Whisky / Whiskey
-
@smudge that would work, would have been happy with 2-4 bottles each
....now thinking about a "fern" whiskey barrel
-
@roninwc said in Whisky / Whiskey:
A little Xmas present for myself, to be enjoyed after Xmas dinner.
Really gotten into Islay whiskies over the past year, especially those with a good whack of peat so I wanted to try this one from Caol Ila
Had a whisky tasting evening. One of the lads brought the 15 year caol ila unpeated, it went down a treat with everyone.
-
got a bottle of this from TR Jnr for Xmas, now I'm not normally a fan of the Islay whiskys, while this has a very smokey aroma, it was surprisingly smooth to drink, MRs TR got me a Glenlivet 12 yr (might crack tonight)
-
Reviving this topic again as it keeps getting no love.
As per the Beer thread, recently had my best mate from Melbourne stay with us.
Drank heaps of beers but we are both massive peat-heads so this was our whisky (and whiskey) lineup for his stay.
And yes, that is my second bottle of the Coal Ila which is absolutely crazy good. My second favourite whisky only behind the Ardbeg Ardbog.
The two Octomore's 10.3 and 11.3 are also brilliant but without quite the same finesse that the Coal Ila has.
Also, if anyone is looking for a great but reasonably priced Rye Whiskey, I could not recommend the Willett enough. A smashingly good Rye Whiskey which surprised us both.
And Seaweed & Aeons & Digging & Fire & Cask Strength is just nuts, very full on in your face smoke, peat, iodine flavours, an absolute flavour bomb and loved it as well.
-
@taniwharugby said in Whisky / Whiskey:
got a bottle of this from TR Jnr for Xmas, now I'm not normally a fan of the Islay whiskys, while this has a very smokey aroma, it was surprisingly smooth to drink, MRs TR got me a Glenlivet 12 yr (might crack tonight)
Ahh... Smokehead.
I did a New Year's Eve/Hogmanay in Scotland a few years back... one day, while others went skiing, a couple of us drove around a few distilleries, and the Whisky Shop in Dufftown - stocked up with quite a lot of delicious delicious scotch for a few nights.
The first night - we ended up drinking a metric fuck-ton of whiskey, and rating each on ever more ridiculous criteria. Started off with taste, packaging, etc... then got down the best "glug-glug" sound when pouring from the bottle, etc.
Smokehead was one of my purchases - and my vote for best-tasting, but it lost out in the popular vote (to some pansy "floral" weak-as-piss bullshit from Dalwhinnie, if I remember correctly. Not that I'm still bitter or anything.)Ever since - I always kept an eye out for it - and never saw it again... for at least 5 years. Until a couple of years ago... I spotted it on tucked away on the bottom shelf of a Rotorua Liquorland. Stoked - I grabbed it up.
Since then - I've seen it in many NZ liquor stores - and have a bottle with me right now.At the time of my initial purchase in Dufftown - I was told they were pretty much a bottle-it-brand-it outfit. They'd go to one of the Islay distillers, taste some of their casks - and buy up one or more entire casks - to go away and bottle it under their own brand. With some rumours about who they'd bought from each year. But I see in that packaging - it actually lists "Ian MacLeod Distillers" - so maybe that's changed? Or was bullshit?
-
@Kiwiwomble said in Whisky / Whiskey:
@smudge that would work, would have been happy with 2-4 bottles each
....now thinking about a "fern" whiskey barrel
Update on this. We've paid for the barrel and have the filling ceremony in June.
-
@Smudge said in Whisky / Whiskey:
@Kiwiwomble said in Whisky / Whiskey:
@smudge that would work, would have been happy with 2-4 bottles each
....now thinking about a "fern" whiskey barrel
Update on this. We've paid for the barrel and have the filling ceremony in June.
very jealous, well done
on a side note...got pretty drunk for the first time in a while back in NZ, this is very bloody drinkable, two of us knocked off a bottle
-
@Smudge said in Whisky / Whiskey:
@Kiwiwomble said in Whisky / Whiskey:
@smudge that would work, would have been happy with 2-4 bottles each
....now thinking about a "fern" whiskey barrel
Update on this. We've paid for the barrel and have the filling ceremony in June.
Further update: filling ceremony was yesterday. Gorgeous day at Cardrona, with plenty of snow around, but with a clear blue sky above. They look after you very well - we were drinking Veuve Clicquot as we chatted and caught up with people, and had a quick rundown on the distillery's history. We then wandered through the distillery on a tour, before getting to the filling bit. As I was the one who corralled my mates into doing it, they decided I was the one who was filling the cask. Took about 2 minutes to fill the 230L barrel and luckily I wasn't one of the people who kept the tap on for too long and sprayed the fresh product everywhere, which has happened in the past apparently.
After that, we rolled the barrel out through to their storage hall, then went back into the main restaurant/bar where they take you to a separate room for a a rolling hour or so of food, some of their products (whisky, vodka, gin and liqueurs) and more wine. All up about 3 hours, and nice to have some pomp and ceremony above just buying into the cask.
Shit I feel average today.
-
Got some of this for my birthday, is a liquer rather than actual whiskey, surprisngly good, very aromatic.
-
Wife got given a bottle of Bladnoch Samsara by a client. So I'm drinking it.
Isn't aged very long (8 years) but apparently in bourbon and then wine oak casks.
Quite fragrant. Reminds me of a mix of pepper and oranges. As in spicy citrus.
Clearly I'm a bit shit at describing whisky. Much like my ability to describe wine. I'll keep drinking it
-
Upvote for tenacity. No one likes a quitter
-
@antipodean well your descriptions are better than what I have.
-
@antipodean said in Whisky / Whiskey:
I'll keep drinking it
Really that's the important part of any review.
'Floral notes of heather wafting across the burn on a mid-summers evening, mixing with the peat smoke from the cottage where old Nan boils the kettle for her evening cup of tea' is all very evocative but it doesn't tell you if it tastes like ambrosia or the old socks Nan has also had boiling away over the fire.
-
@dogmeat said in Whisky / Whiskey:
@antipodean said in Whisky / Whiskey:
I'll keep drinking it
Really that's the important part of any review.
'Floral notes of heather wafting across the burn on a mid-summers evening, mixing with the peat smoke from the cottage where old Nan boils the kettle for her evening cup of tea' is all very evocative but it doesn't tell you if it tastes like ambrosia or the old socks Nan has also had boiling away over the fire.
Not poetic enough...
"Deep golden colour. Aromas of rich dark currants, nectarine skins, burnt toffee, but lots of fragrant tobacco, rich soil, white flowers, smashed minerals and metal. Medium-bodied and saucy but racy acidity stabilises the whisky nicely with the sharpness of the peat. Deep caramel and a hint of ripe cherries, laden with mocha, loamy soil, charred herbs, pencil shavings, roasted hazelnut. Dense like characters that opens up with a a 5ml drop of water, however it is drinkable straight once you expose it to the earth’s atmosphere."
Though I much prefer:
"Tastes of bruised fruit, with a horrible finish that gums up the palate like creosote in a chimney".
-
but...but - where's Nan?!
-
@dogmeat said in Whisky / Whiskey:
but...but - where's Nan?!
Out the back straining the whiskey through her bloomers.
-
@Victor-Meldrew too verbose. Lost you a nectarine skins.
-
Mentioned in the beer thread, last weekend, it was the Fèis Ìle - The Islay Whisky Show in Melbourne. My mate and I attended and wow, what an amazing event. All Whiskies from Islay or Coal Isla with the odd one from further away.
15 or 16 stands with a minimum of 3 whiskies for tasting but often 4 or more. The best thing was, some whiskies being offered for tasting were not even available commercially any longer and were expensive on the whisky market.
All tasting pours were a minimum of 15ml but some were heavier handed so we figured we tasted nearly 40 on the day at 15ml but most were cask strength so we were pretty toasted by the end of it.
On the Friday at my mates place, to warm up but not to spoil our palate we had a rye and bourbon night.
Then on Monday arvo before I drove back to Sydney on Tuesday, we went quality over quantity.
