Category Archives: Scotch

Quarantine Bottle Kill #8: Kilchoman Sauternes Cask Matured (2016)

It feels like the quarantine weeks are quickly going up in smoke. That’s probably because half of the home bar is Islay Whisky right now. Is that a forced transition? You bet it is. I thoroughly enjoy heavily peated whisky. I often use Octomore as an example of just how good a Scotch Whisky canContinue reading “Quarantine Bottle Kill #8: Kilchoman Sauternes Cask Matured (2016)”

Quarantine Bottle Kill #5: Longrow Red 11 Year Cabernet Sauvignon Cask

Just because we’re in quarantine doesn’t mean that there can’t be a theme. Aside from sparking joy by eliminating bottles from the booze cart that is. So next up on the quarantine bottle list is the cousin to the last, the Longrow 11 Year Red: Cabernet Sauvignon Cask. For all single malts produced in ScotlandContinue reading “Quarantine Bottle Kill #5: Longrow Red 11 Year Cabernet Sauvignon Cask”

Quarantine Bottle Kill #3: Springbank 12 Year Cask Strength Burgundy

Springbank has always been a fascinating distillery to me. I intellectually love them. They are one of the last great Campbeltown distilleries. Located on Kintyre Peninsula, Campbeltown was once known as “the whisky capital of the world” with 28 distilleries packed into its borders. Today a measly three remain with one of them, Glengyle whichContinue reading “Quarantine Bottle Kill #3: Springbank 12 Year Cask Strength Burgundy”

Whiskey Wednesday: Hitting Johnnie Green’s Stride

Johnnie Walker is a striding behemoth, straddling the world as the number one selling Scotch whisky brand. It’s so popular that “What makes Johnnie Walker Blue the best?” is a Google search autocomplete. It’s so popular that due to knockoffs and literal bootlegs there are more bottles of Johnnie Walker Black Label sold in India everyContinue reading “Whiskey Wednesday: Hitting Johnnie Green’s Stride”

Open Bottle: Nineteen Eighty-Four JURA

“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” Released in 1949 George Orwell’s masterpiece Nineteen Eighty-Four often feels as alive and resonant as it must have when it was first published. Reading the headlines it feels like doublespeak, Big Brother, and New Speak have leapt from the lexicon ofContinue reading “Open Bottle: Nineteen Eighty-Four JURA”

Whiskey Wednesday: Islay Barley

When you think of whisky and what gives it it’s flavor what springs to mind? Is it the mashbill, the barrel type, the aging location and length? Chances are good terrior didn’t spring to mind but the team at Bruichladdich would like to change that. Bruichladdich is a distillery that blends history and modernity. Founded in 1881Continue reading “Whiskey Wednesday: Islay Barley”

Whiskey Wednesday: Compass Box Directions

There are things that I love and there are things that I intellectually love. There’s a Venn Diagram where these two worlds merge but the edges are blurry and unscientific. Compass Box falls squarely in the grey area of these circles. Over the past 17 years Compass Box has certainly marketed themselves as the hip,Continue reading “Whiskey Wednesday: Compass Box Directions”

Whiskey Wednesday: The Chivas Brothers

Some things seem so ubiquitous, so omnipresent that they become nearly invisible. All of the work, all of the marketing, but most importantly all of the quality that must be present to get them to that pervasive point becomes overlooked and it all just fades into the background. That had been my experience of ChivasContinue reading “Whiskey Wednesday: The Chivas Brothers”

Whiskey Wednesday: Changing A Pig’s Nose

Consolidation is the name of the game. Every week there is another story of a small or independent distillery being purchased by a bigger player. Most recently Bacardi purchased a minority stake in Teeling Irish Whiskey, Diageo paid nearly a billion dollars for George Clooney’s Casa Migos Tequila, and Pernod Ricard got into the mescalContinue reading “Whiskey Wednesday: Changing A Pig’s Nose”