Last year, tradition-rich British indie bottler Berry Bros. & Rudd released a special set of whiskies drawn from single casks. Called “The Nordic Casks”, the exclusive selection included top-class bottlings from Fary Lochan (Denmark), Kyrö (Finland), Myken (Norway) (more…)
Last year in September, I drove up north to Denmark to pay one of my favorite distilleries in the world another visit: Fary Lochan. At the end of my stay, I took home a souvenir from shop. I made my choice – Fary Lochan Rum Edition #02 – quick and easy. (more…)
Gruesome greetings, everybody! Today is October 31, which means that the ghosts of All Hallow’s Eve will pay us a visit and demand a tribute. Against contrary believe, the best gift you can get them is neither a chocolate bar nor a bag of sweets. It is a whisky! (more…)
The first-ever independent bottling from tiny Dutch craft distillery Cley is absolutely brilliant. The company responsible for it, The Barrel Baron, picked a top-notch cask and presented it in a very classy way! (more…)
The driving forces behind the new indie bottler The Liquid Madness are two well-known whisky mavens from Germany, namely Tilo “The Caskhound” Schnabel and Sebastian “The Spirits Alchemist” Büssing. The two self-proclaimed “spirit adventurers” have joint forces (more…)
Earlier this year, Glaswegian indie bottler North Star celebrated its fifth anniversary. So, before I continue, here is a little insert: “Happy Birthday, Iain and team! Keep up the stellar work!” And now, on with the text … For my latest review here at BarleyMania, I have spent some quality time (more…)
Over the years, Burg Scharfenstein – a medieval castle in the federal state of Thuringia in Germany – had many owners. Since most of them did not really know what to do with the place, they did not give it the attention it needed and deserved. Luckily, this changed in recent years (more…)
When I met Fary Lochan’s CCO and Chairman Thomas Smidt-Kjærby in Hamburg last Saturday, he told me something that really lightened up my heart: After a lengthy corona break, the distillery has meanwhile opened its doors to visitors again. And the drammers in Denmark (more…)
Often when I utter the term “fruit bomb”, I use it to describe a slightly older dram that has spent – let’s say – 16 or more years in the cask. That is because it usually takes a certain amount of time before those full-on fruit notes reached the climax of their development. (more…)
I love whisky, I love craft beer. And I love it when the two intertwine. One bottling, in which this happens, is the 10-years-old BenRiach from The Scotch Malt Whisky Society called “Hoppy madness”. After an initial maturation in ex-bourbon barrels, this crisp Speysider (more…)
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