Bunnahabhain 18 year old

With so many whiskies and bourbons out there, it is always hard to decide what to write about next. I am still questioning it now as I write but with a chilly start to the day I finally decided to take you back to Islay. If you have not had it before I will introduce you to an 18 year old Bunnahabhain.  Yes another Scotch, but no worries, my Thursday post will feature an Irish whiskey and I will include bourbon in the weeks to come.

If you are like me, then you might botch the pronunciation of the name of this whisky. Looking at islayinfo.com the pronunciation break down is Boon-a-havn and the word is Gaelic meaning river mouth.

This 18 year old single malt has an ABV of 46.3% and if you were to purchase, the average cost would be around $90-$110. The distillery is located in the northern part of Islay below the Isle of Jura and right above the Port of Askaig.

For all those whisky lovers, getting the gift of whisky is probably pretty great, so I got a chance to taste this whisky as it was a birthday gift made to my boyfriend. I always say that it is because of all the people around me and the support they've offer me that I’ve been able to taste great whiskies.

My Experience

Color: dark gold
Smell: Sweet
Taste: Sweet, woodsy, hints of salt with a burn at the end

I found Bunnahabhain to be slightly different than any of the other Islay whiskies I’ve tasted. It’s probably the least smoky and I usually tend to associate smoke with most Islay’s. It is also not as peaty as the others. Although a very smooth whisky, I won’t say that I loved it, but I also didn’t hate it. To me it was just simply OK and to be honest, a bit forgettable.

I a strong believer that no matter the review someone should never over look a whisky because my palate may be different than theirs. I have found that I've enjoyed whiskies that others don't seem to like. Who knows maybe a few years from now I will taste it again and I will get different experience because we mature so does our palates.

Do note that my whisky experience may not be yours, so if you’d like, give it a try and let me know your thoughts.

Cheers!

Japan’s Hibiki 12 year old

Of course when you think of whisky there is a chance that most of us think about Scotch and Irish whiskies. Aside from those and the American whiskies/bourbon, I thought the very same way. Japanese whisky was not in my radar till very recently. After having read about it in a magazine, I was certainly curious about it.

I've subsequently learned that Japan has been producing whisky for many, many years and also happens to be a huge whisky producer. Since the start of their whisky production, it wasn’t till very recent years, that they’ve come to light to the rest of the world.

Within the last few years not only has Japanese whiskies made their presence known in the whisky world, but they have also taken a good number of whisky awards in the process.

Hibiki, this particular whisky, is produced by Suntory Whisky which first established its whisky distillery in 1923. Hibiki in Japanese means echo, Suntory uses its synonym word resonance to describe its meaning. Its range features this 12 as well as a 17, 21 and 30 year old whisky. This 12 year old blended whisky has an ABV of 43% and if you were to purchase its price range is about $60-$70 depending on where you buy.

My Experience:

Color: Amber
Smell: very sweet
Taste: woodsy and strong with hints of sweetness. It finished with a slight burn

I’ll be honest before, tasting this whisky I was a bit skeptical. I had heard from others that it wasn’t very good, so I was going into the tasting with the idea in mind I that I too would not like it. To my surprise I was proven wrong. At first I did find it to be strong, but the more I tasted the more I liked it. It was different but it was a very well blended and balanced whisky.

I would definitely recommend trying especially if you wanted to explore something new. If not this product I'd certainly recommend checking out Japanese whisky. Since making their whisky presence known they definitely look like it’s here to stay.

Cheers!

Bully Boy Distillers and their American Straight Whiskey

If you've never heard of Bully Boy, no worries, I just learned about them very recently. I believe I was more excited of the fact that they were right here in Boston. Being that they are a local distiller I wanted to learn more about them and their whiskey. I made that happened this weekend by taking a tour of their distillers and tasting the products to include their very own American Straight Whiskey.

Their distillery is located in a small warehouse in Roxbury, MA. Saturday’s appear to be their busiest tour days and we were lucky to snag a slot on their last tour of that day.  The distillery although rather small had character. One thing to note about Bully Boy is that although I am writing about their whiskey they also produce other spirits to include, Vodka (their best seller), Rum and White Whiskey (which is not aged).

Taking their tour was one of my highlights this past weekend. It was fun! Their tour guide was funny, informational and was very personable. In the tour we got a chance to see where they matured and distilled their spirits as well as we got a chance to sample a bit of their products. If you happen to live in the area or in the state, it is something I’d recommend for anyone to do.

Now onto their American Straight Whiskey, their whiskey is aged 3 years in new American oak barrels. Their mash consists of corn, rye and malted barley. It has an ABV of 42% and a bottle purchased at the distillery was priced at $38.

My Experience

Color: Golden brown
Smell: Sweet and woodsy
Taste: Slightly sweet with a mild burn.

I really wanted to love this whiskey and although it has potential, I still think there is room for improvement. It is a very simple whiskey that is not bad by any means, but lacks a bit of bite. It has a slight burn that is nice but leaves you wanting more at the end. To me it tasted more like bourbon than an actual whiskey, so if you are a bourbon drinker then you will really enjoy this product.

Another way you'll really enjoy this whiskey is by mixing it up with something else. On a lazy Sunday we mixed it up with Gosling's Ginger Beer and it was a great cocktail. The whiskey taste was present and not too over powering. It was a refreshing cocktail I'd recommend with their American Straight whiskey..

Overall I would not say that you should not purchase this product. It is nice to have a local product in your shelves. The whole overall experience from visiting the distillery to tasting their products was great. They are a very new distillery with lots of potential and I know that they will continue to expand and improve their products.

If you are looking for something fun to do on a weekend look them up and visit them, you won’t regret that tour.

Cheers!

30 year old The MacPhail’s Collection from Tamdhu Distillery

What’s sweeter than the Thursday before a long weekend (knowing that I will be working from home tomorrow) and bolder than the red denim jeans I am wearing right now, well talking about a 30 year old whisky is. There is no better way to kick off this holiday weekend than by talking about The MacPhail’s Collection from Tamdhu Distillery 30 year old.

I’ve been lucky enough to be surrounded by people who enjoy whisky as much as I do. It has given me the opportunity to taste whiskies I would normally not have a chance to. In this instance I got a chance to taste this whisky after raiding my boyfriend’s family whisky collection cabinet.

If you are a whisky drinker, you as well I can appreciate the amount of history these whiskies and distilleries have. It makes tasting their products more enjoyable. What’s great to know about Gordon & MacPhail is that their MacPhail’s collection has a wide range of whiskies that are distilled in different top notch whisky distilleries around Scotland. This collection pairing with Tamdhu is a great match and that shows in the end result of this whisky. After years of distilling with other distillers Gordon & MacPhail finally acquired a distillery of their own and now produce Benromach whisky.

Now this particular 30 year old Speyside whisky distilled at the Tamdhu distillery has an ABV of 43%. It also has a wider price range than any of the other whiskies I’ve written about. Depending on where you purchase this can cost $145-$190. It could also go upwards of $200 in other places I checked. 

My Neat Experience

Color: Golden Brown (Amberish)

Smell: Sweet and woodsy (To get a better smell of the whisky, I poured a few drops on the base of my palms and I rubbed them together. It was the sweet smell that was left lingering after this process)

Taste: This whisky had a very sweet start to it. It had a very well balanced taste. After the sweet I was hit with a bit of spice. This full bodied whisky has a slight burn at the end but the finish is smooth and lovely.

Although pricey due to it years of maturation this is a very good whisky. You can taste the years of  great craftsmanship. I would have no money if I ever bought every single bottle of whisky or whiskey I tasted, but it was certainly a treat for me to try it this one and I would recommend if you ever get the chance to as well. If you have tried it or do try it let me know your thoughts.

If you are headed out this weekend on a long weekend adventure, safe travels and may you have a dram or two. Look out for my Bully Boy Distillers write up on Monday as I take a tour of their facilities this Saturday right here in Boston.

Cheers!

Ledaig 10 year old

To start this last week of August (so hard to believe), I am taking you back to the Islands of Scotland with a Ledaig 10 from the Isle of Mull on the west coast side of the country. This whisky is produced at the Tobermory distillery and it is the only distillery in the island. This distillery not only produces Ledaig 10 but also produces it’s very own Tobermory single malt. That single malt product has a range of a 10 year old and a 15 year old.

Ledaig 10 has an ABV of 46.3% and if you were looking to purchase a bottle, depending on where you go, it will cost you about $45-$55. It is a very decently priced whisky. Something to point out, if you recall my Chill-Filtration blog post from August 22nd, then you'll remember that I noted that most chill filtered whiskies happen to have an ABV of 46% or less. This Ledaig 10 is definitely a non chill-filtered whisky and I still enjoyed very much. 

My Experience
 

Color: A nice light golden color

Smell: To me it smelled peaty and smoky

Taste: My palate was first hit with that peaty taste, followed by smoke and it ended with a bit of spicy. There is a nice burn in the end that makes this whisky most enjoyable.


This whisky for the price is well worth the money. It is far less than what you normally would pay average wise and the product is really great. As the days start getting cooler it’s a great whisky to warm you up with that nice wood smoke taste.

Would I ever add this to my collection? Yes, this is a whisky that I would certainly add to my collection. I did enjoy the taste and think that the price is even sweeter. If you are looking for a great product, at a very good looking price then try this, it won’t disappoint you or your wallet. 

Cheers!

Thank you for all the visits to the blog!!

After a great weekend with loved ones I got a chance to look at my blog stats. It has been a little over two months now that I started writing my whisky blog. With that said I wanted to say THANK YOU, THANK YOU, and THANK YOU!!! The amount of support I’ve received from all those reading my blog, has just been absolutely amazing.

Having 1250+ visits to the blog site in this amount of time is more than I can have ever asked for. I hope to continue writing good reviews and helpful information that will provide guidance in your whisky selection.

Although I can hold my own with whisky talking, when it comes to writing a blog, there is always the fear that no one will ever read it. My main goal when I first started to write the blog was to better inform non whisky drinkers about whisky and what they should choose if they were going to start drinking. It has since evolved to not only include non whisky drinkers but passionate whisky drinkers as myself.

Thank you again for your support and for fueling my passion. I will continue to write and can only hope that you all continue to read and provide feedback so I can only get better.

Cheers!

Chill-Filtration

If you've ever picked up a bottle of whisky that read non chill-filtered and didn’t know what it was, no worries my post today will hopefully help explain it. As I am far from a technical person, I wanted to provide a simple, quick, non-technical explanation everyone could understand, if they didn’t know already.

For starters the chill-filtering process is a subject for debate. There are those that are for it and those that are against it. Purists believe the process removes flavors from the whisky while the other side believes that process makes their whisky look good without taking away from it.

The reason why the process was initially introduced was because whiskies with an ABV of 46% or less when brought down to lower temperatures, to include adding ice, would commonly get a hazy look to it. Many people didn’t like this hazy/cloudy look and to satisfy those people, distilleries introduced this chill-filtering process.

The chill-filtering process removes all the residues that create this hazy look and is done before bottling. To put it in a very simple way, chill-filtering was only introduced to make a whisky look good. With is this process that haze no longer appeared. This satisfied those whisky drinkers that didn’t like the haze but others strongly believe that the process takes away from the final product. Whisky distilleries that are against the process clearly indicate this on there bottles by labeling it Non Chill-Filtered.You can see that pictures below on the Ardbeg bottle.

I honestly can’t tell you that I prefer one way or the other. If you’ve ever drunk Dalmore 12 and/or Glenfiddich 12 then you’ve had a chill-filtered whisky. From personal experience and from my last blog I can tell you that I personally loved Dalmore 12. I also love non chill-filtered whiskies, which include:

• Ardbeg - This is one of my favorites, which I have yet to write about

• Jura - I wrote about Jura Prophecy on my July 29th post and I very much enjoyed it

• Bruichladdich - Also another great whisky I enjoyed

In the end I truly just enjoy a good whisky! To me if it is a good whisky I don't care whether it underwent a chill-filter process or not.  I will continue to try chill-filtered and non chill-filtered whiskies. You on the other hand can be your own judge and decide what you prefer.

If you need help searching for a chill-filtered or non chill-filtered whisky, I found this site while rummaging through the internet. It's something that can possibly help you tell which whiskies are chill-filtered and which are not if you want to look that information up:

http://www.royalmilewhiskies.com/advancedsearch.asp

No go out there and enjoy your weekend!

Cheers!