April 09, 2019

Barrell Bourbon 15 Year Old Cask Strength Bottle #138 - Best American Whisky?

April 09, 2019/ Mark Bylok

Barrell Bourbon isn’t a distillery. They’re a bottler that purchases barrels from distilleries selling barrels. Because Barrell Bourbon gets to sample the barrels they purchase, and distilleries often sell barrels that don’t meet with their standard taste profile (which doesn’t make them bad, just not right for that distillery), this gives Barrell Bourbon the freedom to release interesting flavor profiles.

March 19, 2019

Bunnahabhain Toiteach A Dhà Review

March 19, 2019/ Mark Bylok

Bunnahabhain Distillery continues to produce some of my favourite single malt scotches. The regular Bunnahabhain single malt range is focused on European oak, and contains no obvious peat notes. Occasionally, though, Senior Blender Dr. Kristie McCallum sneaks out a peated single malt! They’re terrific.

January 22, 2019

Gooderham & Worts Eleven Souls - The Blender's Wheelhouse

January 22, 2019/ Mark Bylok

The Gooderham & Worts brand is the most exciting brand owned by Corby’s, the company behind J.P. Wiser’s, Lot No. 40, and many other brands coming out of Hiram-Walker Distillery in Windsor. It’s getting the reputation of being a blender’s playhouse, and the blender with all the great barrels is Dr. Don Livermore. Winner of the 2019 Master Blender of the year, Dr. Don Livermore was tasked with choosing eleven barrels to blend for this year’s special release.

January 21, 2019

Canadian Club 41 Year Old - The Most Celebrated Canadian Whisky of 2018 (and it's still available!)

January 21, 2019/ Mark Bylok

Canadian Club 41 Year Old is undoubtably the most celebrated whisky of the 2018 season. It’s also readily (as of this posting) available at the LCBO. This is, at least in part, a controversial whisky in price-point, the way it’s made, and value. Where you fall on this will largely depend on your philosophy as a consumer. Either way, this is a terrific compliment to last year’s 40 year old release.

November 15, 2018

Glassware, Whisky, and Winning!

November 15, 2018/ Mark Bylok

Some years ago, Jamie and I went to a whisky festival in Toronto where all the whisky tasted terrible. It all tasted the same. The conspiracist in me suspected the big name brand bottles were refilled with junk whisky. Later, though, I realized it was because of the glassware. The festival organizers used thick rocks glasses intended for cocktails and whisky on ice, but not for whisky poured neat.

October 29, 2018

Lot No. 40 Cask Strength 11 Year Old (2018) Review (and comparison with 2017)

October 29, 2018/ Mark Bylok

In the summer of 2017, Master Blender Dr. Don Livermore called the Hiram-Walker warehouse manager to ask that the six barrels intended for the that afternoon’s tasting be brought outdoors. This was unusual. Typically, when doing a tour through Hiram-Walker distillery, the much anticipated barrel tasting happens within the warehouse. That summer of August, though, was the day of the eclipse.

September 13, 2018

Barrell Bourbon Batch 011 Review - Batches Unbourboned (that are delicious Bourbon!)

September 13, 2018/ Mark Bylok

Barrel Bourbon seeks out unique barrels of whisky from various sources, batches them, and bottles them when they’re ready to go. Their mantra is “no two batches taste alike.” It’s a good mantra. It’s a fantastic idea. It’s a play on a weakness, since smaller producers buying barrels have a challenge of producing a consistent product.

August 30, 2018

Glenfiddich Fire & Cane Takes Aim at Islay

August 30, 2018/ Mark Bylok

Glenfiddich’s Experimental releases are pushing the distillery in new directions. Fire & Cane, the latest, is perhaps the perfect balance of price and flavor. Winter Storm is, undoubtedly, the best whisky of this excellent collection. It’s 21 Year Old Glenfiddich, however, and that comes with a high price. Fire & Cane is affordable, and dead-set on competing with peated whiskies coming from Islay.

August 17, 2018

W.L. Weller C.Y.P.B. gets a ton of whisky collector hype, and it's great!

August 17, 2018/ Mark Bylok

The people behind Buffalo Trace did research a few years ago, asking their fans on the type of whisky they’d like to see. A website asked several questions, including the preferred recipe of whisky (rye, bourbon, wheated bourbon), the age, the proof, etc. The results came in, and the Craft Your Perfect Bourbon was born. It’ll be an annual release. The first release, priced at $40, is already selling for hundreds of dollars in the after-market. Welcome to the bourbon craze. I’d hate to contribute to the hype, but Weller C.Y.P.B. is a terrific whisky. It’s probably the best in the Weller series.

August 07, 2018

Amrut Spectrum 50% Batch 1 Reviewed

August 07, 2018/ Mark Bylok

Spectrum batch 0001 is a dark, brooding, terrific hot mess. The best kind of hot mess. Later batch numbers are a little more settled, youthful, and zestier. Still, batch 0001 will likely be the collector’s favourite because you’re not going to get flavours like this anywhere else. The distillery (located in Bangalore) is the master of hot climate new world whiskies.

August 02, 2018

Ardbeg Grooves Review - Regular vs Committee Release

August 02, 2018/ Mark Bylok

Ardbeg’s annual releases are highly anticipated among fans. The most popular of recent years, Dark Cove, was much beloved and was turned (unofficially) to a regular release called AN NO. Each year, fans get something different. Each year, there are two releases; the regular releases and the committee release, intended primarily for Ardbeg committee members (an organization that’s free to join).

July 31, 2018

Glenfiddich Winter Storm Review - Scotch whisky with a great Canadian twist

July 31, 2018/ Mark Bylok

Winter Storm is the third of Glenfiddich’s Experimental releases (which includes IPA, and Project XX). This one has a Canadian twist, and it starts with Canadian Brand Ambassador Beth Havers. It was Beth that suggested Canadian ice-wine casks as a potential finishing barrel. Brian Kinsman, malt laster for Glenfiddich, ran with the idea.

July 31, 2018

Making Whisky with Peerless Distilling Head Distiller, Caleb Kilburn

July 31, 2018/ Mark Bylok

Peerless Distillery is located in Louisville Kentucky. They make cask-strength ryes and bourbons, both single barrels and extremely small batches (6 or so barrels). When making whisky, they use a sweet mash instead of a sour mash, and they put their whisky into barrels at a lower proof. When visiting the distillery, I met-up with Caleb Kilburn to discuss their whisky making process. This setup the perfect back-drop for a Whisky 101 on how American Bourbon and Rye is made! Thanks Caleb, and the folks at Peerless Distillery, for the tour!

July 18, 2018

Booker’s Rye 13 Year Old (2016) - A Home Run Hit

July 18, 2018/ Mark Bylok

Booker’s Rye hit the market in 2016 as a one-off. Aged for thirteen years, this was a premium brand extension from Booker’s Bourbon. Jim Beam, the distillery behind Booker’s, is known for intense flavoured bourbons that use a low rye recipe (with some exceptions). Beam plays with oak flavours within their bourbon lines.

July 06, 2018

Why am I tasting whisky in a red room?

July 06, 2018/ Mark Bylok

While recording The Whisky Topic Podcast with Drew Mayville, I found myself in a red room tasting an unknown whisky without any hint to what it might be. I failed. There was coughing. And a reveal!

June 27, 2018

Canadian Club Aged 40 Years - Not your everyday CC Rye

June 27, 2018/ Mark Bylok

Canadian Club joined the 2017 party of great Canadian whisky releases. This was an LCBO-only release at $250 a bottle, and it sold out within minutes. It’s apparently a hot-commodity in after-market trading. There are a few things not commonly spoken of when making Canadian Club 40, and it reflects in the flavour.

June 21, 2018

Glenfiddich Project XX - A Blend of Scotch Ambassadors

June 21, 2018/ Mark Bylok

Glenfiddich’s Experimental Series started with IPA, a whisky that surprised me. I thought it was a gimmick, but it turned out to be a winner in setting Glenfiddich in a new direction. The second release in the Experimental Series is Project XX (Pronounced: Project Twenty). Was this a clever marketing way to put the number twenty on the bottle? Perhaps, but the whisky inside has a clever story, and it’s a clever scotch, so let’s dive deeper.

June 15, 2018

J.P. Wiser's Seasoned Oak - A continued celebration of Canadian blends

June 15, 2018/ Mark Bylok

J.P. Wiser’s Seasoned Oak is part of the rare cask series, an annual unique release that comes out in time for father’s day. Last year’s release featured Dissertation, a play on Dr. Don Livermore’s PhD. With Seasoned Oak, this is a further celebration of the flavours barrels bring to the whisky we enjoy.

June 12, 2018

Laird of Fintry 2016 - 42%

June 12, 2018/ Mark Bylok

Despite the claims on the website, this isn’t “scotch styled” single malt. It’s single malt, reimagined. The malted barley notes do come through, but this is a North American style single malt. I do hate going on about this point, but marketing needs to meet expectation, and this isn’t “scotch styled.”

June 11, 2018

Dun Bheagan 31 Year Old Cask (Cask #6994) 53.8% Inchgower

June 11, 2018/ Mark Bylok

I’m often offered samples of whisky from strange places. This sample came to me via a square glass bottle with a wide lid. On a whim, I poured the sample into a Glencairn glass and quickly started jotting down tasting notes. It was immediately captivated. The nose is beautiful with complexity, booziness, and intensity. The palate is even more impressive. My original writeup on tastings notes for the palate were two paragraphs long.

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