Craigellachie Coming Through With a Lovely Sherry Bomb
It’s well known that Gordon and MacPhail has their own approach to barrels. They source their own casks, with a specialty in sherry casks from Jerez, and have them filled at the distilleries. They...
View ArticleA Special Finish Aberlour
Aberlour is really big in France, and this, like most of the distillery’s special releases are geared exclusively for the French market (although they can be had in some other markets), including a 12...
View ArticleBenromach Week – Speyside’s Smallest (old) Distillery
Until Ballindalloch Distillery was established in 2014, Benromach was Speyside’s smallest distillery. Independent bottler Gordon & MacPhail owns Benromach, having bought it in 1993. It seems like...
View ArticleBenromach 10 Year Old – Is the Hype Justified?
Last year, Benromach revamped their core range lineup and the 10 year old was relaunched (or repackaged) together with a new 10 year old at cask strength (to be reviewed tomorrow) and a whirlwind of...
View ArticleBenromach 10 on Steroiods!!
I reviewed the Benromach 10 years old yesterday (here), and thought it was a “bright and vivid dram that harks back to the old Speyside whisky style combining sherry and peat. It also provides good...
View ArticleIs the Benromach 15 the new 10?
So we’re coming off three raving reviews on the Benromach 5, 10 and the 10 Year Old 100 Proof. I’ll recap them by saying that the 5 year old (reviewed here) is an excellent dram, is age stated and...
View ArticleA Fascinating Caperdonich from the Orchard
Caperdonich was one of those distilleries that were like a falling star. They show up, shine for a short time, are found to be redundant and poof, are gone. Brora is a prime example of such a...
View ArticleThe Pride of Speyside in Cask Strength
Douglas Laing recently launched the ‘Remarkable Regional Malts’ as an umbrella brand for the vatted/blended malts combining the highly popular Islay Big Peat with The Speyside Scallywag, Timorous...
View ArticleThe 2015 TWE Whisky Show – Bigger and Better – Day One Recap!
Yes, I traveled to London again this year to take part in The Whisky Exchange’s annual Whisky Show. I flew to the UK on Tuesday, and spent three days up in Scotland (full posts on my distillery visits...
View ArticleMortlach Generations 75 Year Old – The Last Cask From the 1930s!!
In November 1939 World War II was only a formality on the British Isles. War was declared in September, but the actual fighting was yet to come. In fact, it was still 10 months away when on November...
View ArticleA Surprising Old Convalmore – Silent Distilleries IV
Convalmore is a fascinating distillery, albeit one you don’t hear much about. The distillery never had its own bottlings, although Gordon and MacPhail regularly bottled whisky from the distillery in...
View Article12 Bottles That Would Make a Great Christmas Present
Here we are just twelve days before Christmas (and it’s the first day of Hanukkah), and gift buying is at its height! I’ll give you my top 12 bottles that would make a great holiday gift. Obviously,...
View ArticleA Nice, Yet Unintended, Birthday Gift from BenRiach – BenRiach 35
My local retailer, Wine and Flavors, held a GlenDronach tasting on Wednesday. This store is at a great location, being only 650 meters (or about 2200 feet) from my house, and has the absolute best...
View ArticleAdvent Calendars and Blind Tasting Competitions – Celebrating December
For some, December is all about Advent Calendars and the countdown toward the holidays. For others, it’s about blind competitions and getting ready for vacations. With Hanukka bouncing around between...
View ArticleGlen Grant 1954 by Gordon and MacPhail – The Glory of Old Whisky
At the Whisky Show, I was lucky enough to taste a 1952 Glen Grant, bottled by Gordon and MacPhail and served as one of the dream drams. The second 1950s G&M was a 1954 Mortlach as part of the...
View ArticleGlenisla 1977 – Rarest of the Rare, Weirdest of the Weird
But you’ve never heard of Glenisla, and when you checked the closed distilleries section in your ‘Malt Whisky Yearbook’ you found nothing. So what is this and how did it get to a bottle? The story is...
View ArticleGlenDronach 18 Allardice Review – Starting to Get Older….
In a guest post that has proven to be one of the most popular posts on the site, Jun Nunez of Whisky Blasphemy did a head to head review of the GlenDronach 18 and the Macallan Sherry Oak 18. After...
View ArticleGlenDronach 1995, Cask 3240 – Sultanas Basking in Prune Juice
GlenDronach and BenRiach release a batch of single casks every few months, and act as their own “independent” bottler, bottling exclusive casks for stores, markets and clubs, but maintaining their own...
View ArticleLongmorn 27 Year Old – SMWS 7.86 – A Peculiar Longmorn
Pernod Ricard announced that it would be releasing a new NAS expression from Longmorn called The Distiller’s Choice, presented at 40% ABV and matured in a range of American oak, ex-Oloroso sherry and...
View ArticleBraeval 1990 – 25 Year Old – Douglas Laing XOP (57.3%)
The DHL delivery guy called at 2 pm to say he was coming over with a package from the UK. My heart skipped a beat as I saw it was from Douglas Laing, as those packages always have amazing liquid inside...
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