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Penny Blue XO Rum (Batch #2)
Summer’s coming to and end, but that doesn’t mean that rum season is coming to and end, especially with this versatile Mauritian Rum. Today we will be reviewing Penny Blue XO Batch #2….
Chairman’s Reserve Rum Master’s Selection
We are going to mix it up today and do a review on a rum that I bought a while back. Chairman’s Reserve Rum Master’s Selection which is a store pick of a 13 year old rum aged in ex-bourbon barrels. Summer and rum go well together so why not?
Benromach 10 Year
Next up is a Benromach 10 Year old. I initially tasted this bottle over a year ago, albeit under the old label. Assuming that nothing has changed except for the marketing, let’s check it out….
The Balvenie DoubleWood 12
For the next review, we will visit the Balvenie DoubleWood 12. I previously did a review on the 17 year old version of this release, but that’s a bit pricey these days, so let’s dig into the more affordable option, which is also their core product. Check out my previous reviews (here, here, or here) for some backstory on Balvenie and the DoubleWood releases and to see some of their other releases….but this single malt was first aged in American Oak and then in European Oak.
West Cork Single Malt Aged 12 Years Rum Cask Finished
We will be tasting Glendalough 13 Year Mizunara Finished Single Malt for our fourth Irish Whiskey of the week.
Initially, my good friend mentioned this bottle to me as something he had heard from his local liquor store guy. I remembered reading about this bottle in Whisky Advocate so I bought one the next time I saw one in my own local store. I figured I would crack it when my friend visited next….but things kept coming up and then COVID happened and well, this is my long winded way of saying that this bottle has collected dust, unopened on my shelf for 3+ years now. What better time to crack it open than for my debut St. Patty’s Day Week of Tastings?
Glendalough 13 Year Mizunara Finished Single Malt
We will be tasting Glendalough 13 Year Mizunara Finished Single Malt for our fourth Irish Whiskey of the week.
Initially, my good friend mentioned this bottle to me as something he had heard from his local liquor store guy. I remembered reading about this bottle in Whisky Advocate so I bought one the next time I saw one in my own local store. I figured I would crack it when my friend visited next….but things kept coming up and then COVID happened and well, this is my long winded way of saying that this bottle has collected dust, unopened on my shelf for 3+ years now. What better time to crack it open than for my debut St. Patty’s Day Week of Tastings?
Yellow Spot 12 Year Old
We will be tasting Yellow Spot 12 Year for our third Irish Whiskey of the week.
Previously, we reviewed the Green Spot Montelena Cask Finished whiskey. At its core, the Green Spot is a 7-10 year old expression that is aged in ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks. The Yellow Spot has a similar core, except aged for at least 12 years, with Malaga casks added to the maturation process in addition to the ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks.
Teeling Single Pot Still vs. Teeling Small Batch
Next up for St. Patty’s Week is Teeling Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey.
We reviewed Teeling Small Batch a while back so now we will set our sights (tastes?) on another one of Teeling’s whiskeys, the Single Pot Still. This whiskey is made from 50% unmalted spring barley and 50% malted barley, which was then tripled distilled and aged in a variety of casks including ex-bourbon barrels, virgin American Oak barrels (new barrels), and sherry casks. This particular bottle was bottled in September of 2019.
The Balvenie DoubleWood 17
I asked some of my Instagram followers what I should review next and The Balvenie DoubleWood 17 Years was suggested. Just in luck, I had a bottle on hand. As those that have read some of my previous reviews know, I am a big The Balvenie fan so I was more than happy to jump on this suggestion.
Green Spot Irish Whiskey Finished in Zinfandel Wine Casks
The Green Spot Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey is a nice little Irish Whiskey with a long history. My first bottle(s) of it were purchased 6-7 years ago and I burned through them pretty quickly. This particular expression was finished for 12 months in Zinfandel wine casks from Chateau Montelena, a Calistoga, Napa Valley, vineyard. The Green Spot is a NAS whiskey blended from 7-10 year old ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks. According to Vivino, Montelena’s Zinfandel is bold with lots of oak, vanilla, and both black and red fruits. I no longer have the regular Green Spot to use as a baseline, but let’s see how this one goes….
Glen Grant 15 Year Old Batch Strength First Edition
The Glen Grant 15 Year old Batch Strength First Edition has been on my list for a while and I finally got a bottle this past Christmas from my brother and sister-in-law. This will be my first time tasting a Glen Grant and I read the initial review so long ago that I have absolutely no idea what to expect from a flavor profile perspective, so let’s check it out…
Aberfeldy 18 Year Red Wine Cask Finished
The Aberfeldy 18 Year Finished in French Red Wine casks from Pauillac, Bordeaux was named Whisky Advocate’s #10 (of Top 20) in 2020. I purchased it a while back but it has been sitting on my shelf waiting for a good time to open. Why not now?
The Balvenie 30 Year
This next review is the crown jewel of my whisky collection, The Balvenie 30 Year that my wife bought for me for my birthday 8 years ago when we were still dating. She happened to give me this around the time I was hunting for her engagement ring, so to say that she is a master strategist would be an understatement.
BenRiach “The Smokey Twelve”
This was my first BenRiach...the Smoky Twelve is a Speyside single malt made from both peated and unpeated malted barley and matured for a minimum of 12 years in Bourbon, Sherry and Marsala wine casks