hello you multi meritorious loving musicians and thank you to no mo moitra or moaitra for
the mob mention i'm ralphie hearing the bothy all about whiskey reviews here and thank you to noel
for that malt mention which starts each little review session and this is ralphie review 934
so there we are we've we've dealt with the formalities now into the whiskey now recently
for those who are regular malt mates and following my videos in sequential order i've just completed
uh a four week review of four separate reviews on 18 year old single malt whiskies because
the prices of older whiskies are going up i rarely buy 20 21 25 year old whiskies now because
my opinions quite simply that for the money they're just not worth the experience
um and the reason is that such a premium is being asked for aged whiskies and under the assumption
that age is automatically better and more valuable and more precious but this isn't the case
that it's really worth looking around for younger more affordable whiskies whether at auction
whether in retailers or whether in private sales from a reliable sellers now
please note my emphasis on the word reliable because there's more and more scammers out there
all over the world because it's becoming part of the globalized pattern where
people are looking to sell whiskey privately and they're offering asking a reasonable price
and it turns out the whiskey is faked usually the bottle has been consumed it's refilled resealed
to look reasonably convincing and then just sold on there are bad people out there malt mate so
please don't let your guard down if in doubt don't buy get yourself a body like this where you've got
a drawbridge and a big cold water moat around the outside of your whiskey cave and make sure
that you do not get invaded by fake friends and whiskey aficionados who are putting on all the
ears and graces whilst they exploit you for their own profit it's that happens so let's refocus
now on the bottle of whiskey i'm reviewing at the moment and in years to come it will appear auction
and there may be a few bottles sold privately and if it's a reliable seller i reckon it'll be well
worth your consideration this is timorous beasty there's a range of timorous beasty bottlings
the bottle by douglas lang independent whiskey bottler the entire range are blended malts
they're very well blended malts and they're generally given
a form of integrity presentation at times not the full 46 plus but certainly over 40 percent
so to formally introduce this bottle because the label is quite fussy you're seeing a wee picture
of a mouse and it's called the timorous bestie now this is named after a poem by scotland's
national bard called robbie burns in which he to give you a little brief quote from the poem
oh we slick it curtained timorous beasty oh whittappanics and ibristy head the need in
the game away say hasty we're bickering rattle i would believe to gang and chase thee or murderous
prattle so it's done in um historical lowland dialect right and the guy during his lifetime was
treated appallingly and as happens but his talent survived um he wasn't properly recognized and
endorsed as scotland's uh greatest poet he should have been but he was the wrong class this is
to see to understand british culture you really got to understand that and this actually permeates
into to whiskey you see because single malt whiskies are the top class of whiskey and
then further down you've got the boutique blended malts then the general blended malts and then the
novelty blended malts and then at the bottom of the pile you've got standard blended scotch which
is about 70 percent grain whiskey 30 percent malt those are the cheapest whiskeys usually bottled
40 loaded with burnt sugar caramel coloring and heavily chilled filtered now that's fine for cheap
blended whiskey which isn't so cheap i know these days by the way but single malts unfortunately
which are the top of the pecking order there are some of them that are just not delivering what
they should be for the price that's being asked and as experienced whiskey drinkers
building on our experience all the time we need to identify this to avoid the disappointment
to avoid buying a really well-known brand like for example ardbeg 10 year old okay yeah i can
see a few of you all nodding already you it has been a topic for discussion amongst my patreon
subscribers and our big 10 year old it's not as good as previous bottlings totally agree
it's not as good as it could be totally agree there's definitely something falling to bits
around our bag at the moment yeah um i think there is i think the reason is that while the
going's good they're putting out uh inferior casks versions from the warehouse knowing they will sell
because there is a major global economic recession about to hit and when it does in
order to sell the whiskey they're going to have to have better quality stocks in the warehouse
and be bottling better quality in order to get the sales how do i know this simple malt mates
because it's happened before it happened in the 19 late 1970s 1980s i remember it well
this is 13 year old limited edition to 3 000 bottles by the way highland blended malt scotch
whiskey now to let you understand all the whiskies that have gone into this malt blend also known as
a blended malt not to be confused with a blended scotch which is why i call it a malt blend
to avoid that confusion in older bottlings you can see it as a vatted malt or a pure mall
which occasionally is a single malt
hey who said you could learn about scotch whiskey quickly right whoever told you that
is kidding you on that's a lot to learn this is the uh tiburus beastie meet the beast edition
right there's a 10 year old edition 12 year old edition they're not so good in my opinion to be
honest i wouldn't buy them but there's the 18 and the 20 year old which are increasingly looking
very affordable you see because they're not single malts they're blended mulch monster malt blends
this is a mock blend and on the back of it on the back label
i'm going to quote you a little bit um just over 3000 bottles as ever the douglas slang
family proudly offers this whiskey to you with no artificial coloring please note
there's another experienced established whiskey bottler calling e150 artificial which is what it
is fine for the blends but not for the malts um or chill filtration just as we believe
it should be and also adds down at the bottom please enjoy responsibly suitable for vegans now
all these whiskeys have been matured
in ex-bourbon casks which is primarily why they are suitable for vegans because in the production
of sherry some animal products can be used just so as you're aware of that all you vegans out there
you strict vegans if you are vegan you better to stick to whiskey that's been matured exclusively
in ex-american bourbon casks where no animal additives are used in the production of bourbon
unless you count yeast which is a living organism now this is where it gets a little bit fuzzy
but let's continue there's also an 18 year old and a 20 year old it's been a 25 year old and if you
can find it there is even a 40 year old version of this out there which is very a very good
it's a 90 plus but people aren't looking for this because it's not single malt
it's not spring bank it's not mcallen it's not bulmore it's not it's not our big you see
it slowly it's down the pecking order which is why you should be taking a look out for bottlings
like this mothmates because increasingly it is offering you better value for money
if you select the right bottling how do you do that you basically open a search engine
on your computer bring up the page and just put in the name of the whiskey followed by reviews
that's what you do that's how that's where you start on the nose because we had to
get around to the actual smell and taste of this at some point oh one more thing
i shouldn't have admitted to mention this but it is bottled at um where does it say
it says it somewhere you see it's with these fancy labels it doesn't jump out at you it's
bottled at 52.5 this is a cask strength whiskey 13 year old in the uk roughly 70 pounds a bottle
that by the way is pretty good value considering in the uk the amount that gets paid in duty
it bring tears to your eyes it's outrageous in the hefty alcohol taxes
nose unpaid light fresh fruit white fruit again light barley sugar mild honey
completely unpainted totally unsure it completely bourbon which means barley sugar
it means vanilla and in this instance a little dusting of icing sugar powder
sweet and sour in the nose clear articulate because it's an integrity mortal
high strength as well whatever's there is being delivered more powerfully
because of the bottling strength in terms of the alcohol
no coughs no splatters no funny faces
no need for a 13 year old malt blend this is remarkably drinkable
neat if you hate adding water to your whiskey get yourself a bottle of that this shows you
that it tells me anyway tells us that the casks used to have been primarily
first filled casks or if it's been finished which is quite possible it's been finished
the separate malts going into this blend have been finished in first fill wet ex bourbon casks i'm
gonna add a wee drop of water five milliliters actually i'm really gonna open up when i add
the water in there you get a little bit of the symmetry it's that little rippling effect in the
liquor as the the water hits the oils and the alcohol and initially they don't mix together
they kind of battle against each other it's a good sign of integrity bottling when you see that the
morphosymmetry you'll find from experience the better so let's come back to this on the nose
light intense slightly minty now slightly green savory herbaceous notes fresh fruit melon and
grape and a little bit of floral honeysuckle going on as well but just a little bit in the background
clean fresh delightfully punchy summer dram for the end of a summer's day
when the crops are growing in the fields and the fruits being
harvested and the birds are singing in the trees it's that sort of drama
exquisitely cleaning the palate
intense fresh-like fruits
slightly herbaceous it's got the touch of irish whiskey character to it that you'll find in the
likes of red breast and green spot or even blue spot not quite as aromatic but there is that
connectivity going on it's a splendid relatively simple fresh whiskey which it's not a 90 plus
but it's pretty decent all the same what kind of mark am i going to give this one i'm just going
to kind of give one more taste and a little bit more to do with the arrival development and finish
and then i'll give you the malt mark an integrity mark
big citrus sweet and sour arrival barley sugar honey
herbaceous some tannins kicking in there in the development savory sage bay leaf mint some slight
fennel hint of licorice right in the background very tiny drop buried in with the savory
herbaceous herbal herbal notes there's some green ginger in there as well and in the finish
you're getting some light vanilla a little drop of honey some super soft fresh almost effervescent
tannins and it is a delightful practical um whiskey it really is and i'm enjoying it because
so many people who claim to be hugely knowledgeable about whiskey never touch whiskies
like this they won't go near them because they're not single malts but when the single malts are
starting to disappoint you partly because of the price and partly because of some of the quality
then have a consideration this is another reason that your independent bottlers
provide a a considerable extra dimension to the scotch whisky industry that no other industry
liquor industry in the world actually enjoys the benefit of and that is they bring that diversity
that allows us to explore further and discover these hidden gems lurking slightly dusty
at awkward shelves in specialist retailers right mark integrity mock mark
not a problem happy to give this it's not usually complex whiskey it's fresh it's young
it's vital it's vibrant but that's the beauty of it there's no errors graces or pretensions
86 out of 100 is a integrity mock mark and if you pop back for my next review which is an
extras extras i will be giving you the final part on a series of identifying
quality casks it hasn't been a sort of spotless type series i have really just been
to weave in a little bit extra information i've just been kind of freewheeling on it
and i will continue to do that because it's just a great way of communicating the knowledge
phew thank you for watching i hope you're subscribed now and we'll see you soon mommy's bye