One of my favorite blended malts at any price is Johnny Walker Green, so when Sneaky Peat advertised itself as a Blended Malt with a bit of peat while being $15 cheaper, JWG became my instant point of comparison. Going into this tasting with that lens, I was pleasantly surprised with what I experienced while returning to the bottle over the course of a couple weeks. While I don’t find Sneaky Peat to be as complex as Johnny Walker Green, it is solidly in the same ballpark and just as good a value to me. The nose was on the weaker side but quite sweet and pleasant with pears and green apples combining with the malted barley. Faint campfire smoke brought along some sugar in the form of toasted marshmallow. The taste was silky smooth with a mouthfeel reminiscent of an Irish whiskey. The note of sweet, soft oak that joined the mild peat made me confident that few, if any, of the single malts were especially young and the sugar presented itself more like honeycomb and cocoa malt.
The GlenDronach Port Wood Single Malt Scotch Whisky Review
This is a really nice whiskey, super approachable and easy sipping, a go-to when evangelizing for Scotch. From entry to finish, it’s delicate, flavorful and fun. Do I want to spend $90 on it? Nope. It’s not that remarkable to me. But if someone told me to bring a Scotch to a party, I’d spend the extra bucks on it. No one will regret it.
BenRiach The Original Twelve Review
I’ve had a hard time remembering a time when my tasting notes differed so widely from the brand’s own for a bottle I actually liked (usually when the difference is this great, it’s a dumpster fire). The sample bottle I received tasted simply like The Original Ten that had a couple extra years on it. I did not pick up virtually any of the sugar or dark fruit notes that a sherried whisky or one aged in port casks should impart. To the contrary, I found the finish quite tart and dry. That being said, I quite liked this bottle and wouldn’t want people to think that it’s not worth a taste. Of the non-smoked whiskies coming out of Benriach right now, though, I believe The Original Ten to be a better value.
Benriach The Smoky Twelve Review
If you’re reading this, you’ve most likely seen this bottle in the #3 spot of the Whisky Advocate Top 20 Whiskies of 2020 list and have come to Bourbon & Banter as your one-stop-shop for some honest feedback.
Here’s what I’ll tell you: this whisky is like drinking a very good, mildly-sherried scotch while someone across the room from you is smoking a cigar that you think you’d like the smell of it were closer. I do not say that to imply that this is a bad whisky: it’s not. While it’s Nose is only solid, the Taste on this is really something special, and the Finish is really unique and enjoyable.
Benriach The Smoky Ten Review
With all the press that The Smoky Twelve has been getting recently, I was anxious to find out if The Smoky Ten (which comes in 10 dollars cheaper) is as solid an offering from Benriach. If you’re making a lists of ‘Best Value Whiskies of 2020’ this deserves on a spot on it whether your list is 20 bottles long or 5.
All the bottles I was fortunate enough to try from Benriach are solid whiskies on their absolute worst days and I’m keen to try some more from them in the future. To me, the peated whiskies stand above their unpeated offerings in terms of quality, and the hero of this one is the wood management. Each cask that the spirit is aged in takes center stage at some point in the tasting. The Jamaican rum casks offer some brown sugar and a bit of chocolate to pair with the peat and smoke on the nose. The bourbon barrels give the palate just the right amount of spice. Lastly, the toasted virgin oak ties the finish up in a neat, little bow that really makes you want to start the whole thing over.
BenRiach The Original Ten Review
If you’re familiar with Speyside scotches, imagine paying 8 extra bucks for a slightly more bold Glenmorangie 10. That’s how I would describe this single malt. I always have a bottle of Glenmorangie 10 on my bar, and I prefer this bottle from BenRiach to it, because while the former’s solitary sweetness makes it more suitable for dessert, I found the sweetness in The Original Ten to be more well-rounded with a bit of spice. I think if you enjoy Scotches from Speyside, this is one versatile dram – equally suited to dinner or dessert. Check it out, let me know what you think and don’t forget to #drinkcurious!
The Glendronach Revival Aged 15 Years Scotch Whisky Review
This is a delightful and intriguing whisky. It never stops giving new aromas, which makes it a lot of fun just to nose. Few flavors in this Scotch jump out at you; there’s a bit of seek and find with it. It demands to be savored slowly and carefully, which was convenient amid the COVID-19 quarantine when WAY TOO FEW PEOPLE WERE AROUND TO INTERRUPT ME! It’s become haggard to see reviewers write, “This whiskey would be best enjoyed by a fire” when too few of us are ever around an actual wood fire. So I’ll speak to the truth of my tasting: This whisky is damn fine enjoyed on a hand-me-down couch with a computer in my lap.
Auchentoshan “The Bartender’s Malt” Scotch Review
If you’re not a Scotch fan because things like peat or band-aid qualities turn you off, you really should consider a Lowland Scotch. There aren’t a lot of Lowland distilleries, and in my opinion, Auchentoshan does a consistent job of representing the region.
The Bartender’s Malt is the first of a proposed series of limited edition Scotches for the distillery. In this initial offering, twelve bartenders from around the world collaborated to create a whisky by the bartender for the bartender. The idea behind this is to give bartenders a Scotch that could be served neat or made into various cocktails. I chose to test this whisky neat.
The Balvenie Caribbean Cask 14 Year Old Single Malt Whisky Review
It seemed that much of my 2018 involved barrel-finished whiskeys. Scotch, Bourbon, Rye or Irish – all of it jumped out at me. Barrel finishing is an interesting process where the distiller or producer takes an (allegedly) good whiskey and, once properly matured, dumps it to another barrel that previously held something else. That something else may have been another spirit, wine, maple syrup, coffee, or, as we saw with George Dickel, Tobasco sauce.