Advent Posts

North British Batch 2

After the remarkable grain whiskies I've enjoyed in this year's Advent Calendar it seems appropriate to end on another. North British is one of Scotland's largest grain whisky producers and although (as with most grain whisky) the vast majority goes into big brand blends, just about every independent bottler seems to offer at least ...

TBWC Blended Whisky No. 2 18 Year Old Batch 2

Another blend from the TBWC folk today, and curiously it's labelled as a blended whisky rather than a blended malt - a suggestion that there's some grain whisky in there too, or did they just decide to have a bit more variety in their blend names?! Blended Whisky No. 2 18 Year Old Batch ...

TBWC Glenturret 35 Year Old Batch 2

I'd never heard of Glenturret, but apparently it houses the Famous Grouse Experience (from which we can infer that it's a significant component of the Famous Grouse!) which makes it a pretty significant tourist stop. It also claims to be "Scotland's oldest working distillery", but to be honest I've lost count of the distilleries ...

TBWC Girvan 52 Year Old Batch 1

It's pretty rare that I get to taste a whisky that's older than me - a problem that, I suppose, only gets worse as I get older. Girvan is a large distillery largely dedicated to pumping out grain whisky destined for blends but, as is often the case, the occasional cask escapes and turns ...

TBWC Cambus 24 Year Old Batch 2

The Cambus distillery closed down in 1993, which means that this 24 year old represents some of the last spirit made there. As is often the way with grain whisky, most of their production ended up in blends but a few independent bottlers still manage to find casks to bottle for us! Cambus 24 ...

TBWC Aberlour 23 Year Old Batch 4

I've enjoyed a few whiskies from Aberlour in the past, including a Twitter Tasting back in 2013 (one of the most sociable ways to try new whiskies while sat at home!) I'm not sure I've tried quite such an old whisky from them though, so this should be interesting. Aberlour 23 Year Old Batch 4 ...

TBWC Speyside15 Year Old Batch 1

I have to be honest here; when I first saw the 'Speyside' label, I assumed that this was either a blend of Speyside whiskies, or perhaps a single malt bottling from an anonymous distillery that I'd have to try and deduce from clues on the label or the description. But no, it turns out ...

Paul John 6 Year Old Batch 2

This is the second Paul John dram in the calendar so far. This second batch has an added age statement and it's worth pointing out that although 6 years sounds young for a premium whisky, spirits aged in warmer climates tend to age impressively quickly. Paul John 6 Year Old Batch 2 is a ...

Invergordon 42 Year Old Batch 6

Another impressively old whisky and once again it's a single grain, this time from Invergordon. It's not often seen outside of independent bottlers but that wasn't always the case. In 1990, a 10 Year Old expression was released that was apparently "targeted specifically at the female market" - I'm not sure quite what makes ...

Miltonduff 8 Year Old Batch 2

Miltonduff seems to have a lot in common with Glenburgie - a rather anonymous little distillery owned by Pernod Ricard, with most of it's production either headed for Ballantine's or Chivas Regal (depending on what you read!) Miltonduff 8 Year Old Batch 2 is bottled at a very approachable 45.5% ABV. The nose is full ...