Author: emil
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Bowies and Laphies
One Friday night I was craving the thrill of gustatory exploration, but did not want to have the quantity of alcohol associated with a full comparative whisky tasting. So I blindly took one sample from the increasing pile of forgotten minibottles. It turned out (as I revealed to myself after the tasting) to be Bowmore.…
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Armagnac: a malternative
For the first time on this blog we venture beyond the comforts of whisky! As I remember it, I got lured into the French brandy universe by a bottle of Thompson Bros. 27yo “Early Landed Late Bottled” brandy (most likely Cognac) that I gifted my father with great success. Then I started reading more about…
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New stop light scoring system
I’ve spilt much time and ink on developing a non-standard grading system. What I’ve held onto for some time now is a hierarchy of Bad (❌), Unfulfilling (➖), Rewarding (✔️), Personal Favourite (❤️). I’m finding that almost everything I try ends up in the Rewarding category (because I’m spending my own money, and will rarely…
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Ghost safari #1
I have been trying a lot of newbie distilleries recently (Newbies Pt I, II, III) with the aim of getting through all of them eventually — a task that will take years for the simple fact that new distilleries still keep popping up like malty mushrooms in the ground! Of the 28 distilleries founded in…
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Son of a bad bottom
“Isn’t particularly of any interest… let’s move on.” So said Ralfy recently of Macduff in his overview of Scotch malt distilleries A-Z on his Patreon channel. To the contrary, in the Bad Homburg whisky festival 2023 I tried two Macduffs that were both were really interesting. One was relatively young but had a very distinguished…
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Wiener whisky
Second half of July I spend a week in Vienna for work, a science conference on mathematical modelling in ecology and evolution. Getting there from my home in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany was fairly convenient with the ÖBB Night Jet, with their new sleeper wagons with individual pods. Or shall we call it sarcophagi? Good thing I’m…
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Birthplace of the water of life
“And by payment made to Brother John Cor by precept of the comptroller, as he asserts, by the King’s command, to make aqua vite within the period of the account, 8 bolls of malt.” Exchequer Rolls of 1494 This is widely recognized as the first written record of the production of aqua vitae, or whisky.…
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Blend it up
Sometimes I can be very undecisive. I stand in front of my whisky safe, with a dozen or two different tastings themes to choose from. Young grains. Old Islays. A Glen Garioch horizontal. Another vertical of newbie distilleries. Cracking open a new bottle for a first impression? After a long time hesitating, and trying to…
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Revisiting Edinburgh, my spirit-ual home
Oh Flower of ScotlandWhen will we seeYer like again? In the beginning of July I went on a short holiday in my favourite city that I called home for four years. The purpose of the visit was to attend Zoe’s graduation and meet some old friend (…and while there to enjoy a dram or two.)…
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Bushy Irish diamond lady
Irish whiskey has thus far been nearly absent from this blog. Time to give a chance to the green island in the west. Irish whiskey was once the most popular spirit in the world. Then it crashed in the 20th century following domestic and world wars, trade wars with the UK, and whatnot, with only…
DuckDrams 