It turns out its easier to find whiskies I was disappointed by than those I was enthralled by. As a result we have a second parter.
KININVIE KVSM 001
A great well marketed bottle of whisky with only one problem. The story is great and the experimentation factor is great but its just not very great to drink. As is becoming a theme here without a great story or good marketing it might be hard to sell whisky but without great whisky its impossible to survive in the long term (probably)
Glen Scotia 10 Year Old 2008 – Campbeltown Malts Festival 2018
I like Glen Scotia and some of the best whiskies I have ever reviewed for this page have been from that Campbeltown distillery. This is not one though and that is a shame. I know a lot of people really liked this and rated it highly. In fact that is the reason I picked up a bottle but it just fell flat for me and lacked interest or flavour. I didn’t click with it and it took a while to get through the bottle. We can’t all click with the same stuff though otherwise life would be awfully boring but for me I was disappointed when I opened the bottle.
Singleton of Dufftown 18 Year Old
A pouch from Whisky-Me of this Singleton 18 was an interesting one as I didn’t know such a bottle existed. The spec sheet was poor and so it proved to be disappointing. The price point doesn’t reflect the cost cutting of 40% ABV. Ultimately that is what kills this product actually.
Singleton of Dufftown 18 Year Old
Rock Oyster Cask Strength Batch 2
A very young blended malt containing only single malts from Island distilleries. I bang on about colouring and filtering a lot here. I also complain like above about low ABV values. These are all important to get the best from the whisky in my opinion. They are not however going to fix poor blending and immature whiskies. This promised a lot but for me it just is disappointing. I still have a lot of the bottle left and have no interest in finishing it.
Rock Oyster Cask Strength Batch 2
Boutique-y Whisky: Strathclyde 31 Year old
Admittedly I don’t like single grain whiskies very often. Indeed, I am not sure its going to be the growth sector some would hope it will become. I don’t think this is because of the distillation process or the raw ingredients. I think there has just been decades of poor wood used in the process which can’t be fixed overnight now you want to push it as a premium product. This 31 year old Strathclyde is a case in point. Over 3 decades of maturing and its still raw!
Advent Day 10: Strathclyde 31 Year old