New Blogposts on WordPress

I made a number of blogs on WordPress That May interest you:

• 2016 Whisky Nerd Awards
• https://iladdie.wordpress.com/2016/12/27/iladdie-whisky-nerd-awards-2016/
• Highland Park Fire Edition
• https://iladdie.wordpress.com/2017/02/03/highland-park-new-make-12-and-fire/
• Bruichladdich Black Art 05.1
• https://iladdie.wordpress.com/2017/02/03/bruichladdich-black-art-05-1/
• Highland Park 12 yo
• https://iladdie.wordpress.com/2017/01/29/highland-park-12-yo/
• Highland Park Fire Edition
• https://iladdie.wordpress.com/2017/01/27/unboxing-highland-park-fire-edition/
• Whisky Tasting Note: Kippery
• https://iladdie.wordpress.com/2017/01/24/rswfw-a-peaty-2-smokey-kippery/
• Whisky Tasting Note: Woodsmoke
• https://iladdie.wordpress.com/2017/01/22/rswfw-a-peaty-2-smokey-woodsmoke/
• Whisky Tasting Note: Ash
• https://iladdie.wordpress.com/2017/01/16/rswfw-apeat-1-burny-ash/
• Whisky Tasting Note: Soot
• https://iladdie.wordpress.com/2017/01/15/rswfw-a-peaty-1-burnt-soot/
• Whisky Tasting Note: Tar
• https://iladdie.wordpress.com/2017/01/07/rswfw-a-peaty-1-burnt-tar/
• Whisky Tasting Note: Glossery
• https://iladdie.wordpress.com/2016/12/31/rswfw-whisky-congeners/

Bruichladdich LaddieMP4

As you may know I selected my blogger name to honor the Bruichladdich Distillery.

I missed out on the LaddieMP1 and Laddie MP2, but last year I was lucky enough to get my hands on a LaddieMP3 set.

This year I have been waiting for the mail by the Bruichladdich Distillery that informs people about the availability of the sets. So on the 17th of August 2016 the LaddieMP4 was announced.

Photo by Rombout Mastenbroek

We are about to embark on an exciting new chapter of our Micro-Provenance digital tasting programme.

Adam has selected three single casks for #LaddieMP4; you'll be able to join him online as he conducts a video tasting live from the distillery.

The release will be entirely in sets of three beautiful 20cl ‘Wee Laddie’ bottles – at an extremely attractive price point of £50 per set, plus postage and packing.

Minutes after reading the mail I placed my order, but for what? What had Adam Hannett selected this time?

Contrary to the blind tastings of the previous expressions the website now has some details on the three drams. Only 860 sets will be available.

Photo by Rombout Mastenbroek

Photo by Rombout Mastenbroek

Photo by Rombout Mastenbroek

• Cask #361 - distilled in 2008 and matured full term in a French ex-Syrah (red wine) cask.  It is at 58% alc. vol.
• Cask #16-062 - distilled in 2006 and matured in ex-bourbon before being finished in an ex-sherry cask is also at 58% alc. vol.
• Cask #1062 - distilled in 2005 and matured full term in bourbon is at 59% alc. vol.

I am particularly interrested in the ex-Syrah, since that grape is one of my favorite grapes for red wine!

This facebook video link shows the emptying of cask #16-062.

This facebook video link shows the bottling.

This facebook video link shows the packaging of the bottles.

Photo by +Bruichladdich Distillery 

Photo by +Bruichladdich Distillery 

Some video's from the Bruichladdich youtube site:

I will be on Islay on the time when the Bruichladdich Distillery will air the YouTube Webcast. I hope to be in the shop at that same time, so who knows, you may see my friend and me then.

My bottles are in!

instagram: iromby

Instagram: iromby

Instagram : iromby 

There is a bit of a spoiler alert with the printed labels on the bottles, but I'm sure the reason behind this will become clear at the tasting October 13th.

Maturing my own whisky

For my birthday, I got a small barrel and two bottles of Wasmund's Single malt whiskey. I want to experiment with comparing new make single malt and different times of aging. So I plan to put this kit together, fill it with 62% spirit and let it mature for 3 month, draw a sample, repeat drawing a sample every month and seeing how it matures. I have written multiple blogs about the influence of fresh American White Oak, but till now I just had to sample ready made spirits and some new make samples. See this blog link to a comparison between new and ages Journeyman Spirit.

So when you get your own barrel kit, it look like the picture below. A compact well made cardboard box filled with 2 700 ml bottles of new make spirit. A single malt spirit is the version I got. I wanted this over their rye version, because I wanted to compare the new make and the ages spirit make from 100% barley. I choose to start with American White Oak, but I plan to get the same spirit and mature it in frensh oak too! Goal is to see if the result differs between Oak's , but keeping the spirit a constant.

After, sorta, reading the instructions I cleared out the debris that was left over from drilling the bung hole. This was more then I expected but there it is. 

Then I gave the inside a good rinse with clean tap water. Clearing it and refilling and draining a couple of times.  This is a lesson I learned from watching a Twitter friend do this also and getting an almost black result. 

So after filling it with water it is supposed to expand and become water proof. 

Now that I have filled the barrel with water I noticed that I have the opertunaty to smell the nose of wet American White oak, without any other influences of the spirit. This will help me identify the "oak" which is so often referred to in tasting notes/blogs and vlogs. I also have a piece of French oak laying around which I will make wet too! Sometimes you coincidently run into opertunaties that you were oblivious to before you actually ran into them. This was one for me. 

After putting the water in I found out the position of the thingy to close the drain is rather critical. I ended up spilling water on my table, but that's ok. 

After a day of soaking up water there are no more leaks (I think).

The only thing I'm now lacking is a funnel! 

17th of July 2016

So, after getting a funnel I drained the water from the barrel. I kept 100 ml of this water for future reference. The oak smell of it was remarkable even after just one day. 

I put 1300 ml of spirit in the barrel. I am keeping 100 ml for future reference. I added 200 ml of the "one day matured" water that I drained from the barrel back in in an attempt to not loose some of the flavours that already went into the water. 

Now the barrel is sitting pretty in my cupboard. I will let it be for at least a month and then draw a sample.

12th of August 2016

Today I cleaned two sample bottles by cleaning them with hot water. Now they can air dry so they can be used this Sunday. Sunday will be the 4 week marker of maturation. 

14th August 2016

After four weeks of maturation I am taking a sample from the cask. It is a 100 ml sample. 

For lack of a better filter I used an unbleached coffee filter. I am sure there are better alternatives but I had non available to me. 

The result is surprisingly coloured! 

I took a moment to make some quick notes:

Nose has vanilla, oak, banana, strawberry, milkshake, flowery honey, Tobacco, something smokey, salty? 

On the palette the arrival is slow, spicey, heat, smokey, oaky. Smooth at same time as heat. 

I actually quite like this and am debating if this needs more maturation at all? The color is absolutely beautiful. 

The thing is I don't know if it will get better in another four weeks or not, so I think I will just let it mature longer! That was the whole idea behind the experiment in the first place ;)

09 October 2016

I got two more samples from my barrel. One at 6 weeks in and one at 12 weeks in. I shot three photos using the same camera settings, lighting and post processing in lightroom. Then I combined the three images in the photo below.

There is a noticeable increase in color saturation between the 4 and 12 weeks sample. he increase in saturation and hue doesn't seem to be linear over time, but the increase seems to slow down. I will probably wait until the 24 week mark and then make a final bottling. At that point in time I will also try and do comparison onnose and taste. I cant wait actually.

With almost 400 ml taken from the original 1400 ml in the barrel the amount of air in the barrel is increasing. This will also increase oxidization of the content left still. Ones I take the final samples I can also find out how much is gone due to evaporation. Should still be about 0.9 liter in there.

More to come later!

Bourbons, a starting point for exploration

I For my work I travel sometimes to other nations in Europe and on my last such travel I ended up in Berlin. I was there for two day conference and on the first day we ended up in a bar called Hackendahl

 

I had a look at the liquor menu and I thought I try something new. So I selected a bourbon I had never heard about in my life. It's Noah's Mill

 

It is a 57,2% ABV, 750 ml, Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey (will check the details later)

The experience was excellent and, to be honest, maybe even better then an average Scotch Single Malt. So after that I Took a look what Ralfy had to say about Bourbons and he adviced that you select one bourbon and make it the reference to which you start exploring. Ralfy selected as his reference the Elijah Craig 12yo. 

Both the Elijah Craig and Noah's Mill are available here in Holland so no problems for availability.

To make some sort of a short list for starting bourbon (or USA based Whiskey) exploration I asked my followers on Twitter for advice. This resulted in a list of about 10 spirits:

• Whichever cask of Heaven Hill Cadenhead's
• Elijah Craig 12
• 1776
• 1792
• Eagle Rare,
• Jeffersons Ocean
• Evan Williams
• Balcones Whisky 
• Blantons Bourbon
• Noah's Mill

 

I have no Idea for now why these would be advisable but I will enjoy finding out why. I will lookup all these up and describe them in this blog. So let's start exploring!  

Cadenhead's Heaven Hill

I had received this advice from Klaus Doblmann. He has his own blog DramsOfKlaus which can be found by following this link. So when I googled this stuff I found out two things. Cadenhead is a bottler and Heavel Hill is a bourbon distilley that has multiple whisky brands to its name. Such as Elijah Craig and Evan Williams. So apperently Cadenhead's as a bottling company does something with whiskey's from the Heaven Hill brands. Lets check that out. As it turns out I have been having a very hard time in finding any bottles being sold in Holland. Thanks to The Whisky Jug Blog  some more information is given about one of these bottleings.

One has to get lucky to be able to find any available online on any store. I can not find any of this stuff in Holland. So, I did learn something. I learned that Heaven Hill has a whisky under its own name, but also puts out lots of other brands. The cadenhead bottlings are from all kinds of whisky's from all over the world. The website of cadenheads seemed to be out, but it could be I'm looking at the wrong site! This is what is available in Holland from Cadenheads: https://www.bestofwhisky.com/nl/independents/cadenhead.html

Noah's Mill

The Noah's Mill Straight Bourbon Whiskey is one of the expressions of the Willett Distillery. On the page of the Distillery information can be found about the story behind the bourbon.

What it comes down to is that it has won awards and some guy called Jim Murray gave it a 93 our of a 100 back in 2012. I personally loved it when I had this in Berlin. I was really impressed about this Spirit. The fact that I liked it was the main reason for checking out the prices and getting myself a bottle.

As Ralfy suggest, choose a reference and start your journey based on that point of reference. I am deciding that this will be my referencepoint when exploring Bourbon's and other American Whiskey's. I will also compare this whiskey, I mean Bourbon, to expessions like Bruichladdich Classic Ladie, or a Bruicladdich LaddieMP3 single barel expression.

To find out what this would cost I looked up some pricing information in Holland (Netherlands) and as it turns out one can get a bottle here for as low as €49,95. On Masters of Malt it's priced at €70,32 and is sold out. So I just ordered one and added a bottle of Elijah Craig 12 yo at a price off €28,95 just for good measure. 

I tasted the other day and compared to the Elijah Craig I like this much better. But, compared to the experience in Berlin , where I tasted this for the first time, I was a bit disappointed. 

The nose was good! Nothing wrong there, but the color was less red, less sparkling then I remember. 

After some investigation I found out there are multiple versions of the Noah's mill and I got the one without the wax top and without the 15yo age statement. 

I do not know which one I had in Berlin. So no way to tell if the ambiance was also a factor in my tasting experience, but it probably did. 

http://modernthirst.com/2014/04/14/bourbon-review-noahs-mill/

My comments to this whisky on Instagram were:

• iladdie@lundybendslight i tasted the Noah's Mill . Much better then the #elijahcraig12 i must say. If i add water it really opens up and there is some oil that comes free. Nice slow legs after adding water. Reminds me of a sherry matured Bruichladdich I have. Less in your face vanilla and oak. Oranges, herbal notes. I quite like the Noah's mill !!
• lundybendslight@iladdie get this, if you happen to find a NM with a wax top it will have more oil, almost creamy and if you come across a wax top with an age statement of 15 years it's even better. The foil tops have a little thinner shorter finish. But the foil tops are all that's available unless you find a bottle for sale that someone had been holding. The product has changed over the years. Also look for its little brother Rowan's Creek. Glad you enjoyed it better than the EC12.

I'm concluding I like Noah's Mill better then Elijah Craig! 

Elijah Craig 12yo

This bourbon was the reference for Ralfy to start comparing American bourbons, whiskey and Rhy spirits. 

I opened up a bottle last night and put some in a glencairn. Let it settle for a bit.

After I let it strole I notice the legs were not particularly slow, they were actually very fast. Something I'm not used to since I own a couple of really nice Bruichladdich laddiemp3 bottles. 

James Lundy on Instagram asked me to post my tasting comments. Here is what I replied after nosing and tasting.

• iladdie@lundybendslight I am having one right now, next to a @Bruichladdich classic laddie edition_01. Nose is much more intense then the single malt. It's quite overwhelming where the malt is subtle. Taste is spicey, to much vanilla for me and to much, what I think is, oak. Compared to Elijah the Bruichladdich is more balanced and integrated in my current opinion. Since these are my first step with bourbons it might be that this kind off bourbon needs to grow on me before I start to appreciate it. Interesting though! And fun!!

So, not convinced yet about bourbon. 

What I learned is that, depending on something called a mashbill bourbon can taste very differently depending on the other 49%. I will need to look into that, since I want to prevent jumping to any conclusions based on the three bourbons tasted till now. 

Ok, ok! I tasted Jack Daniels black label too, but I'm not considering that as a serious spirit at all. Snob? Yes! Sorry! 😜 To far gone up the quality ladder in spirits to seriously consider that stuff other than for mixing with cola. 

Nespresso vs Whisky prices

The reason for this blog entry was to find some calculated way to use money spend on daily intakes, by your partner, on coffee as an excuse, a motivation, anything really, to allow you to spend the same amount of money on whisky ;)

There are multiple ways to "motivate" the purchase of a dram based on comparing to coffee price levels. I will try some and see if they "work"!

So first up are the Nespresso drinking partners. 

I want to find out how many cups of Nespresso I, ehm my partner, would need to drink in order to spend just as much money on lets say an Ardbeg 10yo, 700ml. 

In Holland the price of 700ml of Ardbeg 10yo is about €37,50. For 1000ml the price is €51,50. 

At a price of €0,39 per pod the Nespresso can be ordered per 10 pods, €3,90 per 10.

So, at €3,90 per 10 pods, you can buy 13 packages for the price of 1 litre of Ardbeg. That's 130 cups of Nespresso. At 40ml per cup, that works out to a total of 5,2 litres of coffee for each litre of Ardbed. 

Let's see how many servings a bottle of Ardbeg would give. 

Depending on the location a standard serving is anywhere between 20ml and 35ml. So out of a 1000ml bottle one would get between 50 and 28 servings. 

Per glass that would cost you about €1,- to €1,80. 

I was hoping to find a calculated argument that drinking coffee is more expensive then having a dram, but that only works out if you happen to drink 4 cups of coffee a day! 

Hey! Did I just make the argument I was looking for? I .....erm, no no, "my partner" drinks about 6 cups a day! Ok ok! At "her" work it's free ;) argument down the drain! But if she was actually paying for each cup, you could work out an agreement for yourself. 

One could argument democracy and equality. How many weeks would it take for "your partner" to drink 130 cups of Nespresso. 

Let's be modest and say two  Nespressos daily. 130 / 2 is 65 days. So that would mean the break even point would be about bi-monthly for you to buy a bottle of whisky. If "your partner" happens to drink more Nespressos even better! 

Now let's see! I, I mean "my partners" spends €2,- for a cup of coffee each morning while commuting to work. 

At 5 cups per week, 52 weeks a year that works out to 5x52x€2,- = €520,- per year! 

Wow! That kind of money can buy me just about any dram I could think of! This will help me to motivate buying a bottle monthly! Or an expensive one at a lower frequency!

So, here are the morals of this blog! Have "your partner" save money on coffee so you can spend it on whisky! 

Or, encourage your partner to drink more Nespressos and use the "quid pro quo" excuse to motivate a dram or two ;)

Hunting for Bruichladdich Octomore 07.4

Normally when I do a "hunting for" blog I look up the price levels of a Dram on websites in Holland and some other sites that ship to Holland. 

Right now I'm hunting for the price level for the just released Bruichladdich Octomore 07.4 / 167 ppm Virgin Oak.

I can put information in this blog about this dram, but it is much better if you go look at the source: http://www.bruichladdich.com/article/new-octomore-074-released

At this point in time, 21 of January 2016, the only place that has Octomore 07.4 available for ordering is the Bruichladdich.com online shop. It retails for £151,25 (€198 incl. shipping to Holland)

I will add more site when prices become available! 

First sites to mention a price are:

- www.bottleworld.de/ : €229,99

- eBay.de: €299,-

- www.masterofmalt: €206,51

- drankdozijn.nl: €175.- (discount) normally €199,-

- www.wijnhuisdenboer.nl: €199,-

Prices are dated on 08-03-2016.

So, for now, the discount price of Drankdozijn is the lowest I can find, but after that ordering at Bruichladdich itself is the best option if one lives in Holland. 

A Laphroaig 10yo to warm me up?

Today I went for a rather long bicycle ride with my 6 yo son! It's around freezing point here in the Netherlands so it was brisk to say the least! 

Ones home the little dude is happy to sit at his WII U Lego game, which gives me the time to enjoy a wee dram to warm me up! 

Standing in front of my "non-Bruichladdich" part of the cupboard I was thinking and debating which dram to have!

It was definitely not going to be the Akashi White Oak! That was a mistake to buy but you only find out what you don't like by trying. 

So the Aberlour then? It's warming yes, but more a dram for later at night! 

So maybe the Ardbeg 10? The Talisker Storm? Nope I choose the Laphroaig 10yo to warm me up! 

So while the kids watch Dora and play on the WII U, dad gets to put his feet up and nip on his dram! While at the same time writing this blog! 

So does it warm me up? Well that's where it gets weird! I do enjoy the Laphroaig 10yo a lot but somehow it's not bringing me the warmth I was looking  for. Yes there is peat! Yes there is a peppery note for sure but ones swallowed it doesn't quite warm me inside as I would have hoped! 

Can this be the "only" 40% vol that just doesn't give the warning effect? Maybe! Can I be that the room I'm in is cold? Plausible! Most probably it's the combination and these facts and that my 3yo daughter keeps pressing her cold hands in my face and that bear of hers! 

So now I have finished my dram, this blog is about to end with an observation. If you want to get warm with a dram, don't have cold bears around! 

Now that if had my dram and I'm correcting spelling errors I do feel some warmth from within but not the rush of warmth I was hoping for. So next time I want to warm up with a dram I will select another of my bottles and see how those do! 

This only shows that the only way to learn about whisky is by experience! To quote Adam Hannett:"interesting!".

 

Hunting for Bruichladdich Laddie Classic Edition_01

The For some time now I have been checking out Bruichladdich Laddie Classic Edition_01. I cannot precisely say why this dram is getting my attention but it does. For me it seems to represent the "Bruichladdich" style as much as anything even more as the "resurrection dram" version.

I bought the resurrection dram some time ago, but I'm reluctant to start drinking it, since it set me back a cool €171!

The edition_01 is not as highly priced as the resurrection version so I would feel less reluctant about actually opening the bottle and having a dram. 

Question? If I'm not investing in whisky, why should I keep myself from tasting the resurrection dram? Why am I reluctantly waiting? Do I need to get past a point? Thought?

Anyways, let's see what I would need to pay for a bottle of edition_01 at the regular sites I check out.

• Drank.nl : € Not Available 
• Drankgigant.nl : € Not Available 
• Drankdozijn.nl : € 79,50
• Mitra.nl : € Not Available 
• Gall.nl : € Not Available 
• Bestofwhisky.com : € Not available 
• onlinewhiskybestellen.nl : € Not available
• Whisky-on-line.com : € Not available 
• passievoorwhisky.nl : € Not available
• Masterofmalt.com : € Not available
• Vooreenmooiglas.nl: € Not available 

This dram seems to be hard to come by! Question to you all. Should I get it?

I think I should if I ever want to get my hands on a bottle! I ordered it at the only place that had one bottle still available. It should be delivered on Tuesday the 19th of January. I look forward to having a wee dram out of this bottle! 

The bottle was delivered! 

It's standing proudly next to his brother on in the Bruichladdich section of my cupboard! 

I opened it up and poured myself a wee dram! It's wonderful! Too early for tasting notes, but this is a dram I like! 

Preparing a trip to Islay, Scotland

I want to visit Islay, Scotland, with my wife!

This blog entry will be my notebook on how to get there, where to stay, where to eat, what to see, etc. 

Useful link I got from people on Twitter: http://www.islayinfo.com/travel.html

How to get there

By plane, Schiphol to Glasgow then on to islay airport. The only way to get to islay seems to be flighing in from either Oban or Glasgow. So Glasgow it is! The air service from islay to Oban is not flying to Glasgow as far as I can see, but I was not intending to go to Oban anyways. Well not on this trip I am not. 

Just for fun I tried looking up what a trip in the beginning of March would cost. Turns out the costs are not to bad! For about € 250 per person we can make the  trip! The prices are dependent on for when you book and how much time in advance. I will do some further checking on Flybe.com to see if I can find a most cost effective connection. 

Update 16/08/2016:

Turns out that I got myself a round way ticket for €54,-. I had saved up so many frequent flyer miles that the only things I'm paying now are taxes. Normally I would have payed around €150,-

Ones on/in Islay we we need to get around. The options would be to arrange transport by taxi, public bus, rental car or an organised touring company. 

Two car renstal are available on islay. Both Islay car rental companies offer pick up at airport, islaycarhire.com & carhireonislay.co.uk I won't be considering this option because of two reasons. One is left hand driving and the other is finding a designated driver. The extra costs are also a reason for choosing another option.

Since my higher education I have always traveled by public transport and since all the distilleries are all located near a bus stop I choose to take the public transport option. If need be I will get a taxi. 

Public transport is available and a timetable can be found here: Timetable

The photo below indicates the routes available on islay for public bus transport.

Update 16/08/2016:

After figuring out all the ferry sailing times I found out that, in my case, none really connect back well enough to allow me comfortable travel to and from Islay without not making the ferry or the flight back using the bus. Also the connecting bus to kennacraig departs from mid city Glasgow and this adds to travel time. 

So in the end we decided to get a rental car and this allows us to comfortably make crossings in time. I found out that my employer has a discount arrangement with Hertz which is saving 10-20%.

Update: 18/08/2016

I learned that booking the ferry works like this if you want a spot on the ferry. If you can book it, then its available. So, if you can select a time on the booking site of the ferry, it means that the ferry was not full at the moment you are booking. If it doesn't show up in the booking options while booking that ferry is full! At the end of the online booking session you get a two page pdf confirmation via email.

Where to stay

For accommodation I was adviced to check out multiple options by contacts on Twitter. 

Right next to Bruichladdich distillery is An Taigh Osda bed and breakfast. Great views and excellent food. For max of £80 per person per night. 

The ballygrant inn is good and price is ok and easy enough to get to Bruichladdich.

On the other side of the loch is The Bowmore House (about €114 per night) which is centrally located on the Island and would make excellent starting point for visits to both Bruichladdich on one side and Ardbeg / Lagavulin / Laphroaig / Caol Ila on the other side

Update 16/08/2016:

Here the date of booking really limited our options for finding an accommodation. My advice in retrospect is to BOOK EARLIER!!! Lol! Now we ended up in the hotel of one of the most popular pubs on Islay! The horror!! And that for €80,- pppn. The Lochside hotel in Bowmore is our home for three nights.

Where to eat?

I like to taste the local kitchen. Since Islay is obviously an island seafood would be on the menu. Filtering this on trip advisor I got this listing. 

Summering the estimated costs:
Flight : €251 (Amsterdam-Glasgow-Islay round trip)
Bed and Breakfast : €114 per night
Transport by bus on islay : €10 max per day
Diner : max €50 per person per day
Tour at Bruichladdich: €33,55 for the wearhouse experience
Bottle of valinch: £ 75,-

So in total a trip would cost about €618,- 

Update 16/08/2016:

- ticket : €55,-

- rental car : €150 (cost of €300 split by two)

- ferry : € 37,50 (cost of 65 split by two)

- Diner : max €50 per person per day
- Tour at Bruichladdich: €33,55 for the wearhouse experience
- Bottle of valinch: £ 75,-

- hotel : €80,- per night

Total cost for three nights will be about €650,- increased with cost for additional tours.

Personally I think it would be well worth the trip since this idea has become something of a "bucket-list" goal in my life. Why that is is not for this blog, but I believe more and more that delaying the opportunity  to life now is not a wise thing to do. You may not be around to live a dream. So don't delay what you can do now!

I have been talking to Matt Goodwin! He spend Some days on Islay and was kind enough to give me some advice. Please look at his trip on YouTube: 

http://youtu.be/yzeuOl4PaBU

Thank you Armin of Islay Blog for the answers to many questions!! Check out http://www.islayblog.com/ for his blog! 

Hunting for Old Pulteney 17 yo

Today I watched a Review by Ralfy on YouTube that features Old Pulteney 17 yo. I always enjoy the reviews of Ralfy since they are honnest, straat forward and non-commercial. Go Watch it.

Photo by oldpulteney.com

I wanten to see what the price level would be for this Dram, so I did my normal scan along all the retailers I know here in Holland.

Turns out that here in Holland my options are: 

• Drank.nl : € Not Available 
• Drankgigant.nl : € 72,50
• Drankdozijn.nl : € 72,50
• Mitra.nl : € Not Available
• Gall.nl : € Not Available
• Bestofwhisky.com : € 79,70
• onlinewhiskybestellen.nl : € Not Available
• Whisky-on-line.com : € Not Available
• passievoorwhisky.nl : € Not Available
• Masterofmalt.com : € 81,41

Apparently this malt is not meant for the general public since they are not sold in the Gall en Gall en Mitra stores. This means you will not run into it when shopping at a supermarket or a mall here in Holland. You will have to go in to a specialist store or shop at one of the above mentioned sites.

This time Drankdozijn and Drankgigant are ex aequo in first place. Drankgigant is again the best in price.

Is Mr. Justin Bieber also a whisky aficionado?

I came across a page informing the world that Mr. Justin Bieber seems, like myself, to also have a taste for fine whisky. 

Can we welcome Mr. Bieber as a fellow whisky aficionado? Let's find out!

The page I found is: 

http://www.supajam.com/news/story/See-change-Justin-Bieber-smokes-joint-and-chugs-bottle-of-Whisky-on-stage

I found it interesting to find out what whisky Mr. Bieber was drinking and luckily the page gives some details. 

The page mentions that it was a "Hennessy" whisky and from the images and video I was able to deduct what spirit it was.

Since the Hennessy bottles are all off different shape depending on the spirit, it was not to hard to find the bottle that Mr. Bieber was drinking. The bottle he is holding us tapering outwards from the bottom. Since only one bottle in the Hennessy range had this feature it was quite easy to identify the spirit. The bottle Mr. Bieber was holding is most likely "Hennessy VS".

I had heard of Hennessy before, but never in the context of Whisky or Whiskey. 

After some googling I found out there is no such thing as Hennessy Whisky. The bottle Mr. Bieber was holding is a cognac! 

Let's find out about this spirit! According to the Hennessy website these tasting notes apply to it: 

Hennessy Very Special brings together an intense and fruity character with oaky notes. On the palate, powerful flavors suggest grilled almonds, supported by notes reminiscent of fresh grapes.

According to http://whiskyanalysis.com/index.php/methodology-introduction/methodology-flavour-comparison/ Mr. Bieber would probably like whiskies such as Aberlour 10yo, Glenfarclas 10yo/12yo/21yo/25yo/30yo, Glenmorangie Signet, Highland Park 18yo.

I have not found any more references of Mr. Bieber being a fellow whisky aficionado but if he is I am sure we will welcome him! 

Whisky Flavor Maps and charts

I have been reading up on what flavors are available to be found in whisky. Seems there are loads of charts to be found.

One chart I like is the one made by Dave Broom, author of the atlas of world whisky. I can not put his chart up in this blog since he has the copywrite of it and you will just have to buy his iBook or Book online.

Another chart which I like a lot can be found on the page http://whiskyanalysis.com/

There is highly detailed information there to be found and it uses the information already available in studies and puts it in a flavor map.

The chart is based on the Wishart information whisky data set derived from his first book. Some statistics analysis methods and software were used to make the charts found below. I tried to reproduce the chart, but found I needed to become a theoretical statistics expert to do so. You can use these links if you want to give it a go yourself: 

- Http://blog.revolutionanalytics.com/2013/12/k-means-clustering-86-single-malt-scotch-whiskies.html

-  http://joelcadwell.blogspot.nl/2014/07/using-biplots-to-map-cluster-solutions.html?m=1

 http://factominer.free.fr/

The information presented in this map chart is characterized by simular flavor camps that Dave Broom also uses in his writings.

I find both flavor maps highly informative and helping me identify where the whisky I like is placed in these charts. Will that mean I will not like a whisky that is situated on the other end of a spectrum? It may, but when I am after a simular taste experience to a whisky I know I may look at these charts and find a close neighbor. 

Another chart I located online also puts port/whine/sherry influences in a chart. 

This help because it shows the influence of sherry and other wine casks on the flavor profile of a whisky. From the Dave Broom diagram is is not clear to me if I would be buying a sherry matured whisky or not. This is not a big issue since you will probably be able to read information on the label that would help in this respect. Also blogs, reviews can help. I however like this char since it helps spot the sherry tasting whisky I don't like at this point in time. 

Is there a universal truth? No! Why do I say this? A chart like the ones above may be true on some level, but it will never have the detail to match up with your own personal flavor preferences. Therefor I advice to use these charts for what they are and let your senses make the choice if you like a dram or not. 

Whisky Flavor profiles, some help please

Hello whisky drinkers of the world.

I want to ask you a question if I may.

I am trying to find good recourses for whisky flavor maps / charts / indexes etc.

If you have a link to a blog, site, book etc. please let me know!

Thanks

Hunting for Lagavulin 16 yo

This Blog was originally posted on my iRomby Blog. (iromby)

I wanted to find out what I would need to pay for a bottle of #lagavulin 16 yo 700 ml, 43%

Photo by : https://thesinglemaltsnob.wordpress.com/tag/lagavulin/

Turns out that here in Holland my options are: 

Drank.nl : € 48,50

Drankgigant.nl : € 48,50

Drankdozijn.nl : €44,50

Mitra.nl : € 63,99

Gall.nl : € 54,29

Bestofwhisky.com : € 54,70

http://www.onlinewhiskybestellen.nl :€ 57,95

Whisky-on-line.com : € 53,12

passievoorwhisky.nl : € 59,95

Prices mentioned are valid on the 30th of December 2015.

There is a clear winner Drankdozijn.