Reviews

The 13-years single malt was post-matured in Armagnac casks from the Bas-Armagnac region - one of the three French Armagnac regions. The distillery still uses traditional worm tubs to cool the distillate. Although this is not as efficient and low-maintenance as newer condensation methods, it still gives the malt a special note.

One of the flagships of the Jim Beam distillery is Booker's Bourbon. Supposedly created by Booker Noe, Jim Beam only bottles 4 batches a year. "Uncut and unfiltered" means that we have the full power of a natural bourbon in our glass. Today it's Batch 2019-01E. This is the part of the first 2019 batch that was produced for the European market. The label promises 6 years and 3 months of maturation and almost 63% ABV.

The independent bottlers Hart Brothers advertise their bottlings as being subject to the highest standards of quality control. They distribute selected single cask bottlings, of course unfiltered and uncoloured. From this series we have a Speysider from the Glenrothes distillery in our glass today. Distilled in 1988 as a vintage whisky and then matured in casks for 26 years.

With Bulleit, Diageo presents whiskies with the rough image of the Wild West. In addition to two bourbons, the distillery, which as far as we know now actually distils itself, also offers a rye. In this case, the 95 on the label refers to the rye content of the mash bill, which is a whopping 95%. Unusually high, as you often get the "barely legal" rye with 51% rye.

A young distillery has many "firsts". The first bottling ever, the first bottling of the Core Range and at some point also the first bottling at cask strength. This is what we have for tasting and review today.

Arran Distillery was established on the Isle of Arran in the mid 90's. Some of the casks were stored at Springbank until the recent expansion of the warehouses. The casks are now on site and a second distillery (Lagg) has been built. Today we taste the 10 years Core Range bottling.

The Westfalian stands for unique bottlings and is not afraid to experiment. Cask 134 is subtitled "Crazy Cask Experiment". A single corn whisky - distilled from maize (corn for you US folks) - matured in an ex-Old Pulteney sherry cask. You don't often find this combination in Scotland nor in the USA.

Thomas Ewers bottles German whisky with a Scottish soul under the brand name The Westfalian. The Westfalian is only available as a single cask. Today we have Cask 121 in the glass - a 6 years single malt matured in an ex-Tobermory Sherry cask.

The second year of seasonal releases from Lochlea has begun. We were kindly provided with the Sowing Edition by the distillery for review. The single malt is matured for 3-4 years in a first fill bourbon cask.

For the 6th time, the family-owned Douglas Laing & Co. from Glasgow is releasing the limited Chocolate Edition of the Scallywag range. 4,200 bottles of malts matured in Pedro Ximénez and Oloroso sherry casks were married to create the most chocolatey whisky possible.

Aberfeldy Distillery was founded by the Dewar brothers. As well as the well-known Dewar brand budget blends, they also produce a single malt under the distillery's name. Today we taste the 12 years Aberfeldy bottling - the entry point to their core single malt range.

Stitzel-Weller is an epitome of American bourbon culture. The legendary distillery was, until its closure in 1992, the original producer of many well-known bottlings. Diageo reopened the distillery in 2014. Blade and Bow is a tribute to Stitzel-Weller. Matured in the solera process, each bottle has a small part of original Stitzel-Weller in it.

The Dalmore Valour is a Travel Exclusive, which was first introduced in Qatar. In principle, we are rather sceptical about Travel Exclusives, but we give every whisky a chance.

The Ardnamurchan distillery is named after its location, the Ardnamurchan Peninsula in the Scottish Highlands. The still young distillery (bottling of the first cask in 2014) is considered one of the most important newcomers on the Scotch scene, perhaps also due to the long history of Adelphi Distillery Ltd, which also operates as an independent bottler.

Today we continue our series on Patrisbrunna Paderborn single malts. The Kö13 restaurant distributes its own small series of extremely regional own maturations. The Madeira Cask bottling matured for 4 years in Portuguese wine casks. This gives the malt a really interesting color - almost like a rosé wine.

The St. Kilian distillery releases their Signature Editions at irregular intervals. These are strictly limited bottlings of selected casks. For the 13th Signature Edition, we were sent a deconstruction set, i.e. samples of the individual barrels, as well as a sample of the final product. A super exciting experience! Below is our impression of the Signature Edition Thirteen, as well as (at the very bottom) a breakdown of the individual parts.

If you travel to Scotland, the Dalwhinnie distillery is often one of the first to be visited because of its location. For us, Dalwhinnie 15 Years was the first single malt we ever drank. 16 years later, we now open a bottle again.

The Penderyn Madeira Finish Single Malt comes from Wales and thus from a rather untypical whisky region. What makes the Penderyn distillery unique is a so-called Faraday copper still, which is used in the production of the whisky. Matured in ex-bourbon casks and later in Madeira casks, the whisky is bottled in really chic bottles.

The Midleton distillery's 12-years Redbreast bottling is bottled annually in cask strength batches in addition to the 40% strength bottling. The cask strength bottling is also triple distilled in copper pot stills and matured in a combination of bourbon matured American oak casks and oloroso sherry matured Spanish oak casks before being bottled with no added colouring and non-chill filtered. Did you know? The robin is one of the few small birds that also winters in Ireland. The bird species is the eponym for this Irish whiskey.

Since 2015, The Hielan 8 Years has been the entry into the standard range of single malt whiskies from the Glendronach distillery. By the way: Hielan is a Scottish word that refers to the mountainous part of Scotland that lies to the north and west of a line that runs roughly from Dumbarton via Ballater and from there to Nairn.

The Laphroaig Brodir Final Batch is a limited edition, named after the Viking term for "brother", and is the final batch in a series of special bottlings honouring the distillery's heritage and connection to the island's Viking history.After several batches, this Laphroaig, matured in ex-bourbon casks and finished in a port cask, is now discontinued. The Scotch does not bear an age statement.

The Black Grouse Alpha Edition is a peated version of the Famous Grouse. As it is a blend, the barley used specifically for this whisky was not peated, as is the case with a single malt. Instead, they took fully matured Islay whisky and blended it with the standard Famous Grouse. We suspect it will be Caol Ila, as is so often the case.

Tomintoul's single malts are known to be among the lighter, smoother - and, as some would say, old-fashioned and boring - Speyside malts. Perhaps because of this and the high demand for intense and powerful Scotches, the distillery flies under the radar of most people.

Although Blair Athol is not a small distillery, its Single Malts are not among the best known. Over 90% of the production goes into Bell's blended Scotch. Today we have a 10-years independent bottling of a single Blair Athol cask from Douglas Laing's Provenance series in the glass.