Tag: 1980s
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Ghost Safari – Bar from afar
Time to cross another pair of elusive beasts off the “ghost safari” sighting chart — Ben Wyvis and Convalmore, samples I bought online from the “Bar Fram Afar” by Thomson Bros. / Dornoch and shipped with a bunch of stored bottles and an upcoming 8-part Dornoch 25th Anniversary Tasting. Ben Wyvis is indeed one of…
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197119781984
The theme of today’s tasting is Some 2cl Samples of Old Vintage Speysiders That I Need to Drink Before They Go Bad. The first sample, a Tamdhu from Creative Whisky Company, I brought from the Limburg Whisky Festival 2025, and the other two, 1970s Cadenhead’s Benrinnes and Signatory Miltonduff, I got from Simple Sample as…
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Maggie
For tonight I’ve got a trio of vintage St. Magdalenes. This is a well-regarded closed Lowland distillery, that I’ve tried a couple of time before (#196). Let’s see what old lady Maggie can do this time. St. Magdalene | 18yo (1964) | 40% | Gordon & MacPhail 🌐 Scotch single malt 🪵 no info 🔆…
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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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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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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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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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Ghost Safari – Brora, Port Ellen
Brora and Port Ellen were among the many casualties of the deadly year of 1983, within the period of whisky-bust in the 1980s. In the last couple of decades, they became iconic and coveted among enthusiast (and traders), as mature casks of the old stock came into circulation. In the present whisky boom, both distilleries,…
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Ghost Safari – Rosebank, Pittyvaich
Halloween is approaching, so to get into the mood it’s time for some more ghost distilleries. First, a curious sample of Rosebank, only 8yo and presumably bottled in the 1980s. Then it’s one I haven’t tried before, as far as I can recall — Pittyvaich. This distillery was only in operation 1974-1993 and then demolished…
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VT
Another first for this blog — a cognac review! — but I’ve been enjoying good cognac for a couple of years now. Naturally, I simply skipped over the mass-market Remy Martin, Hennessy, Camus and their ilk — if bland whisky isn’t worth the time, cost and liver damage, sure as hell bland cognac isn’t either.…
DuckDrams 