There are all kinds of special variation on the blended whisky The Famous Grouse . Some are limited, some are parts of the core range. There’s The Snow Grouse (blended grain designed to be drunk chilled), The Black Grouse (a slightly smokier version), The Naked Grouse (sherried deluxe version), The Famous Vanilla , etc.

The Black Grouse ‘Alpha Edition’ is intended to be an even richer, smokier version of the already smoky The Black Grouse. It still contains the original base malts (Glenturret, Macallan, Highland Park) but it revolves more around peated Islay whiskies as well. Originally a travel retail...

Läs mer http://www.whiskynotes.be/2014/blends/the-black-grouse-alpha-edition/

I recently visited the SMWS venue in Queens Street, Edinburgh. Angus there recommended we try a couple of Glen Grants (distillery number 9), and so we did. Here is what I thought of these two whiskies. SMWS 9.79 Quiet Time Dram, 22 YO, 57,7 % The first Glen Grant of the evening is the SMWS […]...

Läs mer http://www.whiskysaga.com/smws-9-68-9-79-two-glen-grants-22-yo/

Läs mer http://www.whiskyfun.com/2014/I-cant-resist-Clynelish.html

We’re always keen to try old Ben Nevis , and the German bottler Alambic Classique has a reputation for having bottled some of the best expressions.

This is one of the latest (and probably last) bottlings: Ben Nevis 1966 cask #3640 .

Ben Nevis 47 yo 1966 (45,9%, OB for Alambic Classique 2013, sherry cask #3640, 128 btl.)

Nose: I love this profile. It’s fully oaked, in a very nice way, and really smooth. Furniture polish and old leather. Trademark bananas and beeswax. Coconut oil which makes it slightly tropical. Hints of lipstick. Darker fruits as well (plums, black...

Läs mer http://www.whiskynotes.be/2014/ben-nevis/ben-nevis-1966-cask-3640/

Yamazaki Bourbon Barrel 2013, NAS, 48 % This is the second whisky I try from the Yamazaki Wood Collection. This is a series of four different expressions showing off the different influences of different types of casks. The four variants are bourbon, sherry, puncheon and mizunara. I have previously reviewed the Yamazaki Puncheon 2013. This whisky is […]...

Läs mer http://www.whiskysaga.com/yamazaki-bourbon-barrel-2013/

Läs mer http://www.whiskyfun.com/2014/Two-new-T-malts.html

Läs mer http://www.edinburghwhiskyblog.com/2014/06/09/balcones-an-overriding-obsession-with-flavour/

As a yearly tradition, Ardbeg releases a new limited expression for Ardbeg Day . This year, the result is Ardbeg Auriverdes .Its name is inspired by Brazil: Auri means golden (the liquid) and verde is green (the bottle). I really, really don’t care for these kind of half-baked marketing tricks – come on, Ardbeg tied in with a World Cup – why?

Ardbeg Auriverdes is a ‘designer whisky’. It has been distilled in 2002 and matured in second fill American oak casks, with custom toasted lids. Ardbeg has done some pretty successful experiments with toasted oak before (think of Ardbeg...

Läs mer http://www.whiskynotes.be/2014/ardbeg/ardbeg-auriverdes/

Ardbeg 1991 15 YO Old Malt Cask – Exclusive bottling for Bar Metro, Italy, 50,9 % This is a rather special bottling of Ardbeg from Douglas Laing. It was distilled in mars 1991, and bottled in september 2006, for the 40th anniversary of Bar Metro in Milano. Being form the Old Malt Cask series it’s a […]...

Läs mer http://www.whiskysaga.com/ardbeg-1991-15-yo-old-malt-cask/

På Ardbeg Day, den 31. mai, fikk jeg for første gang tatt turen til The Tasting Room, etter at lokalene sto ferdig og de åpnet dørene offisielt den 8. mai. Som seg hør og bør hadde de invitert til Ardbegsmaking, og slikt sier man jo ikke nei takk til. Jeg ankom lokalene en halvtimes tid før […]...

Läs mer http://www.whiskysaga.com/ardbeg-day-tasting-room/

Läs mer http://www.whiskyfun.com/2014/The-Sunday-quest-for-malternatives-more-rum-and-rhum.html

Tomatin Legacy, NAS, 43 % I have not tasted many whiskies from Tomatin distillery yet. Actually it has only been five so far, and none of them are distillery bottlings. About time then. Recently I got a chance to taste Tomatin Legacy. The Legacy is a no age statement whisky. This will be the first NAS I […]...

Läs mer http://www.whiskysaga.com/tomatin-legacy/

Yamazaki Puncheon 2013, NAS, 48 % The Yamazaki Wood Collection is a series of four different expressions showing off the different influences of different types of casks. The four variants are bourbon, sherry, puncheon and mizunara. According to Whiskybase, the sherry variant was first released in 2009, then from 2010 until 2013 all four were released. […]...

Läs mer http://www.whiskysaga.com/yamazaki-puncheon-2013/

Why did the world suddenly start to care about the whiskey shortages?

On maj 8, Buffalo Trace sent a media-wide press release that detailed looming bourbon shortages. From there, serious journalists covered these tragic circumstances and whiskey shortage stories became a trendy subject on slow news days. So, if you’ve been wondering where all these stories came from, now you know.

With that said, the shortage is real, to some extent. The industry is feeling heavy demand with no end in sight.

But the world’s largest bourbon maker, Jim Beam, has been relatively quiet in these doom-and-gloom whiskey stories. There’s...

Läs mer http://whiskyadvocate.com/whisky/2014/06/06/whiskey-shortages-not-at-beam-suntory/