After I reviewed Glengoyne 25 yesterday for the International Whisky Day, I really had to raise the bar today so let’s check out Glengoyne 30 Year Old which was released a few months ago.

Glengoyne 30 Year old is a vatting of ~33% first fill European oak sherry butts and ~66% refill sherry butts (split the remaining 1% between them…). It’s un-chill filtered, natural colored and  6000 bottles were made to the public at RRP of £600.

Glengoyne 30 Year Old (46.8%, £539.94 / €588,95  )

Nose : Old sherry, sherry vinegar and balsamic vinegar, dried fruit, milk chocolate. Lots of sherry fruits...

WhiskyFest alights on the nation’s capital on april 17th, and it’s the perfect chance for whisky lovers to seek out new, rare, and classic drams from all around the world. Of course, scotch whisky will be flowing in great abundance, and this year’s event offers many fantastic whiskies for the scotch enthusiast to revisit or discover for the first time. Here are a few of our top picks.

Be sure to check out the full list of pours , as well as our guide to getting the most out of WhiskyFest. And if you don’t have your tickets yet, get...

From the outside, whisky collecting seems like an exclusive sport, a world of international auction houses, unattainable Japanese whisky, and pre-Prohibition bottles of bourbon. But not everyone who appreciates art has to own a Basquiat. Beyond the most rarefied whiskies and record-breaking bottles is a much larger, much more accessible realm of collectible whiskies. Collecting doesn’t have to be expensive or time consuming—and above all else, it should be fun.

Collecting Types

There are a few kinds of whisky collectors. Trophy hunters might buy for personal satisfaction or investment, but they tend to target rare current releases—think Pappy Van Winkle...

Finding rare whisky on the shelf—a practice dubbed “ whisky antiquing” —isn’t seek and destroy, but rather, a search and enjoy mission. Follow these steps to securing liquid gems.

Assess Your Aspirations

Record an inventory of the whiskies you own and the styles you drink most. You probably already have more expertise than you even realize, so apply extra focus here when hunting.

Establish a Perimeter

Pick a central starting point and establish a radius for your search. Search for “liquor stores,” “wine shops,” “package stores,” and “wine and spirits” on Yelp and Google Maps. Chart a route, paying close...

With The Cognac Show just around the corner, we’ve been investigating France’s most famous spirit. But what is Cognac , where is it made and how do they make it?

The region

Cognac is the name of a town on France’s west coast, the region around the town and the brandy that’s made there. Within Cognac there are six sub-regions:

• Grande Champagne
• Petite Champagne
• Borderies
• Fins Bois
• Bon Bois
• Bois Ordinaires

Grande and Petite Champagne are considered the premier crus, with grapes from the pair producing the most traditionally high-quality Cognacs. The other regions are often seen as being not...

This 20 years old Glentauchers was bottled for the 60th anniversary of La Maison du Whisky. As often, bottler That Boutique-y Whisky Company doesn’t give more details, but the LMdW website tells us it is a 1996 single cask , a bourbon barrel.

Glentauchers 20 yo 1996 (46,9%, That Boutique-y Whisky Company 2017, Batch #4, bourbon barrel #4891, 50 cl, 327 btl.)

Nose: a very aromatic, slightly heady profile with floral notes (rose petals, honeysuckle) and lots of beeswax and varnish. Apricots, yellow berries, tinned pineapple and candied orange peels. Apple pie with vanilla and cinnamon. Subtle ginger....

Compass Box Double Single was supposedly the ‘world’s simplest’ blended Scotch. There are just two elements: 72% Glen Elgin single malt (19 years old) matured in re-charred ex-bourbon hogsheads and 28% Girvan single grain whisky (slightly older) from re-charred bourbon barrels.

This is the third release of Double Single since the first version came out in 2003. It was the NAS blend of 2018 for Jim Murray.

Compass Box Double Single (46%, Compass Box 2017, 3rd edition, 5838 btl.)

Nose: practically a single malt nose, with plenty of bright fruits. Green apples, unripe pears, green banana and hints...

The label for the second release in Highland Park Viking Legend trio was revealed. Highland Valknut is the follow up release to Valkyrie in the series created with Jim Lyngvild, a danish designer who’s an expert in Norse mythology....

It’s been close to four years since I last tried Glenlivet Nadurra Oloroso. I tried it when it first came out to the market and I didn’t like it much back then. But since 2014 there were more batches and not only those bottled at 48% for Travel Retail market but also some that are bottled at cask strength.

Since Nadurra Oloroso Cask Strength OL0816 (bottled 08/2016) was available at the recent Whisky Live 2018 in Tel-Aviv, it was time I’ll grab a dram at the Glenlivet stand and check it out.

Glenlivet Nàdurra Oloroso Batch OL0816 (61.3%, £42.90 /...

Glenmorangie Astar (Gaelic for “journey”) was first released back in 2008. Casks from oak growing in Missouri Ozark mountains which are slow growing variant were used to mature this whisky. Such casks aren’t very common (and some would say they are scarce), couple that with the fact that Dr. Lumsden isn’t too much in favor of cask strength releases, and you can understand why it took lots of public demand and additional 9 years to get together another edition.

The 2017 Astar was bottled at 52.5% (far below the 57.1% strength of the 2008 edition), isn’t chill filtered and comes...

Happy International Whisky Day!

The International whisky day event in which you are compelled to raise a dram (or two), was created in honor of British writer  Michael Jackson , born on  27 mars 1942, who wrote a few prominent whisky books and was a very influential whisky writer for newspapers until he died in 2007.

In honor of his memory and this day, I’ve decided to review Glengoyne 25 year old. It was released to market back in 2014 and it carries a 25 years old age statement. I like the facts it was bottled in 48% and without...

Pappy Van Winkle is coveted by so many, and yet—thanks to its scarcity and often inflated prices—enjoyed by so few. But most folks don’t even realize what makes it special: Pappy—along with the other offerings in the Van Winkle line, aside from the rye—is a wheated bourbon. That means the secondary grain in its mashbill is wheat, rather than the much more common rye. This creates a slightly sweeter, fruitier, and, yes, smoother bourbon that many drinkers find quite appealing.

Savvy whiskey lovers have learned to quit wasting their time and money on locating Pappy and instead have begun to...

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90 points, 40% ABV, $30...

97 points, 40% ABV, $225...

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There are three new fishes in the Archives sea. Three accessible non-sherried drams from Bruichladdich , Loch Lomond and Tamdhu .

Tamdhu 10 yo 2007 (57,8%, Archives ‘Fishes of Samoa’ 2018, Koval cask #36101, 156 btl.)

Nose: not getting much out of this at first, except for a spicy note (nutmeg). After five minutes, there are yellow berries and pears, almonds and corn flakes. Orange peel too. Faultless, just not very exciting. Mouth: fruitier now, bright, with more berries and pears in quite a juicy form, lemonade and wine gums. Some green, peppery oak behind it, as well...

There have been three batches of the Tomatin 1988 vintage so far, in 2014, 2015 and this Batch #3 from juli 2016. It is a vatting of traditional ex-bourbon casks and first-fill Port pipes .

Tomatin 27 yo 1988 (50%, OB 2016, bourbon barrels + fist-fill Port pipes, 1800 btl.)

Nose: sweet peaches, vanilla pastry and a little ice cream. Then red fruit candy (the cherries you could break apart and hang around your ears) and blackcurrants but also a minty / woody edge and leather. Dusty malt. Perhaps more bourbon wood than Port casks doing the talking....