Glendronach 33 Year Scotch (Speyside) – Cream, pepper, spice, old-growth forest. An electric zap of front fades, then re-emerges to a low-level fuzz on the finish. Quite compelling. (2/11)
scotland
Thistle while you work
Belhaven “Twisted” Thistle India Pale Ale (Scotland) – To light bitterness is added weediness, and this is…not to my taste. I freely admit that I don’t get what they were trying to do here. More for others, I guess. (1/11)
Belhaven Wee Heavy (Scotland) – Lives up to its name. (2/11)
Arran’t
The Arran 10 Year Scotch Whisky (Arran) – Unchillfiltered, as the nomenclature goes. Peaty but with a stong core of brandied apricots and sweet barrel notes. Very, very easy to drink. (11/10)
Islay me down to sleep
The MacPhail’s Selected Single Distilleries Collection (Bunnahabhain) 8 Year Scotch (Islay) – Boring. How do you make an Islay whisky boring? Well: exhibit A. Iodine, but only just, with a clammy boredom resting atop an alcoholic nonentity. The most “flavor” of the three from this lineup that I’ve tried, but in service of naught. (10/10)
Tamdhu the right thing, some don’t
The MacPhail’s Selected Single Distilleries Collection (Tamdhu) 8 Year Scotch (Speyside) – Boring, with a side of tedium. Sweet and a little vegetal. Still boring, after all these words. (10/10)
Overall
The MacPhail’s Selected Single Distilleries Collection (Highland Park) 8 Year Scotch (Orkney) – Boring, though slightly less so than its stablemates. A little sweetness, a little spice, a little of not enough that’s nice. Just barely worth the $25 I paid for it, though one of the better blended whiskys would have been just as good, and probably cheaper. (10/10)
Have your Scottish terriers Speysided and neutered
The Speyside Scotch Whisky 12 Year (Speyside) – Iodine, but not too much. Peat, but not too much. Flavor, but not too much. Sweet oak? Yeah, there’s a lot of that. Straightforward, really. (9/10)
Two, two, two barrels in one
The Balvenie “DoubleWood” 12 Year Scotch (Scotland) – Over-wooded Scotch. Overly pleasant and genial, not nearly interesting enough. (6/10)
Toil & trouble
Aberlour 12-Year Scotch “Double Cask Matured” (Highland) – Extremely fruity and sweet. So much so that if they claimed one of the casks was sourced from Sauternes, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised. Not my kind of Scotch. (7/10)
Kevin Smith
Brewdog “Chaos Theory” Ale (Scotland) – Bitter, but in a confident fashion, laying everything up front and demanding appreciation strictly as-is and on the merits. I could quibble that I prefer beer with a little more generosity, but really this is pretty solid. (4/10)
Brewdog “Dogma” Ale (Scotland) – Brewed with honey, kola nut, poppy seed, and guarana. And the point? Excess bitterness to no complexing or enriching ends. Pretty dull, honestly. (4/10)
Brewdog “bashah” Black Belgian Style Double IPA (Scotland) – No. Too much. No. (7/10)