Coldorak and Ainulindalë's blog about whisky.
At last, an Ardbeg release! This one was limited for the Gathering event, and not for sale: quite a treat indeed. I was curious about how it’d differ with the official releases. This one is a 10 years old, 1st fill bourbon – so it was bound to be interesting for a peaty one, in my opinion.
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This one is a Linkwood. I don’t know why, but since I visited Scotland, I’ve had my eyes on this distillery. Plus, a Vault Collection item, of a category I tend to appreciate in 1st fill Hogshead/PX. With its 29 years old, it was bound to be interesting.
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Moving on from the previous categories, this one is coming right from the Spirit of Speyside festival as it was released to celebrate it. It sits in the “Deep, rich and dried fruits” expressions for SMWS which I also tend to appreciate, and it’s obviously a PX, 2nd fill. As to the origin, it’s a 21 years old Glenrothes, continuing then with the spring cleaning of old barrels!
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Again an old age statement with this Glenlossie, as this one is a 20 years old “Old and Dignified” release. Is SMWS having a spring cleaning or a retiree reckoning these days? Either way, this one matured in a second fill charred ex-red wine barrique which I usually like,so let’s see!
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Fair warning for this one, I’m not a huge fan of grain to this day. I’ve been seen pouring my rye in a glass to fix myself some hot toddie – this is how much I want to drink it neat.
Either way, this one is a Girvan, and again, is boasting a quite surprising 27 years old in the “Spicy and sweet” category, which I’m usually a fan of.
This little Glen Ord was for me the first opportunity to taste something from this distillery. It’s always good to be able to blindly try things like that in order to challenge the acquired taste. Plus, starting with a vault collection bottle? Quite a boon. It stated a surprising 27 years old age statement along with a 41.3% ABV. Time to drink it indeed!
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When I really got into Whisky, I had the opportunity to go on a trip to Scotland for the Spirit of Speyside festival.
We were celebrating Coldorak’s birthday and at the same time planning to enjoy Scotland and its distilleries. And boy we did.
One of the event we attended was Glen Moray’s May 4th 2019. May the fourth anyone? It was cohosted by Glen Moray and the SMWS that I didn’t know before then.
The SMWS is an independent bottler somehow atypical: it’s a club and you need to be a member if you want to partake in the goodies. It releases almost only single casks, cask strength, non chill-filtered whiskies at a very affordable price.
I was intrigued with the SMWS and it didn’t take long for me to commit myself to become a member. Fast forward to August 2019 and I finally did my first tasting session with the Parisian members at Mersea.