Category Archives: Reviews

Whisky Review – Amrut Portonova (Batch 3)

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A quick review today as I’m quite busy today. After the elections yesterday, it seems that lots of people around here do needs something strong and sweet to cover up their bitterness from the results, so I picked this review from my notes archive: Amrut Portonova Batch 3.

This whisky was matured in new American oak and ex-bourbon barrels, then it was transferred to port pipe barrels and then finally transferred back to ex-bourbon casks.

Amrut Portonova (Batch 3) (62.1%, £68.9/€79.9)

amrut-portonovaNose: Sweet cherries jam from the port pipes, very bitter dark chocolate and a touch of burnt wood note. Also a mix of menthol, eucalyptus and pine to give it some lighter side. Continue reading →

Whisky Review & Tasting Notes: Linkwood 24 Year Old (Whisky Broker)

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After yesterday’s review of the Tobermory, let’s review another bottling from the Whisky Broker, this time a 24 Year old Linkwood.

Linkwood distillery is owned by Diageo and most of what it produces goes into their blends, most notably Johnnie Walker (The JW green contains 15yo Linkwood) & White horse.

This was bottled from Hogshead #3540, distilled 30.04.1990 and bottled 25.11.2014, so without further ado, let’s try it.

Linkwood 24 Year Old (Whisky Broker) (51.7%, 293 bottles)

linkwood 24yo whisky brokerNose: The distillery floral trademark is very evident here along with light honey sweetness, meadow flowers at sundown. baked pie dough. It’s very refined and elegant, it’s fresh yet there’s some wet & earthy side to it. With water the spices go out with green cardamon and pepper. Continue reading →

Whisky Review & Tasting Notes: Tobermory 20 Year Old (Whisky Broker)

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Time to divulge into a distillery I’m not too familiar with: Tobermory Distillery from the Isle of Mull. I’ve recently tasted and reviewed their official 10 Year Old bottling (see here), but there aren’t too many officail bottlings to help exploring the distillery. They provide only 10yo and 15yo so we have to resort to indie single casks releases (Yeah, sad thing, I know… 😉 )

Let’s check a 20 Year old offering from the relatively unknown (yet a favorite of mine) Scottish bottler Whisky Broker.

The whisky comes from Hogshead number 188063, it was distilled 14th June 1994 and bottled 18th November 2014.

Tobermory 20 Year Old (Whisky Broker) (51.1%, 285 bottles, £40.50)

Tobermory 20 Whisky BrokerNose: Starts with perfumed notes, vanilla and peaches. It masquerade as 100% clear and fresh nose but soon it becomes a  bit musty and heavier with lemon curd, cream, cookie dough, a big dash of mint and lemon. Association of baking in the kitchen with open window to the back yard during spring morning. Continue reading →

Whisky Review and Tasting Notes: Lost Spirits Leviathan II

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Craft whisky is one hot buzzword and many small-scale distilleries pop-up around the globe producing said craft whisky.

Today I’ll review an american single malt whiskey from Lost Spriits comapny, the brainchild of Bryan Davis, the second batch of their Leviathan whisky, formally known as Leviathan II.

What we have here is American malted barley, peated with Canadian peat to a 110 ppm, distilled in  a wooden pot still and filled into Semillon (Late harvest Californian wine) casks and bottled at pretty young age.

Wow, that’s a very ambitious and mind boggling whisky, ain’t it? So many unfamiliar variables are involved here.

The peat is from a Canadian evergreen peat bog so not like Islay or Scottish peat at all – no heather, no moss or seaweed. Instead we’ll get conifer and other trees and that will add different and unique flavours to the equation here. 110 ppm is quite high, putting it on a par with the ultra peated Islay whiskies.

The wood still means there’s more wood impact here – not only from the cask but from the distillation process too.

The wine casks adds another layer of flavours, and the casks being made of French oak means there’s additional spiciness.

So many untested-before variables were meshed together here to create this whisky. Hmm, let’s go ahead and try it…

Lost Spirits Leviathan II (53%, €87)

leviathan IINose: Strong vegetal note is welcoming us at first, then there’s sweet peat with very little smoke, seaweed and kelp, salt. There’s also vanilla and sweet white wine from the Semillon casks. A few minutes in the glass  reveals big time peat notes and BBQ grill smell. Continue reading →

Whisky Review – Talisker Skye

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Talisker distillery is restless and so it released another new release – Talisker Skye. It’s the fourth new release in the last two years. Yes, your eyesight is perfect. Read it again, it ain’t no mistake: four new Talisker NAS releases in the last two years.

For a distillery that used to have a very thin yet muscled core line-up, this is quite a big change, doubling their lineup offerings from four whiskies to eight. So what’s the reasoning of releasing yet another (NAS) whisky (beyond the growing demand for single malts)?

This time it looks like they are trying to target a new audience and broaden their customer base with an offer of a softer whisky while retaining the Talisker identity. Lets check if it does work that way:

Talisker Skye (45.8%, £38.95/€31.95)

talisker skyeNose: Initial notes of peat and pepper, then comes the other half of the equation with vanilla, sweet honey, pears and peaches. After a few minutes, the peat note now seriously lag behinds, the pepper is dimnished and it’s more gentle, round and sweeter. With even more time there’s almost no peat and pepper and it’s mostly sweet and vanilla. Continue reading →

Whisky Review – Glendronach 12 Year Old Sauternes Finish

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Just mention Glendronach Distillery to any whisky aficionado and there are good chances the words ‘Sherry Casks’ will popup in the discussion quicker than you can say Jack Robinson. After all, Glendronach are recognized for the fabulous work they do with Oloroso and PX sherry casks, either with the OB bottlings or with the single casks batches.

But it’s not a catholic marriage as Glendronach do Squint sideways and ‘sin’ with different cask types and finishes. There are port finishes (like the 15/18yo I reviewed here) and wine finishes. Lately Glendronach releases a few new interesting non-sherry finishes: Sauternes and Marsala wine finishes and today we’ll review the Sauternes release.

It’s a 12 year old expression which replaces the 14 yo Sauternes finish expression from four years ago (which has now been discontinued). Did you notice the reduced age? The same happened now with Benriach Sauternes (reduced from 16 to 15) as the demand for whisky far outstrip the available warehouse-matured casks. Anyway, this whisky is initially matured in European oak and then finished in a small batch of Sauternes wine casks. Not all Sauternes finishes are good as it does lend some strong influence of sweet and wine tannins. Let’s check how well does it work here.

Glendronach 12 Year Old Sauternes Finish (46%, £39/€46.5)

glendronach 12yo sauternes finishNose: Starts with sweet white wine including some tannins, very fresh. Then some scented fruits and gentle sweet notes of pears and green unripe apples (it bite a bit with acidity). Also showing: green cardamom. Overall it’s a very gentle and delicate nose, sweet and rounded. Continue reading →

Whisky Review – Tomatin Cù Bòcan Virgin Oak Edition

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After reviewing yesterday the new Tomatin Cask Strength, let’s review Tomains’ second new release – The Cù Bòcan Virgin Oak. It’s the second release in the trilogy showcasing the influence of each cask type which makes up Cù Bòcan: Sherry, Virgin Oak and Bourbon. I reviewed the Sherry in the past and now it’s time to try the virgin oak edition.

Like the sherry edition, there are only 6000 bottles available and it was fully matured in First Fill Virgin Oak casks which should lend us lots of sweetness, vanilla and coconut. How well will it work with the peat?

Tomatin Cù Bòcan Virgin Oak Edition (46%, £49.95/€61.95)

Cù-Bòcan-Virgin-OakNose: A very fresh and interesting nose, It starts with a moderate-to-weak peat wave but soon its taking backseat to sweet pears and apricots, vanilla, massive sweetness, almost too much but still fresh and a bit zesty. Continue reading →

Whisky Review – Tomatin Cask Strength

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It’s been a while since I posted some notes as I was immersed in a blind tasting competition where I finished at top half but not too close to the top. I’ll have some post with my thoughts on the competition but I need some more time to get them into coherent and logical post so in the meanwhile let’s review some new additions on the whisky shelves, starting with the new Tomatin Cask Strength expression.

Till now all OB from Tomatin were bottled in 46% and lower so this is a new and great refreshment to the lineup. The whisky was matured in a combination of Bourbon barrels and Oloroso Sherry casks, 15,000 bottled were produced and it was bottled at cask strength of 57.5%.

Tomatin Cask Strength (57.5%, £48.95/€51.75)

Cask StrengthNose: starts with malt and sweet honey. Then a big sweet and light stewed fruits glazed with golden syrup and cinnamon sprinkles. The youth and malt notes still pop up over again like bubbles. A few minutes in the glass reveals drops of tropical juice and the nutmeg kinda replaces the cinnamon one. There’s no stronger sherry influence where the sweet sugar gets darker and brown, raisins and dark sweet wine. With a few drops of water it’s lighter and fruitier but retain the overall impression. Continue reading →

Whisky Review and Tasting Notes: Glen Elgin 12 Year Old

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The local blind tasting competition continue and I had another good revelation with last night dram: Glen Elgin 12 year old.

Last night was not my first encounter with this whisky as I tasted it last summer, but the previous encounter wasn’t in a proper tasting environment, small dose in a small plastic cup so didn’t write myself notes and all I remembered was its fruitiness. That truly made it hard to make the connection to last night dram as the saltiness here was a key factor.

Glen Elgin 12 Year Old (43%, £31.95/€32.99)

glen-elgin-12-year-old-whiskyNose: Those are ex-bourbon casks for sure with vanilla and heather honey. At first there was even a big floral note bordering perfume. Some concentrated fruits (mainly apricots), lots of saltiness. heavy yet fresh. Continue reading →

Whisky Review – Tobermory 10 Year Old (46.3%)

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I’m taking part in (yet another) blind tasting competition. This time it’s an event organized for the local wine & alcohol forum. The first entry was Tomatin 14 which I reviewed in the past and failed to recognized it. The 2nd one was Tobermory 10 (the newer version with the higher ABV). I failed to recognized it but did get some points for guessing the age correctly 🙂

Tobermory 10 Year Old (46.3%, £29.45)

tobermory 10 new 46.3Nose: Heavy notes of malt, ‘dirty’ hay, honey and vanilla. This one is surely young as there are whiffs of new make notes and lots of malt. Given some time there’s a bit of milk chocolate, , sour berries with sugary sweetness which then develop and almost overtake the malt/honey/hay combo with strong strawberries note.
Continue reading →