Reviews

Springbank has been the talk of the town in recent years. Now that prices have slowly normalised, one could almost dare to buy a bottle of the 10 years or even reach for the cask strength? However, if you want to get to grips with the Campbeltown region, there is - alongside Glen Scotia - the Campbeltown Loch Blended Malt, which is released almost every year. Today we have the 2023 version in our glass.

Matured 75% in bourbon barrels and 25% in sherry casks, the Bunnahabhain 12 Years is bottled at a decent 46.3% ABV. Nice for a standard, by the way: no colouring or chill-filtering was used.

The 9-years Blair Athol - number 3 in Signatory Vintage's 100 proof series - was distilled in 20214 and bottled in winter 2023 and sold out within a few hours, just like the other two bottlings in the series. And rightly so? At 57.1% ABV, the alcohol content of the bottlings corresponds exactly to the minimum level at which gunpowder soaked in alcohol ignites - or 100 British proof.

5 years and 5 casks. The first single malt whisky with an age statement from the still young Lochlea whisky distillery in the Scottish Lowlands was sold out faster than you could believe. The combination of first fill bourbon, first fill oloroso sherry, double matured Pedro Ximénez sherry and double matured oloroso sherry promises a versatile spirit.

The Wünnenberg Heritage Association takes care of preserving the history of the town of Wünnenberg. In the cellar of the small Fachwerkhaus, which the association calls its home, stands a small copper still. Every now and then, whisky is also distilled there. The nearby Westheimer Brewery supplies a small amount of their beer mash for this purpose. From this, the association produces its own house-made “Bier-Whisky”. Today we are tasting the bottling from 2023. According to the label, it's a genuine Single Barrel Malt with a Bordeaux Wood Finish, bottled at a wonderful 46% - so definitely not overly diluted. In conversation, they reveal to us its age: the whisky has spent 3 years maturing in wooden casks.

As part of The Rebels The Guerilla Casks series, a Deanston was bottled from a first fill Merlot cask. With this series, the independent bottler Brave New Spritis has set itself the task of offering whiskies from unusual casks, such as wine barriques from Asia, tequila casks from Mexico or casks for sweet wines from islands such as Madeira or Sicily.

Talisker is known for harmonious Whiskys. Not too much of anything, no aroma fights its way to the fore. These characterful Whiskys have been distilled on the Isle of Skye on the west coast of Scotland for almost 200 years."Made by the Sea" is the motto under which Talisker is distilled and marketed. The entire marketing strategy is based on this principle. This fits wonderfully, because the maritime notes can also be directly assigned during blind tasting. It doesn't matter whether we have Talisker 8, Talisker 10 or Talisker 18 in the glass. Talisker always has a special signature, a real character - rough seas in a glass. The 18 years takes this signature to a perfectly balanced composition.

Bourbon is as much a part of Super Bowl Day in the USA as scotch is on Robert Burns Day in Scotland. For today's Super Bowl match day, we have chosen a standard bourbon that can be enjoyed neat or in a cocktail.

Malts of Scotland is an independent bottler from Paderborn in Westphalia, Germany. Known for its high quality bottlings at good prices, almost every whisky is a real treat - is this also true for this Glenlossie 12 years?

Distillation has been a tradition in Corsica for over 150 years, while the Pietra brewery has only been brewing beer since 1995. Pietra and the Mavela distillery have recently entered into a collaboration, releasing their products under the name P&M Single Malt Corsican Whisky. Today, we're exploring the "Red Oak" special edition, featuring spring and winter barley, 5ppm of smoke, a Holstein Pot Still, maturation in ex-Niellucciu (a Corsican grape variety) red wine casks, and a limited run of 567 bottles. Unfortunately, the age of the whisky remains a secret.

Anyone who reads here regularly should already be familiar with the bottlings from 82 Chapters to Newcastle. The Benrinnes 12 years is one of the Creatures of Cask Strength bottlings, but at the same time it is not. Why not? We have no idea. In Asterix and Obelix terms, you'd say: the guys are crazy.

The original bottlings from the Benrinnes distillery can be counted on one hand - there is exactly one and it appears in the Flora & Fauna series. If you still want to enjoy single malts from the distillery, you have to look around at independent bottlers such as Malts of Scotland.