Sour

Laphroaig Cairdeas 2020 Port & Wine

The first Laphroaig Cairdeas (“friendship” in Gaelic) came out in 2008 and has been an annual release since then. The 2020 Cairdeas Port & Wine represents a way to introduce wine finishes to a smoky scotch, something that is not always successful given the strong elements of a typical Laphroaig. To solve this, part of the initial maturation was done in ex-bourbon casks and part in second-fill ruby Port barriques. These are then combined to finish in red wine casks. Specifics about the time spent in each process is not available but that is relatively common in No Age Statement whiskies.

By Adam | January 10, 2023 | Islay | No Comments |

The Spot series are a line of pot still Irish whiskies produced for Mitchell and Sons, wine merchants and whiskey bonders. Historically, barrels of whiskey were marked with a certain colored spot so they could be easily identified in the warehouses as being of a certain intended age. Being wine merchants, Mitchell and Sons had access to used wine casks and the Green Spot Chateau Montelena is a return to finishing form for the Spot line. The regular Green Spot, cornerstone of the line, was aged for between 7 and 10 years, with further finishing for a year in ex-Zinfandel casks from the famed Chateau Montelena winery in Napa Valley, California.

By Adam | October 10, 2022 | Foreign | No Comments |

From the Cawdor Estate (as in, “Thane of Cawdor,” if you remember Shakespeare’s MacBeth), the Royal Brackla distillery’s fame as the “King’s own whiskey” (circa 1833) brings a new entry to the Scotchology crew: the Royal Brackla 16. Finished in first-fill ex-oloroso sherry casks and bottled at 40% abv (80 proof), this 16-yr old barley malt is one of Dewar’s (Bacardi) series of releases entitled “The Last Great Malts of Scotland.”

By Adam | May 10, 2022 | Highland | No Comments |

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