Archive For The “Official Bottling” Category

Highland Park at Full Peat – Dark Origins

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Highland Park at Full Peat – Dark Origins

It seems that I’m writing quite a bit about NAS expressions lately, which is not surprising since almost all the new distillery expressions out there are NAS. I’ve said it before, and will just reiterate, I’m not opposed to NAS on principle (unless it’s on single cask bottlings). NAS whisky can be good, and several…

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The Deadly Sins of Whisky – Diageo’s 2014 Special Releases

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The Deadly Sins of Whisky – Diageo’s 2014 Special Releases

The long anticipated 2014 Diageo releases has arrived, and I sadly stand vindicated. Just a few months ago I wrote a piece on the absurdity of Diageo’s Port Ellen pricing policy, claiming that whisky suppliers are as guilty as collectors for creating the bubble in whisky prices by setting prices that make the whisky so prohibitively…

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Organic Scottish Barley – Not Bruichladdich’s Finest Hour

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Organic Scottish Barley – Not Bruichladdich’s Finest Hour

In the last post, I touted the lovely Black Art from Bruichladdich, mentioning that for me, once you move away from the “regular Bruichladdich” and get into the special editions or the peated ones, the lactic notes disappear and they become palatable. This post, however, visits the dark side of the distillery, which is a shame,…

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Black Art, Ninja Whisky and an Islay That Isn’t

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Black Art, Ninja Whisky and an Islay That Isn’t

I admit that I have a problem with Bruichladdich. On the one hand, this is a very prolific distillery with a large fandom, even among my close whisky friends. On the other hand, I can’t stomach (or nose, actually) the lactic baby spit-up aroma so characteristic of their “regular” products. Yet, I always am willing…

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How High Can You Get? The Highlands “Classic Malt”

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How High Can You Get? The Highlands “Classic Malt”

Diageo sure knows marketing, and the six “Classic Malts” were meant to display the six whisky making regions of Scotland and to draw visitors, and awareness, for the distilleries. However, Diageo lacks a presence in Campbeltown, so Oban – a Western coastal Highlands distillery 140 km (86 miles) away- got the nod to represent “the…

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