That Boutique-y Whisky Company Archives

Nantou Batch 2 TBWC

29th January 202328th January 2023Coldorak

Back in September, my friend Dave Worthington, That Boutique-y Whisky Company’s brand ambassador, gave me a mountain of samples, and I’m still working my way through them. Hard work, I know. This time I’m trying something from a Taiwanese distillery I have never tried anything before: Nantou. Nantou Distillery was founded in 2008, becoming Taiwan’s second whisky distillery. In 2015, Puli Pan, the distillery manager since 2012, releases a first whisky called Omar. This core range will become known as Yushan Signature and will be joined by Yushan Blended Malt. Since then, they also released whisky under the Nantou name. For now, only two independent bottlers released whisky from Nantou apart from the official bottlings, and we try Nantou batch 2 from That Boutique-y Whisky Company (TBWC).

Single Malt Irish Whiskey #2 That Boutique-y Whisky Company

Two Irish Single Malt #2 TBWC

31st December 2022Coldorak

We were talking recently about secrets and transparency in the whisky industry… And it’s not just in Scotland, it happens elsewhere as well. For instance, That Boutique-y Whisky Company, that we’ve reviewed quite a lot of whiskies from in these pages, has bottled several batches of secret Irish whiskey. In today’s case, some Irish single malt. And with the age of these whiskies, we might have a good guess about which distillery is behind the Irish Single Malt Whisky #2 distillery at TBWC…

Tennessee Rye Batch 4 TBWC

21st October 202221st October 2022Coldorak

We’re back to That Boutique-y Whisky Company with another whisky from their 10th anniversary lineup. But this time it is something quite different from the previous one (a Chouchen-cask finished Armorik). This time, we’re going to Tennessee, and not for that good ol’ N°7. We’re going to an unnamed distillery, for some rye and some sherry! So we should I think expect something quite different from that Tennessee Rye Batch 4 TBWC!

Two Chouchen-Finished Armorik (Official & Boutique-y)

11th October 202211th October 2022Coldorak

Chouchen (or in Breton, Chouchenn) is a kind of mead (‘hydromel’ in French). It is made using honey and water, with either apple juice, apple must or cider added (for the latter, it is then called chufere). What distinguishes chouchen from hydromel is that yeast from apples is used to speed fermentation, whilst for hydromel it’s only honey, wine or beer yeast that do the fermentation. Chouchen is aged in wood casks for several months, before being filtered then bottled, with an ABV between 12 and 15%. Depending on the residual amount of sugar in it, it can be called from dry to sweet, dry being for the one having the less sugar remaining. As chouchenn is a traditional alcohol from Brittany, it is not unexpected that its casks would be used to finish whisky coming from Brittany as well, and that’s what Warenghem distillery has done for some of its Armorik single malt. So let’s try two chouchen-finished Armorik whiskies, an official single cask and one bottled by That Boutique-y Whisky Company for its 10th birthday range.