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The Sassenach Blended Scotch
This next Exclusive Content Review will feature a celebrity brand in the blended Scotch category, The Sassenach. The celebrity attached to this brand is Sam Heughan, the co-start of the Starz original series, Outlander. This will be the first time that Nice Sipper reviews a blended Scotch as well as the first review of a “celebrity” whisky. Is this a money grab by Sam? Or is this the real deal? Let’s find out….
100th Review Celebration
This past review marked the 100th posted to Nice Sipper since starting this site a little over a year ago. To commemorate, I have compiled a montage video to relive all the reviews in a mere 90 seconds. Thank you for being a part of this journey, I look forward to posting the next 100!
Bowmore 15 Year Old
This next Exclusive Content Review will feature Bowmore 15 Year Old Single Malt Scotch from the Isle of Islay. Since we had our first official snowfall of the year up by me yesterday, it seemed like the proper time to open up a bottle of peated single malt to warm up….
Hazelburn 10 Year
Hazelburn is one of three brands of Scotch from the Springbank Distillery. While the other two, the Springbank and Longrow have medium and heavy peat profiles, the Hazelburn is the unpeated, triple distilled version within their portfolio of whiskies. Let’s check out this Hazelburn 10 Year together….
The Balvenie 16 Year French Oak Finished in Pineau Casks
For this next Exclusive Content Review, we will visit The Balvenie’s most recent release, the French Oak 16 Finished in Pineau Casks. In addition to sampling the new single malt scotch, we will also sip on some of the fortified wine that The Balvenie chose to finish its whisky in as well as sipping on The Balvenie’s 15 Year Sherry Cask Single Barrel and the DoubleWood 17 in an attempt to figure out how this new cask finishing influenced the core product. Buckle up….
Cardhu Gold Reserve Single Malt Game of Thrones: House Targaryen
In honor of this past weekend’s debut of House of the Dragon on HBO, we have a special review for one of the bottles from the Diageo Game of Thrones Scotch series, which came out a few years ago. This, of course, is the House of Targaryen bottle, a Cardhu Gold Reserve. Warning, this review may be combustible…
SMWS 71.80 “Powershake”
Our next review is going back to the world of independent bottlers with another Scotch Malt Whisky Society release. This one is 71.80 “Powershake” which, according to the internet, comes from the Glenburgie distillery, owned by Pernod Ricard and predominantly used for blending. Let’s see if this release belongs in a blend or if it can stand up on its own as a Single Malt expression….
Mortlach 12 “The Wee Witchie”
Our next review will be for a bottle that I first had the first summer of COVID when I started exploring various 12 year old expressions from distilleries that I had never tried before. The Mortlach 12 “The Wee Witchie” from The Beast of Dufftown.
Mossburn Vintage Casks No. 21 Benrinnes 10 Year (Distilled in 2008)
Hitting up another independent bottler for a Speyside single malt scotch review — Mossburn Single Malt Vintage Casks No. 21, a Benrinnes 10 year old distilled in 2008 and bottled at cask strength. I have never had a scotch from Benrinnes before, so let’s see how it tastes….
Loch Lomond Single Cask Store Pick Aged for 15 Years
I have reviewed two Loch Lomond releases already, the first a 12 year old single malt which is part of their core release and another, which was a SMWS 20 year old single grain whisky. I liked both. This 15 year old single cask store pick has been on my shelf for a while now, so let’s see how it tastes….
BenRiach Aged 16 Years
Next up is a BenRiach 16 Year Old. I have done a couple of reviews on BenRiach before, the Smokey 12 was actually the first review I posted and I did another that was a SMWS release. I enjoyed both and thought they were both aptly priced for the tasting experience. Let’s see how this fares….
GlenDronach 21 Years Old “Parliament”
On Independence Day Eve we will say goodbye to our British colonial rule with a sip of GlenDronach 21 Year Old “Parliament” Scotch…..Not a bad way to say goodbye me thinks…
Bruichladdich Islay Barley 2007 Rockside Farm
We are heading back to Islay for the next review to sip a bottle that was sitting on my shelf unopened for a while now, Bruichladdich Islay Barley 2007 Rockside Farm. This is an interesting whisky from Islay, which is known for its peated Scotch, as this is an unpeated release…..
Craigellachie 13 Years
I saw the bottle of Craigellachie on the shelf and it looked very “old timey” but it was also a 13 year old priced at $55 so I figured what the heck. As I’m trying to mix in more entry-level bottles with my reviews, it seemed about time that I returned to the Craigellachie 13…..
GlenAllachie 10 Year Cask Strength (Batch 5)
Next we have The GlenAllachie 10 Year old to make back-to-back 10 year old Speyside scotches this week. The only other GlenAllachie I have tasted was the SMWS Oven-Ready Moomin that I reviewed a bit ago so I am interested to see how the core lineup compares to the single casks as this is also a cask strength (like SMWS)…..
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.
Westland American Single Malt Cask No. 2548
Our next review is on a store pick, the Westland American Single Malt Whiskey Cask No. 2548 which I purchased from Gordon’s Wine in the Greater Boston area. I try to limit my store picks to liquor stores who I know have good taste as I have been burned a few times on others, but Gordon’s tends to pick some good ones. I’ve had this bottle for a bit and finally decided to crack it open for a tasting.
Glenfarclas 105 Cask Strength
The last Bottle Kill Week review is Glenfarclas 105 Cask Strength. This was my first Glenfarclas and it was recommended to me by someone whose whiskey tastes I highly respect. I had been eyeing a few of their bottles for quite some time so I was easily persuaded to check out this release.
SMWS 107.24 “Oven-Ready Moomin”
I’ve decided that in the spirit of Spring Cleaning, I’m going to make this Bottle Kill Week where I focus on the random assortment of bottles that I have saved just a wee bit of whisk(e)y to eventually do a review.
Since my last review was on, what I would essentially refer to as, an independent bottler for Bourbons and Ryes, I will continue this trend and do another SMWS review (that and I have two newer ones that I want to open!). This is bottle 107.24 called “Oven-Ready Moomin”, a nice little Speyside 8 year old Single Malt…..