Review | Maker's Mark Cellar Aged

The wheated American whisky brand of Maker's Mark has debuted the inaugural bottling of its Cellar Aged expression. The whisky is planned to be an annual small batched release going forward. For this expression Rob Samuels, 8th generation whisky maker and grandson of the brand's founder, has taken regular Maker's Mark (which is aged for just over six years on average) and then placed the casks in a purpose built limestone cellar for an further extended maturation period. 

Review / Laphroaig 10 years old Sherry Oak Finish

The Sherry Oak Finish is a recent addition to the core range of the famous Islay single malt of Laphroaig. It was introduced in mid-2021. The whisky follows the same maturation path as the classic Laphroaig 10 years old, the best seller within the range, for most of its life. This takes place in American oak ex-bourbon casks. For the final 12 to 18 months the whisky is transferred to ex-Oloroso sherry barrels. The Laphroaig 10 years old Sherry Oak Finish is bottled at a higher strength of 48% ABV than the classic 10 years old. It is also a higher price (you should expect to pay around £60 for a bottle) and can be found through specialist retailers worldwide.

Inbox - The Week's Whisky News (October 16, 2020)

Welcome to Inbox, 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. Here is the news from this week ...

Review - Laphroaig 16 years old

This whisky from the famous Islay distillery of Laphroaig has been created and bottled exclusively for online retailer Amazon in Europe and the UK. It has been maturing in first-fill ex-bourbon casks since the early 2000s and these were hand selected for the exclusive release by John Campbell, the Distillery Manager at Laphroaig. The whisky has been bottled at 16 years of age and 48% ABV. It is non chill-filtered, of natural colour and was released in August last year. No indication of the number of exclusive bottles has been released. Laphroaig 16 years old will cost £89 per bottle.

Review - The Chita Single Grain Whisky

Renowned as innovators in Japanese whisky, Suntory have released their first single grain whisky into the International market designed as a new style of whisky for a new audience. Blended from spirit aged in wine
and Spanish oak casks alongside American white oak, Chief Blender, Shinji Fukuyo has created what Suntory describes as "a milder whisky with a clean, clear finish and unparalleled sophistication and complexity". It has been bottled at 43% ABV.

Why Is Old Whisky So Expensive?

* This article originally appeared on the Huffington Post UK on 4/11/16. 

When details of the latest super premium Scotch single malt were released earlier this week, they seemed to cause quite a stir across social media platforms and the whisky drinking community. Comments such as “looks nice but way too expensive”, “outrageous pricing” and “what a rip-off” were vented, but were frankly predictable.

But do these comments have an element of correctness, or are they simply naïve and showing a lack of understanding about the economics of the whisky industry? Why are old whiskies priced as they are?

Review - Black Bowmore 50 years old 'The Last Cask'

The Last Cask is the fifth and final edition of the fabled Black Bowmore series. The first expression appeared in 1993 and was followed by a further two bottlings in 1994 and 1995 respectively. Then after a hiatus of over 10 years, the fourth edition was launched in 2007. Now nine years later the final installment is released. As with the previous Black Bowmores in the series this whisky was distilled in 1964, shortly after the famous Islay distillery switched from coal-fired stills to steam.

Review - Jim Beam Double Oak

The world's largest selling bourbon brand has announced the addition of a new bottling, which will be exclusive to the travel retail sector - the Jim Beam Double Oak. The new whiskey has been matured in new American white oak barrels for four years before being transferred to second charred oak barrels for a further short maturation, giving greater contact with the wood.  This added interaction gives the whiskey an extra boost of intensity.  The Double Oak is presented in the Beam range's new premium packaging that features embossed glass and textured labeling amongst other things.

Inbox - The Week's Whisky News (April 15, 2016)

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 - Yamazaki Sherry Cask (2016 Edition)

The multi award winning Japanese distillery of Yamazaki has announced the release of the 2016 Edition of its Sherry Cask expression. A previous version (the 2013 expression) gained fame by being voted 'Whisky of the Year' in Jim Murray's Whisky Bible 2015. There will be just 5,000 bottles worldwide and the whisky has been taken from ex-Oloroso sherry casks hand selected by Shinji Fukuyo, the Chief Blender at Suntory - he is only the fourth person to hold this position in Suntory's history. It joins three other expressions in the Yamazaki Cask 2016 Collection - the Bourbon Barrel, Mizunara & Puncheon.

Review - Ardmore Port Wood Finish

The Port Wood Finish is the latest addition to the core single malt range from the east Highland distillery of Ardmore. It was released back in October of this year.  The whisky is made in the distillery's traditional mid-peated style, which has been produced there since the early 1900s.  It is currently the only Highland distillery to produce the majority of its whisky in the smoky style.  This whisky has been aged in ex-bourbon casks for 12 years before being finished in ex-Port half pipes. The Port Wood Finish comes in the new brand packaging, featuring map-style graphics of the local area and Ardmore's eagle logo.

Review - Hibiki Japanese Harmony

The Japanese Harmony is the latest addition to the core range of the Hibiki.  The new whisky has been created by Shingo Torii and Shinji Fukuyo, Master Blender and Chief Blender respectively at brand owners Suntory.  They have used the same whiskies as in the original version of the Hibiki blend, which was first released in 1989. The pair have used single grain whisky from Suntory's Chita grain distillery plus malts from their Hakushu and Yamazaki distilleries.  These have been matured in a combination of American white oak, Mizunara oak and ex-sherry casks.

Review - Bowmore Mizunara Cask Finish

This new release from the Islay distillery of Bowmore offers something genuinely unique - a Scotch single malt that has been matured in Japanese mizunara oak.  This is the first whisky of its kind and stems from the fact that Bowmore is owned by Beam Suntory, the biggest whisky producer in Japan.  Mizunara oak is rare and only grows in northern Japan and small areas of China and Russia.  Trees are very slow growing and take 200 years to reach full size.  Because of this Beam Suntory only make around 100 such casks per year and runs a sustainability programme to replant saplings for future generations.

Inbox - The Week's Whisky News (August 7, 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.

Inbox - The Week's Whisky News (June 26, 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.

Inbox - The Week's Whisky News (June 12, 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.

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 - Bowmore 'Tempest Batch #5'

This whisky is the latest edition single malt in the Tempest series from Bowmore, the oldest distillery on the famous whisky island of Islay.  The series consists of small batch cask strength whisky that has been matured in ex-bourbon casks, and batches are released annually. The original Tempest was released in 2010.  Batch #5 was released worldwide in May of this year and follows on from the previous four batches, which have proved extremely popular and won numerous awards.

Distillery visit - Laphroaig

Laphroaig (pronounced la-froyg) is one of the most famous names in the world of Scotch whisky and is known for its very peaty and smoky style of single malt.  In fact the 10 years old expression is the biggest selling malt in this category and helps put Laphroaig in ninth place for total sales in 2013*. The name is derived from the Gaelic meaning 'beautiful hollow by the broad bay'.  Laphroaig was one of the whiskies that got us in to the peaty flavour, so Matt C was delighted when he recently got invited for a special tour as part of Beam Suntory's Peated Malts of Distinction launch.