Kilchoman Machir Bay; Fujioka Collaborative Vatting
The store pick Machir Bay might be great for someone who is ‘peat curious’ and wants a window into the range of flavors that scotch can pick up from peat, without being overwhelmed by lots of sherry or a viscous mouthfeel. It might also be great for someone who needs a scotch with great smokey notes for a mixed drink where the let down on the mouthfeel will not be obvious.
Paul John Edited
The lightly peated ‘Edited’ is the middle child of Paul John’s core retail range, sitting between the unpeated ‘Brilliance’ and heavily peated ‘Bold.’ It combines elements of both, balancing the influence of Scottish peated malt against the tropical and tangy malted six-row barley from northern India.
Widow Jane Distillery Visit
Widow Jane sits in a charming, semi-industrial, quickly gentrifying, corner of Brooklyn a way off the closest metro stop. It shares an open brick building with the Cacao Prieto chocolate factory and the two were once part of the same operation.
Eigashima "Luna Series" Single Cask 12 Year & 5 Year
Two single cask halves of the “Luna Release,” I would have assumed the 12Y Peated was the “dark side of the moon” and the 5 Year unpeated “the light side.” According to Stefan Van Eycken, who provided the bottles at the tasting, the inspiration was Taiso Yoshitoshi's "One Hundred Views of the Moon.”