Campbeltown Loch 21 YO, 46 % Åpningswhiskyen på det siste møtet i The Ladies’ Share var en blend, nærmere bestemt en Campbeltown Loch 21 YO. Dette var nye saker for alle Ladiene. Blenden består av 60 % maltwhisky fra Springbank og 40 % grain fra Girvan. Den er blended og utgitt av Springbank destillery som ligger […]...

Läs mer http://www.whiskysaga.com/campbeltown-loch-21-yo/

Campbeltown Loch 21 YO, 46 % Åpningswhiskyen på det siste møtet i The Ladies’ Share var en blend, nærmere bestemt en Campbeltown Loch 21 YO. Dette var nye saker for alle Ladiene. Blenden består av 60 % maltwhisky fra Springbank og 40 % grain fra Girvan. Den er blended og utgitt av Springbank destillery som ligger […]...

Läs mer http://www.whiskysaga.com/campbeltown-loch-21-yo/

The winter issue of  Whisky Advocate  will be hitting the newsstands in early december. Until then, here’s a sneak preview of the Buying Guide. It’s our biggest yet; with 157 whiskies reviewed. We start with #10 and conclude with the highest-rated whisky of our winter issue.

#10:  Port Ellen 1978 35 year old (Diageo Special Release 2014), 56.5%, $3,300

Scarcity and the secondary market have driven prices up, so either buddy-up to a rich guy, or club together to try this. Greater levels of cask interaction have added an extra dimension to a whisky that is often skeletal. The smoke’s...

Läs mer http://whiskyadvocate.com/whisky/2014/11/14/top-10-rated-whiskies-from-the-winter-2014-issue/

It’s been more than two years since we last held a Kilchoman tasting at TWE Vinopolis , which showcased the first releases of 100% Islay and Machir Bay , along with the precursor to Loch Gorm. With the first six-year-old whiskies now released by the distillery, we were delighted to see how things are progressing.

The Kilchoman team have been travelling around Europe in a Land Rover, holding tastings as they go

This autumn, founder Anthony Wills’s three sons embarked on a tasting tour of Europe in their new Land Rover, although as George pointed out, his younger brothers James and Peter...

Läs mer http://blog.thewhiskyexchange.com/2014/11/kilchoman-land-rover-tour-making-tracks/

It’s been more than two years since we last held a Kilchoman tasting at TWE Vinopolis , which showcased the first releases of 100% Islay and Machir Bay , along with the precursor to Loch Gorm. With the first six-year-old whiskies now released by the distillery, we were delighted to see how things are progressing.

The Kilchoman team have been travelling around Europe in a Land Rover, holding tastings as they go

This autumn, founder Anthony Wills’s three sons embarked on a tasting tour of Europe in their new Land Rover, although as George pointed out, his younger brothers James and Peter...

Läs mer http://blog.thewhiskyexchange.com/2014/11/kilchoman-land-rover-tour-making-tracks/

Läs mer http://www.whiskyfun.com/2014/De-bons-bourbons-mon-bon.html

Cù Bòcan is Tomatin ’s latest (lightly) peated expression. With the standard Tomatin Cù Bòcan comprising sherry, virgin oak and bourbon casks, this is the first of three upcoming limited editions highlighting the flavours derived from each cask type.

Tomatin Cù Bòcan Sherry Cask is fully matured in first fill sherry butts.

Tomatin Cù Bòcan Sherry Cask (46%, OB 2014, 6.000 btl.)

Nose: a bit confusing at first, with lots of pastry dough and dominant toffee. Moves towards sugary malty notes, surprisingly big vanilla (American oak sherry… of course), candy apple, cinnamon and lots of sweet red plums (PX...

Läs mer http://www.whiskynotes.be/2014/tomatin/tomatin-cu-bocan-sherry/

I wrote about Diageo’s first three Orphan Barrel (OB) whiskeys here back in januari. The whiskeys in these bottlings are from either the old or new Bernheim distilleries. As I noted in that post, they vary in taste, from the easy-drinking, gently sweet, and uncomplicated Barterhouse to the dry, spicy, and oak-driven Old Blowhard. Rhetoric, the third release, is somewhere in between those two flavor profiles, but leaning more towards Old Blowhard.

While all three releases are certainly interesting to taste and diverse in flavor profile, I feel that they never quite lived up to their potential. To me, the...

Läs mer http://whiskyadvocate.com/whisky/2014/11/13/orphan-barrel-whiskey-release-4-lost-prophet/

Läs mer http://www.whiskyfun.com/2014/Sherried-Glengoyne-aplenty.html

The new releases from The Whisky Agency and the Liquid Sun series were also present at Spirits in the Sky. While the Liquid Sun labels have an astronomy / astrology theme, the TWA labels seem to depict scenes from early hot air balloons and other airships. We’ll start with this Glen Garioch 1989 .

Also new from The Whisky Agency: Littlemill 1991, Linkwood 1980 and a fourth one that I don’t remember. The Liquid Sun series includes Littlemill 1988, Glen Spey 1988, Tobermory 1994 and Longmorn 1992.

Glen Garioch 25 yo 1989 (50,3%, The Whisky Agency 2014, refill hogshead,...

Läs mer http://www.whiskynotes.be/2014/glen-garioch/glen-garioch-1989-whisky-agency/

The past decade has seen a huge rise in the popularity of smoky whisky. This jump is one of the main reasons why we’ve seen prices for Islay whisky shoot through the roof in recent years, but fortunately, Islay isn’t the only source for a smattering of smoke.

While Scottish islands are best known for smoke ( Islay in general, Talisker from Skye, Ledaig from Mull, Highland Park from Orkney), the use of peat to dry barley was once more widespread across Scotland. While that died out with the introduction of smokeless fuels many years ago, the tradition has been...

Läs mer http://blog.thewhiskyexchange.com/2014/11/ballechin-10yo/

Läs mer http://www.whiskyfun.com/2014/A-selection-of-ten-smoky-blends-and-stuff.html

Glenfiddich Excellence is a new 26 years old expression aged exclusively in ex-bourbon American oak casks sourced from the Kelvin Cooperage in Kentucky (which happens to be owned by a Scottish family). Actually it’s the first whisky in the core range of Glenfiddich to be entirely matured in bourbon casks.

Läs mer http://www.whiskynotes.be/2014/glenfiddich/glenfiddich-26-years-excellence/

Läs mer http://www.whiskyfun.com/2014/Beautiful-Inchgower.html

Springbank has a few interesting things coming up, some of which were available to try at the latest Sprits in the Sky festival , still the best whisky festival we have in Belgium.

There’s Springbank Green 12 Years , an organic whisky although not entirely. It’s made from organic barley but the distillery doesn’t have the necessary certificates to release the whisky as entirely organic. So it’s called ‘green’ instead. It’s fully bourbon-matured and I thought it was quite good.

I’ve heard some rumours about a new, more heavily sherried Springbank 17 Year Old due in januari, but...

Läs mer http://www.whiskynotes.be/2014/springbank/springbank-25-years-2014/

Läs mer http://www.whiskyfun.com/2014/Possible-malternatives-a-little-bag-of-cognacs.html

Earlier this year, Suntory launched two NAS expressions as part of the core ranges of Hakushu and Yamazaki, both named Distiller’s Reserve. Hakushu Distiller’s Reserve joins the 12 Year Old to form the standard range of this Japanese distillery.

As a NAS expression, the Distiller’s Reserve contains different spirits : young lightly peated malts (8 years and older), heavily peated malt and whisky matured in American oak for around 18 years. All the casks have been hand-picked by Suntory’s Master Blender, Shinji Fukuyo.

Hakushu ‘Distiller’s Reserve’
(43%, OB 2014)

Nose: very fruity and aromatic with plenty of vanilla. Unripe...

Läs mer http://www.whiskynotes.be/2014/japan-whisky/hakushu-distillers-reserve/

There are some dates that stick in the memory – Thursday 9 november 1989 is one of them. The day east met west, the day the Berlin Wall fell. Today marks the 25th anniversary since the border was officially reopened, and to commemorate this, I thought I’d take a look at some of my favourite hidden gems produced in modern-day Germany.

Demonstrations at The Berlin Wall in 1989. Image by Lear 21  at  en.wikipedia

It’s often said how quickly the world changes – to put it into context, here’s some things that happened at the end of 1989:

• North America’s first commercial dial-up internet connection
...

Läs mer http://blog.thewhiskyexchange.com/2014/11/celebrating-the-spirit-of-a-reunified-germany-25-years-on/

Läs mer http://www.whiskyfun.com/2014/Possible-malternatives-a-little-bag-of-cognacs.html

On receiving the press release on the new “Last Great Malts Collection” from Dewar’s, I had as many questions as there are malts in the range. I thought it might be helpful to get some views from Stephanie Macleod, Dewar’s master blender, who chooses the casks and creates the samples which led to this launch.

First, though, it seemed sensible to get examples of some of them to taste before our talk. Don’t panic; I’m not going to belabor you with all my tasting notes. Some small samples of the Craigellachies (all except the 19 year old) and the 12,...

Läs mer http://whiskyadvocate.com/whisky/2014/11/07/dewars-master-blender-on-the-last-great-malts-collection/