The Glenrothes Soleo Collection brought age statements back to this distillery, replacing the vintage concept which it pioneered and made popular in the past decade or so.

The Glenrothes 25 Year Old (released a bit later than the others) is the oldest expression in the Soleo Collection, although a 40 Year Old is set to be released early next year. It is matured in “a high proportion” of first-fill sherry seasoned sherry casks. Too bad they stick to a modest 43% ABV even in this price range.

Mind that there was a Glenrothes 25 Year Old around 2007, which was...

Glen Garioch Virgin Oak is 100% matured in new American oak. While it’s regularly seen for finishing or in a mix with other cask types, it can be overpowering for a full maturation.

For this expression Glen Garioch specifically used ‘inner heartwood’ of 100-year-old trees, which was heavily charred.

Glen Garioch Virgin Oak (48%, OB +/- 2014)

Nose: sweet, with plenty of vanilla and spices like ginger, cardamom and anise. Sugared cereals, a little buttered toast. There’s also a grassy, greenish woody note, like freshly sawn oak. Mouth: thick but also a tad raw, the cloves and other...

eSpirits, the company behind the Liquid Treasures series, released a few whiskies to mark the 10th anniversary of the company. We’ll try three releases from sherry casks.

We’ll start with an undisclosed Lowland Region Malt 2011 . No clue as to the origins, Auchentoshan springs to mind or even Bladnoch. Anyway are we going to end up in a situation where all independent bottlers are undisclosed names, or what?

Secret Lowlands 7 yo 2011 (59,8%, Liquid Treasures 2019, sherry hogshead, 176 btl.)

Nose: nicely candied, fruity sherry. Red berries, strawberry candy, then moving towards floral notes and rose...

Today is my birthday, always a reason to dig up something special from my (sample) collection.

I decided upon this Longmorn 12 Year Old from Hill, Thomson & Co . Once a humble grocer in Edinburgh, they developed their own brands like the famous Queen Anne blend (est. 1902). They had close relations with the Longmorn distillery and had easy access to their whisky.

In 1970 the company merged with The Glenlivet & Glen Grant Distillers and Longmorn Distillers to form The Glenlivet Distillers Ltd.

This Longmorn 12 was bottled before 1940 , I’m not sure which elements led to...

Tomatin 2006 Amontillado finish // Tomatin 2009 Caribbean rum finish

Highland distillery Tomatin announced two limited editions: a 2009 Caribbean rum finish and a 2006 Amontillado sherry finish .

The Caribbean rum matured for 9 years in traditional casks before being finished for one year in first-fill rum barrels. There are 7200 bottles for around € 60.

The Amontillado finish sounds more interesting to me as it’s rarely used for whisky finishing. This one was also 9 years old before getting a three year finish in first-fill Amontillado. It costs around € 70, with 5400 bottles available. Both are a...

Inspired by a Renaissance painting by Verrocchio of a naïve boy led by a divine angel, Compass Box Tobias & The Angel paid some royalties to use it on the packaging.

Tobias & The Angel is a vatting of 24 year-old Clynelish and ‘considerably older’ Caol Ila , an almost 50-50 combination of distilleries that Compass Box used many times since they first used it in Eleuthera in 2002. It can be seen as a celebration of 20 years of whiskymaking.

Compass Box Tobias & The Angel (47,6%, OB 2019, refill bourbon hogsheads, 2634 btl.)

Nose: quite an...

If the name Wu Dram Clan doesn’t ring a bell: it’s a whisky club of which Boris Borissov and Sebastian Jaeger are members (also involved in this Lagavulin 1997 and this Springbank 1992 ).

Now they’ve picked a Highland Park 2003 from a European oak sherry cask. Probably a butt which they shared with the ‘Dutch flagship stores’ (yet to be announced afaik).

Highland Park 15 yo 2003 (58,2%, OB for Wu Dram Clan 2019, first-fill European oak sherry cask #6162, 628 btl.)

Nose: oak spice up front (ginger, cardamom) with a leathery style of sherry. Thick dried...

After the pleasant surprise that was the Macdonald’s Celebrated Ben Nevis , I had to try this one as well…

MacDonald’s Glencoe is a Blended Malt (vatted malt if you like) produced by Ben Nevis distillery, referring to the narrow valley (Glencoe in Gaelic) near the site and to the famous owner John MacDonald who used to market his brand as Long John’s Ben Nevis in Victorian times .

The recipe is unknown but I’ve heard it is mainly Ben Nevis with just one other distillery , also from the Highlands. It is bottled at cask strength without artificial colouring....

Bielle distillery is located on the Marie-Galante island, a part of Guadaloupe. It has always been the cane sugar island, with the production of rum agricole since the late 19th century.

I know Bielle is one of the favourite malternatives of Bert Bruyneel, who runs the whisky bottler Asta Morris and the sister brand Rasta Morris . In 2019 he bottled two casks: one from 2011 (RM 009) and recently also a 2013 (RM 015).

Like most of these rums, they aged most of their life on the island, but they usually also spend some time in Europe (France) prior...

Glenfarclas 25 Year Old (TWE 20th Anniversary)

Made at the Glenfarclas distillery and matured in an Oloroso sherry cask, this Glenfarclas 25 Years ‘London Edition’ is a new limited edition for the 20th Anniversary of The Whisky Exchange . It has a specially-created label by TWE’s creative director Raj Chavda. Limited to 606 bottles.

Only available from The Whisky Exchange

Compass Box Bern’s

A new bespoke whisky from Compass Box for Bern’s steak house in Tampa, Florida. It contains plenty of different whiskies (Glenlossie, Clynelish, Tamdhu and Glen Ord are responsible for around 95%) finished in a single...

For a company like Asta Morris , bottling both whisky and rum has its advantages: this BenRiach 2008 was maturing in an ex-bourbon barrel but was transferred into a Foursquare rum cask , also an Asta Morris release, from last year.

BenRiach 10 yo 2008 (52%, Asta Morris 2018, Foursquare rum finish, 289 btl.)

Nose: candied fruits at first (oranges, peaches in syrup), with honey and vanilla. Stewed pears. As you dig deeper you’ll find drier notes. Light oak and the slightly industrial rummy side, as well as a leafy note. Mouth: fairly thick and sweet again. Honey,...

In the latest batch of Elements of Islay bottlings there was this Port Charlotte Pl6 , a combination of 3 bourbon barrels distilled in 2011, bottled at cask strength… of course.

Port Charlotte Pl6 7 yo 2011 (55,3%, Elixir Distillers ‘Elements of Islay’ 2019, bourbon barrels, 1163 btl.)

Nose: coastal sharpness mixed with charcoal and sweet smoke. Linseed oil, beach pebbles, hints of burnt heather and herbs. A tad austere perhaps but there’s a light hint of peach in the background. Mouth: warmer now, with hints of smoked bacon, almonds and gingerbread. More sweetness now, mainly plums and...

I maj have deliberately skipped it in the period of fragrant violet-infused Bowmore, but I don’t think I’ve ever tried this Bowmore 12 Years , the cornerstone of the core range. At least I haven’t taken notes until now.

This is the latest version (2018-2019) with a bigger white label and the age statement in a central black block. A couple of years ago the label was similar but the age statement was at the bottom in a black banner (see my review of the Bowmore 18 Years for instance).

Bowmore 12 yo (40%, OB +/- 2019)

Nose:...

Macdonald’s Celebrated Ben Nevis is a NAS single Maltwhisky originally released as a recreation of the original 19th century recipe that made Ben Nevis famous. That means it is slightly smoky, as most whiskies were back then, even those from the Highlands and Speyside.

Meant to be a (numbered) limited edition, it proved popular (again) so it’s now part of the core range, though sometimes hard to find. Last year the presentation was brought in line with the rest of the range, in the typical dumpy bottle.

Macdonald’s Celebrated Ben Nevis (46%, OB +/- 2019)

Nose: sweet...

This bottle of Karuizawa is a marriage of some of the last remaining (sherry) casks from this distillery, distilled between 1972 and 1999 . Only two bottles exist: one bottle was donated to a charity auction for The BEN , another one will stay in the Elixir Distillers archive.

Karuizawa Ambassadors’ Collection 1972 – 1999 (59,1%, Elixir Distillers for The Ben, sherry casks, 2 btl.)

Nose: a whole room full of polished furniture, with scents of dark honey, menthol, moist tobacco, raspberries and cranberries. Hints of figs, black cherries and baked bananas. I’ve never been a big fan...

Balblair moved away from its vintage expressions in mars 2019 and launched a new core range with age statements.

We’ll have a look at their offering, starting at the bottom with the Balblair 12 Year Old . It is matured in ex-bourbon casks as well as double-fired American oak casks.

Balblair 12 yo (46%, OB 2018)

Nose: rather lightweight, fresh and bourbonny, with butter cream, lemon meringue and floral honey. Sweet vanilla cake (of course), pears and muesli. Subtle hints of peach yoghurt. Mouth: easy and harmless. Lots of sweet malty notes, grapes and citrus, vanilla cake again...

I was quite surprised to see two Littlemill bottlings in Germany earlier this year, but it turns out there’s more where that came from. Now Master of Malt released a Littlemill 1991 single cask expression.

Littlemill 27 yo 1991 (47,2%, Master of Malt 2018, bourbon barrel)

Nose: sweet, on melons, lime and pear, mixed with chalky touches and buttery vanilla. Typical notes of paraffin and carbon paper. Just a hint of banana bubblegum and almond paste. A little hay. Mouth: a great tropical fruitiness that comes close to some Irish whiskeys, with mango, guava,  and pink grapefruit. Almonds...

After it was relaunched and re-labeled in 2017, Ben Nevis was said to have difficulties sourcing enough casks for their excellent Ben Nevis 10 Year Old . There had been a general shortage already and the 10 was rumoured to contain quite a lot of older (+/- 18 year-old) casks bought back from brokers, which probably contributed to its lovely profile and instant praise.

Ben Nevis 10 Years relied mostly on refill casks, so to take away some pressure from this expression, they launched a limited edition Ben Nevis 10 Year Old Batch No.1 which was bottled from their stocks...

Brora 40 Year Old

Diageo will release a new Brora 40 Year Old celebrating the 200th anniversary of the distillery . It is a vatting of 12 American oak hogsheads from 1978 , bottled at 49.2% ABV. Only 1819 bottles will be available, reflecting the year of opening.

At around € 5000 this doesn’t come cheap, but interestingly it is cheaper than the Brora 40 Years released in 2014 which was around € 7500.

Brora is set to reopen next year – construction work is underway.

Karuizawa Ambassadors’ Collection

Elixir Distillers donated an exclusive bottle of Karuizawa Ambassadors’...

Earlier this year Glengoyne launched a new series of annual releases called The Legacy series , which would highlight different elements of the distillery heritage.

The Legacy Series: Chapter One is the first expression. It focuses on Cochrane Cartwright, the 19th century distillery manager who decided to focus on sherry casks for maturation and introduce the ‘slow’ distillation process, now two key elements for Glengoyne’s profile.

Chapter One is a mix of first-fill European oak Oloroso sherry casks and second-fill American oak casks. It is said to be composed with mostly 9-12 years old whisky . Quite light in colour,...