Amateur Whisky Tasting Notes

Chivas Regal 12 Year

2010-07-25T12:49:00.000-07:00

About: A popular bended whisky.

Year Tasted: 2010

Color: Nutty brown w/ hint of amber.

Nose: Malty, floral, Meyer lemon, sediment, oak, muted vanilla, cream.

Palate: Slippery, peaty, honey.

Finish: A little simple but pleasant. Peat, molasses.

Overall: Decent- especially for a blend. Excellent when you consider the price.

Balvenie 15 Year Single Barrel

2010-03-10T17:30:00.000-08:00

About: This is a single barrel whisky, which is rare for Scotch. Mine was casked on the 12th of January , 1994 and bottled the 13th of January 2009. Is the year designation always that literal? Take note of (oak) cask number 34.

Year Sampled: 2010

Color: Bronze

Nose: A cord of logs, tropical fruits, cider, paprika, lush meadow, honey, after a spring rain. Vanilla. When something smells this good I'm hesitant to drink it.

Palate: Green grapes, rosewater, orange peel or perhaps lemon peel, medium viscosity.

Finish: Sour sides of tongue, tip of tongue tinge, Buttery down the throat smooth. Long and lingering.

Overall: Damn good! I can't think of anything to compare it to except Talisker only better, which seems outrageous. Beacuse it is a single barrel, I keep my fingers crossed that the next one I buy (soon I hope!) will be as good.

Johnny Walker Red Label

2010-02-27T08:13:00.000-08:00

About: A popular blended Scotch

Year Sampled: 2009

Color: Medium Dusky Orange

Nose: Very boring- barley, vanilla, synthetic perfume, dew

Palate: Thick

Finish: Burn front of tongue, tangy roof of throat, cinnamon; narrow.

Overall: Also didn't work very well as a mixer.

Sazerac Rye 6 Year

2010-02-20T09:55:00.000-08:00

Year Sampled: 2008

About: This is a small batch rye whiskey made at the Buffalo Trace distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky.

Color: Reddish brown

Nose: Strong vanilla, savory spices, heavy grain (rye, unsuprisingly) AND flowers. Very delectable!

Palate: Oily, light tartness throughout. Toffee hints.

Finish: Bitter bite that starts at the back of tongue then moves forward. Very short and unspectacular.

Overall: A exceptional rye whiskey crafted with the excellence I've come to expect from my favorite American whiskey distillery.

Miyagikyo 15 Year

2010-02-03T15:16:00.000-08:00

About: Produced by Nikka and disilled in the Miyagikyo distillery in Sendai, Japan.

Year sampled: 2008

Nose: Vanilla heavy, which I automatically find flawed.

Palate: (This space intentionally left blank)

Finish: Spicy, harsh, charcoal, PVC pipe.

Overall: One of the most disgusting drinks posing as whisky I've had. Undrinkable.

Springbank 15 Year

2010-01-23T19:13:00.000-08:00

About: On a peninsula that was apparently once esteemed for its whisky but now has only three distilleries: Glengyle, Glen Scotia and Springbank.

Year Sampled: 2009

Color: Light orange.

Nose: Grassy, fruity strawberry, spring lavendar, wet hillside, sherbet, maple syrup.

Palate: Malt; floats in mouth. Phenol laden.

Finish: Tip of tongue, grainy chew. Very fast decay.

Overall: Disappointing. The kind of scotch you should sniff and then dump out.

Ardbeg Supernova

2010-01-22T18:47:00.000-08:00

Year Sampled: 2009

Color: Sickly pale green

Nose: Nothing going on.

Palate: Salty, winter mint lifesaver; wants to be swallowed.

Finish: Goes up sinus cavity. Strong pepper. Peat really lingers.

Overall: It doesn't fire on all cylinders. No age statement, but tastes even younger than I'd expect given the inflated cost.

Scapa 16 Year

2010-01-17T11:10:00.000-08:00

About: From a distillery on northern Orkney island, where Highland Park also resides.

Year Sampled: 2009

Color: Ochre

Nose: Vanilla, nutmeg, caramel

Mouth: Grassy, malty

Finish: Fast, peppery

Overall: BORING

Laphroaig 18 Year

2009-12-05T12:13:00.000-08:00

About: Ths well-known brand just replaced its 15 year with this. It has a slightly elevated proof of 96.

Year Sampled: 2009

Nose: Light vanilla, fermaldehyde, gasoline- but somehow smooth.

Palate: Flavorful, leather, mellow.

Finish: Tasty explosion. Never buries with peat but it's there.

Overall: Excellent. It's light and smooth enough to make it perhaps TOO drinkable. Not the medicinal Laphroaig we're used to. Happy day.

Oban 18 Year

2009-11-21T12:48:00.000-08:00

About: This is a limited edition bottling. The Oban 14 year is a top seller.

Year sampled: 2009

Color: Caramel

Nose: Chlorine, metallic

Palate: Spicy, peppery. Floats nicely on tongue. Oily.

Finish: Stinging AND sweet, with a tang like maybe grapefruit. long, phenol.

Overall: Some people are going to love this. I'm not so easily impressed. It is smoother and better balanced than the 14 year, which is too phenol heavy for me. I don't understand why Oban is so expensive.

The Singleton 12 Year

2009-11-15T10:15:00.000-08:00

Year sampled: 2009

About: The Glendullan distillery uses both sherry and bourbon casks to age this one.

Color: Deep burgundy (blue bottle=lame)

Nose: Subtle perfume, walnut, tangelo. Smooth malt. Underdeveloped but not at all void.

Palate: Barley front, medium thick

Finish: Consistent. Maple syrup

Overall: An acceptable "beginner" whisky at a reasonable price.

Dalmore 12 Year

2009-10-24T10:14:00.000-07:00

Year sampled: 2009

About: Worst website ever!

Color: Dark brown

Nose: Bright sherry, dark straw

Palate: Chewy, margarine

Finish: Sharp cheddar, thick, black olives.

Overall: Not good.

Highland Park 18 Year

2009-10-22T19:56:00.000-07:00

Year Sampled: 2009

About: The distillery is on Orkney island, off the north shore of the mainland.

Color: Med/light with hint of orange.

Nose: Excellent! Elusive; makes you want to keep smelling. Hint of almond, mildew.

Palate: Thick, full.

Finish: Salt, peat, coffee, clove.

Overall: Surprisingly good, considering I find the 12 year unimpressive. Maybe the confusing name plays a factor here, but this tastes like a highland Scotch. This is Recommended.

Glenmorangie Nectar D'or

2009-10-11T08:20:00.000-07:00

Year Sampled: 2009

About: This distillery is most known for experimenting with different casks. This newcomer has been aged for 12 years in bourbon casks and then "finished" in Sauternes wine barrels. It is non-chill filtered and bottled at 46% abv.

Color: Honey, appropriately.

Nose: Thin, flavorless bubblegum, Fruity Pebbles cereal

Palate: Thick, Indian spices

Finish: Bitter chlorine. Pretty much ruins it.

Overall: Disappointing at best.

Edradour 10 Year

2009-10-10T10:30:00.000-07:00

Year Sampled: 2009

Color: Dark Brown

Nose: Thin, too vanilla heavy

Palate: Rose, mandarin orange

Finish: Sour top of tongue, deep chocolate

Overall: Snoozefest.

Lagavulin 1991 Distiller's Edition

2009-10-05T15:32:00.001-07:00

About: As part of the marketing gimmick, all six "classic" single malt whiskies produce a variation of their marque product that has been finished in a unique cask. In this case, the 16 year Lagavulin has been finished in Pedro Ximenez sherry casks.

Year sampled: 2009

Color: Sherry-infused darkness

Nose: Fresh roadkill(including lingering burning rubber on asphalt), salty, anise, medicinal

Palate: Nice, smooth, crunchy coal

Finish: Thick and juicy. Tip of tongue, Ben Gay, still anise, cleans up delightfully

Overall: Winter by the fireplace. Absolute brilliance! Don't add any water.

Dewar's White Label

2009-08-29T09:47:00.000-07:00

Year Sampled: 2008

Color: Copper

Nose: Very perfumy, too much vanilla, orange, hint of mustard

Palate: Full, buttery, not sharp but not smooth- like a dull knife.

Finish: Biting woods (oak, mahogany) chasing away smoothness. Prominent grainy dark chocolate. Maple syrup. Rapid decay with rise of peat at the death.

Overall: Not bad for the price point. If it weren't a little too chocolaty for my taste I would like it a lot.

The Glenlivet Nadurra 16 Year

2009-07-30T09:10:00.000-07:00

About: This is a non-chill filtered cask strength (59.7% abv) scotch whisky.

Year sampled: 2009

Color: Golden straw

Nose: Strawberry, peaches, sherry, straw, almond extract

Palate: VERY full and chewwwwwyyyyy. Pleasant ginger spice bite with honey; apricot. Unexpected smoothness.

Finish: Long top of tongue pleasant burn. Sweet with ginger.

Comments: Wow. The best Glenlivet offering I've had. Possibly a little too sweet. (Incidentally, I wrote tasting notes twice on seperate occasions and they are nearly identical.)

Yamazaki 12 Year

2009-06-28T09:50:00.000-07:00

Year sampled: 2009

About: From Japan's oldest whisky distillery, owned by Suntory.

Nose: Apple, strawberry, vanilla. Kinda boring.

Palate: Spicy citrus- mandarin orange perhaps.

Finish: Warm, sweet; lingers on back of throat and top of tongue.

Overall: It's confusing how much this tastes like bourbon. People who like bourbon but not scotch will love this. I triple-checked the label to confirm it is a single malt.

Ardmore Traditional Cask

2009-06-18T16:50:00.000-07:00

Year sampled: 2009

Comments; non-chill filtered. The distillery is very near to Speyside territory.

Color: Light brown

Nose: slight mustard, cherry, barley

Palate: Sharp, crisp, raisin, cinnamon, peppermint

Finish: Long, one-dimensional

Overall: Too barley heavy. Comparable to Clynelish, both of which taste better out of the Reidel glass than the Glencairn glass (stay tuned for elaborations on snifter comparisons).

Famous Grouse

2009-04-14T17:21:00.000-07:00

Year sampled: 2009

Color: Amber

Nose: Caramel, dark chocolate, cherry, vanilla. Dash of cinnamon. Overwhelmingly sweet.

Palate: Very dry! Floral. Cooking chocolate. Raisin.

Finish: Cooking chocolate again, mildew. Very grainy.

Overall: They might have gotten the name wrong; this stuff is gross.

Caol Ila 12 Year

2009-03-31T09:05:00.000-07:00

Year sampled: 2008

Color: Olive Oil

Nose: Salt, lemon, peach, dark cherry

Palate: Incredible! Super chewy, full, mouth-coating oil.

Finish: Salt overwhelms a bit, smoke, excellent decay rate

Overall: This was the scotch that got me obsessed with scotches, but it can't compete with Ardbeg's glorious finish.

Bowmore 12 Year

2009-03-22T10:21:00.000-07:00

Year sampled: 2008

Overall: I was so irritated by this whisky that my tasting notes consists of:

Color: Honey-

followed by no, no, no.

Needless to say, I was pretty irritated by this scotch: very young tasting and completely uninteresting. Don't bother.

Jameson's 12 Year

2009-03-17T08:10:00.001-07:00

Year sampled: 2009

About: Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Color: Deep rust (green bottles should be outlawed)

Nose: Fudge, pear, mustard, peanut, caramel

Palate: Full, chewy, ripe

Finish: Mint, honey, oily, sherry, tartness, pinch of salt, deep sink into glands of mouth

Overall: This is a rich, vibrant and extremely tasty Irish blend. The bite of the classic Jameson's with no age statement is mellowed just the right amount. (I've never had the 18 year, but I can't imagine it being as good.)

Ardbeg 10 Year

2009-03-14T13:39:00.000-07:00

Year sampled: 2008

About: From the southern part of the Isle of Islay, where the world's peatiest scotches come from. This distillery was closed from 1981 until 1997, when it was bought by Glenmorrangie and re-opened, so this bottle from late 2008 is presumably the result of some of the first distillations from the new owners.

Color: Light olive

Nose: Peat front but does not bury aromatic, heathery notes and subtle smoke (which continues through palate and finish).

Palate: Deceptively light yet satisfyingly mouth-coating.

Finish: Thick, mint, molar gum burn.

Overall: This whisky well represents the spirit of southern Islay. You'd have to pay $25 more for another Islay scotch that's nearly as good.

Jura 10 Year

2009-03-12T16:57:00.000-07:00

Year sampled: 2009

About: From the only distillery on the Isle of Jura

Color: Dark honey

Nose: Malt, dark cherry

Palate: Fruit pit, maybe.

Finish: Hard bite top of tongue that dies drastically, bitter, salt.

Overall: A simple scotch that's best avoided.

Cragganmore 12 Year

2009-03-11T18:50:00.000-07:00

Year sampled: 2008

Comments: (I cannot locate my tasting notes on this.) This is an admittedly tasty whisky, but thin and lacking in complexity. It is sweet and floral, with a long, disappointing finish. It is more similar to bourbon than any other scotch I've tried, so it might make a good "gateway" drink for bourbon enthusiasts unfamiliar with scotch. I'm skeptical that this should be the Speyside "classic malt," but I have read that it was once much better than it is now.

Glen Moray

2009-03-10T07:39:00.000-07:00

Year sampled: 2008

About: This is made in the Glenmorangie distillery. This is their bottle with no age statement (they also have a 12 year and a 16 year).

Color: Honey amber

Nose: Almond, dainty

Palate: Jolt relative to mild nose, peat, lye but also sweet balance

Finish: Simple, pleasant

Overall: Not bad, but too young. Literally forgettable.

Dalwhinnie 15 Year

2009-03-08T09:07:00.000-07:00

Year sampled: 2008

About: This is one of the "Classic Malts of Scotland."

Nose: Sherry, vanilla, honey, cinnamon

Palate: Heather, caramel, Peat; full and extremely well-balanced

Finish: Chocolate, nougat, sherry returns, long back of tongue, EVOKES CONTEMPLATION

Overall: This is top of the top. I absolutely love it.

Laphroaig 10 Year Cask Strength

2009-03-07T15:54:00.000-08:00

Year sampled: 2008

About: This is what people think of when they think of Islay scotch.

Color: Golden amber (another green bottle)

Nose: Huge peat, medicine, tobacco, dark chocolate, sherry, oak, sea salt

Palate: Burnt shoes and Sour Patch Kids

Finish: LEATHER, SALT that lingers forever

Comments: This is for pirates and those who perform jackass stunts. Ever swallow a mouthful of ocean water? If you like that taste, this is the beverage for you.

Bunnahabhain 12 Year

2009-03-06T08:52:00.000-08:00

Year sampled: 2009

About: Bunnahabhain is the northernmost distillery on reknown Isle of Islay. The extremely peaty scotches for which this island is known are made on the south side of the island. The name is only four syllables.

Color: I'm surprised at myself for forgetting to write down the color, especially considering how annoyed I was with their green bottle!

Nose: Cherry, almond, vanilla, Indian spices, cinnamon, cardamom, dark rum, granola, peaches, honey, peace

Palate: Spicy, full, bitter toffee

Finish: Strong peat, but pleasant, lingering (sides of mouth, front of tongue), oily, hypnotic

Comments: This is some yummy stuff. If I hadn't known, I would have guessed it was a highland scotch.

Clynelish 14 Year

2009-03-04T17:04:00.000-08:00

Year sampled: 2008

Color: Amber with a hint of rust

Nose: Strong nougat, cherry, malt, thin

Palate: Focused malt, full and chewy

Finish: Peppery, burning canines, unmotivated

Overall: Firmly average. But it somehow feels there's a simple way of making this really, really good.

Tamnavulin 12 Year

2009-03-03T15:23:00.000-08:00

Year sampled: 2009

Color: Honey

Nose: Barley, almond

Palate: Barley, straw

Finish: sour mash

Comments: This is probably the least imaginative single malt scotch I’ve had to date. Truly pathetic.

Talisker 10 Year

2009-03-02T08:24:00.000-08:00

Year sampled: 2009

About: A unique and classic whisky that everyone should become familiar with. From the only distillery on the Isle of Skye.

Color: Medium oak

Nose: Deep cherry, cassis

Palate: Strong peat, apple, anise

Finish: Momentarilty release of smoke gives way to nettles

Comments: This is the perfect drink to accompany a John Wayne movie.

Glenfiddich 15 Year

2009-03-01T09:59:00.000-08:00

Year sampled: 2009

About: Glenfiddich is a very successful distillery in the heart of the speyside region (that has remained little changed since 1886, according to the website). This whisky is aged in three types of oak casks- sherry, bourbon and new- and then married in a unique vat.

Color: Dark reddish-caramel

Nose: pronounced almond, black currant, apple, rose. Not overly sweet.

Palate: Fresh and soft, like spring water with a oak/honey balance and a pinch of brown sugar. Reserved in contrast to the rich nose.

Finish: Deep, dark, complex. Anise and rhubarb rises, then unravels into pear and honey.

Overall: The finish is like a French kiss out of nowhere. My notes much prefer this 15 year to their 12 year.

Arran 10 Year

2009-02-28T10:27:00.000-08:00

Year sampled: 2009

About: From the only distillery on the Isle of Arran, and the only single malt they currently make with an age statement. Made from unpeated malt, which I would generally consider sacriledge. Non-chill filtered; whatever that means....

Color: Light auburn

Nose: Chocolate, heavy cream, fruity sweetness- apricot

Palate: Supple, rich, dark/light balance, vibrant, CHEWY

Finish: Lingering spice on front of tongue, long is a satisfying way (You don't want it to end!)

Overall: Dangerously delicious. A hard bottle to put down once you've picked it up. Perfect choice for those who avoid peaty single malts.