Another Caol Ila 2006 , this time bottled by Whisky-Fässle for the Swedish whisky club Maltes Vänner . No ducks this time, but a squirrel. We had this head-to-head with the very similar Liquid Art release.

Caol Ila 10 yo 2006 (53,6%, WHisky-Fässle for Whisky Klubben Maltes Vänner 2017, hogshead)

Nose: certainly more buttery on the nose, compared to the Liquid Art bottling. Other than that, similar round lemony notes, oily eucalyptus, wet chalk and subtle camphor. Light hints of oil paint and a vegetal edge. More sweet ashes than in the sibling release, more punch as well....

Redbreast Dream Cask

Tonight, maj 20th at 7PM Dublin time, Redbreast will host a Facebook Live Tasting from the Midleton Distillery. Head Blender Billy Leighton and Apprentice Blender Dave McCabe presented a very rare whiskey dubbed #RedbreastDreamCask

During the 20 minute streaming video, they announced the details like cask type, provenance, age, etc.

During the past few weeks, there have been competitions in which you could win a sample of the liquid, but even if you didn’t manage to get one, be sure to join the tasting over at https://www.facebook.com/RedbreastSinglePotStill/ I’ve had a sneak peak and it is an absolutely cracking...

I’m not sure whether Dutch Springbank Lovers is an actual organisation but this Springbank 20 Year Old single cask was specially selected for them. Obviously from a fresh sherry cask.

Springbank 20 yo 1995 (54,2%, OB 2016, fresh sherry cask, 192 btl.)

Nose: rich, potent dry sherry, almost Karuizawa style. Roasted chestnuts. Rum raisins, prunes and preserved cherries, a bit of burnt cake and some of the Springbank coal smoke. Tobacco. Mocha. Toffee and cinnamon pastry. It’s got a faint dusty side, with a little plastic, but that’s fine here. Mouth: punchy and peppery, with lots of herbal...

A brand-new bottling from the Belgian bottlers Liquid Art . As usual, the label for this Caol Ila 2006 was made by a local artist, Silvia Bonotto.

Caol Ila 2006 (52,1%, Liquid Art ‘The lonesome Captain’ 2016, 120 btl.)

Nose: very clean, perhaps a little narrow as well. A lot of ashes and eucalyptus oil. Some lemon and grapefruit, but not a fruity whisky. Hints of moist fabrics and damp earth. Mouth: after a balanced nose, a fairly powerful attack on brine, big lemony notes and pepper. This pepper cuts right through the palate, developing into mustardy notes....

Seriously you can’t just click away when you see another review of an undisclosed Speyside 1973 . This one was bottled by Maltbarn and presented at The Whisky Fair. Hence sold out indeed.

Speyside Malt 43 yo 1973 (47,7%, Maltbarn 2016, sherry cask, 149 btl.)

Nose: bingo. The whole shebang: lots of beehive notes, subtle bananas, paraffin, walnut cake and orange zests. Apricots. Light hints of verbena. Pollen. Something of hay. Some tobacco and aromatic herbs, majbe a few hoppy notes. Excellent. Mouth: sweet and fruity, in the best Speyside tradition. Apricots and honey, papaya and banana. Some...

Glenfiddich Winter Storm 21 Years

The third expression in Glenfiddich’s Experimental Series will be a 21 Year Old called Glenfiddich Winter Storm .

After an IPA finish and Project XX , this is an Icewine Cask Finish , made with casks brought in from Canada. The back label says it is best enjoyed in a frozen glass with a frozen grape.

I remember trying a Glen Breton Ice once, a Canadian whisky experiment which was quite nice.

Bowmore Vintner’s Trilogy

Bowmore is working on a new series of three whiskies finished in wine casks, called the Bowmore Vintner’s...

A milestone release for this Swedish distillery: Mackmyra 10 Year Old . Not the oldest release ever but the first time they seem to have enough stock for a large-scale Ten. Launched a couple of days ago, I hear 60% of the total production will be sold in Sweden, the rest is going to foreign markets.

For the Mackmyra Ten years, whisky maker Angela D’Orazio used spirit of up to 13 years old, matured in four different types of casks : virgin oak barrels, Oloroso-seasoned Swedish oak barrels and first-fill + refill ex-bourbon casks. As you know, Mackmyra matures its...

I should really make some statistics about the number of Irish whiskeys that we reviewed here. I can assure you this number increased significantly over the last two years, mostly because of whiskey like this…

It seems Whiskybase launched a new website yesterday. I’m not entirely convinced and I’ll certainly have to get accustomed to some changes, but I do love the new search function (let’s be honest, the old one was a mess – but now the filtering is worse). I believe this is a good time to review their recent Irish single malt 1989 in the Archives series.

 ...

When I posted the news about Laphroaig Four Oak back in februari, I was afraid it would end up being a vague compromise, a bit of everything and nothing in particular. Proof is in the pudding.

Four oak types : bourbon barrels, quarter casks, virgin American oak barrels and European oak hogsheads. Technically a travel retail exclusive, but also available in so many regular shops.

Laphroaig Four Oak (40%, OB 2017, 1 litre)

Nose: medium peat, some wet gravel, a little green tea, hints of musty, spicy oak in the background. On top of this there is a...

Old Springbank , distilled oktober 1972 , bottled oktober 2002 in the Chieftain’s series by Ian MacLeod.

Springbank 30 yo 1972 (57,8%, Chieftain’s 2002, sherry butt #410, 576 btl.)

Nose: deep sherry nose, with lots of plums and cocoa, as well as some aromatic dried apricots. Hints of overripe mango. Then back to classic cherries, fresh figs with cinnamon. Drier, leathery notes in the background, as well as some sandalwood and tobacco. Oh my, the tropical side really grows after a while, with more guava, nectarine and hints of barbecued pineapple. Lovely. Mouth: very intense, with heavy spices...

A highly anticipated Springbank release, the second expression in a series of five Local Barley whiskies. This 11 year old single malt was made with Bere barley from Aros Farm. It was matured in bourbon casks.

Springbank 11 yo 2006 ‘Local Barley’ (53,1%, OB 2017, 9000 btl.)

Nose: sweet and floral, with big hints of orange marmalade. Fresh eucalyptus, tiny hints of glue as well. A little green banana and lemon zest, wet gravel. Green tomato. Some faint perfumed notes as well. It seems to show less of the peaty and oily notes of the 16 Year Old...

Two more independent Irish single malts , and the first 1990 expressions as far as I know (certainly the first on this little blog).

The Whisky Agency bottling comes from the Art Nouveau Ladies series, which features a poster for cigarette papers in this case, a beautiful 1920s illustration by Manuel Orazi. The other one is from the latest batch of Maltbarn releases.

Irish single malt 27 yo 1990 (48,1%, The Whisky Agency ‘Art Nouveau Ladies’ 2017, barrel)

Nose: luscious fruits, ranging from gooseberries to tangerines, lime, pineapples and fresh banana. Also a warmer side of guava and...

We had an excellent sherry finished Glen Moray 1994 distillery exclusive not so long ago. It was one of these hybrid American oak-style whiskies. Today’s dram maj seem similar on paper, but it turns out it is totally different. Glen Moray 1996 from the recent Chinese Mask series by Sansibar .

Glen Moray 20 yo 1996 (49,2%, Sansibar ‘Chinese Mask’ 2016, sherry butt, 310 btl.)

Nose: gardening gloves and new sneakers. Very rubbery. Hints of freshly printed newspaper. There’s a peppery note underneath, as well as some sweet grapes and lemon candy. Mouth: starts on ground coffee beans,...

Teeling Brabazon Bottling

Teeling Whiskey has released the first in a new series of limited edition Single Malts, entitled the Brabazon Bottling. It refers to a significant family that presided over the Brabazons, an area of Dublin with a tradition of brewing, distilling, tanning and trade. It also included the original Teeling distillery.

The Brabazon series revolves around the influence of fortified wines on Irish whiskey. First up is a sherry cask version , composed of a complementary range of vintages, sizes and styles of sherry cask matured whiskey.

It is limited to 12500 bottles, bottled at 49.5% and around...

Yesterday there was the 6th incarnation of Bruichladdich ’s live digital whisky tastings. You buy a sample pack (3x 20cl for around € 60 + shipping) and open them while watching a live tasting streamed directly from Islay. Around 900 kits have been made available, all of which were sold.

#LaddieMP6 featured three single cask Octomore whiskies . Head Distiller Adam Hannett introduced these variations. Sadly I wasn’t able to attend the actual tasting, but I could try the whiskies beforehand so here are my findings.

In case you’re interested, they’ve just announced #LaddieMP7

Octomore...

This a single grain whisky from Loch Lomond distillery, bottled by That Boutique-y Whisky Company . Loch Lomond is highly adaptable and contains different types of stills, allowing them to create any style of whisky.

Loch Lomond 19 yo (49,7%, That Boutique-y Whisky Company 2016, Batch #3, 50 cl, 267 btl.)

Nose: Pineapple cubes, coconut, vanilla, model glue. Typical grain combo. Pepper, straciatella ice cream, apple peel. Some citrusy zing. There’s a lot of varnish and even a hint of acetone, which makes it difficult to get into the other aromas. Mouth: vanilla and apples, before it turns...

I tried the Arran 16 Years and Arran 17 Years but I never came round publishing my review of the Arran 18 Years , the end product so to speak. This is the general release, not the limited edition that was presented in 2015.

Arran 18 yo (46%, OB +/- 2017)

Nose: bright with plenty of orchard fruits. Orange peel, baked apples, peaches. Vanilla and cinnamon, with hints of toasted oak. Then some underlying mineral notes come to the fore. Wet limestone. Mouth: same feeling of tinned pineapple and peaches on syrup, with gingery oak and a coastal...

Paragon , as in ‘a model of perfection’? We don’t know.

Also, we don’t know what’s inside. Probably a vatting of (possibly underproof) casks from former Edrington distilleries, perhaps mixed with younger whisky, married for a long time. This one was recently bottled by Maltbarn .

Paragon ‘very old’ (51,4%, Maltbarn 2017, sherry cask, blended malt, 204 btl.)

Nose: pleasant sherry, with some prunes and tobacco, berries and grassy notes, cider apples and gentle herbs. Always this combination of brighter, fruitier notes and an accompanying drier component, which in the end gets the upper hand. Almonds, walnuts and...

Peated and sherried  Tobermory from the latest Single Malts of Scotland releases.

Ledaig 11 yo 2005 (56,8%, Single Malts of Scotland 2016, sherry butt #900161, 564 btl.)

Nose: deep smoke, with a tarry and medicinal edge. Also blackberries and pipe tobacco. Walnuts. A little metal polish. It combines well, perhaps because there’s some vanilla to round it all off. Mouth: sweet and medicinal, with plenty of soot and tar, as well as some cassis, cough syrup and caraway seeds. Pepper. Barbecued meats. Big, fat whisky – not for pussies. Finish: long, on cigars and salty smoke, with a...

Diageo Special Releases 2017

The biggest whisky news of the week was probably the announcement of the Diageo Special Releases 2017 , which came as a bit of a surprise. With so many bloggers having a daily look at the TTB label database, there’s no way you can hide upcoming releases these days, so better take a shortcut and avoid speculations. Ten Special Releases this year.

Highland Park Valkyrie / identity redesign

Highland Park redesigned its core range, inspired by the period in which Orkney was ruled over by Danish and Norse vikings. The bottles are now...