Recently I was privileged enough to join a tasting put on by Tomatin, through the Toronto Whisky Society. Tomatin is an interesting distillery for me. I am not the biggest Highland fan, however, years ago I decided to dive deep on them due to (no joke) a request for more reviews from distilleries that start with T. Tomatin, of course, means Hill of the Juniper… Continue reading Tomatin 12 / 14 Port Wood / Cù Bòcan 1988 Vintage / 36
Crown Royal Apple Thanks to my buddy for letting me have some of this. And by letting, I mean he’s welcome that I drank some of it. Crown Royal is finding ways to bring out whisky to the masses. And what do the masses like to do? Binge drink, dance, and do shots. Am I judging them? Fuck no, I was one of them. In… Continue reading Crown Royal Apple / Crown Royal XO
Thanks to /u/xile_ for these samples. In a recent online discussion, someone brought up that Springbank was now so popular that the price is stopping people from being able to afford it, thus making it harder to buy, thus screwing more people at trying it, and here we are. However every so often some of the younger ones are there for us, the lower classes who save… Continue reading Springbank 9 Local Barley / Springbank 19 1996 Port Cask
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
So I’ve used the picture above multiple times, and I guess I could have grouped these all together, but… Nah. We had two Bruichladdichs picked by Maltbarn. If they had picked an Octomore recently we may have had one of those too, and done all the Bruichladdich made. But we didn’t. Oh well. Up first we have the non-peated Bruichladdich of the lineup. It was… Continue reading Bruichladdich 12 2006 Maltbarn / Bruichladdich Port Charlotte 17 2001 Maltbarn
Thanks to /u/xile_ for the sample. GlenAllachie. I’ve not reviewed one before. This is my first time. Hopefully I’m gentle with myself. Let’s be honest, I won’t be. GlenAllachie was founded in 1967, making it quite young. Also impressive that such a young whisky distillery survived the 80s. Heck I’m surprised most people surprised the 80s, what with the downturn, horrible leadership, focus on marketing and consumerism….… Continue reading GlenAllachie 25 First Editions / GlenAllachie 21 1996 Signatory Cask Strength
I’ve told this story many times, but we’re getting to the end of this particular blip of whiskies, so one more time: Many years ago someone was at a warehouse, trying whisky. They noticed some old barrels, tasted them, realized they were old Macallan, Glenrothes, Mortlach, and Tamdhu, all of which were no longer wanted because they were underproof. By vatting them together with some… Continue reading Three XO Blends (Toronto Whisky Society, Maltbarn, Kensington Wine Market)
I meant to post this quite a while ago, however, I’ve been as sick as a dog, tired, honestly mentally and soul exhausted at being on the internet after the last couple weeks, oh and currently working on reviewing a 400-page book. Not to mention life being life, as usual. Alright, let’s get my bias out of the way. I like Balvenie. I enjoy honey… Continue reading Four Balvenie of Interest
This past year (2018) I had lots and lots of plans. Finish my accounting schooling, find a new job in a new career space, revive Michael Jackson’s corpse into a bard-lich, and review enough Irish Whiskey to finally hit 100 total reviews. I’m happy to say I got most of that done, and Winter is Coming. As for posting the reviews, I may have gotten… Continue reading Irish Single Malt 13 No.1 Batch 2 That Boutique-y Whisky Company / Irish Single Malt 14 No.2 Batch 1 That Boutique-y Whisky Company
Thanks to my wife for taking the pictures. As part of the Toronto Whisky Society I was invited to take part in a Macallan Master Decanter Series tasting. While I try to keep any bias from affecting the below reviews, I am human, therefore feel free to tell me I suck multiple times. Well, it wasn’t all of the Master Decanter Series. You see there’s the Macallan Rare Cask,… Continue reading Macallan Masters Decanter Series + Rare Cask
Thanks to /u/throwboats for the first two drams! There’s this weird thing I have with Octomore. I’ve reviewed a lot of them. And admittedly, living in Ontario, the part of Canada that hates alcohol that isn’t beer or wine (officially, the people still like it, but they are heathens), I started late, only ever seeing the 6th batch before anything else. So on some level, they are… Continue reading Bruichladdich Octomore 2.1 / 4.1 / 5.1 / 8.4
Thanks to /u/distillasian for sharing all of these with me. So we’re having an amazing night. Drinking samples that were brought back from Islay, and reminding ourselves to make distillasian’s wife many cakes. Or BBQ meat. Or cakes with BBQ meat in them. I’m not going to judge. For a few of the samples (save the two previous reviews that were bottles from Scotland) we were sharing… Continue reading Lagavulin Single Cask Extravaganza
Toronto Whisky Society 