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I bought the Drinks by the Dram Whisky Advent Cal­en­dar this year, and it’s amaz­ing. Each day, I’ll update this post with the one I’ve tast­ed. Twen­ty-four drams of deli­cious­ness.

Here we go!

1 Dec: The Lost Dis­til­leries Blend Batch 8 from the Blend­ed Whisky Com­pa­ny, blend­ed scotch whisky, 53.1%

Maybe it’s the sea­son, but the nose of this was caramel and eggnog to me. Deli­cious­ness. It was a real­ly nice fruity taste with an ide­al peati­ness (which, in my book, is not much). The taste that lin­gered was a lit­tle herbal , maybe sage. This was the first blend­ed whisky I’ve delib­er­ate­ly tried, and it was quite pleas­ant. 8/10

 

2 Dec: Glen­fid­dich 15 Year Old Sol­era, sin­gle malt scotch whisky, 40% 

This smelled strong­ly of apple juice with hints of peach. The taste was cin­na­mon, with a fin­ish of leather. It’s sim­i­lar to the scotch I nor­mal­ly drink, so I did­n’t think it was par­tic­u­lar­ly spe­cial, but it was real­ly nice. 5/10

 

3 Dec: Kil­choman Machir Bay, sin­gle malt scotch whisky, 46%

Peaty scotch­es are just not my thing. I mean, that blend­ed one from the 1st was real­ly good with just a hint of peati­ness, but this was a lit­tle too much. It had a nose of pineap­ple and camp­fire, and it tast­ed and fin­ished like hot tar. It was­n’t ter­ri­ble (I mean, hot tar isn’t an awful smell), just not my taste. 3/10

 

4 Dec: Wolf­burn, sin­gle malt scotch whisky, 46%

This was a very nice scotch. Bright cit­rusy nose with a taste of cher­ry jol­ly ranch­er and some­thing dark, maybe choco­late. Just a hint of peati­ness, which was real­ly delight­ful. 6/10

5 Dec: Mack­myra Sven­sk Ek, Swedish sin­gle malt whisky, 46.1%

Wow, I liked this one a lot. The nose was vanil­la and lemon, and it tast­ed of bananas and gra­ham crack­ers. Can you feel that warmth? It was like wrap­ping up in a down com­forter on a cold night. 8/10

6 Dec: Rock Oys­ter, blend­ed malt scotch whisky, 46.8%

Appar­ent­ly, I need to drink more blend­ed scotch­es. This one had a nose of man­darin orange and salt, and a taste of chipo­tle pep­pers and wood. A lit­tle smok­i­er than my taste, but real­ly nice all the same. 6/10

7 Dec: The Dal­more 12 Year Old, sin­gle malt scotch whisky, 40%

I was sur­prised at how strong the smell of this was in com­par­i­son to the taste. And a lit­tle dis­ap­point­ed, I guess. The dark col­or had me excit­ed. The nose was burnt caramel, the taste was old book, and the fin­ish was total­ly tobac­co. I’m not quite sure what I think of this one. Prob­a­bly not one I’ll seek out. 4/10

8 Dec: Lagavulin 16 Year Old, sin­gle malt scotch whisky, 43%

This one smells like being on a farm, with a hint of grass. The palate is cof­fee and dirt. The peat is real­ly strong. And the fin­ish isn’t very pleas­ant. I like sweet­er scotch­es, ones that are less earthy and less smoky. 2/10

 

 

9 Dec: Old Perth Sher­ry Cask Blend­ed Malt, blend­ed malt scotch whisky, 43%

This was pret­ty pleas­ant. Nose of raisin and maple syrup, palate of fresh spinach and fruit­cake, fin­ish of raw silk (I do love the smell of silk). It was quite smooth, and I liked the bold­ness of the fla­vors. They meshed well and seemed pret­ty dis­tinct. 5/10

10 Dec: Teel­ing Whiskey Sin­gle Malt, sin­gle malt Irish whiskey, 46%

An Irish whiskey this time! Nose of green apple and… choco­late? Palate is very flo­ral, and the fin­ish is almost like a berry, though I can’t pick it out. I con­sid­er myself a scotch girl, but this was quite deli­cious. 6/10

11 Dec: Evan Williams Bour­bon Extra Aged, Ken­tucky straight bour­bon whiskey, 43%

Bour­bons are a lit­tle rough around the edges. This one had a nose of wood (obvi­ous­ly), hon­ey, and nail pol­ish remover, and it tast­ed of vanil­la and caramel. It tast­ed like… bour­bon. This one might be bet­ter as a mix­er, though it was­n’t unpleas­ant. 3/10

12 Dec: Tomatin 14 Year Old Port Wood Fin­ish, sin­gle malt scotch whisky, 46%

Maybe because my first favorite scotch was a ruby cask one, this tastes to me just how scotch should taste, but there is noth­ing dis­tinc­tive or out­stand­ing about it for the same rea­son. It’s just how scotch should taste, right? Nose of hon­ey and dark cher­ry, palate of vanil­la and cin­na­mon, fin­ish of fer­ment­ed berries. It’s kind of like an unem­bell­ished ide­al for me. 7/10

I’m halfway through now. It’s been a fun exper­i­ment, though I’m not sure I’ll need to do it again. I thought I was a scotch girl, and I enjoy it, even drink­ing it every day, but I find that I’m run­ning out of words to describe the scents and fla­vors. I don’t know what that says about me as a scotch afi­ciona­do. I’ve been sur­prised that I liked the blend­ed scotch­es as much as I did, though it makes sense if I think about it: if there is a per­son who is skilled at blend­ing the fla­vors, the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts. I’m excit­ed for the sec­ond half of this cal­en­dar. It’s been great!

13 Dec: Bal­ve­nie Dou­ble­Wood 12 Year Old, sin­gle malt scotch whisky, 40%

Per­fect­ly pleas­ant. Nose of yeast and grapes and cake, palate of wood, vanil­la, and choco­late, and a fin­ish of yeast again. Very nice scotch, though not out­stand­ing. 5/10

14 Dec: That Boutique‑y Whisky Com­pa­ny Inver­gor­don 25 Year Old — Batch 9, sin­gle grain scotch whisky, 49.8%

I liked this one, but it did­n’t seem “old”. The nose was of rasp­ber­ry and cof­fee, and the palate was banana (maybe) and gin­ger­bread. The herbs last­ed into the fin­ish. I’m not sure I know what age is sup­posed to do any­more — smooth it out? This did­n’t seem much smoother than yes­ter­day’s. 5/10

15 Dec: Glen­goyne 12 Year Old, sin­gle malt scotch whisky, 43%

This one was a lot sweet­er than I expect­ed. It had a nose of apple and creme brulee, a palate of pound cake, and a fin­ish of tof­fee. 5/10

16 Dec: Glen­far­clas 21 Year Old, sin­gle malt scotch whisky, 43%

This was very very smooth. Nose of lemon and rose hips, palate had hints of fruit, and the fin­ish was tobac­co. This was quite pleas­ant. I do enjoy the fruity, flo­ral ones. 7/10

17 Dec: KaVaLan Con­cert­mas­ter Port Cask Fin­ish, sin­gle malt whisky, 40%

A Tai­wanese whisky this time! I quite enjoyed this one. The nose was of black­ber­ry and maple syrup, the palate of jam, brown sug­ar, and vanil­la, and the fin­ish of tobac­co again. This seems like a great scotch to drink while smok­ing a cig­ar. 7/10

18 Dec: Oban Lit­tle Bay, sin­gle malt scotch whisky, 43%

Not very smooth, but quite nice any­way. Nose of cher­ry and vanil­la, palate of cof­fee and salt (just a lit­tle), fin­ish of orange. Not get­ting to the Oban dis­tillery was a dis­ap­point­ment on our trip. 6/10

19 Dec: Eng­lish Whisky Co. 5 Year Old — Batch 1 (That Boutique‑y Whisky Com­pa­ny), sin­gle malt Eng­lish whisky, 49.5%

This was pret­ty raw and rough, though maybe it’s the high­er alco­hol con­tent. Cit­rus nose, palate of gin­ger and chili, hints of smok­i­ness. Adding water to this did­n’t real­ly smooth any­thing out. It was just… okay. 3/10

20 Dec: Fet­ter­cairn Fasque, sin­gle malt scotch whisky, 42%

Great name for a scotch. 🙂 Nose of dried cran­ber­ries and grass, palate of choco­late and cof­fee, and fin­ish of vanil­la and cin­na­mon. Pret­ty good! 5/10

21 Dec: Macallan 12 Year Old Dou­ble Cask, sin­gle malt scotch whisky, 40%

This was a real­ly nice scotch. It had a nose of apri­cot or some oth­er stone fruit, a palate of hon­ey and vanil­la, and the fin­ish was very woody. Quite pleas­ant. 6/10

22 Dec: Buf­fa­lo Trace, Ken­tucky straight bour­bon whiskey, 40%

Bour­bons are fun but a lit­tle raw. This one had a nose of lemon and caramel, a palate of charred wood, vanil­la, and cin­na­mon, and a fin­ish of spices. This was a nice bour­bon, one I may actu­al­ly want to keep around. 6/10

23 Dec: High­land Park 12 Year Old, sin­gle malt scotch whisky, 40%

This one smells like fruit­cake. Fit­ting, for the sea­son. Hint of smok­i­ness in the palate, with a lot more depth than I expect­ed, tastes of vanil­la and… for­est. Fin­ish of wood. Decent scotch, not my favorite of the month. 5/10

24 Dec: The Blend­ed Whisky Com­pa­ny Half-Cen­tu­ry Blend Batch 1 Aged over 50 years, blend­ed scotch whisky, 45.5%

Last one! This one seemed real­ly rich. A very nice nose of dried cher­ries, wal­nuts, and choco­late, palate of vanil­la and tof­fee, fin­ish of spices and stone fruits. Real­ly nice, but hon­est­ly, I can’t tell much dif­fer­ence between a 50-year and an 18-year. 8/10

In sum­ma­tion, I’m glad I got to do this, but I don’t think I need to do it again. It was­n’t quite worth the cost of ship­ping it all the way from the UK just to try a bunch of dif­fer­ent whiskies. I’m think­ing Twelve Days of Christ­mas Wine next year. 🙂