The madness continues!!!
Berry Bros Blended Malt, Sherry Matured, NAS, 44.2%
This is the sherry cask matured version of this: https://malt-review. … -rudd-blended-malts/. I was curious to try it as it came to me as part of a sample acquisition and it was cheap enough to try and sate FOMO. Fairly classic sherry notes in the nose with spicy plum notes. Quite a bit of spice and alcohol for a 44% abv at least while sniffing it… The alcohol mostly calms down with time with some chocolate notes replacing it. The palate is gentle, sweet, slightly nutty and malty but not much else seems to be going on in there. Little bit of char lets itself be known in the secondary notes and aftertaste. Slightly too sweet and unbalanced the aftertaste is generic malt and sherry yet again with some surprising coffee or mocha notes in the very end. Value… According to quick search this is a circa $40 bottle which makes it a solid NAS purchase. A crowd-pleaser, likely for @work (or bar) drinking this is nothing to write home about if imbibed in a more contemplative setting. I don’t particularly dislike it as I actually enjoy sherried malts… but it’s simply not at all exciting or complex.
Score: C+
Teeling (Cooley) 19, Nectar Pick, 55.6%
Irish Teeling Distillery has some interesting history but the short version is that all their older single malt is coming from their previous distillery which was called Cooley. Read here: https://en.wikipedia … i/Teeling_Distillery… Anyways, this is a 19 years old single cask in Ex-Bourbon. Nose is malty vanilla butter cookies with coconut and mango. That nose is good! The palate… Well mango-coconut again, deliciously nutty sweet and warming. The aftertaste is mostly… sweet with more tropical fruit notes and fades slowly with warm spices lingering. This is just… delicious overall… It’s so good!
https://www.whiskyba … /teeling-19-year-old
Score: A
Craigellachie 1995, 24, Exceptional Cask; 52.2%
A sherry (exceptional) cask Craigellachie… Courtesy of a friend (Orpheus, thank you). A sherry cask, single cask Craigellachie … The nose… how would I describe it… Old leather jacket, light mastic, red fruits, very perfumed, and a little musky. The palate is woody, nutty, sherried… luxury with some very tasty fruit flavors in the back. Red grapes perhaps. Late harvest zinfandel wine. An absolute beast of a palate that unravels slowly and in layers. More sweetness and fruits on the long aftertaste that fade slowly. overall… Holy cow this is great stuff. My sample rack has been somewhat stacked towards really good samples but it also suggests that I’ve more or less zeroed in onto what I enjoy drinking. Anyways… value of this being circa 250 isn’t all that great but I don’t count value in score.
https://www.whiskyba … iskies/whisky/161208
Score: A
Bruichladdich 15, Chorlton Whisky, 59.5%
Another small sample by way of Orpheus. Thanks friend! This is a Bruichladdich 15 in Bourbon Barrel. The nose is nuts and apricots, marzipan and toasted sugar with ever so slight iodine note. Classic nutty Laddie that’s got huge personality on the palate. Warming alcohol, bourbon spices. Orange zest and malt, though a little bit hot on the alcohol side. Long pleasant finish with nuts a little bit of tobacco, more bourbon spices and some bitter orange zest. Beautiful but not truly spectacular, yet well worth trying. Like a gallery painting… it may not be your favorite… but it’s still in a gallery. I guarantee there are plenty of layers of flavor to discern here… but there are also plenty of other pours out there too. No idea what the value here is since it was a sample during a tasting and is a UK bottle.
https://www.whiskyba … iskies/whisky/176099
Score: B+
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Scoring Breakdown: https://www.aerin.or … age=scores_breakdown