Mellow Corn (Blind) Review

Hi everyone,

I had tasted this whisky before at a party in New Orleans, but, of course, didn’t go sit in a corner and make notes on it. Actually, I’m pretty certain I drank it in one.

Anyway, fast forward to a series of blind samples I was gifted and here we are.

The only information I had was that one of the three samples was an old Linkwood. It took longer than it should have, but I realised that this wasn’t Scotch after a few minutes with it.

Re Frumentaria

Colour: Gold

Body: Full

Nose: I got red apple and spice at first. Kinda leathery and musty. Something grainy too, but becomes more raw with some basic alcohol. Becomes more Bourbon-like with corn as it opens up.

Taste: Soft and oily at first, building with grain and red apple, some cheap spice, cheap perfume and oak, leather.

Finish: Medium/Long length. Bourbon levels of oak here, more raw again, quite drying.

Didn't recognise this as American straight away but I think it might be.

Guess: A bourbon? Four Roses maybe?

Reveal: Mellow Corn BIB 50%

…WTF? Very glad I pegged this as an American whiskey considering it's matured in refill casks. I was thrown off there for the first minute or two! But the finish definitely gives it away. I really enjoyed this, especially the mouthfeel when I first poured it but it started becoming harsher and more Bourbon-like as it opened up. But then, the fact that this is selling for $12 is stupid.

67/100

Thanks for reading!

American Review #68

Whisky Network Review #1007

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?

Koval Millet Review

Hi everyone,

Did I know anything about Koval or Millet before trying this? No—no I did not.

But having now done some cursory internet Googling, it seems that the distillery itself is in Chicago, releases single barrel whiskies from 113 litre barrels and has a German made still that looks suspiciously similar to other Holstein set-up’s I’ve seen at other distilleries.

These types of stills seem to always produce a exceptionally rubbish tasting spirit, to the point that I really don’t understand why people use them (they must be cheap).

Millet then is a grain that hasn’t much been used for whiskey production. Wait, hold on, maybe it’s a grass, not a grain. Anyway, let’s get to the taste:

Koval Millet 40%

Colour: Bronze

Body: Medium

Nose: There's some cardboard-y-ness here, toffee apple, plenty of oak, pretty wooden and 'craft.'

Taste: Nice arrival, then soft, some fresh red apple, toffee, some caramel, a little cardboard, more into the finish, some spices.

Finish: Short/Medium length. Apple and cardboard.

Interesting use of the Millet grain and parts of this are fine. I found this one feels quite flat and overall very stiff. Another cardboardy American craft whisky IMO.

58/100

Thanks for reading!

American Review #67

Whisky Network Review #1005

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?

Robert Burns Single Malt Review

Hi everyone,

With Burns’ Night having just passed us, I thought I should get round to reviewing this sample I got given at Christmas… last year or maybe the year before. Yeah, I don’t get round to reviewing stuff I have at home.

Anyway, I hope everyone had great Burns’ Night celebrations and Haggis galore!

This one is a single malt from Arran distillery, NAS and done specially with a special Robert Burns society .

Robert Burns Single Malt 43%

Colour: Light Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Nice and malty, green apple, apple pie, a little pear, creamy. Seems like a nice young Arran, if a little boring.

Taste: A bit astringent on the taste, quite bitter with lemon pith, damp wool, a bit of plastic or something burnt, some malt, none of fresh fruit I was expecting.

Finish: Short length. Some lemon and malt.

The nose on this is fine but the taste and finish are not so good. The astringency and bitterness on the taste kill it for me.

57/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Review #838

Whisky Network Review #1004

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 Sexton Irish Whiskey Review

Hi everyone,

We continue the theme of low scores today with an Irish whiskey.

This one is made at Bushmills, though is not their own branding. It is instead the creation of Alex Thomas, an ex-employee of Bushmills, that is allowed to do her own distillations on their equipment and has a warehouse on their site (If I’m reading this article right).

Sexton Irish Single Malt 40%

Colour: E150a

Body: Light/Medium

Nose: Blended Scotch at first, then some Irish-style fresh green fruit coming out, pear drops, green apple bubblegum, a little malt, standard vanilla.

Taste: Soft but not watery, green apple bubblegum, sour green apple sweets, a little astringent, dry new oak, a bit sappy perhaps.

Finish: Short/Medium length. Some malt and more green apple, a bit of rubber.

Tastes like a cheap blended Scotch blended with some Irish whiskey. The result is not fantastic but isn’t quite terrible either. Apparently this is matured in second and third fill Oloroso Sherry casks, which I got absolutely none of.

59/100

Thanks for reading!

Irish Review #30

Whisky Network Review #1003

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?

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?

Macallan Edition No.5 Review

Hi everyone,

I was lucky enough to be at the Whisky Exchange Show last weekend and had the chance to try a few whiskies. Me being me I decided that I’d try to get hold of some new releases that I thought people might be considering buying.

This is Macallan’s latest whisky from their Editions series, which have been pretty good in the past because they’re released at a higher strength. I had tried the Edition 3 but lost my notes, anyway I found it impressive.

This, number 5, is released to celebrate Macallan’s natural colour and so they had their own special colour made by some colour institute or something. All sounds like marketing to me, and the colour of the labels looks gross anyway.

Macallan Edition 5 48.5%

Colour: Luxurious cinder mixed with transcendent quail egg pink tinged golden cloudscape

Body: Medium

Nose: Very Macallan with a bit of candied orange peel, honey, golden raisin, heavy malt, chocolate truffles, a bit of sulphur after a minute.

Taste: Soft and sweet, honey, heather, heavy malt, chocolate, quite dry though, flat wood, orange and ginger spice.

Finish: Medium length. Chocolate orange, ginger and black pepper.

Pretty average boring Macallan. Nice nose.

73/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery rankings

Scotch Review #789

Whisky Network Review #941

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?

Glenfiddich The Original Review

Hi everyone,

The other day I reviewed some Ardmore’s, as we’ve selected one as a selection to be bottled for r/Scotch.

Today I’ve got another nod to the other whisky that we selected; a Glenfiddich. The selection that we will be doing as the r/Scotch bottling will actually be a Wardhead, a Glenfiddich blended with a teaspoon of Balvenie. This practise is used to make sure that their high name is not sullied by those that would release their whisky willy-nilly, however every whisky company seems to have stocks that they don’t want or need to sell off, so some of this Wardhead ends up on the market. It does tend to be quite different from the usual Glenfiddich though. For one, they are normally single cask, cask strength whiskies released by independent bottlers.

Anyway, the review I’ve got today is an official. Glenfiddich were the first single malt and they released this to celebrate that fact with a salute to the original packaging and an attempt to recreate the style.

Glenfiddich The Original 40%

Colour: Light Gold

Body: Light

Nose: Fresh and fruity, loads of green apple and pear, shortbread biscuit and vanilla, some malt, classic but lacking complexity

Taste: Lacking some mouthfeel, a little watery, pear juice, green apple, a little red apple then some dry oak and average spice.

Finish: Long length (surprisingly). Quite long but simple with more shortbread and malt, even a little harsh.

12yo Glenfiddich in a fancy tin? One for the collectors I feel.

62/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Review #787

Whisky Network Review #936

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?

Clynelish Reserve- Game of Thrones House Tyrell Review

Hi everyone,

You may have noticed that Diageo brought out some whiskies with mythical, strange creatures on the labels that seem to be something to do with a tv series.

I was not excited for these whiskies. I didn’t really care. I had a funny feeling that the whole thing was a marketing exercise and a way of pushing ‘collectable’ whisky that they had no intention of limiting, therefore making it redundant. I also had a funny feeling that, where they could, Diageo would just use whiskies that they were releasing already and, where they were not, it gives them a handy excuse to get rid of certain stocks they don’t want.

The one whisky that held some semblance of hope was the Clynelish, because its good whisky and it was at a decent strength.

Some history though; the reason that many of us love Clynelish is for its waxy and oily character, that some have said comes from the fact that Daigeo never cleaned out the spirit safe, like since Clynelish 2 started in the late sixties.

Diageo cleaned that spirit safe a few years back. I can’t remember exactly when, but I heard it from a few different sources. And I have another funny feeling that this whisky is the result and, if not, just substandard.

Clynelish Game of Thrones House Tyrell 51.2%

Colour: Light Gold

Body: Light

Nose: Light, floral, young, malty. Not a lot of complexity

Taste: Soft, floral, spirity and young, some chocolate and orange.

Finish: Short length. More malty and some spice and spirit

Quite a young Clyn with none of the waxy and oiliness I would expect.

64/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Review #786

Whisky Network Review #933

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?

Eddu Silver & Gold (French Buckwheat whisky) Reviews

Hi everyone,

Two more quick reviews today, this time for some random French whisky I tried a couple of years ago now.

Eddu is a whisky made at Distillerie des Menhirs in Brittany and started making whisky in 1998. But not from barley, from Buckwheat.

Weirdly, Buckwheat isn’t anything like Wheat because it isn’t a grass and, if anything, looks more like a flower. Anyway, the stuff has seeds (which are classed as ‘pseudocereals’) which can be malted, mashed and distilled. It is then distilled in a double distillation on a direct-fired Alembic-style still.

Eddu 'Silver' Buckwheat Whisky 40%

Colour: Gold

Body: Light/Medium

Nose: Calvados, really. Loads of red and green apple.

Taste: Yep, really Calvados-esque, a sweet style of Calvados, apple juice, red apple, green apple.

Finish: Short length.

No harshness but youthful. Really not sure I’d be able to pick out a specific flavour the Buckwheat is bringing to the table. Really can’t give this an amazing score as a whisky though, partially because it tastes more like Calvados.

52/100

Eddu 'Gold' Buckwheat Whisky 43%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Toffee, vanilla, apple, some oak. A little deeper than the Silver.

Taste: Toffee apples, soft spice, more mature than the silver but still not a huge amount of complexity.

Finish: Medium length. Some oak.

Very apple-y again, which perhaps is the style of the whisky or from the Buckwheat. Either way, if you like apples and/or Calvados you’ll likely enjoy these.

61/100

Thanks for reading!

French Whisky Reviews #3-#4

Whisky Network Reviews #931-#932

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?