Toronto Whisky Society meetup at Devoz’s house, Feb 2016

Toronto Whisky Society got together at Devoz’s house for a few drams…though the word ‘few’ is kind of a lie. boyd86 kinohead devoz and I were drinking all night and tomodera dropped by for some swaps too.

here are the drams I tasted and some comments on each, verbatim from my hand-written notes that night, so you can probably tell which ones were later in the evening!

• Glenmorangie Ealanta
• High West Double Rye
• High West 21
• Bastille 1789
• Crown Royal Hand Selected Barrel
• Four Roses Single Barrel OESF
• AnCnoc 2000, 14yr
• Dalwhinnie DE
• Benrinnes 13, AD Rattray
• Glendronach 17 Single Cask Sherry, Olorosso
• Kilchoman 5 Single Bourbon Barrel, 60.4%
• Bowmore Devil’s Cask Batch 3
• Benriach 1996 Pedro Ximenez Sherry Finish
• Springbank 10
• Laphroaig Cairdeas Portwood

Don’t worry, I crashed in their spare bedroom that night!

_____________________________________________________

Glenmorangie Ealanta – 46% ABV

• Nose: tons of honey, oak and vanilla… just bourbon cask-ish
• Taste: shit ton of oak, spice and peppery, iodine.
• Finish: bitter finish as usual for a highland. Still lots of oak
• Score: 80/100
• just reminds me of the original with more oakiness. Tastes older but just very basic still.

AnCnoc 2000 – 46% ABV

• Nose: fruity and sweet, strawberries, raisins, prunes.
• Taste: very sherry-like, wow. Tons of Sunmaid raisins…seriously, I’m being brought back to my childhood, eating a box of Sunmaid raisins. Sweet, and hotter than I expected at 14yrs and 46%. Honey.
• Finish: sweet and raisiny
• Score: 84/100
• this was really nice,, and the heavy raisin flavour was crazy. Feels like I’m under-age drinking because I feel like I’m 6 years old.

Dalwhinnie Distiller’s Edition – 43% ABV

• Nose: light sherry, somewhat fruity. Not too strong
• Taste: light, medium bodied, heavier than the 15yr in the mouth. Bitter and oily.
• Finish: bitter. Typical highland
• Score: 70/100
• meh, kind of boring. Light sherry but nothing stands out.

Glendronach 1994 Single Cask – 54.9% ABV

• Nose: tons of cherries and raspberry,
• Taste: hot and rich. Berries, figs, prunes, dates, raisins. Awesome.
• Finish: rich oaky and long.
• Score: 90/100
• beautiful. Love it. I love the dark dried fruit better than a sweet PX cask.

Kilchoman Single Bourbon Cask 5yr – 60.4% ABV

• Nose: big smoke, briney. Doesn’t smell like 60% at all. Peat.
• Taste: big peat bomb. Buttery and oily. Ashy smoke. Sweet too. Some oaky notes
• Finish: warm and medium
• Score: 87/10

Bowmore Devil’s Cask Batch 3 – 56.7% ABV

• Nose: peaty and sweet.
• Taste: Hot damn (pun intended). Peaty and smoky, but quite sweet too. Really taste the PX cask.
• Finish: smoky and long
• Score: 84/100
• nice Islay, but I’d take Uig over it.

BenRiach 1996 PX finish – 53.9% ABV

• Nose: fruit, raisins, dried fruit, berries
• Taste: big peat bomb. Buttery and oily. Ashy smoke. Sweet too. Some oaky notesdried fruit, tobacco, fudge, chocolate, coffee, plums, some smoke
• Finish: warm, long and fruity
• Score: 90/100
• delicious, fruity, yet smoky. Lots of flavour. Really nice.

Springbank 10 – 46% ABV

• Nose: salty, light peat smoke, grassy, funky note
• Taste: briney, smoky salty. Weirdness… what is that? I’d had too much booze at this point to define it
• Finish: long and salty
• Score: 86/100
• the guys told me springbank was weird but good and that sums it up well. I look forward to trying more.

Laphroaig Cairdeas Portwood – 51.3% ABV

• Nose: peat, smoke, fruit
• Taste: tons of peat, ash, smoke, fruit
• Finish: long, smoky
• Score: 88/100
• delicious. I’m too drunk to get good notes on it, but damn there’s good quality here.

Crown Royal Hand Selected Barrel – 51.5% ABV

• Nose: very little nose to speak of. Doesn’t smell like rye or oak or like there’s any alcohol. Strange
• Taste: cedar. Holy crap that’s a ton of cedar. Really sweet, super woody. More cedar, damn that’s unique.
• Finish: medium to short, cedar.
• Score: 85/100
• that’s a crazy unique dram. Definitely better than other CRs I’ve had. Why the heck wouldn’t they release this normally? Never tasted cedar in a dram before, which is really neat. Didn’t know it was possible for them to make something this good. There’s hope yet…. if you live in Texas at least.

Bastille 1789 – 40% ABV

• Nose: very little nose to speak of. Doesn’t smell like rye or oak or like there’s any alcohol. Strange doesn’t smell like whisky at all. More like a liqueur.
• Taste: weird.. Almost tastes like the wiser’s hopped. What did the cask do to this? Rotten maltiness.
• Finish: sharp and acidic
• Score: 40/100
• weird. Ew. Devoz, you’re crazy for loving this.

Yellow Rose Straight Rye – 45% ABV

• Appearance: yellow orange colour. Looks full bodied.
• Nose: pleasant nose with lots of oak, rye spice, a little bit of dill, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon.
• Taste: very obviously a straight rye, with a spicy kick and lots of dill flavour. Quite sweet too with sugarcane and candy-like notes. Oak influence is strong with vanilla, caramel and a woodyness. A bit brash, and obviously young. You taste every bit of the 45% ABV.
• Finish: spicy, oaky and medium length.
• Score: 80/100
• this is young and brash, but the spirit is flavourful and well crafted. If this was given 8-10 years in a barrel, I think they’d have a pretty fantastic product. This is my first whiskey out of Texas and I would not be opposed to trying another sometime! at $35 it’s a decent value, but wouldn’t have been at the original $70.

High West Double Rye – 50% ABV

• Nose: lots of oak, dill, tons of pepper, very spicy.
• Taste: peppery dill pickle, spicy, lots of oak. delicious
• Finish: really spicy and oaky, lasts a long time.
• Score: 87/100

High West 21 – 46% ABV

• Nose: banana, rye spice, dill
• Taste: wow, that’s crazy. So much banana, tons of oak, almost chocolatey in the sweetness, sugary
• Finish: sweet, rich and long
• Score: 89/100
• this is amazing. Love that banana nose.