Author: emil
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Remarkable rocky hill hooch
Craigellachie — ‘rocky hill’ — distillery, is a Speyside distillery dating back to the 19th century. It’s gained a following among afficionados for it’s traditional and ‘dirty’ style. Despite being owned by drinks giant Bacardi via the Dewar’s subsidiary, the entire single malt core range is integrity bottled — 46%, non-chillfiltered, natural colour — and…
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Try before you buy
Today I will implement the ancient wisdom of trying before buying. Two bottles on the German market have caught my attention recently, and I’ve contemplated a buy but thought I could maybe wait for a sale before I took the chance. Then I found both in 5cl tasting samples, so I ordered them (along with…
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The Jingle Malts of Scotland
It’s been many weeks of hard work, and no whisky tasting. Now I finally have a day off, and what a grand tasting I shall have as a reward for my toil! A 14yo Lowland, 13yo Highland, 31yo Speyside, and 28yo Islay, all single casks with 51-54% ABV. These are the samples from undisclosed distilleries…
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Blends in their 40s
It’s been a lot of single malt recently. Not only recently, but in general. Time to take things a little less seriously with some unassuming blends. Let’s see what we have in the cupboard. Ah, according to my secret files, I acquired some blend samples on October 31st, 2022, though a UK order at master…
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Three Deanies
For no very particular reason, I’m doing a Deanston tasting with the samples I’ve got. Two were thrown in with with other stuff in online shop purchases, and the third one I actually picked up at the distillery last year. Without further ado… Deanston | 11yo (2009) | 46% | Home of Malts 🌐 Scotch…
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Missing number 36
When I was formatting my Review Index, I made a horrifying discovery: there was no review #36! Where could it have gone? Finding no review between #35 Jura and #37 Glencadam, I concluded I must have simply skipped a number. Or perhaps it was one of a couple of spoiled samples that in the end…
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Glen Keith im Vergleich
“Glen Keith” must be the least sexy distillery name in Scotland. At least it’s not Glen Kevin… He’s a big boomer boy, Keith, built in 1957 to produce 6 million litres a year for blends geared towards the American market (Chivas Regal, Passport and 100 Pipers Blends). Mothballed in 1999 and reopened in 2013. There…
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The Newbies, Pt. III
Bang on to a new set of four distilleries in the new wave (The Newbies, Part I; The Newbies, Pt. II). Eden Mill was founded in 2012 (production started 2014) in St Andrews and runs both brewing and distilling operations. It’s a small independent distillery with 100’000 L yearly capacity (that’s one 150th that of a giant…
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The Barn of the King
We were driving from Edinburgh to St. Andrews on a spontaneous day trip. Somehow fiddling with Google Map I see we are just about to pass close to Kingsbarns, a distillery name I recognized. A little while later we are pulling up to the visitor centre. Bad luck! We are arriving just as the last…
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Springtime
Springbank call themselves “The whisky drinker’s whisky”. It is indeed a whisky that’s for very long been highly regarded among whisky enthusiasts, and certainly among many of my more whisky-seasoned friends in WOLS who in large part inducted me into the whiskyverse. Springbank is the stalwart of the Campbeltown style of single malt, and family-owned…
DuckDrams 