The OCUK Whisky (and Whiskey) review thread

Soldato
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ok, what am I drinking: 20 questions to ID the whisky. I'll give yes/no answers only. Go.
20. Scottish? Yes
19. is it a Speyside? Yes
18. are supermarkets likely to stock it? Yes
17. price range <= £50? Yes.
16. Sherry cask? No
15. Does the distillery have Glen in the name? No
14. Is the distillery owned by Diageo? Yes
13. Is it a Cardhu? No.
12. Is it NAS? (assuming that means no-age statement) No.
11. Is it within 5 miles of Craigellachie? No
10. Is it a Singleton? No
09. Knockando? Yes[/QUOTE]
Knockando 12yr old?
08. Knockando 12yr old? Yes!

Good work!

I would post a link to the supermarket website but you can only log in at set timings atm so here's one from another site.

knockando-12-year-old-whisky.jpg
 
Soldato
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Knockando 12 is a decent bottle. It's the whisky that more than any other I have tried changes (for the better) once the bottle is opened.
Interesting - I've not noticed that. I've enjoyed it from the go. I guess it might have more spice in it at the moment than when I first opened the bottle 2 years ago, but there was such a pause between the two I can't say that with any certainty other than the taste notes I made at the time. I do enjoy this one though - it's provided good service this lockdown.
I don't think I would have guessed that, I've never seen a bottle of it up here in the Supermarkets, not a dig, jealous of your local.
Yeah, some places are better than others, but places with this on the shelf probably have a buying department who've actually bothered to try the goods they go on to sell.
 
Associate
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No idea about anyone else, but I've been firing through far too many bottles during lockdown.

Picked up a heavily discounted Jura French Wood today, and got the Mrs to hide it from me so we can be productive tomorrow!

Anyone tried it? Wasn't a big fan of Jura 12, but then I haven't tried it in many years.
 
Soldato
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I don't think I would have guessed that, I've never seen a bottle of it up here in the Supermarkets, not a dig, jealous of your local.

This is why I order mine from Whiskey Exchange or Master of Malt.
A mate pops into his Waitrose (Chichester) and the selection is far better than Tesco, Sainsburys and Asda.
 
Man of Honour
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Having a slurp of this:

ZXo4Lx2.jpg

Brother bought this for me as a gift in Japan. It’s actually rather delicious and one of the easiest to drink whiskies I’ve had. I’m terrible at describing taste but its sweet (not overly so), vanilla-y and reminds me of a cake! Would I buy a bottle myself? Yes.

Edit - Seems it’s £72. I’d say I prefer it to the Yamakazi 12 (more expensive) and the Yoichi (same ballpark). All share thay Japanese-y easy drink quality. Absolute unfunky but pleasing.

https://hedonism.co.uk/product/ichiros-malt-grain
 
Soldato
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I don't know much about Japanese whiskies. Nikka Coffey is the only one I can recall having tried. I thought it was fine - quite pleasant in fact. I'd have to find my taste notes to say more, but I understand Japan does produce some good stuff these days.
 
Man of Honour
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I don't know much about Japanese whiskies. Nikka Coffey is the only one I can recall having tried. I thought it was fine - quite pleasant in fact. I'd have to find my taste notes to say more, but I understand Japan does produce some good stuff these days.
I really don’t think it tends to be worth the premium... well, Yamakazi 12 is not worth £120, no way.

You’re getting these ultra neat drink anytime drinks. Sometimes you want that, but it’s not a brooding evening drink. If it was music, it would definitely be ‘decent pop’. I would say it would be the whisky to get a person into it though.

I’d pay £72 for this and will probably get another bottle.
 
Associate
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I don't know much about Japanese whiskies. Nikka Coffey is the only one I can recall having tried. I thought it was fine - quite pleasant in fact. I'd have to find my taste notes to say more, but I understand Japan does produce some good stuff these days.
Personally I avoid Japanese whisky, not because it isn't good whisky, it's just overpriced and frankly you more often than not don't know whether it is actually Japanese, or has just been imported and rebranded as Japanese whisky. It used to be single malt scotch they did that with until the SWA changed the regulations so that the whisky could only be exported from Scotland in retail bottles. Not hard to figure out why they changed the regulations. But they can still get blended and grain whisky in bulk from Scotland, or from other countries.

At least that world whisky is actually being upfront about it, and playing on it as a marketing gimmick.
 
Soldato
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When I first started my whisky "journey" I got pretty distracted by Japanese bottles. I still have some empties in the flat such as Hibiki 12 for which whiskyexchange seem to want £400! For a 43% which is probably chill-filtered and coloured (anbyone know? :confused: ) it just seems daft.

It all seems very overpriced, and has been for a while now. Wouldn't bother unless you're in Japan and it's a fair price I guess?
 
Associate
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When I first started my whisky "journey" I got pretty distracted by Japanese bottles. I still have some empties in the flat such as Hibiki 12 for which whiskyexchange seem to want £400! For a 43% which is probably chill-filtered and coloured (anbyone know? :confused: ) it just seems daft.

It all seems very overpriced, and has been for a while now. Wouldn't bother unless you're in Japan and it's a fair price I guess?
There are people living in Japan on other whisky groups I am part of and most of them avoid Japanese whisky as it is not cheap there either. It's seen as being more of a status symbol than something to be enjoyed. The people that are actually into their whisky over there mainly seem to go for scotch and American whiskies.

It's actually quite sad as some of their whisky distilleries were based on the scotch model and are made to the same standards, the problem is the lack of official regulations there means you don't really know which ones are holding to those standards and which ones aren't. I don't think it's worth chancing it and just buying one to try considering the prices of most of them.
 
Associate
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Personally I avoid Japanese whisky, not because it isn't good whisky, it's just overpriced and frankly you more often than not don't know whether it is actually Japanese, or has just been imported and rebranded as Japanese whisky. It used to be single malt scotch they did that with until the SWA changed the regulations so that the whisky could only be exported from Scotland in retail bottles. Not hard to figure out why they changed the regulations. But they can still get blended and grain whisky in bulk from Scotland, or from other countries.

At least that world whisky is actually being upfront about it, and playing on it as a marketing gimmick.

Scottish malt whisky can still be exported in bulk, it just has to be made, matured and bottled in Scotland to be labelled as Scotch. The majority of the whisky Ben Nevis produce is shipped directly to Nikka in Japan to use in their blends. There's plenty of rumours that Nikka in the barrel is mainly Ben Nevis malt.
 
Associate
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Scottish malt whisky can still be exported in bulk, it just has to be made, matured and bottled in Scotland to be labelled as Scotch. The majority of the whisky Ben Nevis produce is shipped directly to Nikka in Japan to use in their blends. There's plenty of rumours that Nikka in the barrel is mainly Ben Nevis malt.
They can export as many bottles as they want, they can't export it in anything else whether they want to call it scotch or not. Unless you mean they are exporting the new make spirit.
 
Soldato
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Upon the recommendation of my friend I plumped for a bottle of the Ardbeg Uigeadail which arrived yesterday. Only to receive an email from Master of Malt that it's £15 off today. Rage! :mad:

Also got the Glen Scotia double cask in a vain attempt to replicate the beauty of the forever unavailable Springbank. We shall see how well it stacks up.
 
Soldato
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Picked up a bottle of Corryvreckan because it was reasonably cheap last week. Blimey that's a new take on peat for me, having come from Laphroaig and Talisker whiskies!

The brine really jumps out at you, and I ended up with the taste of blackjacks! Really surprised!
 
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