Ledaig. On Reddit, that place where bad and good things happen, I’m the third most prolific reviewer of Ledaig. Last I checked. Let’s do that now, before I screw up and put my foot in my mouth, again. Alright, it basically backs me up. I think. Who knows if people have been archiving? Whatever. When it comes to?Ledaig, I’m happy to not be the leader.… Continue reading 6 Ledaig Reviews
So you are an independent bottler. No, not because I said so, I don’t have that power. My superpower is leaving a film on glass, and someday the X-men will call because they are fighting the Sparkler. Marvel, call me for phase 5, I’m awesome. Back to my original point: You’re working as an independent bottler. In make-believe land. And you’re offered some less expensive… Continue reading North Star Millennial Range
Butthole Whisky. If you recognize where that’s from, welcome to the list I’m on. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or bad thing. Tobermory is made in such a way that specific flavours of pungent notes are forefront. For some of us we enjoy these notes in the form of fermented pickles and blue cheese. For others, they note the same note is… Continue reading Tobermory 23 1995 Maltbarn / Tobermory 12 / Tobermory 10 2008 North Star
Thanks to?@scotchguy.to?for sharing a dram of this with me. Something I’m always looking for is a brash, young, interesting whisky. Usually, that means a full maturation. Usually means something beyond an ex-bourbon cask, something peated, something with an odd mashbill. It doesn’t always mean it will work. And sometimes something else works. So a friend brought out?Tobermory 8 2008 Archives?at a recent tasting. I’ve never… Continue reading Tobermory 8 2008 Archives
Thanks to?@scotchguy.to?for sharing a dram of this with me. There’s been a recent theme that myself (and TWS, oddly) has. You don’t need a super old whisky to have a super good whisky. Yes, it’s hard to get to that complexity that older drams have. And when a blender/distiller has time to age a group of whiskies (or just one) well, they have more chance… Continue reading Highland Park Orkney 8 Signatory Vintage
Thanks to Tim W. for pouring me this sample. So we start ramping up. Because for this year’s Advent Calendar, put together by my wife, each one is supposed to be stronger than the last. Luckily I have a working liver. Ha! Take that non-liver people! So we’re onto Advent Day #16. Let’s see how this tastes, shall we? Price: Sold out Region: Island Date Distilled: July 2002… Continue reading Arran SMWS 121.76 “Close shave from a tipsy barber”
Thanks to /u/Throzen for pouring me a sample of this. In a previous review, I mentioned, erroneously, that Highland Park is the only distillery on Orkney that peats. Fun story: Scapa used to peat way, way back. And then stopped due to hating us. Or whatever reason. I’m totally not taking it personally. Jerks. Anyway, that leaves us with Highland Park being the only ones who still… Continue reading Highland Park SMWS 4.236 “Island Holiday Snapshot”
Thanks to the Toronto Whisky Society for hosting this event, and to /u/devoz for picking out the lineup. Alright feeling more confident now. Why? Because we’re talking about Isle of Jura. And because that distillery holds a special place in my heart. And not just due to the buildup of platelets near my left ventricle. The first whisky I ever really, really loved was Jura Superstition. And while I… Continue reading Isle of Jura Boutique Barrels 1997 Loire Rosé Sparkling Wine Finish
This year we changed things up with the Toronto Whisky Society: We had two releases. Due to feedback, people requested both a more expensive release and a less expensive release. This brings in Orkney 17 2018 The Whisky Agency & Heads & Tails, not just a whisky with a lot of Ampersands in the name, but also the more expensive release for this year. We don’t… Continue reading Orkney 17 2000 The Whisky Agency & Heads & Tails
Thank you to a friend (not on reddit) who poured me this sample. We’ve seen recently that Highland Park was, a few decades ago, playing around with casks. So you have things like Highland Park Fire, which was ex port casks and also Highland Park Full Volume, which was only ex-Bourbon casks. But the experimentation didn’t end there. Like a jazz group who plays music in… Continue reading Highland Park Full Volume
The past few years I’ve had more and more Ledaig. It’s pretty simple to see why: The whisky tastes good at a young age, isn’t from Islay but is peated, and my fellow whisky friends are big fans of it. Thus when I had the chance for a friend to bring back a bottle of Ledaig 19 1997 Carn Mor Celebration of the Cask from Alberta, I… Continue reading Ledaig 19 1997 Carn Mor Celebration of the Cask
Thanks to /u/ForbiddenWaffle for this mystery pour. There’s something magical about whisky. And I don’t mean that “believing stickers make you smarter” thing that Gwyneth Paltrow is slinging or whatever religion is selling or Cardboard Crack: The Spending type Magic. No, I’m talking about the idea of different casks giving different results. Yes, I know statistically most casks age along a profile and are close to that… Continue reading Ledaig 11 2005 Signatory Cask Strength Collection (Cask 900157) [MYSTERY]
Toronto Whisky Society 