Show us your whisky! Vol 2

[GetCarter]

If you're ever in our part of the world, our local (Torridon) has over 350 single malts... the whisky bar open to non residents in the afternoon - though you might want a room to sleep it off

Doubtless some of you will have visited!



(I have nothing to do with the Torridon BTW... except doing much of their photography - not the above, which is a bit crap! - spot the photographer)

[AshBurrows]

GetCarter said:

If you're ever in our part of the world, our local (Torridon) has over 350 single malts... the whisky bar open to non residents in the afternoon - though you might want a room to sleep it off

Doubtless some of you will have visited!



(I have nothing to do with the Torridon BTW... except doing much of their photography)

We just booked this place as part of the north coast 500!
Annoying, they told us we can't use the whisky bar as we're a room of 6 which is in the stables or something and this is only for the people in the proper castle bit. Really annoying but it's for a birthday so I figure we just explain on the day and hope for the best.

[GetCarter]

AshBurrows said:

We just booked this place as part of the north coast 500!
Annoying, they told us we can't use the whisky bar as we're a room of 6 which is in the stables or something and this is only for the people in the proper castle bit. Really annoying but it's for a birthday so I figure we just explain on the day and hope for the best.

You can have afternoon tea and use the whisky bar in the afternoon.. but not the evening. (There just isn't room for the hotel residents as well as the Inn residents when dinner is being dished out)

Worst comes to the worst, there is not too shabby a selection in the Inn.

[NRS]

I'm heading to the UK tomorrow for the Spirit of Speyside festival! Really looking forward to it! First time at a multiple day festival (it's 5 days) and I am beginning to worry we might have overdone it in regards to the amount of things we have tried to squeeze into each day!

Visiting Glenallachie, Glendronach and Ballindalloch distilleries, doing the Chichibu tasting, a blending class with Chivas, the whisky awards tasting and tour of Forsyths, and selecting the 2002 Family Cask at Glenfarclas with George Grant. Plus perhaps Aberlour/Macallan or Glenfarclas distillery on last day depending on time and body, . That's not including the dinner with some drinks each evening. So please forgive any nonsense posted on here,

[jammy-git]

That's certainly one way to forget about the loss to Palace!

[krallicious]

NRS said:

I'm heading to the UK tomorrow for the Spirit of Speyside festival! Really looking forward to it! First time at a multiple day festival (it's 5 days) and I am beginning to worry we might have overdone it in regards to the amount of things we have tried to squeeze into each day!

Visiting Glenallachie, Glendronach and Ballindalloch distilleries, doing the Chichibu tasting, a blending class with Chivas, the whisky awards tasting and tour of Forsyths, and selecting the 2002 Family Cask at Glenfarclas with George Grant. Plus perhaps Aberlour/Macallan or Glenfarclas distillery on last day depending on time and body, . That's not including the dinner with some drinks each evening. So please forgive any nonsense posted on here,

Not jealous AT ALL.






Have fun.

[HotJambalaya]

Was just popping over here to look for the rum thread. You plonkers distracted me.....


Basil Hayden's Bourbon
Nikka From the Barrel
Suntory Yamazaki Distiller's Reserve
Jack Daniel's Single Barrel Rye
Balcones Baby Blue Corn Whisky
Togouchi Premium Blended Whisky
Benromach 10 Year Old

Ableforth's Bathtub Gin


Nothing big ticket, though my finger was hovering over the taiwanese one for a little while...!

[ClassicMercs]

Has anyone been to Highland Park recently. Sadly I can't get at present - its on the bucket list - but a neighbor is going up in a week (non whisky drinker).
I know you can get to bottle your own if you do the more expensive tours but are there other options on distillery only bottles / other specials. I know there will be expensive bottles - I'm talking bottles below £200 preferably. The chap has offered to go shopping for me.

[SebastienClement]

Has anyone here tried Bowmore Laimrig available from "The Whisky Shop"?

I've found I get on really well with Bowmore 15 "Darkest" which is bloody lovely and leaves the taste of a burning wood fire in your mouth afterwards - I'm wondering if the Laimrig is similar?

I've just treated myself to a bottle of Talisker Port Ruighe which is fantastic - I also find the Talisker 10 y/o very palatable indeed - much more so than Skye or Storm.

[Joat]

SebastienClement said:

Has anyone here tried Bowmore Laimrig available from "The Whisky Shop"?

I've found I get on really well with Bowmore 15 "Darkest" which is bloody lovely and leaves the taste of a burning wood fire in your mouth afterwards - I'm wondering if the Laimrig is similar?

I've just treated myself to a bottle of Talisker Port Ruighe which is fantastic - I also find the Talisker 10 y/o very palatable indeed - much more so than Skye or Storm.

I've got a bottle of the Bowmore Laimrig, it's a lovely rich drink, lots of sherry with a lingering smokey finish. I can't compare it with the "Darkest" as I've not tried it, but it's definitely one of my favourites.

[Mr Trophy]

Is NRS alive still .... ?

[Swervin_Mervin]

I think I may have to pay a visit to Constantine at some point next week. That'll be an entire afternoon of a job I reckon!

[Sy1441]

Glencaddam 15 was on an amazon lightening deal today, sold out in minutes and i missed it.

[NRS]

Mr Trophy said:

Is NRS alive still .... ?

I have survived! Albeit it not had a liver scan since the end of the festival...

krallicious said:

Not jealous AT ALL.

Have fun.

I'll try and reduce the jealousy and give a mini summary of the days,

Day 1:

We slept in Elgin the night before, so had an early start the next morning to get the bus down to Aberlour where we jumped off the bus and into a taxi to go to the Ballindalloch distillery. This is a very small distillery owned by the Macpherson-Grant family who decided to turn an old steading into a small craft distillery. They have done a fantastic job, and the focus is on having it traditional and as little automation as possible. We were welcomed by Oliver Russell (the estate owner, married into the family), Colin Poppy (distillery manager) and Brian Robinson (the distillery host). Brian was great at telling the story behind the distillery over coffee, and made it clear the tour wouldn't be the usual simple tour. Unlike most new distilleries they are not going to release whisky at 3 years old but will wait until around 8-10 years old when it will have enough quality.

Colin then took us into the distillery itself and showed us through the processs. Almost everything is done by hand, so for example they have to open/ close all the valves by hand in the right order. They grow their own barley, then have it malted elsewhere and shipped back to the distillery where they mill it. For adding the yeast to the wash back we were invited to do this ourselves as part of the tour. One person poured in the yeast, with a second person mixing it so there was no lumps. The flavour they are aiming for is very clean fruity flavour, so the distillery and process is all based around this. We saw the stills and tried some of the new make spirit. After this we got to fill our "own" cask that we signed too - so if you have the chance to buy in the future I'd recommend cask 225 from 2017, They are not doing any smaller casks to mature spirit more quickly either, as they view it as a more "microwave meal" for whiskies.

Following seeing the warehouse with the barrels we went to the tasting room where we had 3 of the families private casks. This is their way of dealing with not serving "not ready" whisky. The family had part ownership of Cragganmore before, and when they sold it deal was the family could buy a cask each year if they wanted. Apparently when testing these for using in the tasting they found there was a 1964 and 1967 (maybe slightly wrong years) - but these turned out to be ruined and not possible to save sadly. The first 2 were a 1986 and 1985 bouron matured (27 and 28yo) which were very good. The 3rd was obviously a sherry cask, and coming from a 1st fill sherry cask from 1984 I was expecting this to be a strong spicy sherry bomb. However it was extremely well balanced between the spirit and the sherry influence, and a stunning dram. This was my favourite of the 3. This was probably my favour event of the festival (as you might tell with my waffling on here)!

Not much space!


Adding the yeast:


Me hammering the bung to seal the barrel ready for maturing:


The drams. All cask strength, so there was greedy angels for the 1985!


After this we went to the Ballindalloch castle and looked around,before going to Dufftown for a haggis dinner with cheese and whisky afterwards (Balvenie 12yo doublewood - brie, 14yo Caribbean cask - connage Cromal and 17yo Doublewood - blue cheese). There was a local singer who sang folk songs occasionally, with people joining for the chorus. Lots of good chat and meeting new people, and then finished the evening with a 21yo G&M Mortlach.

[seiben]

Somewhere in north west France, with somebody else's Lagavulin 16. Lovely

[mi1ne]

Bruichladdich have released the LaddieMP7 today on their website. Website was really slow and a queue was in place but managed to get a set. Just in case you wast aware it was released today.

[HotJambalaya]

Having just broken my last tumbler I'm on the hunt.

What glasses do you have? I'm looking for something suitably heavy, and able to take a good large ice cube.

[Blown2CV]

HotJambalaya said:

Having just broken my last tumbler I'm on the hunt.

What glasses do you have? I'm looking for something suitably heavy, and able to take a good large ice cube.

the cut glass ones my parents received as a wedding present in 1970. My Dad hates whisky and always has! The tumblers were unused with sticker still on each when i was passed them as an 'early inheritance' a few years ago.

[HarryW]

Limited edition Bunnahabhain Moine Oloroso cask strength... Very nice, but it really needed water to open it up.

[jesusbuiltmycar]

The Glencairn Whisky Glass

https://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Glencairn-Official-Wh...

Currently with a large Ardbeg 10 in it