The Malt Cask

Back into my parents' drinks cabinet today for a second holiday post. After Oban a few days ago, I came across a nearly empty bottle of Glen Deveron 15 so I thought I'd better hurry and give it a go. The Glen Deveron distillery is also known as the MacDuff distillery and is located on the North-East coast of Scotland by the banks of the river Deveron. Their slogan is actually "Where the river meets the sea". I have not really seen many bottles in shops around Manchester but it is a brand much more present in France. Just look at website such as Master of Malt  or  The Whisky Exchange  and you'll understand what I mean. My dad actually has the 10 year old too, which I will try to review as well, if I find the time. The Glen Deveron 15 is bottled at 40% and is more than probably chill-filtered. The colour is a rich golden but E150 is very likely to have been added. Nose: Citrus and mineral with some sweetness too. Honey and chalk. Bizarrely, it reminds

I have come back to France for a couple of weeks and as I am back home, I am making the most of my parents' drinks cabinet to explore the different whiskies they are drinking. One they have mentioned quite a bit is Oban 14, so I decided to put it forward for this "holiday post".  Oban is part of the "Classic malts of Scotland", a group of whiskies from the Diaggeo company, which allows you to try whiskies (from distilleries they own of course) from the different regions of Scotland: Gelnkinchies (Lowland), Dalwhinnie (Highland), Cragganmore (Speyside), Talisker (Skye), Lagavulin (Islay) and of course Oban (West Highland). I was told a few times that Oban 14 is a very good middle-of-the-road single malt, which should appeal to pretty much any whisky drinker. One the guys from the Whisky Shop told me that it's a good one if you want to get a present to a whisky drinker without knowing exactly what he/she likes in terms of flavours. Oban is bottled

Welcome to my first Irish whiskey review. And for the first one, I am going to present the Bushmills 10 which actually is the only Irish whiskey I have in the collection. What made me go for it? I bought the bottle a few months ago now, I wanted to diversify my whisky experiences and it was on offer in my local supermarket. As usual, I did check online and read a few reviews of it whilst in the spirits aisle and they were good enough to let me have a go. Bushmills 10 is a single malt which has been triple distilled, so that should make for a lighter dram. It has been matured in Bourbon and Oloroso sherry casks and the whole production process (malts ditilling, blending, maturation and bottling) is carried out on the same site. Their malting process does not involve any peat and as I mentioned previously, the wash is distilled three times in large copper pot stills. Bushmills 10 is bottled at 40%. As it is not mentioned anywhere on the bottle and I found no specific regulation

Something I haven't really done on the blog so far is review Japanese whiskies. In my mind, prices have gone through the roof in the last couple of years and for £100, I'm sure I can get something more exceptional than a 12 year old Japanese whisky... The only bottle I own is one my parents brought back from France a couple of Christmases ago and that is the All Malt from Nikka. I will review it in another post but it does lead me nicely to today's post which is about the Nikka tasting I attended last week at the Whisky Shop Manchester (I know, there once again! I must say I do not work for them or get anything back apart from more knowledge and experiences of whiskies I would not have got to try any other ways). The tasting was conducted by Stefanie Holt from the Nikka Company and involved 6 whiskies from their range, from grain to single malt to blend to pure malt. Here is the line up: 1. Nikka Coffey Grain Whisky 45% 2. Miyagikyo Single Malt 45% 3. Yoichi Single

Back with some Bourbon today or should I say Tennessee Whiskey? Jack Daniel's is indeed one of the main distilleries based in Tennessee and for which Tennessee whiskey should be differentiated from any other Bourbon. To be perfectly honest, the difference between both is rather minor as Tennessee whisky is basically a Bourbon which has been filtered through sugar-maple charcoal after distillation. Apart from that, the rules are the same (it has to be produced in the USA, the mash bill has to be made of at least 51% corn, no colouring or flavouring must be added, the spirit must be distilled at 165 proof maximum and must be barreled at 125 proof or under in casks made from new charred American white oak for at least 2 years)  Jack Daniel's has never been a brand I looked to much into. To me it was more of a cocktail whiskey than a sipping one. Plus, my dad always had a big decanter of it at home but never drank it, which probably tainted my idea of the stuff.  I attended a