And finally, as a last hurrah for the Glengoyne Discovery Gift Taste Sampler Set Collection we come to the traditional BattleScotch!, to be observed WITH the camelcase AND the punctuation as spelling. Because we’re from the goddamned future! ONWARD TO WAR, TINY BOTTLES! You have only one thing left to teach us – who is […]
I know, I know. It’s 4/20. It’s the first 4/20 since legalization. I was in a band with a song called four20. Where is the weed whisky or ihash.ca or whisky barrel aged weed (patent pending), right? This site is about subjective reviews of intoxicating substances, exclusively. Weed is in the same family as hops, […]
Our second swing at the Glengoyne Gift Collection is the 15y. Glengoyne suggest a rather elaborate range of flavours are present in this dram, I’m not so sure. The label details are also quite different and list different woods between the bottle and the website; is this marketing drift? Or distilling? Who knows! Summary: they […]
Glengoyne! A highland Single Malt Scotch that we’ve only seen a little of before. A quirk of geography puts the Glengoyne stills in the Highlands while the maturing happens all the way (across the street) in the Lowlands. Silly things happen when people draw lines on maps. Aged in sherry and bourbon casks, the 12 […]
Highland Park Magnus. Big dark bottle, cool.. uh.. dragon.. wolfy sort of logo. Classic Highland Park. And by “classic” Highland Park I mean this truism: the less you pay for Highland Park the better it is. And not just in that classic market economics sense. We’ve had a few Highland Parks at iScotch and we’ve […]
A new Nova Scotian whisk(e)y (the spelling is inconsistent across their website), I hadn’t heard of Glynnevan before Dan’s friend Matt brought a bottle over. The Glynnevan Double Barrelled Rye is a genuinely pan-Canadian whisky. Distilled “in the west” and then carted across the country to age next to the sea in the Maritimes. We’ve […]
Another border hop, another duty free… uh, find? Doesn’t seem like the right word here. This is like something out of Dungeons & Dragons, a ceramic jug of curses & concentrated goblin farts. Platte Valley 100% Straight Corn Whiskey. Straight in this case meaning distilled not higher than 80 proof and casked for a minimum […]
The LCBO is still open and you can still go pick up party fuel for Canada Day tomorrow. With that in mind and in the vein of a public service announcement: don’t buy Liquormen’s Ol’ Dirty Whisky. Don’t do it to yourself, and don’t serve it to your friends. Canada Day is about coming together […]
Innis & Gunn are known for trying stuff, different combinations, interpretations etc. They’ve launched a new line called Vanishing Point, which is: the point at which the skills and passion of our brewers converge with our ambitions to create exceptional beers that define us as a company. Which is guess is cool as long as […]
Well, you knew this was going to happen, of course. It’s not a brand sampler without a BattleScotch to tell you which is worth your time or money. Always a little tricky with the tiny bottles, but when it comes to ranking Glenfarclii, here’s what we thought: nose Dan – 12y Simon – 10y Bowick […]
Alright, the last of the Glenfarclii, the 12y. We can jump right to the notes, here’s what we thought: nose Dan – old banana, salty baked bread, fresh fudge Simon – old candies, cereal, smoked fish Bowick – coffee, wheat neat Dan – spicy & salty, fried melon Simon – sting and spice, not […]
Second out the box of Glenfarclas it’s the 105! Named after something, I’m sure, but as we said last time the website is a little light on information. They suggest serving this as a “210” (a double) which might blow your face off, honestly. The 105 is offered at a cask strength of 60%, or […]
Aw yiss, Glenfarclas at last. We’ve seen Glenfarclas 10y on the shelves for a while, and I was tantalizingly close to getting a bottle through Secret Santa one year. I recently found this sampler pack at the airport liquor store in Edmonton, which grimly was open at 7am. But hey, I bought liquor at 7:05 […]
Stalk & Barrel Red Blend! Aged single malt, rye & corn whiskies blended by the lads in Concord. It’s been a while since we’ve had a new S&B, but since we did this one at Dan’s place for a party, the notes are… not great. Here goes: nose: vanilla, floral, wood, books, sharpness, lemon & […]
For the sixth beer of Christmas, my true government monopoly gave to me, TWO GIANT BEERS! I think Het Anker might be my new happy place. A brewery and a distillery and a restaurant AND a hotel! Because, let’s face it, after enjoying what they have to offer you’re going to need a little lie […]
Deanston. Haven’t heard or seen much of this brand since starting this blog, so I decided to grab it when it showed up at the LCBO. We do it so you don’t have to, and in this case you really shouldn’t. Deanston is owned by Burn Stewart Distillers, who also own Tobermory and Bunnahabhain, neither […]
Poit Dhubh! Knowing Gaelic it’s probably pronounced ‘Greg’. This is the 8y old bro to the Té Bheag so there’s not too much more to add from that article. There are two other expressions at 12 and 21 years. Hopefully that’s a good sign that Gaelic Whisky will be around for a while. We did, […]
It’s the Highland v Lowland 12y scotches that start with ‘A’ BattleScotch! We haven’t had a lot of lowlands and don’t have a full impression of the regional qualities yet, but this little contest helped a bit, highlighting the differences. Here’s what we thought: smell Ryan – anCnoc 12y Simon – anCnoc 12y Goran – […]
I know. It’s not scotch, or even whisky or whiskey, or even FROM a whisky brand, or from my own country. Why are we reviewing a sloe gin? Well, many reasons, actually. One, never had a sloe gin before, so we were curious. Two, we all like gin so we wanted to try it. And […]
So… yeah.. late at night. Not our best work. We had a few bail-outs and quitters. But to be fair they may have already been asleep. Shameful to say that we are going to have to revisit The Famous Grouse (warning, Flash splash page ahead, because it’s 2004) because the notes are incomplete. I will […]
SCOTCHPARTY BLEND WOOOO It was getting late, but that’s what’s in the notes. Ballantine’s has an under-cited wiki page that goes on at length about its legacy and quality and other objective information. Their website makes mention of being self-made so I’m assuming the blend here is with replicating nanobots. NanoScotch! Patent pending, jerks. Here’s […]
The fifth ScotchParty Review, the third McClelland’s. This time we’re trying out their Highlands bottling. And it seems to hold up to their “reasonable scotch at a reasonable price” reputation. Here’s what we thought: smell Simon – nutty, old wood Dan – sweet, wood in burn, apricot Ryan – peaty, sweet Goran – nice, spongecake, […]
Sounds German, tastes Scottish. A quick Google for “etymology auchentoshan” reveals it’s just very old Gaelic from a branch that hasn’t made its way into common Scots English. Apparently this is both “the Glasgow whisky” AND “the breakfast whisky” which leads me to believe a Glasgow brunch is a good place to get punched in […]
BATTLESCOTCH AT A SCOTCHPARTY. THE BATTLE OF THE GLENS. Sorry for the shouting. We pitted The Glendronach 12y Original against The Glenrothes Select Reserve literally because they both have Glen in the name – The GlenDronach is an aged expression Highlander and The Glenrothes is a non-specific Speysider, so it really was the only axis […]
