Ardnamurchan 2018/2024 (59.1%, OB for The Whisky Exchange, cask #1058, 1st fill sherry butt, 702 bottles)
Colour: amber. Nose: salty game meats, bacon jam, pork scratchings, caraway, salted liquorice, cigar humidor and resinous fir wood. Also some rather prickly spiciness with pink peppercorns, paprika and clove oil. Big whisky! With water: loads of caraway, toasted fennel seed, ground ginger, black pepper, curry leaf - you could probably add this to a curry! Mouth: very good, excellent arrival with syrupy sherry and a great sense of thickness and texture, underlying that a lot of cupboard spices, dark beers, spicy dark grained breads, dark honey and a slightly smoky chocolatey note, like dark chocolate with chilli. With water: evolves nicely towards a more leathery and gentle profile, back towards rich bready and beery notes, drier earthy and tobacco qualities and notes of cedar wood, pinecones and dried herbs. Finish: long, spicy, slightly jammy and with a nice herbal, resinous quality. Comments: excellent modern malt whisky, in the very best sense. A big, assertive cask, but the Ardnamurchan distillate meets it squarely and the result is pretty delicious. Just come armed with some water and a pipette! It's one of those drams that I suspect you could tease several different profiles out of. 
SGP: 571 - 87 points. 

Ardnamurchan 2017/2023 (59.7%, Berry Brothers & Rudd 'The Pioneers', cask #374, sherry hogshead, 302 bottles)
Colour: deep gold. Nose: excellently salty, tarry and full of cured meats, smoky bacon crisps, smoked dark beers, rye bread, iodine and camphor. Really superb, concentrated nose with the sherry and peat seemingly very well integrated. Love this peppery and tarry combination. With water: feels even more concentrated around herbal bitters, medicines, tarry peat and pine wood now. Great singular and very powerful profile. Mouth: excellent arrival, again a feeling of concentration, with a lot of thick, tarry smokiness, more dark beers, smoked meats, paprika, iodine drops and some hints of salted liquorice and eucalyptus. Also quite a few smoked teas and cough medicines. With water: again a sense of increased concentration and cohesion with water. Wonderful notes of pine wood, smoked olive oil, pure tar extracts, iodine, camphor and caraway. Finish: long, some fresh espresso, then wood smoke, more pepper, tar, cured game meats and hessian. All tinged with a rich, tangy peat smoke. Comments: An awesome cask! I feel that the peated Ardnamurchans are leading the charge at this age, but the unpeated ones, like the 2018 we tasted before this one, will likely catch them up by around 10 years of age. 
SGP: 477 - 90 points. 

Daftmill 15 yo 2007/2023 ‘Fife Strength’ (56.3%, OB for UK Independent Whisky Retailers, 1st fill bourbon barrel)
Francis has told me before what Fife Strength means, but I can’t recall just now I’m afraid. Colour: bright straw. Nose: hyper clean and full of sweet, buttery cereals, cut grass, lemon rind, crushed parsley, olive oil and wee touches of strop leather and barley water. Immaculate! With water: the same but slightly brighter, more floral, a feeling that it becomes ever so slightly drier and more peppery and with some wonderful notes of soda bread and flower honey. Mouth: the same, but with added juiciness in the form of ripe pineapple chunks, jellybeans, lemon curd and custard. You feel the wood closing in a bit but there’s a definite feeling this has been bottled well in time. More lemons, lemon barley water, cream soda and more subtle green herbal notes. With water: cider apples, yellow plums, myrtle, heather honey and impressions of youthful calvados, freshly milled malt and more lovely grassy olive oil notes. Finish: good length, a nice tension between these peppery notes, green grassy qualities and softer floral aspects. Comments: really excellent, rather the epitome of what I think of as the ‘Daftmill house style’, which is bright, sweet, grassy, citric and honeyed. 
SGP: 641 - 89 points. 

Daftmill 15 yo 2007/2023 (56.4%, OB for The Whisky Exchange, #009, bourbon barrel with PX sherry finish, 171 bottles)
Apparently a bourbon barrel, then into PX for just two months before being put back into the same barrel, how many residual litres of PX were in that cask? Colour: reddish amber. Nose: there’s a definite PX sticky quality, but it’s also toned everything down slightly compared to the bourbon 15yo. Some black coffee sweetened with brown sugar, ruby ales, cloves, chai tea. With water:   a little more cohesive and ‘deeper’ with freshly baked brown bread, darjeeling tea leaves and some elegant floral notes emerging. Mouth: sweet raisins, sugary black tea, birch beer and spiced dark winter beers. It’s good but I can’t get away from this feeling that it has been somewhat flattened by the PX. With water: indeed, it’s much better with water, you feel the Daftmill sitting behind the sherry a little more clearly. Some grassy notes, plums stewed in Armagnac, spiced pumpernickel bread and more beers and slightly sour ales. Finish: quite long, on rye bread spice, cloves, aniseed sweets and toasted fennel seed. A re-appearance of sweetened coffee in the aftertaste. Comments: I find this one a little more challenging if I’m honest. On one hand the sherry is surprisingly well-integrated at only two months, on the other hand, you can kind of see the joins and they aren’t always totally balanced or cohesive. I’d also add that I find it much, much better with water, but I definitely prefer the excellent ‘Fife Strength’ 15yo. 
SGP: 561 - 85 points. 

Glen Grant 24 yo 1998/2023 (51.2%, Club Qing, cask #13087, sherry hogshead, 224 bottles)
Colour: gold. Nose: it begins on rich notes of marmalade, stem ginger in syrup and fresh brown bread. Also herbal teas, wormwood and chamomile. A very lovely and nicely robust sherry profile. With water: very charming and slightly more old school with these notes of hessian, light camphor, beeswax and herbal tonic wines (Buckfast, let's be honest!) Mouth: quite a grapey profile, with lots of sultan and raisin sweetness, that even goes into blackcurrants, Ribena and cassis. It's still a little bready though which brings this impression of treacle cake and candied walnuts. With water: still pretty sweet, but with herbal bitters, caraway and eucalyptus notes adding complexity. Finish: good length, a lovely balance between sweeter dark fruits and richer, spicier bready tones. Comments: great modern Glen Grant from a sherry cask, one which shows that this was still a rather fuller and more characterful distillate during these years. 
SGP: 561 - 88 points. 

Glen Grant 1972/1993 'The Dark Side of the Moon' (56.1%, Signatory for Velier Import, casks #6024-6025, sherry)
Colour: amber. Nose: holy moly! Immensely concentrated dark fruits! Damsons, figs, dates, prunes and sultanas all soaked in very old Armagnac. Also aged mead, cough medicine, salted dark chocolate and heather flower honey. A stunning tension between these richly honeyed beehive vibes and a perfectly salty, earthy and rich sherry character. With water: rather unbelievably it becomes even more honeyed and full of nectars, exotic fruit pulps, hardwood resins and tropical fruit teas. The sherry is still there but the way it evolves rapidly towards the underlying Glen Grant distillate is amazing. Mouth: magnificent! Again this amazing balance and interplay between earthy, gamey, leathery and salty sherry with this rather ancient bodega style funk, and then honeys galore, loads of beeswax, pollens, old crystalised dark honeys and hessian. Amazing, singular and stunningly complex profile. With water: just magnificent! Camphor, old leather, rolling tobacco, linseed oil, herbal cough syrups, old Drambuie, spiced marmalade and yellow Chartreuse. Finish: very long, circling back onto the saltier and drier sherry aspects now, a stunning tension still on display between all these various influences. Comments: I had it around 91-92 but when you add water it just explodes! Totally stunning old Glen Grant that treads the most sublime tightrope between distillate character and some totally amazing sherry cask influence. Bottlings such as are why I love Glen Grant so much. 
SGP: 661 - 93 points. 

Glen Grant 25 yo (86 US proof, Stuart MacNair for USA, stopper cork, bottled early 1960s)
It may have been a mistake to place this after that ridiculous 1972, but we'll see. This is a bottle I opened just the other week for the show. Colour: very pale gold. Nose: what's amazing is that you can really spot the share DNA between this and the 1972, which is to say: honeybomb! It's really a stunning combination of flower honeys with sea salt, pure honeycomb, beeswax, linseed oils, hessian and camphor. Rather like the pure refill 1972s but with added subtle peat influence, that manifests more as herbs, roots and medicines, and a bigger and more vivid waxiness. Mouth: We needn't have worried too much. It's a beautiful arrival full of herbal liqueurs, many more medicinal and herbal qualities, the honey character is there, but it feels older, saltier, drier, more like some very well aged mead. Then there's also this beautiful coconut note, which feels reminiscent of some older G&M malts from the late 1930s, so potentially coming from old American oak ex-sherry casks? Continues with many dried fruits, pressed flowers, mineral oils, bouillon, dried tarragon and suet. Still heavily on waxes and camphor in the background. Amazing complexity while also possessing an incredible elegance and almost fragility, but without actually being fragile, if you see what I mean. Finish: long, perfectly drying, lightly salty, full of herbal medicinal notes, furniture polish and mineral oils again. Comments: stunning old style Glen Grant, between this and the 1972 I would say you have the two most important profiles of this distillery from its greatest era. 
SGP: 562 - 92 points. 

Glendronach 1970/1992 'Reserve Cantarelli' (43%, Signatory for Velier, casks #546-547, sherry hogsheads, 1200 bottles)
Colour: deep amber. Nose: such a different profile to those Glen Grants. This is a much leaner, drier, more powerful and earthier profile of sherry. Full of freshly brewed espresso, toasted walnuts, bone dry VORS oloroso, salted liquorice and stewed prunes. Given time it begins to show a little more of this darkly fruity aspect which adds balance and suggests sweeter qualities too, but it remains a big, chunky beast. Mouth: fantastic arrival on pure chocolate. Bitter, expensive, very dark chocolate flecked with sea salt and chipotle chilli. Then game and beef stocks, bouillon, camphor, tar extracts and bone barrow. Some boozy Tiramisu and salted treacle. Finish: long, deeply earthy, very gamey, dark fruit chutneys, very old balsamic and pickled walnuts. Comments: hard to argue with this. Teeters on the brink of being 'too much' at points but it always manages to pull back with little fruity notes that come out of the blue at the perfect moment. One for anyone seeking pure, old style sherried malt whisky. 
SGP: 662 - 91 points. 

Glendronach (56.02%, OB, 1950s) 
A bottle I opened a few months ago and was delighted to discover - thanks to my electric hydrometer - was actually a full proof version of this famous and rather influential old official label. The level was just in the top of the shoulder of the bottle, so I would imagine this was probably originally bottled at 100 proof (57.1%). I opened a 75 proof version just under ten years ago for my 30th birthday and it was good but not as stellar as we might have hoped for. This on the other hand... Colour: pale gold. Nose: what's most impressive is the freshness and sharpness, many green and citrus fruit qualities, grassiness, grapefruit, olive oil, chalk, fennel seed and waxed hessian. Also petrolic vibes, mineral oils, sea salt and this slowly unfurling, bone dry peat smoke note. A deep but almost crystalline smokiness. With water: animal fats, coal dust, cooking oils, sheep wool! Emphatic old-style territory and bursting with the impression of texture and fatness. Mouth: a stunning arrival, again on bone dry, crisp peat smoke, sea salt, camphor, tiny hints of pickling brine, mineral oils, toolbox grease, waxes, old dried out herbal liqueurs, wee hints of mustard powder and again some aniseed and fennel notes. Amazing sharpness, power and freshness, a sense of control about it which is very compelling. With water: it's funny how the peat sort of disappears and leaves instead this wonderfully pure, saline and citrus combination, the sharpness of fruit acids, grapefruit, more chalk, aniseed, clay, camphor, lemon rind and shoe polish. Stunning distillate that carries flavour and texture in a totally thrilling and cohesive way. Finish: long, drying, very mineral, chalky and sooty with the peat smoke coming back in the aftertaste. Comments: hard not to get carried away but it's a brilliant example of how older style malts such as this were just so much fatter and more textural complex distillates, something we especially see when they're captured at higher strengths like this. 
SGP: 563 - 93 points. 

Lagavulin 16 yo (43%, OB 'White Horse', 1 litre, early 1990s)
Another bottle I've cracked for the show, I always try to have one of these open where possible these days. Colour: gold. Nose: dried out seaweed, waxes, iodine, paraffin, seawater and hessian. With time gets a little fruitier, which I don't usually find with Lagavulin, some grapefruit and smoked teas. Rather stunning as expected. Mouth: just superb. Oily, camphory, full of natural tar extracts, smoked sea salt, more iodine, TCP, dried kelp and old rope. Really a feeling of the seashore and early dunnage warehouses about it. Finish: long, full of deep, drying peat smoke, warming peppery notes, old medicines, herbal liqueur vibes and more camphor and hessian. Comments: we do these old Laga 16s ever so often on WF and it's always the same story. Totally brilliant and rather indisputable whiskies. Maybe not quite as mesmeric as the very early 75cl 16 year olds, but that's not saying much is it. 
SGP: 566 - 92 points. 

Lagavulin 12 yo (43%, OB 'White Horse', Montenegro import, green glass, dark vatting, mid-1980s) 
This one seems to carry a bit of a mixed reputation, Serge tackled it twice in the past (WF89 and WF90) but there's also different versions it would seem. My experience with pretty much all the old Lagavulin 12s is that they seem generally brilliant. But let's see... Colour: amber. Nose: it's certainly earthier and more sherry-driven than the 16yo. I'd also add there's more dark and dried exotic fruits in the mix. Some wonderful coastal dryness, umami seasonings, soy sauce, dried seaweed, wormwood, heather ales and some beautiful tarry notes. The peat is perhaps more subdued in the mix that some other old 12s, but it still has this wonderfully deep, thick, dry peat smoke character for sure. Undeniably pretty awesome. Mouth: definitely less peaty than you might have expected, and more driven by thick, syrupy sherry with a touch of sweetness, like some very high-class old cream sherry perhaps. Notes of balsamic, tar, salted caramel, old hessian cloth, very tiny flecks of iodine and more subtle impressions of dried seaweed and Maggi. I can see why Serge perhaps didn't go too high on this one, but I think it's still pretty excellent old Lagavulin. Finish: good length, getting drier, earthier, saltier and more directly peaty now. Comments: I would agree this perhaps doesn't hold up to some of the 16s that came immediately after it, but as a standalone, old school sherried Lagavulin I still find it pretty excellent. There's a syrupy character to the palate that makes it more of a tumbler dram than a copita dram, but that's only an asset in my view. 
SGP: 656 - 91 points. 

Lagavulin 31 yo 1991/2022 (49.2%, OB 'Casks of Distinction' for the 50th anniversary of Sukhinder and Rajbir Singh's family business, cask #P5D4, 1st fill PX sherry hogshead, 264 bottles)
Colour: pale amber. Nose: creosote, old tarred rope, the very same dried kelp and seaweed we found in the 16yo and wonderfully rich, slightly salty, slightly earthy and nicely rancio-accented underlying sherry influence. Very singular, cohesive and 'old Lagavulin' in style. Easy to see why they would select such a cask. Mouth: excellent tension between the savoury peat smoke, earthier aspects, big gamey and salty notes and then those slightly sweeter, raisiny PX characteristics - although it never tips over into cloying. Finish: long, tarry, back on iodine, dried seaweed, camphor, rancio and a rather emphatic and wonderful peaty note. Comments: a great, very singular and cohesive old Lagavulin, perfect fusion between sherry and peat that elevates distillery character front and centre. 
SGP: 666 - 92 points.