Scotch whisky is very different to a few decades ago. Demand is up and as drinkers’ tastes change, distilleries tweak their recipes. The spirit, the casks and the resulting whiskies are all different to how they used to be. Well, most of them anyway. There are a few distillers who still make old-fashioned whiskies – distillers like Benromach . We’ve got a fantastic bottle of whisky from the distillery to give away, so read on…

Rocky popped up to visit the folks at Benromach a couple of years back and you can read all about his trip here – not much...

anCnoc Blas is a new limited edition from Knockdhu distillery. It is a mix of American oak barrels and Spanish oak butts, bottled at high strength. Although there’s no age statement, we’ve heard the components are between 8 and 12 years old .

Blas means ‘taste’ in Gaelic, and it’s a bit of a fashionista whisky: the label and packaging were designed by fashion designer Patrick Grant , who also made an accompanying pocket square with a similar bespoke print. Is it me or is this a strange association for the traditional whisky audience – given the high strength I...

A couple of days ago we saw the announcement of two new Tobermory expressions which are the start of a collection of six whiskies, released over the coming two years. Tobermory 18 Year Old (46,3%, blue) was only matured in ex-bourbon casks, whereas Tobermory 20 Year Old (46,3%, red) was finished in sherry casks.

Apparently each bottle contains a small booklet with perforated, numbered tabs. If you collect all six releases and send the strips to the distillery, you have a chance of winning a bottle of the Tobermory 42 Year Old .

Also new: an upcoming Kilkerran 12...

Ardmore Traditional 46%

Bourbon finished in quarter casks

Tasted: Dec 2013

Quite rich and dense aromas of smoked meat and dry peat with a light perfumed note and a touch of herbal barley sugar. The oak is seriously dense but it doesn’t add much in the way of vanillins, but it does add some weighty caramel, which does impact upon the freshness that one usual equates with this distillery.

Dense and weighty on the palate with herbal flecked, dry, meaty-peaty notes and a touch of sweet barley. Again the caramelised oak impacts on the freshness. Good length with a little...

Lagavulin 18 YO Feis Ile 2016 (Bicentenary Edition), 49,5 % You are probably well aware that Lagavulin Distillery celebrates its 200th Anniversary this year. They have releases a new 8 YO earlier (not yet reviewed) and during the Islay festival (the Feis Ile festival) they released this Lagavulin 18 YO Feis Ile 2016 expression. This is […]...

Pollination Gin is an exciting new venture from brothers Pete and Danny Cameron. Many of the botanicals, including lemon balm, chamomile and rowan berry, are foraged locally, in the Dyfi Valley in mid-Wales, on the edge of Snowdonia National Park. The brothers are also planning a winter gin, Hibernation, which we hope to stock as the weather turns colder later in the year. We caught up with them to find out more…

Danny (left) and Pete Cameron, the brothers behind Pollination Gin

What’s the story behind Pollination Gin? Pete: ‘Danny and I were chatting over a pint two years ago and...

I have now reviewed a total of 100 Nordic whiskies! I started my Nordic Whisky review series in mars 2014. A little under a year ago I published a (late) Top 5 out of the first 50 reviews. Now it is time to do a larger Top 10 Nordic Whisky list, based on the first […]...

In the current issue of Whisky Advocate , the burgeoning American single malt category was explored, showcasing not only a diverse range of whiskeys, but also that their producers were beginning to come together for the greater good.

“A lot of us have the same frustrations knowing we produce this product that gets unfairly lumped into these other categories,” says Matt Hofmann, co-founder and master distiller of Westland distillery.

“As a distiller of single malt, I think it’s a constant source of aggravation for me and everybody else that nobody really knows what American single malt is,” says Paul Hletko,...

Our Sparkling Wine of the Month for juli is the top-notch  Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label Champagne , so an ideal time to revisit the story of the first female Champagne CEO: Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin. Tilar J Mazzeo’s The Widow Clicquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire and The Woman Who Ruled It is a historical piece that unearths the origins and meteoric rise of the Veuve Clicquot brand.

Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin, the woman behind the rise of Veuve Clicquot Champagne

The book traces the history of the brand from the 1800s to the modern day, examining the winemaking, marketing, production, distribution and management that...

This Lagavulin was bottled for the Jazz Festival 2015 , but it was delivered too late for the festival and still on sale at the distillery when Feis Ile 2016 started, which is why it suddenly gained some renewed attention.

This Lagavulin was matured in refill American oak as well as European oak Bodega casks . It comes without age statement or vintage, but there have been rumours about a vatting of 12yo ex-bourbon and 18yo sherry casks.

The term bodega cask is still not clear to me. It suggests the fact that the cask was used in an actual...

The Whisky Exchange has just released a set of four TWE Exclusives, all sourced from the Signatory Vintage warehouses.

One of them is this Blair Athol 1988 . Signatory has a long relationship with this nearby distillery and they’ve released a couple of sister casks already.

Blair Athol 27 yo 1988 (55,7%, Signatory Vintage for The Whisky Exchange 2016, refill sherry butt #6845, 565 btl.)

Nose: really nice. A bit autumnal, with moss and leafy notes but also elegant, fruity sherry notes, chocolate coated nuts and dates. Thick but the sherry doesn’t overshadow the malty core. Caramelized apples. Hints...

This is the first release in a new Secret Casks series by Whiskysite.nl . It is an undisclosed Islay single malt distilled in 2009 and bottled at 6 years of age from a refill sherry cask. Not Lagavulin nor Bunnahabhain, I’ve heard.

Islay 6 yo 2009 (58,9%, Whiskysite ‘Secret Casks’ 2016, refill sherry cask #7065, 72 btl.)

An interesting salmon / orange hue. Nose: the cask already had its say in merely 6 years. Creamy fudge, but with prominent coastal notes too. Hints of antiseptics and new sneakers. A white chocolate and caramel combination. Traces of red fruit...

Mackmyra Special 06 Sommaräng, NAS, 46,8 % I’m on a roll now, here is the fourth Mackmyra release in a row in my Nordic Whisky review series. Again I am looking at the Special series. The Mackmyra Special 06 Sommaräng (Summer Meadow) was released on maj 2 2011, in a limited run of 12 000 bottles. […]...

I’ve been on holidays in Greece for the past three weeks – you maj have noticed that there were less brand-new releases on the blog. I’m now catching up and we’ll start with this Benromach 1974 single cask .

This well-aged single malt was bottled from sherry butt #1583 , filled by the previous owners and one of the oldest casks in the warehouses.

It comes in the same style of bottle as the Benromach 35 Year Old . A book accompanies the whisky, delving into the Benromach history and providing some fascinating stories about the people behind the whisky....