Inbox - The Week's Whisky News (January 30, 2015)

Welcome to this week's Inbox.  For those that have recently discovered us, Inbox is our weekly round up of whisky news and PR material that has found its way in to our email inbox. It was created as we cannot write full articles or do justice to every piece received. It features items from around the world of whisky and is published by us each Friday.

Review - Auchentoshan 'Virgin Oak' Batch 2

This is the second edition of the Virgin Oak expression from the Lowland distillery of Auchentoshan.  The whisky has been fully matured in ex-American virgin oak casks (the term 'virgin' refers to the fact that the casks have never had any spirit maturing in them before), which is rare in the Scotch whisky industry. Auchentoshan have been maturing stock in virgin oak casks since the early 2000s and this practice forms part of a larger strategy of experimentation with non-traditional casking by the brand owners.

Review - 'Timorous Beastie'

The Timorous Beastie is a blended malt from the independent bottling company of Douglas Laing & Co. is the third such release and is made from a selection of Highland single malts including Dalmore, Glengoyne and Glen Garioch.  It joined Big Peat, made from Islay malts, and the Scallywag, made from Speyside malts.  Since its release there has been a fourth addition to the range, named Rock Oyster, which is made from a selection of Island malts.

Review - Glenmorangie 'Tùsail'

This whisky is a brand new single malt from Glenmorangie and is the latest release in its popular annual Private Edition series. The sixth expression, named Tùsail, marks a change in direction for the series. Most of the previous expressions have concentrated on the type of cask used during maturation - Sonnalta used Pedro Ximenez casks, Artein used Sassicaia wine barriques, Ealanta used virgin toasted oak casks and last year's Companta used French red wine barriques.  Finealta, the second release, was smoky.

Inbox - The Week's Whisky News (January 23, 2015)

Welcome to this week's Inbox.  For those that have recently discovered us, Inbox is our weekly round up of whisky news and PR material that has found its way in to our email inbox. It was created as we cannot write full articles or do justice to every piece received. It features items from around the world of whisky and is published by us each Friday.

Review - Nantou 'Bourbon Cask' & 'Sherry Cask'

The entrance at Nantou © Leo Guo/TTL

Nantou is a Taiwanese distillery that is owned by the Taiwan Tobacco & Liquor Corporation (TTL for short), who manufacture cigarettes, beer, wine, liqueurs and spirits. The company is state owned and most well known for its Taiwan Beer brand.  They own seven distilleries and two breweries but Nantou is the only one designed for single malt whisky production.  The company was founded in 1947 and maintained a monopoly on all tobacco and alcohol products until 2002.

Distillery visit - Bowmore

Bowmore is one of the biggest names in the world of Scotch whisky and is known for its peaty and smoky style of single malt. Bowmore, along with Laphroaig, was one of the whiskies that got us in to the peaty flavour and we have admired many of their whiskies since we started Whisky For Everyone.  Therefore, Matt C was delighted when he got invited for a special tour as part of Beam Suntory's Peated Malts of Distinction launch.

Review - Benromach '100° Proof' 10 years old

This whisky is a recent addition to the core range of The Benromach Distillery Company Ltd.  It was released in the Summer of 2014 and is a cask strength version of the award-winning 10 years old expression.  The 100° Proof is in the style that was produced at Benromach before the 1960s and was named to reflect its higher ABV strength - this harks back to the old Imperial measuring (or 'proof') system for alcohol, which was designed to show that a spirit had not been watered down.

Inbox - The Week's Whisky News (January 16, 2015)

Welcome to this week's Inbox.  For those that have recently discovered us, Inbox is our weekly round up of whisky news and PR material that has found its way in to our email inbox. It was created as we cannot write full articles or do justice to every piece received. It features items from around the world of whisky and is published by us each Friday.

Our Top 10 whiskies of 2014

This year has been another productive year for the whisky industry. Many companies are developing and releasing more products than ever to meet or drive consumer demand, as the category continues to grow in both sales and consumption across the globe. It is impossible to sample every new release, but we have been lucky to try some of them through this blog. A huge thank you to all of the brands and PR agencies that continue to send us samples, support us and invite us to events.

Review - Aultmore 12 years old

This whisky is the new single malt from the little known distillery of Aultmore. It forms part of a new range of whiskies, which is the first such range from the distillery.  The range features this 12 years old, plus 21 (which is a travel retail exclusive) and 25 years old expressions.  These have just been released and will be joined by 30 and 35 years old versions later in 2015.  The range forms part of Bacardi's The Last Great Malts range, which showcases whisky from the group's five single malt distilleries - Aberfeldy, Aultmore, Craigellachie, Macduff and Royal Brackla.

Inbox - The Week's Whisky News (January 9, 2015)

Welcome to this week's Inbox.  For those that have recently discovered us, Inbox is our weekly round up of whisky news and PR material that has found its way in to our email inbox. It was created as we cannot write full articles or do justice to every piece received. It features items from around the world of whisky and is published by us each Friday.

Distillery visit - Aultmore

Last Summer, we were delighted to attend a press trip that saw us visit the five single malt distilleries owned by John Dewar & Sons - Aberfeldy, Aultmore, Craigellachie, Macduff and Royal Brackla.  The trip was organised to promote their new series of whiskies entitled The Last Great Malts, which sees most of the distilleries getting a range of single malts for the first time.