Deanston 40 Year Old has been matured in refill casks and spent the last 40 years in Oloroso sherry butts . It is bottled at 45,6%, with just 480 bottles available for around € 1200, only in travel retail shops.

The packaging features textured metal labels, a leather-lined box and a Deanston coin recessed into the cork – used as the currency of the village in Deanston’s days as a cotton mill.

Following the release of Deanston Oloroso 20 Year Old back in 2015, the brand is steadily expanding and the new whisky is the brand’s oldest expression to date....

This is the last review from the latest batch of Elements of Islay releases . Not sure when we can expect a new batch. Until then, here’s the Laphroaig Lp7 .

Laphroaig Lp7 (52,8%, Elements of Islay 2016)

Nose: round, sweet with medium peat. Warm wood smoke, smoked bacon and vanilla, with a fragrant touch. Roasted fruits. Pepper and ginger too. Nothing to fault here. Mouth: sugary start again, followed by a blast of peat and light medicinal notes before returning to a sweet roundness. Salted caramel. Lemonade and baked banana. Sweet liquorice. Not complex, but the sweet...

Auchroisk  is another one of these distilleries that are rarely released as a single malt. In 1986 the distillery released The Singleton of Auchroisk , a 10 year old whisky that had been finished for two years in a sherry cask. Finishing is now a widespread practice, but it is believed to have originated there. A certain lack of know-how was noticeable, ahum, so the expression was withdrawn but the Singleton name was resurrected for a series that now includes different distilleries.

There has been a 20 Year Old bottling in 2010 and an Auchroisk 30 Year Old in 2012....

I already talked about this two months ago but never came around writing the review.

At first glance the Redbreast 25 Year Old looks like a regular, wide release but if you dig deeper into the label you’ll find that it is a single sherry cask release for the 60th Anniversary of La Maison du Whisky . This is very rare for Redbreast and in fact it maj be the oldest pot still whisky ever from Midleton distillery.

Redbreast 25 yo 1991 (53%, OB for 60th Anniversary of LMdW 2016, first-fill Oloroso butt #42972, 624 btl.)

Nose: glorious nose, which...

The colour of this Yamazaki 1995 is almost black. It is cask 5J3020 from the Owner’s Cask series. While it sounds as if these are private bottlings, it also includes a lot of shop exclusives. This one was bottled for La Maison du Whisky back  in 2010.

Yamazaki ‘The Owner’s Cask’ 1995 (54,9%, OB for La Maison du Whisky 2010, sherry butt #5J 3020, 420 btl.)

Nose: almost refortified high-quality Oloroso. Very intense plums and figs. Lots of polished oak, including hints of turpentine and acetate. Polished leather. Walnut liqueur. Some volatile hints of raspberries and yuzu. A...

Whereas the original  Blanton’s bourbon – produced at Buffalo Trace distillery – is bottled at 93 proof (46,5%), this Blanton’s Gold Edition is bottled at a stronger 103 proof (51,5%) and composed with barrels from the esteemed middle racks of warehouse H. It has the same mashbill of corn and around 10-12% rye – more than for the Buffalo Trace brand.

You can recognize the Gold Edition by its gold coloured full-metal topper , which has the usual Kentucky horse rider in different (collectible) positions. It is not available in the US, only in European markets and duty free shops....

We already mentioned it here in oktober, but now the label has appeared in the TTB database so we can be 100% sure. Ardbeg An Oa will be released soon.

It is a vatting of different cask types, including (but not limited to?) new charred oak , PX sherry oak and first-fill bourbon casks . They claim Ardbeg An Oa (pronounced ‘an oh’) is well rounded because it spent some time in a gathering vat.

Bottled at 46,6%, it will become a new standard expression that is permanently available.  Here’s a promo video of the new Ardbeg (now deleted)

 ...

This is the latest batch of Glengoyne Cask Strength (as far as I know). It is a combination of first-fill and refill sherry casks.

Glengoyne Cask Strength (58,8%, OB 2015, Batch #4)

Nose: a less intense sherry influence than I expected. Fudge and golden syrup. Stewed plums, apricot pie, in fact lots of pastry notes and oat cookies. Hints of milk chocolate. Orange peel and dried banana too. Hints of pepper. Mouth: still on the fresh, fruity side of the sherry spectrum, with cinnamon apples and golden raisins. Plenty of spices too – mainly pepper, with a light...

Compass Box is about to release...

Yesterday I realized that I needed more Glenkinchie reviews. Sure, it’s not a distillery that comes along often, but still it’s part of the Classic Malts so it deserves some attention.

It turns out I had a sample of a Glenkinchie 1975 bottled by Malts of Scotland in 2009. In fact this was part of the first batch ever from this bottler .

Glenkinchie 33 yo 1975 (57,2%, Malts of Scotland 2009, sherry hogshead #2968, 174 btl.)

Nose: lovely plums, dried pears and polished oak. Bananas flambéed. Blackcurrants. Then some drier aromas, like walnuts and lovely pipe tobacco....

An age statement English single Maltwhisky from That Boutique-y Whisky Company, distilled at St. George’s distillery in Norfolk. I’ve had quite a few and never really bothered to publish my notes.

English Whisky Co. 5 yo (49,5%, That Boutique-y Whisky Company 2016, 964 btl.)

Nose: light, clean spirit. Apples and pears, oranges, hints of vanilla biscuits. Soft, sweet grassy touches. A faint hint of darker, dusty, slighly charred oak in the background. Mouth: not much fruits here, except for hints of sweet yellow apples. A good dose of peppery notes. Plenty of vanilla cream. Quite robust, there’s...

Ben Nevis today, a comparison of five expressions from different independent bottlers: Sansibar , Whisky-Fässle , Maltbarn , Liquid Treasures and Claxton’s .

As you know I find comparing similar casks only interesting if there is at least a certain deviation. In this case we have slightly different ages and profiles: mainly bourbon casks but also one sherry butt. I tried them in the order below, but I took a pause before tackling the sherry cask (which was lower in alcohol). They’re all between 17 and 20 years old. Interestingly there’s also a deviation in pricing, from € 90 to...

This is the oldest Glenkinchie so far in the Special Releases series (there have been three so far) and the first from European oak .

Glenkinchie 24 yo 1991 (57,2%, OB 2016, refill European oak butts, 5928 btl.)

Nose: very bright, almost sour, with a lot of lime and blossomy notes. Yellow plums, Granny Smith apple and fruit gums. Lemon frosting on vanilla cake. A light grassy note. Quite some varnished oak as well, but it fits in nicely. Mouth: sweet citrus again, although it has more body than you’d expect. A little unripe pineapple. Rhubarb. Gingery heat...

Cambus is a grain distillery near Alloa, built in 1836 and operational until 1913, the year it caught fire. This caused the production to be halted for 23 years. In 1937 it was opened again, but United Distillers (now Diageo) closed it permanently in 1993.

Although it is quite rare to find 1970s Cambus today, independent bottler Hunter Laing bottled a 1975 single cask in 2015 and sold it for around € 250.

Today we’re trying a similar Cambus 1975 bottled as part of Diageo’s Special Releases 2016 . Probably the first official release of Cambus?

Cambus 40...

The Glenlivet Cipher was a marketing experiment: all the details about age, vintage, cask types used, tasting notes… were hidden and were to be discovered in an online deciphering game. It is presented as a mysterious whisky and comes in a fitting opaque black bottle that looks really classy.

My first impression was quite reserved. Would people spend € 115 on a blind bottle with no clues whatsoever, only to play a game and find out whether they like it? Nonetheless I gave it a try.

The accompanying website includes a few introductory videos and invites you to select six...

One of the most highly anticipated releases of 2016 was the Springbank 16 Years Local Barley . Not only did it refer to one of the most iconic Springbank series ever, it also delivered. Big time.

The modern Local Barley series will see five annual expressions, and in 2017 we’ll see a new Springbank 11 Year Old Local Barley . It was distilled in februari 2006 from Bere Barley from the Aros Farm on the Kintyre peninsula and it is planned to be bottled in februari 2017.

The label submission in the TTB database indicates a strength of 53,1% but...

For this immensely popular Glenfiddich 15 Year Old Solera (probably their second best selling expression after their Glenfiddich 12 Years ) the distillery works with whiskies aged separately in European oak sherry casks and American oak barrels (part of which is then finished for 3-6 months in virgin oak casks). These three components are then poured into a huge Solera vat , a 37.000 litres Douglas Fir tun inspired by the sherry bodegas of Spain.

The Solera vat (first used in 1998) is never emptied . Whenever they take whisky from it (never more than 50%), it is...

Balblair 1999 is a travel retail expression. This whisky is matured in first-fill and second-fill American oak bourbon casks, followed by a finishing period of in first-fill European oak sherry butts.

Balblair 1999 (46%, OB 2016, 1st release)

Nose: lively and fresh. Fresh pineapple juice, banana, green apple. Rather estery, with a tropical edge. Then some honeyed notes, as well as hay, hints of lemon balm and floral notes (orange blossom). Fairly light but mouth-watering. Mouth: pineapple freshness again, but with a firm spicy side from the European oak. Ginger, hints of chilli. Zesty citrus, including the slight...

Happy New Year! Best wishes for 2017.

We won’t start our 2017 tasting track until we’ve looked back at some of the highlights of the past year.

Whisky highlights of 2016

My two favourite new releases (94 points) were the undisclosed Speyside 1975 bottled by Sansibar and the Brora 38 Year Old from this year’s Special Releases.

We’ve had more undisclosed Speyside whiskies – all pretty excellent. We seem to be particularly fond of the 1975 expressions (Whisky Agency, Maltbarn, Whisky-Fässle) but there was a whole list of 1973 and 1977 siblings, e.g. the great Speyside 1973...

This is the 2014 edition of Laphroaig 25 Year Old . There have been earlier editions (2007, 2009) and new editions in 2015 and 2016 as well.

It was matured in a combination of first-fill Oloroso Sherry casks and ex-American bourbon barrels, before being bottled at cask strength.

Laphroaig 25 yo ‘Cask Strength’ (45,1%, OB 2014)

Nose: a slightly restrained, but nicely farmy nose. Wet dogs, embering coal ashes. Mellow peat. Something of melted butter. A little vanilla. Sweet hints of lychee syrup underneath. Then back to drier, more medicinal notes (iodine, hessian), but always with a jammy...