The Malt Cask

I am no rye expert but I remember trying this Woodford Reserve Rye a while back and really enjoying it. Having focused on scotch more than anything else from over the pond, I never pulled the trigger on a bottle of rye until a few months ago when I came across this very bottle in one of my local supermarkets. The bottle was incredibly good value and I thought why not. I already owned the standard Woodford bourbon which I really like and decided to open this rye straight away to see if it was still as good as I remembered it to be. Woodford state that their mashbill for this whiskey contains 53% rye (the minimum being 51% to be able to call it a rye) which I guess is not the highest rye content around (you'll find bottles with a 95% rye mashbill) In my (short) experience with rye whiskey, I tend to expect much 'greener' and spicier flavours than with bourbons.  Woodford Reserve tend to release their whiskey in batches with a batch/ bottle number. Mine is batch 00...

I haven't really mentioned many of the tasting sessions I attended at the WhiskyShop Manchester since the Old and Rare one at the end of November. I was there a week ago for a customers' favourite session which was rather busy and had some decent bottles for us to try (anCnoc 12, Benriach 10, Old Pulteney 12, GlenDronach 12, Bunnahabhain 12 and we finished on the Loch Fyne Living cask -a peated vatted malt- served with some blue cheese, which announced the theme for this weekend). I was back again this Saturday, this time for my first whisky and food pairing session. 5 bottles on offer and 5 (bite-size) food to go with them. So let me tell you more about what we got to try and mix together. The first dram was Woodford Reserve's Straight Rye, served with a glacé cherry and mint leaves. I think they wanted to try a somehow deconstructed "Old Fashioned" cocktail. For me, the Woodford was the star of the night and the combination of cherry and mint worked a...

After 3 posts without any tasting notes, I thought it was time to get back to it. Today, no Scotch whisky, but something from the other side of the Atlantic, yes, a Bourbon. I have never been too attracted to Bourbons, purely because of a preconceived idea I had about it. Bourbon to me was a cheaper quality, less enjoyable drink compared to Scottish single malt. My dad might have influenced my opinion too as he never really liked the taste of Bourbon and despite having always had a decanter of Jack Daniels in the drinks cabinet, I was never really tempted. My opinion completely changed and my preconceived idea my shattered when I attended one of my first tasting sessions at the Whiskyshop Manchester. 1 of the 6 bottles we tried that night was a bottle of True Blue from the Balcones distillery. This is a Texan Bourbon made with blue corn and bottled at 50%, and it was absolutely fantastic, rich, buttery and sweet. I must actually try to get hold of a bottle at some point! That experien...