Did you know Ben Nevis is one of the last whisky distilleries still using brewer’s yeast?

This Ben Nevis 1997 was recently bottled in the Single Malts of Scotland series. Sister casks have been bottled by Elixir Distillers for Japan and the Highlander Inn bar in the past few years.

Ben Nevis 22 yo 1997 (58,5%, Single Malts of Scotland 2019, sherry butt #91, 540 btl.)

Nose: a rather earthy profile with hints of dunnage warehouses, wild flowers and rye bread. A mix of herbal tea and fruit tea, majbe a little eucalyptus. Espresso. Wet leaves and old...

Single Maltwhisky from Switzerland, produced at Säntis and bottled after 10 years by That Boutique-y Whisky Company .

Säntis began in 1886 when the Locher family took over a brewery in Appenzell. In 1999 they started producing Säntis Malt matured in beer casks, brought to the market in 2002. Their barley is grown at high altitude in Switzerland.

Säntis 10 yo (51,4%, That Boutique-y Whisky Co 2019, Batch #1, 916 btl.)

Nose: a lot of leather, brown sugar, hints of vanilla. Also plenty of freshly shaved wood. Berries, orange peel and toffee underneath. Dried bananas, baked apples...

Although they can’t officially mention it, this Islay Malt 2008 in the Liquid Treasures series is from a North shore Islay distillery, most likely Caol Ila. It’s part of their 10th Anniversary releases.

Islay Malt 10 yo 2008 (58,7%, Liquid Treasures ‘10th Anniversary’ 2019, bourbon barrel, 171 btl.)

Nose: essential peat. A lot of brine, green olives, kippers, wet stones and sooty notes. Hay, tar, hints of new tyres. Lapsang. Very faint lemons and a touch of burnt vanilla custard in the background. Mouth: quite fierce again, with enough iodine for a small hospital. Scorched earth, these rubbery...

The Secret Speyside Collection

Pernod Ricard presented The Secret Speyside Collection , a range of 18 to 30 years old single malts from four distilleries: Caperdonich , Longmorn , Glen Keith and Braes of Glenlivet . Each of the distilleries has 3 expressions and from Caperdonich there are three more peated whiskies.

Braeval and Glen Keith have been mothballed in the past and Caperdonich has been closed entirely in 2011, so the whole range is playing the card of whisky that is rarely seen, calling them “hidden distilleries”.

Prices seem reasonable, with a Longmorn 18 Year Old for around €...

Signatory must have bought whole weeks of production at Clynelish in 1995, as they seem to have the entire #86xx, #112xx and #127xx ranges. In fact The Whisky Exchange already selected a few of these (e.g. Clynelish 1995 cask #8676 ).

This Clynelish 1995 cask #11252 is part of the 20th Anniversary selection which starts a festive year over at The Whisky Exchange .

Clynelish 23 yo 1995 (55,4%, Signatory Vintage for The Whisky Exchange 2019, refill sherry butt #11252, 550 btl.)

Nose: the meaty, slightly dirty kind of sherry, with beef bouillon and cured ham before it...

The Whisky Exchange celebrates its 20th Anniversary this year and they’re planning a whole year full of special releases to mark the occasion. One of the first events is a collaboration with Signatory Vintage : a series of specially picked casks from their stocks, all bottled at cask strength. Check the whole line-up on the TWE website .

We start with this Glenlivet 2007 bottled from a first-fill sherry cask . They already bottled a sister cask #900135 in 2018.

Glenlivet 12 yo 2007 (64,1%, Signatory Vintage for The Whisky Exchange 2019, first-fill sherry hogshead #900216, 329 btl.)...

Another look at the lost rum distillery Caroni , established in 1923 on the site of an old sugar factory . It had both pot stills and column stills and it is nowadays rather legendary for its heavy profile. Most of these casks (some of which intended for the British Navy) are partially or fully matured in Europe by the way, which explains their high age (in the tropics so much would be lost).

We’re trying a brand-new Caroni 20 Year Old Batch #2 from That Boutique-y Rum Company .

Caroni 20 yo (54,7%, That Boutique-y Rum Company...

We continue our voyage through the latest batch of Whisky Agency releases. A lot of fairly old independent Springbank lately, this one is a 1993 vintage and it was a peated spirit .

Springbank 25 yo 1993 (48,1%, The Whisky Agency 2019, hogshead, peated type)

Nose: quite dry, with tarry notes, wet cloth or sheep wool and grilled bread, as well as some concrete and grassy notes. Lemons soft waxy notes after a while. Also beach pebbles. Certainly not a peat bomb, actually a fairly rounded and balanced Springbank. Little fruits though. Mouth: classy stuff, indeed more peaty...

Another review of the Mortlach 16 Year Old already? It has only been four months since I reviewed the relaunched ‘Distiller’s Dram’.

Exactly, and the reason is this: I was picking up reports from people who bought a bottle based on my review, after trying it in a store and going online to buy it. However they got a different batch bottled in 2019 and it turned out far less impressive .

That is not uncommon: batches of wide-scale whisky expressions are usually a couple of thousand bottles and although a good master blender will try hard to match the...

This is the new Port Askaig 25 Year Old for North America. Composed from a small batch of casks from an undisclosed Islay distillery, it is different from the batch(es) we had in Europe until now.

Port Askaig 25 yo (45,8%, Elixir Distillers 2019, 3000 btl.)

Nose: very mineral start. Wet sand and gravel, graphite, lemon peel and a soft, medicinal, almost ‘green’ peatiness. Subtle coal smoke and menthol. Fresh lemons and brine. Hints of liquorice and heather. Along the way there’s a delicate pineapple sweetness. Mouth: sweet lemons, olive oil and medium peat. Hints of cough sweets...

Lagavulin 10 Year Old

Lagavulin 10 Years  is a new travel retail exclusive from Lagavulin distillery. It is composed with rejuvenated casks and ex-bourbon casks and bottled at 43% ABV.

The label now has some keywords to describe the taste: smooth, intense, smoky and warming . From what I’ve heard its profile would be closer to the 16 Years than to the 8 Years, I hope to try it soon.

New Single Malts of Scotland

Elixir Distillers announced a whole new list of releases in their Single Malts of Scotland range. Here is the whole list:

• Ardmore 20yo...

Scallywag is the Speyside component of Douglas Laing’s Remarkable Regional Malts range.

This year we witnessed the addition of a Scallywag 12 year-old version, bottled at cask strength and entirely matured in Oloroso and Pedro Ximénez sherry casks (but clearly less so than the Scallyway 13 Years).

Scallywag typically includes some Mortlach, Glenrothes, Macallan… and I suppose this is no different in that respect.

Scallywag 12 yo (53,6%, Douglas Laing 2019, sherry matured)

Nose: nicely oily but fairly neutral, with hints of cereals and oranges. Some added notes of toffee and plums – that’s the sherry. Also spices...

The latest batch of Elements of Islay bottlings includes this Caol Ila Cl12 . It has been matured for 7 years in a pair of refill sherry butts before being bottled at cask strength.

Caol Ila Cl12 7 yo 2011 (57,5%, Elements of Islay 2019, two refill sherry butts, 50cl, 1901 btl.)

Nose: a fairly vegetal start. Buttery apples and pears, linseed oil, plenty of barley notes. A little porridge and mashed vegetables. Mild smoke and hints of iodine. Mouth: sweet peat with big smoky and a generous dose of salty notes. Hints of mezcal. In a second...

We’ve had lots of old Invergordon bottlings but this is the first Invergordon 1974 . It was bottled by a Taiwanese bottlers called The Whisky Blues . It comes from a refill sherry butt, which is not very common.

Invergordon 44 yo 1974 (46,5%, The Whisky Blues 2018, refill butt #29, 250 btl.)

Nose: a very balanced grain, with roasted pineapple, hints of creamy coconut but also milk chocolate, raisins and nutty notes from the sherry butt. Some honeyed notes and hints of butter pastry. Whiffs of passion fruit. No chemical notes that you sometimes find in grain...

The Cù Bòcan range of lightly peated whiskies (+/- 15 ppm), produced in Winter for one month at Tomatin distillery has recently been relaunched. It now contains three expressions, presented in a nicely reworked bottle:

• Cù Bòcan Signature : a combination of ex-bourbon, ex-Oloroso and virgin American oak casks (same as before)
• Cù Bòcan Creations #1 : matured in Black Isle Imperial Stout casks and Bacalhôa Moscatel de Setúbal wine casks
• Cù Bòcan Creations # 2: matured in ex-Shochu and virgin European oak casks

These last two have pretty funky recipes. More Creations will follow in the future.

 ...

Lagavulin 21 Year Old – Islay Jazz Festival 2019

A 21 year-old Lagavulin at cask strength, if that doesn’t get you excited, then what does? It is released for the Islay Jazz Festival 2019 , to celebrate the 21st edition.

Matured in a combination of refill American oak hogsheads and freshly charred hogsheads, the tasting notes mention dried fruits, briny smoke, sandalwood, bacon and a hint of gunpowder. There will be 2004 bottles, available at the distillery only for £ 395.

New bottler: The Whisky Jury

Belgium has a new independent bottler called The Whisky Jury , looking...

The Arran owns a couple of casks that come straight from working sherry soleras at Bodegas Tradición . Arran used them to finish the Arran Lochranza Castle 21 Year Old , the second whisky in their Explorers Series .

The 45 year-old Amontillado VORS is arguably the best wine from Tradición. However keep in mind that a solera system will also contain much younger versions of the wine (the youngest being 10-15 years in this case) so we can’t be sure what we’re getting exactly. The cask itself will be really old though.

Arran 21 yo ‘Lochranza Castle’...

After months of preparation, this is the first release from a brand-new Belgian bottler called The Whisky Jury . The name refers to the fact that owner Joeri considers himself a jury for casks, only acquiring those that get a 90/100 score in his book. Läs mer on the Whisky Jury website .

It’s a Ben Nevis 1995 presented with a beautiful label. We’ve had several excellent expressions from this period, mostly 1996 and 1997.

Ben Nevis 23yo 1995 (51,2%, The Whisky Jury 2019, hogshead #970, 245 btl.)

Nose: the typical Nevis waxiness is prominent, nice start. Balm,...

Launched at the very end of 2018, not long after the Ardmore 20 Years , this Ardmore 30 Year Old is the oldest official bottling so far, I think. An important release, yet it was launched without the usual marketing trumpets.

It was distilled in their direct coal-fired stills back then (ended in 2001 after a fire), matured in refill bourbon casks and finished in first-fill bourbon casks.

Ardmore 30 yo 1987 (47,2%, OB 2019, refill + first-fill bourbon)

Nose: plenty of hay and grasses, with waxy and spicy hints (pepper, nutmeg), cold ash and a little coffee....

As you know, Loch Lomond distillery produces 11 types of single Maltwhisky. Inchmoan is the heavily peated style made in its signature ‘straight-neck’ pot stills (which also produce Inchmurrin). It is less peaty than Croftengea and Inchfad though.

This Inchmoan 2007 single cask was bottled for the 20th anniversary of The Whisky Exchange .

Inchmoan 12 yo 2007 (54,9%, OB for TWE 20th Anniversary 2019, refill bourbon hogshead #96, 289 btl.)

Nose: a very balanced, almost sensual style with silky peat, burning wood, touches of menthol and germolene. Toffee, golden apples and sablées bretons in the distance,...