Moss

Deanston 12 Year

Deanston 12 Year

Deanston has been a distillery since 1966, though the site was a major cotton mill for almost 200 hundred years before that. Sourcing water from the River Teith, it is the only current distillery in Scotland to be entirely powered by hydro-electricity. Deanston is currently owned by Distell Group Limited, which also owns the Tobermory and Bunnahabhain distilleries. Its first single malt was named Old Bannockburn but the core range is now made up of the Deanston 12 and a No Age Statement offering, though they experiment with more limited or distillery-only editions.

Laphroaig Cairdeas 200th Anniversary Edition

Laphroaig Cairdeas 200th Anniversary Edition

Much like Ardbeg, Laphroaig celebrated its 200th anniversary in 2015, and offered many celebratory offerings (many of which we tasted here), including this No Aged Statement whisky they put out every year. The “Cairdeas” is tailor made to suit the situation, and the creative brain trust at Laphroaig have sought to offer the essence of what makes their distillery so renowned in this anniversary malt. Made using 100% floor malted barley and using the smallest, oldest stills at the distillery, then matured for around 12 years. This also marks a first for Scotchology, returning to a Scotch we explored in February 2014, one of our early selections. While we’ve reviewed Scotches from the same distillery, this is the first time we’ve revisited the same whisky, even if the purposefully different yearly releases do not make this completely comparative.