Japanese oak, also referred to as Mizunara oak, is probably the rarest component from which whisky barrels can be made. Due to the slow growth and knotted stature of the respective trees, the processing of this kind of wood requires excellent craftmanship (more…)
Operating out of the County of York, British indie bottlers Claxton’s brought their first single cask whiskies to the market in early 2016. Despite the fact that they hit the scene more than two years ago, I only got acquainted with them recently. (more…)
This Dalmore by Scotland’s oldest independent bottler Cadenhead’s is a real luxury dram. Not only has it aged for almost a quarter of a century, but also has it received a rum cask finish of such remarkable length that it could almost be considered a double maturation (more…)
Not long ago, Speyside giants Glenfiddich revealed part three of their Experimental Series called Winter Storm. While I have not yet had the pleasure of trying this 21-year-old Scotch whisky finished in Canadian ice wine casks, I am lucky to call a bottle of its predecessor my own. (more…)
While Gordon & MacPhail-owned Benromach is one of Scotland’s smaller distilleries in regard to its yearly output, the makers of “The Classic Speyside Single Malt Whisky” are giants in the fields of craftmanship and innovation. Never shy to try something new (more…)
When I visited the Ben Nevis whisky bar in Glasgow a few months back, the beautiful releases of young independent bottler North Star directly caught my eye. Shining in jazzy colors, the six bottlings from the company’s kick-off series 001 were almost impossible to miss (more…)
When they created their Remarkable Regional Malts range, the people at Douglas Laing wanted to offer their customers high-quality blended malts that embody the unique characteristics of the different whisky regions in Scotland. Rock Oyster represents the maritime island whiskies (more…)
Most of the time, composing tasting notes for a single cask bottling by Wemyss Malts is pretty easy. Cause thankfully the family-owned independent bottler has a habit of picking very telling names for its whiskies that usually do the character of the associated spirit great justice. (more…)
More than half of the Top 10 best-selling whisky brands in the world do not come from Scotland, Ireland or the US. They come from India. Although they sell hundreds of millions of liters per year, most of these spirits are of such impure make that they can only be sold domestically. (more…)
Exactly one week ago, Tobi introduced you to the three “exotic” releases of North Star Spirits’ recently released series 002, namely a blend, a bourbon and a sherry. This week we got our hands on a trio of their new single cask Scotch whiskies. (more…)
