Whisky Ramblings on YouTube

The combination of single grain whisky and a sherry cask is not often found, but the German independent bottler Malts of Scotland released a North British 2000 that matured for almost 15 years on a sherry butt and it makes for a heavenly whisky indeed. Check it out in this Rambling that was shot at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

@markjedi1 Great review.

Sadly, I doubt it will make its way here.

I agree with you that grains can be turned into fantastic whisky. While the cask choice was different, you made my mind wander back to a taste I had of an old corn whisky bottled by Cadenhead's. I've a mind to review that sample sometime... AFTER Spirit of Toronto.

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 163: Paul John Single Cask #1051 for Belgium - When thinking of India in terms of whisky, Amrut is probably top of mind. But since a few years, there is a new distillery that is conquering the hearts of whisky aficionados all of the world: Paul John Whisky. Let’s check out a single cask that was bottled exclusively for Belgium.

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 164: Eaglesburn 1 Year Old Aged Spirit ‘Xenna’ - A new craft distillery in Holland – named Eaglesburn – is hard at work putting spirit to sleep for bottling as single malt, but it will not be ready until Christmas 2008. But in the meantime owner Bart Joosten produces gin and rum. However, you can get a taste of things to come with his 1 year old cask aged spirit which he dubbed Xenna. The spirit was distilled on 6th April 2016, the very same day his niece Xenna was born. In honor of the little girl’s first birthday, he bottled some of this spirit on 6th April 2017. It will be many more years before Xenna can enjoy the spirit that carries her name, but luckily we do not need to show that patience. Lo and behold! Despite the young age, this spirit already shows great potential and left me mightily impressed!

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 165: Maverick 23 Year Old 1993 Blended Malt for MMM - The second release of 2017 in the Galaxy Series by MMM - Mark & Manny's Malts - is a special one. A blended malt of 23 year old sherry cask matured malts that were put to sleep in 1993. Mark and Manny dubbed it their Maverick, which stands for non-conformist and daredevil. Another fantastic addition to the MMM series.

Mark, may I respectfully suggest a wind sock for your mic, or that you stay indoors when there is any wind. The wind noise is quite distracting and spoils your otherwise excellent reviews. Cheers.

@BlueNote Good point and thank you for pointing that out. But believe it or not, I do not own a fancy camera with microphone, but film this with my regular mobile phone... But indeed, the wind sometimes plays havoc with the sound quality. My apologies.

@markjedi1 No big deal Mark, I still really enjoy your reviews.

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 166: Auchentoshan 17 Year Old 1987 for Belgium - Whenever I go on holiday, I always have a good bottle of Scotch with me. I recently visited Berlin and took along a special bottling of one of my favorite malts: Auchentoshan. This single sherry cask at 61,5% was bottled exclusively for Belgium and is a very powerful, but also very sexy malt. Find out why in this Rambling, that I recorded at the Berlin Dom.

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 167: Michter’s Small Batch Bourbon. Michter’s creates whiskey and bourbon that really stands out. They toast their casks before charring, they put their spirit in cask at higher proof, they create artificial heat cycles during maturation and they have a secret non-chill filtering process. Let’s see what that does with their Small Batch Bourbon.

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 170: Highland Black 8 Year Old Special Reserve.

Last spring, there was much ado about this Highland Black 8 Year Old Special Reserve as – according to international press – it won ‘top awards’ at several competition, leaving behind bottles that cost up to 4 times as much. This bottle – only available at Aldi – cost less than 20 EUR. But is it really a great blend? How serious are these competition. I found out and the answers are ‘no’ and ‘not’.

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 171: Deveron 12 Year Old

There is no Deveron distillery, but in the glen of the Deveron you will find the Macduff Distillery. It was only founded in 1962, so it is quite a young enterprise. It was built to fulfill the company's needs for malt due to the ever increasing demand for Scotch. Macduff is the fingerprint malt in the world famous William Lawson's blend, but has also been on the market as a single malt, albeit as Glen Deveron. A few years ago, the company overhauled the packaging and dropped Glen from the name, coming up with this new and snazzy looking malt: Deveron. There is a 10, 12 and 18 year old release. Let's try the 12 Year Old, bottled at 40%.

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 172: Vega 23 Year Old 1993 North Star Spirits

North Star Spirits recently launched a blended malt, dubbed Vega. It was distilled in October 1993 and bottled in May 2017, composed of only Speyside malts that matured on American oak and sherry casks. The result left me flabbergasted. Vega, by the way, is the 5th brightest star in the sky – in the constellation Lyra – some 25 light years away from earth, twice the size and twice as hot as our own sun. That’s good to know…

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 173: North British 21 Year Old 1995 North Star Spirits

North Star Spirits is fast becoming one of my favorite independent bottlers. So far, all the stuff I have tried from them has been top notch. In May 2017 they released a single grain from the Lowland distillery North British – just outside Edinburgh – that matured for 21 long years. North British has no official bottlings to speak of, because the production is destined for the blending industry.

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 174: Tennessee Bourbon 13 Year Old 2003 North Star Spirits

Imagine my surprise when independent bottler North Star Spirits announced the release of a 13 year old Tennessee Bourbon. 13 years is already quite a lovely age for a bourbon, so I am expecting a complex whiskey. This was distilled in 2003 and bottled in 2017, but the distillery is a safely guarded secret. Let’s find out what we can find out.

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 176: Invergordon 29 Year Old 1989 for MMM

Invergordon was founded in 1959 and is the only grain distillery not to be found in the Lowlands. The owners are Whyte & Mackay who also own Dalmore which is only the proverbial stone’s throw away. Manny and I discovered an exceptional bourbon cask of grain whisky from 1988 and after a brief encounter with the liquid decided on the spot that we wanted to bottle this for MMM. It is just shy of being thirty years old. It appeared in our Galaxy Series and got the Moon on the label.

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 177: Tomatin Legacy

Tomatin, deep in the Monadliath Mountains at a height of 315 meters, was founded in 1897. In 1906 it closed due to the Pattison Crash, but reopened in 1909. Between 1956 and 1974 the stills were increased from 3 to... 23! It became the largest producer of malt at that time. In 1986 it was the first Scottish distillery to be owned by a Japanese company, who reduced the stills back to 12. And it was positioned in the market as a single malt under that Japanese stewardship. The Legacy, which was introduced a couple of years ago and is now part of the core range, is an entry-level no-age-statement release to celebrate the legacy that the distillery brought to the town of the same name, providing employment and housing for the distillery workers and thus putting Tomatin on the map.

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 178: Isle of Jura 24 Year Old 1988 for The Whiskyman

Isle of Jura is a whisky that does not appear on my scope very often, but in this case I gladly bring it up, for two reasons. One, it is an independent release by a (retired) Belgian bottler that I know personally – Dominiek Bouckaert aka The Whiskyman – and two, it is probably the best Isle of Jura whisky I have tried so far. Originally, this 24 Year Old was bottled for Viking Lines, but a couple of bottles found their way to the Belgian market as well.

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 179: Trip to Islay - part 1 of 4

This is a video of my trip to Islay. Together with my wife Sofie en friends Niek & Ilse, I visit all eight distilleries on this island, known as the Queen of the Hebrides.

In this first of four videos, we document travelling to Glasgow, taking the ferry to Islay and visiting the oldest distillery: Bowmore. Enjoy this video impression our trip to Islay.

@markjedi1,

Awesome clip! Great soundtrack! Waiting for the next one.

@markjedi1 That was fantastic to watch, thanks for that. I live in a beautiful country myself but seeing those images makes my heart sing (sorry, getting a little dramatic). It looked very dramatic with such a moody sea and sky. Looks like you had a great start to your Islay trip and I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the series. Thanks for sharing.

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 180: Trip to Islay - part 2 of 4

This is a video of my trip to Islay. Together with my wife Sofie en friends Niek & Ilse, I visit all eight distilleries on this island, known as the Queen of the Hebrides.

In this second of four videos, we'll visit the Kildalton Cross as well as the Kildalton Trio of distilleries: Laphroaig, Lagavulin and Ardbeg. But we also pop over to the Port Ellen maltings, before setting off to the Mull of Oa to visit the American Monument.

Enjoy this video impression our trip to Islay.

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 181: Trip to Islay - part 3 of 4

This is a video of my trip to Islay. Together with my wife Sofie en friends Niek & Ilse, I visit all eight distilleries on this island, known as the Queen of the Hebrides.

In this third of four videos, we'll pass the beautiful sites of Kilnave and Ardnave before visiting the smallest distillery on the island: Kilchoman. Then we travel back to Loch Indaal to visit the Bruichladdich distillery and the charming village of Port Charlotte, before travelling south to the Rhinns of Islay where we enjoy the sun and wildlife of Portnahaven and Port Wemyss.

Enjoy this video impression our trip to Islay.

@markjedi1 6 months on and the Turv Exloo Prime Whisky review is still bringing the laughs

thank you for jumping on the grenade for the platoon on this one !

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 182: Trip to Islay - part 4 of 4

This is a video of my trip to Islay. Together with my wife Sofie en friends Niek & Ilse, I visit all eight distilleries on this island, known as the Queen of the Hebrides.

In this fourth of four videos, we visit the northernmost distillery on the island: Bunnahabhain. When travelling down the coast we stumble upon the building site of the soon to open 9th distillery - Ardnahoe - before reaching Caol Ila. Then back to Port Askaig to ferry back to Glasgow. But before taking the plane back home, one more stop simply cannot be avoided: Auchentoshan.

Enjoy this video impression our trip to Islay.

Glenmorangie can be found in Tain, on the shores of the sea estuary Dornoch Firth. This estuary is in need on conservation and the distillery partnered with the Marine Conservation Society to raise awareness and money for this cause. Hence they released the Glenmorangie Dornoch, a classic Glenmorangie finished on Amontillado sherry casks.

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 184: Auchentoshan Bartender’s Malt

In 2016, Auchentoshan organized an international bartender’s competition dubbed the ‘New Malt Order’. The 12 winners were invited to Glasgow to create this new Auchentoshan Bartender’s Malt from a variety of casks spanning five decades. The result is a 47% ABV malt ‘designed specifically for cocktails’. But what about us, whisky lovers that are not into cocktails that much? Will it be exciting enough? Will it be tasty? Is it Auchentoshan as we know it? The Toshan man finds out!

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 185: Auchentoshan 12 Year Old QE2 Crystal Decanter

Time for some liquid history. The very hard to find but exquisitely beautiful crystal decanter with Auchentoshan 12 Year Old was sold in the 1980s on the cruise ship Queen Elisabeth II. At that time, Auchentoshan did not have a 12 Year Old on the market, as their standard range only had the bourbon matured 10 Year Old at 40%. So this is basically their first 12 Year Old, a mix of bourbon and sherry, and bottled at 43%. The now standard 12 Year Old (at 40%) was only introduced in 2008, some three decades later. Both this particular whisky as well as the ship’s adventures are discontinued…

Quite spectacular, Mark. Looks like that might have cost you a second mortgage on the house.

@BlueNote Fortunately not. I got a bit lucky at some recent whisky auctions and was able to secure three of these historical decanters for a decent price.