Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 587: Yamazaki 12 Year Old

Mark Dermul, Belgian whisky blogger, tries a staple Japanese whisky. He says ‘I can hardly imagine it, but I’ve tasted this classic Japanese whisky about five times, yet I haven’t written decent tasting notes for the Yamazaki 12 years old. Imagine that! My American friend John K. noticed it too, and without hesitation, he brought a bottle from Japan and travelled to Gentbrugge. What a guy, right?’ https://youtu.be/7ymI8tIm56A

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 586: Hibiki Japanese Harmony Master’s Select

Mark Dermul, Belgian whisky blogger, tries a lovely blend from the Land of the Rising Sun. This Hibiki is, in fact, a blend of more than ten single malts and grains, including – how could it be otherwise? – Yamazaki, Hakushu, and Chita, aged in five types of barrels. This Japanese Harmony first appeared in 2015. The bottle has 24 facets representing the 24 seasons of the Japanese lunar calendar. https://youtu.be/fkUR1puaS6A

ralfy review 1109 – Glasgow 1770 Triple : @46%vol:

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 585: Fuji Gotemba Single Blended Japanese Whisky

Mark Dermul, Belgian whisky blogger, tastes a Japanese single blended whisky. Fuji-Gotemba is a mastodon of a distillery – about 520,000m² – with a capacity of about 12 million LPA. In the glass is their so-called Single Blended, which means we find both single malt and grain whisky from the same distillery combined here. Mark’s American friend John brought this bottle from his most recent trip to the land of the rising sun. https://youtu.be/JU0chVVzEiQ

ralfy review 1108 – St Bridget’s Kirk 29yo Blended Scotch @ 44.1%vol:

Ardnahoe Cask Strength, 60.1%

THE VIDEO

Ardnahoe have hit the ground running in the best way possible for any new distillery. Massive respect for their liquids and their pricing structures, extremely well flavoured liquids with high strengths and no additional processes, multiple award wins, and now we have a public released cask strength release.

Matured exclusively on first fill ex-bourbon casks, this is a tropical, creamy, smoky, classic cask strength Islay that showcases so many amazing features of what making typical whisky on this island is about. No frills or extra fancy additions, just a classic, wonderful, well flavoured, balanced expression of peat infused, high strength single malt with no need to do anything else around it.

I look forward to seeing what Ardbeg do when they release their 10 Year Old Cask Strength at some point in the next year, because this Ardnahoe is now a bar to aim for with any young, potent, peated product.

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Welcome to the festive episode of the show in which I’ll be taking a look at some fabulous bottlings both old and new. The Good Dram Show with Chris Goodrum Episode 616 – The Festive Episode of the Show..! Filmed in The Study Nottingham.

Featuring

The Heart Cut x Barley English Blended Malt Whisky 46% theheartcut.com

St Bridget’s Kirk Blended Scotch Whisky Batch #2 1988 (35 year old) 41%

St Bridget’s Kirk Blended Scotch Malt Whisky Solera Batch #4 48.5% www.ladyoftheglen.com

Lochlea Grenache Cask 46% www.lochleadistillery.com

West Midland Distillery Second Release – Rowielia 51.6% www.westmidlandsdistillery.co.uk

Torabhaig Sound of Sleat Batch Strength 60.2% torabhaig.com

THREE ‘banger’ value single malt scotch whiskies for 2026

THE BANGERS

Ardnamurchan Madeira Cask & Wolfburn 10 – The Unbottling

THE VIDEO

Adam and Hart give their initial impressions on the new Ardnamurchan Madeira Cask & the first ever release of Wolfburn’s 10 Year Old. Two very interesting Highland single malts from new – but not that new – Scotch distilleries. Both are available to sample for free throughout December at The Strath Liquor Merchants in Victoria BC.

My Books.