Whisky Troef is a whisky club from the north of Belgium, which also happens to be the region of Jürgen Vromans who is behind The Whisky Mercenary . Their latest club bottling is this Ben Nevis 1996 .

Ben Nevis 18 yo 1996 (50,9%, The Whisky Mercenary for Whisky Troef 2014, 100 btl.)

Nose: fairly light, but quite a lot happening right away. Starts on subtle grainy / grassy notes and youthful citrus, but evolves nicely towards slightly tropical fruits. Hints of guava and banana. Kiwi. Some rummy touches as well, nice. Typical waxy overtones. Mouth: immediately lemony, with...

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Cardhu 18 Years is different from the 12 Year Old in the fact that it was partly matured in sherry casks. Its price is relatively low compared to the limited edition Cardhu 21 Year Old released last year.

Cardhu 18 yo (40%, OB 2014)

Nose: in line with other Cardhu expressions. Pretty neutral that is. Vanilla fudge, sweet malt, apples and oranges. Hay. This time also nice roasted pineapple and dried flowers. Mouth: sweet and spicy, but in a slightly disjointed way. Fairly underpowered as well. Plenty of honey. Toffee and caramel. Vanilla biscuits. Chocolate, mocha and soft earthy...

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Glenmorangie likes to call The Taghta a ‘crowd-sourced’ whisky. Almost all of its characteristics (name, cask type, graphic identity…) were decided by its fans in online polls. An interesting concept, although you could ask how reliable it is for the general public to decide on things like a cask type – most will not have tasted the different options beforehand.

Glenmorange The Taghta is finished in Manzanilla sherry casks – an unusual choice for whisky maturation in general, and an unusual choice when coming from such a large panel. The Taghta means The Chosen .

...

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Läs mer http://www.whiskynotes.be/2015/auchentoshan/auchentoshan-1990-whisky-faessle-archives/

Whisky-Fässle and Whiskybase / Archives were already related in the sense that both bottlers / retailers were selling each others whiskies. They are regularly releasing similar casks and now they’ve even shared one, a 23 years old Auchentoshan 1990 .

I really like the way they also ‘exchanged’ labels. The Archives bottle features a duck while the Whisky-Fässle version has an exotic fish. The duck of Samoa, is it? Really nice guys.

Auchentoshan 23 yo 1990 (47,7%, Whisky-Fässle & Whiskybase 2014, hogshead #6850)

Nose: fresh and inviting yet not too clean. There’s a nice fruity side of oranges...

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The youngest member of the Early Flying series from The Whisky Agency is this Bunnahabhain 1990 .

Bunnahabhain 24 yo 1990
(48,3%, The Whisky Agency ‘Early flying’ 2014, refill hogshead, 190 btl.)

Nose: pine needles and mint, as well as some flinty notes and wet sand. Apple peelings. Sunflower oil and waxy notes. Hints of cigar boxes as well. Less honeyed than we would expect. majbe a few dried mushrooms in the background. Mouth: plenty of apple peelings again, hints of cider apples too. A slightly earthy profile, very natural with less fruity or rounded notes, just a...

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This Springbank 12 Years Old is nicknamed Green . It is made from naturally farmed barley, but as the distillery itself doesn’t have the right certificates, the resulting whisky can’t officially be called organic . Hence green.

It’s matured entirely in bourbon casks.

Springbank 12 yo ‘Green’ (46%, OB 2014, batch 14/488, 9000 btl.)

Nose: a true Springer, fresh, aromatic, with coastal and earthy undertones. majbe a little more peat than usual. Also white peaches, citrus and freshly cut green apple. Sweet vanilla cake. Soft pepper. Hints of wet stones. Far from austere though, it’s rather creamy and...

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The ever expanding list of Elements of Islay bottlings includes seven Caol Ila expression already. This is Cl7 , the latest release.

Originally sold by The Whisky Exchange , it’s found in plenty of whisky shops around Europe.

Caol Ila Cl7 (58,5%, Elements of Islay 2014, 50 cl)

Nose: a fairly expressive but also balanced nose. Medicinal notes, lots of coastal things (beaches, shells, hints of wet rope). On the other hand also soft hints of almond oil, sweetened lemon juice, even traces of butter biscuits and barley sugars. I tend to like ‘em like this. Mouth: certainly sharper...

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This Bunnahabhain 1980 in the Perfect Dram series says on the label Selected and approved by Master Taster F. Thomas . Does anyone know him?

There has been a whole series of Bunnas from this vintage, released over the last few years, mainly by German bottlers. I don’t recall any bad ones.

Bunnahabhain 34 yo 1980
(47,1%, The Perfect Dram 2014, refill sherry butt, 504 btl.)

Nose: nicely aromatic, with a deep, gentle fruitiness of apricot, melon and oranges. Gooseberries. Hints of honey and meadow flowers. It’s not just fruity though, there’s a coastal side to it, as...

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This is the third batch of Arran single malt bottled by That Boutique-y Whisky Company . The typical graphic-novel-style illustrations shows the artist, Emily Chapell, and a friend stranded on a desert island after a kayaking trip gone awry. Arran’s eagle and the Waverley ship (Glasgow – Arran) also play a part in it.

Arran batch #3
(51,5%, That Boutique-y Whisky Company 2014, 728 btl., 50 cl)

Nose: typical clean Arran, very citrusy (grapefruit, lemon) with hints of ginger. There’s also a slightly more earthy / roasted note in the back, think roasted malt and bread crust. Dried coconut...

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Bruichladdich says Port Charlotte Islay Barley is a milestone. Perhaps for the first time in the island’s history, a heavily-peated single malt has been distilled using Islay-grown barley.

The barley had been harvested in september 2008 from the farms at Coull, Kynagarry, Island, Rockside, Starchmill and Sunderland, peated to 40 PPM , then distilled in december of the same year and bottled towards the end of 2014.

Port Charlotte 2008 ‘Islay Barley’ (50%, OB 2014)

Nose: a salty and malty nose, with sweet liquorice and plenty of soot. Rather clean and elegant, rather rounded as well, compared to...

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Happy New Year to everyone! Best wishes for 2015.

We’ve had a succesful year on this website again. In terms of visitors, 2014 was at the same level as 2013, with over 2 million pageviews. However the last two months have been consistently record-breaking, with 15% more visitors than in the same period of 2013. That means more daily visitors than ever before, with significant increases from Germany, The Netherlands, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

GlenDronach is still the most popular distillery, with Ardbeg closely behind. When looking at specific pages / drams, the comparison of Johnnie Walker Red Label...

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We already tried this Linkwood 1984 at Spirits in the Sky in november, but it took us some time to get a second sample to confirm. It’s part of the latest Early flying series from The Whisky Agency .

Linkwood 30 yo 1984 (49,2%, The Whisky Agency ‘Early flying’ 2014, refill hogshead, 174 btl.)

Nose: smooth, fruity nose. Honeydew melon, apple and a bit of peach jam. Green banana. Whiffs of verbena. Buttercups. It’s quite complex but also quite compact. Old-style polished furniture. Hints of mint and leafy notes in the background. Mouth: smooth and fruity again, but...

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Spirit of Freedom 30 Year Old is a blend produced by J & A Mitchell (the owners of Springbank), to commemorate the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314.

It is composed of 75% Maltwhisky (from five distilleries) and 25% grain whisky – a mix of bourbon and sherry casks.

Spirit of Freedom 30 yo (46%, Springbank 2014, 2014 btl.)

Nose: herbal and floral at first. Heather honey. Becomes wider and sweeter, with nougat but also slightly exotic fruits (guava, banana). Nicely waxy, with some coconut oils. Mineral touches as well, it’s easy to detect...

Läs mer http://www.whiskynotes.be/2014/blends/spirit-of-freedom-30-years/

I try to get a wide variety of distilleries on this website, but Bunnahabhain is pretty much incontournable when talking about independent Islay releases. While most of the other Islay whiskies are hard to get for independent bottlers, Bunna is still readily available.

Asta Morris’ latest release is a Bunnahabhain 1987 .

Bunnahabhain 27 yo 1987
(50,8%, Asta Morris 2014, AM039, 124 btl.)

Nose: punchy and coastal, with some brine and various oily notes. Leathery notes. Grasses. There’s a vague aromatic sweetness in the background, but not enough to call it fruity. Well, grapefruit majbe. Soft mint and...

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Most of the Private Stock bottlings from The Whisky Agency go by pretty unnoticed, simply because they’re in high demand and yields are usually very low. This recent Glenrothes 1980 still seems to be available though.

Glenrothes 34 yo 1980
(48,5%, The Whisky Agency ‘Private Stock’ 2014, refill hogshead, 180 btl.)

Nose: a relatively light nose, starting on honey and almonds and slowly developing a nice fruit basket. Butter pear, nectarine, malon, freshly squeezed oranges, soft hints of guava. Subtle waxy notes too. Classic old Speyside. Mouth: rather sweet and fruity again, with apples, peaches, papaya and a little tangerine....

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Merry Christmas everyone!

Having another Ardbeg 1974 single cask is always a treat, but with only 76 bottles this is also one of the rarest 1974’s around. Cask 3328 was released for the Italian market in september 2006.

Ardbeg 32 yo 1974
(53,5%, OB for Italy 2006, bourbon cask #3328, 76 btl.)

Nose: starts a bit heavy and heady, it’s definitely not a softie. Sharp lemon zest, walnut skins and plenty of medicinal notes. Brings along some sweeter notes like sugared almonds, herbal honey and wax candles. Great evolution and even better with a drop of water: it becomes...

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Islay barley , from Bruichladdich’s own Lorgba field at the Octomore farm, was used to create this Octomore 06.3 . It was distilled in 2009 and bottled earlier this year.

A massive 258 ppm of phenols, that’s almost 100 ppm more than the fourth or fifth edition of this dram. The world’s most heavily peated whisky at the moment.

Octomore 06.3 ‘Islay Barley’ (64%, OB 2014, 258 ppm, 15.000 btl.)

Nose: surprisingly farmy, something that I didn’t get from previous releases. Wet animal fur, hay and wet leaves. I also get thyme and burnt heather. Hints of yeast....

Läs mer http://www.whiskynotes.be/2014/bruichladdich/octomore-06-3-islay-barley/

Remember the rather wonderful Irish single malt 1991 – The Nectar of the Daily Drams ? Belgo-Malaysian bottler Eiling Lim selected a similar cask.

It’s produced at the same distillery, from the same 1991 batch of casks. We’ve heard it was also double distilled (!) as well as being peated spirit. Peated Bushmills, almost.

I happen to have bottles of both, so I can compare them directly.

Irish single malt 22 yo 1991 (48,6%, Eiling Lim 2014, 116 btl.)

Nose: my first impression was a slightly bigger peatiness, but this levels out over time. This one is majbe slightly...

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This Inchgower 1975 was bottled in 2013 but it hasn’t been released by Maltbarn until just now. It’s a strategy we saw before from this bottler, avoiding the moment when everyone seems to launch them and selling it when it’s not available any more.

Inchgower 38 yo 1975 (47,3%, Maltbarn 2013, bourbon cask, 54 btl.)

Nose: starts waxy, with paraffin, linseed oil and polished oak, as well as some mint. Green apples, later also warmer fruits like melon, pear and pineapple. Soft passion fruits too. Hay. Subtle flowery notes. I love this kind of profile. Mouth: rather mellow and...

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