Balvenie 14 Year Old Rum Wood

Since I am on the theme of William Grant and there finishes etc I thought that I would give the 14yo RumWood a try. A limited edition of only 14 casks from warehouse 29 - no explanation as to why this is important! This is unchilfiltered which is good and bottled at 47.1% ABV I doubt that this is natural cask strength but would not like to say for certain. Anyway here's what I think. Not sure but I think that this was mainly done for LMDW in France but as always I could be wrong.

Nose: Sweet, vanilla and lots of creaminess and fruits maybe strawberries. With time more orangey notes.

Taste: Initially a strange taste, a little drying. piney notes. Lots of vanilla a bit bourbonesqe in flavour.

Finish: Lingering woody notes, a touch of creaminess but bitter notes also.

Comment: Wanted to like this but have to say that it didn't really deliver - the whisky has become quite bourbon like but with a bitter woodiness which is slightly overpowering - love the initial nose those.

Score: 76/100 - Nothing startling - try someone elses and keep your bottle closed. Especially as its about £50 a bottle.

Trade Winds

This is one of my favourite beers of all time - very much for me a session beer as much as I love beers like Dark Island http://www.orkneybrewery.co.uk/products.htm#DARK and Black Cuillin http://www.skyebrewery.co.uk/skye.htm Trade Winds is vert much an every day drinker and something that you can have several pints of in an evening and not get bored.

The Elderflower used in the production certainly comes through in the final product - a beer worthy of winning CAMRA Champion Speciality Beer of Britain for three years running 2004, 2005 and 2006.

A soft subtle beer with a cracking elderflower edge that does not over power the beer - definately if you like beer and you have not tried this try it now. For me a 9.5/10 beer I have yet to find a real beer drinker that does not like this.

Please drink this beer!

Glenfiddich Toasted Oak

The latest release from Glenfiddich and a curious one at that - I saw this at whisky live Glasgow but have to admit that I didn't try it as it wasnt one that really took the eye on the day! Anyway what is this whisky all about oak they say by toasting the casks they release more vanilla and spicy wood notes? Fair enough but how do they define toasting? What is the difference between toasting and charring is it just a degree of charcoaling!

Anyway I look forward to trying this to see how it is - I imagine it will be similar to the Don Ramsay bottling which has recently disappeared from shop shelves.

This bottling also says that it is a limited edition maybe it will be more limited that the afore mentioned Don Ramsay bottling that was limited to a mere 227 cask. (please note I may have this number wrong by 10 or so casks - makes Diageo's Port Ellens look limited!)




http://www.thepublican.com/story.asp?sectioncode=7&storycode=53119&c=1

Glenavon 150yo bottle?

This bottle of Glenavon Special Liqueur Whisky is to go on sale at auction - as usual the papers are going crazy about it with quotes such as -"The most Expensive Whisky in the World" and is this the oldest whisky in the world. http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1552892006

But to me this is all a little crazy, ok if it is a real bottle - and it must be beause the woman selling it can remember her Granny having it in the 1920's, what more proof do we need - it will never become the most expensive bottle ever! Do journalists not do any research these days!

Also with all the fakes that have been on the market over recent years prices for a bottle of something like this has dropped considerably. My favourite fake has to be the 1982 Arran http://www.maltmadness.com/mm10a.html#10-12 as highlighted by malt maniacs.

I would say that I see this bottle selling for around £7000.00 but will be interesting to see.

What I would say is that this would be exceedingly rare with Glenavon distillery closing in the 1850's this truely would be an amazing whisky to try - but would it be all that good? As much as I love old whiskies (whiskies bottled prior to 1990) I am sure that the quality control would not have been to the high standards we have to day back in the 1860's?

I guess this is something I will never taste - I would love to - but tend to think if you had paid 10 grand for this bottle you could only be dissapointed if you open it.

Zatoichi

Watched this film last night - starring "Beat" Takeshi Kitano this is a remake of the legendary story of Zatoichi a blind masseur that wanders 19th Century Japan. This adaption of the cult tale plays things differently from the original addaptation of the story but works well for me. The blind masseur becomes involved in many a fight with his legendary red cane sword defeating all comers in some amazing gushing guesyurs of blood - cracking stuff and the humour of the blood splattering adds to the overall humour of the film with several blind jokes that are always funny. http://www.zatoichi.co.uk/ As most of the reviews on the net seem to be saying about this film "Zatoichi would Kill Bill's ass!"

As i'm new to this film rating malarky i am maybe getting carried away but would give this a 8.5 / 10 Certainly please watch this.

Blackford Ale

Just tried the Blackford Ale from Tullibardine http://www.tullibardine.com/shop.aspx at nearly £4.00 a bottle its not cheap but at least it is a "true" whisky beer unlike the stunning Innes and Gunn in that this is matured in casks which has previously contained Tullibardine Whisky. You certainly get the taste of the whisky coming through a bit like the traditional hauf and hauf - when the remainder of a whisky has been poured into a beer glass. I have to say that I don't overly rate this beer as much as I wanted to... there seems to be an over sweetness which is probably due to the wood maturation. The whisky flavour comes through but I would say if you can tell that it is Tullibardine then you have an amazing sense of taste and smell. I feel that the sweet whiskyish taste that comes through on the finish is just a little bit over powering and a little bit fake. All in all not my favourite glad to have tried it but far prefer the Innes & Gunn and at nearly £4 a bottle I wont be rushing out to buy any more.

BACK AGAIN

Following a bursting attempt at getting this blog running last year I am going to try and get it going again - hopefully this time I will last a bit longer.

Looking forward to blethering!!!