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Deanston 18 Review - Whisky of the Year? Titanic Distillers & Razer‘s G3x Handheld Dev Kit
May 20, 2026
The Whisky Exchange just named Deanston 18 as the Whisky of the Year 2022. I'm reviewing this Highland Single Malt Scotch for the first time, and I'm discussing news about a new Irish whiskey distillery at the historic Titanic Pump House in Belfast, Suntory's Japanese whiskey price hike, and Qualcomm x Razer's new G3x Dev Kit that's about to change the handheld game! Questions or comments? Reach me at [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) Chat about this week's episode on the Bourbon Bytes Whiskey & Gaming Lounge Discord server at http://www.BourbonBytes.com Support the show on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BourbonBytes Subscribe on YouTube for live streams and more: https://www.YouTube.com/BourbonBytes Leave a voicemail with questions or topic suggestions: (818) 660-5782
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On today's episode of the Bourbon Bites podcast, I'm reviewing the Whiskey Exchanges Whiskey of the Year
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talking about a new Titanic whiskey, and checking out a new handheld console that's about to change the game
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Hello everyone and welcome to the Bourbon Bites podcast. I am your host, Clifton, and today we have news in both whiskey and video games
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Kind of why I started this show. Hmm, imagine that. So I hope you have been enjoying your week so far
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I've been having a pretty good one because earlier this week I became a Twitch affiliate
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which is their level that allows you to monetize your videos, get subscribers, all of that fun stuff
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So I want to say thank you massively to everyone that tunes in to my Twitch gaming streams
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especially Zofar because he's literally been to every one I've ever done. But seriously, you guys, I didn't expect to get that so quickly over on Twitch
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But doing so really encourages me to do more gaming streams. So I've been thinking about doing like a pre-gaming stream every Thursday night before my YouTube live
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I'm not sure how practical that'll be because it's a lot of work to plan a gaming stream and a full-on stream
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But I do plan to do more of that. but also I just really like just randomly hopping on and gaming sometimes I mean I feel like I might
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as well be streaming it if I'm going to be playing something because I feel like I enjoy the company
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more than the game itself a lot of the times I did mention with Twitch affiliate I get to enable
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subscribers which is different than YouTube YouTube subscribers are basically followers on Twitch you have followers and you have subscribers so subscribers are either paid or
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this is kind of a little secret hack that I didn't know. If you have an Amazon Prime subscription
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you can become a Prime subscriber to me on Twitch. It doesn't cost you a thing. It literally is just
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included with your Amazon Prime membership. And I actually get, you know, support from that. So
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I put all the instructions on Patreon if anyone's interested, also on Discord. Like I said, if you
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have an Amazon Prime account, you can do this. Even if you don't have a Twitch account, you can
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create one completely free. And you can support the channel without actually giving any more of
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your own money so uh like i said you can find all the instructions of that on discord we have an
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amazing community there i call it the whiskey and gaming lounge you can find all the info for that
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at bourbonbites.com that's bites with a y um yeah so hopefully you guys can check out my twitch even
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if you're not you know super into the gaming thing now i totally understand that um but if you do have
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a prime subscription that you're not using um it does seriously help out the channel and especially
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as I'm working towards Twitch Partner, which is like their next level of creators
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So I just wanted to say thank you to everyone that's helped me reach that and that's subscribed
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so far. Also, I should mention that the first 10 subscribers get a little badge beside your name every
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time you're in the chat as a founder. I think as of the recording of this podcast, there are still six of those left
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So if you want to do a little, you know, mark of history when I become, you know, uber famous
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just kidding. And yeah, I just want to kind of celebrate that. I've been playing a bit of Grand Theft Auto 3
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I'm like three or four hours in now. I've been streaming every single moment of it on Twitch
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That game is really impressing me. I've never played it before. I've said this a few times, but I grew up playing Grand Theft Auto just the entire series
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I started with GTA 2, so I skipped GTA 1. I guess I was a little too young for that
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But I started playing GTA 2 as a kid. Somehow skipped GTA 3
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I think it's probably because I didn't have a PlayStation 2 at the time. but I played Vice City, San Andreas, Vice City Stories, GTA 4, and of course GTA 5. I'm a bit
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of a rockstar fanboy so it's been really cool to play this game for the very very first time
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I'm loving it so far and I think you know people are criticizing the the definitive edition releases
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which is what I'm playing. Yeah I see that there are some technical issues of course and I understand
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the frustration you know I mean these games are such an iconic part of gaming history you feel
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like it's like you know it's like kind of you know half attempted or half improved you kind of feel
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a little ripped off especially at 60 but i've just been such a big fan of rockstar and the gta series
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i'm okay to pay it um but i've been enjoying playing it too on twitch so um if you guys haven't
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checked those streams out you can see the replays of them over there twitch.tv slash bourbon bites
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so the first piece of whiskey news actually ties into the whiskey i'm reviewing on today's episode
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of the podcast, the Whiskey Exchange announced their number one whiskey of the year. So this
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year, the winner of that coveted title is Deanston 18 year. So this is a Highland single malt whiskey
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I actually have a bottle. I have not opened it yet. So when I heard the news this morning
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I'm like, you know what, that would be the perfect whiskey to review on this podcast. I think it might be the first non-bourbon I reviewed on this podcast. But trust me
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I'm very much a bourbon guy, but I do like exploring in scotch and Irish whiskey
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I don stick to just bourbon so hopefully you guys are okay with that I definitely keep it primarily bourbon especially with the reviews but I figure since this is a special occasion you know just winning this prestigious title
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I would go ahead and review this scotch for you guys. So this is the month where we'll start to see a lot of, you know, magazines and, you know
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bloggers and YouTube channels listing their top whiskeys of the year. I am planning to do a live stream over on YouTube where I list my top 10
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I'm going to be doing that a Thursday before New Year's Eve. I think it's literally the day before New Year's Eve
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I already started working on my list, but there's a chance that, you know what, the Steenson
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18 might make my list depending on how much I like it tonight. So let's go ahead and open it up
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So I got this bottle early, early 2021. It was on sale for $100 at K&L, which I think is a little bit cheaper than it normally is
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I look now and it's like $130, which, you know, after it wins an award like this, it's
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going to only go up in price. But I paid $100 for it. I was a little bit apprehensive about that because I really, you know, I do enjoy scotch. I like
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scotch, but $100 for me at the time was a lot, which of course now I've spent a lot more than
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that on other bottles. But yeah, so I knew I liked Deanston. One of the favorite scotches I've ever
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tried was a Deanston 20 year. Now there's a lot of differences between this and that. It's not just
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the age. That one was a heavy sherry cask finish. So that one was like a sherry bomb. This one though
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this one is first fill bourbon casks that it's used for a finish on this whiskey. Now I'm not
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sure which batch actually won the whiskey of the year. I noticed the label was just a little bit
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different but this is batch two so I'm not entirely sure if this one came out in 2021
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I just know that's when I bought the bottle from K&L in Hollywood. Let's go ahead and get that poured
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So I'm going to let that open up in the glass just a little bit and get into another piece of
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whiskey news that has me incredibly excited. So most of you probably don't know this about me
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but I am a bit of a Titanic fanatic. And I'm not just talking the movie, although that is a big
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part of it. Ever since I was like five years old, I have been absolutely obsessed with Titanic. I
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think it may have started with, you know, my sister. She liked the movie. I got exposed to it
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then. Not all of it, of course. I mean, maybe. I don't remember for sure. I didn't see it in
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theaters until I was a lot older. But it kind of did inspire my love of film and filmmaking
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especially visual effects and CGI. I just am so fascinated by that stuff. And especially at the
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time, 1997, when that came out, it was just one of the most groundbreaking visual effects
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you know, spectacles ever. So I think, you know, as a little kid, that's what I focused on. I mean
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I love Kate Winslet now. Wasn't quite as interested in her when I was a little kid
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And also Leonardo DiCaprio. We can't forget him. But Kate Winslet was one of my favorite actresses
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she still is she's incredible but I think my love for Titanic obviously expands way beyond the movie
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I became obsessed with the history of the ship I used to go to the library to make photocopies of
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books about you know the history of the ship you know it's building as well as the wreck itself and
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you know the diving down to go see it so I am definitely a self-proclaimed Titanic fanatic so
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when I saw this piece of news cross my discord server I got very excited because there is a
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company called Titanic Distillers. And what they are doing is they're converting the pump house
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that was actually used when they were building the Titanic into a distillery. I mean, I shooketh
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is not enough to describe how excited I was about this. So to go over a little bit of history of
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you know, the Titanic and being built, it started construction in 1911. And it was built in Belfast
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Ireland. So this pump house is what they used. It was connected to the dry dock that they actually
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built a lot of the ship in and did the finishing touches on the ship in this dry dock. So it's a
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completely, you know, maintained historical destination. There's like a giant museum that
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I've always wanted to go to nearby. It's basically called the Titanic Quarter of Belfast. Man, if I
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plan an Ireland trip, I'm absolutely going there. And now there's a freaking distillery. So heck yes
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I'm going to definitely hit that up. Now it hasn't been built yet, but this was just approved
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and they seem to really care about honoring the history and the tradition of the location
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So they're not going to actually replace the actual pumps in the pump house
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They're actually going to build this on the mezzanine floor overlooking the pumps. They're going to put three large stills there and they're going to make Irish whiskey in Belfast
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Fun fact, I actually learned this from this article, Irish whiskey kind of started in Belfast
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It has a very rich history from being the largest producer of Irish whiskey on the island of Ireland
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back pre-Prohibition, which is something I didn't know. So they're kind of trying to honor that legacy as well as the legacy of the Titanic
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by doing some distilling there. And I think it's so interesting and so cool that they're going to, you know
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maybe make this even more of a tourist destination by putting a distillery there. Now, it is important to note, like I said
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they are really concerned with the historical preservation. They seem very Titanic-focused in terms of, you know, honoring the history and legacy
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They do not plan to change any of the exterior of the pump house or the dry dock or anything like that They also going to be adding an on speakeasy and cafe There going to be a gift shop an exhibition space and lots of tasting rooms all around the
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pump house. And also based on the plans here, it seems like they're going to allow visitors to
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clock in kind of like their time card as if they were a worker at the pump house. And there's just
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going to be a lot of space to learn about not just, you know, the Titanic, but Belfast rich
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history of whiskey making so I definitely will be adding this to my bucket list of places to go
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especially now that whiskey's involved I mean I would have went there anyways because of the Titanic but oh my gosh Irish whiskey is amazing so that's pretty cool I don't know you know when
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this will actually open um but it's good to know that it's in the works and I will keep an eye on
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that and maybe whenever I plan an Ireland trip that's definitely gonna be my first or last stop
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because I'm definitely a bit of a fanboy all right since the Deanston has been sitting in the glass a
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that I'm going to go ahead and move on with my review of Deanston 18. This whiskey comes in at 46.3% ABV
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The master distiller is Ian McMillan, and it's from the Deanston Distillery, which is, like I said, a Highland distillery
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So some info in the back of the box here. It says, Originally laid down in Hogshead casks
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this Deanston single malt whiskey was then transferred into carefully selected First Fill Kentucky bourbon casks
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before being returned to the heart of our vaulted warehouse at the Deanston Distillery to sleep
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undisturbed in the quietest part of the warehouse until fully 18 years old. This whiskey is also
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unchill filtered to retain its natural flavor and deep character, so always got to appreciate
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when a distillery does that. Let's go ahead and give this a nose. Wow, for only 46.3%
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there's a lot of character coming off of the nose of this one. Oh man, you're definitely getting a
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lot of that, you know, toasted element on the nose. I mean, I haven't had a bourbon cask scotch
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in a while. I've been gravitating a lot to sherry cask, but it's really nice to return to this
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because it's so familiar, but it's so unique to scotch or single malt whiskey. There's definitely
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you know, that malted barley note, a bit of a honey, honey cereal note there, but extremely rich
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and extremely well aged. It's very, very mellowed out. It's not sharp or stringent or anything like
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that on the nose. It just smells like an absolutely fantastic fall whiskey. I think I opened this at a
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good time of the year because those toasty vanilla warm elements to it really stand out in the glass
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and I'm excited to go ahead and give this a taste so cheers oh man you know I said I love the
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Deanston 20 that I had before but this isn't sherry cask like that one was but this has such a
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delicious like flavor profile it's it's different from I guess I just don't have very many Highland
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scotches in my collection um most of the ones I do have been younger the ones that I've tried
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have been younger but this one at a full 18 years is just so dynamic and so rich it has none of the
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youthful you know grainy notes that a lot of this kind of turned me away from other highland scotches
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this has um those notes but they've been honeyed and they've been toasted and mellowed and they
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blend really nicely with like a light fruitiness i'm getting like a bit of like a maybe like a
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melon like a honeydew melon or something like that very bright very citrusy not quite orange citrus
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maybe more of like a lemon zest but it's combining really really nicely with these toasted toffee
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notes that are obviously from the bourbon cask influence it's reminding me i mean i'm not i'm not
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going to claim to be able to tell you which bourbon distillery the cask came from but the way that the
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oak is interacting with it reminds me of a lot of heaven hill because those whiskeys always remind
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me of stepping into a bakery you know getting your your fruit tarts and things like that this is more
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of like a pie crust, I would say, than like, you know, a strawberry tart. It does have, like I said
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melon notes, but man, that's, I gotta go in for another sip. I'm just so impressed. At 46.3% ABV
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this proof is absolutely perfect. I mean, y'all know I love a high proof whiskey, but something
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about this proof, it hits just right. It doesn't taste like it's been watered down. And you know
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it just tastes so balanced that I would be scared that if it's at a higher proof, would it carry so
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much, I guess, balance, I guess, as I was saying, it's just such a delightful whiskey. And I'm so
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sad that I put off trying it for so long. I see why it won whiskey of the year. As a bourbon guy
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I'm seeing a lot of things that I really love about a whiskey in this glass. And, you know
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I paid $100 for it. It's gone up to around $130. If you can find it, I think it's probably pretty
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hard to find. But I think that's a very appropriate price. I've definitely paid more for scotches
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that I've liked less. And I said earlier that it's like a fall whiskey, but there's notes in this
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that I'm picking up that are also really bright that I think could be enjoyed any time of the year
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I mean, it's kind of reminded me a little bit of a whiskey that I reviewed on my YouTube channel
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which was the Compass Box Orchard House, which had some bright, you know, fruit forward notes. I said
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that was a great spring whiskey. This has some of those elements too. So I mean, dang, enjoy your
15:06
Deanston 18 year round, because I definitely see why the Whiskey Exchange considered this
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their number one whiskey of the year. Will it make the Bourbon Bites Whiskey of the Year
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I don know Stay tuned on YouTube Make sure to subscribe youtube slash bourbonbites and watch for that best of 2021 whiskey list at the very end of the year you never know what make
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it and last bit of whiskey news which is a bit of a downer but i got some exciting gaming news
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coming next uh centauri announced that they will be increasing the price of 31 whiskey products in
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their library by up to 28 next year so they say they want to do this in an effort to increase
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capital to increase production. Now, they're not all going up 28%. That's just, you know
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the top end of the range. Some of them are only going up 5%. But still, if you have some favorites
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especially things including Suntory's Hibiki, Yamazaki, Shirasu, and Chita, some of those I'm
16:00
not familiar with, some of them I am, Suntory will be unfortunately raising the prices on those
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Now, as I mentioned, this is the domestic pricing, which was the pricing, you know, in Japan
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And however, you know, it's pretty likely this is also going to affect the U.S. market as well
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Maybe not immediately, maybe not as quickly as it's going to affect, you know, the Japanese market
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I know some of my friends were buying internationally and, you know, having shipped to the U.S
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I don't really dabble in Japanese too much. So for me personally, this doesn't affect me very much
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But I saw it posted in my Facebook group for my local meetup group
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And they were very disappointed about it. So just wanted to share that there. But yeah, hopefully that doesn't take effect very quickly in the US
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But definitely if you have some favorites in the Suntory lineup, make sure you grab them before it's too late
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Wow, such a downer. Let's get to some good news. So earlier this week at the Snapdragon Summit, Qualcomm made a major announcement in terms of the future of handheld gaming
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So they've teamed up with Razer for a new G3X dev kit
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So this is based on the G3X, which is a mobile gaming chip designed for use in Android devices
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They've actually already partnered with Google with things like Stadia, as well as GeForce
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Now and Xbox Game Cloud to allow you to play these games on your Android device
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This chip actually allows for updatable GPU drivers, 10-bit HDR audio, and a refresh rate
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of up to 144Hz at 4K. So it's a very powerful mobile chip
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but the exciting news is the new handheld gaming developer kit so this is not a public you know
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consumer product yet it is a handheld device it looks a lot like a nintendo switch
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it's absolutely it's massive but i mean the switch is also very big so
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but it's packed with features this device it has a 6.65 inch hdr oled display full hd resolution
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a built-in 5 megapixel webcam where you can actually stream from this handheld device and
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do like a twitch stream and it has support for both 5g and wi-fi this is a massive leap forward
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for the brand i think it could signal a change in handheld gaming for a while you know of course
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it's been i mean not that nintendo was the first i mean i guess they could have been with like the
18:23
game game boy and things like that but um you know psp or other brands like that have been doing it
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And then, of course, there's the whole, you know, NVIDIA shield. So there's definitely already, you know, brands doing this
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But this announcement has me so excited. I think it's going to make a massive leap forward for mobile gaming
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And it just looks pretty damn sexy. So there's no news of whether this will, you know, eventually be turned into a consumer device
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There's rumors that maybe even early as next year, there will be a handheld version of this that you can actually purchase
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but for now I just think it's such a cool you know a massively
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powerful chip in a small handheld device I mean this is the future we've been waiting for
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so kudos to them for you know showing it off and getting it in the hands
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of developers so hopefully when it's actually released there will be games optimized for
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it but that about does it for this week's episode of the Bourbon Bites podcast
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thank y'all so much for listening like I said make sure to follow me on Twitch
19:19
if you're not yet and hit that subscribe button if you have an Amazon Prime account
19:23
I mean, of course, you can also have a paid subscription if you choose to do so. There's lots of ways to support the show
19:28
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19:33
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19:37
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So check that out, patreon.com slash bourbonbites. But most importantly, just follow me on all of your favorite podcast platforms leave me a rating and review you can
19:54
always email me at contact at bourbonbites.com or give me a ring at 818-660-5782 and i might
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feature in your question or comments on the show but until next time this has been the bourbon
20:05
podcast a whiskey podcast with a gaming twist i'm clifton cheers and i'll talk to y'all next episode
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