Dram 5 - Score: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5 - I'd be over the moon if given a bottle of this, and would probably drink it fairly quickly. A lovely finish to the lineup, I'll give this a solid 4, my favourite of the night #BlindDrams

Dram 5 - The finish: medium, sweet and licorice-y #BlindDrams

Dram 5 - On the palate: fruity, sweet and savoury; lemon zest, licorice, pork fillet with lemon juice. Delicious! Is this a PX-finished Caol Ila? #BlindDrams

Dram 5 - On the palate: fruity, sweet and savoury; lemon zest, licorice, pork fillet with lemon juice Is this a PX-finished Caol Ila? #BlindDrams

Dram 5 - On the nose: peaty and fruity; elastoplast, lemon zest, lemon pancakes, fresh oysters #BlindDrams

Dram 5 - Appearance: deep yellow; fields of sunflowers #BlindDrams

Dram 4 - Score: ⭐⭐⭐ 3/5 - Damn drinkable and if within my price range, I'd happily buy (or have bought) one of these and enjoy it. A solid 3 here, it's tasty and multi-layered #BlindDrams

Dram 4 - The finish: Water adds Battenburg cake to the nose and Madeira cake to the palate. Finish is medium; licorice, ground coriander and turmeric #BlindDrams

Dram 4 - On the palate: Dark, rich and bitter; dark chocolate jaffa cakes, burnt marmalade, starfruit, turmeric #BlindDrams

Dram 4 - On the nose: fruity, rich and savoury; balsamic strawberries, ripe conference pears, agave syrup, pork and apple sausages, flying saucer sweets (rice paper & sherbet) #BlindDrams

Dram 4 - Appearance: Dark orange; E150A #BlindDrams

Dram 3 - Score: ⭐⭐ 2/5 - At a decent price I'd buy a glass of this, but wouldn't invest in a whole bottle. #BlindDrams

Dram 3 - The finish: F3: water adds Irn Bru to the nose and fizzy cola bottles to the palate S3: A solid 2 #BlindDrams

Dram 3 - On the palate: P3: spiced, metallic and bitter; Christmas spices (nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves), clove balls, cardboard #BlindDrams

Dram 3 - On the nose: N3: sweet, rich and meaty; apricot skins, foam shrimps, marinated pork #BlindDrams

Dram 3 - Appearance: E3: another dark orange dram, sunset over Mar-a-Lago #BlindDrams

Dram 2 - Score: ⭐⭐⭐ 3/5 - Damn drinkable and if within my price range, I'd happily buy (or have bought) one of these and enjoy it. Water adds ripe pears to the nose, and milk chocolate to the palate. I'll score this one another 3, it's complex, tasty and I could nose/sip this for hours #BlindDrams

Dram 2 - The finish: F2: long, finish going through multiple phase changes; sweet, bitter, drying, herbal, sweet again, etc. #BlindDrams

Dram 2 - On the palate: P2: rich, fizzy and dark; red bull cola, licorice allsorts, dandelion and burdock #BlindDrams

Dram 2 - On the nose: N2: fragrant, fruity and sharp; foam bananas, red wine vinegar, rich fruitcake, burnt meats. Another PX finish? #BlindDrams

Dram 2 - Appearance: E2: Dark orange, narcissist's fake tan #BlindDrams

Dram 1 - Score: ⭐⭐⭐ 3/5 - Damn drinkable and if within my price range, I'd happily buy (or have bought) one of these and enjoy it. S1: Thick, tasty and delicious. A solid 3, almost 4, to kick off with. #BlindDrams

Dram 1 - The finish: F1: long, rich, sweet, nutty and slightly bitter #BlindDrams

Dram 1 - On the palate: P1: syrupy, rich, ripe and fruity; the over-ripe bananas from the nose are joined by pencil shavings, licorice root, roast gammon, Frangelico, raisin pancakes. Some water adds dark chocolate cherries to the palate and foam bananas to the nose #BlindDrams

Dram 1 - On the nose: N1: fragrant, ester-y, salty and fruity; rripe bananas, PX sherry, Parma ham #BlindDrams

Dram 1 - Appearance: First dram in #BTC65 with @newdramrising.bsky.social E: dark orange, criminal presidential fake tan #BlindDrams

90 minutes to go until #BlindDrams 65th outing kicks off with this 5-dram selection from @newdramrising.bsky.social and a theme of "Grape Expectations". Going by the dram colour, perhaps it's an E150a-enhanced PX-themed tasting, an anagram of "Orange Epic, PX taste"?

Today's the day, the Blind Tasting Consortium's 65th outing with @newdramrising.bsky.social choosing 5 #BlindDrams for his theme #GrapeExpectations. Tonight from 8pm live on BlueSky!

Many thanks to @whiskypatrick.bsky.social for the great selection of drams & to @maltmusings.bsky.social for the invite & organisation, hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did #BlindDrams

What a great tasting, and some really big scores going around. Thank you @whiskypatrick.bsky.social for an excellent selection and, as always, thank you @maltmusings.bsky.social 🥃 #BlindDrams

Huge thanks to @whiskypatrick.bsky.social for choosing some great Islay drams for us this evening. Superb fun #BlindDrams Just struggling to believe that the Laphroaig was what it was!

Thank you to @whiskypatrick.bsky.social for some brilliant drams - really enjoyed them all! #BlindDrams

Great selection of drams from @whiskypatrick.bsky.social for tonight's #BlindDrams

Splendid work from Patrick on #BlindDrams

Thanks again for letting me sit in! This was a great one. See you all again soon. Thanks @maltmusings.bsky.social #BlindDrams

Second that Paul, I’ve only been on a few of these tastings with you all, but that was the best one I’ve been on. Cheers Patrick for picking the whiskies and cheers Brian for having me along again. #blinddrams

Huge thanks to @whiskypatrick.bsky.social for an interesting set of drams and, as always, @maltmusings.bsky.social without whom these wouldn’t be possible #BlindDrams

Thank you Patrick. A really enjoyable set of drams. My highest scores so far in a #BlindDrams. 👏👏👏

Amazing tasting thanks to @whiskypatrick.bsky.social. For someone who usually backs away from peated whisky (unless finished in a PX cask) I enjoyed every dram tonight. I am converted. Thank you! #BlindDrams

Fantastic selection of drams and I have learnt the distilleries I scored the lowest are what I usually consider some of my favourites. Tasting #BlindDrams does level the playing field. Now just need to win the lottery to buy some of that Octamore 😂

What a night! #BlindDrams

#BlindDrams went all in for Islay, with a fantastic selection by @whiskypatrick.bsky.social - The Octomore 16.3 was knockout 🥊 ✍🏻 My notes 🧵

The scores are in from last night's Blind Tasting Consortium's 64th tasting! 5 great #BlindDrams picked by @whiskypatrick.bsky.social which goes in at #6 in our all time tasting chart. Here's my thoughts: malt-musings.blogspot.com/2026/05/btc6...

Our next #BlindDrams selection is being picked by @newdramrising.bsky.social for his theme Grape Expectations in 5 weeks time!

homedistiller.org/wiki/index.p... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural... #BlindDrams #BTC64

thewhiskeywash.com/scotch-whisk... www.drinkhacker.com/2017/10/08/p... #BlindDrams #BTC64

And finally, for the curious peat-heads out there, here's some links for further reading: scotchwhisky.com/magazine/ask... whiskipedia.com/fundamentals... #BlindDrams #BTC64

Thanks for joining in, and don't forget to submit your score summaries to Brian in the WhatsApp group. Feel free to join the video call to tell me what you really thought! #BlindDrams #BTC64

All my selected drams were distillery bottlings (but not the ubiquitous ones), with the last two being 100% Islay barley, just to keep everything as Islay-centric as possible. I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did. #BlindDrams #BTC64

Dram 5 is Octomore 16.3, 61.6% ABV, 189.5 ppm Single-estate Concerto barley grown on Octomore Farm (Islay, obvs.), matured for 5 years in a combination of bourbon, Sauternes, and Pedro Ximénez casks Bought from Master of Malt for £195.25 (still available) #BlindDrams #BTC64