Week 2 of 3 for the gifts of scotch, this time a step up from the Select in terms of price (although Select is meant to take from all of Laphroaig. I’ve always been big fans of multiple wood casks (especially with things like The Balvenie), and this is no exception. If I complained last week about a lack of first impressions – damn does this have one.
Alright now that the holidays are over, time to review my gifts. Specifically two very lovely bottles of Laphroaig, the Select this week and the Triple Wood next week (and some Oban the week after). This week we start with the lower cost scotch, but it is by no means a bad scotch in any right.
If this whiskey could have an intro song it would be “Let me tell you bout my best friends” or “Come Together”. It’s a beautiful collaboration of a whiskey made from barrels that were used to make beer, where the beer was made with the same whiskey’s barrels. It’s the pinnacle of the trend of ‘upcycling’ so hard it almost hurts.
Alright of the recent vodka reviews I have saved the best for last. This vodka was bought simply because of how beautiful the bottle looked. I wanted to buy an iceberg and lo and behold a NH liquor store supplied. I do wish with a name like Anestasia that this was as Russian as Putin himself, but it comes from Oregon.
As part of a three-whiskey box special I got a selection of Jameson’s. Of course you know we’ve already reviewed the classic, but the next two up are the Caskmate and this the Special Reserve (or as it’s being slowly renamed too – the Black Barrel). However with either the name of a special reserve or black barrel this feels not like a better more exclusive Jameson, but simply another breed in it’s line.
Alright so last vodka came from potatoes and tasted about as good as eating an eye of a potato, what’s next? Oh Eurotrash. Well shit. However as we say, despite the looks of things like Skyy, the taste is sometimes there. We do have a metric that essentially describes a book by it’s cover but that is 1 of 7 metrics.
As promised here we have some irish whiskey’s mostly due to a sampler pack I bought, but I figured I should get something else, and this one came with a nice flask. While I am fine with everything but the actual taste I don’t think this is the irish whiskey I would ever want or need.
Not gonna lie folks but the next few weeks are just vodka’s and whiskies from Scotland and Ireland. All summer was more interesting and seasonal things, but it’s back to doing what we likely do a bit too much of. By which I mean trying to take those large walls of vodka from your local store and tell you why 85% of it should be flat out avoided. Hey speaking of.
Alright time for some whiskey, and this time we go for some good ol’ southern bourbon instead of scotch. While Islay may pack a punch, this packs a whole whollup. Normally I ignore a bourbon set at a higher proof as being anything more than a bit boozy, but this is so hot Chris Tucker is reprising his role from Fifth Element.
Here at week 2 of gin reviews and we are know in a gin that comes to us from England, that was then shipped to Iceland, and has been described as being made similar to a Scottish single malt – because why not. However while last week we had a good martini gin, this is simply mediocre and overpriced to compensate.
