Hielan = Highland.

GlenDronach The Hielan is 8 years old and relies on both bourbon cask and sherry casks (less than in other bottlings, hence the colour).

It’s a global trend to release younger expressions and to lower the influence of sherry maturation in the mix. Usually this also means dropping the age statement, but luckily not in this case. Any age statement is better than no age statement.

GlenDronach 8 yo ‘The Hielan’ (46%, OB 2015)

Nose: starts very buttery, with lots of toffee and caramel notes. Reminds me of certain Glenrothes expressions, including the big maltiness...

Signatory Vintage bought a whole series of casks filled with Glenburgie 1995 , all in the #644x – #647x range. We’ve seen at least 10 bottlings in the Vintage Collection and Un-Chillfiltered ranges and some casks have found their ways to other bottlers.

Asta Morris picked cask #6475 from the Signatory warehouses, bottled in the typical Ibisco decanter.

Glenburgie 19 yo 1995 (50,5%, Signatory Vintage for Asta Morris 2015, hogshead #6475, 287 btl.)

Nose: malty, seemingly naked at first, but it develops a very nice fruitiness. Yellow plums, peaches, tarte tine, golden raisins and a hint of pineapple....

Bowmore Gold Reef is a travel retail expression, launched alongside Bowmore Black Rock and White Sands. It’s a No Age Statement whisky that was matured predominantly in first fill ex-bourbon casks.

Bowmore Gold Reef (43%, OB 2014, travel retail)

Nose: quite a coastal expression, with dried seaweed and a sea breeze. Salted butter. Peat and a hint of antiseptic. A fresh and fruity base, mainly lemon and oranges, even peaches if you dig a little deeper. Mouth: smoky and oily, with some pretty sharp peat and a gingery heat. Chalky and zesty notes. A little salt. There’s also...

A fifth release for Liquid Art already. The artist on duty is Chreet Dexters , father of the founding member Bert. He will provide three labels under the theme Distilling is an art .

Glentauchers 1996 (51,9%, Liquid Art ‘Distilling is an art’ 2014, 131 btl.)

Nose: a very fruity profile: liquid jelly beans. I commented on another Glentauchers 1996 “something in between tropical bubblegum and fruity rum” and I still think it’s appropriate. This one is even more tropical. Redcurrant, mango, bananas, ripe apples, tinned pineapple. Soft vanilla. Just a whiff of oak polish and beeswax, as...

Not so long ago we reviewed Aberlour a’bunadh Batch 49 and today we place it against the latest Batch 50 .

Aberlour a’bunadh (59,6%, OB 2014, Oloroso sherry butts, batch n°50)

Nose: thick sherry, dried figs and dates, sultanas. majbe just a tad more closed than batch #49, with seemingly a bit more oaky touches. Waxed oak. Water opens it up a little. Chocolate and leather as well as some Seville oranges. Mouth: very big again – hot and flavoursome. Hints of cherries, rapsberry jam, nuts and nougat. Then dark caramel and coffee. Again a bit more oak...

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...

Like anCnoc 22 Years , this brand-new anCnoc 24 Year Old is a combination of ex-bourbon casks and sherry-seasoned casks.

anCnoc 24 yo (46%, OB 2015)

Nose: aromatic, with a nice interplay of fruits (baked apple, grapefruit, orange marmalade) and honey with a bit of sherry influence (toffee and a Christmas cake kind of spiciness). After a while mint sets in and keeps growing. Dried flowers. Mouth: vanilla custard, raisins and toffee. Malty notes and candied orange. A light hint of popcorn. Quite some citrus again, as well as a hint of toasted, almost smoky oak. A nice...

To be honest I lost track of all these Highland Park expressions named after Norse gods, so I had to look up the specific details of Highland Park Sigurd .

Below is a diagram of the Warrior series . While the first three releases (Svein, Einar, Harald) revolved around American oak casks, the most recent offerings (Sigurd, Ragnvald and Thorfinn) use an increased quantity of European oak sherry seasoned casks.

Highland Park Sigurd (43%, OB 2013)

Nose: a complex, very refined nose, with plenty of layers and no dominating aromas. Moss, dried grasses and eucalyptus oils. Ginger...

This is a late 1980’s bottling of Ardbeg 1974 in the Connoisseurs Choice series from Gordon & MacPhail . Many expressions from this legendary vintage have been bottled with a CC label, but this is probably the first (youngest) of them all, with the classic brown label.

Until 1974, Ardbeg relied almost entirely on its own maltings to produce peated malt. After that it started to use more external malt and the maltings were closed down entirely in 1977. Therefore 1974 is widely considered the end of a style era.

Ardbeg 13 yo 1974 (40%, Gordon & MacPhail...

Yamazaki Distiller’s Reserve , the youngest expression in the core range, is a mix of young spirit matured in red wine casks with +/- 20 years old malt from sherry casks and some 12 years old malt from Mizunara casks.

Yamazaki Distiller’s Reserve (43%, OB 2014)

Nose: quite attractive, a little on the soft side but nicely fruity (strawberries with cream, red berries, lemon candy) with some coconut flakes. A lot of vanilla ice cream. Interestingly there’s also the typical oriental touch, with sandalwood, floral notes, incense and ginger. Mouth: sweet and spicy. Peaches on syrup, raspberries and...

I admit I don’t have much experience with official releases of The Glenlivet . I will try to remember that the next time I order a bunch of samples.

Anyway here’s the Glenlivet Founder’s Reserve , launched in mars and named in honour of the distillery’s founder, George Smith. It is supposed to replace the pretty iconic Glenlivet 12 Year Old by summer. One of the best selling malt whiskies in the world is replaced, at least in a list of key markets.

When people lamented over this news, Glenlivet’s brand ambassador said the Founder’s Reserve is ‘more vibrant than...

You all know Longrow is the double distilled, peated single malt from Springbank distillery. It’s been a while since I tried the 2011 edition , so let’s try the latest version.

Longrow 18 yo (46%, OB 2014)

Nose: dry cigar ashes, with hints of flax and wet limestone. Some fruity notes (apples, majbe papaya) but they are a bit hidden behind a greasy / oily layer. A hint of vanilla. Tobacco leaves. Some wet earth too. Mouth: sweeter and more syrupy than expected, with stewed apples, plums and a hint of vanilla custard. Walnut cake. An uncommon combination...

The other day I was invited to a Mortlach press dinner in Brussels, where the three new core expressions of The Beast of Dufftown had their Benelux premiere. I was a bit surprised, as the revamped Mortlach have been available internationally since april 2014. Such regional differences are difficult to enforce when everyone has access to the internet and is buying pretty much everywhere, right?

See my post about the Mortlach 18 Year Old for more background information.

It was a great experience with nice people and some good food pairing (I liked the coffee sauce with the...

The latest release in the Archives series is this Aultmore 2007 , bottled at a whopping strength of 67,4%.

Aultmore 8 yo 2007 (67,4%, Archives ‘Fishes of Samoa’ 2015, sherry butt #900016, 172 btl.)

Nose: sweet and spicy, like gingerbread. Red fruits (raspberry, strawberry). Caramel and molasses. Light vegetal hints (tomato plants) as well as some fresh oak shavings. Mouth: drinkable at full strength, but rather closed. Sweet, showing red fruit candy and pomegranate. Pepper. With water more jammy fruits, milk chocolate and fig syrup. Rum and raisins. Mocha. Noticeable oak, with a minty / peppery edge. Finish:...

Another Aultmore , this time distilled in 1997 so roughly twice the age. It was bottled by Berry Bros & Rudd , who have bottled several sister casks in the past few years.

Aultmore 17 yo 1997 (46%, Berrys’ Own Selection 2014, cask #3591)

Nose: lots of freshly cut grasses at first. Slowly becomes more fruity, mainly common garden fruits. Pears, gooseberries, greengages. Also a hint of green banana. Hints of sweet barley and honey as well. Mouth: sweet and fruity again, with a buttery texture. Banana and vanilla. Apples. Nice hints of wild strawberries and melons as...

Cadenhead is still going strong. They release some older malts that few other independent bottlers have in their warehouses. Today we’re looking at a single cask  Glenburgie 1985 , almost thirty years old.

Glenburgie 29 yo 1985 (55,3%, Cadenhead Single Cask 2014, bourbon hogshead #95/36/10, 222 btl.)

Nose: quite lovely. Very aromatic hints of vanilla marshmallows and green banana skin. Stewed fruits (apples, oranges) with cinnamon. Honey. Dried flowers. Hints of exotic polished woods, not unlike what you sometimes get in bourbon-aged Karuizawa actually. Just lovely. Mouth: thick and very fruity (citrus, hints of banana and pineapples, figs)....

SPEY is a brand created by Harvey’s of Edinburgh , a Scottish company with a history in whisky that goes back to the 18th Century. They owned Dundashill, Yoker, Bruichladdich and Aultmore and for instance. It’s still a family business with a presence that’s biggest in Asia (especially Taiwan).

A few years ago the family bought the Speyside distillery which is also responsible for the Cu Dhub whisky and brands like Drumguish.

The range seems to change according to your location. The core range seems to consist of a Spey 12 Year Old, this Spey 18 Year Old and the Port-finished Spey Tanné. I’ve...