Posts Tagged With: Jim Murray

Tasting Notes: Crown Royal – Northern Harvest Rye

Posted on August 9, 2017 by whiskyunplugged

Crown Royal – Northern Harvest Rye

On 1st July 2017, Canadians worldwide celebrated 150 years of independence from British rule. Having a Canadian amongst our midst within the WU troop, there was no better opportunity to celebrate all things Canadian than with a barbecue, a 17 hour playlist of Canadian tunes, an air hockey tournament and some sweet, sweet Canadian whisky. Not only was the day full of celebration, but with whisky geeks in tow, it was time for our Canuck to bring out the big guns and here we have it: Jim Murray’s Whiskey of the Year for 2016 – Crown Royal’s Northern Harvest Rye, brought to Blighty from the land whenst it came. The bottle boasts that this expression is a blend crafted from a mash of 90% rye to create an “extraordinarily smooth” dram with tastes of “fruit, cloves and spice”. Well, that’s put that to the test…

ABV: 45% 


Nose

M: Strong booze on the nose. Really sticky sweet with a bit of liquorice.

Taste

M: Totally sweet with corn syrup-like flavours upfront with that thick rye kind of spice cutting right through.

Finish

M: A boozy brash finish that I was not expecting from the world’s best whisky. Strong Demerara sugar sweetness and depth followed by that liquorice/aniseed flavour lingering for a long, long time.

Verdict

M: I’m still not that versed in rye whiskies, but this seems to have taken the rye flavours that I do recognise and has amped them up to 11, with some popcorn sweetness added in to try and balance it out. It’s sweet, it’s dry, it’s got a herby kinda spice to it. It’s lingering. It’s intriguing. It’s not my cup of tea, if I’m being honest! Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t dislike BUT I’m willing to explore further – is it the best rye out there? According to Jim Murray it is. But I’m not him and I’m going to have to explore more rye whiskies to prove a point (it’s a tough job but someone’s gotta do it) Only then, if our glorious Canadian doesn’t finish it off first, might I come back again to see what I’ve learned.

Northern Harvest In Summertime

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Tasting Notes: Yamazaki – Distiller’s Reserve

Posted on September 14, 2016 by whiskyunplugged

Yamazaki - Distiller's Reserve

Yamazaki – Distiller’s Reserve

It is widely recognised that Japanese whiskies are becoming more and more world-renowned, particularly so since the end of 2014 when Jim Murray surprised the critics by awarding his whisky of the year for 2015 to Yamazaki’s 2013 Sherry Cask. At the start of 2014 though, Suntory released two new whiskies into the market in an attempt to offer a new, varied entry-level dram that could be distributed around supermarkets – The Distiller’s Reserve (one for Yamazaki and one for Hakushu).

These new bottles may be classed as single malts because they’re from a single distillery but actually represent a blend of 3 different expressions from Yamazaki. The Distiller’s Reserve is a no-age-statement blend of a wine cask expression, a sherry cask expression (which Jim clearly loves) and a mizunara cask expression (i.e. Japanese oak). The ages of each ingredient varies but is believed to be somewhere between 8-10 for the sherry and mizunara casks, and anywhere up to 18-20 for the wine cask. With an unfavourable introduction to Yamazaki but the promise of something new and a lot of flavours (including an award winning component) the WU boys were intrigued to try this out…

ABV: 43%

Nose

M: Clean, slight fruit, vanilla, a little alcoholic burn and a little oak.

S: *prickles nose* – very sting-y. Pine and citrus notes with some underlying vanilla.

Taste

M: Sweet, strawberries and a light sherry finish.

S: Tastes like strawberry cheesecake…Sherry comes through along with an oakiness.

Finish

M: Almost a grain-like finish, with red fruits but it all disappears too quickly.

S: Disappointingly weak…some embers to help warm you up but not much.

Verdict

M: The three different whiskies that make up this dram are all present in its taste and are nicely balanced. It might just be my preference (or because I bought it) but I quite like this Yamo – particularly more than the other lads – and I could spend a while with this dram enjoying the different flavours, if they didn’t end too soon.

S: A decent dram, but unimpressed with this “triple maturation” process and a £40+ price tag. Enough positives though to recommend it.

J: Couldn’t really find too much to write home about here. Its a fairly sweet whisky, but its not really blowing my mind.

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