The Exceptional Grain

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The Exceptional is a line of sourced scotches blended and bottled by Sutcliffe & Son. They began with The Exceptional Grain in 2013, and then expanded to an Exceptional Malt and Exceptional Blend. Putting aside the hubris involved in referring to your own work as “Exceptional”, Sutcliffe has garnered renown for his blends and continues to release new editions regularly. Each edition of The Exceptional Grain contains single grain whiskies selected and blended by Sutcliffe and Willie Phillips (for

Maker’s Mark 101 Proof Bourbon

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Unlike many other bourbon brands which lately have been spinning off new releases several times a year, Maker’s mostly just makes Maker’s Mark. And Maker’s 46, and a cask-strength edition. Now, this 101 proof version has been added to the lineup as a Limited Edition, where previously it was only available at the distillery.

Book Review: Malt Whisky Yearbook 2023

The Scotch NoobArticles 6 views

Okay so “book review” might be a stretch since this is just an update, but I now review The Malt Whisky Yearbook on an annual basis and because it is the one whisky-related publication that I still read regularly, I’m sticking with the title. If you don’t know whether you should own a copy of the Yearbook… well, you should. But if you want proof, read my very thorough review of the 2021 Yearbook. Of course, the Yearbook changes in content every year, but the structure remains the same and the le

808 Whisky

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Oof, it’s hard out there. I get the problem: You’re a DJ or whatever and you want to start a whisky brand. It worked for David Beckham, right? But what can you do that’s new? You get an idea: A YOUNG whisky, for YOUNG people. You’ll sell it with dance music and a story about how using young grain whisky makes the drink refreshing, not heavy like those old-fashioned malts. You pepper the marketing materials with euphemisms like “subtle”, “light”, “smooth” and suggest emphatically that drinkers se

Westward American Single Malt – Oregon Stout Cask

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Regular readers of the blog will be familiar with my admiration for the growing category of American Single Malt. While Westward (not to be confused with Westland) is a core component of this movement, they are not my favorite producer. Still, I’m always up to try something new, and here’s an American Single Malt finished in a cask that previously held Oregon stout (beer). For more background on Westward, see my review of their flagship American Single Malt.

George Dickel Bottled In Bond Tennessee Whiskey (Fall 2008, 11 year)

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I love the variety of American whiskey expressions that have graced the liquor store shelf in recent years. No longer is it just five or six old stalwarts and 1 or 2 fancy special editions, now you can get vintage-dated, age-stated, cask-finished expressions from a wide range of both sourced and distillery-owned brands. I love this, but I also hate trying to review them all. As soon as one new interesting whiskey pops up (say, George Dickel’s first bottled-in-bond release), I blink and now there

Arran Single Malt (18 year)

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There was a time when what existed of the whisky social media “scene” was focused on the Arran distillery, as it was the first and only new distillery in Scotland since the “whisky loch” of the 70s and 80s saw so many distillery closures. (Kinivie opened several years prior, but I just decided it doesn’t count because it’s actually part of Balvenie.) There was much fanfare when Arran released its first 10 year-old single malt and joined the pantheon.

Leopold Bros. Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon

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Leopold Bros. Distillery in Colorado has been flying under the “craft distillery” radar since before people knew what a craft distillery was. The brothers established a micro-distillery in Ann Arbor, Michigan after the turn of the century and then relocated to their current location near Denver in 2008. They were forced by customer demand to expand operations in 2014. Leopold Bros. distills in excess of 20 different spirits (their Apertivo is, in my opinion, the best on the market and way better

Mackinlay’s ‘Shackleton’ Blended Malt Scotch Whisky

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Anyone who was around the whisky blogosphere back in 2011 can’t have avoided the media fervor surrounding the discovery of several crates of antique scotch whisky preserved beneath the Antarctic heritage site of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ill-fated ‘Nimrod’ expedition base camp. Three bottles were air-lifted to Scotland for analysis before being returned to the site, and a limited re-creation of the whisky (blended by Whyte & Mackay master blender Richard Paterson aka ‘The Nose’, himself) was sold