Speyside Road Trip Postlude: Aberfeldy
After the brief stop at the Arctic climes of Dalwhinnie, it was time for the planned activity of the day: a tour and tasting at Aberfeldy. I had booked the Connoisseurs’ Tour, which seemed good value at £26.50 (I see it’s now up to £30 – not sure if that’s permanent or whether it’s due … Continue reading Speyside Road Trip Postlude: Aberfeldy
Speyside Road Trip Bits and Pieces (Glenfiddich, Glenfarclas, Tormore, Dalwhinnie)
The bulk of the whisky-related activities of our final day in Speyside was all done by lunchtime (Glen Grant, Benriach and Glen Moray). Since most distilleries close to visitors between 4 and 5, we felt compelled to try and squeeze in as many as possible, so we drove from Elgin to Dufftown, where Glenfiddich, Balvenie, … Continue reading Speyside Road Trip Bits and Pieces (Glenfiddich, Glenfarclas, Tormore, Dalwhinnie)
Speyside Road Trip Day 3, Part 3: Glen Moray
We arrived at Glen Moray already in a good mood after the great visits to Glen Grant and Benriach on the way. It’s a relatively big distillery that’s packed in a compact space in the town of Elgin, so we didn’t take any photos of the distillery buildings other than these picturesque casks because the … Continue reading Speyside Road Trip Day 3, Part 3: Glen Moray
Speyside Road Trip Day 3, Part 2: Benriach
The walk in the Glen Grant gardens was an ideal start to the day, so it was time for more distillery visits. For the sake of completion, we first dropped by the other distillery in town, Glenrothes. We knew that there’s no visitor centre or shop, so we just stopped to take this photo and … Continue reading Speyside Road Trip Day 3, Part 2: Benriach
Speyside Road Trip Day 3, Part 1: Glen Grant
Our last full day in Speyside was set aside for random distillery-hopping, and we decided to start it with an activity unrelated to whisky: walking in the expansive gardens of Glen Grant. The distillery is in Rothes, about 10 minutes’ drive from Aberlour. We made a brief stop at Macallan first since it was on … Continue reading Speyside Road Trip Day 3, Part 1: Glen Grant
Speyside Road Trip Day 2, Part 2: Knockdhu
My love affair with anCnoc has been an accelerated one: for one reason or another, I’d never tried one until I took part in an online tasting with distillery manager Gordon Bruce last month, even though I sort of knew they made my kind of whisky. There are no official tours at Knockdhu and no … Continue reading Speyside Road Trip Day 2, Part 2: Knockdhu
Speyside Road Trip Day 2, Part 1: Glenallachie & Strathisla
We walked from Aberlour to Glenallachie. Then we arrived at Glenallachie, look. I got a bottle there. And how about Strathisla. How about it. OK, so the above was just the template text I used while we were arranging the photos, but my wife remarked that it was an accurate and succinct description, so I … Continue reading Speyside Road Trip Day 2, Part 1: Glenallachie & Strathisla
Speyside Road Trip Day 1: Aberlour
The drive from Dundee to Aberlour was very pleasant overall. We decided to stick to the motorways on the East of Scotland, before turning West at Aberdeen. It took about two and a half hours including a stop, and we arrived with about half an hour to spare before my tasting at 2pm. The location … Continue reading Speyside Road Trip Day 1: Aberlour
Speyside Road Trip: The Preamble (Glengoyne, Deanston, Tullibardine)
After two previous visits to Scotland that were part of tagging along to various friends’ plans, my wife and I finally planned a Speyside trip that was exclusively whisky-related. It involved driving up from deepest mid-Hertfordshire to the town of Aberlour, with overnight stops in Moffat and Dundee along the way (the former to split … Continue reading Speyside Road Trip: The Preamble (Glengoyne, Deanston, Tullibardine)
Lagavulin 9 Game of Thrones (46%, OB 2019)
We all know about Diageo’s Game of Thrones range by now. Mostly repackaged NAS fare, it does however contain some interesting variants on distilleries’ standard expressions, of which the Lagavulin 9 year-old is an example. (the Clynelish is another, with a welcome high strength edition) After the success of the 8 year-old, a young Lagavulin … Continue reading Lagavulin 9 Game of Thrones (46%, OB 2019)
Lagavulin 8 (48%, OB 2016)
The Lagavulin 8 year-old was initially a limited release to celebrate the distillery’s 200th anniversary in 2016. Predictably, it was hugely successful and soon became part of the core range. The bottle I’m reviewing here is from the original batches. One thing to notice straight away is the extremely light colour – a very welcome … Continue reading Lagavulin 8 (48%, OB 2016)
Lagavulin 16 (43%, OB 2018)
Let’s taste a few peat monsters before the warm weather returns, starting with a classic. Like most whisky aficionados (I assume!), I always have a bottle of Lagavulin 16 in the cabinet. There often is chat about the quality fluctuating with different batches, but I’ve never noticed much variability from bottle to bottle. The prices … Continue reading Lagavulin 16 (43%, OB 2018)
Glenfarclas 105 (60%, OB 2018)
After the Aberlour A’bunadh more than doubled in price, the Glenfarclas 105 has become the undisputed leader in terms of bang-for-your-buck cask strength sherry bombs. Unlike the A’bunadh this one used to carry an age statement too, with earlier batches stating (quite discreetly at the back of the label for some reason) that they were … Continue reading Glenfarclas 105 (60%, OB 2018)
Glenfarclas 25 (43%, OB 2016)
Ah, Glenfarclas… The last bastion of sanity when it comes to whisky prices. If you happen to read this in the future when the Glenfarclas 25 costs more than your mortgage, it’s worth noting that, at the time of writing, this is still (sometimes) available for just under £100, when its similarly aged competitors are … Continue reading Glenfarclas 25 (43%, OB 2016)
Glencadam 25 (46%, OB 2020)
The Glencadam 25 year-old was a limited release of 1600 bottles, presented in a sturdy wooden box. It will set you back a lot more than any other official Glencadam, and is still available at The Whisky Exchange at the time of writing. Like most Glencadams, it was matured exclusively in ex-bourbon casks, so we … Continue reading Glencadam 25 (46%, OB 2020)
Glencadam Reserva Andalucia (46%, OB 2020)
As the name suggests, the Reserva Andalucia is a rare foray into sherry cask maturation from Glencadam. There’s no age statement, but like almost all Glencadams it’s bottled without chill-filtration or additional colouring. I’m not 100% sure wherher it’s a marriage of fully Oloroso matured and Oloroso finished malt, or whether it’s all a finish … Continue reading Glencadam Reserva Andalucia (46%, OB 2020)
Glencadam 15 (46%, OB 2020)
The 15 year-old Glencadam has been around for a while now – almost a decade in fact, apart from a brief period of stock shortages that coincided with Ralfy naming it his whisky of the year. As usual for Glencadam, it’s bottled at 46% and without chill-filtration or added colouring. It’s matured in a combination … Continue reading Glencadam 15 (46%, OB 2020)
Tomintoul Seiridh (40%, OB 2020)
The Tomintoul Seiridh (pronounced ‘sherry’ after the Gaelic word for sherry, as the official website helpfully informs us!) is unsururisingly a sherried single malt. More specifically, it’s finished in Oloroso casks after spending the bulk of its maturation in ex-bourbon. It’s a limited edition – the first batch has 6,000 bottles available. (Sample provided by … Continue reading Tomintoul Seiridh (40%, OB 2020)
Tomintoul 25 (43%, OB 2020)
We continue the individual reviews of the Angus Dundee mystery dram tastings with the Tomintoul 25 year-old. This one was matured mostly in refill bourbon casks and is priced in the £200-250 range, which is quite expensive even for its age. I believe older versions used to be bottled at 40% ABV, but this has … Continue reading Tomintoul 25 (43%, OB 2020)
Tomintoul 14 (46%, OB 2020)
Unlike most other distilleries nowadays, Tomintoul has an abundance of age statements – the entry level 10 year-old, the staple 16, the various 12 and 15 year-old finishes and peated expressions, and the more high-end stuff at 18 years old and above. What they mostly have in common is the presentation – 40% ABV for … Continue reading Tomintoul 14 (46%, OB 2020)
Loading…
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
The Daily Dram 