Murray Cohen At An Evening of Scottish Virtuosity

[William]

International Order of the Companions of the Quaich and our very own Scotch Malt Whisky Forum Member Murray Cohen (Quaich) attended "An Evening of Scottish Virtuosity" in Toronto Canada this week where he had the pleasure of no less than 8 whiskies including some rarely reviewed drams such as The Macallan No.6 Lalique and The Macallan Rare Cask.

Murray was good enough to take the time to submit an article about the evening as well as his tasting notes for the whiskies he tasted during the evening. You can read all about them here:

An Evening of Scottish Virtuosity At The National Club Toronto Canada

The Macallan Rare Cask Review

The Macallan No.6 Lalique Review

Highland Park Dark Origins Review

Highland Park 21 Year Old Review

Bowmore Darkest 15 Year Old Review

Bowmore 25 Year Old Review

Laphroaig Cairdeas Origin Review

Laphroaig 15 Year Old 200th Anniversary Review

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There's no bad whisky. Just good whisky and better whisky.

[Brummie]

I would love to taste those 2 Macallans, particularly the Macallan No.6 Lalique. Great reviews Murray

[Calder]

That is some selection of whiskies, how did the Highland Park Dark Origins sneak in there with this bunch, the HP 25 would have been more appropriate with this selection. The Macallans sound good.

[Grant M]

Just read your reviews, a few nice drams Murray, I have been considering the Macallan Rare Cask for myself, good to read a review on it. I would love to get the No. 6 but way over my budget for a single bottle.

[James T]

Sounds like it was a fantastic evening with some outstanding whiskies

[TheWM]

Yes - great deals and thanks for the reviews. The no 6 is something that I've had on my mind for a while. Way out of my price range - but who knows. Nothing is impossible especially if I can get the missus to sign some forms to extend our mortgage..:!

[opelfruit]

Wow what an event, you lucky spud!

The Laphroaigs were the ones that most piqued my interest, given they are actually affordable....Not a fan of Macallan and I hardly ever buy their stuff, but I'd certainly like to sample the Lalique!!!

I'm with you on the Dark Origins. Bad experience from me too on that one, what could have been a good whisky is most certainly spoiled by far too much sulphur taint.
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"Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whisky is barely enough."

[Big Mac]

Murray i very much agree with your review and scoring of the Macallan Rare Cask, not had the No.6 Lalique yet but it is good to read a review as you rarely see reviews of whiskies like this.

[sorren]

Impressive.. Murray.. When I die I am coming back as you 😊👍

[James T]

I am drinking the Highland Park 21 tonight Murray, I agree it is some way off the quality of the HP 25 & 30. I still enjoy it very much though but I feel it never regained the quality it had before HP reduced the ABV to 40% before putting it back up again. I suppose the very nature of a single malt is that it can vary from batch to batch and whisky of this age will be bottled in small batches. Slainte

[Diademo]

I still have a bottle of HP 21 from 2012 (bought in January 2013); the price at the time was £84 - today's price at TWE is £143!
Probably I'm not the greatest fan of HP - I believe that this is good but not exceptional malt, similar as Old Pulteney (£96) and other middle-of-the road malts. Even with diminish stock of older casks in the warehouses and HP's concentration on NAS, travel retail expressions I believe that this pricing policy will hurt them on the long run because till now their regular/core line-up was considered rather affordable in comparison to the competitors (now even Balvenie 21 - PW is cheaper).