Scotch Whisky reviews

Samaroli is something of an iconic bottler that has released many a wonderful cask. I first tried this Caol Ila from 1998 at a whisky festival and took home a sample, that I try today with a lot of gusto…

Ian McLeod, who market the label Chieftain's, vatted no less than six casks to realize this release of almost 800 bottles, all of them at drinking strength.Very soft and mineral nose with a sweetness.…

Fred Laing and Jan Beckers selected three bourbon hogsheads to create this Single Minded bottling. It is a very pale Auchentoshan from 2001, that I tasted for the first time at Qwhizky, our yearly whisky…

This Smokehead is an Islay single malt, rumoured to be a 6 Year Old Ardbeg. Could it be? We are curious, of course. Very smoky nose on coals and smoked ham. Then a nice sweet edge from pineapple and…

OK, so I am a bit late with this bottling, but then again it is a rather special one. It was released under the Angel’s Choice label from Malts of Scotland, meaning the bottles are small (35cl) and the…

Having just reviewed the An Cnoc 12, it makes sense to follow up with the 16. In a sense, the 16 is very much an older sibling to the 12. But while they do share much of the same DNA, as it were, they…

The Ileach simply means ‘him from Islay’. It is a single malt from this Mekka of the peated whisky and through the grapevine I heard it whispered that this might in fact be a young Lagavulin. I am not…

The Connoisseurs Choice from Gordon & Macphail is always bottled at 46% ABV. This Ledaig was presented at the Festival for Independent Bottlers in Belgium and I was told that it was somewhat atypical.…

Glen Elgin lies about 3 kilometers south of Elgin, close to Longmorn. There are not a lot of official bottlings, but this 12 Year Old is their entry level malt. It recently replaced Cragganmore in Dia…

This is the type of bottle that you only take out of your cabinet for special occasions. It is a limited edition of an Auchentoshan 30 Year Old, distilled in 1976. Only 600 decanters (you can hardly call…