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! 

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.

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. 

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.

Unboxing Bruichladdich LaddieMP3 gift

To honor an epic sail trip sponsored by the Bruichladdich distillery people could send in pictures of their own epic trips!

The lads at Bruichladdich had some wee laddie bottle available and three lucky people would get selected and win a dram. People were promoted to actively bribe the jury, in good Bruichladdich tradition!

I entered and won a dram! Below are photos of the unboxing! 

The dram that I got is a 2015, distilled in 

2003, FULL TERM PORT casks, whisky that was selected to give a Christmas feeling. 

The Bruichladdich site tells us this about this dram: Distilled in 2003 and bottled in 2015, this single malt whisky has spent its entire maturation period in a port hogshead barrel by the shores of Loch Indaal.

Northern Portugal's Douro river valley is not only port's Denominação de Origem Controlada (DOC), it has UNESCO world heritage status due to archaeological evidence of wine production stretching back two thousand years.

The limited amount of 250 bottles are sold out on the Bruichladdich site and for good reason. It is bottled at a whopping 60.1% / vol and that is obviously cask strength! 

I have not added water myself till now, but you could if you wanted to. Just try if you can! 

Will probably post a blog about what I think I smell and taste later. 

Whisky or Whiskey

Why is Whisky spelled as Whiskey too?

Whisky (plural Whiskies) is used as the official spelling in Scotland.
Whisky is used as the official spelling in Canada.
Whiskey (plural Whiskeys) is used as the official spelling in Ireland and the USA

It is interesting how different languages spell whisky in different ways.

In Dutch it is allowed to use both, but it shows that you know something about Whisky is you use Whisky to tell something about a Scotch. The plural in Dutch is Whisky's according to the Van Dale dictionary.

In German it is spelled as Whisky with Whiskys as the plural.

In French and Spanish it is spelled as Whisky with Whiskies as the plural.

In Norwegian and Italian the spelling is Whisky for both plural and Singular

In Russian it is another word altogether :  виски [ви́ски] 

To stick to English/American spellings. Is one way of spelling better than the other? Nope! It is just a spelling, but it can help keep track of what your blogging about. So I will be using Whiskey and Whisky to indicate if I am talking about Irish/American Whiskey or not.

The iLaddie blog

This blog will be About my quests in the wonderful world of whisky.

I have been learning about flavour profiles in the last view days. The blog I used to post on was iromby.blogpost.nl which I will probably still use, but not so much for whisky. 

The whisky I'm most proud of getting till now is the Bruichladdich 2001 resurrection dram which was bottled to honour the reopening in 2001 of this distillery. 

I had to really look all over Dutch websites to find it. Eventually I located a store in Enkhuizen that had one bottle available. 

Having sold some good amount of Lego I decided to get this bottle for €171,- 

I'm still debating if I'm ever going to open it, but it looks like I will!