This 12 year-old expression from The Balvenie is aged in first- or second-fill bourbon casks, with up to a further year in first-fill oloroso sherry casks. It stands on its own as a beautiful example of what quality Speyside whisky and careful oak aging can do. It has also stood the test of time, and is just as good as it was when I reviewed it 12 years ago.
This particular release, which I snapped up in 2022 but is still on shelves well into 2023, was aged for a full 12 years in a combination of American and European oak sherry casks – assume that means refill casks – before finishing for an undisclosed period of time in Amontillado sherry casks. Amontillado is a dry type of sherry, so don’t expect…
This 15 year-old bottling is aged in a combination of oloroso sherry casks and ex-bourbon American oak casks, which has become so common that it’s hardly worth mentioning anymore. Everyone’s doing the DoubleWood thing these days. The whisky is unfortunately bottled at the minimum legal strength of 40% ABV.
The “Wee Witchie” is the name of Mortlach’s small experimental pot still, and “some” of its output was included in the batch for this bottling. “Some” is one of the worst words in the English language, so we don’t know if we’re talking about a literal teaspoon, or if 30% of the vatting comes from The Wee Witchie, so it’s kind of an irrelevant piece of information…
Glen Moray is a whisky distillery located in Speyside, Scotland. They produce a 12 year old single malt scotch whisky that was bottled by That Boutique-y Whisky Company and has an alcohol content of 48.5%. This review was written (partially) by an AI!
You’re not going to pick up an 18 year-old Kirkland single malt for $50 and find the next best whisky in the world. What you’re going to get is a whisky that has a few relatively minor flaws but is otherwise quite good for the price. I’ll say this for Alexander Murray (the independent bottler that supplies both Costco and Trader Joe’s with their own-branded scotches): they…
The Balvenie PortWood is a marriage of casks of The Balvenie aged for 21 years in ex-bourbon barrels, which have been finished for an additional period – likely a few months – in port pipes. The bottling strength depends on where you buy it. In the UK, it’s 40% ABV. In the US market (at 750ml size), it’s 43%. In Duty Free aka Travel Retail, it’s 47.6% and non-chill-filtered. It’s probably safe to say that Balvenie is using fairly inactive refill…
This Benromach can still be found on shelves (and, sometimes, on sale!). It was distilled from partially-peated malted barley in 2011 and bottled in 2019, making it 7 years of age. No, I’m not bad at math, it’s just that the month of bottling means the whisky was under 8 years which by law means any age statement must be “7 years”. It’s bottled at a robust 50% ABV, higher than Benromach’s usual 46%. This might be an intentional choice to combat the reduced concentration of flavor from…
The Deveron is a line of single malts produced at the Macduff distillery. The name “Macduff” appears on independent bottlings, while variations on “Deveron” are used for official releases. Why? I’m too apathetic about this malt to find out. Probably it doesn’t matter. At some point in the hazy last couple of years the owners of Macduff distillery…
This 15 year is aged in ex-bourbon for 15 years and bottled at 50% ABV without chill filtration (color is not mentioned, so it might be color-adjusted). While Glen Grant does use sherry casks in some of its expressions, this is a purely ex-bourbon bottling. The bottle says “Batch Strength” which is a little odd when you think about it. Isn’t every batch…
