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Terroir: Dirt, Dramas, and Drams of Deliciousness

Yo, whisky warriors! It’s your iLaddie here, back with another dram-tastic deep dive. This time, we’re ditchin’ the distillery tours and tastings and heading straight for the source: the terroir. Buckle up, because we’re about to get all science-y and soil-suckin’ to unravel the magic that goes into every wee dram. Terroir ain’t some fancy French word for “dirt” (although, let’s be honest, dirt…

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Whisky and Artificial Intelligence

[iladdie]

Kilchoman 2007, 24yo, 46% ABv ?!

Kilchoman 2007, 24yo, 46% ABv ?!

Did the title of this blog trigger you to click the link? If yes, then that is cool! The title is not actually about a 24yo Kilchoman, at least, not yet! I have been playing around in Excel with a database I copied from Whiskybase.com. On Whiskybase there are currently 870 entries for Kilchoman bottled whiskies. Of those 870 entries, 454 are for single casks. The Whiskybase information has ABv,…

[iladdie]

3D model of a whisky glass

3D model of a whisky glass

Today I spend some time with my works 3D engineering tool, Siemens NX, to try and model a tasting glass. I am a tad rusty when it comes to sketch-based modeling, but I think I did ok. I had no issues sketching the centre line (Duh!!) and the fixed measurements in the dimensions above are easy enough to draw too. Where it becomes tricky are the curves needed to draw the stem and the curves needed…

[iladdie]

iLaddie RSWFW Radar Chart

iLaddie RSWFW Radar Chart

This week I opened up “Numbers” again and to my surprise Apple had added a diagram type which I had been looking for for ages. The Radar Chart has finally made it to Apple’s idea of Excel! This means I can finally complete my tasting notes “Excel” file with an output that I actually like. So I played around with it and if all is well the background of the Radar Chart should be the same colour as…

[iladdie]

Italian Hops: Terroir influences on Beer

Italian Hops: Terroir influences on Beer

It has been a while since I wrote a blog about terroir. Or any blog for that matter. The reason being my mother recently passed away totally unexpected and I have been too preoccupied with dealing with that. On to the terroir blog. Carbone et al. [1] investigated the influence on both chemical make-up and sensory analysis between craft beers produced with hops grown in two area’s of Italy. The…

[iladdie]

The "Terroir of a Whisky Cask" ?...

The “Terroir of a Whisky Cask” ?…

So a while back I wrote about the “Terroir of casks”. I wrote:”Should we start speaking about the “terroir of casks” besides the “terroir of barley” and “the provenance of the distillery”?” in a blog explaining that all casks are different. This week I spotted a review by Gollihue et. al [1] that spoke of the “terroir of casks”. Let’s see what this study is all about. Come to think of it, with…

[iladdie]

StarWard Left Field

A while back I had a whisky tasting organised by DRAMTIME. We explored 6 core expressions by the StarWard Distillery from Australia. Photo by me, 2021 The whole lineup was absolutely amazing, but one of the expressions absolutely stood out for me! This StarWard Left Field jumped out at me as a cold dry white wine does on a summer day! If other whiskies remind people of Sherry, this one reminds…

[iladdie]

Waterford Gaia 1.1

I have been exploring Waterford whisky for a while now. Ok, that’s an understatement. I currently own 9 official bottlings, multiple samples and multiple samples of “the funnies”. So currently Waterford is the largest “growth area”, besides Bruichladdich, in my “opened bottle collection”. Image by me. This is naturally not a coincidence. I have been exploring terroir with Bruichladdich for…

[iladdie]

What is "Wrong" with this picture!?

What is “Wrong” with this picture!?

I had nothing to do, so I thought I try out some settings for my new bottle photo studio. I selected a “random” bottle to try and do a bottle shoot. The photo is below. Can you figure out what is wrong with it? Copyright by me. So depending on your position as a whisky fan there are a couple on things wrong with this picture. Let’s make a list. OMG! The bottle is open! Well spotted! This…

[iladdie]

What Covid-19 has brought my whisky hobby

What Covid-19 has brought my whisky hobby

Since the 13th of march 2020 I have been working from home. I do so to protect my wife, my kids, my family and myself. I was sitting thinking about this and I realised that I had not put down my thoughts about this fact. For this blogpost I decided to write down what a year of COVID-19 has brought my Whisky hobby. COVID-19 not only took things away, it added things to my whisky hobby. What did…

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Terroir: Natural Terroir Units / Terron

Terroir: Natural Terroir Units / Terron

Terroir is one of those topics in the Whisky industrie which is either considered as a no-brainer or a non-issue. I have been looking into the science behind terroir in whisky for more than two years now and I have to say I have read my share of Science about the subject. I had been reading up on Terroir last weekend by reading the book by Arnold [1] (2021). In this book GC-MS-O is used to prove…

[iladdie]

Terroir Alert: OMG!

So, I have been looking for some kind of scientific data about Terroir outside the influence of the whisky industry. Out side the influence of the wine industry. Outside the influence of the beer industry. And I think I found a 2021 study that will make some people in the Whisky Industry Smile from Ear to Ear and some will definitely not. I will have to get back on this one because I have at…

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Whisky Terroir: Further substantiation of the concept

Whisky Terroir: Further substantiation of the concept

The concept of “terroir” in whisky has been progressing nicely in the scientific world these past months and years. Where the first papers showing proof of concept were published in 2019 by Arnold et al. [2] further substantiation of the concept has been published by Kyraleou et al. in February 2021 [1]. The title of this new work is “The Impact of Terroir on the Flavour of Single Malt Whisk(e)y…

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Brexit: Whisky Shipment "issues"

Brexit: Whisky Shipment “issues”

So it is now February 2021. I wanted to let you know some of my personal experiences with ordering whisky from Scotland to the Netherlands Post-Brexit. Up until now the experience of ordering whisky from the UK has been “disappointing”, which is a whopper of an understatement. I had personally ordered, in the beginning of December 2020, some 7 items from Scotland. A Christmas gift to myself. So…

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Quote:"All casks are different"

Quote:”All casks are different”

I have been wanting to put out a post about the consistency of casks. I had been lacking the science to back this blog up. Until Yang et.al. [1] that is. In December 2020 Yang et.al. published an article called “Analysis of Barrel-Aged Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey by Ultrahigh Resolution Mass Spectrometry”. Yes! Finally! Ok, ok! Hold the proverbial horses! Why all the excitement? Let me explain why…

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My 2020 bottles, “thoughts” and “reviews”

My 2020 bottles, “thoughts” and “reviews”

I have been taking it slow this year when it comes to the numbers of bottles of whisky I buy. At least, that’s what I am telling myself. I was also debating if I should do another instalment of the Intergalactic Global Annual iLaddie Whisky Awards this year. First two “Shelves” The first two shelves from this years WhiskyBase website contain three bottles of Scarabus. These are the 1 litre…