hello multi-mash bill maniacs thank you to jacob crater for the malt mention introducing
an extras 909 extras i'm ralphie here in the bothy i've tidied it up a little bit
to make it look a little bit spring cleaned it's got that spring clean look except i haven't got
around to cleaning down the walls but i will give them a nice brush of white wash at some point
in the future but not just for the moment because i'm busy reviewing whiskey which is the primary
purpose of this channel ralphie.com um just in the off chance that you haven't already subscribed
please do click likey and all the rest of it show a little bit of support for my content and uh in
doing so more people will become aware of it and something i'd like you to be aware of is
batch differences this is the topic of my review at the moment because i voted le check 10 year old
single malt whiskey to be my whiskey of the year for 2022 but not that long ago
i previously bought a bottle which is what made my mind up about making it my whiskey for the year
um and i reviewed that but i've never finished it because i really do and i'm in a position to
actually compare the two whiskeys side by side and show you from my perspective the slight
batch variations that you can get now there's two types of batch variations with any whiskey
and we'll start with the one that we absolutely don't want and that is the bad batch variation
where you've bought a whiskey really enjoyed it and you go back maybe a few months later
or a year later or several years later to buy a second bottle and when you pour it it's not the
same as the first bottle and i don't mean that as a compliment the fact is that in your opinion
going going and judging on your smell and taste experience you can just tell almost immediately
that the quality is not what it used to be and therefore you feel disappointed and even if
it's a very slight deterioration in quality you still feel you've been cheated and that
emotion actually can turn you against the whiskey to read more negatively into it than it actually
perhaps deserves perhaps you just need to give it more time breathing a little bit and let it we'll
give it more time to oxygenate and just kind of settle down but i'm going to do a straight
comparison between the last the cheek i reviewed last year i believe or the year before and this
one which i've only just reviewed recently very recently because they're both different whiskeys
and this is the second type of batch variation where the flavors changed slightly but the
quality is just as good now in the previous version now we'll call this the 2021 batch
as soon as you knows it and i'm going to add a wee drop of water bear with me i want them
to be absolutely the same and i've already added two milliliters of water to this glass
for my most recent review so i'm going to add the same again
to the whiskey i previously reviewed so there they are sitting comfortably
uh before i tackle the whiskies you might not be able to make it out but i'm going
to bring the cardboard boxes forward you can see they're basically identical
but there's a different shade of color in the top of the boxes this is darker and this is lighter
you see that well i can see it in my my camera monitor so you can probably pick it up yourself
and you have essentially the same container but it's a different printing run so they're
very slight difference and this is actually quite common nothing to worry about when you look at the
containers you cannot use any slight changes as a point of reference for judging the contents of
the bottle because quite literally you can have a change in the different colors or tones of of
a similar container even for the same batch of whiskey the bottling plan it depends how quickly
they run out of the old containers and bring in the most the newer batch of containers which
you're never going to notice unless you've got the two sitting side beside which for
the majority of whiskey drinkers is certainly the case but you may pick up being a proper malt mate
and an anorak you may pick up on this nothing to worry about it's really the contents of the bottle
that's what we really that's worth paying for the smell and the taste now in the older version
it's fruitier in the nose it's distinctively more red fruit on the nose almost like a touch of
cranberries in there and i suspect that is because this batch has been made up including casks
of leche which have matured either in port casks or red wine casks or both bear in mind
many distilleries are using a whole array of casks not necessarily sticking to 100 bourbon
or 60 bourbon 40 sherry you get all these permutations but in amongst them distilleries
if they get the option at a reasonable price to be able to buy some sound solid gasks they're
going to jump in and buy them because good quality casks are not available 100 of the time for many
distilleries they've got to buy as and when they come on the market and they have the opportunity
and naturally they're going to if they've got a good cast they're going to use it
but when they go to that cast they're saying hang about this is a distinctly different version
from our house style so either we bottle it as a single cask or a distinct distillery only
bottling or we bottle it as a small limited edition or we simply leave it more years
in the cask because as an older whiskey they'll be a smaller batch and we can use it to give it more
of a definitive identity but for younger whiskey what they'll do is they'll say i tell you what
we've got a good whiskey here but if we shove in two three four five maybe a dozen casks from
the red wine rack or the port rack where they've got the pork casks lined up in the warehouse
um then they're going to enrich and almost
richen up the flavor of a particular batch if they feel they need it and
once you've noticed it you're very much aware of it
it's certainly i gave this 90 out of 100. there's the mark there because that red fruit red currant
cranberry note that was in it just added that little touch of extra
that gave it more singularity and i really enjoyed it it added
a bit of additional character to the leche and when you taste it
right up in the front in the arrival oh
sure the big blast of peat delicious rounded beautifully sweet and sour that rich reasoning
note that backs it all up as part of the signature from tobermory distillery but there's that
red fruit runs through it it's discreet it's restrained it's absolutely delicious it just
kicks that mul up that extra single point when we come to the most recent bottle that i've bought
and i tell you what i'm going to bring the bottles forward
and see if you can see any difference in the color
excuse me there we go i'll turn it right round
it's marginal but it's there slight difference in color
with the latest batch of leche
i've scored at one point down but it's still a damn good top drawer
single malt whiskey and great value for the money as long as you're not over paying
that red fruit note is just not there but because of its absence the peatiness in the dram
is that bit more assertive because there's less additional activity from other flavor contributors
in this case the either port or red wine or both
influence and therefore the smokiness of the peat is a little bit more transparent
and something that jumps out is the pt tanginess is more prominent in this batch
than it is in this batch so it's a trade-off something is gained here from that red fruit
contributor that isn't in this one but it doesn't matter because they're both absolutely fantastic
i hope you found this useful and helpful and all the rest of it mates and if you enjoy the content
um leave a comment i do appreciate your comments i scroll through the comments and i'll leave you
a little ralphy heart most of the time when i can actually keep up with all the i've been had a real
flurry of activity in december i always do with my content and i've been struggling to it's taken me
hours actually to read through all the comments and just leave my little ralphie hearts if i've
missed you i apologize for that hopefully i'll get you next time malt mates so thank
you very much for watching i hope you found this useful i'm not going to bump on too much about it
i'm really taking this opportunity to introduce batch variation to you rather than deep diving
about it something that i'm more inclined to do perhaps is a live stream in my patreon channel
and if you fancy subscribing all you have to do is buy ralphiadram
and then you'll get some additional content uh including an extra video every week on my
patreon channel so hopefully we'll see you there in the meantime you look after yourself these are
difficult times around the planet um what with one thing and another and we all need a little bit of
room just to step aside relax chill out and enjoy our own space and that
is what the malt moments are all about thanks for watching now