Auchentoshan Classic Review

Hi everyone,

I have only reviewed four Auchentoshan’s in the past. The triple distilled, impossible to pronounce first time distillery is likely the most well known of the few lowland distilleries.

Once again, I am trying to complete my 101 Whiskies to Try before You Die and this Classic was one of the more difficult ones to find as Auchentoshan discontinued this is favour of the ‘American Oak.’

This makes 85/101, so I’m well on my way!

 

Auchentoshan Classic 40%

Colour: Light Gold (Though probably coloured)

Body: Light

Nose: Ah, an interesting mix of yeasty rising bread and rubbery garbage... Rotting banana, some green apple, lemon that's been left out too long, cardboard.

Taste: Soft arrival, fresh fruit with green apple and a little lemon, then the Jura-esque yeast comes in and ruins everything, rubbery, feinty and gross.

Finish: Short/Medium length. Cardboard.

From Bourbon barrels apparently. I don't seem to like Auchentoshan very much. One of the worst whiskies I have ever had the pleasure to taste.

44/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Review #837

Whisky Network Review #1002

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?

The Epicurean Glasgow Ed. Review

Hi everyone,

Happy new year! Hope everyone has had a great time over the holidays.

Today I’ve got a whisky that I was given 2/3 of a bottle of at the end of a festival. But immediately gave to a friend because I thought they might enjoy it more than me.

This is one of Douglas Laing’s blended malts that they have done focussing on different regions, this one on the Lowlands. Which puts it in the interesting position of not having that many distilleries to source whisky from. Glenkinchie, Bladnoch and Auchentoshan seem like the only likely options.

The Epicurean Glasgow Edition 58.6%

Colour: Straw

Body: Medium

Nose: Umm, milky at first nosing. Like sour milk, which is weird. Some lemon, green apple and also, well, cheese. Malt is there, very light touch of oak but remains pretty lactic. Really not a fan of the nose.

Water: Green apple and milk in a blender, throw in a pack of bubblegum too. And some yeast. You know, because why not?

Taste: Soft with a nice mouthfeel to start, fresh and zesty with green apple and zingy lemon citrus, then a little darker with the malt and a bit of white pepper spice making an appearance. There is more of a lactic thing coming out nearer the end into the finish.

Water: Again, nice arrival but the development goes astray with spiced cardboard and a bit of plastic.

Finish: Medium length. Malt and some milk chocolate, doesn't quite go into the lactic territory again but there's something harsher going on with the spice.

The lactic and milky notes on this were totally unexpected to me and I don’t think I’ve had anything like this in a whisky before, even from Bruichladdich. It isn’t even that unpleasant, but it’s kind of unsettling and weird.

61/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #836

Whisky Network Review #1001

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?

Bladnoch Samsara, 10, 15 & 17 Reviews

Hi everyone,

Let me start by saying that I like Bladnoch as a whisky. I loved the sheep label 12yo from the old owners.

But Bladnoch has had a turbulent past, and when the last owner decided he could not continue, potential buyers were thin on the ground. David Prior ended up buying the place in 2015 and immediately went about designing a heavy new bottle and planning stupidly expensive special editions.

I got around to trying the new range because I was excited to see what they had done. I shouldn’t have been.

Bladnoch 10 46.7%

Colour: Straw

Body: Light/Medium

Nose: Dough and yeast, something savoury like Parmesan cheese, lemon but also a sour note, not really in balance, nettle and mint.

Taste: Sharp arrival, quite sour and astringent, lemon and dough, some yeastiness, weird off note into the finish.

Finish: Short/Medium length. Ugh, odd, metallic.

Oh dear. This was actually the one I was most expecting to like from the new range.

50/100

 

Bladnoch Samsara 46.7%

Colour: Dark Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Similar style to the 10 with yeast and dough but with porridge, some ginger spice, dry oak, a little playdough/putty.

Taste: Crisp arrival, lemon citrus before the fatter doughy notes, quite clean though which is good.

Finish: Medium length. Soft, that clean lemon and porridge, some putty.

More like it but pretty boring. Where is the big Bladnoch character that I loved?

68/100

 

Bladnoch 15 46.7%

Colour: Amber

Body: Medium

Nose: Christmas spices and cherry, some chocolatey malt, light orange, a little rubber, cream and nettle.

Taste: Soft and a little flat on the arrival, mouthfeel is thin until the chocolate and malt arrive, cream and nettle, some rubber into the finish.

Finish: Medium length. Some oak, quite dry here, rubbery Sherry.

Fully matured in Sherry but still not enough to save it. My favourite from the new range I've tried but still not great. Again, quite average and also the most expensive.

69/100

 

Bladnoch 17 46.7%

Colour: Dark Gold, Red Tint

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Herbal, dry and spicy, red gummy bears, but also a little rubber, nettle, vanilla, grass, a little porridge in the background.

Taste: Soft and fruity arrival but quite a thin mouthfeel, then dry oak, red gummy bears, cherry lips and astringent rubber.

Finish: Medium/Long length. More astringent rubber and a little harsh oak and spice.

15 years in Bourbon, 2 in Cali red wine. Another uninspired Bladnoch. The red wine has killed off the mouthfeel on the taste I think. Feels like a bit of desperate move to try and save whisky from bad barrels and hasn’t really paid off.

64/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch reviews #759-#762

Whisky Network Reviews #901-#904

Network Average: 75.1

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 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?

Daftmill 2005 Inaugural Release Review

Hi everyone,

I’ve been wondering for a while how to approach this review…

Last year I tried a whisky called Daftmill, made by the Cuthbert brothers on their farm distillery in Fyfe, released by way of Berry Bros & Rudd.

The place is small, as it only produces about 20,000LPA but the amazing thing was that the distillery was completely self-sufficient in terms of using their own barley and the funds used to build the distillery coming solely from themselves. This meant they could wait as long as they wanted to release the whisky. And wait they did.

And wait. And wait.

Where most distilleries would have released a three year old or even started selling bottles before they had a distillery(!), Daftmill wasn’t first release until early 2018. And for that, they are to be commended.

Enter me, giving their 2006 Summer Release a fairly average review, courtesy of a plastic-y off note that I couldn’t quite get past. This seemed to be just me though, as loads of others gave it very good scores and reviews. The whisky sold out pretty quick and a bunch of it appeared at auction and sold for a hell of a lot more.

THEN, a truly interesting thing happened. Francis Cuthbert actually approached me at a festival in Glasgow and asked me about my review. I was dumbstruck for a moment, then embarrassed. I don’t have a big whisky blog or following I wouldn’t say. I didn’t realise anyone would take notice or even care. But Francis did. He told me that he didn’t understand why I got a plastic note to his whisky because he took great care to make sure that the distillations came out clean and fruity. I didn’t really know how to react to be perfectly honest. Do I defend my review, my palate to the man? When confronted with the person that made the whisky, I felt a little ashamed that I had reviewed it at all.

Anyway, like a gent, he invited me to taste one of the others that he had on the stand that day and the new make spirit.

Funnily, the new make was very clean to smell. Fruity, a little spice with none of that plastic I got from the 2006 Summer.

Anyway, I also was able to taste the initial release that was pretty hyped among those that tried it.

 

Daftmill 2005 Inaugural Release 55.8%

Colour: Light Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Sugared almonds and cinnamon, plastic sheets (in a good way), model glue (again, not an off note), almond croissants and fruitcake, better as it opens up with very soft praline chocolates.

Taste: Sharp lovely citrus, great arrival, lemon juice, grapefruit juice, creamy vanilla and some interesting plastic. Develops some spice and oak with gingerbread and cinnamon tea.

Finish: Medium length. A little more plastic here with green tea, green apple and praline chocolates.

The plastic! Wherever does it come from? Perhaps it is just me. Maybe I’m super sensitive to it. But this is much more to my liking than the 2006. This is good whisky. It is. I love the Christmas spices and fruitcake-y notes. I really enjoy the unusual character and slightly weird notes and I would love to try Daftmill again at some point…

75/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Review #751

Whisky Network Review #889

Network Average: 75.1

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 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?

Kingsbarns Single Malt Review

Hi everyone,

Kingsbarns is a new distillery located near St. Andrews in Fife. They are using local barley and the distillery has seen heavy investment from the Wemyss family.

They’ve just released their first readily available whisky at the weekend and I was lucky enough to get to try it. I’m attempting to keep my accolade of having tried a whisky from every distillery in Scotland, which seems pretty impossible with all the new ones (plus Roseilse), but still, I like to try and keep up if I can.

 

Kingsbarns Single Malt 46%

Colour: Light Straw

Body: Light

Nose: Essentially the New Make Spirit... Light and malty, very little complexity.

Taste: Soft but, yes, the New Make again and little else. No complexity at all, malt, maybe lemon, some ginger spice.

Finish: Short/Medium length. Ginger.

Weak first release that only tastes of unmatured malt spirit. I’m a little stuck with what to score it though… Does it have any off notes? No. Should it get a lower score for not tasting of whisky? Perhaps. In the end, I have given low scores to whiskies like Balcones and Jameson for having bad or off flavours, but at least those have flavours.

35/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #730

Whisky Network Review #868

Network Average: 75.1

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 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?

Daftmill 2006 Summer Release Review

Hi everyone,

Daftmill is a small distillery. Daftmill is a farm. Daftmill started making whisky way back in 2005. Daftmill use all their own barely, from their own farm and the draff is fed to their own cattle.

The distillation regime is spilt between the busy seasons of the farm, 3 months each, one at the end of the spring and one in the winter.

I happened to happen upon Francis Cuthbert (the guy with the name on the label, as he quite rightly pointed out to me) and it was nice chatting for a few minutes. Very passionate guy and, clearly, a very patient one. Something very valuable when it comes to whisky…

Now, I’d heard some very good things about these and I’d been dying to try some of the whisky for ages… So I’d been looking forward to this.

 

Daftmill 2006 Summer Release 46%

Colour: Light Gold

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Funky and different. Pleasant plastic, some fresh fruit, weird but more Christmas spice as it opens up, cinnamon.

Taste: Slightly weird, plastic then some spice, cinnamon, burnt gummy bears?

Finish: Long length. Quite astringent, cinnamon, a little harsh, more plastic.

An odd one. Is it bad whisky? No, I don’t think so. It just isn’t for me. Some people clearly like it a lot but I think I built this up too much in my mind, finding myself disappointed.

64/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #680

Whisky Network Review #814

Network Average: 75.1

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 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?

Linlithgow 1974 Silver Seal Review

Hi everyone,

A very special whisky here as the last whisky I tried as part of my shenanigans at festivals last year. (spoiler alert) It’s also the completion of my 90 club list on my blog.

So St. Magdalene distillery in the village of Linlithgow is one of those hyped lowland distilleries, probably on par with Rosebank. Some releases were under St. Magdalene, some Linlithgow. The stuff was the same. Triple distilled and worm tub condensed, same as Rosebank as far as I can tell.

That makes for a completely unique style that isn’t made at all anymore, since both are now closed (St. Magdalene is now flats). Official bottlings are scarce, along with any other bottlings making this stuff pretty hard to find too. But I spotted some at a stall in Inter. Whisky Frankfurt and it happened to be: 1. Not too expensive and 2. That golden age/strength that seems to generate 90’s scores.

 

Linlithgow 1974 Silver Seal 50%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Lovely and perfumed nose, malty, floral complexity, fizzy lemon sweets, classy old school oak, oily and waxy, old Balvenie-esque class, honey.

Taste: Great arrival, very soft then builds and builds, amazing development, lemon, zesty, slightly fizzy, wax, old oak and chocolate, malty, beeswax, clean laundry, petals and unexpected medicinal clean bandages!

Finish: Long length. Quite soft here but whispers of flavour continue and continue. Malt in particular and soft chocolate.

Over 27 years old, bottled in 2001. Best Lowland I've tried so far. By a very long way. So subtle and yet so classy. Quite a unique one, especially in the mid-palate with those clean bandages. Really didn’t expect that. Great stuff would be an understatement.

90/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #563

Whisky Network Review #667

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?

Longrow 2001 Chardonnay & Littlemill 1992 Cadenhead's Reviews

Hi everyone,

Now were getting to the interesting stuff!

So I’ve been very fortunate to try some awesome whisky recently, mostly in The Haig and the Whiskybase gathering. These are two such whiskies.

First up a heavily peated Springbank, finished in a Chardonnay white wine cask since 2008 (so more like a double maturation really). Quite rare to see single cask Longrow, especially at this age, especially especially from a white wine cask so I was excited for that.

Then my first Littlemill popped up in the form of the guys at Maltstock, who had a stand at The Haig. So good going so far…

Longrow 2001 Cadenhead’s Warehouse Tasting 56.2% Approx.

Colour: Dark Gold

Body: Full

Nose: Nicely sulphury and smoky. Musty white grape, buttery and oily, green grape, very slightly tropical. A meaty note- Steak? and oak, strawberry and raspberry.

Taste: Oily, great mouthfeel, smoky, great development then spices and oak, ginger, chilli oil, orange, black pepper.

Finish: Medium/Long length. Chilli oil and black pepper. Quite spicy at this point.

Actually 16yo, despite the label! Moved into a Chardonnay white wine cask since 2008. A little too spicy mid palate and on the finish. Quite a few of these available on Scotchwhiskyauctions.com at the moment.

81/100

 

Littlemill 1992 Cadenhead’s Cask Ends 52.7%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Nicely light and delicate. Quite dry, light bubblegum, lots of charcoal, dry oak, floral, clean laundry, washing powder, love hearts, a bit of rubber.

Taste: Intense, fizzy, spritzy, really fizzy actually, love hearts, sour green apple and cherry, fizzy sweets, clean laundry, oak and vanilla.

Finish: Long length. Less fizzy now, lemon citrus, some very light spice.

My first Littlemill! And actually, has a very similar style to Rosebank. The taste is great, but the nose isn't as good. Lovely stuff all the same, although the Longrow is more my bag.

80/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Reviews #533-#534

Whisky Network Reviews #628-#629

Network Average: 74.6

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?