Single Malt Scotch Tasters of
Tasting Notes - 2011 Home
Balvenie 30
| Brief Comment: | An extraordinary, smooth, and complex masterpiece. |
| Score: | 96 |
Cardhu 12
| Color: | Copper and dark straw |
| Nose: | Floral, citrus with musty hints |
| Flavor: | Smooth and creamy with a hint of salt |
| Finish: | Short to medium - underwelming |
| Brief Comment: | Thin, polite and light |
| Score: | 76 |
Auchroisk 20 - Bottle 4056 of 5856
| Color: | Golden Bronze |
| Nose: | Cereal with notes of floral citrus and strong alcihol sweetness |
| Flavor: | Creamy, sweet with a hint of salt |
| Finish: | Exceedingly long with a salt sweetness |
| Brief Comment: | A conmplex and stong dram |
| Score: | 83 |
Aberlour 18
| Color: | Dark amber |
| Nose: | Creamy, floral and vanilla |
| Flavor: | Simple, sweet, spices and cream |
| Finish: | Medium to long, sweet and cream |
| Brief Comment: | Nice and pleasant, too polite |
| Score: | 84 |
Bladnoch 20
| Color: | Straw with hints of gold and brassy patina. |
| Nose: | Grass and hay with mint tones, some wood and sweet citrus. |
| Flavor: | Sweet (more so with water), cream, some citrus notes, funky pungent machine shop fluids, bitter earthy herbs, and touches of cinnamon. |
| Finish: | No consensus… short to long, but bitterish citrus notes seemed to pervaid with hints of salt. |
| Brief Comment: | For a Lowland, a surprising amount of character… quirky and punchy without much peat or smoke. |
| Score: | 83 |
Bunnahabhain 12
| Color: | Pale light straw, like an extremely diluted tea, with long legs. |
| Nose: | A nostril burning smoker with strong citrus notes. Vanilla is srong with this one with notes of pungent decaying fruit. |
| Flavor: | Earthen peat with spices. Sweet but aggressive herbs with some wooden qualities. |
| Finish: | Long, sweet, peat with some spice, maybe liquorice. |
| Brief Comment: | A powerful dram with rough character…. a “man’s Scotch”. Possibly needs a little more time in the cask. |
| Score: | 89 |
Benriach 16
| Color: | A melding of varieties of straw and hay, cheap beer, and weak tea. |
| Nose: | Lots of hay and vanilla, with some some floral and citrus notes. |
| Flavor: | Sweet, clean, hay and grass with a little oak and citrus. |
| Finish: | Medium length, bitter, acrid and tangy with hints of nut, malt, cream, peat and pepper. |
| Brief Comment: | A generally non-descript, characterless malt. |
| Score: | 76 |
Clynelish 27
| Color: | Light Amber with elements of gold and honey. |
| Nose: | Fumes with elements of spice, grass, honey and hints of fruit. |
| Flavor: | Sweet, salty and creamy, but has a hard peppery edge (creosote) without water. |
| Finish: | Medium long, sweet, with pungent spicy earthiness. |
| Brief Comment: | A generally “hot” dram, worth buying, but somehow not as spectacular as the group would expect a 27 yr. old to be. |
| Score: | 88 |
Balvenie 14 Golden Cask
| Color: | Straw with fractural impressions of light amber and golden honey. |
| Nose: | Citrus and other fruits, floral overtones, with complex sweet strains. |
| Flavor: | Strong spice and pepper elements with salt and citrus threads. Certainly some rum-ish qualities and some undefined citrus notes. |
| Finish: | Medium to long with mostly sweet fruity highlights, largely rising from the rum finish. |
| Brief Comment: | While not carrying the distinctive qualities of an exceptional malt, this expression still retains some strong identifying Balvenie characteristics. That said, it doesn’t warrant the kind of score that this group would normally assign to such a distinguished label. |
| Score: | 81 |
Highland Park 23 Park Ave Liquor single cask #443
| Color: | Amber, mahogany |
| Nose: | Sweet, sherry and with hints of grass |
| Flavor: | Complex and creamy with a touch of salt and pepper |
| Finish: | Very long and spicy |
| Brief Comment: | A great and complex whisky |
| Score: | 93 |