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Scyfion: a Ukrainian independent bottler

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Arran Port Cask Finish 2020

March 5, 2021
Vega 20 year old, North Star Spirits

March 3, 2021
2x Lambay Whiskey

February 26, 2021
Bimber 2017, Thompson bros

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W.D. O'Connell

W.D. O’Connell

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An interview with Joeri from The Whisky Jury

Introduction to Whisky Certificate

Course: Introduction to Whisky Certificate

Milk & Honey Distillery

Interview with Tomer Goren of Milk & Honey Distillery

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Arran Port Cask Finish 2020
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2x Lambay Whiskey
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The shiny stills of Teeling Distillery. Founded in

The shiny stills of Teeling Distillery. Founded in 2015, it was the first new distillery to open in Dublin after 125 years! In the photo, you have the 3 stills (named after Jack Teeling's daughters) which are used for triple distillation.

Normally I lean more towards the bourbon aged whis

Are you familiar with Kamiki yet? It's a blended m

Are you familiar with Kamiki yet? It's a blended malt whisky from Japan, not only made from Japanese whisky, but it also contains whisky from other parts of the world. ⁠
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It's not known from which distilleries the whisky comes from or which type of casks were used. But what we do know is that the people behind Kamiki do dare to experiment, since this blend is finished in Japanese cedarwood. And that's quite unique!⁠
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The Japanese Cedar tree, also known as Sugi, is Japan’s national tree and was often planted around temples and shrines. The timber is commonly used for making tubs, staves and casks and also for interior designs. It has a wonderful scent that works well with scented candles, but will this work for whisky too? ⁠
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Nose: immediately a strong scent from the cedarwood, mixed with a handful of spices, such as cloves, black pepper and cumin seed. A hint of resin as well. At first, the cedar wood is quite dominant, fortunately, it fades after a while. Then it becomes slightly creamier. Vanilla, caramel. Followed by red apples and lemons in the background. Some coconut, which is followed a faint, slightly perfumy floral note. But after that, the wood scent is starting to come back.⁠
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Taste: still the same wood flavours as in the nose, but slightly less. Luckily I also get a little bit of honey here. Later also vanilla. A floral note again and sweet cherries in the back. Then liquorice and cayenne pepper. After a while, it gets sweeter. More honey and an almost sugary note. Sugar water? Some toffee, chocolate and salted caramel too.⁠
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Finish: mid-long with again the cedarwood and those same spices. Resin too.⁠
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I don’t know what to think about this as I have never tasted something like this before. It is a lot of wood and wood spices. Quite an unusual dram because of the cedarwood. After a while, it does settle a bit and there will appear other flavours as well, but the cedar finish continues to bother me a bit, unfortunately. If you are open to something unique then this is definitely worth a try, but it's a bit too much for me.⁠
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Many thanks to @kamiki_whisky for this bottle. ⁠

This 18 year old Hazelburn was one of the festival

This 18 year old Hazelburn was one of the festival bottlings of the virtual open days held last October. It has matured in fresh bourbon barrels and is bottled at a strength of 47.4% ABV. Here are my tasting notes:⁠
Nose: light and fruity, but so nice. Quite some fresh lemons and apples. A hint of minerals. Chalk. Resin. A farmyard note. And tobacco in the back. Water moves it more towards the citrusy notes.⁠
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Taste: pineapples and apples. Vanilla. Unripe pears. A hint of salty caramel. Kiwi. Minerals. A faint farmyard note here as well. Pine needles. Water brings out a sweetness and also lemons.⁠
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Finish: short to mid-long, vanilla, minerals and peppery.⁠
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Really good. Not very complex but full of flavour with an unexpected peppery kick at the end. The finish is slightly on the short side though. But a very tasty Hazelburn indeed. ⁠

The Balvenie Distillery was founded in 1892 by Wil

The Balvenie Distillery was founded in 1892 by William Grant & Sons, also the owners of Glenfiddich Distillery. It was initially built to help Glenfiddich, as there was a great demand for this whisky. ⁠
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At the time it was only used for blends, but in 1973 The Balvenie got its first official bottling. After that, it all went very fast, and the popularity of its own whisky grew enormously.⁠
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It was therefore not surprising that William Grant & Sons in 1990 decided to build a new distillery (Kininvie) to cope with the demand for whisky for blends. But it was only after the opening of Ailsa Bay in 2008 that the Balvenie could produce greater stocks. ⁠
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Nowadays only a very small percentage is used for the blend Monkey Shoulder, the rest is used for their own range of single malts.

Tomorrow on the blog we're going back to Bimber! I

Tomorrow on the blog we're going back to Bimber! I had already tasted that Ex-Bourbon cask (batch 002) recently, which I really liked. This time an independent release from the Thompson Bros. Another great bottling from the gentlemen and the label too. 😊

This weekend I'm going back to whiskey tasting and

This weekend I'm going back to whiskey tasting and these two bottles of Lambay will definitely be on the menu. I don't know yet what else will be tasted, I'll see that by then.⁠⁠
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Lambay Whiskey is an Irish whiskey with a Cognac finish. It is the result of the collaboration between two families. The Baring family who also own the Lambay island (and that's where the name comes from) and the Camus family of Maison Camus, a well-known cognac house (and that's where the cognac casks come from). The whiskey is sourced from an undisclosed Irish distillery after which it is transferred to Lambay Island for maturing. ⁠⁠
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I'm looking forward to tasting both of the whiskeys and a review will follow soon. 😊
Thanks to @lambaywhiskey for the bottles. ⁠⁠
⁠

Bimber releases aren't always easy to buy as they

Bimber releases aren't always easy to buy as they tend to sell out before you even can blink. However, that is different with this ex-bourbon release for instance. It has a somewhat larger circulation, namely about 2950 bottles. Which makes it easier to obtain and you can see that it is still available in a number of liquor stores around Europe. It's nice that they have these larger batches as well, as it's a great opportunity to introduce new people to Bimber (or it’s a chance to finally buy a Bimber again for people like me who are a bit slow sometimes 😉 ). Anyway here are my tasting notes:⁠
Nose: oh, this is really nice. Green apples. Apricots. Crème brûlée. Followed by fresh lemons and gooseberries. A hint of marzipan and butter. A little bit of coconut too. Later also acacia honey and a floral note.⁠
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Taste: a nice oily texture. Unripe pears. Vanilla, caramel fudge and a hint of toffee. But also those sweet banana candies. Then acacia honey. Pink grapefruit and lemons in the background Quickly followed by cappuccino and the tiniest touch of oak.⁠
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Finish: mid-long to long. Honey, vanilla and apricots again.⁠
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Initially, I thought it was the best in the nose (I just keep smelling it) because the palate was a bit disappointing at first. But after tasting it a few times and some air, this improves considerably and it becomes also rather fruity there. A really nice single malt, especially when you consider the age. Very enjoyable.

Casks outside at Deanston Distillery.

Casks outside at Deanston Distillery.

Something I don't know much about is French whisky

I’m a big fan of Chichibu, as most of you know b

I’m a big fan of Chichibu, as most of you know by now. But what I’ve always overlooked is the Ichiro’s Malt & Grain, a blended whisky created by Chichibu’s founder and master blender Ichiro Akuto. Why? No idea actually, I have never tasted this before or maybe just once, a very long time ago (I can vaguely remember having tasted this one at a festival). Anyway, time to change that!⁠
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Ichiro’s Malt & Grain has been around for many years, the first release was released in 2011 (according to Whiskybase) and since then many editions have been released. It’s not just any Japanese blend, or actually, it’s not a Japanese blend at all … It’s a world blended whisky, so it also contains whisky from other countries. In the case of the Malt & Grain, it means that in addition to Chichibu it also contains whiskies sourced from distilleries in the United States, Canada, Scotland and Ireland. However, which distilleries these are remains a mystery…⁠
.⁠
Nose: rather fresh and delicate. It’s somewhat restrained at first, but after some time it starts to open up. Vanilla and some coconut in the back. A floral note. Pears and lemons. Then after some time, I get some kind of floral honey. This is followed by bananas. And then also a light glue note.⁠
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Taste: it’s rather creamy. Pears and vanilla here as well. Toffee. Kiwi. and honey. Then green bananas. Later it also gets somewhat spicy too: pink peppercorns, ginger and cinnamon.⁠
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Finish: mid-long to long. Vanilla and bananas. And a hint of the same spices as on the palate, but those come more to the front here, especially the pink peppercorns.⁠
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At first, I thought that it wasn’t very complex, but now that I have tasted it more often I have to adjust my opinion a bit. It has a very nice nose and although you might think the palate is a bit creamy and somewhat simple at first, that really changes after a few sips. There are quite a few spices, which provide a nice kick and which keep lingering in the finish. A very entertaining blend that really needs some time to develop.

Yes, it is snowing in the Netherlands and that mea

Yes, it is snowing in the Netherlands and that means that the whole country is going crazy! All sledges are sold out, the news has been dominated by the upcoming snow for a week now. And also the word sneeuw (Dutch for snow) has been trending on Twitter for days, even though it only started snowing since last night!😂 And if you happen to follow some Dutch people on any social media channel, expect a lot, but like really a lot of snow photos! Yup, it's a thing here. ⁠
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Anyway, let's talk about this 20 year old Vega. This is already the 7th release of the Vega, a blended malt from North Star Spirits. A blend that is always sold for a very good price (it cost around € 75) and that actually always gets great reviews. For me, it had been a while since I tasted a Vega blend (I thought 2018) and I thought it was very good, so it seemed nice to taste one again. I don't know what this blend is made of, but it has matured in American and European Oak sherry casks and is bottled at a strength of 43.5%. Have you ever tried one of the Vega blends and what did you think of it?

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Arran Port Cask Finish 2020
Vega 20 year old, North Star Spirits
2x Lambay Whiskey
Bimber 2017, Thompson bros
Kamiki, blended malt whisky
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Deanston 2011, Torsten Paul Whisky Company
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