Cadenhead has a nice revival with its retro Small Batch series. They’ve got stock from 102 different distilleries, ranging from 2 to nearly 50 years old. They have plenty of things in the pipeline, like a 40 years old Glenfiddich…

Mortlach 21 yo 1992 (55,2%, Cadenhead Small Batch 2013, sherry cask, 228 btl.)

Nose: the fruity kind of sherried Mortlach. Pears, raisins, fresh figs. Candied red apples. Caramelized peanuts and almonds. There’s a spicy tingle as well as a balsamic edge. Milk chocolate in the background. Leather. Hardly any meaty notes, no dirtiness either. Mouth: now the slightly...

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The regular Sheep Dip is a vatted malt, a marriage of 16 malt whiskies brought together by Richard Paterson. The name refers to a time when farmers hid their homemade whisky in casks that said “Sheep Dip” (a kind of fungicide for sheep) to avoid having to pay taxes to the revenue man.

This Sheep Dip 1999 Amoroso is a funny experiment. The whisky inside had been matured in Scotland for 3 years in ex-bourbon hogsheads, and was then shipped to Jerez, Spain – the capital of the Sherry triangle . The renowned Bodegas Romate poured it into Amoroso sherry...

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This post has only one purpose: I bought a bottle of this Talisker 25 Year Old back in 2007 (when prices still allowed you to buy a blind bottle once in a while) and I’ve never got the chance to taste it. Now I had a chance to buy a sample and find out if it was a smart purchase. Thanks Jeroen.

Talisker 25 Year Old is a classic and in 2006 it was still bottled at cask strength, whereas the latest version (bottled 2011) was brought down to Talisker’s traditional strength of 45,8%. It was matured in refill American...

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Official Highland Park releases tend to be sherry matured, but independent bottlers like Gordon & MacPhail manage to show bourbon oak version as well. Today a 2001 vintage in the recently redesigned Cask Strength series.

Highland Park 10 yo 2001 (57,7%, Gordon & MacPhail 2012, first fill bourbon barrel #2998)

Nose: juicy barley notes, lots of pear drops and vanilla. Akin towards tropical fruits, with a fresh floral note as well. Rather candied, modern, bright and fairly simple. A shy smoky note in the background. Mouth: sweet and fruity at first, but a toffee sweetness and a Starbucks...

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Glenturret , beside being the spiritual home of Famous Grouse, is known for mashing its grist by hand and for having some of the longest fermentation times, over 100 hours.

The distillery has only one official bottling, a 10 years old (which used to be a 12 years old). Now they’ve worked with Hunter Laing to create a kind of semi-official “licensed bottling”. It’s a Glenturret 1986 , 26 years old and bottled entirely from bourbon casks, selected by Master Distiller Gordon Motion.

The Glenturret 26 yo 1986
(46,8%, Hunter Laing 2013, refill bourbon casks, 2400 btl.)

Nose: in...

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Whiskybroker is a rather small company started by Martin Armstrong , the son of Bladnoch’s Raymond Armstrong. He seem to be doing well, regularly bottling interesting whiskies and always under the market value. Whether or not selling under the market value is a good thing is prone to discussion, but a lot of aficionados are happy to find such good value in days of price levels set by marketing departments.

This Macallan 1990 is a quirky little whisky. Except, it’s not whisky. It only contains 34,9% of alcohol so it’s technically underproof “spirit”. Probably a leaking cask.

Macallan...

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Here’s another one of these wonderful Karuizawa expressions bottled for Taiwan. Karuizawa 1984 with one of these Geisha labels. Thanks again, my Taiwanese friend!

P9 is a wine and liquor store in the Shillin district of Taipei. They are well known for their whisky range and occasionally they have exclusive bottlings.

Karuizawa 28 yo 1984 (58%, OB for P9.com.tw 2012, sherry butt #3186, 540 btl.)

Nose: great fruity notes with a layer of varnish / glue and menthol. Redcurrant and cherry jam, raspberry jelly, fresh figs, also hints of balsamic vinegar. Dried apricot. Cedar oak as well as hints...

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Not too long ago we wrote that the Thosop handwritten series received a final 19th release, a Tomatin 1976 , only available for collectors who had already bought the complete series before.

On a tasting for these collectors, organised by Luc Timmermans , yet another addition to the series was presented, an ‘underground’ Port Ellen 1978. Only 6 bottles exist of this whisky, which was actually ‘lost stock’ that never reached its distributor (just like the Tomatin). We will probably never know where this came from, but apparentely it was bottled in 2005 and now relabeled.

Just 1 of these...

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Kintra is regularly bottling casks without telling us what is really is. While the contents remains confidential, most of our sources claim it’s a “teaspooned” Balvenie . A very small amount of another whisky is added, in this case probably from the neighbouring Glenfiddich distillery. Technically not a single malt, but close enough.

4th Confidential Cask, 20 yo 1993 (50,3%, Kintra 2013, bourbon hogshead #1791, 295 btl.)

Nose: quite a modern, oak-driven profile (vanilla galore). A lot of biscuity notes with garden fruits like green apples and pears. Hints of flower honey and orange blossom. Pepper and ginger....

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Douglas Laing seems to have bought quite a few Isle of Jura 2003 casks and they’ve started to bottle them. There were at least 2 or 3 similar releases in 2013.

Jura 9 yo 2003 (46%, Douglas Laing Provenance 2013, ref. 9305)

Nose: gristy, grainy and peaty. It’s really young spirit, with newmakeish notes of pear drops, porridge and spearmint bubblegum. That doesn’t mean it’s bad – there’s a nice oiliness to it and a pleasant dustiness. Hints of walnut husks. Mouth: very sugary. It’s fairly rounded, with vanilla, honey and cinnamon sweets. Peaty notes, some iodine. Unfortunately...

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The youngest from the Age Matters series by The Whiskyman . Fifteen years old  Ledaig 1997 .

Ledaig 15 yo 1997 (51,9%, The Whiskyman ‘Age Matters’ 2013)

Nose: what the… There are a few aromas that I usually don’t appreciate in whisky. Dirtbin odours, rubber, porridge with milk… This one has them all. It’s buttery, peaty and quite raw, almost industrial. There are hints of wet things: hay, leaves, sheep… Then some brighter fruity notes, but only in the background. It’s not exactly a gentleman, but I admit, it possesses an authenticity and a certain beauty. In the same way Permeke’s lying...

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Dun Eideann is a sublabel of Signatory Vintage, the independent bottler founded by Andrew and Brian Symington in 1988. Dun Eideann was primarily intended for export markets like Switzerland, France, Spain and Italy, where Donato & C. is still the distributor).

From this series we’re trying a Springbank 1967 bottled in 1989.

Springbank 20 yo 1967 (46%, Dun Eideann for Donato & C. 1989, cask #3131 – 3136)

Nose: old-style, dusty sherry, not too aromatic but nicely complex. Starts citrusy, with lots of oranges, then it settles on dried figs, Nutella (both hazelnuts and chocolate) and plenty of...

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Glenfarclas 105 is one of the first whiskies I ever reviewed on this blog ( see here ). Around 2008 it used to be one of my favourite daily drams. It never hurts to revisit this kind of stuff, batches are replaced often anyway (although Glenfarclas doesn’t advertise them so it’s impossible to recognize them).

As you know Glenfarclas 105 is their popular high strength expression, it refers to 5 over proof which is 60% alcohol. Since +/- 2010 it comes in an updated (wider) bottle and packaging.

Glenfarclas 105 (60%, OB 2013)

Nose: intense sherry, with plenty of...

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Elijah Craig is a Kentucky straight bourbon produced by Heaven Hill distilleries. The Baptist minister Elijah Craig is credited for having invented the usage of new, charred casks for the maturation of bourbon whiskey.

This expression was bottled for The Nectar in Belgium.

Elijah Craig 12 yo (47%, OB ‘full barrel’ for The Nectar 2013, 94 Proof)

Nose: a medium dry nose with lots of sawdust and a typical rye note. Nicely balanced with sweeter corn and pastry notes. A little orange marmalade. Almonds and raisins. Quite a lot of mint as well. Mouth: again on the dry side,...

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Every whisky deserves a second chance, so even though we’ve had a disappointing Deanston 1997 very recently, we’ll see if this one from the Archives / Fishes of Samoa series is more attractive.

Deanston 15 yo 1997 (55,8%, Archives ‘Fishes of Samoa’ 2013, hogshead #1959, 327 btl.)

Nose: grassy notes (wet hay) with overripe apples. A little dirty, with decomposing leaves, closely related to the Asta Morris cask in that respect. A lot of butter, some mashy / porridgy notes, some nutty notes too. Heather honey. A slightly sharp, spicy tingle as well. Mouth: sharp and grainy at first,...

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This is a very rare bottling. The Whisky Connoisseur , from what I’ve found, was part of a whole series of mail order / web companies (Scotland Direct, Scottish Gourmet, The Home Gift Shop…) run by Arthur J.A. Bell.

During the 1990’s they seem to have bottled quite a lot of single malts, mostly with concealed (but always consistent) names. My miniature says The Ellisland but the backlabel mentions ‘containing Old Pultney’ (sic). Here’s a list of their naming conventions  in case you’re interested.

In 2009 the company was nominated for the award of best online outlet by Whisky Magazine...

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I tried a 3yo Glentauchers bottled for Càrn Mòr and I thought it was rather promising. Now a cask from the same period has been bottled in the Archives series, a Glentauchers 2005 .

Glentauchers 7 yo 2005
(52,5%, Archives ‘Fishes of Samoa’ 2013, sherry butt #900392, 167 btl.)

Nose: gristy at first, but it becomes sweeter and fruitier over time. Oranges, raisins and tinned pineapple. Red apples. Still youngish (hints of cake, muesli and pear drops) but again quite nice. Rather creamy too, with some almond cream. Soft cinnamon and buttery fudge in the background. Mouth: malty and...

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Convalmore distillery is located in Dufftown and it has been mothballed since 1985. Although it was owned by DCL (later Diageo) until the end, the site is now part of William Grant & Sons, who use it as a warehouse for Glenfiddich and Balvenie whisky.

Diageo now released this European refill cask matured Convalmore 1977 . It rounds off our series of reviews from the Diageo Special Releases 2013 . Yes, they can keep the Port Ellen, thank you.

Convalmore 36 yo 1977
(58%, OB 2013, 2980 btl.)

Nose: fairly restrained, even a little quiet, considering its alcohol volume....

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After the Kavalan , here’s another bottling for TastToe , this time a joint bottling with Drankenshop Broekmans , both shops related to The Nectar . It’s a Laphroaig 1998 from the Signatory stocks.

Laphroaig 15 yo 1998
(57,4%, Signatory Vintage for TastToe & Broekmans 2013, hogshead #5570, 300 btl.)

Nose: this nose achieves a very nice balance between peatiness, coastalness and roundness. It’s very warm, with soot and ambering ashes. A little vanilla, camhor, honey, hot sand… A little candy sugar and marzipan as well. Hints of leather. Round, complex, just excellent. Mouth: slightly hot, but very impressive again. Deep...

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This Glen Grant is part of the 1959/1960 mini-series by Gordon & MacPhail to commemorate the marriage of Prince Andrew to Sarah Ferguson. We’ve tried the matching GlenDronach a couple of weeks ago and there’s more to come from the same series.

Glen Grant 1959/1960
(40%, Gordon & MacPhail 1986, Royal Wedding)

Nose: great fruity notes alongside waxy notes (a combination that we love in Glen Grant). Oranges, mango, hints of pineapple and tangerine. Quite a bit of smoke (not peat smoke, but the kind of subtle hint of smoke that was common for that era). Some mint and...

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