All whiskies with 80-85 points by WhiskyRant blog.

June 5, 2019

Bowmore 10 year old Dark & Intense

Quick review of Bowmore 10 year old Dark & Intense, which was originally released for travel retail market. A mixture of classic Islay coastal notes and sweet sherry cask influence. This 10YO Bowmore single malt has been matured in a combination of Spanish oak Sherry casks and hogsheads. Bottled in […]
August 5, 2018

Reisetbauer 12 year old Single Malt Whisky

Reisetbauer single malt is a very small batch European whisky coming from a very small village of Axberg in Austria. High in the Alps, just South of the Danube, the whisky is distilled using local natural ingredients. Many of the farms near the distillery grow their own grains, herbs, fruits […]
April 30, 2018

Cragganmore 12 year old review

Cragganmore distillery is located in Ballindalloch, Speyside. It sits by the River Spey and it’s also near to the Strathspey railway line, both important factors when the distillery location was decided. The distillery takes its name from the mountain in whose shadow it sits. Cragganmore is part of the Classic […]
April 29, 2018

Suntory Hibiki Japanese Harmony Master’s Select

Suntory Hibiki Japanese Harmony Master’s Select is an exclusive limited edition of Hibiki Japanese Harmony, originally made for travel retail market. Hibiki’s brand represents the Japanese style of blending in its trademark 24-faceted bottle. They blend together Suntory’s Yamazaki and Hakushu malt whiskies with some Chita distillery’s grain whisky. Hibiki […]
March 29, 2018

Glenburgie 10 year old by Gordon and MacPhail

WhiskyRant conclusions Tasting notes Glenburgie is also known as Glenburgie-Glenlivet, Glen Burgie or Glenburry. The distillery is located near Alves, Moray in Speyside region. Their whisky is mostly used for blends. Ballantine’s and Old Smuggler are famous blends with Glenburgie malt whisky in them. When the distillery was acquired in […]
March 18, 2018

Tomintoul 16 year old review

WhiskyRant conclusions Tasting notes Tomintoul 16 year old comes from the Speyside distillery also known as The Gentle Dram. The Tomintoul-Glenlivet Distillery is located at the picturesque Glenlivet estate, in the region of Speyside. Nearby you’ll find the village of Tomintoul, which gives the distillery its name. It is the […]
December 28, 2017

Dalwhinnie Winter’s Gold review

WhiskyRant’s conclusions Tasting notes Tasting notes out of the freezer Dalwhinnie distillery is situated very high above sea level in the Grampian mountains in Highland region, very near to the geographical center of Scotland as well. That is why it’s one of the highest distilleries in Scotland, having some marine […]
August 3, 2017

The Ardmore Legacy Single Malt review

WhiskyRant’s conclusions Tasting notes The Ardmore Legacy comes from the borders of Speyside and Highland, stating itself a Highlander whisky. Legacy is a lightly peated single malt whisky from Ardmore distillery. This distillery provides the malt for Teacher’s Highland Cream, which is a bang for buck blended whisky by the […]
July 25, 2017

Glenmorangie Duthac review

Glenmorangie Duthac single malt whisky comes from the distillery with tallest stills in Scotland. It was originally the first release in their Travel Retail Legends collection, which was expanded outside travel retail markets. Matured in Pedro Ximénez Sherry and virgin oak casks, this whisky is an interesting marriage of two […]
July 25, 2017

Longrow CV review

Got a chance to taste a sample of Longrow CV single malt whisky, bottle 10/503. This is a non age stated peated whisky from Springbank distillery and it’s been renamed as Longrow Peated. In 2010, Longrow CV won both, Malt Maniacs Best Peated Malt Award and World Whiskies Awards Best […]
July 14, 2017

Valamo 5YO Unpeated Single Malt for VYS

This 5 year old unpeated single malt whisky is the first official release by Valamo Monastery Distillery from Finland. Bottled at 55,1% ABV, this is a special edition release of 725 bottles in honor of the 5 year anniversary of VYS (Viskin Ystävien Seura = Fellowship of Whisky, Finland). This […]
June 30, 2017

Macallan Amber review

WhiskyRant’s conclusions Tasting notes Macallan Amber is part of The Macallan distillery’s new colour named 1824 series of no age statement (NAS) whiskies. This range by one of the most known Speyside single malt producers in Scotland has given some mixed feelings amongst whisky enthusiasts. Macallan has a big fanbase, […]
May 4, 2017

Writer’s Tears Pot Still whiskey review

Writer’s Tears is owned and bottled by Walsh Whiskey Company, who also own the Irishman brand. Writers Tear’s is a blend of 40% Irish Pure Pot Still (also known as Single Pot Still) and 60% Single Malt Whiskey, triple distilled like Irish whiskeys usually are. Blended whiskey without grain whiskey […]
April 22, 2017

Highland Park 10 year old review

Highland Park 10 year old comes from the most northerly whisky distillery in Scotland, the Highland Park distillery in Kirkwall, Orkney Island. This distillery has found its way to my heart, being one of my favorite distilleries. Never disappointing, always delivering top quality whiskies like their core range 12 and […]
April 8, 2017

Glen Moray Chardonnay Cask Finish review

Glen Moray Chardonnay Cask Finish comes from Glen Moray distillery, located in West End of Elgin which makes it the most northerly Speyside distillery. Nowadays owned by La Martiniquaise, the distillery was founded in 1897 and it’s in the capitol of Moray. The distillery has been shortlisted in top 10 […]
March 4, 2017

GlenDronach Peated review

GlenDronach Peated feels quite exotic, since GlenDronach distillery is famous for making sweet sherry matured whiskies. In fact, GlenDronach Peated was their first ever peated expression introduced in 2015. I have to admit, I do get excited every time I bump into a peated whisky outside Islay. Even though Islay […]
December 12, 2016

Nikka Taketsuru Pure Malt review

Nikka Taketsuru Pure Malt is a non-age-statement blended malt expression from The Nikka Whisky Distilling Co. Japanese call blended a.k.a vatted malts as pure malts. So named after the company’s founder Masataka Taketsuru, this blended malt is called Nikka Taketsuru Pure Malt. It has plenty of malt whisky from the […]
October 22, 2016

Hankey Bannister Heritage Blended Scotch review

Hankey Bannister is a famous Blended Scotch Whisky brand by Inver House Distillers (owned by International Beverage Holdings Ltd.). The brand was established in London’s West End in 1757 – Beaumont Hankey and Hugh Bannister founded the company seeking to enter the wines and spirits business, and the hearts of […]
October 2, 2016

Compass Box Enlightenment review

Compass Box Enlightenment was made in the spirit of Compass Box’s Campaign for Scotch Whisky Transparency. You can read the backstory of this campaign from my Spice Tree review – long story short, production of Spice Tree had to be stopped because of Scotch Whisky Association’s ridiculous regulations (Fortunately they […]
September 10, 2016

Rittenhouse Straight Rye 80 proof review

Nothing states tradition more in rye whiskey making, like mentioning the classic Pennsylvania or Monongahela style rye whiskeys in the label. That’s what Rittenhouse Rye is all about – coming from Continental Distilling Corporation in Pennsylvania, USA. Owned by Heaven Hill Distilleries, Rittenhouse is a serious contender in the world of […]
July 6, 2016

Benromach 10 year old single malt review

Many people state that Benromach 10 year old single malt is a great value for money whisky – a bang for buck single malt ever since it was released in late 2009. This core range product comes with nice 43% alcohol per volume level and there is also a cask […]
February 11, 2016

Laphroaig Cairdeas Port Wood Finish review

It’s been a while since I tasted a sample of this single malt whisky made for Laphroaig Fèis Ile 2013. So this is an old review but I figured out I had to get it online like all of my whisky reviews. Laphroaig Cairdeas Port Wood Finish is a limited […]
January 20, 2016

Jack Daniel’s Sinatra Select review

In December 2012 Jack Daniel’s launched a new Tennessee Whiskey in Las Vegas Airport. This dram was a special release in honor of Frank Sinatra – the most famous fan of Jack Daniel’s bourbon whiskey, along with late Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister (who according to Metal Injection also has a […]
December 14, 2015

Glenkinchie 12 year old review

Glenkinchie 12 year old single malt whisky is kinda new addition to the core range of this Lowland distillery. This is a entry level bottling released in 2007, replacing the 10 year old by Glenkinchie. Lowland has only six distilleries located in the region. Like the name suggests, Glenkinchie lies […]
December 8, 2015

Cutty Sark 12 year old review

Cutty Sark is a well known cocktail whisky and also one of the first light colored blended whiskies. The legendary name comes from a ship called Cutty Sark ship, which was bought back to England from Portugal for naval training in 1923. The original blended whisky was created on March […]
December 6, 2015

Scallywag blended malt review

As a big fan of Big Peat, I had to try out Scallywag by Douglas Laing as soon as it was launched. Scallywag is a vatted malt made from Speyside whiskies, such as Mortlach, Macallan and Glenrothes. Most of the whiskies in this small batch release come from Spanish Ex-Sherry […]
November 28, 2015

Finlaggan Old Reserve review

Finlaggan Old Reserve is another “bang for the buck whisky” for “peatheads” like me. It comes from Islay and is bottled by The Vintage Malt Whisky Company, but nothing else is being told about the whisky. Even the maturation is a guarded secret, but I’d guess it to be Ex-Bourbon […]
November 24, 2015

Balvenie Single Barrel 15 year old review

I got a chance to try bottle number 19 from batch 8590 of Balvenie Single Barrel 15 year old single malt at our local whisky society blind tasting. Maturation started in Ex-Bourbon casks in August 1997, bottled in October 2012. With a maximum of only 350 bottles per batch, the […]
November 2, 2015

Kilkerran Work In Progress Sherry Wood 5th release review

This review is about the 5th Release of Kilkerran Work In Progress Sherry Wood, a product from Glengyle distillery in Campbeltown region. They also make Work In Progress Bourbon Wood. This series is a great way of seeing how the whisky is developing. They are working their way towards Kilkerran […]
October 27, 2015

Green Spot Single Pot Still whiskey review

Green Spot is an Irish Single Pot Still whiskey coming from the same distillery, that makes Single Pot Still whiskeys with age statements, the New Midleton distillery. Green Spot is made from whiskeys aged between 7 and 10 years. Also known as Pure Pot Still is traditional Irish way of […]