Author: emil
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The Beast of Dufftown
Another “character distillery”. Mortlach, by their own marketing, is the Beast of Dufftown. I presume, because contrary to the classical easy-going Speyside style, Mortlach is famed for a substantive, meaty, pungent quality. I believe I have experienced this profile on a couple of occasions. Last was at Whisky Fringe 2022, where I tried the 25yo…
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A comparison of Cambi
Cambus is one of those 19th century scotch distilleries with a long an history of being opened and closed, bought and sold. Then in 1993 the stills went still, forever. But the spirit lives on… and today shall be drunk! Cambus made grain whisky, what some consider the ugly stepsister of malt whisky. In the…
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A last (?) tweak to the scoring system
In May I wrote about my trials and tribulations with inventing a custom scoring system. In short, it’s gone from rather complicated to rather simple. Now, it’s about to get even simpler. Perhaps as simple as it will ever get. And then maybe I’ll start to make it complicated again. Until I change my mind…
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Dr. Tobermory and Mr. Ledaig
Some distilleries have a dual a nature. A normal side… and a dark side, if you will. I’m talking about the unpeated versus the peated incarnation. Peat really makes for a radically different whisky, so it’s no surprise that distilleries bottle their unpeated / peated spirits under different names, so as not to create chock…
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Tokyo whisky mission
One of the great perks of being a research scientist is that I get to travel the world for workshops and conferences. Often these are held in attractive locations. The first workshop I attended as a PhD candidate was held at a castle owned by the Montepulciano wine consortium, in the Italian town of the…
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Unleash the Clynelish
Clynelish — a whisky with a cult following owing to its characterful coastal and waxy profile. But alas! Some say the wax has waned. Wax on, wax off. As intricately described in this reddit post there are a number of factors in the production process contributing to the waxiness, including long fermentation times for the…
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Littlemill for little Emil
This venerable distillery is one I don’t have any personal history with. I’d barely heard about it until this year. Interestingly, Littlemill has a claim on being the oldest licensed scotch whisky distillery, founded 1772 or at least 1773, but due to the uncertainty of the evidence Glenturret (1775), Bowmore (1779) and Strathisla (1786) are…
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An empire lost
Imperial is like a poet whose work did not become appreciated until after their untimely death. In modern times a workhorse malt distillery for blends, it was mothballed in 1985, a difficult decade for the industry. Under new ownership it was running again between 1991-1998 but was then silenced, sold, and eventually scrapped in 2013…
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Open up for the Dornochs
[Title image from dramscotland] £1200 for a 50cl bottle of 3yo whisky! That’s what you’d be paying at auction for a bottle of Dornoch distillery’s first release a couple of years ago. Dornoch distillery is the passion project of the Thompson brothers, Phil and Simon, famous for their whisky bar at Dornoch Castle Hotel, and…
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Glencadam ’91 & ’94
Glencadam 10 was my vote for best whisky at Whisky Fringe 2022. Sure, there was more ‘special’ stuff on offer at the Fringe, but the crisp, fruity, and tart profile of Glencadam is simply delicious; and unchillfiltererd, at natural colour, and 46% ABV, the 10yo offers unbeatable value at ~€40. A clue to as to…
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