Originally released for the Taiwanese market, this is Macallan Aera, a NAS single malt matured in predominantly in sherry-seasoned oak casks. After its maturation, it was bottled up at 40% ABV in this rather striking black bottle. Which reminds me of a really special night in Nairobi I had back in the 90’s, with something black and sleek that really tickled the back of my throat.

On the nose:

Rounded and well balanced with vanilla notes, candied dried fruits, orange peel and sweet citrus. Oh the memories of Kenya…

On the palate

Hint of chocolate and oh, was that night in Nairobi full of chocolate. Dried fruit richness, smooth as honey (yes, she was too) with a sweet citrus burst.

On The Finish

Medium to long, with lingering vanilla and a gentle warmth.

Macallan Aera in Summary

Ridiculously over priced if you buy this in the west. It’s not even that cheap in TW. Sure, if this whisky was a wench, I’d shag it. But at this price, the dinner date would be McDonald’s first. I can think of better things to spend this kind of money on. If you’re ever in Nairobi, I can recommend a few phone numbers.

Your Opinion

It’s a free world, and everyone is entitled to their opinions. Especially something as subjective as whisky. If you have any thoughts or opinions on this whisky, then please feel free to leave them below in the comments.

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You can read more about Glenfarclas HERE.

On the nose:

The nose opens with soft sherry aromas, lots of spicy oak, dried fruits, raisins and plums, delicate wood notes and furniture polish. When warmed, the whisky is very aromatic. When the glass wall is moistened with the whisky, it becomes a bit sharp and tart following with slightly citrus fruits and herbs. There is honey that eventually becomes fruity.

96 out 100

On the palate:

A huge amount of oak, swiftly followed by sherry and an abundance of sweetness. Fruit with honey, herbs, a little mint on the sides of the tongue and refreshingly spicy. Later on it becomes creamy with caramel and very light chocolate. Fig notes come at the end as well as raisins. Very round and balanced.

95 out of 100

On the finish:

Caramel, sweet dried fruits that include plums, raisins, light sherry and light oak notes. A long finish, at the end a little bit tart transitioning to light chocolate notes.

93 out of 100

Glenfarclas 40 in Summary

It’s soft, gentle, well rounded with superbly balanced flavours. Very tasty. An excellent malt. Wonderfully complex. I absolutely loved it. I don’t remember the cost of the bottle (it was part of a bottle share with a group of friends) but I remember it being ridiculously cheaper than even 25 year old malts from other distilleries. Amazing value.

Your Opinion

It’s a free world, and everyone is entitled to their opinions. Especially something as subjective as whisky. If you have any thoughts or opinions on this whisky, then please feel free to leave them below in the comments. Alternatively, skip over to our forums to tell us what you think there.

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Something of a cult amongst Ardbeg fans, this is a phenomenal whisky packing powerful peat and a favourite of many whisky lovers around the world. Produced on the Kildalton Coast of Islay, this single malt matures for a decade before being bottled without any chill-filtration. If you’re after a whisky with full of coastal air, smoke and more, this is exactly what you want.

Vital Stats

46% ABV, aged 10 years, 700ml bottle.

Appearance

Nice bright golden straw colour.

On the nose:

Peat smoke right off the pour. Opens up to reveal more peat, more smoke then add in some menthol. A hint of white grapes with more bold notes of peanuts, brine, grass clippings clogging a mower after cutting a wet lawn that had grown a little too long, a bit of sweat, and butter.

On the palate

The palate still showcases the collision of lightness and smoke that Ardbeg is trying to achieve. Light mouthfeel. Delicate on the tongue with powerful flavours. Salt takes the lead ahead of the full force of the smoke, which follows in very short order. Salted whipped honey, dried mango and papaya, fresh chopped parsley on buttered pasta, a bit of Thai sweet chili.

On The Finish

Long and glorious; sea salted caramel and beach bonfire smoke. The finish is ushered in by the smoke, which takes center stage after the swallow. Lingering notes of salt and vanilla cream with persistent smokiness.

Ardbeg 10 in Summary

Precise balance, big smoke and non-chill filtered. This is why this is such a famous dram

Your Opinion

It’s a free world, and everyone is entitled to their opinions. Especially something as subjective as whisky. If you have any thoughts or opinions on this whisky, then please feel free to leave them below in the comments. Alternatively, skip over to our forums to tell us what you think there.

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The oldest in the range of the core offerings, Glendronach has the Glendronach 21 Parliament.

On the nose:

An intensive amount of sherry with a balance of spice and sweetness. Fruity with plums. Intensive oak dissipating into some chocolate and brown sugar.

On the palate

Spices and an abundance of sherry and dark fruits – plums and raisins. Syrupy in texture with a really meaningful viscosity that suggests both age and quality.

On The Finish

Mocha and aniseed lingers on a long finish.

Glendronach 21 in Summary

Full and intense, very wonderful whisky. The aromas and tastes are well integrated. The sherry is very present, but not obtrusive. very round and soft.

Your Opinion

It’s a free world, and everyone is entitled to their opinions. Especially something as subjective as whisky. If you have any thoughts or opinions on this whisky, then please feel free to leave them below in the comments. Alternatively, skip over to our forums to tell us what you think there.

The post Glendronach 21 appeared first on Whisky Galaxy.

The Macallan 25 is an aged Scotch whisky that is often associated with luxury and prestige However, despite its high price tag, some whisky enthusiasts have criticised this expression for being overrated and overpriced.

One of the main criticisms of the Macallan 25 is that it is overly sweet, with an overwhelming sherry influence that dominates the palate and masks any subtleties in the whisky. Some have also noted that the whisky lacks complexity and depth, with a one-dimensional flavour profile that doesn’t evolve over time.

Additionally some have noted that the Macallan 25 may not be worth its high price tag, as there are other whiskies on the market that offer better value for money. While the Macallan is a respected distillery with a long history of producing high-quality whiskies, some whisky enthusiasts feel that the Macallan 25 falls short of expectations.

Overall, while the Macallan 25 may be a sought-after whisky among collectors and enthusiasts, it may not be the best choice for those who are looking for a complex and nuanced whisky that offers a good value for money.

Tasting Note by The Producer

Nose: Citrus, balanced with cinnamon, sherry, and wood smoke.

Palate: Full and rich, with dried fruits and a hint of wood smoke.

Finish: Long, with dried fruit, wood smoke, and spice.

Tasting Note By Whisky Baby

Nose:  Yes, there’s something “tart” there, but referring to it as citrus balanced with cinnamon, sherry and wood smoke is stretching it.  It’s an over powering mashup of something that could have been sherry with a chewed pencil.

Palate.  It’s thick (as opposed to full and rich) and kinda tastes like a chomp on a mouldy plum that was left forgotten about at the back of your refrigerator, buried under some over aged green onions and coriander.

Finish.  Long.  With the same manky plumbs and a bit of cabbage.

Summary on Macallan 25

For the price this goes out for (I believe it’s circa 1500 quid a bottle) I’m absolutely mind blown.  I personally don’t get it.  The way that people chase this down, like yapping Jack Russel dogs desperate for attention, is beyond my comprehension of humans.

When you break down what actually goes into making this, a cheap wooden box doesn’t cover the robbery going on here.  For the same money, I could have a 2 week holiday to somewhere warm and sunny, and a case of some pretty decent, age statement sherry cask whisky, from at least 6 other distilleries.

If you’ve got more money than sense, and your winky is too small to wave around, then sure, you need this bottle.  99.9% of whisky lovers obviously don’t.

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But, with rumours flying that I review whisky as a side gig, I finally got bored of all the Whatsapp messages asking me what my review on Proper 12 was.  So, I fasted for a day to save up enough money (I wasn’t even sure how much is a bottle of Proper 12!)  to justify buying this as “the days calorific intake” as I had no expectations of it being any more enjoyment than that – just boring, tasteless calories.  The slimy tofu of whiskey.

Clearly this was (much like the fighter himself) going to be a lot of noise and very little delivered.  Perhaps it’s the fact I find Mr McG an annoying little twerp that created at least some of the bias I had towards trying this whisky.  I find him a lot like those annoying little nippy dogs.  Great things to keep your granny company, but apart from that, the mostly just need a good boot.  The noise of them yelping at a good, hard, toe poke is a lot more appealing to me than having one as a pet.  Let’s hope he doesn’t have the misfortune to come down the streets that I loiter in.  He’d need a lot more than a suitcase trolley and a dozen man, arse kissing entourage to make him look impressive.

But enough of my bitching.  Let’s get onto the whiskey and try to be open minded about it.  I actually tried it three times.  I went all professional.  I did it neat.  I did it with water.  Then I did it with cola, as no doubt the mugs buying this would drink it.

Neat, it was somewhere between a watered down Jamesons and a bottle of Johnnie Walker Red – if Johnnie Walker Red suddenly got anorexia and shrivelled down to a chopstick thin bottle of bottom shelf.  With water (as a 50:50 whiskey to water) it tasted like someone had put three pinches of some hipster breakfast muesli in a litre of vodka.  With cola.  Well it tasted pretty much like any vodka coke would taste.  Sweet, syrupy and a tiny little oomph from the alcohol content.

Industry Hypocrisy About Proper 12

Mr McG isn’t the first “celebrity” to brand a bottle of booze.  He also won’t be the last.  But what grates me is that someone claiming to be Irish, with all that national pride about all things Ireland and of course Irish Whiskey, would put out such junk.  At least all of the other celebrity brands (at least the ones I’ve tried) across all categories, have at least tried to offer something that has some sense of decency.

Where it creates even more cringe, is the amount of bullshit merchants in the trade press, have got behind this and blown trumpets of success and quality.  Reading the reviews of this on whisky retail sites, makes me want to go over there and slap them with a large fish, around the head, no less than thrice.  Sure, they are just whoring it out because they will make a couple of quid on every bottle sold – but so they could make the same by being honest and saying “it’s crap – buy a bottle of Jameson instead”.

As for the industry pro’s – pro’s they all are.  They have prostituted themselves to get behind this, rather than just tell the truth.  Shame on all of you.

Summary

If you’ve run out of vodka, and the local off license only has Proper 12, then maybe it will do.  But if you’re looking for Irish whiskey, you’ve come to the wrong place.

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So here’s the story and a fine example of how the marketing fluffies at LVMH envelope their cultist Ardbeg Committee members in their smoke and mirrors.

In April 2012 Ardbeg sent some of its new-make spirit up into space to make Ardbeg the first inter-stellar whisky, so it came as little surprise that in September 2012, at the British Space Centre, this bottle, Ardbeg Galileo was throw to the masses, where it was mopped up like spew off the carpet of a third tier town nightclub floor, at kicking out time.

The Mashup

Apparently this is standard Ardbeg new make spirit, distilled in 1999, bottled in 2012, stated as being matured in ex-bourbon casks and Sicilian Marsala casks.  We’re not sure who came up with that idea, but with Marsala being a ridiculously sweet wine primarily used for cooking, we trust that idiot has since been fired and is now working in a takeaway selling chips with curry sauce.

The Review

It’s just vile.

It’s not even worth tasting notes.  It’s an insult to my palate to attempt to nose and savour this for the sake of pulling together words that aren’t profanities.

I’m personally a huge fan of Ardbeg, as a standard 10 year old bottling.  Sure, it’s not a session whisky.  It’s the last drink at the end of the night, that has the perfect balance of really disgusting characteristics that somehow have an addictive appeal.  Kinda like a masochistic fetish.  You know it hurst to get a really hard spank, but there’s a little bit of pleasure in there.

But this.  Adding in rotten fruit and dog vomit is taking it all a bit too far.

I’m all for mooching free whisky when the brands put on a bit of a show and want to get some free column inches, but if I turned up and this was the free whisky of the night, I’d walk out and go to the nearest dive bar and buy my own whisky.

Bin it.

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