Way back in August of last year, the lovely people at Master of Malt sent me some Whisky samples to try, and they sneaked in a suprise bonus…a dram of the new (well a little bit old now) rum from
Ron Jeremy (porn star and all round legend – in certain circles) and Alcoholes Y Rones De Panama Distillery, the Ron de Jeremy.

Funnily enough not too long before this package arrived I was contacted via Twitter by the PR guy from Ron de Jeremy asking my thoughts on how well it would go down (so to speak) in Japan.

Due to Ron Jeremy not being well known here (Western porn being not so popular as the home grown stuff – so I’m told), I told him (while fishing for a free sample) that it would probably only basically sell on the quality of the rum and not the “name”. He said he’d thought as much, and I never heard from him again – guess my subtle fishing wasn’t good enough.

But lo and behold, I get a free sample from Master of Malt! Nice.

Having said that, although all the whiskys were fairly quickly sampled and reviewed (see just below for links), the Rum is still sitting in my glass cupboard with Ron’s face staring at me every day as I get my glass for morning juice.

Will definitely review it soon though…
Update (19/1/12) : Just reviewed it and it’s quite excellent! See review link below.

But for now, here are the Whiskys
Dailuaine 27 Year Old 1983 Single Cask
Cragganmore 20 Year Old 1991 Single Cask
Dalmore 14 Year Old 1996 Single Cask
North British 20 Year Old 1991 Single Cask
Ron de Jeremy Rum

All of these whiskys can be bought from Master of Malt in full bottle or dram size.

They say that if you want to have a successful blog, the key thing is timing and to write posts timely and when the subject you’re writing about is current and relevant.

So here is my blog post about Sake Day in Japan which occurred 2 months ago on October 1st!

Sake day is so called as it’s around this time that the new brewing years sake is released.

To celebrate this momentous event Ebisu Temple in Nishinomiya held a sake festival that weekend with the local breweries showing off some of their new sakes for punters to taste and buy.

Getting off the train at the station we were immediately greeting with this display of Sake Barrels.

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Master of Malt announce St Isidore – a blended whisky created by bloggers

Master of Malt is proud to finally announce the release of the blended whisky, St Isidore, created entirely by whisky bloggers. To make this blend, the spirits retailer called upon the great and the good of the whisky industry including names such as Whisky Magazine, Edinburgh Whisky Blog, CaskStrength.net and Whisky Cast.

Master of Malt started by sending blending kits to 10 prominent whisky bloggers, and asked them to create the best blended whisky they could using the ingredients provided, whilst maximising its value for money. The bloggers’ recipes were made up and sold in sample sets, and Master of Malt asked the public to vote for which recipe should be made into the brand’s next whisky.

The votes were counted (using the AV system) and a rather smoky, Islay-inspired blend was chosen as the winner, before the bloggers agreed on a name for the blend, calling it St Isidore after the patron saint of the internet.
For the final stage, Master of Malt called on graphic designers to submit label designs for the bottle, which summed up St Isidore, the blend, and the whisky blogging community, making them as creative as possible.

The winning designer, who was awarded a £250 spending spree at Master of Malt, was English artist Ben Sowter, who created a psychedelic, larger-than-life depiction of St Isidore enjoying his namesake blend. The label features numerous computer and internet in-jokes, for example a monitor lizard represents a computer’s monitor, and there is a bag of coins, representing a “cache”. In total, there are around 20 different hidden internet-related jokes and Easter Eggs!

You can buy a bottle of St Isidore from Master of Malt.

Tasting Notes for St Isidore

Nose: Sweet creamy aromas that meld well with a cool, oily, almost coastal wood smoke. It instantly transports you to Islay, whilst offering just a hint of plum wine, wood shavings and lapsang souchong tea. Time in the glass brings out notes of guava, warm custard and rhubarb crumble.

Palate: Thick, warming and balanced as it hits the tongue, it offers notes of really good vanilla ice cream, black pepper, and rum spices, whilst retaining a solid backbone of sweet woodsmoke and freshly-sawn timber. Hold it on the tongue for just a touch of salty popcorn and crème caramel.

Finish: Beautifully warming and spiced. It fades away on freshly grated cinnamon and sugared peels. A faint flutter of pear juice on the very tail.

Overall: A perfect smoky blend. This is a very old-school whisky, combining the smoke of Islay, and the rich, honeyed tones of the Highlands. A superb winter fireside dram if ever there was one.

The Bloggers:

- CaskStrength.net
- Dr. Whisky
- Edinburgh Whisky Blog
- Guid Scotch Drink
- The Jewish Single Malt Whisky Society
- WhiskyCast
- Whisky Connosr
- Whisky Magazine
- WhiskyWhiskyWhisky Forum
- Whisky for Everyone


About Master of Malt

• Established in 1985
• One of the UK’s leading Online Whisky Merchants, with a huge range of whiskies, rum, brandies, gins, cocktails and other fine spirits.
• UK Next Day Delivery from £6.95

Follow Master of Malt

• On Twitter: @MasterOfMalt
• On Facebook: MasterOfMalt
• On their Blog: MasterOfMalt Blog

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Don’t forget you can follow me on Facebook too…MoIppai

On a recent trip to Awajishima (Awaji island, a tiny island inbetween Honshu and Shikoku, just off the coast of Kobe), we stopped in at the local sake brewery Sennenichi to pick up a bottle of the local brew to take home.

We were greeted very warmly and were very quickly invited for a mini-tour of the brewery by the extremely friendly owner.
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