I failed miserably with Day 5 and didn’t score any points so I hoped to reverse the course with this lightly peated dram. It was a confusing experience tasting it as at first it’s very subdued and then opens up to reveal a very gentle peated expression with a touch of sherry notes. I thought it’s probably some older Islay whisky and I went for 22 yo Caol Ila 43% and as expected, it was totally wrong. Who would have thought that a decent whisky can come out from Loch Lomond and at that infant age.

Inchfad 2001 6 Year Old (Loch Lomond)...

Mackmyra Moment Morgondagg, NAS, 51,1 % Here’s an old release by Mackmyra, the Swedish distillery. The Mackmyra Morgondagg (Morning Dew) was released back in 2013. It was matured in a mix of American Oak barrels and ex-sherry casks. This was a limited release of 1500 bottles. You can actually still buy the Mackmyra Morgondagg in […]...

1.198 Night nurse in carpenter’s overalls, 21 YO, 55,2 % I do love to try independent bottlings that are a bit out of the ordinary. Here we have a 21 YO Glenfarclas matured in a refill ex-bourbon hogshead. Not something you come across very often in the official bottlings. Glenfarclas tend to be all about […]...

Dennis Malcolm

There are many people in the Scotch whisky industry who are closely associated with a distillery, but none have the links which tie Dennis Malcolm to his beloved Glen Grant. The man who is now its master distiller was born-on site in 1946. His career path was fairly obvious. After all, his grandfather had worked for Major Grant, his father was a stillman. No surprise then that in april 1961, the 15 year old Dennis turned up for work as an apprentice cooper.

His rise up the whisky ladder was rapid: brewer at 24, assistant manager by the...

Dalmore 21 year old, 42%, $530

Dalmore first introduced a 21 year old expression back in the days of American Brands’ ownership during the 1990s. That variant contained around one-third whisky matured in sherry casks and the rest aged in bourbon wood. Ultimately, it was dropped from the lineup, leaving the 18 year old as the standard bearer at the upper end of the regular age range, along with an annual 3,000-bottle limited release of 25 year old.

Owners Whyte & Mackay Ltd. felt that there was room for another product in the upper age sphere, and in 2015 a...

Springbank Sherry Wood 17 year old, 52.3%, $130

We are all keen to laud start-up whisky-making ventures, and buzz phrases like “hand-crafted” and “artisanal” are bandied about with gay abandon. But we tend to forget that in the distilling outpost of Campbeltown, the Springbank distillery has been operating on a hand-crafted, artisanal basis for the best part of two centuries.

Springbank malts all its own barley requirements in-house on a traditional malting floor, it mashes in a cast iron open mash tun, and the wash still is both directly-fired and internally steam-heated. Finally, the mature spirit is bottled on-site.

When...

Ardbeg Supernova 2015 Release, 54.3%, $160

And so it ends, as it should, with a blast-off into some peaty galaxy far far away. Supernova was always designed to be Ardbeg’s peatiest expression, made from a selection of the smokiest casks in its warehouses. That in itself poses a challenge for any whisky maker. Producing a heavily peated whisky is relatively easy: you light a big fire and let it smolder for a long time. (Yes, I know there’s more to it than that, but go with me on this, okay?) Making a balanced heavily-peated whisky is considerably more difficult, because...

Blend of Glenallachie, Glentauchers, and Macduff – 43% ABV

Thanks again to Dr. Matt Lurin for his review of the Single Cask Nation Undisclosed Islay 7yo.  His review reminded me just why we selected that cask. Pow! It was a cracker!

From:

We go to:

Please don’t take this as an insult to the whisky. Quite the contrary. If anything, these two images simply illustrate the style of each whisky. This Samaroli is soft, gentle and at total comfort to spend with.

You’ll see:

On the nose — Peppermint and chamomile tea, cured olive brine, and clean pool water....

Region – Um, Islay – ABV – 56.3%

You know, it just did not seem right that I would review a whisky that my company, Jewish Whisky Company , bottled. We bottle whisky under the Single Cask Nation label and today’s whisky is a 7yo single malt from an “Undisclosed” distillery.

This is the second “Undisclosed” Islay we’ve bottled and while both this and our first Undisclosed are completely sold out, our third “Undisclosed” Islay is still available to members of Single Cask Nation .

I will now pass the baton over to my friend, Dr, Matt Lurin.  Being...

Regions – a blend of regions – ABV – 43%

Something totally unexpected in this Advent Calendar – a blend. But then again, you never supposed to know what to expect. Every day a surprise, right?

This blend is as inexpensive as $20/bottle (1L) at K&L and up to $40 in stores located elsewhere (I’m looking at you New Jersey).

As you would expect in a blend, this is a mix of malt whiskies and grain whiskies.  However, this has 40% Maltwhisky and 60% grain whisky.  Normally the ratio is closer to 80/20 (grain to malt). So we...

It started as a successful Kickstarter project: instead of putting whisky inside a barrel to mature, you put the wood inside the bottle. Whiskey Elements are small pieces of partly charred oak, laser cut to get more surface area and more interaction with the whisky.

It’s said to make the whisky smoother in just 24 hours, with maximum results after 72 hours. The toasted wood will also add more vanilla and maple notes (or other flavours like smoke or winey notes, they have three types of elements at the moment), so essentially it mimics the effects of barrel ageing...

Master distiller Billy Walker has selected five Pedro Ximénez Sherry Octaves from the distillery’s warehouses to be bottled as the GlenDronach 20 Years Old Octaves . The spirit was distilled in september 1994, matured in regular sherry casks and then put into PX octaves for a couple of months.

Octave casks are 1/8th of a butt. They’re small so they tend to have a quick, intense effect on the liquid inside. When seasoned with sherry, they can also rapidly add sherried notes to a whisky.

Let’s not beat around the bush though, they’re often used to rescue / mask under...

One of the highlights among the new releases this week was the second batch of the Glenglassaugh single casks . You rarely see 1970s whiskies these days yet they seem to have plenty of 1972-1978 casks lying around.

What makes it especially interesting is the fact that Glenglassaugh was quite adventurous when it comes to cask selection. Have you ever seen an Aleatico wine cask before? Working with Massandra was an interesting idea of course.

Here’s the full line-up:

• 1972 cask #2125 / 42 yo / Massandra Madeira Puncheon / 47.3%
• 1973 cask #1865 / 42 yo / Massandra...

Captain Log, Day 5: After I managed to scrape off 20 points yesterday for correct region, I hope to build upon it and majbe even have a successful day with a high score. This dram felt like a high proof young dram, but the region and distillery alluded me. I was torn between three optoins: a SMWS bottling from a Speyside distillery, a young Bladnoch from The whisky broker or majbe some weird Islands bottling (Arran or HP). Eventually I went for the Lowlands route. Not sure if it was the smart decision.

Update : Ugh :-( I was so far...

Day 4 of the Blind Tasting Competition 2015 and following the zero points day yesterday, I hope to get back on the horse back today and get some points. I was confused by the greenery on the palate and wondered if it maj be a lowlander (Bladnoch or Littlemill), but other than that it felt like a highlander which led me towards Balblair distillery. I went for Balblair 2003 vintage and 46%.

Update : At least I got the region correctly… It’s Ben Nevis 18 bottled by The Whisky Agency back in 2013. The Hogshead yielded 242 and I’m sure...

Macallan Reflexion, NAS, 43 % Here is the third installment in the recently launched Macallan Master Series range. I have previously reviewed both The Macallan Rare Cask and The Macallan No. 6. This leaves only The Macallan M after today. The Macallan Reflexion has been matured in mainly hogsheads, made from American and Spanish oak. Only […]...

Macallan M, NAS, 44 % Here is the fourth installment in the new Macallan Master Series range. I have previously reviewed the Rare Cask, No. 6 and Reflexion. During the launch of this whisky we were told that the oldest whisky included here is from 1940. Back then Macallan could not get hold of enough […]...