Archive For The “Core Range” Category
Royal Brackla distillery was the first of three distilleries that received royal designation, and was sold by Diageo to Bacardi, with the other Dewar’s distilleries of Aberfeldy, Macduff, Craigellachie and Aultmore in 1998, at the behest of antitrust regulators. Incidentally, reports have it that no maturing stock was included in the sale, but obviously seeing…
About two years ago, Bacardi announced ‘The Last Great Malts’, and I was excited, as the range was touted as being presented with age statements, non-chill filtered and at 46% ABV, or at least this was the impression everybody got from the PR. Apart from absolutely scandalous pricing of the higher rungs of the ranges (£330 for…
Balblair’s rebranding and move from age stated whiskies to exclusively serving up vintage tagged whisky was a brilliant move. With it, though, comes the fact that when more than one expression of a vintage is released, you have to go to numbered releases. This is the case with the 1990, which sported a first release…
I’ll start this review by saying that getting to taste two versions of what is to me the finest Highland Park up to the 30 (I didn’t taste the 40 or 50 year olds yet) is a special treat. I got to taste two 30 year olds here, but one of them was an Intertrade…
The Highland Park 21 is a classic example of an expression that migrated successfully from the travel retail market into the general market. Yes, it did undergo some trials and tribulations, including being released at 40% ABV for a while, but it got back on track. The nose on this expression is absolutely stunning, but the…