New Holland Dragon's Milk - Beer Review

Bourbon Barrel Aged Stout

I had planned for a long time to review the occasional beer on this site.  Although scotch is by far my true liquor love, beer certainly has its place in my world.  I thought it might be nice to ease the transition by reviewing a bourbon barrel aged stout.

So there's still some whisky in there.

Sort of.

Since I'm up front in my scotch reviews about my bias towards more strongly flavored whiskies and my love of the peatier malts such as Laphroaig, I'll get my beer preferences out of the way.  I'm a dark beer guy, a lover of stouts and porters, although I certainly enjoy a good amber or brown ale.

I'm also not a hops lover, although I can appreciate them if they're done right.

Coming Soon: Johnnie Walker Collection Review

I bought myself an early Christmas present today.

I was in the store and noticed the Johnnie Walker Collection on sale for a significant holiday discount.

The Johnnie Walker Collection contains Black Label (which I reviewed here and found to be all right), Gold Label Reserve, Platinum Label, and Blue Label.  That's three scotches I have never had and one that I think is a solid if unspectacular buy.

My scotch sense started tingling.  I did some quick mental math to see what I'd be paying per ounce for the different liquids, and... well, it wasn't bad.

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?

Laphroaig Cairdeas 2015 Review and Tasting Notes

The Story

Ahhh, yes.  Laphroaig.

Laphroaig was and always will be my first true love in scotch.  It was a warm summer day... okay, I won't go there.  But Laphroaig's 10 Year offering was the first scotch I truly fell in love with, and it remains among my favorites and among the best values in scotch.

Naturally, I consider myself a friend of Laphroaig, and naturally, I have to get my hands on Laphroaig's yearly Cairdeas offering.

"Cairdeas" means friend in Gaelic, and each year, Laphroaig's master distillers craft the annual Cairdeas malt.  Typically, they put a spin of some sort on it.

In 2015, it was Laphroaig's 200th anniversary, so the goal for the Cairdeas offering was to craft a dram much like it might have been made 200 years ago.

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.