Category Archives: Reviews

Lagavulin 19 Year Old Feis Ile 2019

1 Reply

Another week another Feis Ile 2019 bottling review. This time it’s the official Lagavulin Feis Ile 2019 bottling – a 19 Year Old whisky that was matured in three types of casks: refill American oak cask, second Sherry treated American oak cask and a European oak puncheon.

6,000 bottles were produced for the festival, each one going for £150, a modest price increase over the 2018 edition that went for £130 (£20 and 15% for one more year).

Lagavulin 19 Year Old Feis Ile 2019 (53.8%, £150)

Photo Credit: whiskybase.com

Nose: Very Lagavulin-y, dried fruit, damp and mossy peat, smoke, soot and some tar, sea breeze, gentle fruitiness of the greenish kind and balanced sherry influence, sweet strawberry and raspberry, gentle smoke throughout. After a few minutes it’s getting lovely soft dark chocolate, cocoa and espresso, leather and tobacco leaves while still retaining some green and fresh support. Continue reading →

Dramfool Port Charlotte 14 Year Old Feis Ile 2019

Leave a reply

Is it time to review some Feis Ile 2019 whiskies? Sure it is, there’s no official season to review specific whiskies…

Let’s start with an indie bottling for Feis Ile 2019 done by Dramfool and it’s a 14 Year Old Port Charlotte in first fill Sherry hogshead which was personally selected for Ian Gray (the Scottish artist) by Jim McEwan (back when Jim was still at Bruichladdich).

299 bottles at 53.4% were produced from this cask

Dramfool Port Charlotte 14 Year Old Feis Ile 2019 (53.4%, £135)

Nose: Sweet and leathery, dried sour and sweet berries and plums (mirabelles and purple), cigar leaves, cherries filled chocolate, earthy peat, smoke. Wt dark chocolate, old library shelves, old leather and aged cigar. Continue reading →

Balvenie “The Sweet Toast of American Oak” 12 Year Old Review

1 Reply

Last month Balvenie Distillery launched a new whisky range – the Balvenie Stories series. Initially there are three releases with the entry level and the introduction to the range is the 12 Year Old The Sweet Toast of American Oak.

The whisky was aged in the customary ex-bourbon casks and then finished in heavily toasted (at the distillery’s cooperagev of course) virgin oak barrels from Kentucky.

It’s quite interesting and refreshing to see a new permanent 12 Year Old whisky from Balvenie which isn’t the Double Wood (No, those single barrels doesn’t count!).

Balvenie 12 Year Old – The Sweet Toast of American Oak (43%, £43.95/€47,95)

Nose: Soft and creamy, full of coconut, vanilla, and walnuts. Laid back heather honey. After a few minutes it develops some greenish pineapple and eventually more tropical fruit sweetness. Continue reading →

Glenmorangie 19 Year Old Finest Reserve

Leave a reply

The Travel Retail market is flooded with many NAS whiskies from different distilleries and Glenmorangie isn’t the exception. We’ve seen Tarlogan, Tayne, Cadboll and other releases to this market but in late 2017 we’ve seen an exception – Glenmorangie 19 Year Old Finest Reserve.

Initially the 19 Year Old was a Travel Retail exclusive but recently you can find it in many web shops, so it’s about time I’ll check it out.

This whisky spent its entire life (19 Years) in American white oak barrels, so you could say it’s the Original 10 Year Old casks forgotten for another 9 years before bottled.

Glenmorangie 19 Year Old Finest Reserve (43%, £99.99/€94.99)

Nose: Soft , vert soft and very Glenmorangie with honey and nuttiness as they usually go with. Fruity, with green fruits (almost tropical) such as kiwi and papaya leads the way along with peaches. Soft oak spice, more nuttiness and then white pepper. After a few minutes, more spices and honey. Continue reading →

Octomore 8.4 Masterclass Review

Leave a reply

It’s a very slow Sunday here so I think it’s a good time to review a punchy whisky to wake up the spirit and eventually I settled on some heavily peated whisky. Yes you guessed right – an Octomore. I have a few of those ready to be published so let’s review Octomore 8.4 today. I know it’s not a recent release (we already have the 9.x series out there for a while and the 10.x series coming soon) but since it’s still available out there for purchase, why not?

It’s the x.4 designation and it means that Otomore 8.4 is matured in virgin oak casks. But it’s not so simple or straight forward. Pay attention: 20% were matured in virgin oak casks and 80% were matured in first-fill ex-bourbon casks and then finished in second-fill virgin oak but those second-fill casks are in fact the Octomore 7.4 virgin oak casks! So even if it’s 8 years old, it should retain some of the Phenols as the barley was peated to 170ppm and we don’t have 100% turbo charged casks to suck all the Phenols.

Octomore 8.4 (Masterclass) (58.7%, £150/€148)

Nose: Vanilla and lemon, very sweet. Coconut and sweet oak extracts, sweet peat, even a bit aggressive peat. seaside air and saltiness. After a few minutes there’s also sweet smoke, brine, vinegar and spiciness led by cloves and cinnamon. Continue reading →

Mortlach 16 Year Old (Distiller’s Dram) Review

Leave a reply

After reviewing last week the new entry level Mortlach 12 Year Old, it’s time to tackle the next step on the Mortlach ladder – the new Mortlach 16 Year Old.

The new Mortlach 16 Year Old is the litmus test of the new line up as Inevitably it’s compared to the classic Flora & Fauna Mortlach 16 Year Old which was a loved whisky (even I liked it) and then became a cult and sought after bottle when it was dropped from production in favor of the older (and failed) line up.

Unlike the 12 Year Old which is from ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks, the 16 Year Old is from first-fill and refill sherry casks – far more promising combo when looking for the old glory of Mortlach.

Mortlach 16 Year Old (Distiller’s Dram) (43.4%, £81.75/€67.95)

Nose: The exclusive sherry casks usage is very noticeable here with depth and complexity of sweet dried fruit, red apples peels, baked cinnamon, milk chocolate followed by dark bitter chocolate. After a few minutes in the glass it’s getting nutty and more ‘Mortlach-y’. Meaty, extra depth and darker and sweeter shades of berries, chocolate and meat. Continue reading →

Mortlach 12 Year Old (The Wee Witchie) Review

1 Reply

Many words were written and many pixels were darkened discussing and dissecting Diageo change of heart with Mortlach and rebooting the entire line up after the move towards premiumization of the distillery failed.

The new line up is back to basics with 700 ml bottles, age statements and using more sherry casks to restore some of the glory Mortlach achieved with their meaty and sherry whiskies.

The entry level in this new line up is the 12 Year Old which employ both ex-bourbon casks and ex-sherry casks. It’s named ‘The Wee Witchie‘ after the smallest Mortlach pot still (must be because it’s the youngest offering in the new line up).

Mortlach 12 Year Old (The Wee Witchie) (43.4%, £50.75/€46.95)

Nose: Bright, fresh and sweet with vanilla and sweet berries, strawberry, raspberry and gooseberry – lightly jammy. Cinnamon and cloves, cereals almost cake-y, oak spice, all-spice and nutmeg. After a few minutes lovely red apples peels and meatiness. Continue reading →

Compass Box No Name No. 2 Review

1 Reply

Yesterday we reviewed Compass Box Affinity, their Whisky and Calvados spirit and today we’re checking out their latest (and very peated) release: No Name No. 2,

No Name 1 was released late 2017 and it caught on like fire also because it contained a large portion of Ardbeg malt which we rarely see outside (expensive) single malts (at least back then). I reviewed No Name and didn’t like it much thinking it was a bit one dimensional and peat focused without depth. Seems like Compass Box somewhat agreed with this assessment (even though I’m sure they liked it), as we can see from their description on the second release:

Still very smoky indeed, there is a new depth and delicacy. To borrow a musical analogy, No Name was peat as power chord; No Name, No. 2 has brought some harmonics to the party.

This time, the ingredients are different with the majority coming from refill sherry casks from Caol Ila, along with malts coming from Talisker and Clynelish (and the usual CB blend):

No doubt this is an interesting recipe, full of potential. Let’s check it out.

Compass Box No Name No. 2 (48.9%, €123,95, 8802 bottles)

Nose: Peaty and sweet, beach bonfire, cherry orchard, a bit of wax underneath, sugar iclings, coastal. After a few minutes the nose develops dried red berries and chimney smoke. I can nose this for real long time.

Palate: Sweet and sugary, peat, smoke, dried berries and cherries, again a dry waxy note underneath, sprinkle of salt, sea breeze, peppery and coastal.

Finish: Medium long length, coastal, peat smoke, subtle red berries sweetness and dry waxiness.

Thoughts: This edition totally blows out the 1st edition. There are depth and complexity that were so sorely missed from the first edition. This edition provides a tasty combination of peat, slightly sherry impact, waxiness and coastal-ness. Recommended!

Compass Box Affinity Review

Leave a reply

Officially it’s Springtime but here we’re having some heat waves and already deeply descended into summer time when drinks are considered. One notable new release I was curious about, thinking it may be a good summer drink is the recently released Compass Box Affinity spirit.

Yes, It’s not a whisky but a spirit because it’s a mix of whisky and Calvados. For those who didn’t encounter Calvados in the past, Calvados is a brandy made from apples (and pears) in Normandy region in France.

Here, look at the recipe:

That means we have 37.5% Calvados from Christian Drouin, a very respected and well known Calvados producer and 62.5% whisky .

Total of 6,028 bottles of this ‘Chimera’ were produced and bottled at 46% abv.

Compass Box Affinity (46%, £99.95/€102,90)

Nose: Initially doesn’t smell like whisky at all, it’s kinda spirity at times but then the Calvados notes chime in heavily with tons of apples, banana, honey and Calvados oak spice, with some gentle vanilla and honey. After a few minutes in the glass, the Calvados notes relax a bit (although it’s still very prominent) and we get some spices (with white pepper on the front). Continue reading →

Hazelburn 2005 13 Year Old (Cadenhead’s Authentic Collection) Review

Leave a reply

Yesterday it was Glen Scotia open day at Campbeltown Malts Festival 2019 which we celebreated with a review of a lovely sherried 18 Year Old Glen Scotia from Kintra Spirits.

Today is Springbank Open day at the festival and of course we’ll have a celebratory twofer review: A Springbank whisky bottled by Cadenhead!

This 13 Year Old Hazelburn was distilled back in 2005 and was bottled last winter after 13 years in Cadenhead’s Authentic Collection series at 54.6% abv.

Hazelburn 2005 13 Year Old (Cadenhead’s Authentic Collection) (54.6%)

Photo Credit: whiskybase.com

Nose: Cidar and honey, grease, pears, green with tomatoes vine and green unripe banana, shards of dirtiness, thyme, oily and eventually also sooty. Continue reading →