Maltbarn release n°38: Glen Garioch 1993 .

Glen Garioch 21yo 1993 (52,5%, Maltbarn 2015, bourbon hogshead, 142 btl.)

Nose: very mineral, but just enough fruitiness to keep it away from absolute austerity. Lemons and oranges. Hints of wet gravel and wax candles, mint and cut grasses. Make that lemon grass. Almost as lemony as freshly washed laundry (add water to make this worse). A wee hint of soot in the background too. Mouth: sharp and zesty, lemon, lemon and lemon. And grapefruit. Green tea with just a hint of honey. Lemongrass again. Gooseberries. Soft hints of pepper and aspirin...

This is the latest version of Port Askaig 30 Year Old . The first release in 2009 adopted the classic (Talisker) 45.8% strength, followed by a cask strength edition in 2012.

The 2015 release returns to the Talisker strength and now comes in a wooden box, the same as its brand-new sister Port Askaig 45 Year Old . It is matured in American oak casks.

While the first Port Askaig releases where always firmly hinting towards Caol Ila , this is now questioned, especially for the oldest expression. The profile seems to have changed a little and it is indeed...

It’s my birthday so I have an excellent excuse to post a review of a special whisky, one that comes from a closed lowlands distillery, a 32 Year old  St. Magdalene Distillery (also known as Linlithgow) whisky.

I had the opportunity to see the old distillery site when my friend Tom took me there two years ago (a few pictures are here ) but I didn’t taste any whisky made there until very recently when I finally tasted the 32 yo whisky bottled earlier this year by Cadenhead.

The whisky was distilled in 1982 and bottled in januari 2015 at cask strength of 58.1%...

Remember Ardbeg Dark Cove? A possible new Ardbeg whisky that we discovered last month thanks to the required filling in the American TTB database. There were a lot of speculations about it – is it a new core expression? a replacement for Uigeadail?

Since then the water calmed down and the Ardbeg fans went hibernating but guess what? There’s a new filling for Dark Cove at the TTB database with an updated label!

Two noticeable changes this time:

1. ABV is not a mere 46.5% but a cask strength of 55%
2. The label sports “special committee only edition” declaration.

Interesting ah? What does...

Today we’ll have a review of a new whisky release targeted at the x-mas/new year holidays shoppers. This time it’s another special edition from Wemyess Malts, Kiln Embers. Kiln Embers release follows Velvet Fig, its very successful predecessor, which I liked a lot and so I had high hopes for this one as well.

This time, Wemyss Malts took different approach and direction, almost 180 degrees of Velvet Fig, going west toward Islay and peat. Yes, it’s true they already have a peated whisky in their portfolio (Peat chimney), but this special edition boast double amount of smoky Islay malt. Let’s check what we have...

Balblair Vintage 1990 2nd release, 46 % I have already given you a brief summary of the Balblair tasting I attended at Dr. Jekylls Pub earlier this Autumn. Today I will share my tasting notes on one of the whiskies. Balblair Vintage 1990 2nd release has been matured in bourbon casks for 21 years and […]...

Juuri Rye, Unaged, 46,3 % I do tend to stretch the term ‘whisky’ from time to time in this series. I just want to cover all possible whisky related releases from all the Nordic Whisky distilleries. Today I am reviewing the Juuri Rye, an unaged single malt rye from Kyrö Distillery Company in Finland. I […]...

One of the Dream Drams at The Whisky Show 2015 was a new, yet to be released Karuizawa 1980 Vintage . I suppose it’s called ‘Vintage’ because it contains multiple casks? Update: it’s a single cask alright. No cask reference or anything though.

It wasn’t sold at The Whisky Show to avoid the stress that normally goes with Karuizawa sales, but I’ve heard visitors will be contacted to take part in a ballot.

Karuizawa 1980 (61,6%, OB for Speciality Drinks 2015)

Nose: starts quite musty and medicinal. Lots of incense and wet pipe tobacco. Cedar oak, old wardrobes...

Another new Golden Cask release: Glendullan 1999 . It caught my interest because it’s such a low-profile distillery. The last time I reviewed one was back in 2011.

Glendullan 15 yo 1999 (59,8%, Golden Cask 2015)

Nose: young and bright. Lemons, lots of apples and grapes. Gooseberries and hints of rhubarb. Blossomy notes. Light vanilla. Powder sugar and just a little white pepper. Mouth: lots of green apple notes at first, slightly acrid. Lemon juice. Green spices. Icing sugar again. Almost a light Portuguese wine at higher strength. Quite faultless and summery but also quite uninspired. Finish: medium...

It’s this time of the year (Holidays, remember?) and here is another new whisky release we review and this time it’s a new release from John Glaser and Compass box. John Glaser is an artist, admit it. he creates unique blends, and Compass box do some special whisky labels (Hedonism Quindecimus as an evidence for both). This time he go farther and uses an external work of art as inspiration for this new whisky, Ladies and Gentlemen, meet the work of René Magritte – Le Trahison des images ( The Treachery of Images ) . This work from 1929 is far more familiar...

On the third day of the trip, we started our descent south from Thurso toward Inverness and the next logical stop was Old Pulteney Distillery as we took the coastal road. The distillery resides inside Wick so it’s one of the rare cases where a distillery resides inside an urban zone and it wasn’t easy to spot the entrance, especially when you’re in a hurry to get to the tour.

We hurried inside to start the tour and to play detective. I had an important mission to find out who’s the handsome guy who is a good virtual friend and also posing as a fellow blogger that...

Balvenie Tun 1509 – Batch 2, NAS, 50,3 % This is the follow-up to the very successful Balvenie Tun 1401, which was released in 8 batches. This is the second release from Tun 1509, the first release was released last year. Balvenie Tun 1509 – Batch 2 is made from 32 casks. 23 American oak casks and […]...

Each year, Diageo launches a small number of limited-edition whiskies from its distilleries under the Special Releases banner. None have ever been seen before, so unsurprisingly, interest (and demand) is high when they hit the market.

There are nine single malts in the 2015 Diageo Special Releases line-up

I was lucky enough to get a sneak preview of this year’s Special Releases that we’ll be stocking over the next few weeks. The whiskies are a mixture of ages (and price brackets), from both closed and operating distilleries, and this year, there are nine new whiskies to taste. They are:

• Brora...

This week we witnessed another distillery turning itself towards the super premium audience and releasing a series of outrageously priced single malts.

Now let me start by saying I have great respect for The Balvenie in general, and for malt master David Stewart in particular, who gave us high quality core range bottlings and innovative ideas like the Tun 1401 / Tun 1509 / Tun 1858 series. The fact that he’s retiring absolutely deserves a milestone release and a great tribute.

That being said, it seems that marketing-wise Stewart has been retiring for the last five years or so...

German bottler Sansibar released a new series earlier this year, with a nice Samurai label . One of the highlights in the series was this undisclosed Speyside malt distilled in 1977.

Speyside Malt 38 yo 1977 (46,1%, Sansibar 2015, sherry butt, 582 btl.)

Nose: really nice, quite a lot of straight oak but in a beautiful way. A lot of cinnamon, fresh oranges and some orange blossom, cardamom. Cedar wood. Big minty notes, hints of eucalyptus. Some waxy notes. Apple peelings and mirabelles. A slight oriental hint as well, with a little tobacco and incense. Mouth: quite wood-driven...