Balblair 04 Sherry Cask #12

Balblair 04 Sherry Cask 46%abv
Im going to keep this one a bit brief as no one needs to be told how good this whisky is, and its not available anymore anyway.
Non chill-filtered, natural colour. This bottle is from travel retail, there was a bourbon cask available aswell, but I went for this one.

Colour
Polished Oak

Nose
You do get a hint of the spirit but its mostly dunnage warehouse, old leather, cinnamon, nut meg, oak.

Palate
Brown sugar, piles of stewed red fruits, icing sugar, bitter toffee, creamy fudge, big on the coffee and milk choclate.

Finish
Medium-ish in length. Coffee flavourd chocolate

Overall
This is wonderful whisky, and what you get on the nose actually does smell like their warehouses! I write this, slightly disappointed that the powers that be have decided to change things, now this whisky is not available. Biggest cork in the industry? What more can you say, its good but its gone!

Score
9 out of A-

You can not buy it anymore, auction prices are now to expensive. A new core range is not always a good thing!

Glen Moray Cider Cask Project #11

Glen Moray Cider Cask Project 46.3%abv
This whisky has an interesting history before you have even opened the bottle - "Using finishing casks that have matured whisky, then Scottish craft cider and finally our precious Glen Moray" Sounds interesting doesn't it!
No age statement given, but it hasn't struck me as being a particularly young whisky and its non chill-filtered.
I am sure most folk know, but this one was created by the famous (in the world of whisky anyway) Graham Coull who has now moved on but we will be enjoying his creations and Glen Morays new ones for many years to come.

Colour
Pale straw - I am guessing this is a natural colour.

Nose
Toffee, fudge, fresh apple, honey and white sugar.

Palate
Fresh sweet apple, nuts, creamy vanilla, popping candy.

Finish
Medium-ish in length. Apple flavoured fudge, slightly bitter toffee, little bit of brown sugar then leaves a nice creamy vanilla.

Overall
Sweet with plenty of other things going on. This is a lovely whisky, I have enjoyed it from start to finish. The abv is good if you are having a dram on a "school night" but it also gives enough complexity if you want to pick out flavours and write notes on it.
It really does not seem to have changed much while being in the bottle like some whisky does.
I have put a picture below of their tasting notes, which I wouldn't normally do but I found them very similar to my own notes. Its not often I agree with tasting notes on a bottle.

Score
9 out of A-

It is limited to 2000 bottles and unfortunately, after a little google around doesn't seem to be available anymore. If you can find it for £50 - £60 its well worth getting.

:)

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!

:)