The Malt Cask

Going back over my old posts, I realised I started the blog in October 2015, which means that I have just completed my first calendar year reviewing whisky. As I follow a few whisky reviewers both on written blogs and recorded vlogs, I have found myself exposed to several "whisky of the year" posts. That made me wonder about my own whisky experience from 2016 and whether or not a whisky stood out in my mind. And the answer was both yes and no. I did get to try some fantastic whiskies this year, from Octomores to independent Coal Ilas, from Stagg Jr to ex-wine cask matured Auchroisk, Ardbeg Dark Cove, 1996 Clynelish, Nikka Pure Malt White, the Last Drop 48 and 50 and so many more, not forgetting to mention an amazing tour of Islay with again some great tasting sessions.  But what if I had to choose one whisky I bought and really enjoyed/enjoy spending time with? Well, one single malt came to mind very quickly, and that is the Lagavulin 8 years old . Every time I have a dram...

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...

After having mentioned it a couple of weeks ago in the Lagavulin 16 post, here it is finally, the Lagavulin 8 years old. This is the first release of the year for the distillery which celebrates its 200th anniversary. I had pre-ordered a bottle with the WhiskyShop a couple of months ago, but for around £50, I thought I would buy a second to open and hopefully enjoy, and here I am! You can probably already tell whether I like it or not just by looking at the amount missing from the bottle after a week or so...  Many people commented how expensive the bottle was compared to the 16 year-old one, saying it would only be a money-making dram, selling young whisky with a limited edition badge on it, and to be perfectly honest, I wasn't sure what to expect either. I did ask about it at the distillery at Easter (they didn't have it in the shop or to try as it hadn't been released yet) and the people there told me it was a great whisky (I know, they couldn't really say otherwi...

As I received a call yesterday telling me my Lagavulin 8 year-old 200th anniversary was ready for collection at the Whisky shop Manchester, I thought it was time I reviewed my bottle of 16 year old Lagavulin. The Lagavulin 16 is one of these bottles I had heard and read a lot about even before getting properly into whisky. So I decided to get myself one a few months ago to see if all the talks around it being one of the benchmarks as far as peaty single malts are concerned, were justified. I remember opening it and having a bit of an "Amelie Poulain" moment (French mega-successful film!). By that, I mean that I had heard so much about it, when I actually got to try it, it just didn't blow my mind as I was expecting. But like with the film, the more I get back to it, the more I enjoy it. And having just poured myself a dram, it continues to be true! It is definitely a rich and complex dram in my mind for which you need to be in the right frame of mind. As much as I like...

Last day on Islay today with quite a line-up: Ardbeg at 10:00, Lagavulin at 12:30 and Laphroaig at 15:15, and all that on foot! So after a good breakfast of smoked haddock and poached eggs, we set off from Port Ellen, heading towards Ardbeg, the furthest distillery on the southern coast from Port Ellen. We soon found a brand new tarmac path which runs all the way from Port Ellen to Ardbeg so it’s great for walking and perfect if you’ve got a bike on Islay. And to top it all off, the sun was out. Timing-wise, it took us 30 minutes from the B&B to Laphroaig, then 20 more minutes to Lagavulin and 20 minutes again to Ardbeg, walking at a decent pace but stopping here and there for photographs. Good breakfast at Askernish! On the path between Port Ellen and Laphroaig We reached Ardbeg distillery on time for our 10:00 visit. We started from the shop/café (which has really good reviews but we couldn’t verified them as we ran out of time at the end of the visit!) and headed ...

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  ...