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Note: the real 'RRP' of this bottle is >£70, but we're matching the current massive discount as currently presented on Master of Malt here

Laphroaig is at once one of the best selling single malts in the world, and a cult whisky that happily plays up to its Marmite-esque ‘love it or hate it’ reputation. The distillery still runs traditional malting floors (four of them!), providing an impressive 20% of their not insignificant requirements rather than solely relying on specialist maltsters. Only about ten distilleries in Scotland do this to any extent, so it’s not only unusual for one of the big boys, but is something that sets them apart from their heavily peated Kildalton neighbours (Ardbeg and Lagavulin) on the south coast of Islay.

This is also natural cask strength i.e. the whisky hasn’t been diluted at all after coming out of the cask (bourbon barrels here). Weighing in at nearly 60% ABV, that may cause either excitement (those on the last live tasting?) or a little trepidation! Remember you can always add a splash of water!

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Lochlea is an independent family owned farm and distillery, making single malt exclusively from the barley they grow and harvest themselves. (Much like Spirit of Yorkshire.) We’ve enjoyed Lochlea’s seasonal releases, but Orchard & Oak – matured in a trio of first-fill bourbon, fresh American oak, and Calvados casks – is part of their first ever core range (alongside the sherry and Port matured Dark Briar, and ex-peated and red wine cask Smoke Without Fire).

Most single estate distilleries still have to get their barley malted off-site (as almost all distilleries do), but Lochlea are reportedly floor malting ~20% of their own barley now, and aim to reach 100%. Hopefully we’ll get an update during the live tasting! Former Laphroaig manager John Campbell has now moved on, but with the likes of award-winning master blender Jill Boyd on board, Lochlea is still in very safe hands.

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It’s been a while since we’ve had a Japanese whisky. Let’s fix that. Nikka was founded back in 1934 by Masataka Taketsuru, the father of Japanese whisky. Back in 1918, Masataka-san travelled to Scotland, studied organic chemistry at the University of Glasgow, and worked apprenticeships at distilleries such as Longmorn in Speyside and Hazelburn in Campbeltown. He took everything in, and returned to Japan with meticulous notes as well as a Scottish wife, Rita.

‘Pure Malt’ refers to what we would now call a blended malt, here meaning a combination of single malts from Yoichi (on the northern island of Hokkaido), and Miyagikyo (near Sendai, founded in 1969). Of the three in this particular range, which also includes White and Black editions, the Red is the one that predominantly comes from Miyagikyo. What does that mean? It means it’s the fruity one!

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THIS IS A BASE PRODUCT THAT SHOULDN'T BE SOLD, PLEASE LEAVE DISABLED

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Spring has sprung, and we're getting ready to enjoy five new whiskies from Scotland, Kentucky, and even Bristol. Prepare to discover new grain types, yeast strains, and lesser-spotted cask finishes! 

Ledaig 12 Year Old 2008 Amarone Cask Finish: A peated Ledaig single malt, limited to just 2,753 bottles available either only at the distillery itself or on Master of Malt (which powers Pour & Sip!). The final year of its 12 years of maturation was spent finishing in amarone wine casks, adding a dose of rich, spicy tannins to the sweet, smoky, and distinctly maritime whisky

Dalwhinnie 15 Year Old: One of Diageo’s six ‘Classic Malts’, Dalwhinnie 15 Year Old is a great introduction to the gentle, yet complex whisky from the Highland distillery, known for a honeyed sweetness.

Circumstance Single Grain Estate Whisky: The first core whisky release from the Bristol-based distillery, created from four different types of organic grain (malted barley, unmalted barley, malted rye, and malted wheat), three different brewing yeasts, and matured in three different types of casks (bourbon, new European oak, and oloroso sherry).

Aberfeldy 15 Year Old - Cadillac White Wine Cask Finish: A limited-edition Aberfeldy, finished for six months in Cadillac white wine casks, known for its sweet, aromatic wines for a rich, sweet, fruity whisky here.

Angel's Envy: A fantastic Kentucky bourbon finished in Port casks, with the rich fruit notes of the cask finish working wonders with the sweet, vanilla-forward notes of the bourbon itself.

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We're revisiting some old faves this month (with more sherry in two cases), plus a household name from America whose premium releases you may have overlooked…

High Coast Silent Mills Collection - #2 Sandö: High Coast produces both unpeated and peated spirit. The Silent Mills editions all build on the same peated, bourbon cask matured base as Timmer from their Origin range but introduce other cask types into the mix. For the second release, Sandö, that means 22% of the final whisky has been aged in oloroso sherry casks for added dried fruit tang and roundness. The peat level is around 45 PPM.

Ardnamurchan AD/ Sherry Cask Release: Ardnamurchan also makes both peated (30-35PPM) and unpeated spirit. Both are used in this release, just as they are in the excellent core AD/ release. The difference? The Sherry Cask Release is 100% sherry cask matured. Full maturation in a mix of oloroso and Pedro Ximénez butts. As Chris in our curation team noted recently, “Ardnamurchan is slowly taking over my everyday drinkers shelf at home!”

Glasgow 1770 - The Original: In 2015 whisky distilling returned to the city of Glasgow for the first time in a century. Like others in this set, Glasgow Distillery produce both peated and unpeated spirit. The Original is unpeated. Their fresh and fruity flagship whisky is matured in first-fill bourbon casks, then finished in fresh American oak casks that have had no prior contents. It’s non-chill filtered and natural colour.

Aberlour 12 Year Old Double Cask Matured: A classic Speyside name, Aberlour is known to work well with sherry casks, with maturation here taking place in both bourbon and sherry casks as the name implies. Compared to the 14-year-old, this 12-year-old offers a crisper, more citrussy take from the popular distillery. A little more of the new make’s green apple is on show (alongside trademark leafy blackcurrant character).

Jack Daniel's Single Barrel Select: Jack Daniel’s is world famous. You know most people enjoy ‘JD’ with cola. But let’s be clear: within the slightly more premium offerings is good stuff. Their single barrels are excellent, as are their bottled-in-bond releases. The difference between bourbon and Tennessee whiskey? The Lincoln County Process. Tennessee whiskeys are filtered through maple charcoal prior to ageing for smoothness.

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This month things are getting fruity, but in five quite different ways, from impressively aged Scotch single malts to a taste of Canadian 100% corn whisky!

Scapa 10 Year Old: Founded in 1885, Scapa had intermittent production from the mid 90s into the 21st century. This contributed to a decade-long wait for the return of age statement releases. Thankfully, the reborn range is here! All American oak barrel matured, bright, luscious, and tropical in tone, leaning into the Scapa’s historic long fermentations, juicy new make spirit, and fruity character. Uniquely, the wash still is an old Lomond still with the plates removed, and a purifier on the way to the condenser.

Canadian Corn Whisky 6 Year Old (That Boutique-y Whisky Company): Part of the indie bottler and blender's ‘core range’, each of which has a deer on the front label of the 70cl bottles. Except this one. Which has a moose. Because Canada. Yes, this is something a little different. We usually see corn in bourbon (which must be at least 51% corn). This is corn whisky (Canada uses the spelling ‘whisky’, as opposed to ‘whiskey’ most common in America). 95% corn and, unusually, 100% oloroso sherry cask!

Glen Moray Forbidden Fruit: Something brand new (released Feb 2026) that comes complete with some tongue in cheek humour. Back in 2018 Glen Moray accidentally got themselves in hot water over a cider cask release that fell foul of the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) regulations. Don’t worry for them here though. Forbidden Fruit was instead finished in casks that previously held yummy Calvados, in this case distilled from just apples (as opposed to pears). Super fruity - one for highballs in the sun.

Tobermory 21 Year Old: The distillery today distills and sells more of their Ledaig peated single malt than their eponymous unpeated single malt. Founded way back in 1798(!), it was only in 1996 that the clear delineation was thankfully established though! Tobermory, with higher cut points, is slightly oily, maritime, and green. Aged for an extraordinary 21 years, this whisky started in refill casks, before a long secondary maturation in oloroso sherry casks said to create flavours of foraged fruits from the Isle of Mull.

Deanston 15 Year Old Tequila Cask Finish: An experimental limited edition here, from a distillery founded in 1965 but housed in an 18th century cotton mill on the banks of the River Teith. The house style of spirit is said to be waxy, a rare and prized quality for blenders and malt lovers alike. As touched on above, not all casks are permissible for Scotch whisky, but since 2019 Tequila casks have been on the approved list. This will be the third we’ve featured in as many years (one of the others coming from Glen Moray).

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Five single malts this month, three from Scotland including two of Diageo’s ‘Classic Malts’, and two that have reached for the rum casks!

Talisker Distillers Edition: Talisker’s dates back to 1830, when the isle was the definition of remote. Fortunately since 1995 it’s been linked to the mainland by a bridge making it much easier to visit. Deft use of peat is the name of the game once again, but Talisker’s malt has a lower initial peat level than neighbours Torabhaig (~75% peated malt [20-25 PPM] mixed with 25% unpeated). This excellent Distillers Edition is finished in Amoroso (a rich, sweetened sherry) casks.

Braeval 14 Year Old 2010 (cask 127) - Infrequent Flyers: With over 20 years in the industry, Alistair Walker's also the son of Billy Walker (master distiller and owner of GlenAllachie). Infrequent Flyers is very much Alistair’s own baby. An independent bottler, often (as the name suggests) featuring lesser known distilleries. For example, this Braeval finished in an oloroso sherry puncheon, yielding 653 bottles. Built in 1973 and mothballed for six years in the early 2000s, it’s rarely seen even from indie bottlers!

Oban 11 Year Old (Special Release 2023): John & Hugh Stevenson built a brewery in 1793, with distillation recorded from 1794. Oban's a small distillery, and another (along with Talisker) of the small number to use traditional worm tub condensers. By running it warmer at Oban, they prolong copper contact for a lighter result. Here their light, fruity, coastal spirit has been finished in Caribbean pot still rum casks for a Diageo Special Release dubbed ‘The Soul of Calypso’! It’s bottled at natural cask strength.

Penderyn The Headliner (Icons of Wales): The ninth release in Penderyn’s Icons of Wales series honours the great social reformer and only Welsh Prime Minister of the UK, David Lloyd George. Since 2000 Penderyn have helped establish Welsh single malt, which now has its own Geographical Indication (GI). Made with their small pot stills, as opposed to their usual (unusual) Faraday stills, this single malt was matured in a combination of Jamaican rum & Ruby Port casks, and non-chill filtered.

Arlett Single Malt - Original : Distillerie Tessendier, founded in 1880, is a celebrated Cognac producer. Today it’s run by brothers Jérôme & Lilian (master blender & cellar master), who’ve also been distilling whisky since 2019 in tribute to their whisky-loving mother. Made with traceable two-row spring barley and the family’s traditional Charentais copper stills, maturation takes place in classic Cognac cellars close to the banks of the Charente river. They encourage you to try this with ice, ginger ale, or in cocktails.

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A huge end to the year here - Merry Christmas!

Benromach Contrasts: High Enzyme 2012: Time to get geeky with this Speyside distillery’s latest experiment! High enzyme barley – or ‘High Diastatic Power (HDP) Malt’ – is usually reserved for grain whisky production, where the enzymes (amylases) from a small proportion of malted barley are still necessary to convert the starch in the corn or wheat into fermentable sugars. “But what would happen if you used 100% high enzyme malted barley to produce a single malt”, you say? Benromach is here to answer that question.

Penderyn Bad Wolf (Icons of Wales): In Aug we mentioned Penderyn’s unique Faraday stills (a cross between a pot and column still), which have been at the heart of the distillery’s light style ever since it was founded in 2000. Except that The Headliner was actually entirely distilled in their traditional ‘lantern-shaped’ pot stills, installed in 2014! This whisky, by contrast, is 65% Faraday still spirit and 35% pot still spirit. Fully matured in suitably festive Tawny Port pipes (which previously held Port for around 60 years).

Scallywag The Winter Edition - Orange Wine Cask Finish: Scallywag is the Speyside blended malt in Douglas Laing’s family of ‘Remarkable Regional Malts’, made up of whiskies from the likes of Mortlach, Macallan and Glenrothes among others. Usually matured predominantly in sherry casks, this limited edition was finished in rare Spanish orange wine casks. Picture “a snowy mountainside retreat” and “après-ski relaxation”. It’s also bottled at natural cask strength!

Bruichladdich 18 Year Old - Re/Define: “The epitome of Bruichladdich's signature unpeated house style”, is how they describe this 18-year-old single malt. Like the Classic Laddie, the 18 Year Old is bottled at a hearty 50% ABV, and is made with 100% Scottish barley. Head Distiller Adam Hannett brings together a cask recipe of predominantly bourbon casks, combined with deftly employed wine casks. Founded 1881, resurrected 2001, and forging an agriculture focused, fully traceable, B Corp certified path ever since.

GlenAllachie 20 Year Old 2005 (cask 5391) - PX Sherry Hogshead: “Specially bottled to celebrate 40 years of Master of Malt”. And what a whisky to celebrate with! One of the oldest single malts to ever feature in Pour & Sip, this exclusive single cask release (just 353 bottles) spent two decades maturing in a Pedro Ximénez sherry hogshead before being bottled in September 2025. GlenAllachie itself was founded in 1967, but was scarcely ever seen as a single malt before master distiller Billy Walker bought the distillery in 2017.

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Whiskies from Scotland, America, England, and even Finland is this set, from classics, to limited editions, and exciting new wave distillers! All quite different, there's surely something for everyone. One of the oldest single malts we've featured too. Enjoy!

Glen Grant 18 Year Old Rare Edition: ‘The Major’, aka James Grant, inherited the distillery in 1872, and is responsible for the distillery's 22-acre Victorian Garden and also the tall, slender stills with their purifiers. This contributes to Glen Grant’s light character, with the still’s unique boil balls aiding further reflux. Glen Grant is easy-going at young ages, but also ages wonderfully. This very highly-awarded 18-year-old malt shows that.

Glen Scotia 14 Year Old - Icons of Campbeltown Release No.2: Glen Scotia’s usually unpeated, and also rarely seen in wine casks. This is ‘medium’-peated, and spent six months in Barolo red wine casks! The inspiration came from the Campbeltown Market Cross’ depiction of St. Michael slaying a dragon, but also the times when the community came together to fight historic blazes (not least at Dalintober Distillery in 1899).

Kyrö Oloroso Malt Rye Whisky: Their 100% malted wholegrain Finnish rye spirits have won many fans and awards, are made with incredible attention to detail, and provide great concentration and depth of flavour. Since we last featured them, their core range has expanded including this Oloroso Malt Rye (initially matured in new American oak and bourbon casks, but then as the name suggests finished in oloroso sherry casks).

Wire Works Bourbon Barrel: Undoubtedly one of the leading lights of English whisky, and also a whisky coming of age. Here the distillery’s oldest whisky to date has matured exclusively in first-fill bourbon casks. A small amount of peated barley is combined with unpeated (10PPM total), and a blend of yeasts are used including used brewer’s yeast from local brewers with long 6-day fermentations for fruity esters.

Bluegrass Toasted Oak: Craft distillers in the heart of Kentucky, Toasted Oak uses a classic mashbill of 75% (yellow) corn, 21% rye, and 4% malted barley. After a standard 3 years in fresh, charred American oak casks, it rested in lightly toasted casks for 21 days. Doesn’t sound long, but these lightly toasted (but not charred) barrels give up wood sugars easily and quickly. Such finishes are increasingly popular.

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As this set came together, we couldn’t help but think “Cor, this is a bit good!” Huge Islay peat. Sherried Islanders. Campbeltown modern classic. Blended malt from the hottest bottlers around. Enjoy!

Jura 19 Year Old The Paps: Jura is an island with few people (around 200) and one road. It’s largely wild, full of deer, and has a landscape that’s dominated by three mountains known as the Paps of Jura. Matured for an impressive 19 years, the whisky started off in American oak bourbon barrels, before being finished in sherry casks of extraordinary quality, having previously held fine 40 year old Pedro Ximénez sherry. This is the pinnacle of Jura’s Sherry Cask Collection, previously only available in global travel retail.

Laphroaig 10 Year Old Cask Strength - Batch 016: Laphroaig is at once one of the best selling single malts in the world, and a cult whisky that happily plays up to its Marmite-esque ‘love it or hate it’ reputation. The distillery still runs traditional malting floors (four of them!), providing an impressive 20% of their not insignificant requirements rather than solely relying on specialist maltsters. This is also natural cask strength i.e. the whisky hasn’t been diluted at all after coming out of the cask (bourbon barrels here).

Isle of Harris - The Hearach First Fill Oloroso Cask Matured: The Hearach is the name of the lightly peated (12-15 PPM) single malt from the Isle of Harris distillery, and we’re big fans. It’s a project rooted in community, employing dozens on an island with a population of fewer than 2,000, with locals trained up to be distillers. Like many exciting younger distilleries, they pride themselves on longer fermentations (about 60% of their wash is fermented for 120 hours), manual distillation with a ‘human touch’, and transparency.

Glen Scotia 12 Year Old: When you see a whisky with a straightforward age statement name like this, from a 19th century distillery, you’d be forgiven for assuming it had always been around. This new (fantastic value) 12 Year Old, however, was only released in Aug 2025! No nonsense, 100% first fill bourbon, fruity, maritime Campbeltown goodness. After intermittent production and closure during the 1990s, Glen Scotia has really gone from strength to strength in the last decade, becoming essential and truly beloved by whisky geeks.

The Heart Cut x Barley Named Independent Bottler of the Year at Whisky Mag’s Icons of Whisky two years running (2024 & 2025), The Heart Cut has now bottled over 20 eclectic whiskies from some of the coolest distilleries around the world, always dealing with distilleries direct. No brokers or middle people. Plus, they’ve created this new ‘house’ blended malt. Truly extraordinary even before you hear that it’s a wife and husband duo, and that they started the business just a couple of years ago around the same time that their twins were born!

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Selecting 3x Lowland whiskies this month (and 5x between Dec & Jan) wasn’t done on purpose by the way! They were chosen on merit and it's just worked out that way. It does highlight however, how very good – and varied – things are happening in a whisky region that not so long ago only contained two active distilleries.

Daftmill 2011 Winter Batch Release 12 Year Old: It’s incredibly exciting to be able to bring you this. Daftmill’s one of the smallest distilleries in Scotland, and grows all the barley on their own farm. Early releases sold out instantly! This is a slightly larger release, but production on the sixth generation family farm remains tiny, only making whisky during a few short months when farmwork is quieter, filling as few as 100 casks a year.

Tomintoul 10 Year Old: “The gentle dram” tells you something about what they’re going for. Founded in 1965, their classic and multi-award-winning 10 Year Old was launched in 2002, a couple of years after current owners Angus Dundee bought the distillery. We haven’t featured a Tomintoul since early 2021, and this malty, floral, softly fruity whisky is a wonderful way to ease ourselves into the new year.

Holyrood Ambir: Truly one of Scotland's new wave of innovative distillers, this fruity, buttery beauty is the distillery’s third release. Established in 2019 in Edinburgh’s historic old town, they take influence from the city’s rich brewing history. That’s certainly the case with Ambir, which features 4 speciality malts, and 10(!) different yeasts. Maturation is largely in first and second fill bourbon casks, with just over 10% in oloroso casks.

Ardnahoe Infinite Loch: A new Islay distillery! Well, it was founded in 2017, but its inaugural release only appeared in May 2024, followed by this (their first core release) in Sep. The distillery was built by top independent bottler and blender Hunter Laing who worked with Jim McEwan (legendary former Bowmore and Bruichladdich master distiller) to build the distillery and perfect their craft. A classic peated (40PPM), fruity Islay spirit.

Lindores Thiron 2024: Fans of whisky and history may recognise Lindores Abbey in relation to the first recorded mention of Scotch whisky (or at least distilled malt spirit). 523 years later – Drew & Helen McKenzie Smith returned distilling to the site, and hit the history books again fir this release. Lindores was a Tironensian abbey, and this whisky uses new French oak casks from trees grown in Thiron-Gardais.

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Two independent farm distilleries, three female master whisky makers, and even a trip to Japan! We’re starting 2026 in style. Happy New Year!

Filey Bay STR Red Wine Cask: One of two ‘field to bottle’ single estate whiskies this month, Filey Bay single malt is made at the Spirit of Yorkshire distillery in God’s own county. Their Flagship release is matured in bourbon casks, but this new permanent addition to the core range is fully aged in STR (shaved, toasted and re-charred) red wine casks. These are a speciality pioneered by the late, great consultant Jim Swan, who offered vital guidance to Spirit of Yorkshire on the road from concept to reality.

Benriach The Original Ten: Amazingly our first unpeated Benriach! We’ve recently mentioned Benriach alongside Glendronach and former owner/master blender Billy Walker. It was current master blender Dr. Rachel Barrie, however, who completely overhauled Benriach’s range back in 2020. Her CV from over 30 years in the industry is legendary, creating whiskies for Glenmorangie, Bowmore, and Laphroaig. This natural colour 10-year-old brings together 3 cask types: bourbon, sherry & fresh American oak.

Lochlea Orchard & Oak - Single Estate: Lochlea is an independent family owned farm and distillery, making single malt exclusively from the barley they grow and harvest themselves. (Much like Spirit of Yorkshire.) We’ve enjoyed Lochlea’s seasonal releases, but Orchard & Oak – matured in a trio of first-fill bourbon, fresh American oak, and Calvados casks – is part of their first ever core range (alongside the sherry and Port matured Dark Briar, and ex-peated and red wine cask Smoke Without Fire).

The Glenrothes 15 Year Old: Founded in 1878, Glenrothes has long been valued by blenders, and benefits from the unparalleled sherry cask programme of Edrington. Glenrothes’ casks are said to cost 10x the industry average, and they run their tall stills very slowly. The result is an elegant spirit that ages beautifully with rich, smooth, rewarding character. This relatively new 15 Year Old was first released at the end of 2024, using casks personally selected by master whisky maker Laura Rampling.

Nikka Pure Malt Red: It’s been a while since we’ve had a Japanese whisky. Let’s fix that. Nikka was founded back in 1934 by Masataka Taketsuru, the father of Japanese whisky. ‘Pure Malt’ refers to what we would now call a blended malt, here meaning a combination of single malts from Yoichi, and Miyagikyo. Of the three in this particular range, which also includes White and Black editions, the Red is the one that predominantly comes from Miyagikyo. What does that mean? It means it’s the fruity one!

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This month we’re taking a closer look at American whiskey, with two different bourbons (one made with rye, the other wheated) and a fabulous single malt drawn from a single cask that you won’t find anywhere except Master of Malt and Pour & Sip. There are also a couple of exciting Scotch whiskies to keep things balanced. A light, zesty blended malt with a little Campbeltown influence, and a big, complex, highly sought-after, heavily peated Campbeltown single malt!

Four Roses Small Batch Select: A quirk of history means Four Roses have 10 recipes, using five different yeasts and two different mashbills. The classic Small Batch uses all 10, while this excellent Small Batch Select utilises six. The focus is on spice, with herbal and light fruit supporting. If you only had room for one bottle of American whiskey in your drinks cupboard, then this rye-forward sippable non-chill filtered bourbon might just be the one!

Bardstown Bourbon Co. Wheated Bottled-In-Bond Bourbon: This Kentucky straight bourbon is part of Bardstown Bourbon Company’s Origin Series, which means it all comes from their own distillery. Wheated bourbons such as this swap some or all of the rye out in favour of wheat. Famous examples include Maker’s Mark and Pappy Van Winkle. This leads to a more approachable, milder, smoother style of bourbon that many favour.

Westland 7 Year Old Exclusive Single Cask - Cask 6205: A Master of Malt and Pour & Sip exclusive from Seattle craft distillers leading the way for American single malt, and using exciting full flavoured malts (including some common in dark beers, porters and stouts). Cask 6205 is a Jurançon French white wine casks used to finish this whisly. Westland is also a Certified B Corporation, meaning that they’ve met extremely high social and environmental standards.

Noble Rebel Orchard Outburst: A blended malt brand launched in 2023, with Orchard Outburst providing “zingy citrus & salty ocean waves” alongside crisp ripe orchard fruits. Loch Lomond distillery offers vast versatility, with malt whisky from Glen Scotia also used. Some is also fermented using Chardonnay wine yeast to help intensify the fruit and citrus flavours, before being matured in ex-bourbon casks and bottled at natural colour without chill filtration.

Kilkerran Heavily Peated Batch No. 9: Campbeltown whiskies, especially those from J&A Mitchell & Co.’s independently owned Springbank and Glengyle distilleries, are in very high demand these days! We’re therefore delighted to share this Kilkerran single malt from Glengyle with you. Glengyle only operates for part of the year with the majority of production dedicated to their lightly peated style, making this heavily peated whisky an even rarer treat.

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This July we’re celebrating the spirit of independence (American or otherwise) throughout the box, from perhaps the most famously independent of classic Scotch distilleries to a cracking old indie bottling.

Leiper's Fork Bottled in Bond Tennessee Whiskey: Founder Lee Kennedy and others successfully campaigned to overturn laws restricting distillation to just 3 counties in Tennessee, opening the door for a new wave in a further 41 Tennessee counties! Since 2016, Leiper’s Fork’s been on a mission to resurrect the small-batch, pot-distilled whiskeys that once flourished in Middle Tennessee before Prohibition. Made the slow way – with a sweet mash rather than sour, and lower barrel entry strengths, this one's 4-5 years old.

Blended Grain 37 Year Old 1987 (Master of Malt): One of the Independent Bottlers of the Year  at the Whisky Magazine’s Icons of Whisky 2023, Master of Malt just gave their range a bit of a relaunch with handsome new labels and new releases. Selected by (also award-winning) Head of Whisky Sam Simmons, this extraordinarily well aged grain whisky was distilled in Dec 1987 and is comfortably the oldest whisky to ever feature in Pour & Sip!

Stowloch Ozark Highlands Whisky: Codified in Missouri law in 2022, Ozark Highlands spirits must be fermented, distilled, aged, and bottled in the Ozarks; use pure, chemical-free limestone-filtered Ozark Highland water; and if aged must be aged for a min of 4 years in Missouri-made oak barrels. Stowloch's made with heirloom, non-GMO grains, long fermentation, and a rye-less mashbill (like a wheated bourbon).

Torabhaig Sound of Sleat - The Legacy Series: The smoky breadcrumb trail to Torabhaig's first 10 year old continues with Sound of Sleat. Their island style revolves around “well-tempered” peat. 78 PPM is high (higher than most heavily peated Islay whiskies), but the peat used and crucially the tight cut points during distillation (only selecting the aromatics they desire) makes Torabhaig an entirely different experience..

Glenfarclas 15 Year Old Cheltenham Festival Edition: Although we featured a Glenfarclas of this age (and strength) back in 2021, when the opportunity to include this limited edition vatting presented itself we didn’t have to think about it very long. Sherry matured, mid-teen, 46% Glenfarclas has always been a sweet spot in the range, with this bottling marking 15 years of the distillery sponsoring Cheltenham’s famous cross country steeplechase.

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We have Springbank this month, a huge coup! Plus another 100% floor malted gem, and a
dram with an entirely different coastal influence... We also rejoin the Strathearn story.

Springbank 10 Year Old: Springbank’s a cult whisky – it's unique, beloved, and production is limited by old school methods. They proudly malt, distil, mature and bottle everything on site. They malt 100% of the barley for their whiskies using their traditional floor maltings. Nobody else in Scotland can claim these things. Founded in 1828, it’s still independently owned. Funky, coastal, very Campbeltown.

Old Perth Manzanilla Limited Edition: Old Perth’s history dates back to 1908, brought back as a 100% sherry matured blended malt by the Morrison family in 2014. Unusually, that means a vatting of 11 handpicked manzanilla sherry casks here. Manzanilla’s essentially a type of dry, slightly salty (think sea spray) fino sherry that must be made around coastal Sanlúcar de Barrameda that can still be fresh and zesty in character.

Stauning HØST: Stauning’s whiskies are made from 100% floor-malted local rye and/or barley, and are double distilled in small direct-fired pot stills. It’s rare to malt rye, while double pot distillation is more like Scotch than classic rye except direct-fired stills (and their Maillard reactions) are now extremely rare in Scotland. HØST blends single malt and malted rye(!), matured mostly in American oak casks, but also using some Port barriques.

SPEY Chairman’s Choice PX Edition: Despite work starting in 1962, Speyside didn't produce spirit until 1990! In 2012 Harvey’s of Edinburgh took the reins. Their family’s SPEY brand (a cask of which is said to have been gifted to King George III by Lord Byron) thus became ‘SPEY from Speyside Distillery’. With their lease now ending they’re moving all the distillery’s equipment to a new site nearer the River Spey. So enjoy single malt from a newly ‘lost’ distillery! Matured in Pedro Ximénez sherry and bourbon casks.

Strathearn Single Malt Batch 02: Strathearn was founded in 2013, earlier than most ‘craft’ minded young distilleries, helping to blaze the trail. Douglas Laing then purchased the distillery in 2019 and doubled down on the use of heritage varieties of barley and long fermentations (144 hours). Their “inaugural” release was drawn from (bourbon, fresh oak, and sherry) casks laid down by both Douglas Laing and the previous owners, with Batch 02 featuring more bourbon and less fresh oak for a more naturally creamy and fresh dram.

Pour & Sip

Seeing as St. Patrick's Day falls in March, we've filled this month's box with four Irish whiskeys! Plus a Mortlach, because who doesn't love a splash of Scotch? Get stuck into some classic styles and new releases in this one.

J.J. Corry Anfa No.2: Created in partnership with Drinks by the Dram, the second edition of this blended whiskey is full of fresh fruit notes, wrapped up in wave after wave of vanilla and honeycomb.

Sailor's Home Stormchaser: This release brings together triple-distilled Irish single malts aged in virgin oak and bourbon casks, with two pretty unique cask finishes: craft Irish stout barrels, and Madeira casks.

Dingle Lúnasa: This is the fourth release in the nine release-strong Wheel of the Year series, this is a triple-distilled single malt, initially aged in bourbon casks before it was finished in casks that previously held bourbon from the Widow Jane distillery, bottled at a generous 50.5% ABV.

Jameson Single Pot Still - Five Oak Cask Release: Jameson's first single pot still whiskey since the 1960s, released in 2022 and matured in five different barrel types: bourbon and first-fill sherry casks, as well as three types of virgin oak made from Irish, European, and American oak.

Mortlach 15 Year Old - Distillery Labels (Gordon & MacPhail): Gordon & MacPhail's Distillery Labels series was created to honour the bottler’s long-standing relationships with over 100 distilleries across the country, and here it's celebrating Mortlach, matured in first-fill and refill sherry casks.

Pour & Sip

Three different styles of Irish whiskey this month, Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Plus two single malts from longstanding Scotch distilleries both still drawing inspiration from their storied pasts.

Ballechin 13 Year Old Batch 1 - Cask Strength Edition: All tiny distilleries celebrating more traditional methods owe a debt to Edradour. ‘Scotland's Little Gem’ is a surviving farm-scale distillery dating back to 1837, purchased by top independent bottler Signatory in 2002. In 2006 the first peated malt from Edradour was release under the Ballechin name. This excellent cask strength edition was aged in oloroso and bourbon casks.

Glen Garioch 12 Year Old: Founded in 1797, Glen Garioch (pronounced ‘Glen Geery’) is one of Scotland's oldest distilleries. The stills have the country's steepest descending lyne arms, reducing reflux for a hearty, robust Highland malt. Fruitiness comes from clear wort and increased fermentation times in more recent years. This bourbon and sherry cask matured 12yo from their core range is nonetheless bottled at a generous 48% and non-chill filtered.

Saints & Sinners & Rebels & Rogues 18 Year Old: &Whisky is all about no nonsense, tasty, peerless value whisk(e)y. This Irish blend is no exception. It’s made with well-aged malt and grain whiskeys from across the whole isle of Ireland (we can’t say any more…), and is described as “dancing whiskey” by Dave Worthington! Its age almost belies its quaffable every day drinker credentials. Delicious, fruity, and creamy, classically Irish.

Glendalough Pot Still Irish Oak Finish: Glendalough (pronounced ‘Glen da-Loch’) are craft distillers who also release whiskeys sourced elsewhere (like this one). Pot still Irish whiskey is a quintessentially Irish style (in this case made with a 1:2 ratio of malted and unmalted Irish barley). Here it's unusually finished in fresh Irish oak casks from trees in the Wicklow mountains selected under a Continuous Cover Forest Management System.

Temris 5 Year Old P.X. Sherry Cask Finish: A new Irish single malt whiskey here, completing three different styles of Irish whiskey in this box. ‘Temris’ is an ancient (Proto-Celtic) word meaning ‘sanctuary’ or ‘sacred place’, which they liken to their goal of creating a “haven of flavour”. It’s natural colour and non-chill filtered, initially aged in bourbon casks then finished in casks that previously held rich, sticky Pedro Ximénez sherry.