Ledaig 10 Year Old is the benchmark bottling for peated whisky from Tobermory on the Isle of Mull. It’s one of these names that have made significant progress in recent years, in my opinion.

Ledaig 10 yo (46,3%, OB +/- 2018)

Nose: fairly light and floral at first, with lemony notes and a slight yoghurt-like sourness to it. Band-aids, iodine and a little rubber. Fish oils and walnuts. Nice sooty notes and smoked ham underneath. Mouth: fresh, still on zesty lemons with more smoke than I expected and a light honey sweetness. Salty coastal notes. Nice oily notes....

BenRiach Temporis is a 21 years old peated expression matured in a combination of bourbon barrels, virgin oak, Oloroso and Pedro Ximénez casks. Launched mid-2018 it replaced the BenRiach Authenticus.

BenRiach 21 yo ‘Temporis’ (46%, OB +/- 2019)

Nose: ashy, with warm coal smoke and plenty of charcoal. Perhaps a bit warmer and more shy than most siblings from Islay. Then some caramelized butter pears, dark plums and raisins, maple syrup and a kind of synthetic, almost perfumed vanilla. Mouth: again a creamy type of peat, with roasted pineapple and maple syrup again. Red berry jam, cinnamon and...

Elixir Distillers presented a dozen of new Single Malts of Scotland bottlings recently. One of them is this Clynelish 2010 , probably the youngest expression I’ve tried from this distillery so far (not counting a few NAS releases).

Clynelish 9 yo 2010 (55,7%, Single Malts of Scotland 2019, ex-bourbon barrel #700039, 176 btl.)

Nose: lovely marshmallow and guimauve notes alongside the typical paraffin! Also candy apples, banana milkshake and pineapple cubes. Scented candles. A pleasant freshness (grassy touches, lemon and star anise) which balances the candied notes. Hints of orange blossom locum too. Pretty great so far. Mouth:...

Time for more cognac, always a great malternative. Two bottlings from the Fins Bois zone. The first is coming from the excellent house Vallein Tercinier , distilled in 1986 and bottled by Maltbarn.

The other one is a 1954 vintage from a very small farmer / distiller that should remain anonymous. Back in mars our friend Pieter Knapen who used to import cognac in Belgium for some time managed to get hold of just 42 bottles. He already bottled an ‘Over 60 Years’ from the same producer last year.

Vallein Tercinier 33 yo ‘Lot 86’ Fins Bois (49%,...

More anniversary bottlings for The Whisky Exchange , from the Signatory Vintage stocks. Let’s try the Glenburgie 1995 from a bourbon hogshead.

Glenburgie 23 yo 1995 (57,5%, Signatory Vintage for The Whisky Exchange ‘20th Anniversary’ 2019, ex-bourbon hogshead #6585, 272 btl.)

Nose: a discrete profile with a slightly restrained fruitiness (peaches, apples, yellow plums), whiffs of marzipan and a light chalky note. Floral notes too. Easy and clean. Mouth: a bit more tropical now, with pineapple and mango, light honey and similar floral notes. A slightly Irish style. Light vanilla, hints of pink grapefruit. Barley syrup. Chamomile and...

Here’s one of the legendary Jura 1966 bottlings: cask #1485 bottled by Signatory Vintage for their 10th anniversary.

I tried this back in 2011 at a Weedram Masters tasting hosted by Bert Bruyneel, but somehow I never got around posting my notes. The idea was always to try a modern standard bottling head-to-head with an old legend.

Jura 32 yo 1966 (50,6%, Signatory Vintage ‘10th Anniversary’ 1998, cask #1485, 248 btl.)

Nose: a great mix of fruity notes (pear, peach, pineapples and bananas) and leather. Then dried flowers (buttercups, dandelions) and waxy notes (wax candles, butter). Fine herbal...

You don’t often get Glen Garioch this old, but we’ve seen a couple of 1989-1990 casks from independent bottlers in the past few years.

This new 29 year-old release from That Boutique-y Whisky Company could be similar?

Glen Garioch 29 yo (46,3%, That Boutique-y Whisky Co 2019, 451 btl.)

Nose: elegant and fruity, mainly on gooseberries, damson jam and apple pie. Increasing amounts of wildflower honey and orange zest. Light hints of paraffin and old wood. Grassy touches, a little aniseed. Nice profile. Mouth: quite neutral (malty) at first, then moving towards banana bread, peaches and tangerines. Rather...

The Whisky Kingdom is Boris Borissov and Duckhammer’s is Sebastian Jäger. Both were also involved in selecting that wonderful Lagavulin 1997 Select Cask last year and now they’ve bottled a single cask Springbank 1992 matured in bourbon wood.

Springbank 26 yo 1992 (47,7%, Whiskybroker for The Whisky Kingdom & Duckhammer’s 2019, bourbon cask #153b, 111 btl.)

Nose: nicely waxy, with plenty of limestone, a bit of chalk and dusty warehouse smells. Fruity touches too (tangerines, apricots, dried pineapple). Fragrant lemon peels, with hints of hand balm and rose petals. Waxed paper. Coconut. Really nice and feminine in a...

This Port Askaig 45 Year Old was launched back in 2015. It got some extra attention recently because it will now also be imported in the US (just 51 bottles) but it is effectively the same whisky as confirmed by the people at Elixir Distillers .

The distillery is undisclosed, but the whisky was distilled on Islay in 1968 so I can only think of one distillery . It was composed from five sherry butts, married together for one year.

Port Askaig 45 yo 1968 (40,8%, Elixir Distillers 2015)

Nose: delicate fruity notes (apricots, pears, yellow plums) with...

Long time since I’ve had a Family Cask from Glenfarclas. majbe there’s too much of them, and they are too expensive to pop open immediately, so very few of them are able to generate some fame. Just my two cents.

This Glenfarclas 1997 was bottled from a single sherry butt #453 in the Winter 2017 releases.

Glenfarclas 20 yo 1997 (54,9%, OB ‘Family Casks’ 2017, sherry butt #453, 565 btl.)

Nose: great nose. It’s fairly dry but with a tart fruity edge that works really well. Rhubarb, mirabelles, oranges, majbe buckthorn. Hints of dried apricots, almonds and toffee....

Glenglassaugh Pedro Ximénez Finish was launched in november 2017 as part of the first Wood Finish range from this distillery (together with Port wood, peated virgin oak and peated Port).

Glenglassaugh Pedro Ximénez Sherry Wood Finish (46%, OB +/- 2018)

Nose: sweet, with classic sherry notes, like raisins, cherries and raspberries albeit in a smooth and soft way. Chocolate notes. Also a grassy / fresh oaky layer. A bit of vanilla cake in the background. Mouth: still plenty of vanilla from the bourbon barrels, mixed with jammy berries and raisins. Very sweet, a bit of a rummy profile...

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...