Matt McKay

a grid of letters and numbers including the letters a and b ALT: a grid of letters and numbers including the letters a and b

Excellent work Andy. Loving the puzzling theme.

Can we have a wordsearch next time please?

#BlindDrams

#BlindDrams 5: World's most consistent whisky distillery - so anything less than a 3 means the whisky maker/bottler has fucked up. They haven't here - 3 scored

#BlindDrams 5 Taste: Totally Caol Ila with the triptych of medicine, lemon and minerality. Some milky coffee and digestive biscuits alongside preserved lemon, chiselled granite and billowing coastal smokiness. Sound...as it always is.

#BlindDrams 5 Nose: Full peat now. Medicinal - surface cleaner and calamine lotion. Some smokehouse barbeque ribs, burnt toffee, lemon balm and damp barnyard hay

Really enjoying this one mate. Feels rather Orkney to me.

#BlindDrams 4 Pin-point balance here. Excellent. Scores a 4.

#BlindDrams 4 Taste: Perfect balance of sweet and peat. Lemon meringue pie, crisp and sour green apple...all enveloped with a combination of vegetal/coastal peat. Edges of salinity and minerality at the back palate - really sits well with the overarching sweetness.

#BlindDrams 4 Nose: Ethereal peat wraps around green apples and wet leaves. Quite appropriately autumnal. Touches of burnt pastry cases and orange liqueurs, alongside a delicate meaty character.

#BlindDrams 3. Liked it - right until the end. But true to form - big extracted dry tannins are never going to be my thing. Score a 2.

#BlindDrams 3 Taste: Nice weight throughout the mouth. Sweet and fresh, lively fruits - redcurrants and blackberries. But quite grippy after....the syrupy fruits giving way to the cask for some moisture-sucking, rather rigid tannins.

#BlindDrams 3 Nose: Pleasant and interesting. Gingerbread men and a touch of sharp and crisp cider. Strawberry boot laces, touches of slapped mint leaves and wire wool.

#BlindDrams 2 - No great shakes eitherway. Tis totally fine for me....scores a 2.

#BlindDrams 2 Taste: Good mouthcoating arrival. Active cask here - charry and spicy - together with spirit character of red berries, crisp apples, powdered lemon bonbons and pink wafer biscuits. Pokey stuff.

#BlindDrams 2 Nose: Plenty of baking spices and stewed orchard fruits - fresh and appealing. Rather perfumed with it - rose petals and potpourri together with some maltloaf

#BlindDrams 1 - no qualms at all for me. Solid. Scores 3

#BlindDrams 1 Taste: Few overexpressed acetates here - so this has likely had some time in cask to clean up. Nevertheless, more oomph than the nose might have suggested - peppery toffee, caramel chews, plenty of cask char. Tangy fruits a good dose of polished oakiness

#BlindDrams 1 Nose: Pleasant grain whisky incoming. Desiccated coconut, toffee cups, popcorn. split vanilla pod, super gentle white pepper and some well-worn oakiness. Super appealing for grain-heads no doubt.

Got most of it. But indeed, the 74th doesn't support the rest

#BlindDrams

Given up trying to solve the anagram - poured the drams instead #BlindDrams

Due to my shenanigans on Sunday, I didn't promote this new #what3whiskies terribly well.

So please, take a couple of minutes to find out about @thedramble.bsky.social of @londondistilleryco.bsky.social

clairevokins.substack.com/p/meet-matt-...

#BlindDrams 5 Scores a 4. Lots going on here - and all in-check with it too. Noice. Sounds like Avril Lavigne - Complicated

#BlindDrams 5 Taste: Broad and expressive. Salted caramel, millionaire's shortbread, rose hips and Turkish Delight. Charry smoke and cinder toffee together with tart stewed red and dark berries.

Santis / Langatum - just can't see @jwbassman.bsky.social going there if I'm honest ;)

#BlindDrams 5 Nose: Highly expressive. Polished teak furniture, rose petals, scorched creme caramel and candied orange peels. Salted caramel, sticky toffee pudding and fine cigars. Deep cask influence - rather dechar/rechar in character.

#BlindDrams 4 Scores a 1. Whilst well-known for my general enmity of wine casks, I'm also sadly not a fan of gristy profiles. Sounds like jazz instructor Terence Fletcher saying "Not my tempo"

Rok is the Mackmyra peated one yep. Doesn't quite hit like that (that's much much peatier) - but I do get some edges of it certainly

#BlindDrams 4 Taste: Juniper vs barley. Unusual. And a bit gristy with it. Dried reed and flax, touches of burnt leaves, pine cones and twigs leading into sweet mentholated oakiness.

#BlindDrams 4 Nose: Burnt juniper, orange peels and jellies. Edges of potpourri herbalness. In time, pineapple juice and freshly cut hay. Interesting.

#BlindDrams 3 Scores a 3. Perhaps it's not quite the weather for it - but everything here sits well within my usual penchants. Sounds like The Editors - Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors