Aberfeldy 1993 Gordon & MacPhail Review

Hi everyone,

Do you remember that magical time, many years gone, when we could travel the world and go to whisky festivals and events? Do you remember the hubbub of many people filling a room with their whisky-fuelled banter? Do you remember the sound of lip-smacking-good whisky being consumed in great quantities by the multitude?

I do. I remember those times. And I look back on them with sick envy. I didn’t know how good I had it.

And now I sit alone with my hoard of whisky. And I drink it alone. In the dark. Bitterly contemplating the end time that crept up on us like a tiger out of the grass.

 

Anywho, this is a review from the end of 2018 at a German whisky festival.

 

Aberfeldy 1993 Gordon & MacPhail 58.8%

Colour: Amber

Body: Full

Nose: Dark, fruity and sweet. Blackberry, Cassis, black cherry, a touch of singed heather, ethereal spirit lightening everything nicely, black pepper and red apple.

Water: Opens up with more Sherry and oak, more sweetness.

Taste: So soft on the arrival, fruity and sweet, blackberry, beautiful brown sugar, then more oak and Sherry as it develops. Black cherry, amazing oily mouthfeel.

Water: Lovely. More oak, leather and orange.

Finish: Long length. Lovely. More Sherry here with raisin, chocolate, heather and some ginger spice.

Bottled 2018 from a 1st fill Sherry puncheon at 25yo. I'm sorry, did you say Glenfarlcas from a Port cask? Interesting style of Sherry. Always a pleasure to taste something from my birth year and this one was great, though if I remember right, the price was quite high.

84/100

 

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Review #869

Whisky Network Review #1044

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?

Banff 1975 Duncan Taylor Review

Hi everyone,

If you’re ever in D.C., do yourself a favour; dump the wife, dump the kids, dump your plans to go see the White House or Lincoln memorial, don’t bother with the museums or parks. Do one thing and one thing only, get your wallet and head on over to Jack Rose Dining Saloon.

Food is amazing. Atmosphere is great. And the whisky—oh, the whisky!

This one is my first Banff, a long closed distillery that we don’t see much of any more. Don’t know much about the distillery itself, other than it was blown up several times (by fires as well as bombs!).

 

Banff 1975 Duncan Taylor 45.4%

Colour: Gold

Body: Light

Nose: Old & soft, oaky, silky, floral tones, pressed flowers & homemade paper, kinda intoxicating, old Bowmore-esque, perfumes orange peel, antique furniture, super complex old nose.

Taste: Old and silky, not much power and feels a bit tired, big oak, floral here too, Wood and spice, slightly soapy lavender, Parma violets. It’s definitely over the hill though. Like an 80’s Bowmore without the smoke.

Finish: Short/Medium length. Soft and a bit flat here, loses its oomph.

My first Banff! 35yo, bottled 2011. Rarest of the Rare. Better as it opened up, though the taste and finish just remained a little lacking.

75/100

Thanks for reading! 

Scotch Review #862

Whisky Network Review #1036

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?

Clynelish 2010 Single Cask Nation Review

Hi everyone,

You may have noticed a particular pinned post on r/Scotch today… We are doing an AMA! The first one in a while I think.

In honour of my friends from Single Cask Nation coming to join us and answer our questions, I have a review of a special whisky. This bottle of Clynelish was a birthday present from Joshua himself and he signed it too!

These guys bottle some fantastic whisky and I’ve been lucky enough to be on their podcast, One Nation Under Whisky, which was super fun. See you on Tuesday at 3pm EST for the AMA!!

 

Clynelish 2010 Single Cask Nation 58.1%

Colour: Light Gold

Body: Light/Medium

Nose: Light, ethereal and oily. Perfumed and candle waxy, marshmallow, creamy nose, white florals- Lily, Ylang Ylang, some orange blossom, chewy sweets like the white undersides of Haribo eggs.

Water: Instantly creamier, white chocolate truffles with the gooey white chocolate insides, melting marshmallow, dried banana chips, foam banana sweets.

Taste: Ethereal but full flavoured, plenty of creamy oils and perfumed white florals, some malt in there too, a little spice (white pepper) balancing nicely with a touch of dry oak. Really lovely young whisky with interesting notes and an excellent development and mouthfeel.

Water: Softer, less power, more malt, almost slightly earthy, excellent minerality coming out, clean as a blade. Lovely.

Finish: Short/Medium length. Fizzy tingling spices and oak leaving some of the oils. Not quite as excellent here.

Bottled at 9yo from a Bourbon barrel. The lightness and delicacy combined with the fullness and power is really interesting and well done.

80/100

 

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Review #860

Whisky Network Review #1034

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?

Springbank 18 & 11 Refill Sauternes Single Cask Reviews

Hi everyone,

Another duo today! This time it’s Springbank’s turn.

It has taken me far too long to get round to trying the 18yo. I can get pretty expensive and although I’d heard that it was great, I didn’t want to risk forking out on a bottle. So I waited patiently but just never got round to it or saw it many places.

I also recently tried a official single cask for the USA.

Springbank 18 46%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Robust and chiselled, smoky coals, dried apple, musty leather, a little tobacco and cigar smoke, subtle dried banana, standing outside a smoking room, old cigarette smoke.

Taste: Oily with building spices tingling and dry oak, lots of black pepper, a bit industrial with concrete dust and chalky minerality, some dust and leather and old smoke.

Finish: Short/Medium length. Softer, more tobacco and leather here but fades quite quickly.

Shame about the short finish. Everything else is pretty well balanced and interesting, if a little austere.

79/100

 

Springbank 11 Refill Sauternes 57.2%

Colour: Dark Amber

Body: Full

Nose: Soapy but in a really cool way, raisin and passion fruit, rich apricot, dirty orange, good sulphur, dried lavender, bath bombs, intense and full on.

Taste: Soft and oily, orange and mango, super good balance on arrival, great mouthfeel, fruity and intense, soapy again but again it’s good and interesting. Some spices come through towards the end, black pepper and a tiny whiff of smoke.

Finish: Medium/Long length. More soapy here, almost overwhelming it, softer then comes back with the oils.

Nov 2007, bot Nov 2018 from a single refill Sauternes cask, bottled for USA. Some people are gonna hate this, but I love it. Really interesting and full on, in-your-face whisky that grabs your tongue and won’t let go until it’s done with you.

86/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Reviews #851-#852

Whisky Network Reviews #1023-#1024

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?

Laphroaig 16 & 1999 SMWS 29.173 Reviews

Hi everyone,

Two 16 year old Laphroaig’s to review today.

I was excited for the new OB as it’s a decent age, decent strength and Laphroaig. The only thing that grates me slightly is that I paid £20 less for the 18yo, but that was a few years ago now and such is life.

And since we seem to be in the middle of a little apocalypse I opened a 16yo Laphroaig from SMWS that we can compare against.

Laphroaig 16 48%

Colour: Gold

Body: Full

Nose: Nice mineral/seaweedy blast, soft vanilla, soft malt, plenty of peat and iodine, fresh bandages, clean classic Laphroaig. Great nose.

Taste: Soft and oily arrival, building mineral and medicinal flavours, iodine, bandages and honey, then more fruit with a fresh lemon/lime and under ripe mango thing, then back to more peat with sea soaked rocks drying in the sun.

Finish: Medium/Long length. A touch of rubber into the finish then salt and pepper, quite dry. Not as good here.

Finish lets it down a little but a great, slightly softer Laphroaig. Much prefer this to the 15yo 200th Anniversary.

77/100

Laphroaig 1999 SMWS 29.173 59.8%

'Forget time and space'

Colour: Light Gold

Body: Full

Nose: Fresher and fruitier than expected with plenty of citrus, lime rind, grapefruit juice, light malty smoke backing it, salty samphire, driftwood bonfire. There is a medicinal touch to it but its quite subtle and in the background, clean bandages.

Water: Loses the fruit and now it's more about the earthy malt, mud after rain, the orange is coming back now.

Taste: Clean arrival, very bright and citrusy, then suddenly grips the tongue with heavy heavy smoke with lots of minerality and salt, licking salty rocks, sand saturated with sea water, samphire, grapfruit and dirty orange, stunning oils and really lovely balance.

Water: Softer and more fruity with an incredible orange flesh thing I remember from samples at the distillery, some seaweed, soft but heavy smoke. Takes me right back to the distillery.

Finish: Long length. More petrol-y here, delicious and super oily, a little lemon zest perhaps. With water there's a coal and ash thing going on.

Bottled at 16yo from a refill Bourbon barrel. The whisky I got for my engagement! Just fantastic indie Laphroaig, oily, balanced, citrusy, salty, a little medicinal. Not quite the equal of ‘Sausage Sandwiches and Oil Rigs’.

87/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Reviews #849-#850

Whisky Network Reviews #1021-#1022

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?

Balmenach 2005 SMWS 48.90 (Blind) Review

Hi everyone,

If you missed my Mellow Corn blind review, this is the second of three samples that I was given.

The only thing that I knew was that one of the three was a 30yo Sherried Linkwood. It was pretty clear from the off that it wasn’t this one.

As for Balmenach, Scotchwhisky.com has this to say: ’The fermentation is long, the stills relatively small and run quickly, and the vapour runs into worm tubs, rather than shell and tube condensers. This helps to produce a slow-maturing new make character which is rich and meaty, ideal for adding weight and grunt to blends, and also to be a good match with ex-Sherry casks.’

Medulla Cedri

Colour: Light Gold

Body: Light

Nose: Light nose, fruity with banana and green apple zest, banana foam sweets, soft vanilla. With some coaxing there's a little dry oak, spice and a herbal thing, perhaps some kind of spice rub with herbs involved, juniper in there as well. Opening up more as it goes on. Nice nose.

Taste: Soft and light, sharp citric lemon juice, green apple zest in there again, lime zest, citric acid, then there's a drier oaky thing developing.

Finish: Long length. Soft but stays with spice and oak, white pepper and a more herbal component again.

I quite like this despite it's obvious faults. The initial citrus on the taste is more of an attack! But it works.

Guess: 18-20yo grain whisky? Could be older though as well. Let’s say North British for the hell of it.

Reveal: 11yo Balmenach 2005 48.90 SMWS ‘Cedar, sandalwood and rose’ 57.1%. Interesting reveal! Really thought this was a mid-aged grain whisky with the super light body and levels of oak here. It is woody, so I can see why they named it what they did, though I didn’t really get any rose.

73/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Review #839

Whisky Network Review #1008

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?

Clynelish 1974 Signatory Dumpy [Review #1000!]

Hi everyone,

Here we are, the big four digits at last!

It has been a long road but I can’t say it’s been a hard one. I still love tasting whisky, making notes and sharing my thoughts. What is there more to say than that?

 

This was the other whisky I tasted in Feathers Pub in Toronto. I knew to taste this because u/TOModera had done notes on this one and said that he thought it was a Brora. I planned to taste the Lord of the Isles Ardbeg after this but decided not to. I’d found what I was looking for.

Clynelish 1974 Signatory Dumpy 55.7%

Colour: Gold

Body: Full

Nose: Immediately stunning. A shit tonne of amazing complexity, balance and power! Oils for days, waxy with pine smoke, Lapsang Souchong, burnt wood, lemon sherbet, a little BBQ pit. Liquorice and an incredibly good medicinal edge that cuts through, white pepper, bandages, nice chilli heat, some white florals coming in now with minerality. More calpol and earthy notes coming through after a bit. Could literally just sit here and smell it for hours.

Water: Darker, brooding and more earthy, burnt florals, singed heather, leather and dark chocolate.

Taste: Clean arrival, pure lemon, some oak, white pepper then kicks up several notches into transendant territory with big medicinal peat perfectly balanced by the clean lemon and minerals. So damn good. Ridiculously oily and satisfying. Super drinkable.

Water: Softer and rounder and darker. More malty, more oily and waxy, so balanced it almost hurts!, incredible mouthfeel, not as dry, heather. Still powerful. Pine smoke.

Finish: Long length. Arrrgh! Fucking hell its amazing! Really makes the dram. Quite dry with white pepper and minerality, late earthy note but clean finish. Earthy leather and some malt.

Bottled 2001 at 27yo. No WAY this was distilled at Clynelish! A freight train of a whisky with everything I look for. Really sings!

My scoring has been brought up again and again by folks that don’t quite understand my harsher lower scores. But when you come across really, really good whisky you just know it, you can’t help it. Truly exceptional whisky hits you in the face and goes to something right at the core of you.

93/100

A big thank you to everyone that reads these reviews! I started on Reddit and I still love the amazing community that we’ve created here. Being in the whisky industry has allowed my to try some amazing stuff and, though it sometimes comes with complications, I wouldn’t change it for the world. I still remember a time, not long ago at all, when I was little more than tour guide that enjoyed whisky and wanted to try more. I would never have dreamed that I would taste 1000 whiskies, let alone the ones that I have. I feel extremely lucky every single day.

Cheers!

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Review #835

Whisky Network Review #1000

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?

Brora 1972 Cask Sample [Road to #1000, Review #999]

Hi everyone,

Today I would like to explore something that we must all deal with when reviewing and assessing whisky; rarity.

A few reviews ago I gave the Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye an 78/100. The 15yo Pappy got 75/100. To be clear, these are good scores. They class these whiskies as ‘Very Good.’ Some people seemed upset that I had given such ‘low’ scores to such rare and expensive whiskies.

But are rare and expensive whiskies worth such huge costs?

In my opinion, no. The most I would ever pay for a whisky is £200 and I have not gone over this amount for a 70cl bottle. The reason for this is that I don’t have loads of money to drop on whiskies that could be good or are rare. I have also found that the value for money goes down rapidly after the £50-£60 mark.

Really, after £200, I have found that whisky does not get better, only more rare.

And we must deal with another question; are rarer and more expensive whiskies deserving of higher scores?

The obvious answer to this is that, no, just because a whisky is rare and/or expensive it should not get a higher score. However, it isn’t as simple as all that. It is easy to start believing the hype before you’ve even tasted a whisky. You can easily convince yourself that the whisky truly is wonderful, it must be, because people pay so much for it.

 

With that in mind, this is the rarest, most ridiculous sample I have ever managed to get my hands on. Brora is rare enough in and of itself but the 1972 vintage is the one that is hyped and people rave about because Brora was the most heavily peated then. This is a cask sample of a still maturing whisky from a single cask that will likely never be bottled. It is old at 47 years in the cask, perhaps the oldest Brora ever tasted. Only a few people will ever taste this whisky, ever.

Brora 1972 Cask Sample 40.1%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Stupidly complex, oils and fruits and wax galore, the best strawberry fruit pastilles ever made, faint smoke, crushed seashells, very Clynelish actually, gorgeous honey, Oolong tea, green tea. More woody and spicy as it opens up- black pepper, complex chocolate notes, then more fruity with fragrant orange peel.

Taste: Soft and lacking power at first, builds though with an emotionality, smoky, wood and oak, tired wood, black tea, leather and old books, very very dry, some black pepper and very light salt, dried orange peel, then the oils and waxes I was looking for. Good mouthfeel for the strength.

Finish: Short length. More smoky here with malty, oils, some fruit and loads of chocolate.

47yo cask sample for the Brora masterclass at the 2019 Whisky Exchange Show. The nose is stellar but the taste and finish are too dry and tired as well as lacking power from the low strength. A shame that this wasn't bottled 20 years ago! A massive, massive thank you to the legend Colin Dunn for letting me try this!! Oh, and thank you to Jason for the photo because I forgot to take one.

As with the 1964 Longmorn, I can give this a score but truly it was more of an experience.

82/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Review #834

Whisky Network Review #999

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?