thank you hello you multi-minion massive alternators and thank you to John bridson for
that malt mention welcome to the bothy welcome to uh quality Spirits review well it's usually
we're skiing it's whiskey this time uh welcome to Ralphie review 960. right good that's us off
to a start and we will continue with pouring some single malt scotch whiskey from a bottle I
have reviewed not that long ago in fact I last reviewed this particular single malt in Ralph
Theory you've reviewed yeah that was the one 858 back in January 2021 but this is January 2023 so
it's about two years ago but how time flies seems like yesterday and I thoroughly enjoyed it in my
previous review and even the review before that because this is a whiskey that I come back to
quite often because it's really good value it's really good quality and furthermore if you're not
far into your whiskey Journey it's very easy to get your palette around it's adding 10 year old
bottled at 46 and until filtered and it states it loud and clear on the label where it really really
matters you've also got some Braille on the label which is quite unusual for a
whiskey bottle label and for those who are partially sighted it lets you know by touch
what it is so you don't mix it up with any other bottle of whiskey
now I've reviewed this back in August 2020 in Ralphie review 839
so that's two previous reviews in the last three years all right which is unusual I don't normally
go back to Whiskey so frequently but I am in this case for a very simple reason and that is
that Aaron 10 year old single malt whiskey won the Accolade of the best the winner by
popular vote of the best entry-level single malt scotch whiskey 2022 in the online Scotch whiskey
Awards that's oswa dot Co dot UK and you'll find a link down in the description box below
and it's because it's won in one in the category of best value single malt that I'm reviewing it
because For the First Time um with the OS was of which I am involved as a co-host
um what I'm doing is actually going through the winners and reviewing them for you
um now they've been voted on by anybody who wants to vote so the global
a concertium of whiskey enthusiasts and it's part of a nominated list by onlineers and other
people who are affiliated to onlineers who have a lot of experience around whiskey and who have
a lot of conversation around whiskey so the actual nominations list is really very good
as a point of reference should you be looking to narrow down what whiskeys to buy that are
good quality now the nominations for the best value single malt where for 2022 burner having
12 glencadam 10 year old kilkaran 12 year old lecheck 10 year old and Loch Lomond 12 year old
so my brief passing opinion before I start to review this on the other nominations
um is that Bona have been 12 is an excellent whiskey as long as you get a good version so
if you've got a disappointing batch inform the shop Who Sold you it
um because unfortunately with Burner happened
there is a legacy there which really seriously needs to be addressed um of batch variations
I have to say my experience recently in this this is that there's more consistency
however it doesn't bode well for any distiller to have a good run of batches of the single
malt whiskey and then put out a bad one and hope that nobody will notice the fact is distillers
I'm talking to you now uh people do notice more than ever before and people talk about it more
than ever before and it's hurting yourselves okay Glenn caddam an absolute modern classic uh very
good value along with the Buna Hub and 12 year old particularly in the UK and in Europe uh good value
excellent experience for the money you pay as is kilkaran 12 year old if you can find it because
like Springbank it's becoming more and more hard to get uh lecheek 10 we're now in the pitted Zone
here lecheck 10 is a brilliant single malt whiskey it's been my previous whiskey of the year and then
finally a Loch Lomond 12 which is one frankly I don't really know much about because I don't tend
to buy a lot of Home lot of local moments but I am aware that is a major overhaul happening
at that Distillery and they're definitely up and upping the caliber of their presentation but let's
go back to Aaron 12 year old 10 year old [Music] [Laughter] that was a blooper it's 10 year old
Integrity presented single malt whiskey completely unpeated it's a light whiskey fresh fruity flavors
some nice butterscotch and cereal notes coming from the malted barley and it's very consistent
I have never yet heard of anybody claiming that they had a bad batch of iron 10 year old
if you've heard different let me know but it's certainly not my experience on the nose
white fruit slight peachiness banana notes and pineapple notes
um soft Apple notes and a little bit of pear Creamy Honey vanilla
although Aaron is an island whiskey coming from the Isle of van
style of it is very much the lowland style so it sort of ties in with the geographical area which
is part of the lawlands region designation so you find it's quite a lowland style of whiskey light
very accessible and with some lovely complexity at a relatively young age
first taste
great accessible friendly
sweet and sour arrival honeycomb soft toffee butterscotch definitely
some vanilla and lime juice so you get this kind of citrus a slight complex Citrus snot
going on I'm gonna either drop a water to this because there's no doubt about
about it you could easily drink this neat and never add a drop of water
but even a few drops and you don't have to add much it's really going to open it up it's going
to expand the experience for you and when you do that you actually introduce a whole new level
of complexity particularly as you're sipping that whiskey slowly over the next hour or two
because you'll notice as part of the Journey of smell and taste that the
whiskey will slightly change direction and the flavors will adjust over a period of
time and you have that happen in Isle of van so long as you don't over dilute it
we nice gentle rolly-poly slowly no shaky shakies here in the mothy
the nose is becoming softer sweeter
a little bit more confectionary but nicely balanced it's not excessively sweet it's
not sucrose sweet it's a fructose sweet and very pleasantly so it never becomes cloying
foreign
sparkling almost effervescent sweet and sour and a touch of apple fritters lemon juice
pineapple juice definitely in fact pineapple Essence the sort of pineapple that you would
get in old-fashioned British confectionary like a certain hard Suite called the juggernel pears
or pear drops so you get that note about it the development is fairly robust it's not particularly
complex and the Finish is relatively light but hey we're talking about a 10 year old single malt
the whole delivery has been Amplified and given more Dynamic by the bottling strength
and the fact that it is until filtered and as far as I'm concerned that color suggests
no E150 has been added and certainly you don't notice the signs of E150 and that damp tea
bag note in the Finish which is so objectionable here you have a clean crisp delightful refreshing
and very easily accessed single malt so that whether you're years and years down the line
of your journey or whether you're only just maybe a year in you're going to be well rewarded at both
you know no matter what your level of experience because it's just a wonderfully accessible single
malt and also wonderfully affordable particularly for the strength one more taste before my mark
excuse me
don't want to rush this
it can't be a hugely High Mark because it's not a particularly complex whiskey
but as far as I'm concerned this is a very worthy winner
and some pretty tight competition if you were to you're just starting a whiskey journey and you've
had your Glenfiddich and you've had your Glenn Glenn Leavitt for example this is an excellent
whiskey to move on to for the very simple reason it's naturally Integrity presented so you're just
going to get more of an experience and not only that you'll really notice it and you won't be
confused by it as you would have say for example it'd been immortal like or even a Spring Bank
foreign
there's a lovely once it settles down
in the development you get a lovely sort of slate icing sugar
slate cologne note um which is the signature really of an 10 year old
lovely lovely whiskey what am I going to give it I've always been giving at high marks that
I don't want to kind of overdo it so a great whiskey
86 out of 100 is that respectable mark I think so
mark and the Market's given because
it isn't a fabulously complex whiskey but it's honest transparent and it delivers integrity and
that's highly commendable and when you come back to my next review uh review 960 extras I shall be
talking about how we learn our own palette and what length of time it takes to understand and
have confidence in our own experience rather rather than relying on what others tell us or
suggest to us that we should be experiencing in a single month so I hope you'll join me for that in
the meantime if you haven't subscribed hey it's January it's a new year I'm starting an exciting
nine week review and series on the winners of the online Scotch whiskey Awards which I'm going to
review them all or if there's not a specific whiskey I will review a good representation
of the winner see the independent bottler or um whatever and um so join me for that and if you
subscribe you'll get a notification hopefully uh leave a comment click like and if you join
me again shortly I will be presenting to you from the bothy Rafi review 960 extras we'll
see you soon this is the clivia clicker it means one thing it means I'm about to stop recording
if it works sometimes it doesn't but I think it probably will we'll see you soon