World Whisky reviews

It’s a public secret that I have a weak spot for new make. Timon – former employee of The Nectar, Belgian importer of Paul John – made me very happy when he offered me a sample of new make from the John…

As the name suggest, this Indian malt was finished on port casks, albeit after an initial maturation on both refill bourbon casks and new American oak. In fact, after the finish on port pipes, it was…

Amrut created this Rye with European rye and left the spirit to mature for 5 years on American oak. Only 1000 bottles at 50% were released.The nose is candy-like sweet with lots of tropical fruit. Think…

Kavalan, from Taiwan, has quite a few lovely single casks bottlings in their Solist range. This is one of those: the Solis Vinho Barrique – a wine cask. I quite like the bourbon and sherry versions, but…

This new whisky is from a Newfoundland-based company which I just found out specializes in rum (go figure). A mixture of double-distilled corn and pot still barley malt, aged in refill, ex-bourbon, and…

Gruvguld is Swedish for ‘gold from the mine’, which is of course a reference to the Bodas mine in which Mackmyra matures here whisky – at a depth of 50 meters, by the way. It is a marriage of 3 types of…

Cloudberries are Sweden’s most sought after berries to make wine. This Moment release from Mackmyra – that was named Fjällmark – matured on those casks and then got a finish on sherry casks, both oloroso…

The Master Blender of Mackmyra, Angela D’Orazio, regularly discovers single casks in her Bodas Mine (where they matured in a constant temperature) that jump out to her. Being so exceptional, she does not…

I tried the Mackmyra Svensk Rök some two years ago. It simply means Swedish Smoke. Now the Swedish distiller offers a variant on this malt: Amerikansk Ek, meaning American Oak. The difference is thus the…

This is an abridged version of a blog postHiram Walker Special Old is made, unsurprisingly, at the Hiram Walker distillery in Windsor, Ontario. It's been around forever and the bottle and label probably…