I grew up with a dad who enjoyed whisky. His favourite drams were Dimple and Chivas Regal. This shaped the way I enjoyed whisky and early on, I gravitated to blended whisky too. One day, a friend poured me a Glenlivet 12 year oldsingle malt Scotch whisky and it blew me away.
My first experience with rye whisky was earlier in the year when I tasted the Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye. Rye based whisky is relatively unknown in SA. I liked the spiciness of rye and looked around for some more.
Many years ago, I was travelling through Ireland. It is a beautiful green country with great beer and of course, Jameson’s Irish whiskey. In Dublin, I visited the Jameson’s distillery visitors centre.
During the year, I am fortunate to taste many new whiskies. Some are not bad, and some I never want to taste again. Just search for “Ordinary” on this blog, and you will find quite a few examples of these. However, now and again, I taste something that blows my mind.