DOUBLE CASK 18 YEARS OLD, 2024 RELEASE

The Macallan Double Cask Collection is a complex sensorial journey. Beautifully balanced by European and American Oak, each cask is sherry seasoned in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain.

We are delighted to share that Double Cask 18 Years Old, 2024 Release is now available to purchase from our Online Boutique with limited availability.

With golden hues heightening the colour of the whisky and reflecting the key flavour notes of treacle toffee, sweet ginger, dried fruits and nutmeg, this expression stands proud as a marker of extraordinary craftsmanship.

Click on the link below to purchase this distinct single malt.

SHOP

TASTING NOTES

EXPLORE COLOUR, NOSE, PALATE & FINISH

COLOUR Amber honey
AROMA Dried fruit, ginger and toffee. Rich orange with hints of clove and nutmeg
PALATE Rich raisin and sultana with notes of caramel, vanilla and ginger, balanced by wood spice and zesty citrus
FINISH Warm oak spice with ginger, turning to sweet orange
ABV 43%

2011 Glenglassaugh 11 Year Old “Single Cask #4778” Pedro Ximenez Sherry Butt Highland Single Malt Whisky (700ml) (Pre-Arrival)

$129.99

View

*Please note this is being sold on a pre-arrival basis. These bottles should arrive by July, 2024* Not all single cask bottlings are created equal. While any distillery putting forth an honest effort will select interesting and hopefuly tasty casks for their single barrel program, it is a rare cask indeed that could be described as “flawless.” But this 11 year old is just that – a perfect PX cask. Robust enough to impact an incredibl amount of character, but perfeclty matched to the spirit so as to not overshadow it, but rather to complement it beautifully. Distilled March 1st 2011 and bottled in 2022, cask 4778 is for sherry lovers who want big and rich flavors but like to remember they’re drinking single malt and not actually sherry.

Email: wine@klwines.com
Phone: (877) KL-WINES (Toll Free 877.559.4637)
K&L Wine Merchants 3005 El Camino Real Redwood City, CA 94061 USA
San Francisco, Redwood City, Hollywood CA

Glen Scotia 23 Years Old Connoisseur’s Choice

This single malt was distilled in 2000 at the Glen Scotia Distillery, located in Campbeltown. It was aged in a refill American Hogshead for 23 years, resulting in sweet and light flavours of lemon, honey, demerara sugar and red apple with delicate spice and tropical fruit. It was bottled by Gordon & Macphail at natural cask strength, without chill filtration or artificial colouring.

Only 228 bottles were produced.

£215.00

Shop now

THE VIDEO REVIEW 

French whisky is something that I need to explore more. There are over 90 whisky distilleries in France, but I’ve only had two of them make it onto this channel.

This particular example is from the French side of the alps, a farmyard grown and distilled single malt. Think of it as French Daftmill! Aged in a combination of ex-cognac, ex-Armagnac, and ex-French wine casks – Hautes Glaces Indigene is a rather special whisky, in my eyes. The bottle showcases the Obiou mountain in coloured glass with a stopper made from food-grade, agglomerated cork, and ‘spent grains’ from the production process.

Over the last year or so, I’ve been exploring flavours of other distillates that I’ve ignored. The main focuses are rum of all varieties, tequila, mescal, aguardiente, etc. The one thing that all of these spirits have had in common is this huge contrast of flavour, some of them even more so than whisky, but this particular French single malt has summarised so many of these flavours into one bottle. That is something quite special.

We have the fresh fruit notes of peach, making me think of light, grassy single malts. The herbal input of pine and resin from certain mescals, the freshness of agave in tequila reposado – all of this together with a rather incredible scent of jasmine and Lilly of the Valley, contained in a rather pretty bottle.

It is only a 50cl bottle for £60, but there are more expensive offerings in 70cl that are nowhere near as complex as this one. Cheers.

It’s become a cliché that I start these newsletters with an apology for tardiness, but – boy – this one’s a doozy. Welcome to what was supposed to be the late-February outturn!

The good news is that I have three lovely new whiskies for you which I think are worth the wait. And, as a small token of appreciation for your patience and support, you’ll find a couple of discount codes at the bottom of this article.

And, with that, back to the whisky!

First up I’m delighted – after years of mithering the lovely people at the distillery – to be able to offer a 7-year-old Ardnamurchan. Maybe the best of the new-wave distilleries? (Debate amongst yourselves!)

So, on the nose: sweet pine wood smoke, new car, frying bacon in a cast-iron pan, butter and olive oil, Sauternes, foam bananas – there’s a lot happening! With a bit of water: smoked tropical fruits, bratwurst, buttered raisin bread, oysters.

The palate is huge, sweet and smoky. Chunky peat, first-aid kit, fudge, banana cream, pineapple upside-down cake,and Flake chocolate. Behind that is a solid backbone of tar, brine and sweet lemon. With water we’re somewhere Islay-adjacent, with clean, maritime, lemony peat.

How Ardnamurchan are cramming this much personality into relatively young malts I have no idea, and it’s all without any skeevy “wood technology” too. One thing I particularly like is that it fits so stylistically neatly into its geographical location (you can feel the kinship with Ledaig, Ben Nevis, etc) while also having a distinct quality of Ardnamurchan-ness.

This first-fill bourbon barrel produced 248 bottles at 61.0%, and they are available for £82.50 each.

Next up we have a fully-oloroso-matured 16-year-old Mannochmore. The couple of ex-bourbon Mannochmores I’ve bottled have been some of my favourites of the last few years, so it’s nice to have a well-sherried one to compare.

And, indeed, it’s a proper sherried nose: leather jacket, golden syrup, black cherry, coal tar, armagnac prunes, rose petals, orange boiled sweets, and a freshly-opened pack of cigarettes.

The palate has a thick and creamy texture, with cherry cola, blackcurrant syrup, nutmeggy bread and butter pudding, hazelnut and orange sponge. The development is on roasted nuts, sultanas, stem ginger, liquorice, with a little bit of salty smoked meat and coal dust. Adding water allows more of the clean, citrussy distillery character to shine through.

So, yes, I think we can safely say that Mannochmore plays well with sherry! I particularly love the dark fruits in this one. The first-fill oloroso butt produced 424 bottles at 54.7%, and they are available for £105 each (but see code below!).

And last but not least we have a 16-year-old Glen Moray. A distillery that is finding more and more fans these days.

The nose is softly waxy with a sort of elegant fruitiness: apple rings, dessert wine, banana and custard, sponge fingers, and a hoppy citrusiness. There are some little herbal touches (spearmint, thyme), and even a tiny camphor-y medicinal note, if you go looking for it.

The palate is super-clean and precise, with lemon oil, barley sugar and spearmint. The development is very malty, with mirabelle syrup, banana bread, cherry, and herbal liqueur. The finish is again very clean and lightly waxy, with citrussy barley, hops and candied peel.

I’ve already used “elegant” once, but that really is the word to sum this one up. This ex-bourbon barrel produced only 116 bottles at 52.2% and they are available for £85 each.

Cheap as chips

As promised, a couple of small discount codes for you:

Use SPRINGINTORUM for £5 off any bottle of rum.

Use MANNOCHLESS for £5 off a bottle of (you guessed it) Mannochmore.

The codes will be active for a couple of weeks and are for newsletter subscribers only.

And…

…that’s it for now. It shouldn’t be anything like as long a wait for the next outturn (and there’s some fun stuff to come through the rest of this year!), but in the meantime I’m always available via the usual channels if I can be of any assistance.

Cheers!

David

DOUBLE PRODUCT RELEASE

WESTIE SPONGE ED.3 SPRINGBANK 1999

We are delighted to be able to offer another single sherry cask of Springbank. This one is a 1999 1st fill sherry butt, bottled after 24 years of maturation in Campbeltown at natural cask strength. This whisky has a rich and clear sherry character that’s nutty, leathery and salty, but it never dominates the Springbank distillery character. The end result is a beautifully intricate and well-sherried, mature Springbank, full of fresh coastal vigour, saltiness, tar, waxes and background peat smoke. Extremely classical, powerful and oozing charisma. We’ve also deployed our hand-blown cognac glass for this bottling, we think it looks every bit as bonnie as it tastes.

DOUBLE PRODUCT RELEASE

WHISKY SPONGE ED.92 ABERLOUR 33 YEAR OLD

We have been looking for an Aberlour to add to our Whisky Sponge series for quite some time, so it was fortuitous that we finally got our hands on not one, but two tasty old hoggies of this classic Speyside. The 1989 was richer and spicier, while the 1991 was softer and more floral and fruity. To us, the obvious opportunity was to combine these two casks and create a singular small batch bottling that is greater than the sum of its parts, and that showcases a beautiful mature Aberlour in new light. We are really happy with the result of this 33 year old, cask strength bottling, it’s everything we look for in mature Aberlour – and another really satisfying addition to our occasional but ever-expanding series of multi-vintage, small batch bottlings!

Decadent Drinks Ltd DECADENT DRINKS LTD, WEST BUILDING RUTHVENFIELD GROVE,

INVERALMOND INDUSTRIAL ESTATE PERTH, Highlands PH1 3FN United Kingdom

An Buachaill Caol Dubh Poitín Release

Although this bottling is only a tiny part of a much larger project, Killowen Distillery advise any whiskey or history lover to subscribe to www.creatur.ie community and begin availing of these exclusive perks.

An Buachaill Caol Dubh is a once-off poitín project to re-experience the taste of a 1960s traditional music session. Uncovered by ethnomusicologist Dr. Pádraig Mac Aodhgáin in the University College Cork Seán Ó Riada Archive, the recipe was written by Larry Dillon, a well loved figure in the 1960s traditional music scene known for his famous house sessions.Made from an out-of-the-cupboard ensemble of ingredients, the poitín itself may well reflect those houses too. Its distillation was undertaken as part of Fionnán O’Connor’s Créatúr book project, in which the liquid and the story feature, and we are excited to release a special still strength bottling exclusive to Créatúr’s crowdfunding community, whose generosity makes all this research possible.

With 80% already sold to existing crowd funders, be sure not to miss out on your opportunity to be a part of the history of Irish Poitín.

An Buachaill Caol Dubh – exclusively available to the Créatúr’s crowdfunding community in the next two weeks.

ABV:65%
Price: £55

Sláinte

Killowen Distillery Team

THERE WERE THREE OF THEM M’LORD.

Here we go again, another great tour with my friend Ingvar Ronde. This is not work, this is a pleasure that happens for me every year.  In April 2024, we hit a region where we had not extensively toured before;  Lochlea, Jackton, Auchentoshan, Loch Lomond, Glengoyne, Fettercairn, Inchdairnie, Daftmill, Falkirk, Tullibardine, Edradour and Deanston. To be honest, we also had many tastings, book signings, extra visits, food and drink – there were three of us; Ingvar, Marcus and myself. We did enlarge the group for a night at my house for a tasting, something completely different – Irish whiskies.

Monday 15           Ingvar landing at 12.35 pick up at airport – Lochlea and Jackton, staying overnight Glasgow. Both distillery tours were brand new for me, both good, lots of potential at both, some exciting news later on. Both distilleries using Scottish grown barley in the fields of their own estates. The hotel shall remain nameless, a let down to be sure. I am now banned apparently. We do seem to get into trouble easily!

Tuesday 16            Full Scottish breakfast then Auchentoshan. Susan was an excellent guide and a mine of information. Loch Lomond Gary Mills could not have done any more for us, many, many drams and the cooperage was a highlight, thanks guys. Glengoyne Robbie Hughes same again, great guy, good humour and good drams. Overnight in Perth, me at home, a wee tasting may have occurred!

Wednesday 17     Leaving 08.15 for Fettercairn Kieran, Stewart and Kelly were great! The water ring was unique, cooling the potstill.  Hi Paul, Thanks for your kind email, and I am glad to hear that you enjoyed your visit to Fettercairn. Have a nice weekend when it comes and feel free to pop in for a visit anytime you are passing the door. Kind regards, Kelly – Brand Home Manager – Fettercairn Distillery.  Inchdairnie good visit here hidden in the town, what a good design, a modern distillery.  Down to meet Frances at Daftmill, spent a while here down on the farm, including dram time (I lived on my grand dad’s farm in Co Kilkenny 2 – 9 year old, so like going to farms).  Back to Perth, we did a good tasting at Malts & Spirits shop, then pizzas at Brewdog. Overnight in Perth.

Thursday 18          Leaving after breakfast we arrived at Falkirk Oh my God, did we have fun here! A quick tour, then to the boardroom and George Stewart, what a character, story after story, did we laugh? Bet your life we did. And drams, loved it. Our tour there was a blend of a naughty boy and teachers pet! Tullibardine – Mike Elliott did a long Q&A then a distillery tour, I did happen to pick up a bottle while there and another next week. We had a group dinner in Perth, excellent, then a tasting at mine, Liz, Marcus, Shona, Ingvar and myself, mostly Irish drams, although a few Scots snuck in. Overnight in Perth.

Friday 19               Away by 08.20 Edradour – Andre Haberecht, that was good, as it has been closed to the public for some time. Drive to Deanston, Murray Kerr, and then Edinburgh to drop Ingvar off.

Overall another excellent tour with my pal Ingvar, I get to see so much because of him, amazing. Thanks again Ingvar and Marcus, good craic and fun on tour, myself and Ingvar like to take the Michael out of eachother, by now he understands my humour and sarcasm. There was a distillery that was not a good visit, but that will remain under the radar. I was going to say Scots are very friendly, but not everyone we met were Scots. So let’s say everyone we met at distilleries were happy smiling, friendly folks. Mind, there was one person who was on the sideline, had a face like a wet weekend. Ingvar enjoyed Perth. I enjoyed the whole tour, as usual. I am lucky as I get to see distilleries closed to the public, because of Ingvar. He is back in November.

PAUL MCLEAN

With friends and contacts all over the whisky industry, you cannot find better than MCLEAN WHISKY TOURS

www.whiskytours.scot

BEN NEVIS 10 YEAR OLD

Ben Nevis 10 Year Old is a superb introduction to the distillery’s style. Full-bodied with a whiff of peat, lots of tropical fruit and hints of coffee, roasted nuts and dark chocolate, this is a great example of western Highland whisky.

“This is one of my favourite drams from Ben Nevis, and not just because it won’t break the bank. It’s a rich and nutty Highlander with a hint of peaty smoke that is delicious on its own or in a highball. It takes me back to summer bonfires and cozy winter evenings.”

Ning Heywood

  SHOP NOW  

Tasting Notes by The Whisky Exchange

Nose Full and rich, with a hint of smoke and roasted nuts under layers of fruit.
Palate Dried fruit and nuts with orange zest and warm spice.
Finish Long and spicy with sweet fruit.

25 Year Old 1997 Murray McDavid Mission Gold

1997 vintage of the peated single malt from Tobermory distillery. Matured in Margaux wine casks and bottled 2023. Ledaig 25 Year Old 1997 vintage peated Island single malt Scotch whisky distilled at Tobermory distillery. Matured in two Margaux wine casks. Bottled 2023 by Murray McDavid for the Mission Gold series. 621 bottles.

£177.66

Nose: Floral smoke, mixed berries, coastal.

Palate: Saline peat, flint, mellow strawberry.

Finish: Oily, fruity barley, lingering smoke.

Tobermory Distillery was established by John Sinclair in 1798 and is situated in the harbour town of Tobemory on the Isle of Mull off the west coast of Scotland. Equipped with four stills fitted with unusually twisted lyne arms to create a light and fruity Tobermory malt spirit. The distillery produces an unpeated single malt whisky called Tobermory and a peated single malt whisky called Ledaig. In addition to the core range which includes the Lediag 18 Year Old some excellent young aged Ledaig is available from independent bottlers including Signatory.