Last day of Feis Ile is always Ardbeg day. Last year Ardbeg released a festival bottling with a Brazilian theme due to the World Cup at the time.

Ardbeg Auriverdes (Feis Ile 2014) (49.9%,  £100 )

Nose : Peat, pines resin burning in bonfire, all quite restrained for an Ardbeg whisky (No, Blasda isn’t Ardbeg ;-) ). Coffee, mocha and vanilla. Yes, the promised notes are here on the nose.

Palate : Peatier than the nose (more Ardbegy), vanilla, mocha, citrus (mainly lemon and grapefruits). Toward the end it’s full of tar and is ashy.

Finish : Long with ashes,...

Feis ile 2015 is in it’s twilight and we’re left with 2 more distilleries. Today is Bunnahabhain day and we’re reviewing their Feis Ile 2014 bottle: Dràm an Stiùreadair.

Dràm an Stiùreadair (pronounced ‘Draam an Yoù-radar’) is a salute to the seamen.  It’s a peated Bunnahabhain, matured in Bourbon casks for 9 years, it then a final year in a marsala wine cask.

Bunnahabhain Dràm An Stiùreadair (Feis Ile 2014) (56.7%, £160 )

Nose : Starts with a wine impact but then the peat comes up. Peanuts snacks (Bamba snack for the locals here in Israel). The peat that rose...

Like I wrote in the previous review from a couple of minutes ago ( Jura Tastival 2014 ), it’s Feis Ile split day since Kilchoman distillery opened its doors a few years ago. Kilchoman is the youngest operating distillery on Islay (until gartbreck starts operating next year) and already have a track record of young yet good peated whisky. Last year they released a Feis Ile 2014 expression matured for over 5 years in two fresh bourbon barrels and finished in a Fino sherry butt for 3 months. I was wondering if 3 months are enough to impart enough effect on the...

Today is the Feis Ile split day where two distilleries share the same date for their open day festivities: Jura and Kilchoman. By the way, from next year there will be two split days when Gartbreck distillery will open its door for visitors and I wonder which of the existing distilleries will get shared. Anyway, a split day and two celebrating distilleries so it’s a day for two reviews of last years Festival bottlings.

For last years festival, Jura distillery released Tastival 2014 (and this year it’s Tastival 2015. I feel a trend here…). Tastival 2014 is the result of 7 (Yes, you read...

Another day, another distillery open day on Islay and today is Bowmore day at Feis Ile 2015!

Bowmore, the oldest distillery on Islay released a straight forward ex-bourbon whisky but it’s a first fill cask so extra fruitiness and sweetness are expected. Right?

Bowmore Feis Ile 2014 (56.1%)

Nose : Young at nose. at least at first, as it’s light with young maltiness and sweet peat. After it settled in the glass there are spices, pears and green apples, pastry dough but the peat profile is very bowmore-y.

Palate : Sweet peat transforming to smoke and sweet stew of cured meat...

This is the second review today to celebrate the Laphroaig open day at Feis Ile 2015. The first review is the Cairdeas 2014 and here we’re reviewing the Douglas Laing release for Feis Ile 2015 celebration.

Old Particular Laphroaig 14 Cask #10694 (Douglas Laing) (48.4%, 636 bottles,  £90.43 )

Nose : Rich nose! sweet fruity nose backed up by strong and solid yet no sharp edges Laphroaig peat with smoke, iodine and TCP. Giving it a minute or two in the glass the fruits get sharpened a bit and there’s also lemon and sugar coated stone fruits. Here comes the brine and...

It’s Laphroaig open day in Feis Ile 2015 festival. I don’t hide the fact that it’s my favorite distillery and it kinda kill me that I’m not there as Laphroaig is celebrating their bicentenary (200 years).

Because it’s their bicentenary, I’ll review two Laphroaig whiskies today. The first one is last year Cairdeas 2014 and the other one is the special release for Feis Ile 2015 from Douglas Laing – the Old Particular Laphroaig 14 .

The Cairdeas (which is pronounced ‘car-chase’, means ‘friendship’ in Gaelic) 2014 was matured in bourbon barrels and Amontillado hogsheads, which is different sherry type...

BenRiach 1978 36 YO Cask #5469, 41,7 % The Speyside distillery BenRiach are spoiling us with batches of single cask releases every year. The overall quality of these expressions is very good. These single casks will have a wide range of cask types, and finishes. They will also be a mix of unpeated, peated and […]...

Glenfarclas 1989 25 YO for Villa Konthor, 56,6 % In Limburg my husband and I spent quite a few hours at Villa Konthor. The very first evening we got the chance to taste a 25 YO Glenfarclas bottled especially for Villa Konthor. This was part of a split cask, and only 30 bottles were released for […]...

Glenfiddich Gran Reserva 21 YO, 40% Glenfiddich is a big name, a big brand, and atypically a family own business. William Grant & Sons Ltd own Glenfiddich. On their website they claim, with big letters, that they are the world’s most awarded single malt scotch whisky. I like this, for two reasons. The first reason […]...

Spirit of Hven Seven Stars No. 3 Phecda, NAS, 45 % Here it is then, the third star in the Seven Stars project from Swedish distillery Spirit of Hven Backafallsbyn AB. The first two of these annual releases have been reviewed previously in our Nordic Whisky series; Dubhe and Merak. The Spirit of Hven Seven Stars […]...

Ledaig 2004 ‘Pink Salmon’ Liquid Art, 10 YO, 51,6 % The independent bottler Liquid Art released a Ledaig as their third whisky. We have already reviewed their other whiskies released so far: Glen Elgin 1995 19 YO ‘Stag beetle’ Liquid Art Bunnahabhain 1987  27 YO ‘The Osprey’ Liquid Art Clynelish 1997 17 YO Ledaig is […]...

Auchnagie Classic Selection, NAS, 43 % This is another of the re-constructed lost distillery whiskies from The Lost Distillery Company. Auchnagie is a Highland whisky, and we have previously reviewed the slightly older Auchnagie Deluxe. The Auchnagie Classic Selection is a new whisky in the entry level series ‘Classic Selection’ from The Lost Distillery Company. […]...

Last week, the Wall Street Journal wrote a brief, yet detailed, story about a bourbon barrel shortage. The piece quoted a university professor, a Brown-Forman executive, the Hardwood Market Report and respected coopers, all of whom pointed toward fewer white oak trees and stave mills to turn logs into barrel staves. It was a reasonable story that got chopped up into unreasonable pieces that became what Chuck Cowdery calls clickbait.

But people wouldn’t click if they were not interested. And the entire world is interested in… bourbon barrels. Who knew?

Before long, neighbors were texting me about this barrel shortage...

During the past weekend, the Belgian Molenberg distillery which produces the Gouden Carolus single malt had its first open doors event. You could try the Gouden Carolus beers, there were guided tours, presentations of local food products, music performances and the official release of a new product, the Gouden Carolus Pure Taste Bourbon 36 . Actually Gouden Carolus is not mentioned on the label this time, they only mention Stokerij De Molenberg.

While the original Gouden Carolus single malt is matured in ex-bourbon casks for 30 months and then transferred to re-coopered (charred) casks for 6 months, this limited...

The 2014 hype of (independent) Irish single malts is still alive and the most peculiar drams are from the batch of peated spirit produced at Bushmills in 1991 .

A lot of these casks have found their way to Belgian bottlers. The Whisky Mercenary now presents its own selection, exclusive to Whiskysite.nl in Leiden (NL) and The Single Maltwhisky Shop in Zammel (BE).

Irish single malt 1991 – peated (52,2%, The Whisky Mercenary for Whiskysite.nl & Fisser 2015)

Nose: a very short peaty impression, but then wham! A whole truck of grapefruit is dropped in, both the yellow ones and...

Ledaig 42 Year Old is the rarest and oldest expression of Ledaig to date. The 1972 vintage malt is named Dùsgadh, meaning ‘awakening’ in Gaelic.

Ledaig distillery on the Isle of Mull was mothballed in 1930 due to lowering demands. It was reopened in 1972 and new stills were installed. The happy times didn’t last – after 1975 there were several problems and production never really took off. Burn Stewart (of Deanston) bought the distillery in 1991. The official name is now Tobermory .

This Ledaig 42 Year Old is made from inaugural spirits produced in the 1972...

The Indian Paul John single malt has been in production since 1992 and their two base products are Paul John Brilliance and this Paul John Edited .

While the first is unpeated and made with Indian 6-row barley, the Edited version uses about 15% peated spirit, made with imported Scottish barley. It gives the malted barley a phenol level of about 20-25 ppm. Like Brilliance, it is matured in ex-bourbon casks.

Paul John Edited (46%, OB 2013)

Nose: sweet honey and juicy barley, oranges and peaches. Ripe banana. Some damp earthy notes, rather than a clear peat blast...