Recently, I stopped by my local liquor store to pick up my weekly allotment of Heady Topper. As is my custom, I perused the whisky section and my attention was drawn to the bottom shelf where bottles…

For the last three or four years I have made a concerted effort to investigate and taste malts from the smaller and lesser known distilleries. I have been trying for some time to get my hands on a…

One of the NAS offerings from Tomatin that allows the distillery to put to use some of its younger whiskies. Despite the lame marketing ploy to associate this dram with a legend of a hell hound (Cu…

As the majority of this distillery's output ends up in various Chivas blends, it is (with the exception of the un-inspiring 12 yo) not easy to come by. Gordon and MacPhail seems to have cornered the…

Because its whisky is used primarily for blending purposes (in this case by Chivas Bros.), Braeval is one of those seamlessly endless Speysiders that escape the notice of many malt drinkers. I have been…

Clynelish has an apparent reputation as a barley centered dram that consistently ranks in the top dozen or so of Scotland's malt distilleries. And although not a rare malt, it seems to find a selective…

I really love well made sherried malts. Unfortunately, they are becoming more and more a rare breed. The reason is pretty clear: there has been a drastic decline in the number of sherry drinkers -…

One of my drinking buddies remarked once that Mortlach always reminded him of a good lamb stew. A couple of years ago I was perusing the shelves of a Connecticut liquor store and came across this bottle…

Aultmore is one of those lesser known Speysiders that sends most of its production to the blended Scotch market, in this case most notably to the Dewar folks. It has a reputation as being an oaky whisky…

I first ran across this dram in the pub of a depressing hotel in the town of Tomintoul. It helped cheer me up and when I got back home I tracked a bottle down. Considering the price (about $40) this…