Amid all the rising whisky prices and the growing NAS segment, we’ve seen another trend going strong lately: independent bottlings of young whisky, from 5 year old up to 10 year old.

It shouldn’t surprise us as whisky casks prices has risen too, for both new make and aged spirit barrels. The reasoning is simple: bottle it at younger age, majbe even bottle at lower ABV and so it’s cheaper and you can extract more bottles from each cask.

Today’s Bunnahabhaim from Van Wees The Ultimate brand is a classic example of such whisky, distilled 26/06/2006, aged in cask 2127,...

Following the reviews of the Royal Brackla 12 & 16 Year old, it’s time to try the high end expression, the Royal Brackla 21 Year Old. I liked the lower age expressions despite their flaws, can we hope that the 21 is better?

Royal Brackla 21 Year Old (40%, £135 / €139.75 )

Nose : Unlike the 12 & 16, the 21 Year Old starts with a grassy tone instead of the floral one, a lot of meadow grass and hay notes but slowly the floral notes crawl back. White chocolate, honey, dry but less so than the younger siblings, sweet golden...

Hanyu 1990 Ichiro’s Malt Queen of Hearts, 16 YO, 54,6 % Here is another whisky in the famous Card Series of Hanyu whisky releases from Ichiro’s Malt. I have tried a few of these before, and I always jump at the chance to try one. The Hanyu 1990 Ichiro’s Malt Queen of Hearts was initially matured […]...

Old Potrero Single Malt Straight Rye Whiskey, 3 YO, 48,5 % I recently came across this whiskey from Anchor Distilling Company. They are located in San Francisco, and actually started off as a brewery more than a hundred years ago. Here is a short quote from the Anchor Distilling Co. webpage: Inspired by his pioneering […]...

Ian Buxton jumped at the chance for a one-on-one interview with Dr. Bill Lumsden head of distilling and whisky creation at Glenmorangie. Today, he shares their conversation with us.

Ian Buxton (IB): We’re meeting today because you’re launching Glenmorangie Private Collection VII.  Tell me a little about that. How did it come about? Dr. Bill Lumsden (BL): Glenmorangie Milsean (the Gaelic word Milsean means “sweet things”) was a whisky I created in a slightly different way. Rather than using different barrels or using different raw materials and waiting to see what the outcome was, I actually targeted a particular flavor...

Next up on our Of The Month list for februari is Champagne – this month’s top fizz is from Charles Heidsieck .

Charles Heidsieck, the original Champagne Charlie

I admit I didn’t think I knew anything about Charles Heidsieck before I started looking into the company for the Champagne of the Month page. Very quickly I realised that I knew more about them than I thought thanks to a single phrase: Champagne Charlie.

Charles-Camille Heidsieck came from a family of winemakers. They, the company now known as Piper-Heidsieck , started in 1785, and having learned the trade, Charles headed out on his own in...

We already announced Benromach 35 Year Old some days ago and now we had a chance to sample it. It is created from 1980s first-fill sherry casks, laid down before the distillery was acquired and restored by Gordon & MacPhail in 1993-1998.

Benromach 35 yo (43%, OB 2016)

Nose: my kinda profile, with the typical warm beehive notes (wax, honey, hints of mead) and very pleasant, sweet & sour fruity notes (mirabelles, pear, kiwi), even a lightly tropical touch (melon). Sweet, polished oak. Cinnamon sugar. Also very light tobacco and a minty edge. No wham-bam whisky, but...

When we announced the latest batch of single casks from Wemyss Malts , this Glen Garioch 1989 ‘Fallen Apples’ was the one that immediately caught our eye. You don’t see old 25yo Glen Garioch that often.

Glen Garioch 1989 ‘Fallen Apples’ (46%, Wemyss Malts 2015, hogshead, 266 btl.)

Nose: plenty of apples indeed, mainly the red kind, quite mature and sweet / candied. Hints of peaches, oranges and honey. In the background there’s a light hint of tobacco and warm oak. Becomes a bit more floral over time, adding some hay as well. Mouth: it seems lightly peated....

A couple of months ago I reviewed the entry level expression from Royal Brackla distillery which is part of the Last Great Malts series from Bacardi. It’s time to move up in the line up and review the higher level expressions from this new line up.

Today we’ll check the mid level expression, the Royal Brackla 16 Year old and the next post will review the high-end offering, the Royal Brackla 21 Year Old.

Looking back at my review of the 12 Year Old one, it seems that I liked it as it sports a unique profile of dry, lightly fruity,...

Arran The Bothy Quarter Cask Batch 1, NAS, 55,7 % On oktober 19, 2015, Arran Distillery released the Arran The Bothy Quarter Cask Batch 1. Here is what they say about the release: The Bothy is a limited edition of the Arran Malt which pays homage to the use of small casks which would have played a large […]...

Mackmyra Preludium:01 – De första dropparna, 3 YO, 55,6 % Finally I have gotten my hands on the very first official release from Swedish distillery Mackmyra. The Mackmyra Preludium:01 – De första dropparna (‘The First Drops’) is made up from whisky distilled at their first pilot distillery (1999-2002) and de very first casks of whisky distilled […]...

Craigellachie Distillery is located in Speyside

A new month means a great whisky deal to tell you about, and for februari, we’re spreading the word about Craigellachie 13 Year Old – and we’ve knocked £4 off the price.

Distillery bottlings of Craigellachie were few and far between until 2014, but then three new age-statement releases appeared for the first time: the 13 Year Old , a 17 Year Old and a 23 Year Old . All three received critical acclaim and all three share Craigellachie’s robust, meaty character.

I visited Craigellachie two years ago and the Dewar’s team were proud...

Clynelish Select Reserve was introduced in the 2014 Special Releases . The fact that it had no age statement received quite some angry comments (considering the price) but for this year we have a bit more information.

It’s a mix of four different vintages , the youngest component being 15 years old. All major cask types were used: ex-bourbon first-fill American oak barrels, rejuvenated and refill American oak hogsheads and ex-Sherry and refill European oak butts.

Clynelish Select Reserve (56,1%, OB 2015, Special Release, 2946 btl.)

Nose: It seems less waxy than previous years, but rather more...

This past week was the coldest one of the winter. It was so cold and freezing that we avoided a snowmargeddon only because we didn’t have precipitation at the same time. Usually such weather calls for heavy-weight whisky, peated or sherred, but this time I opted for a dram that celebrates the midwinter time and it did feel like midwinter here last week.

Glenmorangie A Midwinter Night’s Dram is a limited edition (like all of their releases in the last few years) that celebrates a Glenmorangie tradition of bottling a special whisky for the sixteen men of Tain by the...

As I have mentioned before, I’m a beer fan. Annoyingly, we’ve not had many on the website, with our small selection consisting of a pair of great Scottish brewers – Harviestoun and Windswept – and a few beers from Finland’s Teerenpeli . However, we’ve just added a stack of new breweries from closer to our home – we’re now stocking a large range of London beer.

London’s seen an explosion in the number of beer makers over the past five years. In 2010, the first London Brewers Alliance festival was held in a smallish room above Brew Wharf near London Bridge,...

More news: the return of Springbank Local Barley .

When we say Local Barley, we think of a series of legendary 1965-1966 casks (#44x-#51x) released in the 1990s. They were produced with locally sourced barley and developed into hugely complex, fruity wonders.

Springbank has now revived this idea. The new Local Barley was distilled in 1999 , making it 16 years old . For now 9000 bottles are available at 54,3% ABV, all distilled from barley grown at Low Machrimore Farm in Southend, a few miles outside of Campbeltown. Local Barley will become part of the core range. It...