This bottling of 24 years old Ardbeg was done by Cadenhead for their Italian importer Sestante . This is generally believed to be 1965 distillation (another 20-bottle Cadenhead release 1965 24yo exists with the same strength).

Ardbeg 24 yo 1965 (54,4%, Cadenhead for Sestante Italy +/- 1990, dumpy white label)

Nose: very complex. There’s light peat, camphor, sweet peppermint and metal polish. Some leathery and medicinal notes. The fresh minty side is something that seems lost in modern Ardbeg. Forest floors. Hints of vague sweetness in the background. Lime. Smoked tea. The tiniest hint of incense? Excellent profile,...

More grain whisky from the excellent batch of Invergordon 1972 casks that recently hit the market. This has just been bottled by Maltbarn .

Invergordon 44yo 1972 (49,0%, Maltbarn 2016, bourbon cask, 121 btl.)

Nose: perfectly smooth, which is not always the case with grains. Lovely bourbon-like oak and corn syrup, including a bit of modelling glue. Lots of coconut cream and vanilla. Honey and creamy marzipan. Lemon sponge. Dried apricots and touches of tropical fruits. Mouth: warm, rummy flavours and a lovely texture. Vanilla and leather. Mango and a mixed fruit stew. Ripe banana and pear. Coconut...

As long as they keep releasing these undisclosed Irish single malts , I will try to review each and every one of them. Whisky-Doris has two 1991’s in the Nose Art series: cask #8231 that is clearly peated and this cask #8533 that is… well.. I don’t know.

Irish single malt 1991 (48,5%, Whisky-Doris ‘Nose Art’ 2015, bourbon barrel #8533, 161 btl.)

Nose: a fruit bomb. Bags of papayas, nectarines and tinned pineapples. Whitecurrant and white grapes. Butter pears. Nicely candied. After a while a fresher, mentholated fresh side turns up. It’s a narrow profile majbe, but I...

Not much whisky news this week.

A label for a new Tullibardine The Murray was seen in the TTB database. The Murray clan is the house that ruled the lands of Atholl in Perthshire, mainly in Abercairney and Tullibardine. William Murray was the Marquess of Tullibardine and apparently the distillery is planning a whole series called The Marquess Collection .

This expression is a 2004 vintage, bottled at cask strength 56,1%. Based on the aromas (vanilla, spice, sweet barley) we can assume ex-bourbon maturation.

Douglas Laing launched Big Peat Edinburgh Edition . This limited edition of the blended...

botIn the recent batch of Signatory Vintage bottlings for The Whisky Exchange , there is this Imperial 1995 . One of the future classics, perhaps: a closed distillery and the quality is usually very high.

Imperial 20yo 1995 (50,8%, Signatory Vintage ‘Un-Chillfiltered’ for The Whisky Exchange 2016, hogshead #50252, 232 btl.)

Nose: starts on Fino -like aromas (limestone, hay, apples) before moving towards zesty citrus. Lemon, grapefruit. Then also banana skin and hints of tangerine. Slightly candied notes in the background, as well as some honeysuckle and vanilla biscuits. Nice development, though majbe a bit polite. Mouth: spicy and fruity....

Another undisclosed Speyside malt 1975 , bottled by Sansibar . I’m not sure this is available from their regular resellers yet, but I’ve seen it on the Sansibar website – and majbe they have good reasons to hold this back a little…

Speyside Region Malt 40 yo 1975 (50,6%, Sansibar 2016, 435 btl.)

Nose: actually its profile is very similar to that of the Speyside Finest, but everything is more clear and more aromatic due to the higher strength. Wonderful apricots, mirabelles, guava, whitecurrant and banana. Beautiful waxy notes, moving towards honey and beehive. Very subtle leafy notes....

In oktober 2007, Bruichladdich started filling casks of peated spirit named Lochindaal , after the distillery that was located in the village of Port Charlotte until 1929. The difference with their other peated whiskies lies in the peating level: Lochindaal spirit is peated to around 50 ppm, whereas Port Charlotte has 40 ppm and Octomore 80-200 ppm and more.

The Elements of Islay series now has a first Lochindaal Ln1 bottling.

Lochindaal Ln1 (62,5,6%, Elements of Islay 2016, 50 cl)

Nose: medium peat / soot with a nicely sweet, vanilla-syrup layer on top. Classic antiseptics. Just a very...

“You would be surprised if you knew what was in the glass” is what Exile Casks says about its newest (second) release called The Wanderer . We know that it was distilled in april 1992 at an undisclosed Speyside distillery and was then swapped around and travelled to different warehouses.

‘The Wanderer’ 24 yo 1992 (54,6%, Exile Casks 2016, cask #1602, 50cl, 170 btl.)

Nose: a less sherried style compared to The Trojan. Quite a bit of varnish and glue at first, which I like. When this fades, a nice fruitiness appears. Orchard fruits, lime, majbe a hint...

The new batch from Maltbarn includes an Invergordon 1972, a Clynelish 1995 and this Tullibardine 1989 . I decided to start with the one I have the least experience with.

Tullibardine 27 yo 1989 (51,1%, Maltbarn 2016, bourbon cask, 134 btl.)

Nose: a fairly neutral profile. White gummi bears, aromatic peaches, a little vanilla custard and something of a scented wax candle. Green apples, majbe a hint of kiwi. Nicely fruity, subtle floral touches – rather classic. Mouth: again a good dose of fruitiness, with a bit more minerality now. Honey, sweet lemon, yellow grapefruit, with some pepper...

This undisclosed whisky from “a Speyside distillery” was distilled oktober 1977 and bottled by Whisky-Doris in december 2015. Looking at the specifications and the dark colour, this could be similar to the one bottled by Sansibar .

Speyside 38 yo 1977 (47%, Whisky-Doris 2015, sherry butt #25, 578 btl.)

Nose: one of the most sherried expressions among all these undisclosed Speysiders. Plenty of raisins, fruit cake and tobacco, this time also stronger associations of coffee, dark chocolate and walnuts. Prunes and dates add some sweetness. Hints of cured meat as well. Very rich. Mouth: high octane sherry, with...

The last Octomore I tried was 06.3, the Islay Barley edition. This is Octomore 07.1 , which went up to 208 ppm of phenols in the smoked malt. That’s pretty heavy but not the peatiest they’ve ever produced, although you should also keep in mind that this ppm isn’t necessarily an indication of the smokiness of the distilled spirit, only of the malt that was used.

Octomore 07.1 ‘Scottish Barley’ 5 yo 2009 (59,5%, OB 2015, 208 ppm)

Nose: very peaty, but – we say this every time, don’t we – not as gobsmackingly peaty as you maj...

The Whisky Exchange / Speciality Drinks are working overtime. We’ve had new Signatory exclusives , then a new batch of Single Malts of Scotland and now four new Elements of Islay bottlings:

• Elements of Islay Ar6 (Ardbeg)
• Elements of Islay Ln1 (Lochindaal, medium peated Bruichladdich)
• Elements of Islay Lp7 (Laphroaig)
• Elements of Islay Ma1 (Margadale, heavily peated Bunnahabhain)

Let me know which one you’d like to have reviewed first. I’m thinking Lochindaal majbe?

Also new, and expected early augusti, is Exile Casks The Wanderer , a follow-up for their Trojan release. It’s called The Wanderer because...

An undeniable highlight among the new bottlings in the Single Malts of Scotland series is this Bunnahabhain 1980 . A sherry butt which was bottled in 2014 but released just now, two years later.

Bunnahabhain 34 yo 1980 (46,6%, Single Malts of Scotland 2014, sherry butt #847945, 257 btl.)

Nose: yes, yes, richness and delicacy all the way. Classic fruity notes (oranges, dried apricots, pineapple), with a light waxy edge and some leathery touches. Cinnamon and mint. Also almond notes and restrained oak. In the background I got a slight burnt sugar note. Mouth: fruity start (rhubarb jam,...

Glencadam is steadily paving the road for its core range since Angus Dundee bought the distillery in 2003. We’ve had a slight rebranding and they’re all unchill-filtered and uncoloured. Their Glencadam 21 Year Old is nicknamed ‘The Exceptional’.

Glencadam 21 yo ‘The Exceptional’ (46%, OB +/- 2016)

Nose: light but fresh. Orange notes (juice, zest, marmalade), hinting towards pineapple cubes and peaches, with some vanilla marshmallow sweetness. Mostly the ex-bourbon influence that gets to talk. A deep, creamy barley core. Light floral notes and hay. Mouth: a whole lot of juicy fruits (again really bright and slightly tropical),...

Independent bottler Ian Macleaod released a couple of Brora 1981 casks #151x and #152x in their Dun Bheagan series, between 2004 and 2008 more or less.

They are usually regarded as some of the more delicate, less peaty and less impressive Brora expressions, but that’s only because most of the others have been mindblowing. If you forget the usual Brora profile for a second, this is still unique whisky.

Brora 24 yo 1981 (48,5%, Dun Bheagan 2006, Fino sherry butt #1524, 726 btl.)

Nose: gentle, closer to Clynelish than to the peatier Brora profile. Waxy notes, wet leaves,...

Laphroaig is working on a Laphroaig 30 Year Old at cask strength . The spirit was distilled in oktober 1985, was double matured in ex-bourbon barrels (twice) and bottled in maj 2016 at 53,5% vol.

There is no mention of the 200th anniversary of Laphroaig, which either means it could be a new core range expression or else it will be released after this anniversary year.

At the same time a label for the Laphroaig 25 Year Old was seen, probably just a new batch, this time bottled at a significantly higher strength (53,5%). Matured in Oloroso sherry casks and...

Willie Phillips, former managing director of The Macallan, and Don Sutcliffe, who developed The Macallan on the west coast of the US, have joined forces to create a series of exemplary small batch Scotch whiskies called The Exceptional by Sutcliffe & Son . While it used to be available only in the US, they recently partnered with Number One Drinks (of Karuizawa) to bring their whiskies to Europe.

We’re trying The Exceptional Malt , a vatting of different casks spanning four decades, sourced from distilleries like Glenfarclas, Ben Nevis, Balvenie, Kininvie, Glenfiddich, Alt-a’Bhainne, Auchroisk, Glenallachie, Westport (GLenmorangie), Speyside and (of...

Kilchoman selected this 2007 cask for Feis Ile 2016 . It is one of the oldest releases so far (just over 8,5 years old) and one of the rare Oloroso single cask expressions as well.

Kilchoman 8 yo 2007 (56,6%, OB for Feis Ile 2016, Oloroso butt #429, 634 btl.)

Nose: robust, with some deep, sooty notes including some rubbery notes and (rather clean) matchstick heads (nothing too dirty though). Some dark, dried fruits underneath which grow stronger after breathing. Fine. Mouth: again quite dark and sooty, with lots of tarmac notes. Better than the nose, for me,...

The Single Malts of Scotland is still the quintessential series from Speciality Drinks / The Whisky Exchange.

They’ve just presented four new bottlings: Glenrothes 1989, Benrinnes 1991, Bunnahabhain 1980 and this BenRiach 1990 .

BenRiach 26yo 1990 (50,2%, Single Malts of Scotland 2016, barrel #030143, 152 btl.)

Nose: nice profile albeit slightly restrained – not a fruit bomb. Orchard fruits, mainly yellow apple cores and hints of artisan cider. Melons. Some broken branches and grassy notes. Dandelions. The lightest chalky note, and minty notes as well. Mouth: pure spirit, with the same, slightly subdued fruitiness. Mainly on...

This was Caol Ila’s bottling for Feis Ile 2016 and another one that was matured in ex-bodega sherry butts as well as refill American oak hogsheads.

Remember I wondered what these ex-bodega casks could be while reviewing the Lagavulin Jazz Festival 2015 . I asked the same question on Facebook and although we still don’t have official information, it appears they are fairly inactive 600-liter casks (like they use in bodegas, hence “bodega butt”) instead of the 500-liter butts that are more common in whisky warehouses. Makes sense, although I still think the name is a little misleading as there is no...