No, I didn’t win the lottery that was used to randomly assign bottles of this Karuizawa 1984 cask #3663 to potential buyers. I think The Whisky Exchange came up with a pretty fair solution for the problem of high demand that has become hard to avoid with Karuizawa releases.

On the other hand, I think this is mostly a solution for the problem of high server load, which most online retailer are not capable of handling. Buying Karuizawa has always been a lottery, majbe not openly so, but a lottery of getting information and being awake at the right moment...

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Jura 30 YO, 40 % I was recently on the Isle of Jura for the first time. What a perfectly lovely island! The population is a mere 180, although the island is huge. Half the population lives in the ‘capital’ Craighouse. The day we visited, the weather was sunny and warm. With the cute palm […]...

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Kilchoman 5 YO 2006 Bourbon Single Cask, 61,1 % When I went to the Box Academy I got a chance to taste a new Kilchoman in the bar at Länsmansgården (where I stayed the whole week). This was a Kilchoman 5 YO from 2006, a bourbon single cask. Kilchoman is the youngest distillery on Islay. I […]...

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Compass Box Delilah’s is an homage to Delilah’s, Mike Miller’s legendary punk rock whisky bar in Chicago, to celebrate the bar’s 20th anniversary in 2013. The late Michael Jackson called it the most important bar in America.

Delilah’s is a blended whisk, developed by John Glaser and Mike Miller as an expression of their shared vision on great whisky. It’s a mix of 50% Maltwhisky (our guess would be Longmorn and Teaninich) and 50% grain whisky from Cameronbridge. The bland was aged in ‘experimental’ new American oak barrels and rejuvenated American oak hogsheads.

Funny remark: the press release claims...

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Bunnahabhain 17 YO Westering Home, 53,4 % When I visited Islay a couple of weeks ago, I got to visit Bunnahabhain Distillery. Andrew Brown, the Distillery Manager, gave us a nice tour and then we had a few drams. We got to taste both the festival bottlings Bunnahabhain released for the Feis Ile 2014 (Islay […]...

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Ezra Brooks is a sour mash Kentucky straight bourbon. It was first produced in the 1950’s by the Medley distillery in Owensboro, Kentucky. The brand has been sold a number of times and today it is marketed by Luxco and distilled by Heaven Hill Distilleries (Elijah Craig, Evan Williams, Parkers Heritage, Bernheim Original , Georgia Moon , Rittenhouse…). A “rare old sippin’ whiskey” according to the label. While it was typically bottled at 90 proof, this one is an older version bottled in the 1970’s at 101 proof (50,5%). Nowadays the brand has degraded a little, with a 12yo and...

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David Allen, a key member of the Springbank team

It’s hard to think that Campbeltown was once the whisky capital of the world. With just three distilleries in operation in the area now, you wonder what happened to the other 27 that were there in the 1800s. Campbeltown isn’t the easiest of places to get to. There’s no train station, so your options are a three-hour drive, a four-hour bus journey, or a flight in a tiny plane on to one of the longest runways in the world. But however you get there, it’s well worth the visit. Were it...

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Box Whisky The Pioneer, 3 YO, 48,1 % Finally it is here, the first whisky release from Box Whisky in Sweden. This relatively small distillery has been subject to a lot of well-earned praise and positive commentary over the past couple of years. Many have looked forward to this release, and expectations have been high. […]...

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Enough independent Bunnahabhain 1987 to fill my bathtub these days. Here’s one of my personal favourites.

Bunnahabhain 26 yo 1987 (50,4%, The Whisky Agency ‘Mollusc & Medusa’ 2014, refill hogshead, 210 btl.)

Nose: nice to see so many fruit notes. Orange wine gums, Cointreau, apricot and Cantaloupe. Some yellow flowers and beeswax. Floral honey. There’s a soft edge of linseed oil and coastal references. Really nice, its style hints towards the 1980 casks (and much older ones). Mouth: rich, very bright and fruity again, slightly candied. Apricot jam, plums, apple peel, rhubarb, majbe a little nectarine, although the coastal...

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Laphroaig 10 YO Cask Strength Batch 006, 58 % The very first single Maltwhisky I learnt to appreciate – the first real step on my whisky saga, if you will – was Laphroaig 10 YO Cask Strength. Laphroaig is an iconic Islay distillery, established in 1815. The 10 YO cask strength expression has been […]...

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Nikka Yoichi 10 YO, 45 % And the winner is: Nikka Yoichi 10 YO! The winner of what, you ask? This is the winner from the last meeting in The Ladies’ Share! In addition we tasted Arran Amarone Cask Finish and Johnnie Walker The Spice Road that evening. Nikka Yoichi 10 YO is available in […]...

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