No grain, no gain: continuing from yesterday and the day before


August 6, 2026

No grain, no gain:
continuing from yesterday and the day before…

I promise this will be the last grain whisky session for quite some time. Thank you for your patience. But first, here's a lesser-known practice...

Wgiskyfun 101

About fresh oak and grain whisky
Back when highly active casks weren't considered essential for maturing malt whisky, as they so often are today, it was not uncommon practice to fill first-fill or new oak casks with cheaper grain whisky first. This helped tame the more aggressive characteristics of fresh oak before entrusting them with precious malt spirit.

Here's a perfect example: a photograph taken at Lagavulin in 2005. These empty Cambus 1992 casks (from Cambus's penultimate year of distillation), having spent around twelve years shedding the less desirable aromas and flavours imparted by fresh wood, were finally ready to be filled with Lagavulin's powerful yet pretty complex new make spirit.
(WF Archive)

Invergordon 58 yo 1965/2025 (50%, Duncan Taylor, Signature Reserve, Frank McHardy 60th Anniversary bottling)

It is obviously rather fascinating that such a towering figure of malt whisky as Frank should have taken an interest in grain whisky, although it helps to remember that he began his career at Invergordon in the early 1960s, are we still allowed to mention that, Frank? Colour: gold. Nose: a delightful marriage of melon, apricot and acacia honey, does that sound tempting? Add farmhouse cider, ripe mangoes and a few chalky touches. In truth, we are firmly in the territory of an excellent malt here, and we struggle to accept that this is grain whisky, even if it is Invergordon, and even at the grand age of 58 years. With water: the most delicate of Wulong teas, straight from the heart of Taiwan. Mouth (neat): oh my, this is beautiful! It might almost have held its own after yesterday’s magnificent Hazelwood, after all. Ripe banana, maple syrup, fresh vanilla, hay jelly, wild carrot, sweet woodruff and mullein syrup. It is perhaps only missing the tiniest touch of muscle, but then again, according to the label, it is grain whisky. With water: a cocktail of exotic fruits softened with coconut milk yet enriched by waxes and roots. Finish: this is usually the point where grain whiskies begin to lose lift, but here it skims through in perfect low flight. Comments: I know I am frightfully late, as always, but sixty years in the business deserves nothing less than a proper Roman triumph, Mr Frank McHardy! Awesome old grain.
SGP:641 - 90 points.

We are coming gently back down to earth, with even more North British… At this rate, we shall end up emptying the warehouses!

North British 20 yo 2005/2025 (54.9%, Dràm Mor, refill bourbon barrel, cask #602953, 184 bottles)

Colour: white wine. Nose: vanilla, turnips, nougat and a faint wisp of smoke from who knows where. With water: milk chocolate and café macchiato. Now that is very much grain whisky territory. The smoke, meanwhile, has vanished. Mouth (neat): as fruity and rooty as they come. Carrot cake splashed with lemon juice, or something along those lines. With water: the root vegetables become even more prominent, celeriac, gentian and swedes. Incidentally, swede eau-de-vie, as our dear neighbours across the Rhine make it, really is quite something. Finish: not all that short and, thinking about it again, very much on swede and perhaps Jerusalem artichoke. A touch of coffee in the aftertaste. Comments: good fun, good earth.
SGP:651 - 83 points.

North British 32 yo 1992/2025 (47.9%, Dramfool, bourbon barrel, cask #320, 188 bottles)

The sheer quantity of North British around these days is quite extraordinary, although when you have to keep Diageo’s and Edrington’s blends flowing, you do need some serious capacity. Well, mostly Diageo’s, to be fair. Colour: white wine. Nose: gentle, even more so on tinned sweetcorn than any of the others, with white chocolate, vanilla dessert cream, Danette, Mont Blanc, and suntan lotion made with shea butter and coconut milk. Happy holidays at the seaside, everyone! Mouth: camomile infusion, orange blossom water, a little Japanese roasted tea, hojicha, together with soft, fragrant oak. Sandalwood. Finish: much the same, though earthier and more herbal. Fairly short all the same, but some lovely citrus notes lift the aftertaste and earn it an extra point, there. Comments: simply very good.
SGP:551 – 84 points.

North British 31 yo 1993/2025 (44.3%, Lady of the Glen, refill bourbon barrel, cask #52734, 113 bottles)

It is only because this is Whiskyfun that we are not even going to suggest there might be ‘rather a little too much’ of North British in our independent friends’ bottling portfolios. I promise you, we are holding up remarkably well… Colour: pale white wine. Nose: we cannot really claim there is a great deal of substance here. It is chiefly on tinned sweetcorn, vanilla and soft nougat. At least we have escaped the coconut this time. Mouth: ah, this is a little on the skinny side, diaphanous, transparent and gently sweet. This baby is going to set us a rather low benchmark, and perhaps we needed one. Finish: short and rather hollow. Comments: in a cocktail rather than neat, if you please. Mind you, there is plenty worse out there, malt whiskies included.
SGP:631 - 78 points.

North British 34 yo 1991/2025 (43.5%, Tri Carragh, refill bourbon barrel, 165 bottles)

I do not think that when we started WF, twenty-four years ago, we ever imagined we would one day end up tasting more than a dozen North British in a single session. We would probably have devoted ourselves instead to growing cyclamens, tuning Porsche flat-twins or settling the eternal Clapton versus Page debate. Not forgetting Jeff Beck and Hendrix, of course. Colour: white wine. Nose: much like the previous one. Tinned sweetcorn, herbal infusions and apple juice. Mouth: quite pleasant, thanks to those nicely ripe apples setting the rhythm. Sweet cider, herbal infusions, barley syrup, yes indeed, and popcorn caramelised with lemon blossom honey. I may be gilding the lily ever so slightly, but it is for a good cause. Finish: not especially long, though gently lemony and pleasantly earthy. Comments: the balance is there, and so is the freshness.
SGP:551 - 80 points.

You must be joking, more North British…

North British 29 yo 1995/2025 (49.9%, James Eadie, Distilleries of Great Britain & Ireland, refill hogshead, 361 bottles)

Colour: pale gold. Nose: now this is interesting, with echoes of white wine somewhere between Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc, followed by wheat beer. Quite a shift, you must admit! In short, a remarkably fermentary grain whisky, something we encounter only very rarely. The cask has probably had a hand in this… Mouth: grapefruit juice, pineapple juice, this time more aromatic white wines, Viognier and Gewürztraminer, alongside floral syrups, mullein and acacia. This is really rather good, despite the fragile structure that so often comes with grain whisky. Finish: not all that short, nicely focused and almost oily, with some lovely bitter notes that are themselves rather unusual in grain whisky. Comments: this is clearly a very good North British, but we have simply had enough North British for the time being. I think we shall declare a ban until at least 2030.
SGP:651 - 84 points.

You know what, I think it is time we brought this madness to an end. We still have quite a few grain whiskies waiting in the wings, but they can have their turn another day. Instead of yet another North (gulp) British (gulp), let us finish by digging out something a little more unusual. Assuming we can find such a thing…

De Lepelaar 2021/2024 ‘Seaweed Tricolore Smoked Grain Whisky’ (45%, OB, palo cortado, 240 bottles)

Straight from the island of Texel. Judging by the language spoken by the owners, we are either in the Netherlands or Belgian Flanders. I hope I am not ruffling any feathers here, but above all I wanted to break away from the admittedly rather wearisome procession of Scottish grain whiskies produced by the million litres every year. Some are good, some decidedly less so, but on the whole, they are about as exhilarating as a Bergman trilogy or a speech by Pete Hegseth. It is ‘Hegseth’, is it not? Right then, Pete Hegseth… Colour: gold. Nose: at last, some action! Bread, yeasts, beers, squashes and pumpkins, bitter oranges, bitters, Cynar, Fernet-Branca, Noilly Prat and the like. This is really rather lovely. Mouth: earth, spices, roots, bitters, ginseng, ginger, turmeric, bitter oranges and cumin. Finish: long, with pronounced yet very attractive bitters, plus a salty touch in the aftertaste. Comments: this really is a splendid little creature, one I did not know at all. Nor, for that matter, had I ever heard of ‘De Lepelaar’. Bravo, Mr or Mrs Lepelaar, assuming they actually exist. BTW this is probably not ex-high column.
SGP:462 - 85 points.

Mind you, in Scotland and in other places they tend to call ‘grain whisky’ anything that is not purely malt batch-distilled twice or more in proper pot stills.

… But come on then, one last North British for a good long while. After all, that famous Diageo and Edrington distillery has rather set the tempo over the past three days. After this, though, I promise, no more grain whiskies, and none for a veeeeery long time…

North British 30 yo 1993/2023 (48.9%, Volpe & Castello, Stonyhurst, Hong Kong Exclusive, cask #48668)

They certainly seem like rather nice people. Colour: chardonnay. Nose: custard, English breakfast tea, nougat, Chardonnay, quite specifically, blancmange and caramelised popcorn. In short, as gentle as a lamb. With water: roughly three tonnes of marshmallows. Mouth (neat): plenty of white nougat and vanilla fudge, with a generous splash of orgeat syrup. With water: a little orange syrup, pistachio syrup, milk chocolate and orange blossom infusion. It all feels rather ‘Dubai’, truth be told, one of the contemporary world's lower depths (hey, we're only joking). Finish: not especially long, sweet and a little syrupy. Comments: within this very rounded, sweet style, it ranks among the better examples. Even if that is not saying all that much…
SGP:630 - 81 points.

We really must s-t-o-p now, okay?

Check the index of all grain whiskies we've tasted