The success story continues with another vintage release of Benromach Sassicaia, this time a 2009 vintage that more then doubled the bottles count (to 8000 from 3500) of the previous release in 2016, the Sassicaia 2007 which I reviewed before and liked.

The concept stays the same as you don’t mess with a successful and working recipe, first maturing in 1st fill bourbon casks and then finished for 28 months in Sassicaia wine casks from the region of Bolgheri in Tuscany. But it’s interesting to note that previous releases were 8-9 years old while this new Sassicaia 2009 is only 7-8 year...

One more Bunnahabhain review in the mini series, this time it’s a youngster, only 16 years distilled in 1999 and bottled by Cadenead in 2016. However, this is isn’t your run of the mill Bunna bottling as it was aged in two different casks over its lifespan. Originally matured in ex-bourbon casks and then finished in a sherry hogshead for almost 3 years.

Let’s check who won here, the bourbon cask or the sherry cask:

Cadenheads Bunnahabhain 16 Year Old (49.7%,  €99.99 )

Nose : Feels mature for its age, gentle sherry impact with sour-sweet dried fruit, a strong vanilla and cream notes,...

Following the very good and tasty duo from yesterday, here’s another old and well matured Bunnahabhain and it will be a sandwich vintage to the due (from 1988) but since it was the last to be bottled, it carries the 28 year old sign on the label.

It was bottled by Speciality Drinks Ltd (sister company to The Whisky Exchange), 344 bottles were produced from cask 100229 and I have high hopes from it.

Bunnahabhain 1988 28 Year Old (The Single Malts of Scotland) (46.8%, £150/ €209,00 )

Nose : Heavy and oily nose (definitely more than the duo from yesterday), strong...

It’s time for some Bunnahabhain love. Our local whisky club had a Bunnahabhain evening last week and there are a few more bottlings waiting for a review so I think it’s time for a mini series of Bunnahabhain reviews to start the week, it bounds to be spirit lifting!

First up – review of a duo of 26 Year Old bottlings!

The first one is a recent bottling from last november, done by WhiskyBroker.co.uk. It’s cask 7730, one of three casks filled with spirit distilled on 22nd december 1989 and bottled on 18th november 2016.

Bunnahabhain 1989-2016 26 Year Old WhB (48.1%, £97...

Spring is almost upon us (or already upon us as far as I’m concerned) and you know what does it mean, right? Yes, time for the annual post of the Feis Ile Festival bottles.

This year, the festival will run from late maj into juni 2017 (26st maj to 3rd juni 2017) and unlike the previous two years, there will be no special celebrations this year, just a “normal” festival but still it will be a exciting festival.

This post will detail all the available information on the festival bottles and I’ll update it each time more details will be revealed.

If...

Last few weeks I’ve been very busy hunting down a bottle of Springbank Local Barley 11 Year Old (after totally missing out acquiring one of the 16 year old the previous year), so in honor of this pursuit let’s review one of Springbank distillery popular line up anchors – The Springbank 12 Year Old.

Unlike the other members of the core range which are bottled at 46%, the 12 Year Old is bottled in Cask strength with 14 different batches so far and Batch 12 is the one reviewed here today thanks to a friend who supplied me a hefty sample.

This batch...

Last week I posted my Whisky Of the Year 2016 review (Kilkerran 12) but I think that 2016 deserves a little more. While not a full year review or recap, here are a few points on 2016 whisky market:

• 2016 was not the year that the whisky bubble burst. In fact, I’m not so sure we’re close to this point as I thought a year ago.
• World (AKA non Scotch) whisky is rising steady, headed by the Irish whisky boom.
• Volatile Markets has somewhat stabilized (Surprise!), providing boost to the earnings of Scotch industry.
• Transparency movement gained a lot of...

This post was sitting in the drafts folder for a while and it’s about time I’ll finish it as it discuss a whisky which was the whisky of the year 2016 for me, the Kilkerran 12 Year Old and it will be best if I get it published before end of februari

Before we go down to the tasting notes, let’s talk about titles and what a big difference adding or omitting a word means. I was reading the two-parts interview with Jim Murray on The Whisky Exchange Blog that followed the 2017 book release, and yes, just like so...

Yesterday I wrote I was happy due to the Glenlivet single cask that was released exclusively to the Israeli market but earlier this month there was another sign that we’re getting noticed in the whisky industry: The annual Glenmorangie Private Edition launch events around the globe included Israel as well with a proper launch event by the local Glenmorangie importer (Y.D 1986) and with actual bottles available to purchase on the same day for the same price as most European countries. Another first time happenstance in our whisky history and a good sign to Israeli whisky aficionados.

Now I have to admit...

Earlier this week I participated in an Glenlivet event that brings Tal Brody’s (ex-basketball player here in Israel) immortal words “We’re on the map and we’ll stay on the map” to mind. And you probably ask why and the answer is: We (the Israeli market) has grown up. We buy and drink more single malt than ever and we were finally noticed enough in Scotland to garner an exclusive single cask from Glenlivet – the first ever distillery single malt official bottling that was bottled exclusively to our market – the Glenlivet Single Cask Edition “Carn Ealasaid” 15 Year Old.

Rani Cohen...

Winter is still with us but we’re inching closer to spring time and the whisky market is waking up: the Glenmorangie Bacalta was launched and now we have two new Laphroaigs for Travel Retail – Four Oak, available now and The 1815 Legacy Edition, available from april 2017.

Michael Cockram, Global Marketing Director, Travel Retail at Beam Suntory, comments: “Peated Malts are having their moment in the spotlight, currently leading growth globally in the total malt category. This growth is being driven by European and GTR powerhouse markets, where there is a preference...

I know it’s been a while since my last post on the blog, but it’s not a paying gig and there were other things that were occupying my free time. I’ll try to get back to posting on a more regular basis and I’ll start with a recap and review of the #LaddieMP5 event held by Bruichladdich last Thursday.

In case you aren’t familiar with the MP term, MP means Micro Provenance as Bruichladdich are keen on testing and exploring the impact of terroir, barley and casks on the final result and last Thursday was the 5th public MP event...

Whenever a new “Limited Edition” whisky expression is released to the market you can hear the rising “oh no” cries from the casual drinkers and distillery fans mixed with their excitement and the glee of whisky investors and flippers. Too often, those limited editions are either too expensive for their age and/or quality and their circulation is too small to sate the market demand and so they are hard to find or get sold out very quickly.

But there are exceptions. Some expressions and some distilleries do manage to find a proper balance of price and bottles count, making sure even late comers...

Benromach keeps pumping out young wine finishes expressions and today we’ll review their latest such release, the Benromach Hermitage 2007.

It’s the forth Benromach Hermitage release. The previous one was released in 2015 and is a 2005 vintage whisky. This time around it’s the 2007 vintage that was bottled earlier in 2016 (9 years old give or take a few months). It has been initially matured in bourbon casks for 6 years, before being finished in casks which previously held wine from the Hermitage Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée for 31 months.

Interesting enough, the finish time here, 31 months, is much longer...

Until today there was one big distillery never reviewed on Whisky Gospel. Yes, A few years of reviews and still not a single Glenfiddich whisky review here.

It’s not that I didn’t taste Glenfiddich whiskies, after all it’s one of the most popular single malts around the globe and even my brother who doesn’t drink much whisky (I know, a big failure on my behalf) has a Glenfiddich 12 yo bottle at home. But I must admit that those Glenfiddichs I did taste, like the 12 yo, 18 yo and others just didn’t tingle enough my resolve to sit down and...

Once again I’ve been too quite in the last few months on the blog, but since the Jewish holiday season ended last week and I’ve recently celebrated my birthday, I have no more excuses and it’s time to resume activity on the blog. I’ve decided to start with some premium drams that I was very late to the party with them: The Circus and The General, both are matured and aged blends from the Compass Box.

But the blame for such a late review of The Circus doesn’t falls solely on my shoulders. The sample that was sent to me didn’t...

Today’s dram is another fine example from Gordon & Macphail “The Wood Makes the Whisky” campaign. It’s a 16 or 17 years old BenRiach, distilled in 1997 and bottled in 2014 and it was matured in refill Sherry hogshead casks.

BenRiach 1997 Connoisseurs Choice (46%, Bottled 2014, £58.50 )

Nose : Elegant and light sherry notes at first: sweet dried fruit with some fresh berries thrown in for a good measure accompanied by cinnamon. Then honey, cereals, pears and white fruit, soft and creamy vanilla with crushed nuts, quite a rich nose and after a while the lovely sherry notes comes...

It’s always a treat to taste a whisky from a closed distillery. Imperial distillery was closed down at 1998, mothballed in 2013 and a new distillery, Dalmunach Distillery, was setup on the same ground by Chivas Bros.

1995 Is a very popular vintage with independent bottlers for Imperial whiskies. I had a few of those in the past although most were just meh so this Signatory bottling for The Whisky Exchange has piqued my interest.

Imperial 1995 20 Year Old Signatory Vintage for TWE (50.8%, Cask #50252,  £69.95 )

Nose : Fruit and herbals, eucalyptus, mint, nuts, flower petals (of light colors), floral meadow on...

I’ve been wary of Laphroaig Lore. In fact, I was a bit dreading to taste and review it as it’s the official replacement for Laphroaig 18 which I dearly love. I admit I was angry at Laphroaig’s decision to drop the 18 year old and bring Lore instead as I hate the on going trend of replacing a good matured whisky with a NAS expression.

Usually we don’t know much about the composition of NAS whiskies but John Campbell, the manager of Laphroaig distillery, told the world that Laphroaig Lore is a vatting of casks aged 7 up to 21...

I’m very fond of Craigellachie distillery due to the seemingly irrelevant fact that I slept at a B&B in the Craigellachie village on my first Scotland pilgrimage. Since then I tasted a few Craigellachie bottles, indie and official and it’s time to review another one, a 1997 vintage from the Connoisseurs Choice lineup of Gordon & Macphail.

It was bottled in 2014 (making it about 17 year old) and it was aged in refill ex-bourbon casks, unlike the 1997 vintage that was bottled in 2013 that was aged in first fill sherry casks. I do know that Craigellachie works well with sherry but...