A Fantastic trip to Spirit of Speyside earlier this week. Lots of festival releases available including quite a few with some serious age, even a 50 year old at Speyburn!

We tried something a bit different this weekend. Really great flavours and not too sweet!

This Royal Brackla from LBD Spirits was fantastic. The distillery character really shone through.

Dram 5 Score 2/5 #BlindDrams

Dram 5 - the palate is reminiscent of a bit of cotton with some TCP on it! Coal dust, smoked basa in butter, oily, burnt cereal not toast though. Fades to smoked cereal, hint of lime and a very gentle hint of coal tar. #BlindDrams

Dram 5 - nose is not giving a lot away, sweet cereal slight astringency, ozone and seashore on a stormy day. #BlindDrams

Dram 4 Score 3/5 - could have been more if a bit more. Lots of smokey bacon now. #BlindDrams

Dram 4 - the palate echoes the nose, that medicinal peat, ointment almost germoline, ash, brine, old cooked kippers bit of old sock too I think! 😃 Palate fades very slowly with all of the above jostling for supremacy with the funky kippers winning. #BlindDrams

Dram 4 - nose is vegetal peat, citrus erring towards lemony, very slight poached kippers, leading to a hint of medicinal funk. A lot going on with this one. #BlindDrams

I'm now getting a bit of cigar leaf on dram 3. Very interesting. #BlindDrams

Dram 3 Score - 3/5 lovely stuff #BlindDrams

Dram 3 - palate is sweet, definitely a sherry influence, dark fruits, amontillado?, Brazil nuts, hit of oak spice running down to a fresh sawn plank! A very slight sweet shop nite at the end. #BlindDrams

Dram 3 - nose is caramel, baking spices, wee hit of cinnamon, dark fruits and hint of a sweet sherry note. Reminds me of drinking an old highland dram sitting outside in the snow! #BlindDrams

Dram 2 Score 1/5 I could drink it but not out of choice. #BlindDrams

Dram 2 - wow strange palate, thin lemon & herb jus, something almost ashy, lemon or lime vinaigrette. Reminds me of that lemon oil stuff for cleaning a guitar fretboard. #BlindDrams

Dot 2 - nose is a wee bit closed but citrus, a big herbal note, a wee bit of vegetal funk, Roses lime marmalade! #BlindDrams

Dram 1 Score - a solid 3/5 #BlindDrams

#BlindDrams Dot 1 - palate is big tropical and orchard fruits, slight McGowan's toffee hit, wee bit of gentle wood spice fading to peach, hint of that tropical juice you used to get years ago! Lingering spicy apple.

No 1 - gentle nose, sweetish, fruit gums, slight salinity. #BlindDrams

A wonderful visit to @lindoresabbey.bsky.social today. Some amazing history and fantastic drams. Thanks for your hospitality.

A wee trip to sunny Speyside today. There are a lot of interesting special releases available such as the Chinquapin and Mizunara from GlenAllachie. Glen Moray have this and it is amazing!

A fantastic tour and tasting with Dornoch Distillery yesterday. Great to hear more about the development of Struie as well.

A wee blast from the past tonight. The first HP I ever tasted. Still a fantastic drop.

For the last few years I've not been tasting a lot from Highland Park. It is however capable of making some really beautiful whisky as this single cask tasted recently at Dornoch Castle shows. A stunning example of what's possible.

One of the things I love about Christmas is a decent sherry. This from Gonzalez Byass is beautifully rich but not too sweet.

Kicking the evening off with a classic Old Fashioned. Simple but really tasty!

Tonight's first dram was this cracker from Edradour. A fairly full on flavour profile and expressive, I'd suggest it's a real bargain in the current market.

I had my first proper wine tasting recently. It struck me how much more descriptive we are when describing whisky flavours in comparison.

A couple of pictures from this year's Dornoch Whisky Festival. Some awesome drams tasted with @socialdrammer.bsky.social

We're thrilled to announce our last @TweetTasting of the year over on Twitter / X, and an absolute belter it is too, with our good friends at @GlenMorayDist Register now to be part of an epic full-on-flavour driven evening of dramfotainment: buff.ly/3SF8fDJ #GlenMoray #Scotch #Whisky

What a fantastic tasting last night. The distillery manager led us through a line up of older and now hard to find vintage bottlings including a very special dram for the road. Brought back wonderful memories of past visits to the distillery with my father, and friends. 🥃

A clear out of the understairs cupboard revealed this lurking in the depths! Decent but will hopefully improve with time.

Wow, isn't it lovely over here. My first post is a newly arrived Bunnahabhain 12 cask strength. 2021 version was ok, 2022 a cracker so high hopes for this 2023 release. Thanks to @socialdrammer.bsky.social for getting me over here