[Scotch Review] Port Ellen 35 Year Old

For part of this week's reviews I'm going back to some tasting notes I wrote a while ago when I was at a tasting hosted by the LCBO that showed off some interesting Diageo Special Release bottles that was led by Diageo's Canadian brand ambassador.

So now I move onto the grand finale of my Diageo Special Release tasting review trilogy of special quality old cask strength peated malts. While the tasting price was steep at $120 it was easily worth it to try the Talisker 25, Brora 35 and this work of beauty right here, the Port Ellen 35 Year Old.

Port Ellen started off as a malt mill in 1825 until John Ramsay transformed it into a distillery from 1833 to 1892 until going through many owners until its inevitable shutdown. Like Brora it to was shut down in 1983 and now supplies barley for every distillery on Islay so the bottles of Port Ellen are just as rare and expensive to get now.

However, like Brora, Port Ellen is currently being planned for a re-building and hopes are to start spirit production in 2020 however building plans have not been cleared yet by the Argyll Council so Port Ellen's start date isn't as clear yet as Brora's is.

This particular bottle retails at a flat $4000 CAD. So to just get a taste of this and the Brora alone were easily worth the price of admission, by far. This Port Ellen started ageing in 1978 and rings in at an impressive 56.5% ABV. So let's see how this old beast of a Port Ellen does.

• Color: Dark amber
• Nose: Vanilla, citrus, sweet oak, raisin, woodspice
• Taste: Apples, vanilla, grapes, nice amount of cinnamon, ginger, grass
• Finish: Long with smoky fruits, treenuts and honey

While my notes might seem minimal let me assure you that this whisky has tons of flavor. Each note feels distinct and strong but mellows together in a fantastic harmony that not a lot of whisky has done for me. I tried this whisky very early into my whisky drinking career so that's likely one reason why I found some qualities of this whisky to be indescribable just due to how powerful and silky this whisky was. After trying a few more Port Ellen bottles years later I can certainly say that this whisky is easily one of my top 5 favourite drams beating out some really good and even older whiskies that I've had a privilege to try. If you can get a dram of this whisky at a reasonable price get it as it's a once in a lifetime sensory experience.

93 pts

 

Thanks for reading this three part review series! My next series will be focusing on some more old whisky so make sure to subscribe to my Instagram and Twitter, linked on the about me page on the sidebar, for up to date information on what I'm up to and to see what I might be writing up on next!

Current Review Scoring System:

 

0-49: Horrible

50-59: Bad

60-69: Mediocre to Average

70-74: Average to Good

75-79: Good to Great

80-84: Great to Excellent

85-89: Excellent

90-94: Superb

95+: Masterpiece

*Note that all images are owned by their respective owners, The Whisky Laddie does not receive financial compensation for this site's content. If this changes any copyrighted images will be replaced with originals made or solicited by the author of these posts.

[Scotch Review] Brora 35 Year Old

For part of this week's reviews I'm going back to some tasting notes I wrote a while ago when I was at a tasting hosted by the LCBO that showed off some interesting Diageo Special Release bottles that was led by Diageo's Canadian brand ambassador.

Brora is famously known as the original Clynelish Distillery before Diageo had a second distillery, originally named Clynelish 2 ironically enough, built in 1968 which took on the name. The original distillery was built in 1819 and became renowned for its lightly peated Highland style of spirit which has made it renowned by whisky lovers the world over. Sadly Brora was closed down in 1983 so as the one Brora I tried was distilled in 1978 that means there are only 5 years of Brora barrels left to be bottled so I am glad I got into scotch now as Brora bottles will be completely gone in a few years time.

However, plans to rebuild Brora have been cleared and Diageo is planning to have Brora's refurbishments complete and spirit flowing again by 2020! In the meantime, I have some older spirit to try so let's see how this does! It's bottled at 48.6% and you can still get a bottle in Toronto for a cool $2200!

Unfortunately I have classes to pay for so I'm happy with the dram, so let's see if it matches the price.

• Color: Golden
• Nose: Sweet apple, oak, grass, very lowland-highland like but also hard to peel through this I wish I could've tried more! The barely is very prominent here.
• Taste: Sweet white sugar, treefruits, apple, tiny bit of woodsmoke, grapes, some citrus, vanilla and caramel
• Finish: Long with nutty and fruity notes

This is a thing of beauty. Fantastic fusion of different regional styles to make something utterly unique and mesmerizing. Its close to being everything I want in a whisky and I'm sad that this style might be lost forever. If there's one distillery I'd like to see revived its Brora. But for now I'll say if you can try this whisky do so because it might be the last chance you get to try some 70s and 80s Brora.

92 pts

 

For more info on the re-furbishment of Brora Distillery check out this great article by Richard Woodward here: https://scotchwhisky.com/magazine/latest-news/21099/brora-revival-granted-planning-permission/

Thanks for reading and make sure to subscribe to my Instagram and Twitter, linked on the about me on the sidebar, for up to date information on what I'm up to!

Current Review Scoring System:

 

0-49: Horrible

50-59: Bad

60-69: Mediocre to Average

70-74: Average to Good

75-79: Good to Great

80-84: Great to Excellent

85-89: Excellent

90-94: Superb

95+: Masterpiece

*Note that all images are owned by their respective owners, The Whisky Laddie does not receive financial compensation for this site's content. If this changes any copyrighted images will be replaced with originals made or solicited by the author of these posts.

[Scotch Review] Talisker 25 Year Old

For part of this week's reviews I'm going back to some tasting notes I wrote a while ago when I was at a tasting hosted by the LCBO that showed off some interesting Diageo Special Release bottles that was led by Diageo's Canadian brand ambassador.

Talisker is a unique distillery as it was once the only distillery on the Isle of Skye until Torabhaig officially opened its visitors center back in March of this year. Founded in 1830, Talisker was a favored distillery by many prominent Scots, including writer R. L. Stevenson, and created an interesting distilled spirit thanks to its swan neck lye pipes which gives a more extended distillation and its unique flavor.

This 25 year old Talisker is a special release that came out a while ago as the 25 year old commonly seen is bottled at the standard Talisker proof of 45.8% ABV. This one, however, is bottled at around 58%. It once retailed at $400 CAD at the LCBO so I'm happy to try this instead of taking a hefty gamble!

• Color: Rich amber
• Nose: Sweet oak and spice, sherry fruit elements, slight brine, grassy notes
• Taste: Sweet and salty flavor notes, not a lot of peat, cherry, strawberry, citrus flavors. Honeydew and a touch of brine
• Finish: Medium-long with salty fruits

Really great variety of flavors and fantastic maturity to the spirit. While its not super complex its still a very good whisky and definitely worth at least a try. Personally I wish this was under $250 because I'd definitely buy a bottle if I could.

88 pts

 

Thanks for reading and make sure to subscribe to my Instagram and Twitter, linked on the about me on the sidebar, for up to date information on what I'm up to!

Current Review Scoring System:

 

0-49: Horrible

50-59: Bad

60-69: Mediocre to Average

70-74: Average to Good

75-79: Good to Great

80-84: Great to Excellent

85-89: Excellent

90-94: Superb

95+: Masterpiece

*Note that all images are owned by their respective owners, The Whisky Laddie does not receive financial compensation for this site's content. If this changes any copyrighted images will be replaced with originals made or solicited by the author of these posts.

 

[Scotch Review] Edradour 2006 Signatory Cask Strength from Binny's

So I was hoping to eventually get around to reviewing an Edradour eventually. Heck it would've probably been within the first 10 scotches I reviewed ever however my dad liked the mini of Edradour 12 Caledonia he had stashed away so much he didn't leave me a wee bit to try and analyze for myself! So instead I'm trying one that a friend got for me in Chicago from Binny's which is a very good whisky retailer that you should definitely check out if you ever find yourself in the Chicago area.

Edradour was once proudly known as Scotland's "smallest distillery" but since that is now officially taken by Strathearn Distillery it now calls itself "Scotland's Little Gem" so they don't get in trouble for false advertising. Edradour is located across the road from Blair Athol in the town of Pitlochry, Perthshire right in the middle of the Highlands. It was established in 1825 and was previously owned by Pernod Ricard before being acquired by Signatory Independant Bottlers in 2002. Only 18 casks are produced by this distillery every week and only 2 people work at the distillery, which is very impressive how such a small distillery has gained such a reputation since they were acquired by Signatory and likely even before that. All of their OBs outside of the 10 year are non-chill filtered and they even have a peated malt, Ballechin, that I hear is very nice as well.

So while I couldn't start with an OB I'm more then happy to have an IB to try especially given that it's bottled by the distillery's owning company! This single cask of Edradour was selected by Binny's Wine and Spirits Merchants in Illinois. It's aged for 10 years in a second fill sherry hogshead and is bottled at 59.6% ABV. This is one of 290 bottles that came from the hoggie. So let's see how this offering turned out!

• Colour:Amber
• Nose: Raisin, red fruits, cocoa, vanilla, caramel, tobacco leaf, orange citrus, big blasts of woodspice and small amounts of sulphur
• Palate: Fresh and candied plums, sultanas, oranges, lemon, brown sugar, vanilla, salted toffee, chocolate, wood tannins, some treenuts
• Finish: Long with roasted nuts, vanilla and orange marmalade

The palate on this whisky reminds me at times of an older style of Highland and Speyside whisky. With water the chocolate is more dominant on the palate, brown sugar begins to show up more and the finish leaves the fruit and nutty notes as more of a complimenting background. However, this whisky has a bit too much young rawness to it that hurts the experience at times and really needs some air to settle it down. Overall it's a solid young whisky but for the $90 USD I paid I probably wouldn't get this one again but it's definitely worth a try as the complexity is still very good for a 10 year old highland.

81 pts

 

Thanks for reading and make sure to subscribe to my Instagram and Twitter, linked on the about me on the sidebar, for up to date information on what I'm up to!

Current Review Scoring System:

 

0-49: Horrible

50-59: Bad

60-69: Mediocre to Average

70-74: Average to Good

75-79: Good to Great

80-84: Great to Excellent

85-89: Excellent

90-94: Superb

95+: Masterpiece

*Note that all images are owned by their respective owners, The Whisky Laddie does not receive financial compensation for this site's content. If this changes any copyrighted images will be replaced with originals made or solicited by the author of these posts.

[Bourbon Review] Booker's Batch 2018-01

So it's been a while since I've done a review for a bourbon on this blog so I decided to get back into the spirit (literally) and go back to an old classic that unfortunately has changed not necessarily for the better.

Booker's is a small batch bourbon brand made at Jim Beam Distillery in Clermont, Kentucky which is the highest alcohol content selection in the Jim Beam bourbon portfolio. Because of it's proof and of it's quality it's become one of the go to bourbon selections in the United States and across the bourbon enjoying global sphere especially given its relatively affordable price along with whiskies like Stagg Jr. but lately this fact has changed a little bit.

In the past since Booker Noe, the grandson of Jim Beam and easily the distillery's most famous creator of the good ol' American spirit, released Booker's as a small batch vatting of uncut and unfiltered bourbons from selected barrels the cuts were generally selected at just over 7 years old and not a single bottling has generally not been lower then 60% ABV. While the latter fact has not changed, since 2017 the age statements on Booker's have dropped below 7 years old while rumors of a price increase to $100 USD brought a fury of online rage by bourbon enthusiasts across the internet on sites like Twitter, Facebook and Reddit. Fortunately for most the price didn't increase to $100 but new retails for above $80 started to pop up across the United States, which I noticed when I was at a specialty whisky store in New York State a year ago.

So today I'm happy to try a bourbon before the change-up which is the 2015-01 batch. It's aged for 7 years, 2 months and 16 days and is bottled at 64.35% ABV. Let's see how this older batch does!

• Colour:Amber
• Nose: Heavy woodspice and baking spices, apple, caramel, cherry peel, clove, lemon citrus, roasted corn
• Palate: Silky toffee apple, cocoa, vanilla pudding, apple jam, sour lemons, oak tannins
• Finish: Medium to long with toasted oak and apple chutney

I've previously had a 2016 edition of Booker's before I tried this one and when comparing the two from memory this 2015 batch definitely has more of a richer caramel quality. The jam and citrus qualities really push this bourbon into a satisfying territory for what I'd pay for a good strength bourbon. While I'd put the Stagg Jr. Batch 10 above this, although that batch was allegedly better then some lesser quality years of George T. Stagg to be quite frank, but this is still a very good bourbon especially when it was $60 USD. I have a similar year Stagg Jr. that I'll hopefully be reviewing later to compare so hopefully that'll be a fun time, until then I was very happy with this bourbon and you should definitely give this one a look or maybe a buy!

86 pts

 

Thanks for reading and make sure to subscribe to my Instagram and Twitter, linked on the about me on the sidebar, for up to date information on what I'm up to!

Current Review Scoring System:

 

0-49: Horrible

50-59: Bad

60-69: Mediocre to Average

70-74: Average to Good

75-79: Good to Great

80-84: Great to Excellent

85-89: Excellent

90-94: Superb

95+: Masterpiece

*Note that all images are owned by their respective owners, The Whisky Laddie does not receive financial compensation for this site's content. If this changes any copyrighted images will be replaced with originals made or solicited by the author of these posts.