The second Deanston in Distell 2019 Collection is a 2002 vintage aged for 16 years. It spent 14 years in re-charred ex-bourbon casks on (filled on 18th december 2002), then transferred into organic Oloroso casks (supplied by Robles, the only fully organic sherry producer) on 5th maj 2016 for additional 2 years or so.

Total of 528 (or 3492) bottles were made for this limited edition.

Deanston 2002 16 Year Old Organic Oloroso Cask Finish (50.6%, €113.99 )

Nose : Soft, strong malt and cereals notes, with bread dough and croissant, honey. Then sweet red dried berries, cinnamon and nutmeg,...

It’s time for the first (but not the last!) review of an official bottling from Foursquare, the Rum distillery in Barbados. Let’s start with the latest vintage release ,Foursquare 2007 which follows the 2005 vintage from last year (and the 2004 vintage the year before).

It’s a 12 Year Old rum from ex-bourbon casks, all matured in Barbados so the aging is intense and the Angel’s share is on a different (and higher) scale than the Scottish whisky figures…

Foursquare 2007 12 Year Old (59%, £55.95 / €59,97 / $ 74.95 )

Nose : Bright and fruity, almost perfume-y, banana,...

Even though it’s still summer and hot here, I can’t let the week pass without a single whisky review. So here’s something light and fitting for the season – Cadenhead Creations ‘Light Creamy Vanilla’ 26 Year Old .- a blended Maltwhisky mixing spirit from Glenlivet, Bruichladdich, Glen Grant, Aultmore, Tamdhu, Strathisla and Braeval and matured in a bourbon hogshead.

It’s the 3rd batch, the whisky was distilled back in 1991 and bottled in 2018. 288 bottles at 43.8% were made available.

Cadenhead Creations Light Creamy Vanilla 26 Year Old (43.8%, €99,99 / €109 )

Photo: whiskybase.com

Nose : Punchy...

Take a whisky from a classic vintage year from a well-known distillery, one that was matured in sherry casks they are famous for using them and you’d expect a fantastic whisky.

This is what we had in mind when I selected this whisky for a blind tasting events earlier this year – A Glendronach from 1993 (A Master Vintage!) matured in Oloroso and PX casks so it must be a winner.

Let’s see what I thought of it:

Glendronach Master Vintage 1993 25 Year Old (48.2%, £250 / € 218.90 )

Photo credit: whiskybase.com

Nose : Sour dried berries, a...

Deanston distillery is the lesser known member in Distell distilleries portfolio and also the most underrated one. But in the the last few years, Distell has released a few Deanston limited editions that made some waves and raised the wareness of the distillery products in whisky drinkers minds.

This year, Distill has includes no less than three different Deanston offerings in their Distell 2019 collection and of course we’ll check them all this week here on Whisky Gospel.

The first one up is the younger offering: Deanston from 2006 with 12 Year Old age statement that was finished in Fino...

Today’s subject is a shiny Glenfarclas which just happens to be the latest link in a series that honors Scottish figures that started back in 1996.

The 23rd edition in the series honours the Scottish king Jakob I. (19 juni 1566 – 27 mars 1625):

Charles James was the son of Maria Stuart and her second husband’s Lord Darnley. When his mother had to resign one year after his birth, he was appointed Scottish king under the name Jakob/James VI. on 24 juli 1567. But after Elisabeth I. died without children in 1603, he also received the crown of England...

The review today checks out the latest Glenlivet core line addition (from augusti 2018) – The Glenlivet Captain’s Reserve . The name comes from Captain William Smith Grant who was the great grandson of Glenlivet’s founder George Smith.

It’s a NAS offering (at 40% and probably chill filtered), matured in ex-bourbon barrel and sherry butts and then finished for a short time (6 months) in Cognac casks. Cognac cask finish isn’t too common in the industry, especially for mainstream core line release, so I’m quite intriguing to try it.

The Glenlivet Captain’s Reserve (40%, £46.95 / € 35,50)

Nose : Weak...

After checking out the mildly disappointing Glenlivet Cpatain’s Reserve let’s have another Glenlivet to balance the scales. In the last year we’ve seen a few interesting releases coming from an unnamed Speyside distilleries, and some are rumored to be from Glenlivet. They have similar age and strength so majbe they are coming from the same casks parcel?

One of those releases is the Dramfool special bottling for Spirit of Speyside 2019, named Elderly Elvis Tilting

Bruce, the man behind Dramfool love words game and anagrams. We reviewed a Lagavulin called Like a Villian and there was another Glenlivet called Give...

Longrow 14 Year Old Sherry Cask Matured was one of the 2018 limited editions from Springbank (along with the Hazelburn Oloroso) and it was released exactly 12 months ago in augusti 2018.

Interesting enough, even a year later it’s still widely available (unlike most Springbank limited editions), so we need to review it and understand why…

This Longrow was distilled november 2003 and Bottled in juli 2018, the refill oloroso casks yielded 9000 bottles at 57.8%

Longrow 14 Year Old Sherry Cask 57.8% ( €97 / $109.99 )

Nose : Dirty, gun powder and mild sulphur. Then dried raspberries, strong...

Compass Box are really geared up in 2019 as I counted 6 new global releases so far in 2019 and a few more are coming later year. We’ve managed to review most of them here and here’s the review on their latest release to date: The Circle No. 1.

The Circle is the result of a competition ran by Compass Box back in 2018 for bartenders and Rosey Mitchell, the winner of the competition was prized creating a blend along with John Glazer and Jill Boyd.

Rosey wanted to make an approachable whisky to be shared with friends, something for...

Until the mid-20th century, it was taken for granted that all scotch included some peat . After all, peat was the country’s main fuel source for thousands of years, and the flavor became entwined and admired in many styles of Scotch whisky. Perhaps surprisingly, Scotland has only 0.3% of all the peat on earth—and yet the flavor and success of peated Scotch whisky has spawned admirers around the world who are eager to give their own whiskies the pungent, powerful character of Scottish peat. These distillers introduce peat in a variety of ways: by blending peated spirit from Scotland with...

Whisky lovers have one more reason to hit the hallowed Kentucky Bourbon Trail . Bardstown Bourbon Co. opened its new visitors center on Sept. 9, offering tours, cocktail classes, and tastings geared toward every level of bourbon drinker, from novice to connoisseur. The facility features a sleek, modern vibe, with glass paneling, moss art walls, and an open design that’s meant to highlight the company’s focus on transparency and collaboration, while celebrating both the art and science of whiskey making.

It wasn’t long ago that now-former chief executive David Mandell, who co-founded Bardstown Bourbon Co. back in 2014, had grand...

With hundreds of whiskies poured, numerous seminars to choose from, and in-booth attractions, the savvy WhiskyFest attendee knows a little preparation goes a long way. Luckily, the WhiskyFest app is here to help. Plan your dram-filled route across the showroom floor, read up on seminars and who is leading them, and use the app to take notes along the way.

WhiskyFest hits San Francisco on oktober 4, with more than 400 whiskies available to taste. (Get some recommendations from Whisky Advocate’s editors about the can’t-miss bottles —and get your tickets before they sell out.) The WhiskyFest San Francisco app is...

These days, a new whisky comes out practically every day—sometimes a dozen or more a week (all reported each Friday in Whisky Weekend ). Store shelves are crowded with more bottles than ever before. New releases make a splash, but when a whisky disappears, it usually happens quietly.

That was the case with Old Scout, a popular whiskey sourced from MGP and bottled by Smooth Ambler . Just a few years ago, the West Virginia distillery was selling every bottle of Old Scout bourbon and rye that it could ship—so much that it ran out of mature whiskey altogether. So...

When you hear smoky whisky, you’re likely to think of peat—the decayed vegetation that compacts into bogs over centuries, and is later dug up, dried, and used as fuel in the malting process. Peat is common and easily accessible across Scotland and Ireland, making it the most popular combustible used to flavor single Maltwhisky, but it’s not the only thing that adds smoke to drying malt. Distillers in other parts of the world are adding smoky notes to their whiskies using a variety of fuels and flavoring sources. Just like the first distillers who discovered peat, these producers are...