Glengoyne 17 yo Batch 1 (49.1%, The Boutique-y Whisky Company, 1204 bottles)
Colour: deep gold. Nose: Hello! As Mr. Paterson would say. There’s a definite sherry component in the mix here which comes through initially as marmalade on brown toast, some damp earthiness, hessian and darjeeling tea with a slice of lemon. Very elegant and attractive I have to say, there’s an easiness about it which is highly charming. Mouth: stewed fruits, cupboard spices, gingerbread, a wee spoonful of chili oil and a pleasingly silky mouthfeel. Some grated nutmeg, sultanas and a wee metallic, coppery touch. Almonds and walnuts too. Finish: long, leathery, getting a tad meatier and still plenty of squidgy dark fruits and some olive oil. Comments: bush, bash, bosh! Direct, straightforward, clean and highly satisfying sherried Glengoyne captured at a perfect age. Great selection and very easy to guzzle no doubt.
SGP: 561 - 87 points.

Glengoyne 13 yo 2005/2019 (57.9%, Archives ‘The Fishes of Samoa’, cask #1938, hogshead, 248 bottles)
Look, all I’m saying, is that the people of Samoa must have no shortage of Omega 3 in their diets. Colour: pale straw. Nose: pure and very natural but with a kind of bubbly fruitiness underneath, touching on juicy fruit chewing gum, various crisp orchard fruits (apples, pears, gooseberry etc.) and some gentler notes of cereals, vanilla cream and butter biscuit. With water: gets a little crisper and drier now, more towards plain and pure cereals, water biscuits, buttered crackers and oatcakes. A notch grassier too. Mouth: elegantly textural on arrival and with abundant natural, barley derived sweetness. Barley sugars, lemon barley water, lemon icing and some fruit salad juices. With water: greenery, vase water, fabrics, soda bread, icing sugar, very light spearmint notes and sunflower oil. Indeed, the whole thing feels rather ‘sunny’. Finish: good length with lots of grassy, cereal and bitter lemon notes. Some fresh fabrics, chalk and butter. Comments: Hard to find fault with this extremely natural, modern and fresh wee Glengoyne. It’s not a style of whisky I tend to drink a lot of to be honest, but there’s much pleasure to be had here.
SGP: 551 - 85 points.

Glentauchers 22 yo 1997/2019 (46.6%, Signatory Vintage for The Whisky Exchange, cask #4163, bourbon barrel, 125 bottles)
Colour: gold. Nose: this wonderfully expressive and rather syrupy green fruitiness that these kinds of Speysidey makes seem to develop after sufficient years. Add to that little hessian cloth, soft wax, mineral oils, dried banana chips and wee slug of orange juice and you have a very attractive, light and balanced nose. Mouth: a wonderful creaminess upon arrival, baked apples, custard, white pepper, heather honey and more of these soft wax and canvass characteristics. Putty, linen and hints of various cooking oils. Feels like it was captured at the perfect age. Finish: long, slightly minty, honeyed, heathery and showing some dried flowers and more green fruitiness. Comments: Just great, mature, satisfyingly balanced, elegant and easy malt whisky. It feels like the cask provided a wonderful ‘background’ sweetness here that feels beautifully integrated. Absolute tumbler juice!
SGP: 651 - 90 points.

Glentauchers 21 yo 1997/2019 (54.5%, The Whisky Exchange ‘Single Casks’, cask #402, bourbon barrel, 182 bottles)
Colour: straw. Nose: what’s fun is that this is quite different, almost fresher with more clear-cut grassiness, green apple gooseberry and overall a brighter and more crisp cereal profile. Buttery toast, underripe pears, even a wee wink of guava. More playful but very attractive still. With water: softer, easier and with a more ‘fleshy’ fruit profile. Quite a bit of melon and even a little pomegranate. Still this nice buttery cereal aspect too. Mouth: feels younger and juicier than the Signatory. Focusing on fruit cordials, juicy fruit chewing gum, tinned fruit syrups and wee touches of lemongrass, herbal teas and sourdough bread. With water: whereas dilution on the nose brought fruit, here it rather narrows things towards the cereals. Very pure and rather keen-edged now. Totally natural barley eau de vie territory. A little more peppery and sinewed too. Finish: long, very barley-dominated, some lemon peel, fabrics, breakfast cereals dusted with icing sugar and some water crackers. Comments: It’s quite cool that they would do these two 97 Glentauchers sort of simultaneously as they’re both quite distinct from each other. This one is a few notches fresher and more dominated by its base ingredients, but on balance I think I prefer the Signatory cask as there’s a general cohesiveness about it that is more to my taste, but that’s probably a very personal thing. You couldn’t go wrong with either.
SGP: 561 - 88 points.

Strathisla 28 yo 1977/2005 (49.3%, Scotch Malt Whisky Society, #58.8)
Colour: straw. Nose: very particular to these kind of wilderness years that most Speyside distillates went through between being fruit/honey bombs until around 1974 and until they became grass juice around 1982. Which is to say milk bottle sweets dusted with cornflour, breakfast cereals with a drizzle of runny honey, pollens, malt extract and heather flowers. All very simple, attractive and easy. Feels like classical malt whisky in many ways - and how could we be against such things here on WF! Mouth: sweet barley, slightly lactic and milky again - but in a nice way, condensed milk, peach yoghurt etc. - then lemon barley water and some grassy and ferny notes. Wee hints of melon and pistachio. Rather funny in many ways. Finish: a tad short but pleasingly juicy on plain barley, toast, cereals, icing sugar. Comments: Wilderness years indeed, it’s a far cry from the embarrassing fruit bombs Strathisla was churning out a decade earlier, but it’s not without its easy charms.
SGP: 531 - 83 points.

Strathisla 40 yo ‘Astral Hits’ 1967/2008 (47.2%, The Nectar ‘Daily Dram’, 132 bottles)
While we’re talking about the previous decade… Colour: gold. Nose: indeed, a beehive! It’s one of these rather sappy ones, lots of pine resin, camphor, herbal ointments, honeycomb, furniture polish and green tea with lemon. Wonderfully expressive and elegant, the kind of aroma structure which only time can manifest. Quite a bit of incense, pot pourri, cheng pi, liquorice and bunches of dried herbs. Beautiful. Mouth: doubles down on honeys, sandalwood, dried mint, heather ales, dried wildflowers and more dried herbs. Rather towards medical-tinged things like wormwood, wintergreen and dried lime peel. Not as expressive as on the nose, but that’s probably to be expected with such age. Lemon curd, some softer cereal touches and a nicely floral waxiness. Finish: medium, rather oily, waxy and minty with camphor, putty and crystalised lemon. Comments: Hard to believe now, but there was that window of about 10 years where these kinds of long aged Speysiders were being issued ubiquitously by most indy bottlers. Anyway, preferred the nose here - as is often the case - but this is still a rather textbook and deliciously elegant old Strathisla.
SGP: 651 - 90 points.

Glendronach 8 yo (45.4%, OB for Italy ‘Ruffino import’, early 1970s)
I’ve never been sure how many ‘batches’ of this existed. But it seems that the distillery issued many variations in the short decade or so it was using this bottle. There’s vintage version from the early 60s, 40%, 43%, 70 proof, 80 proof and this version for Italy at 45.4%, which is a little more common I think. I’ve recorded notes for various examples over the years and I don’t think I’ve ever found a batch that was disappointing. Colour: gold. Nose: yup! A rather typical and exquisite mix of exotic fruits, mango, passion fruit, guava, cannabis resin, lychee, fruit salad juices pooled at the bottom of the bowl and a rather dense waxiness. If you want to understand what I mean when I say ‘old style malt whisky’, you should make an effort to try one of these old dumpy Glendronachs. Mouth: very greasy and fat. With this almost brusque mineral quality and something like a sweaty waxiness. Grass, mechanical oils, soot, putty, sheep wool, metal polish - raw, cluttered and pretty brilliant. Just pure charisma in many ways. There’s a nice natural sweetness too that feels rather barleyish. Finish: long, fruity, mineral, waxy, camphor, hessian and loads of olive oil. Comments: Pretty exemplary of this era and style of Glendronach. You just cannot try this and not start to notice gaping holes in the contemporary whisky flavour map.
SGP: 562 - 91 points.

Glendronach 20 yo 1994/2014 (59.1%, OB for Taiwan, cask #30, oloroso sherry butt, 609 bottles)
It’s been a while since I tried one of these sherried beasts from Glendronach. Colour: reddish coffee. Nose: pretty typical with this rather immense and deep earthiness with freshly ground coffee, toasted walnuts, prunes in syrup, graphite oil, pipe tobacco and old leather. Meaty, earthy and very punchy. A little time and it evolves some more easy notes of strawberries, soy sauce and cassis. Some more dark stewed fruits too and these walnut notes become more like walnut wine or liqueur. With water: evolves beautifully with water, terrifically silky and well-integrated rancio, treacle, walnut wine, soy sauce, balsamic and miso. Some softer notes of herbal teas and mushrooms in the background. Mouth: terrific texture on arrival. Really like some sort of balsamic glaze mixed with walnut cordial and herbal liqueur. Some black pepper, cocktail bitters, herbal throat sweets and cough medicine. Remarkably syrupy and textural in the mouth. Game sausage, paprika, ink, natural tar and redcurrant jelly. With water: maraschino juices, grenadine, orange bitters, green walnut liqueur, Irish coffee and more cured meats and gamey notes. Still deeply earthy but easier and more open now. Finish: long, wonderfully peppery, damply earthy with many tobaccos, walnuts, rancio and more slightly saline soy sauce aspects. Comments: I had it around 86 / 87 when neat but this one was really propelled into the rafters with a little water. Unlike many of the casks in this series, this one displayed a level of integration and complexity and an evolution that was just a bit more compelling and classy and not quite so brutal as some of its sibling casks can often be.
SGP: 462 - 90 points. 

Inchgower 11 yo 2007/2019 (56.6%, Whisky Druid, cask #803604, 1st fill ruby port quarter cask, 138 bottles)
I have to say, I’m more than a little scared by this cask description… Colour: deep rosé wine. Nose: strawberry jam, raspberry jam, recurrent cordial and any other red, juicy, jammy notes you care to mention. Now, I should say, these are all alarmingly pleasant and integrated at first nosing. Is this a trap? Help! A curious pencil shaving or two and a few drops of brake fluid peep out from beneath this red jam forcefield. Seriously, a shot of this in a cold glass of crémant and you’re laughing - until the following morning at least. With water: surprisingly a rather clear note of freshly made Americano, some chopped herbs, some bitter chocolate, freeze dried red berries, blood orange, grenadine and violet cordial. Madness, but undeniable fun as well. Mouth: ok, this is where things start to come slightly undone. There’s still tones of these red, sticky fruits but here they’re a bit too cloying and sticky for my liking and they don’t feel so integrated with the wood which has a rather jagged pencil shaving edge. Perhaps just a tad too forceful for me. With water: water kind of wrestles things back into some semblance of control, but we’re far from safe territory. Still lots of sticky, jaggy fruits, some sour Belgian kriek lambic, fermenting raspberries, plum wine and red liquorice. Finish: quite long, still oodles of red things, sticky things, goo, fruit cordials, some black pepper, strawberry syrup, lime sweets and marzipan. Comments: I’m afraid I haven’t the slightest idea what to do about scoring this bonkers thing. It’s true I am not a fan of these wine-doped whiskies, but I can’t help feeling that in this instance the cask has created something fun and not especially something ‘bad’. I doubt I could drink a glass but I’m sure I could get drunk with some friends mixing this into all manner of dangerous potions. Anyway, whoever was responsible for this is probably already being watched by Interpol.
SGP: 761 - 76ish meaningless points. 

Inchgower 34 yo 1974/2008 (61.2%, The Single Malts Of Scotland, cask #8787, hogshead, 128 bottles)
Not sure you could pick a more different Inchgower if you tried. I suspect this is where any meaning inherent in doing whiskies in pairs breaks down completely. Colour: gold. Nose: beauty! This emphatic and sublimely concentrated mix of waxes, wood resins, honeys, dried flowers and fir wood. Add to that herbal teas, liqueurs and extracts, some rather old school medicines and wee spoonfuls of dark fruit chutneys. With water: waxy honeycomb, bitter orange peel, herbal cough medicine, fir needles, hardwood resins and even wee touches of cannabis oil and wormwood. Mouth: powerful and still immensely fresh. But also doubling down on these wonderfully thready notes of honey, blossoms, wildflowers, heather ale, waxed canvass, citronella candles, mint tea, juniper, yellow plums and fruit cordials. The concentration and coiled power are just wonderful. With water: nicely bitter with many citrus piths, almond oil, miso broth, umami, bouillon, fermenting honey evolving more towards aged mead, flower honey and a beautiful fusion of resinous fruits and herbal teas and ointments. Finish: superbly long, waxy, concentrated, oily and yet delicate enough to still carry these notes of pollens, pressed flowers and long aged Sauternes. Comments: I really believe these batches of Inchgower are still underrated. Dynamic, powerful, deep and superbly complex whiskies that just offer wave upon wave of pleasure. And the strength means you can really geek out with your pipette.
SGP: 662 - 92 points.

Chichibu 2012/2019 (60.8%, OB for The Whisky Exchange, 20th Anniversary, cask #2089, refill hogshead, 349 bottles)
Colour: straw. Nose: extremely pure and almost hyper coastal. Lemon juice, oyster water, wet seaweed in rock pools and smoked pink sea salt. Also these notes of squid ink and something almost metallic, like steel wool doused with TCP. A very powerful, crystalline smokiness builds steadily. Very impressive, but blind I’m not sure I wouldn’t have said I was on Islay. Gains softness and medicines over time. With water: pure sea salt, canvass, ink, iodine drops, gauze, bandages and gentle disinfectant notes. The overriding impression still remains one of purity and precision. Mouth: pure seawater, petrol, sheep wool, olive brine, pickling juices, sourdough starter and more lemon juice and some ground black pepper. Pin sharp but also with a gently oily texture in the mouth which supports these deeper peaty notes very nicely. With water: gently chalky and extremely mineral now. A slight dusty edge to the peat and a deeper, more gutsy smokiness that speaks to kiln air and bonfire embers. Dried seaweed and some notes of spicy ramen broth which finally feels happily ‘Japanese’. Finish: long and riddled with this bass-note smokiness, grass, brine, wood embers, petrol and sharp, saline minerality. Comments: I know this bottling has garnered quite a bit of praise so far and it is of undeniable technical brilliance, but I feel it probably lacks a little soul or much in the way of a Japanese ‘accent’. Anyway, these are minor quibbles really, there’s a huge amount of flare and skill on display here and it’s impossible not to be impressed. As ever with Chichibu, when the impeccable distillate isn’t pitched against some unlikely wood, it’s a thrill.
SGP: 358 - 91 points.

Karuizawa Multi Vintages #1 1981-1982-1983-1984 - b2011 (59.1%, OB ‘Noh Whisky’, casks #6405 #4973 #8184 #6437, bourbon & sherry, 1500 bottles)
A rather cool assembly of bourbon and sherry casks, I doubt the label would be legal for a Scotch whisky, but then isn’t Japan rather lawless when it comes to its own whiskies? Colour: coppery amber. Nose: you immediately get the impression that this was a good idea, you have this rather luscious and easy fruitiness emerging from the collision of bourbon and sherry. And ‘easiness’ is a rare thing with Karuizawa I would say. Lots of exotic fruit jams, rare hardwoods, aged teas and a pretty sublime and heady rancio. Wee touches of rose syrup and sultana. Beautiful! With water: really elegant now and full of sticky dark fruits like dates and fig jam. Some miso, treacle pudding and some kind of smoked mint tea. Mouth: big, typically spicy and powerful but also showing a degree of harmony and restraint. Coconut curry, rosewater, lychee, lime jelly, five spice, lightly smoked paprika, chai tea and many dried and crystalised exotic fruits. There’s also a pretty deep earthiness with touches of old school herbal cough medicines and bit of peppery peat smoke. With water: again with this wonderful coconut aspect, more coconut milk on top of smoked cereals, herbal and exotic teas, umami broths, more paprika, dried lime peel, incense and pot pourri. Superb! Really reminiscent in some ways of these pre-war Speyside malts that G&M was issuing with abundance in the 1980s. Finish: long and full of incense, spices, sandalwood, herbal peat smoke, lightly sooty tones and still lots of vivid umami and rancio. Comments: I much prefer this more harmonious style of Karuizawa, you really feel the fusion of a few casks here has tamed the often brutalistic style that this era often displays in single cask form. It’s a shame that Karuizawa is pretty much ‘complete’ now (apart from a few slumbering casks destined for amusing price tags) and that this approach wasn’t take a little more enthusiastically when there were more parcels of stock like this to play with. Anyway, this was great and extremely enjoyable, felt like very ‘pure’ Karuizawa in style.
SGP: 573 - 92 points.