Reviews

The Dalmore Valour is a Travel Exclusive, which was first introduced in Qatar. In principle, we are rather sceptical about Travel Exclusives, but we give every whisky a chance.

The Ardnamurchan distillery is named after its location, the Ardnamurchan Peninsula in the Scottish Highlands. The still young distillery (bottling of the first cask in 2014) is considered one of the most important newcomers on the Scotch scene, perhaps also due to the long history of Adelphi Distillery Ltd, which also operates as an independent bottler.

Today we continue our series on Patrisbrunna Paderborn single malts. The Kö13 restaurant distributes its own small series of extremely regional own maturations. The Madeira Cask bottling matured for 4 years in Portuguese wine casks. This gives the malt a really interesting color - almost like a rosé wine.

The St. Kilian distillery releases their Signature Editions at irregular intervals. These are strictly limited bottlings of selected casks. For the 13th Signature Edition, we were sent a deconstruction set, i.e. samples of the individual barrels, as well as a sample of the final product. A super exciting experience! Below is our impression of the Signature Edition Thirteen, as well as (at the very bottom) a breakdown of the individual parts.

If you travel to Scotland, the Dalwhinnie distillery is often one of the first to be visited because of its location. As part of the Classic Malts Selection, it becomes even more interesting when viewed in the context of the full lineup. For us, Dalwhinnie 15 Years was the first single malt we ever drank. 16 years later, we now open a bottle again.

The Penderyn Madeira Finish Single Malt comes from Wales and thus from a rather untypical whisky region. What makes the Penderyn distillery unique is a so-called Faraday copper still, which is used in the production of the whisky. Matured in ex-bourbon casks and later in Madeira casks, the whisky is bottled in really chic bottles.

The Midleton distillery's 12-years Redbreast bottling is bottled annually in cask strength batches in addition to the 40% strength bottling. The cask strength bottling is also triple distilled in copper pot stills and matured in a combination of bourbon matured American oak casks and oloroso sherry matured Spanish oak casks before being bottled with no added colouring and non-chill filtered. Did you know? The robin is one of the few small birds that also winters in Ireland. The bird species is the eponym for this Irish whiskey.

Since 2015, The Hielan 8 Years has been the entry into the standard range of single malt whiskies from the Glendronach distillery. By the way: Hielan is a Scottish word that refers to the mountainous part of Scotland that lies to the north and west of a line that runs roughly from Dumbarton via Ballater and from there to Nairn.

The Laphroaig Brodir Final Batch is a limited edition, named after the Viking term for "brother", and is the final batch in a series of special bottlings honouring the distillery's heritage and connection to the island's Viking history.After several batches, this Laphroaig, matured in ex-bourbon casks and finished in a port cask, is now discontinued. The Scotch does not bear an age statement.

The Black Grouse Alpha Edition is a peated version of the Famous Grouse. As it is a blend, the barley used specifically for this whisky was not peated, as is the case with a single malt. Instead, they took fully matured Islay whisky and blended it with the standard Famous Grouse. We suspect it will be Caol Ila, as is so often the case.

Tomintoul's single malts are known to be among the lighter, smoother - and, as some would say, old-fashioned and boring - Speyside malts. Perhaps because of this and the high demand for intense and powerful Scotches, the distillery flies under the radar of most people.

Although Blair Athol is not a small distillery, its Single Malts are not among the best known. Over 90% of the production goes into Bell's blended Scotch. Today we have a 10-years independent bottling of a single Blair Athol cask from Douglas Laing's Provenance series in the glass.