• 2000 Aberlour 13 Year Old K&L Exclusive “Exclusive Malts” Single Barrel Cask Strength Single Malt Whisky 750ml ($64.99)
After the success of last year’s 21 year Aberlour, we weren’t planning to buy a repeat from this lovely little distillery. That all changed in David Stirk’s little warehouse south of Glasgow. This lovely hogshead was just singing to us. Its rich and warming style will delight any lover of Speyside whisky. On the nose we get powerful toasted grains, biscuits, honey (some exotic type, tilleul?) and pears. The palate is super soft and rich, which more of the oak spice evident than on the nose, but the similar blend of sweet floral and grainy flavors. On the end those spices come back with a heavy dose of that biscuit (I’m thinking Walkers). Maybe this is not the most exciting whisky on paper, but it will certainly be several peoples’ favorite this year. (David Othenin-Girard, K&L Spirits Buyer)

• 2002 Bowmore 11 Year Old K&L Exclusive “Exclusive Malts” Single Barrel Cask Strength Single Malt Whisky 750 ml ($75.99)
We love us some Bowmore here at K&L. When Bowmore is on, it’s unstoppable, mainly because no other Islay distillery has the same richness of fruit and oily texture in conjunction with all the peaty campfire smoke. This young barrel of Bowmore we found outside of Glasgow represents everything we love about the distillery’s special style: light in color, smoked plums on the nose, fresh fruit and vanilla on the palate, swimming with the perfect amount of saline seawater and peat. The first thing David and I said to each other was: “this tastes like a younger version of the 17 year old!” Alas, the wonderful, magical, ethereal 17 year old is no longer in production at the distillery and we’d both finished our last bottles. The chance to perhaps replicate that gentle flavor profile at full proof was just too good to pass up. For the price, this is a no-brainer. There’s not one Islay fan out there who wouldn’t go ga-ga for this whis ky. Supple, fruity, smoky, salty, luscious, nutty, complex, and tasty. Now we just have to hope there’s enough to go around for everyone. (David Driscoll, K&L Spirits Buyer)

• 1979 Faultline 32 Year Old Single Barrel Cask Strength Blended Scotch Whisky 750ml ($109.99)
This is just some sort of ridiculousness. When we stumbled across this absolutely wacky cask in a warehouse in Southern Scotland, we hadn’t even realized it was in the realm of legality to sell this sort of whisky. This is from a lot of whiskies all distilled in 1979. At some point in its maturation, it was blended and rebarreled in a single sherry hogshead. It’s highly likely that was done relatively recently, but honestly it could have been done two decades ago. We think that this whisky may have come either from a larger blender who was planning to add this to one of their house blends and either lost it in the warehouse or sold it as part of a larger parcel. Otherwise, we think it could have perhaps been a lot owned by a smaller broker which was ultimately consolidated as the whiskies began to evaporate. Either way, this stuff is totally unique. We have no knowledge of another cask strength single cask single vintage blended whisky being released in this country or any other for that matter. If you know differently please let us know. What’s really important about this whisky is that it’s absolutely delicious. It’s got all the complexity and depth of the best blends and is exceptionally well balanced even at full proof. Plus, the price is uncomfortably low for the age and quality of the whisky. This is truly a unique gem plucked from a dingy warehouse, which ended up polishing up perfectly.

• 1995 Fettercairn 17 Year Old K&L Exclusive “Exclusive Malts” Single Barrel Cask Strength Single Malt Whisky 750ml ($89.99)
Fettercairn distillery has been around since 1824, when it was established by Sir Alexander Ramsay, and has enjoyed a tumultuous sales history since that time. It was sold in 1830 to Sir John Gladstone, turned over to his son John Roberts in 1890, who then bought out the other investors in 1912. The distillery was closed in 1926, but reopened in 1939 by new owners Associated Scottish Distillers. In 1971 it was purchased by the Tomintoul Distillery Co, which was subsequently bought out by Whyte & Mackay in 1973, who had nothing but mergers and buy outs over the next three decades. Today Fettercairn is owned by United Spirits, which is partially owned by Diageo, again leaving the distillery in a netherworld of confusion. Fettercairn is pretty much absent in the states because most of the whisky is used in bulk production for private UK businesses like Tesco and Asda, leaving the distillery little chance to showcase its potential as a single malt. This 1995 vintage barrel we found outside of Glasgow is simply charming with aromas of ripe fruit and flowers on the nose. The palate exudes a classic malty core of flavor with wood spices and rich vanilla on the finish. It’s almost too easy to sip. This is a fantastic deal for mature, full-proof, well-made Highland single malt whisky. It’s also a chance to learn more about a historic distillery completely lost in the shuffle of industry business and financial uncertainty. We jumped all over this. (David Driscoll, K&L Spirits Buyer)

• 2005 Island Distillery 7 Year Old K&L Exclusive “Exclusive Malts” Single Barrel Cask Strength Single Malt Whisky 750ml ($59.99)
This little mystery malt was a favorite of ours from the moment the bung popped out of the cask. Both David and I are huge fans of young, smoky whisky, and this is one of the best under-10 year olds that we’ve found. It’s vibrant, salty, supple, with all the intense that you’d want out of the best young peaters, but beautifully restrained as well. Now this whisky was distilled on one of Scotland’s numerous Isles, that’s about all I can tell you regarding the specifics of the distillery. I can tell you that it is not from the Island of Islay, I can tell you that this blows the young Caol Ila that we loved out of the water and I can tell you that our price for this whisky is well below what we’d expected to pay, not to mention well below the cost of that Caol Ila. One thing that struck us about this cask was how different it was from others that we’d seen from this distillery. This whisky is powerful, but with a great deal of nuance at this age. A subtle fresh rubber quality transitions to subtle fruit (maybe light red berries). Altogether a wonderfully idiosyncratic whisky and the first of what we hope to be several young peaty mystery malts to come. (David Othenin-Girard, K&L Spirits Buyer)

NEW ARRIVALS

• 1998 Bowmore 14 Year Old Cadenhead’s Small Batch Collection Single Malt 750ml ($89.99)
• 1989 Cameronbridge 23 Year Old Cadenhead’s Small Batch Collection Single Grain Whisky 750ml – 4 available ($119.99)
• 1977 Caperdonich 35 Year Old Cadenhead’s Small Batch Cask Strength Collection Single Malt 750ml – 4 available ($399.99)

BACK IN STOCK

• Glenfarclas 21 year old, Distillery Bottlilng 750ml – 6 available ($129.99)
• PC10 – Port Charlotte “Tro Na Linntean” Single Malt Whisky 750ml – 11 available ($149.99)

K&L Wine Merchants
http://www.klwines.com
Phone: 877-KLWines (toll free 877-559-4637)
Email: wine@klwines.com
San Francisco, Redwood City, Hollywood CA