Reviews

The team at 82 Chapters to Newcastle introduced a series of three different Tormore Triple Wood Malts to the market last week. This gives us an opportunity to taste their previous Tormore bottling today. This bottling, lightly peated and aged for 14 years in Bourbon casks, is presented in rich cask strength as part of the Creatures of Cask Strength range.

In our previous report, we already delved into Buffalo Trace's entry-level offering in their portfolio. Without age statement and still extremely popular in the USA, little has changed in the characteristics mentioned since then. However, this time we have the "90 Proof" (45% alcohol by volume) version of Kentucky Straight Bourbon in front of us, which is always bottled at this strength in its country of origin.

Buffalo Trace is one of the epitomes of American whiskey culture. The Kentucky distillery bottles many different bourbons and ryes under a variety of brands. The baseline is the Kentucky Straight Bourbon. Bourbon without an age statement is bottled here at a very competitive price. This always leads to discussions about the age of the whiskey that is bottled. It is very popular in the USA and there are notorious shortages.

Sea Shepherd is a globally active environmental conservation organization, dedicated passionately to safeguarding the world's oceans and their inhabitants. In collaboration with Sea Shepherd, Kirsch introduces an Islay Single Malt prominently featuring the organization's emblem on its label. From a technical standpoint, Kirsch acts as an independent bottler and keeps the secret of the distillery of origin for this whisky. While Sea Shepherd is not actively involved in the production of this spirit, 10% of the proceeds from each bottle sold are donated to support their efforts.

In 2022 Talisker added a travel exclusive called Surge to its core range of bottlings. This malt is only available at airport duty free shops. Let's see how this Talisker, matured exclusively in ex-bourbon casks with no age statement, fares.

Bottled-in-Bond (BIB) is one of the legal regulations governing the production of American whiskey, alongside the designation 'straight.' To be labeled as BIB, the whiskey must have been distilled by a distillery within a single distilling season. Subsequently, it must have matured for at least 4 years in a bonded warehouse and be bottled at 100 Proof (50% ABV). Jack Daniel's has recently introduced a Bonded release that we are tasting today.

Douglas Laing offers an array of blended malts from all the regions of Scotland in its Regional Malts range. The well known Scallywag - representing Speyside - has been extended with a 10 years bottling. A blend of Speyside malts matured in Oloroso and Pedro Ximénez ex-sherry casks. Today we find out if the age statement improves the already excellent Scallywag.

The Highland malt AnCnoc is produced by the Knockdhu distillery. Supposedly they do not bottle under their own name to avoid confusion with Knockando. Today we have the 12 years and youngest bottling of the core range in the glass.

Glengyle Distillery is one of the few distilleries in Campbeltown. After a long period of closure, it was reopened by Springbank at the beginning of the 21st century. Although Springbank and Glengyle are run as separate companies, in some ways they belong together. Glengyle bottles single malt whiskies under the Kilkerran brand. The 12-years, non-chill-filtered and non-coloured whisky is the current core range.

AD:02.22 - behind this somewhat cryptic name we quite simply find a bottle from the Ardnamurchan distillery that was bottled in February 2022. The young single malt distillery is owned by the renowned bottler Adelphi and produces Scotch with a vision of sustainability and transparency.

The Westfalian began producing regional premium whiskies in 2012. This means they can now offer 10-years bottlings of the German with the Scottish soul. We were able to secure part of the TW73 cask. A peated single malt matured in an ex-Port Charlotte sherry cask. As we are used to from The Westfalian, of course, single cask, unfiltered, uncoloured, uncut.

So this one is going to be tough to translate. The great team at 82 Chapters in Newcastle have released some special bottles in the past. Today we have a Community Exclusive bottling with a very pun-y marketing. This 10 years single malt from the Dailuaine distillery is dedicated to their brand ambassador Phil. As such, the german texts about it (and also the bottle's label) are riddled with puns where the name Phil in inserted instead of similar sounding syllables. Let us see if we are able to get this into english, as well. The malt has been matured for 9 years in an ex-bourbon hogshead, and was then finished for a year in a First Phil Moscatel cask.