SnapShot: Whiskyfabric Whirlwind 1
This series of SnapShot posts derives from whisky exchanges people known as the Whiskyfabric, a term created by Canadian whisky writer Johanne McInnis, otherwise known as the Whisky Lassie, to encompass the online community of whisky writers, creators, reviewers and enthusiasts that exist on social media. And sometimes the connections made online can spill offline. Over the past couple of years, we here at Scotchology have exchanged whiskies via mail with a number of folks across the United States and Canada, and finally decided to sit down to taste the bounty in one fell swoop. Or several swoops, because there was really a lot of whisky! We’ve done a rough grouping and this post contains various non-Islay scotches: Speyside, Highland, Lowland and Campbeltown malts. Islay scotches and other world whiskies get their own posts.
Laphroaig QA Cask
Islay scotches are generally not drawn to much experimentation with cask finishing as much as distilleries in other regions, especially the peat/smoke heavy ones along the southern coast of the island near Port Ellen like Ardbeg and Lagavulin. Laphroaig likes to dabble into the alternative maturation waters, though mostly with their Cairdeas series. This Laphroaig QA is a travel retail exclusive in a liter bottle. The QA stands for Quercus Alba, the Latin name for white oak, a native hardwood found in eastern and central North America. The whisky is aged in ex-bourbon barrels before being finished in charred QA casks.
BenRiach 17 Year Septendecim
The BenRiach distillery is not in the higher end of production capacity among Scottish distilleries, coming in a shade under 3 million liters. Yet for being mid-tier, BenRiach has several regular offerings in its flagship range along with a whole other secondary range devoted to peat. This peated range is made up of a variety of aged statement whiskies bestowed with Latin names to presumably differentiate themselves from the aged statements of the core range. Septendecim is Latin for 17.