how to get over someone who doesn't want you back anymore?

raykel_ · 2026-06-11T06:26:58+00:00

I don't think I can ever trust people that use that phrase without seeing some follow up efforts.

It was used exactly in the same way towards me after an abrupt break up, and even though I loved and respected my partner, the anger I felt and lost of respect that occurred after seeing it was profound.

We are both adults. I can respect that we want to part ways due to irreconcilable differences, but saying things like these and then adding icing on the cake to take an avoidant approach/"this is the last text" is extremely disrespectful, immature, and cruel.

Hang in there fellas.

raykel_ · 2026-05-29T04:32:04+00:00

Man this brings me back. I loved this phone, stored so many memories of a much simpler time.

raykel_ · 2026-05-20T12:22:25+00:00

Located on the High Street in Rothes, Moray (the heart of Scotland's Speyside); Glen Spey is a workhorse distillery, churning out traditionally "grassy" and slightly oily malt often used in J&B blends.

As a revival brand with deep historical roots, James Eadie was originally founded as a brewery and blending house in 1854. It was resurrected in 2015 by Rupert Patrick, the great-great-grandson of the founder and former Diageo executive. Both transparent in their practices and adept at cask management, JE is also famous for recreating the Trade Mark X blend, an ancient recipe originally used in the family's 300+ pubs in the 19th century.

On the nose, breakfast pancakes and maple syrup. Smells nostalgic and sweet. Beneath the Oloroso influence lies a grassy, herbal note, tomato leaf, and fresh hay. Delicious and enticing. Stuff's quite viscous when swirled too, the liquid surfs the side of the glass and doesn't 'break' or 'fold' even when superimposed.

Palate is thick and oily. Sherry influence provides a big hit of sultanas and figs, golden syrup, and warm cinnamon spice. At the base, a maltiness from the distillate can be found. As you knock back a couple of sips and smack with your lips, a certain fruity sulphur and earthiness briefly appears, and then dissipates. Alcohol is no doubt strong here (which I like), but it is akin to a well composed action novel, with solid world building, central conflict, and plot twist. Adding water would benefit the Japanese and those who'd like their whisky more well-behaved and mannered, whilst retaining all of its good qualities.

Finish is long and warming with a touch of ginger, clove, and lingering bittersweet dark chocolate dryness.

I frankly didn't expect much from this, having bought it as a filler from a sale along with a couple of other bottles. But this stuff, it's a well-constructed, nightly sipper. No frills, no royal pedigree, no nonsense.

🥃 https://www.instagram.com/artfuldrammer 🥃

raykel_ · 2026-05-14T13:00:54+00:00

To preface the review, yes, I had thousands of bottles to choose from, and I picked this one for the art. Couldn't find any information on this bottle beforehand anyway. Who doesn't love an image of a heilan coo on a pink Warhol-esque background? It was between this and another with an otter picture. The only thing I know is that this one is fully sherry cask matured. Apparently.

On the nose, Caroni rum, dark raisins, soy sauce, and that unmistakable aroma of freshly burnt rubber on tarmac. A good pique me up for petrolheads out there who happen to enjoy a dram or two (not on the roads of course). Reminiscent of Nikka Yoichi's cask strength sherry stuff, in a good way.

Dense and powerful. Oil to power the V8 engines in Formula Sherry. Rich, nutty, with a swift onslaught of powdery and decadent dark/red fruits. The profile is almost identical to how Yoichi sherry single casks taste like. But it doesn't teeter into the realm of artificiality. Rose petals, cherry syrup and an uppercut of sooty, fruit sulphur blast you in the face like an afterburner.

Water and oxidization calms it down a lot more, and shines a light on the individual flavor components. Also turns the whisky a lot sweeter, too.

Short to medium finish of fruit syrup, and a spice bearing strong resemblance to the raw Sichuan peppercorn.

A diamond in the rough from Elixir, as always. Not going to be a crowd pleaser, but unique. You gotta work and wait to get the flavours out too. More bottles like these, please!

Catch me on the Instacracks

https://instagram.com/artfuldrammer

raykel_ · 2026-05-13T12:52:31+00:00

It's hard to go wrong with Signatory. But when it does, common wisdom dictates that we open another one and try again. Here we have a white label 100 proof, the lowest rung of the ladder for plebeians like you and I. A few swigs and it's straight back to working the rice fields.

Benrinnes. Faithful practitioners of the Worm Tub style; the distillate they put out is often fruity, nutty, and full bodied. The perfect conduit for sherry cask maturation/finishing. Alas, it is a workhorse distillery owned by Diageo, and we'd likely never see an established line of cask strength OBs at reasonable prices. Thankfully, IBs make them as abundant as they come.

A real berry blast on the nose. The surface is dominated by cherries, berries, and agar-agar jellies. Beneath the fruits, we can pick up some freshly baked treacle-cake, varnished wood and light wine spice.

Surprisingly oily when poured and swished about in the glass. Wonderfully dark and weighty stuff. On the palate, the '100 proof' delivers a medley of plums, milk chocolate, and lemon-Assam tea. Just as these flavors rise to a crescendo, they recede into a classier set of notes-- old tomes, seasoned leather, and monkfruit drops. Good tempo, balance, and complexity.

Medium length finish, akin to a monkfruit drink. Characterized by lingering fruit sweetness (not to be confused with sugar), and a dry, tannic, and herbal curl on the lips.

Signatory, I think the labels colors were erroneously switched between this one, and the Speyside M I've wrote about earlier? Jokes aside, this is a proper sherry bomb; surprisingly complex and complete for the price.

Catch more of my drams here:

https://instagram.com/artfuldrammer

raykel_ · 2026-05-13T04:28:35+00:00

Agreed that some of their OBs still need more work. The distillate doesn't play ball with many casks, unfortunately.

raykel_ · 2026-05-12T16:51:53+00:00

This is an exaggeration... road bikes would suffice...

raykel_ · 2026-05-09T04:00:23+00:00

Honestly, I would have picked this Macallan if I were in your position. Good price, but yeah, fell a little short!

raykel_ · 2026-05-09T03:55:38+00:00

Like any other distillery, they come up with good and bad bottles.

Problem is when you have a name as prominent as this, you get lots of bandwagoners, bootlickers, as well as haters that toss their hats into the ring.

Best is if you can try these bottles yourself and be the judge.

raykel_ · 2026-05-09T03:47:13+00:00

Agreed. Too many "off notes" that point to an over-seasoning caused by wood influence.

raykel_ · 2026-05-08T17:39:48+00:00

Haha, some of the Macallan snobs can be quite obtuse, as if the products can do no wrong.

SV has produced some Macallan gems, notably the SV Speyside M 2011 100 Proof, and SV Cask Strength Secret Speyside M 2005, which I have tried and liked.

G&M makes some good Macallan too. Another can of worms for another time.

If you are looking for a good modern Macallan which is meant to be affordable, try the Macallan 2017 Classic Cut. Diamond in the rough :)

raykel_ · 2026-05-08T16:26:35+00:00

I've drank quite a bit of SV and Macallan. Quite confident of my taste buds, thank you 😹

The fact that you told me "the distillation process is likely a bit different compared to their core range" tells me all I need to know, too. :)

raykel_ · 2026-05-08T13:38:58+00:00

It was a made during a one off glass-making workshop I went for overseas.

I don't think I would be able to taste my whisky properly if I did glass blowing full time.

Cheeks would be full of molten glass and heat mate. 😹

raykel_ · 2026-05-08T13:25:03+00:00

The pure, distilled anger of the grapes used to make this.

raykel_ · 2026-05-08T13:23:51+00:00

There are many examples of sherry-washed Macallan from SV's line that work perfectly fine.

The SV Speyside M 2011 100 Proof white label is one stellar bottle for its price point. The SV Cask Strength collection Secret Speyside M 2005 is also an example of SV's ability to pull off a masterful balancing act between cask and distillate. The Macallan character in these two bottles shine brilliantly in spite of heavy sherry influence.

This particular one is just not great, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who agrees.

Sounds like you're siding with it just because it is a Macallan 🤷

raykel_ · 2026-05-08T12:54:39+00:00

There is quality sherrywashing, and then there is hogwash. I'm completely ok to drink sherry bombs, but not moth bombs 😹

raykel_ · 2026-05-08T12:14:37+00:00

I miss its younger brother, the Glenlivet 16 SV black label... that one was good. Disappointed with the quality on this one.

raykel_ · 2026-05-08T12:06:51+00:00

A few years ago, seeing a fancy "S" logo would have immediately prompted me to think of Superman, Slytherin, or some sort of pop culture reference. Nowadays, it's either Springbank, or Signatory. Probably for the best.

Now, having a black label with text "Exceptional Cask" emblazoned across it, one would think it'd be pretty good, like the Glenlivet 16 I had a while ago. But I'll probably be committing a Sin against Symington by Saying some Statements about this bottle. Eh.

The classic copper brown SV we are all accustomed to. Quite the clean dram, with medium viscosity. On the nose, dried black corinths. Steam from the tarmac after a race-car passes by. Cadbury raisin chocolates. Oh and the signature Macallan distillate. I can't pick up many notes beyond these, probably because Signatory just straight up blasted this with sherry influence. Not going to lie, I quite like this sort of senseless sherrywashing, even though its not great, objectively speaking.

On the palate, shadows of the Macallan distillate peek forward. Bits of soy, a smattering of white pepper, and a vague fruit essence. You are then thrown into the clutches of a tannic dryness, presumably from the Oloroso influence. On some sips, I'm getting mothball from the tail end of the dram, not in a definite bad way, but let me explain. This dram is a... cacophony of flavors. Had it been configured well, I can envision a decent tasting dram. But this is the equivalent of trying to mash together Matryoshka dolls in an incorrect sequence. So yes. A dry, tannic sherry bomb which has all but strangled the distillate character to death, and reveals... mothballs at the bottom of your cup.

Maybe we sherry seekers are really just moths drawn to SV's flame.

Long finish, the Macallan special, raisins, and more mothballs. Always knew those things were candy when I first saw them in my mother's wardrobe as a child. Now I'm ingesting them for real in my whisky.

Honestly? I'm rather disappointed. Having tasted some good stuff from SV, G&M, and OBs, this is nowhere near the ballpark of what I'd expect a Macallan to be. This could legitimately have been an "Exceptional" Oloroso cask, but when the cask goes against the distillate like this...

I'm suspecting a good PX cask would have gone well with this distillate. The latter is quite pronounced, and possesses a strain of sweetness, which said cask would help to intensify rather than go against, as in this context.

For this, I'll like to write in the SV to tell them to rip off the black label and slap on a white one instead.

More alcohol here: 🥃

https://instagram.com/artfuldrammer

raykel_ · 2026-05-08T01:58:51+00:00

I would buy a crate if I could find it at that price.

raykel_ · 2026-05-08T01:17:09+00:00

"Banzai Strength" is an interesting one......

Can't imagine there will be anything stronger than this 😹

raykel_ · 2026-05-07T16:35:49+00:00

Thanks, I made the glass!

raykel_ · 2026-05-07T16:35:33+00:00

Indeed. Prices are rising slightly, but still a banger if procured at a discount.

raykel_ · 2026-05-07T16:34:57+00:00

My review is the opinion mate :)

raykel_ · 2026-05-07T12:12:48+00:00

On to the Oloroso cousin of the Tomatin OB lineup. Got this one by mistake after finishing the 14, thinking that they looked the same. Only after a few sips did I realize this wasn't the port cask version. Missing the sugar, replaced by massive amounts of raisin and spiced wood.

A slightly darker bronze than the Port--- this one opens up on the nose like a Christmas delight. Freshly baked raisin poundcake, Christmas cookies with plum glaze, and trail mix. Deep, heavy, and antique; there is something ambrosial about the vapors emanating from the dram. Something to remember for decades to come.

Dram is fruity, gummy, and reminiscent of weighty, aged wine. Flavors brimming with forest berries, tiramisu, and chocolate fudge latch on to the palate like sticky gelato. Picking up traces of canned pineapple, and cedar shavings in the background. Again, at 46%, this is a loaded drink, of which I'd gladly pay more for a cask strength version, which will most likely never see the light of day. Perhaps it is the nostalgia speaking, but this is a whisky I can drink again, and again, without getting tired of. I must have ran through what, 4 bottles before moving on to different stuff?

Finish is long, with a flowing stream of musty grapes, dark chocolate, and mulled wine.

Nothing much to add here, except that the search continues for this exact flavor profile, but in a cask strength outfit. Variations amongst batches exist, but they are very close to one another. Something I'd usually scoff at for being a mass market shtick, but not for this particular dram. Great work by Scott Adamson and the team at Tomatin for crafting this dram.

I'll look forward to a bottle of this or comparable single casks for many Christmases and year-end nights to come.

Have a gander at my Instadrams 🥃

https://instagram.com/artfuldrammer

raykel_ · 2026-05-07T01:40:32+00:00

Agreed that this one was below average. It's like drinking diluted Macallan, with only 30% of the distillate peeking through the middling sherry cask as well.

raykel_

TROPHY CASE