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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
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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
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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
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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
I could’ve sworn we’d had a Pike Creek before, but a quick search for “creek” only pings Forty, Knob and Corner. So add another creek to the… uh.. pile? of creeks? Not creaks, creeks. This particular creek is where Pike Creek ages their whisky, in this case in Rum Casks. Altho the website only mentions
Aww yeah ten and a half months later finally get to my Christmas present from Dan – Twelve Barrels Canadian Whisky. The story of this bottle is a little amazing. A high school bootlegger making prison wine under his bed in his parent’s home, pitches the story to distilleries all over the world, lands a
This one’s going to be a little messy. Steph, Dan & I reviewed the Founder’s Original – Dan discovered he does not like Old Fashioneds and bowed out of the Barchef review – fair dinkum. Steph suggested we have some people by – these things are made for parties. So we invited some interesting Ottawa
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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
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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
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Aw yiss. A classic of the form. One of the pantheon. A real… thing of the… stuff. Lagavulin 8y. We’ve had exactly one Lagavulin before because they are prized, rare and expensive. But if you want a true Islay and have had enough Bowmore, you should try Lagavulin at some point. It’s like an off-white
More ghosts of Christmases past! Woo hoo Christmas references in August! Glen Garioch Founder’s Reserve. Another wonky Scottish name, Garioch is now pronounced somewhere between Geery and Garyich, like a chubbier Gareth. Traditionally, it is pronounced GRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA with a nasal umlaut in the middle, and is screamed into the genitals of one’s defeated enemies. Glen
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Flavoured whisky, man. Why do we keep doing this? Forty Creek Spike Honey Spice. It’s like honey only no not really. Not at all actually. It’s what a computer’s idea of a bee makes for honey. It’s what wasp honey probably tastes like. Like if honey was made from scorpions maybe. But this was a
A Highland single malt from Bacardi by way of Dewar’s, from the Macduff Distillery: The Deveron 12y. This is one of three expressions launched in 2015, a new line from a newerish distillery that used to produce mostly for blends. Here’s what we thought: nose Dan – strawberry creamsicle, salt water, candied apple Simon –
A lovely Christmas present reviewed in the spring and finally published on one of the hottest days of the year. It’s hot. It’s real hot. You’d be excused by saying “Damn, dude, surely this is the kind of weather best suited for a refreshing gin review or some such” and I would agree with you,
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
Once again, it’s been a while since we had a single malt scotch, the whisky after which the site is named. This happens, of course, because other whiskies, spirits & beers tend to be cheaper. Scotch still carries the whisky banner and therefore the price standard, even if Americans like to pay a lot for
BattleScotch o’clock, Tomintoul time! You knew it was coming – we can’t do a whole month from one distiller without pitting them against each other in petty subjective combat. Cutting to the chase, here’s what we thought: nose Dan – 16y Simon – 25y Goran – 25y neat Dan – 16y Simon – 25y Goran
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We’ve come to the last new bottle out of the Tomintoul pack, the 25y. As near as I can tell this is the oldest expression of any whisk(e)y anything we’ve reviewed to date. That’s kind of cool, congrats Tomintoul. Next week we’ll wrap up Tomintoul April with the mandatory BattleScotch! But for now, here’s what
The second entry in our month of Tomintoul, we have the 16y. There’s… not too much to say that we didn’t cover last time, it’s the same whisky, just from longer ago. Iteration is the highest form of… something. Probably. Here’s what we thought: nose Dan – savory mash, sherry, cranberry Simon – fuller, slightly
Tomintoul Glenlivet 10y. So.. which is it? It appears to be a Tomintoul, as Tomintoul’s website calls all their whiskies Glenlivet Speyside. The Distillery is the Tomintoul-Glenlivet distillery, but it’s owned by Angus Dundee, while Glenlivet is owned by Pernod. Glenlivet is a place, tho. Tomintoul & the River Livet (and one would assume its
Last of the Saskatoon Sessions! Sorry, publishing schedule got a little messed up when I … uh… just stopped posting for a while. Let’s just all be glad 2017 is behind us, I think that’s probably best. Live & learn. Give & grow. Or whatever. For the last of the Saskatoon Sessions we have a
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….And the last Bruichladdich article for a while, I promise, but we had to do it – BattleScotch! Bruichladdich Edition! These were three pretty great scotches in their own right, but which of the three to buy? Here’s what we got: nose Dan – Heavily Peated Simon – Heavily Peated Ryan – Classic neat Dan
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Second out of the box, we have Bruichladdich’s Unpeated Islay Barley. It’s.. uh.. … it’s what the name says it is, I guess. I’ve tried to find this expression on the website, but i don’t have a conclusive link. The small bottles listed point to extremely specific (expensive sounding) terroir-y unpeated expressions. This is upeated,
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Monkey Shoulder Blended Malt Whisky. Named for an old whiskying injury, apparently. Which makes sense because this was kind of painful to drink. A blended malt means this is a blend of single malt scotches from a number of distilleries. Blends allow for a more consistent product over time, and can have added depth if
Ardbeg Uigeadail – It’s pronounced oog-a-dal, because that’s what you say when you drink it. This is a Proper Islay – full bore smoke and fire, good for a cold wet night on the sea or just some random evening on the Prairies. Here’s what I thought: nose – beef jerky & smoked fish
What do you get when you bottle Canadian whisky in Kentucky? Mediocre whisky. To be fair, the back-and-forth shipping of High River is probably not this whisky’s major fault. That would be the smell. And the taste. Being road agitated probably doesn’t help tho. This is a Sazerac whisky, and that’s pretty much all I can
I’m not a professional event host or anything, and I’m not trying to make any money off of this thing (yet). But a couple times now, I’ve been asked or offered to walk some friends through some whiskies as a fun thing to do when we get together. It’s not that hard, and I recommend
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
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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
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66 Gilead Wild Oak, a new Ontario whisky from Prince Edward County. Yay for whisky from within 300 kilometres from home! Thanks to Brad for picking this up on a recent trip. The Wild Oak is a corn, rye and wheat bourbon-style whisky aged in charred oak, and it does taste like a rye bourbon.
Two weeks ago we brought you AJ’s thoughts on The Liquormen’s Ol’ Dirty Canadian Whisky, the whisky of the Trailer Park Boys. This week’s celebrity vanity spirit is Wayne Gretzky’s No 99 Red Cask. I’ll have to grab Drake’s whatever the hell it’s called to round out (and maybe salvage) this well-marketed trio. (Photo by
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Simon – So I feel a little bad about this one. I bought this bottle on my way through Calgary and hadn’t noticed the Trailer Park Boys logo at the top. I got home, tried a dram and flinched. This was a job for our contract Bad Whisky Expert AJ, writer of the hilarious Proof
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JP Wiser’s Hopped Whisky. A tiny sampler attached to the Double Still Rye. I just got called out for hating on Wiser’s in the last review, and this one’s not going to help that perception one bit. We generally don’t like Wiser’s and you can say that makes the review a self-fulfilling prophecy. But we
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How do you like that, it’s Kentucky Derby Day & we’re reviewing Old Forester, the Official Bourbon Of The Kentucky Derby! Had no idea of either, this is a complete fluke. I used to ride horses, too, this is sort of embarrassing. A couple interesting facts about Old Forester: it’s the longest running bourbon available,
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Gooderham & Worts Four Grain Canadian Whisky. Corn, barley, wheat & rye blended together and named for the distillery that is now the Distillery District in Toronto. The name appears to be the only real connection to the original Gooderham & Worts company – this whisky is now distilled in Corbyville with much of the
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Lombard’s Old Masters G Blended Scotch Whisky. This one is a little odd. Lombard’s website, and the postal code, tell us the company hails from the Isle of Man, which is not part of Scotland. It’s its own sort of thing, part of Britain but not the United Kingdom sort of weird geo-political… well, pedantry,
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Potter’s Special Old Rye Whisky. Special, old, rye. And in a tiny plastic bottle, because it’s very classy. Also classy, I’ll be continuing the practice of gifs with this post, but I think I’ll relegate them to a simply moving image summary of what thought. Scroll to the bottom to see. Picked this up on
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Just a quick one this week, loyal readers! It’s been a slog of a week, verily, and while I will be enjoying a whisky in very short order, this isn’t really a “write a bunch of stuff” moment unfortch(*). Instead, this is a BuzzFeed iScotch post! So, Round 2 for the Ardbeg 10y! We liked
Welcome to 2016 and THE FUTURE! It’s a leap year and I hear there may even be a new iPhone this year. Marvelous time, this future. What better way to kick off the new year, our 6th calendar year of domain registration (even if maybe the first couple months there was nothing here), than with a
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Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays everybody! Just posting a quick Round 2! review today because hey, it’s the holidays, guys. Here’s our previous review of The Glenlivet 12y. Next week we’ll start the year off with a couple of classic scotches as well as some Christmas gift reviews. Keep your stick on the ice; here’s
White Owl Whisky. Clear like shine, but apparently legally allowed to be called whisky. What? Produced by Highwood Distillers, who also make Centennial, Century and Potters whiskies, White Owl is a blend. Rye and other grain whiskies, some up to 10 years old from what I can find online, are blended together. Regular, brown whiskies.
BattleScotch! Tomatin Stillmen’s Choice Edition! Aw yeah aw yeah! It wouldn’t be a reasonably priced selection of delicious single malt scotches without us wringing one more post out of it. In the review of the 18y article, I went into some detail about why older scotch may not necessarily tasting “better”. If you’d like to read more
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Tomatin Oloroso 18y, the last of the Tomatin Stillmen’s Choice sampler. Next week, we close Tomatin month with the obligatory BattleScotch! At 18y, this is in the old end of things we’ve tried at iScotch – this is only the 5th 18y in almost 300 posts, and none older than that. Maybe it’s because of
Tomatin 15y! The second review of Tomatin month is their 15y expression. Where the other two are aged in sherry barrels, this bottle is aged in standard scotch whisky barrels made from American oak. During the review of the 12y I went off on a bit of a tangent about brand loyalty and community and
