The Malt Cask

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...

Many people have got a sweet tooth, whether it be chocolate, cake, sweets or any other pastries, they know what to enjoy to satisfy their craving. But what happens when you want something sweet and the only thing you have access to is a drinks cabinet? The answer is simple, you can either go for some sickly sweet liqueur such as Baileys, or you can look for a bottle of fully ex-sherry-cask matured single malt. The most famous names are Macallan or Dalmore, but from what I understand, the new-age Macallans are not quite of the same standard as their age-statement predecessors, and Dalmore, as good as they can be, remain a bit more commercial, being coloured, chill-filtered and generally bottled at 40% ABV... So what are you left with, if you are after a quality dram which isn't too "hype" and therefore relatively affordable? Simple again, GlenDronach. GlenDronach is not a very well known distillery from Speyside. It belonged to the BenRiach Company until this year when ...