Among the new Single Malts of Scotland releases we find this Bruichladdich 1992 . It is 26 years of age.

Bruichladdich 26 yo 1992 (54,2%, Single Malts of Scotland 2019, ex-bourbon barrel #2864, 222 btl.)

Nose: apple peelings, green melons, hints of lemons and fresh hay. A few heady floral notes and touches of varnish. Green tea, minty freshness, perhaps a light whiff of chalk and sawdust as well. Very natural. Mouth: zesty and spicy, with a prickly side. Lemon peel, apples, violet sweets, melons again. Malty core. Chalky touches. Ginger and white pepper. Certainly a little green....

Among the latest batch of Artful Dodger bottlings, we find this 11 years old Tomatin .

Tomatin 11 yo 2008 (56,1%, Artful Dodger 2019, bourbon hogshead #453, 323 btl.)

Nose: youngish spirit, very close to the raw materials. Gristy notes, barley, some yeasty bread and porridge. Lemon juice. Light vanilla and caramelized sugar, some grassy notes. Mouth: brighter but still fairly young, with a bold attack. Green fruits with a generous dose of peppery notes, aniseed and peppermint. Shortbread. Grass and roots. Some sourness and tannins too. Finish: quite long, with malty flavours, citrus zest and hints of...

This is the first Cotswolds whisky in the Boutique-y Whisky Company range, probably the first independent bottling of this distillery and… the first Cotswolds I will try.

Established in 2014, it is one of six distilleries producing whisky in England . It was one of the projects guided by Dr. Jim Swan, famous for his ‘accelerating’ STR casks (shaved, toasted, re-charred American oak wine barrels).

Cotswolds 3 yo (50,4%, That Boutique-y Whisky Company 2019, Batch #1, 1785 btl.)

Nose: light, with peaches, plums and vanilla cream, fructose sweetness and cereal biscuits. Jam on toast. You also get a...

Not a lot of whisky news to announce this week, although of course there was the official presentation of the Diageo Special Releases 2019, with prices .

They will be arriving in stores soon and you can already (pre-)order from online shops like The Whisky Exchange or Loch Fyne .

Longrow 21 Year Old

An upcoming release from Springbank Distillers: Longrow 21 Year Old , a well-aged version of their double-distilled heavily peated expression, now in its 2019 edition. It is bottled at 46% ABV from a mixture of ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks. Starting to arrive in UK...

Ardbeg Ar11 is one of the latest Elements of Islay releases. Matured in a combination of American oak ex-bourbon and first-fill Pedro Ximénez sherry butts.

Ardbeg Ar11 2000 (56,8%, Elements of Islay 2019, 840 btl.)

Nose: pretty exemplary. Black raisins, figs, oranges, poached pears, with a nice juicy sour touch (rhubarb compote, citrus). Cold ashes and tar, seaweed, lovely tobacco notes and hints of leather. Light pencil shavings. Actually fairly elegant and not over-PX-ed, I like that. Mouth: much more intense now, with a blast of camphory peat and rich smoke. Big peppery notes too, as well as...

Gordon & MacPhail have just presented a Glen Grant 1956 ‘Mr George Centenary Edition’ in honour of George Urquhart, the second generation of the family that owns G&M and the grandfather of the current directors. It would have been his 100th birthday just now.

He created the Connoisseurs Choice range in 1968, giving little-known distilleries a platform to present their whisky in its purest form, as a single malt.

The spirit, from one of his favourite distilleries Glen Grant , was personally matched by Mr George to a first-fill sherry butt made to his specific requirements. It is bottled...

GlenAllachie recently added a sherry cask finished GlenAllachie 15 Years to its core range. One of the first projects Billy Walker started working on when he acquired the distillery in 2017.

It has been matured in ex-bourbon and finished in Oloroso and Pedro Ximénez sherry casks, both puncheons and hogsheads.

GlenAllachie 15 yo (46%, OB 2019, Oloroso + PX sherry )

Nose: fairly rich, with sweet fruits (blackcurrant jam, orange liqueur, bananas) and cinnamon pastry. Feels a little ‘pressure-cooked’. A lot of milky chocolate and a little marzipan. Leathery notes. Mouth: creamy fruits (soaked raisins, fig syrup, red...

Unnamed Speyside single malt distilled in 2005 and bottled by Maltbarn . Based on similar releases from other independent bottlers, it is probably a Mac.

Speyside Malt 14 yo 2005 (50,4%, Maltbarn 2019, sherry cask, 175 btl.)

Nose: very juicy, bright and lightweight sherry. Marmalade, sour berries, mirabelles and greengages. Apple peel. Hints of (somewhat prickly) oak varnish and a slight grassiness. A little pipe tobacco and almond in the background. Mouth: similar to what the big M is releasing lately. Malty notes, marmalade and citrus again, now more nutty notes as well (walnuts, almond). A little ginger...

Royal Brackla 12 / 18 / 21 Years

Royal Brackla relaunches its travel retail range with new expressions, each finished in different types of sherry casks. The 12 Year Old is finished in Oloroso casks, the 18 Year Old in Palo Cortado and the 21 Year Old in a mix of PX, Oloroso and Palo Cortado.

They will now be bottled at a higher 46% ABV (up from 40%) and gradually rolled out in Spring 2020.

Dalmore Trio / Quartet / Quintet

Three, four or five cask types used to finish a whisky, that’s the choice Dalmore is...

Bruichladdich continues its barley explorations and has just released three new barley-driven whiskies:

• Bruichladdich Organic 2010 from barley raised at Mid Coul Farms, matured in ex-bourbon casks, accredited with organic certification
• Bruichladdich Bere Barley 2010 is using this rare low-yield barley strain, grown in four farms on Orkney. It is aged entirely in ex-bourbon American oak casks.
• Islay Barley 2011 is matured in 75% ex-bourbon casks and 25% ex-wine casks (Spanish oak).

By the way, Bruichladdich planted 60 different barley varietals around the distillery, to witness which ones grow best on Islay. Gotta love this kind of scientific approach.

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Artful Dodger is a young bottler but they’ve managed to impress a couple of times already. Here’s an Irish single malt 2002 , one of their latest releases.

Irish single malt 15 yo 2002 (57,9%, Artful Dodger 2019, ex-bourbon cask #346, 291 btl.)

Nose: a whole range of yellow fruits. Mirabelles, bananas, pears and greengages. Sometimes a bit fresher, sometimes more syrupy. A little honey. Light wood spice and soft green notes, like ferns and grass. Mouth: quite vivid. There’s a similar fruitiness (Poire Williams, plums, melons) with more greenness now. Apple peels. Herbs, menthol, a slightly bitter,...

Infrequent Flyers is the first range of independent bottlers from Alistair Walker (ex-BenRiach, son of Billy Walker who is now running GlenAllachie).

The first batch contains 9 bottlings, from young Fettercairn to old Glen Keith. Alistair loves wood finishes so he’s currently re-racking part of his inventory for the future.

Currently the whiskies are distributed to the UK, Germany, Belgium, Japan and New Zealand.

Glen Keith 26 yo 1993 (54%, Alistair Walker ‘Infrequent Flyers’ 2019, barrel #8511, 143 btl.)

Nose: quite pungent at first, but it folds open nicely on apricots, ripe banana, creamy coconut and vanilla ice...

Compass Box Affinity is a mix of 62% Scotch whisky (Craigellachie + the typical Highlands base) and 38% Calvados from Domaine Christian Drouin in France. The idea is based on a couple of affinities between the two spirits, such as the climate, double distillation and the use of French oak casks for maturation.

John Glaser said he had been blending Calvados and whisky at home for years, and now he decided to bring it to the market. It can be served over ice, mixed with vermouth for a unique twist on a boulevardier, or paired with tarte tatin.

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I’ve overlooked Glenkinchie so far. An old Glenkinchie 1975 and the Special release from 2016 were certainly excellent but I’ve never been impressed by the more mundane versions.

Let’s give this Glenkinchie 12 Year Old a chance, the flagship bottling which replaced the 10 Year Old around 2007 if I’m not mistaken.

Glenkinchie 12 yo (43%, OB +/- 2018)

Nose: oh so neutral and grainy. Muesli and plain malt, lots of grasses with some red apple, lemon peel and floral notes. Some fresh oak shavings too. Not much to get excited about. Mouth: again quite grainy, even a...

Highland Park 21 Year Old (augusti 2019)

Highland Park has a new edition of its 21 Year Old expression. It is made using six first-fill sherry seasoned hogsheads (EU oak), four first-fill sherry seasoned American oak casks and five refill casks.

It is bottled at 46% ABV and presented in a new box that has augusti 2019 release quite prominently on the packaging. It costs around € 260 per bottle.

Laphroaig 25 Years ‘Bessie Williamson’

Together with the Laphroaig 30 Years ‘Ian Hunter’ there is now a Laphroaig 25 Years ‘Bessie Williamson’ , named after the female distillery...



The 11th Whisky Show was held in London last week-end and The Whisky Exchange presented a unique new series entitled The Magic of the Cask . It includes four whiskies matured in different types of casks, highlighting the mystery of the cask’s influence.

The details on the labels and parts of the images are printed in UV responsive ink – a small torch is included with every purchase. The alchemy of wood maturation reflected in a creative label design.

We start with a third-fill bourbon barrel. Obviously here the ageing of the Imperial spirit itself will have...

Palo Cortado is the rarest type of sherry (think of it as a very fine style of Oloroso, made from free-run must rather than subsequent pressings) and these casks are rarely used for whisky finishing. Some of the experiments have not been very convincing .

Deanston filled a few Palo Cortado casks with 1997 spirit . A first release was the Deanston 12 Years Palo Cortado finish , and now they bottled an older Deanston 21 Years Palo Cortado . It was matured for 18+ years in ex-bourbon casks and 2+ years in sherry cask.

Deanston 21 yo...

The Whisky Exchange had two 20th Anniversary bottlings released in september. One was the Inchmoan 2007 cask #96 , the other one this Ballechin 15 Years which only became available just now.

Ballechin 15 yo 2003 (55%, OB for The Whisky Exchange 20th Anniversary 2019, first-fill Oloroso sherry butt #204, 482 btl.)

Nose: Cuban cigars, walnuts, toasted bread, mixed with sweeter notes. Dark cherry or blackberry jam, burnt raisins and a lot of chocolate ganache. Also heavy pipe smoke, Lapsang and tarry notes underneath. Hints of leather, menthol and bandages. Rather clean by the way, I don’t find...

That Boutique-y Whisky Company released an excellent Ben Nevis 21 Years before the summer (Batch #8) and now there’s a new Ben Nevis 23 Year Old (Batch #10).

Ben Nevis 23 yo (48%, That Boutique-y Whisky Co 2019, Batch #10, 558 btl.)

Nose: this typical waxy / fatty profile but surprisingly un-fruity this time. Frosties, lemon balm, pollen. Some bready notes. Almonds. Coppery touches. Perhaps a hint of green banana and marshmallows. Mouth: fruitier now. Pineapple, triple-sec, banana ice cream. Vanilla biscuits and almond milk, a few grainy ale notes. Then moving towards green, herbal notes with ginger...

Wolfburn’s Kylver Series is named after the Swedish Kylver stone which held the 24 characters of the runic alphabet, and each release has a different rune at the centre of its label.

This is the first (lightly) peated release in the series (hence the green / brown bottle). It was matured in a combination of first-fill bourbon barrels and second-fill quarter casks.

Wolfburn Kylver Series #4 (50%, OB 2018, 950 btl.)

Nose: starts quite fragrant, almost floral, mixing with chimney soot and hints of lanolin. Plenty of lemons and freshly cut apples, with a mentholated edge. Grassy notes...