New K&L Exlusive Scotch Pre-Arrivals: Secure Your Favorites Early
With worldwide shipping slowdowns, these new-to-our-site selections below were gems that we were hoping to share with you as soon as this holiday season. Unfortunately, they’re not going to arrive until early next year. That said, they are more than worth the wait. With truly unique, single-barrel exclusives from names like Caol Ila, Craigellachie, Glenturret, Mortlach, and more, we are once again thrilled to share the best in Scotch at truly remarkable prices. Our top pre-arrivals tend to sell through quickly well before they arrive, so make sure to lock down your favorites now.
2012 Caol Ila 8 Year Old “Redacted Bros.” (Thompson/Dornoch) Single Refill Hogshead Cask Strength Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky (700ml) (Pre-Arrival) $49.99 View
2013 Glen Ord 8 Year Old “Hart Brothers Finest Collection” K&L Exclusive Cask Strength Single Sherry Butt Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky (700ml) (Pre-Arrival). The Glen Ord distillery was built in 1838 in the plains to the north of Inverness and was part of the Dewar’s family for most of the last century. In the 60s, their floor maltings were replaced with the popular Saladin Box and subsequently a drum malting was added. It became an important hub for malt in Northern Scotland and was eventually acquired by a predecessor of Diageo in 1985. Bottled under “The Singleton” brand for the Asian market, the distillery is not typically available in the US. This wild cask of heavily sherried Glen Ord is an absolute wonder for us. We very rarely get offered Glen Ord and when we do it tends to be in 3rd or 4th fill blenders casks, which don’t necessarily mean the whisky is bad, but certainly don’t provide the level of complexity that one might hope for, even with descent age. This fabulous sherry butt shows us, once again, that age isn’t everything. 8 years in a first fill sherry butt is enough to cut right through the raw spirit character of this bold northern Highlander. Full bodied rich and full of spice, there will be few better deals in full term sherry coming this year.
$49.99 View
2008 Caol Ila 12 Year Old “Old Particular” K&L Exclusive Single Refill Sherry Butt Cask Strength Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky (750ml) (Pre-Arrival). Sometimes Scotch doesn’t make any sense. One year we’re able to offer an incredible deal on young Caol Ila, the next the same supplier has raised the price by 40%. Douglas Laing, however, has consistently offered us exceptional Caol Ila at ridiculously low prices. This refill sherry butt is not exception and while we talk about this as being “young” these stocks, which we’ve been buying for several years, really aren’t so young anymore. We had a stupendous 11-Year-Old version last year, which sold out on pre-arrival and we couldn’t believe they had another slightly older cask aged in refill sherry a nearly the same price. This isn’t the dark overpowering sherry that some would like, but it does add nuance and depth to the already extremely delicious Caol Ila malt. There aren’t a lot of affordable cask strength single barrel Islay’s in the world these days, so we’re really happy this butt turned out nearly 400 bottles. Nevertheless, they’ll be gone way too quickly.
$74.99 View
2009 Ledaig 12 Year Old “Old Particular” K&L Exclusive Single Hogshead Cask Strength Island Single Malt Scotch Whisky (750ml) (Pre-Arrival). The wild peated malt from the Tobermory distillery has slowly but surely gathered a serious following over the years. Ledaig (pronounced lay-chick) is one of Scotland’s most idiosyncratic spirits. Often there’s a desire to compare it to its smoke island sisters on Islay to the south, but the whisky truly has it’s own character and isn’t easily compared to any of distillers there. Located on the picturesque and farflung Isle of Mull, the tiny town of Tobermory is famous for its colorful houses. The whisky distillery there was founded in 1798 making it one of Scotland’s oldest, but the Ledaig brand was not introduced until the 70s. The whisky often has decidedly umami driven character, but also exhibits great ocean character and some tarry smoke.
$89.99 View
2006 Craigellachie 15 Year Old “Old Particular” K&L Exclusive Single Sherry Butt Cask Strength SpeysAnother stupendous sherried Craigellachie from Old Particular. Like last year’s 16 year, this butt retains significant distillery character while not forgetting that had sherry aged in it for decades. The fabulous distillery just across the river from the famous Macallan distillery was once one of Speyside’s most undervalued. Now, due to repositioning and tariffs, even the entry level distillery offerings seem out of reach in value terms, let alone their extremely well regarded “Exceptional Cask” bottlings which have gone up in price 30-40% of the last year. We’ve managed, on the other hand, to lower the price of this exceptional malt by over $20 for something of equal or greater quality and just one year younger than last the former offering. The bold sometimes funky malt character of Craighellachie does wonders when married with Sherry and the resulting malt won’t disappoint any sherry lover, although it’s not the sweet raisin-y style some drinkers have come to associate with modern sherry matured single malt. Instead, it’s deeply complex and slightly esoteric style that will appeal to drinkers looking for something more classical and contemplative.ide Single Malt Scotch Whisky (750ml) (Pre-Arrival).
$89.99 View
2009 Benriach 12 Year Old “Hart Brothers Finest Collection” K&L Exclusive Cask Strength Single Sherry Butt Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky (700ml) (Pre-Arrival). BenRiach is quickly becoming one of the most attractive names in Scotch. They’ve won some huge awards, particularly for their slightly smokey 12-year-old expression designed by the illustrious Rachel Barrie. Rachel extremely adept at developing products that offer nuance and complexity, while not compromising on flavor. What we don’t see much out of these distilleries these days are LOUD whiskies. Ones that step up and shout at you. And while we don’t always want to be screamed at, it’s impossible to denying the thrilling feeling of getting packed into a sweaty club and having a heavy metal band blow your socks off. It’s ok to like enjoy and still want to go to the Opera next weekend. You don’t have stop liking Guns N’ Roses because you love ballet. This is bold unabashed BenRiach with 12 years in sherry bottled at cask strength without chillfilteration or coloring. It might not be as punk rock as Ardbeg, but it’s still pretty cool. Most importantly it’s absolutely delicious and totally worth the door fee. We must thank Alistair Hart and his good reputation for getting us backstage passes to this event.
$99.99 View
2004 Glenturret 17 Year Old “Old Particular” K&L Exclusive Single Sherry Puncheon Cask Strength Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky (750ml) (Pre-Arrival). This year biggest sherry bomb is likely to be this excellent Glenturret. Douglas Laing had, until very recently, acted as the local distributor for the Glenturret Single Malts, which until very recently was owned by the famous Edrington group, stewards of the Ester Elchies estate and it’s great distillery The Macallan. Glenturret always played third fiddle to their other two bluechip distilleries, the little Glenturret distillery maybe Scotland’s oldest running distillery, founded in 1763. While it never shared the limelight with its younger siblings, instead becoming the homebase for Edrington’s Famous Grous blend, Glenturret is perfectly capable of making excellent whisky and Douglas Laing have been positioned perfectly for the last several years to take advantage of that fact. We were all surprised that it was not the Laings who purchased the distillery from Edrington, but instead the Swiss crystal manufacturer, Lalique. So the spigat may run dry in the future, but for now we’re still able to offer these high quality dark sherry Glenturrets from an almost unreasonably low price.
$99.99 View
Glendronach 12 Year Old “Hart Brothers Finest Collection” K&L Exclusive Cask Strength Single Sherry Butt Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky (700ml) (Pre-Arrival). The exceptional Hart Bros. bottler is led by Alistair Hart who has over nearly 30 years of experience selecting single casks and managing the stocks for this excellent little bottler. Hart Bros consistently bottles malt of exceptional quality and seems to have connections that few else can match. After our first effort importing casks directly from their bottled stock, we’ve stepped up to purchase so exceptional whiskies straight out of their warehouses, which will be sold exclusively at K&L. This gorgeous barrel of nicely aged Glendronach represents a first for K&L and the USA. The first independently bottled Glendronach (one of two barrels we purchased) we’ve ever seen in this country. If there has ever been an independently bottled Glendronach available in the US, it’s been at least a couple of decades. This wonderful product, aged in a first fill sherry butt, is everything we want from this distillery that they won’t give us themselves. Richly complex with classic Glendronach sherry character, the existence of this casks is simply stupefying considering how difficult it is to get anything out of the distillery these days. And of course, it’s non-chillfiltered.
$99.99 View
Benriach 15 Year Old “Hart Brothers Finest Collection” K&L Exclusive Cask Strength Single Port Pipe Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky (700ml) (Pre-Arrival). The gorgeous Benriach distillery is one of Speyside’s most unique. The distillery, built in 1898, was promptly purchased and shuttered by nearby Longmorn Distillers, where it remained silent for many decades. It was purchased in 1965 by the Glenlivet Co. and refurbished before being sold to Seagram’s in the late 70s. It was always a hub of experimentation and remains filled with crazy expression, unusual cask fills, peated and floor malted version. It’s rather rare to see Independently bottled BenRiach, but it seems Alistair Hart’s relationship with former distillery owner Billy Walker has played a role here. They’ve offered us several casks from the good Mr. Walker’s current and past portfolio this year and we’re more than happy to take every single one of them on. This delicious port pipe of Benriach was bottled at cask strength without chillfilteration. The quality of the wood is paramount here and the deep red fruited character works wonders paired with the gorgeous Speyside character that BenRiach is known for. Few deals like this will be available and while we can occasionally buy barrels from the distillery still, we’re not likely to get something of this stature or price in their own bottle. A true gem and proof once again that Hart Bros. should be considered one of Scotland’s very top bottlers.
$109.99 View
1997 Mortlach 24 Year Old “Hart Brothers Finest Collection” K&L Exclusive Cask Strength Single Sherry Butt Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky (700ml) (Pre-Arrival). There isn’t much that needs to be said about this. Mortlach meet sherry, sherry mortlach. Two and a half decades later the marriage is still a perfect one. What’s the secret? Listening and mutal respect or raw unbridled attraction? Probably both. There maybe no answer, but no one questions that these two things belong together. The Mortlach distillery, known locally as the Beast of Dufftown, is one of those great distilleries that has never been given proper attention by its owners. The distillery has quietly been a key component in the great Scotch blends since 1823, yet few outside the Single Malt afficianodos appreciate it’s prowess. Yes, the new owners have recently re-released a line of well regarded distillery bottlings, but their availability is intermitten and the excpetional pricing they original offered seems to have evaporated. It’s been a much more successful effort to transition the brand into a proper single malt property, yet this excellent property remains in the shadows of it’s “Classic Malt” bretheren. The beast, brooding down in the gully, waiting to be unleashed. Now it finally has been! This is a big boy butt from the biggest of Speysides bluechips. Robust, full of character and bottled no holds barred at full cask strength. It’s incredible we’re still able to get things like this out of Scotland and while it will be hard to argue with anyone that this one is “affordable” for what it is, the price is really quite shocking.$279.99View1995
Glenallachie 25 Year Old “Hart Brothers Finest Collection” K&L Exclusive Cask Strength Single Sherry Butt Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky (700ml) (Pre-Arrival). An incredible find by any measure, the GlenAllachie has recently become the darling of sherry loving scotch geeks worldwide. Why you ask could this random Speyside distillery go from completely unknown to widely sought-after? One name stands out, Billy Walker. We’re not so cynical (and certain he isn’t either) to believe that he’s the only reason we’re seeing great malt out of this distillery suddenly, but it’s his astute consideration and deft purchase of this special distillery, which has allowed it to flourish. Billy made waves more than two decades ago taking over the Glendronach and Benriach distilleries. He spent the subsequent decades refurbishing their images, not with sleek marketing campaigns, but by barreling and bottling exceptionally high-quality whisky and selling it to us at a fair price. Now he’s set his sights on this underappreciated Speyside gem and no one is surprised that he’s finding some exceptional juice in those warehouses. We’re grateful that our relationship with the exceptional Hart Bros has afforded us an opportunity to sell this exquisite cask of sherry matured GlenAllachie. While compared to many other heavily sherried old Speysiders, the distillery bottlings being released currently look rather affordable, this exceptional cask beats their prices by nearly half. We’re not sure how many more of these might be hiding in the Hart Bros warehouses, but we’ll buy every last one given the chance and all they sherry loving fiends should be too.
$349.99 View
1991 Caol Ila 30 Year Old “Old Particular” K&L Exclusive Single Hogshead Cask Strength Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky (750ml) (Pre-Arrival). Back when we started scouring Scotland 10+ years ago for great single barrels, we felt pretty good about bottling 30 year old Caol Ila for between $300 and 400. It was rare even then to find these barrels, but the distillery is making such high quality juice and old Islay we knew our customers would appreciate and value those incredible barrels. Fast-forward to 2021, most of the stocks in this age range have quadrupled in price. We don’t blame our suppliers. There’s a been an explosion in interest in single cask single malt worldwide over the last decade and can’t blame them for trying to make the most of dwindling stocks It does mean while they may be available, we simply can’t justify bringing in entire barrels, since there’s so few people who can actually afford to spend $1500+ on a bottle of Scotch. And then something like this pops up and nothing seems to make sense suddenly. Why is this supplier able to offer such a special and delicious example at this rarified age for prices that might have been normal a decade ago? We just don’t know, but we won’t ask too many questions beyond how it tastes. In this case, it’s as exceptional as you’d expect. The clean smoldering peat of Caol Ila tempered by 3 decades of maturation.
$379.99 View
