Quite a funny name to this one, if you’re a software engineer when you hear QA you immediately think about Quality assurance, and not about Quercus Alba (which is what Laphroaig had in mind ok?) . When i first saw the press release about this one, I really thought it was some kind of April fool’s day thing, but after …

It took me ages (but better later than never, right?) to get to those lovely MoS single casks from Sjoerd’s bottle share which was sent over almost 1.5 years ago (I have a big backlog , i know). I was feeling like a nice peaty malt, and this popped into mind, and It definitely didn’t let me down. A young …

One of the nice things about getting samples from whisky mates, is that you sometimes get additional stuff you never expected. this one is just like that. A cask strength release of 2000 vintage Caol Ila. This is a marriage of two casks which have been matured in first fill Sherry butts, before being bottled on June 2012 by G&M. …

Something good is going on at Bowmore, after a few years of releasing OK products, but nothing spectacular (not taking into consideration the very expensive older releases), recently (and i suspect much thanks to the work done by Rachel Barrie) they have been hard at work releasing good stuff (100 proof, Darkest 15 yo, etc) and of course the Bowmore …

Been quite some time since I reviewed any OB Bruichladdich , and this young Laddie is something i have been meaning to try for some time. It’s basically quite young NAS (But should be something between 6 and 8 years old). This Organic started me thinking about the importance of Barley and variations of barley in the whisky making process: …

After the lovely 17 year old Caperdonich which was bottle #1 in the ‘Rare Casks’ series, comes the 2nd bottling of an older 23 year old Bunnahabhain. Unlike younger versions from the 1990’s which are heavily peated and smoky on the nose, this one is gentler and packs some punch but you will have to wait for the palate to …

Not a bottling i was aware of, but got a nice sample from my good friend Phil, who has bought this bottle for his father and liked it so much he kindly gave me a wee taster. Bottled un-chill filtered at cask strength and matured in port casks. 18,000 bottles all in all.  You can find some of these on …

Another of Boutique-y batch samples has arrived and as always, it’s good stuff. After a nice weekend without much whisky (but wine and beer) i decided to start checking those out with this Bowmore. I was not a Bowmore fan in recent years, but i have started liking this distillery more and more in recent months, and this sherried Bowmore …

Time for another H2H dramming session, this time i chose two staple drams (i guess no one would argue the Talisker 10, and Laga 16 are not essential whisky bar bottles eh?) that any whisky lover should have handy: Talisker 10 and Lagavulin 16. Let’s start with the Lagavulin.

Lagavulin 16, 43% abv , £42
Nose: Smoke. Pepper. BBQ. Salt and brine. …

Thrilled to feature a brand new Indie bottler today , The Maltman. This label is bottled by the Meadowside blending Co. located in Glasgow. I have to admit this is the first time I’ve tasted their single casks, and find them rather nice. One downside is that all of them are watered down to about 46% rather than CS, which …