The online whisky world loves to grumble about being stuck in a “whisky loch,” and I will admit I have joined that chorus more than once. But here is the truth I keep coming back to: there has never been a better time to be a whisky drinker and a flavour chaser.
I only wish there was a way to know you are living in the good old days before you have actually left them. So I have pulled together the ten bottles currently sitting on my hit list, and I want to see if any of them deserve a place in your basket ASAP.
The bottle that inspired this whole exercise is the Glasgow 1770 Bourbon Cask 8-Year-Old. At 54% ABV, fully natural and lightly peated, it absolutely slaps. The peat does not throw out much smoke, but it rounds everything together beautifully. This could genuinely sit in my top three from that distillery.
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Independent bottlers are where much of the real excitement lives right now. Woodrow’s of Edinburgh have a Jane Street Collection release, widely rumoured to be a Glencadam, and my network of spies and informers may have confirmed it. Their no gimmicks, purely flavour focused approach is brilliant to see. Similarly, The Heart Cut No. 24, a six-year-old single cask matured in PX Sherry at 52%, could rival my favourite Ardnamurchans. It is expensive at £75 for a 50cl, and as a committed penny pincher that price puts it just beyond me, but it absolutely deserves the list.
Value is where things get interesting. Signatory’s Craigellachie 16-year-old at £45 was wild for a whisky of that age, and I foolishly hesitated. The regret is strong. On the other end, the humble Maker’s Mark reminds me of a perfect dram on honeymoon, though as a channel funded by you lovely slappers, I feel I owe the Scotch City camp more attention.
Elsewhere, I have got my eyes on the Jura 12 Oloroso edition, the Glengoyne White Oak, the Filey Bay Porter Cask, and the Kilchoman Rockside 11-year-old, which quietly slipped under the radar despite that hefty age statement. The Deanston 12 also deserves a revisit. And nothing has excited me more lately than Wylye Distillery in Wiltshire, where one man is chasing pure quality in a world of cold corporate hands squeezing the magic out of everything.
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READ THE STORYSo that is my hit list. Tell me, which bottle have I missed, and what is sitting at the top of your own shopping list right now?
To hear my full reasoning behind each bottle, check out my YouTube video.
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