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An Impostor Abroad: Stephen visits Springbank
I loved Springbank long before I ever stepped foot into the distillery. Some of that I could attribute to the people associated with it, some had to do with the mystique of Campbeltown, and some of it,...
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The Nikka Miyagikyo 12 Year Old Single Malt Japanese Whisky
Tasting notes: This dram is a story in three rather unrelated parts. The first part is a light, perfumed story all its own, one that opens with our protagonist growing up with a lemon tree as her twin...
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The Single Cask Nation Undisclosed Islay 7 Year Old
Tasting notes: Nosing this dram, I find myself mentally traversing Islay in search of some hint, some disclosure, of that which is Undisclosed. I wander across the Rhinns amidst wafts of smoked...
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The “A Speyside” 23 Year 1991 from The Exclusive Malts
Tasting notes: “Dammit, which distillery is it?” I plead. This might be turning into a familiar refrain John’s and Bill’s ears. Bill clearly doesn’t care. The Whisky Fairy brought us good hooch, and...
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The Kilchoman 2009-2014 Single Sherry Cask
Tasting notes: This is not the sort of play that ends in tears. That’s not to say that it isn’t moving: like an artfully crafted double negative can soften the meaning of a phrase (see earlier in this...
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The 13 Year 2002 Irish Whiskey from The Exclusive Malts
Tasting notes: I told them I wasn’t interested in being on an episode of Naked and Afraid, yet then I woke up one morning on a green piece of turf without a stitch of clothing, only to have to face...
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The GlenDronach Tawny Port 15 Year Old
Tasting notes: This dram is like digging through my narrow, but exceptionally deep cedar closet in which I’ve let the detritus of my rather interesting life accumulate a bit too long. On the open, it’s...
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The Laphroaig 15 Limited Edition
Tasting notes: On the nose, it’s quite clear: if you bred sea urchins to secrete Laphroaig, you’d get this. There’s this incredibly sweet note, like treacle coming right out of the oven–or a rich syrup...
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The Linkwood Burns Malt 24 Year 1990 from The Whisky Barrel
Tasting notes: If you could purée a biscuit with butter and honey that comes only from blue collar worker bees in the USA, and if you could take that biscuit puree and put an even better honey on that...
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The Springbank 10 Year Old Marrying Strength 2015 bottling
Tasting notes: As we were taking notes for this review, Bill kept mis-hearing everything we said. He claimed it was due to a massive buildup of ear wax that resulted from his having spent too much time...
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The BenRiach 10 Year Old Curiositas
Tasting notes: The masseuse introduces herself as Curiosity. I look around the room to make sure I didn’t inadvertently walk into a strip club. As you might expect, I am skeptical from that start that...
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The Single Cask Nation Cooley 13 Year Old Irish Whiskey (Refill Oloroso Butt)
Tasting notes: The first thing we noticed about this was that it clocked in at 58% after thirteen years. “Boy, that Sherry butt is a tight drum!” was one initial comment, which I shall graciously...
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An Impostor Abroad: Stephen visits Cadenhead’s
Unlike with Springbank, I knew relatively little about Cadenhead’s line of independent bottlings, aside from the fact that they had some connection to Springbank and that my whisky geek friends raved...
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The Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye
Tasting notes: The aromas of my breakfast Shoumei tea and the cinnamon on the dried figs in my porridge linger in my nostrils despite the fact that I decided to try out that aftershave I found in the...
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The Angel’s Envy Cask Strength 2015 Limited Edition
Tasting notes: This whiskey reminds me of a wonderful end of December spent wandering the Christmas markets in Berlin. The nose is just like that time, but only if I had traveled there by floating in a...
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An Impostor Abroad: Stephen visits Glengyle
To say the Glengyle Distillery is singular among newer distilleries on the planet would be an understatement. First of all, it has a long history: it began with a Springbank family squabble, continued...
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The Laphroaig 32 Year Old Limited Edition
Tasting notes: Like an unsettlingly gorgeous woman might, this dram made us veer into the inappropriate, even with our descriptors: it’s integrated perfectly, as we imagine a woman’s locker room at a...
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The Aultmore Burns Malt 25 Year 1990 from The Whisky Barrel
[Alas, this one was sold out before we could get this review published. But let this be a warning to you: these kinds of things (Burns Malts) are good values that you should not wait around for tardy...
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The Glen Garioch 19 Year 1995 from The Exclusive Malts
Tasting notes: The nose on this dram is a wonderful mash-up of diverse, even divergent aromas: oily, liquified amber a fly is trying desperately to climb out of; white lemon icing on a bachelor’s cake,...
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The Kilchoman PX Finish Cask 680 (2010-2015)
Tasting notes: I came to this dram expecting to ready myself for something from Man’s Life magazine: that is to say, I was readying myself to be truly manly in the face of what I thought would be a...
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