Coleburn 47yo 1972/2020 (62.4%, Gordon & MacPhail 125th Anniversary Edition, Refill Sherry Puncheon, C#3511, 363b): nose: old and mysterious, this has old bandages and embrocation, mummy bandages, gauze strips, old plasters. Then, suddenly, cured pineapple and juicy orange segments leap out of the glass, completely unannounced. But that changes quickly to unveil cast iron and rugged sandstone. That also disappears: now, we have a spoonful of vanilla custard augmented with a couple of drops of lemon juice. Ha! It settles on lemon mint and pineapple weed for a second; they are presented in an old beige plastic container -- the kind that smells of melted plastic when opened. Next is a drop of weak disinfectant, akin to diluted mercurochrome, followed by gauze and muscle straps splashed with pineapple juice and spinach cooking water. How peculiar this nose is! The second nose is more indistinct, more Coleburnian, with dusty cardboard and grist, though that is overtaken by piping-hot strawberry jam which is incredible. That jam is enjoyed on a thick woolen picnic blanket heated by the sunrays and loaded with desert dirt. Mouth: incredibly behaved, considering the strength, it is creamy and fruity. Peachy custard, baked peaches. A certain heat rises, of course, but one would be remarkably astute to guess the ABV. Chewing renders this immense -- not in that it burns; it simply confidently asserts its flavour profile. We have smashed fruits (pineapple, peach, cured apricot) and a few mint leaves, perhaps spearmint. It is warming and comforting, never overwhelming. The second sip has the "whisky" quality of some bottlings from the 1980s, which means dusty, cardboard-y, with bitter fruit stones to boot. Chewing confirms an old-style concoction, yet one augmented with hot peach jelly, would you believe it. Indeed, despite a more-austere start, it claws back its fruity notes. Hot pineapple cubes in a metallic colander are not far behind. Finish: It kicks a bit more, here, and leaves the throat numb, for a minute. Nevertheless, similar notes abound: pineapple (dried slices, this time), a drop of mercurochrome and a soft bitterness in the far back that reminds one of hot metal (tin? Aluminium? Stainless steel?) Mind you, it could also be the spinach from earlier. In any case, the lips are tingling with fruit juice. The second gulp has sweetened orange or tangerine juice, lukewarm, sprinkled with a pinch of grated Aspirin and spilled on minty gauze. It is not strictly speaking tarry, but it has a gentle fresh bitterness that one may associate with bitumen. It sticks to the gob in a comparable way too. Stupendous dram. What a ride! 9/10 (Thanks for the sample, adc)
18 May 2026
18/05/2026 Coleburn
16/05/2026 Slag heaps of the Black Country
GD and ydc are hosting this one, and they intend to celebrate their corner of the world with the theme. They went all in with invitations in local dialect, themed t-shirts, badges, stickers and other promotional items.
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| GD's tee |
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| Tèje tu Boyard! |
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| ydc's tee |
sonicvince, Bishlouk, dom666, Psycho and I join GD and ydc for an afternoon of fun.
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| And work. |
As I ask for a pen and warn that I may need a sheet of paper, at some point:
dom666: "That's called a clandestine."
GD opens the dance: a gin produced in Charleroi. It is called 972, which is the depth (in metres) of the deepest pit of the Martinet site.
MF-M-NC 972 Cuvée 2020 (42%, LaM-U, 3000b, b#0053) (GD)
Mouth: it is very citrus-y on the palate. Acidic lime.
Finish: creamy, custardy, even, it has lots of lime zest again. GD detects black pepper, which, ydc points out, is wild. Wild black pepper. It also has génépi, though much less syrupy, naturally, more gin épais (boom-tsch).
Comment: this may be my favourite gin to-date. The acronyms mean Monceau-Fontaine, Marcinelle, Nord Charleroi and La Manufacture Urbaine respectively.
Score: 8/10
tOMoH notes that mines (coal mines are the reason this is called the Black Country) have pits. Here is a Pit-tyvaich.
Pittyvaich 14yo 1986/2001 (43%, Ian McLeod Chieftain's, Hogsheads, C#9519-22, 1074b, L1212BB 3 11 58) (tOMoH)
Finish: liquorice (ydc).
Comment: full notes here. I am pleased that it is very successful, today. This group's experience with Pittyvaich was, so far, limited to one or two d.1993 by Gordon & MacPhail, and those have been less appealing.
Score: 8/10
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| Two kinds of dried sausage Ossau Iraty Homemade savoury cake |
dom666: "Do what you want with your own body."
ydc: "Impossible. He cannot stand needles."
tOMoH: "Psycho will never be pictured in a pine forest."
sonicvince: "I'm not a fan either."
Bishlouk: "You don't like pine trees?"
tOMoH: "That horrible smell of freshness..."
Psycho plays dyslexic and presents a Black-nod.
Bladnoch 1987/1999 (40%, Gordon & MacPhail Connoisseurs Choice) (Psycho)
Mouth: pear and frangipane (sonicvince), though that is fleeting and turns medicinal (sonicvince). ydc finds elderberry. The dilution is noticeable, but tolerable.
Finish: fruits and wood. Here are balsa and dried pineapple. It kicks harder than expected too.
Comment: we had not had this in many years. Time in an open bottle seems to have improved it and turned it into a lovely, fruity drop. Bishlouk seems impressed. That happens rarely enough to mention.
Score: 8/10
GD: "No, we don't have the same criteria."
tOMoH: "What's dangerous is not that he would steal them, but that he talks about his collection for three hours."
Psycho tells us that slag heaps are nothing but little mounds. A mound, he continues, is a high land. This Glenmorangie is from the Highlands. Groan.
Glenmorangie 12yo The Lasanta (43%, OB imported by MHCS, Bourbon & Sherry Casks) (Psycho)
Mouth: soft, this is very syrupy. A syrup with a mineral side, mind. Then, we pick up dried coconut flakes cured in wine.
Finish: blackberry drops and blackcurrants. Chewy for a while, it leaves the same impression as a chalky paste on the palate. The second gulp brings a thick custard.
Comment: honest drop that grows on me.
Score: 7/10
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| Smoking in the sun |
tOMoH: "What is not made in China, these days?"
Psycho: "Me. I was not made in China."
Bishlouk: "I can see that. You're losing oil."
sonicvince brought a bottling from the Mission Gold collection, because coal in Charleroi used to be the local gold.
Bishlouk likes Fabrizio from Charleroi, who talks about 'kete' a lot (Walloon for 'cock'), so he brought a Glen Keith.
With exactly zero surprise, that leads to this timeless masterpiece of Belgian television, with GD performing the choreography and all.
Since they are from the same distillery, we have them at the same time.
Glen Keith 32yo 1993/2025 (47.9%, Murray McDavid Mission Gold exclusively selected by The Whisky Mercenary, First-Fill Koval Bourbon Cask Finish, C#97174A, 140b) (sonicvince)
Mouth: more fruits, here, but it is actually pretty mineral. The second sip has bitter fruits, perhaps carambola with a dusting of crushed Aspirin.
Finish: quarry chippings sprayed onto vanilla custard augmented with cut apricot. The second gulp brings forth poached apples and Doyenné du Comice pears.
Comment: amazeboulanger.
Score: 9/10
vs.
Glen Keith-Glenlivet 43yo 1973/2017 (43.2%, Cadenhead Single Cask, Bourbon Hogshead, 156b, 17/192) (Bishlouk)
Mouth: closely related to the other one, this has peach yoghurt and a stronger bitterness. That evolves to give a leafy fruitiness -- kumquat foliage.
Finish: long, full of fruity sweets and a soft lick of woody bitterness. The second gulp brings clay floors and Turkish delights.
Comment: we tried this three years ago and thought it would improve in the open bottle. It did. What is amazing is that it does not crush its younger sibling.
Score: 9/10
All: "Errr… They were from Charleroi!"
dom666: "Are you sure?"
Here is the evidence, dom666.
tOMoH: "And the link to the theme?"
dom666: "No idea."
Strathisla 40yo 1967/2008 (48.6%, Duncan Taylor Rare Auld, C#2716, 160b, b#98, 107 08/113) (dom666)
Mouth: powerful (Bishlouk, not used to alcohol at more than 24%), it has a note of fruits immediately followed by smoky flavours: smoky roasted apples, tarts in a dusty boiler room.
Finish: strong coffee (sonicvince). I find it a tiny bitterness, almost mineral.
Comment: this is incredible. dom666 opened it, ahem, almost eighteen years ago, which prompted me to procure my own bottle, which we opened ten years later. It remains a killery. Notes here.
Score: 9/10
Bishlouk: "So are the books."
dom666: "The books you can put down and do something else."
Bishlouk: "You can press pause on a film..."
dom666: "At the cinema, it is difficult."
Bishlouk: "There is an interval. You can go take a wee."
dom666: "The interval is a year between films."
tOMoH: "You can take a long wee."
dom666: "Great for you, that!"
Psycho: "After Léonard?"
tOMoH: "That's a character, not an author."
dom666: "Léonard... He was a lumberjack. Car c'est en sciant que Léonard devint scie."
tOMoH: "You are quoting Psycho in his presence."
dom666: "No, I read that elsewhere."
Bishlouk: "In the bingos, it is definitely in the Psycho bingo!"
ydc introduces Old Black Cane, a nod to the Black Country.
Bologne Old Black Cane (45%, OB, b. ca. 2025) (ydc)
Mouth: rum-y, it has metal, melted plastic and sugar. All of them are rather discreet.
Finish: cane sugar, black garlic. It has that charred-garlic bitterness, yet it is also pretty juicy, somehow.
Comment: nothing could have followed that Strathisla. A rum is the perfect solution: so different it resets the palate. This one is good to boot.
Score: 7/10
Bishlouk: "We have no hair..."
tOMoH: "Neither listens..."
We move to the dining table. ydc and GD made Nasi Goreng. I worry that the spices will impair our taste buds, but it is perfectly balanced. And delicious.
We discover that dom666 has never had Nasi Goreng.
dom666: "This isn't Chinese. It's Indonesian. I know Chinese restaurants in Liège. There is one rue Aaa, there is a Thai rue Bbb, a Viet-Namese rue Ccc…"
Bishlouk: "There is also one rue Ddd."
dom666: "There is also a good pizzeria in rue Ddd."
Bishlouk: "It's not as good as the one rue Eee."
tOMoH: "Unbelievable. We do a Charleroi tasting in Charleroi, and those two only talk about Liège!"
We talk about fried food.
dom666: "Have you had them from many other places?"
tOMoH: "No. That's the joke."
dom666: "I know."
Dessert is served. rhubarb tart and rice tart, and apple turnovers for Psycho, which he will not share.
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| Rhubarb and sugar tart |
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| Rice tart |
Bishlouk tells us that Ben Nevis, the United Kingdom's tallest mountain, is but a large slag heap in Scotland.
Ben Nevis 15yo 2010/2025 (56.9%, Liquid-Treasures bottled for Espirits Whisky, Bourbon Hogshead) (Bishlouk)
Mouth: it is peaty alright! Crushed peach stones and decaying fruits provide backing vocals. It has a bitter lick of tree bark, though peach custard rises a bit, timid.
Finish: peat and hot metal, and the bitterness associated with the latter. Sea spray (ydc), lots of hay, a handful of horse's hair and Mokatine, maybe. Mocha is bitter after all, is it not?
Comment: another one that will likely improve in the open bottle. It is promising, but a bit unruly, as it stands.
Score: 7/10
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| Les Gayettes A special kind of local truffles |
sonicvince shows us a whisky distilled in 1987 and explains that the 1980s were the golden age of socialism in Charleroi.
Tomatin 27yo 1987/2014 (46.3%, Morrison & Mackay Càrn Mòr Celebration of the Cask imported by The Stillman's, Hogshead, C#495, 187b, b#10) (sonicvince)
Mouth: unctuous and ripe with berries.
Finish: lemon zest (ydc), lemon pith (ydc), astringent (Bishlouk).
Comment: full notes here. Long discussion about Bishlouk's impressions -- he calls this not horrible and the previous not bad. ydc cannot figure out if one is better than the other, or if Bishlouk is simply difficult. We all know the answer to that, do we not?
Score: 8/10
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| Second serve |
dom666 brought a peaty whisky and tells us that peat is nothing but wet coal.
Ardbeg 30yo (40%, OB, LS67462) (dom666)
Mouth: ashes, smoked currants. One can feel the dilution a bit, and that pushes algae, sphagnum moss and dried ferns to the fore.
Finish: an onslaught of dried algae and lichens, stagnant water, empty vases. It leaves an extremely-dusty mouthfeel, bitter and ashy.
Comment: unique profile, especially in the world of ancient Ardbeg. I like it.
Score: 8/10
tOMoH unveils a Laphroaig, famously adorned by the seal of HRH the Prince of Wales, who favours Laphroaig. Naturally, Prince Charles was promoted, since this was bottled and became king. In French, one would say he is now Charles Roi. Check. Mate.
Laphroaig 28yo b.2018 (44.4%, OB Limited Edition, Quarter Casks + Bourbon Barrels + Sherry Butts) (tOMoH)
Score: 9/10
What a day. The amount of nonsense was epic. These notes do not show it, but the word of the day was clearly 'bite' ('dick'), to the point Bishlouk is henceforth known as Bite-louk. His final words are: "I don't know how many times we said 'dick', but I'm satisfied with the tally!"
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| An hourglass, a diabolo, or a butt plug, depending on whom you ask |
15 May 2026
15/05/2026 Inchmurrin
Inchmurrin 28yo (43%, OB imported by Preiss Imports, b. early 2000s): we tried this a few days ago. Let us give it a proper go. Nose: stewed citrus aplenty. Here are blush oranges, satsumas, tangerines, mandarines all broken up into segments and simmering in a cauldron with a dash of rum. The whole is slowly turning into a liqueur, which is very pleasant. It gives the occasional whiff of caramel, but also of heated cast iron, both of which reinforce this impression of stewed fruits. A few minutes later, we have a small dose of cardboard, followed by some kind of metal lubricant -- it does not appear to be WD-40, much less engine grease. Then, mace settles in, whole, not powdered, fragrant, and a trifle rubbery. Behind that is white wood, slightly sappy, as if it had been cut into planks too soon, and stale jam (likely apricot). The second nose has earthy caramel pointing at toffee and chocolate. The label gives no information about the cask type, but this may suggest some Sherry vessels were used. Come to mind cream Sherry, paxarette… or E150a. Mouth: mellow and unctuous, it quickly rallies the spicy troops -- ginger and nutmeg. It is syrupy at the same time; probably stem ginger, then. It does not assault the taste buds or anything, but it is certainly not weak. Chewing adds woody notes to that, such as gingerbread and cinnamon rolls. It has a pinch of dark-conifer sawdust (spruce, black pine) and a drop of resin too. Holding it on the tongue longer increases the woodiness and makes it darker. We now have walnut furniture, iroko sawdust and raw ebony. It never becomes too much, however: all that is balanced with cured citrus peels. The second sip starts slowly, giving away its mere 43%, but that is a trap: in seconds, the gingery notes are back, surfing on lukewarm, flat cola or ginger beer. There is something downright root-y about this that blends really well with the growing sweetness. Finish: a citrus slap in the gob. We are reunited with blush-orange peels or cured mandarine peels. It presents a discreet bitterness, confirming we are on citrus-peel territory, but punctuates it with a caramelised sweetness. Come to think of it, it is not very far from a certain orange liqueur sold in a square brown bottle (you probably know the brand). That sweetness, after a while, is reminiscent of burnt toffee. It is a long finish and, if it is not exactly smoky, it does leave the mouth dry and coated, as if one had smoked a cigar. The second gulp is earthier and rootier, yet also sweeter. Might it be reminiscent of burnt toffee? Once again, it is hard not to think about cream Sherry and paxarette, root beer and cola. However, we also keep the stem ginger and mace from earlier, and the sweetness that comes with those two makes the whole more complex, therefore more interesting. 8/10
12 May 2026
11/05/2026 Irish Monkey
Irish Single Malt 28yo 1989/2017 Vol.1 (56.2%, Limited Whisky Investment The Monkey Series in co-operation with Sansibar, Bourbon Cask, 164b, 16/05058): nose: very quiet, almost mute. Golden shortcrust with a dusting of confectionary sugar. It develops a greener touch, with rubbed mint leaves, citrus foliage and a pinch of lemon mint so dry and so faded it is hard to spot. Breathing time increases the shortcrust impression, soft, fluffy, with hints of baked mango, persimmon and apricot. Those two are really subtle, though. This is not at all an obvious fruity avalanche! The second nose is hardly more talkative and, if anything, it is more austere: it now has grated limestone and wet cliff rocks, as if washed by the rain. All that fizzes out after a while to leave but a generic impression of freshness. Mouth: a notch bolder on the tongue, it is thick and velvety, with peach nectar, persimmon and mango slices so ripe they melt in the mouth. Chewing, even briefly, causes an explosion of tropical fruit. We have a mechanical fruit chopper slicing mangoes at high speed and shoving all the output into the mouth, blades included. Indeed, beside the undeniable fruitiness is a lick of metal reminiscent of 117.3. The second sip has the gentle kick of a fruit-scented nail varnish. That paves the way for a mango-and-persimmon purée, and we may even detect timid maracuja. The metallic note from earlier is much more subdued, now. Each subsequent sip adds citrus foliage and it takes longer for fresh fruits to emerge, as they inexorably do. Finish: strangely enough, it has a pronounced bitter touch akin to chicory infusion, then heat. This drops a heated metal ball into the stomach, which then radiates heat through the whole body. The heat builds up especially at the top of the oesophagus. Those heatwaves carry wafts of baked mango and papaya before dying with a note of chocolate. Jammy at second gulp, it quickly grows in mango intensity, ripe, flavourful, and creamy in texture, close to quality milk chocolate indeed. There is even some caramel at play, in the long run -- salted caramel cream, to be precise. Even with a somewhat-disappointing nose (that made me think I inverted the labels of this and the Balvenie from the same night), it certainly holds its own as a whole. 9/10