Extras!

ralfy review 909 Extras – Batch comparison of Ledaig 10yo Malt

Welcome to this weeks episode of the show in which I’ll be reviewing a selection of bottlings from Independent bottler James Eadie.

https://youtu.be/wkY1_slvJKo

https://youtu.be/mvNcmm4SdpE

WHISKY OF THE YEAR! 

Easily the most difficult decision I’ve had to make in whisky for a LONG time. 

Kilkerran Heavily Peated #4 and Laphroaig 10YO Sherry…who gets the title? 

The first time I tried that Kilkerran, after having split a bottle with my friend, Mike, in London. I didn’t try it for ages, and then it came to filming WW and trying the whiskies the night before. Blown away. The complexity of this young stock is just mind blowing. Yet again, Kilkerran can do no wrong. Im yet to try anything older than their 12YO, or their CS limited releases, but this range has my full attention for the future.

Laphroaig. You can already smell and taste it, right? This sherry cask release ticked every box that I wanted it to. The last few Laphroaig releases had sold out or I had no huge interest in them, minus the Cask Strength releaes. But I’ve grown bored with sherry for many different reasons. My personal view for people who adore the stuff is to just drink more sherry, please! But when it’s incorporated with heavily peated whisky (see our Bowmore 18 Feis Ile video as well), it just works, and it’s the only area I’m really paying attention to with sherry anymore.

The depth of richness within this whisky from sweet butterscotch, tobacco, dry, mineral driven peat, those softer TCP notes. Just incredible and for the price it’s at, with the Lagavulin price increases coming, a worthy, and in my view, a Lagavulin 16 beater. A thunder driven show case of spanish soaked smoke. They smashed it.

Back filming @Thewhiskyshop with @ed – we’re back for 2022!

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ralfy review 909 – Ledaig 10yo @ 46.3%vol: (2022)

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 421: Auchentoshan 13 Year Old 2007 North Star Spirits

Mark Dermul, Belgian whisky blogger, tries another Toshan! Well, well, well… brand new Independent Bottler of the Year North Star Spirits (yes, for the second year in a row, congratulations, Iain!) bottled an Auchentoshan for the first time last summer. How about at that? And it has become a young lad of barely 13 years old, that was allowed to keep his beauty sleep on an oloroso hogshead. In July 2021, this resulted in 330 bottles at 55% ABV. Fan of both Auchentoshan and North Star Spirits, Mark of course could not pass up on this one.

https://youtu.be/4ubK9h3O_w8

https://youtu.be/jdfVLwsdCVY

Batch 5! 85% Bourbon Oak, 15% Sherry Oak…but is it as good as Batch 4?

Kilkerran have produced, literally, the best tasting younger whiskies that I’ve ever come across. Ever. Ardnamurchan also do very well here too.

The list of goodies:

Natural Colour

Non Chill Filtered

Cask Strength

Heavily Peated

£46.

£46!!!! How do Kilkerran make money on this?

This distillery, these bottles, even though they’re now sold out, show off how good younger Scottish whisky can really be. Peat heads, you folks love younger whiskies! Sherey fans might have to wait a little while longer to enjoy the impact of a sherry cask…or you could just drink sherry? Might make things cheaper in the long run.

Anyway, this stuff is incredible, even if Batch 4 was my preference, this is still, without doubt, the best bottle of whisky that any whisky fan can buy for below £50. Just f*****g exceptional.

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Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 420: Auchentoshan 18 Year Old 2003 SMWS 5.78

Mark Dermul, Belgian whisky blogger, tastes SMWS 5.78. At the whisky festival in Ghent, his good friend Chris Lauriers stood behind the table of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. He beckoned Mark closer and said, ‘I have something for you’. Mark saw the number 5.78 on the label and knew immediately that I had to taste it. After all, number 5 means Auchentoshan. It’s already the 78th single cask bottled by the SMWS of Mark’s favorite Lowlander. In this case an 18 years old from 2003 matured on a 1st fill ex-bourbon barrel bottled at no less than 54.9%. Wow!

https://youtu.be/G3u_5G0FKbA

Whisky Of The Year For 2022 (From The Bothy)

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 419: Auchentoshan 17 Year Old 2000 The Ultimate 850^th Cask

Mark Dermul, Belgian whisky blogger, tries yet another Auchentoshan. The Ultimate barely needs introduction. The Dutch independent bottler van Wees releases single casks under this banner, often at cask strength. Meanwhile, there are more than 1000 and in the run-up to that they released some special bottles and this one belongs in that list. This was the 850th single cask in The Ultimate, a 17-year-old Auchentoshan at 60.2% ABV. That’s why it was released in a nice box.

https://youtu.be/KbizXh47Kck

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 418: Auchentoshan 14 Year Old 2002 Provenance

Mark Dermul, Belgian whisky blogger, tries a teenage Toshan. Provenance is a series by Douglas Laing and I already tasted 3 Auchentoshan bottled under this label, an 11-year-old from 2000, a 12-year-old from 2001 and a 13-year-old from 2002. Douglas Laing released a 14-year-old in 2016 and that now sits in Mark’s glass.

https://youtu.be/v580KI-M64U