Glendronach is a distillery that has been on a bit of a rollercoaster over the last few decades. Closures and re-openings, changes in high profile master distillers and excellent quality old stock followed by different, but also excellent, quality new stock. Its spirit has been used for blends as well as won Whisky of the Year (which this 15 year old did in 2020). The price has, consequently risen, and at around £80 it is now a pretty expensive dram. Perhaps this is why it seems to have fallen out of favour of late. This certainly isn’t to knock the whisky itself though, which still draws a smile from nearly every whisky enthusiast.

A mere glance at this bottle tells you that it should be a ‘fine’ whisky. The opulent, royal blue neck foil, classy label and rich coloured spirit all speak to the royal history that this distillery proclaims. Nestled in the countryside of the Cawdor Estate in the Scottish Highlands (right on the border with the Speyside region) lies the distillery which claims royal heritage back to the early 1800s when it was granted a royal warrant by King William IV. The distillery has been closed and re-opened several times since then but retains its traditional, regal style into the modern age. I can’t wait to try it.

Ardnamurchan is one of the new breed of young, ‘challenger’ distilleries in Scotland, both in age (having only been built in 2014) and approach. With an admirable, sometimes incredulous, focus on transparency, they make all of the details of your whisky available online via a QR code - how long the mash was fermented, the percentage at which the cut is taken for the new make and even the cask origins for your particular bottle of whisky. For many whisky drinkers, this is like peaking behind the curtain and unnecessary but, for the most nerdy of drammers, it is exactly the transparency that many wish was more commonplace. But what does the spirit taste like?…

I’ve had this bottle, unopened, in my cupboard for a little while now. This frosty day at the start of a new year felt like the perfect opportunity to pull it out and give it a try. It’s apparent from the moment you open the box that Mortlach want you to think of this whisky as more refined, a cut above (in much the same way as Macallan). Typically, I find this off-putting but there is something about the angular, square-shouldered shape of this bottle that I find intriguing, not least the name - The Wee Witchie. Let’s get into it!

I’m rounding out my little ‘side quest’ through Loch Lomond’s whiskies with arguably their base expression - the 12-year-old from the core range (ie. not Inchmoan or Inchmurrin - confusing, I know). I covered the different ranges in this post a few weeks ago but essentially the core Loch Lomond range has a mixture of sweetness (accentuated in the Inchmurrin range) and just a hint of smoke (which is heavier in the Inchmoan range).

I was very grateful to have received this 20cl bottle as a gift (along with the Loch Lomond engraved glencairn glass) and it seems like a fitting way to round out my foray into some of the Loch Lomond expressions by finishing up where it starts. I’m sure this won’t be my last Loch Lomond whisky!

As we start 2025, the first bottle I’m opening is another first for me - a special edition. All of the bottles that I have tried so far on this journey have been from core ranges from readily available distilleries. However, as I’ve gone down this rabbit hole with Loch Lomond today’s whisky is their 2024 Cooper’s Collection expression, the annual release from Master Blender Michael Henry.

As I fall down this rabbit hole of Loch Lomond’s whisky, the next stop for me is the 14-year-old “Spiced Apple and Soft Smoke”. I’ve been so impressed by the last two bottles I’ve tried (Inchmoan 12 yr and Loch Lomond 10 yr) so I’m really looking forward to this. I’m coming to the realisation that Loch Lomond is a pretty unique distillery. Their selection of expressions is vast and in addition to their pot stills, they also have Coffey and column stills giving them so much variation in the spirit they produce. Let’s take a closer look.

Loch Lomond is surely the Scottish distillery producing the widest variety of whiskies. Their whiskies fall into one of three ranges each with its own subtlely different brand. So Loch Lomond’s core range comes in a few options. There are three 12-year-olds and today we’re diving into arguably the most beloved - the peated Inchmoan 12-year-old.

I was recently gifted this vivid orange bottle of Loch Lomond 10-year-old. I went to do a little research online and was surprised, and a little confused, to find that it is not available in any of the usual specialist whisky retailers (in the UK at least). It is, however, available through all the major supermarkets (Tesco, Waitrose, Sainsburys, etc). I think this is the first time I’ve ever come across, what I would consider to be, a core range product that is only available through high street retailers. I am intrigued! And is it any good?

From one of my favourite distilleries to visit, comes this 15-year-old expression. It’s the big brother to the quirky (and previously reviewed) Dalwhinnie Winter’s Gold and is a much more straightforward whisky. Where Winter’s Gold has its unusual marketing gimmick of being served ice cold, straight from the freezer (read about my experience with this here), today’s whisky is a regular age statement, run-of-the-mill whisky. But is that a good thing? Let’s find out.

This may well be the strangest bottle of whisky I’ve come across so far on my journey. The Singleton brand is owned by Diageo and is actually made up of whiskies from three different distilleries: Glen Ord, Glendullan and Dufftown - confusing already! We’re tasting the Dufftown version here which is extremely widely available in the UK but confusingly, Diageo’s own website (Malts.com) says it only exists at 43% - I can’t find it available at anything other than 40%. Not a straightforward start - let’s take a look at the whisky though.