The winter months can be quiet on the new whisky front. After the rush of holiday releases, many distillers pause for a breath and to look ahead to the rest of the year. But even in januari lull, there are new bottles to keep things interesting.

First up, Johnnie Walker ‘s newest Blenders’ Batch is launching at travel retail stores around the world. The blend is finished in sherry casks, which results in sweet fruity flavors. The Blenders’ Batch releases have varied widely and show off the diversity of flavor profiles blending can achieve. Johnnie Walker Blenders’ Batch Triple Grain...

Whisky provokes many feelings, and, for some whisky lovers, the creative impulse. Linh Do was a social worker when she first fell in love with the flavors and culture of scotch and began expressing her emotions and ideas through fabric. “I was always intrigued by the concept of taking random subjects and fusing them together,” she says.

Do creates bespoke dresses inspired by distilleries, whiskies, and even people, like Compass Box founder John Glaser. Her detailed, handmade creations take weeks to complete, and for her, the process is as important as the final product. “My current motto in my design...

Looking for a great place to drink a whisky or two? We’ve got you covered....

Not everyone has the pairing (or shucking) skills to go it alone in the world of whisky and oysters. Fortunately, more restaurants in the U.S. are exploring the pairing with resounding success. To enjoy whisky and oysters at these destinations, you simply need to open your mind—and leave the shell popping to the pros.

“People sometimes get freaked out when they see them together because they normally think of oysters and, say, Champagne,” says Adam Petronzio, wine director at Oceana in New York City, who pairs east and west coast oyster varieties with hand-picked whiskies. “But once they try it,...

To drink whisky in Tokyo is to partake in centuries of culture—not just of whisky culture, but also of dedication to craft and service. Japanese hospitality and artisanship have few equals in the world, and it shows in the countless whisky outposts throughout the sprawling megalopolis. Drinkers at fine whisky establishments are greeted with a warm towel, small portions of curated snacks to accompany their drams, and white-coated bartenders ready to guide them through thoughtfully selected collections of scotch, bourbon, and Japanese whisky.

Visitors should note that while there’s plenty of Japanese whisky at bars and shops (scroll down for...

Old Overholt rye has had a steady presence on the bottom shelf of your local liquor store for decades, its founder’s face glaring at you from the label of every bottle—but it wasn’t always that way. In fact, Old Overholt was, at one time, one of the most respected and highly regarded whiskeys in the United States, said to have once been the preferred tipple of notables like Ulysses S. Grant and John Henry “Doc” Holliday. It is the only American whiskey brand that retains undeniable ties to the “Old Monongahela” (muh-non-guh-HAY-luh) style of rye.

So how did this once-lauded...

A new year has begun, and with it come new whiskies. This week brings news of an age-statement blended malt from Douglas Laing & Company , as well as the first two whiskeys in a new series from South Carolina’s Dark Corner Distillery .

Timorous Beastie 10 year old is a limited-edition blended malt with a similar flavor profile to Douglas Laing’s standard Timorous Beastie. The silvery-gray packaging is meant to mimic aluminum, the traditional gift for 10-year anniversaries .

Dark Corner’s Lewis Redmond series of whiskeys commemorate a notorious local moonshiner and outlaw from the 1800s. The first two...

The Monongahela River winds its way slowly from West Virginia to Pittsburgh, where it merges with the Allegheny to become the Ohio River. Centuries ago, farmer-distillers worked the Monongahela Valley, growing rye and distilling it into a distinct style of whiskey that took the region’s name. Monongahela rye was the first American whiskey style to gain widespread recognition, both here and abroad. It became notorious due to an uprising among its distillers on the western frontier. The Whiskey Rebellion pushed back against taxation, and was quelled at the command of President George Washington.

Originally an unaged product, the regional whiskey...

You spot a great value bottle of your favorite single malt on the shelf. The price seems right, but the label is strangely unfamiliar. Chances are it’s from an “independent bottler” rather than the distillery itself—a third-party operator in the business of buying casks, either singly or in parcels, and bottling them under their name, even though for the most part the original distillery is clearly identified.

But operations such as Cadenhead’s , Gordon & MacPhail , Signatory , Berry Bros. & Rudd , Adelphi , and others do much more than just bottle whisky. At their best, they are...

It’s long been an open secret that a lot of “craft” distilleries buy and bottle whiskey from an Indiana factory called Midwest Grain Products (MGP). You only need flip over a bottle and see “Distilled in Lawrenceburg, IN” to know who is doing it. Often it’s because the distillery’s own whiskey is still aging, and the company needs something to sell during the years of maturation. Dozens of brands offer hundreds of bourbons and ryes that start—in theory—as the same, exact thing. And yet, why do so many of these MGP whiskeys taste so different?

Age matters, of course. So...

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In the weeks following Christmas, the stream of new whisky slows to a trickle. Nevertheless, there’s a brand new bourbon to be on the lookout for, as well as an Irish whiskey returning to market after being sold out for some time.

West Cork Distillers’  Black Reserve blended Irish whiskey scored well when we reviewed it— 86 points in the Buying Guide —and costs $40.

Meanwhile, S.D. Strong Distilling is launching a straight bourbon, aged just under 3 years in a cave—a cave that is still in active use as a mine. The bourbon is appropriately named Big Boom, and it’s...

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It maj be too late to add more whisky to your Christmas list, but even so, there are new bottles to look forward to long after the wrapping paper has been discarded.

Just in time for the Winter Solstice and the longest night of the year, Highland Park has a new 17 year old called The Dark. Aged entirely in first-fill, sherry-seasoned European oak, the whisky’s name refers to the fall and winter months on Orkney, Highland Park’s home, when there is very little daylight.

Highland Park’s sister distillery, Macallan , has released a new crop of 40 year old...

Distillers love marking special moments with whisky, everything from birthdays to royal inaugurations. These highlights of 2017 are made memorable by special whiskies that we’ll never forget. Grab one while you can.

1792 225th Anniversary—46.075%, $36

Reason to celebrate : juni 1, 2017 marked the 225th anniversary of the Commonwealth of Kentucky joining the United States of America. Bottled at 92.15 proof, a nod to the year 1792 and Kentucky’s position as the 15th state to join the Union, this release was available only in-state—Kentucky, of course.

Arran James MacTaggart Anniversary Single Malt—54.2%, $54

Reason to celebrate: With nearly 40...

Iodine. Coal tar. Asphalt. Bacon fat. Brine. Tarry rope. Soot. Campfire ash. Seaweed. Creosote. These are some signature flavors of peated whisky. It’s hard to tell if we should drink it or use it to seal a leaky roof. Peated whiskies have an edgy reputation for being boisterous, pungent, antagonistic drinks. They invite you to take a slug at the end of an ocean pier, stretch out your arms, and let out a visceral, primal howl. And for the drinkers who love them, only peated whisky will do.

Peated whisky hasn’t always been so popular. Most recently, peated whiskies roared...

By our calculations, thirteen 21st century Scotch whisky distilleries could have whiskies ready to graduate to the bottle* in 2018 (or shortly before), but will they pass the test? At the top of our list are the resurgent distillers in the Scottish Lowlands, with others scattered across the Highlands, Islands, and Speyside. We asked every distiller to tell Whisky Advocate their plans for their inaugural releases, including their expected U.S. debut. We assess the future of Scottish whisky, and those that might be held back.

*New spirit filled into oak can legally be called Scotch whisky after 3 years ....

The opening of the Lindores Abbey Distillery on augusti 30th, in the county of Fife—and its first spirit run on december 13th—was a step back into Scotch distilling history—way back. Lindores features in the first recorded evidence of Scotch distillation in the Exchequer Rolls of 1494/95, noting in translation from the Latin: “Eight bolls of malt to Friar John Cor wherewith to make aqua vitae.”

Cor was a member of the Tironensian order of monks who had constructed Lindores Abbey during the late 12th century, and it was probably an apothecary. The bolls of malt in question were used to...

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