tire-bouchon...

Continuing with the world's top three selling whisky brands... Today is day 2 and the brand is McDowell's No.1. Owned by United Spirits/Diageo McDowell's No.1 sold 25.5 million cases in 2016 securing the title of second best selling whisky in the world. * I do have two different botllings on my desk though... I will take a wild guess and assume that "Platinum" has a higher rank than "Luxury" in the line-up just because it comes in a glass bottle not in a plastic one like "Luxury". So let's start with "Luxury"... McDowell's No.1 Luxury (42.8%): Color: Yellow gold with again thin but slow moving legs. Nose: Sweet with touch of smoke... That's surprising, isn't it? But soon enough alcohol rises up in the glass and kinda kills all our hopes about the nose. Now the smoke is purely medicinal but in a good way: First aid closet, hydrogen peroxide and gauze pads. Palate: Industrial alcohol with hints of ins...

Imperial Blue...

Imperial Blue (42.8%): Next three days I will be tasting world's top three selling whisky brands back to back here on tire-bouchon . All three of them are produced in India and for the Indian market. First one is Imperial Blue which is a brand owned by Pernod Ricard . The brand sold 18 million cases in 2016 making them the third best selling whisky in the world. * I probably cannot thank enough to Susannah Skiver Barton for generously sending me the samples after bringing them all the way from India... But before we start let me explain what Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) is first and how it differs from whiskies we know... IMFL refers to hard liquors produced in India other than "indigenous alcoholic beverages" or spirits produced in foreign countries and imported to India to be bottled. Although any type of raw material can be used to distill the base spirit, molasses are the most common ingredient used in India. It is distilled to a level as high a...

Watt Whisky Tormore 10yo...

Watt Whisky Tormore 10yo (57.1%): Continuing our Watt Whisky Week in its 3rd day with a young(ish) Tormore . Again Tormore is a distillery we don't see that often on the shelves as a single malt despite of its massive capacity of nearly five million liters of pure alcohol per year. It is a true workhorse for Pernod Ricard which started distilling relatively later in 1959 supplying ow single malt whisky for almost all Pernod blends especially for Ballentine's. I tried only a few expressions before mostly from 90s but have grown quite fond of it especially because of its distinct strong brewed tea notes on the palate. This one is distilled in 2010, matured in a ex-Bourbon hogshead but just before being bottled racked into an ex-Islay cask for a very short period of three months. In the end the cask yielded 287 bottles at cask strength. Color: Pale straw, young white wine color with a persistent thin ring of tiny teardrops around the glass eventually rolling down slowly as prett...

malted memories recovered...

Two years ago when I read online that Mey Icki announced to withdraw the only Turkish whisky in the market "Ankara" from circulation and stop it's production I felt extremely sad... It was an end of an era. Mey Icki is one of the new alcohol industry giants in Turkey and purchased the spirit department of government owned Tekel after it's privatization in 2004. Tekel which means literally monopoly in Turkish has been founded in 1925 right after the declaration of Turkish Republic as a result of the new nationalist economic movement taking alcohol, tobacco and gunpowder under state monopoly. The government was nationalizing almost everything to be able to gain the control of the natural resources of the country back from foreign companies, to pay huge foreign debts after decades of devastating wars and to start their own late industrial revolution. Import was not allowed for a long time to protect the new government owned and private companies from severe competit...

tire-bouchon's top twenty albums of 2021...

Like we do every January we would like to start this year with our top 20 albums of last year again. Here is a list of albums inspired us the most, kept us going and gave us hope while we tried to finish a year like this without a major meltdown. Thanks to all the artists who wrote, recorded and performed... 1. We Are by Jon Batiste 2. Liberation Time by John McLaughlin 3. Carnage by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis 4. Heaven on the Faultline by Alex Bleeker 5. Acoustic Hymns Vol. 1 by Richard Ashcroft 6. Side-Eye NYC by Pat Metheny 7. The Ultra Vivid Lament by Manic Street Preachers 8. Tone Poem by Charles Lloyd & the Marvels 9. Hope by Ceramic Dog 10. Variations on a Melancholy Theme by Brad Mehldau & Orpheus Chamber Orchestra 11. Fat Pop by Paul Weller 12. On DSCH by Igor Levit 13. The Ballad of Dood & Juanita by Sturgill Simpson 14. 12 Stradivari by Janine Jensen & Antonio Papp...

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