Scotch Whisky reviews

Now this is a golden oldie. It matured for only 9 years and did it last century. By now it has spent more than 20 years in the bottle, but that will not stop us from trying this Bladnoch 1985 – distilled…

This Bladnoch has spent almost as long in the bottle than it has on the cask. It’s an older release in the Old Malt Cask series when the label was still part of Douglas Laing’s portfolio. This Lowlander…

Bladnoch as a bit of a difficult history. This most southern of Scottish distilleries was founded in 1817, expanded in 1878, but then closed in 1938. It was not reopened until 1956, but in 1993 it closed…

This Littlemill 1984 from Cooper’s Choice is a single cask that was bottled for the Belgian whisky shop La Boutique du Chemin Brussels. It was presented at a Closed Distilleries tasting in my neck of the…

Littlemill always sounds like ‘yes, please’, so when my best friend in Holland was able to secure a sample of an official release from two decades ago, I jumped at the chance, tried to keep my saliva…

Ailsa Bay was built in 2007 by William Grant & Sons – well-known for Glenfiddich among others – on the old industrial site of Girvan. That way the company is able to provide enough malts for their own…

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…

Ah, a golden auldie from The Ultimate from the Dutch bottler van Wees, distilled in 1991 and already bottled in 1998. Thanks to my buddy Manny I was able to score a sample. Oh, my, look how pale it is…

Gordon & Macphail, one of Scotland’s oldest independent bottlers, already has more than 50 casks of Rosebank on their CV. Not all of them are equally good. Some are downright ordinary, while others are…

MacKillop’s Choice is in independent bottler founded by Angus Dundee in 1996 with Lorne MacKillop who started his career as a Master of Wine in 1984. Next to single casks as 43% and 46% most of the…