Review | Old Pulteney Harbour

The north Highland distillery of Old Pulteney has added a bottling to its core range - Old Pulteney Harbour. The name refers to the harbour in the distillery's hometown of Wick, which was once one of the largest fishing ports in Europe during the Victoria era. The new whisky has been designed to show the brand's continued connection to the sea. Old Pulteney Harbour has been matured in a quartet of American oak ex-bourbon cask styles - first-fill, second-fill, re-fill and re-charred. These were hand-selected by Malcolm Waring, the long-serving Distillery Manager at Old Pulteney, and his team.

Review | Port Askaig 8 years old & 17 years old

These two single malt whiskies form part of the recently-revamped core range from Islay single malt brand of Port Askaig, which is owned by Elixir Distillers. There are three new whiskies in total, which come with the new tagline of The Gateway to Islay. 

The range kicks off with the core Port Askaig 8 years old and this features an intricate marriage of cask types. Initial maturation is in ex-bourbon casks with an extended five year finish in a selection of ex-bourbon and toasted American oak barrels, plus ex-Pedro Ximenez sherry butts and re-fill hogsheads.

Inbox | The Week's Whisky News | January 26, 2024

Welcome to Inbox - our weekly round up of whisky news and PR material that has found its way in to the WFE email. We started Inbox several years ago 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. Within Inbox we aim to write a few lines detailing each press release/ piece of news/ PR event that we have received and provide links, where possible, for you to find out further information. 

Review | Wire Works Virgin Oak

The Virgin Oak is a single malt whisky from the English distillery of White Peak. The Wire Works Virgin Oak is planned to become a core product in time, but his limited edition offers a preview. The whisky is in the distillery's signature lightly peated style and saw initial maturation in first-fill ex-bourbon barrels. The spirit was then finished for several months in virgin American oak barrels with differing toasting and charring levels, then married together. 

Inbox | The Week's Whisky News | January 19, 2024

Welcome to Inbox - our weekly round up of whisky news and PR material that has found its way in to the WFE email. We started Inbox several years ago 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. Within Inbox we aim to write a few lines detailing each press release/ piece of news/ PR event that we have received and provide links, where possible, for you to find out further information. 

Review | Filey Bay IPA Finish Batch #2

Filey Bay IPA Finish Batch #2 is a small batch limited edition English single malt whisky from the Spirit of Yorkshire distillery. It has seen initial maturation in ex-bourbon casks before being finished in ex-beer barrels. These have previously help Scarborough Fair IPA from the Yorkshire brewery of Wold Top, which is has the same ownership as the distillery. In reverse, a special edition of the beer has been matured in the same casks once the whisky has been emptied.

Review | Scallywag The Chocolate Edition 2023

Scallywag The Chocolate Edition 2023 is the sixth bottling in The Chocolate Edition series from the independent bottling and blending company of Douglas Laing & Co. For this special bottling only whiskies that have been matured in ex-Oloroso or ex-Pedro Ximenez sherry casks included. As with all expressions of Scallywag, of which there are now several, only Speyside single malts have been used. The new whisky is bottled at 48% ABV and is both non chill-filtered and of natural colour. 

Inbox | The Week's Whisky News | January 12, 2024

Welcome to our first Inbox of 2024. Inbox is our weekly round up of whisky news and PR material that has found its way in to our WFE email. 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. Within Inbox we aim to write a few lines detailing each press release/piece of news/PR event that we have received and provide links, where possible, for you to find out further information. 

Our Top 10 Whiskies of 2023

This is always our favourite post to write each year. The Top 10 is something we first began way back in 2009 and within it we celebrate the finest new whisky releases of that calendar year. Our first selection crowned Benromach 10 years old as our inaugural Whisky of the Year. However, some time ago we decided to no longer give a top prize. Instead, each of the ten whiskies that we have chosen is a winner in its own right and for differing reasons. 

As the world thankfully moves further away from the Covid-19 pandemic, some normality has resumed. The whisky world has responded with more releases than ever, fuelled by the ever-growing craft and artisan distilling movement around the globe. It has been difficult to select just ten to be honest, given that we have sampled close to 150 whiskies this year. 

Review | Never Say Die

Never Say Die is a small batch bourbon but with a difference. The whiskey is distilled at an unnamed distillery in Kentucky via column stills and matured in the USA for a period, before being shipped in barrel to the United Kingdom where it undergoes a secondary maturation. As it travels via the sea the whiskey is moved around inside the barrel at an increased rate and this adds an extra dimension of taste and character.

Review | Indri Trini

Trini is the core single malt from the Indian whisky brand of Indri. The word 'indri' is derived from the name given to the five senses in the Sanskrit language, known as the indriya. The brand only uses barley grown in the northern region of Rajasthan and uses a strain of six-row barley that is indigenous to India. This is manually harvested and hand selected for malting before being distilled in traditional copper pot stills.