Isawa 10 year old: 'Tasting is believing!'

I won a pack of Japanese whiskies the other month and included was a 5cl of this Isawa, a ten year old Japanese Malt. I'd never heard of it before and google didn't turn up much either. As far as I can tell Monde Shuzo, the distiller, is primarily a wine maker who dabbled in whisky for a while. Only their blended malt is available in the UK, with the 10 year old available on Whiskybase for about £35 for 50cl.

Have I stumbled across a hidden gem of a Japanese whisky? Alas no..

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Nose:- Right from the beginning this is unlike anything I can remember tasting.

Intense sawdust notes compete for your attention with something that smells an awful lot like paint remover.

Slightly acrid and strawy this smells a bit like a rabbit hutch. A rabbit hutch that hasn't been cleaned for a long time. Some ammonia.. bleugh.

Lurking behind this is some vanilla, grain, some leather and quite an amount of star anise.

Taste:- It really follows on form the unusual nose with the grassy, sawdusty character asserting itself , but with blast of sweetness and a hint of woody smoke.

Finish:- It doesn't remain sweet for long. It fades swiftly and says farewell by leaving an overwhelming  imprint of sour star anise.
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I must admit this is the first dram in a long, long time that I haven't managed to finish. Rabbit hutch, paint stripper.. no thank you.

This seems to be a relatively rare whisky, the distillery appears to be finished and at 10 years of age it's not like they didn't try.. but this is pretty vile stuff. I'll take soem NAS Balcones any day thanks.

I've about 30ml of this left.. if anyone wants it when I'm back in Britain they're more than welcome.

Lighthouse Series: Old Pulteney Duncansby Head

Duncansby Head, courtesy of foxypar4

Following on from the Old Pulteney Noss Head we've got the second in the travel retail series, but this time moving up a few pounds and introducing some sherry casks.

Duncansby Head (RRP £45)

Once more the dram is 46%, un-chillfiltered and with no added colouring. Slightly more colour than the Noss Head and that probably means a sherry influence. I'm told the 

Nose:- Right away there is that sherry effect. Mixed fruits, raspberries, a kind of salty fizz, caramel and a waft of honey

Nose quickly settles down and softens with creamy vanilla and citrus notes

Taste:- Oaky spice, some fruits I can't quite pick out, but a drop of water really helps them come out.
Honey, sweet vanilla and increasingly bitter as the whisky goes down.

Finish:- That bitterness holds throughout and recedes nicely to leave a warm sweetness on the palate.

A very pleasant dram, personally I prefer the sweet simplicity of the Noss Head. I'm not sure if this whisky feels as whole, but looking forward to moving onto to the full on sherry Pentland Skerries next where we should see the full effect of the sherry on the whisky.

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Thanks again to Alembic Comms who organised the tweet tasting. Find what others thought of the Lighthouse series by looking up #OldPulteney on twitter

Lighthouse Series: Old Pulteney Noss Head

Noss Head, Credit: HJSP82

The Old Pulteney Lighthouse Series is a new set of travel retail only whisky bottlings from Old Pulteney and to start with it's worth giving them credit for the price points; £40, £45, and £55 for 1L bottles. Obviously there's cheaper whisky out there, but it's a nice change to see a reasonably priced travel retail set not aimed at those with corporate accounts and second homes. Still it needs to taste good, so let's get to it!

Noss Head (RRP £40)

46%, un-chillfiltered and with no added colouring, it's a lovely straw colour in the bottle and overall quite a light coloured whisky. You can tell this isn't going to be a sherried dram right away, but that's no bad thing

Nose:- Light citrus, sherbet and buttercream. (I love butter cream).

There's a fair breeze coming from the window that's making it hard to discern more. On the whole it's a very pleasant nose, not overly complex, but not a boring - malt, vanilla, vanilla - nose you get with some basic whisky.

As time progresses I can smell a lovely, yet light, fruitiness.

Taste:- Fizzy lemons, vanilla, faintest hint of orange.. orange bitters?

Finish:- Very much like the nose & initial taste.

A slightly spicy finish quickly recedes to leave a nice lingering sweetness. 

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On the whole this is a very nice, gentle and sweet dram. While it comes with no age statement the whisky is not overly harsh to drink. I would definitely consider picking up a bottle of this, £40 for a 1 litre bottle works out at ~£28 for a 70cl which would be a good price for this.

My non-whisky drinking partner actually quite enjoyed nosing and sipping a tiny drop of this whisky, which says something!

Thanks to Alembic Comms for the samples as part of the 14/8 Old Pulteney lighthouse series twitter tasting!

Cadenhead's Whisky Shop, Edinburgh.

Cadenhead's is an independent bottler that have a few bottle shops across Scotland, one of which is located down the lower end of the Royal Mile before you get to the Scottish Parliament and Holyrood Palace and a whisky lovers dream. (172 Canongate  Royal Mile, Edinburgh EH8 8BN)

I first came across their store on a particularly rotten day, the jobcentre had sent me on a two hour trip from home to Leith for a job interview that it turned out I wasn't even eligible for! I decided to try and make something of the day so. I went to the cinema (nothing on), went to Princes St gardens (too dreich) and finally wound up wandering down the Royal Mile with the intention of going to the Parliament to see a whisky exhibition.

Luckily I popped into Cadenheads's on the way down!

  Cluttered can be good. (Erin Jane)

As you can see from the pictures the store looks interesting to say the least.

Alongside a wide range of standard and single cask 70cl bottlings (an idea of their selection is at the end of this post) they have a great variety of 20cl bottles. Being rather skint this was fabulous as you can buy something unique for a fraction of the price of a full bottle.

I was honest and told the staff that I didn;t had enough money for a full bottle, but they were still very generous and happily allowed me to try a fair few of their expressions.

In the end I went for a fabulous 12 year old cask strength Springbank that had some delicious walnut notes at a wallop-in-the-face 55% strength.

Like other independent bottlers they rarely have some whisky (Lagavulin, Ardbeg etc) but that's the nature of the whisky business these days. Record high demand coupled with distilleries increasingly releasing their own single cask or special editions doesn't leave much for the independents.

Edinburgh set-up (Erin Jane)

It's become quite cool for whisky shops to keep their own casks, hell even 'The Whisky Shop' does it

Cadenhead's generally have five on their own blended malts on the go at once, broadly aligned with the Scottish whisky regions.

I was impressed by the honesty of the staff who gave a fairly objective opinion of the current tastiness of each batch.



Cadenhead's is a curious whisky lovers dream. If you're in Edinburgh make sure you head down to the less well travelled end of the Royal Mile to pay them a visit. Friendly, quiet with a wide range of accessibly priced bottles that you won't find anywhere else. It's a real shame they don't have a better online presence or store, I think they'd do pretty well if they had one.

Last, but not least.. a snapshot of their whisky board!

Thanks to Bananeman

How not to run a members section: Come on Duncan Taylor!

I don't know much about Duncan Taylor bar the fact they're an independent whisky bottler based in Scotland. 

Having heard one or two good things about their website I eventually drifted to their website and joined the Duncan Taylor members section of the website.. woohoo! Members sites generally vary from the flashy and image heavy (Glemorangie) to the more functional with good discounts (Laphroaig). 

Congrats to Duncan Taylor though, they done something unique: you sign up, log in and are greeted with nothing, well that's not true, there's the tantalising notion of some 'Special Deals'!

One day?

Jura Turas Mara

Nose:- Initially I picked up an unusual musky note, stick your nose right in and amidst the alcohol there's something reminiscent of chocolate ginger biscuits.

The muskiness quickly gave way to a smooth caramel undertone that is punctuate with hints of vanilla and sweetness not unlike that of a bakewell tart!

I think tobacco leaf is hiding in there too, perhaps that's the musky element?

Taste:- Sweet & creamy with the caramel from the noise making a reappearance.

Finish:- Vanilla and a pleasantly slight, but lingering and slightly salty bitterness.


A light and sweet whisky and all in all not a bad whisky for £40 a litre! Got to admit I prefer this to the standard entry level Juras such as Superstition and Origin.

Remember it's only available in airport shops at the moment, but if it's successful then Jura might do a Laphroaig and promote it to the standard range, but who knows?

Thanks to Steve at the @thewhiskywire who organised the tweet tasting that included this lovely whisky.

Laphroaig 10 year old...or maybe not the best place to start.

Image courtesy of [puamelia]

Last Christmas my girlfriend's mother was kind enough to give us a bottle of Laphroaig 10 year old after our trip to the Scotch Whisky Experience in Edinburgh Not that it turned out to be much of an experience as we were running out of time and had to get moving! (Nice shop though.)

Now I've a bit of an admission to make.. I started by putting this wonderful single malt scotch whisky in hot chocolate with marshmallows.. 

As someone to whom spirits meant 'Glens' Vodka (a particularly vile brand of Scottish Vodka) I was not at all accustomed to drinking anything anywhere near 40% alcohol.

So without further wait here are my initial tasting notes:

No nose/palate/finish or sip/smell/swallow.

Phwoarr... Christ. What do I do with this stuff?!

You might laugh or be mortally offended at the idea of using good whisky in hot chocolate, but that's beside the point. Half a bottle later I was tentatively taking my first sips of the Laphroaig straight, ok with a wee dash of water. I don't feel like I wasted half the bottle, if I hadn't of used it that way it would have just have got given away!

Alas my initial bottle is long gone and I've not managed to buy another.

Still from a recent trip for a bar I managed to put together some slightly more errm.. useful tasting notes!

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Smell - Smoulding wood and peat fire with a wee hint of salt

Taste - Sweet oaky smoky! 

Finish - Spicy, sweet and ashy. 

It might sound odd, but it's a real experience. Most people love it or hate it and even then most hate it.. Still if you find you enjoy these flavours you'll really be hooked!

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Other people talk of TCP and medicinal smells, but I'm too young to know TCP.. so any negative connotations escape me and I can just enjoy the great whisky :)