Abbey Whisky is a Scottish whisky retailer founded in 2008. They focus on rare, collectable and old whisky and they’re also working on two series of own bottlings: The Rare Casks (with limited edition single malts) and The Secret Casks (a trio of undisclosed 30yo, 40yo and 50yo Speyside whiskies).

One of their latest releases is this Glencadam 1991 .

Glencadam 22 yo 1991
(55,3%, Abbey Whisky ‘The Rare Casks’ 2014, refill bourbon cask, 96 btl.)

Nose: very fruity and aromatic. Lots of meadow flowers. Barley sugars and juicy plums. Frosted cereals, warm vanilla, with hints of marshmallows, but...

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Mortlach  is a distillery that I can’t really get to grips with. Differences between ages, casks and profiles tend to be big, which makes it difficult to say “I like Mortlach” or “I don’t like Mortlach”.

I don’t like the heavy, meaty, sometimes sulphury sherry matured Mortlach, but recent ex-bourbon releases are much brighter and more to my liking. Let’s see what this Mortlach 1996 from Sansibar whisky is like.

Mortlach 18 yo 1996 (51,2%, Sansibar 2014, bourbon cask, 186 btl.)

Nose: rich and sweet. Lots of juicy gooseberries, apples and orange peel. Also a nice (cooked) banana...

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There are all kinds of special variation on the blended whisky The Famous Grouse . Some are limited, some are parts of the core range. There’s The Snow Grouse (blended grain designed to be drunk chilled), The Black Grouse (a slightly smokier version), The Naked Grouse (sherried deluxe version), The Famous Vanilla , etc.

The Black Grouse ‘Alpha Edition’ is intended to be an even richer, smokier version of the already smoky The Black Grouse. It still contains the original base malts (Glenturret, Macallan, Highland Park) but it revolves more around peated Islay whiskies as well. Originally a travel retail...

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We’re always keen to try old Ben Nevis , and the German bottler Alambic Classique has a reputation for having bottled some of the best expressions.

This is one of the latest (and probably last) bottlings: Ben Nevis 1966 cask #3640 .

Ben Nevis 47 yo 1966 (45,9%, OB for Alambic Classique 2013, sherry cask #3640, 128 btl.)

Nose: I love this profile. It’s fully oaked, in a very nice way, and really smooth. Furniture polish and old leather. Trademark bananas and beeswax. Coconut oil which makes it slightly tropical. Hints of lipstick. Darker fruits as well (plums, black...

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As a yearly tradition, Ardbeg releases a new limited expression for Ardbeg Day . This year, the result is Ardbeg Auriverdes .Its name is inspired by Brazil: Auri means golden (the liquid) and verde is green (the bottle). I really, really don’t care for these kind of half-baked marketing tricks – come on, Ardbeg tied in with a World Cup – why?

Ardbeg Auriverdes is a ‘designer whisky’. It has been distilled in 2002 and matured in second fill American oak casks, with custom toasted lids. Ardbeg has done some pretty successful experiments with toasted oak before (think of Ardbeg...

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Another Glen Garioch – 1992 this time. Bottled just now, as part of the new Liquid Library series.

Glen Garioch 21 yo 1992 (51,6%, Liquid Library 2014, refill hogshead, 227 btl.)

Nose: again a rounder version, with tangerines, lemon liqueur and honey. Light vanilla (orange cake) and almonds. Grassy notes in the margin, a few mineral touches and metal polish. Mouth: oranges again, then darker notes (toffee, caramel), moving towards burnt toast. majbe peat? Candied ginger as well. Pear jelly beans. And back to more austere notes, rooty notes and zesty grapefruit. Interesting combination. Finish: medium long, partly sweet,...

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Glen Garioch 22 yo 1991 (52,9%, Whisky-Doris 2013, bourbon hogshead #5754, 259 btl.)

Nose: a rather rounder version than other 1991 casks I could try. Buttercups, honey and vanilla. Some coconut cream. Nice oranges and pineapple. Marzipan. Soft herbs in the background. A faint hint of metal polish as well, which works nicely on the fruity backbone. majbe a hint of eucalyptus. Mouth: much spicier now (pepper, nutmeg), with more (green) oak. Less exotic fruits – just apple now. Becomes more earthy and zesty, with bittersweet elements. Finish: medium long, still bittersweet with some briny echoes.

The Glen Gariochs...

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Not all new Archives releases have crab labels. It seems the fishes of Samoa series is still getting new expressions as well. Here’s the new Glen Spey 1988 .

Glen Spey 25 yo 1988 (47,3%, Archives 2014, bourbon hogshead #356079, 163 btl.)

Nose: very fruity, with melon and papaya, and hints of icing sugar. Sweet apple, tangerine and peach. A bourbonny hint of oak. Orange peel. Marzipan. It’s not all sweetness, it’s balanced by soft grassy notes. Mouth: sweet and creamy. Still some citrus but the fruitiness is less pronounced. It shows more of a custard sweetness. Cinnamon...

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Another new release from the  Mollusc and Medusa series by The Whisky Agency . This bottle holds a 33 years old blended malt , with all components distilled in 1980 . Interesting.

Blended Malt 33 yo 1980 (45,8%, The Whisky Agency 2014, refill butt, 636 btl.)

Nose: sweet and sour fruitiness. Inviting red berries and stewed fruits. Sour oranges and plums. Williams pears. Soft floral notes and hints of vanilla. Faint tobacco as well as a little green tea. Mouth: a similar kind of fruitiness, fruit teas, this time mixed with more woody notes. Mint and soft sherry...

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Jura Tastival was created for the Jura Whisky Festival 2014 . They followed an interesting recipe. After an initial maturation in ex-bourbon American oak barrels, no less than six varieties of French oak were used to finish it (oak produced in the regions of Jupilles, Bertanges, Limousin, Tronçais, Allier and Vosges). Kind of a terroir study in French oak.

It’s a limited edition of 3000 bottles. I suppose the majority will have been sold at the festival, but some have started to arrive in stores across Europe.

Isle of Jura Tastival (44%, OB 2014, French oak finish, 3000...

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Mollusc and Medusa , that’s the name of the latest series from The Whisky Agency . As always, the labels are bold, colourful and classy.

One of the bottlings is a Bowmore 2002 . The other releases include a BenRiach 1991, Bunnahabhain 1987, Glenturret 1977 and a Blended Malt 1980.

Bowmore 12 yo 2002 (53,2%, The Whisky Agency 2014, refill hogshead, 348 btl.)

Nose: clean, smoky but also quite fruity. Apples and blood orange, tinned pineapple, youngish pear, majbe litchi and a bit of honey sweetness. The peat smoke sits below, or in between, all these fruits. Of...

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This Port Ellen 1983 is one of the new releases from Maltbarn, presented at The Whisky Fair in Limburg, yet it was bottled back in 2012.

Port Ellen is virtually impossible to get these days, especially for independent bottlers. majbe this was a leftover or ‘lost stock’, or majbe Martin Diekmann already bought them some time ago and decided to wait a while before bringing them to the market.

Port Ellen 29 yo 1983 (52%, Maltbarn 2012, bourbon cask, 86 btl.)

Nose: very pure, with classic notes of linseed oil and walnuts. Tarry ropes, wet stones, a bit of...

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New Archives releases have arrived. After the fishes of Samoa , the label of this Littlemill 1988 is adorned with another sea creature, some kind of crab. The series is called Voyage dans l’Amérique Méridionale .

Littlemill 25 yo 1988 (51,9%, Archives 2014, bourbon hogshead #12, 134 btl.)

Nose: starts on the grassier side of Littlemill, with a bit of oak dust and chalk. The some waxy and grainy notes before moving to fruits. Red apples. Peaches and green banana. Hints of limoncello. After a while, a nice soft strawberry note and vanilla. Mouth: quite typical again. This...

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In the upper regions of the Johnnie Walker range, this Platinum Label is the only one to have an age statement: all of its components are 18 years old .

It sits just under the most expensive Johnnie Walker Blue Label and above the Gold Label Reserve, which has now lost its previous 18yo statement and seems to be discontinued altogether in some countries. Not sure how the marketing guys explain all this shifting around, to me it all seems confusing…

Johnnie Walker 18 yo Platinum Label
(40%, OB 2013)

Nose: subtle, as you would expect from 40%, but...

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I don’t know about you, but I’m not willing to spend today’s prices for new Port Ellen releases… easily € 600 even from independent bottlers. No matter how rare they now are, that’s well above my personal limit.

Luckily we have a small stock hidden away, bought in better times. Like this one, a Port Ellen 1982 single cask bottled by Douglas Laing for The Nectar in 2009.

Port Ellen 26 yo 1982 (56,2%, Douglas Laing OMC for Daily Dram 2009, refill hogshead, ref. 4900, 193 btl.)

Nose: quite vibrant. One of these Port Ellens that strike a nice...

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Diurachs are the inhabitants of the Isle of Jura – their symbol is stamped on the bottle. Like the people, the whisky is said to have a strong character.

Most official Jura releases now have a nickname. Jura 10 Year Old is Jura Origin . The limited 12 Year Old is called Jura Elixir . The peated versions are Superstition and Prophecy . Jura Duirach’s Own is the 16 Year Old.

Jura Diurach’s Own is first matured in American white oak and spends the last two years in Oloroso sherry casks ( Amoroso actually). We’re trying the European version at...

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This Ardbeg 21yo was finished for three months in a tiny 50 litre Pedro Ximénez cask. It’s part of the Darkness! series by Master of Malt, but… well… it isn’t dark at all. They say it has taken over the dark character of the sherry cask though. Another funny thing is the low ABV – I suppose it’s cask strength, which probably means the cask had to be emptied due to exceptional angel’s share?

Darkness! Ardbeg 21 yo (40,1%, Master of Malt 2014, P.X. finish, 50 cl.)

Nose: majbe not a classic sherry influence, but rather a deep sweetness coating the usual...

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This is one of the festival bottlings of the The Whisky Fair 2014  held in Limburg, Germany last weekend. It is a peated Isle of Jura 1989 bottled by Signatory Vintage . It comes in two strengths.

Isle of Jura 1989 (58,8%, Signatory Vintage for Whisky Fair 2014)

Nose: the peat isn’t too heavy, which also means complexity is high. Sooty notes, wet newspaper, also quite a lot of coastal notes. Olive juice, kelp, a little iodine… Soft earthy notes and grass. Ginger. After a while, some creamier notes emerge, really nice ones like ripe gooseberries and strawberries. Toffee...

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Springbank 21 Year Old is a classic, and we were quite fond of the bling-bling re-release introduced in 2011. It has been a yearly bottling since then and we’re now trying the latest 2013 edition .

Springbank’s warehouses only contain a few casks of 20 years or older. No matter what cask in was in before, all of these 20+ casks are reracked into sherry casks, in order to have the required profile of the 21 Year Old.

Springbank 21 yo (46%, OB 2013, 1680 btl.)

Nose: quite subtle, with more fruity notes than obvious sherry. Pears and...

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With an average score of just 45 points, this Edradour 1968 bottled by Signatory Vintage in 1990 is among the lowest rated whiskies on the Malt Maniacs Monitor.

In any case, it is one of the only 1960’s single malt expressions from this distillery.

Edradour 21 yo 1968 (46%, Signatory Vintage 1990, cask #1990-1994, 1300 btl.)

Nose: well yes, a bit weird, but not foul or anything. Malty notes and something metallic. Vegetal oils. Hay and dried flowers. majbe a little plastic. Mouth: totally wrecked now. Holds the middle between a jawbreaker candy aroma, parma violets, lavender soap, cologne...

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