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.

:)

Inchmurrin 12 #3

Inchmurrin 12 - 46%abv

This whisky was distilled using a pot still with rectifying heads. Sounds a bit different, doesn't it, well this should make a fruity light spirit. It was matured in mostly re-charred and re-fill casks to show off the fruityness. It is non-chill filtered. 

The distillery really is a "Jack-of-all-trades" with its ability to make many different styles of whisky using its Malt stills, Pot stills and Coffey stills. It even has its own cooperage. 

Colour

Slightly dark golden

Nose

Very fresh, grassy, apples, pear drops, hay, slightly malty-fruity malt, sweet, a touch of caramel and a huge pile of fruit salads. 

Palate

The caramel comes through a bit more, slightly chili milk chocolate. The sweet fruity malt is in there - the fruit salads, turns a bit and gives some savory herbs, Lovely, smooth and oily. A very well balanced mix of flavours. 

Finish

Some wood spices, the caramel stays with you and those slightly savory notes.

Overall

This is a great whisky at a reasonable price and is incredibly well balanced, it gives a great range of flavours. 

What I will add is, social media gives you the ability to find out a lot about your whisky. This distillery is one of the best e.g. their ambassador and master blender are only a message/tweet away. They are passionate and very knowledgeable about what they do.

Unfortunately its not a open distillery, but there is a few lucky people who have had a look round. Id love to go one day.

Score

Another one id encourage people to try - yes I bought a miniature....cause I saw it in a shop and it was cheap but I think a big bottle will not be far away.

Its time for the please ignore and find out for yourself score -

A out of 9.75

Im of the understanding this is one of the master distillers (The very clever one) favorite drams and I can see why - A great score for a great whisky.

:)

Glengoyne 10 #2

Glengoyne 10 - 40%abv
A mix of ex-sherry and ex-bourbon is used to mature this whisky, although I think the majority is from ex-bourbon. It is the "entry level" core range bottle, there is nothing stated on the bottle about chill-filtration but it is a natural colour.
So why go for this over the more heavily sherried whisky they are famous for?
When im new to a distillery I will often go for their younger (and cheaper) bottle. This in my opinion, (due to its age) shows off the distillery character and quality of what they produce.

Colour
Somewhere between golden and straw

Nose
Lots of fresh green fruits, apples, pears, slight citrus and some liquorice.

Palate
Very fruity (Which I think is their distillery character), lots of green fruits, nutty and quite malty. Its a fruity digestive biscuit! Little bit of toffee in there too.

Finish
Little bit of vanilla comes through. But mostly you are left with the fruity malt.

Overall
This is well priced and easy to drink. As entry level whisky goes its a good one. Going off this bottle, its of good quality with some nice flavours. Its abit of an all rounder, its complex enough to spend time exploring and easy enough to not think to hard about and just enjoy.
Like I said at the beginning, this was my first bottle of Glengoyne, so was it good quality stuff.....well not long after opening it, I went and bought their eighteen year old!

Score
Time for my (maybe meaningless) score - B+ out of 7.5

A good solid score, but again, at the price id encourage you to go out and try for yourself.

:)

Glenfiddich 12 #1

Glenfiddich 12 - 40%abv
Thats the end of my "half" bottle of Glenfiddich 12 so I thought id put my opinions here. Alot of peoples 1st whisky was Glenfiddich 12, Glenmorangie 10 etc....mine wasnt so I thought I should try these "starter" bottles to see what they are like.
A bit of background: This bottle is a mix of whisky matured in ex-bourbon and ex-oloroso sherry casks. Chill-filtered - yeh probably. Im of the understanding the colour is "tweeked" for parity, so to me that would mean a little E150 may have been added.

Colour
Id call it a nice bright straw.

Nose
Slight citrus, sweet, malty, green fruits and lots of honey - Not getting much from the sherry casks.

Palate
The honey is there, sweet, fruity. Citrus flavoured malt - they seem to come together. Slightly peppery, vanilla cream.

Finish
A bit of woodspice and vanilla cream. Very slight dried fruits and cinnamon. The sherry casks show them selves a touch there.

Overall
I have found Glenfiddich use some lightly sherried casks (very apparent in the Reserve Cask Bottling) which is quite nice, it makes for a fresh sherry flavour.
It is clearly a well made whisky and very well balanced - an easy drinker. I can see why for many, it was an easy place to start.
In an attempt to find those wonderful flavours from single casks etc I think its great that we are able to enjoy a nice simple whisky like this.
Can't fault it.

Score - My scoring system is...unique, if you work it out, well done. If not, dont worry, its not that important.
B out of 8
But to be honest this stuff is quite cheap, go buy a bottle and find out for yourself


:)

Scotland Trip - May 2019

I decided to write a blog, if people are interested, great, if not it gives me something so I can look back and remember my trip, so here goes:

Scotland Trip - May 2019
After enjoying whisky for a couple of years and making it a hobby (I guess), I made a short trip to Speyside into 2018 to see what the tours etc were all about. When I arrived home I started planning my 2019 trips, this covers the first of three trips I plan to make this year. I had a few things in mind I wanted to do, but the majority of the trip turned into abit of a shopping trip, trying to get as many distillery exclusives as I could find.

1st up was Glenturret:

This fairly small distillery is situated in a lovely place, among the trees with the stream running along side it.
One of the first things you notice is cat flaps! and little walk ways dotted around. This is for Glen and Turret, the distillery cats. Who, when I was there were popping in and out of the shop and keeping a watchful eye over the place by sitting on visitors cars. 😁
Unfortunately pictures wernt aloud on the tour, but we got to try the core range. While I wasnt to sure about the lightly peated one, they were nice enough.

Then to the shop for the "bottle your own" (The bit I really wanted) A 2nd fill sherry cask at 57.5% 14 years old, from cask number 92 and I got bottle 435. (Love the geeky information you get with these bottles)
My first BYO of the trip, I was off to a good start.







2nd Dalwhinnie:

This was an unplanned visit (and a very handy toilet stop when your heading up the endless A9). I decided to pop in just after seeing the sign for the distillery. It was closed that day for a private function, so just a shop visit.
Their distillery exclusive was "Lizzies's Dram". Elizabeth Stewart has been working at the distillery for over 31 years! and the casks for this bottle were picked by the staff. A no age statement, matured in re-fill American oak and designed to show off the distillery character. 48% and 1 of 7500 bottles.
Just off the A9 so easy to get to, will probably try to get a tour next time im passing. Apart from a rogue sheep in the middle of the road on the way out, all was good.







3rd Tomatin:

Tomatin is a huge distillery! And is working well under its capacity (the reasons why etc can be read about and you are are told them on the tour, so I wont go into detail about it). What it does mean is there is lots of space and machinery that isnt doing anything, so lots of photo opportunities.
I got two bottles from here, the Highland whisky festival bottle, an 11 year old, cabernet sauvignon finish at 60.2%. And a 18 year old, px cask at 55.5%.
While im not sure about £3 for Loch Ness water its well worth a visit, even just to see the size of it and its not to far off the route if your heading to Speyside.

4th Glenmorangie:
The visit to Glenmorangie, again abit un-planned. But we had time and managed to get booked onto the tour with 3 minutes to go before it left. Im sure everyone knows...tallest still in Scotland etc and what a sight they are! (No pictures aloud on the tour). However.....I felt there was something missing, it seemed abit sedate and lacking in character. And the distillery exclusive was well out of my price range at £650 for a 16 year old finish. Real shame I couldnt bring something abit special away with me. Very keen to see what comes from the (basically) new distillery on site. It was described as going to be used for new and interesting projects...? Very nice staff and well worth the visit just to see the stills.

5th Clynelish/Brora
Clynelish was really just to pop in for the distillery exclusive (NAS ex-bourbon at 48%) but when I realised you can see alot of the Brora distillery being rebuild, it was picture time. After speaking to a very knowledgeable builder, he told me the best places I could go to get some pictures.

6th Balblair
Interesting one this. As we had managed to get a hotel literally 2 minutes from the distillery. I popped down the night before just before it closed to get my distillery exclusive etc (an 11 year old, ex-bourbon at 58.1%, cask 449, bottle 142) Fortunately there was a very nice member of staff there who let me try the new core range and the £205 Highland Festival bottle, which was very nice. The distillery its self, (No pictures aloud again) is incredibly small, but working 24/7. There was water leaks and casks lay around, things looked like they needed abit of a clean. Maybe thats just the way its done, nothing wrong with it, just different to others. I was very surprised to learn they sell 90% of their new make to blenders. The only slightly bad point I saw was hardly any sherry casks in the warehouse or waiting to be filled! I think sherry casks show off Balblair very well. Maybe they were all in another warehouse we didnt go in? Lets hope so.

7th - 13th Various:
All of these were just for the exclusives. Really want to spend more time at all of them, and I plan to.
The Cragganmore - Nas ex-bourbon and extra charred casks 48%.
Glenlivet where I kind of had a personal shopper, very knowledgeable and convinced me to come back to do a tour when I go back up and to do their (soon to come) BYO. 12 year old sherry butt 58.8 %. I also bought a Glentauchers there, 11 year old sherry butt at 64.1%!
Glenfarclas, I got the Spirit of Speyside bottle, a 16 year old at 58% from cask 89. I got bottle 324 of 647, im not sure if they are sold in order, but if they are, they didnt sell many during Spirit of Speyside, did they. (Edit - They are not sold in order) I got to try a sample of it and loved it, but I love all things Glenfarclas! Glenallachie, was a Marsala wine cask, 11 year old, cask 592, bottle 164, at 58.2%, this is a distillery I definitely want to go back to as it was a very brief visit.
Glen Grant was a port finish, cask 0013156, bottle 34 of 300 at 57.2% Tried this, and liked it, so really looking forward to opening the bottle. However, only a 50cl bottle!
Glen Moray, what a place, really disappointed I coulnt spend more time here but will be going back soon. I got the (world famous?) 2010 peated px and a 18 year old 2nd fill sherry at 57.8%. bottle 125. Good choice of BYOs and a little cafe, definitely worth going in here.
Benromach, very friendly staff indeed. Got myself the 10 year old, ex-bourbon at 58.1% Cask number 810, one of only 233 bottles. By far and away the cheapest distillery exclusive I got at £60!

14th Dallas Dhu:
This was the (surprise) highlight of the trip. The best £6 you will spend if you enjoy tours. Its an audio tour which you do at your own speed, on your own, spend as much time there as you like and get a dram at the end! I was there about 2 hours, wondering around, climbing in stills etc, great fun and very interesting. Speaking to the lady in the gift shop at the end (the only other person there, while I was there) she did say there was "rumblings" of it re-opening. While I will admit to not being an expert...no stock in the warehouses and a huge amount of money to spend to get the place operational again, I carnt see it happening. Once my bank balance has recovered from this trip, I will be looking for a bottle of Dallas Dhu.

With my trip coming to an add, we went to The Mash Tun for a meal and a few drams. Tried the new Mortlachs, interesting savory and sweetness to them. Still not sure about them yet though.

The last day was spent in Edinburgh where I popped into Cadenheads for a Glenrothes 9 (65.3% - The highest abv bottle I bought on the trip) and into the The Scotch Whisky Experience bar, where I tried a Ben Nevis 10, which was excellent.

Thats it, that was quite alot of stuff. If you have read this far then.....maybe you need a hobby or something?
If you have scanned down and got to here, the short version is, it was a success, I had a good time and im looking forward to going back and spending more time at quite a few of the places.

:)