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62 results across all types
- news
Tormore Timeless / 12 Years / 16 Years
Elixir Distillers acquired Tormore distillery in 2022, while building a new Portintruan distillery on Islay and not long after The Whisky Exchange was sold to Pernod. They started production under the eye of distillery manager Polly Logan and inheritated a large stock of aged casks.A lot of the existing casks were second- or third-fill casks, presumably showing a shy character. The team took three years to assess and re-structure these stocks and already gave a sneak preview of an upcoming range in the form of the Tormore Blueprint series. More active cask types were selected for re-racking and now shape the core range with three expressions .
fromWhiskyNotes - news
Strathmill 1988 (The Whisky Agency & Sansibar)
We're still in heatwave mode, so one whisky at a time is the most we can handle right now. Here's the Strathmill 1988 that was recently bottled by The Whisky Agency, as a joint bottling with Sansibar.
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The Antelope: Dailuaine, La Frog, Ardbeg, Secret Islay
The Antelope is one of the leading retailers in Macau, especially for the type of whisky we're most interested in. As we'll find out in this session, they have an ongoing series with Kanpaikai in Japan and good connections with Elixir Distillers and Casky in Hong Kong.
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Cognac Laurichesse 19.75 / 19.76 (Malternative Belgium)
Malternative Belgium just released two cognacs from Laurichesse, a house they more or less discovered back in 2022. This is a royal diptych, in a way, featuring a lioness and a lion on the labels, facing each other. These are not accidental symbols: they also appear in the official coat of arms of Laurichesse.We've had 19.75 and 19.76 from this house before and they were among the best cognacs we've had. High hopes for this duo.
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Ben Nevis 2003 (WhiskyNerds)
The WhiskyNerds have been quiet in the past couple of years. The last I know of was a French Brandy and a Secret Islay but that was back in 2023 already. I think it's simple: their bar stays high, so if nothing crosses their path, they don't have to bottle anything.Now they're back with a Ben Nevis 2003 . A year that we have never tried before, as far as I know. There's only a dozen of releases in any case.
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Bruichladdich 2008 Oloroso (Halcyon Spirits)
Halcyon Spirits has been following a slow path since 2023, with just one or two bottlings per year, released one-by-one. They set the bar high with old (expensive) Macallan and Clynelish . Subsequent releases became more affordable, mostly around the £ 200 mark.Their seventh release is this Bruichladdich 2008 . It is 18 years old and it spent the last three in a fresh Oloroso hogshead. Bruichladdich 18 yo 2008 (57,3%, Halcyon Spirits 2026, Oloroso sherry hogshead finish, 185 btl.) Nose: a lot of tobacco leaves, with a nice hint of heavily toasted oak, old leather and whiffs of peppermint. It's very good sherry cask, probably European oak. Underneath there is some dried apricot and toffee, as well as marmalade. Cinnamon and roasted nuts with a chocolate coating. Some Atlantic freshness comes out as well. Mouth: again rather wood-driven, with this toasted layer and the bourbon-like peppermint. Orange peels, golden raisins and figs, along with some peppery heat, cinnamon and ginger.
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Benromach Contrasts: Côte-Rôtie Cask
Benromach 's innovative Contrasts series has a new member: a 12 Year Old single malt matured in first-fill bourbon casks before 26 months finishing in Côte-Rôtie wine casks . Wine casks are always popular, says the distillery team, but they're generally not our favourites.Côte-Rôtie brings us to the terraces of the Northern Rhône, just south of Lyon, where Syrah grapes are common, sometimes co-planted and co-fermented with a little white Viognier. Benromach Contrasts: Wine Finish 12 yo 2014 (46%, OB 2026, Côte-Rôtie Cask finish) Nose: not bad really. Lots of red berry aromas, some strawberry jam, blackberries and pomegrenate. Light peat sits underneath, along with black peppercorns and some sour herbal notes, hibiscus and orange peels. Then also rounder vanilla, a little caramel and cocoa. There's a very light sangria-character to it, but not at all unpleasant. Mouth: at first the peat stands out more, but the wine is louder as well. Dark forest fruits again, with damsons and blo
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Ben Nevis 1973 (Thompson Bros)
Wait, another 52 year-old after Angus' Glen Garioch? That's right. This Ben Nevis 1973 was bottled some time ago by the guys at Dornoch Castle.I met the Thompson Brothers at the Limburg Whisky Fair a couple of weeks ago. Lovely chaps. First they brought me down to earth with a random blind tasting of their Mystery Malt series (if you hadn't heard about the concept yet - it's very interesting). It really plays tricks on your mind. After that, this Ben Nevis left a deep impression, even though it was the last stand of the day and I had already tried some stunning things.
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Glen Garioch 52 Years (Decadent Drinks)
Heatwave mode is on (record-breaking temperatures up to 38°C in Belgium this week). We may have to focus on singular reviews for a while, just to keep things going.Behold the oldest whisky ever bottled from Glen Garioch distillery. It is the 33rd chapter in the Whiskyland series from Decadent Drinks . It represents a lost style of production: peat, floor-malted barley, directly gas-fired stills and worm tub condensers. And last but not least: an ancient sherry cask unlike those of today.
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Bowmore 2007 ‘Gentle Giant’ (Passion for Whisky)
Although we never get enough of the recent wave of Bowmore releases, this one arrived exactly when I just published two or three others. So I postponed it a little. Anyway this Bowmore 18 Year Old gets the title Gentle Giant , because Stefan from Passion for Whisky is tall and looks a bit like a gentle giant. He chose this cask to celebrate his anniversary. Bowmore 18 yo 2007 (50,3%, Boogieman Whisky Society 2026, bourbon hogshead, 90 btl.) Nose: fresh and maritime, with kelp and crushed shells, wet gravel, minty notes and lots of bright citrus. Lemon juice and candied lemon peels, brine, maybe light peach as well. Not very peaty, there's just a light hint of tarry rope in the distance. Mouth: more smoky now, along with peppermint, more seaweed and drying mineral notes. Mid-palate a short flash of green mango and passion fruit appears, something we're always hoping for. Then also wet wool, more saltiness and lots of cold ashes. Subtle hints of grassy herbs and light resin too. Fi
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Pineau des Charentes (Malternative Belgium / C Dully)
Pineau des Charentes is a blend of grape must with grape distillate – typically Cognac eau-de-vie. The cognac part prevents further fermentation and must be between 60% and 72%. This blend is then aged in casks for a number of years.After 5 years in barrel it can be called Vieux Pineau and after 10 years it becomes Très Vieux Pineau. However in this session we'll try a few that far exceed these categories.A big part of this session will consist of Malternative Belgium releases. Apart from their cognac releases they've already bottled an impressive series of Pineau. Somehow we never found the time to publish the reviews.
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Tomatin 1976 (The Whisky Agency)
The next one is a classic, at least among my friends. It's a Tomatin 1976 bottled by The Whisky Agency . They had five of these casks, which they distributed (seemingly at random) over different series. In this case it's the cornerstone series The Perfect Dram, but I already tried a sister cask from the Grotesque Crocs series. I'm sure they also passed on many sister casks to friendly bottlers.
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Highland Park Heather
Heather (or heather honey) is one of the most common tasting notes in Highland Park whisky. The island of Orkney has no trees so the local peat has abundant heather at its base. It's no surprise the distillery named an expression after it.This new packaging is fairly modest and refreshing. No viking elements, just graphical things and a pink / purple colour scheme that doesn't seem to aim for the classical whisky audience. There's no age statement but we've heard Highland Park Heather ages for around 11 years.Let's see how this compares to the Cask Strength release I had a couple of months ago.
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Rosebank 1991 / Port Ellen 1980 (G&M CC Heritage)
We have two more whiskies from the Connoisseurs Choice Heritage Collection , the latest (stunning) range from Gordon & MacPhail . The series comes with a revived old map label and consists of old single malts from very, very rare distilleries. Check out our review of the first three whiskies. Today we look at the Rosebank 1991 and Port Ellen 1980 .You can now register your interest to buy volume 1 – other volumes will follow later.
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Turntable Unplugged
Turntable Blending is releasing affordable small-batch whisky with high value for money. One of their latest offerings is this Turntable Unplugged .This core expression is a blended Scotch whisky, with over 80% malt content. It includes distillates from Linkwood, Ballindalloch and Benrinnes, from first and second fill bourbon casks and sherry casks. They also add a dash of peated Ledaig to make it wider.
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Buds & Barrels, Double-V, Klubb23, Crann, The Green Door
In case you don't recognize these names immediately: all of these are (smaller) Belgian bottlers or clubs .You may know Buds & Barrels as a whisky shop, but they also have their own range. Then there's Double-V who bottled the 25th anniversary bottling of whisky club The Green Door . Last but not least: a bottling by Klubb23 for Crann Whisky Club.
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Hogshead: Aultmore, Glentauchers, Speyside…
We've tried a large range of bottlings from Hogshead Imports (or rather Hogshead Indie) in the past two years or so. Some have been really good, but other were sometimes marred by weird cask choices. Today we're trying a couple of older releases, mostly from refill casks.
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LMK Copycat: Ben Nevis, Secret Irish, Secret Speyside
LMK is Leung Man King (aka Brian) who lives in Hong Kong / Taiwan. A very relaxed guy who is well related to the Asian whisky scene. You may remember his name from my Macau festival article. Recently he came over to Europe for several weeks, visiting Limburg, Feis Ile, Scotland and other parts of Europe. Dedication! There's no website yet, so follow him on Instagram for now.One of his series is called LMK Copycat . It features funny labels that often mimic legendary labels from the past. Other labels have his friends sitting in a bar while he's disguised as a cat.
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The Whisky Agency: 4x Port casks
We may have missed some kind of outlet sale at a Portuguese cooperage recently. The 2025 outturn from The Whisky Agency already included a series of Port casks, and the Spring 2026 batch also has a surprising proportion of these casks. A lot of them are made for friends, as they say on the label.All of the whiskies have this typical rosehip tea colour. It's clear they are very cask-forward, and by now you know Port casks aren't our favourite. So if you are a fan of this style, I guess you can safely add a couple of points to each score.
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Maltbarn: Balblair, Teaninich, Dalmunach, Linkwood
Some time ago we already had a series of new whiskies from Maltbarn, that had been presented at the Limburg festival. Issues with logistics caused some others to be delayed, but here they are now.It seems to be fairly modest selection for this bottler. They're all young or middle-aged whiskies - the older releases were in the previous review.
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Kanekou Okinawa Whisky
Kanekou Okinawa is a Japanese whisky from Shinzato distillery , founded in 1846. Most of its history is in the production of Awamori, the traditional rice drink (black koji) from the region. They are now applying their knowledge of slow fermentation and distilling in a tropical climate to the production of whisky. Not much information is available. It is said that it is a blend of three types of whisky : malt and wheat whisky (at least 3 years of age) and rice whisky (Ryukyu, aged in sherry casks for at least 8 years). Kanekou Okinawa Whisky (43%, OB +/- 2025) Nose: quite soft. There's a bready note up front, along with yellow apple. Perhaps also a hint of (slightly overdue) pineapple I'm afraid a musty type of (sherry?) cask is taking the lead, along with toffee and a light mouldy note. Also hints of candied ginger and caramelized almond. Mouth: not so good. There's a raw alcoholic / feinty note, a metallic kind of sweetness, some pears and just a hint of very, very young Scotti
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Kavalan Four-Cask Matured / Peatist Bourbon
Here we have two of the latest releases from Kavalan distillery in Taiwan. The first is a 15 year old expression called Four-Cask Matured . It is a mix of bourbon, Oloroso sherry, ruby Port and puncheon casks. It seems a bit odd to name three after their seasoning and the fourth based on its size, right?Next up is Kavalan Peatist . I first read that as peatiest, but it's only moderately peated. I guess the name is an analogy for their Solist range. Here you have different casks for different markets. On the label it says Single Cask Strength .
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Bushmills 21 Years ‘Three Wood’
This is a travel retail edition of the Bushmills 21 Year Old , which comes at a higher strength of 46% and adds an extra finish.The spirit ages in signature bourbon barrels and Oloroso sherry casks for around 18 years and then goes into first-fill Marsala wine barrels . The regular version is Madeira-finished , if I'm not mistaken. Bushmills 21 yo 'Three Wood' (46%, OB +/- 2023, Marsala finish, travel retail) Nose: rich, with a good dose of brown sugar, gently toasted oak and very light hints of wine. After a few moments it moves towards cherry jam. Then it becomes more tropical, showing pineapples, peaches and ripe mango. Hints of vanilla, marzipan and honey in the background. Subtle minty notes as well. Good start. Mouth: again there's an unmistakable winey note (clove, chocolate, leather) but also black cherry notes and blackberry jam. Red wine gums. Later also caramelized walnuts, with hints of black tea, as well as a return of the mango and honey. Toffee, hazelnuts and some
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5 Rums: T.D.L. 2001 / 2009 / 2016
Sometimes I just need a small incentive to start a new rum session. In this case a pile of T.D.L. samples was a perfect occasion. Enjoy! T.D.L. 25 yo 2001 (57,2%, Compagnie des Indes for Asia 2026) Nose: brilliant fruits. Guava, pink grapefruit, hints of passion fruit syrup and bits of mango. Then some flower petals, hints of rosehip tea, tiny drops of camphor and mint. The energy is incredible. Also subtle hints of cinnamon, molasses and light fusel oils. Mouth: now the fruity core gets a little overshadowed by an overload of mint, polished leather and pine needles. Sure, there's still mango, pineapple and peach sweetness, a hint of resinous honey, but then more salty liquorice, ginger and bitter drops of herbal extracts. Finish: long and rich, with the resinous notes and herbal tea in front row.A gorgeous nose, no doubt, and then an ever so slight deception because the tropical juiciness doesn't explode in the mouth. Worth checking out though, if you're in Asia. Check with Comp
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