Tamdhu Batch Strength, 58.8%, $88

Tamdhu was always one of the quiet ones. You know, the distilleries who were happy to sit in the background, adding their qualities to blends, unknown by the vast majority of whisky drinkers. Since Ian Macleod bought the distillery from Edrington, however, there has been a slow emergence into the bright lights of the world of brands. The end of Edrington’s stewardship had seen the exclusive use of sherry casks, a policy its new owners have continued and benefited from. It makes sense. A great, balanced, sherried whisky is one of life’s pleasures. This is...

Blue Hanger 11 ^th Limited Release, 45.6%, £89

Blends spun off in different directions this year. Johnnie Walker Select Cask Rye Cask Finish and Dewar’s Scratched Cask aimed to shift their flavor profile toward an American whiskey style. That Boutique-y Whisky Company launched highly accomplished blends in release sizes no larger than a single cask bottling. Douglas Laing completed their Remarkable Regional Malts range of blended malts, crowned by a special cask strength version of Scallywag. A strong contender for this award was the glorious blended grain whisky Hedonism Quindecimus from Compass Box. Variety and innovation marked this out as...

Region – Speyside – ABV – 46%

Dram # 11 brings us a Weymss Malts whisky entitled “Kumquat Cluster” which is a 21yo Glenrothes single sherry butt, cask # 3343.

Based on the color, which is fairly light, I’d have to say this is a refill butt.

There is a joke in there somewhere. I’ll leave you to that.

The Glenrothes and I normally do not get along. The spirit character usually doesn’t sit with my palate but I know they have a great following.

Though, truth be told, I do wish their OB bottlings were at a higher...

Region – um, Islay – ABV – 43%

Unnamed Islays seems to be the way things are going now when it comes to independently bottled cask of Islay whisky. Most, based on comparisons to “Original Bottlings,” or “Owner Bottlings,”  seem to be Caol Ila, Ardbeg or Lagavulin if you’re really lucky. All I’ve tasted have been great <shameless plug>  including   the 3, soon to be 4 “Undisclosed Islay” Single Cask Nation releases </shameless plug>.

This one is the first, however, that I will taste that is not bottled at full cask strength.  Another 43% ABV for this Samaroli....

Region – Speyside – 64.8% ABV (holy moly!)

Glen Moray is one of my favorite Glens.  It is too oft overlooked. Here in the US distribution seems to a bit sporadic so therefore few really know about the brand on this side of the pond (when compared to the Glenfiddichs and Glenmorangies of the world).

One thing I did not expect with this particular Glen Moray was the strength that it was bottled at. Normally, Glen Moray fills their casks at 63.5% (like the majority of distilleries out there).  However, if this was casked at 63.5% how could the...

‘Hello. How are you? Quite well. Thank you very much.’

If you’ve seen Whyte & Mackay ’s Richard Paterson host a tasting before, you’ll be familiar with his repertoire of catchphrases, his penchant for throwing whisky around the room, his props, tricks and one-liners. But he is no magician, no illusionist – everything he does helps to educate people how to get the best from their whisky.

Richard Paterson, aka The Nose, master blender at Whyte & Mackay

Richard visited The Whisky Exchange for a unique tasting of all six components of King Alexander III from Dalmore , as well...

Springbank 15 Years is a sherry matured expression. The distillery tasting notes seem to indicate a lot of Oloroso character, but I found it hard to get this. majbe they are relying mostly on refill casks.

Springbank 15 yo (46%, OB 2015)

Nose: even more mineral than the 10 or 12. Wet chalk, aspirin, graphite, some metallic touches. Light hints of antiseptics. Very flinty and austere with some coastal hints as well. Leather. Over time it moves towards light toffee and almonds. Mouth: oily, almost entirely on mineral notes, with an overpowering bitterness. Walnuts, grapefruit skin, quinine, herbal...

This is probably one of the oldest bottlings of Arran on the market (production started in the summer of 1995). It was bottled by Morrison & Mackay (the company behind Càrn Mòr among others) for Lockett Bros .

Arran 18 y 1996 ‘The Island of Fidra’ (50,6%, Morrison & MacKay for Lockett Bros 2015, bourbon hogshead #1300, 200 btl.)

Nose: bright and fresh, with lots of variations on lemon (juice, balm, lemonade) with freshly crushed mint leaves. Caramel apple. A little vanilla cake and touches of Magnolia. Hints of sea spray and coconut. Quite excellent really. Mouth: very...

After two days with some points, comes the dread of a dead day where you try your best and ends up with nothing to show for it, getting zero points. Day 3 sample was weird. It started nicely with a springbank funky note so I initially went with this guess. But when I came back and re-tasted it, the picture changed dramatically. Based on the sum of the notes I was left in the dark – Campbeltown? Isle of Jura? majbe some laddie? I went with 12yo Jura at 50%. I know there’s no such bottling but majbe it will net me some...

Spirit of Hven Sankt Claus, 53.2%, 975 SEK

The Spirit of Hven distillery was founded in 2008 by Henric Molin on the attractive Swedish island of Hven in the strait of Öresund. The awe-inspiring structure of the Öresund bridge spans the same body of water further south, joining Copenhagen, Denmark to Malmö, Sweden. You cannot help but be swept up by Henric Molin’s infectious enthusiasm when he talks about his distillery. With a strong scientific background in chemistry, he maximizes flavor in his whiskies during production by calibrating the mashing temperatures, mixing yeast varieties, insisting on long fermentation times, and...

PUNI is a new distillery in the Italian Alps (the Highlands of Italy , so to speak). It was set up in 2010 by the Ebensperger family and they have been distilling since februari 2012, using alpine water, locally sourced grains, traditional Forsyth & Sons pot stills and remarkable maturation warehouses. After three years, their first whisky (the first Italian single malt) was bottled in oktober 2015.

PUNI uses three types of malted cereals in order to give the Italian whisky its characteristic taste. They say “barley forms the malty, spicy foundation, wheat adds a mellow sweetness and...

Second day of the Blind Tasting Competition 2015 with another hard to guess whisky. I sniffed and tasted my sample before day 1 dram was announced and I was banking it to be a speysider but now we know it cannot be one after Glenfarclas 25 was day 1 dram. Tough life of BTC’ers!

Upon initial tasting I thought it’s a 17-18 year old whisky and with lower ABV than #1 and estimated it at 46-50. I re-tasted it and it feels like a low ABV one, but since #1 was 43% I’m going for 43% here as well because...

It’s december, that time of the year with holidays in the western world, and the annual blind tasting competition of the Dutch Usquebaugh Society club. Last year I participated for the 1st time and managed to finish at the very respectable 21st place and I hope to retain that place or improve upon it a bit but I’m afraid it will be harder this year :-)

Today’s the first dram of the competition, so we know zlich about it. We can’t even eliminate a whisky zone like in the other days, supposedly making it the hardest guess. But as you can see from the notes...

Stauning Traditional 3rd Edition, 4 YO, 49,0 % Here is the third installment in the unpeated whiskies from Danish distillery Stauning. I have prviously reviewed the 1st and 2nd edition – and here we have Stauning Traditional 3rd Edition. This whisky was distilled in 2009/2010, and bottled in 2014. It has been matured in 200 […]...

Macallan No. 6, ~20 YO, 43 % The Macallan Distillery recently released their new The Macallan 1824 Masters Series. The range consists of four whiskies (initially); Rare Cask, Reflexion, No. 6, and M. I have now tasted all four and will bring you reviews over the next few days. The whiskies were tested in a […]...

The Tomatin Distillery Co Ltd, located in the Highland region of Scotland,  announced yesterday that they will rebrand their core range of single malt whiskies. The rebranded whiskies will be available to purchase from mars 2016, and the range will include the following whiskies: Tomatin Legacy, 12 YO, Cask Strength, 14 YO, 18 YO, 1988 […]...

Hibiki Japanese Harmony, 43%, $65

That there is an issue with available volumes of Japanese whisky is not exactly news. Indeed, there’s a whole feature about it in this issue. One of the solutions to this has been the creation of new no age statement (NAS) whiskies, of which this is one; though to be honest, the idea of a NAS blend is hardly news. The way in which Suntory’s chief blender Shinji Fukuyo has approached this is, however. In fact, you could argue that not having a minimum age to work with has opened up a new range of...