Whisky Live

Half of the cabal reconvened to visit Whisky Live in London. Samples were small, so although there's a large number below - it's not as bad as it looks. Honest. Notes were brief, and at times, 'challenging' to decipher, but let's see how it goes...

Arran Whisky Port Finish
50%, very sweet, quaffing whisky, short finish 7/10

Wemyss Hive Honey, slight spice, not hugely complex 6/10

Wemyss New Spirit - nice [not rated]

Kavalan Whisky - Taiwanese whisky
Single Cast strength Solist Sherry - nice enough 6/10
Solist Fino Sherry Finish - smooth, honey, spices, superb, 9/10  [I think it's the Solist Fino anyway]
Ito Sherry 9.5/10 lighter than the Sherry finish [again, not sure on this one]

Tomintoul 16yo 
Always enjoyed this, nice and light, refreshing - almost, light spicy and short finish 7/10

Compass Whisky
King St Glasgow - very quaffable, light smoke, 7/10 - 7.5/10 (Alec!)
Orangerie - very nice.
This is not a luxury whisky - not heavily sherried, very long, lovely 8/10

Nomad - Sherried Blend. Ridiculously good for the price (£30) - probably best value whisky of the show. 7.5/10

It's at this point we decided to get a bit radical and try bourbon and Irish Whisky, we've never been that addicted to it...

Tincup Bourbon Whisky : sweet, kinda interesting. 5/10 (A) - 6/10 (B).

Blackbush - Irish Whisky. Fucking close to water. 2/10.
Right, well we learnt from that experience.

18yo Arran. Superb stuff, light but interesting. 8/10

Laphroaig Brodir - port, spiky, salt, bacon, very similar to their PX. 8/10
This is one of their export/travel exclusives, yeah we liked it.

Strawberry Liquor. Look we were keen to try stuff and it was nice, even nicer in the cocktail..

Elements of Islay:
Br6 - feisty, bacon, very nice 8/10
Bw5 - ok-ish, 7/10
Lagavulin - very vigorous, salty, bacon, 7/10
Peat (blend) not too bad 7/10

there follows two bourbons, which could be deciphered (maybe) as Pink and Red. The ?pink? one was described reasonably complex 6/10, and the 'red' as a bit boring 5/10.

Longmorn - and some work something like 'Bortgary', juicy green apples 6/10, we also tried a 40yo which wasn't that great 6/10.

16yo Glen Moray. Pretty standard, 6/10
25yo Glen Moray. 8.5/10 - we do like our GMs :)

Ancnoc
23yo - apples ! 8/10
25yo 8/10
peaty 7/10

We had a few more repeats of drams we liked, but that seems to be the main list.

Best value, by some distance, is the Nomad. Best whisky? Probably the Taiwanese sherry monster, although the 18yo Arran is very very nice.
There are rumours of a Cabal reunion, so you may yet get another Cabal update...

me (and Alec)