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Filibuster a bust? Not exactly…

Posted on September 9, 2015September 9, 2015 by Scotch N Sniff

As I sit and sip this delicious bourbon, I’m reminded that the magic of tasting whisk(e)y is for everyone and that it’s not magic. I’m also reminded, as I sip this Filibuster Dual Cask Straight Bourbon Whiskey, sometimes the taste of a whisk(e)y IS magical. Below, you can see exactly which batch and bottle I happened to pick from the shelf at my local liquor spot. Batch nine and bottle number 251. Or 637. Or 7051. Either way, I liked this bottle so much I raved about it to some friends and picked up two more bottles. At under $40 a bottle, I couldn’t resist!

My big, fat, bourbon-y mistake.

I grabbed a bottle from batch ten, took it to a friend’s house, and ended up eating my own suggestion. How did a magical bottle full of toasted, honey-glazed bananas drizzled in spices and served over fresh-fired oak turn into a set of flavors that I can’t even bring myself to type in good conscience! What happened? I ran to another liquor store and grabbed a bottle, this time from batch eleven… Skunked! WHAT?! How did batch nine get so much right and everything following it get so much so wrong?

I can’t express how much this causes us to appreciate consistency across batches and the noses and palates of some of the great malt masters. Here at ScotchNSniff, we would love to be able to give great recommendations for bottles, especially at this price range, but we’ve learned a valuable lesson thanks to our Filibuster experience. If we ever give a recommendation and you find yourself wildly at odds with out review, please let us know. We’d love to grab another bottle and keep folks updated on the real flavors found in real bottles.

(I originally started this blog post to talk about the origins of this “local” distillery but got carried away by the tasting, as you can see.)

That said, we tried the rye (Bat.6 Bot.2980) and love it…

And we tried the Sherry Finished triple cask (Bat.1 Bot. 2789) and absolutely can’t stand it…

We’ll have full reviews up soon for these bottles and hope we can save you a few bucks and better spend a few other bucks. I know [Scotch] picked up a couple of differently batched bottles and I’ll probably do the same so we can get to the bottom of this variation of flavors… To be continued!

-[Sniff]

Scotch VS Scotch : The Dalmore 18 versus The Dalmore 15

Posted on August 21, 2015August 21, 2015 by Scotch N Sniff

Greeting fellow whisky taster! Happy Friday!!

Here we are with another installment of scotch versus scotch and this one just might save you half of what you’re thinking about spending. We’re comparing the Dalmore’s 15 year offering with their 18 year to see if a doubling in price is actually a good value.

Nose:

Let’s dive right in, nose first. Whoa. The 18 starts its ole factory invitation with oranges and sherry. It’s surprisingly floral but if you’re a sherry fan, you’re going to love the nose. Oddly enough, the 15 was finished in three types of sherry casks (matusalem, apostles, and amoroso) and actually noses less like sherry than the matusalem-sherry-cask-finished 18 that spent 14 of its 18 years in American oak. The 15 side-by-side with the 18 has a stronger wheat/grass/flower/potpourri nose. The 15 is also much less powerful. Both smell delicious but will they taste as good as they smell?

Palate & Finish:

With a fantastic mouthfeel, the 15 is just slightly oily and filled with ginger, citrus, a touch of chocolate, and it finishes a bit woody. Not oak though, I know I’ve smelled the tree this flavor stems from though. The 18 blasts onto the tongue with more familiar flavors found in sherry heavy drams thanks to being finished in sherry. Pepper and spices make their way forward and are followed by absolutely delicious and freshly peeled oranges! The mouthfeel is luscious. The 18 rounds out its finish with buttery pepper and spices. The finish on the 18 lingers and lingers. Yum!

So this comparison originally struck me as a good idea when I recently purchased the 15 and thought of how much it reminded me of the 18, but side by side… They’re related but definitely not twins.

So if you’re looking for Sherry and spice and everything nice, by all means, enjoy the $110 Dalmore 18 year. But if you’re looking for a refreshing summer time dram, look no further than the Dalmore 15 at a reasonable $65.

Slainte!

Scotch VS Scotch : The Macallan Sienna versus The Macallan 12 Year

Posted on July 7, 2015 by Scotch N Sniff

Hey there scotchNsniffers!

It’s time for another scotch versus scotch! Today we’ll compare two Macallans. More specifically, the 12 Year and the Sienna.

The Macallan Sienna isn’t actually offered in the US but on the last international order that [Scotch] and I placed, we decided to order a bottle and see how it compares to the American offerings. The Macallan 1824 series offered in the UK come in four primary offerings named after their colors: Gold, Amber, Sienna, and Ruby. Reading online, it seems that Macallan has gotten a lot of flack about offering scotch by color instead of age. Not that either color nor age is a primary determining factor in the flavors of the whisky but we all know how fickle people can be. We picked the Sienna because the Gold gets some pretty unpleasant reviews and the Amber reviews are mixed across the board.

Let’s get to it! #CNPF

Color:

Right off of the bat, the colors are almost identical under both incandescent and florescent lighting. Personally the color looks like mahogany tinted wet straw to me but if Macallan wants to call it “Sienna”, who am I to argue.

Nose:

Nosing the two side by side is AWESOME, especially if you’re a big fan of sherry. (Who doesn’t love a good fortified wine?!) The sweetness in the 12 year is much more noticeable than I could have imagined. The 12 year smells much closer to the cask strength when pitted against the Sienna. The 12 year smells thicker and richer where the sienna smells thinner; less like a fortified wine and more like a typical wine sans distilled additives. Where the Sienna is like a small grouping of orange trees, the 12 year is like walking through an apple orchard!

Palate:

The Sienna has a soft mouthfeel and immediately shines with oranges and white grape raisins which only help to reinforce the lighter thinner nose. With water the Sienna opens a bit more and sherry soaked oak spices rise with just a touch of smoke. Very interesting. The 12 year is comparatively more tannic and the sweetness is much more subtle… like fruits dipped very gently in granular sugar subdued also under spices and oak. Like a sugar encrusted fruit pie baked in an oak pie pan. Incredible. With water, the spices are toned down and the flavor of the oak and woodiness get kicked up a notch! There WAS some sherry in there, wasn’t there?

Finish:

The finish on the Sienna is… refreshing! Like the summer lemonade of scotches! The 12 year is much more serious and typical of a Macallan with oaken floral notes lingering on the tongue.

Overall these was an interesting scotch versus scotch session. These two drams really server two very different purposes. One is much more summer and one is much more fall & winter. Don’t get me wrong, they’re both delicious. 😉 I would not put them in the same boat in terms of richness and flavor though. They’re priced similarly but personally, the 12 year is the winner in my book. Hopefully this review will help you decide between these two bottles.

-[Sniff]

Direction and Honesty

Posted on May 21, 2015July 7, 2015 by Scotch N Sniff

Hello there, fellow Scotch lovers!

We’ve been quite absent from our website as of late thanks to the distraction we call “Instagram“. Between our natural inclination to want to take pictures ([Scotch] photographs food photography and [Sniff] photographs weddings) and the ease of two way communication on IG, we’ve been quite busy discussing bottles and enjoying scotch with others instead of posting to the blog.

This all came to a head yesterday as The Macallan decided to repost one of our pictures (a funny one mind you!) and we ended up getting quite a bit of attention from many of their followers. I exchanged a series of texts with [Scotch] and we came to realize it’d been a few month since we had posted to the blog. So we started talking about the need to post but like every time we talk about new posts, I start to think about the potential for richer content.

Yes, we can still provide a pair of perspectives on bottles when it comes to flavor profiles but I think we’ll start getting into a bit more of the Scotchucation we set out to provide initially. Let’s learn a bit more about the distilleries that we love. Let’s delve a little deeper into what it is we love about certain bottles. Let’s dig a little more into the realm of Scotch and why it’s so magical.

Join us, won’t you?

-Slainte!

-[Sniff]