Mackmyra Preludium:06 – Frisk svensk rök, NAS, 50,5 % This is the sixth and final release in the Preludium series from Swedish distillery Mackmyra. The Mackmyra Preludium:06 – Frisk svensk rök (Fresh Swedish smoke) was bottled on 2007-11-06, in a limited run of 30 000 bottles (500 ml). This is, as the name suggests, a peated […]...

Glenfarclas 2004 11 YO The Family Casks – Special Release, 60,4 % Today I am reviewing a relatively young whisky in the great bottling series The Family Casks from Speyside distillery Glenfarclas. The Glenfarclas 2004 11 YO The Family Casks – Special Release was distilled in 2004, and matured in a 1st fill Oloroso sherry butt […]...

Indian whisky is big. Eight of the top 10 best-selling whisky brands in 2015 were made in India, with only Johnnie Walker and Jack Daniel’s preventing a whitewash.

Five of the best-known Indian whiskies

Want to know more? Here’s our handy guide to everything you need to know:

What is Indian whisky?

Almost all of the whisky produced in India is made by blending spirit distilled from fermented molasses (similar to what we know as rum ) with either grain whisky (maize, wheat, rye or barley) or pre-blended Scotch whisky; it cannot be sold in Europe as whisky. The biggest brand,...

More Irish malt, and another Belgian exclusive (or so we’re told – the label doesn’t really mention it), bottled with the same strategy of different single casks for different countries, just like the Springbank 21 Year Old single casks .

A Teeling 24 Year Old single cask release. After all the glorious 1988 – 1991 expressions that were released by independent bottlers, Teeling is now doing the same with several 24 year-old single casks from 1991.

This is cask #10668 for Belgium. There’s also cask #8474 for The Netherlands, cask #8385 for Ireland, cask #6780 for Switzerland, cask #8390 for...

This Irish single malt is “richly matured” according to the Liquid Treasures website. Based on the price and the fact that it is from a bourbon barrel, it looks similar to the 1991 casks that we’ve seen lately. Just a guess though.

Very old Irish malt (49,6%, Liquid Treasures ‘Summer Dram selection’ 2016, bourbon barrel, 123 btl.)

Nose: almost entirely on green bananas. Light floral touches. Apples and gooseberries. Greengages. Not the tropical fruits of the 1991s though, more Western, so perhaps we’re wrong. Or majbe this is Cooley. Some fresh mint after a while. Lemon grass. Very...

Edition Spirits Kill Devil Fijian Rum 2002 (14 year old) 46%

South Pacific Distillery

Code: RUM0037/ Dist: Feb 2002 Btl: 2016/ Tasted: Aug 2016

Extremely pungent and herbal nose. Slightly feinty with unsweetened pineapple, oily green banana and almond paste. It becomes slightly manurey with time. Interesting and distinctly natural.

The palate is oily (in a sub-Guyana style) and again slightly feinty. Herbal, but not medicinal with a touch of green banana. There is very little oak character bar a slight vanilla note, so the palate is pretty much all about the crisp spirit. Long and remaining oily with a...

Arran 100 Proof, 8 YO, 57 % I found this whisky in the back of my whisky cupboard the other day. The Arran 100 Proof was bottled back in september 2006, and is about 8 years old. I highly doubt you will find any bottles left for sale out there, but you never know. You should […]...

Lagavulin Casks of Distinction

This week a new Lagavulin popped up. It’s a limited edition Lagavulin 23 Years 1992 single cask , exclusively selected by Boyao Zhao. Not sure who that is or whether this means it will only be available in Asia, in any case it is the first release in a new Casks of Dinstinction series.

This release was bottled at cask strength 55,7% from cask #5745, a bodega sherry European Oak butt that yielded 440 bottles. No information about the availability yet.

BenRiach & GlenDronach news

The BenRiach launched two wood finishes: BenRiach 17...

Another Ardbeg 1965 bottled by Cadenhead in their Authentic Collection , but as it turns out, totally different from the Ardbeg 24 Years for Sestante .

Ardbeg 28 yo 1965 (54,4%, Cadenhead Authentic Collection 1993)

Nose: impressive complexity, it keeps changing in the glass. In no particular order: dry smoke, worn leather (a lot), thick honey, herbal liqueur, dark cocoa, tangerines (nice, but they fade quickly), wet cellar walls, sappy oak, menthol and eucalyptus, hay, pepper, dried figs. Deeply peaty but with a nice blanket of sweet sherry notes. Not the most Ardbeggian nose, but I don’t mind....

Dallas Dhu 1980 26 YO Part des Anges, 57,6 % Dallas Dhu was founded in 1898, located in the Speyside region, and closed (like many other distilleries) in 1983. The Dallas Dhu 1980 26 YO Part des Anges was distilled in 1980, matured in an unspecified cask (cask #PDA 2107) and bottled in 2007 with a total […]...

Tom Kitchin is owner of award-winning restaurant The Kitchin , in Leith, Scotland and The Scran & Scallie  gastropub in Edinburgh. He was awarded his first Michelin star aged just 29, and has worked with some of the world’s best chefs, including Pierre Koffmann and Alain Ducasse. We caught up with him to talk food and whisky…

‘ I was quite late coming to whisky – 28 or 29, about the same time I opened my restaurant’

‘I’m very much into seasonality. At the moment, we’re in summer now, so majbe I won’t be drinking too much whisky, but when it gets...

The Pikesville brand goes back to 1895 and was part of the once-booming Maryland rye industry. The brand re-emerged after prohibition and became the last standing Maryland Rye , until the brand was ceased in 1982 (after the distillery had already been closed in 1972) and sold to Heaven Hill , which kept producing it from their Kentucky operations as a product with a local Maryland distribution.

Fast forward to 2015. Rye is booming and Heaven Hill decides to relaunch Pikesville as a more premium 6 year-old , 110 Proof straight rye. Maryland whiskey style used to provide a softer...

I’ve been wary of Laphroaig Lore. In fact, I was a bit dreading to taste and review it as it’s the official replacement for Laphroaig 18 which I dearly love. I admit I was angry at Laphroaig’s decision to drop the 18 year old and bring Lore instead as I hate the on going trend of replacing a good matured whisky with a NAS expression.

Usually we don’t know much about the composition of NAS whiskies but John Campbell, the manager of Laphroaig distillery, told the world that Laphroaig Lore is a vatting of casks aged 7 up to 21...

I’m very fond of Craigellachie distillery due to the seemingly irrelevant fact that I slept at a B&B in the Craigellachie village on my first Scotland pilgrimage. Since then I tasted a few Craigellachie bottles, indie and official and it’s time to review another one, a 1997 vintage from the Connoisseurs Choice lineup of Gordon & Macphail.

It was bottled in 2014 (making it about 17 year old) and it was aged in refill ex-bourbon casks, unlike the 1997 vintage that was bottled in 2013 that was aged in first fill sherry casks. I do know that Craigellachie works well with sherry but...

Carn Mor Black Gold Collection North British 1992 (24 year old) 58.3%

First Fill Sherry Hogshead/ Dist: 1992 Btl: 2016/ Tasted: juli 2016

Aromas of raw and intense sherrywood, coffee, treacle, liquorice and dried sherry fruit (raisin and prune). The grain spirit dried fruit notes come through with time as does a touch of smoke, coconut and sweet spice.

The palate is raw and gritty with prune and liquorice. Some dark treacle smoothes the edges and the grainy dried fruit comes through on the middle, along with hints of coffee, smoke and citrus. Long and raisinated with dried grape, sultana...