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An interview with Joeri from The Whisky Jury

January 24, 2021
Course: Introduction to Whisky Certificate

January 6, 2021
Interview with Tomer Goren of Milk & Honey Distillery

March 4, 2020
Scyfion: a Ukrainian independent bottler

December 3, 2019
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Tasting Notes
Springbank 15 year old (2020)

April 16, 2021
Ledaig 12 year old, Daily Dram

April 12, 2021
Glen Garioch and Ardmore 11 year old, The Bookinist

April 9, 2021
Stauning Rye & Stauning Kaos

April 7, 2021
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Hielander whisky festival 2016

Last weekend the 6th edition of Hielander Whisky Festival took place. This festival is held once a year in the Grote Kerk in Alkmaar and attracts many …

The Whisky Jury

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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Springbank 15 year old (2020)
Ledaig 12 year old, Daily Dram
Glen Garioch and Ardmore 11 year old, The Bookinist
Stauning Rye & Stauning Kaos
Kornog 2005, The Whisky Sponge

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This was what I was waiting for ... Finally arrive

This was what I was waiting for ... Finally arrived this afternoon and what a delicious dram this is! 😍 Cheers and happy weekend folks!

When I wrote my review of the first batch of Water

When I wrote my review of the first batch of Waterford releases in July last year, the distillery was already working with 72 different farms. However, this number has now risen to a staggering 97 farms, all spread across Ireland. Logistically not the most obvious choice, but as we all know by now Waterford is on a mission and it all has to do with terroir … ⁠
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Lakefield Farm, located in the lush County Laois, inland Ireland, is one of the first farms that Waterford started working with and also won Waterford’s own Grower of the Year Trophy for its 2019 barley crop which, according to the distillery proves to be of a consistently exceptional quality. Whether we’re going to taste that quality in this very first Lakefield edition (made from a crop from 2016), well … let’s find out now, shall we?⁠
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This Waterford Lakefield 1.1 has matured in 46% 1st fill American Oak, 23% virgin oak, 15% French oak and 16% VDN casks and is 3 years, 7 months, and 28 days old. Bottled at a strength of 50% ABV.⁠
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Nose: A little malty at first. Oatmeal and Digestive biscuits. A hint of blueberries, followed by fresh Lemons and green apples. Vanilla. A touch of hay. Then it becomes a little bit sweeter. Honey and toffee. Sweet strawberries and cookie dough too.⁠
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Taste: sweet and creamy on the arrival with plenty of caramel and honey. Blueberries again. Red apples. A lovely lemon pie. Digestive biscuits. Followed by a touch of marzipan and a little bit of pink grapefruit. White pepper.⁠
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Finish: mid-long to long with blueberries, white pepper and a hint of cloves⁠
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Pretty good, yes it’s young, but the quality is certainly there. What I personally like is that the wine cask influence is not as present in this one compared to the other SFO’s I’ve tasted. (On closer examination, I also saw that these casks were less present than in those previous editions that I've tried. So that might explain it😁). Anyway, it’s a pleasant young single malt that already has quite a bit of complexity to it.⁠
.⁠
(Bottle provided by Waterford)

The beautiful Blair Athol distillery. A few years

The beautiful Blair Athol distillery. A few years ago I only had a quick visit here as I was in transit to Speyside. But this one is also definitely on my (never-ending) list to do the tour. Hopefully this year and otherwise we'll just do that tour next year. 😉

I will return to reviewing some older single malts

I will return to reviewing some older single malts again soon, including an old Mortlach and Miltonduff from Sestante, as well as a few of the Manager's Dram series like this fantastic Glen Elgin.⁠
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For the ones not familiar with The Manager’s Dram, it was basically a series of bottlings chosen by competition between the distillery managers of United Distillers (now Diageo). All whiskies were tasted blind and after everyone had communicated their choices, the winner was determined. And this it often resulted in very beautiful bottlings. ⁠
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These bottles have never been officially available but were bottled for the United Distillers staff only. So the only way to get hold of these was at auction houses, where they still pop up regularly today. Until a few years ago, these were still available for a reasonable price, but unfortunately, that is no longer the case.

It's been a busy Sunday for me, or actually, the w

It's been a busy Sunday for me, or actually, the whole weekend was busy. So time to relax and enjoy a nice dram! This is a 13-year-old Orkney, which has matured in ex-sherry butts (bottled by Elixir Distillers). Very tasty indeed, but dangerously drinkable! 🙄 How's your Sunday going so far.

Long overdue, but this bottle here, An Orkney 16 y

Long overdue, but this bottle here, An Orkney 16 year old, is Watt Whisky’s inaugural release (bottled for the Watt Whisky Buds), the label of Campbeltown Whisky Company Ltd, the company of Mark and Kate Watt.⁠
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Between them, they have more than 40 years of experience in the whisky industry. We mainly know Mark from his years at Cadenhead and before that Duncan Taylor, Kate worked for years in sales & marketing at Springbank and later also at Glenfarclas. More recently, she has also hosted quite a few tastings and walking tours in Campbeltown. It was therefore not entirely surprising that they would eventually join forces.⁠
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Thanks to the very successful crowdfunding campaign, they were eventually able to take the brave step of founding The Campbeltown Whisky Company and that is also how the Watt Whisky label was created, with which they have now released two batches.⁠
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However, this Orkney was released just before the first batch, as this was the first cask that was bottled especially for the crowdfunders, the Watt Whisky Buds.⁠
This Orkney is a marriage of 2 hogsheads, rested in a brandy butt for 3 months. Bottled at a strength of 59.1% ABV.⁠
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Nose: a trace of smoke and heather. Raisins and cherries. A hint of oranges. Caramel fudge and toffee. Honey. A touch of fresh milk, oddly enough. Somewhat earthy and later also grapefruit.⁠
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Taste: honey and smoke. Red grape peels. Oranges. Gooseberries in the very back. Oatmeal. Caramel fudge and milk chocolate. Later also a hint of cane sugar, it gets quite sweet now. Slightly peppery, ginger and cloves.⁠
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Finish: long with a bit of peat, honey and oranges. A touch of oak and the same spices as on the palate.⁠
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Ok, before I tasted it I was a bit sceptical about the Brandy cask finish. And I really had to taste it a few times before I could really give my opinion on this because it is quite unusual at some points. But I really like it. The brandy cask and the Orkney spirit work together very nicely, which is especially noticeable on the palate.

The shiny Glenfarclas stills! There are 6 stills i

The shiny Glenfarclas stills! There are 6 stills in total, all of which are direct-fired.

Today I continue my journey of discovery with the

Today I continue my journey of discovery with the Remarkable Regional Malts series from Douglas Laing. A range of blended malts each representing a Scottish whisky region. We have already been to Islay, then we visited Speyside and Campbeltown, but this time we are going island hopping with the Rock Island.⁠
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Originally launched in 2015 as Rock Oyster, it was the 4th in the Remarkable Regional Malts range, following Big Peat, Scallywag and Timorous Beastie. However, in 2019 they changed the name to Rock Island because it appears that quite a few people don’t like oysters. 😁⁠
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The blend itself is a marriage of single malts from the islands Jura, Arran, Orkney en Islay. Bottled at a strength of 46.8% ABV.⁠
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Nose: it immediately starts with a whiff of peat, but it reminds me more of Islay peat than the islands. A sugary barley note, followed by limestone and seaweed. A hint of fried wolfish (or Sea Wolf). Then some vanilla. Caramel and sea salt. Later also some lovely lemon freshness.⁠
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Taste: rather peaty again. Seaweed and brine. A drop of vanilla custard and a pinch of sea salt. There’s also a faint herbal note, liquorice comes to mind. And a touch of fresh lemon juice.⁠
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Finish: mid-long with a touch of peat, minerals, vanilla and lemons.⁠
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A rather tasty blended malt, especially for the price range (around €40). The maritime flavours which you’d like to have in an islands blend are absolutely there. They say this will taste nice with seafood and I kinda get that. Something I will have to try soon. ⁠
.⁠
(Bottle provided by @monnikdranken)

I have had these two beautiful bottles from the Uk

I have had these two beautiful bottles from the Ukrainian bottler The Bookinist here at home for a while now. But both the Glen Garioch and the Ardmore needed some time to breathe. And those few weeks that the bottles have now been open has done well for the whisky as they both improved significantly. So that means that a review is on the way and you can read all about it later this week! ⁠
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(Many thanks to @berezovskiy2705 for the bottles).

My dram to start the weekend with will be this lov

My dram to start the weekend with will be this lovely 24 year old Tormore from Le Gus't. Sadly almost gone, but I enjoyed every drop of it! ⁠
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Nose: Oranges and plenty of it. This is leading towards honey and apple compote. Tobacco leaves. A hint of vanilla, and some caramel fudge. A citrus note in the background. Resin. Grapefruit and green bananas.⁠
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Taste: Tobacco leaves in combination with fruits. Honeycomb. A hint of bananas. Resin again and vanilla custard. A touch of ginger and mint too.⁠
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Finish: Mid-long to long with mostly grapefruit. But also vanilla, ginger and mint.⁠
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A very beautiful Tormore, where the character of Tormore comes out beautifully. It also has a bit of an old skool feel to it, which I really love. It does take a while to open up, but if you give it that time it will develop more and more and it really becomes a wonderful dram. A nice combination between the sweet fruit and the fresh notes of ginger and mint.⁠
.⁠
Happy weekend everyone! 🥃

Casks in the wild at Springbank. 😉

Casks in the wild at Springbank. 😉

Really enjoying this Redbreast Ten Year Old at the

Really enjoying this Redbreast Ten Year Old at the moment! I was already a fan of the 12-year-old Cask Strength, but this is certainly just as good. I still have to write my tasting notes for this one, but I will, soon. 😊 Anyone else tried this yet?

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Springbank 15 year old (2020)
Ledaig 12 year old, Daily Dram
Glen Garioch and Ardmore 11 year old, The Bookinist
Stauning Rye & Stauning Kaos
Kornog 2005, The Whisky Sponge
Waterford Lakefield 1.1
Rock Island, Douglas Laing
Fettercairn Warehouse 2
3 Speyside single malts from BYOB-C
An Orkney 16 year old, Watt Whisky

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