Ardbeg 5 Wee Beastie Review

Hi everyone,

Got a review today of (what used to be) a new official Ardbeg release. I planned on posting my review of this ages ago as I got a bottle as a Christmas present but never got round to it until now.

It’s not often that we get an addition to Ardbeg’s main range and when they do it’s kind of hard to compete with the 10, Oog and Corry. I felt that acutely when I tried Oa, which I thought didn’t quite belong with the others.

This, I’m happy to say, is a different story.

 

Ardbeg 5 Wee Beastie 47.4%

Colour: Light Gold

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Intense youthful smoke, quite a bit more medicinal than than 10yo with Calpol and tar, medicine cabinet, toasted malt, mezcal, a little of the new make and a touch of lime zest.

Taste: Plenty of intense smoke first off, quite spicy with white pepper and chilli spice, lots of peat smoke, big mineral component with slate and chalk, quite dry, a little lemon with a bit of the new make spirit-y-ness coming in into the finish.

Finish: Short/Medium length. A burst of citrus, dry, more of the new make again here.

I think this is a fun addition to the Ardbeg line up with a decent price to boot. It's JUST about matured enough to give some interesting notes, but the new make isn't far off and that detracts at times. As I said, fun. And a bit better than the Oa IMO, though not as good as the 10.

76/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Review #866

Whisky Network Review #1040

Network Average: 75.2

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

 

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as the Global Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Excalibur Over 5 Years (70's Blend) Review

Hi everyone,

Something very different here. A rare 70’s blended Scotch called Excalibur. Looking at the label showed me that this blend comes from Charles H Julian Ltd., which seems to have been the name of a famous whisky blender who set up his own blend in the 70’s.

This was the guy behind creating such whiskies as Cutty Sark, J&B Rare and Chivas Regal 12 according to scotchwhisky.com.

This just happened to be something one of our importers brought along to Inter. Whisky Frankfurt and then I happened to ask if I could try some…

 

Excalibur 5 40%

Colour: Probable E150a

Body: Light/Medium

Nose: More like a malt, red apple, waxy and oily, floral, lemon peel. Not a lot going on but what is there is nice.

Taste: Lacking power but malt forward and builds earthy and chocolate-y notes, oak, ginger, covers the mouth, a little lemon peel.

Finish: Medium length. Coffee and chocolate, malt, some ginger.

75cl 40 degrees. This was an import for Italy back in the 70's. A much higher percentage of malt than modern day blends I think.

69/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #562

Whisky Network Review #666

Network Average: 74.7

Best Score: 93

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Octomore 8.3 Review [From Paris with Love]

Hi everyone,

I’ve been working at Whisky Live in Paris the last few days and had the chance to try some new and very exciting releases. Of course, I didn’t really have the time to do full reviews, but managed to make some notes on most things I tried.

So, this is one of the latest Octomore’s and one of many ‘lose your shit’ bottlings I got to try… Sooo more to come my friends…

As if Octomore wasn’t peaty enough, they went and peated it more. Up to 309ppm. Which is a new level. The most I’ve tried is the 7.2, which was 208ppm. This was made from Islay barley, peated and peated and peated, then put into 1st fill Bourbon and various red wine barrels.

This was the main whisky I wanted to try in Paris really, and the ladies on the stand, very graciously, opened the bottle for me.

Octomore 8.3 61.2%

Colour: Gold

Body: Full

Nose: Classically Octmore, elegant but HUGE, imagine you distilled a piece of peat, I think this is what you'd get. Amazingly earthy and minerally, subtle sweetness, Adam Hannett's white grape signature, dry, seaweed.

Taste: So good. Soft and building slowly, like it's got all the time in the world. Seaweed, fresh fruit, then HUGE mineral notes. Goes on and on, growing and growing. So subtle and so big.

Finish: Long length. Mineral, rocks, oily, sticks to the mouth for a LONG time. DRY.

I’d put it between the 7.3 (86) and the amazing OBA (87), in terms of a score. It just about scrapes by the 7.3 but doesn’t quite get up to the level of the OBA. Great juxtaposition of the big and subtle here. Really, I needed to try this with water but didn’t get enough or the time.

86/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #449

Whisky Network Review #512

Network Average: 74.2

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Octomore 6.1 & Discovery 4x Distilled Reviews

Hi everyone,

Since everyone is posting Octomore’s  over at r/Scotch at the moment, I thought I’d chime in too!

The first I’ve got is the first Octomore I ever tried, at a Bruichladdich tasting in Cardiff organised by a local whisky club.

The second is the Feis Ile release that was distilled 4 times.

Boring story: I met a lovely guy on a tour where I work, he came up to me at the end and we got to talking about whisky and such. He told me that while on Islay a few months ago, he had a masterclass at Bruichladdich and the person taking it had told him to taste a whisky, the Octomore Discovery 4x distilled. He said it was the most beautiful whisky he’d ever tried and the tears started to roll down his face as he tasted it. I thought wow, I want to taste that one day.

Then while I was on Islay, I spotted a bottle in a bar. I had to try it.

Octomore 6.1 57%

Colour: Gold

Body: Full

Nose: A big heavy dense nose. Alcohol- Absinthe, vodka, oily, tar, underlying sweetness, oaky sweetness, faint peat and a sweet chemical note- cleaning fluid, some fudge and toffee, rubber, raspberry tea, aniseed and liquorice.

Water: Peat coming through more, coal, charcoal, tyre, fragrant oak, floral- beeswax, citrus fruit- orange, lime and lemon, coconut as well.

Taste: Creamy arrival, immense building sweetness and creeping peat, a meaty note? And a metallic note.

Water: Huge. Peat and sweetness, rum and raisin, iodine, flint, rubber, tyre, liquorice root, fragrant oak, lots of spice (a bit of heat)- ginger and white pepper. Pear and vanilla too.

Finish: Long length. Tingling spice, oak and faint smoke. Lemon with water.

5yo, 167ppm, Bourbon barrel matured and Scottish barley. Beautiful bottle and whisky, really innovative. There's a young heat on the taste that doesn't really go away though, even with water.

82/100

Octomore Discovery 4x Distilled 69.5%

Colour: Gold

Body: Full

Nose: Soft barley and intense mineral. Restrained peat, brown bread, flour, granulated brown sugar.

Water: Lemon, charcoal. More water: More lemon, lemon juice squeezed over rocks, more Bruichladdich-y. Even more water: Lots of fresh brown bread, flour, a wisp of peat. After a bit- Hot chocolate and expresso, mint. After a long time- Lemonade.

Taste: Intense (Obviously). Alcohol, lemon, huge very mineral peat starts to come through and goes into the finish.

Water: Brown bread, flour, alcohol, lemon. More water: Finally alcohol gone, intense arrival on lemon and peat smoke, building development on mineral peat smoke, hot white pepper and zesty lemon.

Finish: Long/Very Long length. Lemon zest and very mineral peat.

Sherry casks, 7 years old. Great relationship between lemon and very mineral peat. A colossal abv, but not as complex as I was hoping, maybe because of the 4x distillation. No tears were shed in the tasting of this whisky.

82/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #331-#332

Whisky Network Review #364-#365

Network Average: 74.5

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 44

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Bruichladdich Black Art 5.1, Port Charlotte 10, Octomore 10, Octomore 7.3: TWE Show Report

Hello everybody!

The Bruichladdich stand was really good at the show. Like really, really good.
You've got something like 800 whiskies in the building, a tonne of brands and distilleries. It takes something special to keep pulling you back to one in particular.

The whiskies were incredibly impressive. The lady on the stand was really nice and it was great to chat while tasting some of these.
I have to say I’m really impressed with Adam Hannett, he had big shoes to fill and he is doing it in style. Maybe more white wine casks in the mix than before but I love it.

Bruichladdich Islay Barley 2009 50%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Meaty red fruit, a lot more wine influence than I remember, some light citrus, toffee, fudge.

Taste: Fresh at first, then meaty red fruit, intense mineral/stony notes, wine-y.

Finish: Medium length. Mineral, oaky, unbalanced.

Last time I tasted this it was all young citrus, light toffee and fudge. They’ve really dialled up the wine cask influence these days.

74/100

Bruichladdich Black Art 5.1 24yo 48.4%

Colour: Amber

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Dark, rich and complex. Really quite decadent with fig, clove, red berry, earthy, plum and red grape.

Taste: Lovely. Very fruity, red berry, blackberry, blackcurrant, complex spice, more oak then builds.

Finish: Long length. Plum and red grape fruitiness.

Pre-release sample. I found this much better balanced than the 4.1, which I found a little thin a times with a short finish. This however, is great.

86/100

Port Charlotte 10 2016 Ed. 50%

Colour: Gold

Body: Full

Nose: Lovely Sherry/Bourbon sweetness, red berry, cinnamon cake, white grape, musty sweetness. Not much smoke to be found here but the musty white grape notes are lovely.

Taste: Lovely, peat/sweetness combo, great balance, great power, red berry and desert wine sweetness.

Finish: Long length. More peaty now with white wine.

I am just starting to get into my wines, which helps. This has a great level of everything, balance, complexity, sweetness, peatyness. Really has been expertly blended. 60% Bourbon, 20% Sherry, 10% French Red Wine, 10% Fortified French White Wine. A must buy!

86/100

Octomore 10 2016 Ed. 167ppm 57.3%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: A mineral Octomore, meaty peat with elegant sweetness.

Taste: Soft and light (Yes, I know. An Octomore, Light?!). White wine sweetness, then peat and berry notes build up, red grapes, mineral and phenolic.

Finish: Long length. Red grape, meaty with peat.

I was expecting more from this after the 2005 Octomore I had at Bruichladdich. 50% Bourbon, 50% White Wine casks.

84/100

Let’s try another Octomore to test it against.

Octomore 7.3 169ppm 5yo 63%

Colour: Gold

Body: Full

Nose: Rubbery, meaty peat, white wine sweetness, musty white grape. Great balance and power here.

Taste: Bam! White grape, musty, meaty red berry, wow, mineral peat, great. Water brings out an interesting impossibility- Heavy and yet light.

Finish: Long! length. Great balance and sweetness continues.

Better without the water actually and really blows the new 10 year old away. Islay barley, finished in Moscatel wine casks. How do they make this good whisky at 5 years old?!

86/100

Some very high scores here for the Laddie, the PC I was tempted to go higher but these are fantastic. The PC is the buy for me as I think the Oct and Black Art will be twice the price.

Reviews #205-#209

Network Average: 75.4

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 44

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent