Island Single Malt Scotch Whisky

An old slope-shouldered bottle of Highland Park 12 year old from the early 1990s. We find these bottles to be slightly smokier than the current edition.

A rare 1980s litre bottle of Tobermory with a screenprinted label.

A little piece of whisky history here - the first legal single malt whisky made at the Abhainn Dearg (Red River) distillery in Uig on the Outer Hebridean Isle of Lewis. Established in 2008, Abhainn Dearg is the most westerly distillery in Scotland.

A 1980 vintage whisky from Hart Brothers, distilled at Highland Park and bottled at 16 years of age for the Finest Collection.

A 1992 vintage single cask whisky from the Isle of Jura. Distilled on 5th February 1992, matured for 13 years and bottled on the 1st of April 2005. The bottle is numbered and signed by then distillery manager Mickey Heads.

A rather interesting Isle of Jura bottling. This whisky was distilled on February 5th 1992 and was bottled 13 years later. What makes this interesting is that it shares the same cask reference as another bottling from Jura, except this one was bottled 4 months later and at a 0.6% lower ABV.

The latest Talisker 25yo is another destined for the pantheon of fantastic expressions of Skye's finest. With a deceptive power hidden in a palate of incredible elegance, this is a classic iron-fist-velvet-glove Talisker par excellence.

A 35 year old single cask whisky from the Isle of Jura, distilled in 1976 and bottled in 2012 by Berry Brothers & Rudd. This one comes from cask 888, so we suspect this may be snapped up by fans of lucky numbers...

A sister cask to Berry Bros's lucky numbered #888 single cask bottling released at the same time as this, distilled in 1976 and bottled in 2012 at 35 years old.

Until the arrival of the 40yo, this was the ne plus ultra of the standard range of proprietary bottlings from Highland Park. A whisky of extraordinary depth and intensity of flavour.
Whisky Bible 2010: Best Single Malt (28-34 Years); 95.5 Points

A litre bottle of the first Talisker in Diageo's Distillers Editions range. Distilled in 1986 and finished in Amoroso Sherry casks.

Talisker super-premium releases from Diageo have been uniformly excellent. This is no disappointment - a bit more sherry influence has made this an absolute cracker. Roars across the palate, then caresses the tastebuds on the finish.

A Talisker 25yo from Diageo's Special Releases is always a thing to cherish - and this is no exception, with a very clean, citric emphasis when compared to some of the earlier releases. As we've come to expect from Talisker, this is nothing short of superb.

Silver Medal Winner (The Malt Maniacs Awards 2009)

The 1987 vintage of Talisker's entry in the Distillers Edition range from Diageo, adding a secondary maturation to their single malts to give something a little different to their regular bottlings. This one is finished in Amoroso casks, for some sweet sherry notes.

There has yet to be a bad version of Talisker 25 yrs - distinguishing between the various releases is just a question of degrees of excellence. This particular edition weighed in with a mere 95 points from Jim Murray, who described it as 'Krakatoa on the tastebuds'. In this instance, it's difficult to disagree.

Released in 2005, this was the third Talisker 25yo to be released and was acclaimed at the time as being the best so far. Thankfully the standard has remained at an extraordinarily high level ever since.

Please welcome the 2011 entry into the ranks of superb Talisker 25 year olds. Where previous version of Tally 25yo have been released at fullstrength, 2011's edition is the first to be bottled from refill casks at Talisker's traditional strength of 45.8% (80 proof) with a slightly larger outturn than usual to let more people join in on the fun.

Scapa 1980 is a belter of a malt from a distillery frequently overlooked in favour of its more famous Orcadian neighbour, Highland Park. Well-presented and bottled at natural cask strength for added oomph.