on Friday night, I got an invite to a belated Burns event and had the privilege of sharing some drinks with a great group of guys. Everyone brought a bottle and there were a few I hadn’t tried or reviewed before, so I took a few notes and some quick scores. Obviously not as in-depth as a typical review, and more my overall impression of … Continue reading Burns Night 2017
As many of you know, I live in the Great White Land-of-Provincial-Liquor-Regulation, and our prices for whisky suck. See, the government had this whole prohibition idea, and then when it ended, they decided they still needed to babysit us and ensure we didn’t drink too much. Thus was born the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, which today has morphed into a retailing giant that spends … Continue reading Aberlour A’bunadh Three-Way Review: Batches 6, 46 & 53
The Toronto Whisky Society had their first event of 2017 last night, and we had 16 people out at the Feather’s Pub to do a custom flight. It was a lot of fun meeting some of our new members, as well as having special guests out, including Mark Bylok, Author of the Whisky Cabinet and the WhiskyBuzz podcast! Special thanks to Reid at Feather’s for … Continue reading Toronto Whisky Society Goes To Feathers 2017! (and reviews of Bladnoch, Clynelish, Mortlach, Scapa, Caol Ila IBs, & Longrow 10)
I’ve had a few drams from Lagavulin over the years but hadn’t yet posted any to the website, so figured why not aggregate them into one post. The timing on these varied greatly, as has my scoring, but I’m gonna leave my notes and scores as-is. _______________________________________________________________ In June 2016, I had the chance to travel to Islay with my wife and we visited a … Continue reading Lagavulin Line-up: 8yr, 12CS & 16yr
Benriach 22 Cadenhead’s Rum Cask 1992 Appearance: 0.2, Pale Straw Nose: Rich barley sugar and cereal notes, some licorice, menthol, under-ripe pears. A bit flat in terms of depth and body. Taste: Quite malty and grainy, there is definitely a note of bitter molasses, hint of ash, orange blossom honey, vanilla and icing sugar, very faint spearmint note. Finish: Somewhat thin, the ash comes out … Continue reading Review: Battle of the Benriach 22 Single Casks! (Rum and Port)
2016 was a fantastic year for the members of the Toronto Whisky Society, for many reasons: We launched our website and social media presence after existing primarily on Reddit for the past few years We held a number of highly successful events in homes, at pubs and at distilleries We made connections with a ton of distilleries to set up future events, AMAs and tastings … Continue reading Toronto Whisky Society’s Whiskies of the Year 2016
This is an amalgam of a few different reviews I originally posted on Reddit. The Glen Garioch Founder’s Reserve was one of the early bottles that I bought, as it was reasonably priced at the LCBO and, in my opinion, was a much nicer Highland option than other entry level bottles. This caused me to seek out other bottlings from Glen Garioch (pronounced glen geery … Continue reading Glen Garioch Multi-Review
Thank you to fellow TWS member WDMC905 for these samples. I’ve had both previously and enjoyed them but at a very early point in my scotch exploration, such that I didn’t really have the skills yet to put words to thoughts/tastes. Very happy to have samples of two Islays gems to review side by side! Bunnahabhain 12 Year Old Abv: 46.3% Colour: Deep Copper Nose: Rancio, … Continue reading Review: Bunnahabhain 12 vs 18
Back in August when my wife and I celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary, she gave me a gift of a night out at Feather’s the pre-eminent scotch bar in Toronto. She gave an amount I could spend on whiskies in whatever fashion I wanted, quantity/quality/both, and would drive me home at the end of the night. pretty sweet deal! So fast forward about 4 months … Continue reading A Night at Feather’s Pub (+3 reviews)
Since we got our first snow storm of the year and everyone is back to their terrible winter driving, I thought I would relax and enjoy a sample of Big Peat Christmas Edition 2012 that a friend sent me a sample of. First impressions are that I am surprised at how light the appearance is. This would make me think that this is a relatively … Continue reading Big Peat Christmas Edition 2012
I received this sample in a reddit swap with TWS member /u/kinohead when we met up for a pint in Toronto. I’m a big fan of the Quarter Cask, enjoyed the 10 thoroughly and love the Cairdeas Origin from 2012, so I have high hopes for this dram! Laphroaig 10 Cask Strength batch 004 – 58.6% ABV Appearance: quite a deep orange, and appears thick and … Continue reading #FroaigFriday review: Laphroaig 10 Cask Strength Batch 4
Since we’re doing the hashtag thing here, i figured I should contribute with a Laphroaig review from a couple years ago. I got this dram in a swap with Reddit user /u/schockwaves. This was my first limited edition from Laphroaig. Laphroaig Cairdeas 2012 Origin – 51.2% ABV Appearance: pale peach-orange Nose: lots of smoke, but sweet. Boggy peat. Some fruitines but I can’t place it. Floral … Continue reading #FroaigFriday Review: Laphroaig Cairdeas Origin 2012
Toronto Whisky Society 