Favorites of 2020

What a year.  Good thing there is whisky!   

This past year I sampled 118 different whiskies, tried 25 new distilleries, rekindled an interest in a well known brand, and revisited old favorites.  To sum these up I compared the scores from the end of 2020 to the final scores of 2019.  If you want to geek out on my ranking methodology check out my Whisky Rankings page.   And, if you are a visual person, check out this Google Map of the distilleries I sampled in 2020.  

New Discoveries

Favorite New Distillery - Linkwood

Of the new distilleries I tried this year, most were "good", a few were "crap", a few more than that were "pretty good".  But my favorite new distillery of the year is Linkwood.  My first Linkwood was a dram of a 22 year old bottled by Cadenheads.  A couple months later I went back to the shop and walked out with an 11 year old.  This bottle is delicious and can simply be described as cask strength lemon drop cake.  Normally it takes me about a year to go through a bottle, but I went through this one in just over two months, sped up by copious amounts of sharing with friends.  I'll probably head back to the shop and pick up that 22 year old expression.  The Linkwood Distillery ended the year with an average score of 81.4, second only by my favorite distillery discussed below.  

Favorite New Brand - Infrequent Flyer

Cadenheads was poised to take the award of my favorite brand new to me this year until a friend introduced me to Infrequent Flyer from Alistair Walker.  She picked up bottles of their latest two releases, a 10 year old Deanston and 10 year old Aultmore.  The Deanston was like eating citrusy yeasty cask strength cinnamon roll dough and the Aultmore was a fruit bomb.  At the end of the year the Deanston ranked 23rd with a score of 85.9 and the Aultmore ranked 38 with a score of 80, one place higher than my 11 year old Linkwood.

Favorite New Region - Wales

My 2020 New Year's Resolution was to try whiskies from as many different regions as possible.  That seemed like a very promising idea at this time last year when I was looking forward to traveling around Europe and visiting distilleries in different countries.  But then COVID shut down the travel and I got tired of trying sub-par whiskies.  Despite the overall failure of my New Year's Resolution, there were some positives.  First, an honorable mention goes to Taiwan for favorite new region of the year.  Based on my samples of Kavalan Classic and Omar Lychee finish I won't hesitate to pick up another bottle of Taiwanese whisky in the future.  But my favorite new region this year is Wales.  My experience is limited to three Penderyn whiskies bottled by Vom Fass, but all three are crisp fruit bombs on the nose that fade on the palate giving way to some dry grass (I haven't done a vertical flight to compare them all side by side to pick out the slight differences between the two).  There are a few other distilleries in Wales and I'm going to keep looking for more Welsh whiskies... in addition to more Penderyn.  The Penderyn Distillery currently has a score of 61.2, nestled in between Springbank and Highland Park.

Old Favorites

Most improved - Springbank

Springbank gets the award for most improved distillery of 2020.  It wasn't until this year that I actually owned a full bottle of something from Springbank.  Before 2020 I had only tried Springbank in bars or sample tastings in shops or with friends.  Most recently, I had a very unpleasant dram of Springbank 15 which tasted of old smoke and ash.  This past year I rekindled an enjoyment of Springbank distilliery.  It started when I picked up a bottle of Springbank 10 on sale at the local supermarket and continued when I received a sample of a 10 year old Longrow in the mail.  In addition I also sampled the 12 year old cask strength Springbank.  Adding in the 10 year old Kilkerran dram I also thoroughly enjoyed Campbeltown earns the award for my most improved region of 2020.

Favorite Distillery -  Cragganmore

In previous years awards I've always excluded Cragganmore because I had only tried one expression during the year.  But, it is time to acknowledge that year after year Cragganmore stays at the top.  Last year when we moved into a new apartment I bought a bottle of the Distiller's Edition to celebrate and it didn't disappoint.  The nose of lovely caramel and honey fades on the palate but are joined with nice floral and grassy notes.  The finish was light wood and fruity.  Not to surprising that this bottle won my March Madness Tournament and the distillery finished the year with a score of 83.4.

Most Consistent - Lagavulin

I knew Lagavulin was my stalwart distillery.  No matter which expression I tried it was always at least pretty good, and usually amazing.  But this year I feel I proved it.  Despite trying two new expressions - the 8 year old bottle I opened to celebrate my daughter turning 8, the 9 year old Game of Thrones Edition, and a dram of the 20 year old Feis Ile Edition - the average score for all Lagavulins stayed solid and finished the year with a score of 74.9.  This 0.2 drop is small compared to the average change of 8.8 for all other distilleries.

I hope you enjoyed the brief tour of my whisky adventures in 2020!  If you want to read more, here is a link to last year's much longer post(s):  2019.  Hit me up on Twitter, Instagram, or WhiskyBase @WhiskyRanked or send me an email WhiskyRanker@gmail.com if you are interested in trading samples.    

Cheers to a better 2021!