Glenfiddich 21 Winter Storm Review [From Paris with Love]

Hi everyone,

hypehypehypehypehypehypehype

That’s been the message coming from Glenfiddich at the moment about a certain ‘experimental’ release, finished in Canadian Ice Wine casks.

Go to any other whisky blog for the whole press release.

Glenfiddich 21 Winter Storm 43%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Sweet fruit, green apple, white grape, powdered sugar, toffee apple.

Taste: Sweet, green apple, soft, lacking power but pleasant, toffee apple, white grape, icing sugar, some ginger and dry oak.

Finish: Medium length. Intensifies, with oak and sour green apple.

Seems almost the same as the 21 to me... which is really disappointing. Ice Wine finished whisky is a cool idea, but it hasn’t seemed to have added anything here.

74/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #473

Whisky Network Review #540

Network Average: 74.3

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?

Ledaig 2007 Hidden Spirits [From Paris with Love]

Hi everyone,

I’ve had 26 iterations of Ledaig so far, which is far more than most other distilleries. Why?

Because it’s awesome and this is one that proves it.

This isn’t an old whisky, or an expensive bottle. One of the best things about Ledaig is its value for money and, although they have been creeping up in price, there’s still some fantastic stuff in the £50 range. (coughnewgordonandmacphailhermitagefinishcough)

This particular version is bottled by Hidden Spirits, who are an Italian independent bottler, so don’t expect huge availability.

 

Ledaig 2007 Hidden Spirits 52.5%

Colour: Light Straw

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: A great cask with great spirit in it. Gristy and malty, smoked fish, great Ledaiggian smoke, coastal sea air and mineral notes.

Taste: Very soft arrival, easy to start, building up with amazing mouthfeel, so oily and coastal, smoked fish. Great balance.

Finish: Medium length. More oils, proper butter and gristy smoke. Love the buttery-ness here.

Similar to the TWE Time IV, which makes it amazing of course. I am hugely grateful to the guy working on the stand for swapping an opened bottle with me, so I’ve got a bottle at home now! Also, you gotta love that label!

84/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #472

Whisky Network Review #539

Network Average: 74.3

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?

Clynelish 1993 & 1996 Reviews [From Paris with Love]

Hi everyone,

I’m ashamed to say I haven’t tasted much Clynelish. I’ve still yet to taste anything from the legendary 1997 vintage. But, I’m trying to correct that and at Whisky Live Paris I had the chance to try two slightly older ones.

First up was the first whisky I’ve tasted from Silver Seal:

 

Clynelish 1993 Silver Seal 51.7%

Colour: Light Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Really interesting. Old school style, musty, oak, green apple, floral with tropical fruit hints. Mineral and chalky lemon.

Taste: Soft, sour, sugary pastry, then musty with green apple and chalky lemon. Dry oak.

Finish: Medium length. Chalky again, astringent and oaky.

At first, I thought this was fantastic. Then, after a bit of time, it unbalanced and became a little too sour, oaky and astringent.

76/100

 

Clynelish 1996 LMDW Collective 48%

Colour: Light Amber

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Honeyed and waxy, sharp green apple, red apple. Very pleasant nose.

Taste: Soft, lovely red apple, some sour green apple, brown sugar, tea leaves, ginger.

Finish: Long length. Intense, tea leaves, chocolate and good coffee.

20yo, bottled 2017. A batch of 2 casks. This seems to be some sort of slightly cheaper extension of the Artist (say it with a French accent) range. Anyway, a lovely balance to this one.

80/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Reviews #470-#471

Whisky Network Reviews #537-#538

Network Average: 74.3

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?

Glenallachie 2008 Octaves Review [From Paris with Love]

Hi everyone,

Have you ever heard of an Octave cask?

Maybe not.

Have you ever heard of Glenallachie?

You might have, if you paid attention to whisky news circles. It was bought recently by the team that turned Glendronach and BenRiach into those hype hugging, single cask canoodling distilleries that we all love to love.

But they sold them. And now they have Glenallachie. But the whisky isn’t due out until next year. Luckily, there’s plenty of indies to try and this is one such whisky.

It was finished in a Sherry Octave cask, which is much smaller than a regular cask or barrel (around 50L).

Glenallchie 2008 Octaves 54.1%

Colour: Amber

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Old school Macallan-ish, very lovely malty notes, honey, beeswax, very nice nose. Orange.

Taste: Intense, malty, honey, beeswax, some chocolate, loads of orange, rubbery Sherry and spicy ginger, black pepper.

Finish: Medium length. A little harsh, heather and lots of chocolate.

Great nose, taste and finish don't quite live up to it. Still, good stuff and a great alternative to Macallan IMO, similar style.

74/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #469

Whisky Network Review #536

Network Average: 74.3

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?

Lp8 (Madeira Finish) Review [From Paris with Love]

Hi everyone,

Daves Whisky Reviews is 1 year old! Yay! It's the blog's anniversary today. Does that mean anything special? Not particularly. Business as usual: More reviews.

Do you remember that Cairdeas Laphhy from 2016 that was finished in Madeira casks? Well, if you were a fan of that (I haven’t tried it yet), you might be interested in this.

It’s a “Mystery malt” (huuuhhggggglaphhhuuuurooaighuuuuuhhg) Excuse me. A so called mystery malt from a very obvious Islay distillery. Distilled in 1998, it was then finished in Madeira casks.

Madeira is a funny fortified wine, in that to make it they essentially abuse the wine as much as possible, because they noticed that when the wine was stored on ships, it tasted better after a rough sea voyage round the world. Now, they heat it and slosh it about as much as they can in Madeira to try and replicate that.

Madeira isn’t hugely popular at the moment, but it’s seeing more use as whisky barrels recently as people become more experimental about finishings.

Lp⁸ 53.5%

Colour: Dark Gold

Body: Full

Nose: Medicinal and fruity, blood orange, a little peppermint, opens up with lovely coastal sea air and seaweed.

Taste: Soft, orange then intense smoke and mineral and coastal waves, gritty stones, seaweed, some sweetness, spicy ginger.

Finish: Long length. Sweeter, fruitier and more coastal, orange and salt. Best bit.

This is a lovely style of Laphroaig (Whoops) The Madeira hasn’t overwhelmed the style at all, and there’s some great minerality and coastal flavours in here too.

82/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #468

Whisky Network Review #535

Network Average: 74.3

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?

Midleton Dair Ghaelach Review [From Paris with Love]

Hi everyone,

Daves Whisky Reviews is 1 year old! Yay! It's the blog's anniversary today. Does that mean anything special? Not particularly. Business as usual: More reviews.

Cask strength Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey? Yes please!

Finish it in Virgin Irish Oak Hogsheads? Yeah, that’s got my interest piqued.

Throw in some great to going mental reviews? Sounds good.

So, this is a Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey from the New Midleton distillery that was initially aged in Bourbon barrels and then finished in some local oak, then given an impossible to spell name. These trees were pretty bloody old, and they only yielded about 5-6 barrels each I believe. Did you know that only about 50% of the wood from an oak tree makes it into barre staves?

The particular one I got to try was from Tree 3.

Midleton Dair Ghaelach 57.9%

Colour: Bronze

Body: Full

Nose: Virgin oak is big, some Irish tropical fruit but not enough to balance it, spices, quite closed. Harsh alcohol with water.

Taste: Intense, very spicy, tannins, honey, dry, burnt wood. Virgin oak comes in towards the end.

Finish: Long length. Harsh spice and virgin oak.

Quality is obvious but in no way balanced. Please keep in mind, I don’t normally like virgin oak much at the best of times, but here it seems to have taken over.

66/100

Thanks for reading!

Irish Whiskey Review #16

Whisky Network Review #534

Irish Average: 66.6

Network Average: 74.3

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?

Sonoma County Rye Review [From Paris with Love]

Hi everyone,

Daves Whisky Reviews is 1 year old! Yay! It's the blog's anniversary today. Does that mean anything special? Not particularly. Business as usual: More reviews.

This is my first Sonoma County review, so I don’t know a huge lot about ‘em. What I’ve heard though, is that they use a traditional double distillation in pot stills using direct fired stills. Really interesting stuff. Don’t know if that’s being done a lot over in the US? But seems unique anyway.

This particular version is made using a 100% Rye mashbill, which is also pretty unique as ‘Rye Whiskey’ only has to contain 51% in the mashbill.

Tasted this recently at Whisky Live Paris.

Sonoma County Rye 48%

Colour: Bronze

Body: Full

Nose: Rubbery and weird, massive clove note, herbal, more clove. A huge clove bomb on the nose and nothing much behind it other than this weird rubbery flavour.

Taste: Same on the palate, a massive clove bomb. Burnt rubber. Almost doesn’t taste like whisky, we’re in strange territory here.

Finish: Short/medium length. Rubbery.

Quality is there but definitely not my thing. I don’t know if this would have to age for longer, maybe that’s the problem here. If you’re a massive lover of clove though, perhaps you’ll like this.

62/100

Thanks for reading!

American Whiskey Review #29

Whisky Network Review #533

American Average: 69.3

Network Average: 74.3

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?