Coldorak and Ainulindalë's blog about whisky.
All reviews of whisky, whiskey, bourbon or new make!
Behind the ninth window of That Boutique-y Whisky Company’s 2019 Advent Calendar we will be reviewing each day until the 24th of December was hidden a Blended Whisky #2 22-year-old batch 3, bottled at 41.8% abv by that Boutique-y Whisky Company. The black and white label seems to show a white glove going through a barley field. This batch was released in May 2018 with an outturn of 1650 bottles. It is still available at Master of Malt for a mere £63.95.
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Behind the eight window of That Boutique-y Whisky Company’s 2019 Advent Calendar we will be reviewing each day until the 24th of December was hidden a Blend #1 18-year-old batch 3, bottled at 47.3% abv bottled by that Boutique-y Whisky Company. The funny label represents a congregation of people on a hill, praying to a giant floating teaspoon with an aureole, and cleric people at its errr… feet? This seems to be a not-so-subtle hint to tell you this “blended malt” is in fact a single malt that has been teaspooned. When an independent bottler buys a cask from a distillery that does not want its name to be known, the distillery can add a teaspoon of a any other single malt to the cask, making it by definition a blended malt. Yep, even with a teaspoon worth in a full cask, it cannot be called a single malt anymore, and thus the name of the original distillery cannot be used. Anyway, it’s available on Master of Malt for a mere £64.95 which is I think very good value. But let’s dive on and let us explain what we think of this teaspooned malt.
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Behind the seventh window of That Boutique-y Whisky Company’s 2019 Advent Calendar we will be reviewing each day until the 24th of December was hidden the first batch of Royal Brackla from Boutique-y: a Royal Brackla 12 year-old batch 1, bottled at 47.9% abv (like yesterday’s Auchroisk or the Teaninich from a few days ago) by that Boutique-y Whisky Company. Brackla became in 1833 the first distillery to obtain a Royal Warrant, from King William IV, and thus changed its name to Royal Brackla. Only three distilleries bear the name “Royal”: Royal Brackla, Royal Lochnagar and the now demolished Glenury Royal. Royal Brackla is located in the Speyside region but is listed officially as being in the Highlands, and is one of the five distilleries owned by Dewar’s (the others being Aberfeldy, Aultmore, Craigellachie and The Deveron). Royal Brackla was used solely to produce single malt for blends for a long time before a marketing manager, Stephen Marshall, helped by Master Blender Stephanie Macleod, succeeded in convincing the management to release a range of single malts, and since 2015 there is an official range consisting of a 12, a 16 and a 21yo. Royal Brackla has a medium capacity of production at about 4.1 million litres of pure alcohol per year.
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Behind the sixth window of That Boutique-y Whisky Company’s 2019 Advent Calendar we will be reviewing each day until the 24th of December was hidden an Auchroisk 12 year-old batch 7, bottled at 47.9% abv by that Boutique-y Whisky Company. Auchroisk is a quite recent distillery, as it was built in 1974, and is located in Speyside. Owned by Diageo, it was created mainly for blends, with only one official bottling, a 10 year-old in the Flora & Fauna collection and occasional apparitions in Diageo’s Special Releases. Fun fact: Diageo did not bother to pay enough attention to the page dedicated to Auchroisk on their malts.com website: you can still see a filler “lorem ipsum” line just when they start presenting the Auchroisk “range”. Auchroisk has a medium capacity of production at about 5.9 million litres of pure alcohol per year. I could not find any website selling the Batch 7 of this Boutique-y’s Auchroisk unfortunately.
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Behind the fifth window of That Boutique-y Whisky Company’s 2019 Advent Calendar we will be reviewing each day until the 24th of December was hidden a Blair Athol 21 year-old batch 5, bottled at 51.5% abv by that Boutique-y Whisky Company. Blair Athol is located approximately half-way on the A9 from Edinburgh to Inverness, and is the most visited distillery owned by Diageo. It is mostly used for Bell’s blend, with only one official bottling, a 12 year-old in the Flora & Fauna collection, a brief apparition sometimes in Diageo’s Special Releases, and a NAS exclusive to the distillery. While better known than Teaninich (see yesterday’s post), it has a way smaller capacity of production at about 2.8 million litres of pure alcohol per year. I could not find any website selling the Batch 5 of this Boutique-y’s Blair Athol unfortunately.
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Behind the fourth window of That Boutique-y Whisky Company’s 2019 Advent Calendar we will be reviewing each day until the 24th of December was hidden a a Teaninich 11 year-old batch 2. Bottled at 47.9% abv, this single malt bottled by that Boutique-y Whisky Company is matured in ex-bourbon casks. Teaninich is a little-known and dull-looking Highland distillery owned by Diageo and mostly used for blends north of Inverness. While little known, it has a big capacity of production of 10.2 million litres of pure alcohol per year. I could find a German website selling the 50cl bottle for around 40€ but not shipping to UK.
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Behind the third window of That Boutique-y Whisky Company’s 2019 Advent Calendar we will be reviewing each day until the 24th of December was hidden a 2 year-old rye spirit from the New York: the New York Distilling Company 2yo Batch 3. Bottled at 47.7% abv, this rye spirit bottled by that Boutique-y Rye Company is not whisky yet (in Europe and UK, but in the USA it is), but it’s available from Master of Malt for £37.95. But if it’s not whisky yet, should we review it?
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Behind the second window of That Boutique-y Whisky Company’s 2019 Advent Calendar we will be reviewing each day until the 24th of December was hidden a 8 year-old whisky from an undisclosed distillery in Speyside: Speyside #1 8yo Batch 1. Bottled at 50.7% abv, this whisky is not yet available in UK or France, but if we trust the Boutique-y brand ambassador Dave Worthington, it’s available at least in Denmark and Netherlands.
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Behind the first window of That Boutique-y Whisky Company’s 2019 Advent Calendar we will be reviewing each day until the 24th of December was hidden a 24 year-old Bourbon from an undisclosed distillery: Bourbon Whiskey #1 24yo Batch 1. Bottled at 48% abv, the bottle was usually sold at £199.95 on Master of Malt but was on sale for half that price on the evening of the 1st of December. But let’s crack on and taste this bourbon!
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On Friday 22 of November, I organized a small blind tasting with friends I had sent samples to months ago. After a few last minutes cancellations, we were finally able to have that tasting, and the theme was 4 Nikka Yoichi non-age-statement single malts: the classic Single Malt one available in your usual liquor shop, and three distillery exclusives named Woody & Vanillic, Sherry & Sweet and Peaty & Salty. I’ll come back to it later, but tl;dr: it was a great evening, and the drams were really good. Oh, and I said blind tasting: well, kind of. We knew what drams we were going to taste, but had no idea of the order. Myself included. But let’s talk about Yoichi first.
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