Jura 20 yo 'Batch 5' (48.2%, That Boutique-y Whisky Co, 901 bottles)
Colour: straw. Nose: very Jura! This avalanche of mashy grains, wort and root vegetables baked in honey. Also waxes, suet, bouillon, over-stewed chamomile tea and some kind of fermenting honey. Charismatic, weird and a whole heap of fun! Mouth: same feeling, but with many more waxes, honeys, breads and a myriad display of mechanical oils, toolbox grease, hessian rags and bike chain 'stuff'. Really, you cannot say that Jura does not make a spirit with personality. Although, you can also see why the commercially minded owners might be tempted to clobber their distillate into Supermarket uniformity with any number of active woods. Finish: medium but very fatty, waxy, beery and going towards lactic notes and mustard powder. Comments: I can see why some would find this too extreme, parts of it remind me of some Loch Lomond makes or some rather off the grid old Irish whiskeys. For me however, I love this zany profile. We are a very long way from Glen Boring!
SGP: 472 - 87 points.

Jura 28 yo 1993/2021 (48.2%, Mossburn, hogshead, 220 bottles)
Colour: gold. Nose: same family tree, but this one long ago veered off more towards medicinal ointments, herbal cough syrups, funky old liqueurs and things like creme de menthe, eucalyptus scented pipe tobaccos and some old dry Rieslings. There's also a glimmer of salinity and a pretty impressive and encroaching waxiness that reeks of fatness and texture! Mouth: excellent! Richly honeyed, natural sweet, full of old school beers, ales, breads, meads and camphor. Fir wood resins, myrtle, camphor, lemon infused olive oil and this persistently textural waxiness. Finish: good length, one freshly baked breads once again, also toasted seeds, mineral oils, bouillon and more camphor and fir wood notes. Comments: terrific, charismatic, old style malt whisky. I know they divide opinion a bit, but I'm a big fan of these parcels of aged Jura. This is a top notch example, great selection.
SGP: 662 - 90 points.

Tobermory 24 yo 1994/2022 (49.8%, C.Dully Selection for Sansibar, cask #10942, sherry butt, 78 bottles)
Only 78 bottles from a sherry butt? Very leaky, or someone in Switzerland has been necking the Toblerone Eau De Vie again… Colour: light amber. Nose: it's a balanced sherry style that's rather lean and leafy with a lot of gun metal, bouillon, mineral oil, sultanas and light tobacco notes. Elegant and rather stylish I would say, pairs quite effortlessly with the Tobermory character so far. Mouth: same feelings, gently drying, lightly herbal, rather leathery with creme caramel and praline. Also some nice umami flavours of miso, truffle and black pepper. A little gingery too perhaps. Finish: good length, becoming rather delicate now with teas, mushrooms, a touch of balsamic and some walnut oil. Comments: subtlety is the word here. Tiptoes around like a Swiss ballet dancer - probably.
SGP: 561 - 88 points.

Tobermory 25 yo 1996/2022 (50.1%, Dram Mor, refill hogshead + 1st fill Calvados finish, 167 bottles)
Dram Mor seem to have mastered these clever finishings. Apples and pears + 90s Tobermory seems on paper like a good recipe… Colour: deep gold. Nose: it is probably the power of suggestion, but I do indeed find appley notes upfront, russet apples and bruised Granny Smiths. Then it goes more towards shoe leather, boot polish, mineral oils and toolbox rags. I like this rather rustic / mechanical combo. Also some touches of liquorice, verbena, coal dust and snapped twigs. With water: sooty apples, a drop of custard, some sweet cider and then some nicely mossy petrichor notes. Mouth: hoho, a big rush of Calvados! Was this cask rinsed? Apple pips, cask aged perry, lemon verbena, wormwood and mineral oil mixed with creme de menthe. A whole heap of fun! With water: opens up on green fruits, tea tree oil, mossy bark, lime curd and touches of aniseed and fennel. Very attractive. Finish: medium in length and displaying some nicely bitter notes of apple peelings, dried herbs, tree bark and citrus rinds. Slightly peppery in the aftertaste. Comments: I'm not generally a fan of finishings, but the ones I like tend to be very much about fun rather than anything too pretentious. This is certainly a fun whisky, one to pour blind to kick off an evening with some fellow whisky geeks.
SGP: 651 - 88 points.

Tobermory 26 yo 1995/2021 (51.0%, North Star, refill hogshead, 238 bottles)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: very typically on greases, yeasty breads, ales and fabrics. Some chalky beach pebble vibes and wee notes of waxes, flints, mineral oil and shoe polish. Very in keeping with these 90s Tobermory batches and also very good I think. With water: greener and slightly more peppery, these nice notes of grass, chlorophyll, wet rocks and muesli. Mouth: excellent arrival, surprisingly sweet and juicy with a lot of natural barley sweetness along with some notes of milk bottle sweets, ink, parsley and dried mixed herbs. More sourdough vibes along with a little lemon peel and verbena. Still nicely waxy too. With water: excellent weight and body, feels like a surprisingly textural example in the mouth, which may just be a very clever hogshead? Apple juice, honey, Turkish delight and condensed milk. Finish: good length, lots of warm peppery qualities, lingering waxy feelings and more of these citrus rinds and dried herbs. Comments: definitely one the best of these various Tobermory mid-90s casks I've tried thus far, this one really ticked many boxes and managed to balance some of the more 'milky' characteristics these can sometimes display.
SGP: 651 - 89 points.

Ledaig 19 yo 2001/2021 (49.2%, Club Qing & Friends, hogshead, 219 bottles)
A bottling by Club Qing and shared with a number of other great bars. Colour: pale white wine. Nose: ashy smoke, seawater, grizzly peat and bonfire embers. Big, chunky, classical modern Ledaig, only now at this age its edges are beginning to round off. Peat smoked sheep wool with lemon juice and fresh oysters. Beautiful freshness and elegance after a little time. Mouth: seawater again, waxed lemon rinds, sooty-tinged kiln smoke and these rather superb camphor and hessian notes. Terrific fatness and thickness in the mouth even at below 50% - I would say the strength is kind of perfect in fact. Becomes a little more tarry and towards hessian and creel rope with time. Very maritime! Finish: long, pure, intricately smoky, lots of impressions of shellfish, salinity, umami broths and tar. Comments: it started out a tad simple but just kept on getting bigger and better as it went along. Isn't modern Ledaig just brilliant? Great selection.
SGP: 366 - 90 points.

Islay 30 yo 1990/2021 (48.8%, Thompson Bros 'Error 502 Bad Gateway', refill hogshead, 89 bottles)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: hard not to just think of mature early 1990s Laphroaig. Soft, quilted peat smoke, crushed beach shells, gentle medicinal embrocations, seawater, grapefruit, gauze and background notes of more luscious greener and exotic fruits. Undeniably pretty gorgeous with this impression of gentility and easiness. Mouth: a deeper, more impactful peaty quality, one that takes in bitter coffee, smoked teas, iodine, natural tar, seawater and dried herbs muddled with umami seasonings. Liquid smoke and aniseed. Perfect power and texture in the mouth - probably bottled at perfect maturity these batches I would say. Finish: medium, on anchovy paste, more dried herbal notes, dried lemon peels and more these seductively silky wafts of peat smoke. Comments: pure class! Gorgeous, mature, south shore Islay juice, that still retains an edge of power and complexity despite also being silly drinkable.
SGP: 566 - 91 points.

Islay 30 yo 1990/2021 (49.4%, Thompson Bros / Auld Alliance, refill barrel, 252 bottles)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: same story, but perhaps more citrus-focused, more lemons in brine, grapefruit, bergamot and scented lapsing souchong tea. Again this soft herbal aspect, seawater, generic green fruitiness, easy soft peat smoke and lightly peppery tones at the back. Mouth: same story again, same quality. Superbly crisp peat smoke this time, perhaps more salty, more sharp and resinous. Seawater, grapefruit, aniseed, iodine and kiln smoke. Getting even a notch kippery. Finish: long, gently tarry and peppery, a deeper and more chewy peat smoke profile, and similarly lovely notes of smoked teas and citrus. Comments: if push came to shovel, I'd probably admit that this one is my favourite of the two, but I'm not sure it's enough that I would go a different score. No half points on Whiskyfun. Another really gorgeous old L*******g.
SGP: 566 - 91 points.

Islay 29 yo 1991/2021 (49.2%, Thompson Bros / Auld Alliance, refill barrel, 240 bottles)
Colour: bright straw. Nose: I find this one goes more specifically towards medicines, all on bandages, gauze, gentle embrocations and distant wafts of TCP and iodine. Extremely typical but more focussed. With time it becomes a little more rooty and earthy, hints of gentian, antiseptic and soft peat smoke. Mouth: pure, ashy, briny and peaty with an overlying citrus fruit quality but with everything dialled down low so there is no single dominant flavour. The whole feels entirely about balance, integration and elegance. It's almost like a 10yo Laphroaig from the early 1990s but at a proper bottling strength and slightly less fruit. A touch of sandalwood and dried fish too. Finish: long, more deeply and assertively peaty, earthy and on medical roots once again, then peppery and with a tang of mustard powder in the aftertaste. Comments: top notch and wonderfully focussed and balanced, but I would say I just miss the more overt fruitiness of the 1990s.
SGP: 466 - 90 points.

The Liquorists Bubblegum Flavour Gin Liqueur 'Small Batch' (20%, OB, -/+2022)
Suitable for vegans, apparently. Colour: blue - with swirling whorls. Nose: not really existent. Some suggestions of bubblegum that's been under a desk for some years, also a few sprigs of gin. Some slightly sweaty, almost crotch-like notes with associated must. Very decidedly not good. Mouth: jarringly sugary, abusively exuding awful chemicals - like some kind of malfunctioning Soviet chemical facility (level 2 of Goldeneye but as a flavour). Blue candy floss aged in a haunted doll's house made of cow dung. Like rimming a sweaty Haribo addict in a hot tent on day 2 of Glastonbury. Completely atrocious. Finish: mercifully, vanishingly absent. Rapid flavour entropy. Gains points here by virtue of absolute absence of anything. Comments: did they chew the bubblegum first?
SGP: 900 - 8 points.