Millburn 1978 (2008) Gordon & MacPhail, 46 % The independent bottler Gordon & MacPhail has a bottling series called Rare Vintage. This is what they say about Rare Vintage: In partnership with each respective distillery, all whiskies in our Rare Vintage range are uniquely labelled. In years gone by many of these unique designs were […]...

Ji-Whisky is the term used for craft distilling in Japan, more or less (see more from Nonjatta and Dekantã on this). The French company Les Whiskies du monde have been bringing some of these products to Europe over the past few years. We have previously reviewed Akashi, Togouchi and Isawa. Now Les Whiskies du monde […]...

SPEY Tenné, NAS, 46 % This is our second review of the (relatively) new range SPEY from the Speyside Distillery. We have previously reviewed the SPEY Chairman’s Choice. This whisky has initially been matured in bourbon casks, then it has been given a 6 month finishing period in Tawny Port casks. The Spey Tenné is currently […]...

The four Forest Dry Gin bottlings each have their own seasonal selection of botanicals

Special-edition bottlings are common among spirits producers, but award-winning Belgian sommelier Jurgen Lijcops has gone a stage further by launching Forest Dry Gin , a range of four gins that change with the seasons. We spoke to him to find out more…

How did the idea for Forest Dry Gin come about?

I had 150 gins on my restaurant menu, but I cut this back to 30 and then I thought ‘Why can’t I just make it myself?’ A friend of mine [Patrick De Keersmaeker] who...

While we’re at it, let’s throw in a younger expression, Glen Avon 8 Year Old . Again there are lots of variations, with a colour label (younger?) or grayscale (older?), with a red 8 or a green 8. Even funny decanters with the shape of a still.

Glen Avon 8 yo (40%, Gordon & MacPhail, 1990s, 75 cl)

Nose: quite nice, with less sherry influence but a nice fruitiness of oranges and peaches. Gooseberry pie. Sweet barley, Frosties, a hint of mocha and vanilla cream too. Honey. After a while some spicy notes. Fresh and bright, but with...

We will be looking at some recent bottlings next week, but for now I’m still enjoying myself with some very nice oldies.

This is part of a small batch of 1964 Bruichladdich casks that was bottled by Gordon & McPhail in three vattings: #3670-3672 which I’ve reviewed before , #3673-3675 and #3676-3677 .

Bruichladdich 30 yo 1964 (50%, Gordon & McPhail Cask Strength 1995, cask #3676-3677)

Nose: a warm, seductive and almost tropical fruitiness. Lots of apricot jam, quinces and honey. All kinds of beehive notes actually – beeswax, pollen, reminds me of Caperdonich 1972. Melons, pineapples. Polished...

Stauning Rye Second Opinion, NAS, 48 % This is only my second whisky from the Danish distillery Stauning. I have previously reviewed their Stauning Young Rye. This rye whisky was distilled in 2009 and 2010, and released on augusti 1, 2011. This was a limited release of 1789 bottles at 50 cl. It was made […]...

Saying that Glen Avon was a kind of hotchpotch brand of Gordon & MacPhail (more precisely its sister company Avonside Whisky) would be unrespectful. In any case it was made with stocks from an undisclosed Highland distillery – some say Glenfarclas , some say it could have been different distilleries depending on the batch.

There’s a whole list of versions, ranging from Glen Avon 5 Year Old all the way to pre-war Glen Avon 50 Year Old, including some vintages like 1953, 1955, 1958 and 1959. A lot of them seem to have found their way to Italian distributors.

This was a...

BenRiach 10 YO, 43 % This whisky is a major milestone for the current owners of BenRiach Distillery. Finally they can launch a 10 YO whisky predominantly with spirit distilled under the new owners. It is matured in bourbon and sherry casks. I’m stealing a snippet from Master of Malt here, as they quote Sales Director Alistair Walker at […]...

Loch Lomond is Captain Haddock’s whisky, although taking advice from a comic figure is probably not the best idea. The distillery has several types of stills and produces both grain whisky and malt.

It has little fame but there were quite a few expressions: a no-age-statement Loch Lomond, a 12 Years Organic, a peated Green Label and this Loch Lomond 18 Years Old . Recently they were replaced with a single malt Loch Lomond Original and two blends, Loch Lomond Reserve and Signature.

Loch Lomond 18 yo (43%, OB +/- 2014)

Nose: not good. Quite vegetal, with cooked...

The Whisky Show 2015 , which will be held in oktober this year, announced one of the world’s most expensive whisky tastings ever. Each of the 45 tickets costs nearly € 8500 and allows you to try four Karuizawa expressions which are no longer available by retail:

• Karuizawa 1981 (sherry cask #6056)
• Karuizawa 29 Year Old (bourbon cask #8897)
• Karuizawa 30 Year Old (sherry cask #5347)
• Karuizawa 1970 (sherry cask #6177)

On top of this, all participants will receive their own bottle of the Karuizawa 1983 cask #3557 ‘Nepal Appeal’ , a special release of only 50 bottles. Two...