Pedro Ximenez finish – 43%

My Tasting Notes:

Colour: Bright copper
Nose: Smoked bacon, rich red wine, dark cherries, hints of chocolate, cloves and pepper.
Palate: Mild peat, cherries, berries, cocoa, hints of nutmeg and pepper.
Finish: Very long, smoky and fruity with a bacon tang.
Overall: A brilliant combination of fruit and smoke. The PX sherry combines very well with the Lagavulin distillery style.

Rating: 88/100 – Price Tag $$$$$ – Value for your Money $$$$$

Buy Lagavulin Distillers Edition (1995 vintage!) at The Whisky Exchange

Scored blind for the Malt Maniacs Awards 2011 – Re-tasted for notes

56.5%

My Tasting Notes:

Colour: Pale straw
Nose: A small fire at the beach, lemon zest, vanilla, liquorice, cloves, hints of tar.
Palate: Peat, vanilla, hints of marzipan, lemon zest, liquorice, hints of cloves and ginger.
Finish: Long, smoky and slighty sweet.
Overall: A very nice peated malt without a doubt, but the rather generic profile lacks some of the depth and richness that previous versions had.

Rating: 85/100 – Price Tag $$$$$ – Value for your Money $$$$$

Buy Lagavulin 12 yo 2010 at The Whisky Exchange

Scored blind for the Malt Maniacs Awards 2011 – Re-tasted for notes

43%

My Tasting Notes:

Colour: Dark amber
Nose: Toffee, dried figs, hints of wood, tobacco and nutmeg.
Palate: Raisins, figs, caramel, cinnamon, hints of nutmeg and a little bit of smoke.
Finish: Long, sweet and slightly smoky.
Overall: Some very nice flavours are hidden in this malt, especially the well-integrated barrel char, but the mouthfeel is a bit watery.

Rating: 81/100 – Price Tag $$$$$ – Value for your Money $$$$$

Scored blind for the Malt Maniacs Awards 2011 – Re-tasted for notes

43%

My Tasting Notes:

Colour: Medium amber
Nose: Dried fruits, old oak, mild spices, vanilla.
Palate: Butterscotch, vanilla, raisins, cinnamon, hints of cardamom and nutmeg.
Finish: Long, creamy and midly spicy.
Overall: Quite pleasant overall, the nose being a bit more impressive than the palate. Decent Daily Dram.

Rating: 83/100 – Price Tag $$$$$ – Value for your Money $$$$$

Buy Singleton of Dufftown 12 yo at Master of Malt

Scored blind for the Malt Maniacs Awards 2011 – Re-tasted for notes

56%

My Tasting Notes:

Colour: Bright gold
Nose: Honey, vanilla, bananas, almonds, lemon zest, hints of wood polish and nutmeg.
Palate: Much the same as the nose with a bit more lemon and some ginger too.
Finish: Long, dry and slightly fruity.
Overall: This malt has a nice balance of subtle flavours. It is a fine fruity aperitive-style dram but doesn’t leave a long lasting impression.

Rating: 84/100 – Price Tag $$$$$ – Value for your Money $$$$$

Buy Cragganmore 21 yo at The Whisky Exchange

Scored blind for the Malt Maniacs Awards 2011 – Re-tasted for notes

A mix of woods and some rosemary was burnt to flavour this vodka – 40.2%

My Tasting Notes:

Colour: Clear
Nose: Wood smoke, rosemary, a little ham, and…yes, that’s a whiff of ‘New Car’.
Palate: Rather mild and slightly sweet with a savoury smokiness that is hard to describe.
Finish: Short and smoky.
Overall:  This strange concoction can safely be drunk neat, but should best be used to add a smoky touch to cocktails where  whisky isn’ t appropriate.

Rating: 74/100 – Price Tag $$$$$ – Value for your Money $$$$$

Buy Besmoked Vodka at Master of Malt

Review sample provided by Master of Malt

When whisky makers send out samples to journalists and bloggers, they usually come in a jiffy bag or a small cardboard box. Inside you will find – depending on your importance to the producer – smaller or bigger sample bottles, usually with laser printed labels, sometimes  even handwritten. There will be an accompanying letter saying something like “Here is our latest whisky. Please try it, we would like to know how you like it.” If you are lucky, you even get an invitation to the offical launch at some fancy place nearby or far-off – depending on your importance to the producer.

That’s so 2010… For the launch of Thor, the first episode of their new Valhalla Saga, Highland Park have thought of something a little different. They sent out boxes containing little boxes containing little bags containing little rune charms, along with mysterious clues about what may happen in a couple of days.

What a clever move. It is actually a paradigm shift from regarding the writers as essentially business partners on eye level (I give you a sample, you give me a review) to putting them on the same level as the potential customers, as targets for public relations and marketing…while still leveraging their position as multiplicators in the market.

And it worked out! Last weekend almost all bloggers who received such a package got out their cameras, took pictures of the mysterious content and multiplicated them on social media like Facebook and Twitter. With or without noticing (who is to judge this?) they have become beacons of anticipation, hype mongers on their task to create excitement just like before the release of a new Harry Potter tome or Apple gadget.

But this release sets new standards in other respects too. Not so much the mock Viking boat packaging that actually looks more like a lyre. Everything is wrapped in Norse ballyhoo that puts virtually all competitors to shame.

Highland Park isn’t just a simple whisky anymore that you enjoy in your comfy leather chair from a nosing glass, exploring the unique flavour profile of heather honey, mild peat and gentle fruitiness that makes it such a marvelous dram. No, it has become an elixir, a magic potion that sedates you, transfers you to the stormy and misty shore of the Orkney Islands…and then onwards and upwards, right to Valhalla. There you feast on it surrounded by the pantheon of Norse gods, and you drink it from the skulls of those Celts from that other island on the opposite side of Scotland.

Hasn’t whisky marketing become a bit like car marketing? The How being more important than the What? The ‘inner values’ of a car are secondary. Fuel consumption, CO₂ emission, torque? Will I be able to fit a whisky barrel into the boot? Can I run it on Bruichladdich X4 without engine modifcation? Forget it! What counts is the erection that I get when powering along the autobahn at full throttle in top gear, or steering it on a long and winding coastal road.

Highland Park Thor is introduced by emotional marketing at its very best, hats off! Rational thinking proves insufficient anway to explain the pricing of £120 for a bottle of 16 yo cask strength whisky with a ‘limitation’ of 23000 bottles.

“The Bloggers’ Blend” – Undisclosed winner of a blending competition – 41.4%

My Tasting Notes:

Colour: Bright amber
Nose: Wood smoke, butterscotch, vanilla, a light sea breeze, hints of wood and fruit.
Palate: Peat, caramel, honey, nutmeg and hints of pepper, slightly tannic with an underlying very gentle fruitiness.
Finish: Long and smoky with a dry spiciness.
Overall: A professional master blender probably wouldn’t have made it quite as peaty, but this is a really nice and sippable dram.

Rating: 82/100 – Price Tag $$$$$ – Value for your Money $$$$$

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Review sample provided by Master of Malt

[Before you ask: I was not included in the competition]

Oloroso sherry finish – 46%

My Tasting Notes:

Colour: Bright amber
Nose: Raisins, honey, banana, hints of cinnamon
Palate: Raisins, hints of orange marmalade, honey, butterscotch, cinnamon.
Finish: Long, sweet and fruity.
Overall: Quite a nice dram overall, but there seems to be missing something.

Rating: 80/100 – Price Tag $$$$$ – Value for your Money $$$$$

Buy Clynelish Distillers Edition at Master of Malt

Scored blind for the Malt Maniacs Awards 2011 – Re-tasted for notes

57.3%

My Tasting Notes:

Colour: Dark gold
Nose: Stewed apples, raisins, grapefruit, marzipan, polished wood, toffee, hints of pepper.
Palate: Very gentle peat, sweet grapes, apple pie, tropical fruit, honey, nutmeg and pepper, some chili, faint hints of fresh herbs.
Finish: Long, fruity and spicy.
Overall: The spices are a litte too dominant to let the fruity elements truly shine here.

Rating: 86/100 – Price Tag $$$$$ – Value for your Money $$$$$

Buy Talisker 30 yo 2010 at Master of Malt

Scored blind for the Malt Maniacs Awards 2011 – Re-tasted for notes