Aye rrrrrrrrrroll on MacDuff, Day 15 of the Secret Spirits Advent Calendar

"Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself. Within my sword's length set him", Macduff in Shakespeare's Macbeth.

I always think of Macbeth when I see anything from the MacDuff distillery. So as I bounded back up the stairs this morning with sample bottle in hand, it apparently did not amuse Graham that I was jabbing him in the ribs with my "pretend" sword, totally bastardizing the English language and quoting this line from the play. Sheeeesh... some people don't have a sense of humour at 6:20am on a random Thursday!? Aye.... but it's not a random Thursday, it's day 15 and sure enough my dram today is from the Malt Whisky Co... a MacDuff 16 year old. 

I've had this whisky a few times but what I didn't remember and Graham reminded me this afternoon is that one of my other discoveries for 2016 (great bang for your buck whisky) that is made by MacDuff is the Deveron 12 that I received as a gift twice this year!! 

I poured a little in my NEAT glass and proceeded to nose and take a very small sip. This is clearly some high strength stuff. I was a bit surprised as it took my breath away. Mental note: Remember to add water later when I get home, check! What followed was the same routine for the last week: Go to work, put out fires (and no I'm not a firefighter), train new staff, forget to eat at break and feel like my brain is pudding by the time 5:00pm rolls around. Today, however, I felt like there was an end to the long tunnel, as tomorrow is the weekend....

Home again, home again, kick the shoes off, get into comfy clothes and put my feet up in my lovely armchair! Whisky in glass, notes are taken and I hurry up to get our supper started. Satiated with homemade chicken noodle soup and a thick grill cheese sandwich, I happily sit down in my corner once more to simply STOP... If anything I have to say this advent calendar has given me that freedom every day and it's lovely to just sit, relax and enjoy a nice dram.

The Malt Whisky Co. MacDuff 16 year old, 54.9% ABV, refill Hogshead cask #500720

Colour: Noticing a trend here with all of these "natural" whiskies, not much colour. This is a lovely white gold

Nose: White Stilton cheese with mango and ginger! (Yes there is such a cheese on the market). It's slightly salty, spicy and fruity. Quite nice really.

Palate: There is a recipe I make that is called puffed pancake with an orange sauce. It's rich and is sweet but tangy. Delish!

Finish: I think this has the longest finish of all the whiskies so far. Sweet, slightly hot... Reminds me of hot cinnamon candies and it really stays with you for quite some time.

Another cracker of a dram if I do say so myself. I really enjoyed this one. As always I urge you to see what Jonathan thought of today's dram by checking out: 

www.singlemalting.com

If you like the sounds of how this nosed/tasted... you might want to contact Jonathan to see if this is coming to Canada. 

With only 10 days left, it's hard to imagine what might be left in the calendar but my level of excitement grows as we get closer to the final dram on the 25th. I've had hints it's an amazing, once in a lifetime, unicorn whisky!!

Now... if you'll excuse me, Benoit I've done my good deed for today. I finished my dram, my blog and now I get to put my feet up and read my latest edition of Distilled Magazine which just arrived!

Cheers all...

Lassie