Glenmorangie Lasanta Tasting Notes and Review

The Story

Glenmorangie is one of the distilleries that is leading the way in experimenting with different cask finishes on their mainstay whisky.  You can think of these whiskies as simply their ten year aged for an extra two years in a different type of cask.  Check out my review of the Glenmorangie 10 Year HERE.

I love cask finishes.  Scotch is great and beautiful and perfect as it is, but it's always nice to experiment with interesting variations.

Ardbeg Uigeadail Review and Tasting Notes

The Story

Ardbeg's Uigeadail is a tremendously well regarded scotch, previously named as Jim Murray's World Whisky (not just Scotch!) of the Year in 2009.  It predominantly consists of Ardbeg's peaty malt, but it is combined with some whisky aged in ex-sherry casks.  The ratio is thought to be roughly 80:20 with sherry aged malt consisting of the minority.

As you know, I'm a pretty big fan of the Corryvreckan.  I'm also a fan of sherry, although I consider peated malts to be the true definition of heaven on earth.

Thus, Ardbeg's Uigeadail offering sounds like a match made in heaven for me, right?  Made by the artists behind the Corryvreckan.  Some subtle sherry notes mingled in.  And those miles and miles of peat we have come to expect from Ardbeg.

Match made in heaven, right?

GlenDronach 12 Review and Tasting Notes

The Story

As an avowed sherry lover and big time fan of the Aberlour A'bunadh and the Dalmore's 15 year offering, it was only a matter of time before I made my way over to GlenDronach.  When sherried malts are the topic discussion, the GlenDronach drams always find their way into the conversation of the sherriest of the sherries.  It even calls itself "The Sherry Cask Connoisseur."

Although it has clearly earned this reputation, recently GlenDronach has followed the Glenmorangie path and begun to produce other wine cask finished expressions, including Sauternes, Port, and Madeira.  I, for one, would love to try those, bank account permitting.

GlenDronach's 12 year expression is exclusively aged in sherry casks, a mix of Pedro Ximenez and Oloroso.

Three Open Bottles, What To Do, What To Do?

I keep my bottles of scotch on top of the fridge.  Well, all my liquor goes there, but it just so happens that most of it is scotch.

Over the last six months, since I've been blogging, my scotch tasting has gone into an absolute frenzy.  I have scoured stores and the internet for good deals on bottles to taste and to review.

It got expensive.

I also arrived at a - great! - problem to have:

I had tons and tons of scotch.

However, scotch doesn't last forever.  Once opened, the length of time before the bottle starts to lose flavor is inversely related to how much of the bottle has been drunk.  Put differently, the less there is in the bottle, the more quickly it'll go bad.

Dalmore 15 Review and Tasting Notes

The Story

The Dalmore is among the most highly regarded scotch distilleries and is well known for its characteristic orange peel flavor profile.

The Dalmore 15 spends its first 12 years maturing in American white oak ex-bourbon casks.  However, this is where things get far, far more interesting, as the whisky is then split into three even shares which spend the final 3 years of maturation in 3 different types of sherry casks, Amoroso, Apostles, and Matusalem oloroso.  At the end of this, the final maturation occurs when the three strains are mixed into a single sherry butt to allow the flavors to optimally fuse.

I was very excited about this bottle.  As a sherried scotch lover, a simple sherry cask finish will get me going, but three different types of sherry casks mingled into one scotch!  A fifteen year old blend, which was at the time of my first tasting, the oldest scotch I'd ever had!  Plus, at ~$75 (depending on who you buy from) it was definitely at the upper limit of my price range.

Aberlour A'bunadh Batch 52 Review and Tasting Notes

The Story

I have been excited to try the Aberlour A'bunadh.

I spent the last six months on a lengthy exploration of the world's peatier malts, and for whatever reason, I was deep into the caramelly and fruity scotch world before that.

Which is to say, I hadn't had a glass of sherry styled scotch in... a while.

A long while.

Until a week ago.

I happened to be at a liquor store trying to decide which Islay flavor to explore next when I saw a mini bottle of Macallan 12 Sherry Cask at a decent price.  I picked it up, brought it home, and I was immediately sucked into the sherry flavors.