Scotland Archives - Page 8 of 13 - More drams, less drama

Timorous Beastie 40 year old

2nd March 20222nd March 2022Coldorak

Two hundred. This whisky marks the two hundredth whisky reviewed on those electronic pages. And I’m feeling quite happy we (with Julien, with whom I created More Drams Less Drama, and Mac who contributed two reviews as a guest) have reached this humble milestone. Humble, sure, some fantastic writers I read every morning deliver 200 reviews a year and more, and of a high quality to top it all. This is a level acquired with talent and experience, and a level I hope to reach one day. But for now, it took us two and a half years to reach two hundred whiskies reviewed, that’s our small milestone, but we are happy to have reached it. Out of tiny acorns mighty oaks grow, as they say. And that mighty oak will become a beautiful cask to mature fantastic whisky, right? The casks that were used to make this Timorous Beastie 40-year-old were made from oak that came one day, long ago, from tiny acorns.

Compass Box Orchard House

21st February 202221st February 2022Coldorak

There are several ways a whisky grabs your interest. It might be because it’s a new release from your favourite distillery, blender or independent bottler. You might really like the bottle or the label. There might be a finish you like or you want to try. It may have been reviewed by a whisky blogger you trust or in a whisky magazine or website and it got a good review. Maybe it was on offer at your off-licence or online shop, and you’re feeling adventurous. It might be because you’re getting bored with this introduction that still doesn’t get to the point. Or because friends recommended this bottle, giving it high praise. And in Compass Box Orchard House’s case, it was the latter. I didn’t have time to go taste it at Whisky Live Paris in 2021 as I was there as an exhibitor, but people I met there, owning a great pub in Rennes, and friends from the Whisky Circus, highly recommended this blended malt. It was cheap, too. And I like Compass Box. And the label was beautiful. So I decided to trust them and buy a bottle. For at least the three first reasons, but the fourth was the cherry on top.

Caperdonich 18 years old peated

4th February 202221st June 2022Coldorak

Caperdonich is a lost distillery that was built across the road from Glen Grant. It was called Glen Grant 2 for a time, before being renamed, as two distilleries cannot have the same name. Caperdonich was in fact the first of the ‘extension’ distilleries, a new distillery built next to an existing one in order to answer the rising demand at that time. Though it’s a lost distillery, you can still find, at a decent price, releases from Caperdonich, and we’ll try today a Caperdonich 18 years old Peated.

Sixty-eight years of Glenburgie

31st January 202231st January 2022Coldorak

Glenburgie is one of those distilleries with a severe lack of love from their owner company for the brand as a single malt. Glenburgie is currently owned by Chivas Brothers (Pernod-Ricard) and has been for a long time one of the main components of the world’s second best-selling Blended Scotch whisky, Ballantine’s. They don’t have a dedicated website for the distillery, nor a visitor centre at the distillery. The only current official bottlings are branded with the blend name: two Glenburgie 15 and 18 years old from the Ballantine’s Signature Malt range, also having two of its other main components, also owned by Chivas: Miltonduff and Glentauchers. But they’re bottled at 40%. It seems cheap but very hard to find, the only shops I could find for this being in Greece and Germany. So, it means that Glenburgie fans must turn to independent bottlers, as luckily, they don’t seem to run out of good Glenburgie casks to bottle, allowing us to have a ‘burgie fix. And let’s have our fix today, with three independent bottling of Glenburgie, all in their twenties.

Caol Ila 2010 Signatory Vintage

15th January 202215th January 2022Coldorak

Caol Ila, located on the world’s home of peated whisky, the Scottish island of Islay, is this island’s number one distillery in terms of capacity. Though its peated malt is one of the components of Johnnie Walker, the distillery features a full core range of single malts. But that wasn’t always the case, as until 2002, Caol Ila’s single malt would appear only in the Flora & Fauna and the Rare Malts range. But from 2002, the regular 12-and-18-year-old as well as a Cask Strength version (about 10yo) appeared, joined the next year by the 25-years-old. Since then, Moch – without an age statement – and the Distiller’s Edition, with a moscatel finish, joined the core range. But Caol Ila’s single malt is not just available on the distillery’s official bottlings, it’s also highly available to independent bottlers. Gordon & Macphail, Elixir Distillers, or like today, Signatory Vintage, have bottled dozens and dozens of casks from the distillery located in Port Askaig. And that’s what we’re going to try today, with a Caol Ila 2010 Signatory Vintage.

Isle of Jura 1998 Hidden Spirits

23rd December 2021Coldorak

Isle of Jura is a distillery that I don’t understand. Their official bottlings, at least the ones I’ve tried, are a mess, especially the Seven Wood. But thanks to The Whisky Cellar, I’ve been able to try a good indy one recently, and I tried another one, more than okay, bottled by SMWS at the absolutely marvellous Dornoch Castle Whisky bar in 2019, a 1983 called Islands Hopping. But apart from those two indies, nope, no good one. However, I often hear good things from friends about other indy Juras. So let’s keep an open mind and see if the Italian independent bottler that never disappointed me until now got it right with this Isle of Jura 1998 Hidden Spirits.

Auchentoshan 2000 Signatory Vintage

20th December 202120th December 2021Coldorak

After a short break for the daily articles about drams from the advent calendar, we’re back today with another distillery there was nothing written about on those pages: Auchentoshan. I must admit Auchentoshan it a distillery that was quite under my radar, even though I have a couple bottles from them at home. I haven’t tried many drams coming from them, the only ones that come to mind are the American Oak, an entry-level NAS, and the 21-years-old, a bottle my parents brought back from the distillery with a handfill I have yet to open. Now while, in my opinion, Auchentoshan flies a bit under the radar of many whisky drinkers, it has something setting them apart in Scotland (with just a very few other distilleries doing – partially – the same thing): they use triple distillation. While this is quite often seen at Irish distilleries, this stays an exception in Scotland and other countries, as I’ve told you in my Armut Triparva review a few days ago. So today, we’re having (well, I am) an Auchentoshan 2000 Signatory Vintage 20 rue d’Anjou.

Glen Moray 27-year-old Chorlton Whisky

17th December 202117th December 2021Coldorak

Right. Many people know me to be a massive Glen Moray fan. But strangely, though, more than two years in this blog, I still haven’t reviewed any on those pages. My love for this distillery is to be honest quite recent. It wasn’t really on my radar before Spirit of Speyside 2019, when with my friends we booked three events over a week there, the first one being a tour of the distillery with their brand ambassador, Iain Allan, and a handful bottle at the end of the tour, after a tasting. The second event was for may the 4th, a Star Wars-themed event, but Iain again in his element (a Stormtrooper costume), where we had a face-off between official and SMWS Glen Morays. The third event was a bit different, as it was the Closing Ceilid’h of the Spirit of Speyside Festival and quite a great party. There, I discovered great and affordable whiskies, with three handfill casks always available with a great selection and fantastic price range, and people absolutely lovely. I made friends, people I still talk to quite often, two years later. They even talk to me back and not just ignore me! I’ve been wanting to write some articles about Glen Moray bottling for a long time but never took the time to do so. It’ll come. The Cask Projects (or curiosities), with their infamous Cider cask finish. The Warehouse 1 releases. Lots of bottle-your-own. Old distillery exclusives… But that will have to wait. Tonight, I’m reviewing a Glen Moray 27yo bottled by Chorlton Whisky.

Tomatin 2009 Le Gus’t

14th December 202114th December 2021Coldorak

Today we’re on something special, something I wasn’t part of here, but an experience I had the chance to have elsewhere. Several times. A community’s bottling. Back in May 2020 I think, I joined my first “close” whisky community. The Whisky Circus. I’ve already told you about this group founded by Sorren “ocdwhisky” Krebs. This is a group with a bit more than 30 members right now. Some joined later after its creation, some left, some took a pause. And with this group, we had several whiskies bottled for us for several distilleries. And having your own bottling, for your group, feels special. Way more recently, I was invited by a friend into another whisky group, a French one this time. Not a Twitter one, but one on Facebook one. It’s called “La Confrérie du Whisky”. We’re just (as far as I know) French (or French speaking) people, and as the Circus, it’s very dangerous for your credit card. And they did their own bottling too, with the help of the liquor shop and French indy bottler, Le Gus’t. So tonight, I try a Tomatin 2009 Le Gus’t bottled for La Confrérie du Whisky.

Mortlach 2002 Hidden Spirits

13th December 202113th December 2021Coldorak

We’re back to a Hidden Spirits bottling, this time with the Beast of Dufftown: Mortlach. Founded in 1823 by James Findlater, Donald Mackintosh and Alex Gordon, probably on the site of an older illicit distillation, it is the oldest of the several distilleries located at Dufftown. They use a complicated distillation process that they advertise as 2.81 distillations, but I’ll explain that on a future article about Mortlach, and maybe after I’ve written a post about distillation for the All about whisky section. For now, let’s just say that it’s owned, like many other distilleries, by Diageo. You cannot visit it except usually during the Spirit of Speyside Festival, and it’s known for its heavy and meaty character. But I’m still, for now, on my almost everyday reviews from my advent calendar (I know, I missed a couple ones). So it’ll be a short article, let’s go directly to review the 13th dram for the calendar: a Mortlach 2002 bottled by Hidden Spirits.