Phew, What a long hiatus. The holidays really drained me and I was way too lazy to do anything but celebrate them, and then had a busy week of finalizing my upcoming Scotland trip.
But now I’m back – with reviews of four new Bruichladdich expressions which were part of last week #LaddieTT2 tweet tasting.
Today we’ll review the first 2 drams (and non-peated) from this event – Bruichladdich Scottish Barley & Bruichladdich Islay Barley 2007
We’re half way through the jewish holidays and it’s time to start working on that samples pile in the cupboard. Today I’m continuing with other samples Shai sent me (Did you see the review on the amazing Caol Ila he sent me?)
This time – a sample from a obscure distillery, unknown to me (and probably to most of you as well) – Glentauchers.
Back to the dusty archives today! This one was my 2nd place (but almost No 1) at the Dramming Freestyle Blind Tasting contest (and the contest winner)
This was the only Scottish whisky in the contest but the devilish Oliver has chosen one with an unusual cask finish.
I guessed its origin from Scotland, 20 years old and with ABV of 55. Not too bad a guess, ah? But how Scottish is this one?
One of the popular posts so far on this blog is the one on Mars Maltage Komagatake 10. A while ago, Dave (of The Whisky Dramalista) who is a whisky friend of mine saw it and mentioned he has the Komagatake 22 yo, so of course I wanted to taste it and compare it head to head with the 10 yo I own, so a samples swap was executed. Thanks Dave!
Unlike the 10 yo which is an integral part of the distillery core offering, the Mars Komagatake 22yo is limited edition of 1359 bottles from a vatting of two American White Oak casks (#1042 and #1039), an ex-sherry cask (#384) and a refill (ex-Scotch) cask (#481).
So how is the 22 yo compares to the 10 yo? Continue reading
It’s holidays time! well, I know that Thanksgiving is almost 3 months from now and Christmas is 4 months far away but hey, we’re having the Jewish holidays now! starting tonight, for 3 weeks, Jews all over the world celebrates the new Jewish yeah and you know that holidays means lots of big meals, wine and some whisky.
Tomatin has announced today on a twitter tasting the release of Tomatin Cù Bòcan – a lightly peated single malt matured in a compelling combination of Virgin Oak, Bourbon and Sherry casks.
This is the first peated expression ever from Tomatin. The peat rate is 15PPM and the peated malt is just under 8 yo and will get older with future batches.
Oh the things we’ll do for whisky bottles… I actually sent a good whisky friend on a crusade to get me this bottle and also “forced” my brother in law to pick it up while he visited in South Africa last month.
Whiskybase.com is a very popular and known community site on the internet where one can spend hours managing his/her collection, see tasting notes, write own notes, rank whiskies and chat with others. But whiskybase.com are also an independent bottlers – their own Archives label had released many great whiskies in the past and very recently started a new series – The Fishes of Samoa. Initially they released 3 bottles and this UD 1995 Speyside is one of them. Continue reading
Marketing is serious big deal for every product and hard to master skill, right? When we look at the single malt whisky market and marketing we can notice that most distilleries core range malts stick to age, barrel types and usages and other whisky attributes to brand, label, tag and market their whiskies.
However, sometimes when you need to market unique and special products to specific crowded and competitive market (and audience), the question that probably rises in those marketing teams – how do we make it stand out so people will buy our products and not the others (or both, but make sure ours are in your basket…).
Blind drams – love ’em and hate ’em. Each blind dram is a way to redeem your self-esteem and showcase you knowledge as whisky blogger, but it’s also a way to really embarrass yourself with way off the mark guesses (which is more often then not) and tarnish your reputation…
I’ve got this generous sample from another Israeli whisky geek (Thanks A.!) and like a fool I manage to stop him from telling me what this one is before he spilled the beans. Seriously, I should declare temporary insanity…
Whisky Gospel 