The Whisky Mercenary already released a Glenlossie 1992 in 2012 . At the end of 2014 he released a similar expression selected by BYOB-C , which stands for Bring your own bottle club , a newish Belgian whisky club.

Glenlossie 22 yo 1992 (48,2%, The Whisky Mercenary for BYOB-C 2014, 48 btl.)

Nose: aromatic with a firm fruity base (pears, gooseberries, melons). Touches of vanilla, mint and fresh grass. Soft waxy notes. Clean and easy, all fine. Mouth: apples, pears, majbe a little more citrus now. Still very fruity, with an underlying fructose sweetness. Soft spices (ginger, pepper) which...

We have too little Blackadder whiskies on this website, I guess. This label by Robin Tucek has a pretty good reputation, but somehow it manages to stay out of my focus.

This Bunnahabhain 1987 was distilled november 1987 and bottled maj 2014. Plenty of similar casks in the 24xx-25xx range have been bottled in the past couple of years.

Bunnahabhain 26 yo 1987 (61,7%, Blackadder Raw Cask 2014, hogshead #2488, 192 btl.)

Nose: some estery notes at first, moving towards garden fruits and oranges as well as some golden raisins. Polished oak. Honey and cinnamon buns. Unfolds nicely,...

New Cragganmore expressions rarely hit the market (the last one was four years ago already, not counting the yearly Cragganmore Distillers Edition ). This makes it even nicer to find it amongst Diageo’s Special Releases .

Cragganmore 25 Year Old was distilled in 1988 and aged in refill American oak casks.

Cragganmore 25 yo 1988 (51,4%, OB 2014, refill American oak, 3372 btl.)

Nose: sweet with lots of vanilla, heather honey and hints of honeydew melons. Nice bits of dried mango. The fruitiness is balanced (or muted if you like) by green, spicy oak and liquorice. Soft buttery...

Mackmyra Midnattssol was the second release in a new limited range that takes over from the Mackmyra Special series. The series is based on the seasons . Midnattssol means Midnight Sun and represents the summer. Recently it was followed up by Mackmyra Iskristall , the winter edition.

The Swedish distillery produced this expression from a combination of American and Swedish oak casks that previously held sherry and bourbon. About half of the final composition was then finished for about five months in casks that contained Swedish wine made from birch sap . Mackmyra doesn’t mention an age statement but it’s...

The Whisky Exchange  has just released a single cask  Millstone , produced at the Dutch Zuidam distillery. Founded in 1975, they have been producing single Maltwhisky since 2007, with some peated examples, finished malts and rye whiskies.

This one is produced from rye grain milled by Dutch windmills, distilled in januari 2004 in small pot stills and matured for over 10 years in a new American oak cask.

They say Sukhinder likes this whisky so much that he keeps pinching the sample bottle…

Millstone rye 10 yo 2004 (58,6%, OB for The Whisky Exchange 2014, cask #667, 245 btl.)...

Two sister casks, I presume. Both Maltbarn and Whiskybase / Archives recently presented a Dailuaine 1996 . Or majbe they shared the cask, who knows? After all hogsheads usually contain around 250-300 bottles. In any case similar casks have been bottled by Dewar Rattray for instance.

Dailuaine 18 yo 1996 (48,7%, Maltbarn 2014, bourbon cask, 158 btl.)

Nose: lemon candy and lime, pears and floral honey. Sweet banana ice cream and white grape juice. After that, warmer notes of almond and vanilla cream. It’s quite a sweety but it’s countered by some ginger and a little wax. Mouth:...

So far 1995 has been one of the least available vintages of GlenDronach . The Whisky Agency recently selected cask #4408 , an Oloroso puncheon.

GlenDronach 18 yo 1995 (52,2%, OB for The Whisky Agency 2014, Oloroso puncheon #4408, 740 btl.)

Nose: different in the sense that it seems drier, oakier in a way than comparable expressions. Wet leaves and hints of a damp, plastered cellar. Nice enough though. A few citrusy side and lots of berries. Raspberry sweets in the background. Mint. Mouth: much sweeter and definitely more candied now. Raspberry and strawberry candy, a little pink...

Michter’s is a brand name owned by Joe Magliocco of Chatham Imports.

They’re a “non-distiller”, which means they buy bulk whiskey produced at an undisclosed distillery (some say Kentucky Bourbon Distillers or Brown-Forman, majbe others as well) and bottle it under the Michter’s label.

Original Michter’s vs. New Michter’s

Mind that the Michter’s brand is much older. The famous bourbon A.H. Hirsch 16 Years (the best bourbon ever, according to some, distilled in the Spring of 1974) was also produced by a distillery named Michter’s. It was founded in 1753 (as Bomberger’s ) in Schaefferstown, Pennsylvania and it closed down...

The Glenrothes Sherry Cask Reserve is the first release from this distillery to be matured entirely in first-fill sherry casks - predominantly European oak. Unlike most of the others, it doesn’t have a vintage indication, nor an age statement.

Glenrothes, and the rest of the Edrington distilleries like The Macallan and Highland Park , have more or less a monopoly on new European oak casks, produced to their standards in Jerez from oak that is being cut in Galicia in the North of Spain.

Glenrothes Sherry Cask Reserve (40%, OB 2014)

Nose: raisins and plenty of all-spice /...

James MacArthur is a Scottish independent bottler established in 1982. Although the original aim of the Old Masters series was to present casks from little-known or lost distilleries, this concept has been widened a little.

We’re trying a Macallan 1980 bottled in 2001. Although the label doesn’t mention the cask type, a sister cask #16447 was bottled by Jack Wiebers in 2010 and that was said to be a sherry butt.

Macallan 1980 (57,8%, James Mac Arthur Old Master’s 2001, cask #16457)

Nose: lots of yellow (slightly overripe) apples, mixed with dusty grains and old books. Quite some...

In april 2014 Diageo relaunched Mortlach . Until then, official bottlings were quite rare but that changed with the release of four new expressions at once: Mortlach Rare Old , a travel retail exclusive Special Strength , Mortlach 18 Years and Mortlach 25 Years .

In marketing terms, Mortlach is positioned as a luxury brand, but not super-premium. That is reflected in nice, uncommonly shaped bottles. Mind that they are only 50 cl , which makes prices seem 40% more reasonable than they actually are.

The distillery, noted for its unusual almost-triple distillation style and meaty character,...