Lakes Whiskymaker's Reserve No. 2 Review

Hi everyone,

Been taking a bit of a break from reviewing at the moment, despite much more time on my hands with lockdown. Been opening a few new bottles though, so I have been reviewing some whiskies, just haven’t been that motivated to post to Reddit.

Anyway, here we have one of the first releases from the Lakes Distillery. After taking on Dhavall Gandhi as Master Blender (an ex-blender at Macallan), the Lakes seemed to have gone with trying to Macallanise their whisky in terms of taste and premiumisation.

We’ll see if that pays off in the long run as young Macallan isn’t all that great in my opinion. As well as being overpriced of course.

Lakes Whiskymaker’s Reserve No.2 60.9%

Colour: Light Amber

Body: Full

Nose: Sweet, cherry, cherry sauce, but of nose prickle, some oak, obvious vanilla, creamy.

Water: Better, more rounded with raisin and malt. You can see it trying to imitate Macallan here.

Taste: Sharp arrival, bite of alcohol then cherry sauce and a little touch of STR-esque oak, quite dry.

Water: Better balanced, more well rounded arrival, chewy ripe cherry and plum. Still a little sharp but also flat in the mid-palate.

Finish: Long length. Stays well with some alcohol and more cherry, a little vanilla.

A mix of PX, red wine and Bourbon casks. But the PX is what stands out to me. Reminds me of a 3yo Wolfburn Sherry single cask I tried.

68/100

Thanks for reading!

English Whisky Review #5

Whisky Network Review #1025

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?

English Whisky Co. for M&S, Chapter 11 & 14

Hi everyone,

Now this particular post could be seen as controversial and I might as well address it now rather than later.

I am not a massive fan of the whiskies the English Whisky Co. put out. They tend to be yeasty, marmite-y and a bit weird. I call it a whisky for beer drinkers.

Having said that, some might argue that they are one of the direct competitors of the company I work for. So, my giving them bad scores could be seen as a smear campaign to disadvantage them competitively. If you are thinking that. Stop it. I am a pillar of righteous integrity, and as always these are just my honest opinions of these whiskies.

 

English Whisky Co for M&S 43%

Colour: Straw

Body: Light/Medium

Nose: Very very fresh, lots of green apple and lemon, a bit of malt, some yeast, dough, a little marmite and some yeasty weird oak. Odd. More yeast comes out over time.

Taste: Soft, lacking some power at first then fresh green apple citrus, some lemon, developing weird yeast and dough notes that go into rubbery territory after a bit.

Finish: Medium length. Weird rubber and yeast. Playdough. Very odd.

Not a big fan of anything I've tried from this distillery so far. The fresh green apple is the only thing saving it. Thanks (sort of) to Mike for the sample.

57/100

 

English Whisky Co. Chapter 11 (Heavily Peated) 46%

Colour: Very light Straw

Body: Medium

Nose: Loads of Marmite, overwhelming. Marmite on toast, peaty smoke, some pepper, some soot, earthy oak, some sort of savoury conserve or jam, pickled onion. Weird, doesn’t help that I don’t like marmite…

Taste: Marmite, wood smoke, charcoal, peat, more Marmite, green sappy oak, developing peaty spice and a little creamy sweetness.

Finish: Short length. Butter then nothing.

3 year old matured in ASB (American Standard Barrel). I had this at the same tasting as the Jameson Stout Cask, and although this is better (albeit relatively), it really isn’t to my tastes at all.

52/100

 

English Whisky Co Chapter 14 46%

Colour: Light Straw

Body: Medium

Nose: Very yeasty. Cider, apple, lots of green apple and yeasty pastry.

Taste: Very cider-y with yeast, farmer's apples. Rough scrumpy.

Finish: Short length. Youthful and yeasty.

Almost more of a calvados than a whisky! I tried this a while ago now at Bristol whisky festival. Again, the weird yeasty notes that seem to be present in all three aren’t doing this any favours whatsoever. The best of this bunch though.

62/100

Thanks for reading!

English Reviews #2-#4

Whisky Network Reviews #695-#697

Network Average: 74.7

Best Score: 93

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 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 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?

Cotswolds Single Malt [From Paris with Love]

Hi everyone,

Recently I’ve been working at Whisky Live Paris and so I’ll be posting up some quick reviews and thoughts on some new releases that I’ve been curious about.

First up is Cotswolds distillery’s first single malt, having only just reached 3 years old. They used some 1st fill Bourbon and some STR (Scrapped, toasted recharred, normally ex-red wine barrels).

Cotswolds Single Malt 46%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Toffee and caramel, very little youth, fully mature, some spice, pepper.

Taste: Full pepper spice, lots of toffee and caramel.

Finish: Medium length. More chewy toffee continues.

Those STR casks work eh? Not really much sign that this is 3 years old, but not much sign of what the distillery character was meant to be either.

68/100

Thanks for reading!

English Whisky Review #1

Whisky Network Review #511

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?