whisky, n aw that...

[whiskynawthat]

Deanston virgin oak; great dram - peppery citrus notes with an almost cream finish...

[whiskynawthat]

Laphroaig Quarter Cask

So peated whisky has definitely grown on me over the past year or two, and it doesn’t get much peatier than Laphroaig. The quarter cask smells like a bonfire in a glass - a smoky, earthy nose. The fire sip packs a punch of pure peat, yet goes down incredibly smoothly, leaving a long lingering finish, with a slight hint of citrus.

Fast becoming one of my favourite distilleries...

[whiskynawthat]

And now were onto the 21 year old Cuvée 640... Again a soft, sweet dram n slightly musty almost.

[whiskynawthat]

Enjoying a great dram of the Laddie 16 at the Ben Nevis in Glasgow. Light and sweet, vanilla tones, a hint of caramel. Another great Laddie!

[whiskynawthat]

So this years Christmas whisky is a bruichladdich which I got from the distillery. This one spent 12 years in Portuguese port casks and has a deep red colour. The port certainly comes through strongly in the nose and the taste is extremely sweet with a slightly bitter hint but very smooth on the whole. Another great malt from the team at bruichladdich!

[whiskynawthat]

Following my wee trip to Jura in the summer and after tasting the 12 y.o. Elixir, it was necessary to buy a bottle of the stuff. As the description on the bottle says, this one is ‘fruity and spicy’ - it’s pretty full-bodies and there’s flavours of cinnamon and apples in there, and it has beautiful finish, and it’s on offer in Saindsbury’s at a decent price so well worth it!

[whiskynawthat]

Enjoyed a great dram of the Laphroaig Select last night... All the classic peaty notes you would come to expect of a Laphroaig, although perhaps not as overbearing as the 10 y.o., whilst also giving way to notes of coffee on the palette. Really nice.

[whiskynawthat]

Last Friday’s whisky tasting; we are doing the tour of the regions so this week we covered five different Islay malts - and somehow a Bushmills snuck in their too... Mark and I jotted down a few one-word tasting notes which got progressively less descriptive as we went on:

Bruichladdich Islay Barley 2007 - “Citrus”

Port Charlotte ‘The Peat Project’ - “Salt”

Bowmore Surf - “Floral”

Lagavulin 16 y.o. - “God”

The Ileach (Cask Strength at 64% and heavily peated) - “Deadly”

Looking forward to next months session where we are covering the Islands.

[whiskynawthat]

And finally we have the Octomore… I was almost scared to try this one - peated to 225ppm, 7 years old and around 64% abv, this really does knock your socks off. To be honest, I don’t think I can even really comment on this too much other than that I feel like I’m exhaling a peaty fire.

Top marks to the warehouse tasting all round - would highly recommend it to anyone travelling to Islay - and a shout-out to Fraser who led our tasting and did a great job keeping the crowd entertained and explaining the different drams!

[whiskynawthat]

Next we’re onto a 12 year old Port Charlotte - from Bruichladdich’s peated range. This really pack’s a punch at cask strength, but really opens up with the addition of a drop of water to reveal much sweeter notes as well as a dry texture.

[whiskynawthat]

Enjoying the warehouse tasting at Bruichladdich distillery… first up we have an unpeated 26 year old Bruichladdich straight from the cask - wonderfully smooth with a rich taste of oak and bourbon.

[whiskynawthat]

And now onto the tour of Bruichladdich distillery…

[whiskynawthat]

Followed up the tour of Laphroaig distillery with a flavour tasting where 4 Laphroaig expressions - 10 y.o., quarter cask, 15 y.o., and 18 y.o. - are tried with food combinations. 

So some quick notes:

Laphroaig 10 y.o. with blue cheese - the classic smokey and medicinal flavour of the 10 is softened by the cheese, which adds a creamy layer.

Laphroaig quarter cask with orange - the smokey nature of this malt is amplified by the citrussy orange

Laphroaig 18 y.o. with chocolate covered coffee beans - again, the smokey nature and bitter notes of the malt are brought forward by the chocolate and coffee beans.

Laphroaig 15 - wee freebe at the end of the tasting, this has the classic smokey Laphroaig taste but with some fruity notes in between.

Managed to also collect a few samples of each of the above, so will review these separately and in more detail in due course.

[whiskynawthat]

Great day to visit Laphroaig distillery; had a great tour and a wee dram of the Laphroaig Select - one of Laphroaig’s slighlty less peated drams.

[whiskynawthat]

Spent a night on the Isle of Jura and took the chance to visit what might be Scotland's most remote distillery. Enjoyed a wee dram of the Jura Elixir 12 y.o. in the distillery, which has a lovely fruity nose and a taste that is both cool and spicy, and followed it up with a dram of the Jura 10 y.o. across the road in the Jura hotel - the dram that really got me into whisky. Lovely day with lovely people enjoying lovely whisky.

[whiskynawthat]

Tried a dram of Monkey Shoulder - a blended malt of Glenfiddich, Balvenie and Kininvie - this evening at a birthday do. The vanilla overtones found in the Balvenie really come through on the nose, however unforuntately the taste was not as smooth as I was hoping. A hint of sweetness and no peat. Not a bad dram, but I’ll be sticking to my bottle of Balvenie Triple Cask I think.

[whiskynawthat]

Out in Edinburgh last night and had a dram of the Talisker 10 y.o. for the first time since I visited the Isle of Skye, and it was quite a bit different from what I remembered...

I recall this one being quite a peaty dram, both on the nose and on the taste, but maybe my palette has matured a bit of the years; whilst there was a whiff of peat, this smelled quite fresh and sweat as well. If the nose is subtle however the taste certainly isn’t: this is a big hitter - rich, smokey and intense, again hints of sweet fruit, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what.

Still not my favourite dram, but it’s certainly growing on me...