Glenfiddich Fire & Cane

The Glenfiddich Fire & Cane will be the fourth expression in the Experimental series , after IPA , Project XX and Winter Storm . It is a peated Glenfiddich (fire) finished in sweet rum casks (cane). Expect campfire smokiness coupled to toffee sweetness. Bottled at 43%.

Compass Box The Spaniard

We’re regularly seeing bespoke bottlings from Compass Box , for one of their importers or bars for instance. This one is called Compass Box The Spaniard after a place in the West Village of New York that offers fine food and over 100 references...

This is the latest batch of The Lost Distilleries Blend , a blended Scotch whisky created with malt and grain whiskies from closed distilleries.

This time the blend features Caperdonich, Rosebank, Imperial, Mosstowie, Glen Mhor, Glenisla, Glenlochy, Craigduff, Port Ellen and Brora, alongside grain from Port Dundas. Exactly the same list as Batch #9 in fact…

The Lost Distilleries Blend – Batch #10 (51%, TBWC 2017, 1041 btl.)

Nose: great old Highlands profile. Waxed papers, hints of sweet yellow apples and honey. Dusty wine cellars. Hints of marzipan, coconut cream and custard. Then back to mineral notes and...

Sometimes I don’t get whisky PR. These two Bunnahabhain bottlings had been ‘soft launched’ in augusti 2017 in the shadow of a Bunnahabhain restructuring. Later in november, it was announced as ‘new in stock’ by several stores. And in mars 2018 I get an e-mail from their PR agency that Bunnahabhain has two brand-new releases! Strange, because by now they are impossible to find…

Bunnahabhain 2003 PX Finish was matured in second-fill sherry casks and then given three more years in first-fill Pedro Ximénez butts. Similar story for the Bunnahabhain 2004 Moine Brandy Finish which was finished for three years...

Big Peat is an established brand by now. This Islay blended Maltwhisky is a reliable mix of Ardbeg, Caol Ila, Bowmore and Port Ellen, and often sees limited editions for Christmas , Feis Ile or other events .

The first version with an age statement (and vintage) is this Big Peat 25 Years – Gold Edition which contains Maltwhisky distilled in 1992. Two more vintage releases will follow as part of a small series.

Big Peat 25 yo 1992 ‘Gold Edition’ (52,1%, Douglas Laing 2017, 3000 btl.)

Nose: refined, with gentle, sweet charcoal smoke and maritime...

I had to look it up: the last time I reviewed an Asta Morris release was three years ago. Time flies. Belgian bottler Bert Bruyneel now has an impressive line-up of over 100 bottlings, although he is so active in the Far East that a lot of these releases were never sold in Europe.

Now there’s a sidekick label called Rasta Morris : rum indeed. We’re trying the first two bottlings, a Foursquare 2004 (Barbados) and Caroni 1997 (Trinidad).

If you get your hands on a bottle, be sure to check the back of the label as well (through...

Even though Glenallachie was an established high-capacity distillery, part of the Pernod Ricard group and supplying blends like Passport and 100 Pipers, they didn’t have an official bottling in recent years until this Glenallachie Distillery Edition came by. It’s a lower-end no age statement bottling that is found in many supermarkets around the UK.

It then came as a bit of a surprise (or perhaps not) that a few months after this first bottling the distillery was sold to Billy Walker and friends (ex-BenRiach, GlenDronach and Glenglassaugh). The distillery is now named The GlenAllachie (ha) and we’re keen to find...

Aberlour Casg Annamh

majbe old news, but I hadn’t heard of it until it popped up at Master of Malt a few days ago. Apparently this is a new Aberlour series, a possible attempt to replicate the success of A’Bunadh.

Casg Annamh means ‘rare cask’ and the whisky comes from three types of casks: European oak (Oloroso sherry) and two sorts of American oak. This is Batch #0001 (mind the three zeros) so I’m sure many batches will follow. Around € 60.

Highland Park Valknut

A new Viking Legend release, the second in a series of three in...

Old Pulteney 25 Year Old replaces the highly regarded  Old Pulteney 21 Years which was phased out recently. It was never my personal favourite though, I always thought the Old Pulteney 17 Years was better and less expensive. Mind that the 17 Year Old will also be phased out, to make place for a new 15 Years and 18 Years later this year.

The first 22 years were spent in American oak ex-bourbon barrels. The single malt then was transferred into Spanish oak ex-oloroso sherry butts for another three years. They stick to the standard 46% ABV.

Old...

This 20 years old Glentauchers was bottled for the 60th anniversary of La Maison du Whisky. As often, bottler That Boutique-y Whisky Company doesn’t give more details, but the LMdW website tells us it is a 1996 single cask , a bourbon barrel.

Glentauchers 20 yo 1996 (46,9%, That Boutique-y Whisky Company 2017, Batch #4, bourbon barrel #4891, 50 cl, 327 btl.)

Nose: a very aromatic, slightly heady profile with floral notes (rose petals, honeysuckle) and lots of beeswax and varnish. Apricots, yellow berries, tinned pineapple and candied orange peels. Apple pie with vanilla and cinnamon. Subtle ginger....

Compass Box Double Single was supposedly the ‘world’s simplest’ blended Scotch. There are just two elements: 72% Glen Elgin single malt (19 years old) matured in re-charred ex-bourbon hogsheads and 28% Girvan single grain whisky (slightly older) from re-charred bourbon barrels.

This is the third release of Double Single since the first version came out in 2003. It was the NAS blend of 2018 for Jim Murray.

Compass Box Double Single (46%, Compass Box 2017, 3rd edition, 5838 btl.)

Nose: practically a single malt nose, with plenty of bright fruits. Green apples, unripe pears, green banana and hints...

There are three new fishes in the Archives sea. Three accessible non-sherried drams from Bruichladdich , Loch Lomond and Tamdhu .

Tamdhu 10 yo 2007 (57,8%, Archives ‘Fishes of Samoa’ 2018, Koval cask #36101, 156 btl.)

Nose: not getting much out of this at first, except for a spicy note (nutmeg). After five minutes, there are yellow berries and pears, almonds and corn flakes. Orange peel too. Faultless, just not very exciting. Mouth: fruitier now, bright, with more berries and pears in quite a juicy form, lemonade and wine gums. Some green, peppery oak behind it, as well...

There have been three batches of the Tomatin 1988 vintage so far, in 2014, 2015 and this Batch #3 from juli 2016. It is a vatting of traditional ex-bourbon casks and first-fill Port pipes .

Tomatin 27 yo 1988 (50%, OB 2016, bourbon barrels + fist-fill Port pipes, 1800 btl.)

Nose: sweet peaches, vanilla pastry and a little ice cream. Then red fruit candy (the cherries you could break apart and hang around your ears) and blackcurrants but also a minty / woody edge and leather. Dusty malt. Perhaps more bourbon wood than Port casks doing the talking....

Highland Park The Light 17 Years

After a successful Highland Park The Dark 17 Years , which symbolized autumn and winter, a new Highland Park The Light 17 Years is ready to be announced. It is matured in refill American oak casks, with aromas of pear, vanilla and nutmeg. It is bottled at 52.9% ABV and limited (cough) to 28.000 bottles. Expected early maj 2018 for around € 200-220.

You maj notice the slightly nuclear green hue, I think this is a Freya-style bottle, not just a calibration problem.

Glenrothes 10 / Glenrothes 12 / Glenrothes 18 Year Old...

This Inchmurrin 2008 single cask is exclusively available from World Duty Free in terminal 5 of London Heathrow airport.

Inchmurrin 10 yo 2008 (57,1%, OB for World Duty Free 2018, cask #79, 278 btl.)

Nose: very neutral and slightly spirity (aquavit). Porridge and stale beer. Bread. A little wood dust and peppery notes as well. It does get brighter and more fruity after a while (toffee apples and peaches) but always with this fruit eau-de-vie character. Mouth: very sweet, with more fruity notes now. Peaches, yellow apples, sweet oranges. A little vanilla custard. Turns back towards barley and...

I was invited to take part in a ‘taste hackathon’, trying to unlock the secrets of the new  Glenlivet Code . This successor of the Glenlivet Alpha and Glenlivet Cipher has the same concept: no age, no cask type, no tasting notes and an opaque, mysterious black bottle. Make up your own mind… They’ll probably tell us what it was in a few months.

Glenlivet Code (48%, OB 2018)

Nose: the first thing I noticed was a sweet, slightly fragrant winey side. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were Portuguese Moscatel or Madeira casks involved. Juicy fruits like...

Trying an Auchentoshan 1992 from Signatory Vintage today. They regularly bring out sister casks at the moment, it is probably a whole series that is deemed to be ‘mature’…

Auchentoshan 25 yo 1992 (51,4%, Signatory Vintage 2017, bourbon barrel #5430, 206 btl.)

Nose: slightly rough at first with grassy notes and a a chalky overtone. Opens up on vanilla cream, apples and buttery pears. Lightly floral honey. Minty notes. With water also hints of green oak and dried coconut shavings. Mouth: bright, malty but now also fully on tropical fruits, really nice. Pineapple, bananas, a little papaya. Hints...

BenRiach has a new expression in their ‘classic’ (unpeated) range, BenRiach 21 Year Old . I suppose this means the excellent BenRiach 20 Years will be phased out. Mind that there is also a peated 21 year-old Authenticus.

The recipe is quite unconventional, with four oak types involved: ex-bourbon, Pedro Ximénez sherry, red wine (Limousin oak) and virgin oak casks. It is one of the first creations of the new Master Blender Rachel Barrie.

BenRiach 21 yo (46%, OB 2017)

Nose: a bright fruity nose, with the ex-bourbon oak in front with some oak spices from the virgin...

Willowbank or the Wilson Distillery was located in Dunedin, New Zealand . Founded in 1974 by the Baker family, it is known for the Lammerlaw whiskies (actually a Seagrams brand, also seen from Cadenhead), the Milford single malt.

However it closed down in 1997, the stills were sold to a rum company and remaining stocks are now owned by The New Zealand Whisky Company which occasionally releases some of the remanining 300-400 casks.

Given the grapes and vines on the label, it is likely that this single malt underwent some wine finishing. In fact a whole series of Willowbank casks...

RumNotes … three rather different rums today, two of which were bottled by independent whisky bottlers.

First there is  Don Pancho 25 Year Old , an old Panama rum bottled by Sansibar . Francisco “Don Pancho” Fernandez originally worked for Havana Club in Cuba, later for Abuelo rum in Panama and now lends his name to a rum brand that is mostly active in the US and Germany. Not sure how ‘authentic’ this is.

Don Pancho 25 yo 1992 (49,2%, Sansibar 2017, 267 btl.)

Nose: a praline / caramelized pecan nose with hints of chocolate cake and a...

This Bowmore 26 Years is part of the Vintner’s Trilogy , a series of three wine finished single malts. We already had the Bowmore 18 Years Manzanilla before and it turned out to be rather excellent.

This 26 year-old expression was matured for 13 years in ex-bourbon barrels and then given a second maturation (another 13 years) in French oak wine barriques – something that I usually approach with caution.

Bowmore 26 yo ‘French oak barrique’ (48,7%, OB ‘Vintner’s Trilogy’ 2017, wine matured)

Nose: starts on a slightly farmy (yes!) peat, with hints of sheep stables. Love that....