Stalla Dhu Taking Home 2 More Amazing Awards!

The 2022 Whiskies Awards was another successful competition for the Stalla Dhu range! Two high awards have been given to the Caol Ila 11 year and Truth Be Told 22. With Caol Ila taking World’s Best Single Cask Single Malt and Truth Be Told taking Best Scotch Blended Limited Release. That’s an amazing showing from a small family built independent bottler. It’s fantastic to see the awards keep rolling in!

Fortunately/unfortunately, after the announcement all of the remaining Caol Ila sold out within a couple days! There are still bottles of the Truth Be Told in stock.

Truth Be Told 22:

Some famous distilleries are fiercely protective of their whiskies and adapted a process called tea-spooning; as in adding a teaspoon of another malt.

This is so ‘Independent Bottlers’ cannot call it a Single Malt or use the Distillery name.

This exceptional cask in its previous incarnations was known as ‘Wardhead’ and clues to its identity lie within the label.

Taste: Soft sophisticated spice, toffee touches, lovely lingering long finish.

Year of the Tiger

It’s that time of year again. Johnnie Walker has released the bottling for this Lunar New Year, and it is Year of the Tiger! This year’s limited edition design has been brilliantly illustrated by the Chinese artist, Shan Jiang.

“The tiger is a symbol of great confidence and bravery, celebrating progress and prosperity.”

Blue Label is of course a blend of the company’s rarest whiskies that have been carefully put together to deliver that signature smoothness. Grab your limited edition here and add another one of JW’s beautifully designed bottlings to your shelf!

Black Tot 50th Anniversary

I am always a fan when a brand has a good story behind it, but also can back that up with with an equally good liquid! This Black Tot rum is one of those bottlings. Thought I would grab a bottle to try.

This bottle is to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Black Tot Day. Which was the day that the Royal Navy officially brought an end to the 239 year old tradition that was the daily rum ration. At the time it was seen as a “barbaric act by government” to take away sailor’s rum an end to a great tradition. Today Black Tot day is seen as a day for friend to get together to share their rum rations and stories. Seeing as the Royal Navy were some of the first rum blenders as they picked up casks from every different port from all over the world!

This 50th anniversary bottling was created in a very limited 5000 bottle run. It is a wonderful nod to the original Navy blends, marrying rums from the four cornerstones of the original blend. Trinidad, Jamaica, Guyana, and Barbados. Pulling from ancient stills and distilleries no longer in operation. A tasty tribute and balanced blend of rums. Because they believe in transparency with their rums. They published the full breakdown recipe.

Guyana:

28% – 12 YEAR OLD DEMERARA DISTILLERS SAVALLE COLUMN
27% – 9 YEAR OLD DEMERARA DISTILLERS SAVALLE COLUMN
6% – 10 YEAR OLD DEMERARA DISTILLERS PORT MOURANT WOODEN POT
0.5% – 42 YEAR OLD UITVLUGT PORT MOURANT WOODEN POT

Barbados:

15% – 11 YEAR OLD FOURSQUARE POT/COLUMN

Trinidad:

11% – 10 YEAR OLD DISTILLERS COLUMN
4% – 23 YEAR OLD CARONI COLUMN

Jamaica:

8% – 9 YEAR OLD HAMPDEN POT

World Blend:

0.5% – SOLERA ORIGINAL ROYAL NAVY BLEND POT/COLUMN

This is a really well balanced blend that just has an array of flavours that just coats your whole mouth! Any different way you prepare it you are going to open up different flavours. Whether it’s neat, with ice, with some water, or in a host of different cocktails, the possibilities are endless. Lots of dark chocolate, mint, liquorice, stewed apples, and vanilla are just some of the notes I come across. Wonderfully rich and making you want more!

Till next time,

Andrew

A Delicious High-End Blend

Most of the time when we decide to spend a good amount of money on a single bottle of whisky, a lot of people will go for a bottle of single malt. Not always, but quite a lot. Sometimes really nice quality blends can be overlooked. That’s why I thought this Friday was a good day to try one I haven’t yet had. Happily we had an open bottle of Collectivum XXVIII!

Collectivum XXVIII was part of Diageo’s Special Release series for 2017. That definitely caused a little unnecessary fuss from some closed minded people because they included a blend into the line-up for the first time. Once certain people could get over their fussiness, they realised it most definitely could hold it’s own amongst the rest of the single malt line-up.

This is kind of the blend to end all blends! This natural cask strength bottling is a blend of ALL 28 operational single malt distilleries that Diageo owns! Like the Avengers all these malts came together to form some super blend. The first one of it’s kind!

Those distilleries are: Auchroisk, Benrinnes, Blair Athol, Caol Ila, Cardhu, Clynelish, Cragganmore, Dailuaine, Dalwhinnie, Dufftown, Glendullan, Glen Elgin, Glenkinchie, Glenlossie, Glen Ord, Glen Spey, Inchgower, Knockando, Lagavulin, Linkwood, Mannochmore, Mortlach, Oban, Roseisle, Royal Lochnagar, Strathmill, Talisker and Teaninich.

At 57.3% this tasty treat has a wonderful kick to it! This is a very silky and balanced blend that shuffles through tastes as you sip, especially if add periodic drops of water. The slight acidity tantalises the tongue in a good way with wonderful lemon and citrus flavours. Nice notes of dark chocolate covered alomonds and an undertone of oak.

They did a good job of putting this blend together and I believe most people would be highly delighted with a bottle of this. It is definitely one of those special bottlings that do not come around often! If you don’t want to spend the money on a bottle, try and find a nice bar that has one…when it’s safe to do so!

If you want a bottle for yourself, we have some here.