Blackadder’s Auld Edinburgh Highland single malt Blackadder is an independent bottler that I believe coloured the beginning of the whisky journey for a lot of my contemporaries. The products from this in 1995 established company were (and are) readily available in my country, so obviously some bottles made it to my shelf too. The company…
Two single malts from Arran matured on refill bourbon We gathered samples coming from distilleries on the Isle of Arran. With the arrival of Lagg Distillery a few years ago, the number of sites doubled to two, with the Lochranza Distillery already producing for 30 years. While Lagg is still in its infancy, the bottlings…
Annandale Extravaganza with four expressions In the summer, we dedicated a special entry of Tom’s Dram Diary to Annandale. I visited the lowland located operation just weeks before distilling started, way back in 2014. Read all about it here. We also tasted a few expressions that left us lukewarm at best. In our return to…
The return of a classic Ardbeg and some experiments Today, we move to the south shore of Islay to taste samples from the classic Ardbeg distillery. Since that cult whisky was so passionately revived in the late 1990s, after being acquired by Glenmorangie, it has gone from strength to strength. Recently, when looking for something…
Brand new Ardnamurchan releases (with 10 years old) The Headland of the Great Seas is a perfect place to distil and mature whisky, according to the distillery that was named after exactly this place. The journey started in 2014. Ardnamurchan is now ending the year 2025 with a bang, releasing the first regular 10 years…
Arran embraces the beauty of locally grown barley In my surroundings, there is a group of hardcore Arran fans, and I got tipped very early about a new release we have on the table today. It is the first batch of Arran Barley at 10 years old. The idea to source your most important core…
Aultmore Extravaganza through the decades Aultmore is one of these not so well-known but very beloved Speyside distilleries that churns out litres and litres of malt whisky for blends like William Lawson and Dewar’s. The distillery was closed for a few months last year for a major upgrade. With extra washbacks and the addition of…
Ardnamurchan, Dailuaine and Glengoyne by 12 Barrels A Dutch band of brothers named “12 Barrels” at one point bought … you guessed it … 12 casks of whisky, to be bottled over the years. Most of the bottlings are done with an own label, but some distilleries do not really go for that. The 12…
Educational session with various Aberlour We are going to pit a sherry matured Aberlour against a bottling by the uncrowned king of spirit-forward matured whisky (Archives) and their bourbon matured Aberlour. Because yes, let’s be honest, when I think of Aberlour my mind immediately wanders to sherry matured whisky. Their spirit seems to play nice…
Kininvie, always in the shadow of the siblings Kininvie was for a long time some kind of Holy Grail for me. One of the more rare single malt whisky out there, most of all because virtually all output that is produced at this humble distillery next door to Balvenie and Glenfiddich goes into blends. Not…