Whisky Tasting: Spring 2023

We are together once again, stout yeoman all! Ready to sup at the teat of our reasonably priced distilleries.

The usual rules apply - buy your 700ml bottle for under $100 and bring it in a paper bag, so we make our tasting notes and score each one without knowing what we’re drinking.

Whisky: Jura 10 (40%) - Bourbon and Sherry casks
Supplied by: Tim Griggs 
Notes:
Chosen from the selection at the airport! And as you’d expect from such a dram, it’s relatively simple in flavour, neither harsh nor bitey.
The nose detects raisins and rose water.
The flavour is very light, with sweet caramel and vanilla notes.
Score:  40 / 60

Whisky: Jura Rum Cask (40%)
Supplied by: Simon
This is somehow familiar! Two of our panel have chosen the same brand.
There’s a tang of cola on the nose.
On first taste it’s still smooth, but has more bite than the Jura 10. There’s a little bit of a tang, a sourness to it.
Score:  34 / 60

Whisky: Auchentoshan 12 yo - bourbon and sherry cask
Supplied by: Tim Grimsey
An old favourite of Tim's, presented to this group for the first time.
It has a very fruity nose, with banana and peach!
This is more complex and very oaky, with a little black pepper.
Score:  43 / 60

Whisky: 23rd Street Australian Malt (46%)
From a South Australian distillery.
Starts strongly with a lovely nose - dark chocolate and toffee notes
Bit of a burn mid palate, but none at the back. It feels strong!
Really vanilla, very rich, 
Good mouthfeel, oily and rich, the sort of thing you could happily drink alone.
Score:  39 / 60

Whisky: Glenshiel Deluxe Highland blend (40%)
Supplied by: Andy
He deliberately chose the cheapest single malt he could find - we didn’t know that when tasting it and making notes.
The smell and taste are very different, almost like two different drinks.
The nose is good, pear and honeycomb come out first. It’s a little bit spicy too, with clove and vanilla.
It has a good mouthfeel, but the taste is ordinary - a little sour, like wine grapes that aren't suitable for eating.
Scores:  42 / 60

Whisky: Silkie Signature Blend (46%)
Supplied by: Marty
An easily found Irish whisky.
Very sweet scent, with a touch of apricot, 
The taste is also sweet and a little tingly, with a tiny glow of smoke.
There’s a nice after-taste, a pleasant lingering sweetness, which speaks of a well-made spirit.
As you continue drinking it, the flavour only improves!
Scores:  43 / 60

Whisky: Deviant Anthology (50.3%)
Supplied by: Michael
This is a bloody marvellous drop from Tasmania, which doesn’t actually qualify as whisky, as it hasn’t been in its barrels for long enough!
The nose offers mandarin, lavender, and a hint of toffee.
The taste is complex and unique. Sweet, creamy, barley forward, with loads of citrus.
No regrets on buying a bottle of this, especially for under $100! If you see another one, buy it instantly.
Scores:  50 / 60

{ Read More }

American Whisky Tasting

 

We've decided to call our little whisky club the Organoleptic Whisky Challenge, mainly because Michael's a chef and he knew the exact fancy word we needed for tasting stuff without reading the label.

organoleptic: (adjective) acting on, or involving the use of, the sense organs

Today's tasting theme was American. And every bottle was made from a different grain blend! We had wheat, rye, corn, and a rye/corn mix.

Let's get to the blind tasting notes.

Balcones Baby Blue (46%) Texas whiskey made from blue corn spirit.

Rounded and quite complex. A little bitey at the back of the palate, a little sour aftertaste. There was a definite air of sweets around it too - the smell of chocolate, a hint of praline. Adding water definitely brought out more flavour.

Marks: 8 + 8 + 7 = 23/30

Basil Hayden’s Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey (40%) Mix of rye and corn

A very approachable drop. Tangy but well rounded, the aftertaste lingers and you're glad of it. There's a definite orange/citrus note at first taste and a touch of iodine as an afternote. It also has a pleasant quality that we've decided (in our ignorance) to call mouth fizz. This just gets easier and easier to drink as you go. 

Marks: 7 + 8 + 8 = 23/30

Catoctin Creek Rye Whisky (46%) organic rye from Virginia

This is bright yellow and tastes the same - tangy and a bit bitey. We all thought it was bourbon, but we were wrong! There's a vanilla overtone and you can definitely taste the oak. After adding water it became more mellow and improved quite a bit. The first sip was good and the last sip was excellent.

Marks: 8 + 7 + 8 = 23/30

Dry Fly Washington Wheat Whiskey (40%)

Another one that fizzes in the mouth! Very clean taste, little evidence of the barrel. Smooth and easy with honey tones. Most of us weren't tempted to use water and the one person who did said he wished he hadn't. This is delightful. There's a floral nectar flavour, a little light caramel, with a hint of biscuit. It was the clear winner from the four whiskies on offer.

Marks: 8 + 9 + 9 = 26/30

{ Read More }

Whisky Tasting at Mine

I've started a little whisky tasting club with some friends.

It works like this: 

• Each person buys a 700ml bottle for under $100.
• It is presented to the group in a brown paper bag with all identifying marks on the neck covered or removed.
• We taste each one without knowing what it is. As we taste, we discuss it and finally give it a score out of 10. (The score is entirely subjective, it's just about how much you like it.)
• After each bottle is scored, it is finally revealed! What have we been drinking? Did anyone identify it correctly?
• The winner gets the kudos of having the best taste in the group that night.

Despite the varying tastes of the group, tonight it was virtually all Scotch! And pretty similar flavour profiles too.

There was nothing bad in the bunch, which made for a very pleasant evening.

Here are the night's bottles and tasting notes, from highest score to lowest.

The Gospel Straight Rye (32/40)

Intense, syrupy, and complex.

A spicy taste, almost Christmas cakey. Is that from sherry casks?

It has an oily mouth-feel. Unlike many of the other whiskies we tasted tonight, it's better without water added to it.

"Quite boozy, it feels strong but pleasantly so."

Jura 10 (31/40)

It's rich with a slight sourness. But it's quite well rounded so that doesn't spoil it.

Good at first sip, even better with water added.

"There's a lot going on with every mouthful."

The Glenlivet Illicit Still (29/40)

This is a well respected but sometimes boring Scotch brand trying to make something a bit more intense.

Floral, balanced, easy on the tongue. Very very drinkable.

"A quality drop but innoffensive."

Highland Park Viking Honour 12 Year Old (28/40)

Smooth and easy with a hint of toffee.

A refined flavour, with no bad notes.

"Makes me reflect fondly on the life choices that led me here."

anCnoc 12 Year Old (28/40)

A very light colour, but the taste is soft, sweet, and oaky.

The back-taste reminds us pleasantly of hibiscus tea.

"Fizzy in the mouth."

This was our second get-together. And for the second time it was revealed that someone had spent over the limit!

In fact the winning bottle was $115, so it was well past the post.

We all enjoyed drinking it, so nobody objected too strongly. But it has been decided that if you win with a bottle that cost you more than $100, you forfeit the bottle at the end of the night and the host gets to keep it.

Sláinte!

{ Read More }

Tasting notes from Whisky Live in Hobart

I went to the Whisky Live tasting event in Hobart and kept a video diary, recording one entry per hour, trying to keep it together while drinking quantities of single malt.

My thanks to Simon and Dave who came with me and held the camera. It's Simon you can see dancing behind me around the halfway mark.

It was a fantastic night, where around 20 whisky companies sent their most knowledgeable bartenders to educate us about their products.

We didn't try everything, but we made a damn good attempt!

Before I share my opinions, you should know that I'm a bit of a light-weight when it comes to whisky - I prefer smooth whisky with a lighter flavour. So take it with a grain of salt. (And a suck of lemon,if you like.)

Also, my memories are perhaps a tiny bit hazy. So I'm only mentioning the ones that stand out clearly in my mind.

Dry Fly Triticale: this isn't made with your usual malted barley, but rather a hybrid of wheat and rye more often found in bread and pasta. It offers a brighter flavour and goes down very easily.

Dry Fly Cask Strength:  I'll admit I was a little worried about this - it's made of wheat and is extra strong at 60% alcohol, so it had all sorts of ways to go wrong. But it turned out to be a highlight of the night, incredibly smooth and delicious.

Box The Messenger: the most palatable of the three Scandinavian brews I tried. They all had something slightly odd about them. This one wasn't bad, but it wasn't particularly good either.

Glendalough Double Barrel Irish:  supposedly one of the best Irish whiskies in the world. It was pretty nice, but I don't know if it was all that.

The King's Ginger:  a ginger based liqueur. Quite sweet, especially after tasting smokey single malts. Surprisingly smooth for something with such a strong tang of ginger. I really liked it.

Lark Distillery Classic Cask:  has a delicious fruity tang. A very classy drop from Tasmania's first modern distillery.

Overeem Port Cask:  Deeply coloured and deeply flavoured too. Perhaps a little intense for my tastes, but there's no denying the quality.

Paul John Classic: smooth and full flavoured. It's from Goa in India, but don't hold that against it - they've been making whisky for 200 years there. Terrific value, you get excellent whisky for the price.

Paul John Peated:  fantastic. They import the peat from Scotland and use it to smoke their own local barley. Smokey and sweet and drinkable.

Redlands Distillery New Malt:  you can't really call this a whisky. It's basically the distilled spirit which will eventually become a whisky if you leave it in a barrel for a few years. I think they really jumped the gun in releasing this, as it's horrible.

The Singleton of Dufftown Spey Cascade:  very pleasant, especially when paired with (believe it or not) a wedge of chocolate coated turkish delight. We drank it and all approved, then found it was probably the least expensive thing on the menu. Punches far above its weight.

Starward Single Malt:  pleasantly smooth but perhaps a little bland, possibly because I'd started on the smokey ones by the time I got to this.

Sullivans Cove American Oak Single Malt:  pure class. Golden in the bottle and on the tongue. Your head swims with the complex flavours for a full minute after each sip.

Talisker Storm:  a powerful smokey potion. Demands a pepper steak to go with it.

{ Read More }