Category: Reviews

Reviews of whiskies

Glenmorangie Allta

The annual release of the new addition to Glenmorangie’s Private Edition series is always a highlight of the whisky calendar, and 2019 sees the release of Glenmorangie Allta.   This is the 10th anniversary of the Private Edition series and, like all the years and releases before it, Allta doesn’t fail to delight.

The Private Edition series is an opportunity to explore and enjoy Glenmorangie in a new light.  Whilst each annual release is a limited edition that comes and goes, there is certainly fun, interest, and tastebud-pleasure to be derived as the whisky makers play around with Glenmorangie’s DNA.

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Johnnie Walker Blue Label Ghost & Rare Port Ellen

It wasn’t that long ago that Johnnie Walker had a fairly simple portfolio:  Red Label, Black Label, Green Label, and Blue Label.  Today, each of those labels have their own individual portfolios!  The Blue Label range is no exception, and it was recently expanded this month with the release of the new Ghost & Rare expression tagged as “Port Ellen”.

The Ghost & Rare range, launched last year with what we’ll now call the “Brora” release, is a range of blended whiskies that showcase the closed, silent and lost distilleries in parent company Diageo’s stocks.  Hence the term ghost, referring to distilleries that are no more.  As the names would suggest, last year’s release had the cult whisky Brora in the mix, and this year’s release features the biggie of them all:  Port Ellen.

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TIB – Tasmanian Independent Bottlers

The local Australian whisky scene continues to expand and self-cultivate.  Between the many new distilleries starting up and the older distilleries bringing new and matured stock to market (plus a couple of larger enterprises starting to flex their muscles), there’s plenty to taste and get excited about.   It also seems that the scene can now sustain the one last gap that remained to be filled:  The Australian independent bottler.   And TIB – Tasmanian Independent Bottlers – is going the whole hog.

Tasmanian Independent Bottlers is not the first Australian independent bottler (Trappers Hut possibly took that honour over 10 years ago) and there are certainly other labels around – Dark Valley and Heartwood being obvious examples.  But it’s no accident that we mention Heartwood here, for TIB is Heartwood’s younger cousin.

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Ardbeg Twenty Something – 22 Years Old

The Ardbeg Twenty Something range has a new addition to the stable with the release of the Ardbeg 22yo – styled on the label as “Guaranteed 22 Years Old”.  Distilled in the Spring of 1996 (that’s March through May for us southern-hemisphere folk!) and bottled on the 18th July in 2018 at a strength of 46.4%, the whisky is a vatting of ex-bourbon casks.

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Archie Rose Six Malt New Make – the giant stirs

As the Australian whisky revival and renaissance marches on, there are now countless highlights and spikes on the radar.   Australian whiskies winning awards; new distilleries being established; new releases being launched…the scene now generates its own continuously scrolling newsfeed.

As for the Australian distillers and distilleries themselves, the field has grown to the point where there is a marked split between the craft players and the big guys that now run genuinely industrial and commercial operations.

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Johnnie Walker Black Label Sherry Edition

The Johnnie Walker stable of whiskies continues to grow and expand, as the latest edition to the Black Label, the “Sherry Edition” demonstrates.   Whisky & Wisdom has covered off most of the new releases and expressions in recent times (see links below), but whether Johnnie Walker is your cup of tea or not, you can’t accuse the world’s biggest selling brand of Scotch whisky of standing still.  I guess that’s why Johnnie Walker is the striding gent.

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Ardbeg Grooves

Groovy is a term that disappeared from common vernacular. In fact, were it not for Mike Myers and the Austin Powers films, there would be several generations now that would be completely unaware of its application. Groovy became cool; cool became hot; and hot became cool again. Meanwhile, some distilleries got on with churning out delicious whisky.

“Grooves” is the name of this year’s annual Ardbeg Day release, and the marketing and imagery that accompanies it is the 1960’s hippy era of peace and love. “Peat and love” is thus the key phrase here and Ardbeg Day celebrations around the world will be based on this very theme.

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Johnnie Walker Blue Label – Ghost and Rare “Brora”

Johnnie Walker continues to extend their portfolio and bring interest to the category of blended Scotch whisky with a number of new and/or limited edition releases.  The “Blue Label” brand has many incarnations and variations these days since it was first expanded with the King George V release several years ago now.

The latest Blue Label release comes with all the usual fanfare and back-story, but this one will deservedly and legitimately grab your attention.  For, whilst many rare blends tease you with vague or enigmatic tales of especially “rare” or “old” whiskies making up the blend (but never telling you what they are), Blue Label’s first “Ghost and Rare” release proudly shows its hand and tells you its secrets.  And any whisky that declares Brora as a key ingredient is going to draw the interest of whiskyphiles.

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Glenmorangie Spios

The whisky calendar is blessed these days to have annual events and annual releases that we all look forward to.  For example, Islay-philes hang out each year for the Feis Ile bottlings, and Ardbeg fans are always keenly anticipating May for Ardbeg Day and the release of the special Ardbeg limited edition that accompanies it.   For those who prefer a more typical “Highland” style of whisky, there is always huge interest in the annual release of Glenmorangie’s Private Edition bottling.  This year’s release – Private Edition No. 9 – is called Spios.  Glenmorangie Spios.

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