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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….
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….
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.
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…..
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.
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…
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.
SMWS 12.53 “Going Crazy in a Bakery”
I plan on sprinkling in some Scotch Malt Whisky Society reviews over the next few weeks as I have more on the way and I need to make some room on my shelf! For those that aren’t familiar, SMWS is a club (annual fee) that buys casks from distilleries and always bottles them at cask strength. They come up with colorful names and label them under a distillery & cask code so you don’t know who the distillery is, but it’s the worst kept secret in the whisky world and there are plenty of websites that tell you which each one is. Distillery #12, which is BenRiach, is in Speyside and was distilled on Sept. 29, 2009 and put into 1st fill ex-bourbon barrels.
The Balvenie “The Sweet Toast of American Oak” Aged 12 Years
Full disclosure, I am a big The Balvenie fan with the first nice single malt I ever purchased being the old Single Barrel 15 Year (the one aged in traditional casks, not the current sherried version). For this review, we will be tasting The Sweet Toast of American Oak Aged 12 Years, which was the first release in the new Balvenie Stories Collection. This expression takes Balvenie juice aged in ex-bourbon barrels and then puts it in Kentucky virgin oak barrels that were deeply toasted at Balvenie’s cooperage. Given the profile, I expected this to be somewhat similar to the 12 year old Single Barrel First Fill staple that is part of the core Balvenie line.
Aberlour 16 Year Old
Aberlour is another distillery in the Speyside region. The Aberlour 16 Double Cask Matured is a single malt expression made from distillate that was aged for at least 16 years in ex-Bourbon casks and at least 16 years in Sherry butts. The barrels selected for this bottling are then married together. The brand has refreshed the packaging and my bottle might be the old label (I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm mistaken)
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