A new little bag of odd or mixed bits and bobs


March 19, 2026

A new little bag of odd or mixed bits and bobs

Blends, right, mostly malts…

(1968 French pressing of “Born to Be Wild”)

Ascent of Drams 10 yo ‘Phase One, Spark’ (49.4%, Decadent Drinks, Online Exclusive, blended malt, refill sherry hogshead, 100 bottles, 2025)

No idea what this might be, but the neo-retro-futuristic label is magnificent, we could almost do with posters. Colour: dark gold. Nose: earth, cured ham, tobacco, smoked fish, walnut liqueur, ashes, rather evocative and pleasantly rustic. Mouth: lovely peat running through citrus and pepper, touches of salmiak, Seville orange, and still those persistent notes of cured ham, we would say Parma for good measure. Finish: long, with the pepper coming more to the fore, citron and a saline, seawater-like note in the aftertaste. Comments: nothing to add, this is excellent.
SGP:466 - 86 points.

Scallywag ‘The Winter Edition’ (52.4%, Douglas Laing, Speyside blended malt, Ice Wine casks finish, 2025)

We are publishing this note just before the official arrival of spring in our hemisphere, phew! A finishing in ice wine casks is bound to be rather bizarre, about as much as a twelve-year-old child in the body of a grandfather who would have the absolute power to send goodness knows what onto whomever he pleases. We also used to make ice wine, or eiswein, in Alsace, but a few years back we rather ceded the appellation to our Canadian cousins and friends, whom we adore anyway. Remember ice wine is supposed to be made from grapes that have naturally frozen while still on the vine, so in theory, it’s very ‘late harvest’. Colour: full gold. Nose: a little bushy at first, very much on apricot liqueur and honey, but it seems to find better balance after a moment. Let us see… With water: it does not change one iota. Mouth (neat): slightly cloying with all that fruit and sweetness, rather extreme indeed. With water: it improves, the muscat side coming through, along with blood orange liqueur. Finish: fairly long, much the same… Comments: I have not checked, is this a bottling for the Canadian market? Let us be honest, this is not bad at all, indeed rather good.
SGP:741 - 81 points.

Turntable ‘Track 07 - Born to be Wild’ (53%, blended scotch, 2025)

A blend of Ardnamurchan, Raasay, Nc'nean and Lochlea, alas with some Port Dundas in the mix. Let us hope that part was properly controlled… We have nothing against Port Dundas of course, quite the contrary, but it remains silent whisky all the same. Everything is a matter of proportions, quite right… Colour: gold. Nose: we do rather like Steppenwolf, it brings back memories of our first runs on a Harley. This nose is charming, very rooty, youthful, close to barley and earth, with strong impressions of celeriac. With water: a full five-kilo slab of nougat, honey, almonds, pistachios and so on. Mouth (neat): well now, this is very good indeed, fresh, earthy, lightly smoky, still very much marked by roots. With water: truly excellent. It is rather clever to combine these new cats, even if the Ardnamurchan seems to dominate the proceedings somewhat. Impressions of smoked lemon. Finish: fairly long, with just a couple of drops of coconut liqueur, no doubt coming from the grain, which otherwise rather kept a low profile throughout the tasting. Thank you, grain. Comments: this is excellent all the same. I have not checked what became of the band Steppenwolf, we shall look it up first thing tomorrow morning.
SGP:552 - 85 points.

The Ileach ‘Ruby Port’ (48.5%, OB, for Germany, cask #25/0032)

This is in fact an Islay single malt, but after a stay in ruby Port, can we really claim with a straight face that it remains a single malt? On the label they say ‘the true taste of Islay’, which may be a touch presumptuous, but we know these people are above all passionate. Colour: apricot. Nose: holy Suzy, smoked apricots and cherries preserved in ash. It clashes a little, let us admit it. Mouth: whoops. Raspberry and hay smoke, plus bay leaf. Finish: the same. Comments: I find it does not quite work, but that is very personal. A shame, the base is lovely, one can feel it, and I should also add that we tasted other Ileachs, made in a more natural style, and they were excellent.
The devil’s SGP… 666 - 65 points.

Stocking Filler 2011/2024 (46%, Royal Mile Whiskies, blended malt)

What is the point of tasting this now? Strictly none, we quite agree. But it is spring cleaning time at WF… Colour: deep gold. Nose: lovely roasted walnuts, peanuts, caramel, toffee, coal smoke, shoe polish and the like. Mouth: it is good, with a slight Glenfarclas side, plus a peaty touch. Nocino, shoe polish, bitter almonds… Finish: the same. Comments: nothing to add, we are well past the deadline anyway. Okay, it was very good…
SGP:463 - 85 points.

CRN57° 12 yo (43%, OB, blended malt, +/-2025)

This baby is supposed to be ‘a projection of the future The Cairn 12-year-old’, the new distillery from Gordon & MacPhail. Fair enough! Do note there are several labels, white, dark turquoise and so on… Not entirely sure what that signifies. Colour: gold. Nose: upper echelon for sure, lightly smoky, a little in the style of Benromach, with added notes of quality black tea and tobacco. Mouth: same impressions, fairly smoky, citrusy, earthy, with good texture despite the low strength. Notes of honeyed, peppered aubergine, roasted in the oven. Finish: drier, more austere. Black tea, without sugar, honey or aspartame. But with a nip… Comments: very nice indeed, firm, and very much in the Benromach vein.
SGP:462 - 84 points.

We move to the other end of the range…

CRN57-30-yo-43-OB-blended-malt-2025

CRN57° 30 yo (43%, OB, blended malt, +/-2025)

This baby also exists at a higher strength of 51.9%. Colour: full gold. Nose: obviously, with G&M’s stocks, they had everything required to compose a superb blended malt, and it shows in full here. Beautiful notes of beeswax, honeys, old Sauternes, nougat, white tea, honeysuckle, well-aged furniture polish and the like. Mouth: wow, this is excellent, I do not know whether there is some old Benromach from the Diageo era, but it certainly feels like it. Superb honeys, very ripe yellow fruits, and even two or three drops of Moutai, I swear. Finish: long, more smoky and spicier, yet perfectly balanced. Comments: who will still be around in twenty-five years to compare this CRN57° 30 with an actual thirty-year-old The Cairn? Perhaps an AI? In any case, this baby is brilliant, good luck.
SGP:552 - 90 points.

House of Hazelwood 33 yo ‘The Tops’ (51.6%, OB, Legacy Collection, blended malt, 1st and refill sherry, 523 bottles, 2022)

We recall that this is a series by William Grant & Sons and that, despite the somewhat improbable decanters they came in, the juices we have tasted so far have all been rather superb. Colour: mahogany. Nose: this rather reminds me of very old Glenfiddich that the brand used to have us taste in the good old days, twenty or thirty years ago, with walnuts, furniture polish, fir wood, crushed slate, fir honey and so on. Very retro, but retro is fashionable, is it not? With water: inhalations, balsa wood and essential oils for the sauna. Mouth (neat): excellent, that is beyond doubt. Fir and manuka honeys, fir bud liqueur, chestnut purée, thin mints… With water (although it does not seem strictly necessary on the palate): a superb combination of tars, resins and citrus. It is very slightly tired, but even that works nicely in this context. Finish: not very long, a little resinous and drying, let us move on… Comments: this is terrible, it lost points in the finish, yet it remains very high indeed.
SGP:461 - 89 points.

One last of the same ilk (we say the same cask in French), if I may say so…

House of Hazelwood 36 yo ‘Queen of the Hebrides’ (43.4%, OB, The Legacy Collection, Islay blended malt, 274 bottles, +/-2024)

Given that the last time we checked, William Grant did not have a distillery on Islay, these must necessarily be sourced casks. You will tell me that they do possess very large stocks for their famous blends… Colour: gold. Nose: this starts quite simply on Ardbegness, and we shall admit that one could do far worse in that respect. So, fresh tar, sailors’ ropes, smoked fish, coal tar, then slightly smoked apple and old hessian sacks forgotten at the back of a warehouse with a slightly leaking roof. All this ends, on the nose at least, with a most beautiful mix of camphor and eucalyptus. Could be Laphroaig just as well. Mouth: sublime, that is all. And not tired in the slightest. I adore this smoked fish, these oysters, this mentholated tobacco, and even these touches of Lagavulin, although we are not entirely sure there could be any Lagavulin in there. Magnificent bergamots in the fruit department. Finish: long, and even smokier and saltier, which is quite a feat at only 43% or thereabouts. You will rightly retort that around 40-43%, every tenth of a degree counts. Comments: a wonderful bottle, and not entirely certain it is truly a ‘blended’ malt. But no matter, it is brilliant and very south-coast-ish indeed.
SGP:565 - 92 points.

Check the index of all blended malts we've tasted