It’s now Day 2 of my Islay expedition and this one will be quite a more arduous journey then any other distillery tour I’ve experienced here on Islay. Not because of the distillery experience itself but because of it’s extremely remote location being the northernmost distillery on Islay. Since my dad and I didn’t have a car to use on Islay and the bus schedule … Continue reading Bunnahabhain Warehouse 9 Tasting
So after finishing up at Bruichladdich and waiting for the bus at a little café called Debbie’s just up the road from the distillery I grabbed the bus back to Bowmore to drop off the distillery valinch I purchased and headed on over to Bowmore Distillery for their last tour of the day. The Bowmore Distillery tour costs 10 pounds and comes with 3 drams … Continue reading Bowmore Distillery Tour
So it’s the dawn on the first morning on Islay. Bowmore is lovely as could be as the sun begins to shine onto Loch Indaal, but I won’t be staying for too long in Bowmore this morning. A quick hour long bus ride from Islay High School takes us to the pier of Bruichladdich, just minutes away from our destination, and our first distillery tour … Continue reading Bruichladdich Warehouse Tasting
The final part of my Campbeltown trip is finally here. It’s been a heck of a day. Some amazing whiskies were tried and I experienced a lot of new aspects about whiskymaking here in Scotland, but now it’s finally time to go out with a bang! And what better way to end my Campbeltown expedition then at the Glen Scotia Distillery! Now in terms of … Continue reading Glen Scotia Dunnage Tour and Tasting
After the wild and fun times I had at the Cadenhead’s warehouse (and the shop before and afterwards taking some time to admire the selection as well as some beauties found in the famed Cadenhead’s “Cage”) I now headed for the second distillery tour of the day and one that I was very interested to learn more about, which is the Glengyle Distillery Tour! The … Continue reading Glengyle (Kilkerran) Distillery Tour
So now that the Springbank Distillery Tour has concluded, with a fun first experience of Scotch distilling in the memory bank, it’s time for one of the most anticipated tastings that I had planned for this trip, the Cadenhead’s Warehouse Tasting! Now Cadenhead’s is an independent bottler of a lot of different spirits. Scotch is their main draw but they also bottle gin, rum, cognac … Continue reading Cadenhead’s Warehouse Tasting
So I just arrived in Scotland the day before, and while the journey was rather long I’ve finally made it to Campbeltown! So after a fun night of good seafood and whisky with my dad at the Ardshiel Hotel it’s now time for the main attraction that most visitors of the white sandy shores of Campbeltown are keen to enjoy, the whisky tours! For the … Continue reading Springbank Distillery Tour
We’re going to be honest here… when we first saw the J.P. Wiser’s Alumni Series get released, we assumed it was simply a marketing gimmick that would in all likelihood take existing whiskies and re-brand then with famous players’ names to up-sell the hockey fan market. We even told the folks at Corby this and that we didn’t feel these would appeal to the whisky … Continue reading J.P. Wiser’s NHL Alumni Series
The third and final category of the 2019 TWS Awards is the Single Malts! Canada’s single malt history dates back to the opening of the Glenora distillery on Cape Breton Island in the early 90s, and since then many others have taken up the torch from coast to coast. We always anticipate great things from this category, and this year didn’t disappoint! The bottles were … Continue reading 2019 TWS Whisky Awards: Canadian Single Malts
The second category in this year’s TWS Whisky Awards are the Single Grains, which include ryes, wheat, and other prairie grains. This year we received 8 bottles for this category, and evaluated them in the following random order: The Lineup: Stalk & Barrel 100% Rye: A 3 year old 100% Ontario rye whisky bottled at 46% with no colour or chill filtration. Black Fox Distillery … Continue reading 2019 TWS Whisky Awards: Canadian Single Grains
This year, Toronto Whisky Society received 12 Canadian blended whiskies from 8 different distilleries ranging from large to small and from east to west. We tasted all of them blind in the randomized order below, and our rankings were anonymous. In the end, our #1 ranked whisky was unanimous. You’ll have to read through to the bottom to find out what it was! The Lineup: … Continue reading 2019 TWS Whisky Awards: Canadian Blended Whisky
Two years ago we set out to try whiskies from across Canada to celebrate our great country’s 150th birthday. Interest grew in the second year and now in our third annual kick at this particular can, we’ve decided to re-brand the Great Canadian Whisky Tasting to the annual TWS Whisky Awards! We find it more befitting of what we’re doing here, and yet despite the … Continue reading 2019 TWS Whisky Awards
Toronto Whisky Society 