Category Archives: 2 – Recommended

Westland – Peated Whiskey (46%)

How is there ever a line at Chick-fil-A?! There are only, like, three things on the menu. It’s so simple, those bible school dropouts manning the drive through should be shooting them out of fucking cannons. Nope! 30 minutes for a sandwich and half the time it still ends up being soggy even though you clearly waited for them to finish murdering and feathering the chicken to feed you a fresh patty. Assholes!

Really, that’s what I get for planing my day so poorly that I need to quench my morning hangry with fast food. I’m usually super early to all my commitments. In that respect. I guess it’s fortuitous that I was running late last week, because I realized something: Chick-fil-A and whisky are a home run. Even the occasional, inevitable, soggy-because-I-was-made-by-human-garbage sandwiches are pretty good when you’re chasing them down with a belt of whisky. It’s like a reverse pickleback. Try it!

 

 

This one ain’t bad!

 

Nose: The first time I tried Westland someone poured it for me blind. I couldn’t wrap my head around it and was thoroughly convinced it was a Scotch. This nose here is no different. Very nutty, a little peaty, whiffs of ocean and dusty barnboard. Very Scottish but with a strange, romantic note that it’s hard to put my finger on; a secret ingredient, like fish sauce, that changes the dynamic of the flavor without letting on to the source.

Rating: Recommended

Palate: It’s got all the coffee and roasty malts that the American Whisky has, but the youth gets a bit trampled by the peat which ends up balancing things out. The finish is great!!! It’s not well-aged but again the peat comes to the rescue and makes everything seem richer. Not a super complicated whisky overall, but solid and very easy to dwell on.

 

Now, before people send me an imperial shit ton of hate mail about how I should be nicer to Chick-fil-A, you should know I also dislike NASCAR and think people who don’t put cheese in their grits are animals, but if you have any favorite fast-food/whisky pairing leave them in the comments below! Cheers and happy eating!

Thank you to the team over at Westland for the samples!

W.L. Weller Special Reserve, Old Weller Antique 107, and W.L. Weller 12 year

It’s not really Bourbon Buffalo Trace season anymore, but that’s what we’re talking about today because that’s how we roll here at How to Drink Whisky Enterprises. We are current as fuck and super diligent about blogging. We want you to be current as fuck with us because, dammit, you deserve it. But we respect that you’re a casual readership, too. You’re attention span is small. So small. Such a small, tiny attention span it is, but so valuable! So pay attention! This is important!!!

 

Weller Special Reserve vs Antique 107 vs 12 Year

 

Do you or anyone you know do guerrilla landscaping? Like… if I paid you to spite-mow a giant dong  on my neighbor’s lawn, would you do it? My neighbor’s lawn desperately needs a giant dong mowed into it. How much do you think that would cost?

 

Special Reserve – (45%)

Nose: Farmy with a minerally graphite. Sweet, wheat chaff and hot, buttered waffles. Not very complicated and without serious flaws.

Palate: Easy-going. Tempered butterscotch candies and diluted wood. Hint of vanilla. It’s almost like it comes out of the bottle with a splash of water already added. Easy palate. Easy finish. Easy easy easy.

Rating: RecommendedThis one is a no-brainer. For $20-30? Buy! Buy! Buy! Plus, like the Antique 107, people often buy single casks of this one for their store, club, or friends. These store picks can range from pedestrian to amazing, making for an affordable and collectible whisky experience.. not that we would ever recommend collecting bottles over drinking them.

 

Old Weller Antique 107 – (53.5%)

Nose: It starts minerally like the Special Reserve, but takes a quick turn and becomes spicy and sour, like a hit of undiluted lemon juice or a backyard pile of wet sawdust that’s just starting to ferment. Good but definitely more aggressive woodiness.

Palate: A bit of a kick. Short but bold finish with a slightly numbing tongue. Stripped down cinnamon and honey. Citrus rind.

Rating: Try itThis one could use an ice cube or two. No judgement here. Personally, I much prefer the Special Reserve. The sour note on the Antique kind of puts me off. It seems to me like they trade a bit of favorable flavor for a slightly sexier proof. Still, as with the Special Reserve, $20-30 is not a bad deal, and store picks can be exceptional.

 

12 Year – (45%)

Nose: Like a mix of the Special Reserve and 107, all the sour and vanilla, but balanced with a rich layer of vanilla and fruit, making the sour bearable and the vanilla richer. Raspberry sorbet. Those glowy red cocktail cherries. Cultured butter on granite.

Palate: Not nearly as harsh as the 107 and much sweeter, creamier vanilla than the Special Reserve. Birthday cake with chocolate frosting. Cinnamon. Citrus. Buttery. Not overwhelming but still a very seductive drinker.

Rating: Highly RecommendI love this one. It’s no wonder it’s so hard to find. At roughly the same “honest” retail as the other two, this one takes the prize for me. That’s not to say I haven’t found store picks of the Special Reserve and Antique 107 that were as good or better than the average 12 year bottling.

 

Guerrilla landscapers interested in the position, please leave a link to your CV in the comments below. Cheers!

Compass Box – Boxed Set

compass box cover

Compass Box is a blending house, so their obvious goal is to blend “accessible” whiskies. If you’re more of a fan of cask strength single malts or bolder American styles, these probably won’t be that enticing. Having said that, if Johnnie Walker is your benchmark for good blended whisky, then these are going to blow your mind. Personally, I’m cheering for them. I hope they’ll be able to wrestle the idea of blended Scotch away from the terror that lurks on those shelves today. It’s nice to see a few affordable blends that don’t suck.

Compass Box has a long history of smartly packaging their products, and this box set is no exception. The wooden box opens up to five vials of different Compass Box releases; Hedonism, Asyla, Oak Cross, Spice Tree, and Peat Monster. I really dig sample packs like this; all the fun of compulsively emptying vials like an alchemist of some sort, coupled with a chance to get a more fleshed out picture of the company’s vision before making a judgement about their talents.

So without further ado, let’s see how the whiskies stack up.

 

Hedonism (43%)
Blended Grain

Nose: Light and sugary. Over-seasoned “greywood”. Dry almond, like a thumbprint cookie. Warm butterscotch. It has a bright bite to it, very much like a Canadian whisky. Freshly constructed barn rafters. A little water helps the perfume rise.

Palate: Mild with wisps of Sugar Crisp cereal. Buttery, cherry danish with sliced almonds. Dirty penny with slightly peppery notes that drag out the finish. Water dilutes the bitter metallic part a little bit and lets the caramel/vanilla notes’ show.

Rating: Try itIn a blind tasting, I would swear this was Canadian. I really don’t like very much Canadian style whisky, and this certainly isn’t my cup of tea, but if it were competing against all of the Canadian stuff I’ve tried, I’d say this is a great example.

Still, Canadian whisky is CHEAP! There’s no reason to buy this when there are so many more affordable whiskies coming out of Canada. Don’t get me wrong; it’s a great Canadian-style whisky if that’s what you’re looking for, but with a cost approaching $90, it’s definitely over-priced. At half the price, try looking for Forty Creek, instead.

 

Asyla (40%)
Blended Scotch

A blended Scotch,  which means it’s comprised of both grain and malt whiskies. As would be expected, the profile is somewhere between the Hedonism and the Oak Cross.

Nose: Almost like a light Clynelish. Malty pear with a drop of farm and flowers. Still very light and approachable. If you can smell past the sweetness there are some delicious green pepper notes hiding in the drink.

Palate: Sweet and easy drinking. Malty pear flavors usually predict peppery notes and are hot, but here the pepper is extremely watery. Rich, Canadian-whisky type butterscotch as it trails off.

Rating: Try itLike the Hedonism, this whisky comes with a luxury price tag. Clynelish and Old Pulteney both provide the same profile at the same price point but with a depth of flavor not found in this. Now, unseasoned whisky drinkers may find the mildness desirable, so choose between these with that in mind. This is an extremely accessible whisky and would be a good middle step for converting non-whisky people to the drink.

 

-This review brought to you in part by-

weezwares

 

Oak Cross (43%)
Blended Malt

Nose: Bolder and spicier. Dried trail mix carrots. The profile is definitely getting meatier. Grassy notes start to appear, alongside hints of ginger powder and green apple peels. It’s still a little watery to me.

Palate: A little Cognac, a little honey, a little potting soil. Slightly drying. Peppery with a nice medium finish that leaves a rich tingle on the tongue.

Rating: Try itIn conversation, very few people would speak ill of Compass Box, and that this is a blended malt whisky is great, for its category, but the whole point of any blend is to make it more affordable. The trade off is cost to taste while attempting to balance the two. While these seem to be good for blending expositions, so far, they’re anything but affordable.

 

Spice Tree (46%)
Blended Malt

Nose: Tiny rubbery note, with a nice, rich, butter-drenched fruitiness layered over it. Raisins and dried pineapple. Nutmeg and ginger powder. Dried orange peel. Caramelized malted barley baked into a brittle.

Palate: The pepper in this one amplifies as time passes and is the most aggressive yet. Numbing clove and Sichuan pepper on the tongue. Almost phenolic. Sweet and sherried with nutmeg and dried fig. Lime and polished leather.

Rating: RecommendedMoving in a linear line, the Spice Tree has the most spice and sherry. The sweetness tones down a bit, though that’s not a bad thing. This one best frames some of the similarities between French Sessile oak (what we usually think of as wine casks) and Spanish Pendunculate oak (what we typically think of as sherry casks). Now we’re talking! This one is delicious and at around $60 right in the sweet spot of the flavor/price balancing act.

 

compass box sampler

Peat Monster (46%)
Blended Malt

I didn’t have high hopes for this one, seeing as the status quo for Compass Box is to blend “accessibly,” whatever that means. Most of the blends in this box have been less than inspiring for the price, kind of defeating the purpose of a blend, to me.

Nose: Surf and Turf! Bacon wrapped scallops served over seared chicken skin. Iodine-rich seawater. Slightly stony. Fresh sea breeze and crushed barnacles. Dried sage and sambal chili paste. Not super complex, but delicious smelling all the same. Smells a bit like there’s some Laphroaig mixed in there…

Palate: It’s surprisingly gentle on the palate. The peat creeps in and blossoms into bright iodine with a lime tang. Umami and mushrooms with salt that revs up in the finish into spicy fire. Easy going bandage phenols and a tiny bit of copper. The finish is delightful as the fumes expand through your mid-section and rise back up to your head, inescapably reminding you that you definitely drank a good dose of peat.

Rating: RecommendedIt’s not exactly what it says it is; not quite a monster… maybe a very desirable beast of peaty burden to carry you through your cravings. This provides a terrific example of how a whisky can be “accessible” and still please the whisky anoraks. For just under $50, the price is right, too!

The proof on these is on the low side, so if you’re looking for a face-melter, these won’t do. I think these are best suited to coax gentle drinkers in to the fold with easy to explore Scotches they can nose and drink comfortably.

Arran – Devil’s Punchbowl Chapter II (53.1%)

Devils Punchbowl Chapter 2While taking down my notes for the Devil’s Punchbowl series, I found myself exploring my old CD collection for bands I had forgotten; bands that might inspire the evil in these whiskies to fully manifest while I wrote.

Looking for the darkest band I could find, my first stop was Type O Negative. After a few minutes, I felt like they were too obvious a choice. Plus, I had too much fun at Type O shows. Pete Steel was a legend, but staple my hand to my forehead for me, Type O just wasn’t evil enough.

On through the next most obvious choices, I poured over Skinny Puppy. I forgot they were Canadian. Too polite. Nine Inch Nails? Despite an awesome sweet spot between their second and third albums, too commercial. GG Allin? Well, he was certainly terrible enough musically, but I’m not sure shoving a banana up your ass and playing with your poop on stage is evil so much as crazy. Lonestar? Just kidding… I don’t own a Lonestar CD.

How about King 810? They’re from Flint Michigan. That’s pretty brutal. The video for their song Killem All is pretty gruesome, too, and leaves me with an empty feeling inside. So far so good. After a few minutes though, I feel like they were just screaming over watered down Pantera riffs, and let’s never forget how Pantera started.

Eventually, I found myself skipping through Throbbing Gristle tracks. The complete chaos and abject terror songs like We Hate You (Little Girls) dump into your soul was inspiring enough. I was definitely getting closer, but I almost felt like Throbbing Gristle was too nerdy an outfit to be the most evil one I could find. Also, I couldn’t really concentrate while it was playing.

Then I stumbled on the last stack of CD’s I listened to; the ones I never shuffled back into their respective spots, rather left at the end of the collection in a pile of sloth. The last CD in the stack was perfect. A band so brutal that the lead singer, stage named Dead, slit his wrists and throat before shooting himself in the face with a shotgun. Ever the thoughtful gent, and realizing the messy affair he was about to leave behind in his band mates’ home, he made sure to leave a note. It began with a casual “Excuse the blood…”. Now that’s dark, but it gets worse.

The guitarist who found the body first, Eronymous, ran out to the store for a disposable camera so he could stage some pictures with the body before alerting authorities. One of the pictures became the cover of a concert bootleg. Eronymous also kept a few pieces of Dead’s skull and made jewelry out of them to give to other bands he liked.

After that, Eronymous and bassist Varg Vikernes burned down a few churches together for, I dunno, fun? Varg Vikernes would later stab Eronymous to death outside his home before going to prison for the arson and murder.

So, the band was definitely evil enough. The music was simple enough, without much skill or critical thinking involved. Plus, it was a pioneering force in the most paradoxically evil and hilarious genre of all… Norwegian Black Metal. Yes. This was definitely it. The whole package. Mayhem.

In deference, I have written my notes for the second chapter using lyrics from their song Freezing Moon. Feel free to follow the link above if you want to sing along.


Freezing Moon – by Mayhem with amendments by HowToDrinkWhisky.com in bold


This dog is fucking evil!!!

This adorable fellow just finished burning down a church.

 

Everything here is
a little grungier than Chapters 1 and 3.
Everything here is so dark but
still has lots of the classic apricot and hay.
I remember it as from a dream,
an odd fart smell, at first,
in the nose of this bottle.

Diabolic spices float by
out from the dark sherry butts.
I remember it was here I found
some ginger powder

by following the slightly bitter finish to Hell.

It’s night again,
with a tiny bit of peat
.

Night, you definitely should have washed that pot you boiled shrimp in
instead of just rinsing it.
I please my hunger on the honey of living humans.
Night of hunger, sucking on paper.
Follow its stony call.
Follow the freezing raisin moon.

Roasted peanuts are growing.
The palate opens to vacuum bags filled with pears and green apples.
The mildest pepper of the three lights up again.
As in ancient times,
falling wine vapors die behind the back of my throat
by following the freezing grainy moon.

 


 

Rating: RecommendedIt’s definitely my least favorite of the three Chapters, though I definitely wouldn’t turn my nose up if someone offered me a glass and I wouldn’t argue that this isn’t delicious, despite the mildly off-putting funk in the nose. The palate still shines, just maybe not as bright, as the finish stumbles a bit, too.

Thank you to the kind folks at ImpEx Beverages Inc. for the sample. Cheers!

Arran – Devil’s Punchbowl, Chapter I (52.3%)

Devils Punchbowl 1

“Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.” -Dante Alighieri 

My home state of Connecticut has become rotten with self-proclaimed craft brewers. We have locals cranking out watermelon atrocities (hooorker), cannoli flavored sluice that tastes more like a fizzy glass of clove cigarettes (shablechhhhh), and even a few ales and lagers that smell like someone left raw chicken in the break room refrigerator too long (yeeeeeeeerk).

Believe it or not, it’s actually worse than I’m making it sound. I’ve personally seen brewers who seemed like they couldn’t quite figure out how to properly sterilize their tap lines and glassware, if they even knew that they should. I’ve seen revered locals that were so baffled by the technical aspects of temperature that they were sideswiped when their warehouse got hot in the summer. It’s amazing how terrible (most of) the local beer is here, sure, but it’s even more amazing that they navigated enough of the legal system to become licensed and viable. How did they do it?! They must have made some sort of deal with some sort of powerful entity.

Meanwhile in the southern half of the state, one of the few brewers actually making drinkable beer for us is receiving threats from a handful of confused nitwits for using Gandhi’s image on one of their most rabidly consumed beers, the Gandhi-Bot. Ignore that the eponymous, non-alcoholic Gandhi was a peaceful man. Ignore that Gandhi-Bot barely makes its way out of New Haven County, much less all the way to India, where a lawsuit has even been filed against them. Worst of all, they eventually caved to the pressure and sacrificed their own artistic license on the altar of the perpetually offended.

Ghandi Bot DFHE

Can someone at NEBCO make this happen? Please?

What’s causing the sudden surge of unrest in the world? Why are people so angry and why are we still charging them with the task of brewing us barely-carbonated hate in $9 growlers? Why are we caving to jingoistic terror? What the Hell is going on?!?

It’s not just the destruction of something good, the poisonings or the threats of violence, either; the craft beer movement finds itself in devilish company, with the booming resurgence of shitty frozen yogurt clones and waves of sourced whisky. Truly, these are accursed times. How much more evil can things get?

As was foretold, written in dairy and grain, the Devil has returned to destroy us all. But seriously, what better time for Arran to finish its demonic trilogy, The Devil’s Punchbowl, than now, during the vile age of toxic beer, mystery whisky and infernal yogurt shops? A wiser man would have seen this coming. Today, we’ll speak about the first chapter, released sometime around 2012.

Nose: Classically Arran, with sweet hay and a malty body. It’s a bit green, like a dried alfalfa and apples. Tropical undertones of mango and whiffs of an empty Count Chocula box. Fried masa, fresh ginger, and mild iodine round out the nose. 

Palate: Exceptionally well blended. Apricots and apples, along with Arran’s traditional peppery finish. Mellow peat. Salty with blanched seaweed and oyster shells. It has a gritty sugary quality, kind of like sucking the finish off of a handful of honey roasted peanuts.

Rating: RecommendedThis is a solid punch to the whisky drinking part of your face. I’ll take it!

It is a limited edition, but I’ve seen a few in the wild recently so they are still out there. The packaging is appropriately badass, too, unfolding like some ancient tome to the list of all the casks vatted for this single malt. Quality and packaging symbiotically justify the hefty price tag for me; around $120 or so.

Elmer T. Lee – Single Barrel Straight Bourbon (45%)

Elmer T LeeHello, loyal readers!

Today, we’re going to discuss one of my favorite Bourbons, the Elmer T. Lee single barrel. This is a great whisky plucked from the Buffalo Trace warehouses. The label alleges single barrel status, though from the several bottles I’ve tasted they all seem pretty similar with only minor differences.

For those playing along at home, the bottle code on this one is B1407916:06K, which means it was bottled on March 20, 2014.

I also have a surprise for you; a famous guest blogger! Hailing from the great state of Illinois, the land of Lincoln and the land of drinkin’, I’m excited to introduce one of my favorite whisky bloggers, Buck Chowdery, the Bondage Chicken.

HTDW: Greetings, Buck! Thank you for joining me. How was the flight in?

BC: Buck buck buck buck buck.

HTDW: Sounds exhausting. Well, I’m glad you made it. So can you tell us a little about yourself before we dig in and talk about this whisky?

BC: Buck buck buck buck. Bwooock buck buck buck.

HTDW: Wow! I didn’t realize you were a Kentucky Colonel. That’s quite an ironic honor for a chicken.

BC: Buck buck.

HTDW: So, how long have you been reviewing whisky?

BC: BWOOOOOCK BOCK BUCK BOOOOCK!!!

HTDW: I’m sorry, did I say something to offend you? I don’t really care how you spell it.

BC: Buck buck.

HTDW: Can you answer the question or should we move on?

BC: Buck buck buck.

HTDW: Okay, let’s just dig right in, then. Shall we? What do you get on the nose?

BC: Bwaaaaaaaack.

HTDW: Yes. In your case, the beak. What do you get on the beak?

BC: Buck buck buck buck buck buck buck. Bwooooock buck buck bock buck. Buck buhcoooock buck buck buck. Buck. Bwock. Buck.

HTDW: I agree! It’s really nice. There’s some farmy notes, like the feed you get from those petting zoo dispensers. Muted orange peels, along with some Fig Newtons and a deep, cheesy, butteriness like a well-browned, cheddar grilled-cheese sandwich. It has a sweet and fruity side to it, too. Light brown sugar. Banana Runts© wrapped in old paper. Oddly enough, I can smell church pew, or maybe it’s faint traces of the old lady perfume left on them… yea, definitely both. 

Buck Chowdery

Buck Chowdery – The Bondage Chicken

BC: Buck buck bock buck.

HTDW: Absolutely. The sweetness does take a second to come out and there are some profoundly delicate leather notes.

BC: Buuuuuck buck bock bwock buck. Buck bwuck bwuck bock.

HTDW: Yes, Buck. We know that there’s no flavoring in this. My readers should be astutely aware of the fact that any non-straight whisky can contain adjuncts like “harmless” flavoring. I covered this back in 2013 when I discussed hops in whisky.

BC: Buck buck buck.

HTDW: Okay, so you’re kind of right. I didn’t spell it out that way, but we did discuss the 2.5% blending materials rule. Considering how at one time rectifiers did add flavor to a product called whisky, it shouldn’t have been a huge surprise that, because there were precedents for that, too, someday, someone would slip whisky flavor into their whisky. But let’s not argue. This is straight Kentucky Bourbon. Let’s move on to the, er, um… palate? Do chickens have palates?

BC: Buck buck.

HTDW: Good! I find it’s a little soft for me at first entry, but builds up that classic cooling pepper as it goes along. Not very sweet, but the finish rolls up to the tell-tale, spent vanilla bean that a lot of well-aged Bourbons can develop. It’s a very solid, classical, middle-of-the-road Bourbon.

BC: BOCK BOCK!

HTDW: What? No, that wasn’t a chicken joke. Are you always this touchy? Can we talk about the palate?

BC: Buck buck. Buuuuuck bwuck buck bwuck buck. Bock buh-cock, buck buck buck, buck bock. Bock.

HTDW: It is. Especially considering the rye in the mashbill. I find adding a little water boosts the sweetness nicely.

BC: Buck buck buck buck.

HTDW: Good point, Buck. At $30, the price is right on. It’s unfortunate that there are so many bottle flippers ripping this off the shelf to sell at 100% markups.

BC: Buck buck buck buck buck.

HTDW: Well, that’s where we’ll have to agree to disagree. I think it’s an unfortunate practice and makes good Bourbon less accessible, but let’s save that conversation for another day. Maybe next time we have you back, we can dig in to that topic a little more. You will come back and visit us again, soon, won’t you?

BC: Buck.

HTDW: Awesome. Thanks again for joining us, Buck. Cheers!

Rating: RecommendedI’m quite taken with this everyday drinker. It’s sad to think that the eponymous Elmer Lee passed away last year. Hopefully Buffalo Trace can keep his legacy alive. This is a spectacular Bourbon for $30, which is about as much as you should have to pay for it.

*all characters appearing in this work are fictitional. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.