OCAU Whisky appreciation

Makes sense. I think the pouring stand is super cool. Not sure if it is actually "professional" or not but still a gentleman of quality nonetheless.

 

Wife returned from a girls trip to Singapore with this for me...so amazingly smooth.

 

Whisky club look like they've smashed it out of the park with Septembers release https://thewhiskyclub.com.au/talisker I'm getting 2....

 

Aww man..,.
If I had remembered to opt out the month just gone id be able to justify septembers

 

I opted out as soon as I saw it. Couldn't care less about it! I haven't been impressed with many of the releases in the last year.

 

Yeah I intended to opt out - was away from Friday until Monday arvo the opt out weekend and completely forgot.

 

I coudln't even get one unfortunately. Spent all my money on bike parts Did anyone here manage to get one? How was it?

 

I did, haven't opened it yet.

edit: well that didn't take much convincing for me to open it.

Very Talisker
nose - campfire smoke, quite briny, sticky bbq pork, pawpaw
taste - initially quite sweet, werthers original boiled sweets, good mouthfeel, roast pork, light smoke, sea spray
length - long with smoke and sea that makes you salivate

I'm definitely a fan of this one, a welcomed injection of something interesting in their usual sea of bland easy sippers.

 

Cheers. Do you mean Talisker or whisky club? I'm a big Talisker fan so if there's still stock I'll get one

 

I was talking about the whisky club. The have to cater to the lowest common denominator, so tend to not be too challenging.

It would be interesting to see how anything peated goes compared to unpeated. They only seem to bring out the big guns like this Talisker or the Offerman Lagavulins

 

I honestly straight up disagree with this comment.
I've found huge variety in the whisky club offerings - and I have been a member since the first month, yes not everything will be to your taste so thats why you can opt out.

 

I agree with Spanky. I've been a member for 2 years now and they just seem to get the most run of the mill whisky's with only a few exceptions.

 

I'm not saying it's all rubbish, they have introduced me to some absolute favourites, such as Bladnoch. But for every one of those, there's 3 of the Ballantine's malts, or something bland from Diageo.

I do find myself opting out more than half of the time.

 

I find myself optins out due to financial reasons. Didn't get the Talisker but I wanted it.
I wont claim they're all good - but I think more often than not I rate the choice, and now they get Whisky Club exclusive bottlings it has more appeal, sometimes in the early days you could find the whisky club offering from nicks for like 20 bucks less.
There has only been one that i was like nope that is shite. It was the Deanston 12, like one of the first few they even did, was awful.

 

For me it was the Hellyer's Road which was completely undrinkable. Any other here get that ~May 2021?

Same. I was about to order it, but then I needed to sort out bike parts again. Shame but I can buy a different one locally

 

Not sure I like it better than the Single Grain (or my favourite the Teeling Small Batch), but Uncle Dan has the Teeling Single Malt whiskey for $85 (members price) as against the usual retail of $103-ish.
If you've not tried it before, do yourself a favour......

 

Worst Tassie distillery I have tried I would say. Its not just that offering I dont think they have anything great.

 

The more I drink the Pokeno from Whisky Club the more I like it. It's quite basic, but there's just a hit of something extra.

I'm trying to curb my drinking so I've stopped buying as much whisky. I was up at ~12 open whisky bottles that I'd drink any day of the week last year and now I'm down to around 4. Been a tough slog but someones got to do it.

Edit: ended up buying the Talisker....

 

Until Redbreast came along Teeling was my go to for a bottle of whiskey. The three you mention there are all fantastic drinks and I also quite liked the stout cask that they made (make?).

 

So end of year review, what was the best thing you tasted this year? Not going to lie, this was a very good year...

Highlights
Laphroaig 40yr
Laphroaig 35rd
Laphroaig 10yr (bottled in 1960's)
Laphroaig 10 yr CS Red Label
Chichibu Casa De Vinos
Brora 30yr
Longrow 20yr

I am locking up the credit card for at least 6 months...I don't need to buy anymore scotch as I have enough to last a few decades at least. Plus nothing will ever beat tasting Laphroaig juice from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s in one evening...