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The Compass Box Flaming Heart 2018 Limited Edition
Tasting notes:The Compass Box Flaming Heart 2018 Edition noses like banana roadkill—and not the bounce-off-the-bumper-to-the-side-of-the-road style of roadkill, either. No, this is rather the...
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The Caol Ila 15 Year Old Unpeated 2018 Special Release
Tasting notes:We don’t normally comment on such things, but the legs on this dram are wild, like finding out that Julia Roberts used a body double in Pretty Woman—though that’d be more accurate if the...
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The Westland Black Raven Cask Exchange Whiskey
Tasting notes:This dram, which is the product of a cask exchange between Westland Distillery and Black Raven Brewery, features whiskey matured in whiskey casks that had previously been used to aged...
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The Whisky Exchange 2019 Old & Rare Whisky Show in Glasgow
What can I add to what I wrote about the Old & Rare Whisky Show in the review of my first experience of it? The answer is: quite a lot, but much of it would not impart much information that the...
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The Compass Box Stranger & Stranger Limited Edition
[Editor’s note: This Limited Edition celebrates 10 years of collaboration between Compass Box Whisky and the packaging design company, Stranger & Stranger. The liquid is Scotch Malt Whisky blended...
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The Compass Box Juveniles Limited Edition Blended Malt Scotch Whisky
Tasting notes:As your nose approaches the glass, tropical fruit notes strike first: pineapple, papaya, but then apricots, marshmallows, and, improbably enough, elderberry liqueur. Soon, a fantastic,...
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The Compass Box No Name, no. 2
Tasting notes:On the nose, it’s all high register phenols oozing out of green apples and key limes grown especially for macarons served to castrati. It’s rich and citrusy…nope, that note just got run...
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The Caol Ila 35 Year Old 2018 Special Release
Tasting notes:Nose this whisky, and you’ll have no doubt: there’s great depth here. Still, you might not guess that it’s 35 years old. Every peated whisky aspires to hide its age this well. Imagine...
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The Dewar’s Double Double 32 Year Old Blended Scotch Whisky
Tasting notes:I want to do this blend justice, but this blend makes doing justice look like a silly plebiscitarian concern. OK, using that 50-cent word was a mistake: John got excited because he...
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The Compass Box Affinity
Tasting notes:The nose on this dram, which is a blend of Scotch Whisky and Calvados, opens with funk, but it’s deep, dark, red, overripe apple cider funk. The woodiness is freshly quartersawn European...
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The Pittyvaich 28 Year 2018 Special Release
Tasting notes:Wow, on the nose, this one opens with gummy worms–and in white chocolate “soil.” Bordered by a little stream of crème fraîche. And they’re feasting on an apricot and strawberry meringue...
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The Mortlach 20 Year Old
With the doctor ensconced in his leather chair, having explained how to proceed, the man lying on the couch begins: The nose opens with caramel cake in an early psychoanalysis session…and the cake is...
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The Pearse 5 Year Old Single Malt Irish Whiskey
Tasting notes:The nose on this dram presents with green pepper soaked in witch-hazel. That is to say, it’s got a funky youthiness. Not funky as in “Sherry cask funk,” but rather funky as in “…music...
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The 2019 Tunsberg Whiskyfestival
A few months back, I had the chance to both attend and lead masterclasses at the 2019 Tunsberg Whiskyfestival in Tønsberg, Norway (Tunsberg is the town’s historic name), which is just outside of Oslo....
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The Balvenie The Sweet Toast of American Oak 12 Year Old
Tasting notes:They weren’t kidding when they called this one sweet! There’s marmalade resin on the nose, albeit pulled across a horsehair violin bow, along with marzipan-coated honeycomb. We also...
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The Miltonduff 10 Year Old TWB Originals 1st Fill Oloroso (63.4%)
Tasting notes:This Miltonduff 10 Year Old opens on the nose like a mango masquerading as a prune. And it’s running past a candied kumquat fermenting in the spring sun. There’s also an interesting...
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The Compass Box The Circle
[This whisky is the result of a collaboration between Compass Box founder John Glaser, Compass Box wheiskymaker Jill Boyd, and Rosey Mitchell, the 2018 winner of The Circle, Compass Box’s program...
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The Bunnahabhain 10 Year Old TWB Originals 1st Fill Oloroso (57.1%)
A man walks into a bar… He’s handed a whisky dark and rich in color with a dusty mustiness on the nose that soon gives way to deep, rich red stone fruit. “If a cantaloupe were a cherry, and the meat...
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The Westland Distillery’s 6th Annual Peat Week Single Malt Whiskey
Tasting notes:The nose on this dram is a minty, barley popcorn seasoning that provokes confusion when it hits the market, but then quickly develops a cult following. There’s also Tellicherry black...
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The Cameronbridge 37 Year Old 1982 TWB Originals (51.0%)
Tasting notes:The nose here is big, with perfumey fruit—or maybe it’s fruity with big perfume or perfumey with big fruit, hard to say. There are also notes of gardenias, guava or papaya (but not...
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