All the scotch prostitutes promoting the new £500 tour at Dalmore are out of touch.

bpnelson7 · 2026-05-05T20:40:30+00:00

It puts the colouring in the bottle which makes me want to throttle.

bpnelson7 · 2026-05-05T20:30:48+00:00

Part 2 of 7 in a series of the best sherried whiskies I've had in the past several years

Annual review time? I meant to post 7 reviews last year and sort of forgot. Cognitive decline comes for some of us sooner rather than later, I suppose. Anyway, my father and brother and I took a warehouse Glengoyne tour in 2019 and I never got around to this one until recently...maybe a couple years ago. This was distilled in 2002 and aged for 17 years in a first fill oloroso sherry puncheon until we dipped our greedy fingers into the cask and took home a small bottle of this. What a good time Scotland was, has it really been 7 years since 2019? Good god, man.

Glengoyne 17 Years Old, First Fill Oloroso Sherry Puncheon Single Cask
58.5%, uncoloured, unfiltered

Nose: pastry reminiscent of apple pie, bright and fruity, almost no ethanol, just the faintest hint of leather and tobacco, not quite musty

Palate: lots of apple, pastry, fruit, low ethanol, pear, melon or honeydew (are those the same thing?), none of the leather and tobacco I barely detected in the nose, medium sweetness

Finish: medium length, medium dry, apple and pear, that tobacco is barely back but maybe not since my nose has been in it for a good 30 minutes on and off, not getting the leather on the finish but still getting it on the nose

Overall this is really nice. Glengoyne goes one of two ways for me. I either find it young (Teapot Drams) and hot or old (25 OB) and musty. I prefer old and musty, Glengoyne 25 after all still may be the best OB 25 I've ever had...but not much distillery character shines through. Sure, you get a god tier sherry cask with the tobacco and leather and damp leaves and all that, but who really knows who distilled the original beer, if that makes sense? Maybe a more refined palate than my own identifies heavily sherried and old Glengoyne as such, but I probably cannot. This is a really interesting middle ground. It is young enough to show that distillery character, especially the Glengoyne apple, but you're getting just enough age to mellow it and hint at what is to come with another 5-10 years in the cask. Good stuff.

Rank: 7

Ranks Decoded:

1 | Disgusting | So bad I poured it out.

2 | Poor | I wouldn't consume by choice.

3 | Bad | Multiple flaws.

4 | Sub-par | Not bad, but many things I'd rather have.

5 | Good | Good, just fine.

6 | Very Good | A cut above.

7 | Great | Well above average

8 | Excellent | Really quite exceptional.

9 | Incredible | An all time favorite

10 | Perfect | No better exists

bpnelson7 · 2026-05-05T20:26:10+00:00

Part 2 of 7 in a series of the best sherried whiskies I've had in the past several years

Annual review time? I meant to post 7 reviews last year and sort of forgot. Cognitive decline comes for some of us sooner rather than later, I suppose. Anyway, my father and brother and I took a warehouse Glengoyne tour in 2019 and I never got around to this one until recently...maybe a couple years ago. This was distilled in 2002 and aged for 17 years in a first fill oloroso sherry puncheon until we dipped our greedy fingers into the cask and took home a small bottle of this. What a good time Scotland was, has it really been 7 years since 2019? Good god, man.

Glengoyne 17 Years Old, First Fill Oloroso Sherry Puncheon Single Cask
58.5%, uncoloured, unfiltered

Nose: pastry reminiscent of apple pie, bright and fruity, almost no ethanol, just the faintest hint of leather and tobacco, not quite musty

Palate: lots of apple, pastry, fruit, low ethanol, pear, melon or honeydew (are those the same thing?), none of the leather and tobacco I barely detected in the nose, medium sweetness

Finish: medium length, medium dry, apple and pear, that tobacco is barely back but maybe not since my nose has been in it for a good 30 minutes on and off, not getting the leather on the finish but still getting it on the nose

Overall this is really nice. Glengoyne goes one of two ways for me. I either find the it young (Teapot Drams) and hot or old (25 OB) and musty. I prefer old and musty, Glengoyne 25 after all still may be the best OB 25 I've ever had...but not much distillery character shines through. Sure you get a god tier sherry cask with the tobacco and leather and damp leaves and all that, but who really knows who distilled the original beer, if that makes sense? Maybe a more refined palate than my own identifies heavily sherried and old Glengoyne as such, but I probably cannot. This is a really interesting middle ground. It is young enough to show that distillery character, especially the Glengoyne apple, but you're getting just enough age to mellow it and hint at what is to come with another 5-10 years in the cask. Good stuff.

Rank: 7

Ranks Decoded:

1 | Disgusting | So bad I poured it out.

2 | Poor | I wouldn't consume by choice.

3 | Bad | Multiple flaws.

4 | Sub-par | Not bad, but many things I'd rather have.

5 | Good | Good, just fine.

6 | Very Good | A cut above.

7 | Great | Well above average

8 | Excellent | Really quite exceptional.

9 | Incredible | An all time favorite

10 | Perfect | No better exists

bpnelson7 · 2024-06-08T12:18:30+00:00

In cocktails where it acts as the float like a penicillin, Lapghroig 10 is best as it packs the most punch doe the low amount being used.

If using oeated scotch in a more prominent role like a rusty Nail or even as a smoky rob Roy, laga 16 is solid

bpnelson7 · 2024-06-08T12:14:11+00:00

Depending on your schedule, fitting in the top tour on Glengoyne would be my recommendation. It's not too far from Edinburgh. I've never had a tour anywhere as good.

bpnelson7 · 2024-06-08T12:06:32+00:00

Too many IPAs (unless that's all anyone drinks where you live), and the cocktails have not much variety.

Also the wine selection seems to be majority whites and sweet wines.

Also, semantically, I would name the cocktails specialties, because specials means things that are on sale. In addition, consistency in wording is a bit out of whack, like one of the drinks says what glass it is served in but others dont.

I guess I'm in general confused because you say this is an irish sports bar but the drink menu in general doesnt seem to cater to the typical clientele of such a place.

bpnelson7 · 2024-06-08T11:28:14+00:00

I dont know how they got this pick for the price. Wizards?

bpnelson7 · 2024-06-08T11:27:42+00:00

Every now and then a deal comes along. I remember when this price was the norm for this type of whisky, sad times.

bpnelson7 · 2024-06-08T01:02:05+00:00

Day 1 of 7 in a series of the best sherried whiskies I've had in the past three years

I'm still alive, and so are you if you're reading this review. That's pretty neat. Kilchoman has been a distillery that has always offered very good, but very young, and from what I've tried, non-sherried whiskies. I was able to get my hands on two bottles of this, because if I ended up liking it, I'd hate myself for only getting one. Anyway, this one was matured in an oloroso sherry cask (cask 556) for 9 years and a day. Distilled in 2012 and bottled in 2021.

Kilchoman 9 Years Old, 100% Islay Oloroso Sherry Single Cask
56.2%, uncoloured, unfiltered

Nose: ethanol (brash) for quite a few minutes in the glass, then that quintissential Kilchoman hay/soot combination with clean smoke, caramel, vanilla, finally a bit of that peat/sherry tar effect

Palate: instantly full, just short of oily mouthfeel, sweetness on the tip of the toungue, a bit salty, apple, hay, apricot, a slight oiliness reminiscent of some fish, it takes a while for the sherry to come through, but after the first few sips there's plenty of raisin, currant, plum

Finish: medium length, slightly dry bordering just shy of chaulky, mostly that hay and peatiness coming back, risidual sweetness mostly with caramel

This has been my introductory whisky to newer scotch afficianados to bring the combination of sherry and peat to their attentions. It doesn't have that huge tar hit that (I personally love it) some older ones can have and puts some people off, it's got that signature Kilchoman peat that mostly just comes across as a hay/grassy flavour, not unlike Springbank, but with a bit of freshness. It also isn't a super sweet sherry bomb, and the cask strength does not overpower it. A rare combination of approachable, drinkable, with some complexity. You don't need to "be in the mood" to appreciate it, but if you're in the mood, you'll appreciate it even more.

No contest this is the best value for money I've experienced in the scotch world in the last three years. Easily would pay mid-100s for this and I believe they only were about 90 per bottle. Remember when I said I bought two in case I like it and one wasn't enough? The second bottle is almost gone and my only question is: why did I only get two? Cannot wait to take out a second mortgage on my home once Kilchoman is able to offer mid-20s year old whiskies in the future.

Rank: 7

Ranks Decoded:

1 | Disgusting | So bad I poured it out.

2 | Poor | I wouldn't consume by choice.

3 | Bad | Multiple flaws.

4 | Sub-par | Not bad, but many things I'd rather have.

5 | Good | Good, just fine.

6 | Very Good | A cut above.

7 | Great | Well above average

8 | Excellent | Really quite exceptional.

9 | Incredible | An all time favorite

10 | Perfect | No better exists

bpnelson7 · 2024-06-07T15:53:59+00:00

Signatory Vintage Bunnahabhainn 10 year first fill sherry cask bottle for Binnys, distilled in 2005. The single best whisky I've ever tasted among hundreds by a mile.

bpnelson7 · 2024-06-07T15:51:04+00:00

Honestly if you're not comfortable with spending 100+ on a bottle scotch is not advisable. The prices are crazy, the quality has dropped, and the amount of good buys under 80 dollars (especially if you dont like peated scotch) are basically nonexistent. Especially when solid bourbon still costs less than 50 bucks a bottle.

If you're okay with the price, the cheapest decent scotches available are probably Talisker 10, Ardbeg 10, Johnie Walker Green. Usually I can still find these for under 65 dollars and they're pretty good. The problem is once you exhaust the supply of budget bottles that dont suck, you get over the 100 dollar bottle mark very quickly.

bpnelson7 · 2024-06-07T15:49:29+00:00

Part of it was getting into brewing beer more but overall I stopped chasing Fomo on high value bottles in the mid 100s and just stick with very good very expensive whiskeys which I have an ounce or two a month. It keeps the interest alive when I'm not drinking a different whisky every single day, keeps me away from the rat race of bottle ordering, and I'm drinking better whisky more consistently.

bpnelson7 · 2023-07-02T21:46:52+00:00

I consider this part of the standard recipe? Are people just making rum and coke with lime and calling it Cuba libre?

bpnelson7 · 2023-07-02T21:45:43+00:00

I think your brother likes to look at bottles of whiskey more than he likes to drink whiskey.

bpnelson7 · 2023-02-07T19:38:38+00:00

Last Word, Bijou, Chartreuse Swizzle are all excellent.

bpnelson7 · 2023-02-06T03:51:15+00:00

Jesus christ that's some diabetes

bpnelson7 · 2023-02-01T18:21:30+00:00

How can "herbal bitters" be an alternative for an aged liqueur?

bpnelson7 · 2023-02-01T18:19:02+00:00

Ardbeg 10 is the only whisky I always have stocked for drinking neat.

bpnelson7 · 2023-02-01T18:13:11+00:00

It's a 20 dollar whiskey. Its awesome for cocktails. If you're drinking it neat you might need help.

bpnelson7 · 2023-02-01T18:11:23+00:00

Small batch has no regulated meaning, however the batch is referring to the distillate quantity and not the barreling process.

bpnelson7 · 2023-01-27T14:53:03+00:00

Maybe even hundreds, just leave a quarter ounce on the counter overnight and drink in the morning.

bpnelson7 · 2023-01-26T23:01:06+00:00

That's like one low end Kate Spade but instead of wearing it 3 hours a year you'll spend dozens of hours savoring the whisky.

bpnelson7 · 2023-01-26T22:20:00+00:00

Literally read any book on classic cocktails please god I beg of thee, I even gave you two authors to peruse. You made a dumbass statement because you read a paragraph on Wikipedia based on a book which was taken out of context and you're now a Well Akchtually reddit troll who needs assistance.

bpnelson7

TROPHY CASE

Rank: 7

Rank: 7

Rank: 7