The Whisky Exchange’s Malt of the Month for juni is Bruichladdich Scottish Barley  (also known as The Classic Laddie but different to Laddie Classic ) – we’re offering £4 off for the whole of the month.

Sitting on the western shore of Loch Indaal on the island of Islay , Bruichladdich  distillery was established in 1881, and having endured some troubled times, was reopened and revitalised by independent bottler Murray McDavid in 2000. Current owners Rémy Cointreau took control in 2012 and today the distillery produces three single malts: super-heavily peated Octomore , smoky Port Charlotte and Bruichladdich itself, which unusually for Islay whisky,...

George Clooney developed Casamigos Tequila with long-time friend Rande Gerber

George Clooney is now very much the country gent, following his marriage to a British barrister and recent house-hunting expedition in the English countryside. But when it comes to drinking, he hasn’t quite acquired a taste for gin fizz and Pimm’s on the lawn – he’s still very much a Tequila kind of guy. Clooney’s signature can be found on every bottle of Casamigos Tequila  – a new brand for the UK that the Oscar-winning actor and director part-owns along with friends Rande Gerber and Mike Meldman.

All three expressions of...

This year’s Islay Festival is one of anniversaries and milestones. Along with Kilchoman’s 10th birthday and Jim McEwan’s retirement there are a pair of big-number celebrations: the 200th anniversaries of the founding of both Ardbeg and Laphroaig. We’ll have more about Ardbeg tomorrow, but for now we’re going to focus on Laphroaig.

It’s no secret that I’m a big Laphroaig fan. In fact, if you’re reading this on the day that it hits the blog – Tuesday 26 maj – I’m probably at the distillery and almost certainly drinking Laphroaig. While I’m partial to a dram or two of their whisky, it’s...

Ardbeg Day approaches. The final day of the Islay Festival, it’s become the biggest celebration of the week thanks to the distillery’s unique approach: don’t only have a party on the island. This year is a big one, so they’ve gone all out: it’s the distillery’s 200th birthday.

Moments after this photo was taken, I almost fell into the sea. Writing for TWE is more dangerous than people think…

All around the world, local Ardbeg distributors, shops and fans are throwing parties of varying levels of intricacy and silliness. Here in London we’ve got the UK celebration, with a lunch...

This whisky has a very interesting recipe and it’s rather well documented. It’s a blended malt , but contrary to the vast majority of blended malts, it wasn’t blended just before bottling, but back then in 2001.

In that year, low-proof (probably quite old) leftovers from Glenrothes and Tamdhu bottlings were poured together. As they couldn’t fill an entire sherry butt, it was topped up with new make (*) spirit from a Speyside distillery that cannot be named (Glenfarclas perhaps?). This mix has been maturing for over 13 years and was now bottled at cask strength in the Archives series.

Three...

Ah, 2006… a time when cask numbers were still disclosed and 1970’s casks were still readily available.

Today: Longmorn 1974 , a sister cask of a Scottish Castles release I reviewed a couple of years ago. Distilled in april 1974 and bottled for The Whisky Fair in Limburg. They also had a wonderful Clynelish 1974 at the same time. Now tell me the whisky landscape hasn’t changed…

Longmorn 31 yo 1974 (49,8%, The Whisky Fair 2006, bourbon hogshead #3494, 135 btl.)

Nose: ah, that lovely 1970’s profile of Longmorn (and neighbouring distilleries). Beehive notes, honey and wax. Apricots,...

I have heard rumors of this development for some time now, but I guess I did not really want to believe it was true. It is time to remove the blindfold, however, and face the facts. Stefan Van Eycken over at the excellent whisky blog Nonjatta yesterday posted a post that explains all the details […]...

Isawa Vintage 1983 25 YO, 43 % From time to time we come across whisky from distilleries we have never heard of before. This is only natural, of course, there are a huge number of distilleries out there. But when the whisky in question is also very old (25 YO) and from Japan our curiosity […]...

Oban Little Bay, NAS, 43 % The Oban Little Bay is a brand new Travel Retail exclusive. The Gaelic word Oban actually means ‘little bay’, which means you could say this whisky is called Oban Oban or Little Bay Little Bay. This is a no age statement expression (NAS). The whisky that went into the […]...

Spice King 8 YO (Wemyss malts), 40 % I had the opportunity to taste and compare Spice King 8 YO and 12 YO a couple of weeks ago. My husband has already shared his thoughts about the 12 YO and now I will give you my tasting notes on the 8 YO. Spice King is […]...

W. L. Weller 1993 12 YO Barrel proof – Antique Collection, 60,95 % The Buffalo Trace Distillery in Kentucky, USA, produce a lot of different brands. A few of those get a special annual release in their Antique Collection, a highly regarded series that usually gets sold out as it hits the shelves. In the collection […]...

Glenlivet 18 YO Hand-filled at the distillery, 50,7 % This Glenlivet has been hand-filled at the distillery which makes it kind of hard to get. But I guess it could be interesting to know how a bourbon matured Glenlivet smells and tastes like anyway. I have no date of distillation but this whisky is from […]...

Writers Tears is an Irish pure pot still whiskey (triple distilled). It’s a vatting of aged single malt and aged pot still whiskey, both from different distilleries and aged in ex-bourbon casks.

The Walsh Distillery which is behind this blend, started as an Irish coffee and Irish Cream producer – for which they bought whiskey from Irish Distillers (Jameson). It was not until 2007 when their first Irishman whiskey was presented. Writers Tears was created in 2009. Here it’s presented at cask strength , a limited yearly release. If I’m not mistaken, they are now building a new distillery to...

Yellow Spot is part of the Spot series of Single Pot Still Irish Whiskeys produced at the Midleton distillery . For now there’s Green Spot (NAS) and Yellow Spot 12 Year Old . A Blue Spot and Red Spot might follow in the future.

The series is inspired by the original Yellow Spot which was last bottled in the early 1960s. The colours were derived from Mitchell & Son’s practice of marking their casks of maturing whiskey with a mark or daub of coloured paint to determine the age potential of the whiskey.

Yellow Spot has been matured...

The latest trip to the Signatory Vintage warehouses resulted in this Ledaig 2004 , as well as a Dailuaine 1997 which we’ll review soon. Quite some Ledaig releases out there but few of them are from a sherry cask.

Ledaig 10 yo 2004 (46%, Signatory Vintage for The Bonding Dram 2015, first fill sherry butt #15/453, 379 btl.)

Nose: very tarry and ashy with lots of tobacco notes up front. Slightly acrid smoke and motor oil. A lot of wet wool / canvas as well. Anchovies in salt. Becomes sweeter after a while, with almonds, blood orange and...