Some Fantastic Douglas Laing Whiskies

As I scrolled through the pictures of my phone I saw this one that was made at the Whisky Ship in Lucerne. This picture shows me with Rick Drysdale who works for Douglas Laing (as the fast thinking ones among you may have already noticed).

Rick and me posing with some Douglas Laing Remarkable Malt Whiskies

 I totally forgot that I had this picture taken by my mate Pascal who attended the festival with me but as I saw it it instantly brought back good memories. We went to the Douglas Laing stand after attending a "Whisky Meets Wine" masterclass. We stopped there because I wanted to taste the recently released Rock Oyster Cask Strength which is a blended malt and belongs to a range called the Remarkable Regional Malts.

A blended malt or vatted malt as it was formerly known is a whisky that contains malt whisky (whisky that is made from malted barley) from different distilleries as opposed to a single malt which can only contain malt whisky from one single distillery. Douglas Laing created 4 blended malts which should all represent the typical style of a different whisky region. There is the Scallywag from the Speyside, the Timorous Beastie from the Highlands, Big Peat from Islay and Rock Oyster for the Islands.

Whisky Meets Wine Masterclass

Last saturday I had the pleasure to attend masterclass with the name "Whisky meets wine" at the whisky ships in Lucerne. The evening was hosted by Marcel Telser who is the owner of a whisky distillery in Liechtenstein, a tiny country next to Switzerland, and Jürgen Deibel who is an expert for spirits and a 40 years veteran in the whisky industry. Some of you may already know Jürgen Deibel because he was co author of one of the if not the single best book about the water of life - Michael Jackson: Whisky. Since I own a copy of this book I was quite excited to meet the man who wrote the chapter about distillation.

After travelling to Lucerne with my buddy Pascal we went to the whisky ships first and enjoyed a few drams. We went for some grain whisky because we wanted something light so we wouldn't overwork our palate. After an hour or so we went to the ship where the masterclass took place. It was all set up very beautifully. There was a total of 12 glasses at each place. 8 drams of whisky and 4 glasses of either sherry or wine.

Puni - The Italian Malt Whisky

Hi maltmates I hope you are all doing well. Last wednesday I've written that this weekend would be quite a whisky fueled one and I can tell you that it didn't disappoint. I got the chance to try a lot of new stuff which I'm going to tell you about so stay tuned for some new articles flying in. In todays post I want to tell you a little bit about two new whisky discoveries that I made last thursday when I travelled to Basel to meet up with a friend and to go to a whisky tasting. You can read more about the tasting in this article. The whiskies that I am going to talk about were quite special because they aren't produced in Scotland but in Italy. The distillery that made these whiskies is called Puni and it's quite new, actually the whiskies I had were only the second batch of Italian whisky ever produced, the first batch was bottled in October 2015.

The Postman Has Been Busy

Yesterday the postman dropped a rather nice delivery at Whisky-U headquarter. I got three samples from the Benromach distillery: The 10 years old, the 15 years old, and the brand new 35 years old.
Next Thursday I will take part in the #Benromach35 tweet tasting. On March 10th from 19:00 GMT me and other whisky people on twitter will write our thoughts on this three expressions. You can follow the event by using the hashtag #Benromach35
Thanks a lot to the Benromach Distillery and to Steve Rush from The Whisky Wire for giving me the chance to be a part of this unique night.

Busy Whisky Week Ahead

This week is gonna be quite a whisky fueled one. Tomorrow I will travel from Zurich to Basel where I will meet up with a friend. We will then go to a whisky tasting where you can try whatever you want out of 50 different whiskies from all over the world. The after I will go back to my beloved Zurich (people from Zurich and Basel usually don't like each other) where I will work in the whisky shop. Just a day later me and one of my highschool mates will make the trip to Lucerne where we will go to the whisky ships. This is one of the biggest whisky events in Switzerland. We will attend a masterclass with the topic 'whisky meets wine' hosted by one of the greatest german speaking whisky experts, Jürgen Deibel. I am really looking forward to this and I am already very excited.
Next thursday will be another special whisky day but you will have to wait a little bit until I will break the news.
I hope you all have great whisky plans too and as always enjoy responsibly.
Slàinte mhath, U

Hosting My First Whisky Tasting

Last saturday I had the chance to get a unique experience on my whisky adventure. My boss couldn't work this Saturday so I had to work friday and saturday. On friday morning as I was on my way to work I got a call from my boss. He got a request to host a private tasting on saturday afternoon in the shop and asked me if I was willing to host it. Of course I was very excited and quickly agreed. I thought it would be very interesting but I was a little bit nervous because this would be the first time I would

The guests were a group of 4 Germans. One of them recently moved to Zurich and his 3 friends came here to visit him. They weren't really experienced with whisky but they told me that they frequently went to wine tastings. They were really nice and they made it easy for me because they were very interested in all the steps of the whisky making process, different types of casks and the different styles of Scotch and whisky from all over the world.

Here are the whiskies that we tasted:

- Benrinnes 1998-2013 Old Malt Cask bottled by Douglas Laing, 14 yo, cask no. 9631, 50% ABV, matured in a refill sherry cask
-Tomintoul 1989-2005 bottled by Scott's Selection, 56.9% ABV
-Edradour 1998-2014 Sherry Decanter, 14yo, cask no. 2124, 58.2% ABV
-Balmenach 1988.2015, bottled by Signatory Vintage for Helvetian Selection, 27 yo, cask no. 3240, 49.6% ABV, matured in a hogshead
-Glenturret 1986-2015. bottled by Signatory Vintage for Helvetian Selection, 29yo, cask no.302, 49.1% ABV, matured in a hogshead
-Cask Islay by A.D. Rattray, 46% ABV
-Laphroaig 1998-2014 Signatory Vintage unchillfiltered collection, cask no. 700357, 46% ABV, matured in a Sherry Butt


The Balmenach and the Glenturret were bottled exclusively for our shop by Signatory Vintage. I will thell you mor about them in another article.

The guests genuinely enjoyed all of them with the Glenturret being the unanimous favourite.

It has been a fantastic evening and I enjoyed it very much.  Thanks to my guests and a special thank to my boss marcel for all the trust he always puts in me.

Cheers, U

Scotch Whisky Transparency

Hey everyone. You may or may not have heard about it but a week ago Glasgow based blending company Compass Box have launched a campaign for more transparency in Scotch whisky. Those of you who are up to date of what’s happening in the world of whisky may wonder why I publish this article now when the campaign started last week and there have been several articles about it. That has different reasons. The first reason is that I am just amazingly lazy and as a student a natural born procrastinator J. The second and more serious reason is that I didn’t want that important topic to be hot for a moment with thousands of articles being written about it and a few days later everyone forgetting about it. The truth is that I started writing on this article just when the campaign started and waited until now to try and keep the topic hot. I think this is a great campaign that is worth supporting so I will explain the background to you.

It all started in October 2015 when Compass Box released two limited editions; Flaming Heart 5^th edition and “This is not a luxury whisky”. The special thing about those two releases was that Compass Box decided to publish the whole recipe of the blends.

This action earned them a lot of compliments from all over the whisky world because it was full transparency which was really nice if you think about all those NAS (no age statement) whiskies that are released at the moment.

Whisky Rev-U 2 Bruichladdich Rocks

Hi Malt Mates. I hope you are all fine. It’s been quite a while since I last posted a whisky review so I thought now would be the right time to publish my second Rev-U. The malt that I’m going to present is the Bruichladdich Rocks.

Bruichladdich is a malt distillery on the Isle of Islay. It was founded in 1881 and was shut down twice: From 1929-1937 and from 1994-2000. In the year 2000 the distillery was bought for 7’500’000 £ by a Group of Investors led by Mark Reynier who successfully brought in Jim McEwan as head distiller. McEwan is a legend in the whisky industry and has previously worked as master distiller at the Bowmore distillery. In 2012 Bruichladdich was sold to Rémy Cointreau for 58’000’000 £. Generally speaking I really like what Bruichladdich is doing. It is a progressive distillery that focuses on using local resources, and giving the consumer a little bit extra. All their whiskies are natural colour and unchillfiltered.

The name “Rocks” is inspired by the fact that the water which is used by the distillery has filtered up through “the oldest rocks in the whisky world – the curious 1.8 billion-year-old geology of the Rhinns of Islay”

The whisky has no age statement and is bottled at 46% ABV. It has been matured in bourbon casks and finished in Grenache wine casks.

This has been one of the first bottles of whisky that I possessed. I got it as a gift for my 19^th birthday by my high school buddies. As I am writing this article I am enjoying the very last sips of this malt so thanks a lot to Rafi, Largey, Päsce, Vali and Simone if you are reading this J

Special Tasting at House of Single Malts

On Friday I went to a very special tasting. After I finished work I took the train to travel away from Zurich to a village near St. Gallen. The village is called Mörschwil and it is like the Swiss epicenter of whisky because two of the biggest whisky shops are located there. The shop where I went is called House of Single Malts and it is definitely worth a visit. After arriving at the shop I was greeted by the owners Ivan and Manuela who were really nice hosts. They introduced me to the other guests (we were only 10) and explained the plan for the evening because it wasn’t going  to be your everyday kind of tasting, we were about to attend a bottle killing session (or as it is also called a heelslayer session) and the whole tasting was designed to be a game.

Before explaining the rules of the game we were served a first whisky and I immediately knew that the long train ride was more than worth it. The first whisky we were served was the stunning Laddie 22 from the Bruichladdich Distillery. I got really excited because this whisky has sadly been discontinued and I haven’t had the chance to taste it yet. It was a fantastic start to the evening and I will give a more in depth review of this in another article. Meanwhile Ivan and Manuela explained us the rules to the game. There were around 50 near empty bottles that were lined up in 12 rows. In front of every row was a card which was Jack, Queen, King or Ace. Every card represented a certain kind of whisky. The bottles behind the Jacks were the least desirable most of them being Swiss whiskies. The bottles behind the Queens were some good whiskies like for example a Glendronach 18 port Finish or a Tobermory 19 by Cadenhead’s. The bottles behind the Kings were mostly peaty whiskies and the bottles behind the Aces were some true Jackpot whiskies, most of them being rather old and rare. There was another deck of cards which would be passed around the guests. Someone had to draw a card and the whisky would be the counterpart of the card he drew.

The person who was 7 places away from the one who drew the card had then to roll a dice and the resulting number determined how many people would get a dram of the whisky. The first person who didn’t get that whisky would then draw the next card. There were also two wildcards which allowed choosing a whisky of your liking. The game was so much fun and the people were really nice. After a while we didn’t only taste our own whiskies but we shared them.

3 New Japanese Whisky Discoveries

A few days ago I was working at a tasting event at one of the bigger wine and spirit shops in Zurich . To put it clear right away I was responsible for the less glamorous tasks like checking coats, clear the glasses etc.

When I was looking for a whisky related part time job last summer I applied at most whisky shops in Zurich and that wine and spirits store was one of them. They couldn't offer me a job however they told me that I could work at events that they organise once a month. At those events people pay a certain amount to enter and afterwards they can taste out of up to 50 different wines or spirits depending on the topic. 

Although my task isn't too glamorous I genuinely enjoy working there because I met some great people and  I can use the few bucks that I earn to buy whisky. Also I sometimes get the chance to get a little taste of some of the presented beverages.  That was exactly the case when I recently worked at a tasting with the topic "Japan". The beverages that were offered on this evening were Sake, Japanese beer and Japanese whisky.

In this article I want to present you the three whiskies that I was lucky enough to taste. It was quite busy and noisy so I didn't get the chance to take tasting notes. However I still want to tell you a little bit about the 3 drams.

Exams Over! Let The Dramming Begin!

Dear Malt Mates

Sorry that it was so quiet on this blog recently. I had to write exams and didn't have much time to enjoy whisky or write about it. Now that I'm finally through expect me to be more active from now on. I got some whisky lined up and I want to share my thoughts with you and I have already some events in mind which I'm intending to attend.
In the near future I also want to start a series of articles called "How I Got Hooked" in which I want to present the story of fellow whisky freaks and how they got into enjoying the water of life. I hope the different stories can show people that when it comes to whisky and starting to enjoy it there is not a certain blueprint. Some people try one certain dram and immediately fall in love just like it happened to me. Other people may not have such a moment but develop their love for whisky over a longer time. This series should encourage people to try whisky even if there can be some setbacks sometimes.
If you have an interesting story how you got hooked to whisky and you want to share it with fellow readers of this blog you can contact me anytime by writing an e-mail here.

Now please excuse me as I have a lot of whisky waiting to be reviewed, a lot of articles waiting to being written and also some tastings to be attended.

Slàinte everyone

U

Whisky Rev-U 1 Balvenie DoubleWood 12 Years Old

Hi Malt Mates Today I post my very first official whisky review. 

The whisky that I’m going to taste is the Balvenie DoubleWood which is aged for 12 years. Before I get started I want to write a couple of words about the distillery. Balvenie is a Speyside distillery that is located just outside Dufftown. It was founded in 1892 by William J. Grant who is also the founder of the Glenfiddich Distillery. The two distilleries are actually located on the same site and are still owned by William Grant & Son. You can check out their website here

The whisky is bottled at the legal minimum of 40% ABV and is most likely coloured and chillfiltered. As the name tells us it is matured in two different kinds of casks.

My Whisky Adventure So Far

Dear malt mates

I hope you have all had a good start into the New Year. In the last two weeks I had plenty to celebrate. First I finished my bachelor thesis and handed it in. 3 Days later was my 22^nd birthday and the day after we celebrated Christmas Eve and a week later New Year’s Eve. As you may already have expected this was a whisky loaded few days for me. I hope you have all had some nice drinks over this time and that there maybe were a few interesting bottles under the tree for Christmas.
As had to go to the library again today to study for my exams it got really boring so I thought it was about time to write a new blogpost. Being the egocentric prick that I am I couldn’t think of a better topic to write about than myself. Therefore I will tell you my whisky adventure so far.
As you may already know I started to drink whisky shortly after my 18^th birthday. I’ve already stated in the last post that first me and my mates only drank some cheap blends on Ice to look though rather than because we genuinely enjoyed it. After my first taste of a Glenfiddich 12 years old I got more into it and after the first few sips of a Lagavulin 16 years old I got very serious about all things whisky.

I enjoyed the rest of the Lagavulin that me and my friends had left in the weeks after but I didn’t really know a lot about Scotch or whisky in general and I started to read a lot about the topic. I read blogs and watched video tastings and the more I got to know whisky the more I got curious.

A New Blog Is Born

Hello Dear Malt Mates

My name is Julian and I'm a 22 year old history student from Zurich, Switzerland. First of all I would like to explain the name of this blog. The name Julian is in German pronounced as Yulian and my nickname is Ju (speak Yu) or - as my girlfriend started writing it - U, hence the name Whisky-U.

I started drinking whisky at the age of 18. Back then me and my friends just drank Ballantines on the rocks when we were at bars to look tough.