Happy New Year with SamuelWhisky's chronicle of 2014!!!

Dear friends, followers and supporters of all kinds! Just want to wish you all a very happy and successful new year with some pics and words from my whisky-year 2014!

As you might know, I celebrated my first year as a blogger this year! To do it justice, I tasted the 22yo Connemara, you can check out the tasting note here! But as you know I'm not only doing tasting notes for my blog but also conduct tastings once a month at a local pub called The Red Brick, and do some "private tastings" from time to time. In addition to that I also take care of Laphroaig and Connemara during whisky festivals around Sweden. This year I was also very fortunate to visit two distilleries, one in Sweden and one in Ireland. 

So please feel free to check out some pics that summarize my whisky-year 2014 :) Sláinte!

The first tasting I did this year at The Red Brick was in January, "No smoke without peat!"

Then, in februari, I had some fun at the Linköping Whisky Expo together with Vicky and Martin

I also did a private tasting for friends and family in late february

The second tasting at The Red Brick was "We're all named Glen and at least 25yo". Some really great whiskies in this line-up, but seriously, since all of the whiskies were soooo good, and so close to each other in quality I think it was almost hard to appreciate them. I almost felt spoiled and one simply could not understand how good they actually were… Well, a luxury problem right?!  

Did a private tasting for a friend from work, and her family

On "International womens day" me and my buddies had a great porter and stout tasting. We tasted three kinds of a swedish porter from Carnegie Brewery, four vintages of Brooklyn Brewery Black Choholate Stout, and then tried insanely good, almost wine-y-ish Brewdogs :)

On St Patricks day I had some Connemara Turf Mór!

The third tasting at The Red Brick was a Highland Park Vertical. The 25yo sure is great! 

Took care of Connemara and Laphroaig during the Gothenburg festival, and also had the great honor of working together with Danielle Mckerrell from Laphroaig Distillery

The fourth tasting at The Red Brick was "Oldies from Islay and the other Scottish Isles" and the fifth was "Closed Scottish Distilleries". Then I did a private bourbon-tasting for some friends

  

On the 25th of July I visited Box Distillery in the northern of Sweden! They truly distill some really good stuff, especially the unpeated sherry matured, absolutely brilliant, even before having reached the age of whisky, mmm…

Then I went to Ireland and visited Kilbeggan Distillery (of Kilbeggan Distilling Company), truly a VIP-tour :) Was lucky enough to once again meet up with master distiller Andrina Fitzgerald juste before she left Kilbeggan for the new Tullamore Dew Distillery. I also had some words with brand ambassador Rachel Quinn regarding my ambassadorial work with the Connemara-brand! Also managed to bring some bottles home to Sweden, please read about them and other Connemaras in my small collection here 

Andrina and I

Rachel and I

In the end of august my fan club for Connemara, the 'Connemara Clan', had it's 5yo birthday! To celebrate that I refurbished it from a Facebook group to a page :) you can join the new Connemara Clan on Facebook here and on twitter here

In early september I was very lucky to join a special twitter tasting arranged by anCnoc

Did the sixth tasting at The Red Brick, a Glendronach Vertival! Veeery high standard!

Met up with fellow blogger 'The whisky-nerd' to hand over a bottle from Swedish Firewaters 

On the 10th of October I went to Jönköping to do a Laphroaig-tasting for the June Whisky Club

On the 27th of October, I enjoyed a Highland Park tasting held by Martin, in my home town :)

Martin and I

Then I did the seventh tasting at The Redbrick, the theme was "Campbeltown", very interesting to get an overview of stuff that's not Springbank!

In mid-november I took care of Laphroaig at the Örebro festival, always a great time helping Edrington with their many great whiskies!

In late november I did my last whisky-tasting of the year at The Red Brick, the theme was "Japan - Suntory". The Yamazaki 2013 Sherry Cask sure is good, but I would not agree that it's the best whisky in the world… :) 

In early december I actually did my first Rum-tasting ever! Rum combined with premium chocolate was really good. Since I hardly knew anything about Rum I really had to read and try to learn as much as possible about something that was completely new to me… A challenge but great fun :) My favorite this evening was Vintage 2000 from Diplomatico/Botucal

Then, for the first time I got some really nice christmas gifts! One from the nice people at Swedens top importer and seller of whisk(e)y, Clydesdale, containing some nice fudge and two samples, one cognac and one sherry finished peated whisky. The other gift was from the nice people at Box Distillery who sent me a very generous sample of their 2014 festival edition, which you will see a review of sometime this year :) In the meantime please checkout my review of their latest release

The whisky-year 2014 ended with me, for once actually attending a tasting at The Red Brick! Hasse Nilsson from Box Distilley took care of it all, giving us a very exclusive tasting only containing whisky (and "almost whisky") from Box Distillery. It was yummy let me tell you :)

Hasse and I

Big thanks to all friends and followers, and  to all representatives of brands for the samples and gifts, for a great year! I'm really looking forward to 2015! Please follow SamuelWhisky on Facebook here and on twitter here Sláinte! 

Swedish whisky from Box – The Challenger 48,2% ABV!

Friends! On this very autmn-y winters day (at least here in Sweden), I will taste the second release (or third release depending on how you count) from the northern Swedish distillery Box! The name of this release is ’The Challenger’ for reasons we can all understand ☺It challenges their first release and perhaps even other Swedish whiskies?!

As I stated when I tasted their first release, Box are (and will be) very very very open with their recipies and production process and so they really want us to know also how this bottling is composed, so for swedish followers please take time to read about that here

But other people than those who know swedish might also want to know what this bottling consists of, so to narrow it down, it has only been matured in small casks holding 40 litres, a mix of unpeated and peated malt with the average peating level ending up at 33ppm, a mix of bourbon and oloroso sherry casks (white oak or european oak is not stated) was used with the ratio being 89/11. The age of the whisky is between 3 years and one month, up to 3 years and 6 months. 

Well ok! Let's see what we have here!

Nose:

When opening the sample bottle and pouring a dram I first picked up lots of notes movin towards nutty stuff. There was also marzipan, and something forrest-y, resembling Tobermory and Cardhu in style. Now the whisky has rested in the glass for about 10 minutes or so. All that stuff is still there but more intense, also something that has to do with apples. A slight touch of vanilla and some citric elements with just a touch of youngness/spirity. AND, a discrete touch of peat (but not smoke), sort of fleeting and passing by… even though it’s discrete it’s still very much there if you know what I mean… This is definitely more mature in style than ’The Pioneer’! If it’s fair to compare the two… (Well why not?! I pour a small dram of ’The pioneer’ and as you can see in the picture it’s much lighter in color. Pioneer Nose: Oh yes, as I remembered, pioneer is sligtly ”thinner” on the nose in comparison to the challenger. They definitely have common elements though, but Pioneer seems more citric and more peaty…). Anyways, let’s have a taste and see what’s on the palate of ’The Challenger’!

Palate:

Mmm! Dozens of more peat on the palate than what came through on the nose! Wow, this is really good, we have milkchocolate, a slight slight touch of weak coffee, peaty vanilla and more peat ☺ Also, some touches of quite salt liquorice, or is it sea salt? Quite creamy and rich actually! This is definitely a step forward from ’The Pioneer’, which was also good of course, but ’The Challenger’ is definitely more mature from what I remember tasting it! (Well what am I thinking, I have dram of it here, let’s try that one too while we are at it… Pioneer Palate: Well well! Pioneer is also creamy, lot’s of vanilla, very herby and spicy, not as much peat and definitely not as much deepness as in Challenger though…). Going back to Challenger… oh yes, this is very good, both in itself and in comparison. Sooo creamy and so thick in texture and mouthfeel! Well done boys, and it sure is getting there, can’t wait for the next release! 

Big thanks to my friend Niklas who sold me a sample of ’The Challenger’! Sláinte! 

Copyright © and all rights reserved on all tasting notes by SamuelWhisky and pictures likewise belong to SamuelWhisky (the picture just above this text belongs to Box Distillery). If you would like to use any such material that belongs to SamuelWhisky please ask by sending me an email to samuelkarlssonorebro@gmail.com

Tasting the new ’Teeling Whiskey Co. Irish Single Malt’ – 46% ABV!

Well friends! I’m once again very lucky to have received a sample from The Teeling Whiskey Co. This sample arrived around three weeks ago but I’ve kept it in my sample-cabinet since I wanted to time my review with the launch here in Sweden, which is today! Swedish whisky consumers will find it here! As far as I know I am the only blogger in Sweden (so far, ooops/jinx?) to receive samples from the nice people at Teeling ☺

Anyways, the sample I’m trying today is a quite new release (17th of october 2014) simply called ’Single Malt Irish Whiskey’. For those of you who have followed me for some time now, knows that this is not the first single malt irish whiskey to be released by Teeling, and I’ve have tried a couple of them before, so please take part of the Teeling Whiskey Co. tasting notes I’ve done so far by clicking here.

Now, their new ’Single Malt Irish Whiskey’ is an interesting creation, since the oldest whiskey in this bottling dates back to 1991, and it has all been matured in five (!) different kinds of casks, namely Sherry, Port, Madeira, White Burgundy and Cabernet Sauvignon. Sounds exciting so let’s see what we have here!

Nose:

Veeery fruity! Lots of exotic fruits in here… mostly on honey melon, pear, slight touches of rhubarb… there is also coconut, and lots of it, in combo with light honey and vanilla, or rather vanilla custard/sauce. Oh, this has happened before, there’s a whole dessert in there ☺ rhubarb-pie with vannilla custard! A tiny squueze of lemonjuice… this is simply so soft, soothing… complex stuff! 

Palate: 

Instantly reminds me of Bushmills! Nice! A lot of the stuff from the nose comes back on the palate, well, not the rhubarb-pie but definitely the honey melon, definitely also the coconut, vanilla and the custard. Veery soft on the mouthfeel, the first seconds of the palate is pure softness actually! After swallowing there is a bit of a dryness starting to develop, but not much at all. Very creamy and vanilla-ish before the dryness though. This medium ABV really brings balance and I do not feel it needs to be stronger… a great everyday-dram with complexity! Nice!

Big thanks to Jack, Stephen and Alex for sharing! Sláinte! 

Swedish Whisky from Smögen – Sherry Project 1:1 51,8% ABV

Yesterday I was very lucky to find a small package of samples in my mailbox! The package turned out to have two samples of Smögen single malt whisky in it, yay! Smögen is releasing two spankingly new bottlings tomorrow which swedes can buy at the state monopoly. One is single bourbon cask 20/2011 (which I will taste sometime soon), and the other is called ’Sherry Project 1:1’ being the first of four releases involving sherry finishing. The fourth bottling in the series will be fully matured in sherry casks. Smögen distillery is a swedish west-coast distillery that only produces peated whisky. And so I guess that you would like to know the ppm? Well people, it’s peated to 45 ppm (just as Laphroaig). Now, the Sherry Project 1:1 has first been matured for nearly three years in powerfully charred 110 litre casks made of european oak. The whisky has then been transferred for a final maturation in a fresh sherry butt. Sounds tasty right?! Well let’s try it then shall we?

Nose:

Incredibly rich and creamy! Very fat and certainly gives a mature impression. I remember thinking that the first release ’Primör’ seemed very mature for it’s age, but this one really is many many steps ahead in maturity! A BIG and fat nose that really drizzles with sherry influence, if I had not known that it has only spent a few months in sherry casks I would never have guessed it was not fully sherry matured, I kid you not people, really! The nose boasts of dried figs and dark raisins, there’s even some milk chocolate in there… nice… Above all the layers of creamyness and sherryness is a very elegant acidulous touch that really screams: ”Try me! Try me!” So I guess I just have to try now J

Palate:

Mmm…! Absolutely beatiful. As I said, veeery mature! I absolutely can not believe that this is a young whisky… Great mouthfeel, perfect combination of peat and big-fat-creamy-sherryness… Lots of dark fruits on the first sip, sugary-honey sweetness that takes perfect care of my mouth. Slowly developes into a quite spicy and dry feeling that clings on to my mouth and makes everything become so ”present” if you know what I mean, I really feel that I’m alive when I taste this whisky! After one minute or so everything gets quite dry and warm… the peat is beautiful… I really don’t think that water is needed here people, it’s not too strong at all, so think carefully before adding water.

Well folks, this is definitely the best Swedish whisky I’ve tasted so far, so I guess I simply have to reserve a cask at Smögen as soon as possible J Please stay tuned for my other tasting note of the Smögen single cask 20/2011 that I’ll look into very soon.

A BIG thanks to Pär for the oppurtunity to taste this, thank you! Friends, please follow SamuelWhisky on Facebook here, and on twitter here. P.S If you come to the Örebro Beer and Whiskyfestival this friday, please do come to the Edrington booth to say hi, I will be there and take care of Connemara and Laphroaig!

See you soon and Sláinte! 

’Big Peat – X-mas 2014’ 53,8% ABV

Before I start digging deep into the latest shipment of samples from Clydesdale that arrived a couple of days ago (Clydesdale is one of Swedens top importer and seller of whisky), I just have to say hello to a sample that was in the shipment that arrived in September. Among the samples was the ’Big Peat’-christmas-2014-edition. I should think that most of you have heard of the Big Peat, but if not it is produced by Douglas Laing & Co. Now owned by one of the Laing-brothers, namely Fred. From what I have heard (and please correct me if I’m wrong) Big Peat mainly contains of malt whisky from a couple or so distilleries on Islay, and a wee splash of Port Ellen. In other words, Big Peat is a blended malt! 

In Sweden it will be released on the 17th of november. Ok, let’s see what we have here ☺

Nose:

Big peat indeed! A quiet ”smoky” peat and not just peatsmoke (if that makes any sense… probably not...) Anyways, we also have something very green and salt, if you can nose the salytness in salt. There are some touches of moulded cheese, and earthy dampness, that is something like earth cellar for foodstorage in ”the olden days” ;) Quiet spirity on the alcohol which makes it seem a bit young perhaps, some touches of distillate/raw-spirit. Let’s see if there is any Big peat on the palate!

Palate:

Begins very sea-salty, also salt liquorice, but in combo with a salt vanilla/fudge. Then comes the peat which I would definitely say is quite gentle! At least for the first couple of seconds. I keep the whisky in my mouth for a while and the alcohol strength is not at all overpowering, which is interesting. After swallowing I don’t have to wait long at all for the real big peat to kick in, and it does so in a really nice way ☺ Shortly after swallowing everything gets very dry on my tongue and the inside of my lips. Here I get a touch of a bit youngish feeling and also the moulded cheese is there. The aftertaste is looong, primarily ”smoke” and it warms my chest. Something for the winter night perhaps?!

A big thank you to the nice people at Clydesdale that keep sending me samples! And a big thanks to all of you out there all around the globe, thank you for following and please stay in touch via Facebook where there is a page for this blog, and likewise a profile on twitter here! Sláinte! 

SamuelWhisky turns 1yo – Celebrates with tasting the all new Connemara 22yo!

Friends and followers, dear readers! I’m so happy to announce that as of today, SamuelWhisky turns 1yo! I’m even happier to, on this particular day, take a stroll down to my local post office (yes, on a Saturday) to collect the all new Connemara 22yo that I ordered a couple of days ago! As you all now, I am a bit of a Connemara ambassador, running the ’Connemara Clan’ since 2009, so I’m also extra happy to taste the first release of a new Connemara expression since 2011, a period of almost three years (the latest release as you might recall was the ’Bog Oak’ so…). I guess that the Beam takeover and then the Suntory takeover has made things a bit slow, but now it seems that things are on the move again ☺

You can pick up this new expression in store at the Celtic Whiskey Shop for 170 euros and it is about to become available online any time now. You might also find it in various stores in Germany, or like I did, pick it up via ebay.de if you are fast, and lucky!

I have not been blessed with all info yet but as far as I know it has been matured in first-fill bourbon barrels only, from some of the first stocks produced and laid down in 1991/1992. (Although I’ve heard there is some even older Connemara maturing in the warehouses from 1989 so if we are lucky we might see a 25yo soon. Who knows?!). The only thing regarding number of bottles produced that I’ve heard is around 4300 so definitely a small batch. During my visit to Kilbeggan Distillery this summer, my contact in the company told me that if it sells well it will probably be a ”standard bottling” all though, in very limited quantities of course. It holds 46% ABV. Well let’s have a taste! 

Nose:

Incredible big, or rather huge vanilla! And when I say huge I mean huge! Vanilla ice-cream, almost like that beautiful old style Kilbeggan-vanilla-ice-cream they serve at the Kilbeggan Distillery. Surrounding the vanilla is a very soft but very present touch of peach, almost candy-like peach. There is also soft sort of mint or menthol mixed with soft earthy liquorice. Touches of honey melon, a bar of milk-chocolate… Mmm, everything is veeeeery soft and calm, perfect balance between all the stuff that’s on the nose. Definitely very much in the style of Connemara with that green, earthy/woody touch, if you know what I mean? This is so elegant you can’t even believe it friends… ”Well what about the peat?!” you might ask, well you see folks, it lures in a mysterious way beneath everything else ☺ very mature and mellow. Let’s have a sip!

Palate:

I have said it many times before regarding other whiskies, but W-O-W! This Connemara is complex stuff! Beautiful sweetness in combo with liquorice and elder-flower actually, at the tip of the tounge the first second or so, but then, there’s not a boom but rather a slooow wave of soooft peat flowing through my mouth. The peat is much more present on the palate than on the nose, which makes me happy. The fact that there is still so ”much” peat on the palate after this many years of maturation is just great. A really earthy/forrest-y tone is part of it all, that makes everything become so much Connemara. A long lingering soft peat and vanilla in perfect interplay. The aftertaste is not dry at all, but rather mouth-watering… Seriously people, I’m not exaggerating a bit, the balance is wonderful. 

To sum up:

You just have to try this one friends, it’s absolutely one of my favorite expressions of Connemara, alongside the ’Bog Oak’ and the 8yo for Sweden! And then, finally a big thanks to myself for purchasing a bottle of this one, to myself ☺ 

Thank you for staying tuned to SamuelWhisky during my first year as a blogger and please do keep in touch, why not on Facebook through this link, or on twitter through this link. Sláinte and here’s to another exciting year!   

Copyright © and all rights reserved on all tasting notes by SamuelWhisky and pictures likewise belong to SamuelWhisky. If you would like to use any such material that belongs to SamuelWhisky please ask by sending me an email to samuelkarlssonorebro@gmail.com