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A list of ALL KWM Whisky Calendar Bottles & Posts - Part Two

Posted on July 23, 2025

by Evan

This is Part Two of my post on past KWM Whisky Calendars, and covers the 2019 KWM Whisky Calendar thru all the way back to its beginnings with the first one Kensington Wine Market produced itself, back in 2014. Read on below for the lineup and blog post for each calendar!

Click here for part 1, which lists KWM Whisky Calendars from 2020 to 2024

KWM 2019 Whisky Calendar

All posts for this whisky calendar written by Evan

Day 1 - Inchmurrin 18 Year
Day 2 - Glenfarclas 15 Year
Day 3 - Kilchoman 2011 KWM Cask 770
Day 4 - Buffalo Trace Bourbon
Day 5 - The Single Malts of Scotland Ben Nevis 1996 KWM Cask
Day 6 - The Epicurean Lowland Blended Malt
Day 7 - Inchmoan 12 Year
Day 8 - Robert Burns Single Malt
Day 9 - MacNair's Lum Reek 12 Year
Day 10 - Edradour 10 Year
Day 11 - Eau Claire Single Malt Whisky - Release 2
Day 12 - Compass Box Spice Tree
Day 13 - Armorik Double Maturation
Day 14 - Ardbeg An Oa
Day 15 - Loch Lomond 18 Year
Day 16 - Knob Creek Small Batch Bourbon
Day 17 - Shelter Point Smoke Point Single Malt Whisky
Day 18 - Millstone Peated PX Cask
Day 19 - Rock Island Blended Malt Scotch Whisky
Day 20 - Ballechin 10 year Old
Day 21 - Timorous Beastie Highland Blended Malt Scotch
Day 22 - Glen Scotia Victoriana
Day 23 - Glenfarclas 21 Year Old
Day 24 - Kilchoman Alberta Single Cask Madeira Finish
Day 25 - Scotch Malt Whisky Society 66.155 - BIG ON BACON

KWM 2018 Whisky Calendar

All posts in this whisky calendar written by Andrew or Evan - mostly Andrew

Day 1 - Super Nikka (written by Andrew)
Day 2 - Cadenhead Linkwood 2006 KWM Cask (written by Andrew)
Day 3 - Compass Box The Peat Monster (written by Andrew)
Day 4 - Old Malt Cask Mortlach 11 Year KWM Cask (written by Andrew)
Day 5 - Cadenhead Tomintoul-Glenlivet 12 Year (written by Andrew)
Day 6 - Shelter Point Single Malt KWM Cask (written by Andrew)
Day 7 - Arran 10 Year (written by Andrew)
Day 8 - Kilkerran Visitor Center Bottling (written by Andrew)
Day 9 - Cadenhead Glen Spey 2001 (written by Andrew)
Day 10 - Black Mountain Notes Fumees (A French whisky) (written by Evan)
Day 11 - Wolfburn Morven (written by Evan)
...

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A list of ALL KWM Whisky Calendar Bottles & Posts - Part One

Posted on July 23, 2025

by Evan

Continued in Part Two. Go to that post to see all bottles and posts from the 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, AND 2014 KWM Whisky Calendars!

Let's start with a bit of honesty: I made this list as much for me as I did for anybody else. I want it for future reference: it should allow me to easily find each blog post (strictly for research, not for copying. I swear!). It is also a guide showing which bottles we have featured in the past.

Plus, I wanted to geek out a bit! To that end, here are a few stats:

Total KWM Whisky Calendars made as of January 2025: 12
Total number of bottles featured in KWM Whisky Calendars from 2014 to 2024: 305*

Each KWM Whisky Advent Calendar has featured 25 bottles. Plus, we did an extra Whisky Calendar in 2023: The KWM Whisky Calendar UBER EDITION.

* Except for the first KWM Whisky Advent Calendar in 2014 had no 25th bottle. It was limited to 24 bottles.

* Each 2015 KWM Whisky Advent Calendar featured 1 of 6 different SMWS bottles.

Total number of KWM Casks featured: 27?
Total number of Kilchoman bottles featured: 10?
Total number of Scotch Malt Whisky Society bottlings featured: 14?
Total number of Gordon & MacPhail bottlings featured: 14?
Total number of Bourbon Whiskeys inflicted on Scotch Whisky enthusiasts: 9
Total number of Rye Whiskys inflicted on Scotch Whisky enthusiasts: 2
Total number of blog posts which talked about the bottle and distillery: 280

Yeah, KWM missed writing about 25 bottles because no blog posts were made for the 2014 KWM Whisky Advent Calendar. The blog post tradition started with the 2015 KWM Whisky Advent Calendar.

Andrew wrote each and every blog post up to the 2017 KWM Whisky Calendar, where Evan wrote a few to pitch in. Evan did a few more for the 2018 edition.
Evan zealously took over all blog posting duties with the 2019 KWM Whisky Advent Calendar, and has yet to relinquish this “honour” back to Andrew or anybody else.

This can mostly be blamed on Evan being full of himself and harbouring this absurd notion that people actually care about what he has to say.

Total number of Whisky Calendar blog posts Evan has written: 186 (feel free to count them and tell me if I am wrong!)
Total number of Whisky Calendar blog posts Andrew has written: 94 (see above!)
We started hosting recap tastings each five days during the bad-old-days of COVID-19, for the 2020 KWM Whisky Advent Calendar.

We have continued doing the 5-day recap tastings ever since. Most of these recap tasting videos have been posted...

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The State of Canada's Whisky

Posted on March 24, 2025

by Evan

A focus on Canadian Content seems like a good idea given the current political climate, doesn't it?

The current uncertainty we all live in sucks for a multitude of reasons. It is hard to focus just on whisky when talking about that - but hey - whisky is both my job and my passion, so here we go!

--

There was a time when Canada was the focal point for much of what happened with Whisky anywhere in the world. Some of the biggest brands in whisky and spirits were owned by a Canadian Multinational Conglomerate. The big whisky companies of the world today - especially powerhouses Diageo and Pernod Ricard - would not be what they are without Seagram's. The company had a massive footprint both nationally and globally for a majority of the 20th Century.

Seagram's was the largest owner of booze brands in the world in the 1990s. Crown Royal? That was Seagram's. So was Martel Cognac, Absolut Vodka, Four Roses, Makers Mark, Fireball, Chivas Regal, The Glenlivet, Glen Grant, BenRiach (back then without the capital R), and many, many more. Seagram's was absolutely massive, also having minority control of companies outside of alcohol at its peak such as DuPont. In the mid-90s, the company's interests in DuPont were sold off and then MCA/Universal Pictures was acquired.

Seagram's went under in the year 2000 - now a quarter-century ago. Its companies and assets were mostly split between contemporary alcohol behemoths Diageo and Pernod Ricard.

There is a lot to be proud of with Canadian Whisky. Its history now goes back more than 225 years. The largest distillery in Canada is also the largest in all of North America: Hiram Walker Distillery in Windsor, Ontario. It was founded back in 1858 and currently pumps out around 55 million litres of alcohol annually. That means it produces as much spirit than Glenfiddich, Glenlivet, and Macallan every year.

Canadian Whisky as a category is still a big deal internationally. Crown Royal is one of the top 20 best-selling whiskies in the world.

Much of the lustre and appeal of Canadian Whisky has been diminished over the past 25 years. Much of this is thanks to a lot of global competition becoming more available on our shelves. The whisky boom we have been lucky enough to live in for a good deal of that period has created much more competition. Other whisky styles and categories such as Single Malt Scotch, Irish Whiskey, Bourbon and other American Whiskey, etc. have seen exponentially increasing sales and consumer attention over that time.

Long gone are the days when your average liquor store whisky shelf contained Crown Royal, R&R, Alberta Premium, and maybe four or five other whiskies such as Jack Daniel's, Jim Beam, Grants, J&B Rare. Possibly, there were bottles of Glenlivet or Glenfiddich 12 available if ...

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Day 25 - KWM 2024 This Is Not An Advent Calendar - G&M Ardmore 1997 KWM Cask

Posted on January 30, 2025

Merry Christmas! Day 25 — G&M CC Ardmore 1997 KWM Cask 5564

by Evan

Merry Christmas and happy holiday’s everyone! Today marks the last dram in our 25 Drample-long journey through the KWM 2024 Not An Advent Calendar. I hope you have enjoyed your whisky journey as much as I enjoy writing this posts and Andrew and I enjoy hosting the recap tastings!

I hope you have found some new favourites along the way. I know I have! Here is my personal top 5:

Compass Box Flaming Heart 2022 – This is such a well balanced and complex peated dram. I will be said when it eventually leaves our shelves for good!
Nikka From The Barrel – This is the least expensive bottle in the entirety of this year’s Not An Advent Calendar, but it is great regardless of how Japanese it is or is not.
Ardnamurchan AD/11:16 KWM Cask – I love the quirky combination of fruit and smoke and creamy goodness.
That Boutique-Y Speyside #4 24-Year-Old KWM Cask – This has to be the most understated whisky in this year’s lineup, but the soft waxiness and orchard fruit notes that it offers are incredibly enticing.
Berry's Blended Malt #1 1999 – If only we had more of this to sell. I love this blend, even without knowing what it is made up of. Like the Nikka From The Barrel: Whatever it is, it is good!

What are your personal favourites? What would you change about the Not An Advent Calendar and the tastings for next year? If you have any questions or comments on this, you can contact me here. I cannot promise that all criticisms will be addressed, but we do love to hear what people have enjoyed and what they have not. We always make this calendars and chose the lineup based on what we are excited to share with others.

Before I get all sappy about that, and then end of things to taste in these boxes, let's talk about our very last dram. Say hello to the G&M CC Ardmore 1997 KWM Cask 5564!

Ardmore Distillery was founded in 1898, and since the beginning, its focus has been on peated whisky production. The Highland distillery was purpose-built to provide whisky for blending, as pretty much all distilleries were at the time. However, with Ardmore that hasn't changed much — even today, just about all of Ardmore's production is still being used for blending, trading stock, or selling. Ardmore features prominently in the Teacher’s Highland Cream Blended Scotch Whisky, as it has since its inception.

Only a small portion of the distillery’s Single Malt Scotch lands in official bottles released by Ardmore and its parent company Suntory. One of the reasons Ardmore is the heart of Teacher's Highland Cream and also sought after by independent bottlers is that just about all whisky pr...

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Day 24 - KWM 2024 This Is Not An Advent Calendar - Berry's Blended Malt #1 1999

Posted on December 24, 2024

Day 24 — Berry's Blended Malt #1 1999

by Evan

What can I say about this bottle? Pretty much everything I can factually tell you is right there on the label. This is a Blended Malt Scotch. It looks like the whisky within was distilled in 1999. It was bottled by Berry Bros. & Rudd.

So, there you have it! Shall we give it a taste?

Hold on a minute. I should probably stretch this out a bit more than that. Hmm.

Here is what Berry Bros. have typed on the back label:

“Berry Bros & Rudd have proud history in supplying Blends and Blended Malt dating back to the 19th Century. While our most notable Blend my have been Cutty Sark, introduced in 1923, over the years we’ve put together many different Blended Whiskies and vatted malts. This single cask Blended Malt is the latest in the long tradition.”

And here are their tasting notes:

“This fine blended malt offers lovely nutty notes with some delicate oak influence and enlivening citrus. The palate is round and lively with some dried fruit and gentle wood coming through. The finish is lingering, with a hint of spice and orange-citrus.”

Well, that totally clears things up, doesn’t it? A Single Cask Blended Malt Scotch. No provenance or background given on the specific malts inside. But hey, it is from 1999. And look here – it was aged in a hogshead, with a total of 324 bottles coming from said hogshead, at 50.5% ABV.

Berry Bros & Rudd was established wayyyy back in 1698. The company is the oldest wine merchant in the world, but it started its life as a coffee shop at No 3 St. James’s Street in London; a site that it still resides into this day.

Berry Bros & Rudd has done a lot and changed a lot over the past 325+ years, and it was indeed the creator and owner of Cutty Sark, which was first launched in 1923 (The Blended Scotch Whisky, not the ship). It was dubbed “the first lightly coloured whisky of exceptional quality”, and sold quite well, illicitly in the Prohibition era USA. Berry Bros & Rudd owned the popular Blended Scotch brand up until 2010, when they sold it to Edrington Group. Edrington in turn held on to the brand until only 2018, when they in turn sold it to La Martiniquaise-Bardinet. The French company also owns Glen Moray Distillery, which it procured from luxury brand company Luis Vuitton Moet Hennessy back in 2008.

What is in this Blended Malt? There have been plenty of ex-Edrington stock casks floating around over the past few years. That seems to be the term for Blended Malt casks from Edrington, the company that owns the Macallan, Highland Park, and Glenrothes distilleries. So if this bottle is one of those casks, this could very well contain two or all three of those di...

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