We continue onward and upward through our beer soaked whiskey odyssey to Jameson Caskmates Stout Edition. Next review will be our favorite of that particular tasting theme mentioned in last week’s review, but today’s will be ranked somewhere in the middle in terms of what we liked best. A number of us greatly enjoy stout,... Continue Reading →
New Holland Brewing’s Beer Barrel Bourbon Review
Because we are perhaps the oddest whiskey club currently running, it stands to reason that we display our oddness for you all to enjoy. Or hate, I don’t know. Pursuant to this character flaw, we will publish the results from an equally odd tasting theme from one of our recent meetings: beer cask finished whiskies.... Continue Reading →
Michter’s US*1 Small Batch Bourbon Review
After years of never letting bourbon from a bottle of Michter’s touch my silken lips, and I have my reasons, the club finally got around to sampling their flagship US*1 Small Batch Bourbon. And after all these years, we spent the majority of the time during our tasting trying to figure out how to pronounce... Continue Reading →
Lagavulin 8 Years Old Review
It’s almost like I’ve gone whisky meta. Or perhaps whisky transcendent is a better descriptor of my ambivalence towards whatever marketing trope a group comes up with in order to release a new whisky. I don’t know that anyone is bothered when Joe Schmo Distillery releases a new 8 year old bottling for no other... Continue Reading →
Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban Review (2019)
During a particularly wise and lucid moment at our most recent SWC meeting, I noted to the guys a bit of an evolution in my whisky hobby. In the early days, my buying focus centered on what new things I could taste, both for curiosity and palate development reasons. The particularly obvious attribute of this... Continue Reading →
Talisker 2007 Distillers Edition Review
It appears that a hidden desire exists amongst the whisky fanatic firmament: we all love us a nice peated whisky with a sherry finish. We love lots of other concoctions to be sure, but these smoky sweets do not show up often on the shelf. I seem to remember whisky writer Dominic Roskrow comment in... Continue Reading →
Bunnahabhain 18 Review
Having missed the Bunnahabhain boat for most of my whisky life I have found myself in preparation for this review not knowing too much about this Islay distillery. I have tried the 12 some time ago and remember very little. A barely smoky, salty malt. In fact, the most prominent factoid available in my mental... Continue Reading →
Joseph Magnus Bourbon Review
For the dusty hunters out there in Internet Land, the story of how a man named Jimmy Turner stumbled upon a bottle of his great grandfather Joseph Magnus’ bourbon in his mother’s house in 2007 certainly has its charms. This admittedly remarkable find (at least he didn’t have to pay for it) of a bottle... Continue Reading →
Tomatin 18 Year Old Review
I long knew that Tomatin was a value brand. Inexplicably, I never tried it. I should have. I'm Mr. Value. You have to be in this age of inflated whisky prices. Back when I first got into whisky, you could score Jameson 18 for $70, Glenlivet 18 for $80, Chivas Regal 18 for $60, even... Continue Reading →
Balblair 1990 (2nd Release) 23 Yr Old Review
At the time of this writing, the SWC is over 6 years old. I'd like to say that the basic beating heart of any given meeting has not changed from when we first started, and that beating heart is sitting around a table and evaluating a new whisky we have not tried before, together. We... Continue Reading →
Laphroaig 10 Year Old Cask Strength Review
Peat lovers, or peat freaks, as they are lovingly referred to, are pretty much the closest to opiate addicts as you can get in the whisky community. There is a strange thing that happens in your brain when you first try a hefty peated scotch. If you do not immediately take to it, your first... Continue Reading →
High West Campfire Review
Remember, just because you can blend weird whiskies together, even if you are David Perkins, it certainly doesn't mean you should. Just throwing that out there. Utah based High West Distillery is a mixed bag for me. I seem to like less of their blended expressions of god-like concoctions than others do in our uber... Continue Reading →
Old Forester 1897 Review
Since pretty much everyone in the club is a crawling, creeping cheap-o, we all share an enduring appreciation of the value bottle. Old Forester is one of those said value selections as they produce some decent fairly stuff and request a reasonable price for it. Brown Foreman, owners of the brand, released Old Forester 1897... Continue Reading →
Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Bourbon Review
Elijah Craig did not invent bourbon. Chuck Cowdery, Bourbon’s Ballast, said so. Many times. Yet the myth persists, even gently pushed along by Heaven Hill. The push back, not that it would help, has prompted some to claim that maybe not bourbon, but he was the first to age the whiskey in charred barrels. But... Continue Reading →
Blade and Bow Bourbon Review
Not that I am rebelling for the sake of rebelling, but I have never fully participated in the Niagra of reverent praise bourbon enthusiasts offer up to the famed Stitzel-Weller Distillery and the whiskies produced there. The unicorn distillery closed in 1992, and as such the remaining stock was either kept in barrel form (so... Continue Reading →
Lagavulin 16 Year Old Review (2018)
I’m tempted to say that Ron Swanson was the best thing to ever happen to Lagavulin single malt scotch whisky. But he probably wasn’t, despite the legendary pop culture capital heaped upon the brand due to the popularity of the show Parks and Rec. Even though Swanson is probably one of the most memorable comedy... Continue Reading →
Lagavulin Distillers Edition 2001 (Bottled 2017) Review
I'm afraid today's look at Lagavulin's DE from 2017 possesses no life changing insights like all the other reviews have. All my fun ideas will be going into the review for the standard 16 in a few days. Bottles like this don't come my way often due to scant availability and price issues. The older... Continue Reading →
Tamdhu Batch Strength 2nd Edition Review
Not too much, but I worry a little when we feature malts created solely for use in blends. With exceptions, generally speaking, these bottles have a small share of the malt market, and Google is less than generous in sending us visitors from the world wide web to our appraisals. Every now and then we... Continue Reading →
Elijah Craig 12 Year Old Review
Pursuant to our time honored and cherished tradition of offering write ups of whiskies that no longer exist, we present unto you a resplendent look at Elijah Craig 12. Formerly a value bottle mainstay of the mighty bourbon hunters, for years Elijah Craig could be procured for under $30. And for a 12 year old... Continue Reading →