Malt

Knappogue Castle 17 Year Twin Wood

Knappogue Castle 17 Year Twin Wood

While the trend in cask finishes is not as prominent in Irish whiskies as they are in scotch, you can still find them. Knaggogue Castle put out a limited release, distilled in 1994 and bottled in 2011, featuring a spirit finished in sherry casks. The Knappogue Castle 16 spent a few short months being finished in ex-sherry casks, and this release extends that sherry maturation. The Knappogue Castle 17 Year is somewhat limited (our bottle proclaims it as number 104 out of 4500), it doesn’t carry the rarity or price of the truly limited releases from the distillery and finding a bottle isn’t terribly difficult. So far, at least!

By Adam | May 11, 2016 | Foreign | No Comments |
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Dalwhinnie 15 Year

Dalwhinnie 15 Year

Like several distilleries, Dalwhinnie was started in the late 19th century and, though facing some bumps along the way like a short suspension of production during WWII due to barley restrictions, has remained in near constant production. Dalwhinnie also supplies a good deal of its output (90%) to the blended market. The distillery was briefly run by a firm from the United States in the early 20th century until Prohibition when it was sold back to Scottish owners. Dalwhinnie claims to be the highest distillery in Scotland, located in the Grampian Mountains and draws its water from Lochan-Doire-Uaine or Lock of the Green Thicket. The village of Dalwhinnie from whence the distillery gets its name, is located near the town of Strathspey and comes from a Gaelic word meaning “Meeting Place.” This Dalwhinnie 15 is one of only three expressions from the distillery, and the only one with an age statement.

By Adam | May 26, 2015 | Highland | No Comments |
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Stronachie 12 Year

Stronachie 12 Year

This Scotch has a complicated history. Stronachie was a distillery near the town of Forgandenny that closed in 1928. The firm that represented the distillery in Scotland, A. D. Rattray, decided to bring the name back with a new offering in the early 2000s. The whisky that’s actually in the bottle of this current iteration, however, is from the distillery of Benrinnes. So even though the original Stronachie was a highland malt, the whisky actually in the bottle today comes from a Speyside distillery. While confusing at first, taste-testing of a rare bottle from the original distillery actually matched better to a Speyside, as the process of making whisky has changed over the centuries. So, less confusing. History and sourcing aside, however, the chief question is…how does such an echo of bygone times taste?

By Adam | February 9, 2015 | Speyside | No Comments |
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