Speyside | Tasting Notes - Whisky Consultants

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Cardhu 16yo Special Release 2022

Whenever we get tired looking for easter eggs, we get a little bit naughty and wonder what more the Easter bunny has to offer. We must say, every year it’s at it again. This year it surprised us with this absolute beauty, the Cardhu 16 years old, part of...

90

Mortlach Special Release 2022

A few weeks ago we got to taste the entire Special Release 2022 series by Diageo. A tough job, we know… We went into every sample blindly, only knowing the distillery, age and maturation. Focussing on taste, what we mostly tend to do. Previous year had a somewhat different...

87

Cardhu 14yo Diageo Special Release 2021

Let’s be honest, Diageo knows what they’re doing when it comes to marketing. We received an incredible package a while ago, containing samples of all of the 2021 Special Release expressions. It is safe to say that we were speechless, and that’s a rare thing. This Cardhu 14 years...

79

Tomintoul Seiridh

I’t time to wave the summer goodbye. Like Dion mentioned earlier it wasn’t a spectacular one, weather wise. But frankly, being a spring and autumn kind of person, I kinda liked it this way. Mostly because firing up the bbq and tasting whisky in the garden, to me, is...

98

Mortlach 1997-2019 22yo Giorgio D’Ambrosio by My Name Is Whisky

Like it’s meant to be. It was my birthday 2 weeks ago and my brother in law presented me with a Mortlach 12yo, my wife gave me an 11yo bottled by Signatory and as a cherry on top, we received a mystery package by the Italian bottler My Name...

83

Linkwood 12yo 2008-2021 by Càrn Mòr

Lately, Morrison Scotch Whisky Distillers are doing an extraordinary job when it comes to releasing interesting expressions. We sometimes suspect them to be a fly on our wall when we are talking about which releases we would like to see because sooner or later they’ll end up on our...

82

GlenAllachie 12yo PX Sherry Wood Finish

Having had the entire core range from 10 to 25yo at the moment they were launched, I can safely say that GlenAllachie is not my favourite kind of dram. Ginger and lime formed a big part of their backbone and those flavours usually don’t have my preference. Sure, they...

90

Glenrothes 14 Year Old 2005-2019 #13132 Old Particular (Douglas Laing)

As you might know by now, I have a huge crush on independently bottled Glenrothes. Although my buying habits are shifting towards bourbon matured whiskies, there’s always a deep love for sherry left in my DNA. And there’s one distillery that I can rely on when it comes to...

90

Dailuaine 7yo 2011-2019 ex-Islay Octave Finish by Scotch & Tattoos

We’ve got to know a lot of people with the same ‘hobby’ through Instagram. Everyday we are thankful to have gained so many friends in this lovely whisky community. It is a wonderful community to be part of. One of our friends, whom many of you guys may know,...

87

Benromach 15yo

As mentioned in an earlier post, my love for Benromach came (far too) late. Not because I didn’t like it at first, no, it’s just because I never felt the urge to buy a bottle. One time, in an early “let’s-buy-everything-that’s-peated-period” I bought a Benromach Peat Smoke, but it...

79

Glenfiddich Fire & Cane

I postponed this review for more than two years now. I have this bottle for a while and I just don’t like it, but as always I wanted to give it a fair chance. So I took it to several blind tastings in the past to see what other...

90

Glenlivet 12yo 2007 Cask Strength The Ultimate by Van Wees

Which whiskies you started your journey with? For me it was a trio of Famous Grouse, Glenfiddich and Glenlivet. I had an arrange of different bottlings and tested my palate by figuring out the differences and resemblances. My early whisky journey can be divided into certain periods, when I...

94

Glen Spey 30yo 1987 – Dunes an Òir

How often do you buy, or even taste a 30 years old whisky? We certainly do very rarely. When we came across this bottle by one of our favourite bottlers and whisky shops, we didn’t hesitate for too long. This 30yo Glen Spey by Malts of Scotland was bottled...

89

Spey Tenné Cask Strength – Batch #1

Never have I experienced something like a ‘port bomb’, until this release by Spey. We aren’t the biggest fans of port matured whiskies, but this one made us realize once more: you can’t apply one single measure to everything. We were introduced to Spey with the regular Tenné expression....

87

Scallywag Speyside Blended Malt by Douglas Laing

Recently – with a little help from de Monnik Dranken – we adopted a little Speyside puppy. Don’t feel bad for our best buddy Charlie right here, because this little feller came in liquid form. Scallywag is a mixed-breed of Mortlach, Macallan and Glenrothes, among others, he’s bred under...

85

Linkwood 11yo 2007 Oloroso Octave Finish by 3006 Whisky

My holidays mostly take place in our own country, even before the pandemic. There’s so much to discover in this small piece on earth (the Netherlands, that is). There’s one tradition I try to maintain, and that is the tradition of finding a good liquor store to buy me...

83

Craigellachie 13yo

Let’s revisit a bottle that we haven’t had in a while: Craigellachie 13.

87

Benriach 1999-2016 17yr Ventisquero finish

Lately, Dion is aiming for whiskies with a wine finish or maturing, so when we stumbled upon this beautiful looking Benriach bottle, finished in a Viña Ventisquero Grey Carmenere Barrel, we couldn’t resist.

85

Aberlour 12yo Double Cask Matured

A classic in a renewed packaging. The Aberlour 12yo is a good showcase of typical Speyside notes, with some extra warmth coming from the second maturation on sherry casks. It’s been a while since we’ve tasted this one, so when this new year’s gift by Aberlour arrived on the...

87

Glenrothes 11yo 2007-2018 PX Octave Finish by Claxton’s

We have a thing for independently bottled Glenrothes. It’s just very hard to find one that isn’t tasty. We have a huge indie ‘rothes line-up waiting to get reviewed, but this is the one we’d like to start with. It perfectly suits the drizzly weather that we’re facing at...

83

Islay Mist – Original

Enter Islay Mist. A whisky that consists mostly of Laphroaig, blended with several Speyside malts and grain whisky, interesting! Created for beginning enthusiasts who are tiptoeing into the realm of peat, but don’t want to be punched in the face with it. We think that’s a good starting point....

89

Aberlour A’bunadh Batch 47

Time to revisit my favourite batch of Aberlour A’bunadh: number 47!

87

Speyburn 2004-2018 Single Cask

We’re not so familiar with Speyburn, but it certainly made quite the entrance to our cabinet with this Single Cask botting.

86

Glenfarclas 105

Value for money, bang for your buck, call it what you will, but Glenfarclas 105 definitely falls into this category

84

BenRiach 10yo Curiositas

What are you pouring on this whisky Wednesday? We’re totally in for a peated BenRiach!

83

Tamdhu 12yo

Tamdhu is a Speyside distillery which is worth some of your attention. I started exploring this distillery with their cask strength (batch 2) and was pleasantly surprised. It’s a good competitor against the well known Aberlour A’bunadh, which sadly is increasingly becoming a shadow of what it used to be.

89

Macallan Amber

We were a bit sceptical of Macallan Amber, until we tried it at a tasting and we loved it.

83

Balvenie 15yo Single Barrel 1997-2013

A Balvenie in its pure form, albeit a bit thinned with water at 47.8% ABV. It’s a bottle that we had around for a while now, so it was about time we wrote something about it. This ex-bourbon matured Balvenie is a favourite among many whisky lovers. To be...

85

Muirhead’s Silver Seal 16yo

Maybe not the prettiest bottle, but the price and taste certainly are. Let’s have a look at this rather unknown independent bottle, named Muirhead’s Silver Seal 16yo.

87

Glenlivet Nàdurra Peated Cask

Don’t get confused here people, this is not a peated Glenlivet, but it’s a Glenlivet that has finished on a cask that previously held heavily peated whisky. We’ve see that more often lately, and it’s quite an enjoyable way of finishing whisky.

87

Aberlour A’bunadh Batch 61

The Aberlour A’bunadh is one of those must-have whiskies. Back in the day, it was our first so called sherrybomb we owned, and we’ve always had one in stock since then. The price/quality ratio is outstanding, but we’ve noticed some decline in taste in the past few years.

90

The Glenlivet Nàdurra 16yo

Does this one need any introduction? It’s easily my top core-range Glenlivet. Bottled at cask strength, non-chill filtered and matured in American oak, which makes your taste buds explode with honest, natural flavours.