Category Archives: Reviews

Deanston 18 Year Old 46.3% Review

Burns Stewart Distillers were busy last year with many new releases, from the 18yo for Deanston and Ledaig up to the 42yo Ledaig. I have found out (via Michael) that BSD official importer in Israel managed to bring a few crates of those new releases so it’s a good excuse to review some of them.

The first one on the operation table is the Deanston 18 Year Old. It was aged in hogsheads and then finished in first fill ex-bourbon casks for extra sweetness. As usual with BSD, it was bottled at the customary ABV of 46.3%

Deanston 18 Year Old (46.3%, £61.95/€107.50)

Nose: Cereals, porridge and butterscotch, sweet honey and creamy, light vanilla, hay and meadow, almost flowery (but not), hints of huge spice to come on palate with white pepper as a teaser, nutty/almonds, pears and peaches and sweet oak.

Palate: Creamy and spicy, white pepper, honey, cereals porridge, bread dough, hay and meadow, gentle oak wood spiciness, semi-dry yet maintain rich feeling

Finish: Medium length, gentle bitterness of oak with a touch of grapefruits, creamy sweet honey,

Thoughts: Surprisingly better than I expected as the sweetness from the first fill barrels finish is balanced elegantly with the oak bitterness. The bottle price in UK is very reasonable and would recommend one for that price but the price in Europe and in Israel (around 110 Euro) is too high. Too bad.

Longmorn 1990 24 Year Old (Cask Strength Signatory) Review

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Been too busy in the last few weeks to work on new posts (except for the news items), but I hope to be back on track now and we’ll start with a 24 Year Old Longmorn bottled by Signatory.

This Longmorn was tasted in last month meeting of the MMI whisky club and as the theme was “Ex-bourbon whiskies from Speyside region”, this is indeed an ex-bourbon Longmorn as opposed to the sherried Longmorns I’m more familiar with. It’s a vatting of two casks, distilled on 15/06/1990 and bottled in July 2014 for 398 bottles at 55.6%

Longmorn 1990 24 Year Old (Cask Strength Signatory) (55.6%, £99.86/€106,40)

Nose: Surprisingly feels a bit thin at first despite the high ABV but it recovers and there’s a solid body there with heather honey, spice sharpness, deep dark fruit (comes with the age) and perfume whiffs. Not bad.

Palate: Rich. Spicy and sweet, honey, pears and peaches, white pepper, bitter flowers perfume.

Finish: Long finish with spiciness, oak wood, honey and weak traces of bitter perfume.

Thoughts: Some people in the event liked it, but I had issues with the biter flowery perfume here as it totally ruined the dram for me. It could be my own preference of whisky flavor or perhaps this bottle is not a good specimen of bourbon Longmorn. Anyway, in the meanwhile until I get to taste another bourbon Longmorn whisky, I’ll stick to sherried Longmorns.

Benromach 35 Year Old Review

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It’s not like we need an excuse to publish a review but hey, it’s Thursday and the weekend is in sight so why not use this paltry excuse to review the recently released Benromach 35 Year Old?

35 years is a lot of time and it means that it was distilled under the previous ownership around 1980 (or a tad earlier earlier), just a few years before the distillery was mothballed in 1983.

Since Benromach was revived by G&M at 1998, it means that an equivalent aged expression under GM& ownership (with different production methods, yeasts and barley variants), sometime around 2034, will be totally different animal. So how is this historic Benromach?

Benromach 35 Year Old (43%, £425/€650)

Nose: First impression: Glorious! Fresh and gentle sherried nose and it’s an impressive feat to have whisky matured in 1st fill sherry casks for such a long time and keep the freshness and not get over-sherried or over-oaked. What else is showing up here? Sugared oranges peels, leather and tobacco at the far end, a memory of smoke, over-sized cinnamon bun rolls. After a few minutes some spice is rising up, chips of nutmeg, a dash of pepper and oak wood spices, getting waxy and rounder with extra fruitiness to balance the sherry impact. Continue reading →

Glendronach 19 Year Old Madeira Cask Finish

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Glendonach is one of the rising stars in the hearts of whisky fans as it’s gaining a positive image, brand recognition and of course lot of admirers and whisky fans.

The core line up of sherried whiskies, along with the successful single casks batches were the reason for this success but Glendronach also dabble in other casks finishes, using casks with whisky that was distilled before the distillery was mothballed in 1996. The old sherry casks were used for the single cask releases and the premium releases (recherche and grandeur comes to mind), but what of the other casks? This is where the wood finish series play its role.

We’ve reviewed other members of the wood finish series (12 yo Sauternes, 15/18yo Port) and now it’s the 19 Year Old Madeira finish which was aged in European oak and then has been finished in Madeira hogsheads before bottled at 46% for total yield of 3,111 bottles.

Glendronach 19 Year Old Madeira Cask Finish (46%, €145)

Nose: Rich pastry and tart dough, very creamy, a bit nutty, cooked barley, underlying suppressed volcanic eruption of spices, ginger, pepper, a dash of pears and apricots, lots of green apples peels, It’s very green with added mild citrus and very tarty. Over time gets some flowers fragrance edge. Continue reading →

Peat – Elements of Islay Review

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The Elements of Islay are a range of whiskies from Speciality Drinks, a sister company to the known The Whisky Exchange shop, that represents different Islay distilleries. Each Islay distillery is represented with a symbol, a chemical element like code, like Lg for Lagavulin, Lp for Laphroaig and so on, and the whiskies are bottled either as single casks or as small batches (5-20 casks).

But now there’s a new addition, and it’s not representing any new Islay distillery, although I’m sure we’ll get to see Gartbreck and Ardnahoe in the future. This time it’s a blended malt (or vatted malt for old time’a sake) and it’s called “Peat” so the full name would be “Elements of Islay Peat” (or is it the other way around?)

It’s an interesting addition, as Speciality Drinks also has the Port Askaig range and there’s already a NAS peated Islay whisky in this series, the Port Askaig 100 Proof. Indeed, the Port Askaig is a single malt and this one is blended malt, but I bet there’s a huge chunk of that distillery in “Peat” as well.

Peat – Elements of Islay (59.3%, 50cl, £34.95)

Nose: Starts out with some whiffs of young spirit which turns into big malt note, huge pile of BBQ meat, surprisingly not a lot of vanilla, cereals porridge, lemon, smoke, feels very fresh & kicking. After a few minutes, there’s some heaviness to the nose and it gets oily while revealing at the same time coastal saltiness and grapefruits. Continue reading →

Lagavulin 12 Year Old 2015 (Special Releases) Review

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After breaking out the news on the forthcoming Lagavulin 8 Year Old, I thought it would be fitting to follow up with a Lagavulin review, especially when I really wanted to drink some Lagavulin after the news broke out and the excitement that rose up following it. And what’s more fitting than reviewing another limited edition Lagavulin which is also a youngster (comparing to the 16 Year old), the Special Releases Lagavulin 12 yo 2015?

This is not the first appearance of Lagavulin 12 on Whisky Gospel, as the 2012 edition was thoroughly reviewed, twice in fact, with the conclusion it’s an awesome Lagavulin, so let’s put the 2015 edition to the test – does it keep up the tradition?

Lagavulin 12 Year Old 2015 (56.8%, £79.95/€107.48)

Nose: First impression: fruity peat. It’s sweet with less of the vanilla and honey (to lesser degree) and with larger focus on fruitiness, pears, apricots, yellow plums, green tree bark, cured meat, deep mellow and soft peat smoke. After a few minutes I’m even getting soursweet tropical fruit juice, tiger balm and menthol. Sweet and earthy, oily and rich, just yummy! Continue reading →

Rare Vintage Smith’s Glenlivet 1974 Review

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The Glenlivet Rare Vintage series is one I’ve been keen to taste for years as they had so many old (and expensive) vintages in this series, with even some whiskies from the turn of the 20th century!

And finally I get to taste a vintage from the series, courtesy of G&M and their “The Wood Makes the Whisky” campaign. This time it’s a Glenlivet 1974 vintage which is a vatting of whisky from refill American & refill Sherry casks.

Rare Vintage Smith’s Glenlivet 1974 (43%)

Nose: Relaxed, fresh, dried fruit with sultanas and figs, some eucalyptus, nutty, furniture varnish, getting fragrance & fruit sweetness, sherried by balanced by the american oak, in fact it mat be suggestive but there’s some vanilla note below the surface. What a lovely nose! Continue reading →

The Deveron 18 Year Old (vs Deveron 1996 Indicative) Review

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Yesterday it was The Deveron 12 turn and today it’s the older brother turn, The Deveron 18 Year Old. I had the opportunity to taste an advanced sample of Deveron 18 during Whisky Live Tel-Aviv, directly from visiting Bacardi ambassador Lomond Campbell. Luckily I saved some of it for later and deeper tasting so it made sense to compare the sample to the final commercially released whisky.

deveron 1996 sample vs final the deveron 18

Advanced sample on the left, final Deveron 18 on the right. Notice the color difference.

As can seen from the picture above there’s a slight color change with the final version boasting a darker shade of color. Of course we can suspect some e150a involvement or go for the reasonable explanation that the final whisky vatting recipe was different. But was it? If so, the smells and taste should be different. Let’s check them.

Deveron 1996 Indicative 18yo (40%, bottled 01/05/14, Sample: 1405125-GB12)

Nose: Creamy, soft yet has some dust and spicy background with pepper, a lot of apples and toffee.

Palate: Apples, vanilla pudding, honey, cream, toffee, hints of spices, oak wood, dry.

Finish: Short medium finish, pudding, apples, oak wood, smooth and dry.

The Deveron 18 Year Old (40%, £54.95/€52,95)

Nose: Very creamy and soft (more than the 1996 sample), apples and toffee, the spiciness is muted comparing to the sample and no dustiness.

Palate: Creamy, green apples, hints of toffee, honey and towards the end some black pepper at the background.

Finish: Short-medium finish, cream, green apples peels, oak wood spices and black pepper sticking to the upper mouth.

Thoughts: Yeah, the final whisky is a bit different. Personally I preferred the indicative sample over the official result. The advanced sample is a bit more rogue and more alive while the final whisky feels more refined and a bit flatter. In fact I think it’s too refined and smooth, making it a bit boring in my book. If I have to choose, I’d take The Deveron 12 over the Deveron 18 Year Old.

(Official sample from Bacardi)

The Deveron 12 (Macduff Distillery) Review

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Last week we completed reviewing the new Royal Brackla line-up and now it’s time to tackle yet another distillery that went through a big change as part of Bacardi “Last Great Malts” series, Glen Deveron whisky which is actually distilled at Macduff distillery (No, there’s no Glen Deveron distillery).

The official line-up from Macduff was previously known as Glen Deveron and upon the re-launch on September 2015 it was rebranded as The Deveron. But it wasn’t only a re-branding, the whisky changed too as the old Glen Deveron expressions were ditched and instead we get a new line-up with three standard expressions (10, 12 and 18) and one premium expression aged 25 year old.

The initial launch included the 12 and 18 year old so naturally we starts with the 12 year old and later we’ll review the 18 year old as well.

The Deveron 12 (Macduff Distillery) (40%, £34/€47.50)

Nose: Creamy, big mix of soft golden and green apples, honey, nuts (natural cashews), half-squeezed green grapes, a bit of salt and limestone dust. Despite having a low ABV it feels more solid than the Roayal Brackla lineup which was bottled at the same ABV. Continue reading →

Macallan Speymalt 2006 (Gordon & MacPhail)

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One more young whisky from G&M in the “The Wood Makes the Whisky” campaign, but this time it’s a whisky from a powerhouse distillery that all but ditched the age statements from their main OB expressions: Macallan.

Luckily, we have independent bottlers to enjoy age labeled Macallans but even those are pretty rare and hard to find, that is, unless you’re Gordon & Macphail. I bet there’s some prior contract that supplies G&M with fresh casks from Macallan and so we can enjoy the Speymat range, from the expensive old to the young and affordable vintages.

As befitting the tone of the last few reviews, It’s a younger in that range that we check today, the Macallan Speymalt 2006 that was bottled in 2015 (17/11/2015 to be precise), making it approximately 9 year old. It was aged in various sherry casks, both 1st fill and refill casks which should give it a nice sherried touch, which is what Macallan built their brand upon.

Macallan Speymalt 2006 (43%, £32.95/€43.75)

Nose: At first sniff it feels even younger than 8 yo Glenrothes from the last review. There is a big malt and cereals mix and some beeswax. The sherry casks are felt at first with light dried fruits coupled with sweet and fresh red berries but then the impact slowly turns into a fruitier impact with some apricots and lemon peels along with the red and dried fruits, Continue reading →