All reviews of cask strength whiskies by WhiskyRant!

What is cask strength whiskey?

  • Cask strength is also known as barrel proof. It’s a dram coming straight out of the barrel or cask after (at least 3 years of) aging.
  • Usually bottled whisky has to be diluted with water. This happens because whiskey producers want to bring its strength down to a level that makes it cheaper to produce and more palatable to majority of consumers. Typical strength for whiskey is 40% ABV (alcohol per volume level).
  • Typically cask strength whiskies are in the range of 60–65% ABV. Sometimes bottlers might even dilute cask strength versions of their whiskey, to less than 60% ABV.
May 24, 2023
Kilchoman Machir Bay CS

Kilchoman Machir Bay Cask Strength

The Cask Strength version of Machir Bay single malt expression by Kilchoman distillery. Kilchoman was established in 2005 and they are officially a farm distillery in all sense. They use local peat cut in traditional way and slow distilling by hand. Maturation happens in traditional dunnage warehouses and bottling on […]
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April 21, 2022

Kilchoman Feis Ile 2019 review

Quick notes of Kilchoman Feis Ile 2019 bottling, also known as Kilchoman 2008. I had an opportunity to try this gem at Brewery Restaurant Beerhunter’s during my trip to taste our private cask Old Buck. According to Whiskybase, this vatting of two 11 year old casks (Oloroso & bourbon) was […]
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July 3, 2021

Aberlour A’Bunadh Batch 67 review

Aberlour A’Bunadh series is definitely a legend in the whisky world. Name deriving from Gaelic, meaning “return to origin”. Because it’s been produced with methods commonly used around 1870’s. Here’s the backstory taken from Wikipedia: “The distillery cite the story during distillery tours that when the second pair of stills […]
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January 4, 2021

GlenAllachie 10YO Batch 3 Cask Strength Single Malt

This is Batch 3 of 10 year old cask strength single malt by The GlenAllachie distillery. A distillery known to produce malt whisky for blends under Pernod Ricard and Chivas Brothers ownership. Chivas sold the distillery in 2017 to The GlenAllachie Distillers Company (Billy Walker, Trisha Savage and Graham Stevenson). […]
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June 30, 2020

Ragtime Rye Double Oak Cask Strength Whiskey

This cask strength rye whiskey comes from New York Distilling Company and its mash bill contains 72% New York State-grown rye grain. I managed to get a sample from my buddy. I couldn’t find much information about this expression, other than what says in the label. That it’s double oak […]
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June 11, 2020
Kavalan Solist Sherry Cask

Kavalan Solist Ex-Sherry Cask Strength

Kavalan is single malt from Taiwan made by King Car Kavalan distillery. King Car is a large Taiwanese group established in 1956. It has several business fields under its name. They’ve started whisky making in 2008 and have built quite rapidly grown reputation as quality brand. Their reputation unfortunately shows […]
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June 9, 2020
Braeval 20 Year Old Cask Strength by Hart Brothers

Braeval 20YO Cask Strength by Hart Brothers

This Braeval 20 year old cask strength single malt comes from the independent bottler Hart Brothers. I was fortunate enough to have a sample at Turku Beer and Whisky Festival. Needless to say, this whisky is something you’d definitely have to have full bottle in your cabinet. Distilled at Braeval […]
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May 7, 2020
Arran Private Cask bottling

Arran Single Cask – bottled for Viskiryhmä Turku

This Private Cask Arran was bottled for Viskiryhmä Turku, which is a small but vibrant whisky community in Turku region (held in Facebook). Located in Lochranza village in the Isle of Arran, the Arran Distillery was built in 1995. It’s become one of the favorite distilleries of key people in […]
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April 20, 2020

Springbank 21 year old single cask Authors’ Series

This 21 year old single malt comes from the Springbank distillery and it is a single cask strength version from the legendary Campbeltown distillery! It is part of the Authors’ Series with Oscar Wilde on the label. Bottle number one of a limited edition of only 204 bottles. Cool whisky […]
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March 24, 2020
James E. Pepper 1776 Barrel Proof Rye

1776 Barrel Proof Rye Whiskey by James E. Pepper

This cask strength straight rye whiskey comes from MGP of Indiana distillery at Lawrenceburg. Old 1776, like Colonel James E. Pepper nicknamed it, is a legendary whiskey brand. It’s been around since the American Revolution. Originated from Lexington, Kentucky, where they just recently built a renovated distillery. So while this […]
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December 7, 2019
Amrut Single Malt Cask Strength

Amrut Single Malt Cask Strength review

This is the cask strength version of Amrut Single Malt which is normally bottled at 46% alcohol by volume level. In my opinion their normal single malt is decent, but I do like the Amrut Fusion. So I really didn’t know what to expect. Something in between? Amrut Cask Strength […]
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November 15, 2019
Mossburn Blair Athol 10YO Review

Mossburn Blair Athol 10YO 2007 Cask Strength

This 10 year old Blair Athol single malt comes from the independent bottler Mossburn’s cask strength collection. This small batch whisky was distilled in 2007 and bottled 30th of November 2017. The bottler is called Mossburn – Distillers & Blenders (MBD). They have Vintage Casks collections from various distilleries, this […]
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August 30, 2019
Edradour logo

Ballechin SFTC 13YO 2004 Port Matured – cask number 199

Ballechin SFTC 13 year old comes from one of the smallest distilleries in Scotland, Edradour distillery which was founded in 1825. SFTC means Straight From The Cask so this whisky is cask strength. Ballechin whiskies are heavily peated Edradours, so this single malt is a smoky one, with 13 years […]
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July 5, 2019
Highland Park Sydäntalvi Review

Highland Park Sydäntalvi 15YO Single Cask review

Sydäntalvi is a 15 year old single cask Highland Park distilled in 2001, bottled in 2017 for the Finnish retail market. Since their first single cask release for Finnish retail market in 2016, Highland Park has continued to launch new ones because of their success. The first four releases, including […]
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June 24, 2019
Highland Park Sisu Single Cask Review

Highland Park Sisu 13YO Single Cask review

This 13 year old single cask Highland Park called Sisu was distilled in 2003, bottled in 2017. Made specially for Finnish retail market during Finland’s 100 years of independence anniversary year. According to Highland Park’s brand ambassador Martin Markvardsen, Sisu single cask whisky was named after some dog. The definition […]
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February 16, 2019
Redbreast 12YO CS

Redbreast 12 year old Cask Strength review

This Redbreast 12 year old is an cask strength Irish Single Pot Still whiskey from New Middleton distillery. Single Pot Still whiskeys are also known as Pure Pot Still, a traditional yet rare Irish way of making whiskey using malted and unmalted “green” barley. So far New Middleton is the […]
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July 18, 2018
Booker's True Barrel

Booker’s 6YO True Barrel Bourbon Batch 2017

WhiskyRant’s conclusions Tasting notes An interesting cask strength whiskey release by Jim Beam. Booker’s True Barrel Bourbons are 6 year old bottlings straight from the barrel, originally hand selected by Jim Beam’s grandson Booker Noe. The product has been around since 1988. Ever since then, Booker’s True Barrel releases have taken […]
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August 7, 2017
Willett 3 year old Single Barrel Small Batch Rye Whiskey

Willett Single Barrel Rye 3YO review

Tasting notes Willett Distilling Company (a.k.a Kentucky Bourbon Distillers) has been sourcing whiskies since the 1980’s but recently they’ve been maturing their own distillates too. So there’s a chance that this Willett 3 Year Old Single Barrel Small Batch Rye Whiskey is completely their own product. I purchased this from […]
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August 7, 2017
GlenDronach logo

GlenDronach Cask Strength Batch 6 review

WhiskyRant’s conclusions Tasting notes GlenDronach’s sixth batch of the Cask Strength expression comes with a great 56.1% ABV (alcohol by volume). Bottled with great strength and coming from a distillery with good track record, this GlenDronach sounded tempting when I received a sample from a buddy of mine. Just like […]
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July 27, 2017
Springbank 12YO Cask Strength Whisky

Springbank 12 year old Cask Strength batch 13 review

I had previously tasted batch 10 of Springbank 12 year old Cask Strength single malt. I fell in love with it. Now it was time for batch 13 in a local Finnish whisky tasting. And what another wonderful release of Springbank’s 12YO CS it was. This Campbeltown based distillery malt, […]
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June 4, 2016
Lagavulin logo

Lagavulin 12 year old single malt whisky review (2015 and 2014 editions)

Lagavulin 12yo 2015 edition Lagavulin 12yo 2014 edition Lagavulin 12 year old single malt is a yearly special release by one of my favorite distilleries in the world, the Lagavulin distillery from Islay. I just absolutely love their 16 year old peated single malt from the core range. Well, I […]
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February 6, 2016
Jack Wiebers Whisky World logo

Classic of Islay Jack Wieber 2015 review

Friend of mine told me about a German importer from Berlin, who has released bottlings under the name of Jack Wieber since 1998. Jack Wiebers Whisky World is a wholesale business operating in Wiener Strasse, Berlin. Owned by Lars-Göran Wiebers, the whisky shop is specialized in independent and rare bottlings. And they do release […]
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November 25, 2015
Glenglassaugh logo

Glenglassaugh Evolution review

Glenglassaugh distillery was closed in 1986 but resurrected in 2008. After the distillery was reopened, they made Glenglassaugh Revival – matured in first and refill bourbon casks and finished for 6 months in first fill Oloroso sherry butts. Glenglassaugh Evolution is a limited cask strength release follow up to Revival. […]
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October 15, 2015

Aberlour A’Bunadh Batch 47 review

Finally got my hands on a release of this well respected Aberlour A’Bunadh. The name is derived from Gaelic, meaning “return to origin”. That’s because the whisky has been produced according to the methods that were common around 1870’s. I ordered a sample of Batch 47 of the popular A’Bunadh […]
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October 2, 2015
Springbank distillery logo

Springbank 12 year old Cask Strength batch 10 review

Welcome to my review of Springbank 12 year old Cask Strength version. Springbank is a fairly small distillery with an annual production capacity of 750 000 litres. Owned by the Mitchell’s, which is the same family who founded the distillery in 1828. That makes Springbank the oldest distillery continually owned by […]
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September 6, 2015
Kavalan ex-bourbon feature

Kavalan Solist Ex-Bourbon Cask review

Kavalan is Taiwanese single malt produced and bottled by King Car Kavalan distillery. They started bottling of Kavalan in 2008 and their whiskies have good reputation, which has been growing fast. It also shows in the price tag and availability, which is why I’m reviewing a sample. My 5 cl […]
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July 11, 2015
Highland Park Valhalla Series – Freya

Highland Park Freya 15 year old review

I haven’t tasted the first two, but I got a chance to try the third release of Highland Park’s Valhalla Collection: Freya, a 15 year old single malt whisky. This one was named after the Norse Goddess of Love. Freya the Goddess was sensitive and wise – a valiant protector of human […]
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