The oldest expression in the recent batch from Single Malts of Scotland , a Bunnahabhain 1988 .

Bunnahabhain 28 yo 1988 (46,8%, Single Malts of Scotland 2016, refill bourbon cask #100229, 344 btl.)

Nose: rather delicate, with an excellent freshness. A little banana candy, juicy nectarine, sweet lemon, green apple. Big beeswax notes too. Vanilla. Honeysuckle. Some fresh oak chips, but nicely integrated. Mouth: rich and rather creamy, with light honey, waxy notes again, and a vaguely tropical fruitiness. Lime, custard, a little mango, lemon liqueur. Quite jammy, and the oak gives it a certain backbone but no...

We saw very little Littlemill after the wave of 2012-2014. If you have a look at the Whiskybase list, there were merely six releases in 2016, and just one so far in 2017: this Littlemill 1990 in the Archives series.

Littlemill 26 yo 1990 (53,8%, Archives 2017, hogshead #32, 267 btl.)

Nose: nice mix of mineral, chalky notes with excellent fruity hints. Some mango and papaya, grapefruit, more Western apple peels as well. A little menthol. Rapeseed oil. Nice waxiness too, almost the old Ben Nevis-style lipstick. Mouth: a fruit bomb now. The mineral hints are still there,...

Diageo has just announced the line-up for its Special Releases 2017 .

There will be ten bottlings and we can already reveal the first nine. One is kept in their back pocket as a surprise later on this year. Final imagery and pricing will also be available later. The bottles themselves are due early autumn.

BLAIR ATHOL 23 year old Distilled 1993 – ABV 58.4% Ex-Bodega European Oak Butts – 5514 btl.

BRORA 34 year old ’16th release’ Distilled: 1982 – ABV 51.9% Refill American Oak Hogsheads – 3000 btl.

CAOL ILA 18 year old ABV 59.8% (possibly unpeated...

This is a GlenDronach 2003 selected for The Duchess in Holland. It is not your average GlenDronach as it was matured entirely in a Virgin oak hogshead (and not finished like most other virgin oak GlenDronach).

GlenDronach 13 yo 2003 (53,9%, OB for The Duchess 2016, Virgin oak hogshead #1751, 250 btl.)

Nose: starts like a grain whisky, in the sense that it’s full of oak shavings, coconut and vanilla. Cinnamon dusting. Then some lactic notes, a little custard and juicy peaches. Strawberry jam. Syrupy tarte tatin with just a hint of mint. Mouth: there’s a fruity core (apricots,...

Dead Whisky Society was an independent bottler founded by Jim Milne, a former blender at Chivas and other companies. The concept was to bottle whisky from closed distilleries, but as far as I know, the whole project ended in 2011 after six bottlings. This Banff 1971 is probably their bottling with the best reputation.

Banff 37 yo 1971 (53,3%, Dead Whisky Society 2008, cask #633, 565 btl.)

Nose: typical Banff austerity. Mineral notes, hints of glue and silver polish. Then some grassy notes, eucalyptus and aniseed. Subtle lemon zest and smoke. Hints of farmyards. Wax candles. As it...

This was my personal favourite among the new releases from That Boutique-y Whisky Company . Irish single malt 24 Year Old: expectations are high.

Irish single malt 24 yo (46,8%, That Boutique-y Whisky Company 2016, Batch #1, 50 cl, 264 btl.)

Nose: vibrant, with green mango and pineapple, lime, kiwi, fresh pink grapefruit. Just a little vanilla and barley sugar. A few floral notes too (potpourri). Citrus peel. If this were a beer, my guess would be Citra hop. Very sherbety, a lot like the 1991 single casks we’ve had. Mouth: maracuya sherbet, pink grapefruit, a lot of...

We’re still going through new releases from That Boutique-y Whisky Company . Today, Glenrothes 25 Year Old which had a lot of fans after people tried it during the Twitter tasting.

Glenrothes 25 yo (49,7%, That Boutique-y Whisky Company 2016, Batch #3, 50 cl, 139 btl.)

Nose: ground coconut and oranges. Ginger. Hints of mocha and toffee. It’s fruity but there are some savoury touches too. A little gingerbread. Almonds. Acacia honey. Nice. Mouth: quite a spectacular evolution from the expected honey, peaches, candied ginger and pear drops towards total chocolate ice cream and those coffee glazed biscuits...

Another upcoming bottling from The Whisky Agency in the Art Nouveau Ladies series that will be presented at The Whisky Fair.

Cragganmore 27 yo 1989 (52,1%, The Whisky Agency ‘Art Nouveau Ladies’ 2017, hogshead, selected by LMdW)

Nose: fresh and citrusy, with some mineral undertones. Lemon and candied lime peel, grapefruit, pears. Subtle chalk and wet stones. Paraffin. Daffodils. Hints of heather and pine needles. A soft vanilla note comes out after some time. Mouth: a wealth of fresh fruits, mostly citrus again, with a minty / grassy edge. Turns more towards biscuits but it keeps the juiciness...

It seems ages ago since I tried a Bladnoch . Wait a minute, five years indeed! Of course the distillery went through rough years and I’m not sure it will become popular if you look at the pricing standards of its new Australian owner.

Anyway, here’s a Bladnoch 1990 in a new Chinese mask series from Sansibar .

Bladnoch 1990 (47,2%, Sansibar ‘Chinese mask label’ 2016, sherry cask, 117 btl.)

Nose: great, it’s the Lowlands profile alright, but a rather rich version. Lemon wine gums, oranges, peaches, lime, papaya. A little honey and vanilla. Bright, fresh, lightly floral...

Among the latest batch of Single Malts of Scotland releases there’s this Glenburgie 1998 , from a distillery that deserves more fame.

Glenburgie 17 yo 1998 (54,1%, Single Malts of Scotland 2016, bourbon hogshead #9914, 275 btl.)

Nose: orchard fruits at first, then more tangerines and stewed rhubarb. Creamy white chocolate and toffee. Mint. Hints of dusty spices. Hints of vanilla. Great combination of fruitiness and creamy notes. Mouth: a very thick, creamy, almost waxy texture, full of peaches, pink grapefruit and a hint of passion fruits. Icing sugar, tarte tatin, berries. Coconut cream and a hint of...

Highland Park rebranding

Highland Park will be presenting a reworked branding and new bottle design on april 28th. In the last couple of weeks, a few clues have showed up. First of all the new logo , which has the distillery name in a new font .

This new logo was also seen on several approved labels in the TTB Colas database. From those we can conclude that most expressions will get a nickname besides their age statement:

• Highland Park 12 Year Old Viking Honour
• Highland Park 18 Year Old Viking Pride

Also the 18 Year Old will...

A few bottlers recently released a Tennessee bourbon , matured in the US but apparently bottled in Scotland. Although their ages are far apart, I think we can assume they’re from the same producer?

We’ll start with the NAS release from Eiling Lim . Note that her label says Tennessee whisky without an ‘e’. This should give us a clue about the distillery. It is a sour mash bourbon , distilled and charcoal mellowed at one of the oldest Tennessee distilleries. That gives us enough clues to decide between Jack Daniel’s and George Dickel, right?

We’ll compare it to a...

The Whisky Fair in Limburg is coming up (april 22-23) so it’s not surprising that new releases are being prepared at The Whisky Agency . The theme of this batch is Art Nouveau Ladies .

The series includes an Irish single malt 1990, a Tennessee bourbon 2003, a Cragganmore 1989, Glen Keith 1993 and this  Speyside Region 1973 . We’re putting it head-to-head against a sister cask bottled by Sansibar in their new Chinese Mask series.

Speyside Region 1973 (46,9%, The Whisky Agency ‘Art Nouveau Ladies’ 2017, sherry butt)

Nose: almost entirely on precious woods, a little turpentine and big,...

Even through the green glass, you can tell this was heavy sherry… Isle of Jura 1966 bottled by Douglas Laing back in 1999.

Isle of Jura 33 yo 1966 (50%, Douglas Laing Old Malt Cask 1999, sherry wood, 343 btl.)

Nose: perhaps closer to an actual Oloroso sherry than to whisky. Not that we’re complaining. Entirely on leather, blackberries and raspberries, polished furniture, rum & raisins and truckloads of pipe tobacco. Caramelized figs. It’s quite heady, with something that reminds me of tiger balm and shoe polish. Herbal notes and mint in the background. Mouth: old-style sherry that...

The Duchess is the indepdent bottler brand of the Dutch retailer Best of Wines. In their Shieldmaiden series the first bottling was this Ardbeg 1991 single cask.

Remember Ardbeg was closed from mars 1981 until 1989, and was only operating for two months every year between 1989 and the next closure in juli 1996. Back then Iain Henderson of Laphroaig was the Caretaker Manager – both distilleries were part of the Allied Distillers group. Very little stock from this era remains – as a first bottling this is quite impressive.

Ardbeg ‘Malin’ 25 yo 1991 (49,8%, The Duchess...

Still working our way through some of the new Whisky Exchange exclusives. Here’s a single bourbon cask Bruichladdich 2002 .

Bruichladdich 13 yo 2002 (52,7%, OB for The Whisky Exchange 2016, Micro provenance, bourbon cask #12/214, 240 btl.)

Nose: lemon pie, green apples, apricots. Also cheese cake and poached pears. Biscuits. It also shows a typical grassy / chalky note that I often find in Laddie. Very soft maritime notes. Mouth: thick and bittersweet. Apple peel and grapefruit zest, then also some slightly tropical notes (guava, melon, pineapple) but they struggle to get past this grapefruit bitterness, even...

Based on the pink salmon colour, you know this recent release from That Boutique-y Whisky Company had some wine influence. It was sourced from a Secret Distillery in the Highlands region.

A quick look at the label gives us some necessary clues. It features sixteen hybrid swan-men with particularly long necks, some around 26 feet tall. Enough said, right?

Secret distillery 15 yo (51%, That Boutique-y Whisky Company 2016, Batch #2, 50 cl, 124 btl.)

Nose: this must indeed be a red wine cask. Starts a bit musky. Raspberry jam, mint. Poached pears and strawberry sherbet. Hints of...

Jameson Bow St reopened

Last week I was invited to visit the reopened Jameson Distillery Bow St. in Dublin. It was closed in augusti 2016 to undergo an € 11 million redevelopment and reopened about a month ago. The whole project was supervised by a special ‘experience design’ agency which set up new, more immersive experiences within the historical building.

Basic tour: Jameson Bow St Experience

The basic tour is called Bow St. Experience . It is a guided tour with three major topics, each covered in one room: the 230-year history of the Jameson brand,...

Benromach 1975 is the latest premium release from Benromach. It was bottled from a single ex-bourbon hogshead #3434 after 41 years of maturation.

It comes after the 1973, the excellent Benromach 1974 cask #1583 and Benromach 35 Year Old that were presented in the same dumpy bottle.

Benromach 41 yo 1975 (49,9%, OB 2017, refill bourbon hogshead #3434, 162 btl.)

Nose: as expected from a bourbon hogshead, I find a bit more direct oak than in previous bottlings. Minty oak shavings, ginger and hints of white pepper. It gradually turns towards fruits: luscious apricots, apple compote, grapefruits and...

Another one of these ‘extra old’ vatted malts bottled by The Whisky Agency , or is it ‘relaXed Old’… this release was done for the Maltstock 2016 festival in september. Participants had it there as an aperitif and could order a bottle afterwards.

Blended Malt XO (44,9%, Whisky Agency for Maltstock 2016, sherry wood)

Nose: starts on burnt raisins. Dark caramel, black tobacco. In the high tones we have blackberries, cassis, oranges, a little mint. Walnuts. Clean matchsticks but they fade away. A damp leafy side too. Mouth: again it’s more on the charred side, including walnuts, some pepper,...