foreign
Mediterranean marvelous Mega moves and thank you to Lavon who hanishin for that more mention
welcome to the bothy you're more mates I'm Ralphie this is talking whiskey and this is
Ralphie review 956 extras X for extras means I'm not specifically reviewing a whiskey um talking
about stuff to do with whiskey so that when you've bought bottles of whiskey and you need someone to
give you the benefit of their experience because being drinking whiskey for over 30 years regularly
then here we go um my subject today is graduating in whiskey appreciation in other words
getting to know whiskey is like reading a book you need to start at the first chapter
because if you start to see the fifth seventh or ninth chapter in a book you
it's confusing because the scene has not been set the characters have not had time to be introduced
you you you're not aware of the plot you're only aware of plot developments
is confusing it's a waste of reading a good book and drinking and sipping and smelling
single malt whiskeys and other quality Spirits it's like reading a book a very very good book
we get a lot more out of it if we really take a time and just mull over every word subtlety
and notes in each chapter so chapter one of your journey I mean it's up to you if you want to start
out your whiskey experience with our beg and Bull Moore and some big heavy heavy flavored whiskeys
more like another good example even independent bottles you're going to have some pretty bizarre
experiences because your sense of smell and taste simply hasn't had time to develop
it hasn't had time to let things bed in settle down and time for the mind to interpret it all
in all its infinite infinite subtleties nuances and tiny little details some of many of which not
some many of which are practically subliminal the conscious mind isn't really aware of it and the
amount of times that you'll find that you pour a glass of whiskey and you find yourself saying
there's something about that and I don't know what and I can't place that flavor I can't place that
experience and then you start to describe whiskey not in terms of flavors but in terms of places
and people and steam engines and old churches and summer days in the middle of a wheat field
this is not for no reason the sense of smell and the sense of taste are chemo receptors
and our entire brain interprets the information coming through these two receptors whereas the
visual cortex is much more specific it's much more disciplined than what it it
interprets which is why it's so easy to get an optical illusion puzzle and be confused by it
there you go because eyesight doesn't have the same instinctive response that you have
with smell and taste this is one of the most important reasons for making sure that you eat
food with real depth of flavor fresh made food it is the most valuable medicine in your life
first whiskey chapter one just reviewed it Glenfiddich 12 year old the most standard the most
simplified the most ubiquitous single malt experience when you start out when you get
your Billings with that and you say well I want to move on to something else you don't have to
finish the bottle first moments just put the cork on it it's going to last fine for what 10 years
so long as you store it in a cooler temperature away from sunlight you'll be fine this is chapter
one this sets the scene this gives you a nice soft kind introduction to your whiskey chapter two
you're going to go for another basic official bottling widely available it's a good price
but there's a lot more Dynamics going on it and here it is I've reviewed this recently
a knock from knock to Distillery it's the 12 year old bottled at 40 chill filtered there's
a little bit of caramel Cullen added they haven't added too much but hey for the price
you're getting a decent whiskey despite the fact that it's sanitized it's castrated
with chill filtration they both are but that gives you ease of access
so it's a good place to start I criticize chill filtration I criticize the addition
of caramel colorant in good quality single malts at higher prices because I suspect they're just
at the purpose there is to actually sanitize the brand and dumb it down the experience with these
the simple straightforward sheep relatively cheaply priced available single malts
it's going to actually help people getting started to have that sort of presentation
see the more alcohol the more flavor and with more flavor and an experience the more
confusion there you go so where to next well you're going to explore some of the
stronger flavored whiskeys because these two are very different they're both space-site although
some will call this highland but bear in mind many space side whiskeys describe themselves
as Highland to deliberately confuse people yeah seriously just just for the record so
you'll get something just to try it out here's a good choice laphroyd law more expensive but
you're getting a higher strength whiskey at 48 percent sure it's been chill filtered let's get
some caramel colon added because that's what Laphroaig do to all their official bottlings
it's it's sacrilege it really is this is why this is why independent modelers can get higher premium
for the same whiskey because of the caliber of presentation but when big companies own important
distilleries you inevitably get dumbed down product and quote me in that feel free to quote
ralphian that because that's just what I said it's in their nature but here we go it's competent
Sherry matured slightly older mixture of younger and older whiskey
it's decent and it's certainly different very different from that and it's hugely different
from the Glenfiddich So within these three bottles you've got covered in quite a range of the flavor
profiles that are available in Scotch whiskey so what do you move on to next well you have an
experiment with independent bottlings and what you do is you check out reviews not just my reviews or
reviews you go to Whiskey base you go to a Google search just put in the name of the whiskey and put
reviews after it just see what people have to pay it's not going to tip what people have to
see it's not going to take you long more mates and it's going to save you a lot of distress in
buying a bad bottling of whiskey so you'll buy an independent bottling of here's some of risk
that's been matured it's a single Cask it's been matured in um Tony Port Cask I believe isn't it
I have reviewed this yeah Tony porth said and here's one of your first experiences of higher
strength until filtered no caramel added no burnt sugar and Scotch marks in your whiskey
this is where whiskey should be and once you've had this this and this your palate is ready for
this it's not going to be such a shock it's going to be more of a treat so let's Bunch
these up a little bit because we'll still get a few bottles to bring up onto the the barrel if you
were to just go for these bottles of something similar you're not going to be disappointed
um and then you you're getting into whiskey you've bought a few of these basic bottles
then you've got a few independent bottles now you want to buy something older but you don't
want to pay too much money for it at a moment in time where there's some outrageous price hiking
allegedly due to demand and you get a bottle of something like this an official bottling sure it's
been chill filtered it but it's been bottled at 48 it's an unusual bottling of capronic
foreign bottling I generally don't buy pernotic card official botlings because the quality in my
opinion is pretty mediocre it's as if they go out their way not to use their best casks they just
use whatever casks available um but that's part of the culture that you're getting purnary card
that I've noticed over the years um it's it's a particular culture very distinctive actually
um and every now and again it gives me the chills but this is unusual capadonic
um it's it's a bit of a modern classic actually from this Distillery there's many versions
available through independent bottles over the years but this is a peated version and this is
a space side whiskey behaving more like an island due to the provenance of the casks
um the and the circumstances for bottling and also it's a piece of History you know
the bottles available for keeper dog are just getting older and older and vastly
more expensive this is the youngest one officially it's the most affordable one
although it's expensive but you're tasting a genuine piece of History
and you'll never have that opportunity again with this particular single malt brand
and finally you're really splashing out now you're either going to buy this at a retailer
if you can find it or probably at auction now you this is where you're reaching the upper limits
of your budget and what you want is you know how great our big used to be and what you want
is a blast of what our beg could be and should be but unfortunately it's such a disappointing
situation with recent bottlings which are just failing to maintain the reputation but this is
our big tree trayvan 19 year old official modeling single malt and it was a available
when it first came out at a reasonable price it's going to be a definitely a lot more auction but
it's seriously good for what it is you see you've you've done you've read through the chapters of
your book and you're getting not towards the end of the book but you're getting immersed
in the plot in the story and the scenery and the characters and they manifest themselves in smell
and taste over time and you need to give your pilot time so when you arrive at this bottling
you're ready for it and because you've done your apprenticeship
and you're on a tight budget you will actually get far more satisfaction
than someone who's just Rich anyway they want a bling bottle in some sort of semi-public
private membership bar they put the bottle down in the middle of the table they put out all their
glasses and they've only been drinking whiskey for a few months or even a couple of years and
the re they can oh they can because of the inexperience they can only resort to generalized
brand cliches in when it comes to descriptors they can never have a proper conversation because
simply you cannot buy your palette you've got to work on it you've got to earn your pilot
it's the journey it's the chapters in the book and I hope this helps you particularly if you're
just starting in whiskey I'm just giving you the knowledge here the experience to help you on your
way because what will happen is that you're going to learn a lot faster and a lot quicker than I
ever could just a time where world-class Spirits quality Spirits are exploding in a way which has
never been seen before historically these are the most interesting of times markmates and I
wish you luck reading your book and making your journey I'm Rafi this is Ralphie review
956 extras and I am going to put the kettle on now and make a cup of tea and perhaps
with the fire on and in the silence of a gentle Winter's Night I may pour a few of these in a
wee roll and slowly carefully methodically and sensibly sip my way through them knowing
that it is one of the best ways that you can possibly find of having fun on your own bye-bye
clivey clivey I need Miss clicker sorted this isn't good enough I'm going to see him tonight
actually I don't want to actually reaching over and switching this camera off manually
and I'm not editing it out no bloopers of course there's bloopers
you know look what I've got in front look at the stack here I mean it's not as if I'm under any
serious pressure here I'm resourced I'm ready for the coming storm and I hope you are too