in their Wooden Coffey still (so basically it’s Enmore). It’s a 20 year Old that spent the last 8 years in ex-Armagnac cask that yielded 243 bottles at natural cask strength of 50.8% (and of course, no additional coloring or chill filtering)

Diamond Rum 1998 20 Year Old Armagnac Cask Finish (50.8%, €95,00/£88.50)

Nose: At first it’s very wine-y and very Armagnac/Cognac like with the smooth wood spice and grapes. Then sugar, orange and delicate citrus, white pepper and oak spice that lurks in the background. Slowly it’s more rum-y, fermented banana, some light funk and esters, followed by a delicate balance of white flowers and sweet grapes with rum. A very light and restrained rum nose (relatively to other rums tasted lately). Continue reading →