The Namibian Whiskey, even. Somewhat burying the lede this is The Namibian Elephant Shit Whiskey.
It's... Chaotic. There's lots of flavour here but it seems to randomly appear on your palate. Not all of them are good. There's an aggressiveness to this that I really need to be in the mood for.
Compass Box can sometimes be almost hilariously committed to transparency so in this case I can tell you this is made from:
- 39% Linkwood Distillery, First Fill Bourbon Barrel
- 29% Clynelish Distillery, First Fill Bourbon Barrel
- 20% Benrinnes Distillery, First Fill Bourbon Barrel
- 8% Distillery near the town of Aberlour, Revatted Oloroso Sherry Seasoned Butt
- 2% Highland Malt Blend, eigenes Frensch Oak Barrel – Heavy Toast
- 2% Caol Ila Distillery, First Fill Bourbon Barrel
And when you are starting with those goodies you'd better do a good job.
Compass Box nail it. Especially at this price point (€40). There's a reason it won the OSWA for best blended whisky.
One thing I will note is that I recently finished a bottle of Benrinnes which I kept forgetting I had but always regretted not buying more bottles of it when I had a dram. The Benrinnes had a lovely central hotness that Orchard House somehow manages to preserve and showcase.
Get a bottle if you see it.
An English Whisky! Not my first, though. There was Filey Bay which was a big hit of butterscotch and East London Rye which was herbal and spicy and lovely.
This is from Cotswolds and it's OK. As you can see it's a recent purchase so this could be the "neck pour", but it's a fine dram that just doesn't do anything in particular.
I may have to come back to it when it's had a bit more time in the bottle.
A Republic Gunship! This seems to be more photogenic than it should be. It's a good collection of parts and it looks like what it ought to but it just seems too delicate to me. Still, a good start for this year's calender.
On the back of this bottle is a QR Code. It contains a link that eventually sends you here:
https://ardnamurchan-distillery.co.uk/single-malt-detail/adsm-04-21-3/adsm187520668663
That tells you all about this particular bottle. For example it is bottle 220/17502. It was bottled by Kelly Combe on January 19, 2021.
I don't really need to know any of this, of course, but as far a transparency goes this is phenomenal.
The whisky itself is only 5 years old but refuses to show it. It's crisp and smoky and sweet. There are some subtle flavours floating around ,you might get a hint of toast or pears. The addition of a little water really brings out the smoke but not in an overwhelming way.
Great stuff. Thanks Kelly.
I was in Vienna in summer and found this Whisky shop disguised as a Teehandlung. I'd actually been looking for the shop as I'd stumbled on it before but couldn't remember the name or quite where it was. A fun way to take up an hour.
They've got a good selection. Not everything but they have the occasional bottle that Weisshaus or Expert 24 might not have. You pay a premium, of course, but not so eye-watering as some places I could mention (but won't because I be too classy for that).
I picked this up there for €60 (and I got Russell's Reserve 10 but I don't have any photos of that because it didn't last very long).
I tend to like Douglas Laing bottling's in general and this is one of three different Scallywag's that I've bought (the standard one and this year's cask strength Xmas bottling being the others). DL Whiskys that I've tried have been mostly good value and I think the master blender there has a specific thing for mouth-feel as the Remarkable Regional Malts all have a slight oilyness that coats the tongue.
I got this back to the hotel after carrying it around all day and was dying to try it.
You would think that drinking whisky from a plastic cup, the ones they provide for your toothbrushing needs, would adversely effect the flavour, but in this case no.
Such a riot on the nose and palate. The sherry is there, but chocolate, too like on the label. Dried fruits some nuts, cinnamon, nutmeg. A big Christmas cake of a drink with a long dark chocolate finish. A surprise every time but consistantly tasty.
BONUS LEGO REVIEW
Grogu in a festive jumper. Awwwwww.
(pic stolen from FBTB.net)
This is almost a Spanish version of the Overaged Whisky from Michel Couvreur earlier.
It's distilled and partly aged in Scotland, to the point where it could be a Blended Scotch (so some grain whisky in there), and then shipped to Spain where it's aged at least five years in Oloroso casks and then 12 months in Pedro Ximenes. This is a Gonzalez Byass product so I guess they have some barrels around. That said the words used to describe the casks are "soaked" and "seasoned", which, I don't know, have a touch of the weasel about them.
The whisky is just about okay. Obviously there's a big sherry thing going on here, but it's not like your usual sherry-bomb -- the underlying whisky doesn't seem to have much of a character -- it's more like a fortified sherry that, unfortunately, reminds me of Metaxa.
Lovely bottle though.
A weapons rack. I do appreciate the designers trying to add little features to them, but...
Highland Park is another unreviewable whisky. You know already what you think of it.
All those releases, all that Viking stuff. What's going on?
This one is a little different, though. First, it has a small story:
Apprently they let Senior Brand Ambassador, Martin Markvardsen, combine 10 year old sherry seasoned American oak casks together with 10 year old European oak casks to create this and they lwet him bottle it at 46%.
Second, it has a really simple bottle. This helps more than you'd think.
The whisky is HP but a little more so. On the nose it's classic Highland Park, sweet, fruity a hint of smoke. But taking a sip there's a bigger hit of smoke up front this dissipates to reveal heather honey and some pepper.
