Here’s a little article I wrote for the new website sherry.org . I believe it makes sense to repeat it here as well.

A lot of my friends are whisky drinkers and when I tell them about my love for sherry, their first reaction is usually “yeah well, I tried sherry and it’s too sweet”. Or too dry. Or too soft. Or whatever. They’ve tried it once or twice and weren’t impressed. Nonetheless I’m convinced sherry has a lot of qualities which will appeal to whisky drinkers.

For starters, I love the fact that whisky comes in so many...

Abbey Whisky has a new Rare Casks bottling, distilled in 2001 at “one of Scotland’s finest distilleries” and finished in an Oloroso sherry cask.

Anon. 13 yo 2001 – Batch 1 (51,5%, Abbey Whisky ‘The Rare Casks’ 2015, 90 btl.)

Nose: malty and fruity, with plenty of peaches and apples, golden raisins and banana. Vanilla custard. While this sounds creamy and mellow, there’s also a bite to it, a slight prickle of ginger and something highly acidic. White pepper to underscore this. Cashews. Mouth: again a classic malty / fruity core. Apples and apple skin. Heather honey, nectarine....

This Karuizawa 1984 was bottled last year. Although it is bottled by Number One Drinks (like all others) it has a unique label that sets it apart from ‘official’ releases. It was selected by Cask Norway and Cask Sweden , which are part of the Nordic Group, a distributor of wines, beers and spirits.

Cask #7802 was a European oak Oloroso butt.

Karuizawa 29 yo 1984 (56,7%, OB for Cask Norway & Cask Sweden, Oloroso butt #7802, 577 btl.)

Nose: great. Clean, with lovely whiffs of tobacco leaves and worn leather up front. Cigar boxes. Very warm. Classic...

Baker’s Bourbon, 7 YO, 53,5 % Baker’s Bourbon is one of the small batch brands by Beam Suntory. Other small batch brands in their range are Knob Creek, Booker’s, and Basil Hayden’s. Here’s what they say about Baker’s Borubon: Named after Baker Beam, grandnephew of the legendary Jim Beam, Baker’s Bourbon honors the family’s long […]...

Jura Brooklyn, NAS, 42 % About a year ago, Jura Distillery, launched a special edition whisky in the US -more specifically in New York. The Jura Brooklyn was born out of a project started the year before. In 2013 the Jura master distiller, Mr. Willie Tait, visited A dozen establishments in Brooklyn. The aim was to create a […]...

This Teeling 2002 is a single malt Irish whiskey bottled from a single Port cask . Port casks are one of the five types that are used to finish the Teeling whiskeys (alongside Sherry, Madeira, white Burgundy and Cabernet Sauvignon).

It is a light whiskey with a noticeable salmon hue that is so typical for Port wine finishing.

Teeling 13 yo 2002 Single Cask (54,2%, OB 2015, Port cask #905)

Nose: a very fragrant nose, with the classic Irish elements like melons, bananas and sweet pears, but also raspberries and redcurrant jam from the Port. Soaked sultanas. Almond paste...

The most interesting whisky release of this week for me was the new This is not a luxury whisky from the boutique whiskymaker Compass Box .

It is a blended Scotch inspired by our Belgian artist René Magritte who created the concept piece ‘The treachery of images’ in 1929, better known as Ceci n’est pas une pipe .

Whiskymaker John Glaser explains: “Over recent years, we’ve seen a growing trend in the Scotch industry towards super-premium releases that position Scotch whiskies as ‘luxury goods’ or status symbols to be displayed and traded – rather than as liquids to be consumed...

Bunnahabhain Eirigh Na Greine is the travel retail replacement for Darach Ur . The name means ‘morning sky’ in Gaelic.

Eirigh Na Greine contains a significant proportion of whiskies matured in Italian and French red wine casks. The whiskies were of various ages so the end result is another NAS expression.

Bunnahabhain Eirigh Na Greine (46,3%, OB 2014, travel retail)

Nose: a sharp, grainy onset, quickly rounded off by a toffee and raisin / raspberry / red berry sweetness. Not unlike some PX finishes, which I generally like better than red wine finishes. Fragrant and candied. Almonds, ginger,...

The second day in this Scotland excursion wasn’t like the first day at all. We weren’t late and it had a very Scottish weather, gray and rainy just like what I wanted, although all the natives were longing for another day like yesterday full of sunshine. But we were going to Orkney and visit the northernmost distilleries in Scotland so IMHO it was the fitting weather :-)

After the sea cross, a bus to Kirkwall, visiting the Orkney museum (A must!), our ride arrived:

Yes, if you booked a high-end tour, they will happily pick you up from different places around Kirkwall...

On Tuesday, september 22, I was invited to attend the official opening of the world’s first Arctic whisky distillery. Actually it is an Arctic island distillery – even more exotic! The distillery in question is the Myken Destilleri AS (follow them on Facebook!), a small Norwegian company. They filled their first cask with new make […]...

In 1835, King William IV visited Brackla distillery and was so taken by the spirit that he bestowed the ‘Royal’ status to the distillery. It became the first ever Scotch to garner a royal warrant, later followed by Lochnagar and Glenury.

The distillery is working with traditional production methods and aims for a high level of fruitiness by allowing the fermentation stage to take 80 hours or more and running the stills at a slow pace.

As part of the “Last great malts” campaign, its owners John Dewar & Sons have recently launched a new core range, which includes...

Teerenpeli Distiller’s Choice Portwood Finish, NAS, 43 % The Teerenpeli Distillery in Lahti, Finland, is currently working on a big expansion. An investment in excess of € 500 000 will quadruple their production capacity, taking them from 40K lpa to 160K lpa (liters pure alcohol). Teerenpeli Distillery was established back in 2002, and as such […]...

The Glenturret 10 YO, 40 % The Glenturret claims to be Scotland’s oldest distillery. It was just this summer I tasted my first Glenturret! That particular happening found place at Kruts Kartport in Copenhagen, Denmark. Such a lovely place to be – even though the refurbishment was not quite finished yet. But it was just […]...

This fourth edition of Scotch Missed: The Original Guide to the Lost Distilleries of Scotland has an encouraging start, in that even the introduction is a good read. So many books are killed off by a dull intro. But the intro makes it clear that this is not just the history of whisky distilleries, but industrial, economic, and social histories too.

Townsend states plainly that he won’t describe the whisky making process in detail; but he does show how it was written about in Victorian times, quoting the florid prose of a 19 ^th century commentator. Indeed, there isn’t much...