September 2020 - More drams, less drama

The Whisky Cellar Tweet Tasting

28th September 202028th September 2020Coldorak

As I had the chance to do many times before, I participated in a Tweet Tasting organized as usual by Steve Rush from The Whisky Wire on Wednesday the 23rd of September. This time, it was not a distillery, but a “new” indy… No, not Indiana Jones. As I was saying, this time it was not a distillery, but a quite new Independent Bottler called The Whisky Cellar. We received a really nice package with five samples, a notebook and a beautiful pen made with oak from a cask stave by Andrew from miawoodcrafts. By the way, if you didn’t know what he does, go check him out, what he makes is brilliant. I do already have a pen made from a Glenfarclas stave and I love it. But let’s get back on track and talk about today’s subject: The Whisky Cellar Tweet Tasting. And let’s start by having a chat with Keith Bonnington to know more about The Whisky Cellar!

Old and new Nikka Taketsuru

14th September 202014th September 2020Coldorak

The Nikka Taketsuru range is a good example of the problem Japanese whisky is facing. And I mean the true Japanese whisky, the one distilled in Japan, not the “bottle whatever and slap some Japanese kanji” fake Japanese whisky crap. As you’ve read a thousand times, there is a shortage of old Japanese whisky stocks, that is here for a long time (you can’t accelerate years, even though, and especially with 2020, you’d sometimes want to). And the demand for Japanese whisky is so high that the current production is not even enough to cover the needs. Thus, Nikka announced last year expansions for its Miyagikyo and Yoichi distilleries to fight shortage. But since whisky takes time to mature, the shortage will probably stay at least until 2030… And earlier this year, they sadly announced the total discontinuation of the 17, 21 and 25-year-old Nikka Taketsuru, their pure malt blend of Yoichi and Miyagikyo juices, named after the founder of the Nikka group. I won’t go into the history of Nikka and Masataka Taketsuru as I’ve briefly covered that previously on the Yoichi blind tasting I organized with friends. They also announced they would renew their NAS edition of Taketsuru, and thus today we’re going to review the old and new Nikka Taketsuru NAS, as well as the discontinued Taketsuru 21-year-old.

Mackmyra Jaktlycka review

7th September 20207th September 2020Coldorak

It’s that time of the year already: the new seasonal release from Mackmyra. This “autumn” (yes, we’re still in summer right now but not for long), the famous Swedish single malt celebrates, and I quote: ‘autumn, berry foraging and the treasures to be found in the ancient Swedish woods’. So, what is really behind the pretty story? Something original again as we can always expect from Mackmyra. This time, part of the casks they used for the maturation held Swedish berry wine from the craft producer Grythyttan. To be more precise, Mackmyra used a berry wine called Jakt, a dry red wine made from wild blueberries and lingonberries. I have to admit I have absolutely no idea what taste it may have. As a French bloke, I’m quite more used to wine made from grapes, especially since we Frenchies are the best in the world at it (and if you disagree, it’s okay, you have the right to be wrong 😂). But enough with that, let’s go review this Mackmyra Jaktlycka.