Meerendal Heritage Block Pinotage Old

$59.49

Meerendal Wine Estate is a family-owned vineyard situated in the Western Cape of South Africa, only 20 minutes from Cape Town. This historic estate dates back to 1702, but the wine journey for the current owners, the Coertze family, began in 2004 when they invested in Meerendal and became part of its prestigious history. Heritage Block Pinotage has a very deep, almost opaque purple colour. Spicy red and black fruit aromas are supported by strong bramble-type characters on the initial nose. Prune, plum and ripe dark cherry follow with a backing of rich fruit cake, spice and sweet vanilla. There's a big, full, and well-rounded mouth-feel with a satiny texture that flows across the palate, with ripe, supple tannins underneath. It's already showing good complexity, but has lots more development to come. Very attractive now, but will repay some patient bottle maturation over the next half dozen years. If Meerendal history is anything to go by, this wine should continue to develop for easily 12 to 15 years.

Cotswolds Sherry Cask Single Malt

$111.59

According to the Cotswolds team, this one is "American and Spanish oak hogsheads and butts, seasoned with Oloroso and Pedro Ximénez sherry." They also qualify that by saying it's entirely sherry cask matured (don't let the American oak throw you off) full the entire term. It's rather brilliant seeing England back in the single malt game, no? The English whisky renaissance is going to be fun to watch. 

9,900 bottles. 

Natural colour, non-chill filtered, and bottled at 57.4% abv.

Millstone Single Grain 9 Year 50ml

$6.00

This bottle was featured on Day 19 of our 2022 KWM Whisky Calendar

Full-size versions of this mini bottle can be found here.

This whisky was selected for Canada by Craftwork Spirits. It is a selection from multiple casks and includes whisky made from a mash of rye, malted barley, corn, spelt, and wheat. All whisky in this bottle was aged in virgin oak casks and the batch originally had a strength of around 47% or so before it was decided to bottle it at 46%.

Biale Party Line Zinfandel

$50.99

    Perfecting the old California classics, Robert Biale Vineyards has become a revered standard of heritage vineyard Zinfandel and Petite Sirah in the Napa Valley. From the winery’s inception, the Biale's  ounders have cherished the tradition of historic old vines (some dating to the 1880s!) and prize the small quantity of concentrated and intense fruit that they produce. Diligent farming, expressive terroir, and superb elegance are the winery’s hallmarks.The Biale Party Line Zinfandel is a lighter red by Zinfandel standards that is made to enjoy now. 

Boutique-y Inchfad 13 Year 50ml

$9.50

This bottle was featured on Day 20 of our 2022 KWM Whisky Calendar.

Also available in full-sized bottles

Along with Inchmurrin and Inchmoan, Inchfad is one of three "Inch"es and a slew of other names/labels made by Loch Lomond Distillery. Also like many of the styles of whisky made at Loch Lomond Distillery since it started production in 1965, Inchfad gets its name from one of the islands within the freshwater lake the distillery takes its name from. This Boutique-y Inchfad is 13 years old and bottled at 49.5%.

For more information on this bottle, check out this video from Andrew Ferguson and Dave Worthington:

Rock Island 14 Year

$71.99

Producer Note: "Rock Island 14 Years Old Sherry Limited Edition is a remarkably rich and robust encapsulation of predominantly Sherry cask matured Single Malts from Orkney, Arran, Jura & Islay." 46.8%

Eau Claire Yours Truly Batch #3

$76.49

This is the 3rd release of Yours Truly, by Eau Claire Distillery, released for International Women's Day, celebrating women in distilling. This edition of the whisky was matured in ex-Bourbon, virgin European oak, ex-Oloroso, and ex-wine casks, married and blended by the women at Eau Claire Distillery. We also love that it is bottled at 46%.

Eau Claire is Alberta's first modern craft distillery. It was founded in 2013 and resides in Diamond Valley, Alberta.

Kilchoman Machir Bay 50ml

$9.00

This bottle was featured on Day 23 of our 2022 KWM Whisky Calendar

Also available in full-size bottles

The Kilchoman Machir Bay is matured in a combination of ex-Bourbon and ex-Sherry casks, but much heavier on the ex-Bourbon side of things. The peat level of the malt is around 50 PPM and sourced from Port Ellen Maltings. This is the same spec that Ardbeg Distillery uses. Thanks to its peaty profile and mostly ex-Bourbon cask makeup, Kilchoman’s website states that the main traits of this bottling include “Citrus fruit, layered vanilla and butterscotch”.

Lagavulin Distillers Edition 2022

$136.49

It's a shame how scarce Lagavulin has become. The distillery just doesn't seem to have the stocks to keep the market wet at this point in time. Not to mention, we're not getting a lot of help from our local importers either. When the 2022 Distillers Edition showed up a few weeks back, we were quick to snap it up, because I think we all know by now that any Lagavulin is good Lagavulin. 

This should be a particularly interesting version of the Distillers Edition; it's no longer the 16-year-old with a PX finish (read: almost 17 years), it's now a non-age-stated whisky with an undeclared finishing period. While that almost sounds like a bad thing, the reviews are better for this one than previous, older editions. Not to mention, for those that like their Islay malts to have a little more punching power, it's best to drink them a bit younger. The longer that liquid sits in those beautiful old warehouses, the softer the smoke becomes. 

Shame about the 43%, but at this point, beggars can't be choosers.