Discover Whisky

I would generally avoid a blended whisky at all costs, too many Christmas and New Years where I’ve been offered a whisky of generally suspect vintage which has been lying at the back of a cupboard for longer than the owner cares to remember and I have to sit and try not to gag like a child being given a plate of vegetables, and that most likely says more about me than it does about the whisky.

I got this whisky in a little miniature bottle from the guys up at Duncan Taylor and Co when I signed up to their mailing list. Which I thought was really nice of them and as soon as I’ve finished typing this up I’ll email them my thanks. Sorry for the digression and I’ll get back to the tasting before everyone loses the head with me.The Black Bull 12 year is a 50/50 mix between  malt and grain whisky and bottled at 50% ABV. And it has the colour of what most people think of as a whisky colour - a strong umbery orange colour which has the romance of whisky with a vestige of the past and what we all saw our grand parents drinking in the seventies - it looks like a lovely retro whisky, if there is such a thing!

On the first smell the alcohol dominates but makes way quickly to a Toblerone overtones (chocolate and vanilla rich whisky scents always make me think of Toblerone  - again seventies Christmases I guess). Its big on smell, and the scent lingers longer in the nose than I would normally expect which is hugely pleasant.Initial tastes of honey with a slight fruity note - reminds me of elderflower wine but as I’ve not had elderflower wine in over twelve years I could be off the mark, and the whisky coats the tongue in the way that a bourbon does with a thickness and strength I hadn’t expected. The thickness of the whisky and the creaminess continues into the finish which had a hint of tamarind or something equally oriental.

With a little water the whisky nose developed a slight smokey character the water seemed to destroy the flavour but really heightened the vanillans and weakend the finish. All in all one of the best blended whiskies I’ve had in a long time. Worth a little punt this Christmas if you have people coming round - likely to appeal to staunch whisky snobs and seasonal drinkers in the same still.

This is the perfect Hogmany family whisky - not enough to offend anyone and not enough to reach the heights of a great malt. In essence a perfect social whisky - and its the memories that whisky creates in many of us which is why we love one whisky over another although at 50% the memories may be slightly fuzzy.

If you fancy a bottle for this Hogmany have a look at the Black Bull stockists on their website or Google product search.

As part of our whisky news articles I thought that I would put up some quick links to things that we’ve found interesting over the last week or so.

The Drammies

Spencerfield Spirits have been nominated in this years drammie awards - so congratulations to Alex & co. They’ve been nominated in the underrated whisky category.

On the downside I have been reading some news that Diageo tried to over influence the drammies this year. This is disappointing. It would appear that they over-zealously voted for themselves - it was the fact that the email addresses they used were from Diageo’s web address that may have given them away.

It’s also good to see Dr Whisky in as nomination for a blog too, so well done to them too.

Changes to the Website

In the recent months we’ve been working on developing a news facility for the website The news system is going well, cheers to all who helped, we should have this public in the next few months and everyone can go on and bookmark their favourite whisky news stories/blogs/etc. at this point. Just need to get the design right and we’re good to go.

We’ve also started changing the header image more and more - we’re now booked up for the next couple of months. There is no charge to have your image up at the top of this blog so if you have an image of your favourite whisky we’re happy to listen to any suggestions just use our contact form and we’ll see what we can do.

Up and coming news

Bill and I will be taking Discover Whisky on the road in March - otherwise known as Bill and Mike go to a carefully selected public house to sample some whisky. We’re planning on going to Edinburgh so if anyone has any suggestions of where to go or fancies coming along let us know in the comments below.

That’s all for this week - Bill has an Islay whisky review on Thursday so we’ll see you all then.

Slainte

Welcome to my new blog - Discover Whisky. I’m new to this whole blogging thing so please bear with me over the coming weeks, months and years. I hope to write a couple of times a week to give you my thoughts and ideas on Whisky.

Please note when I talk about whisky I means whisky not whiskey, thats Irish and I really only drink malt Scottish Whisky, though sometimes blends are great aswell.

If you have any thoughts I’d be delighted to hear from you in the comments section etc.

Ok thats all from now and I hope you enjoy your time with Discover Whisky.