This is post number 3000 on WhiskyNotes. I’m also doing news posts but on the other hand head-to-head reviews as well, so I guess it’s actually the ‘approximately 3000th’ whisky I’m reviewing.

So, a Glenlivet 1961 bottled 30 years ago, one of these ‘licensed bottlings’ by Gordon & MacPhail . The Italian tax label indicated it has to be bottled before 1991, most sources claim it is late 1980s. One of the well-known sherry bombs from yesteryear.

Glenlivet 1961 (57%, Gordon & MacPhail late 1980s, George & J.G. Smith’s, Sestante import, dark sherry)

Nose: big, old, fat sherry....

Irish single malt , vintage 1989 , rum barrel … distilled in the oldest distillery of the island according to the bottler. That’s right, Bushmills .

Basically we’re dealing with the same batches of whiskey that have been bottled by Teeling, e.g. the 1989 cask #16231 (distillery exclusive) and cask #16230 (for Celtic Whisky Shop) and by other independent bottlers (e.g. cask #16244 for Speciality Drinks).

Irish Single Malt 29 yo 1989 (56,5%, Liquid Treasures ‘10th Anniversary’ 2019,  rum barrel, 127 btl.)

Nose: vanilla and spicy oak up front, with big hints of varnish. Then some peaches, bananas...

Springbank Local Barley 2019

Springbank will release a Springbank Local Barley 11 Year Old around november 2019. Made with Optic barley, matured in 75% bourbon casks and 25% sherry casks and bottled at cask strength (to be determined). People at the recent Springbank festival had a sneak preview.

This will be the fifth release. Originally it was announced as a series of five , so it could be the last bottling.

Port Askaig 25 Year Old // Port Askaig 45 Year Old

Elixir Distillers announced a Port Askaig 25 Year Old , a North American exclusive coming later...

Recently The Whisky Exchange and their buyer Dawn Davies MW presented their own rum classification . Rum is a very versatile drink with lots of different styles and production methods, making it difficult to communicate about rum as a retailer, and difficult to find your preferred style as a consumer.

So here’s a new TWE exclusive bottling: Foursquare Hereditas 14 Year Old produced in Barbados. It is a blend of pot- and column-distilled rum, making it a Single Traditional Blended rum in the new classification. Part of the parcel was matured entirely in bourbon-casks, the rest was given 10 years...

New Springbank releases are always followed argus-eyed. Master of Malt has recently bottled a 25 years old Springbank 1993 in their single cask series.

Springbank 25 yo 1993 (51%, Master of Malt 2018, bourbon hogshead)

Nose: a rather round profile with lots of cider apples and baked apples, paraffin and lemon peels. A little greengage jam and marzipan. Some beach pebbles and wet clothes. Plenty of mint. Hints of rhubarb tarts and candied ginger. Heathery notes in the background. Mouth: loads of cider apples with olive brine, zinging citrus zest and smoky malt, a beautiful mix. A little...

Ardmore , the gently peated and sometimes unusual alternative to Islay whisky, often priced more reasonably then the famous Islay counterparts.

Today we’re trying two Ardmore 1998 bottlings, both originating in Germany and with a surprisingly similar ABV. One is bottled by The Whisky Agency , the other by Mancarella .

Ardmore 20 yo 1998 (51,7%, The Whisky Agency 2018, hogshead)

Nose: porridge, leather, cold bonfire ashes and ink but also lots of fruity notes. Lime, gooseberries, tinned pineapple. Also a hint of old turpentine. Camphor and menthol after a while. Nice style. Mouth: an oily texture, with...

Granville , you say? Indeed a growing number of distilleries are preventing independent bottlers to put the actual name on the label. All these recent ‘Orkney’ bottlings are a good example and apparently this cannot be disclosed either. However the fact that the old Clynelish distillery was founded by George Granville Levison should give us a clue.

It’s 22 years old bottling by Maltbarn .

Granville 22 yo 1996 (51,9%, Maltbarn 2019, sherry cask, 177 btl.)

Nose: nice juicy sherry, and I’m pleased to see that the original grassy and waxy Clynelish character is still loud and clear....

Laphroaig 16 Year Old

A re-release perhaps, but the Laphroaig 16 Year Old is coming back. It was already available in travel retail in 2015 , celebrating the 200th anniversary of the distillery, and now it will be a wide-scale release. While the previous 16 was not particularly great, this time it is bottled at 48% ABV this time (well done).

The Macallan Estate

A new limited edition The Macallan Estate will be available from juli 2019. It is made with home-grown barley from the Easter Elchies estate, which is distilled only once a year over seven days,...

According to the label this is unblended triple-distilled Campbeltown whisky , which leads us to Hazelburn production at Springbank distillery (around 10% of their total output).

The second Whisky Sponge release after the excellent Glen Moray 1981 .

Campbeltown 21 yo 1997 (55%, Whisky Sponge 2019, bourbon barrel, 178 btl.)

Nose: a fresh, citric spirit with traces of Springbank. That means gravelly notes, chalk and a hint of aspirin but also more fruity notes. Lime, grapefruit, evolving towards pineapple and coconut cream. Light floral touches as well. Mouth: same fruity core (this time bananas, peaches, sweet grapefruits and...

I bought a sample of this Tobermory long ago, with the information that it would be a late 1970s bottling . However the history of the distillery was quite irregular at that time – in fact the distillery had been inactive for most parts of its life since the foundation in 1798.

Since 1930 Tobermory was closed and reopened several times and was only operational between 1972-1975 (as Ledaig, partly owned by sherry bodegas Domecq), 1979-1981 (Tobermory), and then again from 1989 (under Burn Stewart). This leaves me a bit puzzled as to when this bottle was released exactly, but...

I have one sample left from the Signatory Vintage 30th Anniversary series (the first series bottled in the summer of 2018): the Port Ellen 1982 . Nowadays a rare occasion to try an expression from this lost distillery.

Port Ellen 35 yo 1982 (55,1%, Signatory Vintage ‘30th Anniversary’ 2018, refill sherry butt #2040, 567 btl.)

Nose: Port Ellen alright. The delicate but meticulously balanced profile that combines wet chalk, shellfish, carbolineum, diesel, Kalamata olives and the best mezcal notes but on the other hand also fruity notes like peaches and yellow plums, honey and lime. Herbal touches. Great...

A rather recent release from That Boutique-y Whisky Company , this Glengoyne 19 Year Old . Matured in sherry wood (nothing else at the distillery) and based on the colour I would that must have been refill casks.

Glengoyne 19 yo (50,9%, That Boutique-y Whisky Company 2019, Batch #2, 1009 btl.)

Nose: starts with panettone, golden raisins and nutty notes (walnuts, almonds). Bright fruits in the background. Yellow plums and juicy mirabelles, Rainier cherries, citrus, plenty of honey as well. Hints of apricot pastry. A light bourbonny (leathery) touch as well. Nice. Mouth: more naked now, with malty...

The Whisky Exchange has a history of excellent joint bottlings with The Whisky Agency ( this and this are two of my favourites) and now they have a new one.

A Glen Moray 1990 , 28 years of age. No mention of a cask type at all, which is uncommon for this bottler.

Glen Moray 28 yo 1990 (51,4%, The Whisky Agency for The Whisky Exchange 2018)

Nose: a waxy and fruity profile that reminds us of the 1970s. Juicy yellow apples, apricots and banana ice cream, nice! Hints of beeswax, lipstick (old Ben Nevis comes to mind)...

This Arran 2006 is a 12 years old Private Cask bottling for The Single Maltwhisky Shop in Zammel, Belgium.

It is a sherry hogshead , selected in november 2018 during Lucie Stroesser’s final Arran tasting. She resigned as an Arran ambassador and went back to her homeland France a while ago, but she brought a few cask samples to this tasting.

Arran 12 yo 2006 (53,6%, OB Private Cask for Whisky Shop Zammel, sherry hogshead #800463, 315 btl.)

Nose: a nice mix of red fruit candy (raspberry, strawberry), rhubarb jam and raisins, as well as a light...

A new release in the dumpy bottles (which means 30+ years old in the Connoisseurs Choice range): Mortlach 1988 from a refill sherry hogshead. As good as the previous Mortlach from Gordon & MacPhail ? Let’s hope so.

Mortlach 30 yo 1988 (48,8%, Gordon & MacPhail ‘Connoisseurs Choice’ 2018, refill American oak sherry hogshead #4839, 129 btl.)

Nose: intriguing mix of subtle fruits (overripe melon and apples, a little redcurrant), flowers (freesia), lemon meringue and linseed oil. Whiffs of damp chalk. Beehive notes. Crushed leaves, bits of moss…  Mouth: quite punchy, with honey and something vaguely fruity, but...

That Boutique-y Whisky Company has a series of blended malts , numbered according to their recipe.

In this case they say it’s a teaspooned malt , a single malt to which a small amount of Maltwhisky from another distillery is added. Let’s dive in and check it out.

Blended Malt No.1 18 yo (47,3%, That Boutique-y Whisky Co. 2018, Batch #3, 1049 btl.)

Nose: bright and fruity in a slightly Irish way. Juicy pears, nectarines, unripe greengages. Floral honey, as well as honeysuckle. Meadows in spring. Fresh and attractive like a lemonade. Mouth: simple pleasures. All on...

The third edition of Octomore 10 Year Old . Whisky distilled from Scottish grown Optic barley, matured in different casks:

• 37% first-fill Port pipes
• 31% first-fill Cognac barrels
• 20% second-fill bourbon barrels
• 12% matured consecutively in first-fill American barrels (3 years), virgin oak (2 years) and second-fill American whiskey barrels (6 years)

Octomore 10 yo 2008 (56,8%, OB 2018, 3rd edition, 167 ppm, 12.000 btl.)

Nose: rich and powerful. Sweet tobacco with campfire ashes, tarry ropes and shoe polish. Behind this there are vanilla biscuits, chamois leather and sweetened black tea. Plenty of oats. Stewed apples and hints...

The second installment of the Johnnie Walker Blue Label Ghost & Rare series, this time composed around Port Ellen .

Of course the amount of Port Ellen that went into this is small. In an interview Jim Beveridge said they only added the level necessary to make the blend smoky, and anyone who know smokiness in blends know that you don’t need a lot of smoke in there to have that overt smokiness.

Anwyay this Ghost & Rare release includes Port Ellen but also grain whisky from the ‘ghost distilleries’ Caledonian and Carsebridge , as well as whisky from Mortlach,...

Ardbeg 19 Years Traigh Bhan

Ardbeg is working on a new 19 year-old expression called Ardbeg Traigh Bhan , named after a beach on Islay. It is matured in American oak and Oloroso sherry casks and bottled at 46.2% ABV. Expect smoky pineapple and chilli chocolate . Expect a high price as well, I guess.

Benromach Heritage 1972 / Benromach Heritage 1977

With the previous Benromach 1978 still on the shelves, two new vintage releases are announced:

• Benromach Heritage 1972 cask #4471 , 46yo, 55.7% ABV, 75 bottles, around € 1750 each. Already available from The Whisky Barrel...

You don’t get too many Ardmore bottlings matured in sherry casks, I suppose Asta Morris must have bought it as young spirit and decided to go for a sherry cask himself.

This is just 5 years old . When asked about the young age of this whisky, Bert simply answered because it wouldn’t make sense to age it longer and that’s probably the only right answer. Looking at the colour this must have been a very active (deeply charred?) cask.

Ardmore 5 yo 2013 (56,4%, Asta Morris 2019, sherry butt, 211 btl.)

Nose: lots of dark candy sugar,...