More Blackadder you say? Well go on then ...
30 October 2024
Whisky Tasting : Blackadder
27 August 2024
Casual Dram 12
More John ! More Mean Doses ! More Whisky ! two thirds of the Cabal !
Glen Scotia 11yo Festival Release 2023 54.7%
- N: sherry, oak, woody, sweet perfume
- P: peated, sherry, spicy, sweet,
- F: long, hot
8/10 I liked this, which is encouraging as I've got a bottle (unopened) at home. I think I won it, but on the strength of this tasting it's likely to be opened soon. Huzzah !
Roseisle 12yo Special Release 2023 56.5%
- N:floral, bourbon, fruity, heather / honey
- P: bourbon, fruity, heather / honey, quite delicate
- F: medium-long
8/10 also rather tasty, quite different to the Glen Scotia, but very drinkable
Glenglassaugh 9yo 2012 Cask 522 58.9%
- N: water, light, butterscotch
- P: salt, peaty, sweet, bacon, butterscotch, creamy
- F: long / sherry
9/10. I had some of the very early Glenglassaugh's just after Billy Walker had taken them over, and they tasted incredible. As did the old stock they had (30? 35yo). However the Evolution and the Torfu were ok, but not great. This is a different kettle of wort. Great stuff.
SMWS GlenTurrent (Distillery 16) which had been aged in Laphroaig casks
- N: light, sherry, salty
- P: peat, bacon, sweet, salt
- F: medium-sweet.
8/10 I did make a note that not a lot was happening in the finish, but it's a nice whisky. Possibly lost a bit compared to the others in the line-up.
SMWS 29.282 (Laphroaig) 9yo Massive Aniseed Heat and Searing Peat 62.3%
- N: medicinal, peat, bacon, salt
- P: supporating wound! not subtle.
- F: long-hot
9/10. If I'm after a big smokey peat monster, I want a big smokey peat monster. This is one. It's not doing subtle in any form. Great stuff.
Definitely recommend John's tastings, relaxed and interesting line-ups. More info here: https://www.drinkscreative.com/
14 August 2024
Whisky Tasting : Old Malt Cask
Another indie bottler tasting, and traditionally a great one. Just two of our lot this time, but an excellent way to spend Friday night.
OMC Glen Moray 16yo 50% refill barrel hl 18663 05.2005-05.2021.
- N: lemon, dry, spritzic, vanilla, white wine, tannins, copy paper
- P: tannin, sour lollies, dark chocolate, spicy, lemon
- F: sticky, sour apples, medium, spicy
9/10 for me, I liked it a lot. I do like indie bottlings of Glen Moray. But I was in the minority with it coming 7th, 7.34. No matter, I have a bottle of it now.
OMC Aultmore 11yo 5% refill butt HL 18988 07.2010-02.2022
- N: apples, very sweet, lemon, oily, prickly, minerals, peaches
- P: very sweet, herbal, salami, bland
- F: short, peppery
6/10, not a fan of this one disappointing on the palate/finish. Came 5th, 7.79
OMC Dailuaine 24yo 50% refill hogshead HL18760 10.1996-06.2021
- N: bourbon, apples, dry, perfume/musk, soapy
- P: apple, pears, dry, refreshing
- F:medium, chewy, dry, incr heat
8.5/10 Tasty, well balanced, interesting, and showing its age nicely. Came 3rd= 7.88
OMC Auchroisk 20yo 50% refill hogshead HL18755 06.2000-06.2021
- N: sweet, light, perfume, caramel, integrated, new tires, marzipan
- P:sweet, coconut, peardrops, fizzy, candyfloss
- F:medium, peppery
8/10 another good dram, light and interesting. But not loved by the group, 6th 7.59
OMC Pulteney 19yo 50% bourbon barrel HL18987 09.2002-02.2022
- N: light, parmesan, hint of salt?
- P:peat, sweet, soap, mushrooms
- F: short
6/10 yeah not a fan, not much happening although it did come 2nd 8.19
OMC Speyburn 50% Sherry butt HL18986 03.2007-02.2022
- N: sulphur, caramel, hint sherry, egg lollies, strong, wisteria
- P:warm, complex, tobacco, sugary
- F: med-short, chilli
8/10 tasty ! and for once, we all agreed, came 1st 8.4
OMC Jura 50% 13yo sherry butt HL18994
- N: apple, spun candy, cedarwood, banoffee, tannins
- P:fruity, woody, not much flavour
- F:short
7/10 for some reason I bumped it up from a 6, but not great. It came 3= with 7.88
All very light coloured drams, and an interesting lineup. One thing I liked was the delicate approach to flavour, and keeping everything at 50% allowed for better comparisons. It did seem this time I was very not aligned with the group, huzzah !
10 July 2024
Whisky Tasting : Mysteries of Malt
A completely blind tasting at Regional, I like these. We get given nothing, a few random, generally misleading, questions and the booze. That's it. I've filled in the whisky names for the notes, because I'm not that mean...
Glenrothes 48/8% Whisky Makers Cut, no colour 1st fill sherry
- N: sweet, muscavado, caramel, chocolate, sherry, petrol, vanilla, violets
- P: bourbon, dry, mcintosh egg lollies, salt, chocolate, honey
- F: long and hot, slight peppery?
7.5/10 Tasty dram this one, nothing stunning, but certainly very drinkable. It came 4th= with 8.02 overall.
Jura 21 44% 105a colour added
- N: weak, light, water, hint sherry?, vinegar
- P: light, sweet, spearmint
- F: short
5/10. This was a real disappointment, nothing much happening anywhere. It came last with 7.17
Meikletoir 5yo Glenallachie peated 48% PX & oloroso
- N: medicinal, bacon, oily, iodine, sweet
- P: smooth, peppery, iodine, complex, salt, sweet
- F: long and very tasty
8.5/10 Yep this was excellent, I know, another good Glenallachie? Whoda thunk it. Came 3rd, 8.17. There maybe a bottle heading my way...
Kilchoman PX matured 2023 50%
- N: light, mushrooms, earthy, ashes, musty
- P: gherkins, ash, dry, sour
- F: med-long, peppery, sour
7/10 Looking at my scoring, I couldn't quite decide on it, ranged from 6-7 with a lot of crossing out. Somethings not quite right with this one. Came 6th with 7.38
Amrut Spectrum 50% Oct 2021
- N: muscavado, caramel, chocolate, awesome, sulphur, raisins
- P: chocolate, cake, leather aged, sticky, parmesan cheese
- F: medium and complex
9/10 a sherry monster that delivers. It's not cheap, but it is very good, those Spectrum finishes all seem to be excellent. Came first with 8.61
Ardnamurchan Rum finish NC2 55%
- N: salt, coastal, marshmallows, subtle, light, sweet lollies, citrus
- P: citrus, spritzic, parma violets
- F: short-med and salt
7/10 Interesting without being outstanding. Possibly a bit sweet for me, which maybe the Rum finish coming through. Came 4th = 8.02
Glen Scotia 54.1% 12yo unpeated NC2 Palo Cortado Finish
- N: wood, creamy, brown sugar, hazelnuts, sherry notes
- P: sweet, brown sugar, complex, incr alco
- F: med-long and peppery
8.5/10 I liked this, interesting whisky that seemed pretty well integrated. It came 2nd, 8.5.
Thanks to John we also learnt what a Palo Cortado sherry is, briefly it's a sherry being aged under flor to become a fino or amontillado, but for reasons it loses the flor and ages as an oloroso.
Fun tasting, our group made a few guesses as to who made the whiskies, that didn't go well. But I went ok on the answers to Daniel's misleading questions :)
Slainte!
10 June 2024
Casual Dram 11
More John based booze. Tasted blind, but impressed by myself for picking all 5. I probably shouldn't be too proud, they were quite diverse tastes...
Springbank 12yo Cask Strength 2023 54.1%
- N: grass, caramel, leather, citrus (hint), garden shed
- P: Caramel, McIntosh egg toffee lolly, dry, tobacco, citrus, pomegranate?
- F: long, hot, cloying
8/10 Hey, I like Springbank (generally) and I'd be happy with one of these in the cupboard...
Mystery Dram
- N: sherry, leather, burnt rubber, demarara sugar
- P: dry, sweet, bitter finish, pandang spice,
- F: med, possibly a bit too young?
7/10 nothing really interesting in this, could have benefited from a year or two?
Glenallachie 'Whisky Galore's 21st Anniversary' 2009/14yo 57.9%
- N: sweet, mild, caramel, burnt sugar, caramel milkshake
- P: caramel, light
- F: med, spicy
6/10 disappointing (sadly) I was really looking forward to this one as I hadn't yet picked up a bottle, but not sure I will now. Damnit.
SMWS 4.312 'old-school with a twist' 13yo 61.2%
- N: bourbon, seaside, salt, bacon
- P: more coastal, different to nose, light balsamic vinegar, salt 'n' vinegar crisps,
- F: med salty
8.5/10 Yup liked this one, another interesting bottling from distillery #4.
Ledaig LMDW 2007/10yo peaty artist #9 60/8%
- N: burnt rubber, salt, bacon, aniseed, tamarind, mushrooms, medicinal, iodine
- P: vanilla, very salty, islay iodine, sweet
- F: long and hot
9/10 As someone who wasn't abig fan of Ledaig's a few years ago, I'll admit I might have been hasty :) this was great. Well if you like your Islay's big and salty.
Interested in John's tastings? have a look here. https://www.drinkscreative.com/
29 April 2024
Whisky Tasting: James Eadie
This months Regional Wines tasting was the indie bottler James Eadie which we haven't seen much (?any?) of in New Zealand. There's some history on their website, essentially mid 1800s, James Eadie was a distiller with a good rep, fast forward 100+ years, relative kicks off a indie bottling based on his ancestors ethos.
James Eadie Benrinnes 9yo First fill malaga hogshead finish 55%
- N: sweet, sherry, complex, zest, young, lemonade
- P: chocolate, rough, sweet, pineapple, lime, burnt orange
- F: long, hot
7/10 Nose promised much which was disappointing in the flavour, it came 6th with 7.34. Not a typical Benrinnes.
James Eadie Caol Ila 10yo 55.3% First fill amontillado hogshead finish
- N: dry, rubbery, rashuns, bacon, tasty, cigars
- P: rubber, ash, peat but subtle, fruity, salty
- F: med hot butter
- N: caramel, sweet, nutty, butterscotch, demarara sugar, old wet wool, sultanas
- P: sherbert, woody, oaky, sherry, tannin, sweet
- F: short. not much happening.
- N: complex, sweet, heavy sherry, rum, demarara/molasses, dark chocolate, hazelnuts, plums
- P: warm, engine oil, disappointing
- F: short
- N: light, wet dog, vomit, lemon, elderflower, sherbet, acetone
- P: damp washing, spicy paprika, pencil box
- F: bitter, long
- N: light sugar, very sweet, ash, liquid sugar, custard, tea
- P: dull, light peppery, salty, aniseed
- F: short
- N: marshmallow, weetbix, vomit, light, key lime pie, floral
- P: rubber, light ash, burnt sugar, wood
- F: pepper, medium
26 March 2024
Casual Dram 10
Our favourite John, from Regional, runs an occasional Whisky tasting and this was #10 in his continuing series of a John who'd gone to the booze...
25 March 2024
Whisky: Blackadder tasting
I think this is the first of the Regional Wines tastings we've done this year, the first one didn't have a lot of unique things so we skipped it - with the intention of having our own tasting, which we, as usual, failed spectacularly to organise.
Blackadder are an independent bottler with their USP being they keep some of the soot/wood/crap from the barrel in when they bottle. So each bottle has some floating bits, for that added authenticity. This we learnt makes it very difficult to pour for samples.
2 January 2024
Untappd - update on the Alec v Bruce competition
This competition has been going, unofficially, since err, I dunno, I want to say 2010? 2009? who knows. Any way, I've tried to post updates every 6 months or so.
The good news (for me), I'm still ahead on total number of checkins, although Alec continues to have had more unique beers. Badges, I'm 4 ahead, which suggests we're both maxxing out on the gamification.
Also we share two of the top beers, Schlenkerla and Oude Geuze Boon. Again, not much of a surprise.
Last.FM year update
What did I listen to last year? one of the benefits of last.fm is that it records what I've listened to from the laptop and the phone. I'm also retentive enough to scrobble digital versions of the LPs i'm listening to. So I'd say this is pretty accurate.