As it is the holiday season in the USA I thought I would post my first whisky joke.  I will see how many I can come up (or steal) as I develop this site.

Knock, Knock.   Who's there?  Knocked.  Knocked who?  That's right, Knockdhu distillery, the makers of AnCnoc.

If you can do better then please email it to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or enter as a comment on the Blog tab.  Happy holidays.

Just like the girl in college who broke your heart and you never quite got over, this is the distillery that got away.  As I mentioned in Reviews I really like this whisky and I decided in May 2011 to go and visit Wick and the far North of Scotland and take in Glenmornagie and Old Pulteney.  Unfortunately it was not to be.  Traffic, single lane highways and poor planning meant I finally got to Wick at 4:10pm in the afternoon that day, and the visitor's center closed at 4:00.   Now I will never her see her stills.  I peered through some windows, took my photos and drove on to John O Groats, the northerly tip of Scotland where the UK mainland, like my luck, ended.

Nose is soft with baked bread, spice (maybe ginger bread) and some dark fruit sweetness like raisins or prunes.  The taste is quite harsh at first, white pepper but that fades to reveal a complex and sweet interior, golden syrup, honey, even malt.  A long oak but not harsh finish, better at the end than the beginning.  With water I found it thinned out and the oakiness came up to the point of being bitter, the delicious sweet notes were masked by oak.  Definately pass on the water on this.

This one of those whiskies from a major brand that reminds you that good whisky isn't limited to small artisan brands and doesn't have to be expensive.  The nose on this has sweetness, vanilla (a bit like fudge) and some fruit and perhaps a little fresh paint.  The taste is sweet has some soft spice (cloves, cinnamon and even coffee) and a little oak in the finish.  Good stuff neat and with water gets a little sweeter, brown sugar, vanilla and some fruit. 

If you have read many of my reviews you will know I like blends.  And I like this one.  The nose has cereal notes (a little surprising for 12 year old)  and some citrus fruit.  The taste is very smooth and has some oak, honey sweet and floral, not overly complex but well balanced. The finish is dry and lingering with perhaps a little smoke.

This comes at 50% ABV and the nose has alcohol plus some vanilla, toffee and banana. The taste is sweet and complex, delicious and spicy.  This is really good stuff and I liked it.  With water even sweeter with more fruits and some spice and perhaps really good (not bitter) coffee.  Hint of oak on the finish. 

You may have noticed the whisky countdown jump from 30 or so when the web page went live in early November to 45 as of November 20th.  I thought it was worth pointing out that I have still been catching up on tasting notes from the last year or so and entering them into my web page content management system.  However that exercise is now complete and I can start to look forward to the challenge ahead of finding the remaining 56 or so (which is slightly complicated by the fact the book was written in UK and I now live in the USA).  I also thought I would discuss my self selected "rules" for completing the task of trying and reviewing all 101 whiskies in Ian Buxton's list.

Firstly I must have tried the whisky since reading the book in 2010.  I can not claim a whisky I have tried before reading the book - ie Black Grouse or Laphroig Quartercask.  I have decided I must try them again and write a review with my tasting notes to complete the list.  Secondly I do not have to buy a bottle, (the book says I have to try them, not own them) and therefore for some of the more expensive and hard to find whiskies I am going to whisky bars and drinking and making notes there.  This is a more economical way to complete the task but it does get me the odd strange look in bars when I start sniffing the glass and writing notes.  Third, I am also allowing organized whisky tasting events to count, for example I am counting the five whiskies I tasted at Ian Buxton's tasting event in Aberdeen in 2011.  However I am not counting the "sample pours" handed out at whisky shows or distillery tours etc.  Finally I have discovered the world of whisky miniatures.  Some of the more common whiskies in the list can be bought in 5 cl bottles.  That helps a lot too, especially for ones I have tried before and I just want to remind myself of and write some notes. 

But even with those increased odds of success, and wide range available on the internet now (which feels way too easy sometimes and so I consider it my last resort, I much prefer to browse a good liquor store or airport duty free in major international hub) I still think the following whiskies are going to be hard to track down in USA and will probably be some of the last ones I find.  If you have any suggestions or ideas I would love to hear them at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Glen Breton  - Canadian single malt.  I have never seen this in US or in any whisky bars.

Hibiki 30 year old - Japanese blend.  Hard to find anywhere.  Will be looking for this one in a bar due to high price ($500+ / bottle)

Mellow Corn - US corn whisky.  They don't distribute this in Texas, will have to look in other states.

The Wine Society Special Highland Blend - You have to be a member of the UK wine society, which I am not, to order this one.

This is not a working distillery, but an old distillery now maintained as a whisky distilling museum by Historic Scotland, that used to produce the Dallas Dhu single malt.  It is quite frankly not a very good concept for a museum, considering the scotch whisky industry is booming, new distilleries are opening all the time and this one is in the heart of Speyside, where there are dozens of working distilleries with visitor centers, many with longer histories than Dallas Dhu and probably all with better known brands, that all produce whisky in the same way.  So why would you go and walk around a dead one that used to produce a whisky no-one has ever heard of?  The fantastic little Benromach is in the same town (and closer to the main road) so just go there.  Morbid curiosity meant that one day we did find ourselves driving to Forres to see it and we found it closed with a sign in the office window saying "out to lunch".  I couldn't agree more.  

What's the story Tobermory?  This is an unusual review because I didn't actually get to tour this distillery.  We did go there, we drove all the way across Mull and arrived there in middle of afternoon in plenty of time only to be told that all the tours for the day were sold out.  I was little pissed off, but that was made much worse by the visitor center staff there who seemed to think that somehow I should have known better than to vist their distillery without a prior apointment,  Let's say their attitude grated to the extent that my notebook simply says under the Tobermory entry "No. No. No."   It was made worse by the fact that I really wanted to try their fifteen year old but they were sold out.  Sold out at the bloody distillery shop - how does that happen?  Didn't strike me as the most organized place and the complete opposite of all my distillery experiences before (and after) that date.  I vowed then (yes I actually vowed) to not drink Tobermory but then it turns out the 15 year old is in the 101 Whiskies to Try Before you Die list (damn) and that the Malted Muse has also bottled a limited edition single cask Tobermory (double damn) so I have decided to break my vow (for now).  Consider yourself lucky Tobermory, very lucky.

We visited the Glenturret distillery, aka The Famous Grouse Experience, a couple of times while we lived in Scotland. This whisky is one of those that can generate some big differences of opinions (check out the Scotchcast and Malted Muse podcasts on the Glenturret).  The nose on the 10 year old has cereal and new make spirit notes. The taste is soft and light, with more cereals and malt, caramel, vanilla and possibly banana (banana custard maybe).  The finish?  Let's be nice and say it is oaky, but subtle and not long.