thanks for the video... only saw this today for some reason. Love this rum... such good value.....and yeah the balance is fantastic. Thanks again for another rum video.

Late to the party so to speak. This was a great history and synopsis of CC. My "go to whisky" here in the US. Light , easy to drink and affordable.

Someone has let their child loose somewhere on the street ... Just thought I would watch as this showed up, so I bought a bottle! Great description. I hope I find half of what you did.

To be fair. The high-vanillin casks could be heavily charred virgin oak casks to pair the ex bourbon casks no? Just had this one. Do I like it? Yes, it’s not bad. Do I love it? No, too sweet for me. Is it worth the price? No. Had the Tale of Forest and Tale of Tokyo and enjoyed both. This was my least favorite of the range I’ve had.

I really miss this bourbon.

Very Nice review and a 9 at that! - I’m curious about the low ABV (41-42%) on these bottles. Does it show on the palate for either one?

😊 at 8:45 think I hear the dog snoring once. Cheers

I bought this too Phil so I'm delighted to hear how much you like it. With it being labelled a blended malt I guess we are to assume it's essentially single malt that's been teaspooned? Chatter online seems to assume that anything labelled Kildalton should be Ardbeg but I wasn't aware of teaspooning being as common a practice at Ardbeg as it is at Laphroaig.

Awesome. Thx. Hopefully I will be abled to pick up a bottle of this in Germany.

Sounds really lovely, Phil. Thanks for your usual clarity of analysis and description. Cheers!

I drink a lot of whisky and it doesn't blow me away but I like it, my girlfriend rarely sips a glass and she loves it. I also had the last three Octomores 15.1 to 15.3 and for 230 € the 15.3 was more of a disappointment to me than that one.

Nice rant. Honestly, I’ve not been tempted by any of the “Tale of” expressions. I’m often skeptical of NAS w/ over the top packaging. I did buy the 12 yr Palo Cortado at something of a premium ($80). A good dram from memory. The Quinta Ruban is still an excellent value, although I haven’t tried a recent batch. Thanks for keeping it real. Cheers.

69th like!

great review ! spot on! wish i saw this before i bought this bottle.

I'm waiting for A Tale Of Pigs In Blankets - Cor Blimey!

It's rare to see a Spey bottle on the shelves of a UK shop, given their focus is very much on the Taiwanese market and, increasingly, other Asian countries. The distillery can't be visited, but if you did it'd take 10 minutes as it's basically two connected farmhouses. The easiest way to get hold of it and sample their full range is to take a trip to Aviemore. The Snug is their visitor experience/tasting shop in a little retail park next to a costa just off the Grampian Road. You pay about £5-8 a dram, so you have no pressure to buy a bottle and on my regular holidays in Aviemore I often just pop in over a few days to gradually try their range. They also make Byron's gin and Beinn Dubh, a black single malt whisky. All of their releases are quite small batch as they intend to be a boutique distillery and keep production small. But they cycle through production of their core collection regularly enough to always have it available on their shelves and online. Those are Trutina, Tenne & Fumare (no idea why the Italian names for malts intended for Asia, but someone at the distillery must love the sound of Italian, which are what make up the Trilogia, which has had a first release this year. In terms of recommendations, their core range is good and really showcases different cask finishes on their spirit. Chairman's Choice is worth a try as it's reaching for Glenfarclas 15 without the age statement and does better than Glenfarclas does these days and is priced similarly to it. They do good quality, integrity bottlings and have some batch releases of cask strength versions of their core three that are work seeking out if one of the regular bottles takes your fancy as they are very well priced in the £55-65 range. In the case of the peated Fumare, I don't see the likes of Diageo allowing a small cost increase where the regular 46% bottle is £50 and their cask strength at 58% in batch 4 is £62, but I'll take the good prices whilst I can get them and hope they keep on giving good malts and increasingly (given the insane cost for some of their neighbours these days) reasonable prices.

Never is an apology needed for a snoring dog. 😊

That dog can borrow my C Pap machine! 🤣

Only catching up on the OSWAs yesterday - and had to come find this after you mentioned this review was coming. Great job. Honest and thorough review.

Thx for the nice review. I will probably have to pick one up now. Also looking forward to your thoughts on the Kildalton 19y. This one sounds exciting as well.

Sounds like something Macallan would try albeit at the lesser 43% and 3 times the cost!

Nice reviewed. I enjoyed the Bas very much and it’s still pretty reasonable price-wise here in the states.

Daftmill is fascinating me, 3 expressions I tried of it only & I'm in love, that said, prices there are high & none is available under 175 € or so, so I'm not sure I'll get one soon, especially one I like a lot, but you'll never know...

Captivating, you sold it well to me, lol ! Scarsely available here in France, but not for the equivalent of your £ 52 but rather 89 €, so would you think it's still worthy for the price ?

Interesting, and also honest towards your own tastes...I think I might like this, but alas AD's French distributor decided it was not for us, as Jenny told me, so it won't be imported here....We can't get the Rum cask neither...gonna watch your video now about The Midgie, as there is still a few bottles here though it shouldn't as it is a UK exclusive, but thanks to The Whisky Shop Paris, they have some...Meanwhile I'm glad I could get me the Paul Launois Reserve 2024....(first impressions on Instagram, review on video later on). Cheers !

.3 > .1 or .2 (IMHO)

Great review Phil. I was offered a dram of this in the whisky shop today having never tasted an English Rye Whisky. I instantly bought a bottle. Exactly like you said I really enjoyed the initial punch of the Rye. The nose tricks you as the taste is fantastic. After always drinking scotch single malts this was like something I've never tasted before. The finish changed again and continued to impress! I am really looking forward to enjoying this.

Thank you Phil, for this. I hear you! The only thing that you could have mentioned is what it's like with a little water. Perhaps, being bottled at 46% abv, it needs a few drops of water? Let me know if you did this. The statement about being "High Vanillin and Bourbon casks" is referring to a marriage of charred Virgin American Oak with Bourbon barrels. Notice that I did not write "Ex-Bourbon" as Glenmorangie have been researching for a few years now, into fake Ex-Bourbon barrels, that is, they did not come from a Bourbon distillery but were engineered custom made Bourbon Seasoned Barrels. I recently bought a bottle of the new Glenmorangie 12 and scanning the QR-Code on the label, instead of being taken to a page which gives you more details about the 12YO, it actually takes you to a page all about the "A Tale of Ice Cream". It got me quite curious as its description sounds like something I'd really enjoy. Here in Israel where prices are typically around 25-50%% higher than the UK, after watching your review, it seems I've dodge a [metaphorical] bullet. I try and buy Octomore X.1 if not every annual release but near to it. I haven't tried the Octomore 15.1 but after a few disappointing releases, their 13.1 really impressed me. That's very vanilla ice cream like. However, the most ice cream like single malt I've ever tried, both aroma, taste and texture, was the luscious Clynelish 8YO "The Single Malts of Scotland Parcel No.2". That was like eating pineapple chunks with creamy vanilla ice cream. If you come across it, then grab it up. Lastly, the examples you gave of great exclusively Ex-Bourbon cask matured single malts were not accurate. The Ledaig 10 used to be exclusively Ex-Bourbon but now is a marriage of mostly Ex-Bourbon with some Ex-Wine casks. That's why it lost its Kosher status back in 2022. As for the Ledaig 18, well that's Ex-Bourbon and Ex-Wine and then finished in highly active Ex-Sherry casks. So, no, these are not good examples of Ex-Bourbon barrel matured.

One of the best reviews ever. I wish more reviewers would be 100% honest

Really enjoyed your review of this personal fav of mine. Only came across you after seeing you on the ‘Whiskey Vault’. But enjoy your perspective on things and look forward to viewing some of your archive reviews as well as future ones too.

Had a Springbank/Kilkerran tasting recently and the SB18 was my personal favourite!

I can still hear ralfy rant about this series in my mind “are you even kidding me, what’s up next, a tale of B…S… 😅

sorry for your loss, wish I could share my Hazelburn 10 with you to cheer you up somewhat!

who is snoring in background?😆

This is the type of whisky I'm likely to receive as a gift from my secretary this Christmas.

Had to pause multiple times to see if the mrs was snoring ...... so confused 😂. "Octomore is more like ice cream than this," genius! 😂😂

Nice rant 😅 By high vanilla casks, could they mean heavy char new oak? Just speculating, but either way it's misleading, I agree. One I won't be picking up. Cheers, Phil!

Been waiting for this since the OSWA 🙂 good to see you on the show. Was in you're York branch last month and picked up a bottle of the excellent Orchard House, nice store. Been having probs with you tube re responding to the community 😞 So this year for Xmas its Bunna 12 C/S, Ledaig triple wood and Kilkerran 16 have a good time Phil and keep up the good work.

First class rant! Thank you! ❤

Oooof the video didn't start off well and it just went worse and worse😅 Good for you for calling them out on their shit. I'm surprised that this didn't work because the previous tales were actually rather good (winter was ok). I thought the Cake was very delicious but all our palates are different of course. Well done mate, really enjoyed this rant and thank you for saving me money, cheers!

I enjoyed a Tale of Cake but I think the marketing team got hold of that success and have just realised a lot of pretty packaged dross since. Huge props for being authentic and calling a spade a spade!

Well worth waiting for..........review not the bottling! Old school Quinta Ruban started me along this journey we all have with good quality malt. Such a shame to see over a decade later they're producing this tosh. More for the passive consumer no doubt. Looking forward to my Ardnahoe bottlings this weekend.....hopefully without any "burnt stuff" emanating from the Glancairn 😂

Well everything whisky , music , clothes etc etc is subjective , your not always right and neither am i , leaving the obvious marketing to one side and the fact that perhaps it is a a few £ too expensive , that aside , I quite like this , i find it easy to drink , very palatable ...Sorry its just personal taste !..I'd buy it again nom problem

👍to be honest I have never been into Glenmorangie, and also this super funky bottle and "Ice Cream" written on it would never encourage me to by it. I love old style, elegant bottles/labels.

And Haig Club is the worst thing I've ever tasted....this must be bad 😂

Hell hath no fury like a whisky drinker scorned 😂

That snoring is annoying beyond words, mate. Good review otherwise.

Thank you, this is probably the most honest review of a whiskey i have ever heard, thank you . Its going to help so many people that are just getting into whiskey, and looking at the colours of the box , shocking, again thank you brother.

Hi again Phil: a few hours later and WhiskyJason found on the glenmo website re. this whisky the phrase "new oak" included, so quite possibly not pre-rinsed in bourbon for those finishing barrels to up the vanillin/-a? Excellent explanation by him at the start of his vid. re. different levels of barrel charring, etc.

Nice job Phil I like honest and direct review and it’s well done too! Cheers 🥃