Vacation!
I am on vacation, so no “real” post this week. Instead, two minor updates…
Broken Barrel Cask Strength Bourbon
So here we are, today, once again taking a look at a well-marketed bourbon without the faintest clue to where the liquid is actually distilled. At least Infuse Spirits, makers of the Broken Barrel brand as well as a slew of – hah – infused spirits, is trying to do something innovative. They are doing something similar to what John Glaser of Compass Box wanted to do with the original Spice Tree…
Blind Tastings Are Humbling
No real review this week, since I attended a blind Zoom tasting of 12 American single malt whiskies and I’m still recovering. What follows are some other stream-of-consciousness notes from our tasting. If you have an opportunity to gather a few like-minded friends to taste some whisky together (online or in person if your situation warrants), I highly recommend it.
BenRiach Heart of Speyside
Why anyone bottles any single malts at 40% ABV anymore is beyond me. This would probably be a rich, inviting example of classic Speyside single malt at 46% ABV, but instead it’s thin and watery. The thinness allows bitter elements to show through instead of being the foil to sweetness that they are in more robust malts. In essence, by taking out the things that make a single malt expensive (time in oak and high proof), they’ve taken out the things necessary to…
Knob Creek Small Batch Bourbon (9 year) Revisited
Knob Creek, a Beam brand, was created by bourbon legend and Beam master distiller Booker Noe in 1992. It’s aged longer than most bourbons (9 years), and bottled at a respectable 100 proof. It’s part of Beam’s “Small Batch” collection. In this review, I revisit the whiskey seven years later after buying a 1.75L bottle of it at Costco.
Oban Bay Reserve – Game of Thrones “The Night’s Watch”
I’ve always been a big fan of Oban. It’s one of the few distilleries that come to mind when I want something essentially “Highland” and with such a consistent house character that you know every bottle is going to contain that same predominant biscuity honey quality. Prices have crept up over the years, as they have with everything with the word “whisky” on the label, but I still think of Oban as my go-to Highland malt….
Westward American Single Malt
Not to be confused with Seattle producer Westland (which also makes amazing American single malt whiskey in the US Pacific Northwest), Westward is a Portland, Oregon based distillery founded in 2004 by Christian Krogstad, who has a brewing and winemaking background. Westward uses a two custom-designed copper pot stills to distill an ale-style wash…
GlenAllachie (12 year)
Official information is a little scarce, but it seems like the 12 year is aged in a combination of virgin oak, PX sherry casks, and oloroso sherry casks. I can’t tell if those are full-term sherry or if they are finishes, or what kind of virgin oak that is (American? European? Was a swallow involved?) or if there was ex-bourbon in the mix that they aren’t…
Kaiyō Japanese Mizunara Oak
Kaiyō is a “negotiant” (independent bottler) from Hong Kong that purchases barrels of aged or unaged whisky from Japanese producers and matures and bottles them under the Kaiyō label… In this case, the barrels are single malt whisky from an unnamed Japanese distillery that have been “teaspooned” with whisky from…
Bank Note Peated Reserve Blended Scotch
The Bank Note Peated Reserve is a little pricier – I paid $25 for 750ml when I’m used to paying $20 for 1000ml (1 liter) for the regular Bank Note. It still has a 5-year age statement and is bottled at the same 43% ABV, which is a nice touch for a budget blend. The formulation, which is said to be a fairly standard 40% malt and 60% lowland grain whisky, is mostly…
