Blended, No Age Statement, 41.4% ABV, $81

I’m now 4 days behind schedule and feeling the pressure. My goal is to complete on time (i.e. the 24th)… that’s 9 drams in 5 days!

St. Isidore has a sweet seaside aroma with just a puff of smoke. The salty sea air is sweetened by butterscotch and vanilla while smoky grass moves in the soft breeze (I can’t believe I just wrote that!). In any case, it smells great! I sense an Island influence for sure. The taste is quite nice and matches the aroma. It’s salty with a mild peated smoke component. The smoke lingers while the sweetness gently fades and leaves a salty woody flavor. There’s a bit of grass early on that builds a bit and slowly fades with the sweetness. Back to the sweet flavors, they come back after a bit of a peppery interlude and taste like honey, vanilla and toffee. After several sips, I note a slight bit of clove and the peppery finish takes on a definite ginger flavor. The bitterness of the finish is a bit strong with a leathery quality; otherwise, this is quite nice and easily the best blend I’ve had yet.

This whisky has a unique story behind it:

The story of St Isidore and the bloggers blend all started one day when we were thinking about how to create our next whisky, when it suddenly hit us: ask the bloggers! These guys and gals are amongst the most knowledgeable, expert and, let’s face it, geekiest whisky lovers in the world! We called upon this incredible resource, and here’s how we did it…

Read more here.