Old Tub Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon

December 21, 2020December 21, 2020 The Scotch NoobReviews5 Comments 23993 views

Old Tub is what Jim Beam used to be called a century ago when it was first sold in bottled form. The name changed to “Jim Beam” in 1943 and the previous brand name was relegated to a Kentucky-only low-volume release. Now, in 2020, Beam has released a limited edition renewal of the Old Tub brand. It’s still bottled-in-bond, and in an effort to lend the release some authenticity the whiskey is not chill-filtered and also not charcoal filtered. Honestly, I don’t know why in 2020 any whisky company still…

Johnnie Walker Island Green

December 14, 2020December 14, 2020 The Scotch NoobReviews5 Comments 49780 views

Johnnie Walker Island Green – which should not be confused with Johnnie Walker Green Label – is a travel-retail variant of the Johnnie Walker Green Label bottling. The “Island” here refers to the Scottish isle of Islay, not some tropical island. Islay is essentially the opposite of tropical. Like the Green Label, this “Green” includes only…

Old Soul Blended Straight Bourbon

December 7, 2020December 5, 2020 The Scotch NoobReviewsLeave a comment 13631 views

…Cathead has taken three straight bourbons and blended them together, so the term is apropos. The first two (totaling 90% of the blend) are 4 year-old MGP sourced bourbons and the third (at 10% of the blend) is Cathead’s own 2-year-and-1-month-old Mississippi bourbon. It’s not specified on the website, but I’m guessing there’s not much of the own-distilled juice to go around so they decided to…

Mortlach (15 year) – Game of Thrones “Six Kingdoms”

November 30, 2020March 8, 2021 The Scotch NoobReviews1 Comment 23102 views

This Game of Thrones “Six Kingdoms” edition is Mortlach single malt that has been aged for 15 years in sherry casks and then ex-bourbon barrels. Oddly, the label and tin say it was “Finished in ex-bourbon casks” which is a silly way to convey that the whisky started in first-fill sherry (seasoned) casks and then was finished in ex-bourbon. You’d think they’d focus on the sherry. In fact, before I looked it up online I thought…

Flaviar Membership: One Year Later

November 28, 2020November 28, 2020 The Scotch NoobArticles6 Comments 23378 views

So what’s my opinion of the service, one year in? Despite their slightly spammy marketing practices, they’ve matured a lot as a company. They fulfill orders via local US retailers, now, so shipments arrive quickly and they ship to a much longer list of states (see below). They’re good at reminding me via email when one of my included membership perks is ready (time to choose some free whisky? Yes please!) and they aren’t too pushy about their other optional offerings, which are plentiful.

Bruichladdich – The Classic Laddie

November 20, 2020November 19, 2020 The Scotch NoobReviews5 Comments 29990 views

The Classic Laddie is a vatting of barrels of unpeated Bruichladdich distilled from 100% Scottish barley and aged in, well, all sorts of things. Head Distiller Adam Hannett has a generic house character in mind when he tastes casks for the vatting, but does not worship at the feet of the gods of Consistency like most distilleries. You can, and should, expect some variation…

Bruichladdich: No Hidden Measures

November 17, 2020November 20, 2020 The Scotch NoobFeatured Articles3 Comments 10646 views

Bruichladdich continues to push the boundaries of both transparency and innovation. Despite the “Sponsored” flag on this article, I really do personally think the company is a positive force for the industry and I’m excited about the future of scotch whisky if things like bottle code lookups, 100% Scottish barley, organic and biodynamic farms, and a dedication to transparency are trends that the whole whisky market will follow.

Talisker (8 year) Special Release 2020

November 16, 2020August 2, 2021 The Scotch NoobReviewsLeave a comment 37078 views

Talisker 8 is a very limited edition cask-strength (57.9% ABV) batch of the familiar Talisker 10 except at 8 years, which is a bit of a reference to earlier 1980s bottlings of Talisker that were released at that age (although not at that strength). The whisky for this year’s release was distilled in 2011 and This time, the distillery broke new ground (for Talisker) by finishing the whisky in a funky pot-still rum cask from Jamaica.

Very Old Barton 86 Proof

November 9, 2020August 9, 2021 The Scotch NoobReviews9 Comments 28035 views

First in the series, we have Very Old Barton 86 Proof. The whiskey is all from the Barton distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky which is owned by Sazerac (Buffalo Trace), and was renamed to the Barton 1792 Distillery in 2009. Very Old Barton (which is not old, and certainly not Very Old) used to have a “6 years old” age statement on the bottle, which was changed to a lonely misleading “6” on the neck, and then dropped altogether. The company claims…

Very Old Barton 90 Proof

November 9, 2020November 7, 2020 The Scotch NoobReviewsLeave a comment 20525 views

It seems pretty silly to follow a bourbon review with a second review of the exact same thing, but 2% stronger. As far as I can tell online, there’s no other difference. Same age “ish” (4-6 years), same mash bill (75% corn, 15% rye, and 10% malted barley), same distillery (Barton 1792 Distillery)… 2% stronger. Woo. But why tho? Why indeed…