When someone asks me to recommend a single malt scotch, the name “Glen Moray” does not pop immediately to mind. Why not? It’s a malt whisky distillery in its own right, just like heavy-hitters Glenfiddich and The Macallan. It may be smaller, but I recommend small distilleries like Oban all the time. So why not Glen Moray?
Since I got yelled at a few weeks ago for reviewing Jim Beam’s original “White Label” bourbon without thoroughly panning it, I thought I’d double down and review Beam’s Double Oak edition. Yes I’ve been planning to use that joke since I bought the bottle. Thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all week.
Mortlach has, once again, revamped its range. It has replaced the Rare Old (NAS) bottling with this new age-stated 12 year as the “entry” dram. While I do applaud the use of a 12 year malt as the entry-level bottle for a distillery’s official range, I’m not crazy about any “entry level” bottling starting at $55. But no distillery has yet asked me for pricing advice, so onward we plunge.
Heh. Surly Rye. Heh. *cough*
I’m in a weird mood about this blog lately, between hecklers in the comments and real life responsibilities getting in the way, so I thought I’d take this week’s blog post and have a little fun with it. Everyone online right now is talking about ChatGPT, an AI LLM (large language model) with a user-friendly chat interface. So, I thought, why not ask it to write my blog post for me?
My past reviews of Redemption’s Straight Rye boil down to: “sufficient for cocktails”. Redemption sources whiskey from MGP – formerly known as LDI – in Indiana, like a vast number of other products on the shelf today, and hasn’t had any post-maturation embellishments (cask finishes, extra aging, etc.). The same is true of this “High-Rye” Bourbon, which is a fairly standard MGP recipe of 60% corn, 36% rye, and 4% barley (for enzymes). This straight bourbon is aged by law for a minimum of two year
I know I just reviewed a Kirkland malt recently, but this one caught my eye and I wanted to get a review up in case anyone is standing – right this moment – in a Costco looking, puzzled, at this very label and wondering whether they should buy it.
The Exceptional is a line of sourced scotches blended and bottled by Sutcliffe & Son. They began with The Exceptional Grain in 2013, and then expanded to an Exceptional Malt and Exceptional Blend. Putting aside the hubris involved in referring to your own work as “Exceptional”, Sutcliffe has garnered renown for his blends and continues to release new editions regularly. Each edition of The Exceptional Grain contains single grain whiskies selected and blended by Sutcliffe and Willie Phillips (for
Unlike many other bourbon brands which lately have been spinning off new releases several times a year, Maker’s mostly just makes Maker’s Mark. And Maker’s 46, and a cask-strength edition. Now, this 101 proof version has been added to the lineup as a Limited Edition, where previously it was only available at the distillery.
Oof, it’s hard out there. I get the problem: You’re a DJ or whatever and you want to start a whisky brand. It worked for David Beckham, right? But what can you do that’s new? You get an idea: A YOUNG whisky, for YOUNG people. You’ll sell it with dance music and a story about how using young grain whisky makes the drink refreshing, not heavy like those old-fashioned malts. You pepper the marketing materials with euphemisms like “subtle”, “light”, “smooth” and suggest emphatically that drinkers se