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| 04 June 2013 |
Three's A Crowd
Strathisla Pure Highland Malt Scotch Whisky, 12 Year Old - Post II
Lucked out and found a liquor store going out of business and got a nice buy on several single malts, one of which I just sampled, to wit:
Chivas Brothers Strathisla Pure Highland Malt Scotch Whisky, 12 year old, 43% ABV (which also happens to be the prime constituent of Chivas Regal 12)
My initial take agrees fairly well with a lot of reviews that I just read - a very good (75 to 85) rating - and more to the point, fairly smooth after the first taste, oaky, very mildly sweet, and some hints (hints!!) of peat, or at least wood smoke with a nice complex finish.
More later - (Love the old style flat bottle - so old the cork disintegrated, its a shame the aging stops once it's taken from the cask and bottled in glass - and most importantly I got it for about 60% of the cheapest store around and as much as 40% of some web sites)
The above was posted 29 December 2012 - below is the update as of todays posting:
Michael Jackson's Complete Guide to Single Malt
Scotch comments:
House Style - Dry, fruity.
After dinner.
COLOUR
- Full, deep gold.
NOSE
- Apricot. Cereal grains. Fresh, juicy oak.
BODY
- Medium, rounded.
PALATE
- Sherryish, fruity. Mouth -coating. Teasing sweet-and-dry character
FINISH -
Smooth and soothing. Violets and
vanilla.
| score | 80 |
NorvellHimself’s take before reading Michael Jackson:
- amber to deep golden brown, slightly oily with nice bite
of alcohol, not too strong - just letting you know that it’s whisky with hints
of wharf flavor – when I hear reviewers say ‘tarry taste’ it brings to my mind
a downer connotation but the Strathisla hints at tarred notes in a mild odour
kind-of-way a visual kind-of-way and I imagine poor young kids in the deep
south of yesteryear taking fragile tar bubbles from the sleek hot macadam road
and tasting them with their tongues onto them – more a mild atavistic memory of
flavor of tar – as I swallow the nice liquor a bit to quickly it catches in my
throat as a long dying ember of finish – this is just a great whisky with my
mind flowing to the sight and nose-taste of long wide tendrils of brown kelp
curing in the sun at the Mointeach (mon-yuck as the old Gaelic ones say) – this
whisky is not flavours of sweetness (although overtures of mild honey are
there) of fruits but a whisky with an earthiness of life moving me to a higher
awareness of the usquebaugh of the highlands.
Well other than in score I don’t seem to
agree much with Michael Jackson, eh?
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| 14 October 2013 |
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| 13 May 2013 |
I am not certain whether this is Catalpa bignonioides or Paulownia tomentos. To be somewhat positive I will have to get a twig and examine the pith, which I plan on doing later. If I had taken the photos a few weeks sooner I could have checked the blossoms. And if I wait a few week longer the growing fruit pods will help make the identification more precise.
This old tree has about a 3 1/2 to 4 foot diameter and is about maxed out in height - I/m guessing about 50 feet or so. Long ago when U.S.40 was a quiet war time route and Mechanics Valley road was gravel this was the old Rhudy farm with this tree shading the house in summer. In the top photo the lower limb extending to the left still has the swing hangers showing at the bottom. Now it still survives thanks to some businessman deciding not to clear it for a larger parking lot.
Well today - 14 October 2013 - I stopped by the above tree and spotted one long slender seed-pod still attached which confirms the identification as Catalpa bignonioides
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