The fact that it was quite hot that Saturday in August was fitting. This summer, Toronto Whisky Society’s special once a year non-whisky event was a voyage to Greece to sample tsipouro and brandy spirits. The tsipouro and brandy spirits in question came from Thesaloniki Greece and the family spirit makers @dourodoulispirits. Members were greeted with Greek music and their choice of specialty cocktail. The … Continue reading Tsipouro Tasting
In September, TWS members visited the Hiram Walker Distillery in Windsor, Ontario. This wasn’t the first time for some of us, as the TWS founders visited in 2017. We toured the grain receiving, fermenters, the stills, the Pike Creek warehouses and then had a blending session with Dr. Don Livermore where we applied everything we learned (and tasted) to make our very own blends. Fueled … Continue reading Hiram Walker Distillery Visit 2023
Last year we acquired a collection of vintage malts and blends and have a series of events lined up to drink them with the club. The first of these was our Ardbeg tasting with Bry Simpson earlier this year which featured an Ardbeg 10 from the 80s. The next vintage tasting was comprised of the many old blends we received, and there were some real … Continue reading Vintage Blends Tasting
This whisky has been staring me in the face behind the bar at my pub for ages, and I’ve finally gone and tried it. There’s more to this that meets the eye. The distillery that’s known today as Clynelish was built in 1967, right next door to the original Clynelish distillery which was renamed “Brora”. Bizarrely, up until the mid-70s, it was common practice for … Continue reading [Review] Clynelish 12 Gordon & MacPhail “Ainslie & Heilbron” (bottled ~1984)
Glenburgie is rapidly becoming one of my very favourite Speyside distilleries. It seems to produce those tropical fruit notes that I go crazy for with consistency, provided it’s had enough time in the cask. The 21 years of age on this distillery-label bottling from Gordon & MacPhail should be enough to get those flavours going. Nose: Ehhhh, there’s some stale sulfur here, and mustiness like … Continue reading [Review] Glenburgie 21 Gordon & MacPhail Distillery Label
This is my first 50-year-old whisky, breaking my previous oldest-whisky record by a solid decade. It’s a blended scotch, bottled by the appropriately-named Blended Whisky Company in 2017. I couldn’t find any info on the composition of this blend, but no matter. Let’s give it a try! Nose: Very mellow. Musty notes of old leather and old furniture. Some vanilla buttercream and that particular old-grain … Continue reading [Review] The Half Century Blend 50-year-old Blended Scotch Whisky
Despite a relatively small sample size, Imperial has become one of my very favourite Speyside distilleries. It delivers the tropical and waxy goods regularly, and despite closing in 1998 it doesn’t (yet) have the same dead-distillery premium on it as many of the bigger names. This Signatory bottling from 1976 will be the oldest vintage Imperial I’ve ever tried. Colour: Straw. Nose: Sweet and fatty. … Continue reading [Review] Imperial 19 1976 Signatory Vintage
This is Talisker’s latest duty-free exclusive bottlings. It has a snazzy purple label, but it surpass the high bar set by Talisker 10? Nose: Strong, with some volatile character. Peppery peat – applewood-smoked BBQ, with that vinegary Carolina-style hot sauce. Green apples, lemon, and interestingly some strawberry. Slightly greenish-grassy. Palate: Light texture. Arrives with green apple, gooseberry, strawberry, and torched grass. Peppery and slightly acrid peat smoke … Continue reading [Review] Talisker Surge
This is the most recent batch of Amrut Spectrum, bottled in 2021. I’m extremely excited to try this whisky – Amrut is one of my favourite distilleries (without any “not located in Scotland” qualifier!), and the original Spectrum from 2015 remains one of my top whiskies of all time. Confusingly, both that release and this new one are numbered “004”, as are a number of … Continue reading [Review] Amrut Spectrum 004 (2021 Release)
The other night I finally got to try the line of official bottlings from the Fettercairn distillery. Up to now I had only tried independent bottlings, which are generally good and aren’t too hard to find. An East Highland distillery, Fettercairn has a particular tropical character that comes from cooling rings on top of the stills, as well as a characteristic earthy funk. I can’t … Continue reading [Review] Fettercairn 12, Fettercairn 16 2022, Fettercairn 18
There are a few scotch brands that everyone loves that should be a staple tasting event for any reputable whisky club…. and we hadn’t done one of those yet in our 6 years since founding! Bry Simpson, the Canadian brand ambassador for Ardbeg and Glenmorangie is even a former TWS member, and YET we still hadn’t managed to pull off an event yet. That all … Continue reading Ardbeg & Glenmorangie Tasting – April 2023
Visiting Black Fox Distillery was a real treat, as we had tried their spirits in the 2018 Canadian whisky awards where they won in the under-aged spirit category! Compared to the industrial/roaring 20s feel of Lucky Bastard, Black Fox was quite the change – this is a huge, legit farm! Gorgeous grounds, stone building, rolling hills, farm activities for kids. It had it all! John … Continue reading Black Fox Distillery – Saskatoon
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