Tasting notes | Page 6 of 9 | Tasting Notes

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Glen Garioch 1995-2012 Vintage Batch 10

Glen Garioch was one of the distilleries I started my journey with. They’re a bit of an underdog in the scene, but definitely worth exploring. The 12yo and Founder’s Reserve are great daily drams, but these Vintage Batches offer a whole different experience.

86

GlenDronach 11yo 2003 Single Cask #5552 for The Old Pipe

Gotta love GlenDronach’s Single Cask bottlings. Despite the prices that have gone up in the past three years, they’re still a no-brainer for me. My first one was an 11yo Oloroso which was bottled for the Netherlands. And I still like this one today. So when I came across...

89

Ardbeg 10yo

Since the beginning of our whisky journey, we always considered Ardbeg 10yo to be peppery and heavy on the peat. The Uigeadail was always our go to, so we haven’t paid a lot of attention to the Ten. What a shame, because looking back, we clearly missed out. After...

87

Nikka From The Barrel

It feels a bit weird to post this snowy picture when the weather feels like May, but I couldn’t wait till next winter to share this delicious dram with you.

88

Bunnahabhain An Cladach

Bunnahabhain and its names… I don’t have much trouble pronouncing and spelling Bunna’s awkwardly named expressions. But this following anecdote is a reminder of the fact that it doesn’t always come in handy. Or maybe it does…

90

Caol Ila 15yo Unpeated (2016 release)

Caol Ila, often referred to as the workhorse of Islay, is capable of doing incredible stuff. And so they did with this 15yo Unpeated release.

84

Glengoyne – The Legacy Series Chapter One 2019

A new global limited release by Glengoyne. It is, or will be soon widely available. We’ve spent some time with it, so allow us to let you know our thoughts.

85

Bowmore Cask Strength

Bowmore and the taste of kiwi, to me they are inseparable. I’ve tasted lots of different Bowmores, but this one thing always keeps coming back. It took me a while though, it was just this spark of enlightenment some years ago, when I tried to figure out what that specific note tastes like.

81

Singold Cask Strength

Our German neighbours have quite the amount of distilleries. Many of them are still unknown to us, but Singold distillery contacted us and was kind enough to send us a sample of the cask strength expression of their classic whisky.

84

Balblair 1989 3rd release

This Balblair was gifted to me by a shop owner when he fell victim of another buying spree of mine. I don’t think it’s necessarily a good sign, just ask my wallet and please don’t tell my wife. Let’s go tasting this yellow lad.

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.

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Bunnahabhain 18yo

Can you believe we haven’t properly reviewed this one before? Well, time to change that fact today.

91

Lagavulin 12yo (bottled in 2012)

Lagavulin, one of the heavier distilleries on Islay. Not particularly because of the peat level of the barley, because that’s exactly the same as Caol Ila’s. It’s the shorter fermentation and shape of the stills which make Lagavulin this bold and full of phenolic flavours.

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GlenDronach 18yo ‘Allardice’

While not being impressed back in 2014, we revisited the GlenDronach 18yo Allardice and it blew our mind. I have a slight idea of what might’ve happened, let’s find out!

92

Millstone Oloroso Sherry (2014-2018)

Wherever you are in the world, I strongly suggest you try a Millstone. And I’m not saying that because I’m a Dutchman.

85

Bruichladdich 1990-2005 Scott’s Selection

What a beauty of a Laddie this is. Distilled in a previous era (1990) and bottled in 2005, this Bruichladdich should give us a sense of what it was, before the new owners started distilling again in 2001.

89

Macallan Amber

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

89

The Arran 14yo

A fruit cocktail in a bottle, this is one of those overlooked drams, which might steal your heart when you try 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.

93

Bowmore 10yo Tempest Batch IV

A whisky that captures the spirit of Bowmore perfectly, that’s what I’d like to call this Tempest Batch IV.

86

Welcoming 2019 with Port Askaig 19

And as we move towards the last hours of 2018 and the reflections have been done, it’s time to look forward. Which beautiful whiskies will we encounter in the everchanging landscape? And what trips are we going to make?

85

Aberfeldy 16yo

Aberfeldy has been off our radar for some years now. Dion owned a 12yo in back in the days and it was a perfectly smooth whisky for us at the time. But we were mere beginners and when our journey proceeded, we didn’t really consider Aberfeldy anymore. Until now…

85

Glengoyne Cask Strength Batch 3

Who are you going to share a dram with this Christmas? Our buddy Stefan is sharing his Glengoyne Cask Strength Batch 3 with us, a good start of the holiday! What’s gonna be your dram for tonight?

87

Glen Scotia 15yo

A well crafted dram for its price, the Glen Scotia 15yo. So full and warming that it’s almost hard to believe that is has matured on bourbon casks only.

85

Glen Garioch 6yo 2011-2018 by Càrn Mòr (Morrison & MacKay)

There’s something about young expressions of whisky bottled by independent bottlers. I always feel that there’s a lot of honesty involved. You’ll get a real taste of a particular moment at the distillery instead of tasting a whisky which tries to be the same in every batch. A snapshot, so to speak.

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.

90

Glengoyne 21yo

Glengoyne; often compared with GlenDronach in the sherrybomb league. But never reached such a high popularity. I wonder why, because this 21yo expression truly stands its ground.

94

Bunnahabhain 14yo Pedro Ximénez Finish

Sweet, warm, chewy, sticky, syrupy, juicy… only so much words can describe this incredible release from one of our favorite distilleries.

83

Jura Superstition

We often tell people: no association is wrong when writing down your tasting notes. But a hint of ‘urinal cakes’ in a whisky? Are you crazy? We proved we aren’t with this Jura Superstition.

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Starting the Festive Season with Redbreast 12yo Cask Strength

The leaves have fallen and it’s getting colder. The festive season has started! The robins are looking for food in our gardens, and we love to help them a bit. Especially when the robins (or Redbreasts as we roughly translate it from our Dutch language) look like this.

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Laphroaig 18yo

To me, this Laphroaig encaptures the spirit of Islay perfectly. A sadly discontinued expression, but luckily I still have some juice left in the bottle to enjoy.

85

Talisker Port Ruighe

Talisker, the creator of many friendly single malts, which offer a nice peppery touch of the sea with often a sweet twist. With this port cask finished expression they took the sweetness to another level.

82

The Dalmore – Cigar Malt Reserve

Smoking kills. But does smoking kill the dram? Depends on who you’re asking. We don’t pair cigars with whisky a lot, but so now and then it’s something we do, especially when it pairs well. In the case of this Dalmore it does, the cigar and the dram enhance each other.

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Octomore Masterclass 08.1

We’ve already talked about high peat levels and how it doesn’t matter that much. We brought this one to a blind tasting two weeks ago and asked the participants which glass contained a whisky with such a high peat level as this Octomore (168ppm). Most of them were wrong, and chose an Indie NAS Lagavulin, which is only peated to a level of 35ppm. So let’s focus on the taste, which is most important of course!

91

Raasay While We Wait 2nd Release

What to do when you’ve built a distillery, but you have to wait before your whisky reaches the age of 3 years old? In the case of Isle of Raasay Distillery you just show off your skills by taking whisky from another distillery and let it finish for a while, to reach something that resembles what’s yet to come.