Torabhaig 2017/2020 (46%, OB, Inaugural Release, Legacy Series, first fill bourbon, cask #300-600, 32,000 bottles)
To tell you the truth, life must be passing me by in a blur; I hardly even knew there was another distillery on Skye, let along that it was of age already. Anyway, I think it's cool that they would release such a large batch for their first bottling so that many folks could actually taste it. I've heard nothing but good reports about this one but let's see what, precisely, is what… Colour: pale white wine. Nose: look, I know Skye only has Talisker besides this, but there is something 'Skye-ish' about this already. This assertive but polite mix of yeasty breads, lemon peel, chalk, white flowers and wet rocks all feels like it could pass for some young Talisker. There's a mineral edge as well, chalky, briny, salty, flinty and precise. Really, three years old you say? Mouth: taut, pristine and rather sharp. Lemon juice, sheep wool, lighter petrol notes, caraway and ink. Not just good young whisky, but good whisky full stop. Feels very pure, coastal and saline. Some very slight farmyard aspects too, such as this persistent sheep wool oiliness, and some nice white peppery notes. Finish: good length, briny, anchovies in oil, a slight camphor note and becoming more medical with embrocations and a little TCP. Some more gristy and yeasty aspects in the aftertaste betray some youthful imbalance perhaps. Comments: pristine, modern peated malt whisky. Are we perhaps entering an age where many such malts can easily reach a baseline of quality after only 3 years? I still find this charismatic and feel like time will only improve things. What a great start for a new distillery, I can't wait to go up and visit!
SGP: 366 - 86 points.

Dornoch 3 yo 2017/2020 (59.4%, OB, Thompson bros. first fill ex-oloroso butt, cask #1, 893 bottles)
The first bottling from some great friends who have made an unequivocally impressive achievement with their crazy micro distillery up there in Dornoch. When I talk about the coming decade of whisky being an exciting one, these are exactly the type of folk I'm referring to. Colour: gold. Nose: what is great is that you immediately know this is something different. It is not 'business as usual' whisky production. There's some sharpness of youth and some grisliness from the sherry that time might have further ironed out, but this is nit picking. What comes through most impressively is aromas of moss, agave, roasted vegetables (they like their turnips up there in Dornoch) clay, putty, camphor and caraway. Mashy, pulpy, mineral, greasy and oily. In short: the impression of texture and fatness is huge and impressive: a 'new' highlands style perhaps? Quite unlike anything else really. With water: more harmony between the spirit and the cask, the slightly salty, bacon notes of sherry mix with marzipan and almond oil. There's also fruit teas and hessian. Mouth: sharp to begin, then extremely bready and spicy, the sherry and distillate together delivery a lot of rye bread flavours and dark fruits. Also some bitter chocolate, unlit cigar, camphor, olive oil and bouillon stock. With water: very good now. Salty, wonderfully savoury and umami, these persistent breads, dark grains and spices, still slightly vegetal, earthy and with nice tobacco touches. Finish: long, spicy, bready, light notes of cured meats such as Iberico ham, and some tiny wee green fruits. Comments: what is important to remember here is that this really is the first cask filled. To get things this good on a first go and at three years old is hugely impressive in some ways. But in other ways perhaps it says a lot too about the fact that making good whisky is not technically mysterious - you simply need willpower, understanding and a business model designed around the value of quality over quantity. Oh, and a shit load of cash helps too! Anyway, bunnets aff' to the Thompsons…
SGP: 651 - 88 points.

Springbank 26 yo 1993/2020 (51.1%, OB for Virtual Open Day 2020, two refill hogsheads, 432 bottles)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: some 93s are a bit wobbly in my view, but that is certainly not the case here. A stunning and direct aroma bristling with coastal freshness, waxes, beach pebbles, chalk, herbal teas and delicately scented with peat smoke. Pin sharp and totally sublime. With water: medicines, herbs, beach wood, canvass, rapeseed oil, lemongrass, tiger balm. Controlled, yet also complex. We're flying extremely high here. Mouth: totally brilliant! Textually perfect, waxy, thready notes of smoked olive oil, camphor, sandalwood, tea tree oil, bergamot, tangerine, dried papaya, generally a few notches more tropical than other casks from these vintages. But overall the sense of coastal vigour, waxy thickness and general Springbank power is just wonderful. With water: exquisite. Complex, powerful, elegantly peaty, perfectly coastal, chiselled notes of dried flowers, honeys, medicines, wood saps, precious teas. Finish: long, warming, honeyed, flecked with peat, olive oil, natural tar, verbena, medical ointments and sandalwood. Comments: a stunner! Probably the best 1993 Springbank I ever tried.
SGP: 563 - 93 points.

Longrow 1987/1999 (55%, Samaroli, cask #141)
Colour: bright straw. Nose: take one part 70s Ardbeg, one part 80s Brora and one part 90s Springbank and… sell them at auction!!!! No, I'm kidding. But this is a nose that immediately suggests some kind of distillery mash up. Stunning oily and tarry peat, leathery camphor, seawater, iodine, fir wood and this medicinal accent that shares much DNA with those mid-90s Springbanks. Beyond that there's also tiny notes of coconut, roof pitch, Bonjella (medicine for mouth ulcers, I know, delicious!) and smoked fish. With water:  extremely pure now, on almonds, wet seaweed, driftwood, oysters and lime slices in pickling juice. Mouth: not as complex as the nose. More singular around tarry rope, oily peat, boiler fumes, black pepper, motor oil, camphor and salt-baked fish. Powerful and immensely charismatic, there's no other whisky quite like Longrow when it is on top form! With water: some kind of dystopian Monster Munch doused in kerosine. Totally brilliant! Finish: long, peaty, deeply oily, tarry, medicinal, crisply smoky and totally its own thing. Comments: because I don't try it very often, and because it can be variable on occasion, it's easy to forget just how much I bloody love Longrow!
SGP: 476 - 93 points.

Longrow 25 yo 1994/2020 (52.1%, Cadenhead Authentic Collection, bourbon hogshead, 186 bottles)
Let us humbly try this without thinking too much about a certain North Star bottling which may or may not have been totally stunning… Colour: gold. Nose: gah! Stunning, yet again. Please prepare you smallest violins if you will. Exquisitely coastal, elegant, riddled with bandages, gauze, medicinal-accented peat smoke, touches of brine, dried seaweed, metal polish, iodine and shellfish boiling in seawater. You might also add smoked olive oil, preserved lemons, natural tar extract and sandalwood. Totally beautiful. With water: a guttural, gravelly minerality, also some green pepper and muddled fresh herbs. So, added freshness you might say. Mouth: immensely rich, mouth-coating and with a sublimely leathery peatiness. Tar, pepper, medicine, seawater, camphor, grapefruit, ointments, herbal liqueurs - just show-stopping. With water: it's the depth and breadth of the palate simultaneously expanding that is so impressive. Just keeps on giving and evolving. Finish: wonderfully long, oily, peaty, medical, fat and yet also still with freshness, citrus, coal smoke and seashore notes. Comments: if today's session were a poker hand, let's just say I'd happily be putting Serge's Aston Martin keys in the pot without hesitation!
SGP: 466 - 93 points.