It may not be the end of summer yet, but seeing as there has been blue skies in Scotland on a few occasions, you never know if that is all we will get!
As the saying goes, “I love a Scottish Summer. It’s my favourite day of the year.” Let’s hope that good weather continues well past July into September when I will finally get time for a break.
This is a bit of an unexpected post, as due to an unplanned extension to my current project, I’ve been delayed in getting home. This means that at the time of writing this, I’m on a ship beside the Snorre B platform in the Norwegian part of the North Sea, so I hope you can all forgive the lack of content thus far.
It also means that I am currently restricted to doing taste tests, as my work regulations mean that I cannot drink, and therefore I have to be cautious about the amount of completed taste tests I publish, lest I run out of articles. However this does not mean I have been standing still. Thanks to the wonder of buying at an airport and collecting later, I have some samples of Wolfburn, Tobermory, Tomintoul, Ben Nevis and Speyburn amongst others to try and review for you.
Summer has seen me visit GlenDronach and Oban distilleries, but autumn sees me visit Aberlour, Cragganmore, Macallan, Glenfarclas and most excitingly Ballindalloch during my annual break in September.
Other joys that I have bought recently have been the unusual Glen Moray “Cider Project” bottling. This is an experimental bottling that involves Thistly Cross cider, based in Dunbar. They mature one edition of their cider in casks formerly used by Glen Moray distillery. This produces a lovely light, sweet cider with a good whisky influence. To complete the circle, the barrels have been returned to Glen Moray for reuse to mature whisky once more. This is highly unusual, as it is currently against SWA guidelines to mature whisky in a cask that has been used in anything other than whisky, wine (or variants of such as Champagne, Port, Sherry or Cognac as far as I am aware), but this one uses the loophole that the cask had contained whisky previously. I look forward to trying this one to review for you, as I am a big fan of Thistly Cross cider.
Also, the modern wonder of the Internet has allowed me to remotely purchase some bottles. Given my enthusiastic review of GlenAllachie 12 year old, I have invested in the recent wood releases. The 3 bottles are an 8 year old Koval Rye Quarter Cask, a 10 year old Port finish and a 12 year old Pedro Ximénez sherry finish. I cannot wait to try them, although I may see if I can get samples of the bottles as only 780 of each bottle has been released in the UK. I am grateful to Matteo at the Speyside Whisky Shop in Aberlour for taking my payment over a satellite link phone call. Probably a first for him, but not for me – I mostly purchase whisky at work!
Take a look at the Speyside Whisky Shop’s Facebook page by clicking on the link below…
Speyside Whisky Shop on Facebook
Finally, over summer there was my collecting advice. To make it easier for you, here are the links for the 5 articles.
Budgeting and Collection Policies
Hope your summer was better than mine, and I trust you’ll make the best of what’s left.
Slainte Mhath!
Scotty
Scotty’s Drams 