Whisky Ramblings on YouTube

Bushmills is one of the world’s oldest distilleries, found in Northern Island, a stone’s throw away from the Giant’s Causeway. The distillery attracts more than 100.000 visitors per year. Today I will try their 16 Year Old, which is a marriage of single malt whiskey that matured on three different casks: bourbon barrels, oloroso sherry butts and port pipes. The video can be found here: youtu.be/6uAn6MOA4MY.

Blair Athol is a lesser-known distillery in the Highlands, which produces primarily for the famous Bell’s blend. There are barely any official bottlings, so if you want to try this whisky, you will need to look at independent bottlers. I tried a single cask from 2002, bottled under the Hepburn’s Choice label, a subsidiary of Hunter Laing. The video can be found here: youtu.be/ET-1BI3aBpA.

In the valley of the geese proudly stands the Glengoyne distillery. It is one of the few distilleries that never closed. Glengoyne has been in production since its opening in 1833. I tried their entry level malt, the Glengoyne 10 Years. The video (Rambling 115 already!) can be found here: youtu.be/EGfrEFzPMds.

Feis Ile is the music and whiskyfestival on Islay – a festival on which all Islay distilleries open their doors to literally thousands of fans. And of course, exclusive whisky releases are an integral part of the festival. During the latest festival, Ardbeggians could drool over the new Ardbeg Perpetuum, a release that sold out over the weekend and is now highly sought after, commanding ridiculous prices. A few months later, a general release of 72.000 bottles at a slightly lower ABV followed. Now that the hype has died down a bit, let us put both releases head-to-head. The video can be found here: youtu.be/LdxOiL7OPpA.

I am, as you know, also a huge Star Wars fan. In 2012 I led the project Save the Lars Homestead, in which my team restored an iconic movie set in the Tunisian desert. To commemorate this event, we bottled a Save Lars Whisky. But Star Wars is a trilogy, so the Lave Lars Whisky should be a trilogy as well. After the Bruichladdich 1990 and the Auchentoshan 1989, now comes the final edition: a Balmenach 14 Year Old 2001 from a single sherry cask at cask strength, again limited to 100 bottles. A wonderful conclusion to the bespoke Save Lars Whisky series. The video can be found here: youtu.be/dzTAJXW-z7A.

Whenever you visit Auchentoshan, the Lowland distillery near Glasgow, you always have the opportunity to bottle your own from a cask in the warehouse. It makes for a nice souvenirs. Even more so when the cask is of exceptional quality – which it usually is. This most recent cask was a Bordeaux wine cask, filled in 2006. Quite young and yet full of flavor! The video can be found here: youtu.be/pF7EDJd7qTk.

In 2000 the Glengyle Distillery in Campbeltown was resurrected. Their single malt is being sold under the name Kilkerran, referring to an original settlement where Saint Kieran started a religious movement (and was possibly the first distiller in the region). I tried their 9 Year Old which matured on a sherry cask. I found it better than the 10 Year Old on sherry. The video can be found here: youtu.be/OYcVYJe85us.

Glenallachie is a Speyside distillery that produces almost exclusively for the blending industry. Being founded in 1967 it is a very young distillery indeed. The name is derived from Gaelic and means as much as the rocky valley. It is currently owned by Chivas Brothers. If you want to try it as a single malt, you will need to look at independent bottlings. The one we try today is some such, bottled exclusively for a Belgian whiskyclub called Maltlovers. This is a 9 year old single cask at a whopping 50,7% ABV. The video can be found here: youtu.be/nd4NVABezpk.

Auchentoshan recently launched two new expressions in the Global Travel Retail segment. A no age statement Blood Oak and a 24 Year Old Noble Oak. The Blood Oak – what a great name! – is a vatting of triple distilled Auchentoshan matured on bourbon casks and French red wine casks. The result, bottled at 46% ABV, is a fruity, spicy and warm liquid. The video can be found here: youtu.be/oNY7s-MMiWg

Glenfiddich launched the Cask Collection for Global Travel Retail. The three bottlings are the Select Cask, the Reserve Cask and the Vintage Cask. The series celebrates the Solera marrying process in which several casks are put together in the handcrafted Solera vat at Glenfiddich. I tried the first in the series, the Select Cask, which turned out to be a summery dram indeed. The video was shot on location in Edinburgh, near the Royal Yacht Britannia and on Arthur’s Seat. It's number 122 and it can be found here: youtu.be/xbtgYGuEM34.

Glenfiddich launched the Cask Collection for Global Travel Retail. The three bottlings are the Select Cask, the Reserve Cask and the Vintage Cask. The series celebrates the Solera marrying process in which several casks are put together in the handcrafted Solera vat at Glenfiddich. I tried the first in the series, the Select Cask, which turned out to be a summery dram indeed. The video was shot on location in Edinburgh, near the Royal Yacht Britannia and on Arthur’s Seat and can be found at youtu.be/3cqzKG5rOPw.

Auchentoshan recently launched two new expressions in the Global Travel Retail segment. A no age statement Blood Oak and a 24 Year Old Noble Oak. The Noble Oak – another a great name! – is a vatting of triple distilled Auchentoshan matured on bourbon casks and oloroso sherry wine casks and is the successor of the celebrated Silveroak. The result, bottled at 50,3% ABV, is a fine dessert dram from the Lowlands. The video can be found here: youtu.be/nsPIt3xAUAs.

What started as passion in 2009 has now culminated into my very own whisky book, consisting of 297 pages of pure whisky pleasure. But – the book is in Flemish (my native language). Nevertheless, I wanted to share this with you as it is quite a proud moment for me and my two co-writers. The video can be found here: youtu.be/W47Mk3sBKYc.

@markjedi1 congratulations on your new book. This is an excellent achievement and you should be extremely proud of yourself!

@maltmate302 Thank you for the kind words!

@markjedi1 , congratulatlions Mark! This is a big achievement.

Congrats on your new book mate ! Keep it on.

Follow you also on YouTube .

Well done mark.. The book is another great notch on your cap.. The collection is looking very impressive too ????

Wolfburn Distillery in the Northern Highlands has finally released their very first single malt. The distillery, founded in 2012, launched a 3 year old in February 2016. Many people have been looking out for it – myself included. And as it happens: the whisky is marvelous. The video can be found here: youtu.be/YdOweEm7wO0.

A new Belgian whisky! ‘Kempisch Vuur’ is a single cask that yielded only 300 bottles of 50cl. Once you realize that it was a quarter cask from Laphroaig, you will understand that this is peaty stuff. That is a first for Belgium! The video can be found here: youtu.be/uo_l6D9oRNs.

@markjedi1 Congrats on the book. I have watched many of your videos, your review of the 2011 Valinch convinced me to keep an eye out for it and I did get one on an LCBO return a couple years ago.

Video 128! Kavalan is a young distillery from Taiwan, but their offerings have already won numerous awards. Especially their Solist range has proven to be very good to quite spectacular. It comes as no surprise then that The Finest Notes, a renowned Belgian whisky club, turned to Kavalan for their next club bottling. It is a single bourbon cask at cask strength. It turned out to be a powerhouse! The video can be found here: youtu.be/xshl__3w0hY.

It is not often that one comes across a single sherry cask matured Springbank. The Lads of Lobland series already consist of a great Clynelish, but now this Belgian club bottled a wonderfully dark Springbank at cask strength. It turned out to be a Campbeltown sherry monster, where quite a bit of the distillery character is dominated by the cask, but what a dram! The video can be found here: youtu.be/XEanEwDD9Cw.

Rambling 130: Allow me to present Tasting Collection. This Dutch company offers whisky tasting packs in a subscription form. Let me explain why I am fond of this type of whisky discovery. I even had the honor of composing a Club Edition for the company myself! The video can be found here: youtu.be/st0koZDFDzU.

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 130: Craigellachie 6 Year Old 2008 for MMM MMM stands for Mark & Manny’s Malts and is the newest whisky adventure by Manny Dijk and myself (you may remember us from the Save Lars Whisky releases). We want to continue bringing excellent, but affordable single malts to the market, but with a twist: very limited releases of only 50 bottles. This is our inaugural release: a young and feisty sherry matured cask strength Craigellachie. The video can be found here: youtu.be/8XLF4XBdoA0.

@markjedi1 congratulations on this latest development in your whisky career! With this and your new book you are definitely going in an upwards trajectory. I have some 9 year-old Craigellachie myself and can confirm that it definitely works as a young whisky. Good luck with this latest venture and I hope I get the chance to try one of your bottles in the future.

@maltmate302 Thanks for the kind words, I truly appreciate that. Why don't you PM me and I'll see what I can come up with for you!

167 videos and counting, well done @markjedi1 :)

Rambling 132: When we think of single malt, we usually have Scotland in mind. But of course many countries make excellent single malt whisky today. France, for example, has over 40 whisky distilleries operational. Perhaps you have not yet heard of the Armorik Single Malt, produced at the Warenghem Distillery in Brittany. It is my great pleasure to present two excellent releases to you: Armorik Maitre De Chai and their Millésime 2002 single cask. Be ready to be surprised! The video can be found here: youtu.be/h0ndtLtHFLE.

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 133: Ardbeg Dark Cove. This year, Ardbeg Day became Ardbeg Night and the much anticipated bottling was named Dark Cove, referring to the illicit distillation of a previous era. It is said to be the ‘darkest Ardbeg ever’ with the heart of the malt matured in dark sherry casks. PR blurb or fact? Let’s find out. The video can be found here: youtu.be/Kot-YBTATEo.