The Isle of Raasay is located in the northwest of Scotland, adjacent to the Isle of Skye. It is also from there that the only ferry to Raasay departs; it starts in Sconser and lands in Inverarish about half and hour later. Whereas the island has a long history of illicit distilling, (more…)
When speaking about Waterford Distillery on the Southeast shore of Ireland, one inevitably has to speak about terroir, too. The team around founder and visionary Mark Reynier (formerly of Bruichladdich) strongly believes in the impact of soil conditions, microclimate (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…)
Usually, I am not too intrigued by celebrity-owned or -endorsed brands. For example, I always liked Becks as a player. But I have not yet bought a bottle of that grain whisky, whose – admittedly good looking – face he is. With Heaven’s Door Whiskey it is slightly different. (more…)
There is a lot I love about Schlumberger, the German importer of such fantastic brands as Benromach, Kavalan or Penderyn. One particular thing I like: Besides making sure that us Germans have good access to the core releases from the above-mentioned distilleries (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…)
This is a rather special bottling: After all, Starward from Australia is the first distillery outside of Scotland from which renowned indie bottlers Berry Bros & Rudd have released a whisky. That is all the more remarkable if you consider that Berry Bros & Rudd look back at a rich history, (more…)
Besides being a big whisk(e)y nerd, I am also a total craft beer fan. Against this background, it should come as no surprise that I completely fell for Westward Whiskey’s unconventional approach to distilling: Their American Single Malt Whiskey is being made (more…)
Right in time for Christmas, the good people of Weinquelle Lühmann launched their second indie bottling. Like the Caol Ila 10yo they put out in November, this one also appears under the new-found label Weinquelle’s Whisky Choice. Whereas the first release was aimed at the peatheads (more…)
