The earth has made another circuit around the sun. In my usually rainy bit of it, it’s been hot, and atmosphere-wise we’re about as close we’re going to get to Mexico. As such, it is fitting that this Friday, 24 juli, is National Tequila Day – while I suspect whoever made up the holiday didn’t consider international weather conditions, it’s worked out well for us for the past few years.

We’ve had some new faces appear in the office recently and the blog team has been using this as an excuse to rant about drinks educating them about the wonders of the drinking...

Liquid Treasures already had a young Balmenach 2000 back in 2011 and now they’ve bottled a Balmenach 2001 from a sherry hogshead.

Balmenach 14 yo 2001 (51,9%, Liquid Treasures 2015, refill sherry hogshead, 245 btl.)

Nose: a light, youngish nose, full of banana yoghurt, creamy peach and white raisin juice. A lot of malty sweetness. Hints of mint and vanilla. A little paraffin as well. Sherry? Where? Mouth: very creamy texture, less straightforward, and a bit funky in its combination of flavours. I get honey, slightly artificial banana, strawberry and apple candy and a grassy / hoppy flavour....

This is Bowmore Bw5 , the fifth expression from this distillery in the Elements of Islay series and the best one so far, according to the TWE staff.

It is a vatting of 1995 and 1996 casks, and as you know these have been excellent years for the distillery (see The Whisky Agency’s Faces release ).

Bowmore Bw5 (50,2%, Elements of Islay 2015, 50 cl)

Nose: a very classic, clean and balanced Bowmore. There’s medium smoke and medium coastalness, on the same level as the rich sweetness. Creamy vanilla. Lemon candy, tinned pineapples and faint tangerine. Also a...

Mackmyra Special 04 Double Dip Bourbon, NAS, 53 % The Mackmyra Special series is now discontinued, but ran for several years. I still have not tried all of the whiskies in this series, so consider this me trying to catch up. The Mackmyra Special:04 Double Dip Bourbon was bottled back in 2010. The name for this […]...

A lot of distilleries talk about their history, but there are few still in operation who can point to generations of family ownership. One of the best known distilling families in that exclusive club are the Grants of Glenfarclas, owners of the distillery for 150 years. To celebrate this milestone, they have released a new whisky, the cryptically named Glenfarclas £511.19s.0d.

John and George Grant: the first and second generations of the family

The story behind the name is actually simple: On 8 juni 1865, 29 years after its founding, John Grant bought Glenfarclas for the princely sum of £511.19s.0d. A...

Let’s stick with Benromach for another review (or two). Today it’s a review of their organic offering – the Benromach Organic. It’s an expression that started with 2006 distillation and the review is of their latest one, distilled in 2008 and matured in virgin oak casks.

It’s named Benromach Organic as this whisky is certified Organic from start to finish, meeting UK Soil Association standards for growing the ingredients, distillation, maturation and bottling. I Unique, neat and cool idea

Benromach Organic 2008 (43%,  £37.95 / €46.50 )

Nose : Young, malty with new make edge at first, creamy, green vegetables and grassy, honey...

Blanton’s Gold Edition, NAS, 51,5 % Blanton’s is a brand of bourbon whiskey produced and marketed by the Sazerac Company. It is distilled in Frankfort, Kentucky at the Buffalo Trace Distillery. They produce four different ranges of this brand: Special Reserve (40 % ABV), Original Single Barrel (46,5 % ABV), Gold Edition (51,5 % ABV), […]...

This is the second official release of Port Ellen , and the one with the highest alcohol strength. It’s also the widest release, if I’m not mistaken, with 12.000 bottles, and therefore one of the least expensive yearly releases.

Port Ellen 24 yo 1978 ‘2nd release’ (59,35%, OB 2002, 12.000 btl.)

Nose: one of the sharp and austere noses. Cutting phenols, vegetal oils and plenty of grassy notes. Lemon. Moves towards camphor and even a hint of ammonia. Eucalyptus. Farmy notes in the background. After some time a very light fruity / honeyed note comes out. It’s quite...

Just a review for an easy Monday morning…

Tomatin 17 yo 1997 (51%, Liquid Library 2014, refill hogshead, 268 btl.)

Nose: totally naked Tomatin. Plenty of garden fruits like apples and peaches but also sweeter green melon and hints of mango. Some greener notes as well, like apple seeds and grasses. Hints of leather. Mouth: very sweet, almost syrupy if not for the peppery touches and grassy notes again. Juicy pears, pineapple, peaches on syrup. Hints of candy sugar. Tiny hints of dough and vanilla. Finish: rather long, with liquorice, subtle herbs and zesty lemon.

No fuzz, just...

Clynelish 1983 (2000) Samaroli #2684, 47 % At the whisky festival in Limburg there was a very wide selection of interesting whiskies. There were also some fellow bloggers working and enjoying the festival. Marcus Weber (Whiskycuse) helped out for Jens Drewitz at the Sansibar Whisky stand. They had a lot of whiskies to choose from, and […]...

Yamazaki 25 YO, 43 % Yesterday I reviewed the peated flagship single malt from Suntory distillery in Japan. Today I turn my nose and palate to the unpeated Yamazaki 25 YO. It is near impossible to find the Yamazaki 25 YO for sale online these days. The few places that still have a few bottles in […]...

Our Summer Gin Cocktail Kit contains everything you need to personalise your gin and tonic

The sun is doing its best to peek out from behind the clouds, and in preparation for a glorious augusti, we’ve put together a great little cocktail kit that lets you personalise your drinks – very cool!

Our Summer Gin Cocktail Kit includes all the goodies you need to make the perfect gin and tonic:

• a 70cl bottle of Tanqueray No.10 Gin
• four 20cl bottles of Fever-Tree Mediterranean Tonic Water
• a pack of Originario Botanicals
• a 10cl bottle of Angostura Bitters
• four Tanqueray goblets

Once...

This Laphroaig 1998 is another new exclusive for The Whisky Exchange , bottled by Signatory Vintage . Again it is not a completely undiscovered series, adjacent sherry butts have been bottled for La Maison du Whisky and others.

Laphroaig 16 yo 1998 (59,9%, Signatory Vintage for TWE 2015, refill sherry butt #700389, 585 btl.)

Nose: a very sooty kind of Laphroaig. Lots of earthy smoke and leafy notes, wet limestone and leather. Exhaust fumes and hints of matches. There’s a dark sweetness to it as well, with lacquered roast meat and beef jerky as well as something of...

Once again I’ve been too busy to post reviews on the blog but I had a very good reason: a house move. Barely time to breath and my whisky was stored away during the move, but now it’s back to normal so let’s resume with a review of the new Benromach 15 Year Old.

It comes on the heels of the last year very successful re-launch of the 10 year old and G&M tucked on here additional 5 years, staying with sherry and ex-bourbon casks combo but is it like the 10 yo or does it go in a different route?

Benromach 15...

Hakushu 25 YO, 43 % In this review we will look closer at one of the flagship whiskies from Suntory. There are three main product lines from this Japanese company that has been producing whisky since 1923. The three are Yamazaki (unpeated single malt), Hakushu (peated single malt) and Hibiki (blended whisky). Hakushu 25 YO is […]...