You probably know the phrase “Timing is everything”. We all encounter situations and cases where the phrase is fitting like a glove to a hand. Although it’s not always a positive match, in my case and my wish to visit Scapa distillery, it was a perfect and positive match.

Back when I planned my Scotland trip and planned my Orkney day, I hoped that despite lacking a visitors center and a website that declared that the staff is too busy to take care of visitors, I’ll manage to arrange myself a wee tour at Scapa distillery. After all, being a whisky blogger...

Dalwhinnie Winter’s Gold takes over the idea of The Snow Grouse: it’s a Maltwhisky designed to be drunk ice cold, straight from the freezer. Dalwhinnie usually stays below the radar and doesn’t seem to be as marketing-driven as some others, but the story-driven NAS hype affects all distilleries eventually.

I’ll review the whisky neat though, as I don’t think chilling whiskies makes much sense. It takes away most of the delicate flavours. Although I have to admit it also takes away the impression of sweetness, which in this case could be welcome.

Dalwhinnie Winter’s Gold (43%, OB 2015)

Nose:...

Bunnahabhain 12 YO, 46,3 % I cannot believe I have not reviewed this classic Bunnahabhain whisky before. Well, time to remedy that. Bunnahabhain is one of the eight (soon to be nine or possibly ten) whisky distilleries on the island of Islay. Islay whisky is predominantly known for being peaty and heavy. Not so for […]...

I love it when people send me whisky, and a nice drop of Dalwhinnie ? Great.

Winter’s Gold is the latest in Diageo’s No Age Statement versions of core Classic Malts , following on from the likes of Talisker Skye and Oban Little Bay. Reading between the lines of marketing hyperbole, Diageo, along with nearly every brand owner, is struggling with stock levels and these new lines help protect the existing product range, rather than replace them. It seems a small price to pay, if we can keep the whiskies we already know and love.

Dalwhinnie Winter’s Gold. In ice?...

Bunnahabhain Rubha A’ Mhail, 11 YO, 57,4 % At the Islay whisky festival (Feis Ile) this year, Bunnahabhain released two limited expressions. One of them was the Bunnahabhain Rubha A’ Mhail. This is what the distillery itself says about this bottling: Bunnahabhain Rubha A’ Mhail (pronounced ‘rooaval’) takes its name from a modern day Helmsman’s […]...

I have spent this whole weekend in Stockholm, attending the Stockholm Beer and Whisky Festival 2015. As usual it has been a very busy weekend here, meeting up with lots of friends and acquaintances, and trying new whiskies. I will post a more thorough report from the festival in a a few days, but I […]...

Here’s a feel-good Friday story for you; how a Colorado craft distillery bounced back from a potentially business-ending flood and stayed on track to release their first aged whiskey. For all our friends on the East Coast today, batten down the hatches and stay dry!

Craig Engelhorn will readily admit that it takes a special kind of crazy to open a whisky distillery, given that the act is committed with the certain knowledge that it will be years before your product is ready to sell. Even so, Engelhorn and his four partners had no idea what kind of chaos awaited Spirit...

Hot on the heels of The Whisky Exchange Whisky Show comes London Cocktail Week (LCW), a celebration of London’s best mixology and cool cocktails. LCW is run by our sister company, DrinkUp.London , who also organise the fabulous London Beer Week and London Wine Week , and they have a knack of uncovering the best places to drink in the capital.

London Cocktail Week 2015 is bigger and better than ever…

This year’s LCW is its biggest yet, with a host of events for whisky lovers from some of the industry’s best-known and best-loved producers from Scotland, Ireland, Japan and...

Timorous Beastie, NAS, 46,8 % Independent bottler Douglas Laing’s “Remarkable Regional Malts” is an umbrella brand for their collection of premium, blended (vatted) malt whiskies. In 2009 they launched the first product, Big Peat, their Islay offering. Since then they have also launched a Speyside product (Scallywag), an Island whisky (Rock Oyster) and the Timorous […]...

It’s that time of year again. The office is really busy, new whiskies are appearing in every corner, emails containing huge lists of things are zipping around and I’m working on a weekend – it’s time for The Whisky Exchange Whisky Show .

Lots more details have appeared on the Whisky Show website since we last wrote about the event  in februari . Back then all we knew was that the venue had changed and that the theme was  Legends of Whisky . Now, we’ve only got a few  masterclass tickets left, we know what’s on the brasserie menu ,...

Just arrived in our mailbox: the new Maltwhisky Yearbook 2015, still smelling like… well… other new books. The concept hasn’t changed, it’s still as fresh and up-to-date as ever.

The big reference part of the 290 pages are an overview of Scotch Maltwhisky distilleries , one page for each, including their latest releases, facts & figures, contact details and now also the pronunciation of their name. There’s also a chapter with 14 new distilleries like Wolfburn, Kingsbarns, Annandale, Roseisle… Closed distilleries and Japan have similar chapters, while the increasing list of ‘world’ whiskies have more concise descriptions.

The...

Sometimes a very nice sample simply doesn’t make it on the website. Because it gets lost at the bottom of a box, or because other blogs happen to write about it at the same time. And then, a couple of years later, it turns up again.

Here’s a Caol Ila 1979 bottled by Malts of Scotland that I should have tried way back in 2012, when I could still buy a bottle.

Caol Ila 33 yo 1979 (52,3%, Malts of Scotland 2012, bourbon hogshead, MoS 12022, 280 btl.)

Nose: reminds me of the 1979 from Maltbarn. It’s more...

Glenlossie 1996 18 YO Blackadder Raw Cask, 53,3 % I had a good time at Box Whisky Festival 2015. One of the highlights turned out to be a Glenlossie. Up until this Glenlossie I had only tasted three. And those three gave me a very mixed experience. Todays Glenlossie is released by the independent bottler Blackadder. It […]...

Braunstein 11:2, NAS, 46 % Time now for yet another Nordic Whisky. This time we go back to Braunstein in Denmark. I reviewed the Baunstein 11:1 a few weeks back, and here we have Braunstein 11:2, released the same year (2011). The Braunstein 11:2 is a lightly peated release. It has been matured in bourbon […]...