MrWizard's Ramblings

Intro

Lets start with the basics.. Don’t drink and root, or do. Whatever is safe. But generally behave in a SAFE FOR WORK MANNER!!! To be clear: I strongly discourage drinking at the office during work hours, as that’s very unprofessional. What happens after work is done… well that’s entirely different question and splitting a bottle among friends/coworkers is a hell of a lot cheaper option to going out to a bar where no decent drink will cost you less than $10 each.

I happen to have the luxury working next to a fairly decent liquor store that also happens to do free tastings regularly. Lucky me! https://caskstore.co … /in-store-tastings/

Plenty of decent bottles are to be had at a reasonable price point for work consumption, where opportunity to contemplate or proper glassware may not be easily available. So a bigger focus is made towards tasty, easy drinking, uncomplicated, and budget-friendly bottles.

In the @work series I’ll try to focus at the bottles I’ve had in a work environment, either through tasting or sometimes from memory. Expect reviews to be shorter but not less interesting.

You may also find items mentioned are a lot more accessible and/or much easier to find as we tend to acquire bottles based on tastings and those tend to be more widely available brands or varieties.

Craigellachie 12 Sovereign Single Cask
Wife’s Note: “Smells like inside of a brand new Buick”

This one is a mixed bag for me. It certainly smells and tastes like a distilled old leather couch from a basement of a life-long cigar smoker. Its almost unbelievable how much of a concentrated flavor there is in this relatively young scotch bottle. This is certainly a beast of a flavor bomb, without being overwhelming or cloyingly sweet. What do I think about it? I started loving it in casual touch but later revisiting don’t seem to do it for me on this one. Too astringent and to my tastes unbalanced. I really want to like it but my taste buds rebel when drinking it. Note and an exception to personal rule: One of the VERY few scotches I’ve put a tiny bit of water in, this one responds well and seems to balance out the flavors into somewhat enjoyable, walnut skins and old leather sorts of balance. So, yes, add a bit of water in!

Addendum on the water thing: I’m shocked how much more approachable it is with water. Solid stuff when just slightly diluted, borderline undrinkable (IMHO) otherwise.
https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1380528
Score: N/A

Auchroisk 21 Single Cask Hepburn’s Choice
Wife’s Notes: White pepper, pear and plums on the nose. Terrible in the mouth.

Another mixed bag for me in this bottle. An amazing nose. I’m mostly agreeing with wife’s smell on this, though I was thinking green bananas and pepper initially. Either way, no hints of smoke and no sherry. Looks like refill (refill-refill), bourbon casks with that sort of pale straw color. Certainly clean, peppery, yet surprisingly complex on the back that lingers and lingers… Lots of different spice going on there. Overall pleasant but not super exciting.
https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1380538
Score: N/A

Cambus 29 Sovereign Single Cask
I’m going to wax poetic about this one, so buckle up. Single GRAIN scotch… Its an interesting category, while still certainly a Scotch Whiskey, compared to single malt its more of a lawless land of opportunity, but what opportunities are there to be had. To be clear there are plenty of duds but the price point for 20+ y/o single grain is so low there’s no reason not to dip in. I mentioned 20 years old as for me its the lower cut off range as something ‘magical’ happens with single grains past low-20s in barrels and they suddenly become tropical. We’re talking coconut, vanilla, all sorts of tropical fruits and all in all ethereal and amazing. Whiiiiich brings up back to this one. YES. AMAZING! Love it! Still a single grain that’s not sherried or peated or anything special but age and cask is a match made in heaven. Simple indulgence.
https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1380523
Score: N/A

Preface/Disclaimer: I’m generally not a fan of blended whiskies but John Glaser’s compass box company is certainly not a norm blender, nor it is ever shy to break a norm or to stick a middle finger up to the whisky regulatory body, just look up the story of “Last Vatted Malt” or any number of their whisky releases that are tongue in cheek (middle finger) to the Man. I’ve tried a number of them and across the board they are all excellent. I briefly touched on 5th and Harrison blend in the past review https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1266230 and will presently proceed though the taster box I’ve acquired a while back that showcases some of the core bottles of the company (though there are plenty of others so do give them a try). Another disclaimer: the overall taste tends to slightly shift batch to batch as the blend mix isn’t consistent but more of a theme.

example link: https://www.thewhisk … -miniature-gift-pack

Missing notes for: Asyla and Spice Tree somehow….

Hedonism:
I recall it being better few years ago. It’s still light and tasty, but my taster has a little bit of orange zest (or grapefruit) bitterness to it and i seem to recall tasting it same in a bar not too long ago. It used to be much more like candy, sweet and light, this is certainly more balanced, but if anything it reminds me of glenmorangie original 10 than the old glory. Certainly hedonistic in a sense of a complicated mix of light and interesting flavors that need to be taken apart at length to understood but not quite right for me. This is mostly a blend of single grains whiskies and does vary batch to batch. A more recent batch with high percentage of Cameronbridge is very much taken up its character so it’s very much butter cookies or perhaps almond butter vanilla cookies. My palate did evolve somewhat in the last 10sh years so light and sweet it is, but I would have liked more sherry influence myself.
Score: N/A

Oak Cross:
Oh baby! Now we’re talking. Tasty, sweet, clean aftertaste, no bitterness. Vanilla galore (hello oak), little peppery and a drying at the end, this goes all over the place in terms of flavor without losing its goal of showcasing oak barrels and dropping the experience out in the middle of the taste ride. Certainly an subtle set of flavors but what a set it is. This is not one to punch you in the face but more of a snuggle into the favorite silk comforter.
Score: N/A

Peat Monster:
Do you like peat and light flavors? If so then this is one for you! Peaty, briny and almost astringent on the nose yet somehow managing to be light and sweet on the palate. The name of Monster belies a surprising mix, almost a conflict, of nose and palate. This is certainly an example of a lighter side of peated whiskies if on the tongue, while punching above its weight on the nose. Quite a recommended for peated whisky introduction, but then again Lagavulin 16 is an excellent into in on its own while being much meatier by itself. Where Hedonism had that little spice in the end but without anything to back it up, this one is certainly much more balanced experience. Adding a teeny-tiny drop of a sherry bomb single malt elevates this for me into ‘great whisky ‘, but I’m a self-admitted occasional fan of sherried peat
Score: N/A

Laphroaig Cairdeas
I’ve made no secret out of not really liking peated whiskies with a special dislike reserved for ‘pure, heavily peated’ versions, as exemplified by Kilchoman and young Laphroaig… BUUUT I’ve come to an interesting conclusion, that peat plus sherry is a combination that I generally enjoy if done right with sherry sweetness balancing the peat brine. (Different discussion but Ardbeg Uigeadail from few years back was quite enjoyable winter drink). So that brings me to Cairdeas at hand, and I have to admit it… but I like it. It’s not quite the best thing for me, but for what it tries to do was enjoyable enough, sorta of a salty/sweet and quite ‘balanced’ flavor where I wouldn’t mind picking up a bottle when I run out of my next Lagavulin 16 bottle and I had to pick between the two of them at the same price point. (Sorry not many tasting notes here, it’s been a few weeks, writing from memory).

https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1371733
Score: N/A

Lets talk

I was getting progressively more inebriated while writing this… This should be considered somewhat of a satire/drunken rant.

Whiskey or Whisky?

I. don’t. care! Both are correct.
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Best Whisky

There’s none. If it tastes good to you its good whisky!
BUUUUUUUUUT
Do yourself a favor and try different whiskeys across categories and styles. What tastes ‘good’ now, could taste like a swill in comparison to something else. Don’t settle for first thing and definitely explore. You’re doing yourself a disservice by not trying new things here, just like most things in life: The more you try, the better you understand.
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Smooooooth

Means not interesting
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Rough?

Does NOT mean interesting. Could be just crap alcohol. Balance is important.
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Drinking whisky properly

a) Whiskeys are not shot drinks. If you want shots, do Jack Daniels or some some other garbage. Whiskey is contemplative drinks to be drank without anything. Have a conversation. Have a sigar (and peated scotch). Discuss with friends. Look at the fire dancing in a fireplace. Stare at the stars. Write a ranting post on personal website where nobody will ever read it.

b) If you want to drink whisky as an accompaniment with food instead of shitty vodka? Sure. Don’t use good stuff. Get a bottle of generic blend, its cheap. Get a branded release of a major distillery that is under 12 years of age. Impress your friends or family with your fancy name of ‘Macallan 12′ (which you won’t taste at all if combined with food) bottle. Don’t overdo it. You can put ice tea and vodka into a Macallan 18 bottle and if you combine it with food someone will be invariably amazed by how good that ’scotch’ is. Don’t spend more than about $50.

c) Good stuff first! or ‘the fallacy of taste’. After about 3rd or 4th taste, everything mushes up together and it all tastes about same. If not sure, only drink one thing per sitting.

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Glass…
This one is controversial. I highly recommend glencairn or brandy glass or something similarly shaped. I’ve had whisky out of coffee mugs and out of champagne flutes. It’s just not as good. The whole dimension of smell and (surprisingly) some of the taste is lost. A wine glass works in a pinch as long its lip curves inwards. Rocks glass is okay in some situations.
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Ice…

If you insist on lots of crushed ice with whisky. Fuck you, you uncultured swine! Don’t be that pretentious asshole that has no idea what they are doing with scotch on the rocks.

If you want small ice cube to keep it cold/cut the burn… that’s occasionally acceptable. Almost no bottles are blindly filled from the barrel. There are many people between the still and the bottle in your hands, and they know what they are doing with the source material so it’s my strong opinion that whatever is in the bottle should be consumed as is, unaltered. Some bottles respond okay to few drops of water, most do not. Some times that same effect as water can be achieved by simply waiting.
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Right way of drinking whiskey?

There really isn’t one. Do what works for you individually though respect others opinions.

Today lets run down new to the shelf additions:

Grain whiskey… It’s an interesting thing. Lately I’ve come to the conclusion that there are some tremendous bargains to be had with grain whiskey without compromising on the insane price points that single malts have been going for lately (with no sign of stopping). What’s the catch? Well that’s simple, Jimmy! Its age… My overall opinion that grain whiskeys need 5 to 10 years longer in the barrel to get ‘interesting’ but ‘interesting’ they do get. Note: “Single Grain” can mean a lot of things but typically means that its not 100% malted barley and/or continuous (column) still vs pot stills which are required for single malt scotch. Then again, Loch Lomond was 100% malted barley in a vodka still… soooo I guess ‘Single Grain’ is sometimes a way to denote things that are scotch but not fall under ‘Single Malt’ as defined by regulations.

Invergordon 26 Single Grain
Almost oily consistency. Smells like perfume again. On the tongue, barrel char fights with strawberry jam and all sorts of sweet candied white fruits. Lovely. In your face. Musky. Powerful. One of those contemplative scotches one should try.
https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1331550
Score: N/A

Glenmorangie Allta
Glenmorangie 10th special edition. I feel like I just wrapped up writing about the 9th and now a new contender have entered the ring. Overall? Its more of my style of drink when I want something light and sweet. This time the distillery focused on natural yeasts rather than experimenting with barrels or blending. In many ways it reminds me of the regular 12, with a 3rd dimension of ‘interesting’ added in. Honey and wax. Tiny bit of smoke and nuts both in the smell and the taste. Almost like a mix between 12 and 18 release taking the best of the two and mixing them together.
https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1401121
Score: N/A

Glen Oak 17
You thought it was a no-name, but it was me Bruichladdich all along! Briny, funky, interesting, almost swamp-watery in some ways… I don’t use ‘old leather’ very often but this one is definitely in that general idea when I sip it slowly and chew in my mouth. Highly dry and dusty… maybe like licking an cry leather couch or a horse saddle… but in a good way. Definitely one of the more divisive tastes for my palate but overall I’m glad I have it on my shelf.
https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1400399
Score: N/A

Next up…. We’ll talk Compass Box.