More Drams, Less Drama

Yamazaki Distiller’s Reserve, 12yo and 18yo

29th March 202229th March 2022Coldorak

Yamazaki Distillery is where it all began for whisky in Japan. I’ve written before about Masataka Taketsuru, who went to Scotland to study how whisky was made, then would help Shinjiro Torii create in 1923 the first whisky distillery in Japan: Yamazaki. Located near Kyoto, the distillery sits in a quiet place, surrounded by nature and greenery, and with excellent quality water, required to make whisky. Whilst it was founded in 1923, Yamazaki was released as a single malt only in 1984. Though I couldn’t book a tour (already full) when I went there, back in 2018, I could, however, visit the museum, which is free, and features more than 7.000 bottles in its whisky library. I’ll show you around, and then we’ll review the Yamazaki Distiller’s Reserve, the 12-year-old and the 18-year-old.

Dingle Fourth & Fifth Single Pot Still Releases

24th March 202224th March 2022Coldorak

After a long wait, Dingle Distillery is finally releasing its fifth (and last) Single Pot Still small batch. Like with the fourth which was released at the end of 2020, it is available in two versions, one reduced at 46.5% ABV and one delivered at cask strength, in smaller quantities. Now, I want to add a disclaimer before I review the fourth and fifth releases, both in their reduced version.

Mackmyra Whisky Circus, some seasonals and a Moment

Mackmyra Whisky Circus and a few others

19th March 202219th March 2022Coldorak

We’ve already tried a couple of season releases from Mackmyra, with Gront Te and Jaktlycka. But these were not the first of their seasonal and bi-annual expressions, as Mackmyra started these seasonal releases quite some time ago. I had for some time now miniatures of some of them in my samples boxes, so I guess we should take a look at these, right? And when I say look, I’ll look with my eyes, nose and palate. Yeah, so much ways to take a look at whisky, it’s crazy. Then, why won’t we review a very special one, bottled for the Whisky Circus? So, låt oss börja.

Deanston Virgin Oak, and Two 12-year-old

10th March 202210th March 2022Coldorak

Quite a number of my friends have a sweet spot for Distell-owned distilleries, including the Southern-Highland based Deanston Distillery. The Deanston 12 years old is regarded as one of their favourites for affordable single malts. It was even one of the nominated at the OSWA, the Online Scotch Whisky Awards, in the Best Entry-Level Single Malt category. The OSWA are online awards delivered by a group of whisky YouTubers, and were created by Roy ‘AqvaVitae’ and Ralfy from Ralfydotcom, two famous whisky-dedicated YouTube channels. While it didn’t win the category, Deanston 12 years old still finished in an honourable third place. If you want to know which whisky won, I invite you to check the OSWA’s website. But right now, let’s check this Deanston 12, and compare it to an older version and the Virgin Oak NAS.

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.

Braeckman Distillery 10-year-old

13th February 202214th February 2022Coldorak

Some time ago (almost two years ago), a friend sent me a sample of a Braeckman Distillery 10-year-old single grain single cask. As I do usually, I entered the details of the sample (what whisky it is, age, ABV, Whiskybase link, who sent it to me and when…) in my whisky sheet. Then, I probably let the sample stay on my desk for a few weeks before deciding to put it in the samples box until I’d decide to review it. The only problem was I didn’t pay attention the sample was in a plastic bottle. Well, make it two problems, as the second one is that I waited more than 18 months before getting that sample out in order to review it.

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.

Cotswolds Founder’s Choice

29th January 202229th January 2022Coldorak

I haven’t had many Cotswolds for now, just two in fact if I trust my memory (okay, my memory is called Google Whisky Sheet). And of those two, just one of them, bottled by That Boutique-y Whisky Company, was reviewed on those pages a couple of years ago. The other one, on the other hand, was before More Drams even existed, and before I had the habit of taking tasting notes. I do remember I found it quite okay. Hope that helps. (Probably not. Especially if I don’t mention it was the “classic” Single Malt, bottled in 2018, but no idea which batch). Anyway, I guess it’s a good time to have another one from this distillery located not very far from Birmingham. So without further ado, let’s try a Cotswolds Founder’s Choice.