Woodford Reserve Master's Collection Classic Malt (Blind) Review

Hi everyone,

A little while back… all right, February 2020, I reviewed my last American whiskey. I don’t tend to try a lot of them but I would say I don't tend to seek out American whiskies anyway.

This one however, was a surprise. Sprung on me by the affable u/UncleBaldric who very kindly included it as a freebe with some others.

So what is this mystery whisk(e)y? Well I had no idea. The only clue was the letter A on the front, which, as it turned out, was no clue at all.

 

u/UncleBaldric Sample ‘A’

Colour: Gold

Body: Light/Medium

Nose: Not a style of whisky I’m keen on… Very doughy and bread-like with yeast, floral with some pollen, buttercups, a little harsh spirit coming through. And liquorice. Probably young.

Taste: Full impact. Got to be cask strength and high for it. Yeasty and doughy again, a little rubber, some liquorice and buttercup. More sweetness on the 2nd sip with grass and some young spice.

Finish: Short length. A little butter, some spirit here too.

Guess: A young Bourbon cask Dalmore? Literally tastes like a younger version of a Bourbon matured Dalmore I had ages ago.

Reveal: Woodford Reserve Master's Collection Classic Malt 45.2% (Refill Bourbon Barrels)

Woah. Way off on this one. An American whiskey never crossed my mind. Jura and Tullibardine, yes, but not Woodford. Though, perhaps not as off the mark as I first thought. Refill Bourbon barrel matured malt at least. Anyway, wasn't a big fan of this.

62/100

 

American Review #70

Whisky Network Review #1041

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?

Floki Young Malt Review

Hi everyone,

Iceland is a beautiful place. Stunning landscape, and a great place for adventure, whale watching and the northern lights.

But perhaps not the best place for making whisky.

To be fair to this, it isn’t whisky. Not yet. This is an under matured malt spirit, that has been aged for around 1 year I think, in virgin oak. It’s also made with local barley and from a single cask.

The idea of my rating system was always to use the whole scale but I really never thought I’d be using the proper bottom end of the scale. The only two I’ve scored below 40 haven’t really been whiskies. This is one of those.

Photo Courtesy of Master of Malt

Floki Young Malt 47%

Colour: Dark Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: A horrible mix of off notes. Horribly rubbery, awfully yeasty, a rotting sweetness. Really weird.

Taste: The texture maybe is the most off-putting thing, this burnt plastic and rubbery mouthfeel. Yeasty, sharp and weird.

Finish: Medium length. Maybe the worst bit, makes you gag and want to spit it out.

The worst thing I've put in my mouth in a long time. I would seriously recommend avoiding this, especially at the price you’d pay in the Icelandic duty free for the 50cl bottles.

12/100

Thanks for reading!

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?

Bushmills 10 & 16 Reviews

Hi guys,

Today I’ve got some more reviews of Irish whiskey, not quite the disaster from Jameson. Nope, today it’s Bushmills in Northern Ireland. Bushmills is normally a cheap blended whiskey like Jameson but both of these ones are Irish malt whiskey.

That’s unusual because Irish whiskey normally uses malted and unmalted barley even within single pot still whiskey… I think. Not too confident on my Irish whiskey yet.

Bushmills 10 40%

Colour: Light Gold

Body: Light/Medium

Nose: Sweet and fragrant. Sugary with jam and marmalade, fragrant oakiness.

Taste: Sweet and oaky. Jam, barley sugar, marmalade, strong sappy oak with building spice.

Finish: Medium Length. Sappy oak.

It’s just on the boarder of ok. The sappy oak notes taking off a lot of points in the finish. The Irish normally use some virgin oak barrels and I think that’s where it’s coming from.

60/100

Bushmills 16 40%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Quite full and oily with fruity jam, icing sugar, sweet vanilla and fruit juice. Plum jam, blueberry jam, fig, apricot, some apple juice, sweet fragrant oak, floral note- Violets and lavender. Peach water with clove, juicy pear, apple, date, raisin and apricot. Marmalade and fairy cakes too.

Taste: Creamy then spicy oak turning very juicy and a little oily. Lots of fruity jam, blueberry, blackberry, fig, some building oak with young Ruby port, some spice and sweet floral oak.

Finish: Medium length. Blueberry and blackberry juice with Port-y tannins.

Bourbon and Sherry barrels then finished in Port barrels. Quite unbalanced, the Port has a very obvious influence. For me, I prefer Greenspot at less cost.

69/100

Thanks for reading!

Reviews #312-#313

Network Average: 74.6

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

Dalmore Cigar malt Review

Hi everyone,

Another Dalmore after the vertical the other day, this was tasted at the airport, so didn't have time to make proper notes.

Dalmore Cigar Malt 44%

Colour: E150a

Body: Medium

Nose: Big, honeyed, very sweet honey, orange, milk chocolate, brown sugar, creamy oak, more honey.

Taste: Soft arrival, honey, malt, Sherry, more honey, chocolate.

Finish: Medium/Long. Chocolate orange.

I actually liked this more than the 15yo and 18yo.
72/100

Review #143