Infectious Charm. Devastating Wit. Below Average Looks.
It happens to all of us. Don't feel alone. About 6 months into a whisky hobby (an obsession, if you will), you feel like you have a decent handle on what's in your glass. You understand process and fermentation. You start using words like "dram" and "juice" and other stupid descriptors. You also start saying... Continue Reading →
Revival. Like at a Baptist revival tent, but not really. I am trying to come up with a provocative intro, and it is not working. What else is new? But seriously, GlenDronach is a significant Scotch whisky. But it was not always so. Popular in the 60s but only as a contribution to Teacher's, the... Continue Reading →
When we tasted a flight of Glenfiddich whiskies blind for a meeting this summer, somewhat surprisingly, the 18 came out on top. I am normally a bigger fan of the 15, but because blind tastings are really good at making a fool out of you, the truth always comes out. Laid bare before your friends,... Continue Reading →
With blind tasting comes boldness, boldness to disavow everything you thought you knew, or perhaps confirmation of the few precious truths you hold dear. What I mean is that if you hate a whisky whilst blind tasting it, you probably truly hate it, and if you like it, you probably...like it. You have no bias... Continue Reading →
One of the challenges of long term whisky enjoyment is the trajectory of one's ever changing palate. The goal of any whisky freak from day one is frequently adding varied sensory input in order to evolve your taste and mental Rolodex of aroma. That's part of the fun and good work of growing your skill.... Continue Reading →
I recant my former statement on the novelty of the Edition series from Macallan. Just when I admit the freshness of this curious set of bottles, along comes Edition No. 4. Here is a quick snippet from Macallan on No. 4….. The fourth release in this innovative annual Series, Edition No.4 embodies the craftsmanship and... Continue Reading →
We move forward with our ever penetrating gaze upon The Macallan Edition No. 3 single malt expression. I would be tempted to complain that all the Edrington Group seems to do these days, as many other Scotch producers are want to do in our Golden Age of whisky consumption, is simply rehash non-innovative production methods... Continue Reading →
Now we are on to something. Today’s look at Glenfiddich IPA Cask Experimental Series is the 3rd and last in our brief beer cask finished whisk(e)y series, and as it so happens, this one was far and away our favorite. We tried two stout finished whiskies to start off, (here and here) and while I... Continue Reading →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
Just the other day I found myself curious about a particularly famous barely variety called Golden Promise and wondered which distilleries malted it, if at all. The timing was perfect as today we are looking at Glengoyne 10 Year Old Single Malt, whose distillery utilizes this interesting variety of Scottish barley. The reason why I... Continue Reading →
This may sound weird, but the day I realized that distillation is primarily a stripping operation, rather than some sort of magical, ethereal infusion of wonder and excitement with beer, that was the day my education really began. After all, the more you distill something, the closer you get to vodka, a spirit which is... Continue Reading →
Yes, I get it, blended whiskies are not inferior to their single malt counterparts. Looking back across time immemorial, I don’t think I ever jumped on that train. Johnnie Walker Black was one of the first whiskies I became acquainted with and I certainly enjoyed it then. Many blended whiskies later, my appreciation of the... Continue Reading →
Never fret when you are presented with a young, peated Scotch. Surely, if you’re a peat lover, you’re not drinking Ardbeg 10 for the lovely vanilla sweetness. You’re drinking it for smoky napalm. Don’t lie. But if you’re an aged Scotch lover, and seeing 8 or 10 years on the label isn’t exactly bagging your... Continue Reading →
Dalwhinnie’s story is a common one. The majority of their malt production is reserved for a blend, namely Black & White, while a portion is bottled as a standalone single malt. The recently reviewed bottlings from Royal Lochnagar, Aberfeldy have similar arrangements. While sampling component malts of major Scotch blends isn’t exactly a favorite hobby... Continue Reading →
Spokane Whiskey Club 