Whisky Review – Bruichladdich Octomore 7.2

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Last review was a Bruichladdich Port Charlotte and on its heels is another peated Bruicladdich review. This time, the latest offering in the Octomore series – Octomore 7.2

Like in previous Octomore releases, the x.2 suffix means some fancy/special wine finish (For example: Octomore 6.2 was Cognac finish) and this time it’s a Syrah wine (from the Northern Rhone Valley) finish.

Bruichladdich Octomore 7.2 (58.5%, €154.99)

octomore-7-2-58-5-70cl-bruichladdichNose: Restrained and smooth peat, vanilla, sweet red berries that slowly develop into a formidable dry red wine impact but the it’s beautifully balanced with the peat. There’s a strong back-end of cereals and fruity notes supporting this all. Due to the high ABV I tried it with a few drops of water and it’s showing more cereal and barley, lighter peat and weaker wine impact. Continue reading →

Whisky Review – Bruichladdich Port Charlotte Islay Barley

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I’m too busy with work and big life projects, so there wasn’t much activity on the blog, so a big apology to you my readers. In the meanwhile, until load is back to normal (sometime in September), I’ll probably stick to quick reviews and tasting notes posts.

The Port Charlotte Islay Barley was released last October and is a logical next step after the very successful and liked Scottish Barley version which I reviewed here. This time it’s pure Islay product.

Bruichladdich Port Charlotte Islay Barley 2008 (50%, £54.95/€55.95)

bruichladdiche-port-charlotte-islay-barley-2008Nose: Starts with a strong peat note but without much bonfire smoke and then an attack of flavours. Cereal pudding, lemon, vanilla with moist fruits. After a few minutes, the peat is more refined and sharper with more smoke but it still keeps the cereal and fruity character. Continue reading →

Islay Feis Ile Festival 2015 Bottlings Summary

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feis-logo-newLast years post on the Feis Ile 2014 bottles was a smash hit so it’s time for a repeat with a new post on the 2015 Islay Festival Feis Ile bottles!

Like last year, the festival will run from 23rd to 31st of May 2015 and with two prominent distilleries, Ardbeg and Laphroaig, celebrating their 200 year since (official) foundation year, its bound to be a very interesting and exciting festival.

This post will detail all the available information on the festival bottlings and I’ll update it each time more details will be revealed.

If you look for the full festival information, go to the Festival site at islayfestival.com and you can find the full Islay Festival Distillery Programmes 2015 here

In addition to the official bottlings by the distilleries, there’s a plethora of special Feis Ile bottlings by external organizations such as Douglas Laing, SMWS and the Islay House Hotel.

So here’s the list of Feis Ile 2015 bottlings and the available information:

 

Lagavulin – Open day on Saturday 23th May 2015

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Whisky Review – Mackmyra Svensk Rök

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It’s been a while since I last said it so it’s time for a repeat: Gosh I love the whisky community on the internet!

I was gifted a few Irish whiskey samples from a mate as I have to expand my Irish whisky knowledge. When I opened the package, to my delight I found another sample tucked in and on the label there was only one character: ?

Ah..a blind dram! Obviously I didn’t have enough of blind drams lately 😛 so I set out to try it. My first thoughts were it’s a young whisky yet it felt quite complex. So it has to be either a Scotch vatted malt or non-scotch whisky. I guessed it to be a 5-6yo bottled at 55%.

Then the truth was revealed and I was happy to see I did managed quite well and to see I finally made my first venture into Swedish whisky as the dram was Mackmyra Svensk Rök.

Svensk Rök, which means Swedish Smoke, is a NAS whisky although I was told the casks used here are 4-9yo. The official tasting notes says there’s strong influence of Juniper here but that’s one aspect I failed to detect. Well, I’m not perfect 😉

Mackmyra Svensk Rök (46.1%, €33.95)

svensk_rokNose: Youngish, malt, cereal, mellow peat smoke, some citrus whiffs (orange peels and lemon). There are sweet honey and fruits notes, dough and creamy. With more time it becomes brighter, fruitier & sweeter without much peat yet still keeping a smokey flavor. Fizzy sweet candies. Quite a transformation! Continue reading →

Whisky Review & Tasting notes: Prometheus 26yo

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As part of the recent boom of new craft (and large) whisky distilleries, we’ve also seen new distilleries pop up in major urban centers. There’s a new distillery in London and a new distillery in Glasgow – the first one in many decades. As with other new distilleries, they already produce Gin and whisky will be produced soon as well.

To celebrate the rebirth of the first Glasgowian distillery in ages, they acquired a batch of aged single malt Speyside whisky casks and the first one was released recently, a 26 years old whisky from unknown Speyside distillery branded Prometheus.

It was laid down in first fill sherry cask and bottled at 47%. Lets check how much fire this one bring to the table.

Prometheus 26 Year Old (47%)

prometheus 26yoNose: Strong punch despite only 47%, Fresh notes of honey & dried fruits, berries, a bit of color thinner, nail polish remover, vinegary, cream, dusty library, ripe sweet banana (like rum), touch of smoke, very crisp and sharp nose. With some time in glass, cinnamon and sweet cranberries, milk and cranberries chocolate.
Continue reading →

Whisky Review & Tasting notes: Macallan Select Oak

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Again too busy with work so today, again we’ll have to be content with a quick whisky review. This time: Macallan Select Oak from the 1824 series. Upon release it was destined at the Travel Retail market, exclusively at first although now you can find it in many online stores.

The Select Oak is a combination of first-fill European oak casks seasoned with oloroso sherry, and American oak casks seasoned with oloroso sherry or bourbon.

Macallan Select Oak (40%, £55.99/€54.95)

macallan select oakNose: Sweet sultanas, whiffs of young spirit, lots of malt, vanilla, toast, weak nutmeg cinnamon, sourness of unripe berries. Continue reading →

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 →