Another exciting double header from a new distillery for the club, one of the most remote in Scotland! Only producing whisky since 2014, it was a treat to experience Ardnamurchan with so little of its offerings ready/available. We tried both the peated and unpeated versions. Looking forward to what’s to come from this young distillery!
February brought us a double header of lowland single farm estate distillery Daftmill – winter and summer batch releases!
Happy 14th Anniversary ETKW! The Crown Jewel of our 14th anniversary celebration: Lost Distilleries of Scotland.
We will update this post after we have sampled the whisky this evening….but I can tell you it smelled fantastic on the pour!!
The second bottle in the line up for our 14th anniversary celebration: Lost Distilleries of Scotland.
The Club returned to its roots with this rare Speysider, celebrating our official 200th taster bottle (!) by duplicating the very first distillery we featured way back in 2008. Paired with a smooth Davidoff cigarillo from the Dominican to honour the occasion, this whisky delivered the party feel with hints of the tropics, along with vanilla, chocolate, warm baking spices and a touch of tobacco. This was our first taste from independent bottler La Maison du Whisky, with a great first impression from the lovely artwork on the packaging. This bottle spent 21 years in a refill sherry hogshead. 1428 bottles were released. 58% ABV. Sourced from a private collector. Congratulations ETKW on this extraordinary milestone!
On January 26, 2019 we had a the opportunity to have the Glengoyne 25 Year Old as one of our featured tasters as we celebrated our 11 Year Anniversary as a Whisky club.
Club member Tamara has added her notes:
Glengoyne 25 Years
Specs:
Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Aged: 25 years
Matured in: Sherry Cask
Alcohol: 48.0%
Our purchase price: $485 CAD
Glengoyne 25 was not a hard sell on me from the get-go, generally being a fan of sherry casks.
Rich & spicy, with no peat, this whisky is a beautiful and impressive amber colour, a baseline signature of the sherry cask. My first impression, it tastes like it looks! On the brown sugary sweet side, but not too sweet, it reminded me of Grandma’s Christmas fruitcake, which would perennially appear on the kitchen counter around December 25 throughout my childhood, and which would still be there come March, mysteriously intact. I never developed the taste for indestructible cake crammed with old dried fruit, but I’ll take these homey flavours in my whisky. Throw in a little orange flavour, a few nuts (walnuts, almonds?) and bam! A bottle that I certainly would include as a highlight of my personal collection. Apologies however, the LCBO does not carry this bottle, making it difficult to obtain in Ontario.
Other common comments from online reviews are notes of old leather, cinnamon and licorice, which were not the stand out elements for me in sampling this bottle. Kensington Wine Market reviews this whisky on their website as “one of the best releases by any distillery in the last few years”. This whisky also won Gold at both the Asian Spirits Masters 2018 and the San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2017.
The distillery’s slogan, “Unhurried since 1833”, reflects perfectly in this bottle. Very easy to drink and a definite go-back-for seconds experience. Overall, a great selection for those who want a complex, rich whisky without the smoke. Skip the dessert, just have a Glengoyne!
Wow what an endorsement, if the above notes strike you we would highly recommend this Glengoyne expression. Cheers!
The club recently celebrated our 11 Year Anniversary and this was bottle #2 in our tasting range for the evening, notes by member Adam Buchholtz.
Craigellachie 23 Year Old Single Malt
Specs: Speyside Scotch Whisky
Matured in: American Oak Cask
Alcohol: 46%
Our Purchase Price: $535.85 (LCBO in Ontario)
Nose: The first impression on the nose of this whisky is quite complex. I picked up some peppery notes, with an aromatic spice blend, along with something akin to sulphur. It seemed like quite a pungent smell, with a hint of sea salt mixed in. Absent for me were the fruity notes that are mentioned in many a review of this whisky, however I was so excited to taste it, that it may not have had the requisite time in the glass to fully envelope my senses.
Taste: Immediately I got an old leathery taste, almost rawhide-esk, to go along with a very oily mouthfeel. I was surprised at how different this expression is from their younger age statement bottles. With the taste also came a range of fruits, mostly tropical and citrusy in nature, like pineapple, orange, or even grapefruit. It meshed surprisingly well with the leathery flavours and made for a complex dram.
Finish: Again the oiliness was evident on the finish, with some heat from pepper notes, but also sweet citrus, with a touch of honey. It lasted quite a while, with a dryness to it that allowed it to linger.
Overall: The Craigellachie 23 is a complex scotch, as should be expected from anything that has been matured in American Oak for 23 years. However at the price point, it isn’t a bottle that I would strive to add to my personal collection. It is definitely worth a taste if you should be able, but I would not go out of my way for another dram
Preface: We had the pleasure of having Frank the brand ambassador of Aberlour, Glenlivet, Belvenie and Ballantyne’s in town for a guided tasting. This is one of the reviews. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did, as you can see we have some rosey cheeks and huge smiles.
By: Member Chad Nagle
This nicely crafted 10-Year-Old Single Malt by the Aberlour Distillery, which can be found in Strathspey, Scotland (Speyside Region) is what I expect from an Entry Level Single Malt Whisky. It has a simple elegance which is suited to just about every whisky drinkers’ taste. Married in Sherry and Bourbon Casks this would pair well with a Chocolate dessert or with some sharp Cheddar Cheese.
On the Nose: Sweet Honey with Caramel or Toffee aromas, I have a feeling this is going to be a sweet flavour experience……
After the pour, I let this little sweetheart dance around in the glass for a minute or two swirling it to awaken all the flavours.
As I take my first sip the sweetness is very apparent like what my nose was telling me, I get touches of Honey, Caramel and a little bit of spice, maybe nutmeg or pepper.
The finish was short, smooth and didn’t really give me any new surprises, but I wasn’t expecting a Big Grand Finale from this simple Scotch.
Overall: I did enjoy the Aberlour 10 Year, I have somewhat disregarded it on my past shopping experiences since it is always in stock and at an affordable price ($64.95 CDN at the LCBO). This isn’t a bottle I would personally have as my “go-to” but I could confidently recommend it to anyone looking to try an easy to drink Single Malt.
TIP: Try with 2 or 3 drops of water to cut down the sweetness and enhance some of the other features.