SPEY Chairman’s Choice, NAS, 40 % In 2012 Harvey’s of Edinburgh bought the distillery with the slightly too generic name The Speyside Distillery. The distillery has naturally had to market it’s whisky under brands called something other than simply ‘Speyside’, as that would confuse the end customers no end! The brands used by the Speyside […]...

Knob Creek 9 YO Single Barrel Reserve, 60 % Knob Creek is one of several small batch and ‘craft’ brands from the rather huge Jim Beam corporation. Knob Creek is a series that include both bourbon and rye whiskies, and also single barrel releases like this one. A bit fun to see that the label […]...

Carsebridge 1979 27 YO Rare Auld, 60 % Today I am writing about a grain whisky. Grain whisky is produced through a continous destillation process, using column stills, rather than the batch destillation in pot stills used for Maltwhisky. Grain whisky can be made using various types of grain, such as barley, corn, wheat or rye. A […]...

The Fall 2015 issue of  Whisky Advocate  magazine will be hitting the newsstand in early september. Here’s a sneak preview of the issue’s Buying Guide reviews; the 10 highest-rated whiskies of the issue.

#10 –  Wild Turkey Master’s Keep, 43.4%, $150

A very pricy (for Wild Turkey) 17 year old whiskey honoring master distiller Jimmy Russell. Nose is hot for the proof, with oak, dried barrel drool, warm dried corn, tobacco barn, and teaberry. Entry is not hot; rather, a thread of sweet syrup spreads out into thoroughly integrated corn and oak. Finish slides into drier oak. A fascinating...

Part of the reason I love my job is learning something new every day. There’s one drink that has fascinated me more than any other in recent years (and it’s one of the most complicated) – sake . So I was excited to attend a masterclass from Akashi-Tai Brewery to learn more.

Sake, pronounced ‘sah-keh’, is Japanese for ‘alcohol’ (the Japanese call ‘rice wine’  nihonshu ). While commonly referred to as rice wine, but is in fact a beer. However, it should be treated as you would a wine, due to the strength (15-20% abv). Once bottled, it ages in a similar...

It seems there’s a new Dalwhinnie 25 Year Old coming up as part of the Diageo Special Releases 2015 , but for now we’re trying the old version distilled in 1987 and part of the Special Releases in 2012.

Dalwhinnie 25yo was matured in rejuvenated American oak hogsheads. That means they scraped the inside of tired casks that had been used for whisky maturation several times. This gives you a new surface of active wood, which is then charred and ready to be used again.

Dalwhinnie 25 yo 1987 (52,1%, OB 2012, 5358 btl.)

Nose: opens fairly soft...

Remember the Glengoyne 1972 bottled by Malts of Scotland in 2012? Back then it was the whisky of the year for me and one of the best Glengoyne ever.

A couple of days ago I was thrilled to find out yet another Glengoyne 1972 had been bottled in the exclusive Warehouse Diamonds series. A bourbon cask this time, and only half the yield.

Glengoyne 42 yo 1972 (45,2%, Malts of Scotland ‘Warehouse Diamonds’ 2015, bourbon barrel, ref. Mos 15037, 132 btl.)

Nose: very typical with its warm fruitiness. Plenty of tangerine, kumquat, mirabelles and hints of mango. Some...

Blue Monkey ‘Guerrilla’s of the Grist’ English Single Malt Spirit 40%

Batch BM001 – 5 times distilled

Dist: Mar 2015 Btl: Apr 2015/ Tasted: Apr 2015

Pungent aromas of slightly butyric cherries, raspberries, malt and herbal eau-de-vie. Definitely well endowed on the malt side with plenty of liquorice, chocolate and straw-like notes too. It’s very much like an eau de vie de bière or Bierbrand.

Soft and straw-like on the palate. majbe a little watery with malt, raspberry and liquorice. Incredibly intense and herbal. Short and mouth-wateringly bitter but the malt extract and malty fruit lingers. Lovely chocolaty after-taste with...

Hunter Laing Sovereign Grain North British 1989 (25 year old) 59.7%

Bourbon/ Code: SOV2055/ Dist: Sept 1989 Btl: Mar 2015/ Tasted: Apr 2015

Pungent aromas of grainy oak and grainy spice show first. The sultana, fig and prune notes follow along with some fudgy vanillins.

The palate is full and robust. Toffee apple, chunky vanilla and soft grain notes to begin with. It sweetens towards the middle as the sweet oak kicks in and the finish is wonderfully fruity – banana, apricot and coconut. Good length with lingering bitter, tongue tingling spice and oak. The palate displays a lot more...

Hunter Laing Old Malt Cask Speysides Finest 1986 (28 year old) 48%

Sherry/ Code: OMC2458/ Dist: Nov 1986 Btl: Mar 2015/ Tasted: Apr 2015

A dusty nose of mature spices, malt, earth, digestive biscuit, vanilla and a touch of shortbread. The cask adds notes of raisin and prune but the biscuity notes begin to dominate although a touch of green apple attempts to freshen the aromas.

The palate opens with vanilla toffee and malt along with hints of treacle and baked fruit. A touch of lightly bitter spice appears on the middle. Long with lingering toffee, naked fruit and malt....

Pisco Porton 43%...

Mikkeller Spirits Bourbon Cask Black, NAS, 43 % OK, OK, OK, so I am ‘cheating’ a bit – again. I have done this once before, reviewing a ‘whisky’ which is actually distilled beer. So, technically this is not whisky, as it also contains hops. But there are still quite few Nordic whiskies, so I should […]...

DYC 12 YO Spanish single Maltwhisky, 65,9 % This is my first ever Spanish single malt. Exciting times! We found this whisky at Danish independent bottler Noorbohandelen in Copenhagen. This is a single cask release from the Spanish Distilerias y Crianza del Whisky (DYC) distillery. The distillery is today owned by Beam Suntory. DYC […]...

This Sunday (16 augusti) is National Rum Day. Placed slap bang in the middle of summer, it’s the perfect time to try some rum cocktails. We’ve created a shiny page with three of our favourites:

Our three recommended cocktails: Mojito, Old Fashioned and Planter’s Punch

Mojito Cuba’s national cocktail can trace its origins to the 16th century. This is one of the simplest to make – just add, sir and top up as below.

You will need:

• 50ml Havana Club 3 Year Old
• 20ml fresh lime juice
• 15ml sugar syrup – we recommend Trois Rivières
• soda water to top up...

The Whisky Exchange Whisky Show is less than eight weeks away, which means that from here on the announcements will be coming thick and fast – there’s lots going on this year.

For those of you who don’t know about our Whisky Show, it’s a two-day whisky extravaganza taking place on the weekend of 3-4 oktober, at Old Billingsgate in London. It’s the seventh year of the show, and this time we’ve got more exhibitors and whisky than ever before – more than 550 different whiskies to taste. Along with that, there are free seminars and tastings, food pairings, a...

The original Scallywag blended malt dates was launched in 2013 and is now marketed as part of a series called Remarkable Malts (with Big Peat, Timorous Beastie and Rock Oyster).

The mischievous fox terrier now has a louder cask strength brother. How nice of Douglas Laing to make the wee dog’s eyes pop, his ears blow open and his monocle ping on the packaging.

It is a blend of Speyside malts, including Mortlach, Macallan, Glenrothes and others.

Scallywag Cask Strength (53,6%, Douglas Laing 2015, 6000 btl.)

Nose: a sweet and spicy profile, with some sherry influence. Sugary prunes,...