Reviews

The single malt whisky Lagavulin 16 Years is the best-selling bottling of the Islay distillery. Every now and then, there are even supply bottlenecks, which is rather unusual for a classic malt. Is the Scotch really that good?We can no longer count how many bottles it is now. It may even be the 6th or 7th. We often hear that Lagavulin 16 has lost some of its quality. We absolutely do not see it that way. We have had at least consistent quality over the last 12 or 13 years. But perhaps the competition has become stronger, so that the Islay malt no longer stands out so much?

Mackmyra Intelligens AI:01 is a single malt whisky from Sweden whose recipe was created with the help of artificial intelligence. Since both of us (Marcel & Sascha) come from a computer science background, we are more than excited to see what awaits us here.Combine customer preferences with sales data and existing recipes, throw a bit of statistics into the pot and then run the learning model on a Microsoft cloud and you magically get a whisky of the highest order. At least that's the idea.

In 2008, just under 15 years ago, the first bottlings of the Taiwanese distillery appeared and only four years later conquered the world market within a very short time. Rightly so?The Whiskys of the Kavalan distillery mature in a subtropical climate. Unlike European or Scottish Whiskys, an intense flavor can be achieved even in much shorter storage time. In principle, Kavalan Whiskys are delivered without age indication. Presumably, this is usually a maximum of 5 years, rather less.

Little black hill is roughly the translation of Knockando from the Gaelic. The distillery is located near Tamdhu and Cardhu. However, the geographical proximity has nothing to do with the taste profiles. These are in fact very different.Knockando actually focuses on the production of blended malts. However, there are a few bottlings of their own, such as the 12-years Classic Malt and the 15-years Richly Matured. We have the older of the two in our glass.

Glenmorangie 10 Years is one of the best-selling single malts in Scotland and is now available in a wide variety of editions, such as the giraffe edition. This is supposed to stand for the particularly high stills of the distillery located in the Highlands.The malt was matured in first and refill bourbon casks, which Glenmorangie fills no more than twice. The soft character of the single malt whisky is supported by the 8-metre-high stills.

"Dingle. Hand-made character. Unique Whiskey." - This is the slogan under which the still small distillery has been producing its whiskey by hand since 2012. Distillery young, whiskey young. Can that work?Dingle Single Malt Irish Whiskey from 2021 is mainly a 6-7 years spirit matured in first-fill bourbon casks and PX sherry casks and first bottling. Dingle is one of the few Irish distilleries that exclusively produce their own spirit.

Statistically, Octomore is all about the degree of peatiness. Despite its young age, however, we have an incredibly complex whisky in the glass.Why 10.3? There is a simple system behind the numbering. The 10 stands for the series, the 3 for a specific characteristic. In this case, it is the maturation in exclusively ex-American oak barrels. In the 10.3 we have a peat content of 114PPM (phenol parts per million).

The Glenfiddich 12 year is perhaps the best known classic and Scotch for beginners. However, there are also alternatives in this price range.A golden stag proudly presents its antlers on the bottle. In dark green and gold, the bottle and outer packaging look very noble. A successful and harmonious design.

Blended from over 40 different Scotch whiskies and grains, Johnnie Walker is the most widely used whisky for cocktails in bars. We take a look at whether it also delivers what it promises when neat.First bottled in 1909, the Black Label has been with us for over 100 years and has become the world's most famous Scotch blend. Over the years, the whisky, against which everyone had to measure themselves at the time, has won countless awards.

Indian Whisky - Amrut probably comes to mind most. But the distillery John Paul should also be on your mind. Although they have only been distilling there since 1992, which is rather young compared to most Scottish distilleries, the Whiskys are still worth a look.The Select Cask Whisky series is composed of selected casks, in this case Oloroso Sherry casks. The bronze colour (tinted) in the glass is also intended to reflect this maturation.

Since the beginning of 2021, Nikka Whisky From The Barrel can no longer officially call itself Japanese whisky. No reason not to taste the blend, we think.At the beginning of 2021, the Japanese Spirits and Liqueurs Association announced the standards for the labelling of Japanese whisky.This clearly defined what is and what is not Japanese Whisky. It is an open secret that many Nikka Whiskys contain a little Ben Nevis from Scotland - including Nikka Whisky From The Barrel. Nikka promises to continue producing wonderful whiskies and is making every effort to comply with the new standards, and at that time also updated its website accordingly at short notice. We think more transparency makes sense - and even knowing that we don't have real Japanese whisky in our glass, we can still enjoy it.

Whisky production as an experiment - that's something you have to dare to do. The KASC Project uses handmade hybrid casks. Let's take a look at what that means.Think of a hybrid cask as a newly assembled cask made from the staves of various other casks. Five casks of different origins are used: Portuguese oak, American oak, French oak, Hungarian oak and chestnut. This allows for unique flavours to emerge. At Kinahans, they write about it: So - if you are not ready to leave your comfort zone, the hybrid barrel whiskey releases are simply not for you.