After breaking out the news on the forthcoming Lagavulin 8 Year Old , I thought it would be fitting to follow up with a Lagavulin review, especially when I really wanted to drink some Lagavulin after the news broke out and the excitement that rose up following it. And what’s more fitting than reviewing another limited edition Lagavulin which is also a youngster (comparing to the 16 Year old), the Special Releases Lagavulin 12 yo 2015?

This is not the first appearance of Lagavulin 12 on Whisky Gospel, as the 2012 edition was thoroughly reviewed , twice in fact, with the conclusion...

Karuizawa 8 YO Pure Malt, 40 % I recently came across this bottling of Karuizawa that I have never seen before. From what I have gathered it was released about 10+ years ago. The Karuizawa 8 YO Pure Malt was an exclusive for the Japanese market. Karuizawa distillery was established back in 1955. They ceased production in […]...

Teerenpeli Distiller’s Choice AURA, 5 YO, 43 % Now here is a unique treat. A Porter-wood matured whisky! yeah, that’s a first for me as well. Finnish distillery Teerenpeli have matured this baby for five years in a quite special cask. The cask started out as an ex-bourbon cask, then they filled it with their own Teerenpeli […]...

Our Covent Garden shop opened at the end of last year, and now that we’ve settled in, we’re ready to start our latest new thing – a regular, end-of-the-month tasting evening.

Tomorrow, Thursday 25 februari , is the inaugural event and we’re going international. We’ll have whisky from France, the Netherlands, New Zealand, India, Japan, Sweden and Taiwan, as well as representatives from each company on hand to tell you all about their drams.

Presenting their whiskies will be:

• Amrut – India
• Armorik – France
• Kavalan  – Taiwan
• Mackmyra – Sweden
• The New Zealand Whisky Company – New Zealand
• Togouchi – Japan...

It’s the end of februari, which means it’s London Beer Week. After 2015’s successful inaugural year, the Drinkup.London team are back with another week of beer-related shenanigans. There are reduced priced drinks for those with London Beer Week wristbands and a whole slew of events running throughout the week.

We’ve had a dig through the bar and event list and pulled out our choices for the week – here’s what we recommend:

THE LONDON BEER WEEK HUB AT THE OLD TRUMAN BREWERY

The ideal place to start your evening – the centre of London Beer Week activity for 2016. You...

Elements of Islay used to be a series of single malt releases, produced at one of the Islay distilleries, but now they’ve expanded the range with a blended Maltwhisky simply named Elements of Islay – Peat .

Elements of Islay – Peat (59,3%, Speciality Drinks 2015)

Nose: citrusy and clean, with straightforward peat, as expected. There are plenty of ashy notes, minerals and hay, but they wrapped in a bright, slightly scented layer of grapefruit, pear and floral notes. Hints of oysters. A little vanilla and malty sweetness as well. Water makes it slightly less fresh,...

Whisky-Online is known for its shop, its whisky auctions and, well… its funny ambassador with the square pants. He sent me a sample of their second bottling, an Ardmore 1993 selected from the Gordon & MacPhail stocks.

Ardmore 22 yo 1993 (49,9%, Gordon & MacPhail for Whisky-Online 2015, refill bourbon barrel #5750, 176 btl.)

Nose: nice combination of mineral notes, limestone and camphor with rounder notes like vanilla, green banana and gooseberries. Lots of mint and eucalyptus. Wet fur. Honey and hints of beeswax. Mouth: same combination of sharpness and roundness. This time the fruity notes are brighter...

Selecting and bottling casks of whisky takes a lot longer than people think. This time last year – well, 11-and-a-bit months ago – Billy Leighton, master blender at Midleton distillery in Ireland, stopped by with some whiskey for us to try. Rather than keep it all to ourselves, we shared it with you: our loyal customers. Billy hosted a tasting and at the end everyone tried the whiskeys and voted for their favourites – you can read all about it in Stu’s blog post .

We chose two whiskeys, the first of which is now up on our website: a hugely fruity...

Since its first appearance in 2006, Caol Ila has released a bottling of their ‘unpeated style’ in the yearly Special Releases . I’ve read it is the tenth unpeated release already, and the oldest version so far.

Caol Ila 17 yo 1997 ‘unpeated style’ (55,9%, OB 2015)

Nose: not entirely unpeated, with a rather rough start and less fruits than expected. Green herbal notes, lemongrass and chili. Peppermint. Yellow apples and light honey. Grapefruits. Still some brine and leafy hints. Mouth: zesty and minty again, grassy notes, with an undefined sweetness underneath. Hints of chalk and burnt...

Although we’re only in februari, a special event in London was held earlier this month to nark the start of the 200th anniversary celebrations of Lagavulin Distillery. From what was revealed on the internet, they had a taste of a new, special but non Feis Ile bottling which was told to be very good, but no further details were revealed till now due to embargo.

However, a new Lagavulin label was revealed on the American Federal TTB site – a 8 Year Old Lagavulin, presumably bottled at 48%:

It’s an interesting choice to release a less than 10 Year Old bottling,...

BenRiach Birnie Moss, NAS, 48 % A while back BenRiach Distillery released the BenRiach Birnie Moss. An intensely peated whisky, as it says on the label. Quite unusual for a Speysider, but we are getting quite used to the unusual in the whisky world these days, so we will just go with it and see […]...

Old Pulteney Noss Head, NAS, 46 % The Old Pulteney Noss Head is part of a travel retail lighthouse series released back in 2013. I have previously reviewed the Old Pulteney Duncansby Head and the Old Pulteney Pentland Skerries. The Noss Head has been matured in American oak ex-bourbon casks, and it has no age statement. You can get this […]...

So the American TTB database published an approval for the label of a Lagavulin 8 Year Old bottled for the 200th Anniversary of the distillery. It comes at 48% alc. vol.

Interestingly, the application was filed for the usual 75cl but also half bottles, 1 liter and 1.75 liters.

Last week a few UK insiders had a preview of an undisclosed, supposedly rather excellent anniversary edition that would not be a Feis Ile release. Full details would be given in mars but there’s a good chance they were talking about this Lagavulin 8 Years .

Also coming...

Post n°2000 (hooray).

This Glenugie was distilled in maj 1980 and bottled oktober 1992 by Cadenhead’s . Did you know there were only around 90 single malt bottlings of Glenugie ever? Rare stuff indeed.

There seem to be different versions / similar bottlings from Cadenhead and they can be difficult to keep apart. This one is the ‘small white label’ bottling. Other bottlings are available at 58,1%, 59,7% and 59,8%, all distilled maj 1980 and bottled september / oktober 1992.

Glenugie 12 yo 1980 (59,8%, Cadenhead 1992, sherry cask)

Nose: I cannot not think of Karuizawa. It has...

The Spring 2016 issue of Whisky Advocate magazine will be hitting the newsstand in early mars. Here’s a sneak preview of this issue’s Buying Guide; the 10 highest-rated whiskies.  We welcome Fred Minnick to our review team and feature 117 reviews in this issue’s Buying Guide.

#10 – Laphroaig 32 year old, 46.5%, $1,500

A (very) special anniversary bottling, this is old-style, brooding Laphroaig. Fully mature and rich, it shows that classic roiling mass of kelp, oil, and brine, always balanced by sweetness: in this case autumn berry fruits. Malt adds a crunchiness. The palate is gentle and slow with...

We like the Elements of Islay  here at The Whisky Exchange blog. Admittedly, they are bottled by our sister company and selected by Oliver Chilton , occasional writer here and developer of The Whisky Exchange’s own exclusive bottlings , but fortunately they are also very good. The latest release in the range has just hit our shelves and it’s a departure from the series’ usual approach – it’s a blended malt. Introducing Elements of Islay Peat .

Oliver Chilton: master of the elements

So far, the Elements of Islay have all been small batches or single casks of single Maltwhisky,...

WealthSolutions in Poland is becoming quite a name in the presentation of ultra-premium spirits. They select some of the oldest casks they can get from well-known distilleries and sell them primarily to investors.

So far we were able to try their Karuizawa 1964 , Glen Grant 1948 and Glenfarclas 1953 . We will also look at their pre-phylloxera Bache Gabrielsen and L’Esprit de Tiffon cognacs in the future, but now we are looking at this Glen Grant 1950 .

Like the 1948, this comes from the Gordon & MacPhail stocks. It is a stunning 65 years old and it...

This Bruichladdich majflower ‘80 refers to The majflower , the English merchant ship that transported the first English Separatists (Pilgrims) from Plymouth to the New World in 1620.

The whisky is 15 years old and was distilled in 1965 or before. majbe even in the late 1950s as it seems to be lightly peated – a practice that Bruichladdich lost in the early 1960s. It was bottled in the Samaroli Collection .

There’s also a higher strength edition at 52% by the way (white box vs. brown box).

Bruichladdich 15 yo ‘majflower ‘80’ (43%, OB for Samaroli 1980, ceramic...