Apathy78
New Member
- Joined
- May 19, 2006
- Messages
- 447
I was fortunate enough to pick up a bottle of this from the Fathers Day Scotch Buy, thanks AVB. 
I am a big fan of the Islay malts with Lagavulin 16yr being my personal favorite. In fact the Lagavulin is my favorite of all the scotch whiskies that I have tried. So needless to say, I was excited about the thought of tasting another Islay malt.
I am by no means a professional taster, however I do know what I like and what I dislike, so I will do my best to relay my thoughts regarding this bottle.
This is the second installment of the, Very Young, Still Young and Almost There trilogy.
Distilled in 1998, the "Still Young" was bottled in 2006.
To date I have not tried the original release of "Very Young", however if I can find it I plan on picking one up as well as picking up the “Almost There” bottle when it is released next year. It will be interesting to see the maturation of the whisky.
Back to this particular bottle;
The color is clear, almost resembling water or *gasp* some Moonshine. I was a bit surprised at just how clear this whisky actually is.
The aroma is typical Islay very peaty and smoky and quite pleasant. Surprisingly for the strength and color of this whisky, it had a very slight alcohol smell to it.
Being that this is a cask strength whisky and comes in at a cool 56.2% it definitely has a kick to it. I actually tried this two separate ways, neat and with a light splash of water. I hardly ever add anything to my whisky; however I decided to make an exception in this case.
Neat – Powerfully peaty and smoky initially, with a strong alcohol aftertaste, similar but not nearly as pungent as Moonshine or Diesel. It’s really an amazing taste, the way that everything comes together perfectly. It's a taste that should be experienced by all who enjoy an Islay whisky.
With water – Adding a light splash of water to this whisky really took away the alcohol aftertaste in a big way without taking away from the core flavor of this offering. The peat and smoke are still very much there, however with water the aftereffects are a bit smoother.
Overall I must say that this is a very good offering and I for one am looking forward to next year’s release of the “Almost There”.
Hopefully I will have some of this left to compare what a difference a year makes. :thumbs:
Oh yeah, I smoked a La Gloria Cubana Serie R Number 7 to complement this whisky.
I must say that was a good smoke that went well with the whisky. It took me about 3 hours to polish that sucker off, and it was time well spent.
I am a big fan of the Islay malts with Lagavulin 16yr being my personal favorite. In fact the Lagavulin is my favorite of all the scotch whiskies that I have tried. So needless to say, I was excited about the thought of tasting another Islay malt.
I am by no means a professional taster, however I do know what I like and what I dislike, so I will do my best to relay my thoughts regarding this bottle.
This is the second installment of the, Very Young, Still Young and Almost There trilogy.
Distilled in 1998, the "Still Young" was bottled in 2006.
To date I have not tried the original release of "Very Young", however if I can find it I plan on picking one up as well as picking up the “Almost There” bottle when it is released next year. It will be interesting to see the maturation of the whisky.
Back to this particular bottle;
The color is clear, almost resembling water or *gasp* some Moonshine. I was a bit surprised at just how clear this whisky actually is.
The aroma is typical Islay very peaty and smoky and quite pleasant. Surprisingly for the strength and color of this whisky, it had a very slight alcohol smell to it.
Being that this is a cask strength whisky and comes in at a cool 56.2% it definitely has a kick to it. I actually tried this two separate ways, neat and with a light splash of water. I hardly ever add anything to my whisky; however I decided to make an exception in this case.
Neat – Powerfully peaty and smoky initially, with a strong alcohol aftertaste, similar but not nearly as pungent as Moonshine or Diesel. It’s really an amazing taste, the way that everything comes together perfectly. It's a taste that should be experienced by all who enjoy an Islay whisky.
With water – Adding a light splash of water to this whisky really took away the alcohol aftertaste in a big way without taking away from the core flavor of this offering. The peat and smoke are still very much there, however with water the aftereffects are a bit smoother.
Overall I must say that this is a very good offering and I for one am looking forward to next year’s release of the “Almost There”.
Hopefully I will have some of this left to compare what a difference a year makes. :thumbs:
Oh yeah, I smoked a La Gloria Cubana Serie R Number 7 to complement this whisky.
I must say that was a good smoke that went well with the whisky. It took me about 3 hours to polish that sucker off, and it was time well spent.
