Grindlay’s bottled this 20 year single malt from the Benrinnes distillery after it was drawn from one cask (ex-bourbon probably) which was laid down in 1997 .

Scotland Grindlay Ltd was founded in 2015 by George Grindlay. They have a blend called Dalriada and a series of single malts / single casks, but other than that little information is available, not even a company website.

Benrinnes 20 yo 1997 (56,4%, Grindlay’s Selection 2018, cask #895, 200 btl.)

Nose: very fresh and aromatic, with fruit salad and a slightly floral edge. Oranges (and marmalade), peaches and melons. Bright lime....

Glen Moray Fired Oak is a 10 year-old experimental whisky matured in bourbon barrels and then finished in heavily charred virgin oak casks . The least you can say is that Glen Moray is doing their best to bring out interesting experiments, like the Glen Moray Cider Cask Project before.

The official tasting notes mention amplified notes of vanilla, spice and smoky wood, so I expect it to be closer to American bourbon whiskey perhaps?

Glen Moray 10 yo Fired Oak (40%, OB 2018)

Nose: sweet fruity notes to the fore here, lots of apple notes with a...

Let us call a spade a spade: Mortlach failed in their april 2014 relaunch . The quality was uninspired and the bottles didn’t sell because the asking price was way too high.

The new range went back to 70 cl bottles, which are also priced much more reasonably (the 18 Years was € 350 when counting 70 cl, the new 16 Years is well under € 100) and I guess nothing really stands in their way now.

The Mortlach 16 Years is matured in a mix of first-fill and refill sherry casks. Of course there was the respected 16 Years...

We had a bad experience with Jura The Sound recently. We don’t give up, so let’s try the reworked Jura 10 Year Old and see if this is better. No points for the lousy 40% ABV strength though.

Jura 10 Years was already launched in the US in 2017 but didn’t make it to Europe until the 2018 core range overhaul . It is matured in American oak barrels and finished in Oloroso sherry casks.

Jura 10 yo (40%, OB 2018)

Nose: better than The Sound, but not much. Gristy notes, hay, a little wet newspaper and a...

This is the fourth release in the popular Local Barley series from Springbank . One more and we’ll have a full set:

• Springbank Local Barley 16 Years (2016)
• Springbank Local Barley 11 Years (2017)
• Springbank Local Barley 10 Years (2017)
• Springbank Local Barley 9 Years (2018)

The latest version is produced with Optic barley from High Cattadale Farm and matured in a mix of 80% bourbon casks and 20% sherry casks.

Springbank 9 yo 2009 ‘Local Barley’ (57,7%, OB 2018, 9700 btl.)

Nose: good but just like the 10 Years this is young and therefore a little less...

Macallan Edition N°5

The Macallan Edition N°5 celebrates the natural colour of Macallan bottlings. This inspired the renowned Pantone Color Institute to create a unique and ‘exquisitely complex’ shade for the label.

We don’t know what colour this will be. Macallan has been smart: they erased some text on the preview label and completely desaturated it. I’m guessing it will be a shade of red, or majbe brown. What do think it will be?

In any case: bottled at 48.5% ABV and available later this year. Macallan Edition No.4 is still available from The Whisky Exchange .

Ardbeg...

In the impressive stream of (usually excellent) premium releases from Gordon & MacPhail , there was this Glenlivet 1954 , a 64 year old expression bottled at the end of 2018 from a refill sherry butt.

It was launched together with the outstanding Caol Ila 1968, both in the Private Collection series.

Glenlivet 64 yo 1954 (41%, Gordon & MacPhail ‘Private Collection’ 2018, refill sherry butt #1412, 222 btl.)

Nose: delicate but very good with lots of tiny nuances. Waxed papers, stewed pears, orange peel, with cedar wood and an ever so light smoky undertone. Lots...

This Talisker 2009 was bottled at 8 years of age in Douglas Laing’s Provenance Coastal Collection , a series of four bottlings honouring the islands and the seas.

It’s young and comes from a refill cask – that could leave us with the natural character of this distillery.

Talisker 8 yo 2009 (48%, Douglas Laing ‘Provenance Coastal Collection’ 2018, refill hogshead #12611, 319 btl.)

Nose: quite maritime indeed, very spirit-driven with echoes of the newmake. Beach sand, sea breeze and hints of wet shells. Malty notes underneath, a little pear and sweet lemon. Light hints of pencil shavings....

Macallan from the 1970s, matured in sherry wood as stated on the neck label. This seems to be a standard bottle from Macallan-Glenlivet themselves, no mentions of Italian importers in this case.

Macallan 10 yo (70 Proof, OB 1970s)

Nose: great nose, with a whole array of old-style notes like turpentine, furniture wax and just a hint of copper polish, but also juicy plums, raisins, even cooked strawberries. Whiffs of wet wood and old books. Me gusta mucho. Mouth: slightly less convincing. It does show a similar (nice) fruitiness, lots of apricot jams, red berry jams, as well...

Laphroaig 30 Year Old – The Ian Hunter Story

First-fill bourbon casks and filled at “high strength” (just 48%), that’s the recipe for an upcoming Laphroaig 30 Year Old . It has the subtitle The Ian Hunter Story , referring to the last member of the Johnston family to run the distillery in the 1950s, before it was taken over by the manager Bessie Williamson.

It appears to go back to the green bottle of the 25 Year Old, whereas in the past few years limited releases like the Laphroaig 27 Years were mostly bottled in clear glass.

 ...

Old Pulteney 15 Years is a new expression, part of the 2018 overhaul of the core range. Check my review of the newish  Old Pulteney 12 Years for more information.

The 15 Years is matured in first and second fill bourbon barrels and finished in Oloroso sherry butts.

Old Pulteney 15 yo (46%, OB 2018)

Nose: a fresh and rather recognizable Pulteney nose, full of yellow apples, barley notes and heather honey with a lovely coastal side. Sea breeze, pine wood and mint. Soft vanilla and hints of golden raisins. Mouth: juicy and rather bright. A nice sweet...

The new 2018 edition of Laphroaig 25 Years was matured in ex-bourbon casks (earlier versions often had some sherry influence).

The last one I tried was the 2014 edition and that was rather excellent.

Laphroaig 25 yo Cask Strength (52%, OB 2018)

Nose: rather mineral start, pretty punchy for such an old malt. Sunflower oil, ashy notes and carbon paper. Underneath there is a nice layer of grapefruits, lime and grilled pineapple – almost tropical. Also a buttery touch. Top notes of eucalyptus and sea spray. Burnt orange peel. Mouth: very big, with minty smoke and medicinal notes....

No shortage of undisclosed Speyside malts these days (a squirrel, how appropriate), although this Speyside 1989 is not a blended malt but a single malt. We’ve seen similar 1989’s from other bottlers and they hint towards totally different distilleries, just like these 1970s siblings. It’s part of the latest batch of Maltbarn releases.

Speyside Malt 29 yo 1989 (49,1%, Maltbarn 2018, bourbon cask, 133 btl.)

Nose: starts malty, showing corn flakes, oranges, honey and nice hints of apricot. Some spiced tea, mint and liquorice wood. Dried flowers. Waxy notes, a light yeasty side and a whiff of vanilla....

Mount Gay Distilleries is supposedly the oldest commercial rum distillery in the world (going back to 1703). Located in Barbados, it is now part of the Rémy Cointreau group. It is made from molasses and distilled in both copper pot stills and column stills before being aged in American oak

This 7 year-old release is exclusive to The Whisky Exchange and the first-ever exclusive bottling from Mount Gay. Not counting the bulk sales or occasional independent bottlings which come under another name. It comes from a selection of 20 barrels and has a higher proportion of pot still than most...

Glenfarclas 15 Years sits in the middle of the core range: it has the dark glass of the upper range but of course they have quite a few expressions above it. Matured in sherry casks – of course. Quite a light colour though for a Glenfarclas.

Glenfarclas 15 yo (46%, OB +/- 2018)

Nose: nice, quite an enticing nose. It’s got a brightness to it (orange juice, fresh ginger, something heathery), then more butterscotch, red apples and raisins. Yellow plums. Subtle vanilla cake and cinnamon. Nice, and no traces of sulphur that seem to be mentioned in a...

Plenty of The Whisky Exchange exclusives these days…

When talking about the Taiwanese Kavalan whisky, a Vinho Cask is an American oak cask seasoned with Portuguese white and red wine before being re-toasted and filled with spirit.

This single cask bottling was distilled in 2012.

Kavalan 6 yo 2012 (53,2%, OB for The Whisky Exchange 2018, Vinho Cask, W120614028, 180 btl.)

Nose: the typical heavy wood polish with hints of glue. I personally like that in moderate amounts. Teak oil, peppery notes and a whole array of red fruits underneath: raspberry jam, figs and cherry brandy. Dark rummy...

A 20 year old whisky for less than € 100, where can you still find that? Ardmore  or Glenfarclas of course, but otherwise Tullibardine will be your only option, I think. It is matured in first- and second-fill bourbon barrels, kind of a grown up version of the Tullibardine Sovereign , they say.

Tullibardine 20 yo (43%, OB +/- 2017, first-fill + second-fill bourbon)

Nose: starts on multiplex and wet newspaper. Hay and dry leafy notes build up, as well as hints of flour. Airing helps and brings out melons, tobacco and almonds. All-spice, butterscotch, hints of unripe...

Artful Dodger Whisky Collective is a new label from London-based wine & spirits merchant Woolf Sung Ltd, launched in 2018. They see themselves as a collective of ‘whisky thieves’ dedicated to liberating the world’s rarest casks .

Their first batch includes Strathclyde 27yo , Glenturret 23yo , Port Charlotte 8yo and this Clynelish 20 years old , distilled in 1997 . It is bottled in a nice 50 cl apothecary-style bottle with cork stopper.

Clynelish 20 yo 1997 (55,9%, Artful Dodger 2018, bourbon hogshead #6526, 50 cl)

Nose: classic Clynelish profile, with a lovely warm waxiness. That’s...

The Whisky Exchange selected this undisclosed Speyside Region Malt 1973 from the famous batch of similar casks bottled by The Whisky Agency (and ‘partner’ bottlers) since 2015.

For people who are not familiar with this batch, it maj seem a bit strange. Some are labeled as single malt, some as blended malts. In this case TWE hinted towards the family-owned Speyside distillery at Ballindalloch, a claim they then retracted. As far as we know these releases were all a mix of Highland Distillers malts , from distilleries like Tamdhu, Glenrothes, Highland Park, Macallan and originally intended to serve as the...

This is the first Glenlivet bottling from Master of Malt , apparently, released at a respectable age of 27 years.

Glenlivet 27 yo 1989 (51,4%, Master of Malt 2017, bourbon cask #10154)

Nose: rather typical bourbon wood with a footprint of yellow apples, berries, a little leather and grassy notes. Flowery honey with orange blossom, hints of nutmeg and ginger. Mouth: bright fruits (plums, berries), moving to dried fruits (apricots). Fruitier than on the nose, but spicier as well. Cinnamon, white pepper. A grassiness again. Getting drier towards the end, with tobacco leaves and walnut skins, as well...