This is the latest 2014 edition of the Lagavulin 12 Year Old . No need to introduce it: a yearly special release, aged in refill American oak. And always among the most affordable of Diageo’s Special Releases .

Lagavulin 12 yo (54,4%, OB 2014, 14th release, 31.428 btl.)

Nose: leafy peat with chalky notes, sour dough and hints of plastics. Sweet apples in the background, as well as some vanilla toffee. Lemon. Plenty of medicinal notes. Very much to the point, with fewer young notes than last year, I’d say. Mouth: oily, pungent, herbal and slightly rough but...

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This year I decided to overcome the post- Whisky Show blues by visiting a distillery (and a country) that’s been on my bucket list for a few years – Sweden’s  Mackmyra . ‘The founders wanted to create a whisky that was Swedish. But what did that mean? It had never been done before’, area sales manager (and half-Scot) Lisa Collins told me – a statement that highlights the ethos of the distillery from the beginning.

I made a brief stop at the original Mackmyra distillery – operational 1999-2013

The distillery, named after the village in which the originally distillery was located, is...

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The Cognac world is dominated by four houses – Courvoisier , Hennessy , Martell and Rémy Martin , who control 85% of the industry between them – but for the latest Whisky Exchange tasting at Vinopolis , the focus was right at the other end of the scale.

Guillemette de Couesnongle

Delamain is one of the oldest, and also one of the smallest producers of Cognac. Founded in 1762, the company is still family owned (although Champagne house Bollinger has a 34% share), and what really sets Delamain apart from most of its competitors is that it does not produce ...

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A while back I got a box from Darek Bell, the co-founder of Corsair Distillery. It wasn’t a big box, just about the size of a shoebox, and not that heavy. On opening, there was a lot of smoke-gray bubblewrap, a piece of paper, and ten little sample bottles of whiskey. The paper had a key to the contents of the bottles. Some had a fanciful name, like Smokejumper, Pyro, or Hydra, and each was whiskey, smoked with a different combustible: black walnut, pear, blackberry root, Hickory Amaranth, lemon balm, “5 Smoke blend.” I thought back to our 2012 Craft...

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The first Masterclass of The Whisky Exchange Whisky Show  aptly celebrated the first single malt brand – Glenfiddich .

UK brand ambassador Mark Thomson

Led by newly appointed UK brand ambassador Mark Thomson, the Masterclass charted the history of the distillery, with six expressions ranging from the 1960s to the present day. Glenfiddich’s history dates from 1887 and was one of only six Scottish distilleries to operate throughout Prohibition. When the distillery’s owners, William Grant & Sons, built Girvan grain distillery in the early 1960s, the decision was made to differentiate malt whisky from grain. And so in 1963, Glenfiddich became the first single malt (labelled...

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For the first time since the augusti 8 temporary restraining order, Balcones founder Chip Tate can talk about the legal battle with his investors. He’s been under a strict media gag order, while the 170 ^th Texas State District Court sorts out the disagreement between Tate and his investors, who alleged Tate refused to attend board meetings and even threatened to shoot board chairman Greg Allen. Allen’s legal team changed the terms of the temporary restraining order, Tate says, and he spoke with Whisky Advocate writer Fred Minnick.

By now, you’ve likely seen Allen’s side of the story. The Waco...

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BenRiach 12 YO Sherry Wood, 46 % We spent our summer holiday in Japan. At our hotel in Kyoto there was a nice selection of whiskies in the bar. We managed to taste a few of them during our stay. One evening we tasted a couple of BenRiachs. One of them was BenRiach 12 YO […]...

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If you have a look at The Whisky Exchange website today, you maj notice a few differences. By which I mean we’ve totally revamped the site.

Our new front page – isn’t it pretty?

We’ve been doing little tweaks over the past few years, but we decided that it was time to overhaul the site’s look and feel, as well as drop in a few new bits and pieces that you’ve been asking for. Here’s a quick rundown of what’s new.

First up is the new look. The site is now mobile friendly, with a responsive design that will work...

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Crimson Rye is the latest whisky from 66Gilead, one of my favorite Canadian micro-distillers. This rural distillery takes its name from its street address in Ontario’s Prince Edward County. The distillery sits on 80 tranquil and beautifully maintained acres in the heart of this popular tourist destination. Year round, visitors smile for photos among a scattering of grey-weathered outbuildings. In summer they amble across the broad green lawns, accompanied by an ever-scurrying flock of multi-colored chickens.

The main attraction at 66Gilead is clearly the frequently packed tasting room on the main floor of a restored 19 ^th century home built...

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