Macallan 12 year old

Macallan has decided to change up everything. Apparently, according to the information we have received, they've decided to toss off age statements, maybe due to high demand, and just offer a non-age statement blend with pre-judged dollar radios. They're just releasing everything with a made up name, without any statement of age. We're not a fan of this. However, we've had some 12 year old sitting for a couple of years... and have now drank the last shot of it. Yeah, it's been sitting for a couple of years, so it's hard to judge it, but nevertheless its a damn fine scotch.

The nose is strong with caramel and toffee. The sweetness is very strong with a burnt sugar scent, along with vanilla and a sherry note that is very light in the background.

The palate is very similar to the nose, with a delicious smooth caramelized sugar, but with malty undertones.

The finish begins with a medicinal taste that fades quickly into a oak and woody finish, a bit of vanilla and more sweetness. Very smooth and delicious.

It really is a perfect scotch as is. So delicious and smooth you can't say anything bad about it. This was the best scotch ever... unfortunately... now is unavailable and gone forever.

If you see this in a store... BUY IT! It'll probably be your last chance to get hold of it.

Glenfiddich 15 year old

Let's just begin by stating that we weren't too impressed with the Glenfiddich 12 year old. That along with Glenlivet and Glenmorangie are what we consider the best known single malts out there, you can pretty much pick them up at any liquor store and they are fairly reasonably priced. They're starter single malts for people who want to experiment with the idea. Glenfiddich 12 year old is alright, sort of boring and simple, so it's our least favourite. It's meant to appeal to a large group of people... the larger a group of people become the more collectively stupid they are. At least that's our opinion.

However, the boring and bland ends with the 15 year old. It was quite a surprise for us. We were pretty pleased and it's good to see that Glenfiddich has treated the 15 year with an extra touch to improve it in wonderful ways. Yes, start out with the 12 year old, they seem to say, but when you're ready to spend a little more for a better experience then move onto the 15 year old. The 15 year old is matured in American bourbon, Portuguese sherry and virgin oak. The whisky is then mellowed in a solera vat before being married in Portuguese oak tuns. We approve of these extra steps. It definitely adds something wonderful and gives it the complexity that the 12 year was lacking. It's only 40%, which is a little disappointing, but is something we'd expect from a big brand that wants to be available in all markets. They mention nothing about non-chill filtering or caramel colour so you should almost expect it to be chill filtered and a little colour added. It definitely looks that way, which is too bad.

It starts out, without any water, strong in a scent of sherry that dominates the other smells; oak, vanilla and toffee.

Adding water really opens up the smells, and you get a burst of apples and pears. The sherry drops from being dominate, while vanilla and chocolate mix with sweet caramel, and a little hint of oak.

The palate is smooth with a warm spicy feel, and then comes on the chocolate... so good, some orange and caramel sweetness fill your mouth with pleasure.

The finish gets all buttery and creamy, with vanilla and oak, and when everything fades you're left with a mouth that continues to taste a delicious creamy chocolate and oak.

It's quite decadent and delicious. A truly pleasurably experience.

Our hint of the day: We really think you should let you glass sit for a while once you're done whatever whiskey you're drinking and when all the liquid pools at the bottom, drink that last one drop. This would be the worst idea in the world if you were drinking beer, toss that last 1/10 of a beer, that 'vadim' is crap. But with whiskey or whisky, that last drop can be pure gold. It's often a wonderful and slightly unique experience in itself, where you can taste some of the flavour of the drink in a nice giant burst. Smelling the empty glass is often more pleasurable than the original nose. Maybe people's focus on the nose is ass backwards.

The Glen Breton Battle of the Glen

The Glen Breton Battle of the Glen is a 15 year old Canadian Single Malt Whisky and is the Glenora Distillery cheeky special edition release in response to finally winning the court case against the Scotch Whisky Association.

A tiny bit of background: The Scotch Whisky Association tried to prevent the Glenora Distillers from releasing their whisky because they felt the word "Glen" would confuse people into thinking this Canadian Whisky was actually scotch. It took 9 years of legal battles but then finally after it escalated up to the Supreme Court of Canada, they dismissed the application of the Scotch Whisky Association for leave to appeal in its unsuccessful campaign to oppose the trade-mark registration of Glen Breton. It seems to us that the Scotch Whisky Association were just kind of being dicks about this.

But basically Glen Breton is scotch... or at least, it's scotch styled Canadian whisky. The Glenora Distillery, located in Glenville, NS and located near the Glenora falls, never even try to call themselves 'scotch style' and say Canadian Whisky on their labels next to the maple leaf, not a thistle.  However, it is made the same way scotch is made and if it was made in Scotland it would be scotch, but it's made in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, so everyone has to refer to it as Canadian single Malt Whisky. The Glenora Distillery is the first distillery in North America to distill their whisky this way. Maybe The Scotch Association was worried that it would be a slippery slope and sooner or later there would be a great number of competing single malts out there.

As a scotch and single malt drinker... how could this be a bad thing?

It comes in at 43% and it's fairly expensive: $110.00. Apparently you can only buy it from the distillery itself. We made a trip there and so that's how we have it. The trip to the distillery was great, so maybe we'll go again and get some more. It isn't chill filtered and it doesn't have anything, like colouring, added. Nice and pure.

Glen Breton whiskys all have a a very malty aspect to them. You can really smell that very same malt when you take the tour. It's everywhere. So it's not surprising that the nose of this one begins with malt and a tinge of oak or maybe just straight up woodiness. There's vanilla from the bourbon cask (During the tour they mentioned they use virgin Bourbon casks, most likely from Buffalo Trace). Apples and Pear smells are strong and delicious. The warehouses in which the casks are stored are surrounded by apple groves and as the casks breath they're sure to absorb some of these rich fruity smells. A light sweetness with aspects of caramel make their first appearance in the nose and will follow through later on. Then hiding in the background there's a hint of chocolate (there's more chocolate when you smell it straight than when you add some water, but the chocolate also comes back in the pallet, so adding some water is still a good idea).

The taste brings on very malty and fruity flavours, mixed with hazelnut. Once you have your first sip, you can smell more hazelnut in the nose as well. The chocolate comes back on the tongue.

The finish comes on quick. It's a smooth big creamy finish with more hints of vanilla and buttery toffee. The buttery feeling really takes over and almost coats your mouth in its flavours. There's a very light lingering oak that finishes it off. There was some dispute about this slight oaky finish. One of us thought it was sort of a nutty oak, while the other said that oak is wood and can't be nutty. The dispute remains.

Overall this is really nice whisky. Will we get it again? I think we started making plans to visit the Distillery again before we had even left.