Category Archives: Whiskey

Royal Brackla – The Royal Jubilee Commemorative 12 Year Old 1999 – Old Matt Cask (Douglas Laing)

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Speyside Single Malt, 12 Years, 50% ABV, $79

Smells of grass, mild peat, feint smoke and peanut brittle. The taste is very tangy and sweet, then peppery followed by a warm leathery peppered finish. Lemon, orange, vanilla and ginger start strong and fade very slowly. The pepper starts slowly and builds to a crescendo, then slowly diminishes into the mildly smoked finish. A splash of water tones down the citrus and spice elements and reveals a bit more peat and smoke. The finish is very long and peppery with the leathery bitterness persisting for minutes. This is a very complex and tasty whisky. Only the pepper seems to be out of balance even after dilution; however, I like a spicy whisky so this is fine by me. The more I drink, the more the citrus notes are evident… grapefruit and orange.

The bottler says:

A 12 year old Royal Brackla, this is part of Douglas Laing’s Old Malt Cask series. This particular release was bottled to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee. One of just 250 bottles.

Aberlour A’Bunadh, Batch 42

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Speyside Single Malt, 10 Years, 60.3% ABV, $53

The aroma is overpowered by pepper (not surprising at 120°), but I detect notes of toffee and barley as well. It’s clear that this one needs some water to open up.

Ah, that’s better! Now scents of caramel, banana, orange and cinnamon move to the forefront. The taste is a montage of fruit and spice with orange, cinnamon, salty caramel, ginger, vanilla and cayenne. The finish is long and spicy with a leathery feel, but a light sweetness persists for a long time. During the transition, I detect graham crackers and vanilla. My initial taste of this last night wasn’t nearly as favorable, but spending some time with A’Bunadh has been enjoyable. This one is complex, fruity, sweet, spicy, woody and dry. It should definitely keep you interested with all that is going on with the nose and palate.

Here’s Aberlour’s description:

A’bunadh, Gaelic for ‘of the origin’, is matured exclusively in Oloroso ex-sherry butts. It is a natural cask-strength malt whisky produced without the use of modern-day chill filtering methods or the addition of water.

MacLeods 8 Year Old Highland (Ian MacLeod)

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Highland Single Malt, 8 Years, 40% ABV, $47

The nose is light with notes of raw honey, butterscotch, pear and burnt sugar. The taste is tart, sweet and lightly peppered. Lots of vanilla, apple, salted caramel and ginger lead in and settle into a slightly bitter citrus vanilla finish. The pepper is soft throughout, so the fading is much less notable. When its all said and done, all that remains is a mild oaky bitterness. The entry is very bold as compared to the nose and the finish. Still, this is a decent dram.

MacLeod’s bottling notes:

An undemanding 8 year old single malt from an unnamed Highland distillery, this was bottled by Ian Macleod.

Boxes Blend

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Blended, No Age Statement, 40% ABV, $90

The nose is full of grass, apple, vanilla and overripe banana with a bit of cigar box. There’s a definite charred oak flavor characteristic up front that develops throughout to the finish. This theme is complemented by tart apple, ginger, orange and vanilla. All except the ginger fade fairly quickly as a peppery finish develops and persists. After the black pepper fades, the aftertaste is leathery oak. The experience is somewhat disjointed rather than a continuously smooth transition. If not for that, this might be a fantastic experience. That and the overpowering pepper that lacks any additional spice or other flavors for balance really detracts from the experience. The other flavors are long gone while you’re wondering how long the pepper will last. There’s lots of promise, but nothing special here.

According to Master of Malt:

Boxes Blend is a whisky put together by none other than Athlete bassist Carey Willets. The blend is named after his new solo project, an electro pop adventure that’s already garnering some great reviews.

Interesting that they give more information about the musician than the whisky. 😉

Blair Athol 1995 – Manager’s Choice

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Highland Single Malt, 14 Years,
54.7% ABV, $315

With this one, I’m caught up and back on schedule!

Honey, ginger, caramel and pepper on the nose. Candied ginger, vanilla, orange, pepper and a bit of oak on the palate. It takes quite a bit of water to tone down the alcohol burn, then there are notes of vanilla, apple and clove to complement the candied ginger. That’s about it. I’m surprised that this one doesn’t have more to offer at the price. The taste ends with a mild oak and fades quickly. It’s good, but not spectacular.

The bottler notes:

The Blair Athol edition of Diageo’s recent Managers Choice range of single casks from every distillery in their arsenal. This was distilled in 1995 and bottled in 2009 from cask number 5989. Each bottle is individually numbered.

MacLeods 8 Year Old Islay (Ian MacLeod)

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Islay Single Malt, 8 Years, 40% ABV, $50

This my first Islay Scotch and I’ve really been looking forward to the experience. I’ll just dive right in.

Salty seawater, orange and lots of smoke. I think I need to give this one some room to breath. Okay, the smoke has settled down some and the orange has become orange peel and shortbread with just a hint of creamy vanilla. I also detect a faint spruce tree. I was expecting a note of iodine based on what I’ve heard, but this may be coming through as the fir for me. Anyway, its time for a sip. The taste is a lot of peat and oily smoke… not my favorite. Now, I do get a taste of iodine that persists for quite a while. Also, not my idea of a desired flavor. Other flavors I detect are vanilla and pepper.

Master of Malt says:

A peaty 8 year old Single Malt from a secret Islay, bottled by Ian Macleod as an introduction into malt whisky.

Master of Malt Island Single Malt

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Islands Single Malt, No Age Statement,
40%ABV, $50

This is yesterday’s dram… one more and I’m caught up!  This is also my first Island malt… here I go!

Wow! Lots of smoke rising from this baby. I also smell seawater soaked peat with vanilla and caramel trying to break through. After letting it breath a bit, lemon drops appear as the smoke dissipates lightly. There’s still a bold peaty fragrance. The taste is notably salty, peppery and sweet with the peppery finish lasting 40-40 seconds leaving behind smoke, peat and oak. The last thing to go is the smoky peat, but its not overpowering anywhere along the way. Back to the initial taste… there’s plum, ginger, tart apple and, of course, the salty, peaty smoke and pepper. The body of this whisky is full and flavorful… nothing seems particularly out of balance, but there’s a bit of something missing that I can’t quite put my finger on. Still, my first Island experience is a good one.

Master of Malt can’t identify the source of this whisky, saying:

Rather smoky with a classic Island flavour – think coastal notes and thick malt. Our Island single malt is from an unnamed distillery, and we can’t specify the age. The result of this is we can buy and sell these bottles at ridiculously low prices considering how good the whisky is. Try it, try and guess where it’s from and post your comment below if you think you know! (We can’t tell you though, it’s a secret!)

Cabin Still Bourbon

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Bourbon, 3 Years, 40% ABV, $11

I’m two days late on this one. I need to catch up quickly in order to have any hope of finishing on time.

This bottom shelf bourbon has a very weak nose of caramel and alfalfa. There’s a bit of syrupy texture from sweet corn and grass to mostly grass with lots of oak and sorghum. The finish is mostly the peppery burn of alcohol accompanied by leathery dried raisin and I still taste grass with lingering oak. I wouldn’t spend the $11 even if it were available here.

Heaven Hill describes Cabin Still this way:

An old-fashioned style of bourbon, Cabin Still is a sour mash whiskey from the Heaven Hill distillery.

Compass Box Oak Cross

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Blended Malt, No Age Statement, 43% ABV, $50

I’ve been meaning to try something from Compass Box for a while and encountered this one on day 6. It smells of grapefruit, vanilla and caramel with a touch of grass and a whiff of very light smoke. The taste is saturated with wood, beginning with a complement of grapefruit and vanilla toffee, the transitioning to bittersweet honey and finishing with leathery pepper burn. The burn fades reasonably quickly at the front of the mouth, but continues to burn in the back of the mouth and throat. The bitterness fades to a dull taste of oak and leather. This one is spicy throughout the experience and any sweetness is quickly vanquished by the woody characteristic.

Compass Box says:

We call this whisky Oak Cross because it offers the best characteristics of both American and French oak aging. A rich, medium-bodied blended malt Scotch whisky, Oak Cross combines vanilla characters from American oak and spicy, clove-like characters from French oak.

Glenkinchie 20 Year Old (2010 Release)

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Lowland Single Malt, 20 Years,
55.1% ABV, $185

Wonderful honey, apricot and creamy vanilla aroma… perhaps sweet flowers as well, like Azalea… the most pleasant so far. The taste is powerful and lingers for a good minute plus. Lots of citrus – orange and lemon – along with a salty sweet vanilla that turns into a salty leathery honey. The peppery burn arrives after the citrus and remains as it fades along with the leathery honey. They call this a lady’s whisky, but I can only imagine her with a name like Bertha because this one is pretty tough. I mean that it’s definitely not feminine. A bit of water starts to release spices – ginger, pepper and a feint sage – and the citrus is toned down significantly. It becomes a lightly salted blend of citrus, banana, peach and finishes with leathery banana and vanilla. This is definitely an enjoyable drink and my first Lowland Scotch Whisky.

Glenkinchie 20 2010 Bottling Note:

The 2010 special release from Lowland distillery Glenkinchie. Fruity, smooth and luxurious. A lady-whisky if ever we saw one.

Finally, here is the link to this offering at Master of Malt.