Category Archives: Scottish Whiskies

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November 16, 2015

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Scottish Whiskies, Whisky Reviews

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SMWS 29.173 (Laphroaig) Forget Time and Space

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Another SMWS Laphroaig! It seems they have been churning these out pretty consistently over the past few months. Great to see but I wonder how much longer this will continue. Well let’s enjoy this while it lasts. I must admit that although all the SMWS names are a bit silly and you really shouldn’t judge a whisky by its name, I am a sucker for advertising and this one definitely got me.

Bottler: SMWS

Distillery: Laphroaig

SMWS Code: 29.173

Age: 16

Cask: Refill Ex-Bourbon Barrel

ABV: 59.8%

Distill Date: 1 July 1999

Outturn: November 2015

Bottle Numbers: 250

Price: £73.70

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November 16, 2015

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SMWS 72.47 (Miltonduff) Burnt Spotted Dick

SMWS_72.47

Well this is quite exciting! A white wine cask from SMWS! I was unfortunately too rushed during the preview tasting to ask about what white wine was used but I’ll update this post once I find out. There were two white wine cask matured whiskies in this outturn with the other one being the Ardmore SMWS 66.76. Both of these have similar ages so I suspect SMWS got their hands on a few white wine casks around that time. Could mean there are some more still maturing for later bottling! There aren’t too many white wine cask matured whiskies out there but the most notable one in my mind is the Glen Moray Chardonnay Cask which is a stunning example of value for money. Alright let’s dive in!
Bottler: SMWS

Distillery: Miltonduff

SMWS Code: 72.47

Age: 10 Years

Cask: First Fill Ex-White Wine Hogshead

ABV: 59.7%

Distill Date: 23 September 2004

Outturn: November 2015

Bottle Numbers: 251

Price: £46.00

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November 15, 2015

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SMWS 13.47 (Dalmore) It’s A Knockout

IMG_20151111_204019During my membership with SMWS I haven’t seen a Dalmore bottling so I was eager to try this one. It’s also matured in a bourbon cask so it’ nice to see what Dalmore is like without all that sherry influence.

Bottler: SMWS

Distillery: Dalmore

SMWS Code: 13.47

Age: 10 Years

Cask: Refill Ex-Bourbon Barrel

ABV: 59.3%

Distill Date: 12 May 2005

Outturn: November 2015

Bottle Numbers: 199

Price: £51.70

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November 15, 2015

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SMWS 100.12 (Strathmill) Trip to a Shopping Mall

SMWS_100.12I don’t remember seeing a Strathmill from SMWS for quite a while and with this being the 12th SMWS cask from the distillery it seems they don’t bottle it much. Similarly there aren’t many official bottlings from Strathmill since it’s used mostly for blends. So naturally the rarity of it all caught my attention and I just had to try this one out.

Bottler: SMWS

Distillery: Strathmill

SMWS Code: 100.12

Age: 10 years

Cask: Refill Ex-Bourbon Barrel

ABV: 58.7%

Distill Date: 23 February 2005

Outturn: November 2015

Bottle Numbers: 209

Price: £47.00

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October 30, 2015

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Royal Mile Whiskies 40 Year Old Blended Malt

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40 years in the cask! Pretty incredible if you think about. Kind of makes me think of the genie from Aladdin. RMW have released a 40 year old blended malt for just under £200! Ok so let’s pick this apart.

What is cool about this? Well it’s probably the most affordable 40 year old whisky on the market. It’s aged in Sherry casks which is another rare attribute. It contains whisky from 3 well respected distilleries (Macallan, Tamdhu, Glenrothes). It’s at cask strength. And well it’s 40 frickin years old!

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October 27, 2015

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SMWS 29.169 (Laphroaig) Beach bonfires, creels and boats

SMWS_29.169_Laphroaig

How coincidental that SMWS releases a 20 year old Laphroaig from a bourbon barrel just a few months after Laphroaig released their 21 year old FOL. Hmmm. Good timing. Before I delve deeper into this I want to point out that from the SMWS website and emails and tweets, this specific bottling was advertised as being from a first fill bourbon barrel. Which is also strikingly similar to the profile of the Laphroaig 21. However, this was an error. The 29.169 is from a refill ex-bourbon barrel which can be easily verified by looking at the label.

Anyway, regardless of the similarities to the 21, this particular bottling has got enough going for it to be exciting for all of us. Independently bottled Laphroaig’s are not super common, it’s even less common to find one 20 years old or above and at cask strength and for less than 100 quid. So yeah with these powers combined this is one cool cat.

Bottler: SMWS

Distillery: Laphroaig

Age: 20 years old

Cask: Refill Ex-bourbon

Number of Bottles: 205

ABV: 56.5%

Date Distilled: 4th Apr 1995

Outturn: October 2015

Price: £84.50

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October 19, 2015

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Aberfeldy 21 Year Old

aberfeldy-21-year-old-whiskyNumero uno. The first whisky in the original “101 Whiskies to Try Before You Die” book is the Aberfeldy 21. Albeit it’s first because the whiskies are alphabetically ordered but none the less it makes quite an impression. Ian Buxton wrote a good review extolling it’s virtues so I won’t do too much with this intro. You should check out the book. It’s a fun read if you like whiskies.

Distillery: Aberfeldy Distillery

Age: 21 Years Old

ABV: 40%

Price: £116.76

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October 7, 2015

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Aberfeldy 12 Year Old

aberfeldy-12-year-old-whiskyAberfeldy Distillery was built in 1986 by John Dewar & Sons to supplement their booming blended whisky business. If you visit the distillery (between Perth and Pitlochry) you’ll learn all about the Dewar’s and how they built their whisky empire. These days, Dewars is owned by Bacardi, a powerful rum family. Makes you think of the Godfather. Anyway, along with Aberfeldy, Dewars/Bacardi own Aultmore, Craigellachie, MacDuff, and Royal Brackla. Prior to this year only Aberfeldy and MacDuff were regularly bottled as official single malts. MacDuff is marketed as Glen Deveron. But I guess because of the whisky boom, they have now released the 3 other single malts. The pricing on those however is somewhat astonishing (expensive that is). It’s all in the fashion of this modern gold rush of single malt madness. Well Aberfeldy has the most single malt experience in the lineup and the prices seem to be staying reasonably sane. So let’s see how it fares.

Distillery: Aberfeldy Distillery

Age: 12 Years Old

ABV: 40%

Price: ~£30 (£29.89 from Master of Malt)

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September 18, 2015

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SMWS 26.114 Clynelish (Grandma’s summer jam recipe)

SMWS_26.114_ClynelishOh Clynelish! Ever since trying the Distillery Only Clynelish bottling, I’m always on the lookout for new Clynelish! Luckily SMWS have been pumping out quite a few recently. This particular bottling was spruced up and presented with the release of their whisky ice creams. That’s right! SMWS made ice cream using single cask whiskies. They were as delicious as they sound. They also promoted this bottling quite a bit at this years Whisky Solstice. As a result, the bottles sold out quickly. But lucky for us and strangely enough they seemed to have found more bottles of this. So as of today they are selling this again on their website. Not sure how long they will last. I’ve been watching the page and the bottles remaining count seems to be dropping fairly quickly. Well anyway, it just so happens that we got a sample of this and it seemed like a good day to review it.

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September 16, 2015

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Royal Lochnagar 12 Year Old

Royal_Lochnagar_12Royal Lochnagar is one of three distilleries allowed to use “Royal” in their name. The other two are Glenury Royal (closed) and Royal Brackla. The story goes that Queen Victoria visited Balmoral castle and the neighboring Lochnagar distillery in 1848. She was so impressed with the “new” distillery built in (1845) that she granted it a royal warrant, hence the Royal in Royal Lochnagar. See Malt Madness for more info.

Royal Lochnagar is one of the “Classic Malts” of Diageo and you can take a tour there for free if you sign up to their “Friends of the Classic Malts” scheme. There aren’t too many (currently available) official expressions from Royal Lochnagar, but there are a few independent bottlings kicking around.

Distillery: Royal Lochnagar

Age: 12 years old

ABV: 43%

Price: ~£35 (£34.07 from Master of Malt)

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