It's another first Friday of the month and once again five whiskies are poured blind at the Devon Dram Club.
As always no one knew anything about what was in their glass. There were no indications of the distillery, no age statements and no price tags to guide the conversation. Just five drams and a room full of people attempting to decide what they like.
This month, one whisky was particularly stand-out.
Another split the room completely.
But who are we to snitch?
Whisky One: Bruichladdich The Classic Laddie 10 Year Old
We began the evening with an Islay whisky, though it wasn’t the kind most people expect from the island.
Bruichladdich’s Classic Laddie is unpeated, and the current release now carries a 10-year age statement. Made using 100% Scottish barley and bottled at 50%, Bruichladdich describes its house style as citrus-led, floral and barley-forward.
This makes it an interesting whisky to taste blind. Without the distinctive blue bottle or the Islay name, you have to judge only what’s in the glass.
It was also a good way to start the evening’s conversation. Islay doesn’t always mean peat.
And, as Liam and Kirsten discovered in The Miracle of Water, sometimes a little water can reveal considerably more than you might expect.
Whisky Two: Loch Lomond Distillery Edition Twelve
This one really stood out during the night.
Loch Lomond’s Distillery Editions let the distillery experiment with some of its unique equipment, and Edition Twelve is a great example.
Despite the name, this is actually a 10-year-old single malt. It was fermented using Chardonnay wine yeast, distilled through Loch Lomond’s straight-neck pot stills and matured in just two ex-bourbon American oak casks.
Only 366 bottles were produced.
The result was a whisky that grabbed everyone’s attention when tasted blind.
This is just the kind of bottle we enjoy adding to a Devon Dram Club lineup. Without a label or backstory, no one is told it’s unusual or interesting—the whisky has to speak for itself.
This one did.
Whisky Three: Glenfiddich Project XX
Next up was a much more familiar name, though it wasn’t your typical Glenfiddich.
Project XX forms part of Glenfiddich’s Experimental Series and came from an experiment involving 20 whisky experts, each choosing a cask from the distillery’s stocks. Malt Master Brian Kinsman then combined those selections to create the final whisky.
With this kind of bottle, knowing the story in advance can easily shape your expectations.
Blind, of course, none of that matters.
It was simply whisky number three.
That’s one of our favourite things about blind tasting. Big brands and small releases are treated the same. A well-known name doesn’t get an edge, and a new bottle doesn’t have to prove anything.
You just have to decide whether you like what’s in the glass.
Whisky Four: Benromach 12 Year Old
For the fourth dram, we went to Speyside.
But again, it wasn’t the typical Speyside style everyone expects.
Benromach has deliberately retained a subtle smoky character in its whisky, something the distillery describes as reviving the style that once defined the region.
The 12 Year Old takes that spirit and matures it exclusively in first-fill Sherry casks, bringing together rich fruit, spice and smoke.
It also reminded us why regional descriptions can only tell you so much.
Not every Islay whisky is heavily peated. Not every Speyside whisky is completely unpeated.
Whisky is rarely as neat and simple as we’d like.
Whisky Five: Milroy’s Heavily Peated Virgin Oak Batch 1
There was no doubt about the style of our final dram.
Milroy’s Heavily Peated Virgin Oak combines whisky matured in 40% new oak with 60% first-fill ex-Kentucky bourbon casks.
Peat and virgin oak are both bold flavours, so combining them gave us a big whisky to end the night.
It also had another feature we liked: at about £33 a bottle, it wasn’t trying to impress anyone with its price.
Take the price and label away and all that matters is what’s in the glass.
That brings us back to the main point of the evening.
So, which whisky split the room?
We’re not telling you.
One of these five whiskies sparked some very different opinions around the tables.
Some were very much on one side. Others were very much on the other, and that’s absolutely fine.
There is no correct favourite at Devon Dram Club. You don’t get extra points for liking the oldest, most expensive or most prestigious whisky in the lineup.
In fact, finding out you don’t like something can be just as helpful as finding a new favourite.
What we can say is that Loch Lomond Distillery Edition Twelve really stood out. It was another reminder that Loch Lomond can make some fascinating whisky when it experiments with different yeast, still setups, and small-batch releases.
As for the controversial bottle?
You’ll have to ask someone who was there.
See you next month!
Devon Dram Club meets on the first Friday of every month in Exeter for five whiskies tasted completely blind.
You don’t need to know your Lowlands from your Loch Lomonds. The whole idea is to taste, chat, learn what you enjoy, and sometimes find out that the person next to you thinks your favourite whisky is terrible.
That’s half the fun.
Whisky for the Curious.
