The Malt Cask

After my post from September last year in which I reviewed the first bottle of Rozelieures I brought back from France, I have finally managed to come round to reviewing the second bottle I bought at the same time. This one is the Tourbé Collection. Tourbé means peated in French, and being a peaty whisky enthusiast, I thought I had to buy that bottle. This is also the single malt which won a gold medal in the 2015 Paris Concours Général Agricole.  The Tourbé Collection sits at the top of the Rozelieures range in terms of peatiness. You will also find a Fumé Collection (smoky) peated at around 20ppm and a Rare Collection, slightly peated and aged in ex-Sauterne casks. I have already reviewed a French peated single malt with the Kornog from the Breton distillery Glann ar Mor, so was curious to see how the Rozelieures compared to it (probably the focus of a future post) So let's have a closer look at the whisky itself. Unlike their standard release bottled at 40%, the Tourb...

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...

That's it, my holidays are over, but despite the fact I didn't get round to reviewing a couple more bottles left in my dad's cabinet, I managed to bring back a few gems back in the UK. My aim for the summer was to track down some more French whisky to see what my own country was capable of producing compared to the Scottish benchmark. You might remember my first review of Glann ar mor Kornog  back in October 2015, but I haven't really had the chance to come across much more French whisky since. I did however managed to find 2 or 3 bottles whilst back there in August. The first one I am going to review today is a whisky produced in Lorraine (North-Easter region, near Germany) called Rozelieures - Whisky de Lorraine. Even if the whisky distillation only started in 2000, Hubert Grallet was rather familiar with the distillation process as his family has been distilling since 1860, especially mirabelle plums. He teamed up with Christophe Dupic (cereal farmer) in a daring ...