I’m always up to trying new expressions from Springbank, those are rarely below the very good mark. They have been toying with quite some wood finishes over there : Barolo, Shiraz, Marsala, and more, but Calvados is a finish I’ve almost never tried, not in SB’s and not elsewhere, and it was really interesting to see what this one might …

Men o’Quaich is an IB label created by a group of Russian single malt whisky aficionados (Timothy, Paul, Vladislav, Alexis and Mikhail). It consists of old and older casks which are then transferred into an octave sherry cask of small dimensions (and volume) for a few months to ‘finish’ the liquid than bottled at cask strength with the help of …

Continuing our Benriach sessions, with another finish, this time an older 17 year old Rioja wine finish. For those of you who are not familiar with the wine world, Rioja denotes a wine region in Spain. Rioja wines are made from vines growing in the La Rioja region, as well as some part of Navarra, and the Basque province of …

After two non peated beauties, we come back to the peated land. It’s Speyside, yes i know, but if you remember my previous BenRiach posts, i quite liked their peated line. How will this Madeira finish fare? will it be in par with the sherry / rum ‘Fumosuses’?  Let’s dive in. Nose first, of course!
The BenRiach 13 yo Maderensis Fumosus …

It’s blend time again. This time a finished blends which i find very interesting. Originally Six Isles is a blended scotch from Ian McLeod distillers consisting of  whiskies from each of Scotland’s whisky producing islands of Islay, Jura, Skye, Mull, Orkney and Arran. This wee dram was further matured (finished) in Pomerol casks (from the Pomerol wine Appellation)

Six Isles …

Well, it’s nearly the end of the GlenDronach time period at Whisky Israel, and to sum up the finishes section I’ve saved the best for last (finish wise). I bring you the 20 year old Tawny Port finish, of a 20 year old GD whisky. After a good Sauternes, and even better Moscatel, it was hard to top those two, …

After a short detour in Dalmore land, we’re back to GlenDronach country, and we’re beginning to explore some wood finishes . The first of which is the ‘Virgin Oak’ finish. While some may argue that a finish masks imperfections in a medium quality malt, others would argue that a good finish adds complexity, without overshadowing the underlying malt. I tend …

The last post this week in the Wine finishes series deals with a Bowmore. Yes, I’ve not really been a fan od Bowmore . So i liked the ‘Tempest’ 10 year old, but most of their OB line-up is not really exciting. But this finish did interest me and i decided to give it a try, see what’s it all …

After the wonderful Barolo finished  (Nebbiolo grapes) Longrow, we’re staying in peat-land but this time we are moving from Campbletown to Islay – home of the Bruichladdich distillery.
A lot has been said about Bruichladdich, for good and for worse, but the fact is that in recent years they have been experimenting with all sorts of casks, finishes , up …

The first out of 3 of drams finished in wine casks i am about to review this week is the Longrow finished in Gaja Barolo casks. A little about Gaja if you are not a wine drinker : Gaja is a famous Italian wine producer form the Piemonte regions in northern Italy which produces mostly Barolo and Barbaersco wines. The …