Testing Paul John whisky

First check out my general whisky tasting list.

I got a Paul John whisky tasting kit. There are five whiskies, one is peated, so I will start with the other four, here listed in preference order

  1. Edited
  2. Bold
  3. Classic Select (cask strength)
  4. Brilliance

I later got a sample of Paul John Nirvana that I will also test below.

Brilliance vs Edited
Color: Edited is darker, I would say both are quite pale
Nose: I like brilliance, fresh and malty perhaps with sweet citrus to it. Edited is a different story: leather, oil and dirt, not bad at all, but more challenging.
Mouth: Brilliance tastes very young, a bit raw wood and strange sweetness. Also Edited tastes quite much wood, quite light compared to what I expected after smelling it.
Winner: Very comparable quality, I pick Edited.

Bold vs Classic Select
Color: Classic Select is darker, also after being diluted
Nose: Bold is a bit leather, sweet, quite subtle, somthing perhaps tropical about it. Classic select, at first I was confused but it has a more classic bourbon aroma, with something young/sour about it.
Mouth: Bold taste as it smells, young wood and leather. It has a long lingering woody/metallic taste. Classic select is clearly sour in the mouth (I cant write fresh).
Winner: Bold wins.

Edited vs Bold (for Gold)
Color: Very similar
Nose: Bold is heavier, young wood, not necessarily a good thing. Edited is more classic (scotch). Quite similar.
Mouth: Both tastes decent but quite immature, Edited is the more soft and sophisticated one.
Winner: Edited.

Brilliance vs Classic Select (for Bronze)
Color: Classic Select is darker.
Nose: Brilliance very light, fruity like citrus with something unusual tropical about it. Classic Select more sweet, and back to Brilliance it is more raw/wood.
Mouth: Quite much bourbon in Classic Select now, Brilliance is unrefined wood and fruit.
Winner: Classic Select

Paul John vs Other Whisky

Bold vs Johnny Walker Gold
Color: JW darker
Nose: JW is more mellow and oily, Bold more tropical/raw wood and spicy
Mouth: Bold is more rough, young, fruity. JW sweeter, richer, softer and more complex.
Winner: JW wins.

Brilliance vs Mackmyra Brukswhisky
Color: Brilliance is darker
Nose: Brilliance has a woody, sour aroma (with good intentions some citrus fruit). Mackmyra is a little sweeter, more honey, and less agressively woody.
Mouth: Brilliance is really sour, with a dry wood lingering. Mackmyra a bit softer but also more bitter.
Winner: These are bad in different ways, with a bit of doubt, I prefer Paul John Brillance.

Edited vs Johnny Walker Gold
Color: JW is darker
Nose: JW is more oily, leather and dirt. Paul John is lighter, more sour (not writing fresh) and raw wood.
Mouth: Edited is quite classic malt whisky, a bit raw. JW a bit chemical and odd-tasting.
Winner: With little margin, Paul John Edited wins.

Edited vs Glenfiddich 12
Color: Same color
Nose: Glenfiddich is more dry, salty and malty. Edited is more sour raw wood.
Mouth: Glenfiddich is more soft and mature. Edited is more rough, unrefined.
Winner: Glenfiddich 12.

Classic Select vs Motörhead
Color: Motörhead is darker
Nose: Both a bit on the fruity and sweet side. Motörhead more soft and subtle, John Paul more raw wood.
Mouth: Motörhead quite sweet, soft and gentle in flavour, John Paul a little bit more kick, and more odd and woody. I add more water to it.
Winner: I prefer Motörhead: more classic and soft.

Brilliance vs Bushmills Original
Color: Similar, both pale
Nose: Bushmills lighter, Brilliance more terpentine.
Mouth: Bushmills more delicate and complex. Brilliance more sour and raw.
Winner: I prefer Bushmills.

Brilliance vs Kilkerran 8YO
Color: Kilkerran slightly darker
Nose: Kilkerran more red-fruit sweet and raw, Brilliance more green-fruit and soft
Mouth: Brilliance rather thin, a bit metallic and artificial. Kilkerran softer and thicker, but with the old margarine finish.
Winner: I prefer Brilliance.

Bold vs Makers Mark
Color: Markers Mark much darker
Nose: Makers Mark is sweeter, perhaps even lighter. Bold is a bit dirtier and oilier.
Mouth: Makers Mark has a strong bourbon character and at least I need water with it. Bold is quite classic in comparison. Back to Makers mark it is softer with water but still this strong bourbon flavour is an aqcuired taste (and it tastes like glue).
Winner: Bold is better.

Classic Select vs Crown Royal Rye
Color: Same
Nose: Crown Royal has a sweet fruity aroma with some flowers. Classic select is a dirtier, woodier experience.
Mouth: Crown Royal definitely has a bourbon flavour, spiced with flowers and fruits. Paul John is rougher and more tropical wood.
Winner: Crown Royal

Bold vs Jim Beam Rye
Color: Jim Beam slightly darker.
Nose: Paul John has a classic, somewhat oily, almost peated aroma. Jim Beam is bourbon, vanilla.
Mouth: Paul John has a quite classic flavour as well, a bit thin, sharp and raw. Jim Beam is very spicy in its bourbon way. In comparison Paul John is rather soft.
Winner: Paul John wins.

Bold vs Bushmills 10
Color: Bushmills a little paler
Nose: Bushmills is light fruits, like green pears. Paul John really smells heavy and solid.
Mouth: Bushmills light and soft in flavour, flawless but without much of an impression. Paul John is heavier, more of an acquired taste.
Winner: Paul John

Edited vs Chivas Regal 12
Color: Similar
Nose: Chivas Regal is lighter, best thing I can write is classic. Edited dominated by young wood, a bit tropical.
Mouth: Chivas is very classic and balanced. Edited has a little bit more kick, more dry young wood and more character. After Edited, there is something cheap blend about Chivas.
Winner: Chivas Regal (Paul John is too odd to me)

Edited vs Glenallachie 10 (Murray McDavid)
Color: Glenallachie much darker
Nose: Glenallachie is soft and like wine. Edited is dirtier, more leather and oil.
Mouth: Glenallachie tastes like it has a strong sherry origin, Paul John is more raw wood with a tropical touch.
Winner: I prefer Glenallachie

Edited vs Glen Moray
Color: Similar, Glen Moray slightly paler
Nose: Glen Moray quite light, fruity with some hay. PJ is heavier, more leather and tropical notes.
Mouth: Glen Moray is fresh, light, with some green fruits and a bit of maltiness. Edited is more powerful, with this quite raw woody flavour.
Winner: Difficult, I could argue both ways. Edited is more powerful, more interesting, but I don’t quite like it very much. Glen Moray is more plain and boring, but it does its simple light single malt very nicely. I’d rather have a Glen Moray.

Nirvana vs Glenlivet 16 Nadurra
Color: Both rather pale classic malt color, Nadurra slightly paler
Nose: Nadurra a bit sweeter and heavier, Nirvana lighter with some slighly unnatural wood notes
Mouth: Nirvana is quite fresh, a hint of young wood, and a bit burnt. Nadurra has a richer softer more balanced and pleasant flavour.
Winner: Glenlivet wins.

Nirvana vs Jameson
Color: Similar, Jameson perhaps a bit darker
Nose: Jameson quite thin, smelling alcohol. Nirvana has more of a fine whisky aroma.
Mouth: Again, Jameson a bit thin and tasting pure alcohol. Nirvana richer and nicer.
Winner: Nirvana wins.

Nirvana vs Johnny Walker Gold Label
Color: Johnny Walker is artificially colored and darker
Nose: Johnny Walker has a soft, mellow, somewhat dirty almost peated nose. Nirvana is more light and fresh.
Mouth: Johnny Walker is like velvet soft in the mouth, but with a smoke-like heavy not too tasty flavour. Nirvana is more pure, raw, light and fresh.
Winner: Both kind of lack quality but in different ways. I would recommend none of them for a beginner, but I think Nirvana is more interesting and refershing, so Nirvana wins.

Nirvana vs Glenfarclas 12
Color: Glenfarclas is a bit darker
Nose: Glenfarclas has a balanced malty aroma with some creaminess in it. Nirvana has some odd wood smell.
Mouth: Glenfarclas is salty, refreshing, malty, lingering surprisingly long but a little bit bitter. Nirvana is less complex, less classic quality malt.
Winner: Glenfarclas

Nirvana vs Glendronach Batch 9
Color: Unsurprisingly Glendronach is darker, also after adding water to the cask strength whisky.
Nose: Glendronach is fruity sherry, but kind of nothing else. Nirvana very light in comparison.
Mouth: Glendronach is quite sweet, kind of thick and surprisingly balanced even though it is not so complex. Nirvana, it has a bitter odd wood flavour.
Winner: You really need to hate sherry malts to not favour Glendronach.

Nirvana vs Glenmorangie Lasanta
Color: similar
Nose: Both quite thin. Lasanta a bit softer and sweeter.
Mouth: Lasanta, not much of Sherry, and not many nice flavours at all, a bit bitter. Nirvana is more classic, a bit sweet, with an odd wood finish.
Winner: Nirvana

Nirvana vs Smögen Dante
Color: Smögen slightly paler
Nose: Dante is a bit peated, Nirvana is more delicate.
Mouth: Nirvana is more classic with its odd wood finish, Smögen is more like a soft peated whisky.
Winner: Smögen has more quality.

Classic Select vs Hudson Four Grain Bourbon
Color: Both rather dark, Hudson darker
Nose: PJ some (slightly chemical) fruitiness. Hudson very much vanilla and caramel.
Mouth: PJ a bit strong for my taste, a bit raw, quite sweet. Hudson, boubon, very perfumic at first, somewhat bitter finish. PJ tastes quite far away from what I think of when I think of whisky and it has some rather raw woody notes.
Winner: Both are a bit hard to enjoy, Hudson wins because it is an interesting bourbon, PJ is just odd.

Paul John Peated Select Cask

I think what I have experienced as raw wood in a bad way for unpeated Paul Johns work out better with the peated one.

PJ vs Bowmore 12
Color: PJ a little paler, and also cask strength.
Nose: PJ has a soft, fruity peated aroma, quite pleasant. Bowmore a bit more oily and malty.
Mouth: I try PJ first at cask strength and it is distinctively peated. I try Bowmore and there is something unatural chemical about it, and I simply dont find it very tasty. Paul John is more fresh and coherent.
Winner: Paul John.

PJ vs Laphroaig 10
Color: Similar, Laphroaig perhaps slightly darker.
Nose: Laphroaig is more dry, PJ more fruity.
Mouth: Laphroaig has a rather smooth and dry, obviously dominated by peatiness. PJ is less integrated, it has a sweet – not bad – experience which kind of competes with the peat. PJ is interesting and not bad, but Laphroaig is more rich, complex and lingering.
Winner: Laphroaig

PJ vs Mackmyra Reserve Svensk Ek Extra Rök
Color: Mackmyra is much darker
Nose: Mackmyra is more deep, rich and powerful. Paul John is more fruity. Both smells a bit like a dry piece of wood getting burnt in a machine saw. Mackmyra reminds more of a sweet wine and Paul John is more odd.
Mouth: PJ (almost at cask strength) is rather raw with some peat. Mackmyra also raw, perhaps more smoke than peat, and a bit sweeter. PJ is lighter and its flavour disappears a bit in comparison with Mackmyra. Mackmyra on the other hand keeps needing more water. With more water Paul John has a more burnt (rather than raw) flavour, a quite straight experience but not too impressive. Mackmyra is more rich, complex, with more woody notes and it lingers longer.
Winner: Mackmyra

PJ vs Hven Tychos Star
Color: Hven is darker
Nose: Hven is a bit softer, PJ is a bit more woody in a sweet burnt way
Mouth: Hven is a bit classic, with some sour peat and some bitterness. Paul John is sweeter and fresher.
Winner: Paul John

PJ vs Bunnahabhain 8 Heavily Peated
Color: Similar
Nose: Very different, Bunnahabhain smells old closet and Paul John like a freshly built piece of furniture.
Mouth: Bunnahabhain is smoth, rich, a bit salty and lingering. Paul John is rather raw and thin.
Winner: Bunnahabhain

PJ vs Kilchoman UK Small Batch
Color: Paul John a little darker.
Nose: Kilchoman has a very classic Islay aroma, perhaps with some extra sweetness (from its sherry and madeira maturing). Paul John is more different, definitely less peated, a bit tropical… something I can’t quite define almost like plastic or something.
Mouth: Quite fine peated aroma in Paul John, a bit sour and odd. Kilchoman is softer, a bit more sweet, with more classic peat flavour.
Winner: Kilchoman.

PJ vs Bowmore 15
Color: Bowmore 15 (Darkest) is darker.
Nose: Paul John is richer, mostly this tropical odd aroma being dominant. None is more peated than the other.
Mouth: Bowmore is quite classic, slightly peated. Paul John a bit fresher, and in the mouth this tropical note is not so dominant (although on a final, second bigger mouth, it is there). Bowmore has a less rich, more classic aroma, but there is something unsatisfying about the sulphur finish.
Winner: Paul John

  1. Whisky Head to Head | TechFindings - pingback on 2021/04/02 at 21:34

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