Glenrothes 1988/2004 (53.5%, James MacArthur ‘Old Masters’, cask #7022)
Colour: bright gold. Nose: slightly dusty, sharp and strangely ‘yogurty’. A funny mix of putty, sandalwood and then foam strawberry sweeties. Indeed, the whole profile shifts rather more towards sugary sweetness and some nicely honeyed qualities. With water: bracken, damp sawdust, crushed cream crackers, plain oatcakes and a bit of soggy cardboard. Mouth: ouch! Extremely hot and sharp. And then… oh God, Millie! What are you doing to me? Soap suds, Fairy liquid, bath water and these kind of cheap ‘perfumed’ wood chunks you buy in naff Scottish tourist shops. Not great. With water: still strangely hot and very aggressive. Hot molten plastic, burnt polystyrene, acetone and more rather nasty soapiness. Finish: disappears mercifully fast but leaves behind this aftertaste riddled with floral soaps and hot plasticine. Comments: It’s said by people that have studied these kinds of things that our cats would gladly kill and eat us were it not for the issue of size difference. I think it’s fairly evident that Millie is one of the Cat scientists working covertly to overcome the conundrum of scale. This was not good.
SGP: 531 - 57 points.

Glenrothes 21 yo 1997/2019 (57.2%, Scotch Malt Whisky Society, #30.106 ‘Succulent, scintillating, substantial’, 2nd fill PX cask, 681 bottles)
Most likely a re-rack into 2nd fill PX, but the Society tend to leave their finishings for a good length of time so let’s see what we’ve got here… Colour: amber. Nose: there’s this unmistakable stickiness from the PX which suggests a more modern style of seasoned cask. Rather jammy, hot, sticky and slightly sawdusty. Showing some nice notes of prune jam, some boozy dark fruit cake, marzipan and affogato. This slightly dusty sharpness of active wood remains present underneath the fruitier top notes. With water: much nicer! Soft, damp earthiness, milk chocolate, leafy pipe tobacco notes, pine resin, leaf mulch and mushroom powder. Works very nicely with H2o. Mouth: hot, sooty, slightly muddy and showing notes of pencil erasers, boot polish, red liquorice, game meats, raspberry cordial and hessian. Not 100% convinced by the integration of the sherry here. Some black tea tannins, mustard powder and paprika giving a little chilli heat. With water: again there’s a rather softer side developing now, earthiness, chocolate Brazil nuts, stem ginger in syrup and more of these unctuous, gamey qualities. Still some slight rubbery notes. Finish: medium, rather gingery, warming, prickly with red chilli and paprika and more of these meaty notes with some bitter chocolate powder. Comments: Water is obligatory here I would say. Although, you can’t shake this feeling that the cask used for re-racking displays a few too many of these more problematic, modern seasoned sherry cask qualities: sawdust, jam, heat, rubber etc. Something of a mixed bag.
SGP: 561 - 78 points.

Glenrothes-Glenlivet 22 yo 1996/2019 (50.1%, Cadenhead Small Batch, three bourbon hogsheads, 942 bottles)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: there are these expected notes of pollens, yellow flowers and honey but it comes with a degree of restraint and a slightly austere side as well. Some notes of chalk, baking soda and crushed greenery. Geraniums in a potting shed etc. All very attractive and elegantly balanced. We’re comfortably in ‘Glen Safe’ territories here, but then again, in such times as these, is a big comfy Speyside hug such a terrible thing? With water: evolves towards a drier, toasty and more cereal profile. Dry toast, freshly chopped green herbs muddled with butter and some wee yellow plums. Mouth: once again this seesaw between classical, honeyed sweetness and leaner, drier, dustier aspects that bring a more chiseled, austere side. Chalky, limestone, toasted sunflower seeds, turmeric and dried wildflowers. I have to say, it’s a rather elegant and satisfying profile - if not the most obvious or easy. With water: honeyed oatmeal, canvass, dandelions, olive oil, dried sage and some very light notes of cough syrup and herbal ointments. Bitter orange and citrus pith. Finish: good length, warming but nicely dry with notes of herbal teas, citrus rinds, heather ales and some nice chalky and faintly qualities. Comments: It’s to be wondered why on earth the owners don’t issue such bottlings. It seems to me that Glenrothes is crying out for an official single cask range similar to what they did with Glendronach or Benriach. If ever there was a distillery which showed consistently better at cask strength rather than 40% or 43% it’s Glenrothes. Anyway, this was much enjoyable, loved this meandering profile between sweeter and drier aspects.
SGP: 551 - 86 points.

Glenrothes-Glenlivet 18 yo 2001/2019 (51.7%, Cadenhead Authentic Collection, hogshead, 216 bottles)
Colour: white wine. Nose: canvass, fabrics, chalk, white flowers, soft cereals, cooling wort and wee touches of putty, underripe melon and baking soda. With water: a more chiseled and pronounced cereal profile. Lots of crushed oatcakes, butter toast, seed mix and then greener notes like geraniums, river reeds and vase water. Mouth: rather dry, cereal and slightly bitter with these notes of green herbs, sharp cider apple and cooking oils. It’s nice but feels rather light and a tad ‘plain’. Some plasticine, miso and various putties and clay. With water: there must be thousands of such casks lying in Scotland’s warehouses. You just can’t escape this feeling of mild blandness here. We’re bumping up against the limitations of refill wood when your distillate isn’t the most charismatic. Finish: medium, drying, cereal and ever so slightly grassy with some more flowers and rapeseed oil. Comments: It’s all perfectly fine, but I fear we’ve moved from Glen Safe to Glen Yawn. 
SGP: 431 - 79 points.

Labourdonnais 5 yo Batch 1 (49.8%, That Boutique-y Rum Company, Mauritius, PX cask, 1200 bottles)
Labourdonnais is a relatively newish (2006) distillery from Mauritius. This was made from pure cane juice, distilled in a column still and matured full term in PX cask. Colour: copper. Nose: lots of gingerbread, wee touches of lighter fluid, hot brake pads, some soft embrocations, coffee liqueur, cocktail sugar syrups and some drops of assorted of cooking oils. Gets increasingly grassy with time and some notes of green olive. Mouth: rather sharp, some slightly acrid and pushy woody notes, green pepper, rubber, tarmac, black pepper, smoked paprika and a slightly clumsy sweetness. Finish: short, slightly bitter, burnt brown sugars and roasted root vegetables. Comments: I preferred the nose to the palate, a tad rough and disjointed for me.
SGP: 661 - 73 points.

Mount Gay Select Blend 7 yo (54%, OB for The Whisky Exchange, Barbados, 2400 bottles, 2018)
Colour: deep gold. Nose: pleasingly rich and polished at first nosing. Quite a bit of boot polish, coconut milk, lemon rind and an easy, exotic sweetness. Hints of sawdust and more coconut notes. The sweetness is pleasantly natural despite these wee sawdusty notes. With water: greener, fatter, more medicinal, earthier and with some nice notes of black olive and cinnamon. Mouth: good deliver, syrupy in texture, sweet coconut and some assertive spiciness. Green pepper, olive oil, hints of brine and some camphor. With water: develops nicely with these notes of sweet mango chutney, light embrocations, vegetable oil and some more grassy and earthy notes. Good weight and richness still. Finish: medium and with quite a bit of white pepper, lemongrass and yet more coconut. Comments: Very good, the kind of rum you could sip or mix quite happily I think.
SGP: 651 - 84 points.

Chairman’s Reserve 13 yo 2006/2019 (56%, St Lucia Distillers Ltd for Royal Mile Whiskies, St Lucia, bourbon, 286 bottles)
This one was produced in a Vendome pot still, which is a kind of still which features a traditional pot base combined with a column. It was also mature full term in St Lucia. Colour: ruby/amber. Nose: vibrant, fresh and gently medicinal with lots of mashed banana, sultana, prune jelly and lightly caramelised muscovado sugar. Also some pleasing hints of bicycle tyre, brake fluid and a wee funky tang of fermenting fruits. Excellent! With water: leaner, drier, more complex with some earthy tobacco notes, cane sugar, gauze, embrocations, seawater, green olive and plaster. Mouth: nice arrival on brown sugar, pulpy exotic fruits, more bananas - caramelised this time - bandages, lime juice and quite a bit of funky sweetness. Some bitter orange and lemon cordial in the background too. With water:  more cohesion, again a tad drier and more punchy. More medicinal, more complex, some soft spiciness rising up; overall a greater sense of balance and power. Finish: long, bready, rich, more caramelising brown sugars, bandages, ink, dried herbal notes and some crystallised exotic fruits. Superb! Comments: I find this extremely good. Walks a wonderful tightrope between sweet and dry with a lovely evolution once water is added. The nose in particular is very satisfying. Great selection by the folk at RMW!
SGP: 642 - 88 points.

Diamond (Versailles) 14 yo 2004/2019 (56%, Thompson Brothers for Nauticus & Royal Mile Whiskies, Guyana, bourbon barrel, 250 bottles)
This one comes from the famous Versailles single wooden pot still. Nauticus is a newish and excellent bar in Leith. If you’re in Edinburgh I would encourage you to visit. They to tremendous cocktails and always have a short but well curated beer selection on tap. Not to mention a healthy whisky gantry. You might even bump into yours truly as it is effectively my local - but don’t let that discourage you. Colour: straw. Nose: grassy, petrolic, austere and rather pure. Lots of embrocations, crushed seashells, olives in pickling juices and cornichons. There’s also some slightly gassy and vegetal notes. With water: opens up impressively with water, gets very grassy, peppery and earthy with notes of metal polish, gravel and crushed cactus. Also something slightly sweaty and animalistic. Mouth: surprisingly easy arrive with lightly citric esters while underneath it’s also rather rubbery, funky, earthy and tarry. More bandages, elastoplasts, gauze and olive oil diluted with seawater. Also quite flinty as well. With water: again this rather rubbery, sweaty edge - which doesn’t sound nice but is. Fur, black olives, wintergreen, vapour rubs and notes akin to fermenting lemons and mechanical oils. Finish:  good length, rather grassy, oily, slightly tarry, medical and getting increasingly salty and austere. Comments: Probably a tad difficult at times with this austere profile, but it’s charismatic and high quality stuff no doubt.
SGP: 372 - 85 points.

Uitvlugt 21 yo 1997/2019 (49.1%, Kintra Spirits Rum Collection, Guyana, cask #6, 113 bottles)
Not much could go wrong here I suspect… Colour: gold. Nose: this typically beautiful and deep concentration of embrocations, bandages and seawater. All shades of olive, brine cut with olive oil, sardines and old oily bicycle chains sprayed with WD40. Beyond that there’s also some fresh citrus fruit, chopped parsley, air freshener and something like Midori melon liqueur. But really it is the coastal and medical combinations that really stand out proudest here. Mouth: a funny but rather fabulous mix of kippers, brine and brown bread studded with olives and rosemary. I love how you get some very pronounced flavour combinations in the best rums. More bandages, plasters, ointments and rock pool water. Finish: long, medical, lemony, slightly earthy and with a very light medical sweetness then a rich and bready aftertaste. Comments: excellent, we’re extremely close to the 90 mark here.
SGP: 472 - 89 points. 

Caroni 2000/2018 ‘Navy Rum Extra Strong’ (51.4%, La Maison du Whisky & Velier 100th Anniversary, Trinidad)
Colour: orange amber. Nose: deep, leathery and spicy. Lots of strong ginger, hot paprika, root beer, some darker chocolate tones, heavy tobacco notes, black pepper, camphor and some quite heavy tarry notes. Damp, animalistic, fat and earthy - some black olives too. I find this heavier, slightly drier style very good and more complex than the lighter Caroni. With water: softer, more cinnamon, camphor, hessian, putty, quite a lot of dried herbs and now touches of anchovy paste and more umami and saline qualities. Very good! Mouth: lots of dry, fat medicines, bitter herbal extracts, natural tar, a powerful earthiness, cured gamed meats, black pepper and an increasingly autolytic and rounded bready quality. The strength works very well here at balancing the more punch aspects of the distillate. With water: the texture has thickened slightly and there’s more rubber, more earth, some soot, plastic, pot pourri, strong black tea and some grippy tannins. Finish: long, leathery, spicy, bready, earthy, savoury and with a strong umami character. Comments: There’s a great tension between complexity and power here that has required quite an impressive balancing act. Worth trying.
SGP: 472 - 88 points.

Caroni 26 yo 1993/2019 (50.7%, 1423 World Class Spirits ‘Single barrel selection’, Trinidad, barrel, 239 bottles)
This one by Danish importer, retailer and bottler 1423. It’s molasses distilled through a column and then tropically aged until 2008. Apparently nicknamed ‘the beast’. Colour: reddish coffee. Nose: extremely concentrated and extractive in style, you can almost feel the top of the liquid bristling with splinters. However, it’s also quite alluring with these notes of toasted fennel, crushed black pepper, mothballs and fresh paint. Showing this nice mix of medicines, spices and some slightly leathery and meaty tones. With water: turpentine, putty, stewed orange peels, cloves, smoked mint, camphor, vapour rubs and more rather extreme and dried out medical notes. Mouth: ooft! Extremely bitter, concentrated and highly extractive. Pure graphite, strong black coffee with chilli powder, very strong, rather tannic black tea, burnt brown sugar, salted caramel, bicycle inner tube rubber, burnt fennel seeds. Ok, ok, I agree, it’s a beast. With water: still extremely burnt, bitter, extractive and riddled with rather aggressive wood spices. Like chewing coffee grounds, burnt brisket ends and wood char (I’m sure there will be some of you out there who will adore this!) Rather tough for me I’m afraid. Finish: Long, woody, quite a bit of smoked paprika, burnt cumin seeds, wood char and bitter, tannic tea. Comments: It’s not my style of rum at all I’m afraid. The wood is just too extreme, to the point that you really loose balance. However, I’m aware this style is very much an acquired taste and some aficionados will love it. So, please feel free to take my score with a large bushel of charcoal!
SGP: 483 - 76 points.

Enmore 24 yo 1990/2015 (61.2%, Our & Spirits, Guyana, cask #20, 178 bottles)
Distilled in a pot still, presumably the wooden Versailles still which was in use at Enmore in 1990 before going on to Uitvlugt and finally to Diamond where it now resides. From a German retailer and bottler, although not too sure if they’re still active as their website appears to be down at time of writing.  Colour: pale gold. Nose: austere but surprisingly approachable considering the strength. Lots of raw cactus, cut grass, crushed aspirin, mineral salts, lime juice and chopped green asparagus. Quite lean and chiselled in profile which feels excellent, if somewhat unusual. With water: rather more fragrant, showing notes of fabrics and linens with green tea, faded petrol notes, white sourdough bread, chamomile tea and seawater. Mouth: extremely powerful and hugely bready. Lots of pure brown bread, rye, soda bread, scone mix, wholemeal flour mixed with brown sugar, elastoplasts, clay, ointments, bandages, ink and vase water. There’s even a slight hint of rubber erasers. Quite brutal, big and unusual. With water: still rather bready and doughy, but it feels more cohesive and balanced with a return to these rubber, petrol and lime juice flavours. Finish: long, earthy, extremely vegetal, lighter fluid, tyre rubber, more brown bread and bandages. Comments: It’s a pretty tough and unyielding style that is undeniably on the austere side of things. The kind of spirit that makes you work to get to know it. However, despite the difficulty, we’re a million miles away from the crass sugared crap in the supermarkets and undeniably tasing some pretty historic, old school rum. I think you probably just have to be in the mood.
SGP: 462 - 86 points.

Enmore 25 yo 1990/2015 (58%, Cave Guildive, Guyana, bourbon)
Another from the Versailles still. Colour: pale gold. Nose: similar but a notch sweeter which makes all these big vegetal, medical and bready qualities merge a little more seamlessly and globally feel easier and more ‘open’ as a result. A few whiffs of industrial cleaning fluid, soft tarry aspects, fermenting fruit notes, banana baked in brown sugar and bread dough. With water: some coconut and pineapple, more herbal, banana, lime and wild flowers. Mouth: herbal cough medicines, spiced exotic fruit teas, jasmine, chamomile, herbal cocktail bitters, plasters, gauze, ink and pastis. With water: more salty, umami and ‘brothy’ with these notes of liquid seasoning, bouillon, camphor and crushed grass. More aspirin, lime juice, sugar syrup and putty. Finish: long, rather bready, vegetal, earthy, medical and tarry. Comments: I prefer it a notch to the previous one. There’s a little more fruity sweetness about it that knits everything together. Still quite a demanding and very specific style though.
SGP: 562 - 87 points.

Fredrick Smith Fine Old Jamaica Rum (30 under proof, Aston Model Brewery, -/+ 1930s)
One of many such bottlings produced in the first half of the 20th century for independent British wine and spirit merchants. In this case a Birmingham brewery called Aston Model, which also sold other imported wines and spirits. Colour: gold. Nose: pure funk! Seawater, petrol, bandages, massively overripe exotic fruits, lemon juice mixed with brine, animal furs and a rather brutal tarriness. 40%? Really? This feels brilliantly beastly. With water: just looking at the viscosity there’s no way in hell this is 40%. Thrillingly punchy esters now, brown sugars, bandages, rotting fruits, sardines, rubber, petrol, squid ink… a ruthless, brutal but gorgeous wee monster! Mouth: holy hell! Ok, I don’t know who was responsible for printing ’30 u.p.’ on the label but their descendants will be hearing from my lawyers! This must be approaching 70% abv! Seriously! Fermented fruit salad juices, rubber fishing wellies, natural tar extract, paraffin and workshop grease. I think water is necessary… with water: immensely fat, greasy, oily, saline, estery and prickling with sea salt, camphor, tar, pine resin and things like mint and juniper. Totally mental rum. Finish: superbly long, chewy, glistening with pulpy esters, smoked exotic fruit jam, olive oil mixed with olive juices, tar, mercurochrome and bitumen. Comments: What the hell was this! Was the strength a misprint? A 1930s tax dodge? An attempt to kill off some customers? Anyway, what an incredible spirit. Makes most contemporary Islay’s look like S Club 7. On the subject of Islay though, one thing I would add is that this remains rather close to many of the best contemporary Hampdens for example. Whereas the distance between 1930s Scottish malts and their current siblings remains equivalent to several rather chunky galaxies.
SGP: 473 - 92 points.

Hampden 35 yo 1983/2019 (55.3%, Valinch & Mallet, Jamaica, cask #19-3501R, 237 bottles)
A super high ester ‘HGML’ make, which stands for ‘Hampden George MacFarquhar Lawson’ and is around 1000-1100 g/hlpa (grams per hectolitre of pure alcohol) Colour: gold. Nose: thick, vibrant and superb fresh. The age gives a kind of polished sheen to the esters. Concentrated seawater, smoked olive oil, natural tar, bandages soaked in antiseptic and olive juices. The whole feels extremely fat, textural and buoyant with vibrancy and power. Some notes of preserved lemon, ginger and even something like spiced carrots funnily enough. With water: hugely tarry, rubbery, salty and filled with a fug of diesel fumes, green peppercorns in brine, herbal toothpaste and smoked mint. Mouth: magnificently textural - to the point of being palpably greasy. While also showing wonderfully dense, ester-ridden exotic fruits. Smoked lemons, overripe mango, charred pineapple, star fruit, brine, lime juice, pickling juices, roasted vegetables, olive tapenades and many notes of fish paste and dried herbs. These Hampdens are almost unlike any other spirits I would say. With water: fermenting soy sauce, miso broth, dried seaweed, camphor, paraffin, salted treacle, molasses, roof pitch and pickled herring. Finish: superbly long, saline, resinously smoky, Thai curry spices, fermenting vegetables, tar liqueur and sugar cocktails, anthracite embers and many more fishy and pickle juice notes. Comments: Sublime and totally singular. Power, freshness, magnificent complexity and, perhaps easy to overlook at times but so essential to its DNA: fun! Leaves you with a big grin on your face.
SGP: 563 - 92 points.

Hampden 35 yo 1983/2019 (58.9%, Rum Artesanal, Jamaica, cask #6, 322 x 50cl bottles)
Almost certainly from a sibling cask to the V&M. Colour: gold. Nose: the same, but perhaps a little dirtier. That is to say, more towards coal smoke, engine grease, tool boxes, diesel fumes and oily rags. Similarly full of seawater, anchovies in olive oil, capers in brine, natural tar extract, animal fat, caraway and pickled olives. Brilliant, once again. With water: gets more animalistic, coal smoky, carbolic, tarry, greasy and dundery. Things like bath salts, mutton broth, lime juice and cured ham. Mouth: hugely concentrated, fatty, oily and with these really trill top note esters. Fermenting banana, flambeed brown sugar, tar liqueur, herbal cough medicines, old hay bails, smoked mint and something like charred plasticine. With water: superb concentration and power now. More direct, more punchy, more ‘purely’ saline and with this wonderful fusion of natural tar, rubber, black pepper and olive juices. Finish: long, getting extremely herbal and full of putty, plasticine, coal tar soap, lanolin, vapour rubs, pickled onions and medical embrocations. Comments: This one is a notch drier I’d say, but overall it’s still the same totally bonkers, joy-inducing level of quality.
SGP: 463 - 92 points.

Campbeltown 5 yo 2014/2019 Blended Malt (49.1%, North Star Spirits, bourbon & PX finish)
Colour: deep gold. Nose: quite sweet with lots of runny honey, pollen, golden syrup and cocktail sugar syrups. Rather syrupy in other words. Certainly gives the impression of being older than 5 years. Continues with hints of orgeat, blossoms, cherry cake, marzipan and some simple cooking oils beneath. Mouth: the PX intervention jars a little at first with these rather sticky notes of caramelised sugar and wood varnish. However, there’s enough straightforward honey, tinned fruit juices and sultana notes of keep things fresh and satisfying. Finish: medium with wee notes of lemon polenta cake, raspberry cordial, cream soda and tangerine. Comments: Quite a departure from these other more naked anonymous young C-towners. I find the PX aspect a tad uncertain, but in this instance it has certainly delivered an undeniably pleasing confectionary quality. If you have a sweet tooth then this should be good quaffing whisky.
SGP: 751 - 82 points.

Campbeltown 5 yo 2014/2019 Blended Malt (50%, Thompson Brothers, two refill hogsheads, 816 bottles)
Colour: straw. Nose: yeast, mostly chewed out bubblegum, plain white bread, lemon vitamin tablets. Bish. Bash. Bosh. Also some rathe green maltiness, chalk and some weird shaving brush notes. With water: becomes rather raw, increasingly yeasty, some sharper lemon juice notes and an impression of slightly briny acidity. Mouth: a little creamier, more direct and well-structured than on the nose. Mustardy warmth, gauze, hessian, sunflower oil and lime zest. With water: lemon cough drops, barley water, salty bouillon stock and a nicely juicy, plush maltiness. Finish: medium but hot and prickly. Sharp, dusty malt, yeasty, putty and citric. Comments: It’s fine, even pretty good, but I find these batches a little lacking in some ways. Perhaps it is the fact that they are simply called ‘Campbeltown’, which I find irritating. Then again, perhaps I am overthinking what is clearly intended - and priced - as simple, everyday quaffing whisky.
SGP: 562 - 80 points. 

Oban 14 yo (43%, OB, -/+ 2020, 20cl)
Oban 14 is a malt I always like to follow from time to time, and one I’ll often order in a pub. I’m rarely disappointed in such instances I have to say. Serge last tried it in October 2018 from a -/+2016 rotation and was impressed (WF 88). This one from one of those wee 20cl ‘travel sesh’ bottles that Diageo do. Colour: gold. Nose: orange peel, milk chocolate with sea salt, ginger biscuits and various lighter notes of dried flowers, soft herbal touches and putty. Easy and rather straightforward but far from bland. Mouth: great arrival, all on heather honey, mead, fruit chutneys, dried apricot, peach stones and lemon barley water. Indeed, you do get an ‘impression’ of something coastal. Some slightly salty butter, yellow flowers, pollens and porridge. Finish: medium, sweet cereals, milk bottle sweets, runny honey and fruity flapjack. Comments: It’s good, but I feel some other batches had a bit more oomph. It would be interesting to know how many casks on average go into a batch of Oban 14?
SGP: 452 - 83 points.

Oban 26 yo 1992/2019 (59.2%, OB ‘Select Cask’, cask #7002, puncheon, 396 bottles)
Another from Diageo’s ‘prices of distinction’ series. Colour: gold. Nose: sharp and lightly waxy in a rather invigorating way. White stone fruits, coastal freshness, dusty malted barley and some nicely chalky, cereal and bright pollen notes. Feels fresh, clear and rather pure, although also a touch on the lighter side for Oban, which is no bad thing at all. With water: still quite dusty, chalky and pithy. Some heather flowers, burlap, pink sea salt, soda bread and a rather invigorating coastal freshness. Mouth: surprisingly soft arrival. All on gentle white pepper, lactic notes, plain yoghurt, lemon peel, mead, a rather faded waxiness and more of these cereal tones. Buttery cereals and freshly baked pastries. With water: linens, canvass, hessian, olive oil, cloves and a kind of savoury minty note. The impression of trail mix and toasted seeds. Finish: good length, still quite drying, lightly salty, savoury, cereal and some nice lingering notes of heather ale and bread dough. Comments: It’s a lovely wee dram, on the lighter side of Oban I think, but there’s still some very evocative parts to it and it possess a commendable and pleasing freshness. However, I’m pretty certain it’s not worth whatever a bottle costs. Not that we score prices on WF mind you.
SGP: 361 - 85 points. 

Tobermory 25 yo 1994/2019 (55.9%, Filmnik ‘The Shawshank Redemption’, cask #381011, hogshead, 214 bottles)
The Shawshank Redemption! How appropriate for the current state of lockdown. Let’s hope at the other side of all this its more ‘redemption’ and less ‘Shawshank’. Colour: pale gold. Nose: very lovely and very ‘Tobermory’. That is to say: wildly yeasty, bready, sourdough-ridden, baking soda, cider apples, sour perry, background farmyard notes, dried banana chips and lots of hessian cloth, wet grains, cereals and mash water. I’m a fan! With water: cleaner, more brittle and chiselled now. A rather nervous coastal freshness, wet fabrics, baking parchment and a light note of rolling tobacco. Mouth: richly malty, lightly gingery, a chalky clutter of minerals, sandalwood, hessian, gorse, sunflower oil, enough sourdough bread to start a hipster bakery, cheesecloth and hints of goat. This is a lot of fun and extremely good as well. With water: much more peppery with some splashy notes of wood spice, earthy turmeric, milk bottle sweets, crushed aspirin, dried tarragon and richly savoury, salty broths. Finish: long, wonderfully bready and full of olive oil, parchment, crisp cereals, old school shilling ales, Scotch broth and bouillon stocks. Comments: who needs distillery tours when you can simply wear a blindfold and get most of the organoleptic experience from a glass of this Tobermory? What fun! I love the way it continually evolves with water and keeps on throwing up unexpected wee evolutions in your face. Great selection by those commendable cinema fans from Beijing!
SGP: 462 - 88 points.

Ledaig 17 yo 1997/2014 (49.7%, Càrn Mòr ‘Celebration Of The Cask’, cask #643080, hogshead, 254 bottles)
Colour: straw. Nose: what’s funny is that there’s an almost identical level of yeasty-ness going on as in the Tobermory, only with an added layer of peat draped over everything. Putty, smoked olive oil, capers in brine, fish sauce, lime juice and some rather hearty kedgeree. Rather direct, straightforward and chiselled. Mouth: richly salty and umami with a direct and punchy peaty note. Then goes on to a more grubby farmyard quality with mud, tractor engine parts, boiler smoke, wood ash and things like ink and carbon paper. Also rather oily and impressively fat. Finish: long and, once again, back to this rather brothy yeasty quality. Black olive tapenade, umami paste, broiled shellfish and coal smoke. Comments: Quite a big Ledaig, a notch heavier than other 97s I’ve tried and feels bigger than its abv would suggest. A tad simplistic and brutal in some respects but quality is high.
SGP: 365 - 86 points.

Ben Nevis 23 yo 1995/2019 (50.8%, The Whisky Agency for Derek Chan & Jeremy Ma, cask #654, sherry butt, 192 bottles)
Colour: amber. Nose: as is often the case with these batches, I find that the sherry matured examples display a straighter and more ‘direct’ profile at first nosing. That is to say classically polished, oily and full of gun metal, copper coins, steel wool, old toolboxes, glazed nuts and miso. I find this one wonderfully pure, elegant and the sherry nicely supple, fresh and clean. While there’s still these wee earthy and mustardy Ben Nevis touches peeping through from beneath. Great! With water: lightly bitter herbal notes, cocktail bitters, earth, black pepper, leaf mulch, pipe tobacco and salt-cured meats. Mouth: pow! The sherry and the distillate are really sitting in perfect harmony now. On one hand you have this wonderfully leafy, soft mix of damp tobaccos, dark chocolate, salted caramel, liquorice and caffe latte, while on the other there’s this syrupy waxiness, slightly gloopy, overripe fruitiness and things like clay, ointments and putty. Totally unequivocal and superb! With water: luminous and terrifically vibrant and fresh. Nutty, oily, waxy, earthy and subtly fruity with this rising spiciness in the background. Finish: long, gingery, orangey, waxy, ever so slightly tarry, a balanced bitterness and this lovely soft fruity and savoury edge in the aftertaste. Comments: I don’t know the 95s as well as the 96s but the quality would appear to be the same. Amazing distillate in a totally brilliant sherry cask. Bottlings like this are the future classics in my personal view.
SGP: 662 - 91 points.

Ben Nevis 23 yo 1996/2019 (53.6%, Elixir Distillers ‘The Single Malts Of Scotland’, cask #1784, hogshead, 182 bottles)
Colour: gold. Nose: full of sheep wool, putty, mineral oils, shoe polish, new leather, burlap, hessian and a kind of lemon-tinged waxiness - not unlike citronella candles. More of these wee mustard notes with white pepper, chalk and aspirin. Typical and superb. With water: quite saline now, more pin-sharp minerality, olive oil, hessian cloth, herbal cough syrup and this easy chalkiness. Mouth: it’s a rather sharp one, very chiselled, brittle, mineral-driven and pure. Fresh fabrics, waxed canvass, mineral salts, cough medicines, soot, bitter citrus piths and lanolin. With water: totally great with water. Wider, fatter, thicker and brimming with salted mead, heather honey, exotic fruit syrups and waxes. Finish: long, salty, nicely bitter, nervously fruity and full of twitchy minerals and light medical notes. Comments: It’s a different and altogether more naked beast than the 1995, but it’s the same lofty arena of quality. Did I mention that I’m a fan of these Ben Nevi?
SGP: 462 - 91 points.

Isle Of Jura 10 yo (43%, OB, duty free, litre, -/+ 1990)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: hey, not bad! Not that I was expecting terrible things, but this is rather lovely and quite fresh with this plush maltiness, lemon yoghurt, honeyed porridge, canvass and chalky crushed aspirin. Easy, light, bright and fresh. Mouth: good arrival, rather punchy, peppery and showing some ripe green and yellow fruits. Mineral oils, soot and toasted mixed seeds. A nice easy tension between sweeter fruitier tones and drier, more cereal and coastal aspects. A wee glimmer of bath salts and something almost like soapiness but not quite soapiness, rather more floral I’d say. Finish: medium, chalky, cereal, herbal and slightly peppery and bitter. Comments: I have to say, I’m pretty impressed. This is charismatic and shows a surprising amount of oomph and energy. I believe such bottles are still pretty cheap at auctions.
SGP: 551 - 86 points.

Isle Of Jura 24 yo 1987/2011 (53.9%, Private bottling for Vic Pulleyn by Bruichladdich Distillery, cask #198, 253 bottles)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: surprisingly clean and direct for such a Jura, lots of cooking oils, salt baked vegetables, metal polish, oily rags, mineral oils, soot, furniture wax and things like old ink wells, carbon paper and light briny and lemony touches. Impressive! With water: doubles down on these oily and cereal aspects. Sunflower oil, mineral oils, tarragon, soot, parsnips and a light salinity. Fun stuff. Mouth: more typically Jura-esque with this rather ‘jumbled’ feeling on the palate, which is not necessarily a criticism mind you. It’s just that you have this funny mix of old toolboxes, mechanical oils, rapeseed oil, grass, putty, clay, cereals, ointments, face cream, miso, watercress, hair gel. It’s all a big higgledy-piggledy and charismatically untidy. There’s also a more direct and punchy vegetal side in the mouth as well, even allusions to very old pure pot still Irish whiskeys in some respects. With water: a little more cohesive and goes kind of full circle back towards the sharper definition of the nose. Still lots of more unlikely notes of plasticine, glue, fabric, starch, mashed vegetables, olive oil, dried herbs and ink. Also gets interestingly minty and mentholated with these impressions of medical vapour rubs. Finish: quite long, salty, slightly leathery and more of these oily notes that veer between the industrial, mechanical and cooking varieties. Comments: Quite a ride, but at heart it’s a very charismatic, if somewhat funky, and noble wee islander. Exactly the kind of nutter who runs away to live on Jura I suppose. Hard to score but I liked it a lot.
SGP: 472 - 88 points.

Isle Of Jura 14 yo 1964/1979 (80 proof / 45.7%, Cadenhead Dumpy)
A super rare early vintage of Jura. Remember, the distillery was entirely reconstructed and re-commenced distilling in 1963, after being silent since circa 1900. Obviously, if anyone has any pre-1900 Jura cask samples knocking about then please do get in touch (sample to Edinburgh; invoice to Turckheim). Colour: gold. Nose: in the middle of a session mostly consisting of modern whiskies, these very old school distillates can just strike you like an arrow out of the blue. Immensely concentrated, generous and almost obscenely fat fruitiness. Quivering, gelatinous, oily and just verging on overripe. The kind of nose that brings together green, exotic and garden variety fruits in abundance. It’s also beautifully herbaceous and honeyed with a silky thread of peat running between everything. Wee elements of soot, wet hessian, olive oil, mechanical parts and a pretty bold and pushy mineral oil quality too. Beyond that you can also find many umami aromas, broths, dried herbs, waxes, crystallised fruits, pollen, verbena, cannabis and precious hardwood resins. Immense! Mouth: Just stunning! The very best cannabis resin combined with new world hops, sweetened herbal cough medicines, long-aged yellow Chartreuse, lime infused olive oil, very old cream sherry, mint cordial and a kind of molten, glowing waxiness that sits at the heart of it all. It’s also rather coastal around the edges with a perfectly drying, nibbling salinity. Finish: immensely long, oily, waxy, salty and tautly fruity. Perfection! Comments: Probably the best Jura I ever tasted. The nose makes you think the palate cannot possibly go anywhere but slightly down, but then it just pitches for the stratosphere. And not a micro-quiver of any strange OBE to found anywhere.
SGP: 763 - 94 points.

Talisker 1998/2017 (56.6%, OB for Keepers Of The Quaich, cask #6829, refill sherry butt, 618 bottles)
A funny kind of quasi-official bottling done exclusively for the Keepers Of The Quiche, sorry, Quaich. An illustrious group of which Serge is recently also a member. Colour: gold. Nose: lovely and surprisingly soft and gentle with these notes of pink sea salt, gorse, wood embers, wildflowers, eucalyptus, sea greens and a very ethereal, wispy kind of peat smoke. Delicate, intricate and extremely attractive so far. With water: gets more towards sourdough and a kind of zingy yeasty acidity. Lemon juice, squid ink, hessian, miso and vapour rubs. Mouth: much bigger! Classically peppery with green peppercorns in brine, anchovy butter, chopped chives, seawater, iodine, sooty fabrics and some rather weighty smoked tea notes. With water: perfect now. Oily, peaty, peppery and showing a wonderfully fat coastality (that isn’t a word, but it should be dammit!) Things like bacon fat, camphor, paraffin and lamp oil. Gets really rather weighty and almost mechanical. Finish: long, earthy, vegetal, coastal, oily, peaty and with wee notes of preserved lemons, dried flowers and wood smoke. Comments: It is one of the whisky world’s great travesties that these had all sold out by the time Serge was persuaded to join. Hopefully he can hang in there until they get a Keeper’s single cask Brora around 2028…
SGP: 466 - 91 points.

Talisker 1960/1979 (75 proof, Berry Brothers & Rudd)
Colour: gold. Nose: a beautiful mix of crystallised and fresh exotic fruits - mango, papaya, guava, passion fruit - alongside this rather leathery old, salty dry sherry and an impression of old sweet Loire chenin. In time it’s this stunning fruitiness that really rises up and dominates. Although you also get these wonderful wee hints of herbal liqueurs, natural tar, damp pipe tobacco and rather peppery cured game meat. Just feels wonderfully full, complete, complex and at the same time cohesive. Mouth: as with all these old whiskies, even at 43% they still kick! Much more direct peat on the palate. Dried seaweed, smoked paprika, natural tar extract, old medicines, herbal bitters and a more submerged fruitiness that feels drier and more ‘preserved’ as opposed to ‘fresh’. Still this wonderfully resinous and leathery old school sherry quality inveigling everything. Finish: endlessly long and meandering through all manner of dark and exotic fruits, dry earthy peat smoke tinged with heather, herbs, cocktail bitters, mint tea, game meats and a kind of thready, smoky rancio. Comments: like the Jura, this is just in another class entirely. A style, combination and concentration of flavours which simply doesn’t exist in today’s whisky universe sadly. The power even at 43% in itself is really something to behold.
SGP: 564 - 93 points.

Ardbeg 9 yo 1998/2008 (57.4%, Scotch Malt Whisky Society, #33.68 ‘Honeycomb smoke’)
Colour: gold. Nose: wonderfully fresh and evocative, bath salts, crab sticks, coal smoke, peaty kiln air, malt vinegar, antiseptic and iodine. Terrific and immediately makes you think ‘Islay!’. With water: straighter, smokier, drier, notes of bailed hay, peat embers, muddy seawater and fishing wellies. Mouth: coal tar soap, heather smoke, bouillon, more fragrant bath salts, mineral oils, pumice, flint smoke, jasmine tea, lapsing souchong, dried mint and smoked lemons. Unusual but extremely good. There are points when you would think of a 1989 Bowmore that’s just on the perfume cusp - but falls the right side. With water: again this wonderfully floral, mineral salt side remains undimmed. Fragrant, coastal, evocative, lightly citric, gently ashy and some notes of sandalwood and seaweed broth. Finish: long, ashy, salty, hyper fresh, faintly medicinal and with this wonderfully fragrant ‘floaty’ peaty flavour in the aftertaste. Comments: I’m a big fan of this one. It’s an Ardbeg that kind of winks in the direction of 80s Bowmore without going near those kinds of extremes. I think the freshness, complexity and distinctiveness are all highly impressive. Worth seeking out I’d say. And proof that they were making some rock solid distillate in the late 90s under Glenmorangie.
SGP: 356 - 90 points.

Ardbeg 23 yo 1993/2017 (52.4%, Cadenhead, 175th Anniversary Tasting Session, bourbon hogshead)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: extraordinarily pure and powerful with a real blast furnace of peat coming at you out of the glass. Charred whelks, petrol, pure seawater, kelp, bonfire embers and fresh lemon juice. I wouldn’t say it’s super complex, but rather it’s the purity, precision and sheer beauty of the flavours which is so thrilling and striking. Was 1993 the most inconsistent year for Ardbeg? The quality seems to have been all over the place. With water: gets almost hyper saline, fresh, citric and pure. Some wispy notes of smoky wood ashes, dried seaweed, rock pools and medical balms and vapour rubs. Mouth: reminiscent of some 1978s with this almost diesel-esque dirtiness. Big, glycerol peat, fat maltiness, hugely smoky, tarry, black olives in brine, miso broth, umami paste, TCP, iodine drops and sheep wool oils. Powerhouse, brilliant Ardbeg. With water: salty, peaty, wonderfully oily, fat and still showing this almost greasy boiler smoke grubbiness that carries with it black olive tapenade and anchovy paste. Finish: long, rather lemony (preserved lemons), lots of gauze, bandages, herbal mouthwash, antiseptic and iodine. And peat! Comments: Clearly the purifier wasn’t working… But seriously, what on earth was going on at Ardbeg in 1993? Some were only so so, while examples like this are sitting confidently alongside - or even above - many 70s counterparts. Anyway, what a cask!
SGP: 368 - 93 points.