Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban & Madeira (Old Style) Reviews

Hi everyone,

I realised a few days ago that I have a tonne of reviews missing from here (mainly because of this ranking systemI've been doing) and a big part of that failing is Glenmorangie. How have I not review the basic 10yo Glenmo yet? Well, going onto my Glenmorangie folder on my laptop I found that I’ve mysteriously lost my Glenmo 10 review so here’s the other 2 I’ve got until I find some more.

I found the old Madeira finished one in my garage as one of my Dad’s dustys! Great find.

Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban 46%

Colour: Ruby Red

Body: Medium

Nose: Clean, fresh and ethereal. Fresh fruit- Blackberry but quite tropical too with pineapple and mango. A little meaty. A tiny bit of spice- Cinnamon.

Water: More full nose. Juicy fruit- Mango, pineapple, blackberry but also some pear.

Taste: Very fresh and quite ethereal to start. A little vanilla then more full fresh fruit- Pineapple, mango and blackberry. Cinnamon into the finish.

Water: More creamy arrival and spicy and drying development. A little chalky.

Finish: Medium length. Blackberry and blueberry then dark chocolate.

12 years, 2 years finished in Port pipes. Very rich this and it did get better the more the level in the bottle went down.

73/100

Glenmorangie Madeira Finish (Old Style) 43%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Slightly dusty (open bottle effect), fruit cake, raisin and toffee, opening up now, dry oak, ginger biscuit, some apple.

Taste: Soft, fruity, dry oak, ginger biscuit, dry spice, quite intense actually, raisin and then more oak and a little harsh spiciness.

Finish: Medium length. A harshness, some alcohol, ginger and oak.

A 1/3 full bottle found in my Dad's garage. Not as good as I was hoping and I definitely think the oxygen had gotten to this one a little bit.

70/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Reviews #568-#569

Whisky Network Reviews #673-#674

Network Average: 74.7

Best Score: 93

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Kilchoman Red Wine & 2006 Single Cask Reviews

Hi everyone,

Kilchoman has been proving to be one of the smokiest, mineral whiskies that money can buy you at times. And keeps on releasing some stunning (not to mention interesting) stuff. And they’ll normally put vintages on the packaging. And the pricing isn’t crazy.

Every year they do an interesting wine cask release, with 2017 being red wine. These are not finishings either, but full maturation in these casks. I bought a bottle of the Madeira a while back, and had the Sauternes last year, so of course I needed to try the new one. Especially after the other people I write for, Drinkhacker, gave it a very good score and seemed to love it.

The other one I’ve got today is a single cask I tasted recently in a great little whisky bar in Stirling called the Curley Coo. What I didn’t know was that they had a traditional Gaelic singing group in that night and my dram was accompanied by their majestic songs! Great night.

 

Kilchoman Red Wine 2017 50%

Colour: Redish

Body: Full

Nose: Wine gums, red fruit, berries, not much smoke, a little sulphur, pomegranate, vanilla and gummy bears. A little bit of a strange mix to me.

Taste: Red berries, some sulphur then LOTS of funky sulphur and smoke, intense mineral notes, lots of slate, really peaty too! Wasn’t expecting that after the nose!

Finish: Long length. Intense, mineral, juicy, some smoke.

Distilled 2012, bottled 2017. Tiring whisky this, but good. Really wasn’t expecting the big smoke on the taste from that nose.

78/100

 

Kilchoman 2006 Single Cask 51.1%

Colour: Gold

Body: Full

Nose: Lovely, very peaty and intense, malty, oily and mineral, no fruit in sight, all about the smoke. Lagavulin-esque in my mind.

Taste: Very soft to start, builds slowly with seriously mineral notes, then peat and freshly dug earth, creamy mouthfeel with vanilla. Nice balance of flavours here.

Finish: Medium length. Softer than expected, more minerally, seaweed, drier with some oak. Almost a little Laphroaiggian.

2006-2014 at 8yo from a Bourbon barrel. Really very nice, can’t wait to see what this distillery tastes like at 12 or 15.

82/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Reviews #566-#567

Whisky Network Reviews #671-#672

Network Average: 74.7

Best Score: 93

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Glen Scotia 16 & 2000 Sherry Cadenhead's Reviews

Hi everyone,

There’s a distillery I’ve been neglecting to review that is showing a lot of promise recently: Glen Scotia.

This gem has perhaps been overlooked, partly because it hasn’t received much love ownership-wise, partly because it had a variable reputation over the last decade or so. But they seem to be doing a lot better now, with Ralfy and others very much liking the new 15yo.

I’ve had a chance to try two recently, so here they are. First up an official 16yo for the airports and another 16yo single cask from the cask wizards Cadenhead’s.

Glen Scotia 16 46%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Malty, slightly dirty orange, flour and pastry, vanilla, a little funky, dry oak in there, even a touch of soot.

Taste: Malty with some cinnamon spice, spicy theme continues with sweetness behind, slightly floral, orange, ginger, quite peppery with black pepper. A bit harsh if drunk quickly.

Finish: Long length. More sour here, with some pastry notes and black pepper continuing.

Travel retail exclusive, which normally is slang for rubbish whisky. Not so much here though, the higher strength is really helping this. The funky style more reminiscent of Springbank on the nose.

74/100

 

Glen Scotia 2000 Sherry Cadenhead's 57.8%

Colour: Amber

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Austere, mineral and interestingly feinty, some bakery notes, some yeast, dirty orange, maybe a little strawberry. Interesting funk as it opens up.

Taste: Very soft for abv, rich sweetness builds, lovely dirty orange, some sulphur then spice and oak, black pepper, some cinnamon, grassy and mineral into the finish.

Finish: Long length. Softer again and more austere, some dried fig and lasting dry pepper.

2000-2016 at 16yo from a Sherry cask. Great whisky, great cask. Softer and less spicy with water but not as good. If you’re very sensitive to sulphur, you may not enjoy it as much as me though. For me, it really adds something here. This really reveals how much potential this distillery has and has made me a firm believer in great quality Glen Scotia. Very tempted by some of the older Sherry cask ones now, as if I need more whisky to be tempted by!

84/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Reviews #564-#565

Whisky Network Reviews #669-#670

Network Average: 74.7

Best Score: 93

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Knob Creek Single Barrel Review (And blind review video)

Hi everyone,

So… I did a thing. Dave’s Whisky Reviews has expanded slightly into the YouTube domain. And the idea is a little different in that I’ll be blind reviewing stuff and giving a guess as to what it is. Which is nothing new on Reddit but hasn’t really been done before on YouTube. The idea is to keep it fun, get some stuff hideously wrong and look like a bit of an idiot. You can check out my video on this one here. Let me know what you think!

Background with this was that I was visiting California and wanted to pick up my first bottle of Bourbon since Jim Beam White. (shudders) This being a good price and me not having tried it yet, it fit the bill pretty well.

 

Knob Creek 9 Single Barrel 60%

Colour: Bronze

Body: Full

Nose: A little funky, bags of nuts, peanut, macadamia, cashew, salted caramel, a little alcohol covering anything else.

Water: Softer and a little more complex. Nice caramel, toffee and vanilla. Honey, biscuit, salted peanuts.

Taste: Intense, almost a buttery mouthfeel to start (which is lovely), then it's drier, caramel, peanut, some alcohol, some funk, oak, more nut then with cashews and trail mix, and peanuts again, more and more peanuts. Some black pepper too in places with floral notes.

Water: Much softer arrival, nice balance to this one with honeycomb, soft black pepper, chilli flakes, caramel, cashew and peanut. Some oak and dry orange come in but never becomes too much.

Finish: Long length. More peanuts and oak comes through, not that spicy really. A little spicier with water.

A good one for 50 bucks! A few drops of water and it comes together. For me, I don’t think I could have done much better at this price point.

77/100

Thanks for reading!

American Review #55

Whisky Network Review #668

American Average: 69.5

Network Average: 74.7

Best Score: 93

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Linlithgow 1974 Silver Seal Review

Hi everyone,

A very special whisky here as the last whisky I tried as part of my shenanigans at festivals last year. (spoiler alert) It’s also the completion of my 90 club list on my blog.

So St. Magdalene distillery in the village of Linlithgow is one of those hyped lowland distilleries, probably on par with Rosebank. Some releases were under St. Magdalene, some Linlithgow. The stuff was the same. Triple distilled and worm tub condensed, same as Rosebank as far as I can tell.

That makes for a completely unique style that isn’t made at all anymore, since both are now closed (St. Magdalene is now flats). Official bottlings are scarce, along with any other bottlings making this stuff pretty hard to find too. But I spotted some at a stall in Inter. Whisky Frankfurt and it happened to be: 1. Not too expensive and 2. That golden age/strength that seems to generate 90’s scores.

 

Linlithgow 1974 Silver Seal 50%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Lovely and perfumed nose, malty, floral complexity, fizzy lemon sweets, classy old school oak, oily and waxy, old Balvenie-esque class, honey.

Taste: Great arrival, very soft then builds and builds, amazing development, lemon, zesty, slightly fizzy, wax, old oak and chocolate, malty, beeswax, clean laundry, petals and unexpected medicinal clean bandages!

Finish: Long length. Quite soft here but whispers of flavour continue and continue. Malt in particular and soft chocolate.

Over 27 years old, bottled in 2001. Best Lowland I've tried so far. By a very long way. So subtle and yet so classy. Quite a unique one, especially in the mid-palate with those clean bandages. Really didn’t expect that. Great stuff would be an understatement.

90/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #563

Whisky Network Review #667

Network Average: 74.7

Best Score: 93

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Excalibur Over 5 Years (70's Blend) Review

Hi everyone,

Something very different here. A rare 70’s blended Scotch called Excalibur. Looking at the label showed me that this blend comes from Charles H Julian Ltd., which seems to have been the name of a famous whisky blender who set up his own blend in the 70’s.

This was the guy behind creating such whiskies as Cutty Sark, J&B Rare and Chivas Regal 12 according to scotchwhisky.com.

This just happened to be something one of our importers brought along to Inter. Whisky Frankfurt and then I happened to ask if I could try some…

 

Excalibur 5 40%

Colour: Probable E150a

Body: Light/Medium

Nose: More like a malt, red apple, waxy and oily, floral, lemon peel. Not a lot going on but what is there is nice.

Taste: Lacking power but malt forward and builds earthy and chocolate-y notes, oak, ginger, covers the mouth, a little lemon peel.

Finish: Medium length. Coffee and chocolate, malt, some ginger.

75cl 40 degrees. This was an import for Italy back in the 70's. A much higher percentage of malt than modern day blends I think.

69/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #562

Whisky Network Review #666

Network Average: 74.7

Best Score: 93

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Stork Club Single ex-Bordeaux Cask Review (German Whisky)

Hi everyone,

German whisky. German. No I’ve never tried a German whisky. Well, until I was in Frankfurt and was on a stand with a new German whisky called Stork Club. Then it just felt rude not to try something of theirs.

They are doing a single malt and a single rye whisky but this one caught my eye instead. Partly because it had the exact number of days it had been maturing on the label, and partly because it had been maturing all those days in a Bordeaux red wine cask.

 

Stork Club Ex-Bordeaux Single Cask 55.9%

Colour: Redish

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Red gummy bears and slightly burnt rubber, floral oak, rose water, vanilla, chilli sauce. A slightly weird combination if you ask me but it kind of works.

Taste: Spicy arrival, chilli sauce, coriander, curry sauce, ginger, some green apple and orange, a little rubber into the finish. Quite an interesting but spicy taste.

Finish: Medium length. More spice and a little rubber. Not so balanced here and a little off.

Local barley single malt whisky matured in a red wine cask for 1207 days. Not bad, finish is a bit weird. German whisky!

64/100

Thanks for reading!

German Whisky Review #1

Whisky Network Review #665

Network Average: 74.7

Best Score: 93

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Clynelish 1984 Silver Seal Review

Hi everyone,

I’ve always wanted to try some older Clynelish because its normally raved about in whisky circles and rumours suggest that the further you go back, the closer to Brora you get.

Part of the unique character of Clynelish is the waxiness you get from it, that doesn’t quite come across the same in any other whisky. I had thought that this was due to the spirit safe never being cleaned, but a little research seems to suggest it is actually the feints tank that does not have oils removed from it that other distilleries normally would during their silent season.

What does that actually do? I have no idea really. But perhaps by taking quite a wide cut, more into the feints, they can capture some of those oils that then come through as that waxiness when matured?

 

Clynelish 1984 Silver Seal 57.3%

Colour: Light Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Light, ethereal, honeyed and complex, nettle, fresh mint, wax, a journal of pressed flowers complete with homemade paper, candle wax. Lovely nose, really fresh and summer-y.

Taste: Soft, amazing balanced arrival, then spices and juicy fruit along with complex honey and florals, white pepper, vanilla pod and lily. Beeswax and oils, candle wax, softer into the finish.

Finish: Long length. Drier but oily with some wax, old school oak.

Over 18 years old, bottled in 2003. A lot of Scotch mist with water! But it does unbalance the whisky though. Quite dry mid-palate but lovely old Clynelish. Better, in fact, than the 38yo Brora from 2016 IMO.

87/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #561

Whisky Network Review #664

Network Average: 74.7

Best Score: 93

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?