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 […]
EVERYONE’S FAVOURITE THING – THE WHISKY SAMPLER. This time 5! FIVE! F!VE! whiskies! 4 new reviews, a Round 2! and a BattleScotch! The whole kajimmy! Stay tuned for Asyla, Hedonism, Spice Box, Oak Cross and The Peat Monster! November (and early December) is Compass Box Month at iScotch!
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
