I have some fond memories of Craigellachie. I slept there while touring the Speyside region, tasted my first Craigellachie dram there and I liked the new lineup released last year.

I got this sample of a young Craigellachie single cask from Wemyess and while I sat down and wrote my notes for it, I realized I have a couple more of indie Craigellachie reviews to publish and so, expect some heavy dose of indie Craigellachie reviews in the coming few weeks from this unheralded distillery.

Let’s start with the young Craigellachie that triggered this reaction, the Craigellachie 2002-2014 Dark Treacle Fondant from...

At the time when this was bottled, most of the whisky that was used for the BenRiach 16 Years was significantly older, due to erratic production in some years. Around 80% was 18 years old BenRiach and the other 20% were second and third fill casks of 20 years old.

I’m not sure how this situation has evolved in the meantime, I haven’t tried more recent versions. In any case it also contains some peated BenRiach.

BenRiach 16 yo (43%, OB 2008)

Nose:  light, with the same elements as the younger versions. Rather grainy, with notes of dark...

GlenDronach bottled a 9 year-old for Professional Danish Whisky Retailers last year. It was matured in Pedro Ximénez casks, but I doubt it was a full maturation, rather a finished / re-racked whisky.

This bottling is often referred to as Darth Vader because of the uncommon black labeling.

GlenDronach 9 yo (48%, OB for Denmark 2014, Pedro Ximénez casks, 3000 btl.)

Nose: not the thick sherry I expected. It’s fairly mineral, with some wet limestone and a hint of gunpowder up front. Roasted nuts. Behind this you get more classic notes like dried apricots and creamy toffee. Orange peel...

Have you ever tried Compass Box Orangerie ? It is a refreshing infusion of blended whisky with the hand-zested peel of Navelina oranges, cassia bark and clove. Instead of going towards orange liqueurs with lots of sugar, it was staying on the dry side.

When I read about Amrut Naarangi , I expected it would be in the same style as Orangerie, but it follows a slightly different route. Amrut filled casks with Oloroso sherry and added orange peels to them. This mixture was left to season the wood for over two years. Afterwards, three years old Maltwhisky was...

Laphroaig distillery is celebrating its 200th Anniversary in 2015. All kinds of bicentennial events are planned throughout the year and we can expect no less than seven special editions (how about a 21 Year Old and a 32 Year Old?). First up is this Laphroaig 15 Year Old 200th Anniversary edition .

It’s a revival really, as Laphroaig 15yo (the favourite whisky of Prince Charles, apparently) was first launched in 1980. It was discontinued in 2009 and replaced by an 18 Year Old, but now we can enjoy it once again.

Laphroaig 15 yo ‘200th Anniversary’ (43%, OB...

After reviewing the basic NAS offering from the Singleton of Dufftown line up let’s go to the very top of the lineup: Singleton of Dufftown 18 Year old.

Singleton of Dufftown 18 Year Old (40%, £54.34 / €55 )

Nose : Cereal, creamy, rich fruity notes, soft vanilla, apples, spice, toffee, lively and fresh yet soft,. Overall it has a very rich nose.

Palate : Creamy and vanilla, rich fruits notes followed by strong spicy notes.

Finish : Long finish. It starts with fruits (mainly apricots) and continue with lots of spice, dash of grounded cinnamon and sweet honey.

Thoughts : There’s no...

From two very peated Bruichladdichs to the other edge of the scale. Today’s review is a mellow Speyside whisky: Singleton of Dufftown Taifire.

An expression released in 2014, it’s a NAS whisky with a supposedly fruity touch due to “higher proportion of European oak casks”.

Singleton of Dufftown Tailfire (40%,  £28 / £28 / €29.5 )

Nose : On first sniff it’s very creamy with lots of malt cereal and light sweet honey. Further on there’s a dash of fragrance/perfume, vanilla, peaches and weak candied oranges. After it spends a few minutes in the glass there’s some white pepper spice.

Palate...

Glen Moray 16 YO, 40 % We have published more than 1000 reviews on this blog by now, but there are still quite a few distilleries we have not covered. One of them is the Speyside distillery Glen Moray. Glen Moray is located on the banks of the river Lossie, outside the town Elgin. The […]...

Yamazaki Sherry Cask 2013, NAS, 48 % Well, here it is. The much hyped winner of Jim Murray’s “World Whisky of the Year” award. I do think Yamazaki whisky, and Japanese whisky in general, usually is of a very high quality. As such it is great to see one of these whiskies ‘win’ such an […]...

Spirit of Hven Sankt Claus Cask #11-229, 3 YO, 53,2 % The Swedish distiller Spirit of Hven released three single cask expressions just before Christmas 2014. They were aptly named Sankt Claus. One release was for the Swedish market (cask #11-222), one was bottled for Juul’s in Denmark (cask #11-224), and finally this cask which was […]...

I’m on antibiotics and I’ve run out of reviews for now… but normally we can resume services tomorrow or Wednesday. And it promises to be an interesting week!...

Cask Islay Small Batch, NAS, 46 % Cask Islay is a release from the independent bottler A. D. Rattray. We know it is an Islay whisky, but we do not know which distillery it is. I got a chance to taste this whisky on my very first visit to Islay! A perfect combination. This is what […]...