The Glenrothes Sherry Cask Reserve is the first release from this distillery to be matured entirely in first-fill sherry casks - predominantly European oak. Unlike most of the others, it doesn’t have a vintage indication, nor an age statement.

Glenrothes, and the rest of the Edrington distilleries like The Macallan and Highland Park , have more or less a monopoly on new European oak casks, produced to their standards in Jerez from oak that is being cut in Galicia in the North of Spain.

Glenrothes Sherry Cask Reserve (40%, OB 2014)

Nose: raisins and plenty of all-spice /...

Arran 1996 17 YO Cask #373 Cooper’s Choice, 46 % One of the oldest Arran expressions we have tested, at 17 years old this is an ancient one as far as Arran goes. The Arran Distillery was officially opened on augusti 17, 1995. The Arran 1996 17 YO Cask #373 Cooper’s Choice is released by […]...

Caol Ila 1996 18 YO OMC, 50 % The series Old Malt Cask has been wellknown amongst whisky fans for many years. Up until 2013 the series was part of the Douglas Laing portfolio. In 2013 the company split, as the two brothers Stewart and Fred Laing parted ways. All assets were divided between the […]...

Mortlach Special Strength, NAS, 49 % About half a year ago Diageo launched a core range of Mortlach single malts. Almost all the production from this Speyside distillery has previously gone to blending, but we have had the chance to taste many independent bottlings. I would say Mortlach has a fairly high standing, and I […]...

James MacArthur is a Scottish independent bottler established in 1982. Although the original aim of the Old Masters series was to present casks from little-known or lost distilleries, this concept has been widened a little.

We’re trying a Macallan 1980 bottled in 2001. Although the label doesn’t mention the cask type, a sister cask #16447 was bottled by Jack Wiebers in 2010 and that was said to be a sherry butt.

Macallan 1980 (57,8%, James Mac Arthur Old Master’s 2001, cask #16457)

Nose: lots of yellow (slightly overripe) apples, mixed with dusty grains and old books. Quite some...

Starward Maltwhisky, NAS, 43 % Many maj think of Australia as a relatively young whisky producing nation. Well, not so. Grain spirits was produced in Sydney as early as 1791. Dunn’s Distillery produced whisky in Victoria from 1863. The giant in the early days was Federal Distilleries – in 1888 they produced 4 million liters […]...

In april 2014 Diageo relaunched Mortlach . Until then, official bottlings were quite rare but that changed with the release of four new expressions at once: Mortlach Rare Old , a travel retail exclusive Special Strength , Mortlach 18 Years and Mortlach 25 Years .

In marketing terms, Mortlach is positioned as a luxury brand, but not super-premium. That is reflected in nice, uncommonly shaped bottles. Mind that they are only 50 cl , which makes prices seem 40% more reasonable than they actually are.

The distillery, noted for its unusual almost-triple distillation style and meaty character,...

Caperdonich 1996 18 YO Blackadder Raw Cask, 50,2 % On Cinderella Whisky Fair 2015 I got a chance to taste a new Caperdonich. This was a new bottling from the independent bottler Blackadder. Caperdonich distillery was located in Speyside in Scotland, but it was closed in 2010. Todays whisky was distilled 16th maj 1996 and bottled in […]...

Gjoleid Svenneprøven Cask 9359, 3 YO, 47 % This is the companion release to the Gjoleid sherry cask matured whisky we reviewed a short while ago. Again this is a single cask release. Gjoleid Svenneprøven Cask 9359 has been matured in a 1st fill American Oak bourbon cask. It was distilled in early 2010 and […]...

There’s a lot of talk these days of how whiskey’s back; back in sales, back in fashion, back in cocktails. It’s great, and it means we can find good whiskey in so many more places, more than just the same five bottles — Jack, Jim, Johnnie, Jameson, and Crown — and almost every town of any size has a specialist bar. Whiskey’s on television, it’s in the movies, it’s all over the gosh-darn Internet.

But there’s one place where it’s not “back” like it was, and that’s a shame: the desk drawer.

The bottle in the desk drawer was a...