Ichiro Akuto is the founder of the Chichibu distillery and one of the most respected distillers in Japan, but also an experienced blender. Ichiro’s Malt WineWood Reserve is a blend of Maltwhisky from Chichibu and the closed Hanyu distillery (in decreasing amounts over the years), but also Scotch whisky.

This is finished in a wine casks , the rather unique Ovum casks , which are 20 hl egg-shaped barrels made from French oak, shaped in the Charentes region by the Taransaud company. I’ve seen them being used in the Bordeaux region where they have some oenological advantages, but...

Kavalan Vinho Barrique 2012 (TWE exclusive)

A cask strength Kavalan distilled in juni 2012 and aged entirely in a Portuguese wine barrique which held both red and white wines before being re-toasted. A single cask that is exclusively available from The Whisky Exchange . Stay tuned for my tasting notes later this week.

Speyside Region 1973 (Whisky Agency for TWE)

I mentioned this one back in september as it was one of the show bottlings for the TWE Whisky Show, but this excellent undisclosed Speyside Malt is now available from their website . Yes, I’ll review this as well...

You don’t come across many single grain whiskies matured in first-fill sherry casks , but the ones I could try were rather great (a Cambus 1991 Liquid Treasures comes to mind).

Now there’s a brand-new North British 1990 in the Connoisseurs Choice range from Gordon & MacPhail, in fact the first grain whisky they’ve ever bottled in 123 years of bottling history! And look at that colour…

North British 28 yo 1990 (61%, Gordon & MacPhail ‘Connoisseurs Choice’ 2018, first-fill sherry puncheon #73847, 181 btl.)

Nose: rum and raisins, sour cherry preserve and something like cranberry ice cream,...

Two undisclosed Speyside Malts , from the 1990s this time, bottled by Liquid Treasures in Germany and Liquid Art in Belgium.

Speyside Malt 26 yo 1992 (51,6%, Liquid Treasures ‘Snakes’ 2018, bourbon barrel, 270 btl.)

Nose: fresh, honeyed and very fruity. Tangerines, baked apples, ripe apricots. Marinated fruits. Also an attractive waxy side and a touch of vanilla ice cream. Mouth: same warm fruitiness (fruit bowl with peaches and grapes), now with hints of coconut cream, vanilla and a balancing note of grapefruit zest towards the end. Greenish oak, including a light bitter edge. Finish: quite long, on...

Launched in 2015 as part of the Last Great Malts makeover for Aultmore , the 25 Year Old is still the head of the range. I couldn’t find confirmation, but based on the colour and the profile, this is likely to be heavily sherried.

Aultmore 25 yo (46%, OB +/- 2018)

Nose: starts with a sweet malty core and ripe fruits (oranges, raisins, toffee apples and apricots). Then rich, dusty spices (pepper, nutmeg), subtle vegetal notes and leathery hints. Increasingly earthy and leafy, also showing a light waxy side, smoked tea and roasted coconut flakes. Really classy. Mouth:...

Timorous Beastie is the Highland blended malt in the Remarkable Regional Malts series from Douglas Laing . The original version includes whisky from Blair Athol, Glen Garioch, Dalmore and Glengoyne among others.

Now there is a limited edition, 12 years old and bottled at cask strength . The first batch is matured predominantly in bourbon barrels and bottled at 54,4% ABV. No mention of distilleries this time. Just 3000 bottles available across Europe and Asia.

Timorous Beastie 12 yo ‘Cask Strength’ (54,4%, Douglas Laing ‘Remarkable Malts’ 2018, 3000 btl.)

Nose: very fresh, full of green apples, honey, juicy...

Isle of Jura The Sound is one of four single malt bottlings in the Jura Travellers Collection (formerly known as the Sherry Collection), its global travel retail series. They are all matured in ex-bourbon casks and finished in Pedro Ximénez sherry casks of different ages (15yo / 20yo / 30yo / 40yo).

This is interesting, I have never seen the age of a cask being mentioned as a sign of quality, assuming an older cask also contained older sherry, which has a better effect on the whisky?

There’s simply no evidence for this  and I think the argumentation is flawed....

I believe this will complete our reviews of the rather excellent Vintner’s Trilogy from Bowmore distillery:

• Bowmore 18 Years Manzanilla cask
• Bowmore 26 Years French Oak barrique

The last part is a 27 year-old malt which spent 13 years in ex-bourbon barrels and another 14 years in Port pipes , resting in Bowmore’s famous No 1 vaults on Islay.

Bowmore 27 yo ‘Port Cask’ (48,3%, OB ‘Vintner’s Trilogy’ 2018)

Nose: aromatic nose, combining smoky notes with damp tobacco leaves and sweeter notes. Red berries, milk chocolate and toffee. Heather, mint and subtle medicinal touches. Curry spices a little...

I’ve had some tips about good sherry matured Edradour before, so we have to keep searching for an expression from this distillery that really convinces me.

I think we’ve found one, an Edradour 2005 from a first-fill Oloroso cask handpicked by The Whisky Exchange .

Edradour 12 yo 2005 (61,4%, OB for The Whisky Exchange 2018, first-fill Oloroso butt #131, 567 btl.)

Nose: very rich, not unlike some of the best GlenDronach casks. Entirely on Cherry Heering, raisins and dates. Great hints of leather chairs, cedar wood, a little pipe tobacco. Whiffs of jamón ibérico and roasted almonds....

At the end of 2018, after they had been releasing vintage-based whiskies for exactly 25 years (later also ‘reserves’), The Glenrothes wiped this concept off the table and renewed its core range with… age statements .

The Soleo Collection as it is called (named after the process of sun-drying sherry grapes in Jerez ), ranges from 10 to 25 years (including one NAS at higher strength). Also interesting is the fact that all expressions are entirely sherry matured . Close to 90% of all casks maturing at the distillery are ex-sherry and almost 70% are first-fill (seasoned) sherry casks.

We’re...

Here’s another one of these interesting bottlings exclusive to the Chief Whisky Society in China.

It’s an Auchentoshan 1990 , 27 years old and bottled from a single Oloroso sherry cask. Notice the brown hue, rather than the full-blown reddish tint that we would expect from first-fill sherry these days.

Auchentoshan 27 yo 1990 (53,1%, OB for CWS China 2017, first-fill Oloroso, 512 btl.)

Nose: not the classic Oloroso style indeed. There’s brown sugar, leafy notes, overripe pear and oranges instead of figs or raisins. Goes on with hay, leather, dried flowers, cloves and Dulce de Leche (love...

As you maj know, the shutdown of the US government also has consequences for the whisky industry. The Tax & Trade Bureau is not accepting submissions of new alcohol labels, which means no new whiskies can be approved for sale in the US. As their COLAs listing is an interesting sources for upcoming releases, we now have less to announce…

Ardmore 30 Year Old

Ardmore has bottled a 1987 vintage 30 Year Old exclusively available from The Whisky Exchange. Matured in refill barrels and then finished in first-fill ex-bourbon barrels, it is said to have lots of fruity notes...

Late 2018 this Glentauchers 2009 was bottled by Cadenhead . I found it at whisky shop Windels in Mechelen, which is one of the three Belgian shops responsible for the selection. They call themselves The Whisky Ladies because they have a female chairman in charge of the whisky.

This Glentauchers was finished in a Brazilian rum barrel.

Glentauchers – Glenlivet 9 yo 2009 (59,8%, Cadenhead for The Whisky Ladies 2018, bourbon hogshead, 246 btl.)

Nose: typical vanilla and caramel with ripe fruits. Plum eau-de-vie. Apples, green bananas, a hint of tinned pineapple and Haribo bears. Some waxy oak...

Glen Moray has been involved in an interesting cask sharing project: they lend out whisky casks to the Thistly Cross craft cider company who use it to finish one of their ciders. When the cask are returned, they they are used to finish whisky again.

This led to the Glen Moray Cider Cask Project , a new release in their Curiosity range. I already tried a preliminary Glen Moray 2006 Cider Cask Finish which was a distillery exclusive release.

Glen Moray Cider Cask Project (46,3%, OB 2018, 2000 btl.)

Nose: as nice as I remembered. There’s this distinctive...

Old Pulteney unveiled a new core range in augusti 2018. The acclaimed 17 Year Old and 21 Year Old expressions were phased out and this is now the entire line-up:

• Old Pulteney 12 Years (40%, ex-bourbon)
• Old Pulteney Huddart (46%, ex-bourbon and some heavily peated casks)
• Old Pulteney 15 Years (46%, ex-bourbon and ex-sherry)
• Old Pulteney 18 Years (46%, ex-bourbon and ex-sherry)

Although the recipe of the 12 year-old remained the same after the make-over, I hadn’t formally reviewed it since 2012 so it was time for an update. Matured in bourbon casks, predominantly refill.

Old Pulteney 12...

Number two in our (short) list of reviews of the recent 30th Anniversary bottlings from Signatory Vintage . A 30 years old Highland Park distilled in 1988 and matured in a hogshead.

Highland Park 30 yo 1988 (49,7%, Signatory Vintage ’30th anniversary’ 2018, hogshead #755, 220 btl.)

Nose: quite fruity (ripe apples, grapefruit, lime) with heathery notes and the typical coastal side. Distinct floral notes too, mixing with hints of beeswax. Just a whiff of earthy peat. Highly polished and inviting. Mouth: a similar bright fruitiness, now clearly more tropical (tangerine, passion fruits, lime, pink grapefruit). Still a...

Tamdhu with a sherry influence but some 40 years apart…

First there is the Tamdhu 10 Year Old bottled in the 1970s (one of the first single malt bottlings after the 8 Years), then we have the latest Tamdhu Batch Strength released a couple of months ago.

Tamdhu 10 yo (40%, OB late 1970s, 75 cl)

Nose: very fresh, with sherry notes (marmalade, raisins, cooked fruits), acacia honey or mead, malty and some floral / minty notes. Soft but very pleasant. Goes on with very light heathery peat and whiffs of old books. Mouth: sweet and creamy, a...

Happy New Year! Here’s a quick overview of the highlights of 2018 before we start a new year of (almost) daily whisky reviews.

Best new whiskies in 2018

I think 2018 was a ‘richer’ year than the past two or three years, in the sense that there were more whiskies which surprised me, with great bottlings coming from more sources.

The undisclosed Speyside whiskies have been in my hotlist since 2016 and there have been a couple of great bottlings this year as well, a 1977 and 1973 from Maltbarn and the Vega whisky from North Star...

I will review a couple of Signatory Vintage bottlings, released for their 30th anniversary a couple of months ago. First up is this Caperdonich 1995 from a refill sherry hogshead. The colour doesn’t indicate an avalanche of sherry.

Sister cask #95051 (same bottling date) was released for the 10th anniversary of The Nectar in 2016.

Caperdonich 23 yo 1995 (58,4%, Signatory Vintage ‘30th Anniversary’ 2018, refill sherry hogshead #95050, 265 btl.)

Nose: starts a bit sharp and piquant, on sweet mustard with balsamic touches. Time-out. After fifteen minutes: apple juice, lemons, peonies and a hint of tobacco. Also...

After a travel retail edition in 2014 (white label) this is the wider 2016 release that you can also find in regular stores. Bowmore Springtide is matured predominantly in first-fill Oloroso casks, with some second-fill added. Altough I must add this is based on the white label, this one simply says ‘Finest Oak Casks’.

I’ve had this one in a line-up in a sherried whisky tasting once, where it was very well received.

Bowmore Springtide (54,9%, OB +/- 2016, 4000 btl.)

Nose: medium sherry, with nice hickory smoke, leather and red berries. Slightly modern with its fresh oak...