New Products

The last remnants of this year's new releases trickle through: later than planned, we have 'Golder Still' the bourbon cask expression of Bruichladdich's 'Still' series - and you 'Still' can't see into the bottle, (boom-boom). Golder Still is joined by the X4, also from Bruichladdich. This 'Islay Spirit' is unaged malt distillate that caused a bit of a hoo-hah when it was originally made, with a lot of hysterical frothing in the press about the 92% strength it was distilled to. The strength of this unaged, unpeated spirit has subsequently been reduced to 50% to pre-empt a similar campaign now that it's in the bottle. The X4 makes an interesting contrast with another of this week's arrivals - the barely-aged malt from Chichibu. Chichibu is the new distillery from Ichiro Akuto, whose family owned the old Hanyu distillery that was forced to close in 2000, was dismantled in 2004 and has subsequently found fame thanks to Ichiro's 'Card' series. This is one of the first releases in Chichibu's history, with distillate aged in first-fill bourbon barrels for a couple of months. Also this week, another Jim McEwan-selected malt: an ancient Banff from Jim's Celtic Heartlands bottlings; another new bottling in the unending flow of Japanese malt arriving on our shores - this time, it's from Nikka's Miyagikyo and was distilled in 1989; and finally, a new long-aged blended malt from blend-meisters Famous Grouse. Not a blended whisky, you understand - a blended malt whisky. What used to be known as a vatted malt. Confused? No, no, of course you're not, say the SWA. You just think you are. Merry Christmas to one and all from The Whisky Exchange - thanks for joining us in 2008 and we hope to see you again in 2009. In the meantime, enjoy your holidays and have a great Hogmanay...

Some humdingers for you just in time for the last-minute Christmas rush. Two very different offerings from Bruichladdich, with the long-awaited young peatbomb Octomore accompanied by DNA - a bottling of the oldest remaining stocks of Bruichladdich. And just for good measure, we have the remarkable 40yo Glenfarclas 105. Sadly, we don't have samples of any of these, so we can't tell you what they're like yet, but we expect demand for all three of these to be massive nonetheless. The new releases are coming so thick and fast we've barely time to put them all up here. Some very interesting stuff though, including some gems from Douglas Laing, the new cask-strength Talisker OB, the return of Campbeltown Loch in its oldest guise yet, the 'First Edition' (hmmm, really?) Mackmyra and an official cask strength Talisker, not to mention a couple of new wood finishes from BenRiach. Heady days...

A quick update to introduce our newest bottlings - and this time it's two more of our famous long-aged Single Malt of Scotland 'Anniversary Selections'. We've unearthed a corker from the barely-recognised Glen Spey and caught up with a classic old Tamnavulin just before it went under-strength. These two gems, along with the rest of our Single Malts of Scotland range neatly exemplify our philosophy of judging only what's in the glass rather what's on the label. There are dozens of unsung distilleries across Scotland producing fantastic quality malt whisky - it's just that most of it ends up in blends because there's no marketing budget or the distillery is perceived as unfashionable. Independent bottlings are the best way to discover these hidden gems, and frequently the best drams are from totally unexpected sources...

The Christmas releases are coming in thick and fast, so this will be a two-part post today. First up is our own bottling of Glen Elgin, which we've chosen to call 'Green Elgin' because of its rather unusual hue. Fans of our legendary 'Green Brackla' of a few years ago will no doubt be licking their lips. Also in this inital update we have an embarrassment of riches from Douglas Laing, including a couple of Ardbegs, a lively Springbank and some very old Banff and Blair Athol. It's a good time to be a malt fan...

This is so special that we felt it deserved its own posting on New Products & News, as it's our oldest, rarest and most luxurious bottling yet: An official bottling for TWE of a Fifty year old Glenfarclas!

Here at last - the new Single Malts of Scotland bottlings! We've got some real treasures from little-seen distilleries like Glenglassaugh, Benrinnes, Linlithgow and Caperdonich (a very unusual heavily-peated expression); a pair of wildly different Bowmores; and new versions of old favourites such as our Springbank (quite Longrow-esque), Rosebank 1991, Caol Ila and our superb Benriach. There really is something for everyone with this batch of releases - enjoy!

A tremendous selection of recent arrivals, including some more top-end single cask stuff from Dewar Rattray - their last releases sold out super-fast, so don't hang around if you want one of these; some interesting Islays from Murray McDavid; bottlings of extinct distilleries by Connoisseur's Choice and Signatory; the oldest ever official vintage release from Balblair; and the unthinkable: an unmolested 16yo from Bruichladdich - 100% bourbon matured, and not even a whisper of Guatemalan Grenache wine casks. You'd've thought it was Christmas or something.