Benromach keeps pumping out young wine finishes expressions and today we’ll review their latest such release, the Benromach Hermitage 2007.

It’s the forth Benromach Hermitage release. The previous one was released in 2015 and is a 2005 vintage whisky. This time around it’s the 2007 vintage that was bottled earlier in 2016 (9 years old give or take a few months). It has been initially matured in bourbon casks for 6 years, before being finished in casks which previously held wine from the Hermitage Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée for 31 months.

Interesting enough, the finish time here, 31 months, is much longer...

Until today there was one big distillery never reviewed on Whisky Gospel. Yes, A few years of reviews and still not a single Glenfiddich whisky review here.

It’s not that I didn’t taste Glenfiddich whiskies, after all it’s one of the most popular single malts around the globe and even my brother who doesn’t drink much whisky (I know, a big failure on my behalf) has a Glenfiddich 12 yo bottle at home. But I must admit that those Glenfiddichs I did taste, like the 12 yo, 18 yo and others just didn’t tingle enough my resolve to sit down and...

Mackmyra Special 09 Vildhallon, 46,1 % I have now arrived at the second to last Special release from Swedish distillery Mackmyra. The Mackmyra Special 09 Vildhallon was released on november 1, 2012. Here is what the distillery themselves say about the release: Mackmyra Special 09 is an elegant Swedish Maltwhisky with intense berry and fruity […]...

Islay Malt 7 YO Cadenhead, 58,6 % This is a single malt from a single cask. The whisky was distilled at an undisclosed Kildalton distillery on Islay, which means it is from either Ardbeg, Laphroaig, or Lagavulin. This will be an ongoing product, as far as I know. This means that the ABV (and most likely […]...

Bruichladdich 2003 12 YO – Norsk whiskyforbund Cask #2, 56,6 % This is the second whisky bottled for the Federation of Norwegian Whisky Societies (Norsk whiskyforbund). The first release was a really nice GlenDronach (see review). The Bruichladdich 2003 12 YO – Norsk whiskyforbund Cask 2 was bottled by independent bottler Adelhi. This cask (cask #1335) […]...

After planning our trip to Islay for one year, seven Ladies finally arrived last Wednesday morning, the 14th september 2016. We flew from Glasgow to Islay and because of the wind the plane had to make an extra turn around half the island. We felt lucky to enjoy the sight of Islay from above. It […]...

Mackmyra Special 10 Kaffegök, NAS, 46,1 % Here it is then, the 10th and last release in the Mackmyra Special Series. The Mackmyra Special 10 Kaffegök was released on maj 2, 2013. This release was limited to 10 000 bottles. Here’s the official description of the whisky: “It has been finished on casks that have previously […]...

Region – Speyside – ABV – 53.4% ABV – Cask 1962 – First Fill Sherry Puncheon – This was around $150

It wasn’t long ago that I had a chance to sit down with my good friend Jonathan Bray to review this Balblair.

Actually, yes, it was quite some time ago…. back in maj/juni based on my tasting notes and the published date of Jonathan’s review . Ugh.

♬ Ti-i-i-ime is not on my side, no it isn’t! ♬ Where does the time go?!

My apologies to you, dear reader, and my apologies to Jonathan, for not getting this review...

A few of us ladies at TWE HQ are on a mission – to get more women involved in drinking the hard stuff (responsibly, of course). Far too often we have found ourselves sitting in a whisky tasting where we are the minority sex in the audience. This has to change; cue our very first women-only whisky tasting: Ladies Night.

The Ladies Night whisky tasting was held at The Whisky Exchange shop in Covent Garden, London

Our host for the evening was Becky Paskin, whisky writer and editor of scotchwhisky.com , who says that writing about and tasting whisky for...

Kirsteen Campbell is master blender for both  The Famous Grouse  and  Cutty Sark . We caught up with her to ask her about blended whisky, single malts and more.

What are the key stylistic and flavour profiles of Famous Grouse you keep in mind when creating a new batch? First and foremost, it’s important to ensure consistency for every batch – while there might be slight tweaks in terms of casks batch to batch, it’s essential that the flavour remains the same. For Famous Grouse we are looking for its signature sherry style – dried fruits and spices from European oak...

Over the past week-end, Belgian importer The Nectar organized the tenth edition of its Spirits in the Sky fair. Here are a few highlights of what I saw on the tables (and underneath)…

Compass Box

I started with the Whisky de Table from Compass Box , chilled. An undemanding aperitif, very light and barley-driven. I can’t say I detected the Caol Ila smokiness but there’s definitely some straightforward young Clynelish. Apples, waxy notes and more grainy notes on the palate. Good concept, good execution, just not something I would have a whole bottle of.

The bespoke bottling for...

What to say about this new Teeling 24 Year Old ? It’s part of the new high end of the range (together with a Teeling 33 Year Old ) and replaces the Silver 21 Years  (now in the bottle of the Teeling 15yo Revival ). Presented last week, we were lucky that it was already available at Spirits in the Sky last week-end.

The 24 is composed with 1991 casks  (ex-bourbon / ex-Sauternes) and we’ve seen many of these from independent bottlers. I loved all of them, because they have the typical Irish fruitiness but also hints of peat that are...

Highland Park announced the release of its Highland Park Fire Edition , the successor of the Ice Edition and the last of this two-part series. The Fire Edition was matured in 100% refill Port wine seasoned casks for 15 years and is bottled at a strength of 45,2% ABV.

The Port wine seasoning is a first for Highland Park, we’re keen to find out how this blends with the distillery character. Although it is called a limited release, there will be 28000 bottles available for around € 215. It will start to appear on shelves towards the end of november....

Eifelboys, De Tongerse Whiskyvrienden, Whiskyclub Luxembourg, Vinothek Massen – three clubs and a shopping centre from the Eastern parts of Belgium / Luxemburg. Some of the people behind these names are the same so it’s no surprise they tend to share bottlings (check their Tomatin 1988 , Caol Ila 1990 or Laphroaig 1997 ).

This time a cask of Glenturret 1986 was sourced from Signatory Vintage and shared between the Eifelboys and Tongerse Whiskyvrienden .

Glenturret 29 yo 1986 (49,6%, Signatory Vintage for Eifelboys & De Tongerse Whiskyvrienden 2016, hogshead #301, 173 btl.)

Nose: beautifully fruity, with sweet...

Another XO / Very Old blended malt , this time bottled by Whisky-Fässle . For similar bottlings we’ve heard rumours about old (possibly underproof) casks of Macallan / Glenrothes / Tamdhu / Highland Park – former distilleries from the Highland Distillers group. It’s pretty much the malt base for The Famous Grouse, sometimes blended with some younger whisky to get more punch, and matured further. This one could be similar. Or majbe not.

Fine Blended Malt ‘Very Old’ (45,2%, Whisky-Fässle 2016, sherry butt)

Nose: as expected, a rather dry and old-style sherry profile. Walnuts and hazelnuts, as well...