The other day I attended a Fulldram club tasting. There had been a voting procedure to decide which bottles would be opened and I have to say the line-up worked out really well. The highlight was a Glengoyne that I will review tomorrow.

Lancer’s Flag is an old Glenfarclas 1966 bottled in the Daily Dram series late 2007. I believe this must be one of the very first Daily Dram releases with this mosaic label, together with The Drunken Angel, Hag Rap Oil and the other funny anagrams in this range.

A couple of months later they also bottled Feral...

Highland Park Ice Edition 17 year old

Available at specialty whisky retailers, Highland Park’s newest release is the Ice Edition 17 year old, 53.9%. The global release is limited to 30,000 bottles and carries a suggested retail price of £190. According to the press release it was aged predominantly in bourbon casks. Highland Park’s brand director, Jason Craig, describes it as having, “…classic Highland Park flavor…soft spicy notes complement and intertwine with creamy vanilla hues, providing a balanced, long finish—a truly harmonious whisky to savor.”

The blue-tinted bottle represents, “dazzling and glittering ice.” It is presented in a mountain-shaped wooden...

Which new bottlings did we see the past few days?

BenRiach Cask Strength

There’s a BenRiach Cask Strength coming up, similar to the GlenDronach Cask Strength from its sister distillery I guess. Batch #1 will be bottled at 52.2%.

Balvenie Tun 1509 Batch 3

Then there’s The Balvenie Tun 1509 Batch #3 , bottled at 52.2%. Should be similar to earlier batches.

Glenmorangie Grand Vintage 1990

In the TTB database we found a Glenmorangie Grand Vintage 1990 at 43%. It’s apparently the start of a Bond House collection. Based on the paperwork it should come in...

‘If it has been done before, we are not interested in doing it.’ An apt motto when you learn that it comes from Corsair , the US-based distiller that has turned more than a few heads with its unconventional releases using diverse ingredients such as pumpkin , quinoa and vanilla beans .

Corsair president/distiller Andrew Webber (left) and owner/distiller Darek Bell

Based across two sites – one in Nashville, Tennessee and the other further north in Bowling Green, Kentucky – Corsair was founded by childhood friends Darek Bell (a graduate of the now-defunct Bruichladdich Distilling Academy) and Andrew Webber. They...

Now that the Tomatin 30 Year Old is discontinued, it is replaced by some old limited edition like the Tomatin 32 Year Old 1981 (bottled in 2014), now followed by this Tomatin 36 Year Old .

It says ‘Batch 1’ so I guess it’s meant to be more than a one-off. This batch is composed of two casks: an Oloroso and a bourbon cask, both filled in 1977 . They come in a heart-shaped decanter and a big wooden case.

Tomatin 36 yo 1977 (46%, OB 2015, Batch 1, cask #48 + 30142, 800 btl.)

Nose: starts on...

Been too busy in the last few weeks to work on new posts (except for the news items), but I hope to be back on track now and we’ll start with a 24 Year Old Longmorn bottled by Signatory.

This Longmorn was tasted in last month meeting of the MMI whisky club  and as the theme was “Ex-bourbon whiskies from Speyside region”, this is indeed an ex-bourbon Longmorn as opposed to the sherried Longmorns I’m more familiar with. It’s a vatting of two casks, distilled on 15/06/1990 and bottled in juli 2014 for 398 bottles at 55.6%

Longmorn 1990 24 Year...

SMWS 53.231 Eat until I die, 19 YO, 59,3 % Distillery 53 in the Scotch Maltwhisky Society (SMWS) index is Caol Ila. The SMWS 53.231 Eat until I die was released late 2015. It was distilled on 1996-09-03 and it was matured in a single refill ex-bourbon hogshead. The total outturn was 245 bottles. The descriptive […]...

Ah, I’m 30,000 feet above ground, my ear buds playing my favorite band—Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young—and the beverage cart comes rolling up to my coach seat.

“What will you have, sir?” the airline attendant asks.

I reply: “What bourbons do you have?”

“Dewar’s,” she says.

“That’s a blended scotch, ma’am,” I say.

“Okay, we have…” She pulls the cart drawers in and out, the little minis sloshing around as other passengers peek at the selection. “Canadian Club, here we go.” She twists the cap before I can tell her that good old Canadian Club isn’t bourbon. Other passengers are waiting...

Our fortnightly London tastings follow a theme, often a single type of spirit or a range of products from one brand. Sometimes it coincides with the launch of a new product, as was the case for our recent Elements of Islay tasting with occasional blog contributor Oliver Chilton , where we were treated to the first public outing of the brand’s new blended malt: Peat .

Elements of Islay was launched in 2008 by our sister company Speciality Drinks. Selected by Oliver, for the past eight years, the Elements range has been a series of cask-strength single malts from Islay distilleries, each...

Glenfarclas 10 Years used to be the youngest expression in the core range (if you look at the 105 as something different), but it is now undercut by an 8 Year Old (in some markets) and several NAS releases like Heritage and the Legend of Speyside series.

Glenfarclas 10 yo (40%, OB +/- 2015)

Nose: fairly light, with classic raisins, or rather fresh grapes in this case. Orange peel. Hints of toffee and plenty of malt. It also shows a slightly funny metallic / mineral note. Light cinnamon. Mouth: sweet, quite light again, pleasant enough but with limited...

Italian distillery PUNI recently launched two whiskies in the beautiful bottles: PUNI Nova , the ‘classic’ style, and this PUNI Alba . This whisky was first matured in Sicilian marsala wine casks and then transferred to second-fill bourbon barrels that previously contained peated whisky on Islay for 10 to 24 years.

PUNI Alba 3 yo (43%, OB 2015, Batch 02/2015)

Nose: sweet and sour onset, with plums, baked apple, the moving towards red grapes and lemon. Touches of agave. Peppery touches and a light smokiness – or rather more earthiness – in the background. Also clear malty notes...

Bruichladdich 2006 9 YO Cask #511 (Svenska Eldvatten), 60,2 % It has been a while since I last reviewed a release by Swedish independent bottler Svenska Eldvatten. Well, time to fix that. Today I review the sherry bomb that is Bruichladdich 2006 9 YO Cask #511. Cask #511 was 1st fill oloroso sherry hogshead. The whisky […]...

Teerenpeli Distiller’s Choice RASI, 7 YO, 43 % Here is a new Duty Free release from Finnish distillery Teerenpeli. The Teerenpeli Distiller’s Choice RASI has matured for 6-8 years in bourbon casks, and then it received a 1 year finish in 1st fill Moscatel wine casks. The Teerenpeli Distiller’s Choice RASI is a release limited to 2554 […]...

The big Champagne houses are some of the best-known brands on the planet – the likes of Krug , Bollinger and Moët et Chandon . But there is another side – the world of growers’ Champagne .

Growers’ Champagne accounts for less than 20% of all Champagne production

People are surprised when they learn that most Champagne houses don’t grow the majority of their own grapes, but it’s true. The big names rely on the hard work of the small growers to supply them with the raw materials they need for their bottles of fizz. But there are plenty of...

Maltbarn released a couple of new bottlings: Irish single malt 2001, Glen Scotia 1992 and this Braeval 1994 . Two other releases will be launched at the upcoming Limburg Whisky Fair.

Braes of Glenlivet 22 yo 1994 (48,3%, Maltbarn 2016, bourbon cask, 197 btl.)

Nose: sweet and candied, with some hints of cotton candy and bubblegum in the background. Pears, a little brown sugar and vanilla syrup. Gummi bears. Honey and traces of minty oak. Mouth: sweet, malty and fruity, with peaches, banana and lime. Vanilla fudge, hints of fruit cake and marzipan. Cinnamon pastry. Light waxy notes....