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As far as Scotch is concerned all (nearly all?) malt was peat dried until the advent of the railways which brought coal to the door. Of course Islay, being a small island never got the railroad, so they stayed with the peat. biglads fucked around with this message at 18:03 on Dec 20, 2012 |
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Dec 20, 2012 17:57
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The railway is also why there are a gazillion distilleries on Speyside. Once the railway was there the ability to get your ingredients in and your product out by rail made the industry mushroom alongside it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strathspey_Railway_%28GNoSR%29 Cragganmore has/had a Steam Engine motif on their boxes because it was built due to the (then) new line. It kind of looks a little 'Wild West' to me and perhaps something I'd have expected on a Bourbon.
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Dec 20, 2012 19:01
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I'm heading up to Speyside for my annual pilgrimage in a couple of days time. In the interim I have set myself the task of drinking a bottle of Springbank 15 starting when I get home from work this lunchtime.
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Dec 24, 2012 10:47
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I drove past Imperial distillery earlier on which is in the process of being demolished. If I'm at all fit enough tomorrow I'll go back and get some video.
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Dec 31, 2012 18:16
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Theres a new 17 year old Doublewood out. Very tasty. Got a single cask Glendronach from 93. Sherried perfection.
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Jan 1, 2013 19:38
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NightConqueror posted:Glendronach seems to be getting a lot of attention lately. I'm sorely tempted to pick up the 15 Y0 Revival. The Glendronach 15 is very nice. I prefer it to the 18 which is still very nice but a little over oaked for me. E: Glendronach is as a rule quite the sherry bomb, so if that isn't your thing then look elsewhere. biglads fucked around with this message at 10:39 on Jan 2, 2013 |
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Jan 2, 2013 10:14
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Here's some video I took of Imperial Distillery. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOIlHsGTeFs
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Jan 7, 2013 14:38
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Monkey Shoulder is actually a vatted malt, or whatever they call them nowadays. Glenfiddich, Balvenie and Kininvie.
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Jan 14, 2013 19:11
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In the previous thread I waxed lyrical about the Yamazaki Sherry Cask. Well I've picked up his buddy the Yamazaki Bourbon Cask and I've fallen in love all over again.
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Jan 25, 2013 20:17
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spankmeister posted:The 18 has been discontinued for quite some time now. I think it's back. I know around 3 or 4 years ago it dried up, but you can pick it up again. Maybe they found some casks down the back of the sofa or something.
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Feb 5, 2013 20:55
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There are some older Tomintoul expressions available that are cheap in comparison with other similarly aged malts and are very very good. I think they had a 27y/o OB that was highly regarded and has now been replaced with a 32y/o.
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Feb 22, 2013 15:42
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Anyone else gone for the Yamazaki Bourbon Cask and want to report in? Still awesome when I had some last weekend. Also, good to see you posting Duckstab 
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Feb 25, 2013 15:16
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Thr Glendronach 15 is great to my tastebuds. Perhaps the best sherried scotch OB available now. EDIT: I ought to qualify that with - at a reasonable price. 
biglads fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Feb 28, 2013 |
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Feb 28, 2013 17:58
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Any goons going to Whisky Live in London this coming weekend?
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Mar 19, 2013 15:16
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I've yet to find an Edradour that is any good whatsoever. That's not to say it doesn't exist......just that it seems to be hiding it's light under a bushel of butyric acid.
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Mar 28, 2013 15:19
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I bought this at Whisky Live last weekend http://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/P-18121.aspx I've really taken a shine to sherry bombs over the last couple of years and this is pretty drat good stuff. I also bought the following http://www.masterofmalt.com/whiskies/invergordon/invergordon-that-boutique-y-whisky-company-whisky/ http://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/P-18207.aspx and a sneaky Rum for sipping http://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/P-4412.aspx
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Mar 31, 2013 18:41
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I think the Sherry Cask example I have is a 6y/o. My memory may be failing me because I had a good few drams at the show.
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Apr 2, 2013 10:11
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I know the Glendronach is a beauty. It's one of my favourites right now.
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Apr 3, 2013 20:18
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In celebration at the death of Margaret Thatcher, I am having a dram of Glendronach. 19 y/o from a Pedro Ximenez Butt at 57.1%. Cheers 
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Apr 8, 2013 19:32
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So Burn Stewart has been bought by Distell from South Africa. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-22151857 A few years ago there were rumours about their former parent company having problems and that Bunnahabhain hadn't been paying their bills. Hopefully there'll be plenty of Black Bottle to go around and it would be nice if they could find a few older sherry butts so that the Bunna 18 y/o could go back to how it used to be.
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Apr 15, 2013 20:36
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spankmeister posted:
It is wonderful. I actually prefer it to the 18, just a bit more silky smooth. There's some cracking single casks they've released too.
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Apr 16, 2013 08:15
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There used to be a Black Bottle 10 y/o a few years ago, and that was drat good. I think it's been off the market now for 3-4 years but you may find the odd bottle still kicking around somewhere. If you see it, grab it.
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Apr 17, 2013 10:48
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kidsafe posted:Macallan may have small spirit stills, but they have five (or six?) of them. The part that hurts is the extremely small middle-cut... They're still able to output ~8M liters of single malt a year, second only to Glenlivet. Macallan goes for the prices it does purely through brand recognition and marketing. You want a sherried speysider? I think that the offerings from Glendronach or Glenfarclas will knock the spots off a similar aged Macallan for taste & price. I've got around half a dozen limited edition bottles of Macallan, all tucked away at the back of one of my cases ready to be sold at a ridiculous price to people who have more money than sense. It's not bad whisky, but for the price you can get a lot better.
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May 1, 2013 14:11
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So....Glenlivet Alpha. http://www.masterofmalt.com/Blog/post/The-Glenlivet-Alpha-Its-Started.aspx Marketing gone crazy? I do know that Pernod Ricard were *ahem* having a play a few years back. Those nasty angels taking a share? Well let's stymie them by shrinkwrapping our casks. I wonder if this is a shrinkwrapped Glenlivet?
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May 14, 2013 15:26
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rxcowboy posted:Some days life is good. A good friend of mine is a long distance truck driver who is only home for maybe a day or two a month. He calls me up and says he wants to drink some scotch with me. I tell me that sounds like a plan, but I don't have any since I haven't bought my bottle yet. No worries, he asks what to get and says he'll just bring it over. Glenfiddich has very little smoke compared with a lot of other Scotches. Try to look for a Glengoyne, AFAIK they use no peat at all in the drying of their barley.
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Jun 16, 2013 15:19
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Got a couple of bottles of this recently. http://www.masterofmalt.com/whiskies/karuizawa/karuizawa-spirit-of-asama-whisky/ Almost liqueur like, sweet but not too sweet.
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Jul 3, 2013 10:09
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kidsafe posted:Haha I was going to mention Dalwhinnie is slightly peaty, but got sidetracked. And yeah Glenkinchie is quite safe, I think the combination of it being a Lowland and owned by Diageo makes it sound boring when it's actually pretty good. Glengoyne is a good way to find out if you like sherry bombs or not. :p Are you getting Glengoyne confused with Glendronach or Glenfarclas?
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Aug 15, 2013 16:41
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kidsafe posted:My experience with Glengoyne has largely been based on the 17yr (it's dirt cheap in the US) and various single cask XX's Choice bottlings. Logistically speaking, it makes sense that the younger bottlings don't get the sherry treatment I guess. Ah OK I've had some sherried Glengoyne, but from memory most I've had/seen isn't especially sherried, unlike the other two Glens I mentioned. Someone gifted me a bottle of the Balvenie Caribbean Cask earlier this week. I have a problem with Balvenie, and that is that when the bottle gets opened, it always get emptied quicker than pretty much anything else. I might put it up against a Rum finished Benriach over the course of the coming weekend. biglads fucked around with this message at 08:57 on Aug 16, 2013 |
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Aug 16, 2013 08:29
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rufius posted:Stopped distilling entirely. A few private entities bought up their barrels and are releasing it over time. It's hard to find in Japan, which is where it's most abundant. I've heard it's been demolished as well 
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Nov 1, 2013 23:05
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Picked up some Talisker Storm last weekend as it was special offer in a supermarket. Pretty nice, a drop of water in it and you could easily believe it came from Islay as opposed to Skye.
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Nov 7, 2013 12:06
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Deleuzionist posted:Does anyone else use one of these? Yes. I have some stemmed Ardbeg glasses that came with them. For normal Glencairns I use a watch glass for the same effect. Much cheaper too.
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Nov 9, 2013 15:26
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F&F Mortlach is a classic for me. I've got 1 bottle open, but I'm up in Scotland for New Year and I'll try to get a few more. The F&F Benrinnes and Dailuane are also lovely sherried Speysiders that you should try if you get the opportunity.
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Dec 5, 2013 14:02
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rufius posted:The Japanese Whiskies tend to be more balanced than scotches on average. That isn't meant as a jab at either style, you just tend not to see extremes with the Japanese Whiskies. The only exception to "few extremes" is that they loving love to put whisky in Sherry casks. Not finish them in Sherry casks, they will put it in only Sherry casks for 14 years (e.g. Memories of Karuizawa 14/16). There was a run of Heavily Peated Hakushu recently, but looking around it appears to be discontinued. There's a handful of places still stocking it, but prices have gone up. http://www.nicks.com.au/suntory-hakushu-heavily-peated-single-malt-whisky-700ml I got mine for about £80 if memory serves. A very good dram, an initial clean and mineral taste with a bucket load of peat waiting to catch you out. I'd try a bit now for more info, but I've got to drive somewhere shortly.
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Dec 19, 2013 18:38
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Furious Lobster posted:In comparison to the Hakushu 18 above, I could actually find the Heavily Peated one for around £91 - 97 in California; given that the price is higher than your memory is the latter considered to be at a lower quality than the 18? Even so, I'm excited to try different productions of peaty scotches. I honestly can't recall ever having Hakushu 18 so I couldn't make a comparison, but I suppose that the price point tells you that Suntory consider the 18 y/o to be a more 'premium' product. Having said that I preferred the Yamazaki Sherry Cask to the Yamazaki 18 (others on here didn't), although they are both cracking whiskies. EDIT : Here's the Whisky list of where I'm going to for New Year http://whiskyinn.com/_pdf/whiskylist.pdf It will be fun
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Dec 20, 2013 00:38
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Anyone having a nice dram this Christmas Eve? I've got to polish off some Glenfarclas 17, then it'll be on one (maybe) from Glendronach 18, Springbank 15 and a Karuizawa.
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Dec 24, 2013 18:27
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I've just got a nice OMC 11 year old Bunnahabhain that is rich and fruity and reminds me a bit of their old 18 year old that changed out of all recognition when they changed it to NCF (lots less sherry influence). I'm on my way to Brora where the nice people at Clynelish distillery said they'd open up for me and the wife to have a nose around despite them being closed. I think they sell a Cask Strength distillery only bottling that just might have to be bought.
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Dec 27, 2013 19:36
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Deleuzionist posted:Which OMC is this? I tasted one young Bunna, either OMC or Provenance, at a DL tasting in January which was really bold in fruit and had a great mouthfeel despite being so young, and I'd like to try something like that again but I completely forgot to note down the bottle then. Bottled in September 2013 if that helps? Made some nice purchases up in Scotland this year. Costcutter in Huntley was doing Abunad'h for 30 quid! Edit: September not October biglads fucked around with this message at 19:49 on Jan 1, 2014 |
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Dec 31, 2013 23:18
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Devoz posted:
Maybe a Springbank or a Yamazaki? I was up on Speyside over Hogmanay and took some video of the new distillery Pernod Ricard are building on the old Imperial site. Here's the video I took on 2 Jan 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOIlHsGTeFs I'll upload the new one over the weekend and then link it here. Lots has happened, the new place looks enormous.
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Jan 14, 2014 19:50
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global tetrahedron posted:What's the ACE hole? "Additional Cask Evolution" a.k.a. "This barrel seems pretty poo poo, lets bung it into a [random wine cask] for 6 months and see if that cheers it up a bit"
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Jan 15, 2014 15:08
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Deleuzionist posted:A friend has an open Bunna 12 so I've had some of that again lately. Thinking about these bottlings I'd say the Bn5 comes across as a bit more smoky than the 12yo. It didn't have that much nuts or nut oil tones in it as the 12 and covered that up with some Caol Ila-like charcoal notes (could be it's one or a few casks that are just bourbon because the Bn5 had no sherryish notes). It wasn't as peaty as Toiteach either because there just wasn't that 'roomful of rubber boots' that's my impression of Toiteach. This Bn5 was better than Bn4 or Bn2 which are ok, more widely available and also veer in this smokier-than-12-but-unpeated-or-very-light territory., but somehow not as immediately appealing as the 5. 18 has one big selling point: MORE SHERRY. And drat if that doesn't fit Bunnahabhain. I bought my current 18 after really liking it in a Bunna tasting which I wrote about earlier this year, and the bottle doesn't disappoint. If you think the 12 could use a bit more richness and that richness could come from sherry flavours then you are in for a treat especially with just a bit of water. Of course to each his own but for example as much as I like Caol Ila stuff I think a fair price point for their normal 18yo would be at €60, yet I have no regrets paying the circa €80 I did for the Bunna18. I got a new Lagavulin 16 (a familiar drink) on the same go as the Bunna 18 and I'm happier about the Bunna purchase. If you get to try the old Bunna 18 (it's at 43%) you'll like the Sherry in that. Very Christmas Cake flavour.
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May 15, 2014 21:36
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