This a single grain whisky from Loch Lomond distillery, bottled by That Boutique-y Whisky Company . Loch Lomond is highly adaptable and contains different types of stills, allowing them to create any style of whisky.

Loch Lomond 19 yo (49,7%, That Boutique-y Whisky Company 2016, Batch #3, 50 cl, 267 btl.)

Nose: Pineapple cubes, coconut, vanilla, model glue. Typical grain combo. Pepper, straciatella ice cream, apple peel. Some citrusy zing. There’s a lot of varnish and even a hint of acetone, which makes it difficult to get into the other aromas. Mouth: vanilla and apples, before it turns...

I tried the Arran 16 Years and Arran 17 Years but I never came round publishing my review of the Arran 18 Years , the end product so to speak. This is the general release, not the limited edition that was presented in 2015.

Arran 18 yo (46%, OB +/- 2017)

Nose: bright with plenty of orchard fruits. Orange peel, baked apples, peaches. Vanilla and cinnamon, with hints of toasted oak. Then some underlying mineral notes come to the fore. Wet limestone. Mouth: same feeling of tinned pineapple and peaches on syrup, with gingery oak and a coastal...

Paragon , as in ‘a model of perfection’? We don’t know.

Also, we don’t know what’s inside. Probably a vatting of (possibly underproof) casks from former Edrington distilleries, perhaps mixed with younger whisky, married for a long time. This one was recently bottled by Maltbarn .

Paragon ‘very old’ (51,4%, Maltbarn 2017, sherry cask, blended malt, 204 btl.)

Nose: pleasant sherry, with some prunes and tobacco, berries and grassy notes, cider apples and gentle herbs. Always this combination of brighter, fruitier notes and an accompanying drier component, which in the end gets the upper hand. Almonds, walnuts and...

Peated and sherried  Tobermory from the latest Single Malts of Scotland releases.

Ledaig 11 yo 2005 (56,8%, Single Malts of Scotland 2016, sherry butt #900161, 564 btl.)

Nose: deep smoke, with a tarry and medicinal edge. Also blackberries and pipe tobacco. Walnuts. A little metal polish. It combines well, perhaps because there’s some vanilla to round it all off. Mouth: sweet and medicinal, with plenty of soot and tar, as well as some cassis, cough syrup and caraway seeds. Pepper. Barbecued meats. Big, fat whisky – not for pussies. Finish: long, on cigars and salty smoke, with a...

Diageo Special Releases 2017

The biggest whisky news of the week was probably the announcement of the Diageo Special Releases 2017 , which came as a bit of a surprise. With so many bloggers having a daily look at the TTB label database, there’s no way you can hide upcoming releases these days, so better take a shortcut and avoid speculations. Ten Special Releases this year.

Highland Park Valkyrie / identity redesign

Highland Park redesigned its core range, inspired by the period in which Orkney was ruled over by Danish and Norse vikings. The bottles are now...

By Susannah Skiver Barton

Now hitting shelves: three different barrel-finished 10 year old Masterson’s ryes, plus the fourth edition of the engimatic scotch-Japanese fusion whisky  The Glover .

Masterson’s Finished Ryes

Style: Rye Origin: Canada Proof: 45% ABV Price: $79 Release: Spring 2017 Availability: Permanent, but limited—1,200 bottles of each are available in select markets

Need to know: This is regular 10 year old Masterson’s that has undergone a finishing period in one of three different barrel types: American, French, or Hungarian oak. The finishing period varies depending on how new the barrels are to start, ranging from a month...

By Susannah Skiver Barton

Charm City just got another attraction that’s sure to entice whiskey fans. After about 18 months under construction, Sagamore Spirit Distillery opened on april 21 ^st in the Port Covington neighborhood on Baltimore’s waterfront. The facility spans five acres and includes a distillery, a processing building, and a visitors center, with restaurant and event space that will open in the fall. Production of Sagamore’s rye whiskey—currently made at MGP—began on april 10 ^th .

Sagamore Spirit launched last year as a blend of two straight rye whiskeys—each with a different proportion of rye in the mash...

“The Archer” Karuizawa 1960 (pictured) sold for over $125,000 at auction, while its sister whisky, “The Wanderer,” netted more than $140,000 at a different auction. (Photo by Fraser Band)

By Jonny McCormick

A bottle of Karuizawa 1960 52 year old, nicknamed “The Wanderer,” has broken the record for the most expensive standard-sized bottle of whisky sold at auction, wresting the title from the Yamazaki 50 year old. The record-breaking bid of $141,551/ HK$1.1million was set on april 2 ^nd by Poly Auction Hong Kong (with buyer’s premiums, the total was $166,793/HK$1,298,000). This represents a 29% increase over the previous record...