*Thanks to SF and the good folks at Impex Beverages for the sample. Strathisla has been around for so long (its roots go back to 1786) there's bound to be a few dark moments in its past. As an appreciator of dark moments, one of my favorites is the brief period of 1940 to 1949 … Continue reading Chieftains 2000 Strathisla 12 Year Old – review
Scotch
The Arran Malt 16 Year Old – Review
*Thanks to SF and the good folks at Impex Beverages for the sample. I'm not sure I can definitively say that I have a favorite number, but if you pressed me for an answer, I'd probably have to say the number 16. I've liked 16 since I was a little kid and, as far as … Continue reading The Arran Malt 16 Year Old – Review
Compass Box The Peat Monster +/- 2011 – Review
*Thanks Dad! The word "peat," a near and dear word to whisky lovers to be sure, is most likely of Celtic origin owing maybe a little bit to the medieval latin word peta, and sharing its ancestry with the Welsh word peth, and the Cornish word peyth, which both mean "bit," "piece" or "thing." Interestingly, there's no relationship between the word … Continue reading Compass Box The Peat Monster +/- 2011 – Review
The Exclusive Malts 1997 Clynelish 15 Year Old – Review
*Thanks to SF and the good folks at Impex Beverages for the sample. Clynelish is pronounced KLYNE-leesh or klein-LEESH depending on what sylLABle you'd like to put the emPHAsis on. The name means "slope of the garden" in Gaelic, though the garden in question might just be the metaphorical garden of the eastern coastal Highlands … Continue reading The Exclusive Malts 1997 Clynelish 15 Year Old – Review
The Exclusive Malts 1988 Littlemill 24 Year Old – Review
*Thanks to SF and the good folks at Impex Beverages for the sample. Poor Littlemill. The last several years of its life were none to kind to one of the more interesting malt whisky distilleries in Scotland. Starting in the mid-80's, the Lowland distillery opened and closed in fits and starts until finally being closed … Continue reading The Exclusive Malts 1988 Littlemill 24 Year Old – Review
The Exclusive Malts 1992 Glen Grant 20 Year Old – Review
*Thanks to SF and the good folks at Impex Beverages for the sample. Why I am fascinated with the tangled stories of ownership in the whisky world is beyond me. Partly, I suppose I like the notion that throughout such upheaval and change, many distilleries just kept right on mashing, worting, washing, and distilling away. … Continue reading The Exclusive Malts 1992 Glen Grant 20 Year Old – Review
The Arran Malt 10 Year Old +/- 2011 – Redux Review
*Thanks to SF and the good folks at Impex Beverages for the sample. With The Arran Malt's 16 year old coming out soon in the U.S., I thought I'd take a look back at Arran's entry-level 10 year old expression. I reviewed this a few years ago at a tasting party and while I got … Continue reading The Arran Malt 10 Year Old +/- 2011 – Redux Review
The Exclusive Malts 1994 Braeval 18 Year Old – Review
*Thanks to SF and the good folks at Impex Beverages for the sample. There has never been an official bottling from the Braeval distillery, any expression you find out on the shelves is, like this one from The Exclusive Malts, an independently bottled release. Why? Well, as I've mentioned before, Braeval is a newish distillery, … Continue reading The Exclusive Malts 1994 Braeval 18 Year Old – Review
The Exclusive Malts 2000 Aberlour 12 Year Old – Review
*Thanks to the good folks at Impex Beverages for the sample. If my cursory google-able research is correct (and why would it be?) Aberlour, or as translated into Scottish Gaelic, Obar Lobhair, apparently means "The mouth of the talkative stream". The babbling brook in question would be the Lour, which empties into the Spey, and upon whose … Continue reading The Exclusive Malts 2000 Aberlour 12 Year Old – Review
AnCnoc 22 Year Old – Review
*Sincere thanks to LD of Alembic Communications Ltd. and AnCnoc for the sample If you go looking for the AnCnoc distillery, you're not going to find it...there's no such place. If you go looking for Knockdhu whisky on your liquor store shelves...you're not going to find that either. Yet both Knockdhu and AnCnoc exist and … Continue reading AnCnoc 22 Year Old – Review
THE CASKS 