Machir Bay (the name of the beach overlooked by the Kilchoman Church just half a mile from the distillery) is the flagship bottling of Kilchoman . It is a vatting of bourbon and sherry matured whisky, released every year since 2012.

Mind that this year they don’t seem to mention a bottling year nor any references to the age any more, perhaps because they’ll start having more than one batch a year soon? Based on previous editions, it should be 5 to 6 years old.

Kilchoman Machir Bay (46%, OB 2015)

Nose: very sweet peat, lots of rummy...

Happy New Year! Best wishes for 2016.

Let’s look back for a second before we move on. 2015 was excellent for WhiskyNotes. Of course the Whisky Blogger of the Year 2015 award was a personal highlight, but it’s nice to see this was underlined by significant increases in the number of visitors.

While 2014 saw a slight fallback, 2015 was much better than ever. The site welcomed around 650.000 visitors (+21%). Especially december was great, with nearly 70.000 visitors in one month. Very happy with that.

These are Google Analytics figures and you need to compare apples with apples,...

I like the new labels from Maltbarn . They’re still a continuation of what we saw before, but the selection of the pictures, together with the bold typo, are nicely done.

In the latest batch we found this Ben Nevis 1996 .

Ben Nevis 19 yo 1996 (50,9%, Maltbarn 2015, bourbon cask, 121 btl.)

Nose: a bit of a strange mix. It has the nicest touches of sweet melon and passion fruits, but also a dirty side of porridge and cider apple. Linseed oil. Hints of butter. Quite a fatty profile, I find it hard to focus on...

The Glenlivet 21 Year Old ‘Archive’ is one of the older expressions from this distillery, and it is a mixture of different kinds of casks and wood types.

Glenlivet 21 yo ‘Archive’ (43%, OB 2014, Batch #0714M)

Nose: light and fruity, with lots of bright citrus notes (lemons, oranges), Granny Smith and floral touches. Sultanas. Growing spicier, with cinnamon and light grassy notes, moving towards polished oak. Hints of biscuits and acacia honey. Mouth: very malty and honeyed, still lots of oranges. Then the spices set in: ginger, cinnamon and some tangy oak. Still this grassy edge. Roasted...

In oktober I revisited the GlenDronach 15 Year Old , which turned out a really nice surprise. I thought it would be a good idea to try its older brother again as well (my favourite back in 2009): GlenDronach 18 Year Old .

GlenDronach 18 yo ‘Allardice’ (46%, OB 2014, 2014/09/03)

Nose: like the initial 15yo. More nutty notes (almonds, hazelnut paste), more beef stock and mushrooms, more sulphury edges as well. Some apple peelings and raisins. Muddy notes. The sherry sweetness that’s left feels a bit flat. Mouth: a disappointment. Sweet dates and fig syrup, but in...

Another one of these peated Irish single malts distilled at Bushmills (?) in 1991 . It’s bottled with a Samurai label by Sansibar .

Irish single malt 24 yo 1991 (50,2%, Sansibar ‘Samurai’ 2015, bourbon cask, 232 btl.)

Nose: it has this typical tropical fruitiness (lime, green banana, green mango, pineapple) but in a lighter way than some others. There’s also the peaty side, wet tobacco leafs, a little camphor. Excellent, just a tad less expressive. Mouth: this time more peppermint, eucalyptus and other lightly medicinal touches. Hints of smoked fish. Granadilla, cara cara, pink grapefruit and bananas in...

Merry Christmas everyone!

Another example of sherry maturation, this time in a first-fill sherry cask. We’re trying a Glen Grant 1954 from the Rare Vintage series by Gordon & MacPhail .

In partnership with each respective distillery, all whiskies in the Rare Vintage range are uniquely labelled. In years gone by many of these unique designs were used ‘officially’ to bottle the whisky under licence from the distillery (the same goes for yesterday’s Ardmore 1996 by the way).

I don’t think this is a new bottling. The bottling date wasn’t mentioned on the sample and I can only find...

The first Tomatin 30 Year Old at 46% was bottled in 2011 as a replacement for the successful Tomatin 25 Year Old and a cask strength 30 Years 1976. There have been 2012 and 2013 releases as well (always limited to 1500-2000 bottles), but it is now discontinued.

Tomatin 30 yo (46%, OB +/- 2013)

Nose: lots of fruity notes. Haribo bears, apricots, melon, hints of banana and mango. Subtle flowery hints. A little fresh mint in the background. Some warmer notes of leather too, and a light buttery / leafy edge. Mouth: similar tropical fruit notes, close...

Independent bottlers Gordon & MacPhail have recently launched a campaign ‘The wood makes the whisky’ .

Contrary to smaller bottlers, who simply buy mature casks, G&M buy young spirit and are responsible for the maturation themselves. As they explain on the excellent website, the essence of their work is matching spirit with the right type of oak , curating the maturation process and getting the result they were imagining.

To underscore the importance of casks and the different outcomes of European / American oak, bourbon / sherry fill, cask sizes, they provided four samples with different profiles. We’ll start with...

Master of Malt has this Lost Distilleries Blend series, which contains only whiskies from closed distilleries. Batch 6 features malt whiskies from Mosstowie, Port Ellen, Glenisla, Imperial, Caperdonich, Glen Mhor and Brora, and grain whiskies from Port Dundas.

Given the low number of bottles, this is more likely a blend done by mixing bottles rather than casks.

This sample came as part of the Drinks by the Dram Whisky Crackers . A nice box which contains six whisky samples wrapped inside a fire cracker. Something to remember when you’re choosing Christomas gifts (be quick though).

The...

I still remember when I first tried Glenfarclas 25 Year Old , at the first Spirits in the Sky festival (back in 2007). We had quite a few drams already and the four of us decided to bring together all our coins for this last whisky. I was quite fond of it back then, but that’s no guarantee for a recent bottling.

Glenfarclas 25 yo (43%, OB 2015)

Nose: slightly thinner and more restrained than how I remember it. Orange peel, ripe apples and golden raisins. Liquorice and mint. Chocolate coated nuts. Some meaty hints, as well as a sour Morello...

This GlenDronach 1994 cask #3386 was part of Batch 11 of the GlenDronach single casks, presented early this year. Except for one 1971 cask, we saw only 1990 / 1994 / 1995 / 1996 casks that time. These vintages can be hit or miss, in my opinion, so it’s difficult to know which samples / bottles are the highlights.

GlenDronach 20 yo 1994 (53,6%, OB 2015, Pedro Ximénez puncheon #3386, 624 btl.)

Nose: rich and rather on the dark side. That means lots of prunes, black cherries, blackberry jam and Black Forest cake. Some earthy notes in the...

Batch 11 of the BenRiach single casks, released in 2014, included two 1976 expressions. One was peated (cask #5463), this one unpeated (cask #529).

More surprising though was the maturation: both were initially matured in sherry casks but they were finished in bourbon barrels . I don’t think I’ve ever seen this – it’s always the other way around.

A couple of years ago, it was clear that there were very few BenRiach 1976 casks left (16 casks in 2012, and since then +/- 10 more have been bottled). There were also rumours that the leftovers were getting a bit...

Laphroaig celebrated the 200th Anniversary of the distillery by (re-)releasing five expressions: a Laphroaig 15 Year Old , Laphroaig 21 Year Old , a special Cairdeas and Laphroaig 32 Year Old .

The last is this Laphroaig 16 Year Old, (theoretically) only available in travel retail .

Like the 21yo it is presented in half bottles. I personally like this idea for limited editions, although it tends to make it cost more than half the price.

Laphroaig 16 yo (43%, OB 2015, travel retail, 35cl.)

Nose: a very citrusy start, with lemon candy and hints of vanilla...

The Ileach is one these undisclosed Islay malts that received quite some praise (like Finlaggan for example). There’s always a lot of speculation about the distillery that produces it.

We’re trying the base version of The Ileach , bottled at 40% ABV . Also available is The Ileach Cask Strength at 58%.

The colour maj indicate some sherry influence, but there’s little evidence for that in my tastings notes. Added caramel then?

‘The Ileach’ peated Islay malt (40%, OB 2015)

Nose: young, raw peat, with quite some mercurochrome, band aids, gouache paint, iodine and sea water. Islay alright....

It started as a successful Kickstarter project: instead of putting whisky inside a barrel to mature, you put the wood inside the bottle. Whiskey Elements are small pieces of partly charred oak, laser cut to get more surface area and more interaction with the whisky.

It’s said to make the whisky smoother in just 24 hours, with maximum results after 72 hours. The toasted wood will also add more vanilla and maple notes (or other flavours like smoke or winey notes, they have three types of elements at the moment), so essentially it mimics the effects of barrel ageing...

Master distiller Billy Walker has selected five Pedro Ximénez Sherry Octaves from the distillery’s warehouses to be bottled as the GlenDronach 20 Years Old Octaves . The spirit was distilled in september 1994, matured in regular sherry casks and then put into PX octaves for a couple of months.

Octave casks are 1/8th of a butt. They’re small so they tend to have a quick, intense effect on the liquid inside. When seasoned with sherry, they can also rapidly add sherried notes to a whisky.

Let’s not beat around the bush though, they’re often used to rescue / mask under...

One of the highlights among the new releases this week was the second batch of the Glenglassaugh single casks . You rarely see 1970s whiskies these days yet they seem to have plenty of 1972-1978 casks lying around.

What makes it especially interesting is the fact that Glenglassaugh was quite adventurous when it comes to cask selection. Have you ever seen an Aleatico wine cask before? Working with Massandra was an interesting idea of course.

Here’s the full line-up:

• 1972 cask #2125 / 42 yo / Massandra Madeira Puncheon / 47.3%
• 1973 cask #1865 / 42 yo / Massandra...

Springbank 15 Years is a sherry matured expression. The distillery tasting notes seem to indicate a lot of Oloroso character, but I found it hard to get this. majbe they are relying mostly on refill casks.

Springbank 15 yo (46%, OB 2015)

Nose: even more mineral than the 10 or 12. Wet chalk, aspirin, graphite, some metallic touches. Light hints of antiseptics. Very flinty and austere with some coastal hints as well. Leather. Over time it moves towards light toffee and almonds. Mouth: oily, almost entirely on mineral notes, with an overpowering bitterness. Walnuts, grapefruit skin, quinine, herbal...

This is probably one of the oldest bottlings of Arran on the market (production started in the summer of 1995). It was bottled by Morrison & Mackay (the company behind Càrn Mòr among others) for Lockett Bros .

Arran 18 y 1996 ‘The Island of Fidra’ (50,6%, Morrison & MacKay for Lockett Bros 2015, bourbon hogshead #1300, 200 btl.)

Nose: bright and fresh, with lots of variations on lemon (juice, balm, lemonade) with freshly crushed mint leaves. Caramel apple. A little vanilla cake and touches of Magnolia. Hints of sea spray and coconut. Quite excellent really. Mouth: very...