Tag: ben nevis

And Whisky 2016 is go

And we are away. Bit of a break over January but we will be breaking 150 for the year again.

1 – The Old Malt Cask Benrinnes 15
Sultana Danish, pear juice, toffee, butterscotch, maple syrup on pancakes with sour cream. Dried mango, pepper, fruit cake, pound cake.

  
2 – The Old Malt Cask Craigellachie 14
Sultanas, brown sugar & butter, wood polish, green bananas. Huge palate, Xmas pudding, custard, salt, slight bitter, slightly woody, slightly sulphury, brown butter and dried stone fruit.

3 – The Coopers Choice Ben Nevis 1996
Eggy cake batter, my Nan’s apricot jam, slight milk chocolate. Apricots, floral, cake mix, vanilla sugar, chocolate milk shake, Sacher torte.

  

4 – G&M Connoisseur’s Choice Caol Ila 2001
Band-aids, peanuts, autumn leaves, mulch, cured sausage cooked on a fire. Fire place, liquid smoke, jersey creams and a walk down the avenue in late autumn.

Favourites of 2015

I’ll probably have a few more drams this year but these have been my favourites for 2015.

49 – SMWS 124.4 (Miyagikyo) Full of Secret Pleasures
Muscat, port, Sherry fino, rubber, dry warmth, oil soaked rags, spices cloves and anise, maple. German spice biscuits, a rubber fire, cocoa, liquorice, toasted bran, so much going on. Jeezus!

70 – Heartwood Beagle 3
Pine resin, the sweet end of turps, marijuana, chocolate, crushed ants, tomato vine. Tobacco, leather, pepper, beef jerky, super powerful vanilla – it’s really chewy and salty. With time pina colada on the nose and beautiful rich thick caramel. Wow! Really impressed. One of the best for 2015.

121 – Ichiro’s Malt 2015 Tokyo International Bar Show Cask 2360
Wow just wow – favourite for the year!! Banana, ice cream, malty bread with butter, tomato paste, fruit tingles, slight vino cotto, CHICOS. Yeast, brown bread, vanilla, banana bread, prunes, plums, grapes.

143 – Whisky Base Ben Nevis
So much honey, aspirin, maple syrup, butter on crumpets. Melted salted butter, cloves and vanilla cream – it’s such a beautifully structured whisky nothing is offensive or is aggressive, pipe tobacco, tiny bit of pineapple and mango.

164 – Cadenhead Glenrothes-Glenlivet 24
Sulphur, gas, maple syrup, wood, chicos, brown tea and hay. Salt, wood, rubber, maple, dried strawberries or maybe strawberry jam, brown sugar, rum, brandy butter, caramel, chocolate and LPG. So damn complex.

Whisky 2015 – 145-152 (Adelphi Tasting)

  

 145 – Adelphi Glenborrodale 1
Textas, plums, strawberries, bacon, rubber balls. Crazy sweetness on the palate, plums, xmas fruit, nuttiness like macadamia, some peat in there.

146 – Adelphi Fascadale 9 (Ardmore 14)
Shoe leather, hand cream, white peaches, pepper, walnuts. Vanilla cream, pepper, stone fruit, ashy.

147 – Adelphi Liddesdale 9 (Bunnahabain 21)
Chocolate mousse, struck matches, salty, stone fruit. Cloves, caramlised fruit, stewed apricots.

148 – Adelphi Ben Nevis 1996 18 Years
Rope, honey, hay, plum cake, lemonade, botrytis, really floral. Crazily floral, like a botrytis, chocolate and cocoa. best dram of the tasting… I bought a bottle.

149 – Adelphi Longmorn 1992 23 Years
Maple sugar, salted butter, peanut butter, caramel pudding, dusty, mandarin and menthol. Loads of cream, pepper, golden syrup, coffee.

150 – Adelphi Ardnamurchan distillery new make
Barn yard (but not in a bad way), bog, salt, ethanol. Cucumber, chili, honey, salt.

151 – Adelphi Ardamurchan 11 Month
Banana and caramel, cloves and cola, honey. Spicy, bubble gum, cucumber, honey and salt.

152 – WhistlePig The Boss Hog Barrel:63 13 years (Not part of the tasting, obviously)
Star anise, dry ginger, bubblegum, vanilla pods, watermelon, cream, cloves, fly spray. Rubbery, hot an absolute destroyer, overwhelming crushed ants, loads of dry spice and vanilla cola.

Whisky 2015 – 142-144

142 – SMWS 29.161 (Laphroaig) A bodega is burning
Wow – chocolate, plasticine, peat, leather. Slight iodine, medicinal notes that mix up with cocoa, smoke and chalk, some passionfruit(?!?), wet autumn leaves.

143 – Whiskybase Ben Nevis
So much honey, aspirin, maple syrup, butter on crumpets. Melted salted butter, cloves and vanilla cream – it’s such a beautifully structured whisky nothing is offensive or is aggressive, pipe tobacco, tiny bit of pineapple and mango.

144 – Heartwood Any port in storm
Sarsaparilla, dark chocolate, musk, musty, dark leather, coffee liqueur. Perfume, gasoline, butter, maple syrup, wood, caramels, cloves, leather, salty, dried stone fruits. So good.

Whisky 2015 – 123-126 (Back in Oz)

123 – Douglas of Drumlanrig Ben Nevis 18
Pine resin, dark chocolate, banana cake mix, hazelnuts, orange zest. Orange rind is really strong, dried figs, pepper and a hint of vanilla cream.

   
 124 – The Arran Malt Port Cask
My mums strawberry jam on picklets, instant coffee, formic acid, wood resin, star anise. Some thyme and banoffee pie, salt and pepper.

125 – The Arran Malt Amarone Cask
Orange pastels, strawberry jam, banana cake, fruit cup cordial, juicy fruit. Vanilla cream and gentle summer fruits and berries, salted cultured butter, dry ginger.

126 – SMWS 66.66 Ginger makes Fred smile (Ardmore)
Burnt butter, bacon grease, BBQ meats, dried and green figs, dates and gassy cream. Campfire, dates, dried fig, watermelon(?). Not a peat guy but this was good. 

  

Whisky 2015 – 96-99

96 – SMWS 112.9 Cooper’s apron; perfumed mink (Loch Lomond)
Wood shavings, whipped cream, digestive biscuits, chocolate coated almonds. Candy sweetness, very thick and syrupy, vanilla icecream, oat biscuits.

97 – The Balvenie 15 Year Single Barrel Cask:10130
Rubber, Sherry, vanilla, dried fruits. Beautiful caramel hit followed by dried peaches and apricots, cardamom, cloves, vanilla bean and warm cola.

98 – Ben Nevis 10 Year Old, 2002 bottling
Sulphur, rose petals, rubber, vine leaves, caramel. Peppery, salty, sugary sweetness, sulphur and leather.

99 – Dramboree Ledaig for Whisky Exchange
Fresh shucked oysters, seaweed, like the rind on Camembert, some honey. Camembert and oysters, lick of paint. A very different dram for me – I was tasting Camembert for the next 2 hours.