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?

Glenmorangie Allta Review

Hi everyone,

Got some new releases that I tasted at the weekend, first and most interesting of which was this new Glenmo. Its part of their series of releases trying new things called Private Edition, similar to what Ardbeg do with their yearly releases. This is their 10th.

Why I think this release is important is because its one of the only Scotch releases that I can think of where the yeast has been made the main unique selling point. Which I think is really cool.

Who knows if its actually made any difference to the flavour, but its good to see people doing something other than: ‘Here’s another new finishing cask!’

 

Glenmorangie Allta 51.2%

Colour: E150a

Body: Medium

Nose: Pleasant nose of butterscotch and toffee, quite dry and missing the usual Glenmo fruit, plus heavier than I expected, some dried apple, dry straw, malt, herbal honey note.

Taste: Very good arrival, quite light to start with a great mouthfeel, then a real honey bomb, sweeter than I was expecting from the nose, toasty malt, toast, dried apple, yellow apple, some white pepper spice.

Finish: Medium/Long length. The oak comes in and dries again, honey and toast and butterscotch.

From Wild Yeast found in the distillery. Really interesting to try, although I'm not sure what the difference is meant to be to the flavour. It does seem heavier than a usual Glenmo... A little harsh into the finish as it opens up.

77/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Review #729

Whisky Network Review #867

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?

White Horse 1950's Review

’And I saw, behold it was a white horse... and hell followed with him.’

And if by ‘hell’ we mean Lagavulin, that quote would make sense. (I’ve been playing too much FarCry 5…)

Old White Horse Blended Whisky is pretty sought after because the blend reputedly contained a lot of Lagavulin. The stuff made in the 60’s & 70’s may even have contained some Malt Mill. This is a little too early for that but fascinating to try all the same.

Many thanks to Andrea (the old blend aficionado) for letting me try this.

 

White Horse 1950's 43%

Colour: Gold

Body: Light/Medium

Nose: Musky and ethereal, very old grain whisky notes, oak and cream, soft and complex, soot and apple, musky cologne, a little 'old bottle effect' with this dusty fruit note. Not much smoke that I can see.

Taste: Soft arrival, oak and spice, creamy grain, biscuit then some smoke, ginger beer, nice spice. The lemon is still alive. A little more smoke here but I’d be hard pressed to say it was from Lagavulin.

Finish: Short/Medium length. Creamy grain then the ginger beer tingles.

Spring cap! What a rarity. Amazing to be able to try but to me this tastes like 90% 20yo grain whisky and less than 5% young Islay whisky. No idea of the true proportions but the grain is really dominant with the creamy/biscuit notes, only allowing a little of the smoke to come through as a subtle sootiness.

70/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #728

Whisky Network Review #866

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?

Knockando 12 & Fettercairn 12 Reviews

Hi everyone,

I’ve got two 12’s today from distilleries Knockando and Fettercairn. Both random places that you’ve likely never heard of.

Knockando is a big seller in France (where its hella cheap), while Fettercairn have recently redone their entire range with a new bottle design and stuff. The Fior was alright but Fetter doesn’t have that great a reputation.

Knockando 12 40%

Colour: E150a

Body: Light/medium

Nose: Classically Speyside, fresh with red apple, clean malt, some oak and generic ginger.

Taste: A little harsh but sweet start with some brown sugar, then softer with red apple, apple pie, generic oak and ginger, becoming more harsh again towards the finish. Quickly distilled methinks.

Finish: Short/Med. alright mouthfeel here but pretty average in terms of flavour with more of the generic oak and ginger.

Read the above as BORING. There is nothing special about this at all.

63/100

 

Fettercairn 12 40%

Colour: E150a

Body: Medium

Nose: Funky and more than a bit odd. Fruit but with cheese and apple, creamy nose.

Taste: Oak to start then green apple before funky cream going on. Odd.

Finish: Medium length. Some oak and spice here, more average.

New packaging 2018. Nose reminded me of a Tobermory with the funky stuff, but not in a good way. The taste follows on from that, while the finish is pretty boring.

64/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch reviews #726-#727

Whisky Network Reviews #864-#865

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?

Glenrothes 2007 C&S Dram & 1990 SMOS Reviews

Hi everyone,

I haven’t actually reviewed a load of Glenrothes, although I think of it as the Highland Park of the Highlands without the smoke. It works well in Sherry or Bourbon and shares some characteristics with Macallan too, meaning that it matures damn well.

Today I’ve got two indies for y’all:

Glenrothes 2007 C&S Dram 47.9%

Colour: Light Amber

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Sherry, golden raisin, heather and malt, red apple, orange, very slightly sulphury giving a meatiness, ethereal spirit with green apple, fresher as it develops.

Taste: Sweet, Sherry, orange, then more Macallan-like with golden raisin, malt, heather, honey and chocolate. Some cinnamon and icing too. Black pepper into the finish.

Finish: Medium length. A little bit of dark chocolate and harsh spirit. Quite spirity here.

Bottled 2018 at 11yo. Again, thanks to Andrea for sharing some of his whisky. Shame about the spirity finish on this one but it would still be easy to mistake this for a Macallan.

74/100

 

Glenrothes 1990 Single Malts of Scotland 44.8%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Juicy and fresh, lots of fresh juicy pear, green apple, clean, little of the dark flavours I was expecting, melon and watermelon, toffee and butterscotch.

Taste: Fresh, juicy and light, beautifully balanced and building slow and gradual going from pear, green apple and lemon to malt, heather and delicious dark chocolate and leather.

Finish: Long length. Dark chocolate hit then fades gradually with malt and heather.

Bottled 2017 at 26yo, The palate is the star here, really good. Its amazing how this has retained the freshness at this older age while still being interesting.

84/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Reviews #724-#725

Whisky Network Reviews #862-#863

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?

Tomatin Cù Bòcan (+Blind Review Video) & Old Ballentruan 15 Reviews

Hi everyone,

I’ve been trying to continue doing my blind reviews on my Youtube channel but life keeps getting in the way, or perhaps I’m just lazy.

Anyway, when a mate put two samples in my hand of things he’d gotten over Christmas, I told him not to tell me what they were so I could taste them blind.

So this is the first, a Tomatin that (spoiler alert) I guessed was a young Bruichladdich. The lack of peat but presence of saltiness seemed to have put me off the mark on this one. Link here

Tomatin Cù Bòcan 46%

Colour: Light Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Buttery, oily and lightly floral. Lemon and some yeasty dough notes, quite young with the New Make Spirit poking through a little.

Taste: Soft arrival, lacking power initially with some lemon and a little malt, quite delicate development with some yeast and dough, quite sour with green apple joining the lemon.

Finish: Medium length. More spirity here, a little harsh and sour.

Lightly peated Tomatin. Very lightly peated apparently because I don't get any peat at all! If I hadn’t picked up on the saltiness, I would have said this was a young NAS Highlander.

64/100

Oh, hell. I’m sure I’ve got another peated Highlander I reviewed recently…

rummage

 

Old Ballantruan 15 50%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Quite rustic, malty, a little dust, honey, florals and golden raisin, a little smoke here and there but not powerful.

Taste: Soft then oily with growing smoke, peaty and mineral after a little rubber then honey and dust and golden raisin before more peat going into the finish.

Finish: Medium/Long length. More peaty here with red apple, going very mineral.

A heavily peated Tomintoul but again, not a massive amount of smoke here. Almost tastes like a peated Macallan with the golden raisin notes. Quite flat on the palate. Balance is tricky here.

72/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Review #722-#723

Whisky Network Review #860-#861

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?

Bn7 & Lp9 Elements of Islay Reviews

Hi everyone,

I’m a big fan of Elements of Islay since I first tried some of their stuff at my first ever whisky festival. They had a Laphroaig, Caol Ila and a Bowmore and I was really impressed with the quality.

Fast forward to now and they continue to impress with stellar releases, often putting the vintages, cask info, etc. on Whisky Exchange and their own website, where it can be found pretty easily.

We’ll have two new(er) ones today:

Bunnahabhain Bn7 55.8%

Colour: Amber

Body: Full

Nose: Cherry, cherry and more cherry. Vanilla, cherry lips, cherry sauce, small deserts, chocolate cake with cherry jam, Kirsch, really full on sweet nose. After time it’s like you are taking a big whiff of freshly made Christmas cake!

Taste: Sweet, intensely sweet, cherry, cherry sauce, chocolate pudding, some raisin, plum, clove spice, some of that Bunna harshness in there but its fine, oak and pepper.

Finish: Medium/Long length. A sweet hit, then leather and more drying, dry oak.

16yo from 2x Sherry butts. Lovely, lovely nose but some of that Bunna harshness dragging it down. Also, you need to be a big fan of cherry. Anywho, fans of Bunna will absolutely love this I imagine.

78/100

 

Laphroaig 1998 Lp9 54.3%

Colour: Amber

Body: Full

Nose: Sweet and smoky. Smoked sticky Chinese-style pork chops, the smoke and malt are pretty clear, the Sherry hasn't overwhelmed it, sweet orange, mineral and sea shore notes, melted dark chocolate. Delicious nose.

Taste: Really oily and thick, long arrival, takes its time, orange and cherry and raisin, the smoke and malt, Haribo cola bottles. Really nicely balanced with a gorgeous mouthfeel.

Finish: Medium length. Really oily again, orange and dark chocolate, again delicious.

Absolutely showstopper of a dram. What more is there to say? From a PX Sherry cask and I’m amazed at the great integration of sweet and smoky. IMO this is much better than the Masterpieces that Whisky Exchange did a while back.

88/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Reviews #720-#721

Whisky Network Reviews #858-#859

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?