By Susannah Skiver Barton

This week, blended whiskey enters new territory.

Cask & Crew

Style: Blended whiskey Proof: 40% ABV Price: $25 Release: februari 2017 Availability: 7,500 bottles available in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Connecticut, Maryland, and Kentucky

Need to know: This whiskey blends 51% Canadian rye with 49% American corn whiskey. The Cask & Crew range also includes Walnut Toffee and Ginger Spice flavored whiskeys (both 35% ABV).

Whisky Advocate says: This is a new one to us—blending Canadian-sourced rye whisky and American corn whiskey. The label calls it a blended rye whiskey. Although it originated in Canada, the rye...

By Susannah Skiver Barton

Angel’s Envy —which opened its new, $27 million dollar distillery and visitor center in Louisville, Kentucky in november 2016—has become the tenth member of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. Louisville’s major, Greg Fischer, and members of the Kentucky Distillers’ Association made the announcement this morning, presenting a copper plaque to the company to commemorate the occasion and stamping the first Angel’s Envy page in the Kentucky Bourbon Trail Passport.

Angel’s Envy was founded in 2006 by Wes Henderson. His father, Lincoln, had worked as a master distiller for Brown-Forman for nearly 40 years, helping to develop brands like...

By Susannah Skiver Barton

Tobermory distillery , located on Scotland’s Isle of Mull, will be closing down for up to two years starting on mars 31 ^st . Owner Distell Group Ltd. has plans refurbish the facility which require shutting it down. The visitor center, however, will remain open to guests and will host tours. Distell noted in a statement that staff jobs “will be protected as far as possible.”

Tobermory distillery produces both Tobermory and Ledaig single malt whiskies (Ledaig is highly peated, while Tobermory is not). During the two-year renovation period, Ledaig 10 year old and 18 year...

The nights are cold and spring is still far away, but fear not as we visit the warm tropics of Asia in our second instalment of Ladies Night! This session was hosted by the wonderful whisky ambassador Stefanie Holt. Full of passion and limitless knowledge, Stef guided us around three key Asian whisky-producing countries; India, Taiwan and, of course, Japan. We tasted six whiskies – two from each country – I learned so much in just one evening!

Whisky ambassador Stefanie Holt

Taiwan Taiwan sits on the Tropic of Cancer and the climate ages whisky three to four times faster...

Not everyone likes sweet, pink and fizzy. Hallmark certainly isn’t my idea of a romantic sentiment, and it’s OK if it’s not yours, either. But it does make Valentine’s Day a tricky one to celebrate if you have someone in your life who genuinely prefers you to all other human beings they’ve met and yet you don’t want to drink Strawberry Bellinis or sit in a bar draped in love hearts. I will be especially avoiding waiters with cupid wings this year as well.

So, whether you’re staying at home and fancy yourself as a bit of a bartender or...

Whisky and food are a great match. I’m not talking about drinking shots with dinner, but instead am looking to the drinkers and eaters of Russia and the Iberian peninsula. Vodka and Zakuski (Russian starters), sherry and tapas, port and cheese – for me, the secret to pairing higher-strength drinks with food is to go for nibbles.

For our first dive into whisky and food pairing, we’ve taken inspiration from Spain and have munched our way through a plate of cured meat. There are hundreds of styles of charcuterie and everyone’s recipes are different, but here are a few broad...

After 2300 notes, this was the first time my software crashed and I had to rewrite a nearly finished review. I hesitated to just skip it, but here goes…

Yamazakura is ‘produced’ by Sasanokawa Shuzo , which is a Japanese spirits company that makes sake and schochu. They source their whisky from undisclosed sources.

Until recently their releases were only available in Japan (where they have some pure malt expressions), but they teamed up with Les Whiskies du Monde (of Fujikai fame, cough) to create this ‘high-end’ Yamazakura brand. We’re getting two blended whiskies: a 16 years old and this...

Here’s a Glen Mhor 1965 that seems to get mixed reviews. I think this is true for pretty much any Glen Mhor (ha), but still, I expect something slightly quirky… It’s one of these distilleries, you know.

Glen Mhor 26 yo 1965 (56,4%, Signatory Vintage 1991, cask #202, 300 btl.)

Nose: quite a heady start, with deep sherry notes and plenty of polished oak. The whole range from dark coffee and cedar wood over chocolate and gingerbread to mint (sauce), prunes, sour cherries and strawberries. I like it, also because of its slightly herbal, dusty side (old churches)...

Bowmore N°1 and new travel retail expressions

Bowmore has just restructured its core range and introduced a new packaging , which is surprisingly harmonic and, well… white. The new line-up is still the same 12 Year Old, 15 Year Old, 18 Year Old and 25 Year Old. However the 15 will drop the Darkest tag (although there’s still a good deal of sherry involved).

Also, at the bottom end there is a new Bowmore N°1 (not to be confused with Bowmore Vaults Edit1°n series ), a no age statement whisky which replaces the Bowmore Small Batch  and is also made...

Laddie Ten is the unpeated cornerstone of the Bruichladdich range. It is composed with first-fill Bourbon, sherry and French wine casks and bottled at 50% alcohol.

Bruichladdich Laddie Ten was released for the first time after the resurrection of the distillery in 2011. Now this is replaced by the second edition, made with spirit distilled in 2006.

Bruichladdich 10 yo ‘Laddie Ten’ (50%, OB 2016, second edition, 18.000 btl.)

Nose: vanilla and honey at first, but there’s an immediately farmy / leathery / yeasty note that reminds me of old Brora. Wet wool. Then back to fruity notes,...

I tend to know the sherried Aberlour profile pretty well (A’Bunadh and such) but I’m far less experienced with bourbon matured Aberlour. Here is a refill Aberlour 21 Year Old 1995 in the Old Particular series from Douglas Laing .

Aberlour 21 yo 1995 (51,5%, Douglas Laing Old Particular 2016, refill hogshead, 278 btl.)

Nose: freshly cut apples with cinnamon dust, grist and hints of rockpools and flints. Uncommon, but not unpleasant. Oak shavings, hints of pepper. Honeydew melon. Perhaps a little aniseed. Mouth: neutral, with a bit more of these garden fruits. Apples, gooseberries. Not a fruity...

This is the first release in the Vault Edit1°n series from Bowmore distillery, launched in november 2016. The series explores four of the essential characteristics of Bowmore whisky after maturation in the legendary N°1 Vaults , in this case Atlantic Sea Salt . The other yearly releases will explore peat smoke, vanilla sweetness and citrus fruits.

Bowmore Vaults Edition is matured in ex-bourbon casks and bottled at high strength.

Bowmore Vault Edition (51,5%, OB 2016, first release)

Nose: nicely balanced, though perhaps a little shy at first (it’s a fine line). Vanilla with some sweet lemons and oranges....

This Ardbeg 1974 is from the golden age of this distillery, most of the single casks became legends. Even then cask #3309 bottled for La Maison du Whisky is among the highest rated.

Ardbeg 32 yo 1974 (52,5%, OB for LMdW 2006, bourbon cask #3309, 109 btl.)

Nose: oh that balance. A herbal nose in the beginning, rosemary, some hay, camphor. A honey and marzipan sweetness in the back. Vanilla almond cookies. Then back to walnuts and dusty warehouse floors. Cold ashes. Dried meats. Nice waxy notes too, old paraffin candles. Mouth: oh, even more medicinal than I...