The Whisky Nerds is a fellowship of five whisky friends in Holland (Bram, Floris and others) who decided to start a small label and bottle their own drams. After their GlenDronach 1995 cask #2380 there’s now a Kavalan single cask.

Peaty cask means it was matured in a cask that previously held peated whisky, but keep in mind that the Kavalan itself doesn’t produce peated spirit. This means we can probably expect a rather subtle smokiness.

Kavalan Peaty Cask 2006 (53,2%, OB for Whisky Nerds 2015, R061106107, 99 btl.)

Nose: very aromatic with the fruitiness having the upper...

Due to be launched on februari 1st: a new Benromach 35 Year Old , distilled in 1980, matured in first fill sherry casks  and bottled at 43%. Priced around € 550.

The bottle and presentation case was designed over many months by scottish designers, the copper cut medallion on the bottle signifies the perfect moment in time when the distillers cut to the heart of the run and fresh new spirit becomes Benromach. The label is soft and tactile with embossing and a copper foil. The bottle has a curved thick set glass base and the dark oak box represents the wood...

BenRiach 1985 21 YO Richly Peated Oloroso Sherry Butt Cask #3766, 54,5 % I am writing this on Wednesday afternoon, sitting in my hotel room in the Norwegian mountains. There’s a short break in the agenda for a job kick-off thingy. Lots of snow and cold, and things a lot less pleasant than a proper […]...

Region – North Highlands – ABV – 46%

I’ve got very little time today to preamble before tasting.  However, let me tell you a Knock-Knock Joke:

Joke Teller : “Knock Knock”

Joke participant : “Who’s there?”

Joke Teller : “Control Freak. Now, this is where you say ‘Control Freak who?'”

Joke participant : “…”

…and laughter fills the room!

Today I’m tasting Glenmorangie’s Milsean and, spoiler alert, it’s fantastic juice.

On the nose — Quite crisp, almost piercing on the nose, all without being hot.

Fresh off the press, and wet, copper pennies. Peach – hard but not underripe....

Launched in 2010, Glenmorangie’s Private Edition series has given a home to the experiments Dr Bill Lumsden, Glenmorangie’s director of distilling and whisky creation, had been carrying out on a smaller scale for many years. Starting with what Dr Bill described as a ‘safe bet’, Sonnalta was the first incarnation, finished in Pedro Ximénez casks. These were followed by increasingly experimental cask types: Finealta (lightly peated whisky aged in a combination of sherry and virgin-oak casks), Artein (Italian red wine), Ealanta (virgin oak) and Companta (French red wine), while last year’s Tùsail veering away from the usual theme, with the...

Teeling Revival is a 15 year old bottling composed from rum casks filled in 1999. It was bottled as a special commemorative expression to mark the opening of the company’s Dublin distillery in juni 2015, the first distillery to open in the Irish capital in 125 years.

Later this year, Teeling will launch two new additions to the Vintage Reserve lineup: small batch releases of 24 and 33 year old Irish whiskies.

Teeling Revival 15 yo (46%, OB 2016, 10.000 btl.)

Nose: a bit sharp at first, but settles down nicely and shows the typical fruity profile. Green banana,...

lately I’ve been beating the TR market and the late trends it’s going through. But not all new TR exclusive whiskies are bad. Macallan has been doing some good TR exclusive releases for a while but even those come with issues of their own.

For example, the Macallan Rare Cask Black lacks transparency big time. The bottle itself is opaque and you can’t gauge how much whisky left in the bottle and also lacks transparency for the liquid inside – we don’t know much about the whisky. Yes, it’s somewhat peated (either the result of peated malt or usage of casks that held sherry and peated...

Hanyu 1988 Ichiro’s Malt King of Diamonds, ~18 YO, 56,0 % I have been lucky enough to try another few whiskies from the Card Series from Ichiro’s Malt. This fantastic series of whiskies from the now closed Japanese distillery Hanyu. The Hanyu 1988 Ichiro’s Malt King of Diamonds was initially matured in an unspecified Hogshead then […]...

I have absolutely no idea at all what my ancestors were doing in 1782.  I’m not sure that I care.  In fact, perhaps it’s better that I don’t know.

But Jack and Stephen Teeling can tell you what Walter Teeling was doing.  He was a distiller; one of thirty or so in The Liberties, then a vibrant part of Dublin and in the late eighteenth century arguably the distilling capital of the world (as it remained for many years afterward).

How wonderful then that his descendants have been able to establish their distillery within a few yards of where their...

Oldie of the week: Aberfeldy 1970 bottled at the end of the 1980s by Gordon & MacPhail in their Connoisseurs Choice range (with a brown label back then).

Aberfeldy 16 yo 1970 (40%, Gordon & MacPhail Connoisseurs Choice +/- 1987)

Nose: light and gentle. Malty notes, soft caramel and a little oak. Vanilla. Waxy touches and paraffin candles. Oranges and apples. Honey. Nothing to get excited about but certainly enjoyable. Mouth: same feeling. Cinnamon and oranges, sweet apples in the fore and an oaky bitterness in the background. Light pepper. Honey. Quinces. Fades on tea. Finish: medium long,...

Macallan Rare Cask Black, NAS, 48 % In oktober 2015 Macallan released the Macallan Rare Cask Black, a travel retail only addition to their 1824 Masters Series. Other whiskies in this range are the Rare Cask, Reflexion, No. 6 and M. There are a couple of things I love about this release. First off it is […]...

Back in september I visited the Spirit of Hven Distillery on the small island of Hven, in the middle of Øresund, between Sweden and Denmark. The island of Hven has 371 inhabitants and an area of 7.5 km2 (2.9 sq mi). The island was historically under Danish rule, and Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546–1601) built two observatories here, Uraniborg […]...

Teerenpeli 10 YO, 43 % What a massive achievement to be able to release a 10 YO whisky! Teerenpeli is, as far as I know, the first distillery in Finland, and only the second in the Nordics (after Mackmyra) to release a 10 YO single Maltwhisky. Impressive stuff! Nordic whisky is maturing (pun very […]...

The whisky festival season is already well under way, and we are only half way through januari. 2016 is looking good so far, I would say! Arktisk whiskyfestival, Tromsø, Norway On januari 9 I was in Tromsø, Norway, for the Arctic whisky festival (Arktisk whiskyfestival). I was working at this festival, as I sometimes do. […]...

Smögen Sherry Project 1:4, 4 YO, 57,2 % This is the fourth and final installment in the Smögen Sherry Project. A fun project where we as consumers can see for ourselves what effect an increased sherry influence will have on a young whisky. The first one had a 4 months sherry finish, the second 8 […]...

Bivrost Highland Single Malt 10 YO, 43 % Norwegian company Aurora Spirit launched the Bivrost Highland Single Malt 10 YO in mars 2015. This is a collaboration with independent bottler Gordon & MacPhail. They do not disclose which Highland distillery has produced the spirit, so we are left to guess. Aurora Spirit is currently building an […]...