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Posts Tagged ‘Whisky Review’

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Whisky Review: Glenfiddich 15 Yr Old Single Malt Scotch

Posted by Arctic Wolf on January 7, 2010

Glenfiddich 15 Yr Old Single Malt Scotch

According to legend, the first Glenfiddich distilled spirit ran from the stills on Christmas day in 1887.  The distillery was then, and is now and independent distillery.  It is currently owned by William Grant & Sons Ltd., the same William Grant who founded the company in 1887.    It sits in the Conval Hills with its own single source of water, the Robbie Dhu springs.  This water is pumped from this source directly to the distillery, so that it is untouched by man nor beast and remains in its  purest form.

Glenfiddich whisky is  distilled on copper stills,  in the same manner as it was a hundred years ago.  In fact the entire process from turning and malting the barley,  to the use of copper stills, and  the manner of aging attempts to deliver a thread of heritage unbroken from the past to the present.

Here is a link to the Glenfiddich distillery:  Glenfiddich Website

My review today is for the Glenfiddich 15 year old Single Malt blend.  The blend is unique in the world of Scotch whisky by the manner in which it is Solera aged.  (This aging technique is expanded on in the review.)

A special malt deserves a special cocktail.  Again I turned to my good friend forrest, (click the link to go to his great site) telling him I wanted to capture the essence of the alpine meadow I smell and taste in the Glenfiddich 15 year old  whisky.  He came up with a marvelous cocktail, which I then modified into a snifter drink as well.

You can read the review and the recipes for the drinks here:

Review: Glenfiddich 15 Yr Old Scotch.

Again I would like to thank forrest for this collaboration.  He is a cocktail guru extrordinaire!

Posted in Cocktails & Recipes, Scotch Whisky, Single Malt Whisky, Whisk(e)y, Whisk(e)y Review | Tagged: , , , , , | Comments Off on Whisky Review: Glenfiddich 15 Yr Old Single Malt Scotch

Whisky Review: Forty Creek Portwood Reserve

Posted by Arctic Wolf on December 29, 2009

On September 15, 2009, Forty Creek introduced to the world, (well actually just to Ontario, Canada) a brand new whisky,  Forty Creek Portwood Reserve Canadian Whisky. Luckily for me, I had advanced notice.  A posting on the Forty Creek website informed all who visited that the whisky was coming, and that it would be severely limited.  Only 3000 bottles;  and, available only in Ontario Canada.  So I emailed my good friend Terry Martin who works  for the distillery and reserved a case of individually numbered bottles for myself.  Then I arranged (which all who reserved bottles could arrange) for each one to be signed to me by John Hall, the Master Distiller.  The people who work at Forty Creek are good at things like this.  Last year they arranged for me to get a case of their fantastic Icewine and Brandy with personalized labels for my wife and my 20th wedding anniversary.

Living in Alberta presented problems in getting these fine products to myself, but I have friends in Ontario who do not mind picking up my goods at the Distillery.    I guess I should reiterate a little information about the Forty Creek Whiskies which I wrote in my last review of the Forty Creek Barrel Select.

Forty Creek Whiskies are the brainchildren of Master Distiller John Hall.  John Hall bought the Kittling  Ridge Estates Winery in 1992.  Although primarily a winemaker, when John discovered a small pot copper still on the estate he couldn’t resist the urge to experiment with another product he loved… whisky.  The wine making heritage combined with the love of whisky has produced what I consider to be a unique Canadian Whisky.  Each batch of whisky is produced upon this small pot copper still, but what makes Forty Creek special is that John doesn’t use a single mash for his whisky like other producers.  He makes three separate batches.  A corn mash produces a corn whisky, a barley mash produces a barley whiskey, and a rye mash produces a rye whisky.  Each whisky is aged separately in a variety of oak barrels,  and then blended and finished in sherry casks.  The sherry is actually made right at the winery so Forty Creek can utilize their own sherry casks for the final finishing.

The Portwood Reserve has been constructed in the same manner.  The difference is in the finishing.  Beginning in 1993 John began to construct Port Pipes for making his own Port Wine.  These port pipes were used to finish the Portwood Reserve Whisky, rather than the Sherry casks.  The result is a unique Canadian whisky, which preserves all of the heritage of Forty Creek, yet raises itself to a new standing within their whisky line.

Here is my review:

Review: Forty Creek Portwood Reserve Canadian Whisky

Posted in Canadian Whisky, Cocktails & Recipes, Whisk(e)y, Whisk(e)y Review | Tagged: , , , , | Comments Off on Whisky Review: Forty Creek Portwood Reserve

Whisky Review: Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban (Scotch Whisky)

Posted by Arctic Wolf on December 27, 2009

Glenmorangie – The Quinta Ruban

The Glenmorangie Distillery  Company was officially licensed to produce whisky in 1843, and began with a tradition of uniqueness and innovation right from the start,  beginning with the construction of tall gin styled stills instead of the traditional onion shaped stills in use at the time.  Glenmorangie also was amongst the first distilleries to used American Oak for aging the whisky, as well as at the forefront of the new wave of unique wood finished whiskies.  In fact the core range of Glenmorangie includes three unique wood finishes;  the La Santa which is a Sherry finish, the Nector D’or which is a Sauternes Wine finish, and the whisky which I am reviewing in this article, The Quinta Ruban, which is a Ruby Port Finish.  Here is a link to the Glenmorangie website for more information on their history and their core range of whiskies.

And without further ado here a link to the review:

Review: Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban (Scotch Whisky)

And I had better add, that added at the end of the review, I have not one but five bar drinks constructed for this special Scotch,  four of them by my favourite cocktail connoisseur …. forrest!

Posted in Cocktails & Recipes, Scotch Whisky, Single Malt Whisky, Whisk(e)y, Whisk(e)y Review | Tagged: , , , , , | Comments Off on Whisky Review: Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban (Scotch Whisky)

Whisky Review: Centennial 10Year Old Canadian Rye Whisky

Posted by Arctic Wolf on December 8, 2009

Fifty Reviews and Going Strong

My Goodness.  It is been barely 7 weeks and I am publishing my Fiftieth Review.  Of course, this doesn’t mean I have consumed 50 bottles of Rum and Whisky in seven weeks, nor does it mean I have sampled 50 different bottles.  You see, when I opened this site I already had a variety of reviews complete and published elsewhere.  About twenty on the Ministry of Rum, three or four on Rum Connection, and about three whisky reviews on Refined Vices.  As well I had written about ten whisky reviews which had never been published, as well as one tequila review, and four or five rum reviews.  So the table was set seven weeks ago with almost forty reviews complete before I began my trip into the blogosphere.

I should also note, that long before I ever wrote my first full review; I was putting my thoughts onto paper, and keeping a catalog of my scores for various whiskies, (and some rums) in my handy dandy notebook.  I started doing this shortly after I bought my first copy of Jim Murray’s 2007 Whiskey Bible.  In fact I consider my writing  to be largely influenced by Jim Murray and his writing.  He is without a doubt, the best of the best when it comes to writing about whisky and probably spirits in general.

I still have all of those notes,  which I refer to constantly, as I write new reviews, so in a way it has been relatively easy to reach my fiftieth review milestone.

So why did I choose a relatively obscure Canadian Rye whisky to review for the big Five Zero.  Simple, it was next in line.  You see I try not to play favourites; I try not to display any bias when I write a review.  Choosing a particular distillery, or a particular spirit and claim it worthy of this milestone might just be the wrong way to present information that is meant to be impartial.

Not that Centennial 10Year Old Canadian Rye Whisky is in any way an inferior spirit. It happens to be very very good.  A true Canadian Rye whisky, but one with with a very interesting twist.  Centennial Rye Whisky, rather than having corn in the mash bill with the rye, uses Canadian soft Winter Wheat with the rye grain in the mash bill.  This gives the Centennial a smooth and soft flavour profile unlike any rye whisky I have encountered.  Using grains grown exclusively on the Canadian prairies, distilling the grain in my home Province of Alberta, and aging the spirit in the severe Western Canadian climate for a minimum of ten years, means  Centennial is a Rye Whisky unlike any other in the world.  Not bad for an obscure Canadian rye whisky, made in a relatively unknown Canadian distillery, Highwood Distillers.

Although I suspect the rest of the world will catch on…

But enough of my babble…

Here is my fiftieth review:

Review: Centennial 10 Year Old Canadian Rye Whisky

Posted in Canadian Whisky, Cocktails & Recipes, Whisk(e)y, Whisk(e)y Review | Tagged: , , , , | 7 Comments »

Whisky Review: Glenrothes Select Reserve

Posted by Arctic Wolf on December 8, 2009

Glenrothes Select Reserve:

Scottish Legend has it that the Glenrothes distillery produced its first drops of Scottish spirits on December 28 1879, coincidentally the same day the rail bridge over the River Tay collapsed in one of the World’s most spectacular rail disasters.

Glenrothes is a typically good Speyside Whisky, with spice and character at the forefront of its flavour profile.  The Glenrothes whisky is used as a base whisky in the Cutty Sark and Famous Grouse Blends.  Indeed if you are a blended Scotch drinker and feel the inclination to move to the Single Malts, you will find the Glenrothes Blends to be excellent introductory malts in which to begin the Journey.

The Select Reserve was blended by Malt Master  “John Ramsey” to serve as a signature malt to represent the character of the Glenrothes Distillery.  In order to capture the essence of Glenrothes the Malt Master used whiskies from a variety of vintages, and from a variety of aged oak barrels.  Thus a spectrum of flavours from the variety of ages and oak is apparent in the final single malt blend.

Here is my review of this splendid Speyside Malt:

Review: Glenrothes Select Reserve (Scotch Whisky)

Posted in Cocktails & Recipes, Scotch Whisky, Single Malt Whisky, Whisk(e)y, Whisk(e)y Review | Tagged: , , , , , | Comments Off on Whisky Review: Glenrothes Select Reserve

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