The Malt Cask

I was talking to my dad on the phone the other day after he just had a Caol Ila 12. As the conversation went on to Bourbon, I told him to try the Blanton Gold Reserve that I left at theirs at Christmas, which he did. He did not rince his glass with water before pouring the Blanton's but was very pleasantly surprised to have whiffs of peat smoke on top of the sweet and spicy Bourbon. This gave be the idea to mix one of my Bourbons (or rather some Tennessee whiskey!) with one of my Islays.  The two bottles I chose were my Jack Daniel's Single barrel and my Kilchoman Machir Bay (of which I have barely any left). I wasn't really sure of what to expect but it turned out to be one of the best if not my best experiment so far! I went for about 60% Kilchoman and 40% Jack Daniel's so the mix should be around 45.6%. Nose: Sweet and vegetal with honey, vanilla and spicy fruit, and oaky, earthy, vegetal peat notes running alongside.  Palate: Sweet and spicy fi...

You buy bottles of whisky and you get to know them. Before long, you have bought new ones, some with the same flavour profile as the previous one, some with a completely different taste. It is a truly fascinating thing to be able to try such a varied and extensive range of flavours coming from the malted barley, the distillation process, the length of maturation, the type of wood used, whether it is a full maturation or only a finish... And you reach the stage when you actually start thinking about experimenting yourself. Of course, I have no control whatsoever on any of these parameters, but I can still play with the end result.  It is not the first time I give this a go (as per my previously created A'bunadh 16 or Caol Dronach) and it sometimes works a treat and sometimes leaves me rather disappointed. Today I have decided to follow on in the Sherried/Peated area with a mix of Aberlour A'bunadh and Bowmore No1. Unlike with the previous experiments, I let both malt marry in...

I know that in the video I posted yesterday I mentioned I would be back reviewing a single malt in this post, and somehow I did not get it wrong, except it is not going to be a standard single malt review but an experiment review. I was looking for a dram for tonight and came across my Aberlour 16. I have not reviewed it but when I do, I will probably mention that, I my mind, it lacks something, strength, flavour, complexity, particularly as a 16 year old whisky. Now I passed and continued down my cabinet to come across Aberlour A'bunadh. You will remember me mentioning how strong I find it and how much water I tend to add to it to be able to access the flavour in the dram. By this point, I think you know where I am going... Yes, what about mixing both together and see what happens? A weaker one with a stronger one. Is it likely to create a great in-between or is it not likely to work that well. I reckon I am not taking too much of a risk there as they both come from the same dist...

I wanted to try something different today. I realised that I now have quite a few whisk(e)y bottles opened (28 currently) and I have been getting familiar with the different flavours that they all have to offer, so I thought about looking at what would happen if I started mixing some together to create my very own malt blend. I must say I have no definite idea of what I want to create and what proportions it would take to reach any particular flavour. All I am using is my own knowledge and judgment of what could potentially work together. I also know that in order to blend different malts successfully, I would need to give the spirits time to properly marry together but 20/30 minutes is probably all I am going to give them before I give it a nose and a taste.  For the first one, I decided to use the GlenDronach I reviewed yesterday and add some Caol Ila 12 to it, to try to mix sweet sherry and salty peat. So only two single malts to begin with. These are the proportions I went f...

Having been quite busy in the last couple of days, I have been looking for an easy-drinking dram to enjoy without having to spend hours nosing it or trying to pick all sorts of different flavours neat or with a few drops of water, so no Aberlour A'bunadh, Spice Tree or Caol Ila 19. I didn't want anything too peaty or too strong-flavoured. Bourbon, why not, but after a small Buffalo Trace I realised it was a bit too sweet for my mood, and that led me to my bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label. When I say "led me", my bottle of Buffalo Trace is sitting just next to my bottle of Black Label, no other real link between both bottles otherwise. I bought the Black Label a few months ago now, and I probably enjoyed some kind of offer on it as you can pick up a bottle for just over £20 in the UK. I had never had Johnnie Walker before, again, it was a brand I associated more with mixing blend than anything else, until a few of my whisky-drinking friends told me the Black Lab...

To some people, peaty whiskies are disgusting and they all taste the same. So tonight I decided to have a closer look at peaty whisky, Islay drams in particular, to see if the peat taste is the same in the many different bottles available. I therefore tasted 5 (small) drams one after the other so see how they compared. I have personally always enjoyed peat but I do tend to take my time with each dram and do not always spend an evening solely with peaty whiskies, hence the idea of sampling several whiskies side by side. I went for 5 bottles which are pretty much the entry dram from each of the 5 distilleries: Bowmore -  12 , 40% Caol Ila -  12 , 43% Kilchoman -  Machir Bay , 46% Lagavulin -  16 , 43% Laphroaig -  Quarter Cask , 48% Here is what I found out after my 5 samples: Bowmore : The peat is quite sweet and fruity with hints of exotic fruit. Caol Ila : The peat is warmer and saltier (the saltiness of the dram is what struck me since ope...