Chris | Page 23 | NYC Whiskey Review

christopher.dias.nyc@gmail.com

The Glenlivet 12

July 7, 2022 Scotland

Name: The Glenlivet 12

Color: Copper

Nose: Malt, light oak, honey, caramel

Taste: Malt, lemon honey, flowers, light wood

Review:

The Glenlivet 12-Year-Old is a Speyside Scotch from Moray, Scotland and is one of the big “Glen’s” in the whiskey world. Founded in 1824, it is the oldest and continuously most operated distillery in Scotland and is currently owned by Pernod Ricard. The distillery produces approximately 19 different expressions with prices ranging from affordable to “Holy Shit, how much!?”.

The 12-Year-Old is the baseline expression and is a light and fresh tasting scotch. It is not complex or overbearing. The whisky is matured in double oak casks and bottled at 40% abv (80 proof) so it is an easy drinker at the proof level.

Light, fresh, and easy to drink is the best way to describe this Glenlivet 12. It is great summer scotch or a light scotch for someone with a lighter taste preference. I do not recommend drinking on ice as it waters down too fast and you lose the flavors in the water. If you use this as a mixer in cocktails, we need to have a “wee” chat.

Priced around $55 and good for the baseline and for a summer scotch by the pool.

If you like it, drink it! – Christopher

If you like it, drink it!

Coppersea Big Angus Green Malt

June 30, 2022 NYC

Name: Coppersea Big Angus Green Malt

Color: Copper brown

Nose: Malt, green grass, light wood, honey-wheat/hay

Taste: Cucumber, wood, lemon grass, green pepper

Big Angus Green Malt is produced by Coppersea Distilling, in New Platz, New York. Founded in 2011 and derives its name from an old saying that there was a “Sea of Copper stills along the Hudson River Valley in the 1800’s…” Today there is only a few distilleries in the Hudson Valley.

I sampled this this expression at the distillery and the unique taste caught my attention immediately. The barley, green flavors, hay, and lemongrass notes are something that I had not yet experienced. The taste of green and the mix of warm heat of the whiskey is unique and for good reason. The whiskey’s mash bill is 100% un-kilned sprouting green barley malt. The barley is floor malted, hand raked, and is not stored for future use. Upon sprouting it is mashed, fermented in a open top fermenter, distilled twice, and then bottled at 48% abv.

Big Angus Green Malt is named after the founding Master Distiller Angus MacDonald. The method is a very old way to making whiskey to avoid taxes. Back in the day, Scotsmen avoided the Crown’s Tax Man coming to collect their money by not drying the malt with burning peat smoke. They could skip a step, hide the whiskey making process, and still make a decent scotch. If this is hard to understand, just think about what Walter and Jesse had to do in season one of Breaking Bad with the RV.

Priced is $75 for a 375ml bottle and is a little expensive for the total volume but a lot of effort and love that went into the making of this whiskey. If you are wondering more about Big Angus, take ride up to New Platz for the day and try all the expressions!

If you like it, drink it! – Christopher

If you like it, drink it!

Jim Beam Devil’s Cut Bourbon

June 16, 2022 America

Name: Jim Beam Devil’s Cut Bourbon

Color: Light Brown

Nose: Corn, green grass, light wood

Taste: Corn, green grass, light wood

Jim Beam Devil’s Cut is a “creative expression” from the Jim Beam Distillery. The nose and taste are the same (never a good sign) and it is a little hot on the taste. The mash is 76% corn, 12% rye, 10% malt, and estimated to be aged 4+ years but is a NAS bourbon.

The marketing tells you that “The Devil’s Cut” is the proprietary method of extracting the bourbon trapped in the wood staves of the barrel. So I guess they squeeze the shit out of the wood and filter out the booze and blend it with the regular Jim Beam. The counterpart to the “Devil’s Cut” is the “Angels Share“. It is the expression for the evaporation through a barrel in colder climates. It is also the name of a good movie about scotch.

Devil’s Cut reminds me of Crown Royal vs. Crown Royal Black. The Crown Black is just a richer tasting expression whiskey compared to it’s baseline expression. Devil’s Cut tastes a little richer than regular Jim Beam Bourbon.

Priced around $50 and is ok. If you like to drink Jim Beam, try it for yourself, but I was not impressed at the price.

If you like it, drink it! – Christopher

If you like it, drink it!

Loch Lomond 12

June 15, 2022 Scotland

Name: Loch Lomond 12

Color: Light Brown

Nose: Malt, lemon citrus, light oak, vanilla, flowers

Taste: Malt, wood, citrus/lemon, honey finish

Loch Lomond 12-year-old is a sourced whiskey that some puts a label on to make it seem like it is a distillery. I am skipping the usual history lesson on the expression and just getting to the point.

It is a recommendation from Disco Stu for taste and price and I think he got this one right on the nose! It is a decent tasting and has a nice balance for the price. It reminds me a of a cross between Johnnie Walker and Bruichladdich. It has a medium body taste with some fruit and sweetness on it.

Aged 12 years and bottled at 46% abv and has a madeira sherry finish. Overall, a nice taste and well valued. Give it a try. Works well as a summer scotch on the rocks or a warm Fall weather drink served neat.

Priced around $40-50 and worth the money for the taste profile.

If you like it, drink it! – Christopher

If you like it, drink it!

The Balvenie Single Barrel Sherry Cask 15-Year-Old

June 9, 2022 Scotland

Name: The Balvenie Single Barrel Sherry Cask 15-Year-Old

Color: Yellow

Nose: Malt, flowers, lemon, wood

Taste: Malt, lemon, sherry sweet, almonds, oak

The Balvenie Distillery is a Speyside scotch from Dufftown, Scotland. It was founded in 1886 by William Grant & Sons and I have not had a bad experience with any Balvenie, but, you have to pay for the pleasure of Balvenie’s company in your glass. The Core Expressions are the ones you would regularly see on the shelf are DoubleWood 12, Caribbean Cask 14, DoubleWood 17, and PortWood 21. Other expressions or “ranges” are numerous and include Stories, Connoisseur, Rare & Precious, Travel Retail, Limited, and Vintage. There are too many to list in this review and prices range from $60 to $50,000.

This Balvenie Single Barrel Sherry Cask 15-Year-Old Scotch comes from Cask #15636 and is bottle #690 of 800 bottles that originate per barrel and is bottled at 47.8% abv. The bottles are hand labeled and no two casks are the same, but I bet they all taste similar at the end of the day.

This scotch is very clean tasting with good, sweeter sherry notes, but not that candy sweet taste that a lot of scotches have been releasing over the last few years. The oak taste is not to over powerful, and the overall balance is soft with nice flavor notes. The color of the scotch looks natural, but I could not confirm if it is or not. I wonder if they made this for the less experience scotch drinker who likes a sweeter dram, but, I doubt that at the cost.

Priced around $150+ and worth the money, but if you are not experience with The Balvenie start with the DoubleWood 12 to save a few dollars. A big thanks to Barry for letting me sample this one!

If you like it, drink it! – Christopher

If you like it, drink it!

Eagle Rare Bourbon

June 2, 2022 America

Name: Eagle Rare Bourbon

Color: Light Brown

Nose: Corn/malt, oak, green grass

Taste: Sweet corn, honey, vanilla, oak, brown sugar

Eagle Rare is a straight bourbon, aged approximately 10 years, bottled at 45% abv, and is an undisclosed Buffalo Trace mash bill #1 expression (possible low rye mash). It had a decent taste and is a little spicy on the tongue. When ice is added, it dilutes too quickly, and the flavor rapidly disappears. Add a few drops of water and the flavors opens up and holds a little better. Eagle Rare also won a bunch of awards. Congratulations, I hope the metal was very shinny and the ribbon was soft and silky.

It is decent bourbon, but it was not really fooling me to be amazing at the price versus Buffalo Trace’s baseline price of $35+. Recently on the JRE Podcast a guest asked Joe Rogan why he did not have any Eagle Rare in his studio since he is sponsored by Buffalo Trace. I give that guy credit, he did his homework.

Priced around $45 and it’s fine to drink, but it is not fooling me to be anything too special.

If you like it, drink it! – Christopher

If you like it, drink it!

Crown Royal Apple

May 26, 2022 Canada

Name: Crown Royal Apple

Color: Brown

Nose: Chemical apple, no crown royal notes

Taste: Chemical sweet apple, touch of crown

Holy fucking shit, this stuff awful! From the moment I opened the little nip bottle I could only smell chemicals and candy apples. I did not want to taste this stuff, but I did. This shit is just as bad, if not worse, than Jim Beam Apple. (My first opening statement draft was less strong.)

Crown Royal Apple is a liqueur, not a liquor so do not expect much for whiskey taste. If you are not familiar, a liqueur is a distilled spirit but is usually much sweeter than a liquor. They are usually lower in proof. Basically, they are an additive to a cocktail.

Crown Royal Apple may go well with a specialized mixed drink, but I would rather drink water. You are basically drinking chemicals with this stuff. It also appears to be popular with the college students on Instagram. I can’t fault them for bad taste, I used to keep Goldschlager in my dorm room in the 1990’s.

Priced around $35 and tastes like shit.

If you like it, drink it! – Christopher

If you like it, drink it!

Buffalo Trace Bourbon

May 11, 2022 America

Name: Buffalo Trace Bourbon

Color: Copper

Nose: Corn, vanilla, caramel, dark fruit

Taste: Corn, vanilla, oak, molasses, spice

Buffalo Trace Bourbon comes from the Buffalo Trace Distillery which is located in Frankfort, Kentucky. This bourbon has been around for a long time and is owned by the Sazerac Company.

Buffalo Trace is a large distillery and produces many different expressions and products. They also supply smaller start up distilleries that can not fund the cost of operating a full distillery. Other popular expressions that produced: Colonel H. Taylor, Eagle Rare, George T. Stagg, Old Taylor, Sazerac, W.L. Weller, and many more. If you are not familiar with some of these bourbons I recommend you try them. I visit Kentucky every October and these bottles are on every bar and most stores and they are well known.

One interesting item of note is that Joe Rogan on his podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience Podcast” has cracked open a bottle of Buffalo Trace more frequently than any other whiskey since I have started listening to his show. I believe they are a primary sponsor.

Buffalo Trace Bourbon is decent stuff and tastes good for the price but ultimately it is the baseline whiskey for other produced expressions. I find it better for cocktails or slugging it down with friends in the Bluegrass State.

Priced around $40 and worth it to have it on your bar at home for a mixer or to give as a gift.

If you like it, drink it! – Christopher

If you like it, drink it!

Excelsior Straight Rye

May 5, 2022 NYC

Name: Excelsior Straight Rye

Color: Light Brown

Nose: Orange jam, rye spice, honey, wood

Taste: Rye spice, orange jam, light oak

Review:

Excelsior Straight Rye is produced by Coppersea Distilling, located in New Platz, New York and was founded in 2011. The name of the distillery comes from an old saying that there was a “Sea of Copper stills along the Hudson River Valley in the 1800’s…” The title of this rye whiskey originates from the New York State motto “Excelsior”, in Latin translates to “Ever Upward”.

Coppersea follows Empire Rye Whiskey Association standards which it is also a founding member. They source their products locally, or within a limited distance to the distillery. The grain, water, yeast, wood, copper, etc. are all as local as can be reasonably achieved. The facility is small and the production is limited per year but quality if the focus. If you want to learn more, watch the videos on their website. They are short, well made and very informative.

Excelsior Straight Rye has a mash bill of 80% rye, 20% malted barley, and is bottled at 48% abv. The flavor profile is rye spice with sweet orange jam/marmalade finish.The sweet finish is a little too much for my taste on a rye, but overall is very good and blends nicely. This bottle was a gift from the distillery and I was invited up in April 2021 for a private tasting of all the available expressions. I was pleasantly surprised at what I saw and tasted, and that does not happen to very often.

Reviews on the other expressions such as the Bonticou Crag Straight Rye Malt & Bottled In-Bond Rye Malt, Excelsior Bottled In-Bond Rye Straight Bourbon, Big Angus Green Malt, Pedro Ximénez Cask Single Barrel Rye, Amontillado Cask Single Barrel Rye, and Sauternes Cask Single Barrel Rye will be coming soon. These each having varying flavor profiles and there were a couple I thought were excellent.

Priced is $50 and is a good price for the flavor profile. I recommend you take ride up to New Platz for the day and try all the expressions and buy a bottle that you enjoy.

If you like it, drink it! – Christopher

If you like it, drink it!

The Famous Grouse Smoky Black

April 28, 2022 Scotland

Name: The Famous Grouse Smoky Black

Color: Dark Gold

Nose: Smoke, iodine, floral, honey

Taste: Soft, light smoke, heather, honey, light wood

The Famous Grouse label is a well-known and popular Scotch Whisky that you see in all the bars in Scotland and most liquor stores in America. Founded by Matthew Gloag and his son William Gloag they created The Famous Grouse in 1896 and have become a cornerstone of the scotch whisky industry in Scotland.

The distiller produces other expressions such as; Famous Grouse, Alpha Edition, Mellow Gold, Snow, 16-Year-Old Vic Lee, and a few other expressions. The Famous Grouse was also the official whiskey of the 2014 Commonwealth Games, and I will be reviewing a special edition of Grouse 1986 at the end of year.

Following on my previous sampling of the regular Famous Grouse I opted to buy the Smoky Black. I was pleasantly surprised it is very nice stuff for the price. It is smoky (hence the name) and a bit heavier than the Famous Grouse but easy to drink. This one will be my go-to gift instead of Johnnie Walker Black if it is available in the store.

Price around $35 and very affordably Scottish. It is fine for a slugging whisky and I find it easier to drink then Johnnie Walker Black for the price.

If you like it, drink it!

christopher.dias.nyc@gmail.com

The Glenlivet 12

Coppersea Big Angus Green Malt

Jim Beam Devil’s Cut Bourbon

Loch Lomond 12

The Balvenie Single Barrel Sherry Cask 15-Year-Old

Eagle Rare Bourbon

Crown Royal Apple

Buffalo Trace Bourbon

Excelsior Straight Rye

The Famous Grouse Smoky Black

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