I was too lazy to write a post for each day, so here you go 3 days together. The competition is major fun, but it also very hard, much harder than you can imagine. It’s like trying to locate a needle in a haystack and that stack is my semi-senile mind. Anyways, It’s day 9 today, and so far I am doing OK. 17th place (out of 73) , with the last few days, scoring points, but not really hitting the big pointers (distillery), I hope one of these days I shall nail it, yet it does seem very difficult.
Day 5 was a good opportunity to score, but I managed to screw it, having both tasted, and posted tasting notes for the excellent Benromach 10, I failed to recognize it was this dram. Damn.
Day 6 was much more difficult with a dram I had never tasted from a distillery I’ve yet to try (Lochside).
Lochside 1991-2008, 46% , Gordon & MacPhail for the Whiskytalker 
Nose: A very strong honey note that hits you hard! floral too, but hugely perfume like with that honey, and hints of lemon. weird stuff. Certainly not a big ABV malt, 40’s or so.
Palate: Some pepper, with lemon drops and that honey from the nose makes a comeback here as well, funky stuff that’s for sure, and not in a good way if i might add. Not one to my liking.Floral.
Finish: Pepper, Lemon and honey, with more florals.
My guess was a GlenCadam 16 yo. Not even close.
The next dram (day 7) was a tricky one and also sadly a dram I’ve tasted before and even posted notes about a few weeks back (here) None other than Bowmore Devil’s cask batch #2 , much spoken and sought after.Did that help me with guessing the distillery or the dram right? No, of course it did not. This dram was screaming Peat from the get go. The nose itself was more subdued but the palate left no other option: Islay. A few options I considered were a young Kilchoman sherry cask, a young Bowmore or a young Bunnahabhain sherry cask. I chose to go with the Kilchoman sherry cask, and missed on age (4 yo) and distillery, but at least got some points for the region (Islay). Not going to post notes here, as I’ve done that (check the link here).
Off to the latest guess, yesterday. A very good nose, and ex-bourbon notes, but which distillery? region? I did not even consider a Lowland, and tried to find a highland distillery that would match this profile, and age. I scored 12 points for age, and abv (thought it was a 20 year old 46% highland, Picked Clynelish just as a wild guess, although it did not display any Clynelish-y characteristics. I was clueless. Turns out I’ve tasted a LM from the archives way back, but that one was a sherry cask
Littlemill, Archives, Ex-bourbon, 47.8% abv, 23 yo
Nose: Lot of coconut and tropical fruit over here, with some old moist wood, which led me to think it’s 20’s or so, a hint of melon and maybe papaya. I loved this nose, it’s very very good and the wood is yummy.
Palate: Some more fruit (as the nose suggests) with the lovely coconut and a nice dose of old wet wood, that makes it even more appealing to me. It’s a solid dram! I do like it very much.
Finish: Lots of oak wood, touches of coconut and vanilla.
A fine dram, but quite a long shot from my guess.
Day 9 is upon us. looking tasty (by the color, it’s a sherry influenced dram).
wish me luck!