What are you having yourself?

[varizoltan]

[quote="IainBWhat's interesting is that it's often suggested that for these special releases they scour the warehouses and only select the very best casks. Surprisisng then that the 3 best 25yo casks from 1973 were sequentially numbered.[/quote]

as they said, the masters select the best casks and they put the best spirits in it, and i think they are 99.99% sure of what is gonna come out of it at the time of bottling

i am sure there is more of these old casks hiding in the old Midleton warehouse

[IainB]

Maybe but I would have thought it was hard to assess how good a cask is going to be until it has been used. Then again, older whiskeys do tend to come from refill casks so maybe they set them aside on the basis of how the first fill went.

[bredman]

The Black Grouse. An unwanted xmas gift i purchased for £5. I may have wasted £5...

This Black Grouse is going down toooo slow. I got catching up to do so it's time for some of the lovely Glen Keith 18 OMC 4807, oh yes.

[GH Adams]

Jameson 18 tonight. Just might finish the bottle but have others in my bunker.

[shanel23]

polished off a bottle of Dun Leire last night - luckily I got a delivery of a few more of them - cracking whiskey

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

Latest casualties in my down sizing exercise ... if you can call drinking whiskey an exercise

A older Talisker 10yo from the early 90's ... dregs drained and was still as vibrant as I remember a talisker should be. Another older bottle in the wings but really need refrain from opening.

A Cadenheads Glen Keith has also passed away during the week. Really enjoyed this and lucky for me there is a very remote chance of me replacing it

And last night I cleared a Bladnoch 16yo sherry cask. This bottle got better and better as I went through over a 2 year period.

[varizoltan]

just find some bottles from my Japanese trip

started with

Nikka, DaTe blend 43%, do not look for thisone at any shop, unless you are in Japan at Sendai Miyagikyo distillery

Nr2;

Nikka, single cask, malt whisky, 12 years old, Fruity&Rich ,cask nr 40876, 58% also from the Sendai distillery

[JohnM]

I'm having a Brewdog Paradox, a stout matured in Arran malt barrels. It's really excellent. Started with Schneider Weiss Tap 7, which was pretty nice too.

[varizoltan]

just find some bottles from my Japanese trip

started with

Nikka, DaTe blend 43%, do not look for thisone at any shop, unless you are in Japan at Sendai Miyagikyo distillery

Nr2;

Nikka, single cask, malt whisky, 12 years old, Fruity&Rich ,cask nr 40876, 58% also from the Sendai distillery

Nr 3;

Suntory, Hakushu single malt, no 991309,43%, it is again only at the distillery

Nr 4;

Suntory, Single grain, Chita, 43%

[bredman]

About to finish a Nadurra 16 0410J 54.4%. This has been another great Nad, i'm patiently waiting for the next Waitrose discount, where i shall stock up.



Just made a big mistake by pouring a Black Grouse after a Nadurra, i thought inebriation may help me progress down the bottle a bit. It didn't work - this is truly awful. Where's that other Nad...



Glenlivet Nadurra 16 1007D 57.7%. Saved the day.

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

Lately I have finished an Aldi specially selected single malt from Cooley ... Happy enough to see the back of this even though I initially thought it was ok. Tonight Carlingford has died ... Another Cooley but blend this this but a better drop even though on the light side. Now clearing a Laphroaig 10yo and much easier to knock back than the previous 2 ... Which is a statement in itself.

[bredman]

Redbreast 12. The added colour is becoming a real pain in the ass. I can taste a great spirit beneath the caramel, fighting for air.

[IainB]

Taking a leaf from IWC's book's I've been clearing nearly empty bottles. Over the last week or so it's been a fairly mixed bag of:

Oban 14
Greenore 8
Redbreast 15 (09)
Tyrconnell AN Cask
Compass Box Hedonism
Lockes Grand Crew (Cask 696)
Bushmills 10
Midleton 1973 25yr old (Cask 86584)

That's all I can remember.

[GH Adams]

Having a pour of Black Bush tonight. Finished the Jameson 18 last night.

[JohnM]

Redbreast 12. The added colour is becoming a real pain in the ass. I can taste a great spirit beneath the caramel, fighting for air.

I am pretty sure there is no colouring in the Redbreast, bredman. Irish Distillers say they do not colour it anyway. There are some pretty deep sherry casks in there to give it its colour.

[bredman]

Redbreast 12. The added colour is becoming a real pain in the ass. I can taste a great spirit beneath the caramel, fighting for air.

I am pretty sure there is no colouring in the Redbreast, bredman. Irish Distillers say they do not colour it anyway. There are some pretty deep sherry casks in there to give it its colour.

I'm surprised at that. Then it's simply not for me, i was very disappointed. Something is wrong with it as ( dare i say it ) i think i prefer the standard Jamesons. Maybe a low level sulphur - i shall investigate further.

[bredman]

Iam pretty sure there is no colouring in the Redbreast, bredman. Irish Distillers say they do not colour it anyway. There are some pretty deep sherry casks in there to give it its colour.

I'm surprised at that.

John, it's definitely "Mit Farbstoff" for the European market. And i can taste it. If i made a colouring free whisky i'd have it on the label.

[JohnM]

I have a German bottle of Laphroaig 10 and it also has that on the label, and I'm pretty sure that doesn't have colouring.

I don't know for sure, of course, that there's no colouring, but I asked them when I was at Midleton there and they said there wasn't. They said they don't add colouring to any of their age-statement whiskies. Of course, they might be mistaken, but that's what I was told. I asked them about the Redbreasts as Jim Murry implies they colour the 15 yr old in the Whisky Bible.

Also, they have not sulphured casks for 20+ years. They insist on it and have all the sherry casks shipped during the winter to stop spoiling.

[bredman]

They insist on it and have all the sherry casks shipped during the winter to stop spoiling.

That's good to hear John. I was just thinking out loud with the sulphur comment, for the record i haven't detected it at all in the Irish i've tried so far.

BTW, all OB Laphroaig are coloured, even the CS, afaik.

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

I too heard that they don't colour Redbreast. And it is something that I tend to believe. In the last year I've been very privileged to taste a good few cask samples from 10-15 years old and the one thing that I have been surprised with is the dept of colour in all of them. That includes the Bourbon casks which have been darker in colour than the Regular Jameson, Paddy and Powers which of course are coloured. So even allowing for 12yo plus age grain being added to the Jameson 12yo and the Redbreast being PPS I cannot see the need for colour. The shery and Port samples are always deep chestnut or ruby colours. However there is definitely Toffee and Caramel taste characteristics to the bourbon PPS and sometimes a cloying-ness from both the sherry and the port and could see why people find it hard to get past. It is possibly one of the reasons they dont release Sherry and Port single casks which to me is a shame. Definitely on the heavy side

[DavidH]

Can't comment directly on the Redbreast but at a tasting of Jameson 12, 18, Gold and RVR, the IDL production guy assured us that there was no caramel in any of them. Sounds like they don't do it if they don't need to.

[bredman]

I simply don't believe them. Of 45 Irish whiskies i checked for sale in Germany only three are not labelled "mit Farbstoff". It has been stated that to label whisky as mit Farbstoff when it has no caramel e150a in it, is against German labelling regulations ( which are very strict ), and that this is apparently never done. All Midleton produce ( the 28 bottlings that i found ) is mit Farbstoff except Midleton Very Rare '08. Why would they allow their other produce to be mis-labelled and not this one? Many Germans ( and any other Europeans with similar labelling laws ) would be put off for a start. Pernod Ricard are certainly more than happy to lace it's Scotch with the stuff. Something is amiss, i don't buy the excuse that the same back-label is used across bottlings, that is simply incompetent on the part of the distilleries. Someone is telling porkies ( fair enough it could be the labels ). I used to be a sherried-whisky drinker, and i never had that cloying effect i get from e150a, and that's what i'm getting with the R12 ( i don't get the same from std. Jamesons possibly as less is used ).

So be it that many don't care, but to call for a better product is commendable and necessary. E150a is controversial at best and is misleading to the consumer, in many ways. All the big producers in Scotland colour small and limited batches where consistency isn't a valid argument. That's Diageo and Pernod Ricard btw. It has been suggested that some distilleries at times add it before casking.

[bredman]

The other two are -

Tullamore Dew 10yo Malt.
Connemara Cask Strength.

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

All Midleton produce ( the 28 bottlings that i found ) is mit Farbstoff except Midleton Very Rare '08. Why would they allow their other produce to be mis-labelled and not this one?

Have you these in you possession or are you just looking them up on websites ... I find it hard to believe that one would not be and the rest are. ANd I would treat german websites that have all irish labeled with mit Farbstoff with a pinch of salt as it is the website and we don't know for sure if the bottle label contains such information. It could simply be a case that they presume it is mit Farbstoff. The reason I'm saying this is I've bought a few Cooley independent single casks from Germany and the label does not state this even though the site did.

It would be interesting if any body that has bottles from Germany to state whether the actual labels have "mit Farbstoff" or not and maybe we could get a proper picture.

Just had a quick look at Malts and More which seems to have the best mix of mit Farbstoff & ohne Farbstoff or colour added/ not added statements but they still do not add up.

Connemara cask Strength = ohne Farbstoff
Connemara Peated Pure Pot Still = mit Farbstoff (The bottle itself states Single MAlt Irish Whiskey and not Pure Pot Still and this has a very light yellow colour so I would not expect it to be coloured).


Crested Ten 70cl = ohne Farbstoff
Crested Ten 10cl = mit Farbstoff

Jameson 18yo = ohne Farbstoff (Yet in other sites that have the majority of their Irish listed as mit Farbstoff also have this as mit)
Jameson Gold = mit Farbstoff

Powers 12yo = ohne Farbstoff
Powers Regular = ohne Farbstoff (But we know it to be mit Farbstoff)

and it does have Redbreast 12 & 15 as ohne Farbstoff

It also has the Wild Geese as ohne Farbstoff which I would suspect is actually mit Farbstoff as they are very dark for cooley malts and malt blends.

However I agree with you that with in the big multinational drinks companies there is too little on this and I too would like to see the exact contents on the back of all bottles no matter where they are sold ... The issue is I sometimes feel people assume the majority of Products from IDL is coloured when in actual fact the word from the ground appears to be the opposite but IDL don't feel it necessary to say either way

[bredman]

I had the Germans down as being methodical on things like this.

We need Keith or Oliver to interject.