Tag: laphroaig
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Buy or pass?
Today I’ll try samples that acquired of two recently released bottles that have been on my potential-buy list. Let’s see if I’ll be convinced to pull the trigger… or put the gun away. Craigellachie • 15yo (2009) • 59.5% • Signatory Vintage Scotch Single Malt • First-fill bourbon barrel • Natural Colour & Unchillfiltered •…
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Judging the Jury
The Whisky Jury is the Belgian independent bottling company of a guy called Joeri (the pun is intended). Launching in 2019 with two vintage Ben Nevises and a Caol Ila bottling, they have had a slow but growing success, with over a 100 bottlings to date (including some malternatives). According to their website “We are…
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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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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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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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Christmas calendar 2023: second half
It’s time to finish the calendar. One might say, what’s the rush, I missed the Christmas season anyways? Well, I’ve had some bad experiences of whisky samples deteriorating rapidly with time, causing cardboardy off-notes. My hypothesis is that this is mainly related to over-oxidization and that it happens faster in samples bottles in general, and…
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Leapfrog
A month or so ago this “Williamson” (independent bottler alias for Laphroiag) from Asta Morris started popping up in German online stores. Seemed like a decent value proposition at €83-95, but single casks can sometimes take bad or unexpected directions, despite everything looking good on paper. Which is sometimes the reason why the distillery sold…
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The Islay trip, day 3 – Ardnahoe, Bunnahabhain, Caol Ila, Laphroaig, Bowmore
The day before I enjoyed being driven to Islay rum, Lagavulin, Ardbeg, and Kilchoman. Now was my turn to drive the car. With every intention of doing so legally and competently, that meant no whisky for this old boy. Fortunately, distilleries usually have small sample bottles so that drivers can get takeaway drams. Little did…
DuckDrams 