This Caroni, from the sadly closed distillery in Trinidad and Tobago, was bottled last year by Polish bottler Jack Tar. It’s from their ‘Cosmic series’ which, in the 2023 release added this one and another Caroni ‘Mars’ to the line-up.
I got the samples a little while ago and decided that the current weather called for a rum more than it did for a whisky. Especially after the last nine months of autumn.
So here goes the closing drink of the weekend.
Image from Jack Tar
Sniff: While it’s very intense and rich, there’s also a lightness to it. Molasses and brown sugar, some syrupy notes of oak. There’s some fruitiness, but also a hint of engine grease.
Sip: The palate packs a bit of a punch. Grease first and foremost with brown sugar and molasses following quickly after. A bit of a vegetative greenness as well. It turns quite dry after a little while with more notes of oak and a bit of a banana peel texture, star fruit too, maybe.
Swallow: The finish begins with a little bit of an after burner but turns from hot to warm after a second or two. More towards oak and a slightly bitter fruitiness. And that engine oil or grease note as well.
This is a great one. The intensity combined with the lightness, without losing the rather typical note of engine grease (although sometimes it’s more diesel-y) works really well. Add in some fruit and a nod back to the core ingredients with a hint of molasses and you’ve got yourself a very, very well rounded rum!
Finn Thomson, not to be confused with the ThomPson brothers, but also a bottler of Scotch whisky. In sort-of fancy hexagonal bottles (or was is an octagon?). Anyway, the bottle came in a tube similarly ‘gonal’, which made the tube surprisingly flimsy, but with enough bubble-wrap things were A-Okay.
This one was recommended to me at the Hielander Whisky Festival by whisky buddy MD. Before the weekend was over, I had placed an order for one. This one is a belter, and it seems more and more like Linkwood is on a roll with whiskies distilled around 2010 (looking at Dram Mor, Michiel Wigman, this one). I never had more Linkwood in my collection that this year!
Image from Whiskybase
Anyway, based on the color of the booze I wouldn’t have guessed it came from a bourbon cask, although there’s no reddish hue to it. Based on the flavor of it, things are different.
Sniff: Slightly beery with a green and leafy herbaceousness. Lots of grain and wood. A hint of vanilla, milky caramel and Bounty bars in the background.
Sip: The palate is intense but not too hot. Slightly syrupy with caramel and a chocomate milk fattiness. A dry note of coconut, barley and oak shavings. Ever so slightly green with herbs, ferns and old fashioned (English) hops.
Swallow: The finish shows a bit more vanilla, caramel and barley. Although that barley is becoming a bit more pastry like, like poundcake, rich and buttery.
What a dram… This one blew quite a few more expensive whiskies out of the water at the festival, and at home it was a fan favorite as well. Me being the fan, obviously. It’s not often that I go through half a bottle of whisky this fast (the other half was bottle-shared) but this one is already empty! I guess that says enough, but in a proper review kind of way: The herbal flavors work really well with this whisky. I’m not always a fan of that, but this one reminded me of very old fashioned English IPAs like you rarely find anymore. The caramel adds a nice sweetness with the alcohol keeping said sweetness in check. Very highly recommended!
Back when David Stirk was head-honcho of the Creative Whisky Company there were ups and downs for the bottler. As soon as he did things with normal casks, the whiskies were thoroughly enjoyable, but the ones with the Exclusive Casks label were a bit ‘out there’.
But, with him stepping down a couple years ago and now the appearance of a new brand, I’m quite enthusiastic about what it could bring. And so, when a Bruichladdich from what appears to be a bourbon cask pops up, I’m game. If that Bruichladdich is sort-of affordable (especially compared to most Bruichladdichs being released nowadays), it peaks my interest.
Image from Whiskybase
Let’s dive in and see if I spent my € 160 well!
Sniff: Lots of milky weirdness, with a rather typical note of grist and grass. Slightly salty and coastal, with hints of vegetable ash. Quite floral without being perfumy. It’s very much in a typical style of Bruichladdich that you don’t find often anymore.
Sip: The palate is quite intense, even though it’s ‘only’ 50%. Dry and grassy, with hints of fresh American oak. Sawdust, lightly toasted white bread, salmiak, and milk powder.
Swallow: The finish stays quite intense. Not overly hot, but intense. Still milky, slightly funky with coastal salinity and salty licorice (and salmiak). Floral, grassy, flowery meadows, marram grass.
It reminds me of me the Bruichladdich from Archives from a couple of years ago. It’s a bit out there and I can imagine this not appealing to everyone’s palate, but it does to mine. Those strange sherbet-y notes work very well for me. Highly recommended!
I’m even considering getting myself another bottle, since the first one went really fast.
Back in the day, when I still was innocent and unspoiled I bought a bottle of this at De Whiskykoning. I absolutely loved it, the fruitiness, the fierceness, the differentiation of what Glenlivet was known for. The entire package spoke to me.
Of course, we’re 17 years further down the line and I have had the possibility to taste many fine drams over the years. One cannot help but wonder if this still holds up. Of course one can, but this one cannot.
Image from Whiskybase
So, when a bottle bubbled up from the same shop’s warehouse, I instantly pounced on it and did a bottle share with it. I just had to try it, and spread the love around a little bit (hopefully).
Sniff: Light but strong. Amazingly fruity with all kinds of yellow and orange stuff. Fresh orange, crispy apple, star fruit and pineapple. Some notes of barley and a whiff of peppermint. A sweet note of icing sugar.
Sip: The palate, even though it sits almost at 60% alcohol, starts rather gently. Give it a second or ten though, and the heat starts building, and building. Still very fruity and light, but slightly more sweet than it was on the nose. Moving away from crisp notes of star fruit and more toward a banana. Notes of tinned pineapple, some orange and apple remain.
Swallow: The finish leaves a burning sensation on your tongue, with fruity notes and some sweet vanilla and icing sugar. Banana, tinned pineapple, apple. Quite lovely.
As said, when this came out it was a belter. A decade and a half later, and being ridiculously spoiled in the meantime, it still is. This one was, and is, punching way above its price point.
Now, if anyone has a bottle or so available and wants to part with it, please send me a message!
With this being a slightly more rare Irish whisky, it would make sense that MvZ supplied me with the sample I tried. However, I don’t see his rating on Whiskybase, so I’m second guessing myself.
Image from Whiskybase
While it’s far from the most exciting brand, Jameson rarely comes at cask strength, and older whiskies from Midleton tend to be rather good. So, I got excited. This one’s a mix of bourbon and sherry casks, and even though it’s a special edition there were 15,000 bottles released. It should not be overly surprising that there are some knocking about six years after.
Sniff: There’s quite a lot of oak, the typical Irish Pot Still whisky sweetness (wine gums, slightly chemical) but also cherries and vanilla. A hint of cherry stones as well, with the dark crust of a pound cake.
Sip: A fairly gentle palate that doesn’t bite but is not without a bit of impact. Some fierceness with dry oak, some candy like sweetness. Cherries, pound cake, vanilla. A hint of iron too, with some apple.
Swallow: The finish is largely the same as the palate, it mellows rather quickly but lingers a long time. The dry woodiness, vanilla and some apple.
Not entirely unexpected, but this is a very drinkable dram. The cask strength is noticeable, but not overly fierce. It’s a slightly sweet dram, which is regular for the style too, but it’s not too sweet as it sometimes can get. At € 150 it’s not extremely expensive, but unless you really want to try something like this, I think there are more interesting drams available at that price point.
KCWS stands for King’s Court Whisky Society, although based on the label of these bottles, they abbreviate it to KWCS instead. It’s a whisky club located in Haarlem, The Netherlands and it has been around for quite a while. I was a member at some point but cancel my membership after I didn’t go to any events for several years in a row.
Anyway, these two bottlings have so much text on them. There’s ‘The 2019 WF WOW! Project’, but also stuff about it being a delegation bottle, information on the cask and the fact that it is from ‘The Kingdom of the Netherlands’. Oh, and something about no bullshit. Both bottles contain ‘AlcVol%’, which is something I’ve never seen before like that.
Of course, in the end it’s about the booze and not about the utter mayhem that’s on the label. I got to try these due to being able to get a set from one of the members of the club, and I picked them up ages ago. Obviously, I never got around to reviewing them until recently.
For the ones that are wondering what ‘Wagging Finger’ is. It’s a small craft distillery producing gin and whisky in Deventer (also in The Kingdom of The Netherlands). Erik Molenaar, who runs the distillery is also an importer of several brands (DramMor being one of them) and bottler of whiskies in the ‘Kintra‘ series.
Wagging Finger 3, 2019-2023, Virgin European Oak Cask W2019-008, 64.2%
Image from Whiskybase (by me)
Sniff: Ah, yes. The whisky that holds the middle between gin and whisky. It’s almost like the still has some sort of memory. Having said that, it’s definitely not bad. There’s a crispness, with hints of juniper, thyme and rosemary. Rather herbaceous. Grainy with grassy notes, petrichor even. It takes quite some time for the notes of European oak to start getting through.
Sip: The palate really shows the immense alcohol percentage and is bone dry because of it. Leathery with a hint of rubber or whale skin. Fruit, juniper, grass, moss, leafy greens, a bit of oak and some grist.
Swallow: The finish might even be more gin like than the nose was. Full on notes of juniper, with fruits and herbs. Even some spices with a hint of clove. Quite a long finish with just a splinter of oak in there, as well as a minor hint of barley.
If you don’t like gin, I can imagine not liking this whisky either. There definitely is a lot of juniper like notes throughout this dram. I do like gin, and therefor I do like this whisky. I think the whisky is nicely balanced, but could do with more time in the cask, and not just to bring the ABV (or AlcVol%) down a bit more.
86/100
Wagging Finger 3, 2019-2023, Virgin American Oak Cask W2019-009, 65.1%
Image from Whiskybase (also by me)
Sniff: This one, following the European oak one, is just as crisp, but maybe a little bit lighter and more lemon-y. Still quite gin like, but more in its crispness than the juniper forward nose from the other one.
Sip: The palate is hot and dry, with a focus on the hot part. Slightly leathery, but mostly just biting alcohol and chili. Lighter than the other one, with a hint of lemon pith.
Swallow: The finish shows more whisky notes with more barley and not as much gin like things. It’s a bit sweeter than it was before.
This one is weird. Strangely, it doesn’t seem to do much on either nose, palate and finish. Of course you notice the alcohol, but in regard to flavor it all feels rather held back. The European oak one is a lot more interesting, if you ask me!
If I were in charge, inaugural releases would always consist of refill bourbon so that the distillery character gets as much spotlight as it can. Simply to show what you’re about and not hide anything behind the influence of previous cask contents.
Of course, this might be a terrible thing if regarded from a marketing perspective, because quite a few distilleries are pretty shit when it comes to three year old whisky. Especially, and this makes it an even worse decision, the small distilleries that are trying to take a grassroots, old fashioned approach to whisky-making. Maybe it’s a good thing I’m not in charge of much…
I got wind of the Bruges Whisky Company through WhiskyCenter.com, from which I got a few samples of things they’re importing a while ago. Apart from that, I met the people behind the company at the Dutch Whisky Festival in 2022. We got to try some cask samples that were insanely peppery and, to be fully honest, not that good. It was with some apprehension that I tried this one.
Image from Whiskybase
Sniff: Going in with low expectations, as said, seems to not have been necessary. The nose is surprisingly gentle for a whisky at over 60% alcohol. There’s something on the nose that I can’t pinpoint but do like. Like hibiscus, red citrus, myrtle (Cap Corse?) or something like that. I guess this must be the utterly mental combination of casks.
Sip: Youthful and rye-like, with quite a punch. It takes some time for your palate to start sending distress signals, but they do come. So the gentleness of the nose seems to be a deception. Barley, rye, white pepper, some other rye spiciness like myrtle.
Swallow: The finish is very dry, but very flavorful too. Very much like the nose, with Cap Corse and orange. Not overly intense in the long run and still on the rye side of things, even though it’s not.
As said, going in expecting this review to never appear on the blog, anything good is something of a happy accident. In this case it actually is! Not up to a level that I’m running to the store immediately, but I’m still quite thrilled with this! I think the maple syrup cask made sure that there’s some sweetness, but the combination leads to that orang-y spicy combination of flavors and scents that I quite enjoy!
A few months ago I reviewed the sister cask of this one, which I thoroughly loved. So when this sample came in I was pretty thrilled about it! Of course, waiting for the right time took a few weeks but when holidaying by the sea side it sounded like a rum moment.
As said in the previous review, the wooden Port Mourant still works well in the Caribbean and I’m very glad they’re not trying something like that in Scotland or many other places. I think you need some history with that before it works properly.
Rums like this end up being good for my topography too, since I just looked up where Guyana is, and it turns out it’s right next to Suriname. The Dutch have some history there from colonial times. Nothing to be proud of, of course, but history nonetheless.
Image from Jack Tar
Sniff: This is a rather funky rum with quite some petrol-like hints on the nose. It’s green, mossy and woody. Some leafy greens, sugar cane and treacle.
Sip: The texture is surprisingly syrupy. After the nose I expected it to be a bit more ethereal. It gets hot, though, even for such an oldie. Chili pepper, dry oak, but almost nothing of the green notes I got on the nose.
Swallow: The finish veers right back to the funkiness of the nose. It wasn’t present on the palate, or at least nothing significant like here or on the nose. A long finish with petrol and paint, as well as oak and a whale skin texture that lingers.
It is not dissimilar to the Dream Catcher from a few months ago, but I do feel this is slightly less layered. While that sounds negative, it’s very marginal and we’re still having an awesome rum here. The funkiness is great and the combination of the green notes with the interesting notes of petrol work very well.
When Ralfy’s review of this whisky popped up I watched it, and it was the first one I watched in ages. I immediately ordered a bottle (although I should check with the shop, since it’s not in yet). Of course, had I checked my sample cupboard I could have found a wee drop of it in there, courtesy of Kenny and Viktorija of Dràm Mòr.
Yeah, that’s me being an idiot again. It’s nothing new, but I still get annoyed by myself when this happens again.
Image from Whiskybase
Anyway, the sample has been tried and tested. Let’s review this whisky from Loch Lomond’s peatier style.
Sniff: It starts with quite a wood forward scent, before turning leathery, with a hint of matches. A different approach to PX cask usage, for sure! Some macerated blackberries and a hint of almonds. A light peat smoke too.
Sip: The palate is quite fierce and leads with peat smoke, wood smoke and some chili pepper. It’s slightly syrupy, with the same macerated blackberries, a hint of date and almond. It gets dryer after a little while and shows more of the oak and the sixteen years of being in it.
Swallow: The palate continues on the dry path, with the chili hint turning more to dried chilis, chipotle like, with that dusty brittle thing. A hint of raisin and date, and a lighter fruitiness too. Oak, almonds, and some lingering peat.
Not overly smoky, but there’s a great balance between it and the cask and spirit. Also, I love that the PX cask that’s used has been used with restraint, and the whisky isn’t too sweet because of it.
89/100
It should be still available here and there for a well-worth-it 140 Euros.
This truly is something special. There have only been four older Cragganmores ever, and with this one coming from the guys at Wu Dram Clan, my expectations are soaring. Cragganmore is one of those distilleries that never really disappoints, but when things get special, they tend to get very special indeed.
What also helps is that it’s become increasingly rare to try something this old. It’s not impossible but newer releases rarely get to this level of maturity. Of course, with it comes the risk of things being over-matured, but since this whisky is coming from the Cask of Distinction program and WDC, I am not really scared for that.
Image from Whiskybase
Sniff: Toasted oak, a light touch of honey, tangerines, apples. The oak is clearly present but subtly, and not overdone at all, even after almost four decades. There’s some candlewax going on, as well as beeswax and other slightly honeyed notes.. Some minor notes of autumn forest. Dried leaves, moss, tree bark.
Sip: The palate is impactful with dry oak sawdust, some white pepper and brittle honeycomb. Apple and tangerines again, with honey, beeswax, some star fruit too. Dry oak, tree mulch, and it gets a little bit more syrupy with some time. Treacle, lots of fruit and lots of oak.
Swallow: The finish veers back to the wood as it was on the nose. Massively old and gentle. Long, dry, fruity and lots of cask influence.
This whisky has mellowed over the decades to show lots of flavors and depth. It’s massively layered, with all the good stuff that you got in whiskies from yonder year. A trip to the past indeed. It’s complex and reminiscent of whiskies from even longer ago, when things moved a bit slower. The honey and wax notes are epic, with the plethora of subtle fruit notes to go with it for even more great depth. Holy shit, what a dram!
Malt Fascination 