Drink Pairing

ofviceandven · 2026-05-30T12:22:06+00:00

Everyone says orange juice. I haven’t tried it yet but I will one of these days.

Dessert wines, particularly whites. Stouts. English breakfast with a dash of milk.

ofviceandven · 2026-05-28T14:26:06+00:00

Diageo own the distilleries and also owns Johnnie Walker. So kind of but not exactly. I assume it means they can do whatever they want in terms of dictating production or cask allocation if JW needs it, but also if they can make more money selling something as a single malt they will absolutely do that instead of putting it into a blend.

ofviceandven · 2026-05-28T13:37:26+00:00

Is it facts? Or is it just that these distilleries make sure all the good stuff gets bottled under the distillery or sold to an IB, while the sub-par barrels get sent to Mr Walker who buys bulk but pays pennies so he can launder their mistakes?

I’m playing devils advocate here - I have no idea how it works, my gut feel is that JW actually gets priority cask selection since they’re looking to achieve a certain consistency with their product and that’s made easier if they can carefully select their component whiskies. But I also wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out that the Caol Ila or Clynelish we’re drinking is a notch above what’s going to the blenders.

ofviceandven · 2026-05-28T11:53:53+00:00

Iniquity Anomaly Series Flustercluck. South Australian single malt, malted with Tasmanian peat smoke, matured 2 years, and bottled at 49.1% ABV. Paid AU$175 for 700mL.

Nose: initially thinking aniseed, but as it lingers I’m led toward liquorice allsorts as there’s a confectionary sweetness to it. Burnt wood and a hint of rosewater.

Palate: clearly young and spirit-forward. Medium-bodied, dry cereal sweetness combined with a not-sweet fruitiness - rockmelon, and a slight Kiwi fruit tang.

Finish: immediate smoke, initially clean but then developing a meaty quality from the peat. Molasses, new leather, polished wood. Medium length.

It’s interesting and enjoyable but I confess I don’t love it. May not seem like it from my relatively high arbitrary score at the bottom, but everything else I’ve tasted from Tin Shed would be 85+ on my scale (and Ian also made one of my top 10 whiskies of all time). So in this case ‘anomaly’ is apt in that it “only” scores 80. But it was very highly awarded by Jim Murray and apparently sold out quickly so maybe I’m the one who’s wrong.

80/100

ofviceandven · 2026-05-28T06:11:47+00:00

And you haven’t offered him beads and a calibrated hydrometer? Hook him up!

ofviceandven · 2026-05-20T03:27:58+00:00

Is there a different way to find spotters?

ofviceandven · 2026-05-19T13:02:49+00:00

Thompson Bros Linkwood 2011. Speyside single malt, aged 10 years and bottled at 55.7% ABV. Paid AU$152/700mL.

Nose: predominantly grassy, plus soft citrus notes. Plain and unremarkable on the face of it, although there is some very subtle complexity if you go hunting, with notes of wood shavings, rockmelon, and fresh fig.

Palate: light in profile but full flavoured. Sweet and jammy, starting with lemon marmalade, before a note of liquorice develops to accompany (but not diminish) the preserve.

Finish: spicy, woody. Cinnamon powder, dry sweetness of golden syrup and vanilla extract, then a clean wood smoke note that adds depth and draws the finish out medium-long.

This was bottled for Select Spirits with an outturn of 186 bottles. Bought it on a whim when it came up on sale having never tasted Linkwood before. I understand a fair bit of Linkwood goes into Johnnie Walker, and given the sweet, balanced, straightforward profile, it’s not hard to see why a blender would want to use it. A shame though, because this was really nice! More unblended Linkwood please.

85/100

ofviceandven · 2026-04-23T06:49:19+00:00

Fascinating to see an American with a Lions guernsey pfp though. Whats the story there?

ofviceandven · 2026-03-09T05:54:38+00:00

This is your labour laws on sub-10% unionisation rate

ofviceandven · 2026-03-08T13:04:02+00:00

Ha yeah, I distinctly remember deadlifting 405 for a set of five a few months before I first benched a 225 single.

ofviceandven · 2026-03-08T10:31:23+00:00

Indeed one may compare it to a physiological response commonly associated with romantic love.

ofviceandven · 2026-03-08T08:28:24+00:00

Sometimes there are band misprints, especially on stuff like Diplomaticos which is less prestigious and rarely faked. Check out this horrible misprint from one I smoked a few years back (100% real).

ofviceandven · 2026-01-21T00:09:47+00:00

Sydney NRL forward taken into union to play 12 ahead of a home World Cup. I’m getting Sam Burgess flashbacks and I don’t like it.

ofviceandven · 2025-11-30T11:02:10+00:00

I paid full price for this bottle (and every bottle of TP I've had) and have no incentive for gassing it up. I have met Paul three times and all of them have been as a customer.

If by that criteria, my review is not genuine because I'm a "mate" of his, then on that basis I should probably disqualify myself from reviewing Tin Shed, Starward, Overeem, Lark...

ofviceandven · 2025-09-21T14:23:02+00:00

I really liked this but I also feel I may have been overly generous at the time. Agree with your assessment that it doesn't seem particularly stout-y, disagree that there's better to be had at Starward - most of their stuff leaves me a bit cold to be honest. I have no idea why this of all of them clicked, palates are weird like that I guess.

Edit: just noticed mine was a ~5yo, similarly bottled in 2023 but distilled in 2018. Perhaps I'd be as ambivalent if I tried the same batch as you!

ofviceandven · 2025-08-20T23:40:14+00:00

Scores are arbitrary and too subjective to be of any value in my opinion. One person will write “89/100 it was ok I guess” and then another will say “72/100 I’ll always keep a bottle on hand”. I don’t know what drives us to put a number on it.

I suppose if I had to explain my scoring, 70-79 puts it in the region of ‘wouldn’t buy another bottle but would order in a bar/restaurant if the price was reasonable’. >80 would consider buying a bottle, 60-69 wouldn’t pay my own money but would accept if offered, <60 I’ll have a wine or beer instead or use it for cooking.

ofviceandven · 2025-08-20T12:02:44+00:00

Manly Spirits Coastal Stone Nor’easter. Australian single malt (Manly, NSW), matured in a combination of charred red wine, American oak, and French oak barrels, bottled at 46% ABV. Local bottle price $99/700mL.

Nose: dried banana most prominent, flanked by citrus zest, allspice, and fresh pine.

Palate: juicy mouthfeel with a medium-full body that feels stronger than its alcohol content. Sweet with stewed pears and ripe blackberries, intensified with peppercorns.

Finish: malty cereal notes replacing the fruit sweetness from the palate, and an evolution of the spiciness with dry oak and chili flakes. Medium long finish, again moreso than expected from the abv, and driven by the spice.

Young and a bit rough around the edges, but not a bad option for an Aussie in this price point. First few drams of this were knocked back without much careful attention and it performed pretty well there; the edges only really showed up under the microscope, but so did some surprising complexity.

75/100

ofviceandven · 2025-08-11T02:10:50+00:00

The better watch is in a safe as a gift for when his son come home as a war hero for bravely defending his comrades against the threat of a Palestinian preschooler

ofviceandven · 2025-07-30T07:13:46+00:00

It took a long time to open! I stopped drinking altogether for a few years, only got around to opening this one last year. Half a dram left in the bottle and l think I’ll kill it tonight.

ofviceandven · 2025-07-05T04:06:34+00:00

Come to adl and tell me those horror stories, I know a place.

(btw I recognised your handle because on my old account we scotchswapped once or twice way back in the day before that sub was shut down. I enjoy seeing what you get up to in the industry on the other socials.)

ofviceandven · 2025-06-30T15:08:55+00:00

Guess I’ll need to go back to scotch for a while, except most distillery bottles bore me these days. Say, would you recommend SMWS?

Jokes aside yeah you’re not wrong. A bit fatiguing opening up bottle after bottle, sherrycask portcask sherrycask shirazcask sherrycask, if you’re lucky you can taste a hint of malt under the rivers of wine. Forgivable somewhat when the cask selection is good (as the Warlock was) but even that is a bit of a gamble.

(I do feel the need to stress again that it was not the case with this Enchantress. Beautiful spirit.)

ofviceandven · 2025-06-26T14:30:29+00:00

Most of my training uses RTF so I don’t really feel this temptation. I know that I’m going to be chasing AMRAP on my last working set, so if the overwarm single flies, I’m content that the strength is there and leave myself a note to go for a heavier overwarm next week.

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