Oh dear, saw this in duty free a few weeks back and it was also 40%. In my local specialist shop its still 43 %. Plenty of choices out there for mystery Islay peated whiskies at decent prices and at good ABV’s.Good video, enjoyed watching it, slàinte
Spot on re low ABV critique ... I'm generally steering clear of anything at 40% .. Will email them with a helpful hint. The 43% is still available down here in NZ and there is a much priceyer 58% high voltage and a sherry cask at 48%, but its a slippery slope for distilleries
Thanks Tom. Here in England a lot of supermarkets currently have both with the new 40% on special offer and a small number of the old 43% at full price. Their websites only show the 40% so it seems pretty clear to me that that is what they will be selling going forwards. Slippery slope indeed. It seems like a dangerous game to put off people who really appreciate Scotch in order to save costs. IMHO anything bottled at 40% needs to be significantly cheaper to even consider. £20 perhaps. And even then there's a good chance of disappointment. Like you I'll usually just avoid it. Cheers 🥃
Vote with one’s wallet is becoming more of a reality not only with comprised 40-43% offerings but also the dramatic price increases we are seeing especially with higher age statements and independent bottlings and the sheer volume of new releases and expressions. Cheers 🥃
Very true. Recently I've been paying more attention to younger but well matured, higher ABV bottlings. Because the 16yo+ stuff I used to enjoy is often rising above what I want to pay. You've probably already seen that the rumoured price hikes on Talisker 18 have come true? What was around £80 is now £175 over here. Cheers 🥃
@@WhiskyLock disgusting how they can 'rebrand" and put 100 on a bottle. Luckily I got to try a older bottling before the hike..it was a overpriced bottle before, it will be my last and that will be a trend going forward for a lot of whiskytubers I imagine.
@@coppullcaveman Yes, Diageo have clearly decided to limit the customer base for that product to those with more money than sense. It's sad that what was a reasonably affordable bottle is now a 'halo product' that seems to exist just to show the prestige of the lineup. Whisky is a drink. Or should be. And that rebrand. Maybe it's just me but this is the second time in a row that Talisker have essentially made their labels look worse / tackier. The youth of today! With their £175 whisky with ragged labels! 🙄
I'm always interested in a way to get some Caol Ila. I wonder how it compares with Rattray's Cask Islay which I can easily pick up. It looks like there is an unchillfiltered version of Smokehead which at least compares in terms of stats
I don't think I've had that Rattray's bottling. I'll see if I can get one. Smokehead Unfiltered will be my Thursday review 🙂 very good stats. Hopefully it will be available for a while!
It's a good thing smokehead is almost always sold out here in Finland or if it's up for sale it's 58€ which is kinda a lot I think? compared to Germany where it seems to be around 30-40€ price range? How much is it in UK? I quite enjoyed smokehead myself I first tried the regular version which I liked a lot coz of the peat and chili taste if I remember correct? Friend of mine bought the Rum Rebel edition I liked that lot more compared to the regular version. It seems that's going for 70€ here right now.. Would be though choice for me to buy either Ardbeg 10 or Port Charlotte 10yo which are all same price range as smokehead rum rebel.
Hi SmirGel. Yes €58 is more than we pay here. Online we get 43% Smokehead for £37. Same price for Unfiltered. Rum Rebel £54. High Voltage £58 and Sherry Bomb £65. Although the 43% could regularly be had for £25 on supermarket special offers which makes it a real bargain. Significantly cheaper than than weaker Laphroaig 10yo. There's very little that offers the same flavours at 43% for that price. I haven't actually tried the rum, sherry or cask strength ones yet but I keep hearing good things about them and I will definitely get around to reviewing them soon 👍
There's no way this isn't coloured. Still got a dram or two left in my 43% bottle. Not sure if it's just my unsophisticated palate, but after leaving it for over a year, root beer has completely dominated the nose.
You're probably right. It seems to me that they've tried to make a Laphroaig clone with this one... including the colour! Root beer... interesting. I have found that note in other whiskies before. I'll bear it in mind next time I have Smokehead.
I was concerned that you was going to say it is sourced from a different distillery as enjoyed the few glasses I have tried on this and awaiting for the price to drop. Can't believe the actual change though! Real shame and the previous seems less available online now. Cheers.
Interestingly on my hunt online I have come across Smokehead Unfiltered - which is a 46% unfiltered version which I have not seen before. Maybe making this one 40% while offering premium in a different bottle. Split the market.
You know what... from my first glass of this bottle I did wonder if that had happened! I got a lot more tar and oil from it than I remember and I was thinking it had a bit of a peated Bunna or even young Lagavulin thing going on. But after giving it some more time and air and comparing it to other bottles I think I just got a particularly dirty and punchy batch. Normal batch variation of what I think is the same good stuff. Panic over, as you were 🙂
@@JeffWhisky Smokehead Unfiltered you say 🤔 perhaps there'll be a review of that coming out soon. Perhaps tomorrow 😉 It would be nice if they had the 46% version running parallel to the 40% 'for the masses' version. I hope that's the plan. The cynic in me is worried that it's a pacifying measure to distract people like us while they bait and switch the standard bottle to 40% 😉 Time will tell!
Exactly this. It kills too much flavour. The list of whiskies I would even consider buying at 40% is a short one. Any distillery or bottler that cares produces at least 43%.
Here's a modest good news story for you, Mr Lock. The ‘Six Isles’ [peated] Blended Malt used to be 43%. It has now been repackaged as the ‘Six Isles Voyager’ and bumped up to 46%. No real bump in price, either. Worth a try. BTW: I found the High Voltage Smokehead 58% to be a rough ride. You'll never have to prove your courage in any other way.
Fantastic news! I have the tail end of a bottle of the old stuff that I was considering just finishing without a review because I thought it had been discontinued entirely. The M&S near me hasn't had it for a while. But I guess it was just missing from the shelf while they re-formulated it. Thanks for the warning on the High Voltage. I shall keep my whisky guard up and handle it with caution. Cheers 🥃
Thanks 🙂 Lag 8 has been on my list for a long, long time. I really liked the initial release (200th anniversary) but that was 7 years ago now! Current review coming soon 👍
Yes there's a similarity to the Ben Bracken Islays. The better ones anyway 🙂 I think it's that sweet bourbon and peat style. Glad you enjoy it as much as I do 👍 Did you manage to get the 43% version? A lot of shops here have started selling it at 40%
I've had several bottles which I found for £23 a few years ago in Scotland at Morrisons. Definitely a dirty peat which I did like about it but after some time, I came away from it just because it was this "guard whisky" that you buy to protect the good stuff but I'm finding that my goodstuff is building up and the wife is asking why I'm not drinking the stuff on the shelf. 😂 Good video though unfortunately with the drop... I won't be buying anymore. If it when up to 46% I still wouldn't.
Morrisons, Sainsburys, Tesco and probably others have had this on offer regularly over the last few years. £23 is a very good price though. I know what you mean about not getting around to drinking the good stuff. Sometimes it's useful to look at how long you've had certain bottles and ask what exactly you're saving them for 😉 but then there's always another interesting bottle to buy and it all begins again...
@@WhiskyLock I don't even think it's what I'm saving them for as I'm procuring them to drink, if it was more readily available id be inclined to try it earlier on the flip side, Personally I have more then 10 bottles open at one time (as I like to hop around) which does me a disservice on opening newer releases . There is also the rarity and exclusively that comes with indie bottlers that brings that "anxiety" I might miss something but in high insight you're always going to miss alot. 👍
@@coppullcaveman Your whisky habits sound a lot like mine. I intend to drink everything I buy but I have bottles that I've owned for over 10years or more and I'm always on the look out for the next interesting release. I'm actually glad that Laphroaig released a straight bourbon matured Cairdeas this year because it gave me a reason to open the similar 2015 Cairdeas that I'd been hoarding for years. My plan now is to drink and share more than I buy and clear the collection. It's going to take a long time but I'd love to be in a position where I haven't got loads of money tied up in bottles gathering dust and I just buy what I want to drink and review at the time. We'll see if that ever happens 😏
I like the brand as well, Hope they don't change the cask finish % and the cask strength % I will be honest I have never had the 43% normal one, I don't buy 43% Scotch. Most of the cask finished stuff is 48% here in America.
My feeling is that the Cask finish versions will be safe. I'm very interested to see if there will still be a regular version at 43-46% going forward though. The last thing we want right now is a widening gap between good but expensive and cheap but mediocre. I have a Sherry Bomb 48%, Rum Rebel 46% and High Voltage 58% on my shelf but haven't tried any yet. What's your verdict on those? Thanks for watching and commenting 👍🥃
What can I say, I bought a bottle of this of Amazon as it was £25 and though I would give it a punt. Wished I had not bothered, the aroma is almost non existant. sadly the taste is the same, very bland and I do mean VERY bland. I can see this one sitting on a shelf gathering dust.
They recently changed it from 43% to 40%. The old higher strength version was just about enough to carry the flavour but the new 40% version is piss and not worth buying. Very, very sad. If you're not completely put off Smokehead for life there is a 46% NCF version called Unfiltered which is infinitely better. Also a 58% version called High Voltage. I won't be buying the standard one ever again unless the ABV goes back up.
Glad you're still enjoying it 👍 I'd hate for Smokehead to go down hill because it's a brand I've always loved. Funnily enough I was given a quarter of a bottle of the new 40% by family recently. I've only had one dram out of it but I agree that it still has a really nice flavour profile. Just less intense. For me the problem now is that £25-30 before used to be a bargain for the 43% one. But now I feel like that's about all it's worth. I need to spend more time with it before coming to a conclusion though. Cheers for your input 🥃
Everything. Sweetened. On fire. In a recently disinfected bin 😂 Seriously though, there's probably a strong correlation between length of nosing / tasting notes and enjoyment.
Who is Smokehead? That is the question. Over the years the whisperings have suggested Ardbeg. Could this be so? Caol Ila have whisky to burn so could it be them? I had a bottle of the Smokehead 18 and the consensus regarding that dram was that it was Ardbeg. The clue being that it factored into their mothball time. Who knows? Not me. Whisky connoisseurs and we can tell nothing. Anyway, mystery bottles at 40% abv have no interest to me. Smokehead High Voltage is where I go. They will watch a video like this and weigh it up but they wont reply. It will only show when the sales go down. WT
Lots say Ardbeg but I'd be really surprised if that were the case. But when you add in the wild card of cask finishing by the IB, especially in casks from other distilleries, it gets very hard to tell and anything is possible. I never got around to trying the 18yo. It sounds great from what I've heard but it seems that ship has sailed for me. How did you rate it? I suspect that at some point someone I know may buy a bottle of the 40% version and I *might* review it from that. But I won't be buying it. There is a new 46% NCF Smokehead out for not much more than the 43% used to sell for. Smokehead Unfiltered. Some may have guessed that it will be my Thursday review 😉 but who knows how long that will be available for.
@@WhiskyLock To be honest, I was fairly indifferent to the Smokehead 18. It got better as the fill level went down and it took me a couple of years to finish it. I kept looking for an Ardbeg tell but couldn't find anything that stood out. When I first opened it, and for quite a while after, it had a really Croftengea farmyard (manure) quality to it. It was also quite difficult to tell it was 18 years old. When it first came out the entire world and his wife said it was Ardbeg. It didn't taste like Ardbeg tastes today but it would have been early 90's, or earlier, Ardbeg. It proved to me, once again, that older doesn't necessarily mean older means better when it comes to peated Islay. It seems hard to believe that Ardbeg could be the name behind modern Smokehead. By the way my friend, I just picked up a lovely Master of Malt Glen Elgin 16 for a song as well as a fine Old Malt Cask Benrinnes 15. Both very good value. WT
@@welshtoro3256 I know what you mean about the croftengea farmyard note. It's entirely possible that every expression of Smokehead (and maybe different batches of the same expression) are all from a different distillery. Certainly something I'll be considering when I finally get around to trying the rest of the range. Your comments on older Islay malts remind me of the old Laphroaig 18. I still have one bottle of that left which I will open and review one day. It's not the tour de force many might expect though. To be honest I've never been that impressed by any old Laphroaig. Or the Ardbeg Twenty One. Sounds like your latest purchase will keep you happy for a while. I know you like your Elgin and I've had a few cracking Benrinnes. Cheers 🥃
Hi! Either Unfiltered or High Voltage depending on whether you want 46% or 58%. They're both fantastic. I wouldn't recommend the basic version anymore since they dropped the ABV to 40% except maybe for people who are new to whisky and find anything above 40% too strong. Cheers 🥃
Oh dear, saw this in duty free a few weeks back and it was also 40%. In my local specialist shop its still 43 %. Plenty of choices out there for mystery Islay peated whiskies at decent prices and at good ABV’s.Good video, enjoyed watching it, slàinte
Not a recent change then! There are plenty more smoky fish in the sea, as you say. Thanks for watching 👍 🥃
Spot on re low ABV critique ... I'm generally steering clear of anything at 40% .. Will email them with a helpful hint.
The 43% is still available down here in NZ and there is a much priceyer 58% high voltage and a sherry cask at 48%, but its a slippery slope for distilleries
Thanks Tom. Here in England a lot of supermarkets currently have both with the new 40% on special offer and a small number of the old 43% at full price. Their websites only show the 40% so it seems pretty clear to me that that is what they will be selling going forwards.
Slippery slope indeed. It seems like a dangerous game to put off people who really appreciate Scotch in order to save costs.
IMHO anything bottled at 40% needs to be significantly cheaper to even consider. £20 perhaps. And even then there's a good chance of disappointment. Like you I'll usually just avoid it. Cheers 🥃
Vote with one’s wallet is becoming more of a reality not only with comprised 40-43% offerings but also the dramatic price increases we are seeing especially with higher age statements and independent bottlings and the sheer volume of new releases and expressions.
Cheers 🥃
Very true. Recently I've been paying more attention to younger but well matured, higher ABV bottlings. Because the 16yo+ stuff I used to enjoy is often rising above what I want to pay.
You've probably already seen that the rumoured price hikes on Talisker 18 have come true? What was around £80 is now £175 over here.
Cheers 🥃
@@WhiskyLock disgusting how they can 'rebrand" and put 100 on a bottle. Luckily I got to try a older bottling before the hike..it was a overpriced bottle before, it will be my last and that will be a trend going forward for a lot of whiskytubers I imagine.
@@coppullcaveman Yes, Diageo have clearly decided to limit the customer base for that product to those with more money than sense. It's sad that what was a reasonably affordable bottle is now a 'halo product' that seems to exist just to show the prestige of the lineup. Whisky is a drink. Or should be.
And that rebrand. Maybe it's just me but this is the second time in a row that Talisker have essentially made their labels look worse / tackier.
The youth of today! With their £175 whisky with ragged labels! 🙄
I'm always interested in a way to get some Caol Ila. I wonder how it compares with Rattray's Cask Islay which I can easily pick up. It looks like there is an unchillfiltered version of Smokehead which at least compares in terms of stats
I don't think I've had that Rattray's bottling. I'll see if I can get one.
Smokehead Unfiltered will be my Thursday review 🙂 very good stats. Hopefully it will be available for a while!
It's a good thing smokehead is almost always sold out here in Finland or if it's up for sale it's 58€ which is kinda a lot I think? compared to Germany where it seems to be around 30-40€ price range? How much is it in UK? I quite enjoyed smokehead myself I first tried the regular version which I liked a lot coz of the peat and chili taste if I remember correct? Friend of mine bought the Rum Rebel edition I liked that lot more compared to the regular version. It seems that's going for 70€ here right now.. Would be though choice for me to buy either Ardbeg 10 or Port Charlotte 10yo which are all same price range as smokehead rum rebel.
Hi SmirGel. Yes €58 is more than we pay here. Online we get 43% Smokehead for £37. Same price for Unfiltered. Rum Rebel £54. High Voltage £58 and Sherry Bomb £65. Although the 43% could regularly be had for £25 on supermarket special offers which makes it a real bargain. Significantly cheaper than than weaker Laphroaig 10yo. There's very little that offers the same flavours at 43% for that price.
I haven't actually tried the rum, sherry or cask strength ones yet but I keep hearing good things about them and I will definitely get around to reviewing them soon 👍
There's no way this isn't coloured. Still got a dram or two left in my 43% bottle. Not sure if it's just my unsophisticated palate, but after leaving it for over a year, root beer has completely dominated the nose.
You're probably right. It seems to me that they've tried to make a Laphroaig clone with this one... including the colour!
Root beer... interesting. I have found that note in other whiskies before. I'll bear it in mind next time I have Smokehead.
I was concerned that you was going to say it is sourced from a different distillery as enjoyed the few glasses I have tried on this and awaiting for the price to drop. Can't believe the actual change though! Real shame and the previous seems less available online now. Cheers.
Interestingly on my hunt online I have come across Smokehead Unfiltered - which is a 46% unfiltered version which I have not seen before. Maybe making this one 40% while offering premium in a different bottle. Split the market.
You know what... from my first glass of this bottle I did wonder if that had happened! I got a lot more tar and oil from it than I remember and I was thinking it had a bit of a peated Bunna or even young Lagavulin thing going on. But after giving it some more time and air and comparing it to other bottles I think I just got a particularly dirty and punchy batch. Normal batch variation of what I think is the same good stuff. Panic over, as you were 🙂
@@JeffWhisky Smokehead Unfiltered you say 🤔 perhaps there'll be a review of that coming out soon. Perhaps tomorrow 😉
It would be nice if they had the 46% version running parallel to the 40% 'for the masses' version. I hope that's the plan. The cynic in me is worried that it's a pacifying measure to distract people like us while they bait and switch the standard bottle to 40% 😉 Time will tell!
@@WhiskyLock well will keep my eyes tomorrow peeled. Looking forward to it 👌 slap on buddy!
What a shame... 40% was fine when I first started drinking whisky, but now I find it too thin and watery.
Exactly this. It kills too much flavour. The list of whiskies I would even consider buying at 40% is a short one. Any distillery or bottler that cares produces at least 43%.
Here's a modest good news story for you, Mr Lock. The ‘Six Isles’ [peated] Blended Malt used to be 43%. It has now been repackaged as the ‘Six Isles Voyager’ and bumped up to 46%. No real bump in price, either. Worth a try. BTW: I found the High Voltage Smokehead 58% to be a rough ride. You'll never have to prove your courage in any other way.
Fantastic news! I have the tail end of a bottle of the old stuff that I was considering just finishing without a review because I thought it had been discontinued entirely. The M&S near me hasn't had it for a while. But I guess it was just missing from the shelf while they re-formulated it.
Thanks for the warning on the High Voltage. I shall keep my whisky guard up and handle it with caution. Cheers 🥃
Nice discussion goin on here! Try Lagavulin 8 and tell us what you think ;)
Thanks 🙂 Lag 8 has been on my list for a long, long time. I really liked the initial release (200th anniversary) but that was 7 years ago now! Current review coming soon 👍
Just tasting it, and I love it, it very much remind me on "cheap" Lidl Ben Bracken Islay 19, there is some similarity.
Yes there's a similarity to the Ben Bracken Islays. The better ones anyway 🙂 I think it's that sweet bourbon and peat style. Glad you enjoy it as much as I do 👍
Did you manage to get the 43% version? A lot of shops here have started selling it at 40%
@@WhiskyLock Yes, 43% version, would not try 40% for sure. On my market 43% is still available, central EU. Cheers!
I've had several bottles which I found for £23 a few years ago in Scotland at Morrisons. Definitely a dirty peat which I did like about it but after some time, I came away from it just because it was this "guard whisky" that you buy to protect the good stuff but I'm finding that my goodstuff is building up and the wife is asking why I'm not drinking the stuff on the shelf. 😂 Good video though unfortunately with the drop... I won't be buying anymore. If it when up to 46% I still wouldn't.
Morrisons, Sainsburys, Tesco and probably others have had this on offer regularly over the last few years. £23 is a very good price though.
I know what you mean about not getting around to drinking the good stuff. Sometimes it's useful to look at how long you've had certain bottles and ask what exactly you're saving them for 😉 but then there's always another interesting bottle to buy and it all begins again...
@@WhiskyLock I don't even think it's what I'm saving them for as I'm procuring them to drink, if it was more readily available id be inclined to try it earlier on the flip side, Personally I have more then 10 bottles open at one time (as I like to hop around) which does me a disservice on opening newer releases . There is also the rarity and exclusively that comes with indie bottlers that brings that "anxiety" I might miss something but in high insight you're always going to miss alot. 👍
@@coppullcaveman Your whisky habits sound a lot like mine. I intend to drink everything I buy but I have bottles that I've owned for over 10years or more and I'm always on the look out for the next interesting release. I'm actually glad that Laphroaig released a straight bourbon matured Cairdeas this year because it gave me a reason to open the similar 2015 Cairdeas that I'd been hoarding for years.
My plan now is to drink and share more than I buy and clear the collection. It's going to take a long time but I'd love to be in a position where I haven't got loads of money tied up in bottles gathering dust and I just buy what I want to drink and review at the time. We'll see if that ever happens 😏
I like the brand as well, Hope they don't change the cask finish % and the cask strength %
I will be honest I have never had the 43% normal one, I don't buy 43% Scotch.
Most of the cask finished stuff is 48% here in America.
My feeling is that the Cask finish versions will be safe. I'm very interested to see if there will still be a regular version at 43-46% going forward though. The last thing we want right now is a widening gap between good but expensive and cheap but mediocre.
I have a Sherry Bomb 48%, Rum Rebel 46% and High Voltage 58% on my shelf but haven't tried any yet. What's your verdict on those? Thanks for watching and commenting 👍🥃
@@WhiskyLock I really love the high voltage one. Definitely my favorite among the lineup.
@@Tantrum777 trying to stay open minded but I expect I'll feel the same. I feel a High Voltage vs Laphroaig 10CS comparison video coming up 🙂
@@WhiskyLock Very nice looking forward to that. 😁
What can I say, I bought a bottle of this of Amazon as it was £25 and though I would give it a punt. Wished I had not bothered, the aroma is almost non existant. sadly the taste is the same, very bland and I do mean VERY bland. I can see this one sitting on a shelf gathering dust.
They recently changed it from 43% to 40%. The old higher strength version was just about enough to carry the flavour but the new 40% version is piss and not worth buying. Very, very sad.
If you're not completely put off Smokehead for life there is a 46% NCF version called Unfiltered which is infinitely better. Also a 58% version called High Voltage.
I won't be buying the standard one ever again unless the ABV goes back up.
My bottle is 40% but still delicious
Glad you're still enjoying it 👍 I'd hate for Smokehead to go down hill because it's a brand I've always loved.
Funnily enough I was given a quarter of a bottle of the new 40% by family recently. I've only had one dram out of it but I agree that it still has a really nice flavour profile. Just less intense.
For me the problem now is that £25-30 before used to be a bargain for the 43% one. But now I feel like that's about all it's worth. I need to spend more time with it before coming to a conclusion though.
Cheers for your input 🥃
So basically it smells of everything 😂
Everything. Sweetened. On fire. In a recently disinfected bin 😂 Seriously though, there's probably a strong correlation between length of nosing / tasting notes and enjoyment.
@@WhiskyLock I bought it today. I can confirm it does taste fishy, which is the only flavour you listed that I did not expect to fucking taste 😂
Who is Smokehead? That is the question. Over the years the whisperings have suggested Ardbeg. Could this be so? Caol Ila have whisky to burn so could it be them? I had a bottle of the Smokehead 18 and the consensus regarding that dram was that it was Ardbeg. The clue being that it factored into their mothball time. Who knows? Not me. Whisky connoisseurs and we can tell nothing. Anyway, mystery bottles at 40% abv have no interest to me. Smokehead High Voltage is where I go. They will watch a video like this and weigh it up but they wont reply. It will only show when the sales go down. WT
Lots say Ardbeg but I'd be really surprised if that were the case. But when you add in the wild card of cask finishing by the IB, especially in casks from other distilleries, it gets very hard to tell and anything is possible.
I never got around to trying the 18yo. It sounds great from what I've heard but it seems that ship has sailed for me. How did you rate it?
I suspect that at some point someone I know may buy a bottle of the 40% version and I *might* review it from that. But I won't be buying it.
There is a new 46% NCF Smokehead out for not much more than the 43% used to sell for. Smokehead Unfiltered. Some may have guessed that it will be my Thursday review 😉 but who knows how long that will be available for.
@@WhiskyLock To be honest, I was fairly indifferent to the Smokehead 18. It got better as the fill level went down and it took me a couple of years to finish it. I kept looking for an Ardbeg tell but couldn't find anything that stood out. When I first opened it, and for quite a while after, it had a really Croftengea farmyard (manure) quality to it. It was also quite difficult to tell it was 18 years old.
When it first came out the entire world and his wife said it was Ardbeg. It didn't taste like Ardbeg tastes today but it would have been early 90's, or earlier, Ardbeg. It proved to me, once again, that older doesn't necessarily mean older means better when it comes to peated Islay. It seems hard to believe that Ardbeg could be the name behind modern Smokehead.
By the way my friend, I just picked up a lovely Master of Malt Glen Elgin 16 for a song as well as a fine Old Malt Cask Benrinnes 15. Both very good value. WT
@@welshtoro3256 I know what you mean about the croftengea farmyard note. It's entirely possible that every expression of Smokehead (and maybe different batches of the same expression) are all from a different distillery. Certainly something I'll be considering when I finally get around to trying the rest of the range.
Your comments on older Islay malts remind me of the old Laphroaig 18. I still have one bottle of that left which I will open and review one day. It's not the tour de force many might expect though. To be honest I've never been that impressed by any old Laphroaig. Or the Ardbeg Twenty One.
Sounds like your latest purchase will keep you happy for a while. I know you like your Elgin and I've had a few cracking Benrinnes. Cheers 🥃
👍🏻🥃😊
First one 👍🏻
🥳
I've never tried Smokehead and would like to buy a bottle. Which one would you recommend,HighVoltage,Unfiltered or this review?greetings
Hi! Either Unfiltered or High Voltage depending on whether you want 46% or 58%. They're both fantastic.
I wouldn't recommend the basic version anymore since they dropped the ABV to 40% except maybe for people who are new to whisky and find anything above 40% too strong. Cheers 🥃