Archive For The “Official Bottling” Category
Truth be told, Brora was never meant to be anything more than a stopgap for DCL (the heart of today’s Diageo), to produce peated whisky for Johnny Walker due to a drought on Islay in 1968 causing Port Ellen to run dry. Thus, to alley fears that peated whisky production would fall short by some…
Last night was one for friends, family and drams. Starting off the year with a bang, we’ll take this weekend to review some really special drams, then return to the independent bottler’s Laphroaig series. Before becoming Diageo, United Distillers launched the Rare Malts Selection (RMS) in 1995. Bottlings under this series went on for 10 years,…
Yamazaki is Japan’s oldest distillery, but Nikka’s Yoichi is the most “Scottish” distillery in Japan. It’s located near the sea on the west coast of the northern island of Hokkaido, in conditions that are close to those of the western coastal Highlands (think Oban or Adelphi’s new Ardnamurchan) or even Islay, and still use direct…
The Yamazaki 18 is a highly acclaimed whisky. It has much more sherry matured whisky than the 12, yet retains the characteristic “vanilla-orange” florals of the Yamazaki. Yamazaki 18 (43% ABV) Appearance: Bronze with thin legs. Nose: The telltale Yamazaki floral-orange-vanilla note is clearly there, with a deeper sherry. Sultanas, cinnamon, light clove with light…
Torben is a close friend of mine. Yes, we have yet to meet in personam, but we’re Facebook whisky friends, and share similar professional backgrounds. And he’s a great guy! We have a pretty constant exchange of samples going back and forth, and at any given time there’s usually a package en route from one of us…