Okay, fellas, let’s address the elephant in the room right away: This 11-year-old Ardmore from new German indie bottler PURE.WHISKY is an absolute banger of a dram! Ah, no. While this statement is totally true, that’s not the proverbial elephant. (more…)
For me, Ardmore is one of those hidden champions that usually don’t get as much praise as they’d deserve. Especially when drawn from carefully selected casks and bottled in natural strength, the distillery’s medium-peated Highlands whisky has a tendency to shine extra-bright. (more…)
This year on Halloween, I am thrilled to take you on a field trip to the weather-beaten cliffs of Clanyard Bay, fifty-or-so miles north of the fabled Isle of Man. There, one of my favorite whisky tales takes place: “The Ghost Piper of Clanyard Bay”, which forms the frame narrative (more…)
For me, one of the highlights of the first Whisky of Voodoo outturn by venturous indie bottlers Brave New Spirits was “Coven of Resurrection” – a 13-year-old grain whisky from Cameronbridge with a finish in a 1st-fill red wine cask. Since that one really made my jaw drop, (more…)
Courageous and creative indie bottlers Brave New Spirits picked their name for a reason. After all, the Glasgow-based whisky mavens often release bottlings that have colorful designs, curiosity-raising names, and out-of-the-ordinary maturation histories. Whereas their latest outturn – Cask Noir – took inspiration from the hard-boiled detective movies of the 1940s and 1950s, (more…)
The new three-piece range of single cask bottlings by Flickenschild has a simply yet evocative name: “Slainte”. Graced with stylish illustrations by North-German artist Mats Matthée, each member of the trio cuts a mighty fine figure – both on the outside and on the inside. (more…)
Finally … it’s Halloween! On the scariest, spookiest, and most spine-tingling night of the year, I take you down to the fiery pits of hell! Guarded by demons and enshrouded in the reek of brimstone, there waits for us a whisky whose torrid character and fiery temper (more…)
For as long as I can remember, I have felt attracted to the dark, the grotesque, and the obscure. No matter in what form it appears – e.g., a gothic novel, a fright flick, or a horror-themed heavy metal album – I always find the supernatural highly intriguing. (more…)
When Loch Lomond Distillery’s local importer Wein Wolf released this single cask bottling on the German market in late 2021, I learned two things from it: First, I discovered that Pineau des Charentes casks can be really well-suited for whisky maturation. (more…)
In recent months, The Scotch Malt Whisky Society released a couple of bottles with the identifier 24 on the label. All of ’em got sold out within minutes, if not seconds. The reason for this: In the bottle code system of The SMWS, the number 24 stands for The Macallan (more…)
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