Back to ‘scotch’ instead of tequila we instead take a slight diversion to Japan. We’ve actually had some pretty good luck with Japanese whiskies in the past, and though this looked to be one of the cheaper entry-level products hopes were high it could compete with it’s brothers the Yamazaki and the Hakushu.
Week 2 of the Sangre’s tequila set of reviews, this time with a fiery reposado. This is one is one of my favorites in terms of design with the flames and red. I also like that the heat you get on the backburner makes this one of the better mixers from the Sangre line.
So this distiller was bought and left dormant for near 100 years. However once 2008 happened there was a turn, and now that it’s been a while enough time has passed to to make an actual scotch. This comes as a ‘revival’ of the distillery, but in short it can;t be ignored for being just another single malt scotch whisky.
Alright and so begins the month of tequila reviews from the company of Sangre de Vida. The lounge received a review sampler set among it’s scotch so we’ll be intersplicing it with that before we move onto the United Kingdom content next month. So those familiar with this ‘shape’ will recall our review of Kah Reposado, and it seems there’s a looming underbelly of hatred and lawsuits between the two companies over the fact that a normal person isn’t likely to notice a difference. The problem there being that to a certain degree Kah is much better (oh no, we spoiled a whole month this time)
I know we recently did a Johnnie Walker as a group, but this was another gift to the lounge that we’ve got to discuss. This is a Rye cask finished whiskey which is notable for thankfully not being sherry. The scotch overall is fairly good, but is best treated as something worth trying, and for Rye fans a joy. The rest of the time though – move along.
This was bought purely as an easy to review rum from a few nips to make judgements and cocktails without knowledge of it’s importance. We’ve often lauded the superiority of Bacardi that is mostly unwarranted, but it seems we weren’t alone. Truly there are 2 names of rum in Cuba, and this is the other. SHIT. We got the Puerto Rican version.
So we’ve actually done 4 different Laphroaig reviews. (The Select, Three Wood, An Cuan Mor, and 15 Year); however despite having bought this very whisky multiple times in the lounge – it recently came to our attention it hadn’t been properly reviewed. Time to solve that. Laphroaig’s 10 year is most notably for being a constant companion in the Buffalo Lounge, not a year goes by without it gracing the shelves for a few short months, and that alone is a true marker of quality more than the other transient spirits in the lounge.
So as those of you might recall we’ve previously had another entry from the Explorer’s Club Collection – The Spice Road. However as shown we had 2 slightly different takes one by The Buffalo, and the other Justice. Now historically Justice has been a lot more forgiving in scotch reviews which was shown in his entry. We therefore decided for this top-tier entry to meet up and discuss as a group.
Once again we have a distiller’s edition that feels worse than the original, costs more, and you sort of feel that maybe scotch shouldn’t be done by a committee – but at least more than 1 person. Distiller’s edition’s have always baffled us, because it’s usually done more as an experiment, or to take what is often a more ‘generalized’ product and make it niche, jack up the price, and go. The problem is that they become novelty to buy once, when it really should be something better.
Unlike Dimple Pinch, I actually knew a piece of popular culture that this whiskey is used in, notably John Wick. Now John Wick is an amazing movie for many reasons, but after a very hard day, John relaxed with this whiskey to dull his pain on recommendation by Winston. The whiskey itself is actually quite good, and it’s easy to see why it was chosen for a piece of prop design.
