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I (and my pipe band) just finished the 4 days of St. Patrick. Long pub crawl Friday night, 2 parades on Saturday, pub crawl Saturday night, Sunday a semi-rest day, and finally the grand night itself, a final pub crawl. Whew tired. Lots of free Jamesons. It's ok, but I prefer Laphroaig. Forgot, was also on TV and radio at 6:00 AM piping to let everyone know about the pub crawls and parades.
Cheers, John
hoodoo40, nice one getting on tv and radio. What's the name of the band?
I'm just exploring the cask strength springbank for the first time. Very complex and interesting flavour. It seems like there's a lot of flavours just out of reach so I'm having difficulty naming things. So far I've got a lot of apple flavours like baked apples, apple peel, rotten apples. Also got school glue, oak, fennel, peat, black pepper. The rest is all a bit vague, it's quite like being outside in autumn. Quite rainy tasting. I kind of feel like this whisky's a lot cleverer than I am.
I happened upon this one at an airport the other day, a spesial editor Talisker Dark Storm. Ulike the regular edition, this one is matured in "heavily charred oak casks". They say it is supposed to invoke the flavor of "a mighty storm at sea ", and I really think it does. Well worth a try if you get the chance.
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I think I'm going to get my mum a few samples for mothers' day. She prefers rich, smokey, peaty islays and I was going to pick five things that she's not tried before. Here's my choice so far -- any suggestions or replacements?
Ardbeg Uigeadail
Bowmore 18
Caol Ila 12
Lagavulin 16
Laphroaig 18
To be honest, I'm a bit jealous buying this! I love the uigeadail and want a bottle for myself, I'm also very keen to try the bowmore and laphroaig 18 year olds -- maybe I'll at least get to smell them! I might get myself some samples of those when I have some cash to spend!
Edit: considering laphroaig triple wood instead of 18 y/o. Both sound very nice but the 18 seems a bit more special.
Edit 2: there's also a Kilchoman 2007 edition (possibly not official name) but she already has a bottle of Machir Bay...
I kind of wish I was you mum, but that would be weird. I haven't tried Bowmore for nearly ten years so couldn't comment on that one. The Ardbeg, Caol Ila and Lagavulin are all good, I'd recommend them to anyone. As for the Laphroaig, I haven't tried the 18 yo or triple wood, but with laphroaig I reckon the 10 yo is good and anything they do that's a step up from there is awesome. I had cask strength and 15 yo quite a few year back which were very good. Quarter cask is brilliant and PX cask is possibly the richest whisky I've ever had. You have a very lucky mother!
Perhaps a Glenfarclas 17 Years Old could be of interest? It is not an islay, it is a highland whiskey, but it is both smoky and peaty, and won a blind test world championship a while back, iirc. It used to be my go-to whiskey a few years back. Complex, and a very initeresting drink. On the lagavulin, and actually many of the others, I am really enamoured by the double and triple matured. Port cask is great for these heavy flavourful whiskeys, I believe.Quote:
Originally Posted by PigHog
Oh, and I am surprised to hear your mom enjoys these, that's wonderful. My mother would not go near a whiskey bottle. I once tricked her tho, served her a talisker 10 yo and presented it as a "wonderful cognac". She did enjoy it :)
I think I'd have to try to convince my mum it was weak tea, that's all she drinks. I don't think she'd be fooled, even with milk in it.Quote:
Originally Posted by str8fencer
Tell yourself it's non chill-filtered.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ezekiel81
I'll look at tasting notes for the glenfarclas. Irritatingly, unless it's described as being very smokey or woody, charcoal, peat, whatever; she'll often dismiss the likes of a highland or Speyside. Might be a good chance to slip one in, as you say.
Missed your first reply, Ezekiel...
I had a good experience with a bottle of bowmore small batch reserve and the 18 sounds excellent. As does the laphroaig 18 (PX cask has intrigued me now, though). I think I'll be buying these on the condition that I can have a small taste of the two 18s :P
Would you stick with uigeadail over corryvreckan? My reasoning is that uigeadail a) keeps the total price under £30, b) is equally as nice, in my opinion, just different, and c) is more to her tastes.
On the other hand, the corryvreckan blew me away when I tried it!
Tough choice. I'd go with uigeadail, but mostly because I'm much more familiar with it and I know how much I like it. I've only had a sip of corryvreckan that they let me try in the duty free and I don't remember it that well to be honest. They let you have a little taste sometimes if you say you're deciding between a couple of bottles. I guess if it's more to you mum's taste it's probably a good choice, but it sounds like she'd appreciate any ardbeg.
I'm trying to choose a bottle to review when I next get paid and I'm leaning towards bunnahabhain. You can get 200ml bottles of all the "classic malts" which seems a bit like a diageo marketing gimmick, but I thought it would be a nice series of reviews. I've already done talisker so it's five more reviews for relatively little cost.
