Category: Blind tasting
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October Black Box
It’s the month of Trick or Treat – and boy did my goodie bag overflow with treats! I’m quite amazed as the variety here: Irish, Danish, American bourbon, and Scotches from a bourbon, sherry, Sauternes, and even a closed distillery! St. Patrick’s • “Cask Strength” • 53% Irish Blend • Bourbon casks • Natural Colour…
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Black Box August
The month of August offered a diverse harvest of 8 blind-tasted drams! Glentauchers • 10yo (2011) • 63.6% • Elixir Distillers Scotch Single Malt • Natural Colour & Unchillfiltered • Part of Single Malt of Scotland Whisky Calendar 2022 Blind tasting notes from a 3cl sample bottle Before reveal Nosing Pastry notes (butter, sugar, and…
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Black Box July
First half of July was not the best time for whisky. Preparing for a work trip, then spending most of it in a hotel room with a flu, and taking a long time to recover. As I was getting into the whisky tasting again I did not feel like big themed tasting, but started chipping…
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Black Box: May 2025
In September 2024 I posted my first edition of the black box, followed in October by the second edition. And then many other things scratched my blind tasting itch: whisky calendar, mystery tasting packs… Now in May 2025 I got back to the rather expansive black box and drew a sample here and there throughout…
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31, 30, 29, 22, 26, 25
It’s gearing up for… MY 300TH REVIEW ON THIS BLOG! A special retrospective & statistics-so-far post is coming up to celebrate, but I also wanted to make the 300th review a special dram. In the end, I couldn’t really decide, so I’ll let fate decide. I have held onto a special “Moin 2025” tasting pack…
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WC sniff & sip 2025 (Part 2/2)
We continue after Part 1 with the second batch of 12 secret samples. One can surely expect a special finale! Hercynian Whisky Co. | “The Alrik Limited Exclusive” | 55.1% | Official 🌐 German single malt 🪵 PX sherry quarter casks 💲 €130 (50cl) 🔗 whiskybase from a 2cl sample bottle tasted blindly 🗒️ Tasting…
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This and that
Most of my post are multi-dram tastings with clear themes. But sometimes it doesn’t work out that way. This first dram was the only one in my “black box” for November last year: Glen Garioch* | “Secret Highland Distillery” | 14yo (2008) | 52.9% | Sansibar 🌐 Scotch single malt 🪵 Oloroso hogshead 🔆 unchillfiltered…
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Blind Black Friday
What better symbol for the age of consumerism than Black Friday, unironically taking place the day after Thanksgiving. Sadly, my contribution to this sacred shopping spree was very minimal in 2024. In my defence I already have pretty much everything I need—but perhaps that’s missing the point. Except… whisky, one can always get some more…
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WC sniff & sip 2025 (Part 1/2)
No, no, I’m not taking a samples out of my toilet, but from my Whisky (advent) Calendar of 2024. Of the many calendars that one can find online, very few focus and small batch and single cask samples, but among those that do, none compares to the one from Brühler Whisky house. The 2023 totally…
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The Black Box #1
Tasting blindly is so revealing and so much fun, as I learned especially from the whisky calendar tastings. And in WOLS we always did blind tastings, though on a known theme and in the good company of others and on a time budget, a super carful analysis of the taste experience was not really the…
DuckDrams 