In mars 2019 Tamdhu expanded its core range with this Tamdhu 15 Year Old . It has been matured in Oloroso sherry casks made from American and European oak.

The distillery is widely promoting their exclusive focus on sherry casks, backed with a campaign From Spain to Speyside , explaining how they source their casks and how they are seasoned with sherry. More importantly, we can’t deny the resulting whiskies have been pretty good so far.

Tamdhu 15 yo (46%, OB 2019, 24.000 btl.)

Nose: a modern, rounded and thick nose. Dense fruitcake, dried figs, plenty of raisins...

The Nectar is distributing Elixir Distillers bottlings in Belgium. They now have two exclusive releases bottled in the Single Malts of Scotland range: an Imperial 1996 and this Ben Nevis 1996 . Two interesting distilleries, both with rather unique profiles.

Ben Nevis 23 yo 1996 (51,3%, Single Malts of Scotland for The Nectar 2019, hogshead #536, 249 btl.)

Nose: lemon, lime, pineapple and kiwi mixed with green tea, light minty notes, sage and pine needles. Then some chalky notes, concrete and moss. Waxy / greasy notes and linseed oil. Pretty excellent. Mouth: very oily, developing a wonderful fruitiness...

Compass Box Juveniles was first launched in 2003 or 2004 as a custom bottling for a wine bar in Paris with the same name. Later (2007, 2014…) new versions were launched and the latest one was bottled in september 2018.

As the original malts (Clynelish, Longmorn and Ord) were hard to source, other distilleries were used, keeping the bright, smooth, non-smoky profile. Here’s the new recipe:

• 34% Strathmill (Hogshead)
• 34% Balmenach (Hogshead)
• 30% Clynelish (20% Recharred barrel, 10% refill Sherry)
• 2% Glendullan (1st fill Sherry)

Compass Box Juveniles (46%, Compass Box 2018, 14.894 btl.)

Nose: gentle and bright indeed,...

Wolfburn Kylver #5: Raidō

Wolfburn announced the fifth whisky in its Kylver series . It is named Raido after the fifth runic letter of the Kylver alphabet which means ‘to ride’ or ‘journey’. The whisky is a combination of first-fill bourbon and Pedro Ximénez casks. Bottled at 50% ABV with only around 900 bottles available.

Benromach 50 Year Old

Benromach is ready to announce a 50 year-old expression, the oldest expression in the distillery’s range at the moment.

It was distilled 11th of juni 1969 and has been bottled in juni this year at 44.6% ABV from a...

Asta Morris already had a few Glentuachers in the past few years, including other 2009 casks like the PX cask for Malt Monkeys.

Now there are Belgian monuments as a watermark on the labels. There’s a frog, a peeing little boy and a speech balloon. Makes no sense but we’re the country of Magritte after all.

Glentauchers 10 yo 2009 (51,5%, Asta Morris 2019, AM 102, sherry cask, 220 btl.)

Nose: baked apples and a nutty side. Then generous malty notes, even a hint of dark Belgian beer. Blackcurrant, some leafy notes. A bit of chocolate and gingerbread....

I won’t declare my love for GlenDronach 1993 again. I know many people don’t believe in the vintage concept for whisky (which is fine if you’re talking about climatic influence on the raw materials) but sometimes a distillery just gets things right, resulting in a batch of really good casks in a specific year. I’ve enjoyed many a great 1993 ever since GlenDronach first released single casks in 2009.

To be more precise: I didn’t think the first casks #523 and #529 were any special but I started to adore the low numbers which started to appear around 2012 (all...

Diageo Special Releases 2019

Diageo has announced the Special Releases 2019 , themed “Rare by Nature”. For the first time it seems there is a visual theme in the whole series, with these jungle / retro plant motifs and animals. Most whiskies are in the same bottles and nicely match in terms of colour and identity. Although this is a nice touch, I suspect some people maj be disappointed that whiskies are not presented in their own traditional brand identity (e.g. the typical Lagavulin dark bottle), breaking their collection a little.

Here are the confirmed details, including the...

This GlenAllachie Pedro Ximénez Wood Finish is part of the brand-new wood finishes series from the distillery (see my news post ).

It has been matured for over 10 years in American oak barrels and then finished in Pedro Ximénez puncheons, resulting in a 12 year-old whisky, the oldest in the series.

GlenAllachie 12 yo – Pedro Ximénez wood finish (48%, OB 2019)

Nose: sweet and candied, with golden raisins, raspberry candy and baked bananas. Round and slightly rummy. Good balance with the (clearly noticeable) plain oak underneath: plenty of vanilla custard and cinnamon. Mouth: same feeling, actually...

The first Boutique-y Whisky bottling from James Sedgwick Distillery in Wellington, South Africa: Three Ships 6 Years . The distillery was founded in 1886 and produces a variety of single malts, blends and grain whiskies in two pot stills and two column stills (plus others for neutral spirits).

This whisky was matured in American oak casks for about half of its age and the rest in Pedro Ximénez sherry-seasoned casks.

Three Ships 6 yo (53,7%, That Boutique-y Whisky Co 2019, PX finish, Batch #1, 1150 btl.)

Nose: very bourbonny, with a lot of fresh oak. Resinous notes, sandalwood,...

Ledaig 10 Year Old is the benchmark bottling for peated whisky from Tobermory on the Isle of Mull. It’s one of these names that have made significant progress in recent years, in my opinion.

Ledaig 10 yo (46,3%, OB +/- 2018)

Nose: fairly light and floral at first, with lemony notes and a slight yoghurt-like sourness to it. Band-aids, iodine and a little rubber. Fish oils and walnuts. Nice sooty notes and smoked ham underneath. Mouth: fresh, still on zesty lemons with more smoke than I expected and a light honey sweetness. Salty coastal notes. Nice oily notes....

BenRiach Temporis is a 21 years old peated expression matured in a combination of bourbon barrels, virgin oak, Oloroso and Pedro Ximénez casks. Launched mid-2018 it replaced the BenRiach Authenticus.

BenRiach 21 yo ‘Temporis’ (46%, OB +/- 2019)

Nose: ashy, with warm coal smoke and plenty of charcoal. Perhaps a bit warmer and more shy than most siblings from Islay. Then some caramelized butter pears, dark plums and raisins, maple syrup and a kind of synthetic, almost perfumed vanilla. Mouth: again a creamy type of peat, with roasted pineapple and maple syrup again. Red berry jam, cinnamon and...

Elixir Distillers presented a dozen of new Single Malts of Scotland bottlings recently. One of them is this Clynelish 2010 , probably the youngest expression I’ve tried from this distillery so far (not counting a few NAS releases).

Clynelish 9 yo 2010 (55,7%, Single Malts of Scotland 2019, ex-bourbon barrel #700039, 176 btl.)

Nose: lovely marshmallow and guimauve notes alongside the typical paraffin! Also candy apples, banana milkshake and pineapple cubes. Scented candles. A pleasant freshness (grassy touches, lemon and star anise) which balances the candied notes. Hints of orange blossom locum too. Pretty great so far. Mouth:...

Time for more cognac, always a great malternative. Two bottlings from the Fins Bois zone. The first is coming from the excellent house Vallein Tercinier , distilled in 1986 and bottled by Maltbarn.

The other one is a 1954 vintage from a very small farmer / distiller that should remain anonymous. Back in mars our friend Pieter Knapen who used to import cognac in Belgium for some time managed to get hold of just 42 bottles. He already bottled an ‘Over 60 Years’ from the same producer last year.

Vallein Tercinier 33 yo ‘Lot 86’ Fins Bois (49%,...

More anniversary bottlings for The Whisky Exchange , from the Signatory Vintage stocks. Let’s try the Glenburgie 1995 from a bourbon hogshead.

Glenburgie 23 yo 1995 (57,5%, Signatory Vintage for The Whisky Exchange ‘20th Anniversary’ 2019, ex-bourbon hogshead #6585, 272 btl.)

Nose: a discrete profile with a slightly restrained fruitiness (peaches, apples, yellow plums), whiffs of marzipan and a light chalky note. Floral notes too. Easy and clean. Mouth: a bit more tropical now, with pineapple and mango, light honey and similar floral notes. A slightly Irish style. Light vanilla, hints of pink grapefruit. Barley syrup. Chamomile and...

Here’s one of the legendary Jura 1966 bottlings: cask #1485 bottled by Signatory Vintage for their 10th anniversary.

I tried this back in 2011 at a Weedram Masters tasting hosted by Bert Bruyneel, but somehow I never got around posting my notes. The idea was always to try a modern standard bottling head-to-head with an old legend.

Jura 32 yo 1966 (50,6%, Signatory Vintage ‘10th Anniversary’ 1998, cask #1485, 248 btl.)

Nose: a great mix of fruity notes (pear, peach, pineapples and bananas) and leather. Then dried flowers (buttercups, dandelions) and waxy notes (wax candles, butter). Fine herbal...

You don’t often get Glen Garioch this old, but we’ve seen a couple of 1989-1990 casks from independent bottlers in the past few years.

This new 29 year-old release from That Boutique-y Whisky Company could be similar?

Glen Garioch 29 yo (46,3%, That Boutique-y Whisky Co 2019, 451 btl.)

Nose: elegant and fruity, mainly on gooseberries, damson jam and apple pie. Increasing amounts of wildflower honey and orange zest. Light hints of paraffin and old wood. Grassy touches, a little aniseed. Nice profile. Mouth: quite neutral (malty) at first, then moving towards banana bread, peaches and tangerines. Rather...

The Whisky Kingdom is Boris Borissov and Duckhammer’s is Sebastian Jäger. Both were also involved in selecting that wonderful Lagavulin 1997 Select Cask last year and now they’ve bottled a single cask Springbank 1992 matured in bourbon wood.

Springbank 26 yo 1992 (47,7%, Whiskybroker for The Whisky Kingdom & Duckhammer’s 2019, bourbon cask #153b, 111 btl.)

Nose: nicely waxy, with plenty of limestone, a bit of chalk and dusty warehouse smells. Fruity touches too (tangerines, apricots, dried pineapple). Fragrant lemon peels, with hints of hand balm and rose petals. Waxed paper. Coconut. Really nice and feminine in a...

This Port Askaig 45 Year Old was launched back in 2015. It got some extra attention recently because it will now also be imported in the US (just 51 bottles) but it is effectively the same whisky as confirmed by the people at Elixir Distillers .

The distillery is undisclosed, but the whisky was distilled on Islay in 1968 so I can only think of one distillery . It was composed from five sherry butts, married together for one year.

Port Askaig 45 yo 1968 (40,8%, Elixir Distillers 2015)

Nose: delicate fruity notes (apricots, pears, yellow plums) with...

Long time since I’ve had a Family Cask from Glenfarclas. majbe there’s too much of them, and they are too expensive to pop open immediately, so very few of them are able to generate some fame. Just my two cents.

This Glenfarclas 1997 was bottled from a single sherry butt #453 in the Winter 2017 releases.

Glenfarclas 20 yo 1997 (54,9%, OB ‘Family Casks’ 2017, sherry butt #453, 565 btl.)

Nose: great nose. It’s fairly dry but with a tart fruity edge that works really well. Rhubarb, mirabelles, oranges, majbe buckthorn. Hints of dried apricots, almonds and toffee....

Glenglassaugh Pedro Ximénez Finish was launched in november 2017 as part of the first Wood Finish range from this distillery (together with Port wood, peated virgin oak and peated Port).

Glenglassaugh Pedro Ximénez Sherry Wood Finish (46%, OB +/- 2018)

Nose: sweet, with classic sherry notes, like raisins, cherries and raspberries albeit in a smooth and soft way. Chocolate notes. Also a grassy / fresh oaky layer. A bit of vanilla cake in the background. Mouth: still plenty of vanilla from the bourbon barrels, mixed with jammy berries and raisins. Very sweet, a bit of a rummy profile...