The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, SMWS for short, bottled this Ardbeg at the age of 11 years in 2011. It came from a refill sherry cask and is their 109th bottling from this distillery already. The whisky…

It is well known that Glenmorangie PLC (yes, of the Highland whisky) took over Ardbeg in 1997. They released a series of whiskies to celebrate the rebirth (hence ‘Renaissance’) of the distillery. It…

The Airigh Nam Beist hit the shelves for the first time in 2006. It is Gaelic for ‘Shelter of the Beast’, pronounced ‘arri nam baisht’ and named after the second lake south of Uigeadail (another tongue…

A year and a half ago, I tasted the Uigedail (say ‘oog-daal’) for the first time. It was the 2003 batch. Today, I am going to try the batch that was bottled on 12 March 2009. Wonder if there is a big…

In June 2001 this Ardbeg 1977, their third Vintage, was released. Initially for around 90 EUR, but today one may count his blessings when he can find a bottle for three or four times that amount. It has…

While Ardbeg, after the takeover by Glenmorangie PLC in 1997, released a special series to celebrate the second lease on life (Very Young, Still Young, Almost There and Renaissance), the independent…

In recent months, Dominiek Bouckaert, the guy behind the label ‘The Whiskyman’, is also responsible for the output of Thosop (in collaboration with Luc Timmermans). So it comes as no surprise that a…

When you spot this bottle in the stores, you would think that it is an older bottling. The bottle sports a classic looking label that invokes ‘quality’. But make no mistake, this was only bottled this…

Friday 11th March 2011 Japan was hit by a terrible earthquake, the heaviest Japan had had to endure so far. Seven independent distilleries worked together to ease the pain somewhat. The Managing Director…

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, founded in 1983, only bottles single casks at cask strength, to be sold exclusively to their members. Their labels are coded, referring to the distillery and the bottling…