Category Archives: Reviews

Whisky Review – Wemyss Lord Elcho NAS

Leave a reply

Last night I participated in another Tweet Tasting and if you follow me you know I love those events – sharing drams with people all around the globe is such a great experience, and this was my first venture into Wemyss protfolio so double the fun!

The event was held to celebrate the launch of Wemyss Lord Elcho blend, the new and younger sibling of their existing and popular Lord Elcho 15yo blend.

The blend is is minimum 40% malt (and probably around this mark) and 60% grain. Here’s my tasting notes from last night:

Wemyss Lord Elcho (40%, £24)

Continue reading →

Whisky Review – Glenmorangie Companta

1 Reply

As they say: better late than never – I’ve finally found the time to write my notes on the latest expression in Glenmorangie Private Collection Series – The Glenmorangie Companta.

glenmorangie-private-collection-companta

I won’t bother with all the details on this whisky, suffice to say it’s wine finished whisky and if you want more details, just head on to the excellent post by Billy Abbott on TWE blog here.

A friend of mine, Michael (of Malt and Oak blog) has kindly bestow me a sample from the bottle he purchased and I was very keen to try it and see how it stand up to Finealta (which I own) and to Ealanta, the very successful release from last year. Continue reading →

Whisky Review – Benriach 12 Year Old Arumaticus Fumosus (Peated / Dark Rum Cask)

1 Reply

Seems like lately I’m on a Rum roll and finding different excuses to try and report back to you about Rum or Rum finished whiskies. In another gathering not so long ago we started our drinking with yet another Peated/Rum combo whisky – The BenRiach 12yo Arumaticus Fumosus Peated/Rum. I was curious as I tasted another Rum/Peat whisky few days before that (Chieftain’s Caol Ila), but this one is an official bottling and not from Islay. Let’s dive in:

Benriach 12 Year Old Arumaticus Fumosus / Peated / Dark Rum Cask (46%, buy for £34.95 here)

Continue reading →

Whisky Review – Balvenie 30 Year Old

Leave a reply

I’ve tasted many of the Balvenie core range whiskies: from the 12yo Double Wood to the 21yo PortWood and some indies (spooned Balvenies). I even had a fabulous tour at the distillery (read my recap here). But how about aiming high and try the one high-end OB Balvenie we mortals can have (without going bankrupt)?

No, it’s not the Tun 1041 as I don’t think we can consider the Tun 1041 as core range OB, I’m talking on the Balvenie 30 years old. It’s a cask strength Balvenie, although the ABV may be misleading at 47.3%. The 30 yo Balvenie was matured in a combination of American oak and Oloroso sherry casks.

I’m fortunate having good friends who share the passion and one of the local friends who is a big Balvenie fan, actually went ahead, bought a bottle and invited me over for a dram. I didn’t say no 🙂 (Thanks O. !)

balvenie 30

Continue reading →

Whisky Review – Caol Ila 12

Leave a reply
Distillery_caol-ila

Caol Ila Distillery (from wikimedia commons)

Last week I’ve finished another whisky bottle which accompanied me for a while – a staple one, the Caol Ila 12. It was one of my earliest purchases when I was concentrating mainly on peated Islay whiskies. I looked at my tasting notes and much to my big surprise I found out I never wrote down proper notes on it, so immediately I ‘exerted myself’ and finished the bottle while writing down the tasting notes – all for you, my readers! Continue reading →

Whisky Review – Chieftain’s 1997 Caol Ila 13 year old Jamaican rum cask finish

Leave a reply

I have some affinity to rum as it’s my second favorite spirit so whisky matured or finished in rum is always something I’m happy to drink and enjoy. Few weeks ago I shared some Rum and Rum finished whisky with friends and the line up included this one – a relatively unique combo of peated whisky and rum.

Chieftains 1997 Caol Ila 13 year old Jamaican rum cask finish (43%, 1010 bottles)

Continue reading →

Reviewing AnCnoc peated whiskies – Rutter, Flaughter & Tushkar #LightOnDark

1 Reply

A few weeks ago Knockdhu Distillery released their first ever AnCnoc peated whiskies to the world with three expressions in the series. All named on peat cutting tools – quite a refreshing change from non-whisky names given to most NAS expressions in the last few years.

The whiskies are bottled at 46%, all non chill-filtered and not coloured (should be mandatory for all whiskies if you ask me!). All were composed from casks laid down between 2004 and 2006, so formal whisky age is ~8 years old although it doesn’t appear on the label but kudos for publicly revealing the age -full disclosure is the way to go and what we customers want – give us the information so we can make a rational decision (or not ;)) if to buy it or leave it on the shelf.

ancnoc peated

Continue reading →

Whisky Review – Jura Delme Evans

Leave a reply

This one is part of a samples package used in Jura 50th Anniversary Tweet Tasting from last year. I really wanted to be part of it but failed but luckily my friend Gal (of the Whisky Israel fame) was generous enough to keep me some of his samples leftovers, so thanks a lot Gal!

This is a single cask (ex-sherry) bottled couple of years ago in 2007 to celebrate William Delme Evans, a former distillery manager who designed the new Jura distillery back in 1958.

Jura 1998 – Delme Evans Select (59.98%, 586 bottles, buy for £148 here)

Continue reading →

Whisky Review – Glen Garioch #GGDrambassador Mystery Dram

Leave a reply

A few weeks ago Glen Garioch posted a public broadcast call to whisky bloggers offering them to register for a chance to taste an upcoming  new Glen Garioch whisky. This is quite the reverse of the standard situation where it’s usually us the bloggers who chase the distilleries for samples 🙂

I registered of course and completely forgot about it until a package showed up at my door few days ago:  Continue reading →

Whisky Review – Caskstrength and Carry On 3D Whisky

Leave a reply

It’s been a while, yeah I know. But it was because of Passover, the Jewish holiday that last 7 days and observant Jews are forbidden to consume most grains and derived products – like Whisky. But now it’s behind us and I’ve consumed my share of drams since then so let’s get back to normal regular posting schedule And today – the forth instalment in the A-Z of whisky series by the genius folks of Caskstrength.net – 3D whisky.

Continue reading →