My first time tasting Black Bottle was in the best possible context for this dram as you can imagine: on the ferry between Kennacraig and Port Askaig. And I loved it - bold, smoky and bracing. This is…

My alphabetical order is a bit out of whack, but I'm going to try to (roughly) adhere to it as we go through these minis. This is a Ballantine's 12 Year Old, but the label is very different from the…

Well, here's something new on the LCBO shelf - something from the "Whisky Shack Company" called Storm (not to be confused with Talisker Storm). This one is a blended malt scotch from Lombard Brands (who…

Some weeks ago I participated in the monthly online auction Scotch Whisky Auctions (based in Glasgow) and won (among other things) twelve minis. Thankfully my good friend Rick Culver was in Glasgow…

The Orphan Barrel whiskies are limited releases by Diageo, of rare whiskies from their warehouses (though, interestingly, not necessarily from Diageo-owned distilleries - so we do not know from whence…

This time we have Old Blowhard 26 Year Old. "Old Blowhard"? "Barterhouse"? What the hell do these mean, anyway? Ahhhhh the marketing wizards of Diageo strike again...Six more years in wood give it a…

Most cult whiskies encompass entire distilleries, either alive (Ardbeg, Macallan) or, usually, dead (Port Ellen, Pappy Van Winkle, Brora, Rosebank, etc). But Aberlour A'bunadh is perhaps the only one…

Ahhhhh. I'm inside on a sunny Saturday afternoon, watching the Rogers Cup semi-final (the women's tennis, taking place in Montreal). That it is the Williams sisters against each other makes it quite…

Since I'm in a compare-and-contrast mood, let's try two different single barrels of Jack Daniel's. Our first opponent comes from Rick No. R-18 and Barrel No. 13-6633, and was bottled on November 19 2013…

This one is the second youngest in the 1824 Series. I didn't like the Gold much (scored it a 75 about a year ago) so let's see how this one stands up.The colour is, um, amber. On the nose, it is quite…