Category Archives: Reviews

Whisky Review – Ardbeg 10 Year Old 1996 Old Malt Cask #3058

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I visited a good friend a while ago and while we chatted on whisky (as expected), we also had a couple of drams from his rich ‘library’. Since we were on a peat strike he pulled out this whisky bottle – a bit older Ardbeg indie bottling. This one was distilled before Ardbeg went through the last owner change and overhaul so it’s interesting to see what is the whisky character of this one comparing to older Ardbegs I tasted in the past.

Ardbeg 10 Year Old 1996 Old Malt Cask #3058 (50%)

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Whisky Review – Bunnahabhain Darach Ur Batch 9

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Another whisky I tasted last month during a local whisky tasting charity event was the Bunnahabhain Darach Ur. I love the Bunnahabhain 12 (which I tasted blind. review is here), and I need to open and taste some of their older stuff I have here. But it was a nice surprise to encounter and taste their NAS offering.

Darach Ur was launched for travel retail and the name “Darach Ur” is Gaelic for “New Oak” – a reference to the fact that this whisky is matured exclusively in new American oak casks. Darach Ur is a very successful expression and reached Batch #10 already despite being available only at airports and other travel retail shops. Continue reading →

Whisky Review – Dalmore 1981 Amoroso Finish

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During Whisky Live Tel-Aviv 2014 I tasted many whiskies at the VIP lounge, stands and then there are some under the counter drams – just like this one: Dalmore 1981.

With only 484 bottles, finished in Amoroso sherry casks, it’s one of the high-end Dalmore bottlings available (Constellation and Patterson series notwithstanding), I was very eager to try this as I tasted only their core range whiskies so far.

dalmore 1981 2 Continue reading →

Whisky Review – Black Bottle

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Whisky blends are somewhere between 92% to 96% (depends on your source) of the entire whisky market which is quite mind boggling – our love is to an almost aforementioned segment (quantity and economically wise) and most of it is taken up from brands like Ballantines, Bells and many others (cheaper and pricier).

So following my review of Ballantines Finest last Friday – how about we try some other blended whisky? It appears to me that Black Bottle is positioned as higher level blend than the It’s definitely produced in a lower quantity and the black color of the bottle does looks nicer. Let’s check how it tastes, shall we? Continue reading →

Whisky Review – Ballantines Finest

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A quick question for you, my loyal readers: Have you drink (for pleasure, not for blogging purpose) a simple whisky blend (supermarket blend) during the last week? two weeks? last month?

I expect that almost no hands were raised in affirmative answer to this question, but it’s not really surprising as we prefer to drink good blends and single malts and not the drink the standard (and usually cheap) supermarket blends.

But there is a good chance you’ve started your whisky journey with one (or more) of those cheap blends or at least had some of it early on your journey – I had such whiskies on my journey and Ballantines Finest was one I remember myself drinking a couple of times before I switched over to the right side 🙂

Recently I was in an event where Ballantines Finest was one of the whiskies to drink and I thought to myself – “Hey, I know this is a crazy idea but how about I taste it again, properly this time, with the experience I gained over the last few years?”

Well, I was weak and did fall for this thought. Wanna read what I thought of it? Continue reading →

Whisky Review – Glenmorangie 10 Year Old Original

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I’ve started single malt whiskies with a bang – going directly with peated Laphroaig Quarter Cask but immediately I wanted to have something from the other side of the scale to balance it out. As it happened, my sister in law traveled abroad and I quickly looked at our Duty Free shop selection and asked her to bring me a bottle of Glenmorangie 10.

So this one was my first Glenmorangie bottle and it served me faithfully until it was finished couple of weeks ago. Good thing I remembered to write down some tasting notes with the last dram 🙂 Continue reading →

Whisky Review – Suntory Hakushu 12

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During my brief dry period last month I did have some drams to celebrate Purim, a Jewish holiday which one is obliged to get drunk. Yeah, Judaism has some good holidays in it!

I’ve started the holiday by joining a charity whisky evening where some people donated whisky bottles and all proceeds from tickets were for charity.

In this event I’ve managed to write notes for only 2 bottles – well, I was getting a bit drunk after all… and this is the first one of them – Suntory Hakushu 12 yrs.

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Whisky Review – Glenrothes Robur Reserve

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Yeah, I know, I’ve been a bad boy – you probably noticed that the blog was a bit quiet in the last few weeks without new tasting notes and reviews. Well, in my defense I can tell you that after Whisky Live and Purim holiday, I needed to take some time off for detox and rekindle the passion.

But lets get out of this dry spell – let’s talk about Glenrothes Robur Reserve. This is one of the drams I tasted in our last local speyside tasting event couple of months ago. I did taste its younger sibling (the Select Reserve) before and it didn’t impress me at all. But this one is a higher level whisky and it contains a higher proportion of first fill European sherry casks.

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Whisky Live Tel-Aviv 2014 Review

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Whisky Live London 2014 is almost upon us (this coming weekend!) and it’s a good opportunity to bring you a reflective summary of our own first local Whisky Live event held in Tel-Aviv almost two weeks ago. Instead of writing my own summary, I’ve invited my friend Shai to present his own view of the event.

Shai is a photography enthusiast, very passionate about it and can totally appreciate a good composition. Fascinated by whiskies (mostly malts), wines (adores the Israeli boutique wineries market) and cigars (still has a lot to learn). See his photos on Flicker here.

Whisky Live Tel-Aviv 2014, a Visit Summary by Shai Gilboa

Entrance to Whisky Live Tel Aviv

Entrance to Whisky Live Tel Aviv

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Whisky Review – Glenfarclas Vertical Part 2: 105, 21yo & 25yo

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This is the 2nd part of my small Glenfarclas vertical tasting. (Part one is here).

glenfarclas-glass

From the lower-end of the official bottling we liked the 15 yo the best although the 12 yo has nothing to be ashamed of.

But what about the 105 bottling – only 10 year old but also cask strength? And the older siblings?

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