Day 25 - KWM 2025 This Is Still Not An Advent Calendar
Posted on December 25, 2025
by Evan
Merry Christmas! We have finally made it to the last – but not least dram in our 2025 KWM Still Not An Advent Calendar tasting series!
I am curious to see what your favourites in this year’s KWM Still Not An Advent Tasting Series ended up being. Please don't hesitate to email me your thoughts!
My personal top 5 in no particular order:
Day 7 - Berry's Teaninich 2010 KWM Cask – 54.1%
Day 10 - Port Askaig 17 Year Old – 50.5%
Day 12 - North Star The Empress 17 Year Old Blended Scotch – 43.5%
Day 13 - Walter's Choice Blended Scotch 1980 KWM Cask – 47.8%
Day 16 - Single Malts Of Scotland Linkwood 2010 KWM Cask 312688 – 56.8%
Just yesterday, I spent most of my post banging on about how the best thing Gordon & MacPhail ever did was purchase and revive Benromach Distillery. I mean, who cares about Independent bottlers. If you’ve tasted one indie bottling, you’ve tasted them all, right?
Well, it looks like for this Christmas, the gift I am to give is to eat my own words. Benromach Distillery is indeed part of what makes Gordon & MacPhail great. But, G&M’s status as the premier independent bottler should not be understated.
I am not just saying that in the hopes that the company continues to send us great cask samples for us to choose from, either. Gordon & MacPhail is what many indie bottlers hope to eventually grow up to be one day.
There are many indie bottlers out there. A lot of them put out impressive cask picks, too. They have good connections to whisky brokers and have staff or consultants that are able to sniff out a good deal on a great cask or parcel.
But only a handful of companies can afford to take the time and make the investment to purchase spirit from different distilleries in bulk and then fill them into their own custom-made made and specifically seasoned casks. There are companies producing and bottling their own whisky that did not invest as much in casks as Gordon & MacPhail has, just to put other people’s whisky into.
You can’t start a bottling company and get to that stage overnight; not unless you start with a downright insane reserve of cash you are happy to burn through at an unreasonable rate before ever getting to a point of seeing any return on investment.
The kind of work Gordon & MacPhail undertakes does not just start with buying a tanker load of somebody else’s spirit. With its focus on bespoke sherry casks, it doesn’t even start with filling said casks with sherry at the Bodega. It starts with the creation of the cask itself; with the choice of using thicker staves that allow for calmer and potentially longer maturation periods. On the whisky side, it star...
Day 24 - KWM 2025 This Is Still Not An Advent Calendar
Posted on December 25, 2025
by Evan
KWM and many others have discussed what sets Gordon & MacPhail apart from other whisky companies, and about how the company is what it is because of decisions made generations ago. We have also talked about how the family members and employees in the company see themselves as curators and operate with future generations in mind. There are many decisions that have been made in G&M’s 120-year history that possibly seemed small at the time but are paying huge dividends now, and will continue to do so in the future.
Gordon & MacPhail gets a decent amount of press for its legendary collection of older casks and ongoing series of releases of the world’s oldest Single Malt Scotch bottlings. They have released a few different 70 Year Old bottlings, a 75 Year Old, an 80 Year Old, and now an 85 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky. The 80 and 85 year old Single Malts were distilled at Glenlivet Distillery and put into Sherry Butts in 1940. The family family-owned owned Gordon & MacPhail still have multiple casks from 1940 remaining; still aging away; with plans to release a 100 Year Old Single Malt at some point in the future. My best guess is that might happen in 2040, if I am mathing it right. Set your timers now!
Of all the choices made at G&M since it started as a grocery store in 1898, I believe the purchase of Benromach Distillery in 1993 may be the single most important.
Benromach was not immediately reopened and put into operation after Gordon & MacPhail purchased it. As with everything else it undertakes, G&M had a plan and the patience to do things right. Only after a 5-year-long rebuild and refurbishing process did the distillery start production once more.
The whisky Benromach produces has almost as much philosophy and tradition behind it as it does style. G&M never looked to create or clone what other modern Speyside distilleries were making. Instead, they chose to go make a whisky that hearkened by what Speyside Whisky used to be 60+ years ago. Benromach does not make the light, fruity, unpeated spirit you can find from many of the typical Glens’ Livet, Fiddich, Moray, and more. Instead, Benromach is a rich, peated whisky that can stand up to maturation in sherry casks without having all of its character drowned out by the liquid that was held in the cask before it.
YouTube Recording from a Benromach / Gordon & MacPhail Virtual Tasting hosted by KWM
Case in point: let’s try this KWM cask that spent 18 years maturing in a first fill sherry hogshead. Will it be all dumpy sherry, or will Benromach’s true spirit still shine through?
Benromach 2005 KWM Cask 335 – 58.5%
Our 7th KWM exclusive Benromach cask, is the first from sherry... Distilled in 2005, the whisky was matured 18 years i...
Day 23 - KWM 2025 This Is Still Not An Advent Calendar
Posted on December 23, 2025
by Evan
Let's start with a side note: Us Canadians are used to a different pronunciation of Craigellachie than the Scots. We also often know it more as the B.C. town where the last spike in the Canada Pacific Railway was driven into railway tie - and we pronounce it something like "Craig-a-latch-key" - if you drop the key in "key". For proper pronunciation of the Distillery name, the CH in CraigellaCHie is hardened to a "k" sound. I would love to link to the great Brian Cox saying it for our benefit on YouTube, but sadly, I don't think he recorded that one. Instead, here is some other guy saying it.
Craigellachie Distillery resides in Banffshire, Scotland in the heart of Speyside - not too far down the road from both Macallan and Aberlour distilleries, among others. Craigellachie was founded in 1891 and is currently owned by Bacardi under their John Dewar's and Sons Scotch Whisky Branch. It is one of five Scottish Distilleries own by Bacardi, all of which are bottled under their Last Great Malts line of single malts.
Craigellachie is one of less than 20 distilleries in Scotland operating today to utilize worm tubs to condense the spirit vapours coming up off the neck of the pot stills. From the neck, the spirit vapour flows through a lyne arm that connects to a long line of copper tubing that is submerged in a large vat of cooling water. Though this piping might be lengthy, it doesn't allow as much copper contact as a more typical spiral tubed condenser would.
The resulting spirit retains more heavy, meaty, sulphury notes that would have been stripped out with increased copper contact. This is what gives Craigellachie its rich, meaty style at such a young age. It is also what makes Craigellachie sought after for blending, just as it does with the likes of Mortlach, Benrinnes and Balmenach - other distilleries that utilize worm tubs. Master of Malt has a short YouTube video on this that provides a good view and explanation.
Craigellachie is primarily used by Bacardi/Dewar's for its Dewar's White Label and other Blended Scotch Whisky the company creates - likely within the Dewar's Double Double Blended Scotch Whiskies as well. Beyond that, it is also used by Compass Box - it plays an integral role in a Blended Scotch that the company bottled just for us: The Great King Street Glasgow KWM Marrying Cask.
The Craigellachie brand is one of only two bottled at a respectable 46% ABV in Bacardi's Last Great Malts family of single malts - the other being Aultmore. What makes it unique in the line is that all official Craigellachie bottlings thus far have been released with age statements that happen to be prime numbers. There is the 13 Year Old that we we sell boatloads of, as well as ages 17, and 23 years old in the core range. There i...
Day 22 - KWM 2025 This Is Still Not An Advent Calendar
Posted on December 22, 2025
by Evan
Glenturret was mentioned on Day 12 of our 2025 This Is Not An Advent Calendar, with the North Star Empress 17 Year old. You may recall that the Glenturret distillery was once owned by the Luxury Whisky Company called Edrington. The distillery was also once home to The Famous Grouse Experience. Edrington has divested itself of both of Glenturret Distillery and The Famous Grouse Blended Scotch brand over the past six years. The Famous Grouse Blended Scotch Brand is now owned by William Grant & Sons and Glenturret now has little to do with Edrington or The Famous Grouse: it was purchased by the Lalique Group back in 2019. It is actually owned half by the Lalique Group and half by a Swiss Gentleman named Hansjörg Wyss, though the Lalique Group is ultimately responsible for the day to day running of the distillery and brand.
Some history for you: Glenturret Distillery credits itself as the oldest working distillery in Scotland. The distillery’s own research and marketing date the first licensed operation to 1763, when it was called Thurot. It first ran under that name, then was later changed to Hosh Distillery, then the Glenturret name was finally adopted in 1875. Apparently, there was another Glenturret Distillery in the region that operated between 1826 and 1852. I guess the name was up for grabs 23 years later?
Suffice to say, calling Glenturret Distillery the oldest in Scotland does have some claim to it, but is also a touch dubious. That is much of distillery history in a nutshell, though. Littlemill also has some claim to being the oldest, even though it only exists as a brand now. Bowmore has been in operating on Islay since 1779, in the same place and with the same name, if I am correct. Perhaps Glenturret is oldest, but with an asterisk.
The Glenturret Distillery is located on the west bank of the Barvick Burn, which as tributary to the River Turret. Nearby is the Aberturret Estate House (which now has a Gin named after it), and to the south is the town of Crieff. Glenturret’s closest Highland distillery neighbours around Perthshire include Blair Athol, Aberfeldy, and Tullibardine.
Glenturret is not a large production facility. It only pumps out around 500,000 litres of alcohol per year. It’s new prominence as a Single Malt Whisky brand shows that much of this production is likely now earmarked for Single Malt releases. Before the 2019 sale, much of it would have been destined to be blended into The Famous Grouse. The distillery has been producing both unpeated and unpeated spirit runs for a while now, and both styles are featured in Glenturret’s official whisky range. For indie bottlers, peated versions of Glenturret often use the name Ruadh Maor. Or Ruadh Mhor.
Sadly, the distillery announced in November 2024 that it plans to stop making peated whisky entirely, and will eventuall...
Day 21 - KWM 2025 This Is Still Not An Advent Calendar
Posted on December 22, 2025
by Evan
Over the past half decade or so, I have made it my mission in life to sneak a Bourbon or two into every single KWM Whisky Advent Calendar tasting set possible. I have been pretty successful in this endeavour. Even Andrew; KWM’s leading Bourbon skeptic, couldn’t manage to stop me.
Like many others here in Canada, my thirst for Bourbon has significantly diminished over the past year. I am not sure why exactly. Maybe it is a sudden surge of patriotism that was the catalyst. Perhaps it is just wanting to find Canadian made alternatives. Who can say, really?
Regardless: Bourbon will be around when I get back to wanting some. It is still being made and still being sold. For those that want to seek it out, the good news is there seem to be fewer people looking for it at the moment, so there should be more to hoard if you look hard enough. Or, you could actually just trip over the stacks of Blanton's Bourbon that have been dumped on the floor of many Alberta liquor stores, including KWM.
For others that are looking for Canadian alternatives to Bourbon: great news! There are more alternatives available now than ever before, and most come from small, local craft distilleries that are eager to share and show off what they are capable of.
I have done my best to keep an eye on this growing subcategory of Canadian Whisky, and it has been very exciting to watch. Over the past decade, many craft distilleries in Alberta and other provinces have realized that there is nothing stopping them from creating a whisky that pays homage to the style and taste of Bourbon. They can create the required mash bill of at least 51% corn. They can mature the whisky in new, heavily charred new oak casks. The only thing that they can’t do, legally, is actually call their product Bourbon.
But there is nothing stopping them from accidentally misspelling the B word. Hell, there is even a distillery on Vancouver Island marketing their Bourbon style whisky as “The B Word”, which is fantastic. Gotta love that ingenuity.
This concept of creating a Canadian Bourbon has been around for a long time. The first to kick off this modern, craft version of doing so is possibly Okanagan Spirits with their own BRBN whisky, which was first launched more than a decade ago. It is a solid Bourbon-style whisky made in BC, if you can get it. Sadly, it is not currently sold in Alberta.
But this tradition of beating America at its game goes back way further than that. We talked about the Canadian Club 41 Year Old Back on Day 4 of this year's Advent Tastings. The Canadian Club brand actually started under the name Club Whisky when it was first launched way back in 1858. The “Canadian” part was amended after American whisky producers became frustrated with how well it sold against actual American whisky, and the name c...
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