Cadenheads Blended Scotch 20 #10

Cadenheads Blended Scotch 20 46%abv
This whisky is made up using a sherry cask solera system and is made up of 65% malt and 35% grain. This is batch 2, which contains some of batch 1 (whats in batch 1?.....No idea, google it), some Benrinnes and some Strathclyde grain whisky.

Colour
Dark....really dark!

Nose
Leather, old dusty book shop, dunnage warehouse, red fruits, stewed strawberry, figs, lots of polished oak, wood spice, brown sugar, molasses

Palate
Ginger is first up, cola cubes, strawberry jam, brown sugar, chili milk chocolate, coffee and a bit of cask char.

Finish
slight chili milk chocolate digestives

Overall
This is one of the best blends I had tried! The colour is one of the darkest iv seen (I would have loved to have even just seen it at cask strength) I have really enjoyed this bottle and have gave samples out, all with positive reports back. But I still cannot help but think how much better it could have been at cask strength.

Score
9.25 out of -A

I don't think this is available anymore but with the system they use I am sure another will not be far away. Grab it!

:)

Glen Breton 12 Ice Wine Cask #9

Glen Breton 12 Ice Wine Cask 40%abv
This whisky is from a distillery in Canada, is bottled at 40% and matured in Ice Wine Casks. What more is there to say really?

Nose
Quite fresh, green fruits, some white grape, icing sugar, sweet grain.

Palate
A bit of citrus, lots of vanilla, white chocolate, white grapes again and lots of sweet grain - digestives.

Finish
A bit spicy, grapefruit, bitter vanilla

Overall
Its really not bad at all, quite simple but tasty. It is very sweet and you do get the wine influence. Given other things matured in ice wine casks, this is a lot cheaper. If only it was a higher abv...

Score
8 out of B

Not much to say on this one really, a nice simple whisky, If you like the sound of it, go for it, its not to expensive.

:)

Batels Whisky 17 Year Old Malt Blend #8

Bartels Whisky 17 Year Old Malt Blend 45%abv
Bartels kindly sent all of the #MiniTasting crew including myself a sample of this whisky.
I am of the understanding this malt blend is made up of three Edrington malts, think back seventeen years to what they owned and you may get a rough idea of what may be in there. It is from a single cask, natural colour, non-chill filtered and cask strength. But there are only fifty bottles available!
So when all is said and done, its quite an interesting cask of whisky...

Colour
Dark polished copper

Nose
Orange, dunnage warehouse, honeyed malt, little bit of chocolate, ginger and polished oak, toffee. This is not a "sherry bomb" though, its still quite fresh - with green fruits. It does indicate there is some older stuff in there though.

Palate
Quite spicy, citrus - sweet lemon, malty biscuits, bitter chocolate, coffee. Quite creamy, nutty, stewed fruits - orange, apple, pear. Getting notes from both ex sherry and ex bourbon casks on this.

Finish
Medium - ish in length. Milk chocolate turning to dark chocolate, a little bit of citrus again, grapefruit.

Overall
As blends go its really quite nice. I could sit and enjoy this with out thinking about it too much. There is some complexity to it and the flavours blend together nicely. I don't think it will blow your socks off but if you like a nice blend, go for it.
Then the thing that wins this over - the price, £36 for this! You really can not go wrong at that price.

Score
I am scoring this whisky and taking the price into consideration here:
8.5 out of B
But on this one given the price, 100% ignore my opinion and find out for yourself!


If you are in the market for a bottle, have a look on Bartels website, where (at the time of writing) there are 23 bottles left.
https://www.bartelswhisky.com/shop/blended-scotch-whisky-17yo/

:)

Clan Denny - Glengoyne 10 #7

Clan Denny - Glengoyne 10 48%abv
I bought this a little while ago, it was one of the last on the Douglas Laing website. Distilled at Glengoyne in 2007, straight into a refill hogshead and bottled in 2017. It is a single cask, non chill filtered, no colouring added and one of only 450 bottles.
The main purpose of this whisky was to find a bottle which had very little cask influence, but still had a decent age, to try and learn more about distillery character. This was just something I was curious about at the time but this bottle was put to great use with the #MiniTasting crew when it went up against the distillery core range 10 - The write is up here and well worth a read: https://malt-musings.blogspot.com/2019/05/minitasting-ssmcd.html
The extra abv of this one gave it a bit of an advantage but they both came off quite well. But personally, I think this edged it.

Colour
Colour? there isn't any! This is almost clear, there is a very slight hint it has been near oak.

Nose
Malty digestive biscuits, fresh fruits, apples, pears, lemon, citrus.

Palate
Digestives, porridge, vanilla, little bit of milk chocolate, quite nutty - sweet almonds. Fruity - Apples and pears in there to.

Finish
Vanilla, nuts. The vanilla does tail off to leave slight chili and slightly savory note.

Overall
Quite disappointed to see this one go. Being at 48% I have drank this as a dram where you don't want to think about it to much - just enjoy it. Its not hugely complex but it can equally stand up in any in depth tasting. I got this bottle for a purpose and it served that purpose brilliantly.

Score
I would normally say ignore my score and please find out for yourself, but in this case I don't think it is available anymore....
B out of 8.75

Great bottle, if you get the chance to try one of these "lightly influenced" drams, do it!

:)

GlenAllachie 13 Port Pipe - Ralfy Bottle #6

GlenAllachie 13 Port Pipe 59.9%abv
This whisky was distilled in 2006 and popped straight into a port pipe until 2019 when it was bottled up and released to celebrate Ralfy.com 10th anniversary. The is of course non chill filtered and natural colour. 
After tasting this on a recent Tweet Tasting (Thank you to @TheWhiskyWire and @TheGlenAllachie for the sample!).....the hunt was on to find a bottle. £95 was the price and a fair price I thought especially when you consider some of your money is going to a charity local to the distillery. 

Colour
Light polished oak with a slightly pink/red hue to it. 

Nose
Strawberry and vanilla cream with a chocolate dip, citrus - lemon, little bit of mint, polished wood. A little bit of sawdust and some almonds.

Palate
With 2ml of water - Lots of orange, chocolate orange. Some ginger cake. Some fresh green fruits in there. Nice sweet malt.

Finish
Lemonade, chilli chocolate. Its the sweet malt that stays with you. 


Overall
Yes, you know the abv is high and in my opinion it does need a little water but I really can't fault this stuff at all, absolutely lovely. I would recommend it but I would think most people who want it will of already ordered it and those who still want it may find it hard to find, although at time of writing it is still available on Master of Malt. (Update: by the time I had finished writing this, it sold out)
Do not worry - If your unable to find this bottle, this distillery is releasing some excellent stuff right now, you wont go wrong with them. The core range is good and the single casks I have tried have all been great.

Score
Pointless score time:
A- out of 9.25

Roll on another 10 years Ralfy!

:)

Macallan 12 Triple Cask #5

Macallan 12 Triple Cask - 40%abv
This is apparently a "marriage of casks".....I think that just means its three cask types, vatted. European sherry, American sherry and ex-bourbon casks. I am guessing this is chill-filtered but it has no colouring in it. Most of the 12 year old range are fairly easy to find for around £70. I am sure I don't need to go into much detail about Macallan, everyone knows it already.

Colour
Slightly dark straw

Nose
Light fruityness, chewits, cut grass, straw, toffee, caramel, vanilla and a bit of citrus.

Palate
Milk chocolate is the main thing I get here - chocolate digestives, that citrus is in there - lemon, quite a bit of oak, wood spices, grapefruit.

Finish
Medium-ish in length, Slightly bitter, burnt caramel and dark chocolate.

Overall
There is no question for me, this is a well made whisky, beautifully balanced and very easy to drink. Having had a bottle of the double cask, I moved onto this thinking id enjoy it more but I don't. I preferred the double cask. I think the one for me is the lesser spotted sherry wood. When I saw it recently at the distillery for £60 I got a bottle.
Yes I would like more abv and non chill filtering but in my opinion they are producing it for a market which doesn't mind these things.
The elephant in the room - The price of Macallan - I am in no way clever enough to explain why they are expensive, nor would I even try. But for me the 12 sherry oak I have just bought is possibly where the Macallan story will end for me as given the quality of other things for a similar price I just can't justify the price to explore their range. Which is disappointing, but it is what it is. If you can, then this is good whisky and you should try it. If you can't, there are lots of things out there just as good and a lot cheaper....up to you really.

Score
Pointless score time people:
B- out of 7.5


:)

Mortlach 12 #4

Mortlach 12 - 43.4%abv
The first picture isn't mine, it is from Master of Malt where the bottle is available for £49.95. I haven't bought a bottle but have been quite intrigued by this whisky. This is my 3rd dram of it, I have had two in bars and this one was given to me by a fellow caravaner in Speyside.
The spirit at Morlach is distilled 2.81 times, confused? (Google it, there are clever people who can explain it better than me) and is known for its "rich, robust, meaty" character.
The twelve year old has been double cask matured in both ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks.
There is no mention of chill filtering or colour however this is the entry level core range bottle, which is not at 40% which is a good start.

Colour
Dark golden

Nose
Vanilla, bitter sweet citrus barley, stewed apples and pears, some strawberry and raspberry jams, slightly perfumed. Upon first inspection it seems quite nice and sweet, but this is where it starts to intrigue me - salted caramel and lots of savory herbs.

Palate
The savory herbs are there straight away, chili chocolate, light cask char, salty sweet and sour notes, there are plenty of wood spices hanging around in the background.

Finish
Bitter dark chocolate, a bit of tobacco leaf, burnt BBQ meats.

Overall
I think the notes explain it really, this is not a peated whisky but has lots of savory aspects to it. The sweet casks don't seem to "tame" the savory notes at all, you get a savory whisky with sweet flavours chucked in now and then. I can see it being a love or hate whisky, I haven't really decided myself, but i'm enjoying it enough to want to try more stuff from Mortlach. I think trying their new make would be very interesting!

Score
Pointless score time folks:
B++ out of 7.75

Would I recommend you buy it.....I wouldn't buy a bottle with out trying it first if I were you. But I would encourage you to try it, such a unique and interesting dram.

:)