Armorik Maître de Chai – Limited Edition, NAS, 47,3 % The dram of the day is another release from Distillerie Warenghem, France. The Armorik Maître de Chai is a limited release, with only 1000 bottles released. It was launched in 2014. Maître de Chai means “master of the warehouse”, and is the term usually for the master […]...

Yamazaki 1995 15 YO The Owner’s Cask, 54,9 % A single cask release, matured in a sherry butt (cask 5J 3020) for 15 years. Distilled in 1995 and bottled in 2010, with a total outturn of 420 bottles. This is a distillery bottling, but it was bottled for legendary French whisky retailer La Maison du Whisky. This […]...

Kilkerran is the whisky produced at Glengyle distillery , opened in 2004 and the latest in Campbeltown . Every year since 2009 they’re releasing a ‘Work In Progress’ bottling.

The 6th batch is 10 years old and comes in sherry wood and bourbon wood versions. This year’s labels are pink.

Kilkerran ‘Work In Progress’ 10 yo Sherry Wood (46%, OB 2014, Batch #6)

Nose: not extremely expressive, I would say, purely revolving around sugared cereals at first. It’s coastal and oily, so quite typically Campbeltown so far. A fairly light sherry influence of red berries and a caramelized...

Ny whisky kommer på Vinmonopolet fredag 6.mars 2015. Det er 58 produkter på listen denne gangen. Ikke alt på listen er nye whiskyer, noe er også relanseringer. Masse å glede seg over som vanlig. Vi ønsker å trekke frem primært følgende: Aberlour a’bunadh, Bunnahabhain Ceòbanach, Highland Park Odin, Kildalton 2007 7 YO, og Springbank 25 YO. […]...

Arran 2004 10 YO Orkney Bere Barley, 56,2 % Arran distillery is actually quite young. They distilled their first whisky in 1995. In a couple of weeks, on 16 mars 2015, they will release their first 18 yo. Well, today it is all about the Arran 10 YO Bere Barley, bottled at cask strength. The whisky was distilled […]...

Serge, Bert and the others from Liquid Art present their latest bottling, a Clynelish 1997 , which I found a good occasion to dig up two other samples and try them head-to-head.

The label is made by a highly respected artist, Jef Geys , who happens to be born in my native town Leopoldsburg. His name maj not ring a bell but he has worked with Jan Hoet, Panamarenko and the likes, he’s considered one of the greatest living Belgian artists and there’s a big retrospective coming up in the Ghent museum for modern art S.M.A.K. I’m just saying this...

WhiskyNotes follower Wim recently told me he had been impressed by this recent young Miltonduff 2005 , so we decided to set up a sample exchange.

You can find a series of similar releases from Duncan Taylor , all bottled from small recoopered Octave casks . All these casks contain only 80-90 bottles, which means they’re sold out very quickly.

Miltonduff 9 yo 2005 (54,2%, Duncan Taylor ‘The Octave’ for The Nectar 2014, reconstructed ex-sherry octave cask #837112, 81 btl.)

Nose: a sherried nose with lots of baked apples and apricot pastry with cinnamon. Some overripe melons and...

Langatun is a Swiss whisky (Swissky?) with a long history. In 1857, Jakob Baumberger took over a small brewery in Langenthal (a village formerly known as Langatun). He started brewing and distilling there, quite a successful business that was taken over by his sons. They also ran a malting plant and a peat cutting activity.

I’m not sure why there was a gap after that, but in 2007, Jakob’s grandson Hans reignited the family tradition and started producing unpeated whisky ( Langatun Old Deer ), peated whisky ( Langatun  Old Bear ), whisky liqueur, rum, vodka, rye, bourbon and fruit...

Highland Park Odin 16 YO, 55,8 % Finally the All-Father is here. Odin, the fourth and last installment in the Highland Park Valhalla Collection. The previous installments have been released one per year and include Thor, Loki and Freya. This is a ‘limited edition’ of 17000 bottles, which will surely sell out in a very […]...

When it comes to sourced whiskey bottled by the so-called Non-Distiller Producers (NDPs), the whiskey is sometimes lost in the conversation of transparency.

In case you’re not glued into the American whiskey world, let me fill you in: these NDPs purchase whiskey from X distillery by the barrel and bottle it. Sometimes they slap a phony backstory on their label. Sometimes they try to hide the state of distillation on the bottle. And almost always, consumers, bloggers, and class-action lawyers will paint the Internet with “fraud” and “phony” comments about said NDPs.

This exhausting NDP narrative continues to play out...

The third and last sample for now: Karuizawa 1981 cask #6207 , which was part of the 2012 Collection from La Maison du Whisky .

Karuizawa 1981 (58,3%, OB for LMdW 2011, sherry butt #6207, 543 btl.)

Nose: nicely aromatic. A lot of sandalwood and sweet pipe tobacco (slightly vanilla’d), a bit of eucalyptus and chestnuts. Some fragrant touches, like old roses. Oranges. Chocolate fudge. Black prunes. Hints of damp wood as well. Mouth: spicy and slightly hot, but with a nice fruity sourness underneath. Black cherries, cinnamon cake, raisins in rum. Becomes drier over time, showing liquorice,...

Invergordon 2006 8 YO Svenska Eldvatten, 55,5 % Today I write about a single grain whisky. I want you to know that I am not a big fan of grain whiskies. I therefore recommend you to take notice of my tasting notes rather than the score. If my husband had written this review, I guess […]...