Wine-by-the-glass dispensing systems have been around for years. Wine bars and other establishments in the hospitality and food service industries find this method of dispensing, well, indispensable. Consistent and accurate pours keep customers happy and the establishment’s bottom line healthy.

Whisky lovers maj soon be able to enjoy this same self-serve experience at our favorite bar or restaurant. Napa Technology recently announced the launch of SpiritStation, a U.S. made dispensing system geared for spirits and batch cocktails.

Jayne Portnoy, Napa Technology’s vice president of marketing and brand development, stated in a recent press release, “We have seen a trend in...

Behind the scenes, The Whisky Exchange is a very international company. We have people from all over the world throughout the business, from Spanish web developers to Romanian photographers, Portuguese designers, Finnish spirits advisers and even the occasional Scot. Among the variety of nationalities, we have a strong contingent from Nepal and when we heard about the devastating earthquakes in the country last year, we decided to do something. Cue a charity whisky bottling – Amrut Everest .

Originally launched at The Whisky Exchange Whisky Show 2015 , Everest is a collaboration between TWE and Amrut. It’s a single cask which...

The new labels of this Irish Connemara mention Kilbeggan Distilling Co. which is the name of a distillery but also the name of the group. Mind that the peated Connemara whiskey is produced at the Cooley distillery, the other half of the group.

Connemara Distillers Edition was matured in bourbon casks and finished in Oloroso sherry casks – a similar concept to Diageo’s Distillers Editions. I believe this was once exclusively available in France but it recently made it to the core range.

Connemara Distiller’s Edition (43%, OB 2015)

Nose: starts with a nice sooty note, exhaust fumes...

Glenfiddich The Original is a new limited edition based on Hamish Robertson’s 1963 Glenfiddich Straight Malt release, considered to be the world’s first single malt. Of course whisky had already been bottled as a single malt before, but it was never marketed as such. Back then straight malt was used to set it apart from blended whisky. Later this became pure malt and now everyone is limited to single malt .

When the Glenfiddich Straight Malt was released in 1963 , it was reportedly made from a base of 8yo whisky, vatted together with some 12yo and 13yo casks. Although...

Mackmyra Preludium:04 – Gruvlagrad Elegans, age, ABV I continue my quest to review the oldst releases from Swedish distillery Mackmyra. Today I review Mackmyra Preludium:04 – Gruvlagrad Elegans (‘gruvlagrad’ = stored in a mine, ‘elegans’ means elegance). This whisky was vatted from spirit distilled both at the initial pilot distillery (1999-2002) and from the first proper […]...

While we’re on a roll from last week, let’s check another young and low ABV whisky. Today it’s a 8 year old Glenrothes from Gordon and Macphail, another entree in the “The Wood Makes the Whisky” campaign, that was matured for 8 years in a combo of refill Sherry hogsheads and refill bourbon barrels before bottling back in 2011.

Macphail’s Collection Glenrothes 8 Year Old (43%,  £31.95 )

Nose : Malty and creamy coconut, vanilla with a touch of honey, oak wood spices, develops some green apples at the background with a surprising briney note and then slowly some weak sherry impact shows up: chocolate, nutmeg...

Hanyu 1988 Ichiro’s Malt Three of Diamonds, 19 YO, 56 % This is my last review of a whisky in the Card Series from Ichiro’s Malt for a while. Simply because I do not expect to come across any more of these in the short term. They are becoming very rare. You can see my other […]...

Our yearly tasting calendar is a varied list of events, taking in everything from whisky to spirits and liqueurs, with even an occasional foray into the world of fizzy wine – tickets to our next tasting, Growers’ Champagne with Dawn Davies MW are on sale now. However, there’s one that’s become a regular fixture and is anticipated through the year – The 2015 Diageo Special Releases with brand ambassador Colin Dunn.

Colin took a while to choose which box to pose with, but in the end went for the Port Ellen

In short, the Special Releases are a yearly collection of limited...

Pittyvaich was only open between 1975 and 1993 so it’s not really surprising bottlings are rarely seen. Apparently Pittyvaich had shorter fermentation times than other distilleries, and the stills were run a bit stronger, giving a ‘more flavoursome’ spirit.

The 2015 Special Releases contained this Pittyvaich 25 Year Old 1989 , matured in refill American oak hogsheads and ex-bourbon barrels.

Pittyvaich 25 yo 1989 (49,9%, OB 2015, Special release, 5922 btl.)

Nose: quite syrupy with almond milk and hints of wax and floral overtones. Honeysuckle, grapes, vanilla icing and a few drops of lemon. Also mineral notes,...

Beinn Dubh is a whisky that is marketed as ‘The Black Single Malt Scotch Whisky”. I must admit that for me, the honor of having the “Black Whisky” title belonged to Loch Dhu (which was distilled in Mannochmore distillery) but it’s not produced anymore and instead we have on the market two candidates for the Black whisky title but as both are coming from the Speyside Distillery (which of course resides in the Speyside region), I supposed that the torch did move on to them. The first one is  ‘Cu Dub’ which is more or less a recreation of Loch Dhu and the other one...

This is a triple distilled BenRiach 1998 , finished in a Pedro Ximénez puncheon cask #6394 . Part of the single casks batch 12 .

BenRiach 17 yo 1998 (57,5%, OB 2015, PX puncheon #6394, 702 btl.)

Nose: plums and dried apricots, as well as sultanas and red berries. Some leather. Muscovado sugar and honey. A few matchsticks as well but rather clean. Tobacco and Mexican spiced chocolate. Fine so far, a fairly light and balanced nose. Mouth: chocolaty and spicy again. Cloves, pepper, a bit hot overall. Then more plums and grapes, red apples and sultanas. Oranges....

Well, majbe not entirely new as rumours have been spreading for a few months now, but with the label in the American TTB database , it’s hardly speculation now. Ardbeg Dark Cove will appear soon.

At the heart of this whisky are dark sherry casks . That’s not an official term so we can only assume they are heavily seasoned (PX?) casks, bringing lots of sweet coffee, chocolate and sticky toffee to Ardbeg’s smoky notes. It should be Ardbegs darkest spirit ever.

The standard bottle will be at 46,5% but we’ve also seen the label of a Committtee Edition at...

Something different for februari’s Spirit of the Month – a liqueur. We’ve chosen a classic Italian almond-flavoured example: Salizá Amaretto Veneziano from Bepi Tosolini .

Amaretto is an almond-flavoured liqueur which is predominantly made in Italy. For many years, the best-selling brand has been one that hails from ( di )Saronno in Lombardy; however this is not made with real almonds, and while that maj be great news for those with nut allergies, Salizá is made with crushed almonds, staying true to amaretto’s origins.

Bepi Tosolini founded his company, originally producing grappa, in 1943

Bepi Tosolini founded the eponymous company...

Claxton’s Spirits started as an independent bottler in september 2015 when they announced a first batch of three single cask bottlings: Glentauchers 1996 , Tobermory 1995 and Tomatin 1994.

Glentauchers 18 yo 1996 (48%, Claxton’s 2015, bourbon barrel #7884, 320 btl.)

Nose: tropical fruits (tinned pineapple, kiwi, unripe nectarine and green banana) with green apple peelings. Watermelon bubblegum. Hints of vanilla latte. Gets quite floral / fragrant after a while, which mingles with a rather up-front varnishy side, which resembles some old grain whisky. Minty notes too. Mouth: sweet and fruity, lots of apples, peaches, pineapples… Grapefruit zest....