Laphroaig's Birthright

Fire Emblem is one of my all-time favourite games, whatever the platform. Last week, Fire Emblem: Fates came out on the 3DS. This comes 4 years after the previous installment, Fire Emblem: Awakening. Thus far, Fire Emblem: Fates has been amazing, and I'm only about 2/3 through with Birthright. Conquest is up next, then Revelations.

4 years was a pretty long wait for a game franchise, but the game play, complex story line, deeper characterization, and a much more balanced fighting mechanic makes it worth the wait.

Tonight, accompanying DW, me and our fight to save the earth is a whisky that has been many years in the making: the Laphroaig 32.

This Laphroaig was specially released to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the distillery, supposedly the most richly flavoured Scotch whisky, if you buy the marketing. I was skeptical about this claim when tasting the standard offerings from Laphroaig, but this particular bottling seems to live up to its lofty claim. Alas, good things are hard to come by, and there were a limited number of bottles of this 32 year old drink worldwide.

The scarcity of this whisky is largely due to it being cask strength. That's right, a 32 year old, cask strength whisky. Amazing. The alcohol level has dropped to 46.6% after the angels had their share over more than 3 decades, and what is left is the very best that Laphroaig has to offer. A worthy whisky to celebrate 200 years.



Laphroaig 32 (46.6% abv, cask strength, matured in an Oloroso hogshead)

Colour - Similar to the Balvenie 30, if not slightly lighter. That's surprising, because the Laphroaig spent its time in an Oloroso cask, which, from my experience, tends to give a deeper shade.

Nose - sherry, peat. Dark chocolate, and a little medicinal. A little salty, and the savouriness builds with time. After a while, it smells like a roasted meat, like the charred bits of a nice, roasted charsiew. A bit of ash. DW says that this smells like a rich cigar. Neither of us smoke. You are free to doubt our credibility. Some spices, and the bottle's tasting notes says nutmeg. Some vanilla lingers on the glass after the whisky is finished. Maybe it needed more time to come out against the other big-hitting flavours.

Palate - a little sour on entry, like wine. Peat is obviously there, but very restrained. Nuts, and lots of dark chocolate. It's amazing that the dark chocolate manages to stand out against Laphroaig's strong peat. It's a little leathery as well, which transits nicely between the dark chocolate and the ashy peat/smoke. Holding it on the tongue, I found a trace of the sweetness of Oloroso. Very smooth. This one is sweet, smoke, sherry, chocolate, peat, and a bit of pepper and other spices rolled into one. Delectably balanced.

Finish - Leaves behind a little bitterness, like dark chocolate. A little peppery on the insides of the mouth. I thought I caught a bit of lemon grass. Rich oak and wood spice, which balances out the bitter dark chocolate finish.

Overall - this was amazing. Thanks DW!

If I had tasted this last week, it would have been a worthy contender for the best whisky I had over CNY. As it turns out, DW and I had a comparison of the Balvenie 30 and the Laphroaig 32. They displayed such differing characteristics, and the comparison of the two is a great (and very very pricey) way to show the differences between the distilleries. If I had tasted this last week, the CNY whisky challenge would have ended with a great bang. Ah well. Better late than never!

Hands-down the best I've ever tasted, but the age, price and limited edition release means that this one is competing in a totally different category of drinks from the other whiskies that I've reviewed thus far. Stuff like this doesn't even get entered in competitions; it's far too good and precious.

Does this count? CNY challenge update and final evaluation

In the end, there was insufficient time and energy to find that one last whisky to bring the CNY 15 day - 15 new whiskies challenge to a successful end. We are stuck on 14, without a final, proper tasting note to round it off. Pity. Would have been perfect to end off the challenge on the 15th day of the Lunar New Year, which also happens to be my birthday, according to the Lunar calendar.

But perhaps there is a mystery whisky to the rescue...

At WT's home last Thursday, there was a flask of mystery whisky. Something that WT's father had put into a stainless steel flask more than a decade ago. No one remembers what it is anymore...Dare I hazard a guess??

Colour - Light gold.

Nose - When the flask was first opened, there was a burst of something that smelt like sherry. That's 10 years of alcohol fumes bursting out at one go. Intense. Subsequently, the whisky could not be smelt anymore. After pouring it out, it surprised me. No sherry at all! Instead, honey and vanilla. This must be a blend, right?

Palate - Honey, vanilla. Not much wood, and just a little bit of alcohol. Fairly smooth, but taste-wise, a little flat and unexciting. Pleasant, for sure. Unfortunately, the number of years spent in the flask has imparted the whisky with a bit of a metallic edge.

Finish - Nothing much. A tiny bit of spice, a bit of vanilla, and it disappears.

My guess is that this is a Chivas. Perhaps a Chivas 12 from more than a decade ago. No one remembers, and we'll probably never find out...But the most important question is, does this count? Have we finished the CNY 15 days - 15 new whiskies challenge?!?

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Just to recap, the 14 (+1) that we've tasted this CNY are:

Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye (Not so good)
Johnnie Walker Blue King George V (Nice but not worth the price)
Taketsuru 21 years (Great, if obtainable at a reasonable price)
Auchentoshan Three Wood (Pretty decent and interesting!)
Balvenie 30 years (Wonderful)
Glenfiddich 18 (Smooth, but a little plain)
Hibiki 17 (Great, though prices are shooting up)
Macallan 18 (Good sherried whisky)
Macallan Estate Reserve (Good, but feels like the wood is a bit out of balance)
Santis Edition Santis (Good, easy drinking, but not easily available)
Ardbeg 10 (Good entry level Ardbeg)
Hibiki 12 (Smooth and nice. Prices are increasing too)
Penderyn Aur Cymru Madeira (Mm. Have lots of water at hand)
Yamazaki 12 (Good! But hard to find at a good price)
+
(Mystery Whisky)

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Best whisky: Balvenie 30
No surprises here, as the oldest, most expensive one also happens to be the best one. The Taketsuru 21 is a close second, at less than half the price.

Best value-for-money: Santis Malt, Edition Santis
Good, pleasant drink at an affordable price (if you can find it)

And that's a wrap! Many thanks to the friends who shared their whiskies, and contributing to this little tasting challenge! A pity that we couldn't do the last one properly. Ah well. There's always next year!

CNY goodies part 4 - "World" whisky tasting

Our battle against time continues. 15 whiskies in 15 days. Can it be done?? Today is Day 13. No time to lose if the challenge is to succeed.

A bunch of stuff in today's bag of tasting notes - Hibiki 12, Ardbeg 10, Penderyn Aur Cymru Madeira, and Yamazaki 12. 

Hibiki 12 - This one has been discontinued, and prices have skyrocketed since the discontinuation was announced. Used to be one of the staples of the Suntory line of whiskies. A nice, amber colour.

Nose - Fruity. A little plum, somewhat like the Hibiki Harmony Master's Select. But this one is more complex. There's some sweet oak, and caramel. A little sherry? Some sweet red fruit in any case. Vanilla, and a little floral. Pleasant, well-balanced.

Palate - sweet. Suggestions of a little nut, like almonds. Oak. Sweet plum. Vanilla, and some spices. This one is really more complex and better than the Master's Select, in my opinion. Or maybe I just haven't given the Master's Select a fair hearing.

Finish - A little short. Some tannin, and thus, a little drying. Spices and wood.

A good, balanced dram. Japanese craft evidently on display.

Ardbeg 10 - Ardbeg is the quintessential peat monster. This tasting was contributed by PY, who is definitely a guy, despite having a name that often gets mistaken for being feminine.

Nose - ash and meat. Like a barbecue. Then some charcoal smoke. Exactly like a barbecue then...oddly, some vanilla as well. Or something sweet.

Palate - Immediately a bit drying. Herbal/medicinal, ashy, and more charcoal smoke. Sweet as well. Spicy on the way down. There's a little alcohol burn in this one. On second sipping, an odd taste. Reminded me of the brine in canned tuna. PY gives me an incredulous "huh? canned tuna??" Guess it's just me then.

Finish - spicy, and some drying tea tannins. Fiery, like swallowing warm coals. Leaves a little sweetness at the back of the throat.

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Second session consisted of the following 4 drinks. With me tonight was JP, who gave the taster bottle of Yamazaki 12. He got to try the Kavalan Solist Sherry and the Edition Santis. I won't be writing new notes on those, but just noting some of his remarks that differed from mine...

First up was the Penderyn Aur Cymru Madeira (46% abv). This one came courtesy of CP, who also helped me to get the Santis. Thank you!

Colour - straw

Nose - Leathery. Tanned leather. A little grain, and a little yeast, with that bit of sour scent that yeast has. Doesn't smell very promising, but we'll see.

Palate - a little sour. Then it becomes bitter. According to JP, this is the bitter that comes at the back of traditional Chinese medicine. Licorice, then rubber, tar. A little peppery. JP and I were making funny, grimacing faces at one another. Maybe some people like this profile of flavours, but we don't.

Finish - rubber and licorice. Burns a little.

Overall - mm. As the first Welsh whisky that I've ever come across, it was worth a try. Like an adventure in a YOLO sort of way. But I don't think I'll be rushing to get a full bottle anytime soon.

Yamazaki 12 - Less famous than it's 18 year old brother, but prices are also going up.

Nose - Sherry was the first to hit. A little bit of a citrus fruit. First word that came to JP was yuzu. Hmm. I thought it was something a little heavier than yuzu.  A bit of oak. Quite a lot of honey.

Palate - Sherry on entry. Rather sweet. A bit of spice and just a small whiff of smoke in the middlle. Vanilla backdrop. A lot of honey. This one is sweet.

Finish - a bit drying. Light smoke and spice. Like honeyed water with cinnamon.

On the whole, very nice. Not in the same class as the 18, but you can taste the progression. Some distilleries produce whiskies whereby the various ages are matured in very different ways, and thus taste very different. This one tastes just like a younger version of the 18. The 18 becomes richer, rounder, and more matured, but the basic is the same. Good quality and product control by the folks at Yamazaki.

JP's impression of the Santis and Kavalan: 

Santis - not really beer-like until the finish, as opposed to the beer I found upfront. He smelt more vanilla than I did, and some icing sugar. I can see why he found those notes, but perhaps that's not quite how I would describe them. On the whole, we agree that this is nice, pleasant, too dangerously easy to drink. JP says that he can almost taste the Alpine water that went into this whisky. JP also very versatile, being a good sipping dram as well as something to round off a more complex drinking session.

Kavalan - JP did not enjoy this much as I did, with the rubbery notes hitting him first. He found the rubber quite off-putting. Concluded that he wasn't much of a sherry bomb guy. Ah well.

So, 6 whiskies over 2 sessions that take us around the world. 1 Scotch, 2 Japanese, 1 Swiss, 1 Taiwanese, and 1 Welsh. That was fun!
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We are on 14 now...Getting really close...Will we succeed...? Or will I have to cheat...?!? Bring out an old tasting note? Write a new note on something that I already have a review for? Or what?

The clock is ticking.

East Meets West - Santis Edition

Not much to update for now, and it seems that the aim to hit 15 new drinks in 15 days of CNY is flagging. We will never know if we never try. The valiant and foolish effort continues today, with a tasting of a hard-to-find malt in Singapore - Santis Malt, from the Swiss Highlands!

Santis Malt is a whisky distiller that is part of a company that usually produces German-styled beers, in the German-speaking regions of Switzerland. The selling point of Santis is the usage of beer casks for the maturation of their whiskies. Tired of the usual sherry cask, bourbon cask, virgin oak, noble oak, blood oak, silver oak, american oak, fine oak, select oak, three wood, triple wood, triple cask, etc. etc.? Why not try beer cask for a change...?

Turns out, a good reason to not try is its rarity. Santis doesn't have a large output, and I've not seen anyone sell this in Singapore. Therefore, big thanks to CP for helping me bring a bottle back from Switzerland!

Accompanying the Edition Santis is Yan Lianke's novel, The Four Books, in an English translation. The novel is about the Great Leap Forward, and the disastrous economic policies pursued by Mao. For the first couple of chapters, the people in the Re-Education site (read labour camp) have been doing nothing but planting and harvesting grain. Hopefully, this Santis was made using ethically grown grain.

Santis Malt, Edition Santis (40% abv)

Colour - Light gold.

Nose - The first sniff took me aback. This is not whisky; it's obviously beer! German lager, to be exact. Fascinating. After the first whiff of beer, the nose develops a bit of raisins. Not as rich as the Glendronach or Kavalan, and a little less ripe/dried. Some green-ness in this. A little like figs too. A hint of fresh pine leaves. The nose suggests that this is young, maybe 5 years or so, but it is nice and fruity. The beer opening is intriguing and inviting, if you like beer. There's a whisky beer that they serve at the Auld Alliance. Maybe I should try that for comparison... With some time, it gets a little creamy too.

Palate - A little bread on entry, again, like some beers with a stronger yeast influence. The raisins come back, figs too, but doesn't dominate the palate. Very smooth, for a whisky that smelt so young. The alcohol seems to have blended very well with the rest of the liquid, producing a warm tingle. Very accomplished for something that's young. Body's a little thin and doesn't quite coat the mouth so well. Maybe a higher alcohol content will fix the body, but not throw off the smoothness too much? Some light spices. Some citrus on the way out, which turns a bit bitter. Like the finish of a lemon bitters soft drink that I had from the library cafe once. A little bit of oak as well, but the oak is mostly covered by the beer/yeast/bread flavours.

Finish - The bit of bitterness transits into a little whiff of smoke. Not like anything I've had thus far. It's a little...different, in a nice, "we-love-diversity" way. Apple wood smoke? Pine wood smoke? I'm not sure. Gotta burn some plants to get a better sense of it. Which is not very considerate. A bit of the woodspice lingers. Surprisingly long. The spice lingers at the back of the throat, as does the feeling that you've actually drank a beer rather than whisky.

This one is really interesting. Pity it's hard to find here in Singapore. A good whisky, with a rather unique profile. A good demonstration of what a good distiller can do to maximize what's available to him, to produce a whisky that is differentiated from the mainstream Scotches, Bourbons and Japanese whiskies. Fairly cheap too, if you have someone coming back from Switzerland. This one is a 500ml bottle, for 40-ish Swiss francs. The Edition Dreifeltigkeit won an award for Best European Whisky back in 2010 (iirc), and Santis has produced a popular Edition Alpstein (that's run into version 10 or something like that). I think there's a winter/Christmas edition as well. Worth trying, and keeping one for a refreshing sip after one gets bored of the mainstream stuff.

And with this, the CNY challenge is up to a 10. Two-thirds of the way there...

The next bag of CNY drinks

Had a crazy fun session a couple of nights ago. Here are some notes taken from the evening...

Macallan 18 - This is the newer Macallan 18 Sherry Oak, which says on the bottle that the whiskies were taken from 1997 or older. Which is pretty much what the number "18" was supposed to indicate anyway. Superfluous clarification. But maybe that's part of the whole marketing plan.

Colour - dark gold

Nose - sherry. Raisins, fresh grapes, a bit of spice, caramelized sugar. Very sweet nose, with just a hint of some spice. Smells like cinnamon

Body - Rich and fairly full-bodied. A little oily.

Palate - A very nicely sherried whisky. Apart from the grapes and raisins, there's vanilla, choccolate, a healthy dose of spices, including cinnamon and something that stings a little, like pepper or chilli. Drying. Was colouring added? This dryness reminds me of artificial caramel colouring...hmm. probably not.

Finish - wood, spice, and a small puff of smoke. The alcohol burnt a bit on the way down in a warming sort of way.

On the whole, this was pretty enjoyable, and several people's favourite of the night. Macallan still produces quality; the issue is with the pricing...

Macallan Estate Reserve - A newer whisky by Macallan. This one tastes fairly similar in terms of the overall flavours, but the Estate Reserve has a much larger wood presence. The oak can be smelt and tasted from the nosing all the way through to the finish. In my opinion, this made the nose more complex, but masked/replaced much of the richness of the palate. Can't say much else about this; I'm not sure if I'm tasting it properly after having the rich Macallan 18.

A drink of water to wash the mouth, and off we're off to the next one!

Hibiki 17 - Ok, yes, I did say that the whiskies reviewed in this blog are going to be more affordable, but the Hibiki 17 doesn't fall within that range. But hey, it's CNY!

Nose - Floral, like the Hibiki 12 was, but more mature. Flowers in full bloom, rather than just freshly bloomed.  Ripe fruits, including apples and pears. Grain sweetness - vanilla, bourbon-like.

Palate - sweet grains. An excellently balanced and smooth blend. Rich, ripe fruits. Slightly jammy, and a little spice. And is that a little bit of peat? From the Hakushu perhaps...? Or is my tongue playing tricks on me...?

Finish - A little spice, balanced nicely by wood.

Japanese mastery. A fairly big step up from the Hibiki 12, but a big step in prices too, in the present climate...

Balvenie 30 - the star of the night.

Nose - Pears, which are apparently DW's favourite fruits. His wife was surprised by that fact. No one knew. Plum. Honey, lots of honey. A little bit of almond and pencil wood, in a nice way.

Palate - boomz. Very, very smooth. The alcohol is nicely blended with the rest of the liquid (as it should after 30 years in the barrel), and comes across as a warming complement to the flavours, helping to bring them up to the tongue. Slightly spicy. Fruit, feels a little like pears poached in wine. A touch of chocolate. Almond, oak, and a bit of coconut. The entry has a bit of the taste of fresh grass or moss. Very complex, rich, and well-layered.

Finish - Wish I could, but alas, it's not my bottle to finish. Oak, cinnamon, plum again, burnt sugar. JE insisted that there was something else in the finish, but since no one could read his thoughts and put words to them, then it shall have to be passed over in silence.

Amazing. It was 30 years well-spent.

Other drinks of the night...

Auchentoshan Three Wood - Now we're back in affordable range. Nice complex whisky, this one, both on the nose and the palate. Some online reviews criticize this whisky for trying to be too many things at the same time, with the three different wood treatments. There's some sour winey notes on the palate, like sour grapes, but doesn't detract from the niceness of the other flavours - a bit of chocolate, a bit of raisins, a bit of a whole bunch of other stuff. The sourness also reminded me of pomengranate, or grapefruit/pomelo. A little odd, but not unpleasant.

Glenfiddich 18 - Smooth, even by an 18 year old's standards. Unfortunately, in the company of the other beasts of the night, the Glenfiddich 18 was fairly forgettable and flavourless. Not much alcohol burn, simple, straightforward. Some vanilla, some suggestions of sherry cask influence, a little oak. Could be a decent regular drink, but a little flat, flavour-wise.

So, with these brief notes on 6 whiskies, the CNY whisky count is up to 9! Just 6 more, and there are 9 days of CNY left!!

*Also available for the night were the Yamazaki 18, Hakushu 18, JW King George V, Crown Royal North Harvest Rye, and Taketsuru 21. I already have notes for the latter 4. The Yamazaki 18 only made an appearance late in the session, and  my tongue was already numb and tired. So, I skipped it. Maybe there'll be an opportunity to do a tasting of the Yamazaki 18 sometime later...

Chinese New Year Escapades - 15 days of CNY, 15 new tastes??

Maybe I'll manage to pull together some notes on 15 different whiskies for these 15 days of CNY. Some are things that I've had before, and had occasion to try again, and others are going to be new tastes. May not be able to give detailed tasting notes on them, but I'll see what I can put together...

Starting with 3 that I tasted while at DW's home for the Chelsea-Man U game...in increasing order of preference.

Crown Royal North Harvest Rye - It is now legal requirement to mention that this Canadian blend was Jim Murray's Whisky of the Year. However, I would like to register my polite disagreement - this might be good rye whisky, but whisky of the year is utter rubbish. In any case, I could be biased, as I was put off by the very very intense syrup nose and palate. Only took a small sip, and I was done. Maybe rye whiskies are not my thing. Way, way too sweet and syrupy.  Cough syrup, specifically. DW added ice, and it lost its cough syrup feel, to become corn syrup. Urgh. Some spice, not much else came to me. Overpowering sweetness. Not nice. And not worth the price it now commands, after Jim Murray's endorsement.

Johnnie Walker Blue King George V - Marketed and priced as a luxury product, a statement and not just a product. The packaging for this blended whisky is beautiful. 

Just look at that packaging! 

The whisky itself...

Nose - One can tell that it's a blended whisky straightaway. Notes of grain, cereal and malt. Some indistinct fruit, though that could be because it was a newly opened bottled. I notice that noses tend to become more developed with some time. A whiff of smoke. 

Palate - Don't remember this being good enough to blow me away. Smooth, as one would expect from a quality blend. Malt sweetness. Nice touch of smoke/peat. I later found out that this blend has a portion of Port Ellen, though it is not disclosed how much Port Ellen goes into it. Some of the oak comes through. Hmm. I'm willing myself to taste more in this, but frankly, it isn't very complex. Some fruit, like apples and oranges. Balanced, smooth, but not blown away. And I expect to be blown away at this price point.

Finish - Smoke, oak, a little 'dusty", like the smell of dusty, wooden furniture. 

On the whole, nice, smooth, a good drink. But definitely not worth the price JW is asking customers to fork out. Good thing to display on the shelf, but I can think of many other whiskies that are cheaper and just as satisfying, if not even more so.

And my favourite of the night...

Taketsuru 21 - Nikka's Taketsuru is a regular winner of the World Whisky Awards' Blended Malt of the Year. I'm not sure how many entries there usually are, or how stiff the competition is, but, having had the Taketsuru 12, I'm confident that the 17, 21 and 25 will be amazing too. Time to test the 21.

Nose - Really nice. It's smokier on the nose than the 12, perhaps suggesting a larger percentage of Yoichi in comparison to Miyagikyo. The fruit that come up so readily in the 12 are more mature and reserved, but firm. I think oranges on the nose. A little bit of leather, and a bit of the ocean that reminds me of oyster sauce. Captivating and inviting.

Palate - Smoke stays on the palate throughout. The savouriness turns out to be more like the plum sauce that goes with Chinese roasted meats at restaurants. A little bit of orange too. 

Finish - Medium length. Tea tannins, like pu-erh. A bit of smoke, and a bit of plum. A touch of mint on the way down. Tasty.

This one is on sale at lazada.com's whisky page for about $400. Feels worth it, especially since the King George is selling at about 800 to 900 SGD... 

The Japanese premium affects Nikka less than Hibiki. The Hibiki 21 is selling for above $1000, but the Taketsuru is of good quality, and at less than half the price. Still, at $400, it's in premium category. Not one for regularly drinking by poor people.

Kavalan Solist Sherry Cask

Kavalan Solist Sherry Cask (Cask no. S100209019A, abv. 56.3%), bought at Changi Airport DFS.

Colour: Mahogany. It's a darker shade of colour than the teak wood furniture I have in my room. 

Nose: Raisins and vanilla. It smells like very rich rum and raisin ice cream. Rich in rum, raisins, and vanilla. The raisins are so rich, this smells like a brandy than a whisky. With a little bit of swirling, chocolate notes rise up. Fruit cake. The sort that I grew up eating with preserved fruits and a little bit of something that smells like cereal. Guess this is a whisky after all. A little smell of tanned leather. Faint, and rather pleasant. The vanilla comes out more readily when the whisky has had time to breathe. This is true from the nose through to the palate and finish.

Body: Not very thick and mouth coating. Feels kinda watery in the mouth. Very richly flavoured water.

Palate: Raisins. An explosion of raisins. Neat, the high strength burns a bit, but it quickly fades into a warming chocolate. Like chocolate coated raisins. A bit of leather, and some other fruits. Like...stewed strawberries? A small bit of bitterness, like what you get from chewing coffee beans. Vanilla is released slowly, and a bit of wood comes out as well. A second sip brings out some sour notes, like a slightly acidic wine, with nice tannins. The sherry cask did a very thorough job on this one, I think. 

With water: The raisins explosion gets tamed a little, but somehow the alcohol stings even more. Odd. A bit more leathery/rubbery, and a little more woody. Otherwise, its character remains largely the same.

Finish: Wood and spice, a little like spiced wine at 56.3% abv. The finish is fairly short, but breathing through my mouth brought back sensations of chocolate. Yum yum. A bit of vanilla lingers as well.

On the whole, this is, I think, my favourite thus far. Richly sherried, and a nice mix of flavours. I'm sure there are other flavours in this that I'm not picking up due to the powerful raisins, but I've never complained about having too much rum and raisin ice cream. All is well. This is a great dram. Perhaps the Solist series isn't as polished, smooth and refined as some other 30 year olds, but it's a superb sherry bomb for its age. Apart from the slight burn, this tastes like something that's been sitting in a sherry cask for more than 20 years - it's sherry flavours are richer and more intense than the Glendronach 18 Allardici, for example. It's richer in raisins than the Aberlour a'bunadh (batch 50) as well. Stay away from the Kavalan if you don't like sherry. But if you do, this is fantastic.

For single casks, one always runs a risk when buying - it's not likely that a buyer is going to get a bottle from the same cask as the reviews he/she's read, so there is going to be some variation between the reviewed bottle, and what the buyer can find. Between batches, there might be some differences. The Kavalan Solist Sherry, however, should be fairly safe. Almost every batch has received great reviews, except for one - whiskyfun.com rated several Kavalan Solist Sherry five stars, but gave only 2 to #S081217038. Apparently, it was too sulphury. No idea why. But apart from that, nothing but good reviews.

Price wise, many places in Singapore are selling this at about $250. Compared to the prices of other stuff, maybe this is a bit over-priced. The Aberlour a'bunadh can be found at under $200, the Gldndronach 15 and 18 are both under 200 as well. I've seen a bottle of Amrut Intermediate Sherry for less than $150. Guess that's what being a multiple award winner does to you. 4 gold medals were awarded by the Malt Maniacs in 2015, and 3 went to different casks of the Kavalan Solist Sherry, with a couple more picking up silver medals. 

At the airport Duty Free Shop, however, you can pick up a bottle of the Kavalan Solist Sherry at about $130. Which, in my opinion, is real value-for-money. I bought mine at the DFS, and I'm really pleased with the purchase.

Happy sipping!

Laphroaig 18

Laphroaig 18 - Another peaty one - Why am I having so many peated whiskies? With the Lunar New Year around the corner, I suspect I might end up trying a few more peaty ones...Seems like that's what my friends tend to prefer. Personally, I'm thinking of trying a smoky sherried whisky. The Bowmore Devil's Cask sounds good, but Devil's Cask 3 is priced at a very very steep $380. It's matured in both Oloroso and Pedro Ximenez, but it's an NAS, and double the prices of the first two editions. I'm not sure if it's going to be worth the price. Any recommendations?

Anyhows, the notes for the Laphroaig were from a couple of weeks ago. I got to try it, courtesy of my friend Gim.

Nose - Peat. Big peat. But it's a very clean nose. The flavours are clearly layered, and not much whispering or hiding. Fruity with honey overtones. A bit of brine as well. When the brine and honey comes together, I was reminded of toffee.

Palate - Peat again. Not as medicinal as other Laphroaigs. A little iodine, but more ash than medicinal. After some time, it becomes fruity. Ripe pears, I think. A little salty, like a sea breeze (this seems to be a recurring taste in the island whiskies). Not too much honey on the palate. The peat is balanced by the oak. A bit of coconut.

Finish - Ashy peat, a little spice - a wee bit of pepper and maybe cloves. A little savoury on the finish too, which is very welcomed. Gim says that the wide range of flavours makes the Laphroaig 18 feel almost like a full meal.

On the whole, very nice. It picked up a lot more flavours, when compared to the 15. While the Triple Wood has a little more fruitiness going for it, the 18 lasts longer, and I think, the stuff that's in the 18 is better represented. The Triple Wood has different flavours, but they're less mature, a little more nervous, a little more muted. The 18 is more confident of what it is. Guess that's something that only age can do.

Having tasted many peated whiskies, I must say that Laphroaigs and Ardbegs are perhaps a little too peaty for me. I can appreciate why they are good, but they're not going to be my favourite drink. To each his own, and may my next whisky review be for something non-peated (probably the Kavalan Solist Sherry Cask)...