Glenfiddich Winter Storm 21 Years

The third expression in Glenfiddich’s Experimental Series will be a 21 Year Old called Glenfiddich Winter Storm .

After an IPA finish and Project XX , this is an Icewine Cask Finish , made with casks brought in from Canada. The back label says it is best enjoyed in a frozen glass with a frozen grape.

I remember trying a Glen Breton Ice once, a Canadian whisky experiment which was quite nice.

Bowmore Vintner’s Trilogy

Bowmore is working on a new series of three whiskies finished in wine casks, called the Bowmore Vintner’s...

A milestone release for this Swedish distillery: Mackmyra 10 Year Old . Not the oldest release ever but the first time they seem to have enough stock for a large-scale Ten. Launched a couple of days ago, I hear 60% of the total production will be sold in Sweden, the rest is going to foreign markets.

For the Mackmyra Ten years, whisky maker Angela D’Orazio used spirit of up to 13 years old, matured in four different types of casks : virgin oak barrels, Oloroso-seasoned Swedish oak barrels and first-fill + refill ex-bourbon casks. As you know, Mackmyra matures its...

I should really make some statistics about the number of Irish whiskeys that we reviewed here. I can assure you this number increased significantly over the last two years, mostly because of whiskey like this…

It seems Whiskybase launched a new website yesterday. I’m not entirely convinced and I’ll certainly have to get accustomed to some changes, but I do love the new search function (let’s be honest, the old one was a mess – but now the filtering is worse). I believe this is a good time to review their recent Irish single malt 1989 in the Archives series.

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When I posted the news about Laphroaig Four Oak back in februari, I was afraid it would end up being a vague compromise, a bit of everything and nothing in particular. Proof is in the pudding.

Four oak types : bourbon barrels, quarter casks, virgin American oak barrels and European oak hogsheads. Technically a travel retail exclusive, but also available in so many regular shops.

Laphroaig Four Oak (40%, OB 2017, 1 litre)

Nose: medium peat, some wet gravel, a little green tea, hints of musty, spicy oak in the background. On top of this there is a...

Old Springbank , distilled oktober 1972 , bottled oktober 2002 in the Chieftain’s series by Ian MacLeod.

Springbank 30 yo 1972 (57,8%, Chieftain’s 2002, sherry butt #410, 576 btl.)

Nose: deep sherry nose, with lots of plums and cocoa, as well as some aromatic dried apricots. Hints of overripe mango. Then back to classic cherries, fresh figs with cinnamon. Drier, leathery notes in the background, as well as some sandalwood and tobacco. Oh my, the tropical side really grows after a while, with more guava, nectarine and hints of barbecued pineapple. Lovely. Mouth: very intense, with heavy spices...

A highly anticipated Springbank release, the second expression in a series of five Local Barley whiskies. This 11 year old single malt was made with Bere barley from Aros Farm. It was matured in bourbon casks.

Springbank 11 yo 2006 ‘Local Barley’ (53,1%, OB 2017, 9000 btl.)

Nose: sweet and floral, with big hints of orange marmalade. Fresh eucalyptus, tiny hints of glue as well. A little green banana and lemon zest, wet gravel. Green tomato. Some faint perfumed notes as well. It seems to show less of the peaty and oily notes of the 16 Year Old...

Two more independent Irish single malts , and the first 1990 expressions as far as I know (certainly the first on this little blog).

The Whisky Agency bottling comes from the Art Nouveau Ladies series, which features a poster for cigarette papers in this case, a beautiful 1920s illustration by Manuel Orazi. The other one is from the latest batch of Maltbarn releases.

Irish single malt 27 yo 1990 (48,1%, The Whisky Agency ‘Art Nouveau Ladies’ 2017, barrel)

Nose: luscious fruits, ranging from gooseberries to tangerines, lime, pineapples and fresh banana. Also a warmer side of guava and...

Whisky is favorite spirit drink but I also like a good glass of proper rum (preferably without added sugar or other additions), so I’m a big fanboy of whisky matured (or finished) in a rum cask, and I’m not the only one in my friends group.

Then came the opportunity to taste and compare two whiskies which are almost twins. They were both distilled in same distillery  (Amrut distillery), probably of the same age (or close to) and bottled by the same bottler (Blackadder) so there’s a pretty good chance both casks maj come from the same casks batch purchased by...

It’s Sunday and it’s been a while (yet again) since the last review so here’s a quick review of a summer-time whisky. It’s hailing from Glenburgie distillery which doesn’t have an official bottlings as most of it’s production goes into Ballantine’s and other blends from Pernod Ricard.

This whisky was distilled back in 1998, it slubered in cask #9914 for 17 years before bottled for our enjoyment by Speciality Drinks under The Single Malts of Scotland brand.

Glenburgie 1998 17 Year Old  (The Single Malts of Scotland) (54.1% )

Nose : Starts with creamy porridge, lime, grass, lemongrass, a meadow or...

You don’t need a reason to spoil your mom—she did raise you, after all—but Mother’s Day offers a great excuse. Go to brunch, take her for a pedicure, make sure she doesn’t lift a finger all day. You could get her a corsage or a lovely bouquet, too, but why not give her something that lasts longer than a few days?

Moving past a few obviously named candidates—we’re looking at you, Four Roses and Rosebank — many whiskies offer floral aromas and perfumey notes. At this time of year, they’re perfect for sipping or mixing into a cocktail. If your...

We had an excellent sherry finished Glen Moray 1994 distillery exclusive not so long ago. It was one of these hybrid American oak-style whiskies. Today’s dram maj seem similar on paper, but it turns out it is totally different. Glen Moray 1996 from the recent Chinese Mask series by Sansibar .

Glen Moray 20 yo 1996 (49,2%, Sansibar ‘Chinese Mask’ 2016, sherry butt, 310 btl.)

Nose: gardening gloves and new sneakers. Very rubbery. Hints of freshly printed newspaper. There’s a peppery note underneath, as well as some sweet grapes and lemon candy. Mouth: starts on ground coffee beans,...