If you had not of heard of this French blended malt you are not alone, because it was new to me as well when I saw it in the Air France Lounge in Paris.  A little online research suggests this is a blend of 3 single malts of different regions of France and finished in new French oak casks.  It is bottled at 40% ABV but nosed like it was much stronger.  Very feisty and malty with barnyard, floral and even perfurmed notes in the nose.  Hot and sweet on the palate with some flashes of toffee which were quickly masked by pepper and even a slightly acrid smokey note.  The finish has some chilli heat with a hint of lemon peel marmalade.  A splash of water improves it greatly, smooths out the grainy mouth feel and brings out some more fruity and sweet flavours.  It is not bad but posseses little elegance or sophistication so in that respect it is not a very French French whisky.

This is the third expression in the Bushmills Steamship Collection travel retail series and the most expensive.  There is lots of red fruits and wine in the nose.  The mouthfeel is smooth and the taste has dates, digestive biscuits, red grape skins, cinnamon and a little oak which carries into the finish.  With water it gets much sweeter and even smoother with an almost glassy mouthfeel and toffee.  Even at 40% ABV this needs a little water.   A very smooth, easy drinking Irish whiskey and maybe the first in this series I might order instead of my go to Bushmills product Black Bush (....unless I am paying).

I am very happy to announce that I will returning to Houston Texas this summer after almost 4 years working overseas.   Most of that time has been spent in Dubai which has not been a great place to blog about whisky but once I am back in Texas I hope to refresh the website (which is well overdue) and promise to try and post more regular blogs and whisky reviews that everyone out there can then just ignore much more frequently.  In summary, everything will be just like it was before....

I always question "bourbon cask" finished as a feature of any whisky as most Scotch and Irish is matured in Bourbon casks.  It is like saying a "metal car" or a "terrible Brexit plan"; it's a  bit redundant.  Bushmills have highlghted the #3 char of oak casks used (meaning a few seconds less exposure to fire than the more common #4) as the USP of this expression.  The nose is malty with banana, vanilla and milk chocolate.  The taste also has malt and nuts, lemon citrus peel and sweet peanut brittle.  The finish is initially sugar coating on tongue with a spicy note of cinnamon and tamale hots candy at the end.  At end of the day it is another bourbon cask finished whisky and there is not much here that stands out so if you are in mood for no-age expression Bushmills (and why not) I would probably recommend Black Bush over this one.

Not long after I wrote the blog a few weeks ago the news was full, as I once predicted, of news around fake whisky (so actual fake news).  An example story from BBC is below but in summary twenty-one out of fifty five bottles of rare Scotch were proven to be outright fakes.  In short I felt this required me to update my prior blog to include my new, Fourth Law of Whisky Invesment as follows:

Law 1 Investing: Allocate for investment in Whisky exactly the same amount of money you would be willing throw onto a fire and watch burn

Law 2 Buying: If you are reading on the internet or in a magazine about a great investment, then it isn't.  Law 3 now applies.

Law 3 Selling: Appear in a series of magazine articles and internet postings about how great whisky investing is.  Then sell your shit.

Law 4 Owning: The "rare" whisky you own is quite possibly a fake and worthless.  For that reason do not under any circumtances allow it to be checked.  Law 3 still applies.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-46566703

Note: This was first attempt to limit my increasingly rare tasting notes to 280 characters so I can also tweet full review rather than link for all my millenial readers....

London Distillery LV 1767 Edition

54.3% ABV, 100% Rye and aged for 1400 days

Nose: Black cherry, plum, Cadbury Fruit and Nut with biscuit

Taste: Sweet, chocolate, coffee and more fruit

Finish: Peppermint and oak bitterness. Slight grain note indicative of youth

Location: Xian Bar, Bossa Nova Mall, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Date: December 2018

Price: 80 rials ($21.53 USD)

Recipe: Requested Makers Mark

Garnish: Cherry

Served: Up

Comments: For this price it had to be good... and it was.  Much better than previous visit to Rio (Experiment #27)

What is this about? Check out  http://www.somanywhiskies.com/item/749-the-manhattan-project-ii

Location: The Chart Room, QE2, Dubai, UAE

Date: December 2018

Price: 75 AED  ($20.42 USD)

Recipe: Described as Bourbon whisky (no e) and Martini Rosso

Garnish: Cherry

Served: Up

Comments: As you might expect for the iconic QE2 it was excellent, balanced sweet and woody but perhaps missed the bitters

What is this about? Check out  http://www.somanywhiskies.com/item/749-the-manhattan-project-ii

This was picked by Mike Raymond of Houston's Reserve 101 as their 10th anniversary bottling. As the regular readers (both of them) know by now I love Maker's Mark, I love Houston, I love Reserve101 and I have very strong feelings for Mike.  But for some reason this one did not quite work for me, but give it a try as it might for you.   The nose is oaky with some fruity wine notes as well.  Some heat from the 55.65% ABV along with classic vanilla, corn and cola notes.  The taste is hot and a little sharp at first with some black cherry, dark chocolate, jalepeno, burnt caramel and oak char.  The finish is pepper and even a little sour.  With water it gets creamier with some brown sugar and more vanilla. It definately needs a little water (or ice or time) to open it up.

To be honest this name slightly annoys me and I was expecting that to influence how I liked / disliked the liquid but the truth is that this 40% abv travel expression was good enough to overcome this obstacle.  The name refers to first fill bourbon casks, sherry casks and what the label describes as "tradiotional whsksy casks" which means I assume re-used bourbon or sherry casks.  So to call this a "triple cask' is sort of like saying Brexit is "the will of the people" when less than 50% of the country actually voted to Leave.  The nose is fruity with green apples and polished wood.  The taste has toffee sweetness, vanilla, barley sugar, marmalade and hints of oak that build into a bitter sweet but balanced finish.  Drink neat as water does nothing for this, it just gets thin in mouth feel.  Dont like the name but still a great product.