Svenska Eldvatten is an independent bottler in Sweden, run by Tommy Andersen and Peter Sjögren. Their bottlings (whisky and rum), with nice minimalist labels, have a decent reputation in Sweden and start getting noticed abroad.

Today we’re trying a 1979 single cask blend . That means the malt and grain components were blended at birth in november 1979, and matured together in a sherry butt for over 33 years.

Vintage 1979 – 33 yo blend (52,2%, Svenska Eldvatten 2013, 197 btl.)

Nose: very nuanced. Subtle plums and raisins, as well as some redcurrants / blueberries. Some nutty notes and...

Läs mer http://www.whiskynotes.be/2014/blends/svenska-eldvatten-1979/

Whisky-Doris is 11 years old – an event the shop is celebrating with this Anniversary Malt bottling. It’s a blended Maltwhisky, made up of one 2001 cask and some others that were significantly older. They were blended and then married for a couple of years in a refill sherry butt.

For what it’s worth, there have been similar bottlings (casks #113 and 114) that were said to contain Glenrothes, Tamdhu, Glengoyne and Glenfarclas.

11th Anniversary Malt
(45,1%, Whisky-Doris 2013, sherry butt #115, 595 btl.)

Nose: inviting scents. Lots of berries and stewed fruits. Yellow raisins and greengages. Tinned...

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Master of Malt / Maverick Drinks has a new sub-brand called Darkness! It’s a range of sherry finished whiskies, “sherry monsters” if you like.

To get this dark sherry profile, the whiskies are finished for three months in 50-litre Octave casks.

Some of them, like the Ardbeg 21yo PX or the Macallan 15yo PX , are actually not very dark at all, but they’re said to have taken over the typical sherry profile nonetheless. Of course it depends on the type of maturation it received before the finishing period.

We’ll start with the darkest of all, a ...

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Auchentoshan 15 yo 1998 (52,2%, Kintra 2014, bourbon hogshead #102347)

Nose: starts light and clean, citrusy with barley notes. Hay. Lowlands, right. Becomes creamier and sweeter after a while, with added notes of strawberries and pineapple candy. Hints of marshmallows. There’s also a dusty note, slightly grassy, with some smoky undertones. Mouth: sweetness up front (fruit jellies) but some grassy notes and lemon zest take over quite soon. Then some bitterness comes out as well as a certain herbalness. Ginger, aniseed and liquorice roots. Briny notes and stranger hints of rubber gloves as well. Finish: medium long, on apple...

Läs mer http://www.whiskynotes.be/2014/auchentoshan/auchentoshan-1998-kintra/

Beside the nog! gin , Asta Morris also has a new whisky coming up: an Imperial 1995 sourced from the Signatory stocks.

Imperial 18 yo 1995 (52,4%, Signatory Vintage for Asta Morris 2014, bourbon cask #50147)

Nose: nice entrance on aromatic orange peel, which unfolds towards tangerines and lime. Apples, mint. After a while also hints of marzipan and vanilla. Some honey. After some time it adds marshmallows and waxy notes as a bonus to an already convincing nose. Mouth: while you could say the nose showed a rather generic bourbonny Speyside profile, this definitely takes it up...

Läs mer http://www.whiskynotes.be/2014/imperial/imperial-1995-sv-50147-for-asta-morris/

Johnnie Walker Gold Label Reserve sits more or less in the middle of the Johnnie Walker range: after Red Label and Black Label it’s the first of the precious medals that represent the upper regions.

It used to be called Johnnie Walker Gold Label 18 Year Old , but the age statement was dropped when the Platinum Label was introduced (with the same age). Now they’ve added Reserve to the name – I guess there’s a marketing rule that every expression should have something unique. I’m afraid losing the age statement also means it has become younger?

The base malts for...

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Among the new releases from The Nectar of the Daily Drams , there is this Aultmore 2007 . A six years old bourbon cask with such an intense colour and so many red hues. A miracle?

Aultmore 6 yo 2007 (50,3%, The Nectar of the Daily Drams 2014, bourbon cask)

Nose: very aromatic, with some red berries (strawberries and redcurrant) and aromatic citrus (lime, bergamot). Aromatic and slightly bubblegummy. Cotton candy. Juicy malt. A lot of vanilla (marshmallows), leather and hints of white chocolate.  Traces of American bourbon indeed. Some pencil shavings as well. Very attractive and easy-drinking. Mouth:...

Läs mer http://www.whiskynotes.be/2014/aultmore/aultmore-2007-daily-dram/

Andrea Caminneci , a German of Italian descent, started a wine & spirits company in 2005 and became the importer of Glenglassaugh for Germany. As such, he managed to select and bottle many outstanding Glenglassaugh expressions, the 1972 cask #2896 for example.

His own series C&S Dram contains a long list of single cask whiskies from different distilleries. Recently a sub-series C&S Dram Exceptional was launched for special drams. It’s not surprising that the first release is a Glenglassaugh 1972 .

We don’t know the cask number, but the whisky was distilled 22nd of december 1972, which is the same...

Läs mer http://www.whiskynotes.be/2014/glenglassaugh/glenglassaugh-1972-cs-dram/

This Karuizawa 1971 cask #7267 was bottled exclusively for Taiwan. Although the Geisha label says ‘bottled 2012’ it didn’t hit the market until the summer of 2013. At the same time the Karuizawa 1977 cask #4010 was released.

Karuizawa 1971 (62,8%, OB for Taiwan 2012, cask #7267, 467 btl.)

Nose: quite stunning right from the start. These high-strength Karuizawas can be closed right after pouring, but this one is immediately expressive. Typical pipe tobacco and humidors but the fruity notes are really big as well. Strawberry jam, figs, ripe bananas. A fragrant peaches and faint hint of old Sauternes....

Läs mer http://www.whiskynotes.be/2014/japan-whisky/karuizawa-1971-cask-7267/

More bottlers are releasing middle-aged Ben Nevis, most of them in the 1995-1997 regions. This Ben Nevis 1997 is the latest release from Maltbarn .

Ben Nevis 16 yo 1997 (53,2%, Maltbarn 2013, bourbon barrel, 91 btl.)

Nose: I’m not exactly attracted. It shows overripe melon and brown banana… A tad musty. Soaked grains as well. Honey and burnt sugar. Hints of citrus peel. Wet hay, which evolves towards wet newspapers. Add some undefined savoury notes and a little linseed oil. A tad difficult to enjoy for me. Mouth: oily, with nicer notes now, cherries and strawberries up front....

Läs mer http://www.whiskynotes.be/2014/ben-nevis/ben-nevis-1997-maltbarn/

Sometimes I don’t really get the whisky market. Take this Glenfarclas 1980 for example. It was a single cask release bottled in 2002 for the Belgian market, so you’d think after 12 years it has become impossible to find. However a couple of weeks ago, it suddenly turned up in several stores in Belgium and The Netherlands. Did someone invest in a pallet of Glenfarclas and recently cashed in, or has Filliers cleared part of its forgotten stocks?

It was distilled 23rd of december 1980 – that’s the day before the various 1980 Christmas Editions.

Glenfarclas 21 yo 1980...

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When you see “undisclosed Speyside distillery”, a first guess is always Glenfarclas, so we’ll keep it at that. The Nameless One is 18 years old and bottled by The Whisky Mercenary .

‘The Nameless One’ 18 yo 1995 (46,8%, The Whisky Mercenary 2014, sherry cask)

Nose: the fruit cake / stewed fruits kind of sherry. Hints of apricot jam, juicy plums and baked apples. Gooseberries. Echoes of fruit eau-de-vie. A little vanilla and soft caramel. Buttercups as well – it’s a fairly fatty spirit. Mouth: fresh and fruity again. Orange juice, melons, hints of Pitahaya. There’s something exotic...

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There are now over 50.000 bottles of whisky in the Whiskybase database. They’ve celebrated this event by bottling a Burnside 1989 . Burnside, you ask? They are quite open about it, this 24 year-old whisky is actually Balvenie with a teaspoon of Glenfiddich added to it.

Burnside 24 yo 1989 (51,7%, Whiskybase 2014, barrel #12452, 207 btl.)

Nose: fruity with lots of beehive notes. Apples, kiwi juice, mirabelles. Floral honey and beeswax. Hints of marshmallows. A hint of fresh, minty oak as well. Fairly simple but I love this beehive profile. Mouth: again fruity and sweet. Pears on...

Läs mer http://www.whiskynotes.be/2014/balvenie/burnside-1989-whiskybase/

Cadeanhead’s Small Batch series seems to be a hit. They keep a nice balance of younger and older whiskies from a wide array of ditilleries. Some releases rapidly made a name for themselves.

Here’s a new Tomatin 1978 bottled for their Belgian importer The Nectar. We already saw a similar (general) release last year.

Tomatin 35 yo 1978 (46,5%, Cadenhead Small Batch for The Nectar 2014, hogshead, 216 btl.)

Nose: fruity. Hey, what did you expect? A slightly ‘greener’ fruitiness than most 1976’s though. A little more bubblegummy too, but really nice nonetheless. Oranges, stewed rhubarb and banana....

Läs mer http://www.whiskynotes.be/2014/tomatin/tomatin-1978-cadenhead-the-nectar/

What if… you took some quality gin, produced in Belgium, and finished it in a whisky cask? This is the concept behind the NOG! Gin which is set to be launched next week. The label calls it ‘whisky infused gin’.

NOG! stands for No Ordinary Gin , but nog also means more! in Dutch. After his whisky and rum releases, this is another brainchild of Bert ‘ Asta Morris ’ Bruyneel.

The first edition was finished in the cask that previously contained his Dalmore NAS whisky . We can already give away that there will be a second edition soon,...

Läs mer http://www.whiskynotes.be/2014/other-spirits/nog-gin-asta-morris-1/

Bowmore Small Batch was launched in maj 2012 as Small Batch Reserve , but last year it was renamed Small Batch. Originally a UK exclusive, it has recently started to pop up in other European countries as well.

It is entirely matured in first- and second-fill bourbon casks and supposedly the lightest, most delicate expression of Bowmore so far. It is vatted in limited quantities, although there doesn’t seem to be a mention of the batch number or the amount of bottles on the label.

Bowmore Small Batch is also one of two expressions that have now been reinvented into...

Läs mer http://www.whiskynotes.be/2014/bowmore/bowmore-small-batch-chocolate/

Massandra is the oldest winery in Crimea. It has been producing fine wines for more than 110 years and won international acclaim for its quality. The winery tends to mimic some of the greatest styles like Port, Tokay or Madeira. Moreover, they own one the largest collections of rare wines (over 1 million bottles), some of which were once in the collection of the Russian Tsars.

Back in 2012, Glenglassaugh released five old expressions, all finished in ex-wine casks from Massandra. One of them was a 33 year-old 1978 vintage finished in a “Madeira style” cask.

For a recent tasting...

Läs mer http://www.whiskynotes.be/2014/glenglassaugh/glenglassaugh-1978-madeira-finish/

Le Gus’t is the retailer and bottler in the South of France who also brought us a nice Glenfarclas 2003 last year. Its third release is this Glen Grant 1992 from the Signatory stocks and bottled in one of their Ibisco decanters.

Signatory Vintage already bottled other casks in the #554xx series, all distilled on the 22nd of april 1992.

Glen Grant 21 yo 1992
(52,6%, Signatory Vintage for Le Gus’t 2014, hogshead #55415, 274 btl.)

Nose: very aromatic and inviting. Sweet berry jam, red fruits and fresh figs. Some vanilla and brown sugar. Soaked raisins. Honey and...

Läs mer http://www.whiskynotes.be/2014/glen-grant/glen-grant-1992-legust/

A sherry matured Glen Grant 1992 (distilled in juni) and bottled in the newish Old Particular series from Douglas Laing . We’ve already tried nice bourbon matured 1992’s, let’s see whether they work as well in sherry butts.

Glen Grant 21 yo 1992
(51,5%, Douglas Laing Old Particular 2013, refill sherry butt, 374 btl.)

Nose: some unlit matchstick heads up front. Not too bad though, it evolves towards graphite and wood. Behind this, there are raisins and a tobacco / leather combination that works well. Spicy chocolate. Pears in brandy. Mouth: oily and peppery, then ginger and a dry...

Läs mer http://www.whiskynotes.be/2014/glen-grant/glen-grant-1992-dl-old-particular/

It’s just one year until the Arran 18 Year Old will be launched. It will form a trilogy with Arran 16 years and this Arran 17 years . It was matured in ex-sherry hogsheads and it is the oldest official release yet from this distillery (again).

Arran 17 years
(46%, OB 2014, 9000 btl.)

Nose: fresh and fruity like we’ve come to expect from The Arran. More stewed fruits this time and definitely more spices. A cider apple sourness too, especially the first few minutes. Settles on cut apples, berries, candied orange peel and a little honey but overall...

Läs mer http://www.whiskynotes.be/2014/arran/arran-17-years/