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 […]
Happy holidays! One of 12-15 traditional drinking seasons. For some reason the cold makes us more agreeable to sticky, rich and cloying sweets, treats and meats. Might be an evolutionary thing we inherited from our bear ancestors. #BearsNotMonkeys Sortilege is Quebec maple syrup and Canadian rye & corn whisky blended together to become pretty much […]
Sometimes I forget things. Things like, where did this whisky come from, and, who are M and St in the tasting notes. According to the website, Caldera Hurricane 5 Canadian whisky is grown, distilled and aged in Nova Scotia! And according to the LCBO website, this whisky is not available in the LCBO. Same with […]
Video BattleScotch! nose Simon – Barnburner Steve – Barnburner Chris – Barnburner neat Simon – Barnburner Steve – Barnburner Chris – Bearface 7y finish Simon – Barnburner Steve – Barnburner Chris – Bearface 7y splash Simon – Barnburner Steve – Barnburner Chris – Barnburner overall Simon – Barnburner Steve – Barnburner Bengt […]
Video Review! Bearface is a somehow new 7y Canadian whiskey. I’m being facetious – you can do that by buying other people’s at least 7y whisky. It looks like this company buys, blends and barrels, but I can’t tell exactly how much they do from their very internet website. Said very internet website has […]
Video Review! Barnburner Ontario Whisky from Maverick Distillery. This was a sleeper – probably one of the best tasting budget Canadian whiskies I’ve had, and I’m super judgey of Canadian whiskies. Here’s more of what we thought: Nose Stephan – smells strong, nose tickler, smell the alcohol, not very subtle, coughing from smelling it, a […]
We have done so many Tomatin – this is number seven – at this point there’s not a lot to say. Tomatin Cù Bòcan – near as I can tell this one translates to something about dogs which makes sense because it tasted like flea and tick shampoo. This is the first whisky to ever […]
Going to kick it off with the video review again: Here’s the written review. Not too much more I can say about Johnnie Walker, other than that this is the 18y and it is apparently the Ultimate but also demonstrably not ultimate expression of Johnnie Walker. nose Simon – baby powder, honey lozenge, nail […]
This one we’ve done before, so I’ll keep it brief this time around. First up out of the Johnnie Walker set is arguably my favourite, the 12y Black Label. The second from the bottom of the range, this holds with a lot of other blends and famous brands – it’s significantly better than the base […]
The Singleton 12y Dufftown Single Malt Scotch Whisky. A rogue’s smile and an upgraded ticket got me into the Air Canada lounge in Winnipeg (mostly the ticket), where I found this relic of a grandfather’s attic. Hung upside down in an airport lounge for who knows how long, it’s also been breathing for about 10 […]
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 […]
BattleScotch! Tomatin Second Edition. Or the TwoMaytin Edition. You know what that means! It means we’re almost done this month & can go back to our regularly scheduled random nonsense. This second edition pitted the 12y v 14y v Cask Strength, here are the results: nose Dan – 14y Simon – 14y neat Dan – […]
Second bottle out of the box, second week of Twomatin – Tomatin 14y Port Cask Single Malt Scotch Whisky. We’ve had a lot of Tomatins already so let’s just jump straight to the notes. Here’s what we thought: nose Dan – bright cherrywood, pepper, light pecan tart filling Simon – mushrooms, wood, soap neat Dan […]
May is Twomatin month, or the second Tomatin month, which I guess we could have also called ToMaytin now that I think about it a little bit longer. No worries, they’re both terrible names but this we’ve been doing this thing a while so. TOMATIN! Previously seen in: The 12y Spanish Sherry, the 15y, and […]
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, […]
Old St. Andrews Clubhouse Blended Scotch. Here’s some notes I took in a hotel during a work trip to Victoria: it comes in a golf ball, i hate it already served in a plastic cup that was itself plastic wrapped. if this is best western i’d hate to see the worst. haha i kid, i’m […]
We don’t usually do wine here on iScotch but my buddy Davey started working at the Wine… Shop? Store? Wine Bunker..? Nono, the Wine-o-Rama, in the Sobey’s on Metcalfe. He gave me some great recommendations for wines for gifts/supplies over the holidays. Black Cellar Whisky Oak Aged Shiraz-Cabarnet Blend #5 comes highly recommended. Davey says […]
Happy New Year! To celebrate: Nirasaki Blended Japanese Whisky. I won’t bother rehashing the story of Japanese whisky (check past posts), except to say that Japanese whisky is largely either Nikka or Suntory. So far we’ve loved Nikkas and have not taken to Suntories, and this is a Suntory. But it was also $40 at […]
When a lovely birthday present isn’t a lovely whisky – Thanks Steph! Caribou Crossing Single Barrel whisky – a birthday gift that has turned into a bit of a public service announcement. We’ve talked before about the Box Tax, well, this whisky makes you pay all the taxes. The Box Tax. The Swank Velvet Bag […]
Spicebox spiced whisky – “real prohibition rye whisky” marked “spices” to help smuggling. There’s a great story on their website that seems to have zero relationship with this product other than them calling it “real prohibition rye whisky”. Maybe this booze is specifically banned somewhere, otherwise I don’t understand how that works. Since spicing for […]
How many of these things are there? It’s like I’ve forgotten we ever reviewed anything else. NUMBER 5 – Compass Box Spice Tree, a veritable uh tree of I guess spices. Spice Tree apparently broke some rules when it first came out, using a system of inner staves of a different wood to achieve (or […]
Very quick review today because I’m late but that’s okay, we’ve had Compass Box’s Peat Monster before! Here’s our previous go-round with this boggy bugger, so we can jump right into what we thought this time – there’s a bit of drift between then and now: is it us? Is it the whisky? Did we […]
Compass Box Oak Cross – named for the American and French oaks used to re-age whiskies from three distilleries. I could go into more detail but sometimes too many things is too many things. nose Dan – oak, lime, pickling spice, sour cream? Simon – oak, tequila, mustard neat Dan – rough umami, weird […]
Aw yiss let’s kick of Compass Box Month-And-A-Half here at iScotch – Asyla! A blended scotch meant as an everyday drinker, taken with splash. Unfortunately for anyone who did take them up on the daily driver option, this expression is no longer available because they can’t find the right source whiskies for the blend. Which is […]
