Scotch Whisky reviews

Ardbeg 1976? Seriously? Yup. Italian collector Enrico Gaddoni has quite a few old bottles in his collection and since he recently joined me as a colleague at Catawiki, we became friends. When I ran into…

The Ardbeg An Oa is the newest release in the core range of Ardbeg, launched in September 2017. It is named after the Mull of Oa, where you can find the American Monument (if you’ve been to Islay, you…

This is a young old Bowmore. You’ll understand when I say that it matured for just 14 years, but was already distilled in 1981. I was 11. This has been in the bottle for over 20 years. I was able to…

An Octomore of 8 years old on American Oak? Well, I expect a very sweet, smoky malt, right? Let’s see if that’s true.There are only light farmy notes on the nose, with a touch of vanilla and smoke, but…

I first tried this malt at the distillery! When we visited Islay in September 2017, we were seduced into trying this one, for the simple fact that some Spanish Ribera del Duero wine casks were involved…

Boy, I just tasted a grand Octomore (06.3) and am therefor somewhat hesitant to try another one, out of fear of it not being all it could be. But hey, everything for science, right? Tasting them head-to…

Octormore just launched its Diagolos series – 5 year old malts with number 09.1 to 09.3, soon to be followed by a 10 year old 09.4 – but I am somewhat behind on schedule and still have some 06, 07 and…

I have tried this Laddie 2005 before, but either at a festival or a tasting, so I never published any notes. But it’s really very good, so I want to share them. Hence I scored a sample and jotted this…

David Stirk recently sold his Creative Whisky Company, but he continues to work there and select the casks. This single cask from Islay is actually from Caol Ila. After all, LNB stands for Loch Nam Burn…

Having a soft spot for new make and then getting hold of a sample of spirit from your favorite Islay distillery? Well, double whammy! This new make is not commercially available, but I will nevertheless…