When Compass Box released No Name last oktober, there was a lot of buzz around it. It is the peatiest whisky ever from Compass Box with 75.5% of it hailing from Ardbeg. Take into account that the Ardbeg portion carries an unpublished but still obtainable (via email) age statement that wasn’t seen from indie Ardbegs in ages (although recently a few indie Ardbegs popped up with similar age) and you can see why people were enamored by it. And let’s not forget the sexy black presentation and the added wink in the form of the ‘No Name’ name.

So the...

Along with No Name I reviewed yesterday , there was another interesting and engimatic Compass Box release coming out last year called Phenomenology with the slogan “Phenomenology – There’s No Right or Wrong”.

Phenomenology is a school of thought in psychology that focuses on phenomena, or, the experiences that we get from our senses–what we see, taste, smell, etc. It is a way of thinking about ourselves and the very personal, subjective nature of experience.

True to its name, when Phenomenology was initially released, it was an enigmatic whisky with no recipe nor official tasting notes released, but it’s been...

It’s a great feeling crossing off another distillery from the “yet to taste” list of Scottish distilleries. And it’s even more satisfying when it’s the smallest active distillery in Scotland – Strathearn distillery.

“Strath” means valley and so Strathearn means “the valley of the River Earn”. The distillery near Perth started distilling back in 2013 and is known for using a variety of small casks for the 30,000 liters or so of new make they made every year.

Since there are no official bottlings out there (The special inaugural release notwithstanding), the best way to acquire a Strathearn whisky bottle...

With a blink (and two days absence) I fall behind with my Feis Ile 2018 commemorative reviews. Let’s fix it as soon as possible…

Feis Ile third day belongs to Caol Ila, the largest distillery on Islay (production wise) and we’ll go with another Indie bottling – a 15 Year Old single cask bottling bottled by the SMWS.

The cask was distilled on 16.03.2000, filled into a Refill Ex-Bourbon Hogshead and was bottled in 2015, producing 270 bottles at 63.5%

SMWS 53.226 Teddy boys at the beach (63.5%)

picture credit: whiskybase.com

Nose : Feels heavy yet soft. Seawater smoke, dark honey,...

The fourth day of Feis Ile belongs to Laphroaig, the distillery that sparked my journey into whisky. My commemorative review is of a young Laphroaig, only 6 (and a half) years old bottled for whiskybase.com to celebrate the fact they have 100,000 bottles in their database for users to create and track their collections and stock.

It’s named ‘Same as 10k’ because it was a Laphroaig they bottled for 10,000 bottles in the database. It was distilled on 5/5/11 (nice date!) filled into a Refill Sherry Hogshead #3199 and bottled roughly 6 and a half years later on 23/1/18. This...

The fifth day of Feis Ile is Bowmore open day, and you know the drill by now – a commemorative review is coming right here.

This time it’s a 15 Year Old Bowmore selected by Signatory and bottled exclusively for The Whisky Exchange. It’s hogshead 20117 (refill ex-bourbon) that was filled on 2/10/2001 matured for 15 years before being bottled on 23/8/2017

Bowmore 2001 15 Year Old Signatory Vintage for TWE (55.6%, £160, 233 bottles)

Nose : Soft, fruit mix juice with gentle and slightly wet peat, lemon, bread dough. After a few minutes very lemon-y but the fruits are clearer, there’s...

Sorry about dropping out for a while during Feis but life took over with extra work, other projects and serious read binge (The 5 books of The Demon Cycle. Not bad at all). But now it’s time to get back into the reviewing mode.

Although I owe you three reviews from Feis (Kilchoman, Bunnahabhain and Ardbeg), those will integrated into the schedule in the coming weeks and today I wanna focus on an interesting whisky – An official Benromach 12 Year Old in Cask strength bottled exclusively for Taiwan market.

It’s always fun to lay hands on a bottle destined...

Happy Sunday y’all. It’s Bruichladdich day in Feis Ile 2018 and the focus at the distillery today is on the Port Charlotte launch and range, with the masterclass focusing on PC as well.

However, I’ll review a straightforward Bruichladdich from the old regime – A 24 Year Old 1992 vintage bottled by Cadenhead under the small batch brand. Three bourbon hogsheads (#3431, 3432 and 3435) were filled in new make on 6th november 1992 and after 24 years of slumber were vatted and bottled late 2016 to create 588 bottles of this excellent fruity laddie.

Bruichladdich 1992 24 Year Old...

While I was really planning a curfew on whisky reviews this week in preparations for Feis Ile 2018, today my social media feed is full of pictures of friends celebrating the Campbeltown Malts Festival, so damn this self-inflicted reviews break – I’m gonna break the break

And what’s more befitting than a Springbank whisky review to celebrate Campbeltown Malts Festival? Let’s review this Longrow 2007 9 Year Old matured in Fresh Sauternes Hogsheads for Springbank Society. It was distilled 11/2007 and bottled 10/2017 (so one month short of being a 10 Year Old whisky). 1134 bottles were produced at 56.3%.

Longrow 2007...

Today we have another Caroni Rum review. Following the 1998 19 Year Old reviewed yesterday , now we have a 1998 20 Year Old Caroni Rum bottled by The Duchess (which I reviewed their Belize rum  a few weeks ago and loved it). Like the 19 Year Old, it was mostly aged on the continent and not at the Caribbeans. This is cask #19 that yielded 288 bottles.

Yesterday we had cask #6 and today it’s #19 so I’m wondering if it’s the same distillate batch or an altogether different distillate. There’s one major difference between those casks and it’s...

Today’s the open day of Lagavulin (Always on the first Saturday of the festival) and as usual, I’ll try to review during the festival a corresponding whisky for each of the Islay distilleries.

Instead of going for an official bottling, I’m heading the independent bottlers way and checking a young 9 Year Old Kildalton whisky from a new bottler, The Spirit Still.

The Spirit Still can’t call it Lagavulin, but the name of the whisky is a masterful stroke and it’s pretty clear which distillery does it hails from.

This whisky was matured in bourbon cask before going a second...

Along with the 2011 Octomore reviewed yesterday, Dramfool also bottled a 2011 Port Charlotte for (Islay Whisky Festival 2018 (Also known as Feis Ile).

You maj ask yourself how is it a 15 Year old and not 16/17 Year old, but that Ex-bourbon Hogshead (#0847) was in fact bottled december 2016 by previous owner before Dramfool snagged them a yeat later to be released now.

The hogshead yielded 195 bottles at 58.3%, no chill-filtered and natural colored.

Port Charlotte 2001 15 Year Old Dramfool (58.3%, £95)

Nose : Sweet peat (and lactic at first), vanilla and a dash of honey,...

The Whisky Exchange keeps pumping out exclusive releases and this time, a 180 turn from the Old Pulteney 2004 that was released recently, going for a whisky from a far less familiar distillery and brand, matured in ex-bourbon casks – Croftengea 2008 Vintage.

Croftengea is the brand name given to the peatiest whisky produced at the highlands distillery of Loch Lochmond. Loch Lomond distillery has 4 types of stills that can produce 14 possible whisky styles. For Croftengea, the same setup as Inchmurrin whisky was used, but the barley is peated to 40ppm.

Croftengea 2008 9 Year Old TWE Exclusive (54.8%,...

It’s time to check out the top of the line in the new Jura core range – The Jura 18 Year Old.

It was matured for 18 in American White Oak ex-bourbon casks and then finished in Premier Grand Cru Classé Bordeaux casks before bottled at 44%. So another wine finish but at least it’s singular and not a mix of different wine casks.

Let’s see how that works out.

Isle of Jura 18 Year Old (44%, €89,90 )

Nose : Sour vanilla, lactic, wine tannins, cream, toffee and caramel. After a few minutes in the glass it becomes more...

It’s really been a long time without an Octomore review on here, ah? A whole month has passed!

Truthfully I didn’t think another Octomore review will come out so soon but we’re closing on Feis Ile 2018 and some interesting Islay whiskys pop out.

Today I’m checking out a new Octomore from Dramfool, a Scottish independent bottler, released for Islay Whisky Festival 2018 which is also known as Feis Ile 2018 but the ‘Feis Ile’ term is now trademarked so Islay Whisky Festival it is in our case.

It’s a 150 ppm 6 year old Octomore (2011 vintage) from ex-bourbon Hogshead...

Earlier this year, Jura Distillery, owned by Whyte & Mackay, totally revamped the core line up after replacing their Travel Retail offers last oktober (bye bye Turas Mara ).

So no more Origin (10 Year Old), Superstition, Diurach’s 16 Year Old and Prophecy. Instead we have a new line up consisting 5 new offers:

• Jura Journey – A no-age-statement offering, matured exclusively in American oak barrels
• Jura 10 Year Old – Already launched in US during 2017 and now globally
• Jura 12 Year Old – Finished in Oloroso Sherry casks after 12 years in American white casks
• Jura Seven Wood – A...

The second Isle Of Jura whisky from the new line up is Jura 10 Year Old which is not to be confused with the older and familiar Jura 10 Year Old Origin. The new 10 Year Old was already rolled out in the US late 2017 but now it’s part of the new line up globally.

The new Jura 10 Year Old was matured in ex-bourbon casks for 10 years before being finished in Oloroso Sherry Casks, so I think we should refer to it as ‘Jura 10 Year Old Sherry Cask Finish’ until the older 10 Year Old Origin...

Continuing with the new Isle of Jura line up and we’re going up the range to check out Jura 12 Year Old, not to be confused with the old Jura 12 Elixir. Please note that Jura 12 will only be available in some selected markets, so you maj not be able to purchase it locally.

Just like the 10 Year Old, Jura 12 Year Old was matured in ex-bourbon casks for two more years and then was finished in aged Oloroso Sherry Casks (emphasis is mine).  It will be interesting to see what difference those two extra years and the aged Vs...

The next whisky in the new and revamped Isle of Jura line up is Jura Seven Wood. I know many eyebrows were raised (mine included) when it was announced – Seven different oaks seemed excessive.  We don’t know if it was matured in parallel in those seven different casks and vatted together or majbe some went through double/triple/quadruple maturation before being vatted together.

The seven wood used in the expression are:

• First-fill ex-bourbon American White Oak
• Vosges
• Bertranges
• Jupilles
• Allier
• Tronçais
• Limousin

I must admit this list kind of left me breathless when I first read it (didn’t even try...