Being a distillery with nearly 200 years of history does not guarantee success in the present day. Creativity can be almost as vital as what is in the bottle. In 2020, Glenmorangie began a limited series of no-age-statement releases beginning with A Tale of Cake. Each ‘tale’ has a creative story from Dr. Bill Lumsden, Director of Distilling for Glenmorangie and Ardbeg, and is meant to invoke a certain moment or feeling or place. These whiskies seem geared toward a different demographic than their core offerings, what with the emphasis on story and bright package design. The Glenmorangie A Tale of Winter is the second in the series and is meant to evoke the coziness of being inside somewhere on a cold winter day (or night). Though no age statement comes on the bottle, the scotch was 13 years old and finished in ex-Marsala wine casks for an undisclosed time.
Laphroaig 16 Year
This was first released during in 2015 to celebrate the distillery’s 200th anniversary but has now become an occasional release. Nothing extra is done to this offering except taking the base spirit and aging it a few years beyond the normal. Oh, Laphroaig! How polarizing are your scotches. Some say you taste like diesel fuel. Others, adore your peaty, smoky, medicinal qualities. Who is the most medicinal of them all? Even the Kilbride Stream adds an extra peaty layer to your whisky. Where shall Laphroaig 16 fall on this spectrum? Find out what we thought and share your thoughts, too.
Kilchoman Am Bùrach
Mistakes happen. In many professions, you have to sweep whatever the results were under the proverbial rug and start over. At Kilchoman distillery, unnamed employee mistakenly combined a three year old run of their flagship Machir Bay with a fresh ex-port matured expression in 2014. Instead of washing it down the drain or drinking it immediately, they stuck it in an ex-bourbon barrel to see if time would provide any hope before finishing the strange marriage off in an ex-ruby port cask. The beginning and the maturation process were, as the general manager called it, “am bùrach”, or “a mess”. The Kilchoman Am Bùrach is a unique mistake in many ways, not lease of which is that it survived and thrived long enough to be bottled. The ultimate hope of any young spirit.