Secret Islay #2 10 2011 The Whisky Agency Heads & Tails

What’s the best way to follow up a review of a blend with tons of questions? Why not a single malt with lots of questions? Enter Secret Islay #2 10 2011 The Whisky Agency Heads & Tails, a release specifically for The Toronto Whisky Society. Do we know the distillery? Nope, not at all! What do […]

Auchroisk 8 2010 The Whisky Company

It’s good to re-examine yourself every so often. Not constantly, unless you want me to introduce my own anxiety demon to you. I call him Frank and he makes me sad. In my case, I haven’t had many Auchroisk whiskies. Some would even say very few, or more accurately, two. Now some might say, who […]

Linkwood Lunar Crater: Humboldt 12 2008 Scotch Universe

Linkwood has become that distillery that I try and wonder why I tried it again and again. What started as my wife ordering it because she connected a sick joke about a certain Nintendo hero and a slang term for sausage become a confusing mixture of me deciding if I like the distillery or not. […]

Ben Nevis 27 1990 Le Gus’t Selection XV

I showed up to the year-end tasting with Ben Nevis. No, no, that undersells it: I showed up to the year end tasting with Ben Nevis 27 1990 Le Gus’t Selection XV. That has more gravitas. But we can still get better. I showed up to the year-end tasting with a Ben Nevis before it changed […]

An Ample Amount of Amruts

I’ve been writing a bit lately about moving on from old distilleries. Which is tough. No one wants to stop buying a specific distillery’s offerings due to price increases, changes in how it’s being made, or even situations where it becomes so popular that you have to camp out to purchase it. Which usually means […]

Arran-pocalypse II: Electric Boogaloo

I’m going to start at the end, if you don’t mind: I don’t think Arran and I are made for one another. A long time ago I decided I was going to deep dive on Arran: The end result was a 32-part multi review that was much too long, much too much, and a decision […]

Kilkerrans

Watching a distillery grow is an interesting process. Hear me out here: The distillery has an idea of what it wants to make, and how it’s going to raise the money to do so. With how much money that investors are now asking for (because their kids ain’t gonna get a yacht otherwise) you have […]

Basil Hayden’s Dark Rye

Thanks to my buddy Rob who poured this (and the original Basil Hayden) as part of a recent whisky tasting we had (we all socially distanced and stayed outside and were all fully vaccinated). Experimentation is a good thing. I can frankly say that as someone who lives in Canada, where you can experiment and […]

Laphroaig Cairdeas 2020

I’m always a year or more behind when it comes to Cairdeas releases. Not only are they not easy to get your hands on (as we’re starved for similar quality whiskies here in Canada), but I like to take my time with these bottles. That’s a lie I have too much to write, I am […]

Ledaigs of many a variety

There’s an awkward thing I bring up around Tobermory/Ledaig and there’s an obvious thing. The awkward thing is due to the “body” or “stinky cheese” or “Brevibacterium” there are a variety of different comments, from the mundane “this is why I don’t like blue cheese” to uncomfortable comments about a variety of sex workers in […]