The Malt Cask

I have realised I have not posted anything on the blog for a month now, so it is about time I do something about it. As I attended a tasting session yesterday evening, I thought that would be a good way to get back into it. As usual, the tasting took place at the Whisky Shop Manchester and the theme for the night was "Peated whisky". Now for people who say they don't like peated whisky, they should really say they don't like noticeably peated whisky as pretty much every single whisky is peated to a certain extend (unless clearly labelled "unpeated" on the bottle) Of course in lots of single malts, it is barely noticeable. We had 6 bottles on the line up and tasted them as follow: 1.   Inchgower 2008 , single cask bottled in 2016 by Hunter Laing, First Editions series, 46%. Nose and palate were very spirit driven in my mind, I could really tell it was quite a young whisky, lots of fresh citrus, spices and biscuit notes. Not my favourite o...

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, ...