It’s a Thursday night and I’ve just finished my first day back in the office after a month overseas. I’ve been landed for just over 24 hours. If you don’t need a whisky then, I don’t know when you do. Except tonight, I’m not drinking whisky, I’m drinking whiskey.
Category: Tasting Notes
Ballechin, 10 year old (from Edradour)
Edradour is a typically unpeated malt, so interesting things always happen when you take something standard and mess around with it. The name ‘Ballechin’ is from another distillery from the same area as Edradour, Pitlochry in Perthshire. It’s nice to not lose these names entirely to history.
Dailuaine, 9 years old, Cask #10742
A rare whisky that I had to both research and go back for seconds of, because if you like Piña Coladas or getting caught in the rain – this whisky is one of a kind.
The GlenDronach, Cask Strength & Sherried
I remember, 5 o’clock sherry, the awful, cheap, puckering kind. In the lounge room of his house with half-completed wallpaper and an old boxset television, he would pour a glass of sherry from the sideboard . And then he’d look sideways at me, at all of twelve years old and say, ‘Want a little?’
Aberlour 12 & A’Bunadh
Relationships are like whisky casks. Whatever you fill that connection with first, will come back and give itself to you again and again, even if you’re filling the barrels with something new. So you should fill them with trustworthy actions, honesty, laughter, kindness and strong, true character. It will flavour everything and anything else that relationship may ever be. The first fill matters. Never forget that little piece of whisky girl wisdom.
Tomatin 15, Tempranillo
For me, this whisky starts with a long, slow dinner in the middle of winter a few years ago, when I was first introduced to Tempranillo wine. The conversation was sweet and easy in the manner of old friends gathered around a table.
The Glenturret, 17 years
There are two real benefits to drinking out, instead of drinking in – no matter how great your home selection is. The first, is and will always be, the company you keep when you go out. Fellow lovers of whisky and good people congregate in good places. Second, you get to taste a much broader… Continue reading The Glenturret, 17 years
Cadenhead’s Springbank 15, sherry finished
I was recently in Scotland and visited Kintyre, home to Campbeltown. Which is, in turn, home to Springbank. Few distilleries remain in Campbeltown, because there are comparatively few Lowland malt distilleries in production. New distilleries are being built, but mainly in the Highlands, Isles or Speyside/Fife. More on that later. Perhaps it is the vast… Continue reading Cadenhead’s Springbank 15, sherry finished
Ardbeg Day: A 200 Year Old Legacy & Love Affair
Amongst whisky drinkers, there are two types of people – those who love the smoky, growly and utterly unique peat of Islay and those lesser mortals. Well, they just don’t care for it. Still, it would be hard to find a single character within either sect who cannot appreciate the sentiment and passion behind Ardbeg… Continue reading Ardbeg Day: A 200 Year Old Legacy & Love Affair