Daily Archives: 23/12/2025

Whisky

Exploring Global Whisky: A Personal Advent Calendar Journey (Part 6)

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I am coming to the end of my Advent Calendar. I have five more whiskies to experience. I shall write about the next four (up to Christmas Eve) in this post. I will do a separate post about the Christmas Day whisky. Which I hope will be something special, but fear will be the World whisky equivalent of a generic blended Scotch.

I will also try and summarise my experience. I will try and decide my favourite whisky from the twenty five.

Dec 21st

Today’s whisky comes from Sweden. The distillery is near the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia, about five hundred kilometres north of Stockholm.

High Coast Hav comes in at 48% ABV. “Hav” is the Swedish word for sea.

It has an attractive pale amber colour. I found notes of peat, smoke and oak on the nose. Tasting it gave me fruit, spice and peat smoke.

This was another whisky that I found a drop of water helped to open the whisky up.

The distiller likes to experiment with different mash combinations. They use a variety of barrels to achieve different effects on the final product. Clearly, in this case the experiment works. This was a whisky that I liked. While it is not cheap I feel that it is reasonably priced.

Dec 22nd

We are back to Ireland to sample another Mitchell and Sons Spot Whiskies. We tried their Red Spot on the 17th.

Today’s offering is Green Spot Single Pot Still Chateau Léoville Barton Bordeaux Cask

Taken from the Website:
Green Spot Château Léoville Barton represents the coming together of two historic families, two stories of Irish endeavour and enterprise who together are the inspiration for this special edition whiskey.
Our whiskey is finished in Château Léoville Barton French oak casks, the very casks that play a vital role in the wine’s distinctive balance, bouquet and flavour, that we’ve used to bring something extra to our Green Spot Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey.

As you can see from that, the whiskey is finished in Bordeaux Casks. This is where, I would suppose, that the very dark gold colour comes from. The nose, I found is heavily influenced by the cask. I got fruit and wine as the main elements . Taste wise fruit and spice were the main elements.

I have never been totally convinced by wine barrel whiskies. This one did nothing to change my mind.

Dec 23rd

The whisky today comes from Canada. It is made by Hiram Walker. It is a blend of Corn and Rye whiskies aged in rum barrels

Pike Creek 10 year old comes in at 42% ABV. It is brown in colour. on the nose I found that the rum cask was the predominant theme, followed by a hint of sweetness. Taste wise, again rum was prominent, as well as spice from the rye and sweetness from the corn.

This was a pleasant enough whisky. It is reasonably priced, but there was nothing about it that said, “buy me”

Dec 24th

Our Christmas Eve whisky came from New Zealand. When we were on holiday there, last year, I found that New Zealand creates some very drinkable whiskies. The Cardrona distillery produced some exceptional ones. The Cardrona distillery is situated in the South Island. Today’s whisky is produced in the North Island, in the small town of Pokeno, about fifty kilometres south of Auckland.

Pokeno Discovery is a single malt with a 43% ABV. It is matured in Bourbon casks and Oloroso sherry casks. It has an amber colour. I found the nose to be fruity with a hint of honey. Its palate gave me dried fruit and cinnamon, with a hint of chocolate.

This was a whisky that I enjoyed drinking. I was one of the few that I did not feel the need to add water to. Most of the others needed a drop of water, either to open them out, or in some cases alleviate the alcohol burn.

It is not a cheap whisky but I would say worth paying for.

Whisky

Exploring Global Whisky: A Personal Advent Calendar Journey (Part 5)

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Dec 17th

For today’s whiskey we go back to Ireland. Red Spot is a 15 year old single pot still 46% Irish whiskey. Matured in Bourbon, Sherry and Marsala casks, it is amber in colour.

On the nose I got fruit and nuts. Taste wise, there was again fruit, with a hint of pepper, and vanilla. While I found that it was fine straight from the bottle, a couple of drops of water improved it. This opened it out.

I quite like this whiskey. The price tag is well over £110 for a bottle though. I didn’t like it enough to pay that money.

Dec 18th

This Japanese whisky is the only one in the calendar, so far, that I have previously drunk. I was given a bottle as a gift by my step-son who had been on holiday in France. I don’t know why someone would buy a bottle of Japanese Cask Strength whisky in France. Especially as a gift for a Scotch whisky drinker. It does mean that I have a 50 cl bottle of Nikka from the Barrel sitting on my sideboard. It comes in at 51.4% ABV. It is blend of various malts and grain whiskies.

It is pale amber in colour. I found caramel and fruit on the nose. The palate gave me toffee, a hint of fruit and chili. Though as with most whiskies over 45% ABV, I needed to add a drop of water to get the nose and the palate to open out.

This is whisky that I would recommend.

Dec 19th

Our whisky adventure takes us to Canada today. To Nova Scotia to be exact. Nova Scotia, having been settled mainly by the Scots, has probably been producing whisky since the c17th. Red Bank, which has the actor Keifer Sutherland as one of its founders, only goes back to 2022

The Red Bank Blend comes in at 40% ABV. It combines mainly wheat whisky, with corn and rye whiskies also added. This process gives a reasonably balanced and quite drinkable product.

The colour is pale gold. I found fruit and oak on the nose. The palate was sweetish, with some fruit and spice. It was a pleasant enough whisky, but without anything to make it stand out from the pack.

Dec 20th

We journey back to India for today’s offering. I wasn’t too sure what to expect of this whisky. I was not overly impressed by the last Indian whisky in the calendar.

Amarut Fusion single malt comes in at 50% ABV. It has an amber colour. The nose gave me smoke and fruit, with a hint of sweetness. It tasted of pepper, oak and sultanas, with a gentle touch of peat smoke. Again I felt that a little water opened up both the nose and the palate. I liked this Indian whisky much better than the first one.

Click on the names of the whiskies. You can also click on the pictures of the bottles. Both actions will take you to the appropriate distillery website.