Archives for 2017

Ledaig / 19 Year Old Single Malt

Summary: Country/Region: Scotland/Isle of Mull.
Unit: 70cl
ABV: 51%

Two limited-edition malts, Ledaig 19 Years Old and Tobermory 21 Years Old, have been released by Distell's Tobermory Distillery.
This Ledaig 19 Year Old is some of the first spirit distilled when peated single malt production commenced at Tobermory distillery in the late 1990s.
Peat-dried malted barley was married with naturally peat-infused water from a lochan high in the mountains above the village. The spirit was then matured in superior oak wood casks before being finished in Marsala wine casks.
Tasting Notes: Beautiful rich single malt with a mouth-filling sweetness of berries and dark chocolate with a full peat explosion of black pepper and bonfire smoke.

anCnoc / 24 Year Old Single Highland Malt

Summary: Country/Region: Scotland/Highlands.
ABV: 46%.
Unit: 70cl.
Colour: Vintage amber.
Nose: Densely sweet and spicy with a cosy embrace of Christmas cake. Rich yet crisp with notes of vanilla, set toffee and lemon juice.
Taste: Spiciness continues with hints of candied orange slices, warm honey and worn leather filling the mouth with a symphony of maturity.
Ratings: 94.5 Points / Jim Murray's 2017 Whisky Bible.

Compass Box / Flaming Heart Fifteenth Anniversary Release

Summary: Country/Region: Scotland/Islay/Highlands.
ABV: 48.9%
Since we launched the Compass Box Whisky Company back in 2000, we have always aimed to experiment, to innovate and to explore where others wouldn’t in the world of Scotch. No whisky is a greater example of this ambition than Flaming Heart.
First released in 2006, Flaming Heart was the first whisky to combine the rich, complex spice of Scotch aged in new French oak with the evocative peat-fired smoke of Islay malt. It created a genre-defying style that was smouldering, spicy, complex – and so popular that we re-released it three more times in the years that followed.
In this our fifteenth year, we felt compelled to revisit this unique style one more time. Our anniversary release is a huge, layered, long-lasting mouthful of a whisky to enjoy late into the night. Brooding, indulgent and older than ever before, this is a whisky born of oak, smoke and fire – with a big heart all of its own.
John Glaser, Whiskymaker.
Availability: A limited edition of 12,060 bottles. Bottled in August 2016.
Flavour Descriptors: A unique interplay between spice, sweet and smoke characteristics. Sweet fruits and wood-smoke on the nose. Fat and full-bodied on the palate with a spicy sweetness and a brooding complexity that is rich, sweet and addictively decadent.
Ratings: 96.5 Points and Scotch Vatted Malt of the Year / Jim Murray's 2017 Whisky Bible.
 
 

Dailuaine / 7 Year Old Sherry Matured / Douglas Laing's Single Minded

Summary: Douglas Laing's Single Minded series is a range of Small Batch Single Malts from across a variety of Scotch Whisky regions. Each is bottled exactly the way the distiller intended: without colouring or chill-filtration. This expression, a Dailuaine 7 Years Old, clearly demonstrates its sherry maturation. The nose is warmly spiced with macerated fruit and sweet barleys. The palate is every bit as sweet with citric notes and a sugary, fudgey finish.
Country: Scotland.
Distillery: Dailuaine.
District: Speyside.
Bottler: Douglas Laing.
Bottling serie: Single Minded.
Distilled: 03.2007
Bottled: 11.2014
Age: 07 years old.
Casktype: Sherry Butt.
Strength: 41.5 % Vol.
Size: 70cl
Nose: Shows it’s sherry cask maturation: being warmly spiced with macerated fruit ahead of it’s generic sweet barley.
Palate: Every bit as spiced but now with citric fruit plus a fine quality of chewy malt.
Finish: All neatly replicated with its sugary and fudge’y style.

Bunnahabhain / 8 Year Old / Douglas Laing's Single Minded

Summary: Douglas Laing's Single Minded series is a range of Small Batch Single Malts from across a variety of Scotch Whisky regions. Each is bottled exactly the way the distiller intended: without colouring or chill-filtration.
Country: Scotland.
Distillery: Bunnahabhain.
District: Islay.
Bottler: Douglas Laing.
Bottling serie: Single Minded.
Distilled: 06.2009
Bottled: 109.2016
Age: 08 years old.
Casktype: Refill Hogshead.
Strength: 43 % Vol.
Size: 70cl
Nose: Sweetly scented, gently maritime, distinctly spiced and gristy.
Palate: Full of rich juicy barley – with a soft oily twist and late burnt fruit.
Finish: With a hint of salt, subtle spices, more cereal and more spice.

Strathclyde / 11 year Old Sherry Finished / Douglas Laing's Old Particular

Summary: Douglas Laing's "Old Particular" is a particularly unique series of individually hand-selected aged Single Cask Malts' and Single Cask Single Grains from all over Scotland. Each is bottled exactly the way the Distiller intended: Without colouring, or chill-filtration. The result is as close as some come to experiencing that rarest of pleasures – sampling a dram straight from its cask in the hallowed surroundings of a Distillery warehouse.
Country: Scotland.
Distillery: Strathclyde.
District: Lowland.
Bottler: Douglas Laing.
Bottling serie: Old Particular.
Distilled: November 2009
Bottled: January 2017
Age: 11 years old.
Casktype: Sherry Butt.
Casknumber: DL11484
Strength: 55.5% Vol.
Number of bottles: 306
Size: 70cl
Nose: Lemon zest, stewed strawberries, fresh fruits, a Malt spice and dark berries.
Palate: Custard creams, a milk chocolate mocha served with Ann’s homemade tablet.
Finish: Medium-long, warming with Demerara sugar and finishing with beautiful sweet flavour.

Speyburn / Bradan Orach

Summary: Country/Region: Scotcland/Highlands.
Unit: 70cl
Alc: 40%
Gaelic for ‘Golden Salmon’, Bradan Orach is a classic, easy drinking Speyside malt whisky, matured exclusively in ex-bourbon casks.
The bourbon wood gives the whisky a wonderful complexity and depth, without making it overly challenging. Like the 10 Year Old itthis malt is very easy to drink and a great way to get to know Speyburn.
Colour: Bright, golden-amber colour.
Nose: Green apples, honey, lemon and floral vanilla spices.
Taste: Subtle and delicate with vanilla and honey, full bodied, creamy and smooth with a long lasting spicy finish.
Ratings: Double Gold Medal / 2015 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

Tomatin / 12 Year Old

Summary: Country/Region: Scotland/Highland's.
ABV: 43%
Unit: 70cl
Cask Type: Matured in a combination of Bourbon barrels and Sherry casks.
The Tomatin 12 Year Old is smooth and silky, having been matured in traditional Scotch Whisky, ex-Bourbon and ex-Spanish Sherry casks. A rich, fruity aroma is the prelude to sweet flavours of ripe apples, pears and a subtle hint of nut before the long, pleasantly oily finish.
Ratings: Double Gold Medal / 2016 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

Glenfarclas / 1976 40 Years Old VI

Summary: Category: Single Malt from Speyside, Scotland.
Distillery: Glenfarclas.
District: Speyside.
Bottler: Distillery Bottling.
Bottling serie: Special Release.
Vintage: 19.05.1976
Bottled: 2016
Age: 40 years old.
Casktype: Sherry Casks.
Strength: 43.7% Vol.
Number of bottles: 1500
The final limited edition release in the Family Collector Series, this 40 year old Speyside Single Malt from Glenfarclas represents the 6th generation of the Grant family, current Sales Director, George S. Grant, as he reaches his own 40th year.
Distilled in 1976 and matured in the finest sherry casks, only 1,500 bottles have been produced to bookend the series that began with the 1966 Fino Cask bottling honouring John Grant, who purchased the distillery in 1865.

Hakushu / 12 Year Old Single Malt

Summary: Country: Japan. ABV: 43%. Unit: 70cl. From Suntory's mountain forest distillery, nestled deep in Mt. Kaikomagatake, Hakushu® Whisky is the fresh and gently smoky single malt whisky with herbal notes that is the revelation of Japanese single malts. Straight from the untouched forests, mountains and pure waters of the Southern Japanese Alps, it is no wonder that Hakushu® is a "green and fresh" whisky, praised by the most curious whisky connoisseurs and lovers of gastronomy. Its crisp and vibrant feel, unique in a single malt whisky, enlivens and liberates your senses.  

Carsebridge / 40 Year Old Xtra Old Particular

Summary: Country/Region: Scotland/Lowland. Bottler: Douglas Laing. Unit: 70cl ABV: 53.7% Distilled: October 1976 Bottled:

Garnheath / 42 Year Old Xtra Old Particular

Summary: Country/Region: Scotland/Lowland. Bottler: Douglas Laing. Unit: 70cl ABV: 44.5% Distilled: February 1974 Bottled:

North British / 24 Year Old / Old Particular

Summary: Country/Region: Scotland/Highlands. Unit: 70cl ABV: 49.4% Cask Reference: OLD0275. Bottles Filled: 256 Distilled: October 1991 Bottled: November 2015 Nose: Complex – showing gentle oak, barley sugar, honeycomb and syrup. Palate: Ever so mouth coatingly sweet, with liquorice, mocha and butterscotch showing. Finish: Distinct vanilla, with a suggestion now of smoke and cough drops. Ratings: 94 Points / Jim Murray's 2017 Whisky Bible.

Port Dundas / 21 Year Old Clan Denny

Summary: Country/Region: Scotland/Lowland. Unit: 70cl. ABV: 55.7%. Age: 21 Year Old. Distilled/Bottled: 1992/2013. Nose: honeycomb on speed: sharp, toasty, crispy sweet; lime on vanilla ice cream; Taste: although the oak has dug in and makes an early impact, the spreading of what appears to be soft corn oils helps the ever-intensifying sugars to see off the underlying toastiness; Finish: the sugars are now crystalline and persistent; Balance: astonishingly invigorating. Leaps from the glass with intent and purpose. Wonderful! Country/Region: Scotland/Lowland. Ratings: 93 Points – Jim Murray's 2014 Whisky Bible © Jim Murray's / 2014 Whisky Bible.

Highland Park / 20 Year Old Extra Old Particular

Summary: Country/Region: Scotland/Orkney. Unit: 70cl ABV: 53% Cask Reference: DL11494. Bottles Filled: 280 Distilled: September 1996 Bottled: November 2016 Nose: Carries a maritime air – clean and ozone-y, with a later sweet maltiness. Palate: So gently smoked, hinting at peat but spices – tobacco and honey follow. Finish: It’s still smoking softly then detect gentle spiced and a mocha hint.

Four Roses / Small Batch Limited Edition 2016 Bourbon

Summary: Country/Region: USA.
Unit: 70cl.
ABV: 55.6%
History: "In 1884, Paul Jones Jr, moved his thriving business to Louisville, Kentucky, where he opened an office in Whiskey Row. Four years later, he trademarked the name Four Roses, claiming a history of production and sales back to the 1860s. Four Roses is the only Bourbon Distillery that combines five proprietary yeast strains with two separate mash bills to produce ten distinct Bourbon Recipes, each with their own unique character, spiciness, and rich fruity flavours. Despite a history dating back to 1888, the iconic name, and its popularity, Four Roses stopped selling Bourbon in the US fr 40 years. The whiskey was so popular in Asia that the Japanese Kirin Brewing Company bought the business in 2002 and soon after reintroduced the brand to the US market."
Production: Yellow Label remains true to its original recipe, although this is tweaked to achieve consistency during blending. A blend of all ten Four Roses recipes (approximately 2/3rd OE and 1/3rd OB mash bills) and is aged for between 5 and 6 years. It is generally blended from no more than 200 casks. A brand that dates back to the late 19th century. This Yellow Label bottling of Four Roses was originally sold the European and Japanese markets and is made up of whiskeys aged between 5 and 6 years of age.
Tasting note: Spicy nose, rich, mellow and fruity, hints of sweet oak & caramel. Creamy, mellow palate with ripened red berry flavours, it''s rich, spicy, well-balanced. The finish is soft, smooth & quite long.

Bladnoch / 23 Year Old Connoisseurs Choice (Gordon and MacPhail)

Summary: Country/Region: Scotland/Lowlands.
Unit: 70cl 
DISTILLED: 1993
BOTTLED: 2016
AGE: 23 Year Old.
STRENGTH: 46%
COLOUR: Pale Gold.
BODY: Light to medium.
FINISH: Medium to long.
CASK TYPE: Refill Sherry Hogsheads.
STYLE: Delicate Lowland malt.
AROMA WITHOUT WATER: Fresh mint and tropical fruit aromas with a subtle malty note. A floral edge develops with a trace of walnuts.
TASTE WITHOUT WATER: Black cracked pepper initially with peach and kiwi flavours. A sweet fudge edge lingers.
AROMA WITH WATER: Floral with hints of rose petals and parma violets. A slight malty edge with a hint of spearmint.
TASTE WITH WATER: Dark chocolate with blueberries and rose water. A subtle hazelnut edge develops.