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Day 5 of the 2019 KWM Whisky Calendar - Ben Nevis 22 Year KWM Cask

Posted on March 10, 2026

by Evan

Day five. Where are we at? Back in Scotland (kind of). Some of you may be breathing a sigh of relief after day four's American Whiskey. Hopefully some of you enjoyed our Bourbon interlude though. Flavour can be found in all types of whisky, even if they insist on adding an extra letter to the word. We are getting serious in day five with a Single Malt Scotch from a single cask.

Not just any single cask, either. This one was selected by Curt, Andrew and myself after a grueling sampling session that if memory serves (and it might not) included more than a dozen samples, most of which were very good or better than very good. In that assortment of samples, two single casks were picked. One is already sold out. In fact, it sold out after only eight days in the store. This is the other one - luckily we still have this guy around. This is our KWM Cask of Ben Nevis 22 year old from Elixir Distiller's Single Malts of Scotland Label.

About Ben Nevis: Did you know that this Scottish distillery might be partially responsible for some of your favourite Japanese Whiskies?

There is are a two reasons for this:

Ben Nevis Distillery is owned by Nikka - the Japanese company that also owns Yoichi and Miyagikyo distilleries within Japan. Nikka is one of the two largest whisky companies in Japan - the other one being Suntory or Beam Suntory.

While most whisky producing countries, including — Scotland, Ireland, the United States, and Canada — have some sort of legislation or regulations defining what can be called “whisky”, Japan does not. There seem to be some industry agreed upon terms and definitions, but nothing legally binding. What this means is that a lot of what is bottled as “Japanese Whisky” is actually whisky that is imported from other countries (such as Canada and Scotland) and then bottled in Japan, typically under the name “Blended Japanese Whisky” Or “Japanese Pure Malt Whisky”. While there may be Japanese Whisky in that bottle — there may be whisky that was distilled in another nation entirely.

What does this all mean? Well, for one thing, we have seen a lot of previously unknown Japanese Whisky bottles pop up in our market and around the world. This likely has to do with the demand for Japanese Whisky in general. Many of these bottlings are or might be good, if not great. But that does not mean that they contain 100% Made in Japan Whisky. Back to Nikka owning Ben Nevis. Ever had the Nikka 12-year-old Blend or the Super Nikka? It is possible that there was some Ben Nevis in there. Even the highly regarded Nikka From the Barrel and Nikka Taketsuru Pure Malt could potentially have some Ben Nevis in the mix. Whether either of them actually do or not? Who knows?

Ben Nevis Distillery lays at ...

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Day 4 of the 2019 KWM Whisky Calendar - Buffalo Trace Bourbon

Posted on November 7, 2021

by Evan

Wow. This is a first. A Bourbon? In our Whisky Calendar?

Take a look outside if you must. I can nearly guarantee that is not not currently raining cats and dogs. And the concept of a Bourbon in the KWM Calendar is not that weird, is it? Over the years we have featured whisky from Scotland, Ireland, Japan, England, Canada, France, Taiwan, and possibly a country or two that I am forgetting. I am not one hundred percent sure, but this may be the first American Whiskey in our calendar. It is definitely the first Bourbon. As a unabashed Bourbon lover, I am all for it. Hell, it took me four years of harassing Andrew to put some Bourbon in year, so I guess it is at least partially my fault.

Just remember that he still agreed to it, though!

Enough of that. Let us take a look at what is in the bottle for Day number four. Here we have Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey.

Residing in Frankfurt, Kentucky, Buffalo Trace Distillery was once called the O.F.C. Distillery. Then it was called the George T. Stagg Distillery for a while. Buffalo Trace is the oldest continuously operating distillery in the United States, with records of distillation happening on the site going back as far as 1775. The first larger-scale distillery was built there in 1812 by EH Taylor, Jr. It is one of only a few American distilleries that managed to stay in operation during prohibition, obtaining a license to make whiskey for "medicinal purposes". As you can see, the distillery and site have a lot of history, so much so that it was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2013.

The distillery was only recently officially named Buffalo Trace, back in 1999 after a large number of renovations were undertaken by parent company Sazarac. Buffalo Trace Bourbon made its debut in August of the same year.

Like many Bourbon distilleries and brands, Buffalo Trace releases a slew of American Whiskey under a plethora of different names. Many of these brands have been at the epicentre of the Bourbon and American Whiskey boom that we have been seeing over the past six to seven years.

The brand that gets even non-whiskey drinkers speculating and trying to track down bottles is Pappy Van Winkle. You likely won't find a bottle, but guess who makes it? Buffalo Trace.

Ever heard of George T. Stagg, William Larue Weller, or Thomas H. Handy? All of these are part of what is known as the BTACs, which stands for the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection.

Blanton's? It is so hard to get ahold of right now that we get calls from the USA from enthusiasts trying to track down bottles. Same with the brands Colonel EH Taylor and Stagg Jr. All three are made and bottles by and at Buffalo Trace Distillery.

Even Buffalo Trace itself and it's 10-year-old sibling Eagle Rare...

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Day 3 of the 2019 KWM Whisky Calendar - Kilchoman KWM Cask 770

Posted on December 7, 2021

by Evan

Wow, these big peaty bottles don't usually come this early in the Calendar, but here we are on day three and we are already having a cask strength Kilchoman. Brace yourselves!

We are big fans of this Islay distillery at Kensington Wine Market. Kilchoman is relatively young by Scottish standards, as they have only been distilling since 2005. Even though much of their single malt releases would still be considered young, Kilchoman produces a robust, rich, and moderate to heavily peated spirit that shows tremendous complexity even at well under 10 years of age.

So how does Kilchoman manage to make such a richly flavoured and approachable dram even in its relative youth? What did they figure out? I think there are a few reasons for this.

Keep tight control over your spirit cut, focusing on the sweeter side of things. Another distillery that in my opinion has very easy to drink whisky at a young age is Arran. Arran's Lochranza distillery has been around for nearly a decade more than Kilchoman, but both seem to favour that rich, oily, yet soft and flavour forward style of spirit. New BenRiachs have a lot of this style to them as well.

Peated whisky is more forgiving than unpeated whisky at a young age. Most bottlings of Kilchoman are peated to a 50PPM peat spec, the same as Ardbeg uses. Only their 100% Islay releases which utilize their farm's own barley and floor maltings have a lighter peat level at around 20PPM. That peat and smoke actually makes the young whisky more approachable in my opinion. This isn't just Kilchoman that it happens with either, either. We have seen many young peated Caol Ila's, peated Bunnahabhain's, peated Loch Lomonds and more that were very, very drinkable. Peat can cover a lot of rough edges, partially by being a rough edge itself. Unpeated whisky for me shows a lot more flaws imbalances in its youth. Without the smoke and peat to mask these, the spirit itself has no place to hide.

Kilchoman distillery consulted from the get-go with the late, great spirit and oak guru Dr. Jim Swan. Before his death in 2017, Jim Swan was integral in getting many distilleries on the right track. The list of who he contracted with includes Kavalan, Penderyn, Amrut, Cotswolds, Milk and Honey, and many more.

One of the many things that Dr. Jim Swan pushed was having a good wood policy. It pays to be picky about the casks that you put your whisky into and being discerning means that you won't have as many off or bad casks in the future. Wasting resources in this way could drain money from a young distillery especially.

There are more reasons that Kilchoman is as good as it is, but to me, those four points are crucial. It is why Kensington Wine Market has been able to select and sell now eight single casks from the distiller...

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Day 2 of the 2019 KWM Whisky Calendar - Glenfarclas 15 Year

Posted on November 30, 2021

What awaits us behind door number two in the 2019 KWM Whisky Advent Calendar? It is the Glenfarclas 15 Year Old!

Going legal in 1836 and run by the Grant Family since 1870, Glenfarclas as a brand has been a model of consistency for quite a long time. This consistency is refreshing compared to the vast and often confusing changes other Scotch Whisky labels have gone through over the past decade or more. One popular brand has shifted from age statements to colour codes and now back again, but not the same as it once was. It can be difficult to be a fan of a brand that can't even maintain a core range well.

What was Glenfarclas selling for their core range ten, fifteen, twenty years ago? The same bottles as they have today. Glenfarclas' core range consists of the 105 Cask Strength, 12 year, 15 year, 17 year, 21 year, 25 year, and 30 year old. Sure, the 40-year-old has been changed from a 46% ABV to 43% and not always been available during that time, but that is about it. This doesn't even take into account the impressive slew of Family Cask single vintage releases that at one point included each consecutive year between 1954 and 2002! Style-wise, they are still sherry cask focused for the entire range. No playing around with cask finishes or experimenting with peat here.

Many of us are very familiar with Glenfarclas as a distillery and the story of the Grant family behind it. The distillery has been owned by the Grants for six Generations now. All six patriarchs of the family have been named John or George. The current face of the distillery is George. His dad is still around as well and his name is John. The family has owned the distillery for more than 150 years. The Glenfarclas 105 was introduced more than 50 years ago in 1968. It was the first small batch, cask strength Single Malt Whisky released by a distillery.

Beyond the 105 being bottled at 60% ABV. The rest of the lineup - from the 12 Year through to the 40-Year-Old are bottled at 43% ABV - except for the 15 Year Old that we will be tasting. The 15 Year is bottled at the slightly higher 46% ABV because that was a choice made by the current George's grandfather. He preferred the 15 at the higher ABV, so the family has kept it the same since then.

You get it. These last paragraphs are all talking about consistency. The Grants see themselves as curators for future generations. They want to make sure that what has been built remains, so they don't make big decisions solely based on the boom and bust ecosystem of the whisky industry. Change is great, change is fun, but it is refreshing to find a family and a distillery that doesn't change everything based on the whims of trends and shareholders.

Glenfarclas as a brand has been important to me for quite a while. It was my first introduction to selling whisky. Years ago I would pour Glen...

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AND AWAY WE GO! KWM Whisky Calendar Day 1: Inchmurrin 18 Year

Posted on December 12, 2021

Welcome to the Kensington Wine Market 2019 Whisky Advent Calendar!

by Evan

For the sixth straight year, we have curated and assembled our own bespoke Whisky Advent Calendar. We hope you will follow our journey of whisky discovery over the next 25 days. Each and every day of Advent we will describe the whisky in question and publish our own tasting note for the day in questionâ€™s whisky. We will also give you a background on the distillery and producer.

You can follow along each day on the Kensington Wine Market Blog, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. We encourage your comments and feedback and look forward to hearing your own thoughts on the whiskies as they are presented!

We are very happy with the design for the 2019 Calendar. For that, we would like to thank KWM Alumni Jean-Paul Berube, who has created the artwork on all six annual editions. We also have Kensington Wine Market 2019 Whisky Advent Tree, which youâ€™ll be seeing a lot more of as we work our way through the next four weeks!

We are excited to share the contents of this year's calendar along with you.
I hope you enjoy the Kensington Wine Market 2019 Whisky Advent Calendar, 25 Days of Dram Fine Whisky!

Let us start at the beginning, with the contents behind door number one. Behind the door will be your KWM logoed Glencairn tasting glass, a discount card and the first bottle, which is (drumroll, please!) Inchumrrin 18 Year Old. Sadly, this bottle is not yet available in Canada. Please keep us posted if you are interested in seeing the full-sized bottle so that we can harass the importer and hopefully bring them in!

The Inchmurrin 18 year old comes to us from Loch Lomond Distillery. Founded in 1965, Loch Lomond is a bizarre operation that is capable of making multiple different styles of spirit all under one roof. It is capable of producing Single Malt, Single Grain, and Blended Whisky entirely at one site. It can and does do this, and it also makes Single Malt in and a wide variety of styles, including both peated and unpeated types.

There are a total of thirteen stills within the Loch Lomond Distillery, however, they are definitely not all the same. Included in this number are your typical swan-neck style pot stills: the type you see at most Scottish distilleries that make single malt whisky. Beyond that though, things get weird. There are also three pairs of straight-neck pot stills, which are sometimes called Lomond stills. One of these pairs has a water cooling system installed on the top of the still that the heated vapour hits before going through the narrowing neck/pipe for collection. This results in much more reflux and leads to a lighter, softer, fruitier spirit being produced.

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