Last night dram of the BTC 2017 was a nasty surprise from the organizers. Nasty as who would have think of a handfill (!!!) from Glenfiddich distillery (!!!!), no less and no more! As expected, nobody managed to guess the distillery. It was a good dram and it reaffirms my belief from my two last Glenfiddich reviews ( here and here ) that they should stop chill filtering and bottle in higher strength.

And how did I do with my guess? I got points for region as it was clearly a Speyside offering and totally missed on the ABV. I...

Day 4 of the BTC 2017 competition brought me the first Ballechin I tasted. For those who don’t know it, Ballechin is the peated whisky distilled in Edradour distillery. In our case it’s a 12 year old Ballechin, distilled in 2004 and matured in Manzanilla sherry cask #278 that was bottled in 28.10.2016 after yielding 495 bottles.

When I sniffed and tasted it, my first reaction was: this is no Islay peat. But then I recalled a virgin oak Octomore single cask which held a very similar profile so it was either peated laddie or product outside Islay. I went...

Today I review a young single cask Benromach (from 2008) that was bottled earlier this year for whiskysite.nl shop. 231 Bottles were bottled from cask 347 at 59.5% and a few of those entertained us on the 3rd day of the BTC 2017 competition.

I didn’t have much free time to tackle this dram so wrote some quick notes and went with a gut feeling guess of a young Caol Ila. I got points for age but nothing else. majbe if I could sit down with this dram properly I could (and should) recall those 2008 Benromach that flooded the market...

Long known for its country music scene, Nashville has recently built a reputation as a food and beverage destination. And after a 2009 law reintroduced distilling for the first time since statewide Prohibition in 1910, a crop of craft distillers has sprung up, making all sorts of whiskey. While some distillers are breaking new ground, others are reviving recipes passed down through generations.

There are now enough local distilleries to support a Tennessee Whiskey Trail , established in 2017 by the Nashville-based Tennessee Distillers Guild. The trail features 30 distilleries across the state, ranging in size from boutique micro-distillers to...

Knockdhu distillery has been working hard to develop a real peated range in the last couple of years. They have now launched anCnoc Peatheart , their peatiest expression so far, which contains about 40 ppm phenols (roughly in between Highland Park and Ardbeg, to give you an idea).

Note that for this expression they measured the phenol content of the malted barley (to be in line with the rest of the industry) while for previous peated anCnoc expressions they mentioned the phenols in the mature whisky.

It was matured in ex-bourbon barrels for more than a decade. anCnoc Peatheart will...

Last night I’ve started my annual whisky torture, also known as the BTC (Blind Tasting Competition) in some circles. It’s my 4th year in the competition and it’s never getting easy.

Day 1 sample was a clear ex-bourbon whisky with cask strength ABV. After sniffing and tasting I went with a random Highlands distillery and high ABV of 56%. I wasn’t sure about the age, at first I thought it’s either 9-11 or 16-18 but the tropical fruits and the lack of malt notes made me go with 17 years.

Then the whisky was revealed, from Benrinnes distillery (speyside region...

After a decent start to the BTC 2017 competition, came day 2 and embarrassed me.

Wolfburn No. 128 was the blind sample for this day and unfortunately (for me) it is one of the few official Wolfburn releases I haven’t tasted, not that I’m sure it would help…

I immediately felt it’s some OB whisky and not independent bottler bottle with a 46% offering (which is where I scored my points), but it felt much older with a gentle offering (no rough and burning liquid here) and matured in some old/weak refill sherry cask so it threw me off the...

A fresh crop of whiskies are rolling down the pike this week. Barrell Whiskey’ s second rye is hitting shelves. This batch combined rye from Indiana with malted rye from Poland. Like all Barrell products, it’s bottled at cask strength. The company is also releasing its 2018 New Year bourbon. This year’s iteration combines bourbons made at seven distilleries in five states, ranging in age from 5 to 14 years old.

The English Whisky Company rebranded its core line in the last year or so, and the new names and packaging are finally arriving in the U.S. Now known as...

One summer, years ago, in the early days of my obsession with drinks, I went away for a long weekend in Portugal and came back a changed man: a few summery days in Porto are enough to convert almost anyone to the delights of the country’s national drink. As I write, it’s the middle of the afternoon and it’s dark outside. The street lights are on, the sleet has subsided and my thoughts turn to warming drinks: it’s time for some port.

David Guimaraens: master blender for The Fladgate Partnership and my port guru

While we covered the basics in...

Giovinetti & Figli was Macallan ’s importer for Italy (Milan) in the 1980s. They had all kinds of bottlings, for instance a 7 year-old and this standard 10 year-old at 40% which are both “relatively affordable” if you fancy buying one now.

There was also a 10 Years Full Proof (better and much, much more expensive nowadays) and of course the rather legendary series of 18 year-old vintage releases.

Macallan 10 yo (40%, OB for Giovinetti & Figli, +/- 1985)

Nose: the classic Macallan profile, with lots of chocolate, toffee as well as some liquorice and coffee. Rum...

88 points, 40% ABV, $13...

95 points, 64.1% ABV, $90...

Holidays are the time to get a little festive with your whisky. That might mean breaking out a rare bottle or dressing up an old favorite in a fancy glass, but for many whisky lovers—especially those who make it—a special holiday cocktail is the ideal way to celebrate. Often these recipes are family favorites, developed over years of gathering and enjoying whisky together.

We asked several whisky distillers and blenders to share their holiday drink traditions. From Scotland to Seattle, single malt to bourbon, here are some favorite festive cocktails from the people who make whisky.

Rachel Barrie of BenRiach...

Whisky of the Year has gone global! For 2017 we opened up the awards to any bottle from across the world, provided it was not cask strength, below £60 and an ongoing release. Despite my repeated suggestions that we should hold the final somewhere warm and exotic to celebrate this momentous development, the event was once again held in The Rooms at Brown’s , just a hop and a skip from our Covent Garden shop .

On arrival we warmed up with a Claymore – not the Scottish two-handled sword, but rather the winning cocktail from the 2017 Speciality Drinks...