First Edition Macduff 21 Year
$199.99
Matured in a Refill Hogshead, HL 15366, this 21 year old Macduff was filled in to cask in 1997 and bottled at 54.4%.
Andrew's Tasting Note
Nose: bright, fruity and honeyed with a tingling decadent spice; toasted coconut and Old English Butterscotch; spruce tips and melons; dried cherries and cranberries.
Palate: big, rich and spicy with dehydrated orange slices, molten brown sugar and French vanilla; settles down in to decadence and spice; creamed honey, Scottish tablet and shortbread; candied ginger, cinnamon hearts and cardamom.
Finish: long, coating, warming and spicy; still decadent and toasty.
Comment: if you are looking for something decadent, spicy and good value at 21 years, this might just be it!
Old Malt Cask Linkwood 26 Year
$191.99
Stunning, elegant and very creamy Linkwood with bags of fruit. Distilled in April 1993, and matured 26 years in a Refill Hogshead before bottling at 50%. HL Ref: 17212.
Andrew's Tasting Note
Nose: honeyed, fresh baked pastries and cooked white fruits: baked apple pie with cinnamon, poached pear and apple sauce; some more exotic fruits: kiwi and papaya; soft but crisp spices and Scottish tablet; creamy and floral with subtle vanilla.
Palate: rich, coating and very creamy; a lush blanket of toasted oak and vanilla extract coats the palate; more Scottish tablet and shortbread right from the oven dusted in sugar; mare baked white fruits and French pastries; papaya dusted in pepper and bright kiwi fruit; candied ginger and cinnamon hearts.
Finish: long, spicy and coating with loads of vanilla, fruits and buttery decadent baked goods; creamy and floral, it is elegant and soothing.
Comment: this is a very elegant, creamy and fruity Linkwood; still fresh and full of life after more than a quarter of a century!
Old & Rare Platinum Littlemill 27 Year
$809.99
Kilchoman 2012 sinDicate Cask
$131.99
Bottled for a Calgary whisky club, the sinDicate, the whisky was distilled in 2012 and filled in to an ex-Bourbon Barel, cask No.148. It was bottled late in 2019 at 56.7%, and 6 1/2 years of age. The club couldn't take all of the bottles (260), so we agreed to take on about 100 of them.
Curt's Tasting Note
Nose: Some of the cleanest peat notes I've found in a malt this young. Surprisingly creamy and a wee bit reminiscent of our past KWM 10 year olds. Strong citrus notes (lemon and tightly wound key lime). Grilled pineapple. Orange and tangerine. A bit of kiwi and underripe pear. Crushed ginger. Lemon furniture polish. Clotted cream and some sort of dessert flambe. A faint note of pool water.
Palate: Great delivery. Vibrant fruit notes in lockstep with threads of clean smoke. An earthy undertone. More tangy pineapple. Almost candied. Salt licorice. Quick-steeped Lapsang Souchong tea. Vanilla cream.
Finish: Salt licorice notes linger. Granny Smith apple and pear skins. Aloe. Cask char.
G&M Conn Choice Bladnoch 1988
$724.99
Only 18 bottles have come to Canada of this 30 year old single cask Bladnoch. Matured in an ex-Bourbon Hogshead, and bottled at 55.8%. We don't see a lot of older Bladnoch anymore, but the ones matured in American oak are consistently good.
Andrew's Tasting Note
Nose: vanilla bean, icing sugar, honeycomb and clotted cream on scones with raspberry jam; loads of citrus and faintly tropical; light, delicate and floral.
Palate: cream, honeyed and very fruity; more honeycomb, icing sugar, vanilla bean and clotted cream with raspberry jam; still tropical: canned pineapple, over-ripe mango and citrus; perfumed and floral with polished oak and marcona almonds.
Finish: light but long, decadent, fruity, floral and perfumed.
Comment: Bladnoch is so hit or miss for me, but this is a solid hit; light, but bright, fruity, floral and elegant; it comes across mature, complex and very well developed, but the oak is held well in check.
Producer's Tasting Note
Nose: Sweet, crisp red apples entwined with fragrant jasmine and rose. Fruit and nut chocolate begins to sweeten to vanilla fondant and zesty lime curd.
Taste: Prominent toasted malt notes transform into fragrant orange blossom with dashes of rosewater. Fruity stewed rhubarb with mouth-warming dried ginger undertones. A gentle chilli heat remains throughout.
Finish: Medium bodied with lingering charred oak and sweet chilli spice.
More About Bladnoch (Courtesy Gordon Macphail)
"‘A much-loved Lowland treasure’ is a fair description of the Bladnoch Distillery. One of the Lowland region’s surviving stalwarts, Bladnoch has survived a number of periods of uncertainty; in fact, since its founding in 1817, the distillery has ceased production three times including a full liquidation and dismantling in 1937 and 1993. The distillery,was bought by Raymond Armstrong, who fired up its re-equipped stills in 2000, but only ran it intermitently. He himself went in to liquidation, and the distillery was bought by an Australian firm..
"Bladnoch’s location on the outskirts of Wigtown in Dumfries makes it the most southerly of all operational Scotch whisky distilleries. The Bladnoch spirit – light, fragrant, and fruity – is a perfect snapshot of a Lowland single malt. The spirit matures well in both Sherry and bourbon casks; its single malts are a definite surprise on the palate: classic approachable soft aromas combine with malty, almost chocolate-led, notes.
"Although it is the only active Lowland distillery bottled by us, our current ‘Connoisseurs Choice’ vintage is from the last year of production before it was mothballed in the 1990s."
Cadenhead Small Batch Tullibardine 1993
$264.99
Tullibardine consistently knocks out some of the cleanest, cereal-driven whisky on the market. The distillate is always rather sweet, and the barley-forward approach helps differentiate the spirit from most other brands on the market. Especially when it's left alone to mellow in ex-bourbon for a decade or two. Or in this case, a quarter of a century. From Cadenhead's gold label single cask series, you know this one is bound to be a show stopper. 228 bottles from an ex-Bourbon Hogshead. 43.2% abv
Producer Tasting Note
Nose: Lychee, spearmint and eucalyptus. orange blossom water, peach skins and candied ginger.
Palate: Traditional cloudy lemonade, banana loaf, orange sherbet and coffee beans.
Finish: Very juicy, with creme brulee, blanched almonds, green apple skins and pears in syrup.
Cadenhead Small Batch Loch Lomond 1996
$139.99
From Scotland's most chameleonic distillery comes a Loch Lomond by one its many other names. In this case: Inchmurrin. Inchmurrin is produced using the distillery's truly singular 'franken-stills'. These are traditional copper pot stills that have been fitted with rectifying heads; almost a smash-up of pot still and column still. Strange, maybe, but it's hard to argue with results. This Cadenhead Small Batch release was a marriage of two Hogsheads, offered up at 51.5% abv.
Producer Tasting Note
Nose: Caramel, oak aged chardonnay, butter icing and agave syrup.
Palate: lemon curd, vanilla custard, lime marmalade and then mint, fennel and hints of basil. Very refreshing.
Finish: Lemon meringue pie, cashew nuts and clotted cream.
Cadenhead Small Batch English Whisky '10
$134.99
The English Whisky Company, aka St. George's, calls Norfolk, England its home. The distillery was founded in 2010 in the heart of the county, so it's a little bit surprising just how 'coastal' this malt seems. Two Hogsheads - one heavily peated and the other unpeated - were married together for this Cadenhead Small Batch release. We opened a bottle for our Fall Single Malt Festival and were more than pleasantly surprised. Even our friend Serge over at WhiskyFun thought this one worthy of an 85. Not bad for a young'un, aye? And offered up at a scorching 64.6% abv!
Producer Tasting Note
Nose: Medicinal and phenolic with balanced sweetness. Vanilla, barbeque sauce, olive brine, gooseberries and quite meaty.
Palate: Initially ashy before giving way to vanilla custard, burnt oranges, cinnamon sticks and then more coal dust.
Finish: Drying ashiness, more tart gooseberries and banana milkshake and sour cherries.
Cadenhead Small Batch Bunnahabhain 2009
$129.99
Bunnahabhain isn't much of a secret anymore. At one time we used to be able to score all sorts of cool Bunnahabhains for great prices. While the latter still holds true for the most part, the former...not so much. It's becoming harder and harder to beat the masses to the best releases. Put simply...the world has finally fallen in love with Islay's black sheep distillery. Enter Cadenhead and their ridiculous warehouses full of brilliant casks. This 9 year old is a drastic departure from last year's 28 year old, but no less interesting for it. And let me promise you...you won't find anything like this dram in the distillery's core range of releases.
564 bottles from a vatting of 2 Bourbon Hogsheads. 58.9% abv.
Producer Tasting Note
Nose: Soft and oily to start with distant peat. Olive oil, pecan pie and faint antiseptic cream.
Palate: Nutty and creamy with lemon, peach syrup and raspberry coulis, hints of engine oil, beeswax and chives.
Finish: Long and oily, a distant harbour with diesel and green bananas.