We have two more episodes of our Allotment Dram video review series for you. First, we join Matt on a freezing cold day as he talks about the Swedish distillery of Mackmyra and their Reserve Cask programme that allows you to own a personal cask of whisky. Watch as he then samples the Visingsö Sunset, a special single Swedish oak cask whisky given to the first Reserve Cask owners in the UK.
On his next visit the weather has warmed up and Matt takes a look at the Blue Spot, the final piece of the jigsaw in the Spot Whiskey family from Irish Distillers. The whiskey, which was released back in November, carries a 7 year old age statement with each batch going to be bottled at cask strength. Watch as he talks about the range and then samples this newest addition, giving his thoughts and tasting notes.
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The Moscatel Wine Cask Finished is the latest edition to the range of The One blended whiskies from The Lakes Distillery. The One is a series of whiskies, all of which use exactly the same blend that is then finished in different cask types. The blend has The Lakes single malt at its heart and also features single grain and single malt whiskies from the Highland, Islay and Speyside regions of Scotland. The One Moscatel Wine Cask Finished has seen the blend matured for the final months in ex-Moscatel sweet wine barrels sourced from the Cádiz province of Andalucia in the south of Spain.
Big things are about to happen within the Japanese whisky industry with the announcement this week of a change to the laws governing the labelling of products from Japan. These have been drawn up to tackle growing concern that the reputation and sales of Japanese whisky, both of which have grown rapidly over the last decade, could be irreparably harmed if not acted upon. The current loose regulations can mislead customers, with the newly announced ones offering more transparency so that consumers know what they are purchasing and drinking.
At the core of this is that many Japanese whiskies are not what they appear to be - ie : they may not actually be Japanese. Many brands actually include whiskies from other countries (such as America, Australia, Canada, Ireland and Scotland) alongside Japanese whisky in the blend. In some cases there can be no Japanese whisky present at all in a 'Japanese' blend.
The Left-Field is the latest whisky released to the core single malt range of the Australian distillery Starward. The whisky combines their Australian single malt with the influence of Australian red wine barrels. Left-Field has been fully matured in French oak ex-Cabernet, ex-Pinot Noir and ex-Shiraz barrels sourced from wineries in the Barossa Valley and Yarra Valley wine regions. These have been aged seperately before being married together to create Left-Field. It joins two other single malts, the Nova and Solera, and a blend named Two-Fold in the current core range. These are supplimented by limited editions and collaborations on occassion.
We have two more episodes of our Allotment Dram whisky review series for you. First, Matt goes Irish and blended as he talks about the Sadler's Blended Irish Whiskey from their Peaky Blinder range of spirits. Learn about the brand and then hear his thoughts and tasting notes about this budget dram.
Then for his next visit, which is on a freezing cold day, he takes a look at the brand new Glendronach Cask Strength Batch 9 - the latest release in the annual cult limited edition series from the east Highland single malt distillery. Find out details of this year's bottling, plus Matt's thoughts and tasting notes.
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This new single malt is the latest bottling in the highly anticipated Cask Strength series from the east Highland distillery of Glendronach, which is normally released annually. The Glendronach Cask Strength Batch 9 has been slightly delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and each batch is made to be different and have its own personal character. Batch 9 has seen whiskies matured in both ex-Oloroso and ex-Pedro Ximénez sherry casks of differing sizes (both puncheons and butts are included). These have been selected at different ages before being married together by Dr. Rachel Barrie, the Master Blender for Glendronach.
This whisky is a new limited edition single malt from the Edinburgh-based brand of John Crabbie & Co. It joins a core range that features Crabbie's Yardhead and age statements of 8, 12, 15 and 30 years old, plus a growing number of such single cask releases. These have recently included the 1994 25 years old single cask from the Tobermory distillery on the isle of Mull and a 50 years old single cask from an un-named Islay distillery, both of which are still available.
This single cask was distilled at an un-named distillery in Speyside during 1992 and bottled at 28 years of age in 2020. The only clue given is that the distillery is located in the Livet Glen, which narrows the possibilities down to a handful. The whisky has been exclusively matured in an ex-bourbon cask and this has yielded just 260 bottles. It is released at 45.6% ABV and is both non chill-filtered and of natural colour.
