Advent Posts

Shackleton Rare Old Highland Malt - The Journey

The word "hero" is massively over-used today. Being good at football isn't "heroic", and neither is being Miss World. Ernest Shackleton, however, was a genuine hero. In 1914, he set off on the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, an attempt to make the first land crossing of the Antarctic continent. The whole story of that expedition is ...

Mortlach Rare Old

Mortlach was the first distillery to be set up in Dufftown, in the Speyside which region. Although much of its production is destined for Johnnie Walker, some makes its way into single malt releases. Mortlach Rare Old is one such release, although I'm not clear just how old or rare it actually is! The nose is ...

The Girvan Patent Still No. 4 Apps

Girvan is a dedicated grain whisky distillery owned by William Grant. It was originally intended to provide grain whisky for use in their blended scotch, but as is often the case in the whisky industry, they soon saw a marketing opportunity! The Girvan Patent Still No. 4 Apps is something a little unusual; a single ...

Timorous Beastie

Timorous Beastie comes from the folks at Douglas Laing - an independent whisky blender and bottler based in Glasgow. As well as blends, they produce an impressive array of single cask whiskies from a range of distilleries. Timorous Beastie is a blend of Highland single malts, including whisky from Glen Garioch, Dalmore and ...

TBWC Arran Batch 4

I've had bottles from TeBaWuk before, and - ignoring the infeasibly long name - rather enjoyed them. On the other hand, I've not had any Arran whisky before but I generally find that island whiskies are seriously good stuff, so the combination of the two has me excited! Arran Batch 4 is a remarkably pale ...

Nikka From The Barrel

Continuing the international theme, today's whisky comes from Japan - a country that knows a thing or two about whisky, with Suntory's Yamazaki Single Malt Shery Cask 2013 grabbing the World's Best Whisky crown. Nikka From The Barrel is from the other big distiller in Japan, Nikka. The name suggests that it's a straight cask ...

Tullamore D.E.W. 12 Year Old Special Reserve

It's a source of constant irritation that so many alcohol-oriented websites insist on a (often annoying user-unfriendly) age verification check before allowing to read about their products. There's no legal requirement for this that I can see, and of course there is nothing to stop you lying. I would love to get into their ...

Balvenie Single Barrel First Fill

Scotch whisky is, generally, aged in used bourbon casks. There are several reasons for this, but the biggest one is that bourbon is only bourbon if matured in fresh, unused barrels and this (obviously) generates a huge quantity of used wood in need of a good home. Barrels can be used over and over, ...

Paul John Edited

India has a long history of loving whisky, but it's only in the last decade or so that they've started producing single malts of their own. Until now, I've never had the chance to try an Indian whisky, which makes today's advent dram all the more exciting. Paul John Edited is a 46% ABV whisky ...

Monkey Shoulder

This is, I think, the first blended whisky to appear in this year's advent calendar. It's another a whisky I've tasted before, which is always an opportunity to see how my tastes have developed! Apparently, the name 'Monkey Shoulder' comes from an injury common to maltsters who spent too much time turning mountains of ...