Bottles

Pour & Sip

Founded by independent bottler Adelphi in 2014, Ardnamurchan makes both peated (30-35PPM) and unpeated spirit (about 50:50 in terms of production). Both are used in this release, just as they were for the excellent core AD/ release we featured in August 2023. The difference? The Sherry Cask Release is 100% sherry cask matured. Full maturation in a mix of oloroso and Pedro Ximénez butts. It’s a difference that’s immediately clear in the gorgeous natural colour!

Situated in a remote part of the west coast, Ardnamurchan’s power and heat all come from local renewables, and they’re producing some fantastic whiskies. As Chris in our curation team noted recently, “Ardnamurchan is slowly taking over my everyday drinkers shelf at home!”

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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, and has been released by InnoBev, whose shareholders somewhat incredibly include Swizz Beatz, the American rapper and record producer who’s married to Alicia Keys! Apparently he took one of those DNA tests and it told him he was 30% Irish.

Founder and head of innovation Stephen Dillon sees the parallels between music and liquid production, blending the elements just right, and “creating experiences”. Initially aged in bourbon casks, this whiskey was finished in casks that previously held rich, sticky Pedro Ximénez sherry.

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Founded in 1797, Glen Garioch (pronounced ‘Glen Geery’ – one to impress your friends with) is one of the oldest distilleries in Scotland, located between Speyside and the east coast. The stills have the steepest descending lyne arms in Scotland, reducing reflux for a hearty, robust Highland malt. Fruitiness comes from clear wort and increased fermentation times in more recent years, with an interest in producing an older style of spirit eventually culminating in reopening their own malting floor and reintroducing a direct-fired wash still (while also reducing overall carbon footprint) during a 2021 renovation. Both are extremely rare features these days.

This bourbon and sherry cask matured 12-year-old is part of their core range, but is nonetheless bottled at a generous 48% and non-chill filtered. We’re told it’s “the perfect accompaniment to Parmigiano-Reggiano”.

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In 2015 whisky distilling returned to the city of Glasgow for the first time in a century, and the Glasgow Distillery Co. acknowledged the past by naming their single malt after the year one of Glasgow’s original distilleries (Dundashill) was founded. Yep, in 1770. Like others in this set, Glasgow Distillery (how many times can I say Glasgow here?) produce both peated and unpeated spirit. (Some triple-distilled too.)

Having featured one of their peated whiskies a couple of years ago, we’re now looking at the unpeated side of their double-distilled production: The Original. 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. It’s also available in a highly-rated Cask Strength edition, which is well worth seeking out too.

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Campbeltown was once “the whisky capital of the world”, but today there are only three distilleries. It’s the smallest whisky region in that regard (even with another three distilleries on the way), but always great to feature. This new limited release is unusual for a couple of reasons. Glen Scotia’s usually unpeated (they produce some peated spirit for a few weeks each year, much of which is lightly peated [17PPM], with some heavily peated [55PPM]), and is also rarely seen in wine casks. This is described as ‘medium’-peated, and has spent six months in Barolo red wine casks!

The inspiration for a whisky with “swirling smoke and rich red colour” is said to come 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).

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&Whisky is known for their ‘Seaweed & Aeons & Digging & Fire’ peated single malts, and many other similarly named releases. They’re all about no nonsense, tasty, peerless value whisky. (Or in this case ‘whiskey’, as it’s usually spelt in Ireland – many Irish producers added the extra ‘e’ to differentiate themselves from Scotch as far back as the 19th century.) This Irish blend is certainly 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. Or as Sam Simmons says, “it’s blended to be toasted in celebration rather than deep glencairn consideration”. Delicious, fruity, and creamy, it’s of a style that’s classically Irish. Much like its name.

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We’ve featured many whiskies from tiny distilleries that celebrate more traditional methods, but they all owe a debt to Edradour. ‘Scotland's Little Gem’ was known as the smallest Scotch distillery until 2008 (smaller ones have opened since, plus Edradour expanded in 2018), using open top mash tuns, tiny stills and traditional wormtub condensers. A surviving farm-scale distillery dating back to 1837 – though they track their history back to 1825 when a farmer involved began legal distilling – its existence through to today is a marvellous quirk of history.

In 2002 it was purchased by top independent bottler Signatory, allowing it greater opportunity to shine, and leading to greater use of sherry (and wine) casks, many more releases, and in 2006 the first peated release under the Ballechin name. This excellent cask strength edition was aged in oloroso and bourbon casks.

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Craft distillers in the heart of Kentucky, Bluegrass was established in 2012 within part of a disused Lexington bread factory, releasing their first bourbon in 2015. With Kentucky ingredients, hand mashing, and their use of blue corn (the first Kentucky bourbon to do so), they built a following. Nevertheless, the 2023 news that they’d taken on Elkwood Farm 20 miles down the road where they can increase production 1,000% and grow their own heirloom blue corn and wheat on 62 acres of farmland was pretty incredible!

Toasted Oak uses a more 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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Estimated despatch 7 February

Undoubtedly one of the leading lights of English whisky, and also a whisky coming of age. White Peak distillery is named after their view in beautiful Derbyshire, while the whisky takes its name from the building’s original industrial use, reflecting the proud past of the Derwent Valley Mills UNESCO World Heritage Site (as do their stunning bottles).

Founded in 2016, they’ve used various casks, including STR (shaved, toasted and recharred red wine), but here the distillery’s oldest whisky to date has matured exclusively in first-fill bourbon casks. Allowing more space for the distillery character to shine is no bad thing when they’ve worked so hard on it. 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 (Thornbridge, known for Jaipur IPA) with long 6-day fermentations for fruity esters.

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Once upon a time, five friends – Mikko, Jouni, Miika, Miko, and Kalle – were sipping American rye whiskey in a sauna. That’s when the idea hit them. Why was nobody making rye whisky in Finland when the country grew so much high quality rye? And so Kyrö Distillery Company was born in 2012. Their 100% malted wholegrain Finnish rye spirits have won many fans and awards since, are made with incredible attention to detail, and provide great concentration and depth of flavour both neat and in cocktails.

Since we last featured one of their double pot distilled whiskies their core range has expanded to include this Oloroso Malt Rye (initially matured in new American oak and bourbon casks, but then as the name suggests finished in oloroso sherry casks). A peated Kyrö is also now available, alongside the existing wood smoke and classic malt rye options.

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This Islay distillery is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year! One of the earliest of the wave of new distilleries this century, when it was founded in 2005 it was the first new distillery on Islay in over 120 years. They grow their own barley (321.22 tonnes of Diablo and Laurette varieties in 2024) and run their own traditional floor maltings, providing about 30% of their needs prior to the latest expansion plans to add a third pair of stills and additional washbacks. All the malt they use is peated to a hearty 50 PPM (phenol parts per million), but distilled to preserve some lighter floral and citrus notes.

This richer offering is the much anticipated limited edition cask strength version of Sanaig, the name given to their predominantly sherry matured style (either finished or fully matured in American oak oloroso sherry hogsheads from Bodegas José y Miguel Martín).

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Originally called Box Destilleri, High Coast (Höga Kasten in Swedish, the region they call home) produces both unpeated and peated spirit with a clear wort (inspired by Japanese whiskymaking), and similar stills to Kilchoman (Islay is another key influence).

The Silent Mills editions all build on the same peated, bourbon cask matured base as Timmer from their Origin range – which we featured in Jan 2023 – 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 instead of bourbon for added dried fruit tang and roundness. The peat level is around 45 PPM.

Large temperature fluctuations in their warehouses (a 60°C swing between a cold winter and warm summer day!), meanwhile, encourage greater interaction between wood and spirit.

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Glendalough (pronounced ‘Glen da-Loch’) distillery took shape in 2013. One of the earliest players in Ireland’s craft distilling movement, they initially focused on poitín and gin before starting to distill their own whiskey in 2015. By then they’d already started releasing whiskeys sourced elsewhere, but which they’d been able to put their own spin on through maturation and blending.

That’s what we have here with pot still Irish whiskey a quintessentially Irish style (in this case made with a 1:2 ratio of malted and unmalted Irish barley to Glendalough’s specifications), initially matured in bourbon casks before being finished in fresh Irish oak casks from trees in the Wicklow mountains selected under a Continuous Cover Forest Management System. One of the first (for a century or so), and still the most accessible Irish oak matured release.

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Founded in 1840, a number of distinctive features date to the time of ‘The Major’, aka James Grant, who inherited the distillery in 1872. It’s said he may have been the first man in the Highlands to own a car. He’s certainly responsible for the 22-acre Victorian Garden at the distillery, but also the tall, slender stills and their ingenious purifiers (one of the earliest examples of this uncommon bit of kit – essentially a small condenser attached to the lyne arm that returns heavier vapours back to the still just as they would have been heading to the actual condenser). This massively contributes to Glen Grant’s light character, with the still’s unique boil balls aiding further reflux. One of the first single malts to gain popularity outside the Highlands, and internationally, Glen Grant is easy-going at young ages, but also ages wonderfully. This very highly-awarded 18-year-old malt shows that.

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The Thompson brothers (Phil and Simon) put family-owned Dornoch Castle Hotel on the map as one of the greatest whisky hotels in Scotland, championing ‘old style’ whiskies made with heritage barley, brewer’s yeast and long fermentations, and going on to set up the tiny Dornoch Distillery in 2016 (with plans for a much larger site now afoot). They’ve also become award-winning independent bottlers for releases such as this.

Really very, very affordable whisky lovingly put together by whisky geeks, for whisky geeks. SRV5 aka 'Station Road Vat 5' is the name of the 1,000 litre European oak vessel where this non-chill filtered, natural colour blended malt (North Highland, Islay and Speyside single malts) rested and slowly integrated over many months. This ‘solera’ vat is never emptied to less than a third, so each batch includes whisky from the previous releases.

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Bunnahabhain is usually (proudly, as a point of difference to their neighbours) not peated, but things weren’t always that way. Founded in 1881, the distillery produced the kind of heavily peated whisky Islay is famous for right up until the 1960s when they decided to leave the peat behind.

Starting in the 1990s however (and increasing in the last decade or so), the distillery has got back in touch with its peaty roots on the side! Toiteach a Dhà (pronounced ‘Toch-ach ah-ghaa’) is Gaelic for "Smoky Two", being the follow up to one of their previous smoky releases named simply Toiteach. Matured in bourbon and sherry casks, this second version has a higher proportion of sherry casks. It’s also the first peated Bunnahabhain we’ve featured in Pour & Sip.

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No, not the classic Bowmore 12 Year Old here, but rather a brand new 12-year-old whisky from their Sherry Oak Collection which only hit the shelves in the last few weeks! Described as a new “boutique range” that will sit alongside the core range, it celebrates European oak sherry casks. This particular release is aged in oloroso sherry and bourbon casks, with an additional oloroso cask finish.

Like Kilchoman, Bowmore have their own floor maltings (a very rare feature today), providing around 25% of their needs. The peat level of all the malt they use is lower than at Kilchoman, however, at 25-30 PPM. Bowmore distillery was founded way back in 1779, making it one of the very oldest distilleries in Scotland and the oldest on Islay.

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Jack Daniel’s is world famous. You know the branding. You know most people enjoy ‘JD’ with cola. But let’s be clear: the Jack Daniel Distillery makes some very good whiskey if you explore their slightly more premium offerings. Their single barrels are excellent, as are their bottled-in-bond releases (including some interesting ryes too…).

Jack Daniel's has a rich history dating back to the 19th century, and full control of their barrels, distillation and maturation. All the individual barrels chosen for Single Barrel Select releases come from the top floor of their rickhouses, where temperatures are hottest and the most concentrated flavours are created (as well as the most evaporation!). The difference between bourbon and Tennessee whiskey? The Lincoln County Process. Tennessee whiskeys are filtered through maple charcoal prior to ageing for smoothness.