Port Askaig 30 Tasting

Nose: nicely coastal, with wet sand and oyster, but quite fruity as well. A soft, liqueur-like fruitiness, rather exotic for a Caol Ila. Nice interplay of two characters. Lemon, honeysuckle, vanilla. A few medicinal notes in the background.

Mouth: lemon at first, then some walnuts and almonds. Apricots. Peat as well, and a few salty notes, which make it sharper than on the nose. Again a nice showcase of older Caol Ila elements.

Finish: long, with spicy smoke, hints of tea and salty fish.

I’m fond of older Caol Ila. Port Askaig 25yo was already my favourite of the range and now this place is taken by the 30yo (although the 25yo has quite a price advantage).

Very elegant while at the same time showing impressive power for a 30 year-old.

They are well known for being light and sweet single malts with age bringing some more body, and distilleries that bottle heavily sherried whiskies from Speyside are extremely powerful on the palate and nose. 

Some distilleries from the region are: Macallan, Mortlach, Aberlour and Glenfarclas.  Compare prices on some of the Speyside whiskies to get the guaranteed best price.

Lowland whiskies

Whisky from the lowland area is light in flavour and body but with surprisingly complex herbal notes pushing through.

The Lowlands have never been the most active whisky producing area but the number of active distilleries is still surprisingly low. This makes several of the lowland bottlings extremely collectable, especially for those who find the Highland and Island productions too robust.

Many experts believe that the Lowland whiskies find it hard to succeed due to the fact that consumers prefer the romance offered by other areas. Regardless of each individual’s tasting preference consumers would often opt to buy a whisky with Highlands printed on the label.

Macallan built its enviable reputation by focusing on the fact that they mature their core range in 100% sherry oak barrels. This creates a whisky with a really great depth, and this is one of the poinbts that most whisky tasters refer to passionately.

The following whiskies are available at fantastic prices just now, but if you’re looking for something else then compare prices on the whole Macallan Whisky Range >>

This Auchentoshan 12 yrs expression replaced the old 10 year-old in 2008, when the range was totally revamped. Some may say that this flat-style bottle looks a lot like the Highland Park presentation, but we reckon they’ve done a better job than HP.  Anyway, who cares that much about the bottle, because when you add this to your collection we expect it to be emptied fairly soon.

Many tasters think that the Blasda is less peaty that some others from Islay, but the traditional complexity is still present.  This quality alone is enough to make most whisky enthusiasts add a bottle to their collection.  Not everyone is a fan of peaty whiskies but this Ardbeg release is set to unite both camps thanks to its subtle quality.

This heritage has helped Irish Whiskey become some of the most popular available to buy these days and the collection of recogniseable brands amongst the public is now immense.

Although originally titled Irish Whisky, the ‘e’ was added in the 19th century to distinguish it from Scotch whisky and there are some excellent special offers and prices available to the thrifty whisky buyer.

For some time many people believed that Japanese Whisky couldn’t quite measure up to the traditional Scotch style and until very recently most of Jaapan’s whisky was consumed domestically with very little travelling abroad.

Thankfully people’s opinion of Japanese whisky changed which is possibly down to the many excellent reviews received on blind tastings and the increasing reputation of the japanese whiskey brands. 

Initially the thought behind its production was to reproduce the style of Scotch whisky but as excpected the Japanese brands have successfully managed to cultivate their own unique styles.  You can now buy an excellent selection of whisky at cheap prices giving you fantastic value for money.

Today’s collection of Blended Whisky is huge – just take a look at the selection below to see if anything takes your fancy.