Pike Creek Canadian Whisky (Port Finish)

January 27, 2020June 21, 2020 The Scotch NoobReviews2 Comments 20103 views

Pike Creek is another in a spate of Canadian whisky brand revivals along with Lot 40 and Gooderham & Worts from Corby Distillers. From 2012 until 2016 or so, Pike Creek was available as a 10 year-old Port Finish edition in Canada and a Port Finish edition in the US which is only aged 7 years, although this is not disclosed on the label. The US version is younger because the producer felt that demand for the new brand would outstrip supply. Thanks, Canada.

Boutique-y Whisky: Speyside #3 (8 year) Batch 1

January 20, 2020January 21, 2020 The Scotch NoobReviews4 Comments 28038 views

An undisclosed Speyside distillery referred to only as “Speyside #3”, this is an 8 year-old Speyside single malt bottled at 50.7% ABV. A fellow Twitterer… Tweeter?… suggested that it might be ex-bourbon Glenrothes. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Nothing will teach you how little you really know about whisky than tasting blind or semi-blind. In hindsight it almost definitely is…

Westland American Oak

January 13, 2020March 1, 2021 The Scotch NoobReviews8 Comments 14488 views

Westland does a few things differently, and the results are right in the glass. First, it’s not just “malted barley” like 99% of single-malt scotch. Westland uses a blend of 5 different barley malts: Washington Select Pale Malt, Munich Malt, Extra Special Malt, Pale Chocolate Malt, and…

Caol Ila (18 year)

January 6, 2020December 29, 2019 The Scotch NoobReviews2 Comments 14455 views

Most of Caol Ila’s output is peated and most of it (95%!) ends up in various blends, as it’s the go-to standard for adding smoke to blended malts these days because of its inherent softness and willingness to play with others. This being a Diageo malt, there is essentially no information online. It’s clearly been aged in ex-bourbon casks for its 18 years of maturation, but…