Blair Athol distillery is a distillery which most whisky drinkers never heard of. It’s acting as a workhorse for Diageo, producing 2,500,000 liter of alchol a year with most of its’ output going into blends (and a very minor portion goes towards the Blair Athol 12 in the Flora and Fauna series).

But a few years a go a big batch of 1988 vintage casks found itself in independent bottlers hands with Signatory leading the way here and one of those Signatory casks popped up lately as an exclusive release for The Whisky Exchange. Let’s check it out!

Blair Athol 1988 27 Year Old Signatory Vintage...

There are some distilleries you play love/hate games with and in my case one of them would be Dalmore. I usually just can’t stand the caramel and the chill filtration they do with their official line up, hence the sparseness of Dalmore reviews here. Of course when you go to special aged editions the situation is a tad bitter (like the 1981 Amaroso I reviewed ) but the global picture is pretty gloom.

That’s why I was happy to receive a sample of an indie Dalmore from Gordon & Macphail. There aren’t too many of those in the market, and I...

Better late than never but it’s about time I’ll check out the latest batch of Scallywag Cask Strength. I had the magical opportunity to be at Douglas Laing HQ when the original Scallyway was released and I loved it so lets check it out and see if this batch of the Cask Strength (4800 bottles) manages to keep up to the high standard of the original.

Douglas Laing Scallywag Cask Strength Batch #2 (54.1%, £45.98 / €54,90 )

Nose : Malty which isn’t surprising as I assume it will be young, and energetic (thanks to those extra %), strong sherry impact, dried berries,...

Going back to Scotland after a short detour to SA, let’s check another one from the latest batch of The Whisky Exchange exclusives, a peated young Caol Ila.

It’s a 2007 vintage that was bottled in maj 2016 making it a 8 Year Old whisky. 320 bottles were bottled from this 200L barrel thanks to a non cask strength ABV of 46%.

Caol Ila 2007 8 Year Old Signatory Vintage for TWE (46%,  £55.95 , Cask #315325)

Nose : Starts with sweet peat and smoke which mostly dissipate after a minute or two. I have to say I was a bit surprised to notice...

Today we do a small detour from Scotland to the southern hemisphere, all the way down to South Africa. It’s only in recent years that the Three Ships brand name got recognized outside SA, thanks to the internet, bloggers and whisky aficionados who hunted and carried in their luggage SA whisky to Europe. I got introduced to Three Ships a couple of years ago thanks to Mark and with his help I managed to secure a bottle of the 10 Year Old limited edition (see my review here ).

But it’s been quiet on the Three Ships front for a...

Yes, I know it’s been a while since my last post and it’s even a longer period since my last review. As this blog is just a hobby I try maintain alongside with family and work, sometimes they take precedence over it causing some periods of hibernation. But I hope to resume regular reviewing and posting on the blog from now on, at least until the next work related crisis

Few weeks ago I got a few samples from The Whisky Exchange. To be exact there were four samples of new whiskies bottled exclusively for the Whisky Exchange by Signatory. The one...

Glenmorangie Private Edition collection has seven releases so far with Milsean being the latest one. The bottles are usually releases in januari so it’s surprising to see that information on the eight release in the series was revealed on the Federal TTB database, six months ahead of the release. According to the label it will be: Glenmorangie...

The new Compass Box Enlightenment whisky is another step in their campaign for Scotch Whisky transparency which follows the uproar that accompanied their previous releases.

In case you forgot, when Compass Box released Flaming Heart 5th edition and This is Not a Luxury Whisky  in late 2015, they also included the full recipe for the whiskies including the whiskies ages . However, seems like it was breaking UK and EU regulations and therefor, following a request/pep-talk from SWA, the ages we removed from the website and the marketing materials and the new Soctch Whisky transparency campaign was launched with other distilleries backing it up (like...

We’ve already posted information on the forthcoming Diageo Special Releases 2016 with Port Ellen 37 and Brora 38 in the limelight. In the last few years, we came to expect those releases (along with the Caol Ila and Lagavulin) but we always have a supporting cast from other distilleries in Diageo Portfolio and it seems like we have four new addition to the Special Releases 2016 and the current list is as the following:

• Lagavulin 12 Year Old 2016 – 57.7%
• Caol Ila 15 Year Old Unpeated – 61.5%
• Port Ellen 1978 37 Year Old – 55.2%, 2940 bottles
• Brora...

I’ve been following Wolfburn distillery for a while. I tasted a few spirits and whiskies-to-be and even visited them last summer . But it was all 2015 and now we’re deep into 2016 and Wolfburn whisky turned 3 year old, with the first commercial release already on shelves in many shops.

Let’s dig into the young whisky and see it can delivers us despite its youth.

Wolfburn 2016 Release (46%, £45.45 / €44,95 )

Nose : Smells nice and despite the youth notes in it, it smells older. Quite solid and dense nose with a lot of dust, citrus fragrance with lemon and...

On the heels of Feis Ile 2016, some labels of the forthcoming 2016 edition of Diageo Special Releases has shown up at the federal TTB database (labels are at the bottom of the post) earlier today.

At the moment we can quite safely assume (like 99.999%) those five release will be out coming oktober:

• Lagavulin 12 Year Old 2016 – 57.7%
• Caol Ila 15 Year Old Unpeated – 61.5%
• Port Ellen 1978 37 Year Old – 55.2%, 2940 bottles
• Brora 38 Year Old – 48.6%, 2984 bottles
• Auchroisk 25 Year Old – 51.2%, 3954 bottles

We can see that the...

Weird fact of the day: there aren’t too many official bottlings from Strathisla distillery. In fact, despite Strathisla being owned by Chivas Bros. for over 50 years, it was only in 2004 where the official Strathisla 12 Year Old was introduced to the market. Until then it was all indie bottlings or the semi official Gordon & Macphail bottlings as G&M were licensed to release malt from Strathisla, Ardmore and other distilleries through many decades in the 20th century.

Today we’re reviewing Strathisla 1967 vintage that was bottled in januari 2015 after maturing in a first fill sherry butts for 47+ years. Yes,...

So many words were written on Ardbeg and the annual Arbeg day releases. Seems like not all is OK in Ardbeg-land as there are dubious marketing failures , continued barrage of NAS releases when it’s mostly relatively young spirit in it and last years’ disappointing release of Perpetuum which for me was the low point of a too quiet 200th anniversary celebrations.

This year release is Ardeg Dark Cove and from the beginning we see marketing failure: Darkest Ardbeg ever? Seriously? All those 70’s releases aren’t counted in the list?

I felt that Ardbeg invincibility got cracked last year and hoped that Dark...

I was thinking of reviewing the Bunnahabhain 18 for a long time but I never got to it for various reasons. It’s a Bunnahabhain day at Feis 2016 today and since John MacLellan who was Bunnhabhain distillery manager for a long time passed away this year and the 18 yo was his favorite child, I think it’s about time to go ahead.

Bunnahabhain 18 Year Old (46.3%,  £68.45 / €99,99 / $99.99 )

Nose : rich and velvety, caramel and toffee. A lot of sherry notes: soaked raisins, nutmeg and a bit of cinnamon, dried sour berries, dark chocolate. But it’s also carries some...

Today is Kilchoman day at Feis Ile 2016. The youngest distillery on Islay is 10 years old and we finally see some longer matured releases where releases age creeps up from 4 and 5 years to 5 and 6 years and the Festival bottling is over 8 years old.

But today the review showcases what a young whisky can be when its paired with good active casks. The Kilchoman Madeira cask is the first ever Madeira release from the distillery, 17 casks of 1st fill Madeira were used to create this whisky. Peat battling Madeira – who wins?

Kilchoman Madeira Cask 2011 (50%, Bottled 2015, ...

Today is Bowmore open day at Feis Ile Festival and the old tradition was kept when people were standing in queues since early morning to grab the golden card that will allow them to purchase the Bowmore 25 year old that was finished in wine casks for 12 years.

But if we’re already discussing 25 year old Bowmore, I have prepared a review on another 25 year old, one that was distilled on november 1989 and bottled in december 2014 as part of Douglas Laing Xtra Old Particular line up.

Bowmore 25 Year Old 1989 (Xtra Old Particular) (55.1%,  £295...

Been busy in the last few days but I can’t really let the Laphroaig Open Day in Feis Ile 2016 without a post and a review. After all, if you follow me and the blog, you’re surely aware I’m very fond of Laphroaig distillery and the whiskies (at least most of them).

I decided to review today an young indie bottling with a decent price tag which you can still find online. Happy Laphroaig day!

Laphroaig Provenance 2005 8 Year Old (46%, €78.75 , Cask #10406)

Nose : Soft peat smoke, rounded and surprisingly bodily and rich, cereals, soft ashes...

Feis Ile 2016 is here and the first open day belongs to Lagavulin distillery. Lagavulin celebrates its 200th anniversary in 2016, one year after Laphroaig & Ardbeg did and they started 2016 with a bang and a new limited release. The limited release is Lagavulin 8 Year Old which was inspired by the visit of Alfred Barnard to the distillery in the 1880s when he tried an ‘exceptionally fine’ eight-year-old from Lagavulin.

It’s quite a large limited edition with 20,000 (some says 30,000) bottles in a higher than usual ABV of 48%. It was a bold move to release such a young release and they deserves a big...

Today is Springbank day at the Campbeltown Malts Festival 2016 and while nowadays  Springbank whiskies are cherished and loved by many whisky geeks (myself included), it’s a good opportunity to look back at a bit old version of Springbank 10 Year Old and see how its’ profile is vastly changed from the current familiar Springbank profile that encompass the entire current lineup.

The sample I tasted came from a miniature that is predating the current revision on the market and I believe it was bottled early 2000s or late 1990s.

Springbank 10 Year Old (46%)

Nose : Oh this is a bit...

Scapa distillery which belongs to Pernod Ricard produce only one single malt to the market. It started with the Scapa 12 which was replaced with Scapa 14 which in turn was replaced with Scapa 16 and in turn got replaced with Scapa Skiren, a NAS whisky – it always felt like there can be only one…

But now, new evidence on the TTB database, shows that Scapa are going to double the amount of official bottlings with a new release: Scapa GLANSA:

Quite an interesting release as we get a second NAS whisky and the distillery that never produced a peated whisky and...