Caramel

Glenfarclas 17 Year

Operating continually for over 180 years, Glenfarclas is one of the big players in Speyside, its six stills (3 wash, 3 spirit) are the largest in the region with a capacity of 3.5 million liters per year. Even more impressive is, in a time of proliferating No Age Statement malts, this distillery has an extremely wide range of age statement whiskies in constant production. While they have a few older bottlings like a 25, 30 and 40 year, they also have many younger offerings like 10, 12, 15, 17 and 21 year whiskies that are, relatively speaking, very affordable. This expression, like many Glenfarclas malts, is aged exclusively in ex-sherry casks.

By Adam | August 10, 2017 | Speyside | No Comments |

Founded in 1825, next to Brechin distillery (closed permanently in 1983), Glencadam has changed hands many times over the past almost two hundred years. Angus Dundee (who also owns Tomintoul) is the current owner and the distillery has been in production since 2003. The Glencadam 15 Year is part of a single malt range from 10 to 21 years, with the remaining portions used in blends such as Ballantine’s. The water, fed by the Barry Burn, is known for being soft. The distillery’s output is a relatively low 1.4 million liters per year. The name “Glencadam” comes from the area known as “The Tenements of Caldhame,” which were grounds given to the town by the crown for food production located near the distillery.

By Adam | May 15, 2017 | Highland | No Comments |

Still barely over a decade old and thus not quite ready to release aged statements, Kilchoman has used their youth to explore variations on their spirit, often in very creative expressions. One of the rising trends over the past several years has been a focus on terroir. The 100% Islay (3rd Edition) is a dram where the entirety of the process is done on Islay. The barley is grown there, malted there, distilled, matured and bottled there. It’s bottled at a higher alcohol strength but the peat level is lowered compared to their other releases. That is not a common occurrence in today’s world. First launched in 2010, the bottle in this review is from 2012.

By Adam | March 21, 2017 | Islay | No Comments |