Review / House of Hazelwood 46 years 'Spirit of Scotland' old & 56 years old 'The Long Marriage'

The House of Hazelwood is a premium collection of Scotch whiskies blended malt. It has been created by William Grant & Sons, which has been operated by the Gordon family for much of the last century. The collection is named after the family home, Hazelwood House, which is located in Dufftown - the unofficial whisky capital of the Speyside region. 

The bottlings were originally created for family consumption at special occasions from some of the company's oldest and rarest stocks. It was only recently decided to expand this out to bring these fine super-premium whiskies to whisky consumers.  

Review - Tullamore DEW XO Caribbean Rum Cask Finish

Introduction by Matt Chambers. Tasting notes & thoughts by Tobias Gorn.

The Irish whiskey brand of Tullamore DEW has launched a new expression of its popular blend - the Tullamore DEW XO Caribbean Rum Cask Finish. The new variant takes the regular Tullamore DEW blend, which is triple distilled and uses three styles of Irish whiskey (grain, malt and pot still), and gives it a finishing period in first-fill ex-demerara rum casks sourced from the Caribbean. The release is said to pay homage to the Irish immigrants that arrived in the Caribbean during the 17th century and helped the early development of rum distillation in the region.

Review - The Balvenie Stories Range

The Balvenie Stories range is a new set of single malts and is designed to show the tales of character, endeavour and craftsmanship created at the distillery's home in Dufftown, Speyside. The three whiskies - The Sweet Toast of American Oak 12 years old, The Week of Peat 14 years old and A Day of Dark Barley 26 years old - were each created by different people. These were Kelsey McKechnie (Apprentice Malt Master), Ian Millar (former Distillery Manager) and David Stewart MBE (Malt Master).

Review - Aerstone 'Sea Cask' & 'Land Cask'

These two new whiskies have been developed by William Grant & Sons, the famous family-owned distiller who own and produce the Grant's, Balvenie and Glenfiddich brands amongst other things. Named Aerstone, the two single malts aim to 'simplify the category for consumers' and 'focus on the impact of malting and maturation on flavour'. The range features two bottlings - Sea Cask and Land Cask. Both appear with a 10 years old age statement and have been crafted by Brian Kinsman, the Master Blender for William Grant.

Inbox - The Week's Whisky News (September 21, 2018)

Welcome to Inbox.  For those new to WFE, 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 (August 24, 2018)

Welcome to Inbox.  For those new to WFE, 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 - The Balvenie DCS Compendium Chapter 3

The DCS Compendium is a super premium series of single cask whiskies from The Balvenie.  The series is formed of 25 single cask bottlings, which are split in to five chapters and released annually over five years, and is named after The Balvenie's long serving David C. Stewart.  He has worked for owners William Grant & Sons for 53 years and has hand selected each cask involved in the DCS Compendium, which designed to chart his knowledge and skills of David Stewart over five decades. 

Review - Glenfiddich 21 years old Winter Storm

The Winter Storm is the third bottling in The Experimental Series from Glenfiddich. The whisky has been created by Brian Kinsman, the brand's Malt Master, and uniquely uses Canadian ice wine casks made from French oak for a short finishing period. These have previously matured ice wine, made from grapes frozen on the vine and picked at night, produced at the Peller Estate winery in Niagra. Following a period of experimentation, Kinsman discovered that older whiskies reacted best with the casks. Therefore, the Winter Storm is a 21 years old expression with a six month finish in the ex-ice wine casks.

Review - Balvenie Peat Week 14 years old

This new whisky is the first permanent addition to their core single malt range of Balvenie for almost five years. The Balvenie Peat Week 14 years old is a peated expression and is the result of trials undertaken at the turn of the century by David Stewart MBE, Balvenie's legendary Malt Master, and Ian Millar, the former Distillery Manager at Balvenie. At that time, not many Speyside distilleries were producing peated malt whisky and ever since Balvenie have dedicated one week per year to it.

Inbox - The Week's Whisky News (August 4, 2017)

Welcome to Inbox.  For those new to WFE, 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.