Year 2019 highlights!

Let's continue good tradition of choosing the best malts of the year...

Whisky felling #20. Christmas malts: Glenglassaugh 30 yo 42.0%, Macallan 12 yo Exceptional cask 2005/2017 cask #10 65.9%, Glenfarclas 1973/2002 cask #4788 46%, Glendronach 28 yo 1990/2019 cask #7905 51.7%, Highland Park 20 yo 1983/2003 distillery only 56.4%

There is an idea that the best whisky for Christmas should come from sherry casks. Let's try to find out if that's true.

Whisky felling #19: Bunnahabhain glory: indies vs officials. Bunnahabhain 1980 37 yo NSS 44.4%, Bunnahabhain 1973 40 yo Acla 46.2%, Bunnahabhain 1973 40 yo Archives 50.6%, Bunnahabhain 1971 35 yo 125-th Anniversary 44.9% and Bunnahabhain 1968 34 yo 43.5%

We've already set up great tradition to have cool Bunnahabhain tasting each autumn.

Whisky felling #18. The Islands Odyssey: Arran 22 yo 47.7%, Bruichladdich 25 yo 41.6%, Talisker 25 yo (2005) 57.2%, Tobermory 32 yo 49.5% and Highland Park 1973 37 yo 50.6%

Main idea was to travel across Scottish isles and compare different styles of island whiskies.

Whisky felling #17. Five shades of Laphroaig: Laphroaig 27 yo 41.7%, Laphroaig 1991/2014 52.6%, Laphroaig 10 yo CS 55.3%, Laphroaig 1998/2013 LMDW Artist 3 60.1%, Laphroaig 20 yo Elixir Distillers 53.8%

Laphroaig isn't our frequent guest and actually it's difficult to try their aged expressions (there are not so many of them and price tag is really high), but we will make our best tonight.

Whisky felling #16. Undisclosed Speysides from 1970-s: Glenfarclas 40 yo, Speyside 1973 Liquid Treasures, Speyside 1973 Whisky Doris, Speyside 1973 Archives, Speyside 1973 Whisky Fassle.

This time we're gonna taste selection of presumably Glenfarclas aged in fino casks (that's what rumours say) and compare them with official 40 yo release.

Whisky felling #15. Hommage to Silvano Samaroli: Glen Garioch 1975/1987 RWD 50.0%, Ord 1962/1984 Samaroli Bouquet 58.0%, Glen Grant 1969/1984 Samaroli 59.0%

Sounds quite crazy and indeed it is: three old Samaroli malts at one tasting!

Whisky felling #14. Eyes wide shut: Imperial 1997 DT (Glen Karadag) 46%, Littlemill 24 yo Mba 50.6%, Caroni 1974, Ardbeg Alligator 51.2%, Springbank Local Barley 16 yo 54.3%, Highland Park 1983/2003 cask #1096 56.4%

The idea of this tasting was to repeat blind session format we had on Whisky felling #10 with quite a few surprises planned in advance... 

Whisky felling #13. Mortlach of all kinds: Mortlach 1989/2012 DD 56.1%, Mortlach 1989/2014 GM cask #4302 50.0%, Mortlach 1994/2014 MoS cask #14046 53.6%, Mortlach 1997/2017 Chieftain's 56.8%, Mortlach 1992/2017 HL 58.8%, Mortlach 19 yo Manager Dram (bottled 2002) 55.8%

So we took 6 Mortlachs from 6 different bottlers and tried to find the difference..