With Christmas approaching, it means it’s time to announce the Whisky Exchange Whisky of the Year 2016. This now-traditional annual event moved north of the river this year to The Rooms at Browns , just round the corner from our new Covent Garden shop .

Oliver (aka) Judge Chilton got into the spirit of the occasion

The room was the former main courtroom of Westminster County Court, making it the ideal venue to pass judgement on the eight whiskies in front of us, with Oliver and Andy in charge of proceedings.

The tried-and-tested criteria was unchanged from previous years: ongoing...

We sell thousands of spirits at The Whisky Exchange , so choosing our Spirit of the Year is a tough challenge. This is the third year we’ve given an award to our favourite spirit of the past 12 months, and to help us decide, we ask the opinion of bartenders, drinks writers and industry experts.

We came up with a shortlist of eight spirits, covering a variety of styles and categories:

The eight shortlisted products for our Spirit of the Year 2016 award

Derrumbes Oaxaca Joven Mezcal

Frapin VSOP Grand Champagne Cognac

Michter’s US*1 Unblended American Whiskey

Mr Black Cold...

The first Tomatin 30 Year Old at 46% was bottled in 2011 as a replacement for the successful Tomatin 25 Year Old and a cask strength 30 Years 1976. There have been 2012 and 2013 releases as well (always limited to 1500-2000 bottles), but it is now discontinued.

Tomatin 30 yo (46%, OB +/- 2013)

Nose: lots of fruity notes. Haribo bears, apricots, melon, hints of banana and mango. Subtle flowery hints. A little fresh mint in the background. Some warmer notes of leather too, and a light buttery / leafy edge. Mouth: similar tropical fruit notes, close...

Independent bottlers Gordon & MacPhail have recently launched a campaign ‘The wood makes the whisky’ .

Contrary to smaller bottlers, who simply buy mature casks, G&M buy young spirit and are responsible for the maturation themselves. As they explain on the excellent website, the essence of their work is matching spirit with the right type of oak , curating the maturation process and getting the result they were imagining.

To underscore the importance of casks and the different outcomes of European / American oak, bourbon / sherry fill, cask sizes, they provided four samples with different profiles. We’ll start with...

Master of Malt has this Lost Distilleries Blend series, which contains only whiskies from closed distilleries. Batch 6 features malt whiskies from Mosstowie, Port Ellen, Glenisla, Imperial, Caperdonich, Glen Mhor and Brora, and grain whiskies from Port Dundas.

Given the low number of bottles, this is more likely a blend done by mixing bottles rather than casks.

This sample came as part of the Drinks by the Dram Whisky Crackers . A nice box which contains six whisky samples wrapped inside a fire cracker. Something to remember when you’re choosing Christomas gifts (be quick though).

The...

I still remember when I first tried Glenfarclas 25 Year Old , at the first Spirits in the Sky festival (back in 2007). We had quite a few drams already and the four of us decided to bring together all our coins for this last whisky. I was quite fond of it back then, but that’s no guarantee for a recent bottling.

Glenfarclas 25 yo (43%, OB 2015)

Nose: slightly thinner and more restrained than how I remember it. Orange peel, ripe apples and golden raisins. Liquorice and mint. Chocolate coated nuts. Some meaty hints, as well as a sour Morello...

This GlenDronach 1994 cask #3386 was part of Batch 11 of the GlenDronach single casks, presented early this year. Except for one 1971 cask, we saw only 1990 / 1994 / 1995 / 1996 casks that time. These vintages can be hit or miss, in my opinion, so it’s difficult to know which samples / bottles are the highlights.

GlenDronach 20 yo 1994 (53,6%, OB 2015, Pedro Ximénez puncheon #3386, 624 btl.)

Nose: rich and rather on the dark side. That means lots of prunes, black cherries, blackberry jam and Black Forest cake. Some earthy notes in the...

Batch 11 of the BenRiach single casks, released in 2014, included two 1976 expressions. One was peated (cask #5463), this one unpeated (cask #529).

More surprising though was the maturation: both were initially matured in sherry casks but they were finished in bourbon barrels . I don’t think I’ve ever seen this – it’s always the other way around.

A couple of years ago, it was clear that there were very few BenRiach 1976 casks left (16 casks in 2012, and since then +/- 10 more have been bottled). There were also rumours that the leftovers were getting a bit...

Laphroaig celebrated the 200th Anniversary of the distillery by (re-)releasing five expressions: a Laphroaig 15 Year Old , Laphroaig 21 Year Old , a special Cairdeas and Laphroaig 32 Year Old .

The last is this Laphroaig 16 Year Old, (theoretically) only available in travel retail .

Like the 21yo it is presented in half bottles. I personally like this idea for limited editions, although it tends to make it cost more than half the price.

Laphroaig 16 yo (43%, OB 2015, travel retail, 35cl.)

Nose: a very citrusy start, with lemon candy and hints of vanilla...

The Ileach is one these undisclosed Islay malts that received quite some praise (like Finlaggan for example). There’s always a lot of speculation about the distillery that produces it.

We’re trying the base version of The Ileach , bottled at 40% ABV . Also available is The Ileach Cask Strength at 58%.

The colour maj indicate some sherry influence, but there’s little evidence for that in my tastings notes. Added caramel then?

‘The Ileach’ peated Islay malt (40%, OB 2015)

Nose: young, raw peat, with quite some mercurochrome, band aids, gouache paint, iodine and sea water. Islay alright....

After a very embarrassing day 8 guess, when I went for Kilchoman while it was Laphroaig Cairdeas 2015 which I tasted, reviewed and liked , which yielded me only 20 points, I tried to focus harder on number 9 in the hope something good will get out of it. But it didn’t help. I was debating between Highlands and Speyside, going for the latter. I felt it has some strength in it, at first thinking 55% but eventually downgrading to 52%. The most embarrassing part of my guess (and seems like all my recent guesses were embarrasing…) was the age as I...

Captain Log Day 7: After two consecutive zero points days, the team here is in awe from the organizers and they ability to find us some real weird whiskies to taste. What will today bring us?

The Answer was simple: A young sherry bomb. But once again we were led astray by the organizers and the entire collective failed guessing this one. Since it was a young sherry bomb, I didn’t want to guess a young Glenrothes (like last year) so instead I went for Aultmore 8yo 58%. Oh how wrong I was… This is the first bottling from Alisa Bay, the new workhorse Grants &...