First of all…. Happy New Year! We hope you’ve had a good celebration of Hogmanay and entered 2021 with an amazing dram among your closest friends and family 🥃.
We didn’t celebrate it together unfortunately (mainly because of our distance between our homes), but we did celebrate it amongst our family.
2020 was a special year for all of us, but despite of the COVID situation, not all was bad. Whisky wise it has brought us a lot actually 🤔. We were fortunate to explore some amazing drams, some a bit less… 😅 and to create new connections, new projects, some new friends and a highlight for us: the launch of this website 🤗🥃
We’re very pleased that you’ve joined us so far on our journey and we’re hoping you’ll continue this journey with us in 2021. We made very cool plans for some projects this year and if all is possible again, we’d like to meet and great you guys at some festivals or other whisky moments.
Keep an eye out on our Collaborations page for some upcoming things 😉
Now back to the subtopic of this post… We’ve made a Top 3 list whisky’s that we explored in 2020. We need to say… we were very fortunate this year!! It will be tough to beat next year, but we’ll give it a go 😜
Our personal Top 3 was created by the drams we enjoyed in 2020, not specifically bottled or released in 2020. Also we’d like to mention that it’s our personal opinion in which sentiment (we’re actually quite the softies 😬) and momentum is also rated, next to the quality, price etc. of the whisky.
So let’s get started with this flashback of our 2020 journey:
No. 3
Off course their needed to be a Laphroaig, sorry I meant Williamson, in my top 3. This 7 yo from a Oloroso sherry but is just delicious! I also have a soft spot for Maltman bottlings and especially when it’s a Laphroaig 😉.
- Single Malt
- Distillery: Williamson 🐸
- Bottler: the Maltman
- Vintage: 2012
- Age: 7 yo
- ABV: 53.9 %
- WB: 135243
This was one of my surprises of 2020. I liked it that much, that my Mrs. bought me a 2nd bottle of this delicious Clynelish 😻. This Thompson Bros. (also a big of their other IB releases) is not your typical Clynelish. It’s got a weird funk on the nose, but I like those weird funky drams 😅.
- Single Malt
- Distillery: Sutherland 🐈
- Bottler: Thompson Bros.
- Vintage: 2000
- Age: 19 yo
- ABV: 51.9 %
- WB: 159295
No. 2
This t-spooned Balvenie (🤭🤫) was something we drank after a tasting by High Spirits at @Dramtastic.86’s local liquor Store “World of Drinks”. I was totally surprised by it… so smooth, complex and tasty. I actually bought 2 bottles right away 👌🏼.
- Blended Malt
- Distillery: Speyside region
- Bottler: Murray McDavid
- Vintage: 1991
- Age: 26 yo
- ABV: 44.1 %
- WB: 117695
A sample of this amazing dram was given to me by Erikjan of “World of Drinks”. My o my… this is something else 🥃🤤! I never understood that hype and myth about Port Ellen, but after I explored this 30yo I got it! One of the best drams I’ve ever had (so far 😉). It’s definitely a Distillery I’m planing to explore more on my journey!
- Single Malt
- Distillery: Port Ellen
- Bottler: Douglas Laing
- Vintage: 1978
- Age: 30 yo
- ABV: 52.5 %
- WB: 8742
No. 1
This 17yo Longrow Single Cask from a fresh Sherry Hogshead is besides very tasty a special bottle to my. I received it as a birthday gift by my sister. And it changed my view about… sorry for all those lover out there… Springbank. Normally I won’t buy / drink Springbank, but this Peated (might have done the trick for me 🤣) Longrow is a game changer!
- Single Malt
- Distillery: Longrow (Springbank)
- Bottler: OB
- Vintage: 2002
- Age: 17 yo
- ABV: 49.7 %
- WB: 142482
A bottle that I opened at a special moment. When I got my Bachelor of Arts title 🎓, I needed to celebrate it in style. And given it some thoughts, it’s actually a perfect whisky that describes 2020: “a Circus”. This Blended Scotch Whisky was an assemblage of old parcels Blended Scotch and Blended Grain whisky’s from Sherry Butts marrying casks. It’s smooth, complex, lingering… just deliciousness 🥃🤤.
- Blended Scotch Whisky
- Distillery: Unknown parcels… and some Benrinnes
- Bottler: Compass Box
- Vintage: –
- Age: NAS
- ABV: 49 %
- WB: 81194
So that’s it for our Top 3 drams of 2020. Like we said, we’re trying to top it in 2021, so stay tuned and find out if we’ll explore some more amazing drams along our journey…
Slàinte,
Dutch Whisky Brothers
Dutch Whisky Brothers 