Woodford Reserve

Time to digress from scotches and check out some American Bourbon. Woodford Reserve seems to be much beloved by people on the net and also by a mysterious unnamed manager at the local liquor store. Picked this one up today on just a whim from the 'manager selection.' I like that they never try to explain why the manager would or could or should recommend different picks. But to be honest, the manager has never let us down.

Woodford Reserve kicks in at 45.2%. There's a bit of a disagreement on how much water to add. Start with a little and if you like it, stick with it. Find it too strong... put some more in.

The first thing we noticed with the nose is the brown sugar; very strong and sweet, with a nice blend of vanilla and warm butterscotch. With further investigation there are hints of orange zest, clove, and maybe a possible sultana scent, but maybe that's just the alcohol speaking.

The palate has a dry oak taste with chocolate and amaretto blending into a nice coffee taste.

The finish continues the oak theme, with a strong almond feel. A very delicious bourbon indeed. Nice and sweet with chocolate, almonds and a plethora of other tastes to discover? Who wouldn't like it?

Old Pulteney 12 Year Old

So this is a new scotch for us. We've been coming across it in checking out other sites and other reviewers. It's mentioned as a damn fine scotch and good starter scotch for people. We've never heard of it, and it's only just recently been added to the liquor store here in Nova Scotia.

We're used to adding quite a lot of water to scotch lately to bring out the nose and flavours, but upon checking out another review of this, we did a second shot with less water. The second one was better, with only around a teaspoon of water. There was more bite from the alcohol, but the flavours were stronger and the experience was more enjoyable.

The nose was a little subtle maltiness with hints of almond, vanilla, toffee, and a sweet fruity something. With less water, there were more floral notes that seem to dominate the others. I hate to say sultana because I don't use the word and have only come across it from other scotch reviews. But I've tasted other scotches that had that sultana taste and there's that in the nose of this one too.

The big thing about the palate for us was the buttery toffee feel, like Werther's Originals. There was a touch of oak and general fruitiness. We've read and watched people list off a whole bunch of different specific fruits, but we didn't taste that. We experienced more of a general fruity flavour.

The finish continues with the sweet buttery toffee, the winter spice flavours added by the higher than normal alcohol (it's only 40% but we haven't watered it down much). And a crisp oaky feel that ends fairly quickly.

Penderyn Madeira Finish

This light coloured Welch whiskey comes in a cool box. But a box isn't going to be enough if the whiskey is crap. However, the Penderyn Madeira Finish is excellent so the box just adds to its cool. Clocking in at 46% it's nice and strong, but may require a little more water to get to the more delicious flavours.

The dominant scent in the nose is vanilla, with an underlying sweetness and fruitiness, more leaning towards slightly fermenting grapes, probably from the Madeira (fortified Portuguese wine) casks they were finished in. Lots of blending smells so it's interesting to linger on. Perhaps there's even a very subtle hint of coffee in there.

The palate brings out more sweet with maybe caramel or vanilla fudge. There's a dispute about there maybe being some oak or malt, maybe a cereal wheaty taste. It's very slight, whatever it is.

The finish is nice and medium. Slight malty and tingles of spiciness that may be due to the higher alcohol content. Kind of the nice slight burn of ginger with a little more vanilla fudge.

Te Bheag Nan Eiliean Bottling

Maybe I'm immature... no correction. I am immature. So I originally bought this because when you look at it quickly it looks like Tea Bag, and as an immature person this makes me think of the sexual activity of placing one's balls into someone else's mouth. But I digress a bit and this scotch is nothing like having someone's balls put into your mouth.

Anyway, apparently the proper pronunciation of this is "chey vek", which is fine to say but not as fun as saying, "Would you like me to Tea-Bag you?"

This Gaelic Whisky is advertised as a connoisseur scotch. What I think this means is that even though it's budget priced it contains some of the flavours and tastes you can only find in higher priced drams. The biggest thing about the nose is the predominance of peat. We're read about a scent of salty sea side air and maybe that's what that is, might not have picked that out without help, but now that it's been said, we can agree. There is also a hint of maple sweetness.

The palate has hints of coffee bean, with more more peat mixing with a subtle sweetness.

The finish is hot and the peat gives way to a taste of oak.

Overall a good way to mix up your scotch experience without spending too much money.

Singleton of Dufftown 12 Year Old

A darker more golden coloured 12 year old singe malt.  Not too strong with a 40% alcohol. The first impression of the nose was of apples, with a mixture of fruits and possibly pear. There was something else there, we were thinking vanilla, but it was pretty subtle and we couldn't pin it down. Carmel, toffee or brown sugar? A little sweetness anyway. Then there's a touch of oak that then comes alive in the palate, as a dry oak taste. Touches of general warm scotch spices. We don't like using terms so vague as spice, but maybe warm winter spices might be as close as we'll willing to go (like things you'll put in mulled wine, a subtle in-the-background ginger, cinnamon, allspice, anise, etc.).
The finish is nice and long, with the previous flavours of the palate and a tiny tinge of orange zest and pear.

Tomatin's Stillmen's Choice gift pack

This is a nice little teaser. Three Tomatin single malt's, a 12, 15 and 18 year old that come as three 50 ml airplane bottles.

First comes the Tomatin 12 year old. This one is a nice sweet scotch, with a nose of fruits. Not getting the fruit smell? Then add some more water and it really brings it out. They say there's a malty smell and maybe it is, maybe it's more like oak. I kind of feel Malt is a stronger Oak smell. The palette continues with the fruity tastes and perhaps some caramel. The package speaks of stewed apples and nuttiness. We found it more sweet fruits and caramel. Impressive and delicious. Hadn't tasted Tomatin before but I think the future will see more than just a sample in the mix. I'll need to directly compare this to Glenlivet. They are similar and I think Tomatin may win out as a superior scotch. But we'll have to wait and see.

The 15 year old is similar in taste, but with a few key differences. Gone is the malt/oak of the nose. I find the fruitiness stronger with a hint of the Vanilla they speak of.  The package speaks of fruit cake, which I guess I just view as more fruit, rather than any cakeness. The malty oak taste comes in on the palate with a gentle sweetness. The finish is nice and long. A very smooth experience. Probably better than the 12 year old, and since the two only differ in price (for a full bottle) about $20, maybe quite worth it, when you want to spend an extra $20 to get a better scotch.

The 18 year old is good. The fruit is stronger in the nose and more delicious, a slight hint of vanilla and the taste of a maple syrup in smell (which is weird because it smells like maple syrup would taste, not how maple syrup smells). Dry oak and a bit of sweet in the palette, but a nice building wave in the finish with the first gulp, the dry oak intensifies as the gentle hint of sweet settles in. Delicious for sure,