Drink Whiskey tasting

[Thorwyn]

Just came home from a Whiskey tasting in one of the largest liquor stores over here. Some tasty suff and pretty interesting background informations. 8 different Whiskeys from the Islay area (not just Islay´s though).

It all happened in the storage room, which was literally filled with shelves full of Whiskey. Best one I spotted was a bottle from 1950 that went for 750 €.

 

[Deebs]

Whiskey or Whisky ?

 

[Thorwyn]

Whisky

 

[Deebs]

Ah that's better, now I can work this out!

 

[old.user4556]

Islay malts are awesome; I've had two bottles of Caol Ila 16 year old distiller's edition now and it's fantastically peaty and medicinal, makes Laphroaig taste like Jack Daniels (and I used to love Laphroaig, but I've not been so into it lately).

 

[Thorwyn]

We had a Caol Ila during the tasting. It was pretty good, but a bit too rough for my tastes (definitely needed some water to get the full flavour). Here´s the list btw if anyone is interested:

Arran 1996
Tobermory 10 yo
Bunnahabhain 12yo
Highland Part 8yo, MacPhail`s
Isle of Jura 18yo
Facadale (Talisker) 10yo
Caol Ila 1998
Bunnahabhain 1997, Wemyss

 

[TdC]

I'll take that Jura any time

 

[old.user4556]

Interesting, I've just finished my bottle of Jura and it's not bad, but not great. Not enough smoke for me.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Smoke while drinking then, NOOB.

 

[TdC]

Interesting, I've just finished my bottle of Jura and it's not bad, but not great. Not enough smoke for me.

I had the 16 and it's very mild. My fave is still Highland Park 18, but hey

Recently had the bruichladdich pedro ximenes finish. was teh yum

 

[old.Tohtori]

I remember coming home really rather drunk and wanting to answer this thread. Weird. Can't remember what though

 

[old.user4556]

I had the 16 and it's very mild. My fave is still Highland Park 18, but hey

Recently had the bruichladdich pedro ximenes finish. was teh yum

Highland park 18 YO is absolutely tremendous .

What's the Pedro Ximenes finish? A year in madeira or port casks? I do love port wood finishes.

 

[TdC]

Pedro Ximenes is an extremely sweet sherry mate. I usually have it with some hefty cheese, or after a meal of tapas to go with a cappuccino.

The Bruich I had was this one: Bruichladdich

 

[old.user4556]

Sounds awesome, will check that out. Won't be cheap .

 

[TdC]

if I recall correctly, I paid 73 euros for it. according to xe that's 63.6 units of your funny money

 

[Olgaline]

Pedro Ximenez is a white grape variety primarily used to make sweet sherry. (PX)

When the sherry houses are "done" with the casks, they often go to Scotland to be used as "finishers" for whisky,

 

[Huntingtons]

olga. Hands down coolest job on FH.

 

[Olgaline]

Ardbeg Double barrel

 

[old.user4556]

Just finished a bottle of The Balvenie double wood finish, was tasty and not expensive.

Had a glass of Lagavulin 16 year old last night - POW! Right in the face with the peat, stronger than a Laphroaig 10 year old and nicer to my palate. Might invest in a bottle along with a port wood finish something for the lighter occasion.

 

[Cerb]

Went for dinner with the missus last night and afterwards had a 18 y/o Bowmore thats from Islay I guess? Was delicious but well expensive I gues haha

 

[Olgaline]

Lagavulin 16 together with Ardbeg 10 and Laphroaig 10 really are the benchmarks of Islay whisky.

If you enjoy the Laph 10, then try the cask vers. or Quarter Cask.
Personally I'm a big fan of Ardbeg's Uigeadail & Airigh nam beist.
and I do love the independant Islay sherry bottlings f.exp. Adelphi

However, if your a complete peak nutt.
then Bruichladdich Octomore and Ardbeg Supernova are the thing for you.

 

[old.user4556]

I used to be a big fan of Laphroaig 10 year old, but then I tried Caol Ila 1996 Distiller's Edition which gave me the smokey medicinal notes but a lot smoother and pleasant than Laphroaig. On going back to Laphroaig, I ended up not enjoying it .

Edit: I've just had a smell of the bottle, I think i've got one from a suspect batch, definitely not how I remember it - it smells like mud or tobacco smoke instead of peat and antiseptic.

 

[Zenith]

Also a big fan of the Caol Ila, amazing peat. On the other side, Im an even bigger fan of the Bunnahabhain

 

[Olgaline]

Gordon & MacPhail have a refill sherry cask version out of Caol Ila 93 or 95 "cant remember
there's also a bottler called Elements of Islay wich are ok'ish cool concept and bottles anyway...and all cask str. the caol ila is 60'ish

other independant bottleres to look for include Adelphi, Wilson & Morgan, Duncan Taylor, Douglas laing,

 

[Cerb]

Olga is there a good place online to learn all this stuff about this or is it just wiki? Where did you learn just by drinking? I find all this casking and finishing stuff really interesting I dont know why!

 

[Olgaline]

well, it's kinda my job
I'm still studying to be a Sommelier & I work in a wine, liquor & specialities store.

But enough about me, all i can say is that the best way to learn is to
go to tastings, other than that, do some reading on regions, traditions
and the distilleries and their history...

search the net for sites, read the wiki

This is preaty neat imo, click on a distillery and it'll promt info on that dist.
Whisky Map of Distilleries in Scotland (Malt Madness Distillery Data)

 

[Cerb]

That is an awesome site! Very interesting reading.

 

[Nate]

Freddys Distillery?

 

[Larossa]

We visited the Glen Ord distillery a few years back, the tour finished with a tasting of their whisky and it was fantastic. I am not a big whisky fan but that stuff was a mile away from the stuff you buy off the supermarket shelves.
We were so impressed we bought a (discounted) bottle which lasted quite a while as we only drank it on special occasions; I keep thinking of buying another bottle but the price - £40-50 puts me off.
Maybe another trip to Scotland should be planned with a few distillery visits

 

[Olgaline]

If it's the 12yo glen ord, you might want to concider stacking up on what ever you can get your hands on,
last I heard "rumor" that particular bottling was being discontinued.