MrWizard's Ramblings

Final Open Bottles Entry!

Glenturret 12 Single Cask:

Well this one is fun. Imagine Glendronach 12 on steroids… then make it cask strength and crank it up to 11. Super dark, super pungent, super sherry. Very very funky. At the same time beautiful mouth-coating taste, almost savory notes on the tongue and fantastic nose. It does show its young age a bit in some of the rougher notes but overall tasty and my kind of dram.
https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1387610
Score: N/A

Loch Lomond 22 Single Grain Single Cask:
This one is a conundrum… On one hand, it definitely hits my ‘weird bottle’ checkbox. On the other… Technically a single malt, distilled in a vodka (pot) still. And its definitely got those vodka notes going on that even 22 years did little to mask. When freshly opened… was not a fan. It has grown on me since as it has opened up some and is somewhat of a drinkable diversion; but I’ll just say that if I had to buy it again… I wouldn’t.
https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1387613
Score: N/A

Glen Garioch 15 Single Cask:
A wonderfully light highlander. Tastes like sweet apples, light spices, a little bit of citrus and summer. So light in-fact that if bottle didn’t say 55% abv I wouldn’t have believed it. Wonderful tasty light drink. Borderline flawless execution.
https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1264177
Score: N/A

Tullibardine Polly’s Cask / Alexander Murray:
No. Just no. Its bad. Yeasty and tastes wrong. Only keeling it around for mixing with Coca Cola or something. Excuse me; i need to get that taste out of my mouth again.
(Sample Review Here):
https://thewhiskeyju … -pollys-cask-review/
Score: N/A

Catching up with my shelf (aka open stuff):

First, some honorable mentions from the drags of my memory (and many years ago):

Faultline 10 year old:
https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1117204

(Legacy) My first foray into a single cask special bottling and beginning of my love affair with a certain store and their whisky selections. Heck if i can really recall what it tasted like except sherry but it opened my eyes on the fact that there’s such thing as amazingly delicious scotches that are out there at all sorts of age and not a generic brand that’s been so ‘averaged’ out as to not have any interesting quality about them.
Score: N/A

Faultline 32 year old:
https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1141466
(Legacy) This one was just stupidly good. Period. One of the oldest malts I’ve ever had. I wrote ’single’ here originally but its actually some kind of a unique aged blend. Do not ever confuse price vs single vs blended malt as indicator of quality. This stuff was amazing. Add to the shortlist of ‘drink for the rest of the life and be happy’. Speaking of of blends… Compass box!
Score: N/A

Compass Box 5th and Harrison blend:
https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1266230
(Legacy) I’ve been honored to split a bottle of this by one of my (wonderful) coworkers. Thank you Darren, you awesome you! This immediately went to the top most amazing things I’ve ever had and will there forever. Yes Its impossible to get it anymore and it’s just… beautiful stuff. It blew me away while having it in an office environment. I cannot even imagine just how good it would be if taken in a contemplative situation. Hats off to John Glaser and K&L folks.
Score: N/A

Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve 15:
(Legacy) Speaking of the same co-worker… I’m totally bragging here, but heck it’s good to be the right person at the right time and place… As for the tasting notes… in short: I’m underwhelmed. Its an excellent bourbon but it by no means justifies even the full MSRP of it. I’ve not had ‘better’ (Yes, I’m aware of of the subjective irony here) bourbons but I’ve had easily on-par bourbons that are 1/3rd and less of the price and are available decent liquor store. A number of micro distilleries are producing juice that’s on-par with Pappy that’s good enough to dethrone it given enough volume, marketing, reach, etc… (if, if if). In other words… I cannot in good faith recommend Pappy to anyone based on price/performance/difficulty of acquisition ratios.
Score: N/A

Faultline Blended Scotch Whisky:
Great, cheap blend that has a little bit of everything. Somewhat uninspiring as its lacking that little ‘zing’ as it were, aka complexity but for basically $25 who the heck’s complaining? Think quite drinkable Johny Walker for half the price and a heck of a less generic taste… Then again, I intensely dislike JW scotch so sew me! Is it ‘good’? Not really. Its been in the meh liquor cabinet for 3 years and half the bottle have been used to marinate chicken at one point but heck, I’ll finish it in the dram as a cold cure someday.
https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1192863
Score: N/A

Lagavulin 16:
Ah, Lag16… The Islay workhorse of any self-respecting scotch drinker. I’m personally not a fan of peated things (as I’ve mentioned in the past), but I always keep one bottle of peated scotch on my shelf. Why? Well because in a cold weather or while being under the weather peated scotch is as good of a sore throat medicine as any cough drops. So overall if I had to pick a peated scotch that’s widely available I’d be glad to pick Lag16. Notable shout-out to Ardbeg Uugadail which I may write about later. Extra points for it being favorite scotch of both Ron Swanson and Nick Offerman, imagine the coincidence.
https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=620021
Score: N/A

Lets see if I’m willing to continuously record my whisky drinking. If I end up giving scores or opinions, do keep in mind that those scores are primarily based on my own preferences and everyone’s interests and tastes differ so YMMV.

Most of what I’ll be posting are either single casks and/or special editions so procurement options are going to be limited at best. Non-existent on average.

In no particular order:

Glenmorangie Spios (Annual release 10 Rye Cask Finish):

While I’m still a fan of Glenmorangie’s Special editions, this one didn’t particularly strike me as interesting on the palate as some others did (ahoy there Companta!). Somewhat of a strange mix between single malt and american rye with neither having dominance. Quite drinkable and easy though. Smells way better than it tastes to me.
https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1344733
Score: N/A

Port Dundas Single Grain 36 y/o Single Cask:

Holy Shit! This stuff is amazing. Who the hell can even say that’s grain!? Can I use that as a cologne? It smells of ALL THAT IS MAN! This stuff is better than good. Smoky (barrel, not peat) , spicy, beautiful. Par excellence. On extremely short list of whiskeys that I can be happy drinking rest of my life if I could.
https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1192854
Score: N/A

John McCrae 22 Single cask (Spooned Balvenie):

Beautiful stuff, unlike a lot of Balvenie’s regular expressions this is pure version, no dark sherry influence or rum casks, but also no funk that typical fresh Balvenie bottles have (that dissipates in 24 to 48 hours after opening). Clean, light, beautiful.
https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1330635
Score: N/A

GlenDronach 12 (regular stuff):

Ah GlenDronach 12… ScotchNoob ( https://scotchnoob.c … ch-12-year-original/ ) sings you plenty of praises which are beyond whatever I’m able to spew onto the page. Regardless,, a wonderful workhorse sherry bomb 12 y/o, arguably better than Macallan 12 for half the price. One of the few members of “fantastic-under-$50” club (with whisky prices rising, probably not for long). Cheap, great, very sherry. Try it, stock it onto your shelf. Makes for fantastic crowd-pleasing single malt, a poor-man’s Macallan if you will that won’t break the bank for those that need to entertain more uncouth acquaintances or bring a bottle somewhere. Hell, drink it yourself too!
https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=620112
Score: N/A