The Malt Cask

With everything that has happened in the last few months, whisky drinking and particularly whisky tasting has taken place at home. I attended and organised quite a few online tasting sessions and I now find myself with some half samples left. So I thought I would pick up some of the most interesting ones and do a few quick reviews. No long-winded write-ups, just some key tasting notes! I am starting with a distillery which is fast becoming one of my favourite: Benriach. Picture courtesy of  www.abbeywhisky.com Distillery : Benriach Bottler : Distillery Age : 14 years old Distilled : 2000 Bottled : July 2014 Cask : ex-bourbon (nb 38131) Abv : 59.3% Unchillfiltered : Yes Natural Colour : Yes Nb of bottles : 198 Extra : Part of the 11th batch of single cask releases Nose : Fruity and sweet, lots of apples, fresh orchard, vanilla, citrus, dried bananas and some toffee. Palate : Astringent at first, apple and lime, sweetness mixed with spice...

Time to delve into some of the samples I have collected so far as the number of open bottles I have in stock and not reviewed yet is rapidly decreasing... I have got quite a few extra bottles lined up ready to be opened, but I came up with a bit of a rule for opening new bottles: they need to fit in my cabinet and as it is currently full, I need to empty one before opening another one (well, I could potentially fit a couple more on top of it I suppose!) So today I am looking at a sample of Benriach 17 Pedro Ximénez finish. Pedro Ximénez or PX is a type of sherry which is made with grapes picked very matured or dried in the sun which makes for a very sweet sherry. Maturing or finishing whisky is ex-PX casks is not rare but not as common as the use of ex-Oloroso casks to mature/finish whisky (not quite as sweet and dryer than PX) Benriach is a Speyside distillery and they have quite a wide range of peated and unpeated bottles. What I particularly like about them is that they ten...

In case you haven't yet realised, I tend to spend a fair bit of time at the Whisky Shop Manchester. That is pretty much where my whisky journey started over 2 and a half years ago. The guys there are very knowledgeable, they are passionate about whisky and incredibly friendly. I have now purchased quite a few bottles from there and attended many of their tasting sessions so I decided over a year ago to become a member of their W Club. The membership was great for the first year as it allowed me to benefit from 10% discount on all purchases from the store (both shop and online). I renewed it at the end of 2016 and unfortunately, they have a relaunch on the club which no longer gives members access to 10% off everything. However, members now have access to great offers every Wednesday as well as free tasting sessions every months, so for £20/year, you cannot really go wrong.  The W Club member tasting was on Friday and the line-up was quite interesting: 1. Glenkeir Treasures -...