Compass Box Orchard House
$88.99
This whisky was featured on Day 6 of our 2024 KWM Whisky Calendar. You can read Evan's blog post on it here.
This is a game-changing whisky from Compass Box, built not from acquired aged components, but rather new make spirit acquired and filled into Compass Box own casks. Orchard House is composed of primarily Linkwood (39%), Clynelish (29%), Benrinnes (20%) and Caol Ila (2%), all from First Fill ex-Boubon Barrels, along with Highland Blended Malt (2%) from custom French oak casks and a secret Speyside single malt (8%) from Revatted Oloroso Sherry-Seasoned Butts. Hmmm, a "Distillery near the town of Aberlour" sounds a lot like Benfarclas... 46%.
Producer Description
"What is more universally delicious than ripe fruit? Even the greatest chefs have been known to serve a simple dish of strawberries or a single, perfect peach as a dessert.
"Orchard House gathers together some of the fruitiest malts Scotland has to offer, including whiskies from the Linkwood and Clynelish distilleries; what’s more, we have sourced many of these whiskies as new spirit and laid them down in our own oak casks. This, our monument to fresh fruitiness in Scotch whisky, has been many years in the making."
MacNair`s Lum Reek 21 Year
$269.99
This whisky was featured on Day 15 of our 2023 KWM UBER Whisky Calendar. You can check out Evan's blog post on the whisky here.
Bottled at 48%, this 21 year old Blended Malt is composed of Islay, and Speyside whiskies (including GlenAllachie) aged in first fill ex-Bourbon, ex-Red Wine and ex-PX Sherry casks. This whisky was named the World's Best Blended Malt in the 2020 World Whiskies Awards!
About The Range
"Our multi-award-winning Lum Reek Blended Malt Scotch Whiskies combine Single Malts from Islay and Speyside – two of the most sought-after whisky regions in Scotland – marrying both peated and unpeated spirit to create perfectly balanced and satisfyingly complex malts. Taking inspiration from MacNair’s discovery of the delights of a dram beside a smoky peat fireplace, Billy Walker has drawn upon his half century’s experience in blending to develop a recipe fit for a traditional Scottish toast to long life; “Lang may yer lum reek”."
The MacNair's Story: "Ne'er happier than when exploring the globe or the spirit from the golden still, Harvey McNair was - in the parlance of his native Glasgow - a man or 'lad o'pairts': a true Victorian entrepreneur. A trader, thereby a traveller, an inventor of all sorts of mechanical contraptions, his genius lay in the blending of fine whiskies. He loved and championed the natural, unadulterated colour of whisky. "Pure gold' he said with a wink. Bon viveur and raconteur, he cut a dash about town and had a bursting social calendar. His best stories were always 'agin hisself', like how his neighbours thought him an alchemist or, indeed, how he discovered Lum Reek. But he knew a good dram when he blended it, or indeed stumbled across it. Just like our own 21st Century Whisky legend Billy Walker, who has recreated and refined the Lum Reek blend for the modern palate.
"One autumn evening in the 1860s, after a day's fishing, our man was quaffing a dram in the old stone bothy near GlenAllachie. Due to a blocked chimney (or lum) the room filled with smoke. It had "a marvellous effect on the whisky in my glass," confided McNair later to his merchant cronies. "Indeed, perfection!" Ne'er a truer word was spoken. Today's Lum Reek is the creation of our Master Blender Billy Walker, raising his hat to the top hatted Victorian. It's a heavily peated malt, marrying Islay & Speyside whiskies with rich GlenAllachie, to extend the flavour profile. Lum Reek is matured in GlenAllachie's warehouses, then bottled at 46% (and above), unchilfiltered, allowing its natural colour to shine like those golden autumns Harvey MacNair enjoyed, decked out in his waders."
Caisteal Chamuis 12 Year Blended Malt
$97.99
This whisky was featured on Day 2 of our 2024 KWM Not An Advent Calendar Tastings! You can read more about the whisky here.
Exclusive to KWM
This 12 year old Blended Malt Scotch whisky has been created from Island single malts, finished in Bodega (seasoned for 5 years) First-Fill Oloroso Sherry Butts. 46%
Producer Description
"Caisteal Chamuis 12 Year Old is made from a blend of single malts all distilled on Islay and Orkney. It has been matured in Oloroso Sherry butts, resulting in a ‘rich and smooth’ whisky with a ‘complex fragrant, heathery, lavender‐like peat’."
Bowmore 12 Year
$64.99
This bottle was featured in 50ml Mini bottle form on Day 19 of our 2020 KWM Whisky Calendar.
The Bowmore 12 Year Old is one of the iconic Single Malt Scotch Whiskies from Islay. Bowmore Distillery is the oldest distillery on Islay and one of the oldest in Scotland, having been founded in 1779.
Finlaggan Old Islay Res Cask Strength
$79.99
Believed to be Caol Ila, the whisky is bottled at a cask strength of 58%. Finlaggan is an Islay mystery malt named for the most historically significant site on Islay. Loch (lake) Finlaggan--named after St. Findulgan who is believed to have brought Christianity to Islay--and its islands were the political and social capital of the Lord's of the Isles, who ruled the Western Isles of Scotland for over 400 years. Finlaggan Cask Strength is put together by the Vintage Malt Whisky Company, whom are also responsible for the Cooper's Choice and Ileach lineup. It is bottled at a batch strength of 58% ABV.
Laphroaig 10 Year
$88.99
Laphroaig's peat is principally what makes it different. Harvested in a low-lying part of the island it has layers of salt and seaweed not found in other peat deposits. This gives Laphroaig a medicinal, briny, smoky character distinctly different from all other Islay whiskies as well as any other made elsewhere in the world. Laphroaig is among on 6 distilleries which malt some of their own barley.
Amrut Kadhambam
$139.99
Limit 1 Per Customer!
Kadhambam means ‘mixture’ or ‘combination’, and this Amrut certainly lives up to its name: a vatting of normal and peated Amrut that started life in ex-oloroso casks before being transferred first into brandy casks, then into rum casks (both the rum and brandy having been produced at Amrut also). A curious mixture, this is a unique and thrilling whisky.
Edradour 12 Year Caledonia
$136.99
Caledonia, in addition to be an archaic name for Scotland, is also the name of a popular folk song published by Dougie MacLean in 1979. Originally selected as a single cask by Dougie MacLean to celebrate Homecoming Scotland in 2009, the whisky has been adopted as a permanent addition to the Edraour line. The whisky has been matured at least four years in Oloroso sherry and is very chewy and fruity.
Armorik Classic Single Malt
$69.99
This French single malt from the Breton region is distilled by Warenghem Distillery, which has been distilling since 1900. Warenghem Distillery's whisky - including this single malt which is from ex-bourbon casks aged for four to eight years and then bottled at 46% - have been well reviewed.
Andrew's Tasting Note
Nose: creamy, honyed, peppery and grassy with white orchard fruits like browing green and candied apples.
Palate: very creamy with loads of toasted oak, unsweetened vanilla, and grassy goat cheese; there is a savoury character and some notes of black pepper too.
Finish: drying and toasty with some creamy notes.