Whisky Review: Mackmyra First Edition

Our first experience of the Swedish distillery Mackmyra was yet another Drinks by the Dram whisky advent calendar find, and their Brukswhisky release is one of our go-to favourites.

Bottled at 46.1% ABV, as their flagship core release the First Edition is a statement of intent, showcasing the Swedish oak casks used in maturation with pride.

Colour: Light straw.

Nose: Oaky character, with a basil herb freshness, hints of caramelised pears and lavender honey.

Palate: Gentle, smooth, and well balanced. The key characteristic is of sweet oak, but not the bourbon oak we are more used to - this has a spicier tickle that is still reminiscent of the initial honey present on the nose. The flavours are closer to an actual bourbon than a whisky aged in bourbon, as the lovely new oak brings a wonderful fruity freshness to the dram. When imbibed with a savoury snack (we picked a mild Bombay mix), a beautiful sweet apple note punches through with more prominence.

Finish: The prickles of pepper spice remain on the tongue, but are rounded out with a little apple freshness and a robust dark chocolate creaminess right at the end.

Overall, a unique and interesting whisky that places Sweden firmly on the distiller's map.

Skål!

J&L

Nottingham Pub Crawl

In our most recent venture in search of good beer, we ended up in Nottingham. An hour's train ride away from our hometown, and with some great bottle shops and whisky retailers to boot, it's one of our favourite places for a day trip. Here's a selection of reasons why...

Hand & Heart

Located a ten minute's walk out of the city centre, this is a truly unique pub, with an ornate back bar consisting of a glorious Victorian cabinet that sits behind the eight hand pumps and six brass keg lines.

The beer available covers a good mix of local and not so local breweries - on our recent visit we sampled the house brew from Dancing Duck, Round Heart, a 4% copper ale, Horncastle's Sacrificed Soul (4.3%), and Scribblers Masher in the Rye, a well balanced 4.8% pale ale with a spicy edge.

Behind the bar, hidden in the rear of the pub, is a restaurant built in one of the old cellars - this original feature is a great atmospheric place to sit. Between the two set just inside the sandstone cave is a snug area featuring leather sofas that seem to absorb humans, and arm chairs set around small tables.

An extensive food menu of well sourced meals caters for all palates and dietary requirements - the oxtail served with parsnip chips and stilton mash sounded particularly appealing.

The Organ Grinder

This pub is the kind of place where you instantly feel at home, being welcomed by the smell of a proper log fire and cheery staff. The first thing to note when examining the bar is that it is riddled with wittily-named Blue Monkey beers... This is because this free house is one of three brewery taps of the Giltbrook based brewhouse (with other Organ Grinder pubs located in Newark and Loughborough). On this trip we went for Sanctuary - a 4.1% copper ale which was slightly reminiscent of Twiglets (in a good way), and the fresh and hoppy Right Turn Clyde, a 4.3% pale ale. Both were perfect for an afternoon pint. The pork pie selection looked great, too.

Keans Head

Set in a beautiful location, the front windows look out on St. Mary's church from a comfy open bar. There's a modern, somewhat continental feel to this place, with exposed brick walls and wooden floors providing a simple basis for the decor, which is largely breweriana from around the globe.

Six cask ales adorn the bar, backed up by a great selection of world whiskies and a gin selection unrivalled in the three pubs we saw on this visit to the city that adopted Robin Hood as their own.

This was the last pub we visited before it was time to get the train home, and there were some big drinks to finish off on. We tried Castle Rock's seasonal beer, Mistletoe, which was the perfect winter ale, dark and sweet at 5.2%. Hop Studio's Fire and Ice was an interesting drink, a 5% pale ale which tasted a bit like Kinder Bueno bars. Finally, the Heartless from Red Willow (one of our top breweries at the moment) was a complete chocolatey treat.

Cheers,

J&L

Whisky Broker

There are plenty of independent bottlers out there, but Whisky Broker as one of the smaller companies on the market provide a level of personal service that for me is beyond expectation. Stocking a range of products from 5cl samples to almost 500l butts, from a range of distilleries from across Scotland and at the moment from the North British distillery as well, there's a huge amount of variety available but with the emphasis remaining on quality products.

The passion of Martin Armstrong, the frontman of Whisky Broker, is evident through all aspects of their business. The cost of each of their bottlings is always great value for money, for single cask releases that all have a decent age on the bottle.

My first purchase from Whisky Broker was initially hampered by a sub-par level of service from a courier company who refused to finish delivery, due to a smashed bottle. Despite this most likely to be the fault of the delivery company, Whisky Broker went ahead and sent me two new bottles, through a different courier, free of charge, providing speedy responses to all my communication despite being in America at the time. This push for excellent customer service certainly draws me back to returning for more.

If what you are looking for in a whisky is a fancy bottle and elegant label, then you'll be disappointed, but if you can look past the word art labels and into the liquid deliciousness inside you are sure to be in for a treat. So without further ado:

Linkwood 18 - 51.4%

The Speyside distillery Linkwood, nestled on the out-skirts of Elgin, has a capacity of 2.5 million litres of spirit per year. While most of this output goes to use in blends (including Johnnie Walker and White Horse) the whisky comes to the market from independent bottlers at a very high standard and this is one such bottle.

Colour: Pale, light sand.
Nose: Mellow tones of nectarines coupled with a fresh citrus nose, seasoned with cinnamon and smothered with vanilla custard. A twist of cracked black pepper comes in near the end.
Palate: Clean and soft... butterscotch sauce bordering on creme brûlée, with just a slight essence of burnt sugar. A great bold roundness of sweet crunchy apples provides balance. The mouth feel is warming yet gentle and smooth considering the 51% ABV.
Finish: Red pepper, and a little Szechuan peppercorn heat initially, giving way to a malty chewiness that lingers lightly on the palate.

Aultmore 20, 54.4%

Opened initially in 1895 by Alexander Edward (owner of Benrinnes), this Highland distillery was powered by water wheel, until a fire spurred a change in power source to electricity in 1896. More recently, Aultmore has been rebuilt and expanded under the ownership of Dewars. Again, most of the spirit is sold to blenders, notably Dewars White Label, with a few bottles of single malt released by the owners, but predominantly available through independent sectors.

Colour: Sanded wood
Nose: Lightly vanilla'd touches of oaky dryness. Cinnamon with coffee and cream.
Palate: A creamy texture and vanilla roundness waves across the palate. A crush of baked apples, with powdered cinnamon and ginger, and a little icing sugar. While I prefer the dram neat, a little bit of water springs a citrus freshness into the mix.
Finish: The oily nature of cask strength coats the mouth with light ground spice, ending in dark chocolate and coffee.

Whisky Review #5: Bowmore Darkest

Having visited Islay twice, most recently staying in Bowmore itself with a view of the distillery chimneys through our bedroom window, their whiskies are always going to have a special something about them for us. Darkest is absolutely no exception - bought just over a year ago as a Christmas present "for the house" having been one of our favourite drams from the 2013 Drinks by the Dram whisky advent calendar, purchased from Master of Malt - you can read our initial ponderings on this lovely drop here.

Aged for 15 years (with the final three of those being in Oloroso sherry casks) before being bottled at 43%, Bowmore Darkest is definitely a multi-layered dram. Because of this, it's also been one of our favourites to pair with food - it goes with cheese, dark chocolate, Christmas cake, and a splash even found it's way into some homemade smoked salmon pate.

Without further ado, here are our thoughts...

Colour: A richly sherried deep bronze.

Nose: Robust, with dried fruits bursting forth - dark cherries and plump raisins. A savouriness lurks in the background, but in the year we've had the bottle open the peaty nature of the aroma has faded a tad.

Palate: Loads going on here! The Oloroso cask provides a fruity yet woody sweetness, whilst balanced peatiness allows waves of sea salt and smoked fish to crash over the palate.

Finish: The combination of smoky and sweet continue to fight for attention in a long, lip-smacking finish.

Cheers,

J&L

Burns Night 2015

"There's a lot you can do with a haggis." This was to become the motif of the evening, as quoted on numerous occasions by our new friend Martin - true Scot, Robbie Burns fanatic and Master of Ceremonies for the night.

Regular visitors to the page will know that we tend to enjoy the whisky tastings held at the Broadfield, and for January they'd decided to do something a bit different. In celebration of Burns Night, a four course meal with traditional Scottish fayre (and whiskies to accompany of course) was on offer. We arrived to an absolutely packed dining room, with the sound of bagpipes blaring and a proper party atmosphere.

A poetry reading from Martin's well-thumbed, 40-year old collection of Burns' works, finished off setting the tone for the evening, before the food started to arrive. The first course was black and white pudding in blankets, rich and hearty with the bacon being a great addition.

The fish course was next, and our favourite dish of the night - the Broadfield's take on an Arbroath smokie, served atop a tattie scone with a perfectly poached egg and Hollandaise sauce.

At this point, Martin returned on top form to read "Address to the Haggis" whilst our main course was brought out... haggis, neeps and tatties, of course, with crispy fried leeks. To toast, we were presented with a dram of Auchentoshan Three Wood, which was powerful enough to stand up to the hearty flavours of the meat with just enough sweetness from the Pedro Ximinez casks to cut through for balance. Martin's monologue on the versatility of haggis provoked a healthy discussion amongst our table on just exactly what could be done with this little mountain of offal-y joy... haggis ice cream, anyone?!


Before pudding was brought out, Martin read out his own Address to the Lassies, as we raised a dram of Arran's Robert Burns Single Malt - light and fruity, with a sumptuous orchardy undertone. Dessert was a beautifully flaky Ecclefechan tart, stuffed full of sweet dried fruits, nuts and cherries, with a generous dollop of whisky cream to serve.

The night overall was an ideal warm-up to Burns Night itself, with top-quality traditional food and classic whiskies to accompany. We'll definitely be raising a few more drams tonight.

Cheers,

J&L

Zuidam: Gin vs Genever

I've accumulated quite a few Drinks by the Dram samples over the past year or so, and upon sorting through the collection I found two little bottles from Dutch distillery Zuidam - a classic gin, and a rustic genever. I couldn't resist drinking the two alongside each other and having my own mini tasting evening. Here's what I made of the juniper-ridden little gems...

Dutch Courage  Dry Gin, 44.5%

More floral and zingy than the standard London dry gin, but still a familiar nose with hearty juniper at the core. Flavour starts sweet but develops into a rich, oily and almost savoury herbal palate. As I only had a sample bottle of this, I drank it straight up with no garnish, but a slice of grapefruit would work really well. The finish is long and a pleasing balance of bitter and sweet. Really good stuff.

5 year old Zeer Oude Genever,  38%

The ageing is definitely apparent on the nose, with a rounded vanilla oakiness softening the juniper edge along with a hint of fudge. The taste is more like a light whisky than a traditional gin to me... Beautifully smooth, with a fresh and gentle minty note coupled with caramel and a hint of liquorice root. A silky mouthfeel leads to a full, long finish. My first ever genever certainly won't be my last.

Cheers,

Laura

Favourite Pubs: Ship and Mitre

Venturing away from our usual Sheffield haunts, a day trip to Liverpool brought us to The Ship and Mitre, an absolute gem of a pub.

An enormous bar set right in the centre of the pub has 12 hand pumps serving some fantastic real ale, plus continental brews. Alongside this there's also a separate bar which stocks bottles, which are reasonably priced. This is not to be confused with The Ship in the Bottle - a separate bottle shop which partners the pub, situated just a few minutes walk away and also well worth a visit.

The pub itself has two main sections, the bright and bustling front area, and a rear section which is cosy and warming with a raised section along the back wall which is a lovely place to eat some of the tasty food from the tiny kitchen. Traditionally decorated throughout and with an art deco style upstairs room available for bookings for parties, this pub has a great selection of options for all occasions.

Across two visits we have sampled some fantastic ales and definitely found some new favourites, including: Titanic Captain Smiths, Ascot Penguin Porter, and Blackmere Rum Porter, which tasted exactly like a drinkable dark chocolate rum truffle.

As well as this, there's a great range of spirits available, including monthly special offers.

The kitchen of the pub is rather quaintly named The Galley. The food had been recommended to us, so we couldn't resist giving it a go. The burger menu in particular was appealing, with a huge variety and some unusual combinations on offer. All the burgers are homemade and come with fries, salad, and some of the best onion rings I've ever eaten. As well as the usual combinations you'd expect to see on a burger menu, there's also some excellent standout burgers on offer, from a 100% beef Thai option, fragrantly spiced and topped with a Thai slaw, to a chicken Katsu curry version and plenty more besides.

We were also lucky enough to be there on "Free Scouse" night - our first taste of this delicious, hearty, Liverpudlian speciality - missed the Sheffield Henderson's Relish touch though!

It also just so happened to be the Belgian beer festival - we appear to have timed this trip well. De Koninck and Blanche Bruxelles were both available on draught, alongside an enormous selection of bottled beer. The Blanche Bruxelles, a soft and floral wheat beer, was a particular treat.

This truly is a pub that ticks every box - marvellous beer, great food, and a relaxed, friendly atmosphere. There is a great sense of community from the pub and all-round it is simply a great place to just sit and drink. Worth the train fare from Sheffield any day!

Cheers,

J&L