Mixed tasting...

So, just a small tasting today, of whiskies that's far from what I'd normally enjoy.


Metropolitan NAS 40% blend

A blend from the 80's, dyed and all. The nose is on the light side of light, perhaps some sweet juice, white wine and vodka. The taste is light and sweet, a bit like apple vinegar. Gone in a flash with no finish that I'm able to detect.

Light and easy, one to mix drinks with perhaps, but the small apple sensation was nice: 3.5


Bell's NAS 43% blend

Another one from the 80's, it has the statement of Liqueur and the meaningless yet very proudly used description "Extra Special" on the label. Anyway, Bell's are a brand to be reckoned with anytime there's a blend-discussion, one of the big guys so to speak. The recent Bell's consists of among others Blair Athol, Caol Ila og Glenkinchie. So could there be some peat involved here? Smells light, flinty, esters, charming stuff, seems older than it probably is. The taste is light and sweet. Some peat I find, but also vanilla and brandy notes. A bit too sweet for me. The aftertaste is bitter and doesn't help lift this experience at all for me.

Okay, nice to have tried, middle of the road blend: 3


Glencoe NAS ?-1992 46% Single Malt bottled for Clan MacKenzie Restaurant

Bottled to celebrate the Tercentenary, which is the 300th year anniversary of the massacre of Glencoe. If to make a guess of which distillery this could be from I'd have to say Ben Nevis, as they have produced both the blend and single malt earlier bottled under the name "Glencoe", but I have no other support of this theory. The nose is lightly spiced, caramel, grass, dried basil, herbal, not as fresh as I'd expect a Ben Nevis to be. The taste is sweet, honey, basil again, thyme, licorice, salty water, marshmallows, ginger, floral, butter. It's a fine whisky that I think, if bottled with a distillery name on it, would do very well for that distillery. Fine stuff.

A complex and fresh 12yo: 6


Isle of Skye 18yo 43% Private Stock #45

See last blend tasting:)


Bladnoch 0 days old 72.2% OB Peated Newmake

A peated lowlander, there sure aren't many of those around, at least not at this age. Color, make a guess... I guess a newmake was the one thing I have yet to try in these non-malt session. Well, there's one single malt in this one, but since I'm unsure of its origin, I decided I might as well just throw it in this one. It smells spirity and peaty, but mostly peaty, nice stuff. But I have this small notion that whiskies with no coastal character often struggles carrying bigger levels of peat, maybe this one can change my mind? The taste is extremely peated, it seems more peated than any other whisky I have ever tried, perhaps except some young Laphroaigs and Octomore. Is it because maturation tires the peat a bit, or that the whisky through maturation gets its own character, so to speak, which casts some shadows on the peat? It's a perfectly good new-make which I think one day would made a very good whisky, but now its all gone. Hmm... Perhaps a good candidate to be used in a new cask project?

Very good newmake: 6