Here at iScotch we’d like to wish you all a very happy holidays, merry Christmas, festive Kwanzaa, chappy Chanukah, feisty Festivus or an unrelenting Yule. Oh yeah and a happy drunken New Year’s. This is the last Saturday in December, the last Saturday of 2019, indeed the last Saturday of the decade, and it marks […]
Another Video BattleScotch! Okay so those were… weird. Which of Alabama’s Official State Spirit did the iSiLive team prefer? Here’s the chart: nose Simon – Bourbon Bengt – Alabama Style Whiskey Brad – Bourbon Chris – Alabama Style Whiskey neat Simon – Bourbon Bengt – Alabama Style Whiskey Brad – Alabama Style Whiskey Chris […]
VIDEO! VIDEO! VIDEO! Clyde Who? Straight What? Bourbon… from where? ANSWER: Clyde May’s Straight Bourbon from Alabama. What do those things mean again? Bourbon: from America, with 51% corn in the original mash. Straight Bourbon: from America, with 51% corn in the mash, in new charred barrels, minimum two years, within a specific abv range […]
Another Video Review Clyde May’s Alabama Whiskey. “Distilled Since 1946, Legal Since 2001” is a pretty great slogan. Especially since within four years they’d be the official state liquor of Alabama, followed shortly by a few alcohol production and sales convictions. But it’s all better now. Now you can get their bottles in Massachusetts and […]
I was down in the states visiting family and friends, and we stopped in a small (giant) liquor store in… I would say Massachusetts if I don’t know how to spell it. But yeah, a liquor store discovery in the greenest depths of Northern America (which is the middle of North America) – Clyde May’s […]
Quick review this week, Wild Turkey Longbranch Bourbon! Small batch bourbon made with weird woods! How much do you trust the “small batch” label from a large distiller tho? I dunno. Here’s what we thought: nose Davey – spicy tomato sauce Simon – caramel pie crust, sweet corn, bbq, candy necklace candy neat Davey – […]
It’s been an interesting spring, and May 2-4 weekend found yours truly ping-ponging around The Drive-Thru Province, traditional home of the Irving family, land of seafood, craft beer and more seafood, New Brunswick. My local fixer Hillary, political ninja and tour guide to the stars, planned several days of family and friends, seeing sights like […]
Every year like clockwork March stumbles in from the cold and delivers Irish Stereotype Reinforcement Day to warm the cockles of your projectile vomiting heart. St Paddy’s Day in North America has as much to do with Ireland as Chinese food in North America has to do with China – as in maybe a immigrant […]
Another Heaven Hill bourbon to add to the wall – Larceny Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey. You know what’s cool? Crime. Crime is cool. Name things after crimes. This bourbon’s distinction is that it swaps rye for wheat in the mash – bourbon has to be 51% corn but the other 49% can be any other […]
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 […]
A border-crossing friend snagged this.. um.. testament to budgetary discretion. Dr James Crow’s Old Crow Kentucky Bourbon is available at Duty Free shops and still manages to only be $8usd. Which is made further amazing when you find out that it’s the same mash as Jim Beam, just aged less. That’s a little shocking. Other […]
Ah yes, the great Victoria Day long weekend, known as May 2-4 by people still drinking crap beer by the crate. “We here at iScotch only drink the best!” – a lie, best exemplified by what we did to ourselves for you, loyal reader. We put ourselves back through the Jack Daniel’s product stack to […]
Happy week after St Patrick’s Day! Hey, either we make it a thing or this review sits on the shelf for a year. And by then, who knows? Maybe Red Bush will refer to brigades of aw shucks volunteers fighting under George W’s Veevay La Revolutseeon banner in the Second American Civil War, battling alongside […]
BAM. Perfect timing. Because the key to a good whiskey review is all in your calendar alignments. Paddy Old Irish Whiskey, ON St Paddy’s Day. Could you ask for anything more? Ever? No I think not. …This review was maybe done in November. Here are some “fun” facts: Paddy’s is in the Pernod Ricard stable […]
Quick little review with the family while I’m on the road in Vancouver. My sister bought a pre-St Paddy’s Day treat, Innis & Gunn Kindred Spirits Tullamore DEW Barrel Aged Stout for my brother in law and I to try (she did smell it and pronounced it “coffee I wouldn’t drink”). We’ve had Innis […]
Aw yiss a new aged Irish whiskey – West Cork 10y! A new one for us, anyway, West Cork has been around for about 15 years. West Cork likes Bourbon casks – the entire range spends some amount of time in used American oak. Even their select sherry, rum and port special 12y expressions all […]
A new budget bourbon appeared on the shelf at the LCBO and we had to try it. Weller Special Reserve, The Original Wheated Bourbon. Despite being “wheated” (which sounds like a Saskatchewan hazing ritual), this is still marked as a Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey. The requirements for KSBW are just that the mash be 51% […]
Knob Creek, purveyors of fine Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey. This is their Single Barrel Reserve, aged nine years and bottle at 60%. It’s not often a distiller can pull off a high-powered whiskey without a lot of collateral damage in the flavour and face burning departments, but Knob Creek manages to do it and still […]
Editors note: I was introduced to Daniel through Instagram algorithm, weirdly, but it turns out we share some interests, including photography and whisky, so it seemed natural to offer a guest spot. Fortunately, he said yes! Enjoy: Happy Anniversary My kind of party I’ve always been a fan of Bushmills. The Irish blend […]
One of the stars of a recent tasting, I thought it might be a good idea to take a quick second review of this longtime favourite: Bushmills Black Bush. We’re Bushmills fans, and specifically Black Bush, which we tried for the first time five years ago last week. So it seems like the timing is […]
This week’s bottle is Jim Beam Bonded, courtesy of Dan’s Laura. Thanks, Laura! Bonded is a whiskey term we’ve seen before. To jog your memories, the whiskey meets an external government standard – the product of one distillery in one distilling season, aged 4 years in a government facility, bottled at 100 proof. Why submit […]
The day after St Paddy’s Day is the perfect time to drop these little Scottish/Irish gems. Innis & Gunn Kith & Kin, the first Innis & Gunn to use (or reveal) the name brand whisky barrels used to age their beer. In this case, it’s Teeling whiskey, a great Irish distiller. We’ve had a Teeling […]
Jameson Caskmates Stout Edition. A bit more title than necessary, since this is the only version of Caskmates available at the moment, or mentioned anywhere on the internet, but whatever. Aging beer in whisky barrels is one of our favourite tricks at iScotch and aging whisky in the used barrels of other liquors is only […]
A slightly odd bottle this time. Some Jameson Black Barrel arrived in a covert container on the doorstep, a sample from somebody’s stash. Thanks, generous stranger! Jameson is an Irish whiskey we’re familiar with, having tried the White Label and Select Reserve in the past. The Black Barrel this time refers to the charring of the […]
