We’re kicking off the new year with a brand-new exclusive release – please welcome our Kavalan Vinho single cask , freshly arrived from Taiwan.

Kavalan – Taiwanese Malt

If you’ve been reading the blog for a while, you’ll know that I’m a bit of a Kavalan fan. I first tried the distillery’s whisky back in 2010, before I started working in the whisky world, after a long search to find any in the UK. In 2012, it finally landed at The Whisky Exchange – here’s my gushing blog post – and since then it’s grown to be hugely popular.

Kavalan...

Since its very beginnings, The Whisky Exchange has had a focus that sets us apart from other whisky shops: we love old and rare whisky. Co-founder Sukhinder started as a collector of old bottles and that grew into The Whisky Exchange – we’ll be celebrating our 20th year online later in 2019, and he’s been collecting even longer.

Why old and rare?

Whisky is far from static. Over the centuries of production, the spirit has changed hugely. From uisge-beatha, an unaged spirit infused with herbs – a proto-gin – it has gradually become the oak-matured whisky that we know and...

januari is a time of hibernation and restoration, a month to lay the foundations of the year. And, perhaps, to also recover from the excesses of the festive period. It’s time for Dry januari .

The days of alcohol avoidance meaning fizzy, sugar-laden drinks or fruit juice are behind us, and there are now loads of tasty alternatives. Here are a few ideas to last through januari and into the year beyond – proof that good drinks don’t have to contain alcohol.

Spirit Replacements

A few years back, the idea of a soft drink replacing a spirit in a cocktail...

Artful Dodger Whisky Collective is a new label from London-based wine & spirits merchant Woolf Sung Ltd, launched in 2018. They see themselves as a collective of ‘whisky thieves’ dedicated to liberating the world’s rarest casks .

Their first batch includes Strathclyde 27yo , Glenturret 23yo , Port Charlotte 8yo and this Clynelish 20 years old , distilled in 1997 . It is bottled in a nice 50 cl apothecary-style bottle with cork stopper.

Clynelish 20 yo 1997 (55,9%, Artful Dodger 2018, bourbon hogshead #6526, 50 cl)

Nose: classic Clynelish profile, with a lovely warm waxiness. That’s...

The Whisky Exchange selected this undisclosed Speyside Region Malt 1973 from the famous batch of similar casks bottled by The Whisky Agency (and ‘partner’ bottlers) since 2015.

For people who are not familiar with this batch, it maj seem a bit strange. Some are labeled as single malt, some as blended malts. In this case TWE hinted towards the family-owned Speyside distillery at Ballindalloch, a claim they then retracted. As far as we know these releases were all a mix of Highland Distillers malts , from distilleries like Tamdhu, Glenrothes, Highland Park, Macallan and originally intended to serve as the...

This is the first Glenlivet bottling from Master of Malt , apparently, released at a respectable age of 27 years.

Glenlivet 27 yo 1989 (51,4%, Master of Malt 2017, bourbon cask #10154)

Nose: rather typical bourbon wood with a footprint of yellow apples, berries, a little leather and grassy notes. Flowery honey with orange blossom, hints of nutmeg and ginger. Mouth: bright fruits (plums, berries), moving to dried fruits (apricots). Fruitier than on the nose, but spicier as well. Cinnamon, white pepper. A grassiness again. Getting drier towards the end, with tobacco leaves and walnut skins, as well...

Ichiro Akuto is the founder of the Chichibu distillery and one of the most respected distillers in Japan, but also an experienced blender. Ichiro’s Malt WineWood Reserve is a blend of Maltwhisky from Chichibu and the closed Hanyu distillery (in decreasing amounts over the years), but also Scotch whisky.

This is finished in a wine casks , the rather unique Ovum casks , which are 20 hl egg-shaped barrels made from French oak, shaped in the Charentes region by the Taransaud company. I’ve seen them being used in the Bordeaux region where they have some oenological advantages, but...

Kavalan Vinho Barrique 2012 (TWE exclusive)

A cask strength Kavalan distilled in juni 2012 and aged entirely in a Portuguese wine barrique which held both red and white wines before being re-toasted. A single cask that is exclusively available from The Whisky Exchange . Stay tuned for my tasting notes later this week.

Speyside Region 1973 (Whisky Agency for TWE)

I mentioned this one back in september as it was one of the show bottlings for the TWE Whisky Show, but this excellent undisclosed Speyside Malt is now available from their website . Yes, I’ll review this as well...

You don’t come across many single grain whiskies matured in first-fill sherry casks , but the ones I could try were rather great (a Cambus 1991 Liquid Treasures comes to mind).

Now there’s a brand-new North British 1990 in the Connoisseurs Choice range from Gordon & MacPhail, in fact the first grain whisky they’ve ever bottled in 123 years of bottling history! And look at that colour…

North British 28 yo 1990 (61%, Gordon & MacPhail ‘Connoisseurs Choice’ 2018, first-fill sherry puncheon #73847, 181 btl.)

Nose: rum and raisins, sour cherry preserve and something like cranberry ice cream,...

Two undisclosed Speyside Malts , from the 1990s this time, bottled by Liquid Treasures in Germany and Liquid Art in Belgium.

Speyside Malt 26 yo 1992 (51,6%, Liquid Treasures ‘Snakes’ 2018, bourbon barrel, 270 btl.)

Nose: fresh, honeyed and very fruity. Tangerines, baked apples, ripe apricots. Marinated fruits. Also an attractive waxy side and a touch of vanilla ice cream. Mouth: same warm fruitiness (fruit bowl with peaches and grapes), now with hints of coconut cream, vanilla and a balancing note of grapefruit zest towards the end. Greenish oak, including a light bitter edge. Finish: quite long, on...

Launched in 2015 as part of the Last Great Malts makeover for Aultmore , the 25 Year Old is still the head of the range. I couldn’t find confirmation, but based on the colour and the profile, this is likely to be heavily sherried.

Aultmore 25 yo (46%, OB +/- 2018)

Nose: starts with a sweet malty core and ripe fruits (oranges, raisins, toffee apples and apricots). Then rich, dusty spices (pepper, nutmeg), subtle vegetal notes and leathery hints. Increasingly earthy and leafy, also showing a light waxy side, smoked tea and roasted coconut flakes. Really classy. Mouth:...

Timorous Beastie is the Highland blended malt in the Remarkable Regional Malts series from Douglas Laing . The original version includes whisky from Blair Athol, Glen Garioch, Dalmore and Glengoyne among others.

Now there is a limited edition, 12 years old and bottled at cask strength . The first batch is matured predominantly in bourbon barrels and bottled at 54,4% ABV. No mention of distilleries this time. Just 3000 bottles available across Europe and Asia.

Timorous Beastie 12 yo ‘Cask Strength’ (54,4%, Douglas Laing ‘Remarkable Malts’ 2018, 3000 btl.)

Nose: very fresh, full of green apples, honey, juicy...

Isle of Jura The Sound is one of four single malt bottlings in the Jura Travellers Collection (formerly known as the Sherry Collection), its global travel retail series. They are all matured in ex-bourbon casks and finished in Pedro Ximénez sherry casks of different ages (15yo / 20yo / 30yo / 40yo).

This is interesting, I have never seen the age of a cask being mentioned as a sign of quality, assuming an older cask also contained older sherry, which has a better effect on the whisky?

There’s simply no evidence for this  and I think the argumentation is flawed....

I believe this will complete our reviews of the rather excellent Vintner’s Trilogy from Bowmore distillery:

• Bowmore 18 Years Manzanilla cask
• Bowmore 26 Years French Oak barrique

The last part is a 27 year-old malt which spent 13 years in ex-bourbon barrels and another 14 years in Port pipes , resting in Bowmore’s famous No 1 vaults on Islay.

Bowmore 27 yo ‘Port Cask’ (48,3%, OB ‘Vintner’s Trilogy’ 2018)

Nose: aromatic nose, combining smoky notes with damp tobacco leaves and sweeter notes. Red berries, milk chocolate and toffee. Heather, mint and subtle medicinal touches. Curry spices a little...

I’ve had some tips about good sherry matured Edradour before, so we have to keep searching for an expression from this distillery that really convinces me.

I think we’ve found one, an Edradour 2005 from a first-fill Oloroso cask handpicked by The Whisky Exchange .

Edradour 12 yo 2005 (61,4%, OB for The Whisky Exchange 2018, first-fill Oloroso butt #131, 567 btl.)

Nose: very rich, not unlike some of the best GlenDronach casks. Entirely on Cherry Heering, raisins and dates. Great hints of leather chairs, cedar wood, a little pipe tobacco. Whiffs of jamón ibérico and roasted almonds....

At the end of 2018, after they had been releasing vintage-based whiskies for exactly 25 years (later also ‘reserves’), The Glenrothes wiped this concept off the table and renewed its core range with… age statements .

The Soleo Collection as it is called (named after the process of sun-drying sherry grapes in Jerez ), ranges from 10 to 25 years (including one NAS at higher strength). Also interesting is the fact that all expressions are entirely sherry matured . Close to 90% of all casks maturing at the distillery are ex-sherry and almost 70% are first-fill (seasoned) sherry casks.

We’re...

Here’s another one of these interesting bottlings exclusive to the Chief Whisky Society in China.

It’s an Auchentoshan 1990 , 27 years old and bottled from a single Oloroso sherry cask. Notice the brown hue, rather than the full-blown reddish tint that we would expect from first-fill sherry these days.

Auchentoshan 27 yo 1990 (53,1%, OB for CWS China 2017, first-fill Oloroso, 512 btl.)

Nose: not the classic Oloroso style indeed. There’s brown sugar, leafy notes, overripe pear and oranges instead of figs or raisins. Goes on with hay, leather, dried flowers, cloves and Dulce de Leche (love...

As you maj know, the shutdown of the US government also has consequences for the whisky industry. The Tax & Trade Bureau is not accepting submissions of new alcohol labels, which means no new whiskies can be approved for sale in the US. As their COLAs listing is an interesting sources for upcoming releases, we now have less to announce…

Ardmore 30 Year Old

Ardmore has bottled a 1987 vintage 30 Year Old exclusively available from The Whisky Exchange. Matured in refill barrels and then finished in first-fill ex-bourbon barrels, it is said to have lots of fruity notes...

Late 2018 this Glentauchers 2009 was bottled by Cadenhead . I found it at whisky shop Windels in Mechelen, which is one of the three Belgian shops responsible for the selection. They call themselves The Whisky Ladies because they have a female chairman in charge of the whisky.

This Glentauchers was finished in a Brazilian rum barrel.

Glentauchers – Glenlivet 9 yo 2009 (59,8%, Cadenhead for The Whisky Ladies 2018, bourbon hogshead, 246 btl.)

Nose: typical vanilla and caramel with ripe fruits. Plum eau-de-vie. Apples, green bananas, a hint of tinned pineapple and Haribo bears. Some waxy oak...

Glen Moray has been involved in an interesting cask sharing project: they lend out whisky casks to the Thistly Cross craft cider company who use it to finish one of their ciders. When the cask are returned, they they are used to finish whisky again.

This led to the Glen Moray Cider Cask Project , a new release in their Curiosity range. I already tried a preliminary Glen Moray 2006 Cider Cask Finish which was a distillery exclusive release.

Glen Moray Cider Cask Project (46,3%, OB 2018, 2000 btl.)

Nose: as nice as I remembered. There’s this distinctive...