Tag: 15-19yo
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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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Ghost Safari – Imperial strikes back
Today I’m back where it all started for me with the closed distilleries: Imperial. Nothing new to say, so I’ll just take chance in this intro to review my hitherto progress of the ghost safari tour. Distillery Region Closing year Safari status Caperdonich Speyside 2002 🟡 sample acquired Imperial Lowland 1998 🟢 tried & reviewed…
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Sampling the Whisky Loch
The story goes that the whisky boom in the 1960s and 70s lead to an overproduction of Scotch, a veritable “Whisky Loch”, but with changing economics and consumer preferences in the 1980s, the industry had a hard time, with many now-revered distilleries like Port Ellen and Brora closed or mothballed. If market logic holds, one…
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Glenwinnie
Elgin in Speyside, Scotland is home to a handful of distilleries, two of which are among my longtome favourites — Glen Elgin, and Linkwood, both owned by Diageo. The only regular official bottling is from the Flora & Fauna range (colored, chillfiltered, low ABV), but fortunately indie bottlers have me covered. Then there is Glenlossie,…
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A grainy day
Today’s tasting goal is simple: to etch the particular character of grain whisky so deep into my conscious that I’ll never mistake a single malt for grain (or vice versa) in a blind tasting ever again! Well, we’ll see how that goes. Usually, on the unusual occasion that I drink single grain, it’s in the…
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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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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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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…
DuckDrams 