The Malt Cask

Back from holidays and I guess it's time to get back to it. I've been meaning to review this one a few weeks ago but time seems to have vanished way too quickly! So this mid-August review is another sample from the brilliant company Cheaper By The Dram . For those who wouldn't have read my Macallan 1989 head-to-head from the 24/03/2020 ( available here ), in which I introduce the company in more detail, Cheaper By The Dram allows whisky enthusiasts to purchase 3cl samples of old and rare, discontinued whiskies, bottles which are incredibly hard to find and therefore not generally cheap... This one is no exception, being an official 1 liter bottle of Bruichladdich 17 years old bottled in the 1990's. By doing simple maths, yes, it is very likely that the juice inside this little bottle came to exist in the 1970's, so way before me! Being an Islay single malt, you would expect peat to appear in the mix, but Bruichladdich doesn't tend to be that peaty unless the lab...

Back into my samples tonight with something rather unusual as it is a sample of Super Heavily Peated Bruichladdich bottled in 2009 for the Savchenko Family Connoisseurs Club of Whisky in Ukraine. It is a vatting of 4 casks, 1 ex-sherry cask distilled in 2002 and 3 ex-bourbon casks distilled in 2003. What is particular about it is that Bruichladdich no longer produce peated whisky under their own name but rather use the Port Charlotte or Octomore branding for any peated release. Because this single malt is peated at 79PPM, we could pretty much consider it the father of Octomore! Having looked online for more information about the bottle, it is not one you will see a lot around. The main page on which I found some information is the  Whiskyauctioneer  page which had one for sale in its past auctions, not much else apart from that. Picture from  whiskyauctioneer Picture from  whiskyauctioneer This Super Heavily Peated Laddie was bottled unchill-filtere...

After a quiet fortnight because of work, I am back with the account of the Bruichladdich tasting I attended on Monday. I do not normally tend to go to tasting sessions during the working week, but I made an exception this time as it was a Bruichladdich special, and I thought I might get to try some of their latest 10 year-old releases. It was run by their brand ambassador Abi Clephane and was held at the Whisky shop Manchester. We were presented with four bottles originally before two more appeared. Abi was, in my mind, what a good brand ambassador should be like: very enthusiastic, passionate about the whisky and what the distillery stands for, full of stories and anecdotes about the people who contribute to the elaboration of the amber nectar, without forgetting to mention a good measure of "terroir"! Abi Clephane - Bruichladdich brand ambassador The night started with their entry bottle, the Classic Laddie, a very solid unpeated dram made from barley exclusively gro...

Today is my first post dedicated to a Bruichladdich bottle. Being a massive Islay fan, it is also the first Bruichladdich bottle I have bought, which means that I now own at least a bottle from each distillery on Islay. But why this particular one though, as I like peaty whisky and Bruichladdich is not particularly peaty. I could have bought a Port Charlotte (their peaty range) or even an Octomore (amongst the most heavily peated also produced at the distillery). Well first, any Octomore bottle will set you back at least £120-£150, so not really what I wanted to spend on a bottle to drink. Don't get me wrong though, they are cracking drams, just a bit pricey. Then, I got to try the 2007 Bruichladdich Islay Barley in France last summer and thought it was very good, taking me back to the distillery with tastes of sea-side and salty barley. Most of my other Islay bottles are peaty too (apart from Bunnahabhain) so I thought it was time for a different experience. It took me some tim...

I had not been to a tasting session for a couple of months so when I realised there was a blind tasting on in Manchester, I had to sign up for it. It is actually the second blind tasting I attended at the Whisky Shop. The first one was in February and revealed some interesting whiskies, in a positive way for the cheaper Cutty Sark Storm, which I genuinely believed was a single malt, or in a less positive way such as the Glenfarclas 2000 vintage bottled for the Whisky Shop, which I found rather disappointing. The added twist on Saturday's session however was that Phil, who conducted the tasting, didn't know either what had been decanted.  I think that once who've got a bit more into whisky and have tried a few different bottles coming from different regions (or countries), a blind tasting session is a great way to test your nose and palate, taking your knowledge out of the equation. No previous checks on the region, the distillery, the ABV, the fact it is a blend, grain, ...

As I mentioned in a previous post, I spent the last weekend on Islay with a few friends. It was obviously a whisky tour and the aim was to try to visit as many distilleries as possible, to experience a range of single malts and of course to discover a bit more of the island itself. So quite a programme for only 3 days! Out of the 8 distilleries currently operating on Islay (pronounce “i-la”) we managed to visit 6, Bruichladdich and Kilchoman on the Friday afternoon, Bowmore on the Saturday morning and Ardbeg, Lagavulin and Laphroaig on the Sunday. In this first post, I am going to focus on the Thursday journey and Bruichladdich on Friday. We left Manchester on Thursday afternoon at around 5pm and head up North. Our plan was to drive to Lochgair, which is about 30/40min away from Kennacraig and the ferry terminal, stay in the Lochgair hotel there and drive to the ferry on the Friday morning.  Lochgair Hotel We arrived at the hotel at around 11:15. The hotel was basi...

Last November, we decided with a few friends to organise a whisky trip to Islay during the Easter weekend. Even if I will have the two weeks following that weekend off, some of the people I am going with will be back at work on the Tuesday, so we decided to head North on the Thursday afternoon, hop on the ferry Friday morning and head back to Manchester on the Monday. This means our trip will be rather short, and it left me the tricky task of organising our time as best as possible. Looking on several websites and forums, I have found some information about people who have already been, but often, it tended to be answers to specific questions, that is why I thought I would share my experience. Today is therefore going to be about the organisation of the trip and I will update you on the actual visit probably when I am back after Easter. So as I mentioned before, our starting point was as follow: -5 people going to Islay  -leaving Manchester on the Thursday afternoon  ...