Johnnie Walker | Colonial Spirits

Christmas is almost here, and I thought I would spend some time writing about a few spirits I think would either make great holiday gifts or beverages worth enjoying with family and friends during this holiday season. Personally, I love brown spirits during the cold winter months. Scotch, bourbon and cognac make wonderful gifts or are simply great as after dinner drinks.

One of my favorite new scotches is Kilchoman. It is made in an Islay distillery that was established in 2005. In fact, it was the first distillery built on Islay in 124 years. Even though their whisky is young, it is of exceptional quality and impeccably balanced. This whisky is so skillfully distilled and blended you would never know that the whisky in the malt is only 4 to 6 years old. I am generally not an Islay fan because most are so smoke and peat driven they become too overbearing for my pallet. However, Kilchoman is so well balanced that the smoke or peat doesn’t dominate the flavor profile. If you are seeking a more traditional Islay, I recommend Bruichladdich 12 year or Arbeg 10 year; they offer excellent cost to quality ratio. Continue reading Holiday Spirits

One of the most common misconceptions in the spirits world is that ‘single malt scotch’ is of a higher quality than ‘blended scotch.’ This is completely unfounded and untrue. The designations single malt and blended are simply different ways of expressing the same product.

Blended Scotch was first made around 1860 after the introduction of column stills in 1830 led to the creation of un-malted grain whisky (otherwise known as ‘grain’). The smooth and mild mannered aspects of the grain helped to tone down the the more assertive characteristics of the malt whisky. The resulting blended whisky proved to be subdued and much more appealing to foreign consumers, particularly the English, who took to Scotch during the 1870s after phylloxera affected the supply of Cognac and Port–two mainstays of British culture. Continue reading Blended Scotch Versus Single Malt Scotch